Letterboxd — Your life in film

Have seen this a bunch of times and yet it still has me gasping... Now that's a moooovie.

The pinnacle of the YA trend. Was all downhill from here. Beautiful cinematography and music, actual on-location for some of the tropical stuff, unique characters, a middle of the overarching series but feels complete in its own right enough to be satisfying.

Is basically a deft political thriller for the first act, then when the quarter quell kicks off a cruel yet…

Usually when filmmakers that tend to make smaller weird movies do commercial stuff I'm like 'aw nah' but in GDT's case it's actually the opposite. Sir, we need you to bring flavour to the likes of this and Hellboy so other, more boring, directors don't helm them!

Has all the ingredients for typical summer blockbuster fare but GDT makes this stand out in a few simple key areas. Like, this actually takes the time to build out some style and…

Hmm... Not totally sure how much I loved this as an overall film, but when it sings it sings.

Has that 'Part 1' curse where it feels like half a movie, or a very long, very exciting, episode of a TV show. Meanders with odd pacing that starches everything out while not bringing any idea full circle. It's a weird spot and difficult for any movie to navigate.

The upsides are, of course, the stellar animation, visceral action, and music.…

Feel like it's important to preface this with the admission I don't have lots of nostalgia for the original. It was definitely part of my childhood, but watching it older I've always not been super fond of it.

The animation is beautiful and the songs are amazing (and give me chills here again) but I always hated the romance in it and found Ariel to be ditzy as a character. So, yeah, that either set me up really well or…

Basically just a collection of muscley people getting their contractually obligated action scene in.

But mostly Vin Diesel, who definitely gave the same note on every scene in the script: " sure... But what if I were somehow even more heroic?". I don't think there has ever been a man who can perform such clench jawed masculinity and sickly sweet sentimentality at the same time.

Honestly the high energy is fun. I enjoy the world and the car chases put…

She's mother to many... But mostly to her daughter 🫡.

A movie you can tell was greenlit by AI that knows today's Netflix subscribers love nothing more than a woman over 40 getting her 'stoic ex-badass comes out of retirement to protect their daughter/granddaughter/niece/abandoned girl/whatever.'

Honestly? I get it. There's been a couple of decent ones. It's cool to see slightly older women get these opportunities, which JLO herself stated she would never have gotten earlier in her career.

All…

A movie I was quite scared to watch because honestly this franchise at its most scary tends to be too gnarly for me... But I knew I had to see this.

It kinda starts out with a fun chaotic vibe and I honestly expected somewhat of a nicer ending for most of the characters but the third act was like aw hell no. Quickly goes from full faced grin metal kinda shit to absolutely brutally dark kinda shit.

Enjoyed it…

A refreshingly honest film for the coming of age genre, which has often seemed a bit frightened of authentic portrayals of tween girls.

While we've got many films where young boys talk about sex, leer, and wrestle with puberty, it's only in the past few years the genre has embraced authentic girlhood, previously being scared to offend audiences or go too inappropriate.

There has in the past been a different set of rules, and I'm glad we're past that, because…