Exactly. Especially considering it’s rare that there’s a month where there are fewer than 2 movies I actively want to see in theaters. So I’m already saving money with it, all those other movies are just bonuses

Plus you get surprised. I thought Clown in a Cornfield was going to suck and I would have never seen Life of Chuck normally but I ended up really enjoying both of them

It’s me. I watch a lot of movies and see arthouse stuff the public doesn’t care about and if something is a big enough train wreck occasionally I’ll see what’s going on (shout out to CATS). Though I have Regal Unlimited so I don’t “pay” for a ticket

Explicitly, no. The rules are you have to be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. To my knowledge citizenship can only be granted to humans though so in effect, yes

That’s some Kingdom Hearts math right there. The Democratic 7: composed of 2 countries, a collection of 4 nations, 3 countries that are kinda sorta part of that collection, and a union of 27 countries (one of which has a higher GDP than any other member of the group). Oh did I mention one of those nations pretty vocally divorced themselves from someone else in that group?

Not a lot of movies this week but they were good

Rental Family 5/5: Brendan Fraser’s renaissance as sad pudgy American is not where I would have landed him but man is he compelling on screen. I don’t know if his earnestness is natural or refined but it really makes you feel for him even though The Whale and Rental Family are pretty outlandish. Another best actor nod seems inevitable in my opinion

The Martian 4/5: I generally enjoy competence porn. Watching a bunch of really talented people approach difficult problems with very high stakes is very entertaining. It also adapts the book pretty well. It does skip an entire chunk of the book but I don’t think it hurts the story

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair 5/5: This is the superior way to watch this movie. It feels far more cohesive, I like the slight mixing/color changes, and cutting out the flashbacks makes it feel like a complete movie. I wish I had the chance to see it 70mm

Batman/Superman Public Enemies 2/5: On paper I should like this way more. It’s an hour long, they immediately get to the point and action and it’s choked full to the gills of characters to the point I didn’t recognize a few. However the animation is cheap and looks bad, Batman kinda sucks for most of it and the stakes are largely nonexistent. I also don’t like Lex’s scheme, it’s pretty ham fisted for a super genius

People don’t know/have forgotten that the Democrats really pushed the moral panic around violent video games and music. Both Joe Liberman (Al Gore’s running mate and promenant senator) and Tipper Gore (wife of Al Gore) were leaders in pushing for music/video game censorship

Even dumber, 95% of tesla drivers their phone as a key and you can use the voice assistant built into the car to text for you

What is 2000s club night if not an immersive historical re-enactment?

Generally speaking trafficking is bringing something into a place where it is not allowed to be

So in your first example, you are allowed to watch that kid, and both of you are allowed to be in that state and to see a movie, so no, you are not trafficking

Similarly if you are allowed to have that gun in both states then you are not trafficking. Additionally in the US if a case involves crimes across states it’s typically a federal charge and not multiple state ones

People can be trafficked against their will for slavery purposes or by their will as a form of illegal immigration. You can even “traffic” legal goods like cigarettes if you transport them without paying all applicable taxes. It’s a catch-all term for transporting things that a place does not want to let in. Typically the term is only used for bulk transportation, smaller amounts tend to have other more specific crimes

If you want to watch the reverse Dumb Money was fairly watchable

I am almost incapable of seeing that title and not shouting GOOOOLLLDDDDFIIIIINNNGGGGGEEERRRR

Fuck that’s a great Bond theme

You ever see someone living your dream and think “damn, I wish I was a raccoon?”

God that is my mother. Even worse is that she makes up/ignores rules if she doesn’t think it makes sense, which, spoiler: is all the time. Because she won’t read the rules. Yes, you, a 64 year old woman who can’t operate a remote, know what would make a game more fun better than the PEOPLE WHO MADE THE GAME 🙄

Auto Focus 3/5: I had heard about this movie and was interested in what grabbed people about it. I didn’t realize Bob Crane was just a straight up pervert, and from what the movie portrayed, not even an illegal or creepy one. Just a charming guy with an addiction that ruined his life

Bugonia 4.5/5: This was so fun, at multiple points in the story you are fully convinced Emma Stone is and isn’t an alien. Also addressing the allure of conspiracy theories is very timely

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero 3/5: I liked giving Gohan and Piccolo a movie. It has good jokes and entertaining fights

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! The Movie 2/5: I like the show better than the movie. The movie is pretty generic with the exception of the leading man’s back story except his back story doesn’t really impact the plot that much. Also you can just say your movie isn’t canon to the story, you don’t have to handwave it with some bullshit

Rocky 4/5: My first time seeing this. I didn’t know Rocky is kind of a bum and a moron, but Sly’s charisma sells it. It was a big risk for him to get this made but it gave him his career and you like to see those gambles pay off. I would be curious if there are other movies where people went all in on themselves, Megalopolis most recently comes to mind

xXx 4/5: Does this movie make any sense at all? No. However it abandons any sort of plot to do a bunch of cool stunts and that’s pretty fun

The Running Man (2025) 3.5/5: Glen just doesn’t have the juice like Arnie did. I didn’t love how he kept accidentally falling into the laps of people who wanted to help him, it was little too easy

Pitch Black 3/5: Apparently this is the first Riddick movie. It has more cool ideas than good acting and it’s clear this cast wasn’t used to working with CGI

That’s super normal. It’s important to remember objects don’t have any importance behind what we assign to them. If you still value that relationship maybe you can find a way to preserve it physically like the other commenters have suggested or it may be time to acknowledge that portion of your life is over and this can be symbolic closure. I have a beautiful handmade quilt from an ex-girlfriend and I haven’t seen her in almost a decade yet I keep it because the meaning behind it at the time is still important to me

An important thing to remember in these situations: “you cannot control your emotions, but you can control your reaction to them and allow that to shape you in the future”

They already had a Knuckles mini-series

I’ve got the same shit happening. I don’t like audiobooks but there’s a series I like where the third is an audible exclusive. So I have to pay money to Amazon for a service I don’t want if I want to read that book

Personally I pirate my books and if there’s one I particularly like then I’ll go find the author and give them money directly. Most have a substack/patreon/ko.fi and they get more money

(normally)

Doing a lot of heavy lifting there

Pimento cheese and a slice of tomato grilled on buttered sourdough. A southern classic