inkstained

A guide for me to keep track of everything. Please ask if you’re interested in any of them! :)

Previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

( Movies )

Anime Review: My Hero Academia

 “The deeper the darkness, the more dazzling the light shines.”

In a world filled with people who have genetic powers known as “quirks,” there are professional heroes with powerful quirks who rescue civilians from villains. Izuku Midoriya is one of the few “quirkless” people without a quirk…until he meets the professional hero All Might, who decides to pass on his powerful quirk to Midoriya. Midorya then gets to attend the prestigious U.A. High School to train to fight villains.

 Almost everything works for this colorful, fun, intense, intelligent, and meaningful anime. The characters are universally a delight with each one having interesting quirks, which contribute to their identities and help to lend depth. Our protagonist, Midoriya, is sweet but clever and powerful, and the way his new quirk is too powerful for his body, causing him to be constantly injured, is fascinating to watch. Shoto Todoroki has an amazing and horrifying backstory to his half-fire, half-ice quirk. Katsuki Bakugo transitions from being a bully to an insecure hero. Ochaco Uraraka is bubbly but with an undercurrent of steel.

The pacing is excellent, with never a dull moment or a filler episode. The fight scenes are stunningly choreographed and never filler: each one advances the plot or character development in meaningful ways. Even the overarching message of bettering yourself in order to help others is an important one that is well-presented.

 The only issue is the very occasional annoying fan-service element of sexualizing a handful—certainly not most!—of the female characters (Mt. Lady, Midnight, Momo). But the fan-service at least doesn’t seem to prevent their character development: in fact, their confidence in their bodies is presented positively. In addition, a student (Mineta) who insists on sexually harassing others is called out on it and generally presented in a negative light.

Here’s hoping to many excellent seasons ahead for this anime.

So I really didn't enjoy the first Guardians of the Galaxy (see ranting here), but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? I totally loved and would recommend. Go figure.

( Cut for Spoilers )

Happy New Year! Here is my annual list to help myself keep track of what I've seen.

Previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015

::: Animation :::

• Finding Dory (all right but had issues)


• Hotel Transylvania 2 (cute and funny, like the first one)


• The Little Prince (very sweet and beautifully animated)


• Over the Garden Wall (slowly builds to an interesting conclusion)


• Steven Universe (superb; read my full review here)


• Zootopia (best animated movie of the year in my opinion)

::: Documentaries :::

• Amanda Knox (great documentary that reveals so much police incompetence and sexism in her case)


• Before the Flood (Leonardo DiCaprio takes on climate change intelligently—you can watch this on National Graphic for free!)


• Boom Bust Boom (Monty Python’s Terry Jones takes on capitalism…using puppets, animation, and silly songs)


• Capitalism: A Love Story (great Michael Moore documentary)


• Catching the Sun (about solar energy)


• (Dis)Honesty: the Truth About Lies (interesting documentary about deception and building a more ethical world)


• Frontline: The Choice (about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, makes her a bit more relatable and him less relatable)
  
• The Mask You Live In (about what causes toxic masculinity and how to change it)


• Planet Earth (and Planet Earth II) (beautiful and thoughtful BBC documentaries)


• Poverty, Inc. (excellent documentary about why traditional paternalism in foreign aid hurts those in poverty and a better way to help local economies to lift people out of poverty)


• Prescription Thugs


• Requiem for the American Dream (hard-hitting interview with Noam Chomsky about the sad state of wealth and power in the U.S.; rage-inducing)


• Rise of the Continents (entertaining documentary about the stories geology tells)


• Sharkwater (sad documentary about shark finning)


• The Story of Maths (BBC history of math[s])


• Super Powered Owls


• Trophy Kids (parents who push their children to devote their lives to sports)


• Vanishing of the Bees (systematic pesticides lead to bee colony collapse disorder)


• Where to Invade Next (great Michael Moore documentary about how America should use Europe’s example to improve the country)


• Why We Love Cats and Dogs (surprisingly emotional Nature documentary)

::: In-Theater Movies :::

• Arrival (whoa, best movie of 2016 in my opinion)


• Captain America: Civil War (great movie! I saw it twice in theatres!)


• Deadpool (lots of fun, a great parody of the superhero genre)


• Doctor Strange (with Benedict! Trippy and fun)


• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Pretty good but ultimately disappointing. Could have been good, but instead felt like they were trying to make two different movies: one about politics and one about fantastic beasts)


• Ghostbusters (fun movie and lots of chemistry between the four leads, especially Kate MacKinnon and Leslie Jones)


• Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (very funny film that actually has something important to say about institutionalized sexism)


• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (the Lonely Island mockumentary; very funny!)


• Sherlock: the Abominable Bride (amazing, love that it was in theaters! Saw it twice!)


• Star Trek Beyond (better than the first two, and Sulu has a husband! Awesome!)


• Star Wars: Rogue One (fun! I like the direction these are going in and I love the diversity in the cast)


• Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (with Tina Fey; full review here)


• X-Men: Apocalypse (yikes, not good)

::: Other Films :::

• 10 Cloverfield Lane (good slow-building suspense)


• 99 Homes (good but could have been better)


• Adam (with Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne, about Asperger Syndrome)


• Against the Sun (with Tom Felton! Great WWII survival story)


• Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (hate-watched to see if it was as bad as reviewers said. It was. So, so bad.)


• The Boss (with Melissa McCarthey and Kristen Bell; pretty funny)


• Boy (New Zealand Maori family drama by Taika Waititi, who did the very funny What We Do in the Shadows)
  
• Brooklyn (sweet story of an Irish immigrant to America)


• The Brothers Grimsby (can’t believe Mark Strong got involved with this; it wasn’t bad though)


• Central Intelligence (with Kevin Hart and Dwane Johnson, very funny! I hope it gets a sequel)


• Concussion (honestly, this could have hit a whole lot harder, pardon the pun)


• The Conjuring (quite scary and unusual presentation, focusing on ghost detectives)


• Creed (not a fan of Rocky, but I like the main actor, Michael B. Jordan)


• Daddy’s Home (funny Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg movie)


• Dave and Mike Need Wedding Dates (silly but funny; Aubrey Plaza is amazing)


• Dirty Grandpa (with Robert DeNiro and Zac Efron, not good)


• Earth to Echo (pretty good found-footage alien movie similar to E.T.)


• Eye in the Sky (thought-provoking drama about military drone strikes)


• Fantastic 4 (yikes, no fun at all and certainly nothing fantastic. Almost works as a prologue to a story that never comes)


• The Game (very messed-up movie with Michael Douglas)


• The Hateful Eight (takes a while to get going but comes together in the end)


• Keanu (funny Key & Peele movie with an adorable kitten)


• Killing Charlie Countryman (too slow and random for me but has Mads Mikkelsen in it, which is always a good thing)


• Krampus (a disappointment; could have been a fun comedy or horror movie, but instead went the way of being neither)


• The Legend of Tarzan (2016) (engaging show-don’t-tell style…right up until the third act, when everything takes a nosedive plot-wise and rushes to the end)


• The Man Who Knew Infinity (about a groundbreaking Indian mathematician at Cambridge during WWI, an inspiring story but could have been presented more meaningfully)


• Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World (great movie and casting choices! I’m reading the book series right now, which has heightened my enjoyment)


• Midnight Special (fascinating sci-fi movie like E.T. with wonderful acting, tension, and atmosphere)


• Muriel’s Wedding (sweet 1994 movie)


• New Waterford Girl (sweet movie set in rural Nova Scotia)


• The Night Before (a story about men realizing the importance of emotional labor)


• Now You See Me 2 (amusing and entertaining if implausible, loved the scenes in Macau and the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was in this)


• Pan (bad; really, really bad…Captain Hook is for some reason a cowboy…)


• The Program (with Ben Foster, about the Lance Armstrong doping scandals)


• The Revenant (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy)


• Ride Along 2 (I love Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in this)


• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (2016 Fox remake, creepily sanitized and not enjoyable even though Laverne Cox tries her best)


• Room (best picture of 2015, in my opinion)


• Score: A Hockey Musical (as weird as it sounds)


• The Shallows (tense thriller as long as you accept the premise that there is an obsessed shark)


• Shrek the Musical (on Netflix; they did a good job)


• Sicario (about the abuse of the CIA with the drug war in Mexico; not what I expected)


• Sisters (cute, love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler)


• Source Code (intriguing premise and very good acting)


• Straight Outta Compton (interesting but missed an opportunity to more deeply explore many issues)


• Take Shelter (with Michael Shannon; strange and ominous)


• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (awful, even worse than the first movie)


• Triple 9 (about a gang of criminals and crooked cops who are blackmailed into doing jobs by the Russian mafia; amazing cast)


• Trumbo (I’m glad Hollywood covered this story)


• Warcraft (standard fantasy in many ways but takes some interesting risks)


• War Dogs (not a bad take on U.S. military contractors, though I felt Nicholas Cage’s Lord of War was better)


• The Witch: A New England Folktale (interesting horror film about a devout Puritan family in the 1600s)

::: Film (Non-English) :::

• The Handmaiden (by the fantastic Park Chanwook; brilliant and tense lesbian drama!)


• Look Who’s Back (German mockumentary about Hitler coming to the future, very politically relevant)

::: TV / Drama :::

• 11.22.63 (good time-travel drama with James Franco, based on Steven King’s JFK novel)


• Cuckoo (amusing “Father of the Bride”-style British comedy starring Americans Andy Samberg and Taylor Lautner)


• The Daily Show with Trevor Noah


• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Service (zany fun but dark show from Douglas Adams, and Elijah Wood’s acting is great)


• Empire


• Frank Herbert’s Dune (2000 mini-series; couldn’t really get into it)


• Fresh Off the Boat


• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (very funny)


• Hannibal (season 3)


• House of Cards


• Inside Amy Schumer


• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (utter brilliance)


• Making a Murderer (a must-watch addicting documentary that will make you insane with rage and horror)


• Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (campy lesbian Australian detectives! Love it!)


• The Shadow Hunters (bad, but better than the Mortal Instruments movie!)


• Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (brilliance as always)


• Stranger Things (very creepy and well-done Netflix series that blends many supernatural horror ideas; great child actors)


• War & Peace (excellent new BBC miniseries)


• Westworld (superb sci-fi/Western HBO drama, one of the best new shows this year)

Anime list continued from (Anime Recs Part 1)

My ratings, from best to worst:
—One of my favorites!
—Very good, almost a favorite.
—Very good.
—Enjoyable, but not one of my favorites.
—You might like it, but it’s not for me.

( Click Here for My Anime List! )

<— (Anime Recs, Part 1)

Anime Rec: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica

Madoka Kaname is a timid middle school girl whose life changes when she encounters the mysterious new transfer student Homura Akemi and the magical animal Kyuubey, who offers Madoka a wish and seemingly limitless power.

The hype is well-deserved with this one. Clever and deeply psychological storytelling, haunting music, great voice acting, and an immersive, highly unusual art style combine to make something very dark and special indeed. The title sequence is particularly delicious.

This is a magical girl anime. But it is also not a magical girl anime. Truly, the less you know about the show going into it, the better. Just know that nothing is as it seems.

More anime recs here!

It’s been a great summer of books for me, so I thought I’d share some of my favorites:

-- The Oliver & Jack series by Christina E. Piltz (starts with Fagin’s Boy)
After I finished C.S. Pacat’s astounding Captive Prince series, I was desperate for something to fill the gap, and this series did it for me. Yes, it’s basically a continuation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist novels but with a very, very slow-building romantic relationship between Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger (Jack Dawkins here). Absolutely incredible, meticulously researched historical m/m that has a lot to say about life in the Dickensian era and class-based hardship. The fifth novel in the series has just been released. The parts in the workhouse reminded me of one of my favorite Sherlock fanfics, Chryse’s brilliant The Frost is All Over.

--The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (who also helped found AO3 and writes great fanfic, which is how I found out about this series!)
I very much liked her novel Uprooted, but I just adored this series and its two adorable main characters to pieces. This is an alternate history set in the early 1800s in which the British are fighting Napoleon…via exciting aerial combat on specially trained dragons! Will Laurence is a stiff and proper navy man, captain of his ship, when they engage in battle with the French and capture a precious dragon egg. When it hatches onboard, Laurence names the dragon Temeraire, and they form a special lifelong bond (the dragon talks!). This series just flew by: the world-building is rich and the action scenes are thrilling, but it’s really the three-dimensional characters that make the world come alive. There is a little het romance (because there are awesomely badass female dragon riders), but the novel focuses more deeply on the bonds of friendship, community, and duty, and the deep relationship between Laurence and Temeraire. Fans of the Horatio Hornblower miniseries will love this! I’ve been told I should tackle Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey & Maturin series after this, so it’s on my to-read list. EDIT November 2016: I'm reading this series now and totally loving it!

--We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
All is not what it seems in this suspenseful family drama featuring four teen friends from a wealthy family and the summer everything went wrong. Cadence (Cady) Sinclair, her cousins Mirren and Johnny, and her boyfriend Gat form the “Liars,” a tight-knit group that meets every summer on a private island off Martha’s Vineyard owned by Cady’s grandfather. While Cady’s narration is often strange and stilted, it’s worth fighting through it for the realistic portrayals of old-money problems (the horrors of racism, secrets, and masks for the preservation of the family’s “image”), the foreboding atmosphere, and the devastating ending (worthy of Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief) that brilliantly ties everything together.

One of my favorite men singing one of my favorite songs!

There looks like so many things going on! So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Mrs. Hudson, whoaaa!

Spoiler-free thoughts about the new movie Captain America: Civil War! In short: really great!

It's from the same directors who made the excellent Captain America: the Winter Soldier (the Russo brothers), and it shows: in this superhero movie, the themes, characterizations, and motivations are both complex and subtle. The villain is especially great. The Russo brothers are also slated to direct the next two Avengers movies, so I'm happy about that.

The movie effectively explores some of the implications for the current state of global military affairs, like American intervention in foreign affairs and all of the collateral damage that ensues from "saving the world." The Vision character has very interesting statistics about the causality between the rise of super-powered heroes and the rise of super-powered villains (and the ensuing world chaos) that was explored well.

Also, Martin Freeman is in this movie (briefly)! He steals scenes as no-nonsense American interrogator Everett K. Ross.

Oh, and the slashiness here is off the charts. It's enough to make anyone ship Steve with Bucky (or Sam, or Natasha, or even Tony).

Very much recommended, as with The Winter Soldier.