Greg T

The news isn't all bad. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Mia Goth's monologue in the final act of Pearl is absolutely breathtaking and I'm not saying it should have beat Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere in that year but I'm also not NOT saying that.

Oh, look, the lyrics are stalkerish, but the vibe is immaculate. Furious Angels always gets me pumped. (And yes, I prefer the lyrics version to the instrumental one from The Matrix, although both are good.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtAm...

First five TTRPGs: 1. Dragon Warriors 2. D&D Basic (BECMI) 3. D&D 2nd Edition 4. Dungeoneer 5. Werewolf: The Apocalypse

This scene is pretty much the climax of Hereditary. None of the supernatural nonsense that comes afterwards is remotely as effective as the slowly curdling horror, guilt and grief of the first half.

Film #157 for 2026 is 28 Weeks Later (2007). Basically entertaining, with a strong cast, but it makes no good argument for its own existence and becomes so miserable I was no longer invested by the time the ending arrives.

I don't think Ultima I can have been the *first* videogame I played, given I was aged nine when the Ultima Trilogy version I owned for the Apple IIe came out, but it feels like the first, and eventually beating it (without any kind of FAQ or hintbook) felt like a huge achievement.

Feels like what we're seeing in the videogame industry is AAA publishers realising that the role of "AAA publisher" hasn't been a significant value-add to the industry for at least a decade, and rather than losing the publishers, the publishers are just killing the developers instead.

MFs will really make 170 episodes of Black Clover over five years and then say, "Okay, that's season 1, now here's season 2."

I mentioned it the other day, but wow, "Part of Your World". The lyrics, the rhyming scheme, the way it makes a silly mermaid suddenly about feminism and capitalism and consumerism, the way the animation uses vertical space and light and reflections to reinforce the themes. The build-up to "burn"...

The fifth season of True Detective already aired and it was about space supercops with magical green rings. But I'll allow this alternate version.

"Only Angels Have Wings" (1939) was my best new-to-me classic film of the year. An absolute powerhouse of a film. It had the same effect on me that Casablanca did when I saw it for the first time.

Different characters, same energy.

Film #156 for 2026 is "One Man Band" (2005). It's my favourite so far of these Pixar shorts - it's legitimately funny, and very well done, even if Pixar still haven't *quite* mastered the art of human characters.

Melanie Lynskey, almost zero lines but absolutely adorable as the less-evil stepsister in "Ever After" (1998).

I play a very mean Noelle against players who have only the most basic grasp of BlazBlue. I would enjoy fighting games more in a world where nobody was actually good at them.

Film #155 for 2026 is "Boundin'" (2003). Another Pixar short, this time with neither technical brilliance nor entertainment value. There was no reason this needed to exist; it's visibly the same Pixar that made "Cars".

Film #154 for 2026 is "Coyote vs Acme" (2026). I concur with basically every other review - it's far better than it had any reasonable expectation of being, and genuinely moving. Recommended. Also, that is not how courts or congressional hearings work, even a little bit.

Film #153 for 2026 is "All You Need Is Kill" (2025). It's an even-less-faithful animated adaptation of the same book as "Edge of Tomorrow", and while it's initially satisfying to see Emily Blunt's character repositioned as the protagonist, it completely fails to deliver on pacing and storytelling.

Film #151 for 2026 is Geri's Game (1997). Coming two years after Toy Story, the endearing human character (and his clothing) is a remarkable technical achievement. But there's otherwise not much to this beyond the tech demo.

Film #150 for 2026 is The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020). On the plus side, it's got a better handle on its tone, better kills, more Ken Marino, and Jenna Ortega joins the cast. On the other hand, there's a lot less Samara Weaving, and the alleged protagonist looks like a Young Liberal. It's fine.

Film #149 for 2026 is The Babysitter (2017). McG is not a good director, and Brian Duffield is not a good screenwriter, but Samara Weaving (as always) gives this 110%, and there's some genuinely hilarious bits in amongst the cringe. As horror goes, it's acceptably and enjoyably bad.

A good cover finds the power in the song but does something new enough to justify itself. There are many good covers, but today's it's Placebo covering Kate Bush. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-mY...

Film #148 for 2026 is Knick Knack (1989). Pixar experiments with low-poly stylised forms to create cartoony motion. It's amusing enough, but it's ultimately less impressive than Luxo Jr from three years previous.

Film #147 for 2026 is Red's Dream (1987). Another Pixar short, in which they pose the question, "Is the world ready for a CGI clown?" and the answer is "Absolutely not, please stop".

I definitely think new releases of old Final Fantasy games should have a "skip bullshit" button where it just gives you all the rewards of chocobo racing / lightning dodging / card battling / other poorly conceived minigame, if, like a sane person, you don't actually want to do those things.

Film #145 for 2026 is Tin Toy (1988), another Pixar short. Pixar's ambition exceeds its technical grasp on this one - the horrifying animated baby is proof that there is, in fact, no God. Although it does act in commendably baby-like ways.

Film #144 for 2026 is The Adventures of André & Wally B. (1984), another pre-Pixar short. It's a marvellous technical achievement on 1984 computers, but doesn't otherwise have much to recommend it. Why does André make Donald Duck noises?

Film #143 for 2026 is Luxo Jr. (1986) which is less than two minutes long, but I'm deciding it counts. Pixar lamps get up to shenanigans, and it's damned impressive for full-CGI in 1986. My computer in 1986 didn't even have a colour screen.

HG Zephyrantes Gundam from Stardust Memory. This one felt significantly more awkward and fiddly than the Zaku II and it doesn't pose quite as well.

Life is too short to not say everything with the dry declaratory confidence of a man announcing the participants of a Monster Mash.

With apologies to the other very worthy films in the category, Sirat was unquestionably the best international feature submitted to the 98th Academy Awards, and I wish more people had taken the chance to be traumatised by it.

I don't honestly care at all about baseball, but then Moneyball isn't really about baseball at all. (Moneyball is also very, very much about baseball. But also the human relationship with probability and narrative.)

Maybe they could appoint someone competent. But with Annika Wells getting general praise on the basis of not understanding her portfolio and making everyone forget her pork-barrelling corruption, I'm not optimistic.