& the plot is so stupidly absurd at points it comes back around to being a farce. This is a movie where a gorilla mauls a woman to death for trying to steal her daughter's fiance & our unequivocal hero is the Scariest Man Alive (Lon Chaney) who captures wild tigers & sells them to circuses for a job

All of the actors are great, and are clearly having a blast being there, excellent chemistry all around. The costuming is excellent, with some of Madame de Sylvia's (Estelle Taylor) dresses fully stealing scenes on their own.

...19th-century-colonial-exotisicm way (exactly what you would expect from looking at the title & poster) that I don't think anything can really be salvaged from it.

That all being said, I had a ton of fun watching this actually.

Where East Is East (1929)

Okay wow. This is a movie that I could not reasonably give anything more than 1 star in any sane ranking system. The plot, setting, characters, & themes are so thoroughly misogynistic & racist in a...

IDK, I grew up in rural small town & now I live in a major city n really across the board most people in both places are cool decent folks who are interesting to talk to & don't hold crazy animosity for their neighbors

You enjoy the place you choose to live but it's slightly different than the place I choose to live? FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

I'm really enjoying how Morrison's writing seems to be eschewing traditional plot structures as I go forward in her work.

There is really only one (1) single plot beat in the entire book, right up front, & then the rest spirals out from there, informing us about the life & times of every single tangentially related character and how their context informs the event the book centers around.

Jazz (Toni Morrison)

Wow what a book. Toni Morrison's prose flows so freely from dialogue, to description, to flashback, to poetic aside its kinda hard to describe as a novel, tbh. If anything, this book felt like reading a painting.

There's a ton of sexual tension between Captain McQuig & Nick Scarsi throughout & the dialogue is a great showcase of silly '20s slang. Also neat is Louis Wollheim's portrayal of Definitely-Not-Al-Capone mob boss Nick Scarsi & the almost direct line of inspiration to James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano.

The Racket (1928)

A film with too many white guys in suits who all look the same tbh. The plot is pretty by-the-numbers, but the shots of 1920's Chicago are super cool to see.

I love how the mystery unfolds from the conclusion backwards. I love the fiddly little bits where you work out all the assorted seamen & topmen (who never speak a line) though little context clues. Just a masterpiece throughout, I'm agog.

Return of the Obra Dinn

God I love this game so much, just a big ol logic & deduction puzzle to churn through at your own pace with a gorgeous art style that I found just breathtaking throughout. Played with my partner & mostly watched her play till the back end.

It is a little silly that between SW series, Luke's temple goes from all-ages education to Teens Only, but ah well, it'd be weird for Jacen & Jaina to be hanging with a 40-year-old trainee so eh

Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights: Heirs of the Force

A very cute lil set-up chapter for the series to come. Like other 1st in the series books of this era & age range, the stakes are incredibly low but the book does a good job introducing all the characters Deals & Dynamics.