Talking about whatever

If I read, watched, or played it, might talk about it. 25, fluent in rus/eng. Eurotrash in Baltimore

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Boots Riley really dropped a movie about the wonders of worker organization, saying no to performative men, the "out of sight out of mind" view on foreign workers, and fashion classism. And it started with a heist movie with luxury clothes.

But fr, I Love Boosters is going to live rent free in my head like Sorry to Bother You.

It's just as absurd and funny and it all actually makes sense with the themes he's eyeing.

Like, everyone died laughing when that nepo baby's leaning apartment showed up. But also, she's just choosing to live in a building that's clearly not up to code bc she's rich, in some kind of old money WASP way. But she'd call Corvette's friend "urban" for squatting in a chicken shop.

Like, she's just such an effective villain bc she's selling pointless status symbols by excluding large chunks of the population. The scene where she's having a breakdown bc velvet gang is reselling her stuff cheaply, which lessens the brand's exclusivity? There's a story of rich brits treating Burberry as chav/gopnik trash in early 2000s bc Danniella Westbrook was photographed wearing it.

But also that nepo is racist af. Like, between using terminology like "ghetto" to describe Corvette's gang and straight up stealing her work at multiple points while publicly hating her guts. But then again, isn't the fashion industry always like this?

First you see school admins dress coding for dressing like "saggy pants", then you see a crowd of white tech/finance bros that live near or at the Baltimore harbor talk about their streetwear obsession.

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Took up listening to my year of rest and relaxation at the gym and it feels like american psycho for gen z girls so far. The status obsession, nepo baby aspect, and uncomfortable commentary about minorities from the WASP af narrator just really makes my skin crawl. I'm aware that she's so cripplingly depressed that she just wants to sleep her life away, but ughhhhh this is the most I hated a narrator since Patrick Bateman.

So I was like. Ok, it's bad that your dad died of cancer and your mom died of something very slowly, and you're now an addict that's pill seeking from a shrink that should not be licensed. But can't you at least pretend to care about your friend whose mom is currently dying of cancer and who's so unwell that she's not bothering to hide her bulimia?

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Slowly listening through We Love You, Bunny at the gym. Tbh this sequel/prequel is justifying its existence so far. Spoilers below

Coraline and Kyra's relationship in particular is getting a pretty interesting reframing. In book 1, yeah, they were part of the club that transmutes campus bunnies into the Platonic Ideal of Boyfriends that simultaneously feels weirdly "frustrated" and also like a product of purity culture.

So of course at least one might be working through very complicated thoughts on women that she wasn't raised to consider. Coraline's mom feels like an old money type that makes her issues into her daughter's issues. Like, she tells her own daughter that she's screwing the gardener and then mocks her lack of a love life at one point. Same mom also tells her daughter that lipstick is for sluts. Combine with a kid who's obsessed with 50's movies (to the point of having a James Dean poster in this day and age) for a combo from hell.

So, does she like Kyra? Well, in a way. Seems that Coraline is kind of ticked off that she's not unique. But also, those two want to hold hands so bad that they bruise each other's hands (yeah, that last part is actually from the text).

Also, it's in the implication of these two falling asleep in one bed and waking up wearing each other's dresses (actual scene from the book). Considering the very coy "I don't know how we got here", I think the answer is it's known, but it's redacted bc with a mother like that, you're not about to admit to quickly falling for this particular classmate in like 48 hours tops.

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Well, issue 38 of superman exists. Tbh it just feels like there isn't enough connective tissue to the overarching plotline that comes back into focus at the end and it's why I basically had a non-reaction. Even tho I'm a y2k-2010s kid and this should have been hype AF for me.

That being said, I've been introduced to Witchfire and am now frantically trying to find her comics, so I forgive some of the boredom lmao

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Ended up rewatching Gunn's superman with my mom bc she wants to watch supergirl. She's a newcomer to superhero anything btw. Some highlights:

"So, logistically, how did no one get suspicious that only one guy at this one newspaper interviews superman?"

"You told me there's a whole order of space cops. Wouldn't the portals that can turn a planet into a black hole be a problem for them? Where are the bowlcut's coworkers?"

(after I explain that Lex canonically made a clone of superman, spliced with his own DNA) "you told me that's his nemesis, but that relationship looks like something else."

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Took up reading Jane Eyere (in russian translation bc the pre-1900's english is hard and I got bored with Divine Comedy). Helen Burns is reminiscent of my experience with unmedicated adhd as a schoolkid. Like, she frequently gets in trouble for being disorganized, her mind wanders off in classes she finds boring, and she properly understands a lesson once she's interested in the subject.

It's so eerily familiar that I'd not be surprised if this character is based on a real person from the days before neurology as a science existed.

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I keep hearing good things about Obsession but I think I'll wait until the streaming release. Considering the theme of a "nice guy" magically forcing a girl to only love him, I think I'll need a pause button to take some breaks.

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Once again thinking about how my long-time interpretation of Nightwing has been that he has some kind of smiling depression. And well, issue 138 is the part with the implosion. Also, thinking about the guest star and how much I love the Watters era. SPOILERS

Kory went through hell, so I'm unsurprised that she has a rather instinctive response to someone from a group that tortured her. She's smart and emotionally intelligent, so obviously she's not going to intentionally burn a forest in pursuit of that guy. He just jumped out and the trauma came back.

Also, I feel like she's much less moved on than she says bc of the scene at the spaceship. She hasn't yet seen that the message is now stuck in a loop, but she already wants to wipe the ghost in the machine. Even before it's clear that the device was damaged.

So, yeah, I don't buy this act for a second. But I'm guessing she was putting on a brave face for an ex that she knows tends to smile while being self-sacrificing to a dangerous extent.

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I was absolutely correct to ask the owner of my usual comics shop to subscribe me to Absolute Green Arrow as soon as I saw Pichetshote's name. Like yeah, it's been pitched as a slasher but honestly, the class warfare was scarier. SPOILERS

Technically, this is named after the villain(?) but tbh, who cares about the evil tech and pharma bros? The serial killer is just a symptom of a justice system that allows the likes of Sacklers to not face any significant jail time. Maybe he could have been prevented if the feds in this story actually punished people like the not-Robin Hood app cofounder that preyed on little girls.

Unfortunately, these are the people holding Dinah's dad's healthcare hostage. Actually, the scene where that Sackler type cancelled her dad's insurance scared me more than the serial killer's appearance. So yeah, I get why she's stuck working for objectively evil people (who have no sense of self-preservation bc do you really want your bodyguard to hate you).

Honestly, considering the reveal of a human experiment at Oliver Queen's compound at the end, I'm curious where this is going. Like, I'm unsurprised a populist billionaire prob engaged in disgusting behavior, but how far did it go?

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Decided to give Divine Comedy a go. Idk old english, so reading in 20th century russian translation. Ngl, I wasn't expecting Virgil to basically get introduced straight away (and I can see why people describe this as a fanfic bc basically, Dante is fanboying over his fave poet who's here to save him from a mysterious forest with sins trying to kill him)

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Ok yeah, wonderfools is pretty good, 2 eps in. Chae-ni is a genuinely unlikable leading lady bc she steals ice cream from a kindergartner in the first 20 minutes and then orchestrates a fake kidnapping to get money from her own grandma. Like, I get that being terminally sick psychologically screws you up but there's a reason she's known as the human disaster.

No clue if she'll become a better person but guess she's going to be forced to be a hero soon enough. Bc while the marketing made me think this is a sitcom, nah, there's a whole conspiracy plotline already getting set up.

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Picked up the new Absolute Batman issue. Actually lucked into getting the Nick Robles variant cover (but the store's owners are on first-name basis with me, and they know I'm an indie horror fan with the most obvious fave robin to match). But yeah, man, this was a lot. Spoilers

Yeah, ok, I'm fully expecting Scarecrow to be working with Joker. There's a whole running theme of old money profiting on the military-industrial complex while selling psychological relief to the public. So, Scarecrow's speech about the farmer now having to deal with dread regarding the world's breakdown sealed the deal for me. Engineer a boogeyman, then sell militarization with some bright-eyed youths that view you as the one who gave them the world.

I'm not expecting anything good to happen here. Bruce is at his most psychologically unstable, so I'm not sure he can convince them to stop (and I don't think a footballer-sized dude can handle several cutting-edge weapons). And these kids all seem to have imprinted on Joker to the point where he convinced a paramedic to take up weapons.

Considering we have gotten the most info on this version of Grayson so far, I think he's prob going to be the robin that's most important to the story. Maybe. It'd be too obvious. Given the inversion theme, I'd not be surprised if he's killed off and haunts the narrative.

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Slowly listening through the audio book of Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang at the gym bc apparently it's supposed to be for people who liked Bunny by Mona Awad. Idk, spotify recommended it and their rec algo is uncannily good. But yeah, I see it, with the dynamic of a poorer protagonist coveting what the rich antagonist has, yet hating them.

Is it insane to take over your estranged twin's life after finding her dead in her luxury apartment bc well, the world already mistakes you for her anyway? Yeah, a bit. But also, her sister seems to be a rather unpleasant type (put mildly bc spoilers), so it feels like a victimless crime. Or maybe I'm falling for the very compelling excuses Julie makes!

You can see that rapid spiral from these excuses to saying "I" when using remnants of Chloe's life. Like, I'm actually invested enough to have tolerated going back to the gym for more quality time with the audiobook version.

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Slowly reading Intermezzo. Yeah, I'd be a human disaster if I lost my dad at 22 too. So I get why Ivan sleeps with this random lady basically on the day they meet.

Like, he's not on good enough terms with his elder brother to seek companionship with him at a time of grief. But grieving people still want companionship, so why not with someone he gets along with and who doesn't have the baggage of seeing him as an expired child chess prodigy?

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Hm, devil wears prada 2 sure looks like they could finally get permits and product placement without worrying about pissing off Anna Wintour. It's def one of the better Y2K cash-ins.

Like, Andy and Miranda spend a decent chunk of the movie trying not to get robbed by private equity bros. There's also a trashy divorced tech bro who took the reddit advice of "divorce, then gym" to heart. He's not as much of a visible threat as I'd have liked, even though I think AI bros are just as threatening for quality journalism as the debt addicts.

Overall, I think it's a 7/10. Spoilers

It's crazy that the endgame is a property developer. Maybe I'm biased bc my previous apartment building was suddenly bought by a certain Baltimore developer that proceeded to make their impeding bankruptcy our problem. I just dislike the types that turn historical buildings into luxury properties after having to threaten a habitability issues-related lawsuit (that I'd have prob won) to get out of that lease.

So, yeah, I do think it's a bit crazy to make a property developer a love interest in a movie about private equity trying to suck a relatively reputable legacy publication dry.

Also, I think more could have been made of Jin being a parallel to Andy as the beginning of the movie. Yeah, she's just as anxious to succeed and resourceful. But I think more time could have been spent on the fact that the very start of her career is threatened by private equity bros, like the rest of the industry. Andy's early problems were a toxic work environment, but at least her industry was still relatively alive.

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She's back!!!! Honestly, I found wuthering heights boring af, so I'm just glad experimenting is back on the table. Man, the way it cut off at the end like hedonism suddenly killing a lot of rock stars was perfect

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Started watching Goddess Bless You From Death. Hm, not sure if I'll stick with it yet bc the contrast between the horror mystery and the romcom antics is extremely jarring. But the decision to convince the sceptic to believe the psychic in ep 1 was a good enough pacing decision that I might stick around.