I just cooked a whole Thanksgiving feast on my own. I don’t need a wife to feed me, I need me a wife to feed.

Heat (1995)

I’ve only watched this classic for the first time recently, and it warrants a second viewing.

But first I read a version of the script.

The action is mechanical, rough — punctuated with only a few gilded paragraphs to let emotions breathe where needed. You can see that the edit for the film has already begun, whole scenes reproduced down to the letter. You also see scenes and details dropped — likely polished away in the final edit.

The dialogue seems fragmented, almost nonsensical on the page. But spoken it’s alive, natural, effortless.

Many lessons to learn here.

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

When Netflix recommend this miniseries to me, I thought, “The hell I am gonna watch someone play fuc’n chess.”

Well, I did, and it rules.

The anime vibes are strong with this one. People have pointed to the multitude of reaction shots of characters deep in thought as proof (they are correct), but I think the depiction of a niche discipline is a better example.

Japanese animation has a rich history of taking a specific interest you wouldn’t think would make great television and proving you wrong. Slice-of-life and sports anime do this all the time by writing strong characters and not being afraid to get into the minutia of the topic. Just look at Free! or Food Wars and then look at The Queen's Gambit. The DNA is there and it’s better for it.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019)

EA did Respawn dirty.

Jedi: Fallen Order has a fantastic opening act. It thrusts you directly into Star Wars with an incredibly detailed world that immediately feels part of said universe. The characters are engaging, believable, likable, and they fit this world like a glove. I haven’t experienced this level of immersion in the Star Wars universe since Knights of the Old Republic.

But then combat reared its ugly head. Dark Souls and its ilk clearly inspired the gameplay of Fallen Order. You can feel the developers intended every lightsaber strike to be deliberate, every dodge strategic, every mistake devastating. I love the intent behind this. I believe if executed well, the payoff would make the player feel like a real Jedi Knight. Alas, while the combat demands the utmost precision, the player character's responsiveness feels designed for a significantly less demanding game. Enemies react quickly, have uninterruptible attacks, and can seemingly home in on the character mid-strike. The player character, on the other hand, is easily staggered, his attacks can be interrupted, and his powerful attacks can completely miss if off by a mere millimeter.

Rather than challenging, gameplay feels unfair. And that leaves a terrible taste in any gamer's mouth.

Additionally, Fallen Order has some shockingly inconsistent graphical performance. The first two worlds are gorgeous. But Kashyyyk? Ridiculous texture pop-in incongruous with previous worlds and egregious moments where the whole game freezes. The game has crashed on me three times.

These graphical issues and combat woes seem contrarian when you compare them to other elements in the game. The story is intriguing, dialogue entertaining, character design excellent, exploration exhilarating, world and level design sublime (well, except for some questionable platforming). So what’s the deal?

I’m confident EA rushed ‘em. Fallen Order needed some more time in the oven, but EA wanted a Star Wars hit now. And Respawn got left holding the bag.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Skip if you don’t want spoilers.

This film depicts perfectly one’s inner thoughts. The repetitive imagery, cyclical concepts, time jumps, dream logic, revisionist history. I’d argue this is a better realization of the subconscious than Inception.

But once the credits rolled, I wondered if this movie was any deeper than the experience. And the answer is no.

I wish it was.