Viewing Journal: 8/3/2026

316) BLACK BOX

(2026 dir. Steven Quale) Date Seen: August 3 2026

Like 2010's ALTITUDE, this had some potentially cool & spooky ideas thumping around. But almost everything the director & his team did with them lacked inspiration. The cinematography is particularly ass. There's scenes within an air traffic control tower that are lit like a DeVry commercial.

same director did that fun 3D FINAL DESTINATION 5 back in 2011..

Viewing Journal: 8/2/2026

315) I WANT YOUR SEX 

(2026 dir. Gregg Araki) Date Seen: August 2 2026

if Araki is the Gen X Alt-Rock John Waters, then this is his PECKER '98.. A whole heck of lot less stylish & transgressive than what we'd usually expect from him. but at least it's accessible & funny for the most part.. + anything sex positive with Olivia Wilde in it is potentially titillating

Viewing Journal: 8/1/2026

314) ROSE OF NEVADA

(2026 dir. Mark Jenkin) Date Seen: August 1 2026

after ENYS MEN, Jenkin thought it was high time he made a film about Boats 'N Hoes.

Viewing Journal: 7/31/2026

313) THE DEVIL'S MOUTH

(2026 dir. Jeff Wadlow) Date Seen: July 31 2026

praise I will bestow on this is; The group of friends in it did interact fairly naturally & all their dialogue between each other early on didn't sound too stagey -- at least for a movie it didn't. The actors delivered their lines in relatively convincing ways, where it felt like it was within the realm of possibility that a posse of friends like this could exist & be in Thailand exploring flooded caves. But I wasn't even sure why a director & financiers would even bother producing something like this when there's the far better & structurally similar 47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED.. Then i remembered there's this diabolical thing called money $ 

No one ever thinks of the shark's feelings. Maybe bull-sharks believe yuppie college dorks are "delicious delicacy."

312) ｢JUNK HEAD｣

(2021 dir. Takahide Hori) 3rd Viewing: July 31 2026

feature film version

Introduced my young designer / animator nephew to this tonight.. Hope it didn't warp his mind too much.

Viewing Journal: 7/30/2026

311) THE LOVE THAT REMAINS

    [ÁSTIN SEM EFTIR ER]

(2026 dir. Hlynur Pálmason) Date Seen: July 30 2026

Surprisingly funny and heartbreaking at the same time. There's even some inspired surrealist moments that would have felt totally jarring in another film. & I still can't quite put my finger on why they work.. but they do.

Viewing Journal: 7/29/2026

310) HER PRIVATE HELL

(2026 dir. N. Winding Refn) Date Seen: July 29 2026

one meticulously crafted surrealist behemoth (w/ top tier collaborators on NWR's production team: including Gitte Malling as production designer & M.Nordenhof Jønck as dp) that can be surprisingly emotionally rewarding & beautiful -- if you can stick with it.. I just personally feel like it lags a little in a few spots. Definitely witness HER PRIVATE HELL for yourself though, cause YMMV. A film like this lives in an intentionally dreamy, Theatre of the Absurd headspace, where even questions of pacing become highly subjective.

Viewing Journal: 7/28/2026

back home safe & tonight we're 

going to see MOTORBOAT CITY 

(,,¬﹏¬,,)

309) MOTOR CITY

(2026 dir. Potsy Ponciroli) Date Seen: July 28 2026

Potsy is a really ambitious dude & I admire the stylistic & formal swing he attempted here. Even when it whiffs, I appreciated what he was trying to do.. For most of MOTOR CITY's runtime it plays like somebody built an action movie around their favorite stack of '70s records. Then as things brood harder, the soundtrack quietly trades them in for more moody, synth-soaked cues orbiting closer to Michael Mann's worlds. (I wouldn't be surprised if scenes from this get a ton of youtube remixes later on). And I thought it was kind of a blast whenever it knew it was basically a bloody B-picture. The only times it really lost me was in these bursts where music selections accidentally turn drama into unintentional comedy. Example: A damsel-in-distress scene scored to Christmas carolers that had me muffling giggles -- a part i'm sure the filmmakers thought was tragic on-a-par with Ginger's fate in CASINO.. + I'm normally a big champion of Ben Foster & he's definitely doing something here.. & that something just might be complete off the leash overacting. Looking like Penn's "Kleinfeld" in CARLITO'S WAY while doing a crackhead take on Tosca's Baron Scarpia. Ironic considering how beautifully restrained he was in CHRISTY last year. which I thought he should've won Best Supporting for. 

(I wish they had gotten into a JACKASS style old man makeup fight at the end of this)

Viewing Journal: 7/27/2026

308) 

LABYRINTH 迷宮のしおり

(2026 dir. Shoji Kawamori) Date Seen: July 27 2026

for me personally this was kind of an eye-candy wire sparkler that didn't burn bright enough.. i barely cared about what was going on & Kawamori is venturing into audio/visual & narrative waters so many anime directors have already explored countless times over.. the music's pretty good though

Viewing Journal: 7/26/2026

307) BALLS UP

(2026 dir. Peter Farrelly) Date Seen: July 26 2026

At this point studio suits are just hitting shuffle on finding comedic counterparts for Wahlberg -- while he still looks relatively young & draws eyes to ads / content. But dammit, I wish this funnier. It's just too thrown together.. still better than that movie Peter Farrelly won best picture for though.

306) LADY AND THE TRAMP

(2019 dir. Charlie Bean) Date Seen: July 26 2026

[just some production comparison notes]

It's sorta nuts to me how much more lifelike on average the animated dogs look in this compared to that CALL OF THE WILD adaptation from a year after. "Buck" in the latter movie is far more emotive & anthropomorphic; Not to mention going through much crazier shit (more cinematically adventurous shit), but say a nitpicker were grading on the sole metric of photo-realism & going over every frame of DOGGY & THE WHORE with a magnifying glass. You'd think the hurried post-production 90 mil straight-to-streaming movie would have much more noticeable artifice. So I think having the good fortune of real dogs being on set to constantly reference for lighting & movement is key. Even with a longer post time & 50 million extra dollars to spend on CALL OF THE WILD -- just knowing I had that post-production headache of having to create 100% of the wilderness scenery & elements in addition to the main character would feel daunting..

Viewing Journal: 7/25/2026

temporary pit stop at a specialized care facility for a quick sec, but they at least thankfully allow ipad use. so I can VOD @ witching hour.

305) WITCHBOARD

(2025 dir. Chuck Russell) Date Seen: July 25 2026

R.I.P. to the great Chuck Russell