Heretic (movie, 2024)

Heretic

Watched April 2, 2025.

In real life, any sacred text can be interpreted to suggest contradictions and other errors. In order to suggest that all sacred texts are wrong, the screenplay's character must pick interpretations as if they are the one and only interpretations. For all the man's intelligence and study, he apparently never talks to anyone who can argue with him in as as an equal. This leaves only young girls who come to his door. If that's the best the writers can do, it's just a run-of-the-mill horror flick and it gets a 7. The girls are too smart for teenagers, the man is too smart for an evil recluse, and the ending shows that the writers were not smart enough to invent a truly satisfying twist.

A Complete Unknown (movie, 2024)

A Complete Unknown

Watched April 1, 2025.

A movie about a folk singer can only be so exciting. It is hard to imagine why any women found such a brooding whiner to be attractive, especially as portrayed by an actor (Chalamet) who looks like a 12-year old, but sex and lovers' spats are the only excitement there could possibly be in Dylan's life. The reenactment of Newport was interesting, but even then, Dylan was a brooding whiner. The best scene is where Al Kooper hits the organ on "Like a Rolling Stone". Taylor Swift should watch this to see how a melody can have more than two pitches.

Anora (movie, 2024)

Anora

Watched April, 2025.

If there was one likeable character in the whole story, this might be rated higher. The acting was superb, but eventually, you just want all those miserable people to go their separate ways and stop bothering the rest of the world, including the people watching the movie, and including Oscar voters who chose this as Best Picture.

Wicked Part 1 (movie, 2024)

Wicked

Watched March 22, 2025.

This movie wants to be a grand Hollywood musical in the "golden age" style, but it just doesn't succeed. The dancing is just mediocre even for the main characters. This needed Astaire and Rogers, but it's not remotely close. The songs are nice, but there is nothing for us laypeople to sing in the shower.

The movie should pay homage to the original "Wizard of Oz" constantly, and there are a few notable scenes (like the beauty salon scene and walking the long hallway to the wizard). But mostly I kept getting déjà vu visions of Harry Potter, and that's not a good thing for this movie. Harry Potter stories have their place in the pre-teen world, but that's not what this movie wanted to be. The movie starts off with a married woman cheating on her husband, but afterwards it's the cast of Glee.

No acting performance is strong. All are just "ok". Having said all  that, I liked it overall and hope for more from the next installment.

The Office (US, TV series, 2005-2013)

The Office US

Watched 2024-2025.

I watched all 188 episodes, including the superfan episodes when available. The misogyny and racism are too blatant, and the office romances are too cringeworthy for this to be better than a 7. The problem for the formula of this show is that office life isn't very funny, the selling of paper isn't very interesting, so the show spices it up with sexual harassment that can't actually happen in real life.

Some good gags in this US version were improvements on gags in the UK version. The A-lister cameo appearances in the last few seasons were fun. Ultimately, the funny bits were pretty funny and the finale episodes were touching.

The Office (UK, TV series, 2001-2003)

The Office UK

Watched February, 2025.

Thankfully there are only 14 episodes of this offensive drivel. Some of the characters' actions are not just example of harassment, but even illegal.

Possibly the worst TV theme music of all time. Ricky Gervais is a wanker (full stop).

Longlegs (movie, 2024)

Longlegs

Watched 2025.

This would get a higher rating if the ultimate reason for the killings was explicable. Cage's character was extreme, I get it, but so what? And again, I don't understand why horror movies have to take place in pre-cell-phone times, except that if everyone had a cell phone it would be harder to let the phone ring for two minutes.