february and march, in review

overdue but, we move

We’re gonna jump straight in. My April in review will be up next week. Media-wise, February and March were very good months. I watched good movies, read good books, and listened to good music. I kind of listened to the same music over and over again so for February and March I’ll skip over a music in review. Just know, I am still listening to country, with Cowboy Carter added to the lineup.

Movies

The Westerns

I was very much in my Western era in February and I’m determined to keep it going and watch some Western classics over the next few months. If you remember from my January wrap-up, Nope, was a big highlight for me and I think that’s really what spurred me on to watch more in the genre. Now, do I want to read a wWestern? Not really but I might because of these two movies.

No Country for Old Men

This one threw me for a loop. It was engaging from the first minute and kept me with it for the whole 122 minutes. I had watched Fargo and True Grit just a day before diving into No Country and so was on a big Coen brothers high and it felt like I hit the climax. I liked the way that we were following three separate people and storylines, all wrapped up in each other and you don’t know how it will end. At least, I certainly didn’t. We got to the end and I was clutching my pearls. It was an amazing watch.

The Power of the Dog

Whew, this was just a beautiful thing to watch visually but, disturbing to watch it all play out. I was uncomfortable in so many scenes but the stellar cast got me to stay with them in each moment. The doling out of details, the unraveling of each character, their motives and history was done so expertly you know that Jane Campion came prepared.

The Tear Jerkers

Oh, the movies were just determined to see me cry this winter.

Sound of Metal

Everyone was amazing in this film but, Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci delivered such emotionally poignant performances that I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever had the good opportunity to witness on screen. I adore how this movie pushes the viewer right into the loudness of it all, the constant moving of this character’s world and the journey of the movie is for stillness: for the main character, for the film, for the audience, for the camera. It all works together.

Life goes on. With or without your permission. That’s the cruel truth of it but maybe the beauty of it too; that constant arrival. Sound of Metal got it so right and those last five minutes will forever stay with me.

Moonlight

Barry Jenkins is a true storyteller. In the hands of anyone else, Moonlight couldn’t have hit all the emotional notes as perfectly as it did. Every cut to a new phase in our main character’s life never felt too quick or forced. Everything felt lived in and I knew him even in these slivers we were given. The loneliness, fear, deep love, and catharsis depicted in this film are so beautiful and poetic. There could never be another Moonlight. Incredible.

Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Cinema! Chef’s Kiss! Everything I love and everything I want in a film is here and done well! I know some people hate it, dislike the storyline they feel is overused and there are valid criticisms but this is a movie! Something meant to be an experience! Something meant to make you feel! And it made me feel. They had the perfect cast. Mother-daughter relationships will always make me cry and hurt and ah! The editing, the multiple storylines, and the multiple timelines. I was shook. I hope every version of me has loved this movie. Michelle Yeoh, everything you are is lovely.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on

I read Little Weirds last year and it became one of my favorite books of the year. Jenny Slate knows how to balance the weird moments with the poignant moments and marry them so it all makes sense and in the end, I’m crying because of a stop-motion shell.

The Heart Warmers

The House of Us

Yoon Ga Eun’s debut feature film, The World of Us, grabbed me by the heart last year and became one of my favorite films ever. I think Yoon can capture a certain moment in a child’s life so perfectly as to lead the audience to feel these heightened emotions the kids do while still showing it to us from an adult lens. The idea of found family, of your world being your friends at this age when your actual family kind of disappoints you; it’s all done so well! Yoon Ga Eun, you’ll never see this but tell me your next film is coming soon. I’m begging for it!

Uptown Girls

I’m not going to lie. I was expecting to think was a cute little film, laugh a little, and keep it moving. But, nope. This movie chewed me up and spat me out. I was crying like a baby at the end. If you haven’t realized, I love a found family trope and Uptown Girls does it perfectly. I also love how much this is about Molly and Ray’s relationship. I disliked Neal with a passion and am very glad he was more of a background character than I thought he would be at first. This is fun! It’s funny! It’s heartbreaking! They don’t make movies like this anymore and it’s about time we demand better for ourselves.

Tokyo Godfathers

Satoshi Kon has never missed for me. I didn’t know what Tokyo Godfather’s was about before going in. I’m used to his reality-breaking, disorienting stories such as Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Opus. I wasn’t expecting this sweet, found family storyline following three homeless people on the streets of Tokyo as they try to find their parents to this baby on Christmas. There’s so much social commentary and heart embedded in this movie. I can’t wait to watch this again in December. This a Christmas classic!

The Honorable Mentions

These are the movies that I have to shout out even if they weren’t the absolute standouts for me overall. There was something about them that still makes me think about them to this day.

Bombay Rose

Why this didn’t work for me all the way was solely about pacing. I think it was a bit too slow and the meander wasn’t that fun. However! I loved the way they used animation to delve into the concept of reality and imagination blending into each other. It was done so well. There’s a scene in here where they kiss and it was pure poetry.

Waiting to Exhale

Oh, this was just so fun! I want to watch this in a movie theatre full of black women. Do you know how fun that would be?! Some parts didn’t age well at all but, it was such a romp and with a stacked cast and great ending for everyone, I can’t wait to watch this again.

Real Women Have Curves

America Ferrera, you’ll always be famous. Like I said before, I’m a big fan of mother-daughter relationships, especially immigrant mother-youngest/only daughter relationships because it speaks so much to what I feel like my growing up was like. I felt it so much in this movie that it was like watching some sort of flashback on the screen. I also enjoyed how great a job this did at showing how once you’re older, your eyes start to open to how much life is going on around you to the people around you and you realize how much life is hurting them and you didn’t even notice. It’s a wild transition and you want to figure out how to help but sometimes it’s hard.

Books

Okay, I’m going to be a thief for this one and steal

Catherine Thoms

’s monthly wrap-up template where she does a book pyramid. It’s a great way to do a review and give out recommendations so please forgive me, Catherine. I’ll do it just this once. (Also, please check out her substack. It’s full of great book recommendations).

The Foundation

Topaz - Beverly Jenkins

Look, this isn’t my absolute favorite Jenkins but there’s no way I can talk about my February/March reading months and not mention a Beverly Jenkins novel! She’s become a bit of a comfort read for me. I can dig back into any of her novels and feel content. Instead of a re-read (which I did a lot of), I chose a new read for this pyramid because it’s always nice to discover something new. I think Kate as a character is one of my favorites. She was funny and unexpected and I enjoyed her when she was with the other people in the new community she had to become a part of.

Neighbors and Other Stories - Diane Oliver

I’ll always be a short story collection stan. If you can write a good short story, you’re it! Neighbors and Other Stories explores race in the 1950s and 1960s American South. This wasn’t my favorite collection ever but, what struck me so much while reading was that Oliver wrote all this by the time she was 22. When you read each piece, it’s so mature and full of an experience so lived in. It’s incredible to think a 22-year-old did this. To think of what she could have created if she hadn’t died so young. Man, we would have been in the presence of a legend.

Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson

Open Water is a love letter to black culture, black music and entertainment, and black love (in its many forms). Focused in London, it follows a young black man who falls in love with his friend’s girlfriend. I’m not going to lie, their relationship wasn’t easy to read. They were frustrating and lowkey annoying. However, the strength was in Nelson’s prose so I could overlook them for a bit. His writing was gorgeous to read. I loved every moment of reading it and I was so caught up. It’s something you have to experience for yourself.

Wynd: The Throne in the Sky #3 - James Tynion IV

If I have to add anything to a foundation, it’s going to be a graphic novel and of course, it has to be Wynd. It’s described as a fantasy epic which I think is an apt description. I am continuously impressed by this graphic novel because of what it has to say and how it says it. We get darker with each volume and I think it becomes stronger for that. We need to see our main character lose things and people so he understands how serious his situation is. We start in the first volume with a child, and while he still is, he’s had to grow up very quickly. I’m a bit nervous about what Volume 4 will be but still excited for the journey.

Solid Supports

Your Utopia: Stories - Bora Chung

I really, really enjoyed Chung’s collection Cursed Bunny. It was strange and weird and dare I say, awe-inspiring. There was so much to admire and talk about in that collection. So, safe to say that Your Utopia had a lot to live up to. While this one might divide fans a bit more, I loved it. I thought it was a lovely and emotional collection about the ways death can change us deeply and move us to action. It focused heavily on the science fiction aspect and the technological horrors of the future but that grounded humanness of death, mortality, and how we as people face it down rang so loud for me and I found that was the collection’s strength.

Rifqa - Mohammed El-Kurd

Rifqa, a collection of poetry named after the poet’s late grandmother who was forced to flee from her home after the genocidal establishment of Israel, is an incredibly moving piece of work. It was a punch in the gut and a serious call to action. I wish there was more to say but all I can say is you must read it yourself. And we must call for a free Palestine.

“Was it because there were no more graves in Gaza / that you brought us to the beach to die? (…) What do you say to the children for whom the Red Sea doesn’t part?”

Assata: An Autobiography - Assata Shakur

This is a memoir that can only be considered essential reading. Technically, I enjoyed the way Shakur moved between timelines with each chapter changing between talking about her childhood and past and talking about how she came to be in prison and her eventual escape and move to Cuba. What struck me most was how much of what she talked about education, its failings, the ways “justice” is delivered, and more. So much has not changed that it’s almost scary.

The Tippy Top

Catch the Rabbit - Lana Bastasic

This book surprised me. I picked it up after learning about the author from some news outlets and hoped to like it but didn’t expect the way it grabbed me by the pigtails. The novel follows two friends (Sarah and Lejla), reunited after over a decade of no contact, and their road trip across post-war Bosnia to find Lejla’s exiled brother. It’s a fantastic look into a friendship and the ways it can change and upend you. The writing! The translation (done by the author herself)! The storytelling! I’ve been wanting to re-read it from the moment I finished but I’m trying to give myself space from it so I can go back with more information.

I might write a full review later and dedicate a whole post to it. It needs a full deep dive, more than what a couple of paragraphs can provide.