Took October as a chance to reset. Continuing to watch a lot of comedies, a few of them were really surprising. Trying to stay afloat with the absurdity of it all. Noticing that I am losing the stamina for gore and violent films that feel hollow or purely referential. We’re so close to end of the year, again.
Oct. 2022
• After Little Hours, I couldn’t stop myself from watching more from Baena. Really hope the Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena collaboration continues in the near future. Plaza was so good in this, appreciate seeing her flex her physical comedy in this absurd film.
• Funny, heartfelt. Glad to see Jeff Baena back in the rotation after I Heart Huckabees in 2004. His unique, smart tone was missed. I didn’t realize it was him until I finished watching it and was happy to find out.
• A lovely ghost film. Did not expect the metaphor around loss of history in Hong Kong and Westernization. Anita Mui is great, appreciate seeing her perform heartbreaking melodrama with the right comedic sensibilities.
• Holds up. Hadn’t seen this again for a while. For some reason this viewing made the film so much more scarier than the first time I’ve seen it.
• A perfect Fall film and definitely the superior animated film from Wes Anderson.
• Terrible, joyless. More Halloweentown than anything else. It felt like a Disney Channel special instead of an actual film. It’s way too wholesome in all the worst ways.
• The parts did not make the sum of this film. While it gave me a lot of laughs, the core narrative of the film feels a little loosely held together. The bits and pieces were delightful though and still glad that I saw this in the movie theater. The drama around the film was dumb.
Sept. 2022
• Really enjoyed this mish mosh of different genres, really feel like Jordan Peele is coming to his own style. Appreciate the tone, beautiful cinematography and just the curiosity that the film flexed. Keke Palmer was great in this.
• A solid, well acted satire that was (for me) surprisingly darker than expected.
📝 lintroller 