Ticket Stubs
a/o 11.26.24
Hello friends and welcome back to TICKET STUBS, the bi-weekly update newsletter for all my media consumption.
It’s been quite a time, these last two weeks. Work has been bananas, as is tradition, and now we’re on a short little holiday for Thanksgiving. Which means I’m going to try my damndest to finish playing Red Dead Redemption 2 because all I want in the world is to play Astro Bot, but I promised Pierce I’d finish RDR 2 before I moved onto anything else in earnest. So! This break is for movies, some reading (as I’m 10 books behind on my reading goal), and gaming. Which, I suppose is just all the media types I have any regularity in consuming, but it is what it is!
By the way, if you were on the edge of your seat about the Screen Unseen from the other week, then you’ll be interested to know that it was not Queer. Instead, it was Gladiator II, so we did not go since Pierce and I had tickets for the IMAX screening on that Thursday. All of which is to say that I’m seeing Queer tonight, actually. And, like, for very sure. Excited for it! I’m holding space (lol) on my many lists for it for the end of the year. I do have many thoughts on Screen Unseen being a major blockbuster and a sequel… but I’ll hold those for this moment. Largely, they don’t matter, but I’m also curious if they’ll do something like this again soon.
Anyway, the last two weeks were filled with a few re-watches, like Dogma for a piece coming out the first week of December (which I’m very excited for everybody to read), Challengers, and Maxxxine. Challengers is, shockingly, not just because it’s my favorite film of the year—though it certainly is. Instead, it’s because American Cinematheque did a screening, plus a Q&A with Luca Guadagnino (director), Justin Kuritzkes (writer), J.W. Anderson (costume designer), and Marco Costa (editor). It was an absolute blast. Luca said some absolutely insane things, like that he doesn’t shotlist and that the film is largely made up of the first (and largely only) takes of setups. Also, they said they basically had a locked cut of the film in a month, which is absolutely the wildest thing I’ve heard in a long time. Especially as a professional post-production person!
As for the new movies, we did see Gladiator II and Wicked. Both of which were largely fine. I liked Wicked more and it certainly sat with me better. In fact, as my dear husband has said multiple times, “the more I think about it, the less I like it.” There are some great performances, like Denzel Washington absolutely eating the scenery in the best way—but despite loving Paul Mescal, he’s kind of not a movie star. Especially compared to Denzel. He’s a great actor, but the script is also not doing a lot for him, in terms of being the lead of the film. He is in practice, but truly not in spirit. As for Wicked, I defer largely to my best friend, and life-long Wicked girlie, Megan’s review at MovieJawn. I liked it slightly more than her, but I also haven’t spent 15 years obsessed with it, so I understand.
The real winner for the last two weeks was A Real Pain, which I saw with my sister in between the two blockbusters. It was funny, heartbreaking, and an absolutely wonderful display of Jesse Eisenberg’s developed skills as a writer and director. Also, along with Anora, it’s certainly one of those deeply sad endings that makes you just want to cry about a character for the rest of your life.
New Media since last Ticket Stubs:
New Films Watched: 4
Rewatches: 3
New Episodes of TV: 26
Books/Comics/Novellas Read: 2
New Media to date:
Total New Films Watched: 213
Total Rewatches: 46
Fangoria Top 100 Horror Films Watched: 39
Total Films Watched: 259
Total Episodes of TV Watched: 608
Total Books/Comics/Novellas Read: 42
Like I said, I’ll be seeing Queer later today, and then Megan reminded me to book my IMAX ticket for the revival of The Green Knight. I might have seen it in theaters when it came out, perhaps even in IMAX, but I love it so much and I’m excited to see it on the big screen again! Also, I really have no idea how I’m going to figure out my watches for Christmas, since everything comes out. It’s gonna be a whole thing, I’m sure. But! American Cinematheque is doing a bunch of screenings in December, so I’m seeing a good amount of things, new and old. We shall discuss once those get closer! They are largely free members-only screenings, so we’ll see what I actually go to, since a lot of them are double features.
See you next week!
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