The stripper situation was bad enough, but then shit just kept escalating, including my blood pressure! Mason Thames was a little too creepy. Someone keep an eye on him.

Ate chocolate and drank water while watching this.

Why does Anna Farris always look like she's so lost? She's so funny. This movie? Not so much outside of the scenes from the trailer.

Ate popcorn while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #28

Kalikinkar's worship was so centered around a statue that when he deified Doya, he transformed her into one. She lost her voice and autonomy and became an object of faith instead of a willing subject of faith.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Loved this! Always a treat seeing a Looney Tunes movie.

I would've dropped Kevin as my lawyer so fast.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #27

The best way I could describe An Autumn Afternoon is "a compilation of men taking the women in their lives for granted while drinking copious amounts of alcohol with their buddies." How much alcohol was consumed during the runtime of this movie? It'd be an exercise trying to quantify that.

Very very slow and mostly stationary shots of people talking over food and drinks. Mr. Kawai was oddly concerned with Michiko's marriage prospects. If I were Mr. Hirayama, I would've told him to mind his business.

Some of the most beautiful coloring I've seen in a movie. Coupled with the stationary camerawork, many parts of this felt like looking at a postcard.

Ate Sabritones while watching this.

"It's a free country isn't it?"
"I should knock you out for saying that dumb shit alone!"

The neighborhood in Do the Right Thing is small, but dense with lively, complex characters. There are two characters in particular, the only two sources of music in the film, that I constantly find myself thinking about after reading the chapter "We Love Radio Control" in affects and dreams: a manual for Becoming by niko mas: Radio Raheem and Mister Señor Love Daddy.

niko mas expands on Jeffrey Di Leo's analysis of Do the Right Thing in Vinyl Theory by contrasting Radio Raheem and Mister Señor Love Daddy's use of music. We Love Radio is representative of the institutionalized recording industry. It serves as both the demarcating line that establishes who is inside and outside the neighborhood of the film, and as the filter for what and when music and news are heard.

Radio Raheem, on the other hand, is a nomadic agent of the neighborhood that uses his own equipment to drown out We Love Radio.

Raheem is the Diogenes of Do the Right Thing and he, like a kind of free radical, shifts around dehypnotizing people by interrupting His Master's Voice. He queers We Love Radio.

- niko mas in affects and dreams: a manual for Becoming

That Raheem plays Fight the Power is not as important as the fact that he uses the repetition of music to generate contradiction and struggle wherever he goes. It's no surprise then, that the central struggle of the film explodes when Raheem joins the boycott on Sal's Pizzeria.

Not every exasperated petty bourgeois could have become Hitler, but a particle of Hitler is lodged in every exasperated petty bourgeois.

- Leon Trotsky in What is National Socialism?

Raheem is not the cause of the struggle, he merely exposes the tension that was always present, exposes the particle of Hitler that was always lodged in Sal.

Ate Sabritones while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #26

Unbelievable how gorgeous this is for being a movie from the 1940s. The sets are grand, even when the scenery could not match that grandeur and had to be replaced with paintings.

The sisters downfall coincides with their pride being chiseled away little by little. That Sister Clodagh ever thought she could stop the wind or cover the mountain is a laughable display of vanity. Whereas the sisters could not last through life on the mountains, the locals they looked so down on held their own.

It's a shame that a film so beautiful brings itself down so much by the disrespectful displays of brownface and overall orientalism.

Drank chamomile tea while watching this.

The ending...why? 😢 it's not fair 😭

Drank water while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #25

My watching of this movie had so many things working against it:

1. I've been spoiled by watching some of the best of what modern Godzilla has to offer: Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One.
2. The audio was so fucked up that I ended up watching it in silence.
3. I watched this while donating platelets and was once again not 100%. I got maybe halfway through it before I started getting the shakes and just barely finished it before I got so nauseous that I needed to stop the donation.

None of these things can excuse how dull Godzilla Raids Again is. There's really nothing that makes this special outside of being a sequel to one of the most legendary movies ever made. The characters are forgettable and the action sequences, while competent, drag for much too long. I don't think I'll try watching this again in better conditions.

Ate 5 Tums while watching this.

Prior to watching Tony, I had no sense of who Anthony Bourdain was or what he did. I vaguely knew he was a chef, but didn't know how he was any different from Gordon Ramsay, for example. From the bit I've learned about him since finishing this movie, I'm left with a question: if Anthony Bourdain was as amazing as what people say, why is this what Matt Johnson chose to focus on?

Tony is a by-the-numbers coming-of-age movie with badly-written woman characters. In a scene near the end, Nancy goes into "stasis" while Tony and Chef have a conversation, standing there awkwardly until Tony is done speaking and she is allowed to be a character again.

Watching a character get into the zone cooking an elaborate meal is one of the best parts of a movie about chefs / food. Yet, this movie lacks many cooking scenes. There's hardly much here to show Tony develop a genuine love of cooking or connection with his mentor Chef. One of the few scenes of him cooking is diminished by its attention to his love of Nancy vs. his love of cooking.

The movie was enjoyable in the moment thanks to Dominic Sessa's and Antonio Banderas's performances, but I fear it is mostly forgettable.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #24

This month has been full of movies with the most intense stares imaginable. Meiko Kaji does not need a sword, her stare alone could slice you in half.

Lady Snowblood is unrelenting in its violence and coloring. The bright red blood is made more notable by just how much of it is in this movie. Yuki lightly slices someone and liters of blood spurt out and stain the snow.

Ate pistachio cookies with soy milk while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #23

In plot and in style, Daisies rejects everything so as to focus completely on the creation of something new.

For Věra Chytilová, that means experimenting with color and narrative structure to create a visual language so timeless that it fits very comfortably with the media young people currently engage with.

For the Maries, they reciprocate society's rejection and channel it into a hedonistic (mild) destruction that helps them experience new places, new modes of connection with others, and new understandings of themselves.

Daisies makes the auto-destructive hedonia that arises during nihilistic times visually appealing and helps us better understand it through that lens. However, we'd do well not to fall into the individualistic dead-ends that nihilism inspires, lest we meet the same fate as the Maries.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #21

Kane's self-obsession gains greater reach as his empire grows, and the damage it is able to do to himself and others increases alongside its reach. Should we pity him for the bit of humanity he gives us ("rosebud"), or should we rejoice that someone who has dehumanized himself and others is now gone?

Ate puffs while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #20

The second French New Wave film I've watched and not quite enjoyed. It is beautifully shot and framed, and its premise about the distress of forgetting was interesting on the surface. However, the magnitude of difference between Elle's pain from her memories and the pain of the memories of the bombing of Hiroshima was too great for me to appreciate the connection the film tries to make.

Ate nothing while watching this.

This was a fake sell on bringing Spider-Man back to basics. Peter's struggling to make ends meet but can somehow muster the tech to create an inhibitor and hack every Flock camera in the city to do mass surveilance at a moment's notice.

This was Spider-Man 2 (2004) done much worse. Having recently watched that movie, it surprised me how little action it has in favor of focusing on Peter's turmoil and depression. There's a scene of Peter sitting on his rickety-ass bed just staring at the wall while crying. Dude was going through it in a very relatable way.

Contrast that to Brand New Day, where we are expected to believe Peter is depressed because of the constant callbacks to Aunt May and the fact that he really truly has no one due to some fantastical multiverse spell nonsense. Not that we're even allowed to sit with his emotions for any reasonable amount of time in between the Marvel tie-ins and brand cameos. I don't care about Thunderbolts, The Punisher, or Jean Grey!! Keep her in X-Men dammit!!

Still, it's a Spider-Man movie, so I had fun while watching!

Ate salt and vinegar chips while watching this.

I always thought this was a kid's movie until the bottle scene. Holy shit.

Ate chips and sweet onion pretzels while watching this.

Loved it so much! Watching a family that loves each other just enjoying time with one another is beautiful.

The film was not afraid to pop with color during the scenes of the past. Color like this is sorely needed after watching so many movies with bad color grading.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #19

Occupée. Occupée. Occupée. Libre. Occupée. Libre.

Godard did that just to piss us off.

I respect this for clearly inspiring Blade Runner and for the ideas it contends with, which are especially relevant at the moment, but dam was I bored.

Drank a cold brew while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #18

A bunch of adults pretending to be teens who are pretending to be adults. Teens striving to act and be seen as mature is realistic to the high school experience, and Heckerling shows it well through her cast of characters without ever shaming them for it.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #17

Sanjuro the person's confidence and swagger elevate the atmosphere of this film to incredible heights. Dialogue that should be silly and eye-rolling for how it literally telegraphs the events of the film becomes evidence of the control that Sanjuro the person has and his understanding of human nature. Likewise, it is evidence for the control and confidence that Sanjuro the movie has over its narrative.

Watching this felt like watching a piece of history. You can tell every modern trope that was inspired by this and Yojimbo. Most notably the final scene with its long, silent intensity preceding the infamous blood spurting scene.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Sanjuro sitting on the tower watching amateurs "battle" was hilarious. This was overall much funnier than the first time I watched. Probably because I wasn't bobbing my head left and right to read the subtitles behind someone's head. Sorry Texas Theater.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Good morning, good looking!
This is the killer speaking
Good morning, handsome!
This is the killer on the line

I couldn't write a review immediately after watching this because I was left to reckon with the last 30 minutes. After the thrill of the beginning portion of the movie, the sudden jump in time felt so unsatisfying that it pissed me off.

Anger is perhaps the wrong reaction. The expected reaction was likely that of sheriff Ed Tom's. A tired hopelessness in the face of the new violence he's witnessing.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #16

Give me something I'll remember as long as I live.

Wait? More waiting. I'm always waiting. I've had enough!

Watching this, you only wish that your heart would go numb to avoid the pain, yet it can't. The film cuts straight through and continuously pierces you where it hurts the most.

Mikhail Kalatozov manages to command light and shadow perfectly to elevate Tatyana Samoylova's performance and her piercing gaze, always looking into the distance for the message she desperately awaits. The camera does not fear spinning to add to the nausea in your stomach that has built up from the aching of your heart. And somehow, the shots of the crowds are simultaneously overwhelming, swallowing Veronika up, but easy to follow.

Ate nothing while watching this.

It's an exercise figuring out whether I enjoyed this on its own merits or because I enjoy the story of the Odyssey.

Drank water while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #15

A certain feeling lingers in me after finishing this movie, a feeling that I haven't fully realized its scope. Lone Star is massive. It manages to contain generations worth of the pain and political complexities of a small border town, particularly for its marginalized residents.

The mystery of the skeletal remains found in the desert outside of the town seemed so detached from the several other plot points that underlie the film, but the unfolding of the mystery is simultaneously the unfolding of the town's history. The seamless blending of the past and present showcases how fuzzy the border between different points of time is, as fuzzy as the border that separates the town from Mexico.

Ate nothing while watching this.

It's been a while since I've seen Edward Norton in something and I forgot just how much I enjoy his acting.

It's a big year for dysfunctional relationships. The Roses, The Drama, Splitsville, and now this! The resentment and self-pity in this were so realistic that they bordered on hard-to-watch, but the script balances it out well with the humor.

Ate popcorn and took one sip of a flat Sprite Chill Zero while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #14

Ghosts of death, war, hatred, and love haunt this orphanage in the desert. For me, the movie itself was a haunting force in my memories of childhood. Bits and pieces remained with me: the name Santi, the tic-tac of the disarmed bomb, and the seemingly neverending desert.

These pieces and the exact feelings they evoked in me back in the day reappeared during this viewing, a perfect reflection, stuck in time.

Ate nothing while watching this.

One of the more romantic movies I've watched this year on account of the central romance being non-traditional.

Ate Doritos Dinamitas while watching this.

Steven Spielberg makes a Christopher Nolan-coded movie.

Genesis says we are God’s supreme creation—

On Earth

Stfu that was so silly. This whole movie was full of silly shit like this but presented itself as completely serious.

Ate sweet and salty kettle corn while watching this.

Ate popcorn and drank sprite while watching this.

Intense all throughout with hardly a moment to breathe. I can barely pinpoint a scene that lightened the mood rather than raise the tension, except maybe the ending which was not happy, but hopeful.

I'm so happy that I got to see such a Mexican movie in theaters, even if I'm 26 years late.

Ate popcorn and drank water and icee while watching this.

This was dogshit. I had a lot of fun 😌

Drank water while watching this.

Throws shit at the wall and it STICKS. A bit messy and disjointed, but a movie that's so colorful, fun, hopeful, and unabashedly leftist is needed in today's landscape.

Drank water while watching this.

This film uses Natchez as a single, powerful example of the function of aestheticism in the construction of historical myths about the antebellum South. These myths become reality to such a degree that the townsfolk absorb and reproduce the racism underlying them.

One shouldn't be fooled into thinking that Natchez's ahistoricism is a quirk of a single place here and now. The town's particular myths are just one manifestation of a phenomenon that is present across the United States and has been for its entire existence.

Ate nothing while watching this.

It's not even a monkey's paw. This guy's just a piece of shit.

Ate nothing while watching this.

About as good a movie as you could make from source material as viscous as the backrooms. The allure of the backrooms concept is the shared experience of being lost, alone, and completely exposed in a space that is at once familiar and unfamiliar.

Evoking this feeling is where this movie shines, especially during the two found footage sequences. As soon as the focus shifts to the personal lives of the protagonists and the overarching conspiracy, it loses the simple charm of the backrooms concept.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #13

As a Mexican that grew up in Texas, the Selena movie was required viewing growing up. I was never aware of this equivalent, released 10 years before Selena.

Knowing Ritchie's fate does not lighten the blow. He died a child that was supporting his family while doing what he loved.

Drank Diet Dr. Pepper while watching this in Spanish.

She should've staged a coup instead of bothering with any of the marriage stuff.

Ate raspberries, chocolate, and cornichons while watching this.

I owned this on DVD as a kid and must have watched it 20 times before, but I genuinely don't remember a second of it. Unbelievable that the princess transformation was 90% just getting rid of her curly hair wtf 😭

Ate raspberries, chocolate, and cornichons while watching this.

Easily better than the OG movie, although I do miss the Goose x Maverick camaraderie.

Ate nothing while watching this.

Kinda difficult following the dogfights in this and keeping track of who's who. Doesn't end up mattering when you get lost in the speed of it all.

Loved the vibrant colors and the relationship between Maverick and Goose.

Ate Takis pix while watching this.

Hadewijch of Antwerp thought of Hell as the eternal separation from God's Love. Precisely because that separation is eternal and assured, there's a certain comfort in knowing you can give up searching for God's Love. The pain that eclipses Hell is the infinite repetition of the plunge into Love, never quite being able to reach it, but never being able to give up trying. No catharsis.

Sasha did not have the comfort of Hell. Between Jeremy's moments of hostility were moments of a sibling tenderness that could not allow her to hate him so completely as to give up loving him. The pain of this uncertainty is what broke her parents and what fuels her current reflections.

Drank water and cherry Icee while watching this.

Conner had the realest questions. Where did they get those lil crowns?!

Ate popcorn while watching this.

Spring florals?? Miranda would never.

I don't have any nostalgia toward the first movie, so the first third of this was bad. Barely even a movie, just an excuse to point and say, "hey, remember the first movie? 😉"

Once it gets over that hurdle, it becomes a super fun movie to enjoy with your pals.

Ate homemade vegan pizza while watching this.

I can understand why this is a classic, but it's hard to stand how mean or unsupportive everyone is of Andy.

Ate nothing while watching this.

It's been over a year since watching Queer and then seeing Zendaya at a restaurant while she was filming this movie. Time flies.

boxd.it/80iq0V

Much more engaging than Dream Scenario, but retained the distinct air of uncomfort from that movie. The last third was so tense I couldn't avoid throwing my hands in the air and covering my face.

Ate popcorn while watching this.

How is Christy so funny? 😭

Ate popcorn, homemade cookies, and diet root beer while watching this.

Criterion Challenge 2026 - Film #12

It’s just torture and murder. No plot, no characters. Very, very realistic.

Well, I think we live in over stimulated times. We crave stimulation for its own sake. We gorge ourselves on it.

Older forms of media had massive potential to direct our mental faculties, but were limited to specific physical spaces. The TV set in the living room, the radio in the car, the newspaper at the shack. Newer forms of media have the luxury of constant connection outside of specific spaces. The expansion of those spaces to everywhere.

This expansion was true by the time of my teenage years. By then, I had grown up on social media with one form or another of an algorithmic feed. I had also grown up watching torture and murder on television (Alarma TV on Canal Estrella), or being shown gore videos without my consent by my fellow classmates.

Hedonism via media feeds and desensitization to violence were made the defaults. Cronenberg understood this in the 80s, and had enough of an eye to understand how this would evolve into the 2000s.

Ate peanut butter cookies, matcha cookies, and soy milk while watching this.