If you know me at all, then you know I'm not one for horror films. I'll concede that being freaked out by a movie is an interesting, exhilarating feeling, but I prefer getting eight hours of peaceful sleep every night and not glancing back at my mirror every five seconds to make sure nothing odd is going on in the reflection, thank you very much. That being said, I've wanted to watch The Closet (2020) ever since I first saw the poster and viewed the trailer — and of course because Kim Nam-gil is such a fun actor and who wouldn't want to watch something he's in? Even so, I put it off for several months, because again, sleep. Eventually I gave in though, and smartly had the new Scooby Doo film lined up to watch afterwards since comedy is a brilliant foil for horror.

The premise of The Closet is a man and his daughter move to a new house in what seems to be the middle of nowhere (nothing new here). He doesn't know how to deal with his daughter without his wife, and so for the most part, the two ignore each other. The father is so uncomfortable with things that he considers sending his daughter off to a boarding school to help her acclimate to, well, her new life. Enter: the freaky closet in the child's room.

I don't typically watch horror without a good reason, and right now that reason for me is Kim Nam-gil (he plays a "ghostbuster" character that has a cool backstory that ties him closely with the main plot). Not only is he brilliant, but also his humor is the main reason I enjoyed this. I was fully prepared to be bored by this movie - I typically go in with low expectations - but to my delight, I loved it! One of my favorite things about Korean horror is that it tends to be less scary than American horror, in my opinion. Additionally, Korean horror often brings the supernatural horror aspect back to the horror that is humanity, which gives a lot more depth to the film and also hopefully means I'm not thinking about ghosts for the next three months after watching the film.

So I watched the film, was a tad scared despite playing it in broad daylight, keeping distance between myself and the screen, and making sure the door of my room was wide open, but everything was fine because I watched Scoob! after and laughed at all the corny jokes. A week passes, and I'm completely okay. Hooray, I think to myself, I watched a wonderful horror movie and survived without side effects. Then day eight comes along...and there's the nightmare. Cue sleeping with the chromecast on and jumping at shadows for the next couple days.

But I call it a success, considering I was only frightened for about three days instead of three months. The movie was such fun that I'd do it all over again too, short-term consequences notwithstanding.

Note: This post contains spoilers for the film.

I went to watch Emma with the highest of expectations, only to come home from the theater sorely disappointed.

I admit I never fully watched the trailer - I saw a bit, it looked decent, and I cut it short so I wouldn't spoil myself for the experience - but even so, my expectations were moderately high. The style of the film looked interesting, it was directed by a woman, and it claimed to be a "romantic comedy" — not a term I'd typically associate with the story, although thanks to the whimsical, matchmaking main character, there is already a lot of comedy inherent in Austen's original novel. But I took the film at its word and went in expecting an original adaptation that brings something new to the beloved story of Emma. Except it didn't do this at all, and in fact, I yawned through the whole thing.

One of my biggest complaints is that the film wasn't all that funny. You'd expect some laughs brought about by some new, contemporary insight or commentary on the novel, but instead this film keeps everything the same and only occasionally exaggerates scenes in such a way as to bring out "comedy". The older 2009 BBC adaptation of Emma features the character of Elton cooing excessively over a painting done by Emma of her friend Harriet, all in an attempt to win her favor, although Emma herself doesn't realize this until much later. This new adaption keeps this scene exactly the same, while additionally placing this painting in an obscenely ornate frame that resembles a cuckoo clock more than anything else. This conjures a few snickers from the audience, but that's about it. Similarly, when Knightley finally musters the courage to speak to Emma about his feelings and Emma finally musters the courage to listen, her nose randomly starts bleeding as they're speaking under a tree. This scene probably got the most laughs out of the audience, but I sat there wondering why this nosebleed - more applicable in a Korean drama, in my opinion - was supposed to make me laud the film when there was nevertheless nothing meaningful in that red stripe of blood running down Emma's face and into her mouth. It was an odd and unexpected choice on the director's part, and appreciable in that sense, but it didn't add to the feeling of that well-known scene in any way; in fact, the nosebleed did its best to express emotions that Emma herself simply didn't invoke.

My other main gripe with this latest adaptation is that for a film that was expected to be unique in its depiction of Emma's story, an unfortunate amount of scenes were strikingly similar to those in older adaptations. I rewatched the 2009 mini-series shortly after this film just to make sure it wasn't just my imagination, and indeed it appears that the 2009 adaptation is almost taken as canon. The painting scenes look very similar, as did the picnic scene toward the end — Frank Churchill even slouched on the picnic blanket in a way reminiscent of the older adaptation.

When all is said and done, however, the 2009 adaptation just has so much more heart than the 2020 one ever will. Granted, it has the benefit of having double the runtime, so there's more time to build out relationships and the like (although in my opinion, a more concise film should at least have the benefit of not boring its audiences to sleep). Even so, while this latest adaptation attempts to push the comedy angle and fails even in that - though I will say that Miranda Hart as Miss Bates and Bill Nighy playing Emma's father were the saving graces of this film - the four 2009 episodes actually get you invested in the characters, maintain clear chemistry between the leads (which this film certainly doesn't do), and live up to the original book in a way that is certain to have all Austen fans daydreaming about Mr. Knightley during their A.P. Biology exam (aka me a little less than seven years ago).

Having seen the 1996 and 2009 adaptations before this one, as well as Clueless, I can say with certainty that this is my least favorite out of them all.

I watched the Korean movie Swing Kids the other day and I was rightly impressed. It's very different from other Korean films I've watched - the style feels more similar to Hollywood movies that most other Korean films tend to - and everything about it was spectacular: it takes place during war and deals with tough issues like racism and discrimination, but it's done in a musical format where you get tap dancing instead of lyrics. It was a joy to watch, and probably one of the best films I've seen this year. I usually complain about two hour movies but this one was brilliant all the way through. And shortly after, I stumbled upon a new book by one of my favorite authors - Lovely War by Julie Berry. Imagine my pleasantly surprised expression when I began reading and the book turned out to be in a similar vein! It took place during a war (hence the title), it dealt with racism and discrimination, and it had similarly beautiful and heartbreaking relationships between characters: exactly my cup of tea.

I've read quite a few Julie Berry books in my day, and I have never been disappointed by anything she has written - Lovely War is no exception. Berry's books are always brilliant and emotionally draining in the best way possible, and there's always some super unique perspective to them that I always enjoy. Lovely War is a multi-year story of human love during wartime, except the twist is that it's narrated by Greek gods Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Hades, and Hephaestus. This beautiful, beautiful book gives us not one, not two, but three amazing love stories that are so much more than just sappy romance (not that I have anything against sappy romance - I adore the genre). But Berry clearly did a crazy amount of research to bring this book to life, and it shows. 

Another thing Berry is kind of known for, at least with me, is her heartbreaking endings. I won't say anything to spoil this one, but allow me to say that the reader will be immensely satisfied but at the same time still shed a bucket of - equally satisfying - tears. It's been a couple of weeks since I read the book but I still can't stop thinking of both Swing Kids and Lovely War. If you've watched one, read the other; if you've read one, watch the other. I can't recommend these two titles enough, so if you're in the mood for amazing, deep relationships, brilliant stories, and more than a tinge of sadness, do yourself a favor and pick one of (or both of) these up.

I hadn't really been excited for Aladdin - sure, I'd watched and enjoyed the live action versions of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, but I felt that live-action remakes were getting old really fast. In fact, I hadn't even planned on watching the film in theaters, but other people's excitement rubbed off on me and I couldn't stop myself from going. I ended up having a glorious experience: I love spectacle, and this film gave it to me.

When you think Jasmine and Aladdin are too cliché but you keep watching and you were wrong.

That moment you realize that Will Smith is actually a brilliant Genie.

It's been quite a while since I watched the animated Aladdin, and that made me enjoy this film that much more. There were obvious scenes from the original film that I'd completely forgotten about, and it made those moments that much sweeter when watching the live-action. And you'd think this film would be boring because it's pretty much the animated version, except live, but NO. Everything about this film is perfect; just like with the live-action Beauty and the Beast, Disney creates new depth to the characters (although let's be real, Aladdin did it better). And the actors and actresses really bring the original, beloved figures to life! I don't have qualms about any of them! And wow they all sing really well? I am very impressed.

Jasmine being her usual gorgeous, genius self who doesn't buy into the Prince Ali of Ababwa nonsense.

I've been feeling pretty meh about Disney movies lately - I rewatched Mulan a couple months ago and I felt nothing; even Li Shang started to annoy me (I know, it's terrible) - but this live-action film has reminded me of why I loved the original Aladdin in the first place. It really does justice to the original animated feature, and this is hands down the best live-action remake Disney has done so far; I doubt any of the others will top this. The film is gorgeous from beginning to end, and ugh, I fell in love with each and every character, except the villains, all over again! It's so heartwarming and makes me feel warm inside - and don't even get me started on how much I love Princess Jasmine, and Naomi Scott's portrayal of her. The laughs in this film are ridiculous and cute, and Will Smith has outdone himself as the genie. Even Aladdin was perfect, as was the magic carpet. I have zero complaints, and I loved every minute of the movie. Hopefully I'll get to go again this weekend and show my mom this masterpiece that she was too lazy to accompany me to the first time.

Allow me to finish my sentence: please tell me you liked Detective Pikachu, because otherwise we can't be friends.

I've been crazy excited for this film since a) I realized Ryan Reynolds was voicing Pikachu, b) I saw Pikachu wearing a little Sherlock Holmes hat (there are very few things I love more than Sherlock Holmes and mysteries), and c) Pikachu is freaking adorable and I could literally watch him sleep on the big screen and be satisfied. Of course, my brother tried to kill my buzz the day we went to watch the film by claiming that it "sucked", but I didn't let him get to me: I was confident in my furry friend. And did he deliver? Oh yes he did. 

My mom thought the movie was crazy boring and my brother said the Pokemon were the only decent part of the movie because everything except the twist ending was predictable - every Hollywood movie is predictable, it's the three act structure over and over again! - but I beg to differ. The fact that the twist ending caught so many people by surprise is actually quite amazing; movies rarely accomplish this. And come on, how many people are actually going into this movie hoping for a beyond thrilling plot that keeps them on the edge of their seat? I hope not many people, because the movie delivered exactly what the trailer promised: a mystery about a boy's father and a Pikachu who's lost his memories and makes great jokes. Honestly, I went in just for the comedy, but ended up being pleasantly surprised by the breadth of the mystery. I never got bored. And the cute Pokemon and the beautiful, heartwarming bond between Tim and Pikachu and the cute Pokemon - I just really adored this movie.

The guy at the theater gave us about six or so Pokemon packs when we bought tickets to the movie, so I now have 12 Pokemon cards, 6 of which are all Detective Pikachu and absolutely adorable. I shall use them as bookmarks and gaze upon Pikachu's cute face - and hat - every time I can be bothered to pick up a book (it's a rare occurrence nowadays).