Kim's Video is one of the more interesting docs in some time. A tribute to cinephile love and VHS, it starts off as a way to see the beauty of New York's East Village, the underground films and music and the 80s, but then it shows that the store owner had a mysterious and possible criminal life and from that it goes truly insane. I wish it had dealt more with the store & tapes, but you couldn't tell this tale without this real story.
Luca Guadagnino is an interesting filmmaker, pretentious but interesting. His last three i have all enjoyed in some way, but now Challengers is out and well.....it is indeed interesting in that Zendaya is great but it oozes pretention so much to the point where the film feels like an SNL skit. The time jumps are disorienting, the love triangle feels forced and not nearly developed enough. It feels like a film people will see and think is provocative and deep but it just is style over substance.
Alex Garland is truly a master filmmaker. Every film of his has been hard hitting and viscerally fucked up, but Civil War is his most intense. The four leads are all excellent here, the action & choreography is top notch, so much of it reminded me of Children of Men. The film drops you in the middle of a truly divided U.S. and doesn't give much back story, and i loved that it said fuck exposition, we follow our leads and we see their journey not just as characters but as people. We see how war can soften & harden individuals, how obsessive people become for their art. and just how plain scary human beings truly are as a whole.
Snack Shack is a charming coming of age movie that is brutally honest about friendship & relationships. It tugs at the heart strings at times, feels raw like a 90s indie, and that has nothing to do with the decade it is set in, and feels comforting & real throughout, even in it's bleakness. Being shot in Nebraska City it is oddly one of the most Nebraskan films out there, so many moments i feel could be lost of non Nebraskans but that adds to the realness & rawness.
Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns. WWE Title: WrestleMania
Sami Zayn vs Gunther: IC Title: WrestleMania
Oba Femi vs Dijak vs Josh Briggs: North American Title: Stand & Deliver
Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins: World Title: WrestleMania
Trick Williams vs Ilja Dragunov: NXT Title
Trick Williams vs Carmelo Hayes: Stand & Deliver
Trick Williams vs Carmelo Hayes: Steel Cage:NXT
WolfDogs vs Nathan Frazer & Axiom: NXT Tag Titles: Stand & Deliver
Roxanne Perez vs Lyra Valkyria: NXT Womens title: Stand & Deliver
Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch: Womens Title: Wresltemania
Chucky season 1 had no right to be as great as it was, season 2 was a mess, but it carried enough for me to want season 3. The third season has finished and it is a mixed bag, none were as good as s1, but some were more of a cluster than s2. Sadly though this season's finale was just bland and contrived. Twists happened that we knew, which isn't a bad thing usually, but here it just felt uninspired. Great gore this season but so much of the plot and characters were so cringe.
David Leitch is consistently one of the more fun directors working. The Fall Guy is a blast, Ryan Gosling & Emily Blunt have great chemistry, and the entire cast is having fun here. It is endlessly charming with a plot that is self aware enough not to be meta but feels comforting. This is a big budget blockbuster that pays tributes to blockbusters, filmmaking, but also stunt work as a whole.
