Thoughts

This is a notorious, or rather infamous, film for a number of reasons I’m about to get into. But I’ll start with this: Paul Thomas Anderson accomplished what this film wanted to be with his late 90s hit Boogie Nights (1997). PTA skillfully, and more importantly, tastefully weaves pornographic story elements with clever cinematography. Caligula is not that.

Hazy recollection of the recent week’s days. It was a full and long week of work, and I was really feeling the monotony this time around. You know you’re cooked when you show up to work and immediately start creating checkpoints for yourself. “Okay, we just gotta make it to nine o'clock”… Then, “Now, ten”…

With themes reminiscent of Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000), this film takes a comic approach to the horrors of drug abuse and addiction. It follows four friends united by opium addiction and a life of robbery and crime overall to sustain the habit. Ewan McGregor leads the cast as Renton, a soul grappling with the harsh realities of his present and (lack of) future as he fights to find a way out of the vicious cycle.

In the twilight years of his career, Mr. Kurosawa blessed us with his legendary retelling of William Shakespeare’s King Lear; Ran (1985) is a war epic surrounding a medieval Japanese warlord as he desperately seeks to retire, all by giving away his vast empire to his three sons.

This one I hold close to my heart just due to the immense weight of its emotion and how it digs its claws into your soul and carefully dissects it by the time the credits are rolling. The story follows Charlie, a young high schooler who doesn’t have any friends and is simultaneously dealing with some harsh personal trauma. What strikes me about this film is the direction by Chbosky, who clearly had a vision for this novel coming to life prior to his making it.

This is Spike Lee at the absolute top of his game, weaving cinematic spectacle with hard-hitting rhetorical questions about the consequences of America’s greatest sin. The opening scenes are almost a celebration of many films before it, before quickly devolving into the horrors Malcolm would experience, leading to the tumultuous and eventually life-taking journey of religious and spiritual, and moreover, societal acceptance.

I started with the brand-new release on MAX that is Companion (2025), starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid in the lead roles. This is a black comedy, horror, thriller film that delves into the world of artificial intelligence and how our relationship with it is likely to evolve.

“So, what? No fuckin’ tariffs?” – Anthony Soprano Jr., probably. I'm kidding around, But I can’t help but give a quick perspective on the absurdity of the Trump administration over the last few weeks as the American markets have plummeted and then shot back up and ducked again.