June 2026 [1-7]
Guardians of the Galaxy, Obsession, Backrooms
- Guardians of the Galaxy [2014] - 75
Writing this after having already watched Guardians 2 as well, my rewatch of Guardians of the Galaxy has been the strangest for me thus far. As I mentioned before, I’d likely have put this in my top 3 Marvel films. That’s… definitely not the case anymore. While I still think the Guardians movies are the most sleek and confident of anything in the MCU, I also think that this one in particular is mostly well remembered because it was the first of them, something I’ll talk more about in my review of the second film. There is a lot to like here — characters are genuinely interesting, the comedy is actually funny, the action is slick and fun —, but there’s also a lot of issues with this story that don’t really make any sense. ^Who are the Kree? Doesn’t matter, they’re the villains. ^Are they all strong like Ronan… Also who is Ronan? Well… No, but don’t worry about that, he’s just real strong for absolutely no reason. ^What’s the deal with Xandar? Well… You know… It’s got people on it, people that look like you… So, that makes it worth caring about… Right? Don’t get me wrong, from its excellent and well utilized soundtrack to its unerring sense of style, we truly are Groot by the end, but this plot has some massive and weird holes that just don’t need to exist. Thus, a reversable rating for however the mood might hit you.
- Obsession [2026] - 81
While I talk at length about this in my full review, Curry Barker’s Obsession is still a hard thing for me to wrap a number around. For all intents and purposes, this film is perfect. It’s atmosphere is so expertly dialed in and sharply realized that it makes a razor’s edge look like a lumpy stone. The performances from every character are so natural that you aren’t sure if they’re based on your friends, perfect strangers, or a nightmare combination of people you know and never want to. I even only have a single minor plot quibble, and that’s more of a flavor preference than a real criticism. Watching this movie is like watching the creation of whatever nightmare-zone Silent Hill comes to exist in, and it truly feels like the quintessential modern take on the classic horror tale, The Monkey’s Paw. I give this an 8 only because, though perfect, it’s simple and doesn’t leave me with much more than a sense of hero-worship at Barker’s work and future in the industry. A film that I think will change this type of horror moving forward, I will absolutely be recommending and rewatching this all year long.
- Backrooms [2026] - 45
Like Obsession, Backrooms is taking the world by storm and, despite my low rating, I’m glad it is. This is one of those movies that’s whatever you want it to be. If you want it to be social commentary, it is. If you want it to be about trauma, it is. If you get notes of the hyper-corporatization of our society… It is. And there’s nothing wrong with that; There’s even likely some canon truth to any and all interpretations of Kane Parsons’ work here. While I think a lot of the imagery and concepts behind this film are really expert and incredibly intelligent, I also think that its execution of them is very… Boring and unnecessarily drawn out. After my showing I watched the webseries this was spawned from [finding it to be largely fascinating], as well as a slew of “Backrooms Explained” YouTube content. While a couple of theories from those are interesting [particularly one about Clark’s wife], there wasn’t anything in them that I didn’t pick up on my initial watch… Which only dampened whatever leftover experience I had with the film, because I was hoping I’d just “missed out” or “didn’t get it”. There’s simultaneously too much and too little here to be something I openly recommend, but I do think that if you liked this, Jane Schoenbrun’s 2024, I Saw the TV Glow, is a near identical experience [that I have almost identical criticisms of], and I’m shocked isn’t being more commonly compared. While I’ll instantly watch anything Parsons puts out next, this one has about two too many 69-year long “watching someone slowly interact with the portal wall” scenes for me to really care.
