Disclosure Day Is Ultimately A Generic Sci-Fi Story If someone had never seen a movie before, Disclosure Day would be amazing. If you don’t know the tropes of alien movies or conspiracy movies, it would feel like a tense action-thriller with some really surreal moments. You’d be left guessing, wondering where this is all going….
I have a usual rule when I’m reviewing media. If possible, I wait twenty-four hours, at minimum, before I start writing down my thoughts. Sometimes this is unnecessary, especially for shorter works like the latest Magnus Protocol review, but—apparently—for others it’s a bad idea. The most damning thing I have to say about The Mandalorian and Grogu is that it’s so unsubstantial in its storytelling that it’s going to take extra effort to remember what happened.
Bit of a spoiler, I’ll admit—but I still think about this movie’s twist. It’s such a bleak, sad movie, and really fits in with what I guess I’ll call “Lockdown movies” since they have that general world-ending, isolated feeling. You should watch it, but only if you’re willing to get very bummed out.
Backrooms as a horror movie asks an important question: “How scary, really, can you make an environment?” The answer—as it turns out—is very scary. As long as you make sure the location is both uncanny enough and has a strong enough sense of unseen threats, even a series of mostly yellow walls and yellow floors and awful fluorescent lights can become riveting. A slow pan to a dark hallway where you can hear something trudging around is infinitely scarier than any slasher villain I’ve ever seen.
Thunderbolts* is a movie I don’t think about anymore, but every time I’m reminded of it, (like when I’m looking for something to pull out of the Archives) I remember how much I liked it.
Hoppers is exquisitely weird. It starts off with very familiar patterns to many, many Pixar movies. Its most direct connection being Up. We have a main character who lost someone dear to them who is heavily associated with a specific location that is then threatened by some external force. The main character is then given a goal (with a deadline) that, if they succeed, will let them save their beloved space.
I watched Iron Lung at an odd time. Within the last few months, I’ve seen both Project Hail Mary and Ash, and in a way Iron Lung could be described as a combination of both those movies, taking the cosmic horror from one, and the lone person trying to help investigate an apocalyptic problem from the other.
Project Hail Mary is a technical wonder. The movie will stick in the mind of its viewers (me included) because of its emotional buddy-duo adventure section, but it cannot be understated how impressive this movie is from both a movie-making technical level (meaning sets and camera work) and from a writing perspective.
The Hunger Games trilogy is important to me. I read the series right before the craze hit. To this day, it may be the first fandom I was on the ground floor for. I recall seeing every movie quickly after they came out.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is an odd movie. Full of so many very deliberate choices. I cannot confirm this, but I couldn’t help but feel the creators were going for a very specific homage, or were perhaps trying to replicate a distinct director’s style.
Not to use the most obvious joke ever twice, but Wicked: For Good is bad. Many of the things that made the first movie (possibly) my favorite film musical is still in this sequel, but there’s something deeply crucial missing.
Wicked (part one) is a lush, spectacular, wonderful experience of a movie. It captures the delightful energy of live theater and has so many incredible scenes. I’ve had several of its songs stuck in my head since I watched it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
