@luke
Diary
July 2026
The Odyssey2026The opening’s editing and pacing are jarring, and it takes the film a while to find itself tonally. The final action set piece is a tad goofy. But make no mistake: there’s a solid 1h30m in the middle where Nolan enters a flow state and produces some of the best contiguous cinema ever committed to film. For that alone (only half the runtime!), it earns its rating.
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
I managed to catch this in the cinema, and little did I know I’d be going to sleep after and waking up the very next morning to a world where Sam Neill had passed. Jurassic Park is the earliest film memory I have. For no singular reason, I think it was just a VHS (and then dvd) that we had in the house. And I have so many memories as a child of watching it on weekends endlessly, as soon as it stopped, replaying from start, over and over. I think of generations of actors, and how each generation has certain faces that make us feel some way. Sam Neill will definitely be remembered as the face of wonder. When Alan Grant stands up in that jeep and takes off his shades, we haven’t yet seen the dinosaur. We see it in him first. Spielberg may have built the brachiosaurus, but Sam made us believe it. Without Sam, dinosaurs do not really walk the earth. You can guarantee that somewhere tonight, a screen flickers, a hat tilts, sunglasses come off, and a kid gasps for the first time at the impossible made possible.
★★★★★
The Invite2026Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. My fave film of 2026 so far! Hilarious, dramatic, unhinged, poetic, every performance is a 10/10. Seth Rogen and Ed Norton’s career-best performances.
★★★★★