Before you go any further, this piece contains spoilers for Minari. If you haven't seen it and don't want the movie spoiled don't read ahead. If you have or don't care for spoilers then by all means proceed.

There’s so many beautiful things about Minari, but the relationship between the grandson and grandma is one that made me cry so much. I found myself feeling like both at different times. I identified with David’s confusion and anger towards his grandma when she’s not acting like what his idea of a grandma is. She doesn’t cook, she doesn’t bake, she wears men’s underwear and she smells weird. I identified with the grandma trying her best to help her family, being the only person she knows how to be and not fully being accepted. I know what it’s like to be David telling his grandma “this is your fault” as she’s recovering from a stroke, wrestling with the fact that the sickness is only complicating things.

My mom had a stroke shortly after I was born and her health has always been an issue in my family’s lives. There are times when I’ve felt like there were so many limits on what my mom could or couldn’t do, where I found myself thinking “Why can’t you be a normal mom?”. My older sister was born with an intellectual disability and when she entered her teenage years she would deal with so many challenges that at times we couldn’t go out or my mom had to stay behind with her. I found myself thinking “Why can’t you be a normal sister?” over and over growing up.

In Minari after Soonja, the grandma gets a stroke. In her recovery, she tries hard to help around the house. As I watched her dropping things over and over, I found myself thinking “please stop, please stop” and realized it’s the same thought and feeling I’ve had when I would see my mom trying to do something before she was fully physically ok. I recognize that just like my mom, Soonja is just trying to show that she can still help. That’s she’s still adding something, and not just subtracting nice moments from the family. I could see that in her, which is why when the family is gone and having their own crisis away from the home, as Soonja is burning garbage due to her physical state, she can’t put the garbage in all the way and she accidentally sets fire to the barn. I was crushed. I know what it’s like to have something be destroyed because of the unwitting actions of someone who is trying their best but they’re not in a state to help. I was so devastated watching this moment because I’d seen it in my own life with two women who I love so much.

Soonja runs away, she doesn’t know what else to do, she’s ruined everything. She’s done awful and thinks they’ll hate her or at the very least she thinks they won’t want her around. My sister started struggling with what she refers to as “toques” (static shocks) in her mind when she was a teenager. She feels bad and can’t explain it or deal with it and she has outbursts of emotion. She cries really hard and sometimes physically reacts to people trying to calm her down. As she grew older and bigger, it was harder for my parents to control her when she was going through this. Being five years younger than her, whenever these events would happen, I would lock myself in another room or go outside. I was scared...even as I grew older and was in college. On one particularly bad occasion for her, it was just her, my mom and I at home and mom couldn’t control her. My sister was screaming and crying on the floor. I was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. I tried to help, approached my sister and screamed “NO. CALM DOWN.” and my sister reacted by swinging her arm at me and scratching me on the forehead. I’ll never forget her face after that. Her eyes were so scared and so sad. She immediately broke down. “No chiquito” she kept repeating, as she cried and I felt blood trickle from my forehead. It broke my sister’s heart more than it scared or overwhelmed me. The fire she caused was scarier to her than it could ever be to me.

As his grandma runs away in fear and shame, David runs after her. The mean kid who wished she was “a normal grandma” can’t bear to see his Grandma go away. For as much as I “wish” my sister and mom were “normal”, I can’t bear to think of my life existing without them. It’s my relationships with them that have shaped my life in a bigger way than anything else has. It’s those fires that have been unintentionally caused by them that have made me realize what I really love and what really matters. If not for them, my greatest joys wouldn’t exist. I’ve never known anyone as resilient as my mother. I’ve never met anyone who loves the way my sister does. I continue to be devastated by the thought that I would ever wish for them to be anything else other than what they are, because I love them. I love them for who they are, for what they are, for what they’ve gone through, for how they love me. They are so much more than the fires they’ve caused, they are a part of me. The best part of me.

I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of Captain Marvel jokes made about this movie, hell I made one when I saw it pop up on Netflix before I even played it but I’m so glad I did. Unicorn Store stars, and is directed by Brie Larson who plays a woman, Kit, who flunked out of art school and is forced to get a “real job” and attempt to move on. As she’s barely getting acclimated to the real world she keeps running into intricate invitations made out to her to a place called “The Store” that promises to have just what she needs. Turns out The Store sells only one thing, a unicorn which is what Kit has been obsessed with since she was a child. Immediately she wants to know what she has to do to get the Unicorn and three simple requirements are given to her, make a suitable space for the unicorn to live, provide financial stability, and provide a loving peaceful environment. After that the movie takes off….weird right? Definitely weird.

Kit is kind of childish. Aside from the unicorn obsession she’s a bit selfish, seems a bit unequipped to handle anything that’s not her fantasy world and has never had a real job. She lives with her parents who are camp counselors at some sort of Vision Quest youth program where they council at risk youths with cheesy “Truth circles” and camping trips. They’re nice enough people but Kit is irritated at the fact that they want to give her dinner or feed her Kale. She gets a job at a temp agency that sends her to a PR Firm where she’s given the task of copying magazines she’s barely in the office for a few hours before she’s getting sexually harassed by one of the VPs. This seems like a weird wrinkle to an already strange movie but I’m sure it happens to entirely too many women so in a way I’m glad it was included. Kit’s main motivation at work when asked by her boss is not being a disappointment but really it’s getting the unicorn.

As her quest for the Unicorn unfolds she meets Virgil, a hardware store sweeper and inventory counter who she enlists to help her build the stable for her future unicorn and they begin to develop a friendship. At the same time Kit meets periodically with The Salesman, played by Samuel L Jackson, who runs The Store and checks in with Kit to see how her progress is going. These meetings are really nothing but therapy meetings where Kit talks about the problems she’s having at work or with her parents, and she is confronted by her selfishness.

Ultimately that is what this movie is all about, it’s about personal growth. Kit faces her “failure” or rather the failure that other people assigned to her by crashing and going to a boring office job where she is doing mindless work and getting sexually harassed. When she TRIES to inject some of herself into the job (Which is a fantastic pitch meeting that puts Don Draper to shame) she’s only shot down in favor of a cliche sexual campaign. She thinks her parents see her as a disappointment or failure because they worry about her and she doesn’t even notice that her parents proudly hang her art on their walls. She pushes away the one person not related to her who seems to genuinely care about her, helps her, and is trying to look out for her. Something that I’m sure most of the viewers have gone through at one point of their life or another.

All of this reaches a climax in a beautiful moment when Virgil, with the help of her parents finishes building the stable and lines it with art Kit has created from her childhood until now. As she walks in her eyes water as she recognizes the things she’s created out of her pure imagination and how they’re displayed in such a proud way. It’s an art gallery of her life. Of Her. All her vulnerability and creative output not ridiculed but proudly showcased. Virgil says, “If you were a building this is what you’d look like”. It’s a little on the nose that the stable of her unicorn is a gallery of her, but who cares this is a lovely moment, and if it has to be on the nose for all the viewers to realize then so be it.

As much as Kit is a unicorn, I believe Virgil is a unicorn too. Virgil is the one who defends her art even when Kit has deemed that the artist that called her art bad was right. He’s also the one that built the stable that displayed all her stuff with pride. He sees things in her she can’t even see most of the movie. There’s nothing as inexplicable and fantastical as a person, an independent, full person who has no biological ties to you caring about you. Someone who you can be your weird self around, talk about ridiculous things like unicorns and care bears, dress how you want to dress, complain about what you want to complain, and them still stick around? That’s a miracle. Throughout the movie everytime Virgil was on the screen I couldn’t help but think of how grateful I am to have found someone like that in my life. He’s the second unicorn in this movie, sure self growth and valuing yourself is important but that then allows you to be open for love from others and those people are as rare and mystical as a real unicorn.

It’s a cheesy movie but it works, I really think it does. It’s original and carries a powerful message that I think everyone needs a reminder of. As far as directorial debuts go I think Brie Larson did a fantastic job and I hope there are more Unicorn Stores in the world.

The United States of America in 2018 is a weird place. Every day something happens that just sounds completely made up. Did you hear the one about the billionaire who was trying to build a mini submarine in order to misguidedly help a bunch of Thai boys that were trapped in a cave? Remember when that same guy was in a twitter argument with people about working conditions in the plant that manufactures his electric cars? Or how about how the United States Executive branch is seriously considering creating a “Space Force” and the people of northwest Ohio still don’t have drinking water coming out of their pipes. Oh what about how workers in Amazon distribution centers can’t take time to pee because machines are about to take over their jobs because everyone is ordering everything with free two day shipping. Read those last couple of sentences back and imagine saying that to yourself about 10 years ago.

Sorry To Bother You is an absurd movie, but in regards to the sentences above it’s only one click more absurd and therein lies its greatness. It’s unclear when it takes place but it could totally happen next month. Cassius, the main character, is obsessed with finding meaning in his life but gets a job at a call center because he needs the money and wants to be more interesting to his artist Girlfriend, Detroit, but his landlord(and uncle) is about to lose the house due to rising costs. When he gets the job he becomes a part of the rat race and is encountered with the conflict that arises between wanting to make more money to make life easier and standing up for what is right. That’s the base of the story but the absurdity of the whole thing takes over and reveals many of the anxieties of living in the contemporary United States and how the dynamics of rich/poor are viewed in this country.

The absurdity of Sorry To Bother You works because it is when we see a heightened or distorted situation of the real world that it enables us to see that the real world isn’t that far off. For example, one of the scenes that most stood out to me is very short, odd, and disturbing. It happens when there’s a group of people on the streets proclaiming that Steve Lift, played by Armie Hammer, the CEO of Worry Free the big evil conglomerate in the company that literally deals in slave labor is in fact Jesus. THE Jesus. Upon first view this is ridiculous, and yet we’re not that far off. The American Nationalist Church has through the pushing of an exaggerated Prosperity Gospel equated financial well being with the favor of God. The poor are poor because they steal from God, and the rich are smiled upon by a God who has enlarged their territory because of their faithfulness. That’s not to say this is the case of all churches in America but it is the case in SOME churches. This is the American Christianity that has CEOs on their Sunday pulpits and reality TV show stars come through as part of their promotional book tours. It’s the type of people that assume the personification of God would be a triumphant and incredibly competent CEO, and not you know, a homeless guy with twelve homeless buddies that went around telling people that the meek shall inherit the earth. When the reality presented in Sorry To Bother You is put up against the real world we can see that it’s ridiculous AND eerily close. It’s powerful.

The movie is filled with a lot of these moments. I’m gonna talk about a couple of them really quick.

There’s a moment when Steve Lift is talking about his nefarious plans he justifies them all by saying they’re going to be incredibly profitable and that he’s not just doing it to be evil. Again, this is ridiculous but it’s highlighting that any decision that’s made with profit in mind in a capitalistic society is ultimately moral within it. That’s why Papa John’s can’t pay for health insurance for its employees or why the aforementioned Amazon employees can’t take bathroom breaks.

There’s a protest going on in the movie and Cassius crosses the picket line to go to work and when he does so on one occasion he’s hit in the head with a coke can. This is IMMEDIATELY meme-fied and is all over the place. From daytime tv, to commercials, to halloween costumes on children. Again this seems ridiculous, but just think about every meme in the last….2 years? How many people have been totally de-humanized and made into a joke just because of one moment in their life. Worst how many of these memes have been turned into #content and monetized and how many people are dreaming of going viral?^[1]

The most popular TV show in the country is watching people get beat up, and tell me that’s not the case in the real world either.^[2]

The whole white voice thing is brilliant too. When Danny Glover is teaching it to Cassius he pretty much says the white voice is that of white privilege and not so much that of a white person. It’s an attitude, a way to see the world. It’s a “whiteness” that transcends the real world of white people in America and goes more into the whiteness they’re sold.

To say Sorry To Bother You is a perfect movie for 2018 in America is not an understatement. It encapsulates the absurdity of our modern society and the anxieties of real people in a completely unique and powerful way. It’s a work of art that is packed dense with so many thoughts and moment that it will no doubt reward repeat viewings, I could talk about so many other things like the weird performance art piece Detroit performs or the discussion about white people spaghetti, or when Cassius is forced to rap and so many more. Go watch this movie. I personally can’t wait to watch it again.

The Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA are about to start next week and once again, for the 8th year in a row, they will feature a team led by LeBron James. This stretch of dominance is unlike any that has been seen before in the sport. In fact it’s so unprecedented that it’s hard to put into words. There’s been a metric buttload of articles written, podcasts recorded, and youtube videos created espousing the greatness of the man as a basketball player but still no amount of “content” is enough to fully grasp the totality of just how much talent he has and the gulf that exists between him and other players. Speaking strictly from a basketball angle hasn’t worked so instead of that this article will try to explain how good LeBron James is at basketball in terms of other things. Hopefully in this way some of his greatness can be fully understood even if you don’t watch Basketball. Let’s get started...

• If LeBron James were a character from The Sandlot, he’d be Benny the Jet and the Rest of the NBA would be Smalls.
• If LeBron James were a Tex-Mex Queen, he’d be Selena and the rest of the NBA would be Los Dinos.
• If LeBron James were a 13th century empire he’d be the Mongol Empire and the rest of the NBA would be Khwarazmian Empire.
• If LeBron James were a taco, he’d be the best Al Pastor taco you’ve ever had and the rest of the NBA would be a Jack in the Box taco. Just one, not the two. I know you get two for 99 cents, they would just be one.
• If LeBron James were a Star Wars movie he’d be Empire Strikes Back and the rest of the NBA would be the Lost In Space movie with Joey from Friends.
• If LeBron James were a character from Parks and Rec he’d be Leslie Knope and the rest of the NBA would be Mark Brendanawicz.
• If LeBron James were a movie experience he’d be the first time you saw M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and the rest of the NBA would be the first time you saw M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender
• If LeBron James were a song by Lou Bega he’d be Mambo no 5 and the rest of the NBA would be whatever other song the man has performed, I have no idea, do you?
• If LeBron James were a United States city flag design he’d be the flag of Chicago and the rest of the NBA would be the old Provo Utah flag.
• If LeBron James were an Office Episode he’d be the Dinner Party, or the one where Dwight cuts the face off the CPR mannequin and the rest of the NBA would be any one of the episodes without Michael Scott.
• If LeBron James were a Tom Hardy movie he’d be Mad Max: Fury Road and the rest of the NBA would be This Means War.
• If Lebron James were a Kanye West song he’d be “Runaway” and the rest of the NBA would be that “Poopdidy Scoop” one.
• If LeBron James were an Avenger he’d be Thor mixed with Iron-Man mixed with Captain American and the rest of the NBA would be Hawkeye, the movie version.
• If LeBron James were a McDonald’s menu item he’d be the fries and the rest of the NBA would be a McWrap. Remember the McWrap? I remember the McWrap.
• If LeBron James were an ancient Greek infiltration strategy he’d be the Trojan Horse and the rest of the NBA would be whatever else they would do back then which I assume was run directly at the walls until they all died or they could climb the hills of corpses high enough to breach the walls.
• If LeBron James were a British TV show he’d be The Great British Bake Off and the rest of the NBA would be some Piers Morgan show.
• If LeBron James were a Dragon Ball Z character he’d be Goku and the rest of the NBA would be Chiaotzu.
• If LeBron James were a hairstyle he’d be a nice fade and the rest of the NBA would be a rattail.
• If LeBron James were the smell of a place that makes bread he’d be a good Panaderia and the rest of the NBA would be a Subway.
• If LeBron James were a fictional cartoon sled dog, he’d be Balto and the rest of the NBA would be...I don’t know, I just really like Balto.
• If LeBron james were an NPR program he’d be All Things Considered and the rest of the NBA would be an NPR pledge drive.
• If LeBron James were a Shark Tank viral episode clip he’d be the one of the farmer guy who sells tree covers and cries and the rest of the NBA would be any other scene from that awful show.
• If LeBron James were a Pokemon he’d be All the Legendary Pokemon combined and the rest of the NBA would a Digimon.
• If LeBron James were a cryptocurrency he’d be Bitcoin and the rest of the NBA would be whatever Venezuela is making.
• If LeBron James were a Beatle he’d be a combination of Paul and John and the rest of the NBA would be Pete Best.
• If Lebron James were a Disneyland ride he’d be Space Mountain and the rest of the NBA would be the line for the Tiki Room.
• If LeBron James were a Starburst flavor he’d be the Pink one and the rest of the NBA would be a piece of candy corn.
• If LeBron James were a Daddy Yankee song he’d be Despacito and the rest of the NBA would be Justin Bieber’s verse on his remix of Despacito.
• If LeBron James were an episode of Chef’s Table he’d be the one with the super romantic French Chef and the rest of the NBA would be an episode of Nailed It.
• If LeBron James were a shoe brand he’d be Nike and the rest of the NBA would be Crocs.
• If LeBron James were a basketball player he’d be Lebron James and the rest of the Nba would be the rest of the NBA.

This post contains spoilers. Don't Read anything else unless you want the movie spoiled.

Avengers: Infinity War has finally done something that I’ve been begging for many years, it took them 10 years and 127 movies to finally kill someone. At the end of the post credits scene of the first Avengers movie Thanos is introduced and is seen smiling when he’s told to challenge the Avenger is to “court death”. Since then It’s all been building to this, the moment when he’d get the infinity stones and with the snap of a finger destroy half the universe.

The best part is, he did it. He actually did it.¹

The REAL best part is that people felt it. As Steve Rogers’ “Oh God” rang out in the theater the crowd was completely silent. The bad guy won? Spiderman’s dead? The Guardians except for rocket is dead? BLACK PANTHER is dead? Yup. They’re all dead.

Well, not really. A quick google search or paying attention to any of the news following the release of both Spider-Man: Homecoming or Black Panther and anyone would be aware that there’s already contracts in place to create sequels for both of those movies. The movie itself also has a number of devices it could use to undo what was done in this movie. Thanos’ use of the time stone in how he retrieved the Mind stone from Vision is a clear example of what could^[1] happen. Not to mention the ending of the post credits scene flashes the emblem of Captain Marvel who according MCU boss Kevin Feige will be the most powerful character yet. There’s a way to undo this, and it will be undone.

Still it doesn’t change the fact that it happened.

The movie was supposed to be an event. Not just another movie leading into the next one. For ten years audiences have been treated to a movie that leads to the next without anything but a few cool moments happening in between. While this movie ends with a “Thanos will return…” on the screen and pointing to an obvious undoing of it, it achieved something that no other movies in the MCU have done.

It bummed people out.

Imagine what it must have been like to watch Empire Strikes Back in the theater. I've thought about how great that would have been way too many times. At the end of the movie the Rebellion is well and truly screwed, our hero is actually the SON of Darth Vader? Han Solo is captured? And worst of all Lando isn’t that cool?!^[2] Crowds were bummed out, theories floated about how Vader couldn’t really be Luke’s father and he was just using “psychological tricks” to get in the young Jedi’s head. Overall it was a tough pill to swallow, I couldn’t have imagined what being in a theater at that time was like until I sat in the theater and watched Peter Parker say “Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good”.

Looking back at Empire Strikes Back now it’s easy to overlook what an impact the ending of that movie might have had since we already have the full picture in sight. Nowadays some go so far as to say it was obvious, but to the people living in that era it was a moment. To us living in this era this is a moment. Years from now, or really only one to be exact, this will all be undone. And the teeming masses will happily have the full roster of heroes back, Disney will be able to sell their merchandise and the MCU movies will go back to simply pointing to the next one.

For now though, let’s enjoy that something happened. That it bummed people out, but the fact that it did was a triumph in its own right. It could have been funny, it could have been weightless, it could have been cheap. It could have been half assed, or obviously stated that they’re not really truly dead and gone forever. But it wasn’t. It was sad. It was a moment. It’s our moment, for 2018. The era of leaks and spoilers couldn’t spoil the emotions of the ending of this movie for hundreds of people. “Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good” will go down for years as an emotional line just like “No,I am your father” became the line to describe a reveal in a movie.

Something finally happened in a Marvel movie, and for at least one year I’m going to pretend I don’t know there’s 400 more movies coming out after this one.

This is the first album that I’ve repeatedly listened to in the last month. It’s a good album. I don’t care that I’m maybe not the target audience I’ve enjoyed it tremendously and repeatedly for the last week. Maybe I’m out of touch with the country starlet world but I feel like this album is what Taylor Swift^[1] could have been if she continued down her country path and forgone the whole rivalry with the greatest artist of our generation^[2].

The 13 songs on this album range from country to straight up pop. There’s a fair amount of cheesiness sprinkled throughout but it’s all done with such earnestness that one can’t help but relate or at the very least recognize that these feelings are genuine. I’m also a big fan of the fat-ish snare drum sound used in many of the songs. There’s three songs on it that I’d really like to highlight “Slow Burn”, “ Golden Hour”, and “ Oh, What a World”.

The opening track “Slow Burn” starts with an acoustic guitar and Ms. Musgraves singing descriptive couplets about her life that from the first one make you go “huh yeah, me too”. The first chorus hits and she talks about how it’s ok to take your time, develop at your own pace it’ll be alright.. It’s incredibly reassuring and something that most anyone that’s around her age (late 20s early 30s) can always stand to hear. The second verse starts and the drum set kicks in, sounding fantastic then a couple of bass lines later I’m all in. I love this song.

The titular track, “Golden Hour” is an honest to goodness love song for the instagram generation, I’m only throwing in instagram because I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of listeners learned about what the golden hour is because of all the #NoFilter pics that exist highlighting that time. In any case, the song oozes with authenticity and vulnerability and anyone who’s been delightfully in love can relate to this song. A simple drum beat, simple upbeat guitar strums and electric guitar sprinkled throughout. The simple arrangement allows Kacey’s voice to really shine through. The chorus again ends with the affirmation that everything’s gonna be alright. A recurring theme of this album again and again seems to be gratitude and the recognition that it’s ok to realize you’re in a good place.

The last song I want to highlight is “Oh, What a World”. This to me is the most surprising song on the album, and I can’t believe I like it as much as I do. On the surface if you were to hear that a song features a Daft Punk like vocoder intro, slide guitar, a prevalent banjo backed chorus with a list of things things in the world that are cool what are the odds you’d think it would be a good song? This song is always bordering on cheesy, yet you’d be lying if you said you never had some of these thoughts when taking a moment to look at our world. Maybe it was an early morning on a good vacation, or late at night during a perfect breeze evening. There’s a lot of gratitude, a lot of recognition of the moment, a lot of being present in the moment in the song which is then punctuated by the best end of a chorus “And then there is you”. In all the impossibility of the world with all its delicately resilient intricacies and the miracles the greatest of them is the love right next to you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a country fan, a woman, a man,a child, or a mexican dude in his 30s who eats way too much McDonald’s for your own good. This is a good album and you should listen to it.

In honor of Ed Hochuli's retirement, I have appointed myself poet laureate of The Irrelevant and penned this poem in his honor

Oh Hochuli! my Hochuli! Our long winded explanation is done,
The onfield mic has weather’d every rack, the new york office has overturned,
The second explanation is done, the whistle I hear, the people all spurned,
While follow eyes the bulging arms, the jog somber yet confident
      But O heart! Heart! Heart!
       O the flexing biceps
        Where on the field my Hochuli lies?
         Retired, and left

Oh Hochuli! my Hochuli! Rise up and hear the whistle;
Rise up--For you the challenge flag is thrown--for you Belichik is scowling
For you jeers, and sneers--for you Al Michaels souring
For you Collingsworth calls, that pompous ass, his clattering howling
      Here Hochuli! dear father!
       This arm beneath your head!
        It is some dream on that jumbotron
        You’ve retired and left

My Hochuli does not answer, his lips are sealed and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has nothing to explain,
The shield is safe and sound, Papa John is closed and done
From fearful trip the brave commish in his office has a 40 run
    Exult O shores, and swing O towels!
     But I with mournful tread,
       Walk the field my Hochuli lies,
        Retired, and left.

Perhaps the biggest strength of animation is that it can be used to tell stories that would otherwise be too difficult to tell through conventional live action. By employing animation, film makers can tell a difficult story without the viewer being too drawn away by the perils of what the actor is going through. It’s that slight separation that allows viewers to be receptive to more harsh or brutal stories than they otherwise would be. This also allows for the emotional depth of the film to be deeper since the true reference for the pain that the animated character is going through is ultimately personified in the viewer himself. This is exactly why war stories told through animation are particularly powerful.Waltz With Bashir, released in 2008, shows us the story of a young Israeli soldier who witnessed massacres but can’t remember them and Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies shows us the aftermath of two young siblings after the bombing of Tokyo in the second world war. Both of these stories if told through conventional storytelling could have been weighed down by the realistic depictions of the truly nightmarish events that took place in them but animation allows us to be able to withstand that and access the deeper and more devastating emotions in both of them.

The Breadwinner is about a young girl in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan who’s father is arrested for no reason at all and she is forced to dress as a boy to be able to go to market and buy food for her mother, older sister, and younger brother. The movie is beautiful, sad, heartening, infuriating, and hopeful. Parvana, the protagonist of the story loves stories. Her father taught her the art of storytelling and even used it as a means to teach her the real history of their land and their people. Parvana is also a gifted storyteller herself and throughout the movie she uses her stories as a means of escaping from her current situation and finding the strength to go on. While she tells stories, the viewer is treated to beautiful animation full of vibrant colors and joy, most of which is gone when we see the real world she inhabits. The injustices she and her family endure are truly infuriating but the strength they have is more impressive. There are few moments of joy Parvana experiences but the reasons behind them are bittersweet to say the least, being able to provide for her family or being able to eat scraps from the floor.

The ending of the movie is one of the most tense and rewarding endings to any movie in recent memory, not just animation. Particularly the way in which one major question throughout the movie is answered is masterful and melancholically powerful that it will have most viewers feeling a knot in their throat. Above all, The Breadwinner is a movie about the power of storytelling. The power of believing in stories. The utility of using stories to find refuge and derive strength from. The beauty of using stories to remember those you love. The safety that can come in being able to tell and believe a story about yourself. Even when everything is taken from someone, their story can’t be taken away. Stories can be salvation.

The Breadwinner is a fantastic movie and it shows the strength of the human spirit, the resiliency of a people and ultimately leaves the viewer with a sense of hope. In a world where the voices of the oppressed and marginalized are being pushed down by the louder, angrier voices, anger cannot change anything. Hate does not improve anything. Love, civility, compassion are essential to being human and love can withstand so much. More than anyone might think possible. As the movie fades out a quote from 13th century mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī is said which illustrates the point of this movie better and more eloquently than any blog post ever could:

“Raise your words, not your voice, it's rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

The Breadwinner is nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and is available for streaming on Netflix as of the publishing of this article

You’ve more than likely have heard of Janelle Monae in the last year what with her roles in critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated films Moonlight and Hidden Figures, but you’ve probably also seen her before that. She usually sports a tuxedo and a horse mane faux hawk and moves on stage like James Brown. If that’s all you know about her you should prepare yourself then because she is an other worldly android preaching a message of peace and love and she better well explode if the rest of her work this year is as good as the two singles she just released. I know I have been waiting 5 years for some new music and last week Janelle Monae released a trailer announcing her upcoming emotion picture Dirty Computer.

The ultra-transcendent, non-conforming and seemingly from another dimension "Electric Lady" has released 2 new singles with accompanying videos and consider me spent.

One of her most admirable traits is her tenacity and willingness to speak out against social injustices and if you listen to The ArchAndroid beginning to end you get to experience that. Her political songs are inspiring to say the least and even though she wasn’t putting out albums Hell You Talmbout was more than welcome, so if you watch Django Jane understand that she has always been a political artist.

This song is a feminist banger yet has a coolness that is consistent with the energy she puts out, then the visual elevates the experience to a whole other level I wasn’t ready for. The song almost mirrors Jidenna’s Long Live the Chief in that we get more of Janelle rapping and the melody is grittier than her previous work. In the video we see she is still suited up, but with a twist she is beaming in bright and rich fabrics. She brings the balance. Notably her crown is visible and the choreography is simple but impactful and it's no surprise either when her femme posse is tutting in fitted leather jackets and matching gloves and kofias. There’s also this attention to detail she tends to and you see it in her mannerisms when she raps. Fore example when she quips “yeah we highly melanated” she vogues framing her face in that 4 count and it just gives me goosebumps. There is a pretty remarkable point in the video that is already garnishing buzz, I even gave an air fist bump when she proclaimed “let the vagina have a monologue”. However, the moment I was in awe of was the table scene where she asserts women are central to life while the dancers are sipping tea in sync that calls our attention to that message like a teacher raising her hand up! It is a beautiful video, a powerful message and it shows an almost regal side of Monae that we rarely see. After watching that I was on a girl power high and I should also mention this is off the heels of my seeing Black Panther, but then YouTube auto played her next release.

“It’s like I’m powerful with a little bit of tender. An emotional sexual bender.”

I mean I’m alive now, but I was worried for a second because I was hearing Prince on this song and thinking “How did I manage to make it to heaven?”. Of course I know that he was Janelle’s mentor and turns out he even helped gather sounds for this album before he passed away. So on the one hand we have an inspiring message about female empowerment in Django Jane and on the other, well we have another of female empowerment, but more about being sexually liberated and celebrating that in Make Me Feel.

The video is an all around homage. I’m going to level with you. I am a basic Prince fan, I am not well versed in the deep cuts, but I love me some Kiss. This is set in an 80s looking club with androgynous party goers and two versions of Janelle Monae and we see her again elude the usual black and white garb. This is a huge deal because she has stressed she is not here to discuss her sexuality, only that of the android revolution, she comes in peace, but she means business and her clothes have been reflective of that for years. To see this carefree side of her through her fashion as she enters the club is refreshing and exciting.

An alter ego sporting a blonde pixie cut is seen in a suit, but it is loud and busy and fierce and she is commanding, strange and alien. You see a hint of her previous android alter-ego, Cindy Mayweather in her dance moves and her facial expressions and even with her electric ladies dancing behind her. It really is something. To see this other side of Janelle Monae is already amazing and then she’s turning out those familiar and comforting guitar licks throughout. It’s fun to see her dancing with both her male and female love interests and taking a page out of the earlier mentioned Prince video going back and forth between the two, but not out of discord, quite the opposite. I won’t ignore Tessa Thompson’s stunning appearance in this, but I could not get over the insane looks throughout this video. Take her chainmail bodysuit and bejeweled niqab, and those sheer rose trousers for example. I want to know who was responsible for this and thank them for these creative decisions and I’d like to call out of work and continue to process these videos until April 27th when her album is released. I also want to go on record and claim that this year marks the age of the android and may our Q.U.E.E.N. reign on.

The following contains spoilers and if you haven't seen it you shouldn't read this. Don't act like I didn't warn you.

The best thing about Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is its villain.

Even using the word “villain” to describe Erik Killmonger is doing a disservice to the character. Erik is an antagonist to our titular protagonist but to say his cause is evil is to miss the point of the character entirely.

The definition of heroes and villains in stories hasn’t really changed much since the days of Beowulf. The hero is a larger than life character who possesses all the great characteristics of humankind we all wish we possessed. A hero goes above and beyond in defense of others but perhaps more importantly a hero has a foe to vanquish. Since then this concept has taken hold in most stories to the point where a good hero can’t exist unless they have a good villain. What this can lead to is a reduction of complexity in the personality of both the hero and the villain to the point where both are just caricatures, where the world is black and white and there is no room for nuance.

The truth is that the real world isn’t that simple. Truly great stories embody that.Movies that portray the world in a realistic way should also carry over the realism of the world over to the portrayal of the “villain”. This is the strength of Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.

Perhaps the best moment that reflects how narrow the definition of a Hero can be and what shows how Erik can easily fit the category is the challenge ceremony. When the measure of what it takes to be King and Hero of a nation is who can beat up who in ritual combat, Erik is very clearly the most fit to be King. The way in which he has trained for and focused on this moment is downright heroic. Sacrificing himself to go through rigorous university programs, enlisting and serving in the toughest military roles all to get him there. A man possessed with a singular focus. That’d be a hell of a montage scene. Once he has vanquished his foe in the throne room the vision for his country is simple, take its strength, its resources and take them out to the world to empower the oppressed. Rule them the “right way”. A Wakandan Manifest Destiny. Worked for the USA right?

Erik Killmonger above all shows us that you can be right but go about it the wrong way. It’s the old Big Lebowski scene of , “Am I wrong?” “No Walt, you’re just an a--hole” scene played in a much more complete way. The uncomfortable thing about him is that he’s right. His father being murdered by his uncle was wrong, one of the richest and most advanced nations in the world turning a blind eye to the oppression of people is wrong, but coming from a position of hate is incorrect. He highlights that the problems of the world are real and the angry voices in the world perhaps are right, but coming at it from a position of hate is wrong. What will make T’Challa a good king is the fact that comes from a position of love, of surrender, of caring for his people and the world at large. His mandate is ultimately not derived from ritual combat, but from his ability to unite his people where hate has come to try and divide. It’s not enough to be right, you have to go about it the right way.

T’Challa at the end of the movie realizes that the “villain” was right and in this sense the villain won. His world view prevailed, and Wakanda will lower its walls to the outside world begining in the very place where “Killmonger” was born. Erik Killmonger is not a villain, barely an antagonist, but above all he’s a martyr.

I don't believe there's such a thing as "kid's movies". Maybe that's because I don't have children or maybe it's because I'm a bit immature but I feel like bad movies have long been masqueraded as "kid's movies". The Smurf movies are objectively bad movies, but they're allowed existence because they're "kid's movies" and because SONY has to find a way to license music and make money with its roster of artists. I believe however that these types of movies CAN be held to a higher degree. Take for example Pixar films, these movies are massively popular with children but they're objectively good movies with serious stories, complete scripts, brilliant direction, and serious film making all around. To simply produce a simple, dull, incomplete and uncreative movie and call it a "kid's movie" is an insult.

I do believe there's movies that have aspects that will be uniquely entertaining for children and will allow them to enjoy it in a separate way than how I would enjoy the movie. For Example, Cars 3, the kids like it because of the cool cars and the funny mater voice and the fart jokes but I like it because of the story of mentorship/parenthood and coming to grips with one's age. I don't doubt that when these kids grow up they'll perhaps rewatch these movies and see them in a different light and that's what's great about them. The movies that have aspects for children AND are also well done will grow up with their viewer.

Why is this a curse though? The reason for it is that the good movies that get labeled as "kid's movies" miss out on so many viewers because the bad ones have ruined it. Not only that but the potential viewers miss out on seeing gems like Paddington because they've been burned by The Squeaquel. This is where I as a 30 year old, childless man implore you the reader whoever you are. Go watch Paddington 2.

Paddington 2 is delightful. In a sea of super hero movies and endless Liam Neeson revenge tales, Paddington is a breath of fresh air. It's incredibly well done, light hearted but the troubles that face our protagonist are not inconsequential. The photography of it is at times magical and it has that great quality that I described above, it has plenty for kids and for adults. The morality of Paddington is also something that's worth mentioning because whereas many "kid's movies" kinda skirt this issues presented by the choices the characters make or present a world in which the kids are right and the adults are evil, Paddington doesn't do that. The movie much like it's titular character looks for the good in everyone and miraculously finds it. Even the antagonist of the movie is ultimately just looking for an audience and is not inherently evil. The only possible exception to this is Law Enforcement, be it police officers or judges there's a hint of incompetence in these characters that I can't help but enjoy.

Paddington 2 is the first movie I saw in theaters in 2018 and I can't think of a better way to start the year. Do yourself a favor and go watch it as well! If you still need convincing here's my favorite scene from the movie below.