is it funny if i leave this shit completely barren for now? i think it might be tbh
back to homei'm using this site as a way to document the new media i consume, as a way to help myself remember and also formulate my thoughts better. i don't want every new thing to just float by me, so this is my way of combating that. i am not here to give plot synopses-- this is just my journal for my thoughts.
(KEY: NM = New Media, things i saw for the first time very recently at time of writing. RM = Revisited Media, things i saw in the past or perhaps recently rewatched/played and felt like writing about. AD = Addendum, articles which have been revisited or added onto after initial writing.)
I'm not really sure what I expected from this movie, I thought it was fine? Except it really really did not need to be 140 mins. It felt like it just kept going for ever and ever, doing more and more body horror. And listen! I'm here for more body horror! I just think you could have achieved this amount of body horror a half hour ago perhaps. I got the point.
The one thing that did stand out was how good a job the movie does at getting across the objectification of it all. It's an exagerration of the way women are treated, but like....... not as much of an exagerration as you would hope. Also, between this and Honey Don't, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the sheer amount of time I've had to look at Margaret Qualley's ass this week. I did not know she was in this movie so it was a huge jumpscare for me
This manga hurt my feelings >:,( One of the most personally upsetting things I've read in a while. I sure ignored the trigger warning I was given. More than anything this work captures exactly how it feels to reach an age where you become conscious of the ways in which your parents are wrong about things, or hurt you, or perhaps aren't mentally sound. Oshimi Shūzō is a master of human faces and the way he twists expressions is really haunting throughout the whole series. You feel the protag's dread and uncertainty at every word his mother says. There's just so many small touches that immerse you in the story. There is a timeskip 2/3 through the series, and THAT is the part that really hurt my feelings. Having to revisit an estranged family member and reconcile what they put you through. The childhood photos at the beginning of chapters take on an unsettling quality as the plot unfolds, and eventually come back around when we find out the mom has been keeping her photo album all these years. It doesn't hit you with the whole "but they're your family so you have to forgive them" spiel. It very much feels like the protagonist's feelings about it all are examined from every possible angle. He love her, he hates her, he wants approval, he never wants to see her again, she's hurting, she's a bad person. It's extremely nuanced. One of my favorite things was the recurring memory of the protag finding a dead cat as a toddler. I enjoyed the way it was recontextualized every time-- as he learned more, or as his feelings changed.
The partners and I agreed to go see a movie as a birthday activity and nothing else sounded good. I read a bunch of reviews of Honey Don't aloud before going to the theater, so we knew it was gonna be mid but probably entertaining. I want you to imagine a typical small town mystery movie with a generic stoic detective guy, except turn the guy into a pretty lady (she still likes women though. there is gay sex in this movie.) And also don't let the protagonist actually solve the mystery. Reviews mentioned the plot being confusing, and I made it through the whole movie wondering what on earth they were talking about until the climax brings out a completely un-foreshadowed twist. So many of the plot threads ended up not going anywhere in the end. There's also a really absurd number of sex scenes that half the time just function as gags/scene transitions. The occasional violence is also far more graphic than you'd expect or was really necessary.
Ultimately the movie is like, fine??? It just needs some restructuring in the third act to feel satisfying at all. The biggest pro was the humor-- that is the one thing that felt very sharp and focused in its execution. It knew exactly what it wanted in that regard. The costume designer ALSO knew exactly what she wanted; the outfits in here are fire. I also can't stop thinking about the bar scene, jesus christ. I don't even know if i mean that in a good way it was just a lot