Aaron

paid $50 for a popcorn a diet coke and the opportunity to hear a packed theater in new york gasp at the charlie kirk drop and it was worth every penny

due to the vagaries of library wait times and the limited nature of 4dx screenings i only managed to make it as far in the book as when he makes it into the whale before seeing the movie so i have an odd incomplete perspective on the adaptation here. what struck me in the portion that overlapped was that the book has a sense of awe at the majesty of the architeuthis and the sperm whale that the movie for the most part doesn’t really try to capture with a couple exceptions — the moment when jay sees the night sky in the movement of the whale’s stomach walls is a notable and really beautiful one, and the echolocation scene was also visually interesting though in a different way.  what the movie lacks in poetry it more than makes up for in the nastiness and claustrophobia of being inside the whale. it’s gross as hell in there! a really big fan of the lensing it does when it gets close up on abrams's face to really drill it home (and in general a broad shoutout to abrams for making it work throughout the movie).  the commitment to the grittiness inside the whale makes the final act a bit of an abrupt turn; i can imagine it fitting perfectly into the language of the novel but it’s not really surprising that the audience i was in didn’t respond positively. it generally worked ok for me, but the final resolution (specifically the moment where brolin is holding baby jay) felt a little ham handed and perfunctory. kind of goofy to give him a slumdog millionaire backstory. regardless as someone who participated in the american mock trial association during the 2012–2013 academic school year, it was a thrill to see plot critical nitrogen narcosis on the big screen. 4dx was pretty well handled! in conversation with godzilla minus one; generally knew to save it for the moments where it really mattered, and even some of the more unnecessary effects had a bit of thought to them (specifically thinking of jay and his mom driving home from the cemetery early on and how the chairs not only vibrated but bumped on a cadence similar to a car). i never would have guessed the monstro level of kingdom hearts was so accurate!

forgive me lord for i have sinned (laughed at the tubi original movie millennial hunter (2023)) a movie about the redemptive grace of being gen z

i wonder if concrete thinks about #metoo  firmly on the “john wilson is a humanist” side of this debate. biggest laugh in my theater was the reveal of who was at the dinner honoring kim k.