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Showing posts from September, 2024

Barons by Austin Frerick

Frerick does a great, readable, well-cited job laying out the history and effects of corporate consolidation in US food systems, and a nice quick job at the end laying out possible remedies, but like everything else I’m always left wanting more investigation into who and what is actually preventing those obvious remedies from enactment. 

Emily the Criminal (2022)

Aubrey Plaza as a serious actor is a little off-putting at first but it’s like sandler in uncut gems it turns out she can do it, and do it well, and altho this crime drama caper is stressful the whole way thru it’s also smart, and deep, and full of sharp social commentary. 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Considering how bad sequels usually are, I’m as surprised as everyone else to admit that this was a lot of fun - my one complaint is that a bunch of the dialogue from the first half was really obvious and throwaway, and more importantly my other complaint is that there are too many characters and they don’t get developed to any depth, so altho I do think that’s gonna be enough to keep this movie from achieving the cult status of its forebear, the practical effects and acting were really lovely. 

tinker tailor soldier spy (2011)

It’s probably just because I’m tired and faceblind, but this movie felt like a pastiche of barely-connected vignettes about spies, building up to a barely noticeable climax, which is funny because I loved the book and I think the movie faithfully captures le carrĂ©’s class and subtlety. 

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Didn’t know much about this classic sci-fi series going into it, and at first I was asking myself if this book influenced star trek or vice versa, but about halfway thru it turns up the difficulty, intensity, and depth significantly and just never looks back, it honestly ends up being a very satisfying novel, transcends its genre with ease, really just an all-round winner.