Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – ★★★

Mamma Mia! Here we go again poster

Why do the real actual humans they found to play the young versions of Sophie’s dads all look like bad de-aging CGI? Is it the wigs?

I mostly disliked young Meryl Streep and her friends as much as I disliked old Meryl Streep and her friends.

Andy Garcia appears to be playing his same character from Ocean’s 11 and looms over the whole movie like there is a villain turn coming any moment.

Yet, it was fun. I legit lol’d at the Titanic gag.

Rating: 3.0 stars

? Crossposted on Letterboxd
? Watch Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again on Netflix

Light from Uncommon Stars – ★★★★

Light from Uncommon Stars

Consistently surprisingly weird (in great ways) with some extremely well fleshed out, endearing characters that I was rooting for all the way until the end. I thought the author Ryka Aoki had lost me there for a minute near the end but there’s a couple final twists that really wrap up this combo of science fiction, fantasy, classical music, and donuts with a completely satisfying ending.

Rating: 4 stars

? Crossposted on Goodreads
? Buy Light from Uncommon Stars on Bookshop

The Big Shave

This film does a good job representing how I felt every time I shaved and also why I have had some variation of a beard since Covid started.

Truly hard to watch. ? I kept having to hit the 10 second skip button or turn away. Which I guess means this Scorsese kid might be pretty good at what he was trying to do?

Rating: ??‍♂️

? Crossposted on Letterboxd
? Watch The Big Shave on Max

The Boy and the Heron – ★★★★

The Boy and The Heron

Fantastically beautiful in both expected and unexpected ways. The animation in the fire scenes was remarkable and surprisingly evocative and scary. Not our favorite Miyazaki but the kids and I both really enjoyed it, though I wonder how much of it they followed in parts. My 8 year old is not exactly as familiar with World War II and metaphors for grief as most folks on Letterboxd.

Maybe seeing in the theater without distractions is why it worked better for me on first watch than some of Miyazaki’s other more fantastical, less narratively straightforward films have. Looking forward to rewatching it again to see if it rises any higher in my Ghibli rankings.

This is actually my first ever Miyazaki to see at release in theater. The third one on the big screen this year though as we saw Nausicaä and Mononoke as part of Ghibli Fest this year. Will definitely make it to a few more when the next one rolls around.

Rating: 4.0 stars

? Crossposted on Letterboxd
? Watch The Boy and the Heron in theaters

13: The Musical – ★★

13 the musical

This was rough. Best song by far is in the trailer and in general this is just awkward and sub average musical. A huge portion of this story and multiple bad songs are about the entire school of 12-13 year olds openly talking and planning so two of them can kiss including the two of them that want to kiss. It feels like a story about 13 year olds written by an 8 year old.

Based on other reviews they butchered the stage version so maybe I’ll get a chance to watch that sometime.

Rating: 2.0 stars

? Crossposted on Letterboxd
? Watch 13: The Musical on Netflix

The Sword in the Stone – ★★★★

The Sword in the Stone

I think this may have been the only hard plastic Disney VHS we had when I was a kid, but not sure how many times I actually watched it because Madam Mim scared the ever living crap out of me.

I had forgotten that this is just Merlin and Wart goofing around for 72 fun minutes before he actually finds the sword in last seven and becomes king for half a scene. I also forgot all the jokes about how Merlin knows the future, some of which resulted in some lol moments for my 8 year old watching with me.

Story and songs nowhere near as strong of some of the movies preceding it, but nostalgia factor for me still made it a quite enjoyable watch. That Madam Mim is still scary though.

Rating: 4 stars

? Crossposted on Letterboxd
? Watch The Sword in the Stone on Disney+