My First Friend

Has passed
into the clearing
at the end of the path

by his own hand

We grew apart

some years ago

not through contention

only time and distance

I'm not naive enough

to believe

I could have effected

the outcome

But I wish

I wish I could have told him

he will live forever

in my secret heart

Watching Pee-wee's Big Adventure 

eating Pop-Ice

riding bikes and playing soccer

the easy, unfraught days of youth

Eternal

This Is Only True For Some

They say
ordered house, ordered mind
they say
home is where the heart is

they say

keep your house in order

when the house is cluttered

the mind is cluttered

order the house

clean what can be cleaned

and put things right

everything with its purpose

everything in its place

when the mind is cluttered

and the house is in order

go back and maintain that order

the maintenance of the house

the continuing, ongoing, never-ending need of the house

for your deliberate attention and labor

by this process, in its insatiable requirement and fulfillment

is the mind cleared

calmed

They say

keep the home fires burning

so that in returning there is warmth

and comfort

'Jurassic World Rebirth' A Review

Jurassic World Rebirth is a scifi action movie, the 7th in the Jurassic Park series. Dinosaurs as amusement park fodder have fallen out of fashion and have been dying off due to the modern incompatible climate. There are only survivors around the equator on isolated quarantined islands. A greedy pharmaceutical exec Martin(Rupert Friend) puts together a team- Zora(Scarlett Johansson), Duncan(Mahershala Ali), and Henry(Jonathan Bailey) to go in an extract DNA to fabricate a heart disease cure all. Sound derivative and overly complicated? Well there's also a family, with their own set of contrived back stories, sailing across the Atlantic on a self-made sail boat that gets attacked and joins up with the mercenary crew.

Johansson does what she can with her incongruous and clunky character but fails to bring much interest or life to it. Ali fairs better and skates mostly on his natural boundless charisma, it helps he's not incumbered with as much nonsensical backstory as Johansson's character. The rest of the cast range from mediocre to flat. Friend and Bailey continue Hollywood's increasing penchant for casting C-list brits to save on payroll and get what they pay for- boring performances and in the case of Bailey a terrible American accent.

Visually the film is at least compelling to look at and the score is effective but the creature design kinda misses the point. Dinosaurs are enough, cross-species splicing monsters turn this from Jurassic Park to kaiju territory. The problems though begins and ends with the script, kind of bizarre given screenwriter David Koepp wrote both this and one of 2025's best Black Bag. Although it isn't as craven, dumb, or ineffectual as the Jurassic World trilogy it misunderstands why Jurassic Park was a success and why people are still interested. It's too convoluted, too shallow, and too route to be anything other than a thin summer blockbuster destined to be forgotten after everyone streams it in six months while they fold laundry.

A vapid reheat of a beloved franchise driven into the ground by avarice.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

'Shark Whisperer' A Review

Shark Whisperer is a documentary about free diver/social media personality Ocean Ramsey.

Similar to Netflix's documentary The Liver King this is not actually a documentary but a feature length commercial for the subject's social media channels. The tonal sycophancy is not surprising given the movie is directed by Ramsey's husband Juan Oliphant, who is featured as a subject as if he is not the director. The movie is billed as co-directed by James Reed of My Octopus Teacher  but his name does not actually appear on any official cast & crew lists for the project.

The shots of Ramsey swimming with sharks are cool and beautiful. Unfortunately that is the only credible, interesting, or believable part of the movie. It is quite transparent Ramsey & Oliphant's lively hood(which is affluent) is a result of their social media ad revenue, their merchandising, and their swim-with-sharks tours which every aspect of this movie promote while couching all of it as "conservation" and "education". The issue is no actual data is ever presented and no experts are featured to convey any context. Ramsey's bonafides and background are never discussed other than she started swimming with sharks at a young age. Through Ramsey's interviews she explicitly says she does not feel like a human being, her relationship with Oliphant appears uneven and co-dependent, and her glassy 100-mile stare and explicit confirmation of her not being able to express emotion imply an ocean of underlying issues, none of which are explored or even acknowledged within the movie.

This is just so transparently a hustle. So obviously an attempt at marketing. So perversely not about sharks or the environment but about personal recognition and personal wealth from two sick individuals attempting to sell the viewer a delusion they have convinced themselves of. Its offensive boarding on the grotesque. Compare this movie to one with a very similar subject, the more nuanced, thought-provoking  Grizzly Man and all the pretentions and posturing of Shark Whisperer crumble and reveal it for what it is a base, bastardized, violation of the creatures they profess to love in service to deluded avarice.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

The Illusion Of Separateness

The function of communion
is not

the dissipation of sin

or even

the reverence of Christ

the function

is to remind us

that we are not separate beings

that we are, in fact, a part

of something greater, broader, and deeper

than we may sometimes feel

particularly in those times

of isolation and despair

when solitude and otherness plague us

the effect of the ritual

has very little to do with theology

the function

is to remind us

that we are together

that we are part

of a collective, a community

and if we are to take Christ at his words

that belonging

is not predicated upon fealty

that togetherness

is not limited

it is boundless

it is only restricted

by our willingness

by our own shortcomings

'The Ugly Stepsister' A Review

The Ugly Stepsister is a dark comedy/body horror an inversion/adaptation of Cinderella. After their new stepfather's untimely death all financial pressures of the family are put on Elvira(Lea Myren). Through Elvira's own self hatred and her mother Rebekka's(Ane Dahl Torp) prodding she subjects herself to increasing tortures and humiliations in order to become beautiful and compete for the Prince's affections with her conventionally attractive stepsister Agnes(Thea Sofie Loch Næss).

Myren gives a full-on, everything-she's-got performance, leaving it all on the screen. The performance is incredibly brave, vulnerable, and fully realized. The character, with her compromises and complicity, is complicated and Myren lays it all bare. Torp is effective and appealing as the severe and avarious evil stepmother and Loch Næss is good as the supporting Cinderella. The other stepsister Alma played by Flo Fagerli brings much needed contextualization and eccentricity to it. The rest of the supporting cast are all really effective save for the men who are, deliberately and justly, two dimensional.

Visually the film is brimming with style, the shot composition beautiful and meticulous. The body horror sequences pretty difficult to stomach(ie effective). And there's a really interesting blend of the pastoral and the grotesque. The score isn't quite as effective, plays a bit immature at times sounding a bit like stock scoring or 8-bit video game tracks. Overall though the production helmed by first time writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt is brimming with ambition and talent. Perhaps doesn't quite hit as hard coming just a year after The Substance which if a very different movie but goes after very similar themes. Where it falls a bit short is that it doesn't quite come together, ultimately isn't super potent, more idea and premise than effecting narrative.

Not quite equal to the sum of it's parts.

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Rent It.

Locomotion

At a certain point

words fail

the body

the only truth left

movement the only recourse

rhythm the last frontier

the swaying of hips

the swinging of arms

the flicking of legs

the stepping of feet

the only conduit for fervor or frenzy

when feeling becomes inarticulate