The Wandering Image: May 2026

Sunday, May 31, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/31/2026

231) NORMAL

(2026 dir. Ben Wheatley) Date Seen: May 31 2026

Entire ensemble in this is good + it's pretty funny & never boring.. But man, after it wraps up there's just something so unsubstantial about the whole thing.. If you took a quick glance at its outline concept on paper, it reads like maybe the Coen brothers doing a siege film. But the reality of it is never as flattering as that sounds. Maybe just a little too self-satisfied.

230) WE ARE PAT

(2026 dir. Rowan Haber) Date Seen: May 31 2026

This is almost as solid of a critique / fan re-appropriation as Sav Rodgers' CHASING CHASING AMY. Even if not quite as focused or tightly edited as that.. As kids we always found the "It's Pat" SNL sketches funny because we thought Pat was supposed to be a grumpy & uncomfortable little cisgender nerd boy. I think because "Database" & "Squeaky-Voiced Teen" on Simpsons spoke that way too and we just assumed only geeky boys spoke that high-pitched & nasally.

At the pharmacist I still order my nasal inhaler w/ a similar voice & believe me, the bit still has comedy legs (they're actually just courtesy laughing). But when we got a bit older and re-watched some of the "Best Of SNL" rentals; we realized how derisive & nosy all of the non Pat characters were being & it sort of took on a bitter taste.

Saturday, May 30, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/30/2026

229) I LOVE BOOSTERS

(2026 dir. Boots Riley) Date Seen: May 30 2026

Maybe anything Boots followed up I'm A Virgo (Amazon prime) with was narratively going to seem like a step down. Still this was intermittently brilliant & politically kosher to be clear. + some of the best & funniest costume work of 2026. I just wish Boots' writing didn't overly explain so much.

228) THE LOST BUS

(2025 dir. Paul Greengrass) Date seen: May 30 2026

Greengrass has never had a particularly strong batting average with me, but I dug his previous film NEWS OF THE WORLD quite a bit & hoped its classical restraint was maybe signaling a new chapter in his filmography. Unfortunately this felt like a regression to his same old jittery form. + it's strangely low on suspense given the extraordinary real-life disaster & heroism it dramatizes —the inverse of what THIRTEEN LIVES felt like.. I will say THE LOST BUS is at least a technical achievement due to its atmospheric fire VFX: Flames & embers are frequently near-photoreal, with especially impressive attention paid to interactive lighting physics and the way the blaze plays across the bus’s metallic surfaces.

Friday, May 29, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/29/2026

227) BACKROOMS

(2026 dir. Kane Parsons) Date seen: May 29 2026

Saw this with my young artist nephew tonight & I'm lucky i did because he's very dialed in on the youtube shorts. Able to fill me in on all the inner universe mythos & easter eggs.. I did not see any more of the shorts after those first 2, but the few i did see I found remarkable. You can extrapolate just from watching those early DIY vids that Kane is clearly a natural born visual storyteller. Called to my mind the 19 year old Sam Raimi doing WITHIN THE WOODS.

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/28/2026

226) THE BREADWINNER

(2026 dir. Eric Appel) Date Seen: May 28 2026

Every popular comedian needs to try their hand at MR MOM territory at least once.. There's money in them hills.

225) FRANKENSTEIN

(2025 dir. Guillermo del Toro) 2nd Viewing: May 28 2026

the tone once the creature becomes so "Mondo Frowno" in this is its main achilles' heel for me personally..

But i did appreciate much more about del Toro's overall mise-en-scène this time around, now that I got some distance between me & the initial shock of feeling letdown back in November.. It got me thinkin' about all the Mary Shelley Frankenstein influenced films from over the years. & plz forgive me, these lists just help me keep track of thoughts; & nothing's set in stone.

[titles in red were omitted, but they all had elements of her, her book, or its characters: ROBOCOP, THE VINDICATOR, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, GODS & MONSTERS, MARY SHELLEY 2017, GOTHIC, "FRANKEN'S GEARS" [ROBOT CARNIVAL], RE-ANIMATOR + BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, OVERLORD, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, Sally plotline in A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and HBO Creature Commandos]

⬇︎Frawnk En Shteen

on the big screen⬇︎

*1. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) *****

2. FRANKENSTEIN (1931) *****

3. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) *****

4. CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) ****1/2

5. FRANKENWEENIE (1984) ****1/2

6. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) *****

7. ABBOTT & COSTELLO

MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) ****1/2

8. SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) ****

9. FRANKENSTEIN

MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943) ****

10. FRANKENSTEIN

MUST BE DESTROYED (1969) ****

11. REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) ****

12. FRANKENHOOKER (1990) ****

13. ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW ('75) ****

14. POOR THINGS (2023) ****

15. DEPRAVED (2019) ****

16. FRANKENSTEIN &

THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1974) ****

17. FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN ('67) ****

18. EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964) ***1/2

19. THE MONSTER SQUAD (1987) ***1/2

20. FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN 3D (1973) ****

21. HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) ***1/2

22. FRANKENWEENIE 3D (2012) ***1/2

23. THE MUNSTERS (2022) ***1/2

24. GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942) ***

25. BIRTH/REBIRTH (2023) ***

26. IGOR (2008) ***

27. FRANKENSTEIN

THE TRUE STORY (1973) ***

28. CASTILLO DE LOS MONSTRUOS ('58) ***1/2

29. FRANKENSTEIN (1910) ****

30. FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY (2013) ***

31. THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL

& HER MONSTER (2023) ***

32. FRANKENSTEIN & ME (1996) ***1/2

33. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (2015) ***

34. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (2012) ***1/2

35. THE EMPIRE OF CORPSES (2015) ***

36. FRANKENSTEIN'S

MONSTER'S MONSTER, FRANKENSTEIN (2019) ***

⬇︎Mixed Bag FRANKENSTEIN

YMMV - worth checking out ⬇︎

37. FRANKENSTEIN

CONQUERS THE WORLD (1965) **1/2

38. THE BRIDE! (2026) **1/2

39. Del Toro's FRANKENSTEIN (2025) **1/2

40. HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970) **1/2

41. THE BRIDE (1985) **1/2

42. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (2015) **1/2

43. BLACKENSTEIN (1973) **1/2

44. MONSTER

OF FRANKENSTEIN 恐怖伝説怪奇！

フランケンシュタイン (1981) **1/2

45. SANTO VS.

FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER ('72) **1/2

⬇︎has redeeming facet

Mediocre stitches tearing⬇︎

46. LISA FRANKENSTEIN (2024) **

47. FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (1958) **

48. MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN (1994) **

49. FRANKENSTEIN (1992) w/ Randy Quaid **

50. FRANKENSTEIN (1984) w/ David Warner **

51. MUNSTER, GO HOME! (1966) **

52. MAD MONSTER PARTY? (1967) **

⬇︎Mediocre Frank⬇︎

53. VAN HELSING (2004) *1/2

54. FRANKENSTEIN THEORY (2013) *1/2

55. I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN ('57) *1/2

56. FRANKENSTEIN

MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) *1/2

57. JESSE JAMES MEETS

FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER (1966) *1/2

58. I, FRANKENSTEIN (2014) *1/2

59. MONSTROSITY (1963) *1/2

60. Full Moon FRANKENSTEIN REBORN! ('98) *1/2

61. FRANKENSTEIN SYNDROME (2010) *1/2

62. FRANKENSTEIN REBORN (2005) *1/2

63. SANTO & BLUE DEMON

VS DR. FRANKENSTEIN (1974) *1/2

⬇︎Sloppy Frank⬇︎

64. FRANKENSTEIN VS. THE MUMMY (2015) *

65. MONSTER MASH: THE MOVIE (1995) *

66. FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND (1981) *

⬇︎"abby normal" Abysmal⬇︎

67. FRANKENSTEIN:

THE COLLEGE YEARS (1991) 1/2

68. FRANKENSTEIN RISING (2010) 1/2

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/27/2026

224) CORPORATE RETREAT

(2026 dir. Aaron Fisher) Date Seen: May 27 2026

WGAS - WGAF

Who Gives a Shit, Who Gives a Fuck

irritatingly cutesy screenwriting on a par with that turd John Logan did in 2022.

223) NIKO:

BEYOND THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

(2024 dir. Juusonen / Lerdam) Date Seen: May 27 2026

[Watched in preparation for Finnish studio Anima Vitae's newest movie "FLEAK"] This was just fine but nothing special. Coulda been worse -- coulda been NORM OF THE NORTH.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/26/2026

LEE CRONIN'S

222) THE MUMMY

(2026 dir. Lee Cronin) Date Seen: May 26 2026

Lee Cronin’s direction feels considerably tighter here than in his first 2 features + I was pleasantly surprised by the film’s hybrid of demonic-possession tropes and ancient-curse horror. It’s thankfully never dull, but it’s also so cheerfully gross that you get the feeling "less is more" would sound like the worst idea anybody ever had to Cronin.

Monday, May 25, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/25/2026

221) HAMLET

(2026 dir. Aneil Karia) Date Seen: May 25 2026

Karia reframes Shakespeare’s classic through contemporary British-Asian identity and monolithic corporate power -- but above all, he's attempting to mine the play’s sense of inherited trauma.. And Riz Ahmed’s raw take on the title character really makes you dread the reality that the past isn’t the past at all. & we’re all still just wading through its consequences.

You'd think i'd suggest Almereyda's HAMLET (2000) as companion viewing for this, to compare and contrast with, but I actually think it'd make a much better tonal pairing with the Justin Kurzel MACBETH (2015)!

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Viewing Journal: 5/24/2026

220) THE BRIDE!

(2026 dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal) Date Seen: May 24 2026

Not trying to be cute, I really do feel like 50% of this is brilliant and 50% is a mess.. Which is a level of mixed I don't think i've felt quite so intensely about a picture maybe since Garland's MEN 2022. (also coincidentally stars Jessie Buckley. So then there must be something about her charm & energy that makes auteurs really want to aim for the moon when she steps onboard).. I wouldn't even consider this a sophomore slump for Maggie Gyllenhaal as a filmmaker because it's just too strong at parts & I think that term should maybe be saved for honest-to-god plops. Shout out to THE LOST DAUGHTER.

BTW if you'd like to hear a really great & passionate defense of this film, check out Joe Dante's new drop at TFH