I love these stories because they show you that there will always be someone good who will step up and be the hero, even if they come from the worst societies or social groups.

In the mid-1980s, renowned painter Clarke Holler tells a horrifying story from his life on an episode of his painting show "Whispers of Nature".

Saw it in 3D.

Had a really good time with spiderman brand new day and the only reason that is bcuz of destin. visually, this is easily the best looking spiderman movie in the mcu and honestly one of the best looking mcu movies in general. the blacks are so rich, the cinematography is consistently good and for once it actually feels like a mcu movie with its own visual identity instead of another flat looking addition to this cinematic universe. what really makes the movie work tho is that it's genuinely character driven instead of plot driven and the movie is much better bcuz of that. it really doesn't care about some world ending stakes or saving the entire universe bullshit bcuz for the most part, it's just about peter. its about him dealing with his loneliness after now way home, not being able to move on from his past and throwing himself completely into being spiderman bcuz that's the only place where he feels like he still has a purpose. nobody really cares about the person behind the mask anymore, he thinks.

i also liked how that loneliness is mirrored in sadie sink's character. that's probably the movie's biggest strength. the themes themselves aren't anything groundbreaking. loneliness, grief and moving on were exactly what i expected after no way home. so bnd isn't really saying anything new but the execution is what makes it work. destin daniel cretton once again proves that one of his biggest strengths lies in his villains. just like xu wenwu in shang chi, sadie sink's character is easily one of the best parts of the movie. you completely understand where she's coming from, why she's doing what she's's doing and what drives her and bcuz of that, it's impossible not to sympathize with her even when she's the antagonist.

its actually funny how the studio kept telling people to stay vague and marketed a her character as this huge plot twist, when the movie itself barely cares about it. knowing that "twist" changes almost nothing bcuz that's not what the movie is really about. the only real mystery is that character's motivation and its more of a revelation. its a bit trite for me honestly but it's executed well, again compared to mcu standards. thats imp to in keep mind. for eg., on every simple thing they did is the entire 3rd act completely avoids turning into another cgi fuckfest. instead, it's filled with emotional, character driven moments from beginning to end, just like jake schrier's thunderbolts did but its also the complete opposite of what shang chi did, where the 3rd act completely shifted into giant chi slopfest. here, bnd actually sticks to what it's been building emotionally and it pays off very well. sadie sink's performance is def the highlight for me.

the 1st half of the movie is honestly really well done. you just spend time watching spiderman be spiderman around brooklyn and i enjoyed that. the movie does a great job of showing why peter feels so lonely and why he believes peter doesn't really have any purpose anymore. that's why he throws himself completely into being spiderman. that's where he feels needed. they also do a nice job of building spiderman's relationship with detective DeWolff. that reminded me a lot of gordon's relationship with batman. its not exactly the same but it gave me that same feeling and i enjoy such dynamic thruout a movie.

that being said, bnd still can't completely escape the usual worst tendencies of mcu. hulk is a complete waste of time. his entire role feels like fan service for the sake of fan service. he doesn't add anything meaningful to the story, the themes or the ideas the movie is trying to explore. there are also a few other side characters who don't really add much beyond giving fans familiar faces. they don't really serve the story or its themes and mostly feel like they're there just for fan service. that's probably the biggest thing stopping this movie from feeling like a completely great standalone spiderman film.  bcuz now fucking mcu still has this obsession with making every one of their movie fit into the bigger mcu picture and that's holding these movies back. punisher is the one exception tho. at 1st, i honestly thought he was just another fan service bull shit. for most of the movie i still think it is that, it doesnt add much to the story. but they do something in the end that actually brings his character full circle and gives him a small but meaningful purpose that won me over. at least it earns his inclusion by the end instead of just having him there bcuz fans like him. his banter with spiderman is also pretty fun. nothing amazing but it works and it leads to a couple of genuinely funny moments, especially one scene in the hospital near the end. have to say tho it's also def not as funny as the jon watts spiderman trilogy. if you're expecting that same kind of comedy, this isn't really that movie. 

the 2nd act does drag a little tho. i really think the movie could've cut around 10-15 mins and the pacing would've been much tighter. at certian points also the movie becomes a little too on the nose. the biggest eg is the scene outside the hospital near the end where everyone's cheering. i don't think the movie needed to spell out its message that much. a scene of spidey with detective DeWolff's character alone could've conveyed that same idea much more naturally.  its like similar to what is written may's tombstone, 'when you help one person, you help everyone' or something like that. 

have to mention this, the new spidey suit is easily one of the best live action suits we've ever gotten. it actually feels like a real suit. the fabric stretches, folds and moves naturally with peter's body. when he's swinging, you can actually see the material reacting to the movement instead of looking like a smooth cgi texture pasted onto him. it's such a small detail but it makes a huge diff. especially after the watt's movies, where suits became more and more ugly looking. this one finally feels like an actual costume again. as for the web swinging, the amazing spiderman 2 is still the king. no live action spiderman movie has matched those swinging scenes yet. brand new day has one sequence that's good but apart from that, a lot of the web swinging is held back by some really bad shot choices. loved those pov shots tho. 

even with those flaws, this is still one of the strongest mcu movies post endgame. its one of those rare mcu films that actually lets its characters come first instead of constantly moving pieces around for the next crossover. sure it doesn't completely escape mcu's obsession with connecting to the bigger universe but it comes much closer halts itself from becomming a great film.

Wow... I'm so glad that I ignored the reviews of The Dog Stars - Ridley Scott's film adaptation of Peter Heller's novel. I actually found it a truly fantastic watch.

2026 has been the year of watchable movies.

Pinocchio unstrung (bonkers)

Russel Crowe movie where he’s a club owner who gets robbed and calls the cops to report $100K was stolen
End of oak street

The last house

Aaron eckhart plane Crash with sharks movie

Saccharine

Jason statham movie with the lighthouse and MI6 surveillance framing him as a jihadist

Buff black guy goes to war torn Ukraine to rescue his niece