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The vast majority of movies I go to see anymore, Laney goes to with me. But not the one I went to last night! I took myself to see
Bob Trevino Likes It, at 4:30 at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, just a ten-ish minute from work up to Lower Queen Anne. Laney did not join me because, although she'd have been interested enough had it been playing at AMC, it was not, and she did not want to fork over the extra money for a ticket at SIFF Cinema.
As far as I'm concerned, she didn't really miss much anyway. I'd be really interested in whether she'd have responded to it the same way I did—which was with much less enthusiasm than the 71 score on MetaCritic would have me expect. Ganted, that's merely in the "Generally Favorable" range, but I fell much more definitively in the "Mixed or Average" range. I gave the movie a B-minus, and that was generous. I did enjoy it, but also had many complaints. It really bugged me how many characters lacked any dimension whatsoever.
Going to see that movie basically sucked up the majority of my evening, though. I caught the #8 bus home, wrote the review. There was just enough time after that for Shobhit and me to watch the first episode of a Netflix show, though,
The Residence, a fun murder mystery set in the White House—and one in which, delightfully, the President is not a Fuckwit but rather a married gay man. So far they portray him as just as bland a White guy as any other who might be President, with no issues directly related to his sexuality, which of course would never happen in reality. But neither would this entire story, so, whatever. Uzo Aduba as the detective is really fun, and although the MetaScore for this show was a relatively average 66, I found myself really getting a kick out of it. I think somewhat lower scores on MetaCritic are easier to find less reliable for TV shows than for movies.
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Speaking of SIFF Cinema, I'm really debating whether to engage with SIFF much at all this year. I usually buy a "cinematic 6-pack," which comes at a discount both for members and for the 6-pack purchase. But, that would still cost me close to $70, and I'm really tightly budgeting right now. I may just buy a few single tickets instead of committing to six festival movies this year. I've alreday had to schedule other stuff during the festival due to having no other option anyway.
I am currently looking very closely at budgeting for three different trips: the two big ones, Amsterdam 2026 and Australia 2027; and also Las Vegas for Jennifer and Matthew's wedding in 2026, timing not yet known. I've decided to budget a thousand bucks for that trip, and I've just started setting aside $39 per paycheck for that. If I can hold with that, I'll have a thousand bucks by this time next year. And if the wedding is some months later, I'll just already have the budget ready.
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In other news, I finished
God Emperore of Dune, the fourth novel in the
Dune series, this morning. I really loved it, more than I quite expected to—especially knowing that it's villain is not just wildly complicated, but if you can believe it, a hybrid man/sandworm. Who is also a god! Sort of. You have to read it to get it. It's much more compelling, smart and even academic than it sounds, I swear! In fact, of the four I have read so far (and Frank Herbert himself wrote six), this is easily my second-favorite, after of course the first, which no sequel would have any means of surpassing.
I have a different science fiction novel now waiting for pickup at the library, but I will return to
Dune again soon enough. I read
God Emperor of Dune right after finishing
Children of Dune, making those the first two Dune novels I read back to back. I read
God Emperor of Dune faster than I have any of the novels to date, which is all the more impressive given it's the second-longest. (I read this one in 34 days which is barely less than the 36 days it took me to read
Children of Dune, but it shoul dbe noted
Children is 480 pages and
God Emperor is 587.)
Dune Messiah, the second book, is also the shortest, at merely 336 pages, and even that one I took 35 days to finish.
It should be noted, I think it takes reading them all in order to fully appreciate
God Emperor of Dune, especially given that one takes place 3500 years after the previous installment. But I have found this one to be somewhat divisive among
Dune fans, and I don't really know why. I thought the book was fantastic.
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[posted 12:31pm]
