Precious Aaliah

**emily henry u know ball.** —˖⋆☆ oh i was SO due for a romcom and this did it's jobbbb (the bar is now altitudes away) but let's be real these two have GOT to get their shit together. prefacing this i did watch the interview they had with jack edwards, and putting jack's praise of emily henry's writing in that together with me reading other people's reviews the ones mentioning the book, i would say it definitely felt like we could've had something bigger here. now it wouldn't be fair for me to judge without seeing both sides, so i'll put the book on shelved for now. but honestly props to the plot, it was cute and i'll always be down for a best friends to lovers arc.

**this checked NONE of my boxes ** —˖⋆☆ dakota johnson i'm very sorry but i don't understand how you're able to make every single line so uninteresting. and not to cut pedro pascal or chris evans slack, because what even were these performances?? the dialogue is borderline corny at times (i mean checkboxes, hello?), the deliveries were also questionable to say the least, and the ending did absolutely nothing. how do you people make what's supposed to be emotional so unaffecting?? don't get me wrong, i'm all for subtle acting but what tries to come off as calm and composed ends up coming off as nonchalant and indifferent, which for a romance is *very *ironic!! all criticisms aside, i did appreciate some of the shots in this. i like how they weren't afraid of playing with less common framing and movements while still keeping it look clean (?) props to the colorist for the grading and grain. nowwww this doesn't change the fact that i'm still going to watch past lives, but it's seriously not a good first impression of celine song's work 😭