The Starlight Journal

I’m quite bummed at myself that it took me way longer than I expected to finally get to watching Elemental. I consider Pixar to still be my all-time favorite movie studio, despite it no longer being in what is perhaps the greatest streak of films a studio has ever had that the mid-90s to the early 2010s brought us, it’s rare to see a bad Pixar film, yet Elemental was in an odd spot for me. I took my time seeing it after not being wowed by the trailers, but finally seeing it, I liked it a lot. The animation is flatly gorgeous, as is the wonderful score by Thomas Newman, and seeing Pixar go all out with the rom-com genre was lovely. They pulled no punches here, this was a straight up rom-com in the form of a universe inhabited by elemental beings, and it was a joy to watch. I bought into Wade and Ember’s romance almost from the beginning, and the scene where they first touch hands is one of the best scenes of the year. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of some of Pixar’s finest works, but it definitely is another win for the studio.

My goodness, what a movie. This goes down as one of the most beautiful, enduring, yet heartwrenching romances I have ever seen. A truly perfect title – as you look between the wonders of your childhood and what life has brought you to in the present. The video call scenes over Skype brought me back to the days where I’d stay up all night taking to friends on there, yet also doubled as some of the most effective romance scenes I have seen in ages. Without a doubt one of my favorite films of 2023. My emotions may never recover.

So yes, if this is your first time visiting this blog, these journals aren’t just detailing movies I’ve seen for the first time. This is far from that, and is where my mini Ryan Gosling marathon began. Why did I go on this marathon? Because I’m in love with Ryan Gosling, simple as that.

With La La Land, this movie reminds me of a very specific time in my life. When it released, it was a rare film that changed my life and the way I view movies. I saw it in the theaters 3 times, I wrote college papers on this film, La La Land was part of my identity then like Star Wars is. There was a solid 2 years of my life where I watched this movie every few months, and life was better then. This is one of the best movies ever made, and an easy entry in my top 10 of all time.

Another 2016 gem from Gosling, this is often thrown around as an example of original movies that sadly not enough people saw when it came out. I see why this is often seen as a modern day cult classic. The 70s setting fits this movie like a glove, Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are dynamic and hilarious together, a young Angourie Rice (who I’ll be honest I forgot was in this) is the perfect addition to the movie as Gosling’s daughter, just about everything works wonders. Gosling’s 1st scene of waking up in the bathtub clad in full suit is one of the best character introductions of the decade. With how awesome this movie is, how Shane Black followed this up with one of the most baffling movies I’ve ever seen in 2018’s reboot of The Predator (remember how that movie had an “autism is a superpower” subplot???) is one of life’s greatest questions.

I needed to add one more to the Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone pairing gauntlet. This had been on my watchlist for literal years, and getting to it finally made me do the Leo DiCaprio pointing meme every time I saw a Gosling scene that has been GIF’d to hell for years. This was a really nice watch. While part of me wishes the storyline between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone was the main plot of the film, and I’m not just saying that because I love them together, I do think it’s the best part of the film, it’s still a really sweet little movie. The cast is great. There’s memorable scenes throughout. If you’re looking for a good romcom to watch one night, and you wanna see a stacked cast deal with the complex world of love, check this out. Now someday I’ll have to get to watching Gangster Squad to complete the Gosling x Stone trilogy.

My mini Gosling marathon concluded with of course, one of my favorite movies of the decade. The Golden Globes drama had just gone down, so with Jo Koy’s tone-deaf “jokes” ringing in my head, my 1st at-home watch for the movie was needed. It’s still a masterpiece. What Greta does here with this movie is just unreal, and absolutely without a doubt should have been nominated by the Academy. Yes, the movie about “the doll with big boobies” is one of the best written, acted, and directed movies of my lifetime. Ryan Gosling is my pick for Best Supporting Actor and I’ll stick with that.

We are all forever Kenough.

Alright, so how the hell did I go from a marathon of Ryan Gosling movies to this? I don’t really talk about wrestling on my socials, mainly just cause there isn’t much crossover between that and the other fandoms I’m vocally apart of, yet it’s been a big part of most of my life. So yeah, one night on Discord with friends lead us to watching the WWE and Scooby-Doo crossover movie from a decade ago that you probably didn’t know existed until you got to this point of the article. Yeah, um, it’s weird. The two brands really don’t mesh well, it doesn’t really get to be a classic Scooby story or a wrestling heavy story so instead it’s just a weird combo that while is a bit endearing just seeing surreal things like the Mystery gang being saved from a falling boulder by John Cena of all people, it still misses the mark on what you could do with such a bonkers crossover. Simply put after this, I was looking for a better wrestling movie, and a better Scooby movie…

… Yeah someone the Scooby/WWE crossover movie wasn’t even the worst Scooby-Doo movie I watched that night. I really don’t know what happened here. The 1st 15 minutes or so, where we see Shaggy, Scooby, and the gang as kids was cute, fun, and looked to be a nice modern-day adaptation of something like A Pup Named Scooby-Doo! Then they skip ahead 10 years, the cast gets older, and I almost immediately started to tune out. This should’ve been an easy layup of a movie, a simple basic Scooby mystery for the big screen, but it’s not even close to that. Barely a mystery to be had, they try to jam so many other classic Hanna-Barbera properties into the movie to where it just becomes a bloated, boring mess. I was honestly begging for John Cena to show up in this one, at least it would’ve had some personality in it. Just a bad misfire that could’ve been something really charming.

Another Discord watch of a movie I had never seen before now, this movie is known more now for 2 things: the fact that the director is now the head of Paramount Pictures, and that this is the movie that lead to lead actor David Arquette becoming WCW Champion in 2000. Yes, you heard that right. A wrestling company put their world championship on an actor. For those unaware, would you be shocked to find out that they went out of business a year later? Look, this one is campy as all hell, is a clear commercial for a company that would be bought out a little over a year after the film’s release, and Arquette, god love him, is quite annoying here, I can’t lie I got some enjoyment out of it even if I wouldn’t go far enough to call it a good movie. BUT, the soundtrack ruled and those last 20 minutes go way harder than they have any right going. My main issue, like most movies based on wrestling, is they can’t decide in universe whether wrestling is real or fake, switching up on that multiple times in the same movie. At least my quest for a movie that treats the business with true respect and care would come soon enough in the month.

God damn man, a Godzilla movie really went and made me cry in the theater. The black and white cut of the movie is a marvel in itself, I hadn’t seen the color version before this watch, and I’m having trouble picturing what that is even like with this movie, because this was like it was shot in black and white. Perhaps the best monster movie that has been made since the original Jaws in 1975. The acting, the visual effects (on a damn $15 MILLION BUDGET. No more excuses for Hollywood blockbusters looking like shit), the score(!!!!), and of course Godzilla himself being at his most terrifying, everything is perfect here. I loved the human characters so much that every time Godzilla showed up, I was angry cause I didn’t want to lose any of them. This is movie making. I could watch this 30 more times. Best Godzilla movie we’ve ever had.

So, uh, that bathtub scene y’all kept talking about…..

Yeah definitely weren’t kidding about that one. Somehow though, it only ended up being #3 on my list of most fucked up scenes in this movie. Definitely not the kind of movie I expected it to be going into it and going off of the first half hour or so, but hats off to everyone involved for making another biting example of eat the rich brought to you in the form of Barry Keoghan being an absolute weasel for 2 hours. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go wash my eyes out with bleach.

I was very worried I wouldn’t be able to catch this one in theaters, but almost at the last moment, we made the 40 minute drive to find the one theater still playing The Iron Claw near me, and thank god for that. I’ve known the tragic story of the Von Erich Family forever. Being a wrestling guy, I knew what I was about to witness going into this movie. Did that stop the movie from hitting me like a moving train? Absolutely not.

As a film lover, not much doesn’t work here. Zac Efron is outstanding and should have gotten an Oscar nom for his performance as Kevin Von Erich. Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich came close to stealing the show for me. The way they told the story of this wrestling family broiled in tragedy made for an excellent feature film, and had little moments you could only do in a movie that made me lose it. As a wrestling lover, this portrayed professional wrestling better than any movie I’ve ever seen. From how it’s brought to the screen, to little things like the look of the movie and how it truly feels straight out of the territorial promotions that the Von Erichs made their name in, I was blown away. This is a triumph of a movie that I hate got snubbed at the Oscars.