This past week saw the release of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and folks, my mind has been completely absorbed by it! I can’t stop thinking about it and keep seeing many memes and videos on my social feeds.
It’s reminding me that while I find some of the game’s issues frustrating, I really love that world and the gameplay.
If you haven’t listened yet, a new episode of Agree to Disagree has dropped. We talk about my least favorite Spider-Man movie — No Way Home. Listen below:
Let me what you think! But for now, let’s look at the Recap!
FILM
Highlight: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | Stephan Elliott | 1994 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Two drag queens and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a town in the remote Australian desert. As they head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, the three friends come to the forefront of a comedy of errors, encountering a number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, whilst widening comfort zones and finding new horizons.
For the penultimate pick of June’s programming of SCAM Girls Movie Club, my fiancée chose this incredible movie. It’s long been on my list of Important Movies™ I needed to get to but put it off because Important Movies™ tend to be a lot to take in. I’m happy to say that this is a blast! There are a couple of moments of trials and tribulations that are found in many if not most, gay films, but for the most part, we see these queens having fun and messing with each other. There is an Asian war-bride bit that’s quite appalling and Guy Pearce’s character keeps dead naming Terence Stamp’s trans woman’s character, which just isn’t cool. Despite these odd moments, this movie is sweet, funny, and tender. Hugo Weaving has also mentioned that gay actors were offered the roles initially, but, being that it was the 90s, those actors declined the roles so they wouldn’t be pigeonholed as “gay actors.” I think all three of the leads knew the importance of crafting full characters and not caricatures, and it paid off.
Devils of Darkness | 1965 | ⭐⭐⭐½
I watched this for an upcoming post, so I’ll save full thoughts for that, but it was a little dull, which I expected given the 60s B-movie that it is. I loved the production design though!
Inside Out | 2015 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My fiancée had never seen this before and with the sequel coming out, now was a perfect time for it. I remember really loving it back in 2015, and while I still enjoyed it, it dropped a little in my Pixar ranking. It’s still lovely and Bing Bong still got a tear from me. Also, the score is tops! Michael Giacchino does it again.
Inside Out 2 | 2024 | ⭐⭐⭐½
I liked this mostly. It’s not quite as emotionally affecting as the first, but as far as sequels go it’s a good one. I also liked most of the new emotions — I was confused by Envy’s role, like, I didn’t get envy from them really. it has a nice message and, once again, that score is killer.
TV
In Progress
House of the Dragon, Season 2, Ep. 2
House of the Dragon, Season 1, Ep. 3
Books
Highlight: The Rithmatist | Brandon Sanderson ⭐⭐⭐½
More than anything, Joel wants to be a Rithmatist. Rithmatists have the power to infuse life into two-dimensional figures known as Chalklings. Rithmatists are humanity’s only defense against the Wild Chalklings. Having nearly overrun the territory of Nebrask, the Wild Chalklings now threaten all of the American Isles.
As the son of a lowly chalkmaker at Armedius Academy, Joel can only watch as Rithmatist students learn the magical art that he would do anything to practice. Then students start disappearing—kidnapped from their rooms at night, leaving trails of blood. Assigned to help the professor who is investigating the crimes, Joel and his friend Melody find themselves on the trail of an unexpected discovery—one that will change Rithmatics—and their world—forever.
The Weathered Tome Society has completed yet another book. This time from a personal favorite author — Brandon Sanderson. This is one of his YA — young adult — novels, and I have to say it was a little too YA for me. It’s pretty simple and our main hero is a little too precocious. It was still fun, though, and the chalk-based magic system was very cool. We realized about halfway through that this was a series though, one that Sanderson hasn’t touched since this came out in 2013. It wraps up a lot, but it leaves a whole lot more unanswered, so that was a little frustrating.
Fire & Blood | George R.R. Martin ⭐⭐⭐
I finally finished this big boy! I understand why the show just adapted the Dance of the Dragons part of the book, as it’s definitely the most exciting. I found myself a little bored with the formatting of this book at times. It’s written as if it is an in-world historical text written by a maester. It was dry at times like a historical text is wont to be. I also just got very exhausted by the child sexual abuse — it felt over-indulgent. It does make me excited for what’s to come in the TV show though!
The Big Read
Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë — 60%
Games
In Progress
Persona 4 Golden | PS Vita | Atlus
Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Erdtree | PS5
Hollow Knight | PS5 | Team Cherry
Animal Well | PS5 | Billy Basso
YouTube
Dr. Pepper is my favorite soda, and I love to see that more people are coming over to the Pepper side. It recently passed Pepsi to take 2nd most popular soda in America.1 Learn Something New makes great videos and I was very happy to see he did one on this changing of the guard.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it!
Til next time!
— Colton