I’m making progress, but I still feel like I’m letting myself down! Anyway, some good picks this weekend.
My Dead Friend Zoe – This drama has been on my radar for quite some time, but of course I waited until I almost had one day left on the rental to finally watch it. In all honesty, I was afraid this movie was going to be unbearably sad. Though I don’t think I watch an over abundance of war movies, all of the ones I have seen have typically made me shed a tear or two. To be fair, this one was no different, though I felt like it did hit me in an unexpected spot in the film. With all of that being said, this was an excellent drama capturing the grief experienced by one man after his time in the service. He reflected his past through the lens of two women, which I think just goes to show that this story defies gender. Merit can see her dead best friend from her time in Afghanistan. Obviously that’s a problem, but it becomes even more so when it starts detrimentally interfering with her life. I will say, when we do finally learn what happened to Zoe, it is maybe almost more sad that it doesn’t come as a surprise. Still, the facts that come up before the credits are staggering and heartbreaking. Highly recommend.
Superman – With another generically named Superman film, I had the bar set for this new iteration pretty low. Do I like James Gunn’s style of filmmaking and writing? Yes. Do I like David Corenswet, Nicholas Hoult, and Rachel Brosnahan? Yes. So realistically, there was nothing about this film that I shouldn’t like. Maybe I was salty that they didn’t hire many extras for filming in Cleveland. Either way, I walked out of this movie completely satisfied. Instead of getting the story where Clark Kent is busy hiding his identity, we are instead a few years out. People love him for saving the world, but he’s just recently ran into a snag. it also appears that his personal morals are interfering with proper protocols, especially when it comes to some clown-like dictator trying to take over a smaller country. Sound familiar…? So for that reason, I also like how much this story parallels our current, scary, and sad reality. Though I doubt the message here will change close-minded people’s outlook, I would also be surprised if they even clocked the parallels. Still, it comes across smart, and for that, I was happy. Not to mention all of Gunn’s previous collaborators showing up in any small way they can! This was definitely a refreshing take on an old IP.
K-Pop Demon Hunters – I am so mad I didn’t get the chance to watch this new Netflix movie last weekend, so you know this is what I turned on to round out the weekend! Are girl groups my particular jam in K-Pop? Not at the moment, but it didn’t stop this film from reminding me of childhood shows that absolutely slapped. Huntrix is a super famous K-Pop group who also happen to be the most recent demon hunters in charge of saving all human souls with their voices. They are just about ready to release the song to close out demons from the real world for good, but a crafty, old demon named Jinu has made other plans with his master. He, and four other fellow demons take form as a super hot new boy group set to dethrone Huntrix from the top spot in fans’ hearts. There’s more to Jinu than meets the eye, and such is also the case for Huntrix’s leader, Rumi. The songs in here are fully formed, and some of them are pretty catchy. But if you were ever a fan of The Powerpuff Girls, Sailor Moon, or Totally Spies!, then you absolutely must watch this! I hope there is a future more of this story, or at least something else from the collective creative team, because they totally hit all of the right notes. (See what I did there?).