Viewing Journal: 8/7/2026

321) GAIL DAUGHTRY 

& THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS

(2026 dir. David Wain) Date Seen: August 6 2026

Zoey, Miles, & Ben Wang make great new additions to David Wain's recurring ensemble.. But we especially do not deserve Fred Melamed. The reservoir of untapped comedy potential that guy represents.

Viewing Journal: 8/6/2026

320) SPIDER-MAN: 

        BRAND NEW DAY

(2026 dir. Destin Daniel Cretton) Date Seen: August 6 2026

As an action movie, this was a huge step up from DD Cretton’s last Marvel outing YÁNGZǏ & THE QUEST FOR GOLDEN TREASURE, + I dug the darker lighting and the way Peter’s erased personal life occasionally approached the existential devastation of something like The Shining Girls. But man, in its latter half this movie goes overkill on those unearned catharsis scenes! Every other emotional beat hitting the record scratch so somebody can deliver a soap-opera speech full of the mushy vague platitudes.. I guess if you dig cornball sentimentality you'll lap that up -- but i felt like genuine sentiment wasn't within.

also: this is not a dig at BRAND NEW DAY's narrative details, but i do wish one of these things would've visually depicted the "Neogenic Nightmare" Peter went through on the old animated series! That "Man-Spider" thing scared us to death as kids. But I fear maybe ol' Sony has become a little too namby-pamby now to try anything like that. When it comes to superhero/supervillain stuff, they're almost like the Rod & Todd Flanders of movie studios.. (Look at what they did to Carnage)

Viewing Journal: 8/5/2026

319) THE ISOLATE THIEF

(2026 dir. John Suits) Date Seen: August 5 2026

After years cutting his teeth on director-for-hire schlock, this director (Suits) has clearly picked up some mint filmmaking chops along the way; 'cause this is a downright handsome western and it even manages to be thrilling at parts. Some of the editing & narrative pacing could’ve been tighter, but I hope he keeps trying adventurous stuff like this.

More Mackenzie Foy in lead parts! (she was the child version of his daughter in INTERSTELLAR).

318) DRAGON GIRL

(2020 dir. Katarina Launing) Date Seen: August 5 2026

There is something admirable about a children’s Christmas movie wearing a genuinely Christian concern for refugees and war orphans so openly on its sleeve. So it's a shame DRAGEVOKTERENS JUL packages these themes in such a thoroughly generic & sanitized little world, where even chasing a wild dragon feels overly safe and manicured. Like posh holiday decorations at Euro-Disney.. but make it the freaky Norway version.

Viewing Journal: 8/4/2026

317) SHEEP IN THE BOX

(2026 dir. Hirokazu Koreeda) Date Seen: August 4 2026

While clearly lesser Koreeda, I still found it to be aight food for thought for most of its runtime. Comparisons to Spielberg's A.I. are obvious, but the film it really brought to my mind was Julie Delpy's MY ZOE (2021). Where you kinda want to strangle the adults in the family for being so selfish & shortsighted.

Viewing Journal: 8/3/2026

316) 

BLACK BOX [FLIGHT 298]

(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 does with them lacks 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..

it's difficult to wrap my head around.

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

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

Ended up liking this just as much as the original, even if for completely different reasons. The acting and writing are stronger here and i appreciated that Chuck Russell & the original screenwriter tried to do so much more than the standard "evil Ouija board kills people" thing. But that original film had better practical kills, way more visual personality (steadicam galore), and somehow nicer lighting despite costing like 4 pesos compared to this. I wish i was kidding but almost all the interior shots in this new one were lit like a ugly-arse Hallmark channel movie.. I need to be on record saying that I dig Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things' "Vecna") continuing his slow transformation into our generation's Jeremy Irons + Madison Iseman is always charming.. She and a witchy Maine Coon kitten are always worth the price of a movie rental.

Viewing Journal: 7/24/2026

304) THE ODYSSEY

(2026 dir. Christopher Nolan) Date Seen: July 24 2026

Went in expecting something tonally like a sequel to TROY (2004), only filtered through Nolan’s usual nonlinear structure.. What I got instead was something spiritually much closer to The Thin Red Line (1962).

I have so many thoughts on this movie that my executive dysfunction symptoms are currently not letting me type out.. But I can talk at length about it if anyone wants to reach out on letterboxd or message me across my socials!

Viewing Journal: 7/23/2026

303) THE CURRENTS 

(2026 dir. Milagros Mumenthaler) Date Seen: July 23 2026

A very strange & restless movie about a gal who just can’t get on the same wavelength as the rest of the world. There've been times in my own life where I felt intensely dislocated like this; Like everyone and everything around you seems to move to some rhythm you can’t quite catch.. But maybe sometimes you just gotta quit fighting the current and maybe drift for a while, to give yourself a psychic break.

Viewing Journal: 7/22/2026

302) ANOTHER WORLD 世外

(2026 dir. Tommy Ng Kai-Chung) Date Seen: July 22 2026

Just admiring the pure visual ambition..