Viewing Journal: 8/19/2026

337) THE LAST HOUSE 

(2026 dir. Louis Leterrier) Date Seen: August 19 2026

So many studios right now want to create their own take on the A QUIET PLACE franchise. Netflix in particular releases. This has cool world-building things throughout & an atypical central threat as the antagonist; but all the melodrama is way too overwrought & obvious. It's a very hammy film. I eventually just didn't care what happened to the family either way.. It at least has some fun creature VFX. 

I'm glad AQUAMAN's brother finally got his revenge on all us surface dwellers.

Viewing Journal: 8/18/2026

336) 

BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL

(2026 dir. David Kittredge) Date Seen: August 18 2026

a fascinating autopsy of one of the biggest critical bombs in film history, EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC. & John Boorman essentially confesses here that he believes he overly intellectualized the themes of the book to the point where the material no longer resembled the type of possession horror audiences had come to expect. I've always found PT. II to be a sonically & visually beautiful piece of work, it just has a load of dramatically goofy stuff crammed into it that ruins the overall tone (hence why I always filed it under the "Close But No Cigar" section on my Favorite Horror Movies of the 70s list, because it's just too unique of a mess to dismiss as completely lusterless). Imagine a film being a beautiful string composition & it's being performed live at a symphony house, but a percussionist on stage keeps accidentally knocking crap over and distracting everyone -- That's kinda what THE HERETIC is like.. But brothers & sisters, I’d take a sincere, gorgeous, Morricone-scored wreck over all the soulless focus-grouped franchise things that come out now.

Viewing Journal: 8/17/2026

335) THE BRINK OF WAR

(2026 dir. Michael Russell Gunn) Date Seen: August 17 2026

Viewing Journal: 8/16/2026

334) PAW PATROL: 

        THE DINO MOVIE 

(2026 dir. Cal Brunker) Date Seen: August 16 2026

Rex & his little wheels are the dog's bollocks;

in fact, he & a few dinosaur concepts in this were probably the only rays of light within the whole dud. (FLEAK might be more nuanced disability representation for 2026's children's films) I'm just having trouble articulating exactly what it is that irks me about part 3's veneer & overall atmosphere w/o using caca words.

PP DINO DUMP is like that annoying kid that used to barge into the nursery playroom with his own set of toys, cut from a completely different color scheme & school of design than your toys. And then he'd insist his toys fit inside our Power Rangers MegaZord & then they got stuck & playtime became a big stupid mess. & that kid went home crying anyways -- In a visual sense THAT'S THIS MOVIE. Wall-to-wall ugliness.. And I'm still mad at these bootlicking canines anyway, because I feel like their newer flashier 3D look stole the Wonder Pets rightful thunder @ Nick Jr. (puts fists together "& I will have my vengeance"). Why is the base design model of all these dogs sculpted to look like a smirking wise-ass? Dinosaurs would be fully justified wanting to eat these cutesified jerks.

**half satire. No one get all bent outta shape. 

Just busting balls**

I'm also "grumpy projecting" onto this movie because our poor senior pup Loula is suffering from bad anxiety fits at night. & it feels like nothing we do can calm her.

even on gabapentin + other meds, she at random paces the house in a spooked panic like this. As if she'd seen a ghost :-(

333) WHAT WAS IN THE HAT?

[CO BYLO V KLOBOUKU?]

(1963 dir. Ludvík Kadleček) Date Seen: August 16 2026

Scarecrow & his hat clearly represent Czechoslovakia as a whole. & all them meddling jerks? well it was 1963, so.. you do the math

Viewing Journal: 8/15/2026

332) THE WRONG GIRLS

(2026 dir. Dylan Meyer) Date Seen: August 15 2026

Pedro & Man have some serious new competition

Viewing Journal: 8/14/2026

Adult Swim's

331) THE ELEPHANT 

(2025 dir. many peeps) Date Seen: August 14 2026

this was something of a revelation for me personally, & i can't believe I hadn't even heard of it until now. I've been kinda out of the Adult Swim loop since Mike Lazzo's departure. Thank you to my sister & brother in-law for exposing me to it because I loved it & thought it was uniquely hypnotizing. & because it's anthology-style directed by four current titans of animation (respectively; Pendleton, Rebecca Sugar, Jones-Quartey, & Patrick McHale), it's got a rare visual imagination that morphs from moment to moment. It even reminded me Masaaki Yuasa’s MIND GAME マインド・ゲーム !

330) TIPA THE ANT

[SKUDRIŅA TIPA]

(1976 dir. Ansis Bērziņš) Date Seen: August 14 2026

let's get one thing straight; Tipa was a public menace that needed to be taken down a peg or two.

Viewing Journal: 8/13/2026

329) AMERICAN PACHUCO: 

THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ

(2026 dir. David Alvarado) Date Seen: August 13 2026

truly fascinating & thoughtful stuff about the underrated American treasure & all-around chicano GOAT Luis Valdez.. Helmed & assembled by my badass former mentor at Texas Filmmakers Coalition denton.

Viewing Journal: 8/12/2026

328) TEENAGE SEX 

& DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA

(2026 dir. Jane Schoenbrun) Date Seen: August 12 2026

No horror film probably since CHUCKY 5 has more intelligently—or more joyously—understood the slasher genre’s capacity to make queer celebration out of subversion.. & u can take that to the bank 🏳️‍⚧️

Viewing Journal: 8/11/2026

327) COUP DE TORCHON

(1981 dir. Bertrand Tavernier) Date Seen: August 11 2026

Isabelle Huppert got that irresistible mystique..

#Criterion #bluray

Viewing Journal: 8/10/2026

326) SEND HELP

(2026 dir. Sam Raimi) Date Seen: August 10 2026

Based off ads alone, you'd be forgiven for going into this expecting a maximalist black-comedy riff on the "Matilda Effect".. but this is Sam Raimi & his penchant for pushing things into kabuki territory can sometimes be a double-edged sword. It's always interesting to see if the politics of a piece can survive specific brands of silliness. Surrealists like Buñuel were masters of using absurdism to amplify political statements, but i'm not so sure with stuff like this and TRIANGLE OF SADNESS. A part of me feels like farcical excess can detract.. Rachel McAdams is dependably great in this, but O’Brien is operating at MACGRUBER levels of pathetic & infantile 🤣. Like he might as well be running around the island doing Three Stooges sound effects. & That is not a complaint. Btw I’ve been enjoying how many recent films (APEX, DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE MENU) keep treating these misogynist self-help bros as inherently dopey & harmful to society. 

Potential spoiler blocked out - highlight to reveal: I was confused about whether SEND HELP's ending is supposed to be taken as nihilism & cynically materialist OR if it's a sincere girl-boss W.. The specific musical choice might have thrown off my tonal compass.

Even with my quibbles; It's always illicitly pleasurable to watch a master filmmaker like Raimi cook -- & one who remembers movies can construct meaning through actual pictures!