well i was going to do a 2024 wrap up but now it’s suddenly April and it feels too late lol, so have some more thoughts on recently watched things instead


anime

Sakamoto Days
studio: TMS Entertainment
action, comedy
Aight my initial thoughts that this kind of has the wacky, found-family, over-the-top silly action vibes of Spy x Family were absolutely on point, and I’m all for it. This one is just good ol’ fashioned hijinks fun.

Solo Leveling: Arise (season 2)
studio: A-1 Pictures
action/adventure, fantasy
Okay, okay, fine. Season 2 was pretty damn great, let’s be honest. I’m in, let’s gooooooo!!

Sk8 the Infinity Extra Part (OVA)
studio: Bones
comedy, sports
It may have only been one episode, but HOT DAMN I MISSED MY SILLY GAY SKATER BOYS. As a matchablossom fan, I ate. Thank you very much. Now where is the real Season 2 you cowards.

Devil May Cry
studio: Studio Mir
action, supernatural, fantasy
Aight well I know there are many Very Strong Opinions floating around on this show right now. As someone who has NOT played the games at all, I did enjoy it enough to binge the entire 8-episode drop in one fell swoop. But I totally understand the complaints I’ve read from folks who absolutely hated it and/or were pissed off about it lol. The modern parallels were pretty heavy-handed and over-the-top, and it seems like it strayed a pretty damn long ways from some of the games’ core lore, but as a blindly ignorant viewer who showed up because I know OF the main DMC cast and they teased me with the 90s and 00s rock of my youth and Studio Mir does have some snappy action sequences, uh. I personally had a good time?

I’m actually still a bit behind on Apothecary Diaries, Blue Box, and My Happy Marriage, but have been saving catching up on these as binge drops since I think they all do a little better in that regard (they’re all a little slow-build-with-good-payoff types, and tbh I do better binging that style). Also have a bunch of series I’m SUPER excited for coming up this spring!! GIMME LAZARUS ;A;b


movies

the amateur
director: James Hawes
action, spy, thriller
I actually just saw this tonight on an early access screening (since I’ll be out of town when it officially hits theaters), and HOOBOY honestly 2025 has given us some GOODIES on the non-franchise front this year!! Intense, angsty, thrilling spy action flick with heart (and a few very well-timed one-liners to lighten the mood). Rami Malek is phenomenal in the lead role, and honestly I would absolutely have loved to watch an expanded version of this as a TV mini series or something. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily groundbreaking, but I love the twist that our main—while a very skilled CIA desk jockey—isn’t exactly a seasoned field agent, but has the determination to carry out his revenge regardless. So good. I definitely want to watch this one again.

black bag
director: Steven Soderbergh
spy, thriller
It’s a spy thriller spring haha. Whereas The Amateur heavily focuses on action and revenge, Black Bag takes on a more heady, whodunit approach to the genre. Still very intense, but with less action and more sharp dialogue. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender are so, SO good in this, as are all of the supporting cast. It feels very on brand for Soderbergh, which honestly was very refreshing to watch. I’d love to see this one again as well just to see if I could pick up on anything I’d missed during the first go-round.

mickey 17
director: Bong Joon Ho
scifi, dark comedy
You wanna talk spicy socio-political commentary from BJH again? Here you go hahaha. Oh mannnnn, like the fact that this was filmed 2+ years ago is wild. If you recall the uncomfortable, building tension in Parasite… this has a lot of the same undertones too, but goes a little on the nose (might have been unintentional at the time?) with its themes. BJH’s style of dark humor brings great levity at much-needed moments, and all you can really do is laugh at the absurdity when it’s that close to parts of reality. Wild and unsettling but ends with something satisfying for a change, and Robert Pattinson did a fantastic job in this. Also you gotta wonder if that’s really his ass we keep seeing over and over again.

ash
director: Flying Lotus
scifi, horror, thriller
Okay so uh, confession time haha. This is actually the very first true horror movie I’ve seen in theaters. Normally I’m really not into horror films, but this one had a very interesting concept (honestly my very first thought on seeing promos was “Among Us is a movie now?!” and truthfully it wasn’t super far off) and I figured I might enjoy this one. AND HONESTLY? I DID. It had all the great trappings of a horror B-movie (read: visual effects probably cost them a cup of coffee) that has some excellent direction, clever costumers, and creative set work. I enjoyed the mystery and intrigue of piecing together the story in fragments with our main, and of course it wouldn’t be a proper horror film without some over-the-top gore and slime in an extended ending action sequence. All in all, I really enjoyed this one.

the alto knights
director: Barry Levinson
crime, drama, biography
Hey. Listen. You give me mafia stories, I’m signing up. Based on true stories? Put me down for double. Robert DeNiro plays both of the main characters in this, which is kinda wild at first, but they absolutely feel and sound like totally different people. The insights and stories from the Prohibition-era underworld are always fascinating to me, and this movie honestly did a great job of breaking down the makings and politics of the broader American mafia kings. I know this flopped pretty badly in the box office, but honestly I thought it was a pretty solid movie and worth a watch.

last breath
director: Alex Parkinson
survival, thriller, biography
True stories of job disasters in hazardous occupations. Always fascinating. So this one I kinda went into blind other than knowing it was about a submarine venture that went sideways. And yes, it is! But honestly I had no idea that there was a job that involved deep sea diving for pipe maintenance, which if I’d actually used half a braincell, makes complete sense that this is a thing. And that it’s supremely dangerous. The entire diving process was super fascinating to me though. Also, while the movie itself is pretty intense, it isn’t super long (which I appreciated)—gotta love a concisely-told story tbh. Loved it, and also Simu Liu and Woody Harrelson are both gems!!

captain america: brave new world
director: Julius Onah
superhero, action
Okay so I definitely went to see this primarily because I love Anthony Mackie’s Falcon. And their promo team did a really good job of making this seem like it might be okay. I wanted to like this one. I really did. But it was just… not a good movie. Definitely felt like it was made just to milk the Marvel cash cow, which is such a shame because I still really enjoyed both Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres as characters, and we do get a moment of our buddy Bucky, but Harrison Ford honestly seemed like he was resentful to be there. The overall plot and how this movie fits into the MCU just felt so contrived and weak, almost like they used AI to write the bulk of it. All budget, no heart, which is such a shame… and not a good sign for the broader MCU.



And with that, I’m finally off on a long vacation to knock some biggies off my bucket list (plus I had a milestone birthday so I’m treating myself for a change)… honestly I am so stressed about it because this world we’re in is wild and I’m so nervous in a way I haven’t been before, but I’m also excited because Bucket List and new experiences, y’know? Fingers crossed for smooth sailing! And for smooth packing. Packing is the worst, how do you pack for a 3-week multi-destination trip i stg—