I decided that it’s finally time to start getting caught up on reviewing some of the things I’ve watched/read this spring! I finished the Project Hail Mary audiobook, and it was a wonderful experience. It adds more background and context to a movie/story I already loved, and I highly recommended it. Also, don’t ask me how many times I’ve gone back to the theater to re-watch the Project Hail Mary movie because it’s…well…it’s a lot. I’ve also made some progress on my Project Hail Mary themed outfit for my regional con next year, complete with a plush Rocky.
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While the show itself is not new, I’m having an absolute blast discovering the series Resident Alien, where Alan Tudyk plays an alien who crashes to Earth near a small town in Colorado and tries to blend in with the locals by pretending to be a doctor. This show is absolutely hilarious, and I’m sad it took me so long to get into it! I just wrapped up the first season and am definitely planning to keep watching.
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I also got a chance to watch You, Me, & Tuscany in theaters, and as a fan of classic rom-coms, I thought this was a really fun movie. The plot is not ground-breaking and often stretches credibility, but I still loved it. Halle Bailey plays Anna, a young woman who travels to Italy, needs to find a place to stay, and crashes at what she thinks is the abandoned house of a man she met at a bar. Turns out, it’s not abandoned, and she meets this guy’s family, who end up thinking she is his fiancee. I’m simplifying a lot here, but the web of deception grows ever more complicated, as Anna and her fake fiance’s family form a genuine connection. Like I said, if you enjoy rom-coms, I think you too will be charmed by this one.
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As a proud millennial, how could I not catch The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters? I watched the original film in a format that is, admittedly, one of the worst ways to experience a movie for the first time: the screen on the back of an airplane seat. However, I still really enjoyed it. Over the years, this movie has maintained a devoted fan following, although 20 years is quite a time gap for a sequel. Meryl Streep is still great and chews just as much scenery as fashion magazine mogul Miranda Priestly. However, what made returning to this franchise most meaningful to me was watching the development for Anne Hathaway’s character, journalist Andy Sachs. Hathaway is just a few years older than I am, and it was interesting to see her return to a more “grown up” version of a character she played decades ago.
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Finally, even though I’m not nearly as deep into music fandom as I am into movies, I still wanted to watch the new movie Michael, about the early career of Michael Jackson. This film has quite a gap between critic and audience ratings (39% vs. 97% on Rotten Tomatoes), and has overall been a box office success. This feels more like a concert film sprinkled with vignettes from Michael’s life than a true biopic. And believe me, the music and dance sequences are incredible. Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson turns in a performance so spot-on it’s almost uncanny. However, critics have called out the film for glossing over the more complicated aspects of Michael’s legacy, leaving viewers with an incomplete picture of one of pop music’s biggest stars of all time.
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