July/August 2026 [27-9]
Hadestown: The Musical, Ouija Shark 2, The Pez Outlaw, The Chronology of Water, The Secret in their Eyes
- Hadestown: The Musical [2026] - 76
So, I saw this again. This time with friends and in a different theater… And I still feel largely the same: Hadestown is good, not great. It’s got a fun style to it, the cast works well together, and the music is different enough to entice those who don’t like the operatic flair of the genre, but the narrative is severely lacking when compared against other greats in the space. Character motivations are shallow and wishy-washy [Hades’ especially], stakes and weight aren’t always communicated in impactful ways, and the pacing of the story is oddly off-kilter to the drama it wants to present. It all works fine enough and none of it comes off as “bad” — I can 100% see this being one’s favorite musical without a lot of exposure to the genre — but in a world of deeper and more complex stories, even on a second look, I won’t be turning around on this one.
- Ouija Shark 2 [2022] - 31
Why did you watch this? What about Ouija Shark 1? A 31… Do you even understand film? I hear your questions, I do, and the answer to the last one [that will surprise no one] is “no”. We somehow ended up tossing this on after an evening of food and board games… And didn’t really regret it? As you can assume, Ouija Shark 2 is a no-budget, home-style project with basically nothing narratively going on, and no real coherency to its plot or wooden acting. That said, the nonsense plot and wooden acting had us rolling for basically the entire 82-minute runtime. Random magic spells without explanation? “Demons” in gorilla suits? Bikini girls in hell getting eaten by Satan’s pet shark? A musical number by the man himself? Ouija Shark 2 [aka Ouija Shark vs Tarot Gator… A character who doesn’t show up until the final minutes of the film] isn’t quite entertaining enough to recommend, but it is memorable enough that we’ll talk about it for at least a few more minutes.
- The Pez Outlaw [2022] - 85
Recommended by a friend through a discussion of how documentaries are largely about murder or other happenings of sadness, The Pez Outlaw certainly has its moments of despair, but is largely a very silly and touching romp through the world of competitive [and backdoor] Pez collectorship. Led by the ever-charming and strange, Steve Glew, The Pez Outlaw tells the story of how he paved his own future buying, selling, and smuggling these little plastic candy dispensers despite the larger Pez powers trying to intercede against him. Featuring some great editing and a bit of Wes Anderson zip, this is a very easy documentary to both watch and recommend when you still want something meaningful, but don’t necessarily need to see more darkness in this nasty world.
- The Chronology of Water [2025] - 92
On the flip end of The Pez Outlaw spectrum, Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, is weird, heavy, and brilliant. Based on the 2011 memoir of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch, this is one of those films that speaks a language almost all its own. While I wouldn’t quite put it in the same spectral space as Aftersun, I also wouldn’t put it far removed. The visual aesthetic of this journey is unlike anything I’ve watched, Imogen Poots puts on the performance of a lifetime, and the fact that this is a debut outing for Stewart gives me so much hope that art is, in fact, not yet dead within the industry. Recalling a more Lynchian time, The Chronology of Water is a difficult movie to recommend because of its withering subject matter, but one you should immediately make time to watch anyway.
- The Secret in Their Eyes [2009] - 81
One of those “I’m not sure how this got on my watchlist” movies, I’m literally Googling right now that The Secret in Their Eyes won the 2010 Oscar for Best International Film… So that’s probably how got there. This movie is… Good. Very solid. Interesting. A little busy. Following an investigation into the rape and murder of a young woman while twining in a forbidden-love story that spans decades of non-linear time, The Secret in Their Eyes has all the makings of exactly the award it won and the praise it gets online… It’s just also a little messy and weirdly executed at times. Some of the drama is a bit too TV, many parts of the romance don’t feel either necessary nor connected, and much of the investigation lacks that toothy bite you want from discovering pieces of a mystery. All told though, this is still a competent [a certain oner even being brilliant] murder/mystery/romance that’s just a touch too long for its ultimate pay off.
