yuqiboy

Solaris

A rare occurrence where I wish I had not read the source material prior to watching the adaptation.

I started reading Solaris by Stanislaw Lem in early 2025. I heard about this writer because I had read The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer and I was looking for similar books. A lot of people mentioned Solaris but often mentioned that it was a departure from Lem’s other works. So I read The Futurological Congress (the third book in a trilogy… why did I do that) in order to prepare myself for this writer’s style. I hated it. But because Solaris was supposed to be different, I decided to give it a chance.

The Big Lebowski

Cool movie. I’ve always heard this movie referenced but like other movies I haven’t seen that are also often referenced, I kind of just mentally redact anything that has to do with them. No more!

Immediately, I liked all the main characters and how they were presented: Dude, Walter, and Donny, a trio of random dudes in a bowling league. I don’t think we ever get to learn how they became friends or joined a team together, but they had great chemistry. I will say, whenever John Goodman’s character, Walter, is on screen, he kind, like… kills it every time. One of the lines that made me laugh so much was “Shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!” Also, I learned that The Beatles had a song called “I am a Walrus.”

One Battle After Another

I can’t explain why but this was also anti-abortion propoganda.

Ultimately, this movie was really fun to watch, especially the sound design and the soundtrack. I was absolutely blasted in the very back row of the Regal and the vibe was amazing.

However, it feels crazy that a month ago Assata Shakur dies and then this comes out. So interesting the biraciality of it all. The French 75 seem to be some kind of anarchist group with catchy and corny dialogue (whatever the hell Teyana Taylor was spouting at the beginning like “free borders, free bodies” blah). The two narrative anchors for the main characters (both on screen (Willa) and off (Perfidia)) are two white boys with very specific and opposing swag.

Godzilla 1998

It took me about 3 weeks and watching, like, 40 minutes at a time to get through this movie. Honestly, I did try to give this one a good try, but as soon as I saw Godzilla, I checked out. Why was he sooooooo T-Rex like??? Godzillita…

The only redeeming thing about this was Matthew Broderick fanboying over biology and Godzilla being an asexual diva. Ugh. I can’t believe I own this DVD and the guy at Sweet Pickle Books was like “Just watch… wink” after I bought it for $3.

Superman 2025

I was supposed to meet up with someone this day but he got sick !!! So I moped around a bunch and then decided to see this in the evening in a mood that was powerfully like the Asuka meme of “Alone on a Saturday night?”

Honestly, I really enjoyed it the whole time. I didn’t look at my watch once. Bald Nicholas Hoult was awesome.

Titane

Saw this at 10:30pm at Metrograph with Marcus. I came from a volleyball open play and told some people there what Titane was about according due me having read pretty much the entire Wikipedia plot summary. They did not give a shit. I almost didn’t make my C to F transfer but God loved me that night so I was just in time.

First few minutes were hot women on cars which is awesome, but I totally did not expect Alexia to be committing an impressive number and variety of murders within the first act. Shocking, disturbing but also fun, and funny.