Stuff I Liked In February

Spoiler-free discussion of stuff I’ve been into! This is not everything I’ve checked out this month, just the stuff that has really occupied my mind.

If you want links or PDFs or my copies or whatever lemme know, I am so so happy to share :)

I realize this is an incredibly long list and also just the tip of the iceberg of media I’ve been consuming and like. I don’t know man. This is the first semester in a while I’ve actually been on top of everything and I’m still knee deep in this shit. I think it’s just like a priority in my life. I do schedule days out of my week to do nothing but check out stuff I like because I need that to recharge. Also a decent amount of the stuff on this list is stuff I had to check out for schoolwork so like. Idk things get weird when you’re a film major.

Movies

Fight Club (1999)

Fight Club was the first movie I watched this month and I’ve thought about it this whole month. Did you guys know it’s a very good movie.

It has a reputation for getting away with being political in a way most media doesn’t. We rarely get to see the process of developing a radical organization and carrying out plans that succeed. Like. They build an organization that actually functions and a system of mutual aid and they’re a bit misdirected but like. This is a mainstream Hollywood movie wow.

There are so many interesting theoretical lenses you can analyze it through. Like strong Marxist analysis going on there. Excellent gender stuff (Bob’s tits?? An ultra masculine organization where they bring you in and just send you off to garden and cook??). A common harmful portrayal of mental disorders (big spoiler, I shan’t name it) that absolutely feeds into the problem but is such an interesting mechanic within the film and has such interesting portrayals in the form of the movie and like. There’s a lot to chew on here. There’s a reason I’ve been thinking about it for weeks.

I watched Fight Club for my Comprehensive Exam class, where we selected movies to watch, analyze, and get tested on that are meant to like sum up our experience studying film. The reading Fight Club was paired with was a Marxist analysis of the movie. General consensus for my class was that the reading wasn’t great because it just felt like the author was trying to hit a page count, but I enjoyed it. I think it’s a fairly accessible read for people not super deep into film theory. I’m happy to share the reading with anyone interested.

I would love to watch this movie with a group of radical people and then go walk into the woods to have a good long talk about things.

Black Swan (2010)

Black Swan was another Comprehensive Exam movie. We paired it with the Feminist Killjoy Manifesto – in brief, it’s the philosophy that you shouldn’t have to prioritize joy over feminism. Interesting read if anyone’s interested.

What stuck out to me about Black Swan is the viscerality of it. It’s just like. What awesome visuals. I frequently get tactile hallucinations and the movie’s just a fantastic depiction of exactly what that experience is like. It’s also like the female equivalent of Whiplash — a cautionary tale of what happens when an artist is fully consumed by their art form. But instead of an abusive director, it’s the pressures of the ballet world. I hope my cousin who is like a professional ballerina and also really into movies has seen this. or maybe I hope she hasn’t seen it. I don’t know.

Also like. The ending. My peers were all like “is it worth it?” I think it’s worth it. I would take that ending for making a masterpiece. Perhaps I’d push for a bigger audience though. Make the most out of it.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

I’m taking a seminar on heist films right now. I don’t like heist films. I liked this one.

It’s set in New York City and every character is just so sarcastic and mad about being there. They’re all like are you kidding me why is there a heist going on I have somewhere to be. It’s a specific brand of East Coast humor that I love. It reminds me a lot of my grandfather. I need to make sure he’s seen this movie.

Companion (2025)

OH MY GOD GOOD MOVIE. First of all, it’s got Jack Quaid in it, who is Mya’s favorite actor and someone she will watch in literally anything. Even if it’s a pilot for a show that was never produced about a horny undead grandmother. It’s also got Harvey Guillén of What We Do In the Shadows fame, and Sophie Thatcher of Yellowjackets fame. According to an interview apparently she can cry on command and also like control the flow of her tears and maybe also which side the tears come from? Which wtf? Where were you for my student film where the rest of the crew refused to get a tear stick.

Anyways, fantastic movie. I don’t want to spoil it. The previews spoil it. Avoid anything about this movie and just watch it. And if you get the preview spoiler, it’s okay there are so many plot twists you’ll be fine. I have things to say about it, but most of them will spoil things, like what characters are hiding about themselves and whatever. Just watch it it’s gay and gory and kinda camp and has smart commentary and is a good time. 

Tales from the Hood (1995)

NOT Tales from the Crypt. Tales from the Hood.

The premise: 3 drug dealers go to a mortician’s place to pick up some drugs. But the mortician wants to tell them about all the dead people there soooo bad.

It’s an anthology horror movie that focuses its stories on black people & issues in a really thoughtful but also entertaining way. There’s incredibly charming practical/stop motion effects and it’s very much in like the Goosebumps vein of horror. It’s a lil spooky scary but I don’t think there were any particularly terrifying bits, it’s just like some gore and punishing people for doing shitty things. Nothing to be scared of unless you fucking suck.

TV Shows

Severance

*salivates*

Yellowjackets

New season! I got caught up on the series over the summer and yeah good show. I’m hoping they hurry it up and get freaky in the flashbacks this season. Seems like they might also be getting freaky in the present day end of things. Prolly fine.

Plays

The Flick (by Annie Baker)

This is my favorite play. It’s a realist play about people working in a movie theater. And oh my goodness am I in this play. There’s a character who is a depressed college student who basically lives for movies. He views the world through the lens of movies. When people make a move on him, he’s like. Dude, I’m trying to watch a movie right now. When he’s in therapy, he’s like hold on. Let me rant about movies real quick. I love this guy. 

He talks about viewing people as always performing, which yeah I have the same issue. Where you look at a person and instead of seeing them as a human just acting on impulse, you can see the person they’re trying to portray themself as, and get bothered when you can tell they’re trying to be something they aren’t truly. He talks about people acting how they think they should. Pretty meta for being a character in a play. Like yeah, the super sexual hot character is going to act like a super sexual hot character, because that’s what the actor’s going for. But also like, in real life, people who are trying to come across as a super sexual hot character are going to act like that.  I think the person you are is a practiced thing. You curate yourself from your actions and the things you say. We have so many thoughts that aren’t spoken. So many personalities that we would be if we just switched the things we said out loud. I don’t know. It all feels very rehearsed. 

I’ve been going into this play recently because I’m taking an acting class. We had to choose monologues and I immediately thought about a scene in this play. My favorite character has a monologue about getting into heaven based on movies. I wanted to monologue about movies. I’m having a bit of a reckoning with this because I realized he’s specifically written to be a black character. I don’t think it’s particularly relevant to the monologue I chose and I’m kind of like. I don’t know. I think if I could play any character, I would choose him, but I would never actually go for that role. I think his race mainly comes up in contrast with the other characters who are written to be white.  There’s a plot about them stealing and conflict over him being the only black character, and the character who’s not particularly invested in it in the first place. There’s also stuff about characters pushing him to do Samuel L Jackson impression that feels kind of awkward because it’s white people like Go On Do The Thing. The playwright does this stuff in her plays. I did a whole analysis of one of her other plays where it just randomly has antisemitism where the characters get uncomfortable and act weird about it and then just kind of move on and that’s it. Like it’s a realist play. She adds in the awkward tensions of every day life. I saw a production of the play with the antisemitism, and at intermission, someone went to an usher to complain. The usher just kind of awkwardly told them to stick around for the rest of the play and see how it was worked out. It was only very briefly mentioned again and not really resolved. Like I don’t know dude. Sometimes you can depict messed up stuff without meaning to condone it. Sometimes it’s just in there to show that it happens.

I wrote this whole section with text to speech because my hands are full of hamster. I think it’s fitting though.

Machinal (by Sophie Treadwell)

Omg this play rocks. We read it for my theater history class and this play in particular was the one where everyone came in after reading it and went “oh my God that was great wasn’t it?”

It’s an early 20th century avant-garde play that deals with the fear of people becoming mechanical. The main character is a woman who is just generally terrified and upset about the life that she feels like she has to live. Awesome play. Oh my God. Once again, let me know if you want it. I found an awesome production of it on YouTube. 

Books

The Sublime Object of Ideology (by Slavoj Žižek)

I’m reading this dense ass philosophy book for class and thinking about it probably too much. The philosophy of language has made me its bitch.

Podcasts

The Magnus Protocol

Fucking obviously. Sequel series to The Magnus Archives (not a prerequisite but like you’ll be missing easter eggs and some background stuff and also The Magnus Archives is one of the best podcasts / works of horror out there so like dude go listen to it).

Season 2 just started and I’m so excited! Might need to relisten to season 1, idk. I’ve already listened to I think every episode at least twice but.

Rumble Strip

Cool local journalistic(ish) podcast! Its producer came to talk with my audio storytelling class and she’s really cool and down to earth. She kinda just documents conversations with ordinary people. She’s not in it for some big newsworthy scoop, she’s just checking in with the Vermont community and seeing what’s going on in people’s lives. I’ve posted before about the Forrest Foster rabbit hole but there’s honestly so many fantastic episodes. The latest is about a guy who’s recently out of prison and trying to get his life together. This past week I listened to Heartbreak Hotel. End of an Era and World Under the World. Both excellent.

There’s a particularly critically acclaimed episode called Finn and the Bell that I listened to one morning as I was getting ready and heading to school but it was actually cruel because I hit the part of the episode that makes you sob immediately after hopping on the bus so. Proceed with caution.

Games

Tetris (App)

Finally downloaded the Tetris app after years of not allowing myself to download it and guys. It rocks. I love the level format where it’ll throw different challenges at you. I downloaded the app probably like a month ago and I’m going on level 1000. I love that the blocks drop fairly slowly so it’s truly like a mindless fidget game that I’ll do in the background of anything else. My one complaint is the incessant amount of ads. And also that the team I joined (so-called Tetorisu Daisuki Kurabu (Tetris Lovers Club)) is NOT in fact Tetris lovers and they are not grinding anywhere near as hard as I am.

The app has a questionable rewards thing built in that I’ve built up quite a savings in and I’m wondering whether I will get some real world prize for this. It looks kinda sketchy and a lot of the prizes are like arcade prizes where you exchange one billion tickets for a piece of gum so like. Idk we’ll see what comes of it.

Tetris Gems (Browser)

I’ve been into Tetris Gems for I think years now. It has a mechanic where every time you get a Tetris all of the blocks like turn into sand and fill in all the holes and like. It’s really satisfying I love it. Also each round is timed (you earn more time so it does end up lasting longer) and I love when Tetris games are short ‘cause man will I just keep going. If it’s a version where you quickly max out the levels I could just keep going like forever. I appreciate that there’s an end in sight with Tetris Gems.

Pokémon TCGP (App)

Downloaded the app just because opening booster packs twice a day looks really fun and I loved Pokémon as a kid and boy did I dive head first into this app. I love collecting these dudes and building decks and battling people and doing missions to get prizes and shit. My Friend ID is 6946294979103246 btw.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Hi it's now January of the next year and I just found this unfinished post so but it's rather good so. Here you go!!!! Enjoy!!!! We'll never know what I had to say about Super Mario Galaxy 2. Probably that it's really frustrating but also I was playing it QUITE obsessively.