Sometimes it's not that serious

 

In early 2025, I watched one episode of Attack on Titan and declared that I was not emotionally stable enough to watch any more at the time. Below are several movies that I am always emotionally stable enough for. 

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Voicemails for Isabelle (2026) - directed by Leah McKendrick

 

The best thing about Voicemails for Isabelle is the depiction of sisterly love and grief. The second best thing is Zoey Deutch’s green North Face!! Best product placement 💚 I watched this while wearing my green North Face, so I really saw myself in her.

This movie is basically exactly what I expect and exactly what I want from Netflix romcoms. Very easy and (mostly) inoffensive watch. Maybe (probably) the whole situation could’ve been handled in a less creepy way, but then we wouldn’t have a movie, would we? Yes, it’s dumb. No, I don’t care.

 

Watched: August 30, 2026

Rating: ★★★ / 5  

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It's funny starting this post with a movie that's about losing a sister. Obviously that's a devastating thing to go through, and I would probably not choose to watch this movie if I had just lost my own sister (knocking on so much wood right now). It was emotional, it was sometimes touching, I shed a single tear. But it was low stakes enough that I didn't feel like world was crashing down around me. 

 

The romance was fun! In the grand scheme of Netflix rom-coms this movie is not even close to the worst of them. The banter between the main characters was cute, and overall I enjoyed despite the questionable premise (girl sends voicemails to dead sister, man with dead sister's phone numbers listens to all these private voicemails and travels across the country to find girl).

Cannibalism is not legal in Idaho. I did the research. 

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Best of the Best (2026) - directed by Lena Khan

 

Suchh a caricature, but I’m not California enough or performer enough to tell you if it’s accurate. I didn’t fully buy into the friendship or the conflict, but did enjoy and would watch again tomorrow if I was asked to.

Dances were whatever, but some of the song choices were good/funny.

 

Watched: September 26, 2026

Rating: ★★½ / 5  

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Pitch Perfect for college Bollywood dance teams is the easy comparison. But those are big shoes to fill, and this did not fill them adequately. There were a handful of funny moments, but I didn't think the writing was that strong. 

These two friends being jealous of one another because one of them is the "pretty one" and the other one is merely super smart and the best dancer and the best at everything... that did not really hit for me (though it is less heavy handed in the movie than in the sentence I just wrote). Takes a big suspension of disbelief to accept that both friends are not gorgeous, but nobody's asking me. Nobody ever asks. 

Always exciting to see movies made for and about South Asians. My whole family watched this one together. 

Unrelated but slightly related: will always have a soft spot for Maitreyi Ramakrishnan for declaring that "all hot people fail their driver's license test." Really changed my life, thank you. 

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The Love Hypothesis (2026) - directed by Claire Scanlon

 

They hired an android with abs to play the love interest. He’s so Spock until he starts to have feelings at which point I become Spock. Must’ve spent all his acting skills on the American accent. 

Olive and Anh so cute. I like friendship. 

Anyway, had a great time.

 

Watched: October 3, 2026

Rating: ★★ / 5  

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Either romance novels getting adapted for screen is a new trend, or it's something I've just started to notice. Off Campus and Heated Rivalry were both TV series, but Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation film came out at the beginning of the year. Then there are the many Colleen Hoover adaptations I don't keep track of, and I also don't keep track of whether or not they're considered romances. Verity is in theaters as we speak and it stars ANNE HATHAWAY omg this is a big deal, but I won't watch it. 

I have enjoyed telling all my friends that The Love Hypothesis book was originally Star Wars fanfic. Honestly maybe I should try watching The Force Awakens again with this lens. Tom Bateman's stoic character was based on Adam Driver's Kylo Ren. If only Adam Driver could have been cast in this movie too, I think I would have liked it more.

I'd read the book too when in a low-stakes-rom-com mood, and I think I'd like this movie better upon rewatch when I just lean into the campiness. Have heard from a primary source that some of the lines about grad school hit close to home. 

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The above movies were all released on streaming services—two on Netflix and one Amazon Prime. Rom-coms and comedies are not really making it onto the big screen these days, but I suppose I'm happy they still exist at all. Wouldn't want to watch Interstellar on an average movie night. But I think the quality of these movies suffers a bit because the stakes aren't as high. 

Not to say the quality of theatrical releases has never suffered. 

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Twilight (2008) - directed by Catherine Hardwicke

 

Watched for the fourth time because nobody wanted to watch Jaws with me 🦈💔 

Four years ago, I was baffled at how a movie so bad (and so blue) could’ve been green lit at all (haha, get it?). I was disappointed by the lack of effort put into this movie and confused by how much money it made anyway. 

I’m still kinda disappointed in the world, but I am glad Twilight exists for peak watch-party fun. I like the wack script, and I giggle at the weird lingering shots on the actors’ faces. I love the sexy conversations in the trees most of all. 

This movie is over-hated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not bad. Very rewatchable. Cultural touchstone. Some incredibly romantic not-at-all-creepy quotes. Perhaps one day I’ll watch all the sequels.

 

Watched: September 13, 2026

Rating: ★ / 5  

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When Twilight was all the rage, I was freaked out by vampires. I think there is some alternate universe that exists where I loved these books growing up and enjoyed the movies. The extent to which these movies are made fun of makes me uncomfortable, especially when it involves ridiculing the people (mostly women) that enjoy them. Let people enjoy things, I say. 

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Mean Girls (2004) - directed by Mark Waters

 

Some might say it’s the most quotable movie of 2004.

 

Watched: October 3, 2026

Rating: ★★★★ / 5  

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Last but never least, we have Mean Girls. It's funny, it's iconic, it's very important to watch on October 3rd. Unfortunately the people I watched it with were not the biggest fans, and I think that colored my enjoyment this time around. Funny how your opinions can change merely by who's around you. I shudder to think of the reality where I watched it for the first time in this setting instead of alone in my bedroom in middle school. 

It’s hard and maybe impossible to be truly objective towards nostalgic movies. I've watched this movie many times, and though there are some bits that haven’t aged super well, I like it. 

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Okayy she did it. Five reviews, one post. See you next time. 

Ken Liu and The Paper Menagerie and The Message™ and immigrant stories

 

Tuesday September 8, 2026 was a big day for Asian Americans that read and write books, because both Ken Liu and R.F. Kuang had new releases. Taipei Story for Kuang and The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories for Liu. It was a bigger day still for people in the Boston area (hey that's me!), because both Massachusetts-based authors held events in the city on that day. Big Ken Liu fans and big R.F. Kuang fans who ALSO pay attention to author talks in Greater Boston are probably a small population, but I'm sure there's at least one sad person out there who had to miss one of these conflicting events. 

 

Me? I was merely an aspirational fan of both authors having read 0 works from each (as of September 8). Ken Liu's event in Harvard Square was in conversation with Fonda Lee (another author that am a huge aspirational fan of; Jade City is perpetually the book I want to read next and never get around to), and that's the one I decided to attend. 

 

Ken Liu writes a lot of short fiction. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is the most well known collection, though several other stories of his were adapted into the show Pantheon. He's written epic fantasy novels (The Dandelion Dynasty series), at least one sci-fi thriller, and also translated several Chinese works (including The Three Body Problem—yeah I bet you've heard of that one). 

 

The new short story collection, The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories, was the main topic of this event. Unlike his prior collections, all of these stories share a common theme, but what that theme is is a bit unclear to me without reading it for myself. My impressions based on the discussion: I have a feeling this book will speak the most to other writers and artists in general: people that have put their work out there and have been taken aback by how it was interpreted. "Art requires misunderstanding," he said at one point. If someone reads what you write and derives the "wrong" message, is that a failure of imagination or a failure of craft? They talked about how there is never one single meaning to be taken from a story. "If I had a single thing to say, I would've just said it" made me LOL. They spoke about divisive media: how it's possible to love something and then discover that it's not-so-well-loved by the masses. How you can break established "rules" of a craft in an effective way. A lot of talk about stories and the way they are received. 

 

At one point, Ken mentioned his award-winning short story, The Paper Menagerie, how people have spoken to him about their own interpretations over the years, some that were unexpected. Of all the Ken Liu books/stories I've meant to read, The Paper Menagerie has always been at the top of the list, and this talk gave me enough motivation to go home and read it. In the spirit of this event, I just wanted to know what my own takeaways from this story would be. 

 

I purchased a signed copy of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories that night. The titular story is notably NOT the first story in the collection, so I did some rule-breaking and skipped to the middle of the book.   

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In one sentence, The Paper Menagerie (2011) is about a biracial boy's relationship with his Chinese mother who makes magical origami... go read it. 

 

This is a heartbreaking immigrant/diaspora story that feels familiar to me in uncomfortable ways. I cried some (a lot). To me, this story is about a mother's unconditional love, it's about how kids are shitty sometimes, it's about how young people struggle to understand their parents, it's about the power of one's native language, it's about being a foreigner in a new country, it's about feeling like a foreigner even when you're not one, and maybe it's about how the dead are watching over us à la The Lion King. I'm sure it's about many other things too.  

 

The Paper Menagerie makes me want to hold my loved ones close and try to be kinder even when it feels impossible. 

 

The speculative aspect of the story feels secondary; I think you could tell a very similar story without it. But it adds to the feeling of nostalgia and childhood wonder. The origami animals are a physical representation of the mother-son relationship, and I do think they are important. 

 

There's a very vividly relatable feeling here of being inherently different than your peers. I'm sure most people feel this in some way or another, and I look back and know it's not really a big deal. But when you're a kid it feels like the biggest deal when you're asked questions that other people don't have to answer. And I still hit scenarios where I feel like the strange one in a group simply because I grew up a little bit different. 

 

The mother's words about feeling English in the mouth but Chinese in the heart really struck me as well. I'm close to monolingual, so I can't directly relate, but I can imagine that one language will always feel the most natural and the most like home. And the way she's treated by the only person that understands her language broke my heart. Sometimes we don't deserve our parents. 

 

This story was a hard one to read. I don't really know grief, not yet. I wonder if reading about these things will be different once I've gone through it. Maybe it will be cathartic or maybe it will be impossible.  

 

Read: September 9, 2026

Rating: ★★★★★ / 5  

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Apparently this story was originally submitted to an anthology about wizards and was rejected, and I think that's pretty funny. 

 

These 15 pages took me 2 nights and probably 2 hours total to read, but I was taking notes and honestly have rarely felt motivated to read with my eyes these days, so it felt like a great accomplishment. Be warned, this one is a bit emotionally manipulative. I'm a crier, so I cried. 

 

Shout out to Harvard Book Store for this cool event. I hope to finish the rest of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, and maybe I'll pick up The Passing of the Dragon one day as well. 

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Diaspora stories can be so varied, but they all hit hard, and many of the themes are universal. I just started Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim, which is about a woman coming back to Korea after 20 years and meeting the version of herself that never left. I have never moved countries, but I do sometimes wonder who I would be if I grew up in my parents' home country. Even if you're not a first or second generation immigrant, the feeling of "what if" is universal. What if I chose a different major? What if I didn't lose touch with that friend? Who would I be if the world was just a little bit different? 

 

Nick (of Nick's Book Club) says Sublimation is "literally just past lives the movie but sci Fi so far." Hmm I will watch Past Lives after finishing the book. I will judge for myself. 

Not so scary movies about scary things

 

I thought I would never watch Sinners simply because it was labeled "horror." Eventually enough people told me it wasn't that scary, at least two people told me it was their favorite movie of 2025, and I found a friend to watch it with. So I watched.

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Sinners (2025) - directed by Ryan Coogler

 

I am a liker of Sinners. Big fan of the overall vibe and the music. Setting cool. Michael B x2 cool. All the other performances were good too. It also wasn’t boring (high bar). 

The build-up to the conflict was enjoyable, but I thought things became less interesting once it turned into a monster movie. If there’s a thematic explanation that ties it all together, I’m not getting it, but I genuinely want to. 

I like how Michael Smoke and Michael Stack wear different hats so I can tell them apart. Much appreciated, thank you Ryan Coogler.

 

Watched: August 23, 2026

Rating: ★★★★ / 5  

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Miscellaneous thoughts on Sinners:

 

Genuinely very entertaining story and beautiful cinematography. Setting and time period are brought to life really well. 

 

Movie takes its time to set up some interesting character dynamics, but the second half derails that progress. Ideally, the character stories would grow along with the plot, but I don't think that's done in a satisfying way here. I often use Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as an extreme example of this: a setup that brings up a lot of interesting questions and an explosive ending that answers none of them. 

 

I feel like the female characters are fleshed out well in some respects and not in others. Don't know how to elaborate over text or if I should try. I understand what the movie is going for, but it feels a little bit off to me. 

 

So many big movies these days are part of a franchises or are based on other media, so I appreciate this being an original screenplay a lot.

 

That one scene that everyone talks about is good. 

 

Low-key wanted/expected this movie to have a time jump or some time travel. Me and my want of sci-fi 😫

 

First movie started and finished on *my* TV. Shout out to Sandesh.  

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My blog is five movies behind again, so I have many choices of what to write about next. Keeping with the monster movie theme, let's talk about Jaws. 

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Jaws (1975) - directed by Steven Spielberg

 

Not the first time I’ve rated a movie I barely watched, but I don’t usually feel this guilty about it. Next time I go to Coolidge Corner I will eat less pasta and more popcorn 🫠 had one of the most relaxing naps of my life while this beach was being terrorized. 

It was a fun watch, you know, while I was conscious. It had a good script, a bunch of amusing moments. I liked the three main dudes, even if I could not understand a word one of em said. And I think that shark was nice n menacing, even if this movie is unfair shark slander. 

I liked the first two thirds more than the last act on the boat (though ironically, I was the most awake at the end). Brody dealing with the dumbasses that won’t close the beach was pretty good. The last part felt very Old Man and the Sea for some obvious reasons (not a bad thing, just observing).

Ugh I wanna watch it again right now. Hope Jaws and I will get to have a rematch soon, and I think this rating can only go up.

 

Watched: September 7, 2026

Rating: ★★★★ / 5  

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Once again, I enjoyed the Coolidge Corner Theatre experience a lot. "You're gonna need a bigger boat" got big claps. 

One parallel I've noticed between my thoughts on these two movies: I like both first halves better, when the movie is more focused on build-up and people. Once the movies starts focusing on strategizing and actually killing the monster(s), it sometimes feels less personal to me. In the same vein, I'm not super into fight scenes either. All important data for making The Ultimate Pratima Movie. 

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Post written while trying to explain HTML to a ten year old. Hope you enjoy.  

Chai (Pratima style)

 

There are many topics I want to write about, like vampires and immigration stories and how the world is very small sometimes. But today I write about food. 

I went to Momma's Grocery + Wine in Cambridge on a whim one night after seeing this post, because I wasn't able to stop thinking about maple soft serve. Maple creemees (as they are often called) are a Vermont staple, and I don't live in Vermont and thus can't judge the quality, but Momma's soft serve is good enough that I will be waiting in line for it again. Probably soon. Recommend. In addition to soft serve, they're a small specialty grocery store. I bought a frozen Vermont pizza, because I overheard people in line discussing them. Easily influenced, I am. 

This weekend I waited in line for Bagelsaurus, also in Cambridge. They had sold out of everything bagels by the time I got in. How early must one show up for everything bagel? The food was good. Will I wait in line again? Maybe. But I don't think it was as life-changing as my soft serve. The bagels must be pretty good though, because I once had a bagel snob friend, and even she approved of Bagelsaurus. They have a very good logo; I am a fan. 

Whenever I have weekday off, I often find myself in Brookline at Clear Flour Bread. Combination of a great bread reputation and a very small indoor space means there's always a line out the door. I waited patiently to buy focaccia (only available Monday-Wednesday), and I made myself few sammiches out of it. It was a beautiful day, and it made me wish I lived in Allston/Brookline within walking distance of the bakery. It made me wish I ate more bread. Maybe I would if I lived there, but I am just one girl and loaves are big. 

I'm famously anti-waiting-in-line, but that reputation might soon fade. Sometimes there's good food on the other side of the line. Are there other places to buy focaccia? Maybe probably, but I don't know them. 

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I wrote out a recipe today for my good friend, and I don't just want it to live on my phone, so I will post for my other good friends.

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Ingredients: 

Water 
Milk 
Tea leaves – standard loose-leaf black tea, but people like this brand
Cardamom 
Ginger
Sugar

 

Tools:

Pot. 

Spoon, maybe multiple. I don't need to explain spoons, do I? Material depends on your tolerance for microplastics. 

Strainer.

Mugs. 

Grater. Handheld graters or zesters are probably easiest. 

Notes:
For 3 cups chai, about 1 cup milk and 2 cups water. Ratio is flexible; I often use more milk than this. But 2:1 water to milk is a good starting point. 

Tea leaves: ~1 teaspoon per cup of chai (one flat-ish spoonful of a regular plastic spoon; I think that's a teaspoon).

Cardamom: 1 cardamom pod per cup of chai. I break open the pod and put the whole thing in the water. Crushing the cardamom might yield better results (but lazy). Green cardamom, not black. 

Ginger: a little bit?? Cut a thin slice of ginger and grate it. For more cups, use more. Science.

Sugar: I use 1-2 tsp Sugar In The Raw (for one cup chai), but white sugar is not as sweet, so you might need a little more – taste and adjust, my friends.

 

Vanilla/cinnamon/star anise/cloves are all additions you could try and see if you like. I am anti-cinnamon. I am pro-vanilla sometimes. 

I often use saffron (1 strand is enough for multiple cups), but it’s expensive and might not make sense to buy just for this. 

Instructions: 
1. Add water and ginger and cardamom to pot on stove (no milk yet). Use low heat, but you can increase it if you get impatient. 

2. Once you start to see a bunch of small bubbles at the bottom of the pot, add tea leaves (this might depend on your stove, but basically once it’s starting to boil) – stir once or twice.

3. Microwave milk. (45-90 seconds based on amount of milk, 90 seconds is probably good for 1 cup)

4. Once water is bubbling faster (bubbles at the top of the water movin' around), add the warm milk and stir 1-2 times. (You can add sugar now or you can add it to each cup at the end, depends on whether everybody wants the same amount of sweet) 

5. Now we wait until milk boils over – turn off heat to prevent a mess once it starts to rise. (If you have a dumb electric stove like me, you have to move the pot; I assume you know, that but mentioning anyway) 

6. Strain the tea into mugs.

7. Chai time. 

This is the only thing I can make without a recipe, so I promise it's easy. 

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I feel like I'm over-explaining simple things, but I don't cook much, so this is the level of detail I need. Everybody makes chai a little differently; even the cardamom and ginger are optional. You'll probably find many many recipes online. This is mine. 

Light from Uncommon Stars ✨

 

For the first time in my life, I have my very own HBO Max subscription. I've been watching Heated Rivalry which has been fine and good. But what has not been fine or good are the stupid gambling app ads on HBO. With all the money these apps are paying to be shown during an episode, maybe they could consider paying more than 2 dollars to find a person that can act. Possibly another 2 dollars to find a HUMAN to write a less moronic script. Noo 4 dollars is too much, you're right. I can sit through a regular commercial, but these probably-mostly-AI ads are really pissing me off. 

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I have much food in my fridge and on my counter. It's a weird feeling. 

 

Sorry, gimme a second to recalibrate. It's been a while since I've written about a book. 

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Light from Uncommon Stars (2021) by Ryka Aoki

 

Light from Uncommon Stars follows a trans girl that runs away from home, a violin teacher who has made a deal with the devil, an alien captain fleeing a war... and some yummy donuts. Personally I'm just happy that a book with this premise exists at all. 

 

The intersection between sci-fi and the Faustian bargain was goofy, but it worked perfectly with the tone of the story.  I loved the disparate elements at play and the tropes that bend as a result.  

 

It wasn't the most engaging read, and sometimes it felt a bit too saccharine for me, but it did move me in some ways. The plot itself is not something I'll look back on, but I'll remember how some of the passages made me feel. At times it's poetic, and I admire it like a piece of art even if it's not my favorite thing ever. 

 

Light from Uncommon Stars feels like a warm hug despite dealing with a lot of serious subjects. If you've ever needed reassurance that everything is going to be okay, read this book.  

 

I also think this book will speak to people who are really passionate about music. Or who are passionate about music in the same way that Ryka Aoki presumably is passionate about music. Maybe it does have the power to save lives. 

 

Read: August 27, 2026

Rating: ★★★½ / 5  

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Tonight I go to Coolidge Corner. Tonight I watch a movie about a shark. Tonight I eat pasta. 

 

My name Pratima. Your Name?

 

Sometimes life gives you a friend that lets you borrow an entire Steam Deck™, and sometimes you hold the Steam Deck™ hostage for many weeks as you make  very  slow  progress  on a game about an ex-superhero and his first corporate job (💕). I have been playing Dispatch, and I like it so far at 57% of the way through. Big claps to Aaron Paul for playing somebody other than Jesse Pinkman. I really wish I could romance the bat man, but we can't always get what we want. 

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half alive announced a tour. Happy news. 

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I haven't been big on karaoke since I was a wee lad; I thought I left that life behind. But take a girl to karaoke and tell her she has a nice voice and the mic will probably not leave her hand for the rest of the night. This is what I learned. Have a list in my phone of songs-for-next-time.

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Your Name. (2016) - directed by Makoto Shinkai

 

why movie so good, question 🥺

 

Watched: August 19, 2026

Rating: ★★★★★ / 5  

 

 

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Friends, I really liked Your Name. I've been torn between wanting to write about it before I forget things and being nervous that I won't be able to find the words.

I didn't know anything about this movie going in, not the basic premise, not the genre, and nothing about the characters. And honestly, I did that by accident. Someone recommended it to me a long time ago (2025), and I said, "okay, I will watch" without doing any further research than that. It might be the first movie I ever added to my Letterboxd watchlist, and this is evidence that that list is not just a black hole for movies to disappear into. I watched. You should also watch simply because I say so. That's it, post over. 

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My only reference for Japanese animated movies is Studio Ghibli, and I haven't watched a wide variety of those either. The Ghibli movies I've seen are beautiful and cute and whimsical, and I enjoy them. I expected Your Name to be a quiet movie. A beautiful movie. I expected the music to be good. I expected nice visuals. I expected to think it was stunning, and I expected to sob, but I also expected to be a tiny bit bored. 

Your Name is all of the above, except it's not quiet (not particularly loud though) and it's certainly not boring. The movie starts with two teenagers who begin to swap bodies, and that's not even a trope I usually like, but it's engaging and pretty funny and kept me invested while building towards something more. The movie bends your mind a little in a fun way without feeling intentionally trippy or pretentious. It has a cool concept while also being emotionally moving. It was poetic and also a bit silly. It's not an easy balance to strike, but it worked for me. 

This is a story about love above all else. It probably can be interpreted as a romance, but the platonic love and care I felt between these two characters is what moved me the most. (It's something I appreciate about PHM as well. If I find enough connections between movies I like, maybe one day somebody can make The Ultimate Pratima Movie.)

Your Name could've easily felt like an emotionally manipulative movie to me, like it's intentionally trying to evoke an emotional reaction that it doesn't deserve. But the part that actually made me cry was not too over the top at all. I just wanted these two characters to get to be friends so bad. 

There are many ways this movie could have ended, and I probably would have been happy with any of them. It's about the journey. The Climb™. 

A lot of my excitement might just be due to this being my first watch. The element of surprise is a wonderful thing. But the way everything fits together made my brain really happy. You can nitpick about logistics, but I never felt like I had to. I think there's enough here that a rewatch would still be enjoyable, just different. 

I appreciate the accurate depiction of the fleeting feeling of a dream. It's so universal, but I've never thought about putting it into words.  

It was neat to see Japan onscreen shortly after visiting. The ever present vending machines and shrines felt so familiar to me. The Japanese countryside depicted is beautiful. I saw the Tokyo trains, and I was like: whoa I've been there <insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme>. 

I'll be recommending this one to a lot of people :) 

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Your Name was in theaters for its 10th anniversary in August, which is what moved me to go watch. The Big screen was a good choice; I am a Big fan. 

Now the least-recently-added movie on my watchlist is The Fast and the Furious. That was also playing in theaters recently for its 25th anniversary, but I'm not watching it. Not yet. 

Refreshing and Hoppers

 

1. Continuously opening this product page and adding the item to my cart dozens of times only to see pictures of Amazon dogs and fake apologies. 

 

2. Bought the regular Blu-ray. Yeah, I know. 

 

3. Waffling between wanting to invite people for chai and persistent discomfort at the idea of being a host. 

 

4. Ethernet 😐 

 

5. Need reasons to use my cool new pen. 

 

6. Learned how to copy and paste on Mac using a non-Mac keyboard. Somebody told me today; I'd somehow never bothered to Google it.  

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Haven't watched a movie on a plane in a minute, but I decided to spend some of the nicest flight of my life (for the foreseeable future) watching Hoppers!

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Hoppers (2026) - directed by Daniel Chong

 

The first creepy beaver horror film I’ve seen, so it’s automatically #1 in that category. Ridiculous movie (I say with love). 

🦫🪵🥔❤️

 

Watched: July 26, 2026

Rating: ★★★★ / 5  

 

 

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Hopper's is about a girl (Mabel) that stumbles upon an unexpected solution to repopulate an abandoned nature-y area. 

 

I could not believe what I was watching throughout the whole movie. It's probably not the wackiest movie ever made, but whenever I have the instinct to call something too weird to exist, it usually means it's pretty good in my book. See: my Breakfast of Champions review.  I also feel this way about some pre-blog stuff like The Spear Cuts Through Water and Dungeon Crawler Carl—all for very different reasons. 

 

And despite this movie being totally bonkers, it did some successful emotional manipulation on me. I was crying at the 15 minute and 57 minute and 89 minute mark at least. I miss Grandma, and I just wanted Mabel to be able to save their special spot.  

 

I can't think about Hoppers without smiling. I'm glad Pixar continues to make good stuff even if my finger is off the pulse. 

 

Mild spoilers: The premise is not at all rooted in reality, but I still couldn't help finding it hard to suspend disbelief at moments. Why was it so easy to reverse engineer technology that must've taken many years to develop? Why does a mammal king have non-mammal subjects? The flying shark was totally fine though (Diane's actually really nice!); I loved it. 

 

🦎  

Proof that I don't have beef with Christopher Nolan

 

Starting to write this while cooking dinner 🤯. Made Japanese curry a few days ago using curry blocks I bought from... Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, Ohio. Today I have a lot of potatoes leftover, so I'm making *something* else. I suppose cooking is a sign that I'm finally settling into this apartment. I even have a TV, and it's not even on the floor anymore. Today I had a guest. Big moves are being made here. New furniture has been acquired. 

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I think the Coolidge Corner Theater is a mighty cool place. It's an independent theater in Brookline that screens both new releases and a lot of older movies (I also attended an author event there earlier this year). Lately I've been kinda enamored by the prospect of watching more movies there, maybe because it seems like a nice community activity and a good excuse to get out of the house. They've been occasionally screening classic Bollywood movies, which is what I was originally looking to watch, but I was excited to see The Dark Knight on their list for July. 

 

Of The Dark Knight Trilogy, somehow The Dark Knight is the only movie I never watched growing up. I rewatched Batman Begins back in November fully intending to continue the series soon after, but I just never got around to it. Making the time to watch a 2-3 hour movie at home was such a daunting task that I paid $19 to watch at a scheduled time and place instead. 

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The Dark Knight (2008) - directed by Christopher Nolan

 

Please don’t ask me any questions about the movie. All of these stars are for Heath Ledger as The Joker. Every scene with The Joker was better than every scene without him, and the opening scene is a new favorite of mine. I love a good demolitions expert. 

I needed some goddamn subtitles, though. Imagine how much I might like this movie if I actually understood what people were saying 🙂‍↕️ I bet Alfred had some banger lines that I wasn’t able to hear.

The Dark Knight is the origin of so many iconic quotes, and I didn’t knowww. SOME MEN JUST WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN. 

Anticlimactic Harvey Dent. I wish there was no casting change for Rachel. All the car chase scenes and the kabooms blur together at this point.

Watched at Coolidge Corner Theater in 35 mm. The projector died three times in a row which really added to the authenticity of the experience. Very fun to watch with a big audience, and we all clapped at the end. 

🃏

 

Watched: July 1, 2026

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5  

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I actually did have a lot of trouble hearing the dialogue during this movie, and I think it's partially a Christopher Nolan thing, but could also be because I watched it on film and/or the problem lies with Coolidge Corner Theater itself. 

 

I've always preferred superhero origin stories to any other superhero media, and in that sense, the actual Batman stuff did not speak to me as much as Batman Begins. Superhero romance has also not been great for me recently between Sam Raimi Spider-Man and Nolan Batman (the romances in these movies are so blehh—might be the only reason to watch Brand New Day), but my excitement to see these iconic villains and famous quotes and some individual scenes made up for that. 

Maybe one day I'll finish the trilogy by rewatching The Dark Knight Rises and you'll see another post with the finishing-a-series tag. It's on my list, but I wouldn't hold your breath. 

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Side note: I've got a theory that Chris Nolan is a big fan of my favorite 1999 teen rom-com, as Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and David Krumholtz have all made appearances in his movies since. Patiently waiting for Julia Stiles to star in the next one🧍. 

This post is gonna get eaten by LLMs + some movies that were ehhh

 

A few things wrong with my life right now:

1. The bots have found this blog. Two thirds of my page views from the last 2 days have been from a very long list of countries that I don't know anybody from. I don't like it one bit. Why r they creepin' on my blog? If you start seeing AI-generated reviews on the internet saying something along the lines of "this movie was mostly cool cool cool but I needed a snack real bad so I didn't like it," uhh that's probably my fault, sorry. 

2. Pokémon Go relapse. I was in the Pokémon country. I felt obligated to catch 'em all. And here I am, back in the US but still in my PoGo state of mind. I can't stop won't stop catchin'. Help. Me. 

3. Rabbits. Can't elaborate at the moment, but I am sad. 

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I watched Project Hail Mary for the fourth time over the weekend. One of my friends still hadn't watched it, so I took matters into my own hands. She gave it a ★★★★ / 5, but don't worry, we're still on speaking terms. 

This was my first time watching PHM outside theaters. We chatted while watching. I could get up to go to the bathroom without annoying everybody in the vicinity. I had the freedom to fall asleep, because I had seen *almost* every scene 3 times. I'm glad I got to see it on the big screen, because I love the visuals and I love being surrounded by the music, and it didn't quite hit the same way this time. But it was also nice to watch in a casual setting. 

If I had the ability to take a break in the middle of The Odyssey, I'm pretty sure I would've been much less cranky about it in the days after I watched. Maybe in ten or twenty years I can try rewatching at my own pace. 

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Power Ballad (2026) - directed by John Carney

 

Having the entire premise centered on one incredible hit song is tough when the song is incredibly okay. It’s no “Golden” is what I’ll say.

Good movie to watch if you’re out of brain cells, but even I had too many cells for this one. I laughed, I had a fine time, and I will never think about this ever again.

 

Watched: June 14, 2026

Rating: ★★½ / 5  

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I learned of Power Ballad's existence the day I went to the theater for Michael and have not heard a thing about it since I watched. It's very much an airplane movie. I would happily watch it on a couch while yapping the entire time, but it was not worth watching in theaters (I say having paid zero dollars). Entertaining but aggressively forgettable. 

 

I thought this was gonna be a nice movie about music friendship, but it was not. I thought Nick Jonas was gonna be a nice guy, but he was not. Paul Rudd had a similar misunderstanding. Also, THE song only had one line repeated over and over; I thought I was gonna go insane. 

 

I hear this director makes a lotta music movies. Idk if I will watch any more of them.  

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Supergirl (2026) - directed by Craig Gillespie

 

Not as good as Superman :( but still a good vibe sometimes. I like the beginning, but the movie doesn’t keep that same tone throughout, and it wasn’t super memorable overall. 

Best character was out of commission for most of it. Watching Kara save her damsel in distress over and over got boring. The villains didn’t seem like that big a deal, and I wish Jason Momoa had more to do. Milly good.

 

Watched: June 29, 2026

Rating: ★★½ / 5  

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I wanted to like this so bad, and I had hope(?) that all the haters were just sexist. Female superhero movies are pretty disproportionately hated on, and a bit of that probably exists here too, but yeah this movie just wasn't that strong. 

 

Superman was a bit wacky while still feeling grounded. Supergirl takes place entirely on different planets and doesn't seem consequential as a result. It felt a bit like a wild goose chase through space, and space wasn't even that interesting. It doesn't use any characters we know already except very brief moments with Superman. Supergirl also lacks an interesting villain. This movie needed its own Nicholas Hoult. 

 

I also just don't really like the premise. I would've liked Krypto to be a more prominent feature, but the entire story is about saving him. Oh and also, Kara has a spunky young girl to take care of (the aforementioned "damsel in distress"). It's just really trope-y but not in a fun way. The contents of the flashbacks were interesting, but they didn't really seem to fit the rest of the movie. 

 

Supergirl seemed like it was going to be a fun romp, but that tone only comes through sporadically throughout the movie. Those were my favorite bits. I'm sure there's a way to make angsty, grieving girl and fun romp coexist, but I don't think it was successful here. 

 

I know the movie is loosely based on the comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and I am still interested in reading that. It seems like big fans of the comic were even more disappointed in this movie than average. Maybe the premise is executed better in comic form. It also seems like there are aspects of the comic that are hard to adapt, and I'd be interested in judging for myself. 

 

I think I liked Milly Alcock's performance, but I'm not sure if she was good or if she was just more interesting than everybody else. Not a lot of notable characters/actors to choose from here. 

 

It's also interesting that Jason Momoa seemed like a big deal in the marketing, but his character is pretty inconsequential. It makes sense that he's mostly an Easter egg as Lobo doesn't appear in the comic at all.  

 

I paid zero dollars to watch this movie too. Who needs AMC A-List when you have friends like these? 

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It's interesting trying to write about movies I watched back in June. I had a surprising amount of things to say about Supergirl considering I only had two sentences of notes. 

 

I'm trying real hard to catch up; I'm only two movies behind now, but I keep watching them 😖 Somebody please tell Pratima to read a damn book. 

I wonder if he's related to my good friend Percy Jackson

 

I never intended this blog to have so many movie reviews, but turns out watching a whole movie is slightly easier than reading a whole book. I hope to have other things to write about soon. Like my three new umbrellas. Or my three and a half new pairs of socks. 

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Michael (2026) - directed by Antoine Fuqua

 

This movie is how I know I’m not qualified to be a Rotten Tomatoes critic, since I’d give this a 🍅🍅🍅🍅 I’m so biased towards feel-good content. 

The story itself is nothing to write home about; it feels so anticlimactic and unfinished. But what it lacks in structure, it makes up for in style. The music and the visuals and the giraffe and the outfits made me happy. Michael has many good jackets, and one thing about me is that I’m a fan of jackets. 

They left out my favorite song 😫 how will I know if Annie is okay??

 

Watched: June 3, 2026

Rating: ★★★★ / 5  

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I remember seeing the Michael trailer and having no interest in watching this movie. And then I saw the Rotten Tomatoes rating and had even less interest. But just look at this disparity:

It seemed like the people were having a great time and I wanted nothing more than to have a great time. So I watched. And then I listened to Michael Jackson for the next two weeks. 

Michael relies on nostalgia and its funky tunes. It's a generally inoffensive movie and it leaves off on a feel-good note, and I think that's why so many people, including me, liked it. 

But I did watch this movie with the critic rating in the back of my mind, trying to understand it. I expected the movie to feel more overtly flawed, even if I enjoyed watching it, but there was nothing egregiously wrong to me. The acting was decent. I don't know anything about cinnamon-tography but the visuals seemed nice as well. What else does movie need? I've seen movies that feel a lot messier than this one fare way better on Rotten Tomatoes (my love, Mickey 17). 

My guess (because I haven't actually read any critic reviews): instead of an overarching story, it felt more like a sequence of events strung together by great music. The movie also just ends, without anything feeling resolved. It covers only half of Michael Jackson's career and seems to hint at a sequel (perhaps that movie will be called Jackson). But it's a biopic, right? Real life is not always thematically cohesive like that. I guess a movie's job is to not only put this story on a screen, but also give it a thematic through line, and Michael really only does the former. 

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I took a bullet train recently, and it was way less interesting than Brad Pitt would have you believe. Acceleration smooth. Very impressed, but not enthralled. 

The Odyssey or something

 

Hi, I'm just going to rant for a few minutes and hope it leads to something worth posting. Thanks for reading. This is about The Odyssey (2026) btw, Christopher Nolan's latest big-deal-movie. Be wary of spoilers here. 

 

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I just don't really care. 

 

Direct quotes from Notes app: 

 

"I'm leaving the theater not having any opinions about this movie, I'm just so neutral that it's a bad thing." 

 

"I'll read the two epic poems instead."

 

"Just get a longer string."

 

I'm seeing headlines about Emily Wilson calling the movie "emotionally empty," and I can't fucking wait to read that review. 

 

To be honest, liking this movie was always going to be an uphill battle. I was already grumpy because there's exactly two theaters in the area (50 mile radius) that show the full aspect ratio, and I did not watch at one of those theaters. Why does Christopher have to make it so hard for me to watch his movie? Why can't he just be normal? Why do I have to risk tinnitus? I saw a lot of people online complaining about how loud the movie was, and I was boutta be pissed off about having to bring earbuds to a movie theater. But I forgot them, and I honestly didn't find anything egregiously loud (not even that one part—though tbh I don't remember it now). 

 

Nolan's movies are always big spectacles, at least recently. That's why people bought IMAX-4K-BIGBIGBIG-70mm tickets. What exactly am I supposed to be impressed by? His big budget? The sounds? His name is selling those tickets. So why does he have to cast the same five people I've seen in every other movie? The only question remaining: WHERE is Timothée Chalamet?

 

I wasn't very impressed by Tom Holland and only marginally more impressed by Anne Hathaway. I thought casting Zendaya as Athena was a wack choice, but I did blink and miss an important scene towards the end, sorry. I don't really understand Athena's role in this movie as a figure that stares and smiles and never says anything wise. 

 

Theoretically big spectacle -> big feelings, but I didn't feel much of anything. I don't know if the ending is accurate to the source material, but *if* it's not, I don't think Odysseus deserves that happy ending.  

 

I have once again fallen into the trap where I had too much context and too little context. Maybe knowing more about The Odyssey would have helped, because I'd appreciate changes Nolan made. Maybe knowing nothing about the source material would've helped, because then I'd be surprised by the cyclops or the pigs or the very deep knowledge to be gained by risking your life to listen to the Sirens. I don't like this version of Calypso. She's boring. 

 

I just want to like one☝️ film bro movie. Is that too much to ask? Maybe The Dark Knight was my quota for the next few months. 
 
I did nod off several times during this 10 AM showing, and learning about certain details after the fact that I SWEAR I was awake for makes me feel like my media literacy skills are in the toilet. I'm bad at watching movies sometimes, and I honestly feel really stupid when a lot of thematic stuff goes over my head. And it means I can't tell people that love this movie that they're wrong with any authority at all. But it's okay, I don't care I don't care I don't care. 
 
I really did try my hardest to pay attention. I even got a captioning device from the theater, because goddammit I was going to understand this movie better than Oppenheimer. I was so prepared, and I still couldn't keep my eyes open. It was also cold in the theater, and this was the one day I decided not to bring a jacket grrrrr. 
 
I'm gonna get excommunicated from my book club if I continue this.  

 

Things I like:

 

The Hades scene. Those spirits were drinking blood just like they do in Percy Jackson. 

 

I had my doubts about casting Matt Damon as Odysseus, but his performance was the highlight of this movie for me, way moreso than the other big name actors (they're classified as big-name if I recognize them). I liked Odysseus's dynamic with his crew a lot. His pride is clearly shown, but it doesn't stop you from rooting for him to get home. 

 

I'm literally going to give this movie a 3.5/5 which is not even a bad rating. It's good. I'm just grumpy, because it's not that good. 

 

You'll probably like this if you like movies. 

 

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I used this momentum and just went ahead and posted a Letterboxd review too. I tried to condense things a bit, and I tried to be nicer. Hopefully it's a less messy version than what I wrote above while still being accurate. 

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What exactly am I supposed to be so impressed by? The big budget? The sounds? The same three or four actors that are all the rage this year? The only person missing is Timothée Chalamet. 
 
I wouldn't even complain about casting if it was good (I might). Tom Holland was whatever. Zendaya might have been okay if she was playing anybody other than Athena. Anne Hathaway and Pattinson were fine. They were fine. I had my doubts about Matt Damon when he was announced as Odysseus, but his performance (and his dynamic with his men) was definitely the highlight for me.
 
I think I fell into a trap where I had too much context and too little context for the original story. I wish I knew enough about the Iliad/Odyssey to appreciate changes made by Nolan. Or maybe I should have gone in blind so I could be like: omg I wonder who Odysseus is going to meet next! Maybe this island will be full of friends! Omg a guy with one eye?? I don't like this version of Calypso. I think she's boring, and the framing of the story didn't do much for me. 
 
Liking this movie was always going to be an uphill battle. I was already grumpy because there's exactly two theaters in the area that show the full aspect ratio, and I did not watch at one of those theaters. Why does Christopher have to make it so hard for me to watch his movie? Why do I have to risk tinnitus? Why can't he just be normal??
 
I did not stay awake during the whole thing, sorry. I really tried my best with this one; I even got a caption device bc goddammit I was gonna understand this movie way better than I understood the jumble of words that was Oppenheimer. But no, it was nap time (10AM). 
 
I like the Hades scene a lot. It was memorable and it was cool. It's just like Percy Jackson.
 
The things in bold are things I liked. The movie was fine; I just think people like it too much, and I wish I cared about something.

 

Watched: August 2, 2026

Rating: ★★★½ / 5

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 Watch this instead:

 

 

Young the Giant kinda amazing

 

I've officially become a person that thinks about work at night and on the weekends, and it's not a fun place to be. "I've got so many things to do that I can't do any of them" has been my phrase of choice lately. I'm traveling tomorrow, and while I will bring my (personal) laptop with me, I don't think many blog posts are going to get written. So before I disappear for a few weeks again, let me tell you about Young the Giant, because Sameer deserves it. 

 

As dedicated followers of this page may know, I recently went to a concert featuring a different artist with a GIANT name. I really thought two concerts in a month might be overkill and I had reached my quota. Too many concerts. Too many giants. I really need to learn to spend time at HOME, I thought. But just five or six days in advance, I invited a friend and decided to go go go, and I'm very happy with how things turned out. 

 

The event was on June 20th in the Seaport District in Boston. Young the Giant (a music artist, if that wasn't clear) was the headliner, and the two openers were almost monday and Cold War Kids. 

 

In the last 1.5 years, I've gone to a lot of concerts at smaller venues that are mostly general admission/standing room only. This was an open air pavilion and it was entirely assigned seating, so it was a little bit jarring to me to see the openers singing in broad daylight with the audience sitting down for the most part. The crowd was also older than I was accustomed to. Just observations. 

 

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almost monday: I really liked the vibe of this performance. Very chill and mostly upbeat indie rock. They're touring again later this year, and I am planning to attend that show. You can come too. Here, listen to their most played song, can't slow down.

 

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Cold War Kids: I like some of their songs when they're playing in my car, but I just didn't really think much of this performance. I think the mismatch between the semi-unenthusiastic crowd and this band that took themselves a little too seriously felt weird to me. I will say, the lead vocalist, Nathan Willett, seems genuinely very talented. That man was SINGING, and then he started playing piano, and then I was like: whoa very impressed. I bet the other band members are also talented, but I have sung and I have played piano (not successfully at the same time though), so I will speak about what I know. Most notable song of theirs is called First, in case you have interest. 

 

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Young the Giant: About 2.5 hours after the event started when it was nice and dark, it was finally time for the headliner. At this point, everybody was standing, because these were the guys that they all came for (except for one person I met that flew two hours specifically for almost monday, but I bet he's the exception). 

 

This was a super choreographed show. They played a lot of songs, spent very little time talking, and there was a lot of smoke and fog and lights and camera and action. It didn't feel personal, but it did feel kinda epic. Sameer Gadhia (the lead singer) onstage literally looks the same as he does in all the Instagram ads for this show/album. There have been a few occasions where I feel like bands are just cosplaying rock stars and the performance doesn't match the vibe of the crowd, but Sameer genuinely seemed so cool, and he made me feel like I could be a rock star too. 

 

I like a handful of Young the Giant songs—that's why I went to the show. But I was surprised at how much more I liked hearing them live. I remembered that sometimes I really like music, and I really liked this music. Being around a bunch of fans was good energy too. 

 

Cough Syrup and Mind Over Matter are their most popular songs, and I enjoy both very much. 

 

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Over the weekend, I went to Bits & Bites in Saugus, MA: a Filipino bakery with many baked goods and drinks and a whole lot of Filipino food I can't eat. I want to go back there so baddd; I liked it. It took me until now to realize that it has a nerdy name, and that's the reason why I keep almost typing "bytes" into Google Maps when I search. I'm not the nerd; it's the bakery's fault. 

 

I also went to the Cheesecake Factory, but they don't need my free advertising.  

May 2026 in movies finale (Post #5 out of 5)

 

Ten Things I Hate About You (1999) - directed by Gil Junger - is a high-school romantic comedy based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. I would like to thank Shakespeare for being the inspiration for this movie that I like very much. He's a talented guy who deserves some recognition. 

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I finished the month of May by rewatching another favorite movie. I enjoy romantic comedies a lot, and I've watched a lot of teen rom-coms in particular, but there are a lot of crappy ones out there. It's very much a guilty pleasure; movies that I know are pretty bad, but some part of them makes me feel good, so I keep watching. 

At the same time, it's hard for a rom-com to stand out. I'm picky about them, because they only really need a few things:

1. Two leads with CHEMISTRY🧑‍🔬, and I want to know why they like each other beyond: hot 🥵

2. A logical plot. Don't make me feel like Spock. Maybe teen rom-coms are meant to make as little sense as teenagers do, but I made sense as a teenager (don't ask my mom to confirm). 

3. Be at least a little funny 🤏

 

Apparently, these three tasks are very difficult to accomplish.  

 

When it comes to English-language rom-coms in particular, there are not a lot of movies I can point at and say: that was actually really good, would recommend. But I love Ten Things I Hate About You. I think it's a good movie, it's well-paced, and it only makes me cringe once. Therefore it is the natural recommendation to friends that don't watch a lot of rom-coms. And in order to make sure it gets watched, I sit myself down on other people's couches and watch with them. 

 

The last four times I watched this movie have followed that same pattern. 

 

I'm not sure exactly what it is about Ten Things that has made it one of the more memorable rom-coms of my life and the one I want to share with everybody. Some possible reasons: I love the cast, and I actually understand why someone would fall in love with Kat Stratford. I understand why she would fall for The Joker too (I just want to understand things 😩). I like that things never feel too melodramatic or over the top. It's a chill movie for a chill Pratima. 

This movie was my introduction to Joseph Gordon Levitt, and he will always be Cameron to me, no matter how many Nolan movies he stars in. 

I re-realize every time I watch that there are a disproportionate amount of sexual jokes in here. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ They're funny. The gynecologist dad was a standout of this particular watch. I love that man; he's so good. 

I don't think Ten Things is perfect. It borders on being a bit too low-key, and it brushes past some parts of the conflict. But it makes me feel good every time I watch, and it's mature enough that I don't feel like I'm losing brain cells.

If you're intrigued by this rom-com but don't know when you'll get around to watching, never fear, Pratima is here! I will watch it with you, and we will have a good time. 

Rewatched on: May 31, 2026

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5

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I drove two hours and twenty-three minutes to eat pancakes in New Hampshire last weekend, because somebody (Ranjani) told me it was a nice place. It was going to be my birthday activity and that plan was derailed, but the silver lining is that I had two passengers come along. I ENJOYED my time at Polly's Pancake Parlor, and I would in fact wait 53 minutes to be seated once again. But that's just me. 

The drive up to Franconia, NH is so pretty, and I look forward to doing it again in October when the fall colors are at their peak. We did a short (but not tooo easy) hike at Artists Bluff, and I will go back and complete the 1.5 mile loop next time. 

The next day I did a much more local and much more low-key hike-walk at Mainstone Farm. We saw frogs! I also found myself at another concert, but that deserves a longer post. 

Last week I played badminton, which was good, and I ate a strawberry peach tart, which was GOOD. 

Bye for now. It's time to play Dispatch.