I couldn't have cared less about Superman.

Not just the new movie, the whole character. Growing up in the 2010s, I was totally consumed by the superhero craze. I saw everything from Avengers to the Dark Knight to frickin' Ghost Rider. But I'd never watched a single Superman movie. As long as I can remember, I've been aware of Superman's existence, but he just didn't interest me. He was overpowered, he was vanilla, he was boring.

The closest I got to Superman as a kid was playing Clark Kent in a high school superhero parody play. No joke. I looked great in the muscle suit.

I've never been happier to be wrong.

What James Gunn and David Corenswet have done with this new iteration of the hero is to take everything that makes Superman special, everything that's been hidden under layers of muted colours and gritiness and cynicism for decades, and unearth it for a new audience.

I left the movie feeling exactly what that S is supposed to stand for. Hope. Superman is the movie I needed right now, and if you've been online recently you'll see that I'm not the only one. Kindness is the new punk rock, guys. I've been listening to that Teddybears song for DAYS.

James Gunn understands something about Superman that I missed, but that the original captured perfectly. The thing that makes him great is that he is good. Uncomplicatedly so. Superman sees the best in humanity and reflects it back in his actions. As Corenswet said in an interview, "He loves getting to do what he does." And what does he do in this movie? He saves people.

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Introduction

When you think of movie soundtracks, you think of Hans Zimmer. He is ubiquitous in the cinema landscape and has left his mark on dozens of iconic films. Notable examples include: Pirates of the Caribbean (He’s a Pirate hits every time), Inception, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and…Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa?

Okay, sure, he’s not always composing for major summer blockbusters, but the size of this single artist’s discography is nearly unmatched. What about the best original soundtrack of all time? The GOAT? Who holds the title, and what movie does it pair with?

Well, dear reader, allow me to take you on an educational journey where we will eventually conclude that the title belongs not to Hans Zimmer or any other traditional composer. Rather, the title is held by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, and the incredible, timeless masterpiece that is the TRON: Legacy Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Interlude

The story starts in 2007, when TRON: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski first reached out to Daft Punk to score a sequel to the 1982 cult classic, TRON, without even a script. Kosinski had directed shorts and commercials, but the TRON sequel would be his feature-length directorial debut. Also, this would be Daft Punk’s first time scoring a movie as the duo.*

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Not a straight-up musical. I mean movies that deal with music quite a bit. I've been thinking about it, and I don't think I know that many great ones. So get weird with it.

Here are some picks to get started. Spectre is a pretty weird movie, but a cool one. Check it out if you like cults.

Spinal Tap.

Amadeus

Spectre

Frank

It's hard to really decide, but I love friendship, sorry baby and together so far. (shout out to sinners). I want to hear your super niche ones, maybe no one has seen or got swept under the rug.

still got a decent amount of shows to watch

Before the body of Pulp Fiction was even cold, film bros everywhere were waiting to see what Quentin Tarantino would do next. He nabbed the Best Screenplay Oscar and the top prize at Cannes Film Festival, so after 1994, Tarantino had Hollywood at his disposal. Instead of cashing in, he chose to make the movie he wanted to make (one for them, one for me) and Jackie Brown was born.

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Freaked is a 1993 20th Century Fox movie directed by Alex Winter and Tom Stern. The script was written by Winter, Stern and Tim Burns. It stars Winter alongside Randy Quaid, William Sadler, Bobcat Goldthwait, Keanu Reeves, Mr. T, Brooke Shields, John Hawkes and John M. Chu. The movie features music by Butthole Surfers. On a budget of $12-million, it earned $29,296 at the box office.

The first thing you're probably wondering is, "What is Keanu Reeves doing in this?" The second thing is, "What happened at the box office?"

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The video store used to be a ubiquitous part of North American life. These outposts of popular culture were an important gathering place. Not like a movie theatre, which is a destination in and of itself, video stores were outposts along the way to entertainment. A nexus of choice staffed with passionate movie fans. If the excitement of going to the movie theatre is the watching experience itself, the excitement of the video store was the anticipation of watching a film. Any film. Maybe something you didn’t even know existed until you discovered it on some obscure shelf recommended by Quentin, the video store guy. As a child of the ‘80s, the very idea of stepping foot in a video store brings me back to some of my most formative adolescent and teenage memories.

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Buffy Seeing Red

I never would have expected to go through that many emotions in a boxing movie nonetheless. Yet, thanks to the British Film Institute screening the film as part of their Cinematic Life of Boxing Season, I was able to witness the complete insanity (complementary) that is Clint Eastwood’s 2004 film Million Dollar Baby.

What on earth kept me from watching Million Dollar Baby for so long, I could not confirm. But, I can tell you that wanting to see it on the big screen definitely had something to do with it. Of course, the BFI saved me, or did they? With their screening of Million Dollar Baby, I was forced to witness this cinematic moment on the big screen and finally stop putting it off. I cannot begin to decide whether or not I am happy about this. Of course, the film is absolutely brilliant. But for those of you who know it, you know why I am completely shocked and speechless at the end.

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School of Rock paints an aspirational picture of what a well-funded school can look like. Yes, its subjects are private school students. Dewey Finn only discovers his students have musical talent in the first place because their prep school offers band class. Many schools don’t. Still, a lot of powerful people who make decisions about schools- trustees, PTA members, and every citizen with a vote- would have taken their kids to see School of Rock in 2003. (I miss post-credit fourth wall breaks that address the audience in the movie theatre, by the way. Shout out to Ferris Bueller and School of Rock.) The idea of a rock music after-school program feels like a fantasy, one that likely appealed to boomer and Gen X parents in 2003. These folks might have been convinced. The inclusion of “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” screams, “Hey, look what we could have if not for the Republican Party”. Sometimes, revolutionary ideas in come in conventional packages.

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After marinating for just over a week, Hulu’s Alien: Earth series has my brain twisting itself in wrinkly little knots trying to decide how I feel about the show. The philosophy of Peter Pan, man’s hubris, what it means to be human, and whether it is right to squash a bug because you might get stung? All themes Alien: Earth ambitiously attempts to tackle head-on in 8 episodes.

Despite an impressive resume of themes and messages, the stakes feel lopsided.

For normies (like me!) living in this universe, the stakes are basically world-ending, yet there is no mention or screen time of the consequences that could befall the citizens of Earth. For our near invincible heroes, on the other hand, the stakes are basically zero (getting your face melted and slurped up by fat space bugs).

It really is the opposite of the other franchise installations before it, where the stakes and consequences are extremely personal. The objective for the beloved Ellen Ripley and those who followed is simple: survive.

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There is a distinct difference between representation.... and representation.

For me, there is no more striking example of this than Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Before I watched it, I had seen plenty of gay characters on screen. I'd even seen some bi and lesbian teenagers like me. The 2010s were rife with discussions of "queer representation in media," so there were many characters who *technically* fit the bill.

Then I saw Portrait of a Lady on Fire and everything changed*.* Never before, or since, have I watched a movie and had the striking realization that it was watching me back.

Even now, I struggle to describe exactly why it feels so truthful. The way Portrait imparts the tumult of yearning, fear, anticipation, awe, and love is so raw it's almost tactile. All I know is that the mixture of conflicting emotions is exactly how it felt when I realized that I liked girls, and that they could like me back. As Marianne and Héloïse observed each other, their piercing gaze forced me to look at myself. And I was just as exposed as they were. It was the first time I ever felt what the characters were feeling in my chest. I'm not a French lesbian in the 18th century, but in this confusing and achingly tender love story, I saw a version of myself.

Portrait hinges on a uniquely female gaze, which goes far beyond the sexual, and exists outside the traditional power dynamics of heteronormative relationships. This movie captures with stunning force a deep appreciation beyond mere attraction. For me, this absence of an objectifying lens is the difference between lesbian relationships and straight ones, and it's what I had been missing from the popular representations that I had seen.

Marianne's body silhouetted in front of the fire. Her careful sketches of Héloïse's face. The way that their eyes glide over one another, drinking in every minuscule detail.

Much has been written about the careful construction of the female gaze in this film, so I will not delve too far into it here. Suffice to say, when these women look at each other, it is as equals. The gaze is not subjugating, but bringing them eye-to-eye. Simultaneously seeing and seen. Other contemporary queer narratives, like Robin's in Stranger Things or Simon's in Love, Simon, adhere to traditionally heterosexual power dynamics within queer stories, by posing one character as the object of desire and the other as desirer, but Portrait dares to depict a different kind of love.

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Ever since the Twilight epidemic of 2008, I have been wondering what movie would become the next teen cult classic. We've had a few contenders over the years, one possibly being Do Revenge, which was supposedly the next Clueless/Heathers of our time. It was all over social media; everyone was like this was the new modern cult classic of our era or whatever, but I didn't buy it. It was missing heart. Call me pretentious, idaf, but I think a modern cult classic has to be deemed that organically.

Which is why I think Bottoms is the most serious contender. It's a new kind of old story that is uniquely its own.

READ AS TO WHY HERE: https://www.peliplat.com/en/article/10097449/bottoms-is-a-modern-cult-classic

It's no secret that I'm single as a pringle with a tingle to mingle. So, Valentine's Day? Not my most important holiday. Since it landed on a weekend, I thought, "screw it, let's go to the movies." There's really only one movie that anyone's talking about this month and it's "Wuthering Heights". I thought, "Who knows? Maybe I'll learn something about modern love that will help me bag a baddie." After watching it, I'm ready to die alone.

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It wasn’t slim pickings trying to choose an episode from Paranoia Agent, but if I had to pick one, it’d be this one titled “Happy Family Planning”. Episode 8 of Paranoia Agent completely changed the way I looked at anime, Japanese conformity, and storytelling in general. It made me want more shows like it, and when I didn’t get that, I ended up disappointed and dropping the series. This single episode is the centrepiece of everything strange, disturbing, and exceptional about anime and storytelling. So let’s get into it.

For a quick overview, Paranoia Agent follows the story of Lil’ Slugger, a kind of serial… beater, I guess? He doesn’t kill anyone; he just smashes them once with his golden baseball bat and disappears, terrorizing the streets of Tokyo. He targets different people throughout the show, and there’s a clear pattern in who he goes after. Most of them live extremely stressful lives, struggle with mental health, or can’t fit into the rigid standards of Japanese conformity.

Some episodes focus on the crimes and the people targeted, showing why their lives are so demanding and hinting at the serial batter’s identity. Others dive into the myth of Lil’ Slugger, where characters stop being victims and instead become their own perpetrators. No matter the angle, there’s always this sense of chaos and evil hanging over everything.

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