Hello friends and welcome back to TICKET STUBS, the update newsletter for all my media consumption. I think I might change this newsletter to update twice a month, instead of the promised weekly I was trying to maintain since re-starting it. Obviously, I’ve not been too great at it, but I feel like an essay-type thing in the middle of the month and a Ticket Stubs at the end of the month would be both doable and make more sense for what I’m trying to do (more on my creative plans for 2025 at the end of the year, proper).
At any rate, I’ve seen a bunch of things since I last did a Ticket Stubs! Some truly great and some that were absolutely not for me—in the last four days, no less. I left you as I was about to see Queer and then the revival of The Green Knight in IMAX. One of those happened! Queer was a stunning piece of filmmaking (Drew was as electric as he’s always been) and I hope that everyone involved, creatively, works together more and more. It’s basically the Challengers team, and they’re all in perfect sync with each other in the most delightful and heartbreaking ways.
The Green Knight, however, didn’t happen. First, my original IMAX ticket at my main theater got cancelled. For Interstellar, a film I, famously, don’t like. Very annoying. So, I rebooked at the other AMC with an IMAX theater, but then we decided to move our D&D night back to Wednesday for that week so we could actually finish the campaign we’ve been playing for a year and a half before Angelica (my old roommate) left for the holiday. We did finish the campaign, btw, so I think it was worth it. Also! We’re watching her cat right now and I love her so much. She’s the most precious little demon.
Since then, as noted in the stats, I’ve seen 20 movies. I’ve also watched over 30 new episodes of TV (largely watching Abbott Elementary on weekdays when I work out in the morning, keeping up with Dandadan, and the new release of Secret Level, a video game animated short series), and am currently on track for my reading goal (mostly from playing catchup with the Jujutsu Kaisen manga series).
But, okay, the movies! I also try to watch all the Oscar movies that get nominated for any of the big categories. Picture, Director, Acting, Script, Editing, and Cinematography. Those tend to cover a lot of the other narrative films that might get nominated and I’ve been very successful at it over the last few years, largely because I see so much before Oscar announcements. Which will be happening the day after I get to New York in January. There are a few I haven’t seen yet, that are front runners (for some reason… looking at you Emilia Pérez), but I’ve seen a lot of the already released ones so far. I’m excited to see what will actually get nominated, because I think it’s actually been a very good movie year.
Now, I went to a bunch of, surprising no one, American Cinematheque screenings over the last two weeks. I saw The Last Showgirl (which was fine…), Blitz (which I liked a lot and I’m glad I saw it on a big screen), The Fire Inside (very good and a nice twist on the inspirational sports movie), and Nickel Boys (perhaps one of the best films of, not just the year, but the decade). I also saw a few random things in general theaters, including Y2K (fun!), The End (largely bad, but a wild swing), The Order (I’m glad I finally saw Talk Radio this year, as the true story is happening in the background, and then the foreground here), and Oh, Canada (I truly dislike every single thing about this film). Additionally, Megan and I watched The Piano Lesson over the weekend and WOW WOW WOW! That ending sequence is one for a lifetime!
But I wanted to touch on Nickel Boys for a moment. It’s a perfect film and I really, really hope everyone sees it whenever they can, because it’s stunning and beautiful and has so much to say. When I saw it there was a Q&A with director (and co-writer) RaMell Ross and actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor that was, literally, the best Q&A I have ever seen in my life. There was a lot of really interesting and smart conversation about the technical aspects of making the film, how the POV makes the camera (and therefore the audience) an active participant in the scene. But also, there was a really stunning conversation about southern photography and how photography plays a part in the film. How the status of the American south as one of the most photographed places in the US transposed into the ways that people few southerners, but particularly Black southerners. I’m hoping somebody posts it, or parts of it, soon because it was so, so good.
New Media since last Ticket Stubs:
New Films Watched: 17
Rewatches: 3
New Episodes of TV: 39
Books/Comics/Novellas Read: 7
New Media to date:
Total New Films Watched: 230
Total Rewatches: 49
Fangoria Top 100 Horror Films Watched: 39
Total Films Watched: 279
Total Episodes of TV Watched: 647
Total Books/Comics/Novellas Read: 49
Obviously, the holidays are coming, and I’m done with work, for a little while, after this Friday, so I will have lots of time! Pierce and I have tickets on Saturday to The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and then I booked my ticket for Babygirl on the day after Christmas. I’m still trying to figure out seeing The Brutalist because it’s not playing in a lot of places in Los Angeles, which is very annoying. And then, we need to book our tickets for Nosferatu, but we’re gonna try and see that with his cousins on Christmas, I think, so we’re looking at a very specific window for that. We shall see. Lots of cool movies are coming up!
See you soon!
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