Question on A Star Is Born. Is it terribly depressing? Sister and I were going to go see it then a friend of hers said it was depressing and I heard the same elsewhere. We skipped it since we weren't in the mood for that the day we were nearby the theater.

Cereal:

FINALLY got around to watching Train to Busan, which has been streaming on Netflix all this time but which I'd been too much of a weenie to see. I had a friend over for dinner last night, and we figured we'd rectify this deficiency while holding each other's hands during scary bits.

Anyway, it was RIOTOUS GOOD TIME, y'all. It's fast-moving, smart, with a real knack for economical introduction to stock characters that make the audience care about them in record time. I feel like the last 20 minutes had about 3 different endings and the movie basically sat on the button labelled "FLORID SENTIMENTALITY" during the entire denouement, but even that was rather entertaining. My friend (also Korean-born) and I talked about how that mix of violence and sentimentality is baked into the fabric of Korean cinematic genre fare.

For fellow horror movie weenies: it's got your typical zombie movie violence but I didn't find it particularly scary. It's more action than horror. Two thumbs way up.

Question on A Star Is Born. Is it terribly depressing?

It follows the plot template of all 3 previous A Star Is Born movies (i.e. it ends unhappily) but I don't know if I'd call it depressing? I mean, addiction and relationship breakdown are big parts of the the story, but in its heart, it's a good ole-fashioned melodrama, where sad things happen and you have a good cathartic cry and feel fine about it afterward. But YMMV.

That makes sense, Vonnie. We'll just see it on a day when in that kind of mood.

For people who don't have problem with heights/vertigo, I highly recommend the documentary Free Solo.

It is an INTENSE movie.

I watched Meditation Park on the plane up to Toronto, and I loved it. It's a quiet film, but it's such a delight, and there's an absolutely iconic Chinese granny power walk in it. Sandra Oh and Don McKellar (Darren Nichols from Slings and Arrows) have lovely supporting roles.

They released a poster for Aquaman and, well, some people are having fits. Seemingly, the picture - of Aquaman on the back of a shark with an army (navy?) of sharks, etc., behind him used (gasp!) stock photos for the fish. um ... first of all, that's what stock photos are for and, second, did they think the studio was going to assemble the fish and have an underwater photo shoot of Jason Momoa with them? And they're pretty good photos - Getty images - so it's not like they're using some clumsy clip art ....

And they're pretty good photos - Getty images - so it's not like they're using some clumsy clip art ....

Clip art would've been hilarious though. Or they could've spliced him into some Sharknado footage.

I think they may have already done that for his aerial scenes in Justice League—I'm pretty sure I saw Tara Reid amongst the Para-demons.

People have been having fun with it - some have Photoshopped him in with the fish from Finding Nemo, Dory, etc. ... which is amusing.