#2019 Reviews

[lunarhobbits]

i feel like it's important that everyone know that quinton reviews did NOT make a 38 hour video on The Beverly Hillbillies.

quinton reviews's DAD made a 38 hour video on The Beverly Hillbillies seasons 1-3 (out of 9), Petticoat Junction seasons 1 and 2 (out of 7), related episodes of Mr. Ed, and the radio program Granby's Green Acres.

he hasn't even touched the henningverse media that's in color yet.

[velvetjune]

can’t stop thinking about that book club in control where everyone’s reviews were about a seemingly different plot entirely and predicted how they would die in the actual game. actually incredible to piece together while playing and inherently a little funny. haunted book

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

utterly obsessed with this midsommar review

[superectojazzmage]

Joker: Folie a Deux has got to be one of the funniest fucking things to happen in cinema in years.

Cuz, like, I remember clear as rain how back when the first movie came out there was all that hilariously transparent melodrama where the mainstream media was hyping it up as the most controversial, firebrand thing ever. Just visibly salivating at the thought of it inspiring some nebulous network of Joker-worshiping racist incels into destroying the country in a Random White Guy Event that they could make sensationalistic, ratings-soaking headlines about. And obviously that didn't actually happen because it was literally the media equivalent of making up a guy to be mad about.

And than you fastforward to this movie and it's obvious that Todd Phillips totally bought into the media scaremongering about his own damn movie, so Folie a Deux is basically him making some kind of "takedown" of these Joker Chaos Agents that at best consist of a hundred losers on Reddit and Twitter plus their bot followers, at worst is functionally nonexistent. Ranting and screaming about and "deconstructing" these nobodies that only clickbait writers and their brainwashed fans care about. Writing a movie that really amounts to him crying and pissing his pants about how he was "forced" to make a comic book movie and woe is he.

And in the process he's pretty much blowing up his own reputation and that of the previous film by not only putting his contempt for basically everybody - from his bosses to his audiences - on full display. As well as exposing how both films are pretty much completely slathered in this pathetic, unduly smug aura of "WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT THIS I AM THE ONLY ONE BRAVE ENOUGH TO SAY THIS". Y'know, the kind of thing that you see on your typical Tumblr funnyman's blog after they go political but before they get exposed as predators and flee to Twitter. And he did it all for a sequel that bombed on release.

It's such a schadenfreude.

[literatureaesthetic]

why is bookstagram the most uninspiring place on the internet

[bellshazes]

in my heart there's another probably worse universe where instead of the watchers taking off after evo, etho's writers from 404 became the highly misunderstood "i am fictionalizing and poking fun at my relationship with my audience & their perceptions of me and how i am motivated by them but not in a 1:1 cause and effect relationship and they are kind of obnoxious but i also care abt my literal audience liking what i do bc i do make stuff for youtube" fandom staple.

there's something substantial in here abt grian being SUPER particular abt things in a different but parallel way to etho (grian not watching other smp member's POVs and being open abt that bc it allows for genuine surprise, etho's like everything ever? but top of mind his old insistence against modded stuff, comment of the day, etc.) but honestly. can anyone who actually cares abt the watchers or whatever write me a 404 crossover. thats what i want

[pricelessreviews]

[askmovieslate]

I wish IMDB allowed you to vote higher than 10, honestly. You can't even do that with "This is Spinal Tap!".

"Chernobyl", what an absolutely fantastic series. From the smallest details to the widest picture, this show is excellent and treats its audience like intelligent individuals. Everyone's acting is great, every line of dialogue forwards the story, and not a single scene goes to waste.

If I were to say anything negative about it I say it's a bit short. I was left wanting more, but that's a me-problem, nothing to do with the masterful work of the filmmakers behind it.

Absolutely sublime from beginning to end. You should check it out, this is one of the greats.

[laflamejpeg]

Photo Stills From One of My Favorite Movies of All Time “Waves” (2019).

[crownedinkcomix]

Joker 2 is not about its fandom. At least not on purpose.

I agree with many of the criticisms leveled at Joker 2, and I almost didn’t bother writing this review since much of what I have to say echoes the general consensus. However, there’s one particular critique I’ve seen that I strongly disagree with: the idea that Joker 2 is a repudiation of the audience that connected with the first movie.

Many have argued that the sequel turns against those who found resonance in Arthur Fleck’s transformation into the Joker, especially as the character became a symbol in real-world political protests, much like the Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta was co-opted by Anonymous. But I believe this interpretation misses a key point that aligns with the themes of the original film.

The film becomes more engaging towards the end, particularly when Arthur’s followers reject him once he rejects the Joker persona. Some argue that this mirrors the way audiences connected with the first movie, using the Joker persona as a symbol during protests. However, this rejection of Arthur is consistent with the character’s portrayal in Joker (2019). Society didn’t care about Arthur as a person—an isolated, mentally ill individual—until he accidentally became a figurehead for a movement he never believed in. His followers, like society, only care about the Joker as a symbol, something they can project their own ideas onto.

While I don’t think Joker 2 is a strong film overall—it’s messy, and at best deserves a 2/5 rating—I do think it captures this idea well. It continues the theme that society values icons and symbols over real, complex individuals, much as the first film did.

Unfortunately, the first two-thirds of the film are a slog. The musical numbers, for example, add nothing of substance and slow the film to a crawl. I typically enjoy musicals, but Joaquin Phoenix is a poor singer, and the songs don’t advance the plot like they should in a good musical. Instead, they feel like pointless interludes. In the best musicals, songs are integral to storytelling, not interruptions.

The connections to Batman mythology, which were subtle but effective in the first Joker, feel more forced and distracting in this film. In Joker (2019), Gotham felt like Gotham, and there were enough subtle nods to Batman’s lore to justify the film's title. Here, however, it feels as though someone simply took an original screenplay and used a Find and Replace tool to rename elements: Arkham Asylum, Harvey Dent—they feel shoehorned in. Especially jarring is the fact that we're supposed to believe a character's Christian name is Harley Quinn (harlequin, get it?) in what is meant to be a world that is so grounded, I can't buy Bruce Wayne ever even grows up to be Batman in this continuity.

In the first film, even though Arthur Fleck’s story was largely inspired by Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, it still included some elements from The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns, giving it a legitimate connection to the Batman universe. The riot at the end, leading to the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, was a clever tie-in to Batman’s origin, even if it required some suspension of disbelief regarding the age difference between Bruce Wayne and this version of the Joker.

Joker 2 is ultimately a confused film that doesn’t know what it wants to say for much of its runtime. While it offers some interesting thematic continuity regarding society’s elevation of fictional personas over real people, it’s bogged down by poor pacing, weak musical numbers, and forced connections to Batman lore. While I’m glad I saw it for the final third, which genuinely resonated with me, I can’t recommend it to a general audience.

[rabnerd28]

Thought about that one post talking about how certain productions/ships/characters etc. of Cats get associated with certain fans and now I'm curious what people associate me with.

[ankle-beez]

[velvetjune]

imagine being director Northmoor of the FBC and one day you revel so much in your power that you literally explode. and instead of doing anything else about it, the FBC goes “when life gives a secret paranatural government agency lemons…” and throws your possibly-alive, moving corpse in a power plant so they don’t have to worry about their power bill. then going onwards, people only refer back to you using ominous light-based puns

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

a handful of my favourite letterboxd reviews

bonus: the iconic, the legendary, the sensational ~

[letterboxd-worth-a-damn]

[withivysfilms]

Carmilla dir. by Emily Harris (2019)

Emily Harris’ Carmilla may be a vampire ..

» Full Letterboxd review