The Starlight Journal

I kicked off April by taking a weekend vacation with my girlfriend. We are both massive fans of Emma Seligman’s second film Bottoms, but my girlfriend had never seen Shiva Baby prior to this trip, so I had to show her this wild ride of an anxiety-filled movie. This movie works so well upon rewatch, mainly because I had time to focus on the technical aspects of the movie and the brilliant performances and direction, whereas the first time I watched I was too busy wanting to pull my hair out from all the stress. This is one of the quintessential films of the Covid-era of film for me. Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman are truly one of the new apex Actress-Director combos we have in this industry these days, and this movie is just about as good of a debut behind the camera that you could ask for.

Our movie night continued, but this time the tables were turned. While my girlfriend had seen this Sydney Sweeny-Glen Powell romcom that surprisingly took the world by storm, I had not, so I went in hoping to at least by entertained with a half-decent romcom. And I can’t lie, I did enjoy myself watching this. It is a really dumb movie, and calling it good might be a stretch, but the chemistry between Sweeney and Powell is absolutely there, it is a very hot movie, and I did get quite a few solid laughs out of the movie. The movie’s attempts at Shakespeare references hidden throughout (yes this is an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing for those unaware) ranged from playfully clever to gleefully unsubtle, and really added little to nothing to the film, if you didn’t know this was a Shakespeare adaptation going in, you probably wouldn’t have clued yourself in by the end. And yes, “Unwritten” has not left my head since watching this.

This film can be summed up by simply stating: “Fuck yeah, Dev Patel!”

This movie just kicks so much ass. The story gripped me from the start, Dev does such a masterful job both in front of and behind the camera that I’m shocked that this is his directorial debut just from how much he understands what makes a kickass action film. You check the boxes of insane, fist-pumping moments, this film has them all. The film does rely a bit too much on shaky cam during the first half of the film that I do have to dock my score a little because it took me out of the film, but aside from that, well done. Once we hit the hour mark, this movie clicks into an unreal gear and never lets up from there.

It just kicks so much ass, man.

This was that rewatch that started by accident I referenced earlier. I was doing some writing in the living room (I believe it was last month’s late film journal too!), and what do you know, Prisoner of Azkaban was on TV, so I said fuck it and caught the last hour of what is my favorite fantasy film of all time. It does kill me that I don’t feel comfortable talking more about the Harry Potter movies on my platforms, because my hatred for the author of the books in recent years has overshadowed what is, aside from Star Wars, the franchise that has had the most impact on my life. I have made peace with loving and discussing the movies and universe as separate from the books and You-Know-Who as a whole, these creatives and actors don’t deserve to have their works that have impacted generations shamed to history for no fault for their own. Even if it was just an hour, this is one of the most special movies of my lifetime. It’s a perfect fantasy story, it’s a perfect adaptation, it’s a perfect film. And when I get to discussing it again in my Potter rewatch, I will gush about it more.

Fuck J.K. Rowling.

There’s a simple formula here. You give Guy Ritchie the action/spy genre to play with, and he’ll deliver a damn good movie each time. Like The Gentlemen from right before Covid halted the world for a few years, this is just such a great time at the movies. The fantastic cast and action scenes, along with the World War II setting and (very loosely adapted) true story work wonders as Guy Ritchie truly understood the assignment here.

If you like action movies, if you like war movies, if you like Henry Cavill, I highly recommend.

Talk about a life-changing movie.

Perhaps the most tense, and definitely the sexiest movie of the year, possibly the decade, goes to Luca Guadagnino’s tour-de-force of acting and directing. This might seriously be both the best romance and the best sports movie of the decade simultaneously. I spoke at length about Zendaya’s performance on here before, and I still am fully of the belief she will be in possession of an Oscar this time next year for her performance here. Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist? Fuck yes. So damn good. Such great chemistry (THE CHURRO SCENE!!!!) Cinematography so good I simply don’t know how they filmed some of the shots during the tennis matchups. If 2024 does not end with a Zendaya movie being at the top of my list, I will be shocked.

Read my review of the film here!

Melissa Barrera the ultimate modern-day Final Girl you are. You team Melissa up with Radio Silence, and I simply don’t think you can miss. The directing duo has made hit after hit with me with Ready or Not and their two Scream films, all of which were instrumental in me fully coming around on loving the horror genre after not being a fan for most of my life. Abigail both hits the same beats that their prior films did in being one hell of an enjoyable slasher film, while also acting as a new take on the vampire genre, putting a new spin on the Daughter of Dracula story with one hell of an enjoyable cast. Dan Stevens is great in anything he’s in, Kathryn Newton continues to thrive in the horror genre, my heart ached every second Angus Cloud was on screen, and my oh my Alisha Weir’s performance as the titular child vampire was one of my favorites of the year. She ate every second of screentime up, and is one of my favorite movie villains of the year. The ending was a bit too convoluted for my tastes for it to fully work for me, but dammit I really dug this one.

Spyglass can go to hell for what they did to Melissa, but her and Radio Silence will be just fine without Scream. Free Palestine.

Now it’s time that my Potter rewatch fully began. I have seen this movie, and what I’ll discuss in my next entry, so many times over the years that I’m quite certain they are permanently etched in my brain. Sometimes I don’t even watch it when I do rewatches simply because I know the movie by heart, but it’s still, pun intended, pure magic. A defining piece of the 2000s and nostalgia. It is very long, but it’s such a special movie. When I watch the first two Potter movies, I just go back to a special, happier place. They scream childhood memories for me like very few movies do.

Now take everything I just said about Sorcerer’s Stone, but it’s better. Have I seen this one close to 100 times? Yes. Is it very long? Yes. Does it repeat a lot of steps the 1st film does? Yes. However, it takes everything Sorcerer’s does great, and for me, improves on them to make an even better, still generationally appealing movie. Something about Columbus’ direction and John Williams’ score that feels like the ultimate comforting warm blanket of nostalgia. Even if I enjoy the later Potter films more, these first two just fill me with extreme happiness upon each watch. You get Kenneth Branagh and Jason Isaacs giving incredibly slimy, love to hate performances, you get the wonder of the Wizarding World expanded upon, and what I consider to be a top 5 movie ending of all time. With all this, you have yourself a staple of my early love of movies.