My ★★★ review of It Might Get Loud on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6kpYLp

"Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals, no matter how great they are or were... Led Zeppelin are just a band" - Scroobius Pip

Not that this film's guilty of that, it's more the Youtube commenters and Letterboxd reviewers. But lord knows they don't need to be encouraged...

In the same way Guggenheim's 'An Inconvenient Truth' got me pumped about saving the environment whilst offering little to know advice on how to actually do that, 'It Might Get Loud' always has me reaching for my guitar, only to quickly realise I've no clue how to play like its 3 subjects.

Still it's nice to hear these guys talking about their passion. I just wish there'd be more back and forth, especially between White and the Edge since they seem to have such incompatible philosophies. This should be guitarist-Avengers, but feels more like 3 separate (albeit good) rock-docs stitched together.

Ryan: Doctor can I use a gun? Thirteen: Why can't you just hit people like everyone else? [from The Long Firm]

My ★★★★ review of Past Lives on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/60ST9X

Things I didn't like: the idea that two people would put so much stock in a crush they both had when they were tweens; Arthur's performative white guilt

Things I did like: basically everything else; the music; the framing of certain shots esp. the one through the subway carriage window; Hae Sung's shirts; the last thing he says to Na Young before getting in the Uber - what a beautiful bittersweet sentiment.

My ★★½ review of Oppenheimer on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6dWZ03

I finally finished watching it... on a plane! The first time, I missed the first 5 minutes due to car parking difficulties and the last 30 minutes due to boredom.

And I feel exactly the same way. Bits and pieces of it were exciting, eg. the bomb test scene (probably because it wasn't intercut with 3 different flashbacks). There's a great 2-hour film in there but it's buried under filler. RDJ's a great actor but, following the sky-high stakes of the Los Alamos segment, the Oppenheimer/Strauss rivalry seemed an anticlimactic note to end on.

And I found the wannabe-Sorkin dialogue really obnoxious.

I'm playing Red Dead Redemption 2 and I really wish there was an 'apologise' button because I keep accidentally kicking men off their horses or strangling them to death...

Had a really bad day, so I need a really good double feature

[during Gus's visit to the DEA] Hank: The group that I supervise focuses on methamphetamine which is a growing problem in the country, unfortunately. Gus: *shaking head* Terrible. Gus: *internal monologue* Terri-brill!

[from Peep Show]

Fifteen: [holding baby Ruby] Fifteen: [to no one in particular] This is the future - black men holding white babies! And you'd better get used to it... Fifteen: Because it's very, very lovely! [from Peep Show]

*after the Pandorica speech* Eleven: That went brilliantly! It probably looked like I was actually going to fight them all, when actually I was going to use Rory as a human shield. [from Peep Show]

extra dramatic

Thirteen: I can't spend all my time thinking about myself any more. I've got to think about the other people. Yas: Like your companions? Thirteen: No, I mean people that's having injustices done to them. Thirteen: Like women and midgets and such... [from Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox story]

Paul: “may thy knife chip and shatter”

Feyd, internally: what the fuck? He’s got a signature gang sign before a fight AND a catch phrase? I usually skip straight ahead to killing people. Does he always do this? Is it weird I’m not doing this? Okay what is my response going to be? You know if I win this fight I’m absolutely using this on the next guy. Oh shit everybody is looking at me, quick say something

“May THY knife chip and shatter” fucking nailed it Feyd…

Some of the people I've met on my US road trip include:

another customer at the Atlanta airport car rental who made the staff get all star struck. he turned to us and said humbly "I sing a bit"

a teenage boy who walked into Starbucks with his mum, wearing a balaclava covered with pictures of uzis and AK47s. later we got into the lift with them, and he asked quite genially "how y'all doing this morning?"

an Alabaman who looked like a heterosexual Jessie Tyler Ferguson on his own in a Gatlinburg Irish-themed bar. we talked about the merits of joining a white supremacist gang if in prison. again, very friendly

Paul: You know my middle name's actually Mitchell. I never thought much about it but suddenly it's so obvious... Chani: What is? Paul: Surely you see it? 'Mitchell'? or... 'Myth Child'! 'Paul the Child of Myth'. Like I'm the messiah Chani: Oh fuck off Paul: The Myth Child forgives you. [from That Mitchell & Webb Look]

*at the start of Heaven Sent* Twelve: This is gonna be like the Shawshank Redemption, but with more tunneling through shit and no fucking redemption. [from The Thick Of It]