Movies

Obsession (2025).

Chill Movies, Review

I watched Obsession (2025).

It was a very good film, though I almost couldn’t finish it because so many of the behaviors wish-controlled Nikki engaged in to manipulate her partner strongly resembled many of the things a terrible ex did in an attempt to control me.

Yes, I know in the film Nikki is under a curse and that Bear is an absolute evil shit for not getting her help, but nevertheless how she was actually acting (and how fucking good Inde Navarrette was in the role) made it a difficult watch. Nikki was like a more violent version of my horrid past girlfriend, even eerily using many of the exact lines my ex-gf did.

I bet the writer had a past partner like that too. They seem to have a script they follow.

But, incredibly effective film. I recommend it, with the caveats mentioned above.

Rogued

Chill Movies

Goddamn, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is such a great film.

If you think you do not like Star Wars, get the fuck over yourself and just watch the movie. It’s a great work in any genre (and I am not a Star Wars fan). It’s one of the few films I think about a few times a week. And Felicity Jones is so very great in that movie.

Why can there not be more movies like that one?

Mystical

Chill Movies

What’s your go-to comfort movie?

I don’t have a “comfort movie” in the sense this person or likely anyone means, but Mystic Pizza is the closest thing for me.

Julia Roberts as Daisy is perfect, and the whole cast seems like real people dealing with life as it comes. It does not feel (as many do) like a movie being made to have some point, but like you dropped in and are observing these people trying to figure things out.

I only watched Pretty Woman back in the day because I’d already seen Mystic Pizza on VHS. Pretty Woman is entertaining, but Mystic Pizza is a better film.

I chose it because it is one of the few movies I can and have watched more than once. Highly recommended.

Vada

Chill Movies

What is one movie you cannot watch without almost crying? For me it’s the polar express movie.

My Girl.

Everyone cites the funeral scene and Vada’s “he can’t see without his glasses.” For sure, that’s a damn good scene. Anna Chlumsky absolutely nails that one and in fact the whole film; she’s amazing throughout. But the part that got me is when Dan Aykroyd with the best acting of his career as Vada’s father comes to tell her that her best friend has died and her realization of that over the course of the conversation.

Seeing her face change from childish innocence to disbelieving grief so subtly yet so effectively…that is what really got to me.

I think I have a special connection to that film because it wasn’t all that long before that my family had concealed my close friend’s (and cousin’s) death from me for weeks. I did not get to go to his funeral. I did not even know he’d died or have any confirmation of it until I basically went on a hunger strike to force the truth out of them.

When I watched My Girl, I was envious of the respect and tenderness with which Vada was treated — that everyone deserves — that was never afforded to me. Vada was surrounded by people who loved her, who cared for her, who would fight for her and be there when needed. And I was not.

Hopeful

Chill Culture, Movies

A connection I’d never made before. Hope Sandoval is the real-life version of how Galadriel should’ve been portrayed in the LOTR films: fey, distant, ethereal, disconnected from mortal concerns.

I don’t mean Hope’s appearance. In the books, Galadriel is canonically described as tall with golden hair; Hope is quite short and very much dark-haired. I mean how they feel as personalities, as beings in the world.

Of the characters in the films, if it’s not obvious I was most disappointed by Galadriel1. She just lacked the gravitas and remoteness that are both well-described in the written version and that would befit someone who is about 8,300 years old. And I don’t think it was Cate Blanchett’s fault. She had poor direction and poor writing to work with. Though other parts of those films were excellent, the writers of the LOTR films just did not know what do with Galadriel.

The films completely miss her power, her pride, her strangeness, the fact that she’s one of the most dangerous beings in the world, no matter what her intent is. She seemed there like a lugubrious Renaissance fair refugee rather than someone who could’ve potentially taken on Gandalf and triumphed.

And that was a real failure.

  1. Other than Tom Bombadil not being present at all. He was the most important entity in Middle Earth!

Ring Watts

Chill Movies

What scene or scenes haunt you years or decades after watching the movie?

This scene in the American version of The Ring.

There’s just something about a situation going unexpectedly and wildly out of control despite your best intentions that gets to me. Also, Rachel did nothing to deserve the curse that’s attached to her, but cannot do anything to help herself. I think deep in my subconscious that reminds me of growing up in North Florida where I often felt the same way.

There are other scenes in the film that are creepier, but that’s the scene that haunted me.

Peak Exp

Chill Movies

Went to a jam-packed midnight showing and it was indeed fucking awesome. That is the only film I’ve ever seen in the theater more than once. Watched it three times.

That’s one of the few — perhaps the only — movie showing that I’m glad was full. Experiencing the awe with others made it better.

Last Night in Soho – Opening Scene

Chill Movies, Video, Video (movie)

Such a great opening scene and Thomasin Mackenzie is just excellent here (as she is throughout the film). It does three things that most movies struggle with:

1) It immediately establishes Ellie’s character. Who she is. What she values. What she wants. How she is.

2) It provides a context for her life and circumstances, allowing the viewer to avoid minutes of boring exposition. And it’s all so effortless.

3) It also sets up that Ellie is maybe a little more attuned to the invisible world — maybe a little bit presentient — because she knows before her caretaker yells her name that it is going to happen, and that the news is probably good. This establishes the context for the entire rest of the movie.

And because I’ve seen the “behind the scenes” of this bit, I also know that what you see there is all a set. That’s not a real house, and not a real place. It’s all in some massive warehouse-like studio lot. It makes the scene better, so this is not a criticism, but notice that the hallway is quite a lot wider than a normal hallway would be in a house like that, and the doors a bit shorter, the furniture a bit smaller. This is to give Thomasin (and the cameras) room to maneuver, room to dance, while making her seem larger than life in the scene. It makes Ellie the focus while still giving you the clues needed to understand her. And the newspaper dress is great.

Every moment in every film scene is chosen, and this one chose everything just right. Such a brilliant setup. This is exactly how you show without telling.

Stake

Chill Movies

All the people who didn’t like the movie Presence — jeez, put the crack pipe down. That was a great film. Get off your high horse and realize that not every movie has to be a cookie cutter “the whole world is at stake” action extravaganza. There’s nothing wrong with a little introspection and calm.

Bec

Chill Movies, Video, Video (movie)

This film is how you use Rebecca Ferguson. Overall, Dr. Sleep was only ok. However, Rebecca as Rose the Hat…très magnifique. Also, “Rose the Hat” is one of the best character names ever.

As I noted about the weirdo in Les chambres rouges, it’s hard for a beautiful woman to read as creepy. Our girl Rebecca has no problem with this, though. She’s demented and ghoulish and a real scumbag.