• All Of Us Strangers (2023) - another in a run of really great recent films that I have seen lately (this, Killers of the Flower Moon, The End We Start From, Anatomy of a Fall). This one took a while to engage me and once it did I very soon saw what the final ‘revelation’ was going to be but - as with the others that I have mentioned above - that really didn’t matter at all. This is not about plot, twists or surprises, this is about character and loneliness and grief, and the character study was wonderfully played out by the ever-intense Andrew Scott. The final scene stuck with me all night and the track has been an ear-worm since.

• Hero (2002) - I had seen it before, at the time of release but could recall little other than the visual style, which was as strong this time as back then. My SO was in search of a bit of Wuxia along the lines of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is a long-time favourite of hers. Hero is a much starker, more focussed film than that and stylish rather than beautiful, but does what it does extremely well and scratched the itch very well.

I will be going to see Dune, as well as Poor Things, Out of Darkness, and Zone of Interest soon, but haven’t just yet.

I haven’t popped into one of these threads before, so I have a few

I watched Mid90s (2018) and it was much better than I expected. I came into it knowing that it had a solid 90s soundtrack, which was true, but it went beyond that with an insightful coming of age story and an amazing cast. It felt very real, which was the intent with the creator

Mid90s (stylized as mid90s) is a 2018 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Jonah Hill, in his feature directorial debut, inspired by Hill’s own childhood in the mid-1990s.

I also saw Hot Rod (2007) recently. I enjoyed it, and I can’t describe it better than the Wikipedia description:

Hot Rod is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer (in his directorial debut) and written by Pam Brady. The film stars Andy Samberg as amateur accident-prone stuntman Rod Kimble, whose stepfather, Frank (Ian McShane), continuously mocks and disrespects him. When Frank becomes ill, Rod raises money for his heart operation by executing his largest stunt yet. The film also stars Jorma Taccone, Sissy Spacek, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Isla Fisher and Bill Hader.

I also tried She Hate Me (2004), and I did not finish it. It was bad.

Saw Dune Part 2 at an advanced screening last week and will be watching it again this week in true IMAX. I’m also planning to finally watch Poor Things.

About the meta, I’ve been trying to get someone traction on the Dune discussion thread, but it’s still pretty quiet