April
Everything I watched in April, 2024 (You may be wondering, has she forgotten how to read? It would seem so.)
Hello everyone! I am so sorry this is incredibly late. The reasons I did not finish this in April were:
It was my birth month so I was being insufferable planning my own birthday funeral etc
I very excitingly got to do cool media things like this interview with RNZ!!!
and mostly I just spent 120% of my time thinking about Challengers so it sustained me for the entire month and to be honest it still is sustaining me now even in July. WHAT A FILM.
Anyway here we go:
Normal People
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Summary: the most emotionally stunted people in the world having emotionally stunted conversations for 12 episodes
Okay this is a complicated review to write because my notes started with, and I quote, “Insufferable miserable privileged people,” and ended with, “actually really admirable,” so I feel like I need to justify that somehow.
I think the last 3-4 episodes did some extremely heavy lifting that helped turn them from unbearable characters to understandably complicated and hurting people, allowing us to see why they acted the way the did.
There is such a fine line between writing realistic characters and unlikeable characters, because real people ARE dislikable and make bad decisions and don’t say what they’re feeling and that’s actually just life. So Sally Rooney did in fact nail this with Normal People (although I feel like she majorly flopped at it in Beautiful World Where Are You because I just straight up hated those people lol.) In saying that my house was nearly robbed while I was reading that book and I had to put it down to call the police so that probably didn’t help me to enjoy it.
The most frustrating thing about this was the sheer LEVEL of miscommunication. If you read the script of Normal People (not the book but the actual dialogue from the series) it would be like 1 page long. Almost NO WORDS are said at all. From a certified yapper I do not know how they do it. It’s giving Francesca and John from Bridgerton.
I see why it would be easy to hate the ending, but I think it was very necessary and crucial to see their character development: the entire series they made decisions out of fear, and the ending was the only decision I feel that they made out of love. It showcased how far they’d come and how much they’d helped each other: At the start Connell was selfish and insecure, and Marianne helped him to gain some bravery and self belief. On the other hand, Connell helped to show Marianne the difference between people who love her and people who want to control her, and what a loving family can look like.
The real gem of this series was the heart and soul that Daisy Edgar-Jones brings to Marianne. The character has been so abused and undervalued in her life to the point where she would accept anything and constantly sells herself short - but she has a quiet strength about her and a resolute commitment to always be herself, and proves to be endlessly resilient and forgiving. How Daisy made someone who could so easily be misconstrued feel so likeable is magnificent.
Other notes I took:
Connell’s mum is the GOAT
It was good to see what I feel was an accurate portrayal of a man struggling with his mental health. He was reserved and struggled to talk about his emotions but went to a therapist anyway and let it out which was so necessary.
I was mad that it took someone physically hurting Marianne in front of Connell for him to grow a pair but I guess the bar is on the floor
I wish we just had like 15% more screen time where the characters were happy and nothing was going wrong… they could have let it linger fr
My favourite part of the book is when Marianne is eating a lemon pastry and I was really sad that wasn’t in the series. Here is the quote:
"Beside her on the desk is her breakfast, which she just purchased from the supermarket across the street: one black coffee with brown sugar, one lemon pastry roll. She eats this exact breakfast regularly. Lately she has started to eat it slowly, in lavish sugary mouthfuls that congeal around her teeth. The more slowly she eats, and the more consideration she gives to the composition of her food, the less hungry she feels.”
I don’t know why but it’s like the part of the book that kind of summed up the whole vibe of normal people for me, sour and stinging and bitter and sweet at the same time. I just found this blog post by Tom Liam Lynch where he wrote all about how the lemon pastry scene shows how “Marianne appears to be reaching a key moment in her development. As readers encounter her deliberating her need for sugar and coffee, ambrosia and tang, what they also witness is her slow realisation that she is fundamentally worthy of love. And the near absence of Connell’s name in this chapter reinforced for me that Marianne’s revelation of self-acceptance must be achieved on her own. One bite at a time.”
How beautiful is that.
I just saw rumours of Normal People 2 and to that I say: NO! IT ENDED! IT’S DONE! Please for the love of god do not ruin it by making a sequel. Go and watch One Day, La La Land and Past Lives for christ’s sake.
Challengers
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Summary: 3-Way by The Lonely Island ft. Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga but as a feature length film.
“This is easily the sexiest movie of the year. It has me setting my Tinder radius to 1km and parking outside tennis clubs. I am pinning WAG-core photos on Pinterest and suddenly, I care about serving in a different way.
Everything about this film is perfect: the direction, the score, the script and the phenomenal acting all stand on their own. You don’t have to be sporty to understand the characters – if you’ve ever played Wii Tennis and nearly thrown the controller at the TV out of pure unbridled rage, you are well-equipped. After all, aren’t we all just Mii’s stuck in a vast and empty Mii Plaza, trying to feel something?”
This is just a snippet of the full review I wrote for Ensemble Magazine, please have a read of it below:
But here are my additional notes:
MOVIE OF THE YEAR
STILL ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED AND IT’S BEEN 3 MONTHS
Josh O’Connor is my literal actual boyfriend you cannot convince me otherwise
The more I think about this movie and the depth that all of the characters have and how many different interpretations there are, it actually hurts my brain. It’s such a rich and precise text and the script is SO well crafted and there are so many tiny details. Make kids study this in English like I am being so for real. OPEN THE SCHOOLS
Georgia Rule
⭐️ (one star because I guess no stars is not an option)
Summary: Apple by Charli XCX summarised in the worst possible way
This is the weirdest fucking movie I have EVER seen in my life.
It features RUSSELL FROM NEW GIRL and also a baby greg heffley!?
Maaaaajor trigger warning that this movie is about childhood SA experienced by the main character (Lindsey Lohan) at the hands of her stepfather. It deals with deals with themes of women not being believed and extremely complicated female relationships.
I guess a lot of the crazy plotlines and erratic behaviours from all the characters are supposed to show the lasting effects of abuse and how they distort your view of the world, which is an important message, but the way they made this a comedy was such a weird choice and I do not think it did the complex themes ANY justice at all. Basically don’t watch this
We went into this blind after seeing like 2 TikToks of it and thinking it would be a wholesome movie à la Cow Belles about a party girl realising she loves the simple life…. which was not the case.
In the movie she violently tackles an 11 year old to the ground for no reason and then yells out that he has a boner????? She literally says “Dude it was a fight! You don’t pull a boner in a battle.” STRAIGHT TO JAIL.
Spoilers: Russell from New Girl’s character used to date the mum, and for some reason Lindsey Lohan’s character ends up staying at his house for ages and he “takes her in,” and then she tries to sleep with him, and he’s like look I'‘m not gonna sleep with you but "it’s not like I haven’t thought about it, it’s hard not to.” Like EXCUSE ME she is 16 years old and you are supposed to be looking after her AND you have a thing with her mum what is wrong with you 😭 I hate all men
It’s giving that scene from Hamilton where he’s like “lord show me how to say no to this…” (like just say no???? say no to this.)
Main part that slays is she wears white throughout the whole movie but then in one critical scene she wears red and that was a great choice
Jane Fonda hits someone with a baseball bat (but she should have swung way harder and it was not as satisfying as it should have been.)
Ok my favourite thing ever is reading these “Vegan alerts” on Letterboxd. Look I truly admire veganism but needing a warning to hear about ALLOSAURUSES being MENTIONED is wild???? Like queen they’re not even here anymore they can’t hurt you
Does this imply OP is mad at Allosauruses for being carnivores???? If they were still around would they be trying to convince allosauruses to switch to a diet of chick peas and chia pudding?????? Good luck babe
27 Dresses
⭐️ ⭐️
Summary: Always an angel, never a god
I wanted to watch this movie because I saw the clip of Katherine Heigl singing the wrong lyrics to Bennie and the Jets (“She’s got electric boobs, and mohair shoes!”) and I was like she’s so real for that, I need to see this immediately.
The best part of this movie (as with all good 2000’s romcoms) was the montage scene when she tried on all the dresses. However, I think this film slightly shot itself in the foot by making the range of bridesmaid’s dresses TOO funny and interesting, because then I spent the rest of the movie wishing there were more scenes of the other weddings. If someone wants to make a 2024 version of this as a limited series on Netflix with each episode focusing on a different wedding I would love this. Someone write that down, write that down!!!
I also love when songs are IN movies. Like not in the background but an actual part of the movie. I think it makes the characters feel so much more real - like you’re a fictional entity to me until you are drunk singing Bennie & the Jets in a bar, or Unwritten while you’re being lifted into a helicopter, or Kiss From A Rose while you’re having a fake prom in the middle of nowhere. It really anchors it.
I also loved when she said “Today you're just some bitch who broke my heart and cut up my mother's wedding dress.” End her!!!
Dog
⭐️ ⭐️
Summary: generic dog movie
I forgot I watched this actually so not super memorable but I think it was good and quite touching and I do remember crying. If you like dog movies you’ll like this because it is basically like every dog movie ever. It also walks the fine line between a drama and a comedy but personally I think they did a great job at balancing both (unlike Georgia Rule.) If you didn’t already know, there’s a website called “Does the dog die?” Where you can check if the dog dies before you commit to watching a movie. We’ve come so far as a society!
Ok bye for now and see you for May and June shortly <3
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Yours truly, Bryer Oden xoxo
Credit for photos in feature image: 27 Dresses, Challengers. All other image credit is linked :)