Given that I love Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Happy Death Day, and "Russian Doll," I think it's fair to say that I am up for any time loop story, and I'm fine with it becoming a sort of subgenre unto itself. Like those other films/shows, Palm Springs offers its own twist on the trope with its own internal logic and weird mythology, while also deconstructing a lot of wedding hookup romcom cliches. I'm overintellectualizing it, though, it's really just a very, charming movie where Andy Samberg has to really act a little more than usual and pulls it off well, great supporting parts from J.K. Simmons, Meredith Hagner, and June Squibb. 

Netflix's big recent action movie based on a graphic novel series, with Charlize Theron as the leader of a band of immortal mercenaries. I was really impressed by Gina Prince-Blythewood's last movie Beyond The Lights and I'm glad she's finally gotten to direct another feature 6 years later, particularly a rare action movie directed by a woman. There's some really thrilling fight choreography and some cool, not too flashy CGI when the immortals get shot or cut and heal themselves. It was kind of refreshingly no-frills despite the context, though, tonally more like a Jason Bourne movie than a comic book movie. 

Will Ferrell vehicles have suffered from diminishing returns over the past decade, so perhaps I merely lowered my expectations enough to be pleasantly surprised, but I liked this. Obviously Eurovision is kind of an obviously absurd setting for Ferrell to clown around in, much like NASCAR or whatever, but I enjoyed the way it was also an affectionate celebration of the contest with a lot of references and cameos from people who've participated in it, and I'm always happy to see Rachel McAdams in a comedy, she never misses. 

Any sequel to a decades-old classic has an uphill climb ahead of it, but Stephen King revisiting the world of The Shining and stuffing it with a bunch of new characters and different weirdness is a lot more interesting than if anyone else had tried to do a more straightforward follow-up. And Make Flanagan, who directed Oculus, one of my favorite horror flicks of the past decade, did a great job of managing the delicate balance of making a film that's both a sequel to the Kubrick film and an adaptation of King's sequel book. I enjoyed the way it didn't initially seem to have too much to do with the original story and worked its way backwards to it, sort of like The Force Awakens but without feeling as much like fan service. I also really enjoyed the villains, particularly Rebecca Ferguson, who was kind of creepy and terrifying but also really hot but also wearing a ridiculous hat that reminded me of 4 Non Blondes. 

I feel like this movie got a little lost in the shuffle of Knives Out and The Hunt and the sudden glut of upscale action films about decadent white people murdering each other in an old timey manor. But man, don't overlook Ready Or Not, this shit rules. Samara Weaving particularly stepped up for her highest profile lead role to date, managed to be neither a scream queen nor a generic badass action movie heroine but just a compelling actor who kept you inside the head of a character who spent the whole movie terrified, angry, confused and/or in horrible pain. And after all the satisfying action, they managed to wrap up the story with a great batshit ending. 

This was fun, J.Lo killed it, and it's interesting to watch a period piece about the late 2000's recession, and kind of wonder (hope?) what stories from this recession we'll be sitting around watching in a decade. The framing device of the protagonist telling the whole story to a journalist, since the movie was based on an article, felt a little forced and lazy to me, but otherwise it was really entertaining and well cast. Obviously it brings to mind Magic Mike in a lot of ways but the story had a little more meat to it.

Andrew Patterson self-financed his debut feature by directing commercials in Oklahoma, and submitted it to over a dozen festivals before getting accepted to Slamdance, winning an award, and selling his movie to Amazon. That's such a great underdog success story that I really wanted to love this movie, and I can't say I did. But it brought some cool original ideas to the camera work and the storytelling of a '50s alien invasion movie, makes me think he'll do something really great on his 2nd or 3rd movie. 

I decided to finally check this out while working on my Pulp deep cuts playlist, and it was pretty enjoyable. The entire thing was filmed in the band's hometown, Sheffield, when they returned to play the last show in England of their reunion tour in 2012. So there's a few complete song performances but it's not quite a concert film, and it kind of avoids the usual rockumentary beats of comprehensively telling the band's story in favor of a movie that captures the band's unique character and sense of humor and a lot of the local color of Sheffield. Some great little anecdotes, like someone who lived with Jarvis Cocker calling "Dishes" a great song while noting that he never once saw Jarvis with a dish rag in his hand. 

My kids love Seuss books and particularly The Lorax, both of them always found it kind of frustrating that you never see The Onceler's face in the book, and were kind of relieved that they show it in the movie. I much prefer the old TV specials that Seuss himself worked on like The Grinch to the new school adaptations, but this is definitely one of the better ones, "How Bad Can I Be" is a pretty fun song.