The First and Only Time I'll Talk About a Modern Superhero Movie: Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

 

 

For reasons that continue to elude me, my mother is obsessed with Deadpool. This woman hates gratuitous violence, crass language, and sitting still, but when it comes to Ryan Reynolds, who cares! I don't particularly care for superhero movies--aside from the Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, who do you take me for--but she and my brother had been looking forward to this for the past year, so I prepared myself for two hours I would never get back and joined them at the theater.

 

Note: SPOILERS AHEAD! Seriously. The whole thing is spoiled. If you care about this movie at all, watch it (you'll have a good time even if you don't love it) and read this as soon as you get home. As long as you don't forget about me :)

I'm the Only One Allowed to Talk About Chasing Amy

We all know that I'm a Letterboxd warrior. Whenever I watch a movie, I write my quippy two line review--or multi-paragraph stream of consciousness, if I'm feeling crazy--and check out what other people have to say. Sometimes I feel justified in my opinions, but other times I'm left baffled at the differences between us.

I'll be honest, I didn't "get" Chasing Amy (1997) the first time I watched it. I had seen Dogma (1999) a few months prior, heard that there was another Kevin Smith movie starring Ben Affleck, and jumped in head first. That's where I went wrong. Kevin Smith is a weird case where you have to have already seen all of his films (or all of the ones that matter) to truly understand and appreciate them. Of course I didn't like the movie because I hadn't seen Clerks (1994) and Mallrats (1995). All of his works exude a scrappyness that can be hard to look past, but by becoming familiar with the world he's created, you can see the trees through the forest.

A Deep Dive Into Clerks (1994)'s Special Features

 

If I love anything, then I fucking love DVDs. I love the snick of a case opening, the way they pile up on every available surface, and (of course) the bonus materials that are rarely found online. That said, some DVDs are better than others, like my 2 disc edition of The Social Network (2010) or any of the Jackass movies. How does the 1999 Miramax Collector's Series DVD of Clerks hold up?

 

Note: This is a review of the special features, not the film itself. Clerks is a flawed, yet comfortable look into an everyman's life, and it was a major part of the 90s indie movement. Because of that, it's hard to objectively rate it. Just kidding. / ★★★★

the death of the listicle from the inside out

Writing mini diary entries for the movies I watch each week seemed like a great idea. "Movie Reviewer" is a career path that I'll probably have to consider at some point, and I watch a lot of fucking movies, so shouldn't I get the practice in? I certainly have more to say than these official publication hacks who write a three sentence blurb and call it a day. Well, that's what I thought until the effort I would have to put in began to look endless.

complete buff catalogue

 

What do you do when you find yourself in the midst of a one man war to preserve media that no one really cares about? Apparently you spend hours, probably in the double digits, compiling a list of every feature film shown in the Boston Underground Film Festival's 25 year history. The Wayback Machine was a huge help, but some years were preserved better than others. Watch them all and maybe you'll learn something! I've learned that I miss the Most Effectively Offensive award.  

 

The Complete Boston Underground Film Festival on Letterboxd

Video Spotlight: Bull in the Heather

 

Referencedale in Review: Season 6

 

Favorite Movie: American Psycho: The Musical (2016)

Favorite Episode: The Jughead Paradox (6x05)

Most Relevant: American Psychos/American Psycho: The Musical (6x17 + 2016)

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Every choice is innovative, but original storylines means there's less of a need for movie references. Referencedale is dying a slow and painful death, but that means less work for me with only four companion films for this season. Here, here!

Week of Movies: 6/23-6/29

 

Sunday 6/23: In the Fog (2012)

Every time I go to the theater to watch foreign arthouse films, I ask myself why I always choose to watch "big" movies--summer blockbusters, comedies with star-studded casts--on the small screen. Here's your answer: I need to. Watching this on my laptop at 1pm blocked me from forming any meaningful opinions until I gave up 40 minutes in and resorted to reading reviews online. It doesn't help that it's not popular, so no one has really analyzed it, but maybe that's me being angry that I haven't been spoon-fed my own opinions. I had more fun thinking about it than watching it, yet I don't think I can really say I watched it. All I can say is that yes, it is crazy to carry around your dying friend and betrayer, and yes, I would do the same. / ★★★