I watch, and enjoy, a lot of musicals for someone who doesn't like musicals.

It's a terrible deprivation

I can't remember why, but this seemed like something that would interest Tabitha so we watched it. I honestly forgot just how heartbreaking this is, and how close it flies to some of the incredibly unethical stuff psychologists were doing in the early days.

When I was doing my A Levels, I did a year of psychology and that is such an interesting year. I can't believe that some of these people never thought twice about what they were doing and whether it might have any long term effects on their subjects¹. They had to at least suspect it'd have an impact otherwise why study it in the first place? Natasha Josefowitz' shit-eating "what are you gonna do about it?!" smirk made me so angry. She knows what they did, and that nothing would stick to them. Showing off her photos with the Obamas like "come and get me", made me mad. They had to know how unethical it was, otherwise why bury the records until 2066.

This one's still worth a watch though. The impact this all had on these kids tells you so much about development, hereditary mental issues, and the lengths people will go to to cover their tracks.

1. If you don't already know, have a read about Zimbardo's prison experiment (this actually got repeated for TV! Guess how that went) and the Milgram experiment. It's mind-blowing what they did, got away with and forms the basis of modern psychology/psychiatry. It's a weird scenario where it can never be repeated, but without those leaps, so many things look totally different. Why are we like that as a species? The only way we learn is by messing up in just about the worst way possible and then being like "uhhh nope that wasn't it let's try something else!".

I just love this film. Took a chance on watching it with Tabitha and she liked it. Some 15s are weirdly fine, but Pitch Perfect 2 is a 12A and I feel like that was totally unsuitable for her. Maybe I'm a prude 🤷‍♂️

Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson is a combination I would watch a lot more of. It just works.

Watched with Tabitha for the first time. This film makes me cry so much but I absolutely love it.

I can't remember who but someone said they'd watched this with their kid, and since we watched Hot Shots recently it made sense.

This film still makes me laugh like an idiot. Tabitha seemed to enjoy it as well. I think Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen in one film is difficult to get wrong. I wonder if Naked Gun is suitable for her.

It's a mess. I found it super entertaining, and wasn't bored at any moment, but it's just a mess. I genuinely don't know what it's even trying to be about. I think it somehow wants to be Shakespeare, and it's definitely opaque and confusing enough for that. If it felt like there was a thread to pull at to make sense of it all I might watch it again, but I don't think there is.

I'm glad it got made though. I saw this thing a while ago that said something like what better way to spend your money than hiring a bunch of people making the thing you always wanted to make?, and I am on board with that. I just don't understand what it's really be about. It's obviously not just about a guy building a city. Why can he stop time? Why all the Rome stuff? Why all the stuff about his wife dying? Why are his own personal relationships and sex life so central to everything? They can't all just be window-dressing.

As far as I'm concerned, The Wizard of Oz is a perfect film. I am naturally skeptical when people make prequels and sequels around films I admire, but I have to admit I love what they've done with this.

Contrary to what is popular opinion in our house, I think the songs are largely forgettable, but the story, casting, foreshadowing, and costumes more than compensate for that. The costumes! I would wear so many of those costumes.

And obviously Ariana Grande is beautiful and her voice is totally ridiculous. Tabitha hadn't heard of Minnie Riperton so it was nice to introduce her to another vocalist who can carry whistle register. Cynthia Erivo has a lovely voice, too. They did such a great job finding two vocalists who complement each other as well as they do. And I like that Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel got cameos. I'm a sucker for stuff like that.

Jeff Goldblum though. How does this guy keep getting work?! He's the worst.

Solid zombie movie, even if Jim does somehow turn to a superhero in the last 15 minutes. We can just chalk that up to adrenaline. And whoever's idea it was to make Brendan Gleeson a cockney should be imprisoned for crimes against cinema. Irish people lived in London, even as far back as 2002.

I'm guessing the film couldn't have been made without the product placement but some of it is pretty egregious!

Amazing soundtrack. You don't hear post rock in films so much these days.

This is about the highest praise a film in this series, or even this genre, is ever going to get from me. I enjoyed it more than the others but that is not saying much. I do love Emily; the only character in all of this with some semblance of personality.

How do I keep letting this happen? I hate these films. Did you know that there's a Netflix Christmas Movie Cinematic Universe? Well apparently there is and that makes me hate it even more.

I literally couldn't tell you anything about this film, but Charlotte and Tabitha wanted to watch it.

Score 1 for low expectations I guess. Enjoyed this a lot. Excellent casting.

This still holds up extremely well. What a beautiful movie.

Absolutely hated this.

Nice, cheesy fighting film with every cliché you could possibly need. Always surprises me when films like this have such a high rating on IMDB but I guess if it was only me who liked them, they would never get made.

I tried to watch this years ago when I was properly into anime, and I hated the art style and couldn't get past it. Saw a bit of a YouTube video last night and wanted to give it another try. Very glad I did; I loved it. The scope of the story is incredible. I went from "how is this two hours long?!" to "how is this only two hours long?!" in about 45 minutes.

The pacing is pretty all-over-the-place and a lot of the necessary backstory seems to have been inserted as an afterthought towards the end, which makes the last 20 minutes a bit chaotic. I bet Netflix are dying to get their hands on this to make it into 5 seasons of forgettable crap.

The sound direction is incredible as well. I'm a sucker for a good score and you don't often see something so grandiose in animation like this.

If you don't like anime, you're not going to like it. I think it probably invented, or at least popularised, a lot of the genre tropes that annoy people about anime (the last 15 minutes is basically every character screaming AKIRAAAAA TETSUOOOOO KANEDAAAA which even irritated me!). But if you're into anime, and you haven't seen it (who even is that, at this point?!); give it a try.

Really beautiful. Just so well done; well considered. A deep understanding of emotional motivation and connection. I can't believe this works as a film but it does. Probably not great on the rewatch but neither was the first.

Unhinged and perfect. A better analyst than me would elegantly link the thankless task of making art for everyone but yourself, and the ensuing desperate hollow that leaves behind. The all-too-late reminder of why you took your chosen path, and the vindication of honesty and innocence.

Not even remotely what I was expecting, and instantly creates a perfect double-header with Chef. I love movies like this almost as much as I love finding movies like this. And if you're looking for a triple-bill, let's put Midsommar in there as well.

One of my all-time favourites. A perfect film.

First time I saw this I didn't really care for it, and now I absolutely love it. A glow-up for the history books. Just watch it; it's brilliant. And if you don't enjoy it, just keeping watching it until you do, I guess.

I've never seen a Godzilla film but a bunch of people said this would be a good one to watch. I enjoyed it. Visually beautiful, good mix of practical and special effects, nice hammy acting. Everything I didn't know I apparently wanted from a Godzilla film.

Fun. Long - very long - but I enjoyed it.

Oh man it feels wrong admitting to liking this but I was properly cry-laughing for some of it. I think this is a great example of comedy that looks and feels super gross but actually landed so well with me.

I think the stuff that sounds misogynistic is super self-aware and actually a lot funnier because of that. And genuinely if I could do his impression of Trump I would do it all day every day. People would stop talking to me.

I get if you hate this, and I even get if you judge me for liking it. I wish you wouldn't, but I get it.

Film-ruining spoilers for After Yang, Klara and the Sun, and maybe Click? If you're looking for something poignant and melancholic, you can do a lot worse than this!

This reminded me so much of Klara and the Sun, in terms of its tone. The mute grief is played so well across the board, I could almost see a movie adaptation of Klara being pretty identical to this.

I didn't get the need to carry on with Russ and Cleo's branch of the story once Jake starts exploring Yang's memories. For me, the ethical question about Yang's relevance as a museum exhibit, or his right to privacy after his death, aren't relevant to the story. Maybe those will become questions humans need to ask ourselves in future, but a half-baked attempt to do it speculatively just doesn't work for me. The important part of that branch is that we get access to Yang's memories and explore his past lives.

This forms another parallel with Klara; the exploration of what happens when you leave an old life behind. When we see Yang's first life; full, bitter-sweet, come to its inevitable end, and his memories roll up and get compartmentalised, his grief forbids him from engaging in his short second life. These ends made me feel very similar to how I felt when Klara was disposed of.

The synopsis of this film describes everything from Jake's perspective and re-establishing his connection with his family, and I suppose I get why. But it does make the whole thing feel like an artsy Click, rather than a study of grief, rebirth, and one's capacity to start again and keep going.

This is one of those films that feels like it probably has loads of layers if you want to watch it tens of times. Smarter people than me have probably already written about it. Maybe I'll just read that.

Fortunately, if all you want to do is watch a beautiful film with some nice characters and that stilted, matter-of-fact Wes Anderson dialogue, this is a very pleasant way to spend an hour and a half.

This is the perfect film. I will throw down over this.

I thought this was lovely. Not sure it'll go into rotation as a Christmas film but it's definitely got rewatch potential. You go through the emotional spectrum with this, and it's sentimental without being cloying or clichéd.

Most of the time, not reading a synopsis on a film is fine. I like to go in as blind as possible on films.

With this, however, I was expecting a comedy. You shouldn't judge things by their covers or posters. A comedy, this is not.

I did like it a lot though. Ryan Gosling's brand of radio-friendly, high-functioning drug addict means you get a decent story and some good relationships, which are pierced by Frank's "he's a base-head. Base-heads don't have friends".

The film doesn't do much to glamourise or villify drug addiction; it's just a story about a guy who seems to be trying to be good (a lot of the time), whilst living with a thorn in his side.

In a way it's a shame that they tried to run Dan and Drey's stories together. Neither gets explored fully and they're both interesting characters that I did end up caring about. Solid ending though.

We started watching this when it first came out and this premise is so tired; "I'm an assassin and I live by a very specific set of rules that I'm about to break and watch my life fall apart". I'm over it. I do realise that "I'm an assassin and I live by a very specific set of rules; watch how that works out for me" isn't exactly fertile ground for a gripping story.

The Killer is a pretty decent take on the concept, though. It's paced well, and it lays out the plan in the first quarter then spends the remaining three executing (lol good pun Jasper). "Anticipate. Don't improvise" - words for assassins and filmmakers to live by.

The almost-mute dialogue of the protagonist, interspersed with whiplash-inducing hyperviolence gives the film a bit of a Drive atmosphere. For a film about a highly-skilled assassin, it's more of a train journey than a rollercoaster, but a pleasant one nonetheless. No rowdy youths get on and spoil your calm, unless you hate The Smiths.

Not sure I'd recommend going out of your way to watch this immediately if you haven't already, but if you're looking for something to watch and nothing is taking your fancy, maybe give it a go. I'd rather watch this than John Wick any day of the week.

Rewatch because I'm hoping to see part two next week and had forgotten the entire plot. Plus we were talking about it earlier and I wanted to watch it anyway.

For a 2.5+ hour film this goes by quickly; it's a strangely-paced film. It's so slow and purposeful, but achieves so much in terms of world and character development. There's so much history communicated through almost every scene; it's remarkable.

Wish I'd read the book first. I know I should have but I have not.

When Ryan Gosling punches Kevin Bacon in the face is one of the greatest movie moments.

One of the best films I've ever seen in my life. It's perfect. I think about this film multiple times every day.

There is just no way that the Willy Wonka in this film, in this universe, becomes the cold sociopath of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No way.

No part of this is a prequel to that film. This film is what so many are now, and that is a dilute strawman that only exists in the mind of the creator and the shareholders responsible.

The only thing I can say for this trash is that I wanted to hate it; I knew I would hate it, and I was not disappointed.

A very, very long and slow burn. So detailed and beautiful and sad and evil. We had to watch it over two nights because I can't do a film like this in a single sitting, but that's just because I was sleepy and not because of any problem with the film itself. It is long but on immediate reflection I don't think you could edit it down in any significant way.

I enjoyed this a lot, but let's not pretend that it's anything more than Parasite for a western audience that doesn't want to read subtitles.

Consider this a freebie from your boy. If you want to enjoy this film again as an adult, watch it with a ten-year-old who's never seen it. I may live to regret showing this to her, but whilst we were watching she was so happy. Imagine being ten and learning that they made films that match your stupid annoying sense of humour. That's real happiness right there.

I don't think I like James Bond

I like it, but it drags on a bit in the last act.

I love this.

This is a bad movie, dragged out to make a really long bad movie. Normally I would avoid speaking so objectively about a film, and I hope this self-awareness will give weight to my opinion and save someone two hours.

The only redeeming element to this film is the art direction. The story is meandering and unengaging. Performances are hammy. It just doesn't work; and I really wanted it to work. I am so ready for a big budget sci-fi, but I guess I'm waiting for Dune.

I liked it. Cheesy as all hell but I feel like that's the point. Solid ending. Probably not going to watch it again.

Hans Zimmer is the laziest composer in history omg. So much of the Pirates of the Caribbean music is in this film.

I love this sort of film.

I enjoyed this film a lot. I like films that are about characters and what they do, rather than some story arc. There obviously is a story here but it's very much a vehicle for the characters.

I read a review that broke it down as a ruling elite class crushing an uprising by pitting the oppressed class against each other to divide and conquer, and how that is an allegory for politics and society today. I like that a lot as a comparison, and I would love it if that was intentional but I doubt it somehow. Amusing how a film about liberation and empowerment lands as a tale of class oppression.

I loved the soundtrack. Been listening to it for a while anyway but it fits so well with the film. Especially Billie Eilish's song.

Cast was all amazing as well. It really comes across how much everyone enjoyed filming it. I thought America Ferrera and Margot Robbie in particular were brilliant, and I love Ryan Gosling as an airhead with too much confidence.

Oddly not as terrible as I expected. The first hour lays it out like The Core or Armageddon or something like that, and the acting is exactly as urgent and hammy as you'd expect. But actually the story is pretty coherent, all things considered. And the special effects are pretty amazing. The last thirty minutes were particularly enjoyable.

I will say, though, if you find deus ex machina annoying, skip this hard.

Tabitha and I watched Korra together and I enjoyed it a lot. Not sure why I thought I wouldn't.

I didn't realise this was M Night Shyamalan, but it is absolutely a film of his. Terrible dialogue, weird overacting, Chekov's guns literally everywhere. But it's silly and fun and it made me want to watch the animated series (yes I know I should've watched that first shush).

Netflix asked their picket-line-breaking AI to make them a Jordan Peele film with a hint of Black Dynamite and Sorry to Bother You's atmosphere and it could not be more obvious.

This is a strange movie but I think that's because it's kinda high-brow and I'm not really used to high-brow car films. I'm a Fast franchise guy, you know this by now. Baby Driver is your thinking boy's car film.

I think one thing I like about this film is that the stunts and chase scenes are mercifully short. It seems like the 2020 thing to do is have these uncomfortably protracted action sequences that honestly I'm just waiting to be over. Baby Driver has none of that. None. It's lean, it's got some good driving, it's got a goddamn contrived-as-shit backstory, it's got Jamie Foxx being unhinged as heck. I like this movie.

It does have something I don't like though: Kevin Spacey's shit-eating face I want to punch him so bad but realistically I'm not a fighter; he could probably kick my ass.

There are so many stars in this it's kinda strange to watch for the first time now. Even I got sick of saying "whoa it's ... from ...", and I love doing that!

I enjoyed this a lot. It's a solid premise with some cool "wait what just happened" bits of surrealism. Definitely going on my Friday Night rotation.

In my defence, we watched the TV show. I absolutely do not recommend watching this, but I did enjoy it.