Film: The End of Oak Street

Oak Street is an oddball movie, and I'm still deciding whether or not I liked it. I think the judgement comes down to its runtime - it's definitely too long and the juice it has to offer may not be quite worth the squeeze.

But what juice! This movie has so many moments that need to be discussed, alas all under the embargo of spoiler policy. The acting is great, it looks wonderful (even though the 80s setting must be hitting overuse by now) and the story is straight forward.

A different edit with sharper pacing would have made this one of the great dinosaur movies of our time. As it stands it remains a curiosity with some great moments that just about gets a recommendation from me.

Twenty Two

There are many delineations people use in life - before and after graduation, marriage, kids, or a big move to another country for instance. Given how devoid of milestones my life has been so far (something that isn't actually as lamentable as it might sound), and how I can trace quite a few things in my life to the starting of this place, it may not be that surprising that 2004 was a pivot for me (and yes, the creating of a blog being that significant might be as lamentable as it sounds).

I can track friends, country visits, hobbies and consumed media that would never have been if not for this blog. I would be the first to admit that a lot of that stuff probably happened in the first five years or so, but such were their significance that I think it's worth bearing witness to it now. Of course I wouldn't be as droll as to thank this place, but I guess I can be thankful for it.

Film: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

It's rare that such a late entry into a franchise could be considered its best. And yet here we are: after the gimmick laden No Way Home, we have been given as much of a Tom Holland pseudo origin story we can get at this stage. And on top of that, it was actually rather good.

I think the most striking thing about this chapter was how non-Spider-Man it was, even though it was indeed full of Spider-Man. If that doesn't make sense, it's probably because we're not used to a Spider-Man film having any real sort of moral, emotional or character depth. I felt bad for Peter more than a few times here.

But apart from that, it was a good Spider-Man film too, and delivered all the action and superhero antics you'd want from such a premise. All these things make Brand New Day the best of the Holland Spider-Man films for me, so this is of course very much recommended.