Thoughts

The story follows Timmy Chamalet as Marty Mauser, a young Jewish man struggling to get by in early 1950s New York City as a hustling ping pong player. The opening act shows him overseas in London almost winning a major table tennis tournament, but losing embarrassingly in the final round to a stoic Japanese man with far superior skill than him.

The story follows Luke Wilson as a quite literal average Joe who gets roped into an army science experiment to be frozen, which, of course, goes wrong. He wakes up five hundred years later, as everyone has become insanely dumb through generations of inbreeding and bad traits passing down, he is the smartest man in the world.

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.

Hess’s semi-live-action film adaptation of the famous game is not a letdown. It is a recurring event of corporate greed dominating creativity. Which is pretty ironic given the game’s structure. As of writing this, the movie has raked in close to seven and a half million dollars worldwide.

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.

While hilarious in many regards, what makes this a standout film to me is the rapid switch into serious drama between the characters, where life and death are considered. The first two-thirds of the film or so are a straightforward hangout comedy, with an ensemble cast of characters messing with one another as they go about their daily lives. The final act completely subverts the audience’s expectations...

There is something special about hiding indoors amidst the cold. Trying to remain positive here.

As far as my movie-watching goes, I started the week with a rewatch of one of my all-time favorite films, Quentin Tarantino's...

I need to be consistent. Consistency isn't just key; it's one of my worst enemies.

A part of this modern remaster that I didn't expect was the comic relief. And was that a welcome surprise.