Ah, yes the time has come! Unbuckle your belt and tuck into your favorite couch. Grab your snacks, your remote and your snuggle buddy because it is time to consume!
MOVIES
Nosferatu - I saw this twice in the theatre and it was just as magical the second time around. Not so much a scary horror movie as much as it is a creeping dread horror movie. Nicholas Hoult is his usual steadfast self and Willem Defoe brings his best kooky self as well, even perhaps feeling a tinge Nick Cage-ish in the best way. The standouts here though are Lily Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter and Bill Skarsgard as Nosferatu. These two actors are like tractor beams for your eyes and they are magical together. By the time the movie ends you will be paralyzed by them both.
Be forewarned, this story mixes its vampire lore from books and movies and it confused me at first. If you’ve read the original Bram Stoker’s Dracula a lot of it will feel familiar, but it veers away from that original story and fuses elements from the original movie by F.W. Burnau and the 1970 Werner Herzo classic remake. Many familiar characters exist in this movie, but their names have been changed and as said earlier it threw me off a bit.
Finally, the absolutely gorgeous cinematography in this movie melted my eyes and it culminated in a final shot that struck me with such horrendous beauty that on my second watch I couldn’t wait for the movie to end, just so I could soak that shot in again.
The Substance - This movie was already bonkers, but then it got to the final stretch and it stuck its hand out to me and said, “Hold my cosmo and buckle up because I’m about to take you on a one way ride to batshit crazytown” and boy did it ever. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley play two sides of the same coin with Moore playing Elizabeth Sparkles, an aging starlet, and Qualley as Sue, the young fresh faced newcomer. Add in the eponymous Substance and you get a dark and sometimes darkly comedic body horror film that leaves you squirming and writhing just as much as one of the main characters. One final note, do yourself a favor and finish your popcorn before this movie even starts.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (rewatch) - The first time I watched this movie it was far better than it deserved to be and this rewatch brought back all those same feels. It’s just good fun. Chris Pine is hilarious, Hugh Grant is hilariously hammy, Sophia Lillis (from the It remake) and Justice Smith (from I Saw the TV Glow) are both solid, Michelle Rodriguez is perfectly cast and Regé-Jean Page continues to make me question my heterosexuality. Just grab your favorite snacks and put this one on repeat because it’s just good goofy fun.
TV
Culinary Class Wars
It’s hard to express the sheer joy this show gave me. It took a while for this one to get warmed up, but once you get through the third episode things really get humming. It’s not to say that the first few episodes are boring by any means. They’re quite fun, it’s just a bit drawn out and the rest of the show is so fun and so good that it makes the early episodes feel slow. Once you get to the meat of this Korean food series, that is very much in the vein of Physical 100, you will find yourself rooting for your favorite chef, but still loving most if not all of them.
One thing that this show did that I loved, but somewhat confused me is that all of the “newcomer” chefs had nicknames. It was gimmicky, but I loved it. Overall, I loved the spirit of competition in this show and by the end I was rooting for so many different chefs to win because I fell in love with so many of them. This one is some tasty fun.
Great British Baking Show Season - Fuck man I love this show. Just put it on and feel good about the world. Just for a little bit. Then you can go back to crying.
The Diplomat Season 2 - Man oh man was the second season of this show just as fun and engaging as the first one. Season one of this show caught me by surprise with how much I loved it and when it ended the only thing I disliked was that I was going to have to wait for Season 2. When it finally dropped on Netflix I gobbled it up far too fast, but man was it a tasty morsel. Keri Russel is the star here as an American diplomat working in the UK, but she is surrounded by a village of good actors with sharp dialogue and storylines that twist and turn so fast that they demand your attention. Set aside a weekend, put some popcorn on and kick back because you will be binging this one.
Black Doves - A fun breezy British spy series featuring Kiera Knightley, Ben Whishaw, Sarah Lancashire and a dash of Andew Koji. I feel like this series wants to be more serious than it is, but don’t let that put you off of it. It is serious, but it doesn’t get bogged down in the darkness of some other spy shows (for that see the Agency review below). Where this show really hooked me is with its great characters. Some I loved, some I hated then loved, and others I hated all the way through. This is what makes this series fun. You may at first be tempted to have this on in the background, but give it your attention and you will be rewarded. Bonus, this had some unexpectedly good fight scenes.
The Agency - Would it be too cliché to call this a tense and taught spy series? Maybe so, but that’s exactly what it is. Starring Michael Fassbender, Geoffrey Wright, Richard Gere, Jodie Turner-Smith and Katherine Waterston, this series is tightly wound from frame one and it barely lets up throughout its run. While Fassbender is the star here, all the other great actors and great storytelling in this show level it up to something I absolutely could not wait to watch each week. I won’t get into too many details, but Fassbender is a spy juggling the return of an ex-lover, a daughter, some potential PTSD and his day job being a spy. There’s a voice over that feels a bit too close to Fassbender in the Killer, but thankfully it’s not used much. This series is heavy and the stakes feel high and it all makes for a fantastic show.
MUSIC
Kendrick Lamar - GNX - Here we go with another Kendrick Klassik. It’s on repeat and it’s on non-stop. Kendrick brings all the fire emojis on this one. GNX opener Wacced Out Murals starts with a chorus, a soulful Spanish intro and an ominous beat that leads in to Kendrick absolutely throwing down the gauntlet to anyone who ever picked up a mic. The rest of the album puts an elbow on the throat of the rest of the rap game. Look, Kendrick is just being Kendrick. He can’t help if he’s levels ahead of everyone else. Pay attention, take notes and go home and practice because no one else is doing what Kendrick does.
BOOKS/COMICS
Transformers TPB 1 - Daniel Warren Johnson - This series was a jolt of much needed Transformers nostalgia. The various Transformers tv and movies since 2007 have been hit or miss, mostly misses, Bumblebee was pretty good and the most recent animated Transformers One was quite good as well, but other than that the Transformer franchise has been missing some much needed heart. This new comic series by Daniel Warren Johnson runs at full speed and its heart beats fast and hard. The art, as is to be expected by DWJ is electric, but the writing is on point! It’s a modernized version of the Transformers, but without breaking what made these characters so enjoyable and memorable. A definite must read.
That’s all for this month dear reader. Join me next month to find out what my voracious appetite has gobbled down.