Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: May 2024 (Patreon)

Alan:

Hello Heroes!

May! Sooooo much happened this month! We’re making progress with Ashes to Ashes (CT Studios 2024 film!) and we got to go on a super-secret trip to PIXAR to meet people, have our minds blown, and watch their new movie! It’s really good, surprise.

What I’m reading!

• Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - by Peter Biskind. Dude has an axe to grind with blockbuster filmmaking. Like, his conclusion is basically: the '70s were the only good time to make a movie in America, but only if it was an angry, bleak, esoteric look at characters people don’t like. Jaws and Star Wars ruined cinema, and Steven Spielberg is an idiot. So I have a hard time taking the rest of his reporting at his word, since his conclusions are so bonkers. But it’s got loads of fun stories in it!

• Dark Age - by Pierce Brown. I thought this series of Roman-Empire-In-Space books was going to wrap up, but it turns out he’s writing at least two more of them. They’re pretty bleak, and this one was a bit of a slog, if I’m honest. I mean, in most stories, especially epic-heroism stories, you need to hurt your characters, but this just felt gratuitous.

What I’m watching!

• The Fall Guy. What a fun movie! It had tons of inside jokes for film crews, but (I’m assured by friends who have nothing to do with filmmaking) it was just an approachable action romance if you don’t know all the movie esoterica. But also: MORE Action Romances! Loved it. Wish it made more at the box office so we could get more movies like this.

• Furiosa. I went in with high expectations, though not expecting the same level of masterpiece that we got with Mad Max: Fury Road. And you know what… it delivered! It’s not as “good” as Fury Road, but it’s an excellent prequel, which is REALLY hard to do. I hate direct prequels. They almost never add anything or do things well with the characters. This was GREAT. I wish it made more at the box office so we could get more movies like this.

• Speed Racer (first time on the big screen) I’ve seen this movie something like 10 times, but I missed it in theaters in 2008, so this was my virgin big-screen experience. It did NOT disappoint! Lots of fans, and some new fans of the movie. We all laughed, cried, and cheered at the correct moments. It’s such a crowd-pleasing film. I LOVED it. Wish it made more at the box office so we could get more movies like this.

Geez, do I just have really weird taste? Or do people like the same things I like, but no one goes to the movies anymore? Is my entire life’s ambition meaningless, because people don’t care about going to the movies, so I should just give up on the entire artform, and make TikTok videos instead? How depressing.

Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)

Jono:

Hey all! How was May for you? With summer movie season kicking off, I've been out to the theater quite a bit. LOVED The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and am super sad it's underperforming, because holy crap is that a perfect date move! The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was a solid continuation of that series, even if it did feel a lot like it was setting the table for an even-better couple of films in a new trilogy.

Alan and I caught Furiosa together, and while it doesn't match Mad Max: Fury Road (and in fairness, is smart enough not to try) it's still very good. It does what a prequel ought to do, which is enrich the film(s) it's setting up even more. I do feel that Fury Road is now an even better film with the context of Furiosa, which is a banger of an action movie in its own right. Anya-Taylor Joy crushes it, and Chris Hemsworth needs to do more villains!

My kids went to see If without me, but they all want to go again, so I'll let you know what I think once that happens.

I'm taking a break from clinical reading to enjoy the original trilogy of Star Wars novels. Super fun to read the original context/backstory George Lucas had in mind and see the ways it's evolved over time. 

What about you lovely folks? What have you been watching and reading this month?