
Iron Man (2008) – Rewatched via DisneyPlus June 24, 2025 (whoa, right before Leo was born)
It’s funny to hear Obadiah Stane growl “Just because you had an idea doesn’t mean it belongs to you,” telegraphing that Feige and Favreau saw themselves as subversive artists within the machine rather than the machine itself. Fast forward 17 years and now they’re the ones parasitically draining the life force out of new film talent and lumbering along with a shambolic husk that isn’t nimble enough to withstand the heights of their ambitions. Poetic, really.
Minus half a star for what they do with Christie the Journalist. That subplot just keeps aging worse and worse.

Party Girl (1995) – Watched via YouTube Free Movies on June 6, 2025
I don’t know if you all have noticed that my reviewing has majorly fallen off, as I’ve entered a reckless gaming era, but I feel maybe I can draw up some motivation by writing my reviews as poems, which is a decision I think Parker Posey’s character would approve of. So here we go –
Parker, you are
a force of society
so relatable
and so Sisyphean
This movie is smart
But packaged like turkish delight
Not the kind offered by the White Witch
But perhaps one that has a couple of factories in Lebanon, working at an efficient clip
yet not yet purchased by a global candy behemoth, like Nestle
I was
Uncomfortable
With the fetishizing of your Lebanese character (who looks like they could have been cast from a pool of supermodels)
But I do agree with Director Daisy’s assertion
That the movie is told from Mary’s perspective
And, truth be told, just because she really likes this guy
Doesn’t mean she can’t be racist about it

Shane (1953) – Watched via Kanopy on April 17, 2025
Now, I’m no fan of Ryker, because he’s clearly a NIMBY.
But you have to admit, the homesteaders are bringing strong gentrifier “wouldn’t it be nice if this nasty old parking lot were a juice shack instead” vibes. Plus, they’re allied with a white supremacist and I’m not entirely sure the guy in the black hat was in the wrong.

Hot Rod (2007) – Watched via YouTube Free Movies on March 20, 2025
Hot Rod is a piece of internet ephemera exploring the complex relationships men within patriarchy have with their father figures. Since the time of Oedipus, there has been a tension between son and dad to acknowledge the passing of a mantle, the assumption of a legacy. But how do we define a legacy without being inspired by the past? And how can you find inspiration in the past without becoming blinded by nostalgia? Hot Rod dares to asks these questions and its fate is to now become a piece of nostalgia itself. It is something that, much like Evel Knievel’s legacy, cannot be understood objectively. It now represents a simpler time for us all. A time when the Internet was a source of joy and community instead of a deep well of fascistic thought. As such, it is a fool’s errand to try to give this a star rating.
But I will give it 2.5 stars because that cool beans song is stupid.

Mickey 17 (2025) – Watched in the theater with my new friend Robert in Raleigh on March 12, 2025
I guess I’m a Bong-head.
The initial idea of adapting this story had a 95% chance of producing a movie that I still probably would have liked, but which would have felt somewhat paint by numbers. You pace the movie so that you make the Creeper translator into some sort of macguffin and seed its origins early on; you ratchet up the tension Nolan-style in the final act to get the audience snapped into climax mode. It would have all been cool, but it would have been a little tiresome to go back to years later.
The antidote to that fate is to give this to Bong Joon Ho, who makes sure every character is either a charming or at least compelling collection of foibles and flaws. Every scene becomes a small work of art thanks to the ongoing support of composer Jung Jae-il and cinematographer Darius Khondji. You draw on the talents of Robert Pattinson and Toni Collette to make sure no one accuses you of putting a stock character on screen, even though, alas, you kind of wasted Steven Yeun.
It’s a rare achievement, wherein a little-known IP gets nearly a $120 million budget from a recent Best Director who operates on a wavelength that would jar 90’s Hollywood producers. I wish one could reliably walk into the theater to get stories told this way, but I think this might be the One and Only, as they say.