no. 29 | man united prayer circle

and prayer circle for everyone honestly

fair warning: this is rly long, it’s been a while

i hope everyone is feeling ok! it’s tough not to feel doom and gloom and it’s hard to escape everything going on. lots has been happening for years but these past couple of weeks have been hour to hour horrible news after horrible news. i hope you can find peace and distraction whenever and however you can.

on TOP OF THIS, manchester united is in a dISMAL STATE. the only thing that makes me feel better is the fact that manchester city is also actively getting the shit kicked out of it and united got a swipe in as well. things are so bad so bad. we’ve just lost academy boys rashford. i’m a rashford fan, i love him, i’ve loved seeing him grow, i love his philanthropy. it’s heartbreaking to see his time with united end the way it has. i’m pretty sad about it, but i have good faith in new manager, ruben amorim, to dig in and shake things up appropriately. and shake he has! we just have to get through this season!!!! would love to do more than just ‘get through’ things but this is where we’re at…….. i’ve also started following brighton more seriously and it has been delightful rooting for a non-big six team. they’ve had admirable growth over the past 30 years and it’s relaxing to not feel the pressure that comes with such a legacy team like manu

me personally…. i’ve had some good times despite. angel and i’s trip to sarasota was so lovely. it was really special seeing his old stomping ground and spending time with his mom. it was healing for myself and angel in different ways. we had a lot of fun driving around, hitting suburban classics like pdq and publix and yummy house, going to the beach, and acting the florida tourist. we also went to cinebistro to watch nosferatu and they genuinely serve $40 steak and frites there? alamo hello wake up? where’s my steak dinner??

we celebrated our 8th anniversary! had a quiet night with tinned fish and charcuterie since we were off to sarasota two days after that. we mutually agreed that 8 years feels like so much and no time at all :) we gave our baby cat jupe many kisses because he turned 8 this year. did you know that jupe’s birthday is just two days after the day angel and i became official? he really is our biological baby boy, we birthed him ourselves, you know

i’ve broken my 75. it broke while i was in sarasota and i haven’t started it up again. had some false starts here in there but i’ve been derailed by work/new furniture/errands/etc.i’m starting again officially on friday when i’m back from my work thing hehe. i won’t update you any further on this bc i think i have a couple more stops and gos in me. but it has led to me being overall my creative and more active, so i feel satisfied with my efforts!

generally have been weirdly busy with work. hate that for me. went to an offsite that was honestly super fun, i actually do like some of my coworkers lmfao. the flight totally knocked me out though, color me exhausted. but have been feeling good about the work i’m doing. they’ve had me focused on studio stuff which i much prefer to any of the other projects they have me on.

in other news, angel and i booked our trip to japan!!! it’s locked in! we’ll be traveling to tokyo for 15 days in september! so so so so sooooooo looking forward to this. a little overwhelmed on planning but so excited to dive in and research. from now til august i will be training to get tickets to the ghibli museum and it’s SERIOUS

(((craft-wise)))

• ipad doodling is UP. i’ve been drawing shrimps.

• knitting is UP. scarf is nearly done, i’m like 75% through a sweater

• AND i’ve made significant progress on the vlog. in the way that i’ve picked out music and recorded my voice over. all’s left is editing the VO/music in and cleaning up. it’s coming i swear.

(((what i’ve been watching n reading)))

anyhow, i’ve been consuming for sure. i’m trying not to be too anal about the number of movies but i’m afraid that’s unavoidable. some movies i’ve loved below:

• nosferatu (2024): brilliant! showstopping! wowowowowow, so good i had to see it twice. gorgeous visuals, excellent performances, a juicy screenplay. robert eggers just getttttts it. it’s a popular film so i won’t say much that hasn’t already been said but if you haven’t seen it yet, please do.

  • nosferatu (1922): i was surprised how much the same sentiments of the 2024 version came through in this. honestly eggers kept his version fairly in line with this original adaptation. obviously things were more implied and suggested in this 1922 version but you walk away with the same amount of feeling. this was really worth watching as a primer/supplement to 2024 nosferatu but also equally worth it just to see orlok running w his little sarcophagus!

  • dracula untold (2014): HAHAHA i loved this actually. what should’ve kicked off a decade of modern hollywood monster movies…… oh the potential. luke evans is a real ham, i enjoyed him thoroughly. enjoyed dominic cooper’s interpretation of a turkish accent less. my time in budapest has given me a very strong appreciation for vampires and vampiric history in relation to the ottoman empire so. more please!

• sing street (2016): oh delight of delights. my first john carney despite being haunted by “falling slowly” for the better part of my 26 years on earth. but i really loved sing street, just a sweet and earnest entry into the musical movie genre. anddddd so cool seeing dún laoghaire crop up a few times. i too have enjoyed a leisurely stroll with my friends along the walkway.

• the brutalist (2024): i’ll be honest the first half is better than the second but the entire experience is impactful. i really enjoyed watching this and i think as a whole i really liked it. i think it loses a fair amount of its steam and punch and starts to get a little obvious

  • AND the fucking score. this score is ascendant. the score is laden with pressure and past but still sweeps you up as far as you’re willing to go with it. it’s chill-inducing and gut-steeling while i also wish challengers was in for best original score. but of the actual nominees, i think the brutalist should take it (caveat: i haven’t seen the wild robot bc i’m scared of the emotion i’ll feel. being an easy crier is NOT a gentle way to live)

    • king kong (2005): hahaha so i’m not super acquainted with adrien brody besides his wes anderson and peaky blinders work but this was really fun to watch for the first time

• the harder they fall (2021): finally, finally got around to finishing this. and this was so good, it deserved way, way more than the netflix release it got. it should’ve been blasted up on a 70 ft tall screen. it makes me sad that the book of clarence wasn’t as good. but jeymes samuel has such a strong visual and storytelling style, i’d be hardpressed not to be excited for every project he works on in the future.

• the outrun (2024): oh i loved this! i knew to expect a great performance from saoirse ronan and she absolutely delivered but i was quite surprised by the story. it’s so gentle and sweet and hopeful. i think there are some complaints about the execution but i think it serves the entire film well. it’s messy and a little honest and bogged down with all these strings but i think it manages to pull itself through in a way that makes the end sequence so emotionally resonant. so good, so good and a really masterful use of hair/hair dye as a marker of time. it can be so rote but this felt fresh and smart! thank you, seahorse and nora fingscheidt!

• queer (2024): oh swoon ohhhhh swoon ohhhhhhh swoon. for anyone who has ever loved and sought to be loved. maybe a horrifyingly naked look at unrequited love. honestly an all-time high performance from daniel craig. he is so impossibly good here and drew starkey mirrors him beautifully. i was surprised at the surrealism in this, totally unexpected but equally welcomed!!!!

• nickel boys (2024): nickel boys absolutely should be talked about more and should be the standard for book adaptations. i’ve never read the book but this was so stunning. this is a case of really beautiful and articulate filmmaking. you’re confronted with all the love and care this took right from the get and the film just has you. i didn’t know what to expect but i think it’s been done a disservice with how little awards fanfare it’s gotten.

• a real pain (2024): oh excellent. my first encounter w jesse eisenberg as a director and it’s so very him. it’s impactful and needling but with that specific tone that eisenberg just nails in every one of his performances. i liked this tweet:

  

  re: kieran culkin. while i loved loved loved his performance (he makes it seem so effortless), i do resent the push for supporting actor. i don’t think it’s fair, they’re co-leads to the point where it feels like culkin is the lead and we’re just absorbing him from eisenberg’s pov. this is the way that daniel kaluuya won his oscar though and i was really happy about that so. idk. i’m campaigning for guy pearce or yura borislov to win

• trainspotting (1996): ahhhhh my god. riotous, serious fun. it was engaging and creative from start to finish and felt . legendary for a reason. my favorite danny boyle work to date has been the opening ceremony of the olympic games but watching this and slumdog millionaire have really opened my eyes to how mystical he really is

• sonic 1-3: i’ve now caught up with the sonic the hedgehog movies. ok iconic series of movies so far and i am in deep anticipation of sonic 4. i find it all really endearing and super fun to watch. i cried actualy tears during sonic 3, keanu has that thing about him. i think i still love knuckles’s story in sonic 2 the most but i am really happy with shadow’s installment!! masterpiece masterpiece. my favorite sonic character is tails but i’m really excited for them to introduce amy and that sexy white bat lady

• the workers cup (2017): omg surprise a documentary rec!! i watched this on a plane. it’s about the tournament held for the migrant workers who built the 2022 world cup stadiums in qatar. after reports of deaths and mistreatment, the qatari govt made an ‘effort’ to provide better living/working conditions and this included the organization of the colloquially called workers cup. the workers on-site competed against in each other in the very stadiums they were meant to work on. it was endlessly interesting and is a story that i’ve never heard before. it was inspiring in the way that sports docs always are but it’s totally overshadowed by the testimonies of these young and old men. they all traveled to qatar for the chance to change their lives but were met with bleak, dissatisfying, and inhumane treatments. they find dignity and pride in their work and their free time but it does beg the question of the cost of sport and the global entertainment complex

  • if you like sports and you like labor rights, this is one hell of a case study

• MOVIE NEWS I LOVE

  • jason schwartzman is coconut records, did you know????

  • corey hawkins cast in christopher nolan’s the odyssey

elsewhere:

• twin peaks: it’s so sad that it took david lynch passing away to get me to finally watch twin peaks. bc as much as i’ve loved his movies, twin peaks is such pure and gorgeous entertainment and has to be my favorite thing he’s done (that i’ve seen). it feels like a miracle. a real distillation of a creative vision and a story that is so careful with its characters but also is fully committed to taking you for a wild ride. i always put off twin peaks bc i thought it was capital A Art and more serious than i’d like for casual nightly viewing. but it’s more accessible and funny and relatable than expected while cloaked with lynch’s signature dream logic and visual riddles. it’s so full of love and fun despite the subject matter. and the mystery is genuinely so good and fun to play with (even if you figure it out early the journey to the reveal and the reveal itself is so enjoyable, maybe that’s the wrong word for it but i digress, i loved it). it’s very quickly becoming very dear to me

  • and really. anyone who has come in contact with riverdale for better or for worse should watch twin peaks. if you’re a hater, it demystifies a little bit of what went through roberto aguirre sacasa’s silly small head when he created riverdale. and for riverdale lovers (the only true romantics left on the planet), twin peaks allows you to see what their favorite characters could be like if the writers cared about them

    • in the end RAS only exists to take concepts and mash them together so hard until they break. flop!

    • and huge if you’re a betty cooper and veronica lodge lover, donna and audrey are such good character comps and you get so much from their performances

  • twin peaks has also been great for seeing loads of actors you might’ve seen elsewhere. it’s great seeing joan chen as josie packard (prompting me to learn more about her storied hollywood history), ray wise as leland palmer (himym’s robin scherbatzky’s dad), and lol i don’t even know her name but lucy’s sister is played by gilmore girls’s luke’s sister and her voice is exactly the same!

  • AND THE MUSIC. really has to be one of the most perfectly crafted themes, can’t think of a theme that better suits it’s show than this. and yeah they play it every 3 minutes but for good fucking reason??? it’s perfect????????

  • i’ve hit the infamous s2 dip in quality that i’m told happened bc of network interference……….. searching for the strength to push through bc i NEED to watch the prequel movie

• real housewives of salt lake city: fucking finally watched seasons 3 and 4 of rhoslc…… and oooooh they were fun. it was worth enduring 3 seasons of jen shah screaming to see her get convicted for elder fraud. and it was worth watching a boring ass season 4 to get to the iconic “RECEIPTS, PROOF, TIMELINES” scene. i’m not sure if i’ll continue the show though bc i honestly find slc housewives so exhausting. but i’m sure i’ll become painfully bored sometime soon and drag myself back into mormon hell.

  • i’ve returned to below deck: sailing yacht and finished their most recent season………… i love daisy so much, she deserves peace from south africans

• and in case anyone was wondering, the variety 100 greatest tv performances list is shit

• really excellent twitter account i just found: HOW MANY CIGARETTES. counts the number of cigarettes in movies. so far the highest i’ve seen is ep2 of the beatles: get back docuseries. there are 138 cigarettes in that episode.

• this rebecca jennings essay about pick-me foods was a fun read. as a lover of pickles and tinned fish, i do question sometimes like whyyyy do i like these things, am i a product of the internet and trends, etc. etc. and then i remember that i shouldn’t listen to white people and that i loved pickles from a young age and i grew up on tinned tuna and anchovies. and also like fuck off. i think this goes in hand with the debate about the death of personal style. like oopsie i showed up to the museum and i’m wearing the same red tights and groutfit as another clearly online girlie. i have a lot to say about personal style and this online condemnation of being like everyone else (derogatory)

• 88rising abandoned us: ahem as an asian american who came of age in 2016 and was raised on wongfu and nigahiga………….. it was nice being validated by this video. i love niki, i loved rich brian once upon a time, i like dpr ian, and i’m endlessly disappointed by asian american music being left in the dust by a brand/label that promised so much and actually had the potential to achieve more. 88rising shitted out the shang-chi soundtrack and then fuckin killed itself ig

• little women: i’ve been reading little women in an effort to tank a classic but it’s moving at a snail’s pace. i’ve tried really hard but it’s not my speed at the moment. i’m like 30% through and it’s sweeter than i could’ve ever imagined. but i find it hard to focus on and it does kind of drag. i wish i read it as a younger girl. i can’t believe i’m gonna dnf little women

  • i pivoted to read the picture of dorian gray and it is much shorter and it’s also so gooooood. i feel like it’s speaking to my soul

• before i send you off, here is a playlist allegedly curated by cillian murphy in honor of valentine’s day:

sorry for leaving this off for so long! i hope not to let this sit longer than 2 weeks but i get overwhelmed sometimes. hopefully we talk much, much sooner :)

sssarah

p.s. i’m hearing that ppl are starting to use ai to write letterboxd reviews, i hate that i ahte that i hate that i hate that i hate that