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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