The Long Run 6 / 10

Road trip movie about two people going to Los Angelos to be actors. Started off a little rough because the female lead reminded me of someone not great from my life. Early in the movie an acting coach explains that sometimes an actor doesn’t get the part because the auditioned reminds the casting director of their ex husband’s new girlfriend. I suppose that happened a bit here. So, for everyone else in the world, perhaps round up a point or two.

Several very good scenes between characters, however most of the ones I found most powerful involved characters other than the main characters.

The Divine Sarah Bernhardt 7 / 10

Fictionalized biopic of French actress. Terrific shooting locations, wardrobe, props. Wild story. As I’m unfamiliar with the real life Sarah Bernhardt, I have no idea as to how much of what was portrayed was accurate or not.

Amira & Sam 9 / 10

Romance from differences. Starts with man coming back from yours in Afghanistan and Iraq reuniting with an Iraqi translator who had moved to New York. I have very little about this that I think I could share without further spoiling the movie. I do think that the story was terrific.

Pabrik Gula 5 / 10

Java set horror movie that feels like it took all of its tricks from Western horror, removed Christianity, inserted Javanese Islam sprinkled with pre-colonial indigenous beliefs? Comedic relief characters made this horror movie worth watching, but seeing a horror movie from a different culture was nice. As a strange aside, I found out that this is one of several movies that have been adapted from an anonymous person going by the name @SimpleMan who writes horror on a Twitter X account as lengthy threads.

The Ties That Bind Us 8 / 10

Following the death of a character, the surviving family members get tangled up in a neighbor’s life, and things get messy. It’s a good story about grief and how people fit together into to each others lives.

Lesbian Space Princess 8 / 10

Terrifically funny Australian animated movie. Was one of the more enjoyable watches of the weekend.

The Glassworker - * / 10

Pakistani studio that took a lot of pages from Studio Ghibli. Beautiful animation and story, just like Ghibili lengthy chunks that are slow and quiet. If you like Ghibli at its slowest, you’ll probably like this movie. I ultimately decided to skip actually giving this movie a score, because those Studio Ghibli movies that I’ve gestured at? I don’t like them. Just like this movie - the art is terrific, the message of the stories is great - but the movie just moves so incredibly slow for me. They’re well loved by many, so ultimately this is a me problem, not a movie problem. The Glassworker also has quite a few scenes that were just too slow for me, but that’s the point - they’re intentionally slow. Know yourself on this one.

Zurawski v Texas - 7 / 10

Documentary that covers how Texas’s poorly written anti-abortion laws have and continue to harm women who have medically dangerous pregnancies. As you may imagine, there are plenty of scenes in the movie where women, their partners, and their children recount personal pain and tragedies. Hillary Clinton (and her daughter) are producers on the documentary. Wasn’t Hillary Clinton the nominee for the American political party that has been promising to “enshrine” abortion rights into federal law for my entire mortal life, yet seems like they’ve never actually tried? Probably cost this film a star because the Clintons’ names were on it.

Mr. K - 4 / 10

I hate to give absolutely anything Crispin Glover is in a lukewarm review, but today is the day. The movie has a lot of components to it that continually felt like it was about to add up to something profound. A man is trapped in a hotel that becomes increasingly hostile and bizarre. It’s filled with people who don’t seem to realize that they’re also trapped there. At times I felt that it was a criticism of capitalism. Or an unhealthy work ethic. Or some sort of analogy for the arbitrariness of life. The whole thing had a purgatorial feel, which carried it a long way for me, but it just didn’t total up to a story that I understood. Typically, I appreciate a movie that doesn’t spoon feed the audience everything, but this is one that I wouldn’t have minded a couple of those spoons.

American Theater - 5 / 10

Documentary about some Donald Trump fans that claimed to have been “cancelled” (but are incredibly vague as to the circumstances of what led to that and what “cancelled” looks like for them) put together a play riffing on the Salem witch trials that, I guess, are supposed to be a metaphor for being socially ostracized. Personally, I doubt that being “cancelled” has any realistic corollary for being murdered by your neighbors on the baseless claims stemming from their own superstitious imaginations, but - what do I know?

It had its entertaining moments. The production that was eventually done seemed very interesting and creative and something that I’d probably attend. However, doing some external research about some of the principal people in the production made me think that the documentary intentionally omitted information. Perhaps it was part of the deal for the documentary to be made in the first place, but … rubbed me the wrong way.

The Musicians - 6 / 10

Fictional movie about four musicians brought together to play legendary instruments. I liked the music. Some of the characters finally coming together were moving. However, I did have some trouble relating to incredibly rich people struggling to get prima donna musicians to play overvalued stringed instruments for profit.

Anchorage - 7 / 10

Although this one isn’t the highest rated of the Lost Weekend for me, I do think it may be one of my favorites. There was a Q&A with the director Scott Monahan following the screening. Turns out, I had had a brief conversation with him after American Theater in which he mentioned some of the immersive theater that he had seen or been involved in while in New York.

Ron Delsener Presents - 7 / 10

Music documentary about a man whose name I have no recollection of ever hearing, and it turns out that most of the major music groups passing through New York City for decades were likely a result of him. Although the story is certainly focused on him, it is a trip through a big slice of American musical history. I particularly appreciated the part where he dismissed KISS as an act no one would care about and had to be talked into booking them.

The Ice Tower - 5 / 10

French film about an orphan who winds up in a movie, following being metaphorically enchanted by the leading lady. This one turned out to be another Mr. K for me. It had so many pieces that I feel like should have totaled up to movie that very much worked for me, however - maybe it is a lost in translation issue - it didn’t, and I felt bored by the end of it. Beautiful film, but its story grabbed me in the beginning, only to lose me later.

On the Count of Three (Wikipedia) (IMDb)
This is a movie about two men who make a suicide pact. Probably some content warnings for people who may need it, since this, although billed as a comedy, is a movie that deals with some dark topics. I found it terrifically engaging with a complex story. There were a few moments in the movie where I felt myself comparing it to The Shawshank Redemption as the movie is very male and includes a strong friendship between two men, even in the face of adversity. The final scenes of the movie varied an enormous emotional punch for me.

My Old Ass (Wikipedia) (IMDb)
This one is about a young woman who, thanks to some magic mushrooms, is able to communicate with herself in the future. The future self hides some of what the future holds, which causes some dramatics in the present. The main characters of the movie have a symmetry in their stories that I felt were particularly nice. It was a movies about beginnings and endings. One of the last scenes was also carried that emotional punch.

I did note that there were a few negative reviews on IMDb as the main character has a “straight awakening”. Seems to be that there are people who think that a movie that shows a queer character having a heterosexual relationship is somehow bad for the LGBT movement. Personally? I think sexuality can be messy. Didn’t do me any harm, but I’m not a LGBT person, so maybe I don’t have a place to talk on this one.

Bombshell (Wikipedia) (IMDb)
Terrific movie about the sexual harassment of women at Fox News for decades, and the misogyny demonstrated by the GOP presidential candidate at that time as well. I was surprised to find myself relating to Megyn Kelly, talking head for the corporate media establishment. Wonders never cease. Allison Jeanney was criminally underused.

The worst of zombie stories are ones with a zombie apocalypse that does nothing specifically with the zombies. It could have been a nuclear apocalypse or magically electricity no longer worked - and the story would have been exactly the same. Character driven stories within the zombie genre in which the characters are examined typically are where it is the best for me. And Then I Woke Up is one of them. It now sits right next to me other favorite zombie story - Peter Stenson’s Fiend. They both do something within a genre that I love, even though sometimes it is stale.

From WJLA: New Virginia law limits teens’ social media to 1 hour daily: What parents should know

The bill was co-sponsored by State Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg, a Henrico County teacher who’s seen firsthand the effects of excessive screen time on students.
“You see how much it hinders their ability to do well in school, and you see how much it hinders their socialization with their friends,” VanValkenburg said.

Does it? I’d like to see the proof of that. Perhaps instead of chatting with their friends on social media for hours, they should talk to their friends on the house phone for hours like I did when I was kid. Or instead of mindlessly watching TikTok videos for hours, they can mindlessly watch cable television for hours, like I did when I was a kid. Those are better ways to spend one’s youth, right?

WTVR: Virginia passes law to limit time teens spend on social media to one hour a day

[…] the social media platforms that would be subjected to the legislation include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, and YouTube.

One of my initial thoughts on this law was that there are many, many social media platforms. If one of them boots a kid off after sixty minutes, won’t they just go to another one? The answer to that is: yes. That’s fine. It’s right in the text of the law - the limit is not per person, but per social media service. The text of the bill doesn’t actually name those eight social media services, or any social media services specifically, but let’s presume that those are the ones that Gen Alpha are using. They can have eight hours per day of social media time online with the best case scenario of the wording of this bill. But, hey, let’s be honest here. I don’t know anyone under the age of sixteen that is using Pinterest. And X looks like it’s fortunately dying. Facebook seems like it’s not popular under a certain age.

What if you’re a 15 year old and learning math from Khan Academy on YouTube? It got me through my math courses in my bachelor’s program. Well, tough luck. This law doesn’t care if you’re group chatting with people in a study group. As long as it’s on one of these platforms - anything more than 60 minutes == bad.

Fortunately, the bill does give the platforms the ability to give parents the option of increasing or decreasing the time limits. How the platforms are to verify that a legal guardian is the legal guardian of the 15 or younger year old account holder? No real specificity on that. What’s going to stop a 15 year old from just creating a fake account for their own parent and claiming their other account as their child?

From WTOP News: Va. Gov. Youngkin signs law restricting social media to 1 hour a day for kids under 16

Youngkin attempted to add amendments to raise the age back up to 18 and ban infinite scroll features.

In a rare moment where I not only agree with Governor Youngkin but really wish he had gotten his way on this. I think infinite scrolling is an intentional method for social media platforms to keep people plugged into to their firehose of algorithmic nonsense.

Back to the WTOP News article:

It also calls for a neutral approach to asking someone’s age when they create an account, and it says there has to be a way to accurately verify a young person’s age. The bill says companies can’t use the age information for anything else, and allows parents to increase or decrease the daily one-hour limit.

Actually - the bill absolutely does not require any degree of accuracy when verifying a young person’s age. Here’s the text from the bill:

B. Any controller or processor that operates a social media platform shall (i) use commercially reasonable methods, such as a neutral age screen mechanism, to determine whether a user is a minor and (ii) limit a minor’s use of such social media platform to one hour per day, per service or application, and allow a parent to give verifiable parental consent to increase or decrease the daily time limit.

Do you know what a “neutral age screen mechanism” is? I didn’t. I had to look it up.

From the FTC’s Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions:

In designing your age screen, you should ask age information in a neutral manner, making sure the data entry point allows users to enter their age accurately and does not default to an age 13 or over. An example of a neutral age screen would be a system that allows a user freely to enter the month and year of birth. Avoid encouraging children to falsify age information by, for example, stating that certain features will not be available to users under age 13. In addition, consistent with long standing Commission advice, FTC staff recommends using technical means, such as a cookie, to prevent children from back-buttoning to enter a different age.

The word “neutral” is that the mechanism for collecting age data should not prejudice the person filling it out by informing them that their access to the service is going to be impacted if they honestly answer. But there is nothing in the mechanism that actually keeps the respondent from lying. Ever have a web site ask you to enter your date of birth and have absolutely no further information required? That’s a “age screen mechanism”. I don’t know about you, but essentially every age check I was ever asked online before I turned 18? I lied on it.

To me, this law seems like it is completely unenforceable and an empty win for some sort corner of whatever culture war is going on. As stated, I do think that corporate owned, algorithm driven social media platforms are a harm, but universally, not just to children. In addition to the state not doing anything to police this, leaving, I guess, parents to sue these enormous corporations when they don’t boot their kids off of their platforms after 60 minutes a day - it’s not even comprehensive.

Join the fediverse. Federated social media exists. The servers can be owned and operated by anyone, and I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that nobody in the Commonwealth of Virginia is going to make sure that Lemmy or Mastodon are enforcing any sort of “neutral age screen mechanism”. But, hopefully because of that that’ll push people off of the corporate owned, curated, and surveilled social media platforms to something federated.