Sony Pictures Classics, if you're listening: start the campaign for Fernanda Torres for best leading actress at the 2025 Oscars.

This may be my favorite leading actress performance all year. I worry it may be under-looked by the Academy because there's not really an "Oscar" moment or scene, but that's the brilliance in this performance. Her demeanor and performance is so understated yet carried by such vibrant nuance and confidence and clarity that completely blew me away. Every time she was on screen and leading this film, it was beyond words. I think it's a testament to her performance that not only was this film one of two other films I've seen at the festival with almost the entire audience up for a standing ovation, but Fernanda Torres received her own 1-2 minute standing ovation when she was introduced back on stage for the Q&A. And, on top of this, Marcelo Rubens Paiva (the real life son of the protagonist played by Fernanda Torres) was there tonight to discuss his book which inspired the film. Beyond moving and emotional to see him there given the emotional weight of the film.

Where to even begin...

I'd be lying if I said I fully understood or absorbed everything this movie is or has to say. Yet I feel like this film, especially that last act, was just such a wild, provoking, and honestly transcendent experience to witness. If anything, it was film for the heart and soul rather than the mind, at least for me who doesn't quite have a full grasp on the symbolism and meaning behind a lot of the more abstract elements of the conclusion. But strikingly enough, I found myself comparing it to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive in terms of form and its overall arc, in the most flattering and positive way (I film that I love and admire tremendously).

Before I get started I just wanna say: this movie is definitely not made for me. There are gonna be lots of people who absolutely love this movie for everything that it has, all of the cameos and nostalgic throwbacks, and the sheer ability to see characters together in a shared space. For Marvel fans through and through who get excited about seeing dream scenarios play out on the screen that they only imagined could happen, or seeing actors play roles again, or anything of that sort. And in a sense, that’s totally fine. But I’m not the target audience anymore. This movie was made for me…me from 5 years ago.

I don’t wanna be too much of a Marvel hater with this; Max from 4-5 years ago would’ve probably loved this movie. Hell, I even got a gut twinge of positive nostalgia seeing the Marvel Studios logo and hearing the fanfare in a movie theater again, something I hadn’t experienced in a while since becoming way less of a Marvel fan post-Thor 4. Yes, I’d be lying to say that this movie didn’t have fun moments, some great action set pieces, and a few funny jokes (but also a lot of pretty unfunny jokes that totally didn’t stick the landing). It wasn’t a bad experience during it, and I had a good bit of fun a lot of the time. But when I sat with myself a bit, this movie just felt off. It didn’t feel like a Deadpool & Wolverine movie. It didn’t even feel like a movie. 

FINALLY. I was thinking after I got out of the theater, have we ever had a truly great tennis movie? Well there’s no need for uncertainty anymore: Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is the definitive tennis movie, in every way imaginable. I feel exhilarated, absolutely flowing with adrenaline. This movie was everything I wanted and more. FUCKING INCREDIBLE.

I’ve played tennis for almost my entire life, and if there’s one thing that would be the most important takeaway from everything I’ve learned about the sport, it’s that at the end of the day, tennis is a mental game. Obviously there’s a lot of physical expertise and training required, but there’s an equally (if not more) intense psychological battle happening during every single match. Even the tennis academy that I trained at for the majority of my time in middle and high school had a “golden rule” that only further emphasized the psychological game of tennis: “use your strengths against your opponent’s weaknesses.” That’s truly evident here in this film, and it was incredibly satisfying and riveting to see.

I mean, what do I even say about this? As someone who came fresh off of finishing the book about a month ago (someone who absolutely adored the book), I was so incredibly eager to see something so personal to me realized and adapted on film. Not only that, but having heard that this adaptation was incredibly well done set my expectations pretty high. I was also super happy about this being a TV mini series; as someone who recently started reading books again, too often does it feel like book adaptations jump straight to the feature film when a longer more methodical television show would do it more justice. Luckily, with streaming on the rise and TV more popular than ever, perhaps we'll see more decisions for books adapted in the format that it makes the most sense for, rather than defaulting to film.

A feeling that's consistently on my mind and in my heart is the reminiscence and occasional ache for the way things in the past. The way passions once felt. A particular moment in time with a group of friends. The feeling of experiencing college for the first time. The innocence and naive aspiration I felt as a middle schooler, high schooler even. How exciting it was to first discover my love for film. I miss the past in so many ways. With that, I sometimes think about the choices and circumstances that put me where I am. How did I get here, sitting in a classroom in Charleston, South Carolina learning about search engine optimization. How did I get here, sitting with a bunch of strangers I've only just met until 2, 3 in the morning with an imminent 9AM the next day? How did I get here, standing on a mini-stage talking to a ton of college students about the film we're all about to watch in a club that I lead at an official university? How did I get here, leading a town hall for my entire high school giving motivational pep-talks about having a positive mental attitude? How did I get here, with the friends I have, the family I have, and the dreams I have? Where would I be if I was elsewhere?

Had to pick something special for my 1000th diary entry on Letterboxd! One of my favorites, will always love this movie. Those last 15 minutes are unrivaled in every way.

I remember first getting Letterboxd back in 2018. A friend of mine told me that his friends from a film camp (I think) introduced him to this app that allowed you to track and rate the movies you watched and add things to a watchlist as well! I downloaded it, had a bit of fun for a while, but didn't use it much. I didn't even know about the diary feature and how you could log movies you watch with a date, creating a timeline of your film experiences. I then discovered the feature in late 2019, right at the cusp of my journey towards becoming passionate in film like I am today.

It's always interesting that before movies like these, I find myself in the "bring back intermissions" camp. I've even had the chance to watch some old movies on film and have experienced having a proper 10-15 minute intermission in the middle of the film, and thought it worked really well. But then after I watch the movie, I end up not really minding the length or lack of a break? Then again, that's just with the good ones; there's certainly been some slogs that have really felt their runtime. But this one sure was a good one.

I was read this book as a kid by my mom and dad. It was one of my favorites, partially because I had fun thinking it was about me, wild little Max. I loved this book. A week or two ago I saw this book outside someone’s house on my street; it was by the curb like they wanted to throw it out, and it was severed wet and rain-damaged, which made me sad. Before that, I hadn’t thought about this story in a long time. But tonight, I felt the urge to, relive some inner childhood spirit and overall because of an urge to reinvigorate some nostalgia after having an overly sentimental day. Yeah, maybe it’s because his name is Max and therefore I selfishly feel like this is my book, my movie, and my story, but this was an overwhelmingly emotional experience, something I haven’t had with a movie in a long time. Like, immediately watery eyes after 10-15 minutes, a lump in my throat with tears escaping my eyes during the ending, and full on ugly crying during the credits.

Certainly one of the most magical movie experiences for a variety of reasons. Maybe the highlight being that I watched this with a group of friends because for one of them, Ethan, it was his favorite movie of all time that he wanted to show us (and that I promised to watch as part of that Film Club merch promise). However, Ethan had told us about how this movie was not very easy to find, and the only places you could watch it was a pretty low quality rip on YouTube, or on Eastern European Movies in similarly poor quality. But when he first told me that this was his movie pick, I did some research, and managed to find an online site selling a seemingly legit Blu-ray of The Hourglass Sanatorium in its full region-free glory. As an avid movie collector, I bought one for myself, but had a surprise in store: I got him a copy as well. Truly one of the more special moments not only being able to share this experience with him watching his favorite film, but being able to gift that movie to him for easily-accessible watches from here on out.

After about a week of a marathon, I was super excited for this. And despite hearing mixed reviews, I did go into this wanting to enjoy it. And I did! Overall, I had a good time with it, but there were just a few things I didn't love.

I think they did the best they could given the fact that Harrison Ford is an 80-year-old man. He's still got the spirit even if he's not as agile. However, at least for the first half of the movie, action seemed to rely a lot on chases, and it seemed like there were like 5 or 6 car chases (maybe more lol) that got just a bit repetitive and boring after a while. It wasn't until they started exploring the cave that I thought "now this is where the good stuff begins," which is like an hour and a half into the film.

Everyone has that one movie that scarred and haunted them as a kid. This one's mine. Let's revisit that moment.

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, I was at soccer practice and it started to downpour. With practice cancelled midway, a teammate and I got a ride with another teammate to go to his house since my parents were unable to pick me until later when they would get out of work. As his mom picked us up, they put a movie on in the backseat; this was one of those cars with a DVD player built into the car, what a legendary system. Anyways, the movie in question was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I had heard from my parents that I shouldn’t watch this movie, and so when I mentioned that I’m not sure if I’m allowed to watch this movie, they said “it’s PG, you can watch that right?” For context, as many of you may know, this movie along with Gremlins are the movies responsible for instituting the PG-13 rating because of their graphic violence. Anyways, I had seen PG movies before so I said alright. And guess what scene was on for the ride home?

If kids can walk away from this with the messages and having learned about corporate greed, protecting the environment, and standing up for what’s right, then sure, this movie’s fine and it’s harmless, and does exactly what it needs to.

But I’m worried it might not, and that’s because I feel like this movie’s message and important themes are ultimately muddled by Illumination’s attempt to make this a fun and digestible kids movie. I’m not saying every kids movie has to take the Pixar method and cater to all audiences, but I truly think not only would this movie have been miles better if they took it even just a bit more seriously, but it could’ve reached adults better rather than just coming off as a bad movie.

Really glad I sat with this one instead of immediately typing out my thoughts in the parking lot. I think I would've been swayed by the emotions I was feeling after what may have been the worst theater experience of my life…

Now, about the actual movie. Despite how frustrating it is that this experience is now associated with this movie, I actually loved this movie. This is the kinda movie I've been craving. I definitely went in expecting one thing and got something else entirely. Too often do I just watch movies (and granted I enjoy them and like to think about it), but I movie too quickly onto the next one and just watch movies and let them pass by. This is the kinda movie that's just lingering in my brain, makes me want to fixate on it for hours, days, the entire year. It really stimulated and stirred something inside of me and just make me feel some kind of way.

A funny little thing that happens to me every now and then with a good movie is that I’ll be watching the movie and be completely engrossed and lost in it, and then I find that suddenly I snap out of it and come back to this place of realizing “okay, I’m watching a movie right now.” And that’s not to say it’s some dramatic or jarring thing, I just have a moment where I come back to reality. And in a way, I absolutely love and cherish those moments, because for a short while, I can tangibly appreciate just how magical and transportive movies can be. I can sit back for a second while still within a movie, and just appreciate how much it brought me in. It’s a small and fleeting moment, but it lets me truly appreciate what a wonder it is to be enraptured by a film.

I get it now. I was so curious as to why THIS movie was getting that very interesting release strategy of only being shown in theaters, traveling around the country and world, never being released on streaming or physical media. But I get it now.

So. Dune.

The world has been going pretty crazy about this movie. I've heard about this movie for a long time. Since before the Covid-19 era, this movie has been talked about, being a grand scale epic that would revolutionize visual effects – and honestly people have been talking about this movie like it was going to change the world. And that's scary. Hype is a very interesting thing for me when it comes to movies. I won't lie, I tend to succumb to hype for movies, which isn't always the great thing to do. Hype creates expectation, and expectation for a movie can sometimes be good because when met you tend to enjoy something more, but if it doesn't you can come out even more disappointed despite the movie still being really good. I hate to admit it, but I think this happened to me.

I went shopping the other day; July finally came around, and all Criterion Collection blu-rays and DVDs are 50% off at Barnes and Noble. I've had a running list for a while of Criterion blu-rays I've wanted to buy, however this one was never on it. In fact, I had never even heard of this movie until I went shopping on Monday. I was browsing through all of the movies they had in stock, and this one caught my eye. I grew up with the Beatles and am still a big fan so I immediately recognized the title and picked up a copy. I made a commitment to myself to only buy a few movies so that I didn't bankrupt myself right before returning to college, but after reading the back of the case, it hooked me right there and I knew this would be one I had to buy, regardless of the list I had previously made. The spontaneity of this purchase honestly means a lot to me in a very strange way, I'll try and explain it here.

There's a lot that I miss about going to see movies at the theaters...people thinking it's a good idea to bring their babies into a movie theater (especially a horror/suspense movie!) is not one of them.

I'm a huge fan of the original first movie. It's a horror movie with smart characters that relies more on brilliantly created suspense rather than cop outs of visually frightening imagery, and it's also just so entertaining and well made. Its ending was fairly open ended; I didn't need a sequel, but hearing that one was going to be made didn't upset me at all. I remember seeing trailers for this back in February and March of 2020, and then Covid-19 hit and the delays soon followed. It's been a long time coming for this movie, and it almost feels full circle seeing this film again. A vaccine for the virus is now available and is starting to reach a lot of the country, and while the pandemic most certainly isn't over and we shouldn't treat it as such, seeing this movie felt like life was finally starting to revert back to the way things used to be. It's hard to explain, but this movie feels special to me because of that. That's a lot of weight for a movie to bear in terms of personal significance, and it would've been incredibly unfortunate if this movie didn't live up to the hype. So luckily, I absolutely adored this movie.

Yesterday, one of my friends told me about this movie. He said I’d love this movie, and that it was one of his favorites that he wanted me to watch as soon as I could. I made note of that and planned to watch it soon. Today, a completely different friend who is completely unrelated to the first friend, recommended me this very same film. She said it was one of her favorites, and that I’d love it as well. She highlighted the killer soundtrack, as well as the fact that she’d probably seen it at least 15 times. Now, this couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. I’d never heard of this movie before yesterday, and suddenly two very close people in my life both tell me to watch the same movie? Something about this film must be very good.

Well, they were right. And there is something — in fact, there are multiple things that are very good about this film.