Mid-year movie musings

August 5th, 2026

Alt. title: Half of the year is already gone so I'm gonna talk about all the new movies I've seen

I was originally gonna talk about the 2026 releases I've watched so far, but I realized how much I also wanna talk about the pre-2026 movies that I saw for the first time this year — so I'm gonna split this blogpost into 2 parts: 2026 releases first, then the non-2026 first-time watches. There won't be any spoilers in this blog post, anything I say about the movies that isn't talked about in the synopses or shown in trailers will be talked about very vaguely.

2026 Releases

The first chunk! Movies I've seen that released this year.

Iron Lung (2026)

Very good movie !! I saw Iron Lung by myself in the theatre — my first time doing so, actually! — on an impulse decision, and it was a fun theatre experience! As someone who's seen most of Markiplier's acting, it's fun seeing how he's improved.

The movie looks wonderful, with all the colour grading and framing. Mark went very hard for Iron Lung, evident by how many times he had to go to the ER while filming lmao.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

ABSOLUTE CINEMA !!! Project Hail Mary looks gorgeous — yippee for the use of practical effects !!!! — and the score / soundtrack is amazing. The acting is phenomenal, it's hilarious, and it has such heart to it. I'm just so glad this movie exists and that it's getting the attention it so deserves!!

I've only watched it twice but I really need to watch it more, and since I own the book now, I really need to keep reading it. Also thank you to the universe for aligning in such a way that led to Bloodymary existing.

Backrooms (2026)

Very interesting! I saw this in theatres with my friend — I got to see the Everything Must Go! version — and it was fun!! The plot isn't the clearest, but I've never been a huge plot person anyway so I don't really mind lmao. The acting was very good, the colour grading was wonderful, I loved the effects, and it was pretty scary!

The source of horror in this movie didn't freak me out too much, but my friend was scared shitless for most of the movie. The laundry scene is definitely my favourite in the movie, just very very good. All-in-all, a good movie! Very glad I saw it.

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals: Reprised! (2026)

YIPPEE YAY!! Okay so first of all, this is a proshot of a musical and not a movie, but I want to talk about it anyway — just see it as a fun bonus!

I love StarKid so much, and the Hatchetfield musicals are very high on my list of favourites. The original The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is already soso good, but the Reprised! version is a very welcome update. There's a few fans of the original that don't like this new one, but that's fine, the original still exists. I personally love both! StarKid very clearly got a bigger budget for Reprised! and they use it very wisely — the real office chairs are a very welcome addition. It's fun to see everyones' new take on their characters, and it's amazing to see Will Branner join the Hidgens gang! Will's version of Hidgens is so fun, and I love how much he played with the character.

I appreciate how much of the original they kept, and I love everything they added to this new version. The only new addition I'm kind of meh on is the bit with Paul and his door locks, but I understand they had to add that to allow for more quick-change time, so I don't mind it too much. My favourite changes in this new version musically are What Do You Want, Paul?, Not Your Seed, and Let It Out.

The new key of What Do You Want, Paul? gives the song a fun new vibe, and gives Jeff Blim a chance to sing in his lower range, which sounds wonderful! I think overall Jeff's acting in Reprised! is so much more refined — in the original, every character he played just kinda felt like "Jeff Blim playing different levels of crazy" but now they all feel like very distinct characters! The addition of the phone cord bit in Reprised! is also one of my favourite new additions, and overall I feel like the physicality of the song is much more fun.

Not Your Seed is already one of my favourite TGWDLM songs, but in Reprised! Mariah gets to show how much she's grown as an actor. She still sounds wonderful, but now instead of simply acting out the song, she's feeling it, not afraid of sounding imperfect. I love how much more heartbreaking the new version is — I also think it's in a slightly new key, but I'm not sure how intentional that was.

Now to talk about Let It Out...god this song is just so good. The original is already so much fun, but with Jon Matteson's updated vocals it kicks so much more ass. Jon's voice has improved so much since joining StarKid, and it's so awesome to hear him sing Paul's part in Let It Out with even more power behind it!! The new additions of "Let it out!" and "You just gotta let it!" that Jon and Mariah during the second chorus make me wanna scream and jump up and down!!! They go soso hard and I love them so much.

Overall, the mixing of Reprised! is much better, so you an clearly hear the harmonies within songs, which in-turn makes them go that much harder. Anyways I love this musical so much and I'm so happy to see it's second life!!

First-time watches

Movies I watched for the first time this year that released before 2026.

Don't Log Off (2025)

Pretty fun! I have no idea where I even learned about this movie or why I watched it, but I like it! It's stupid and not really scary, but it's definitely entertaining. I liked the characters and the acting was pretty good! Annie and Adam are my favourites.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Great!! I've seen the first 2 Knive's Out movies — Glass Onion being my favourite — so it was fun to see another one! I do think this is my least favourite so far, but it's not bad by any means.

I love the aesthetic of Wake Up Dead Man, the church being a very fun setting. The cinematography in this movie is gorgeous — the colour grading is on point, the composition is very nice, and there's a lot of very fun shots.

It's fun seeing a bunch of well-known actors in very exaggerated roles, which I feel like is a fun staple for the Knive's Out movies. This was actually my first time seeing Josh O'Connor in anything, and he was great! He fits snuggly in the cast of Knive's Out protags. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc was a highlight as always, and it was fun to see another side to him that he hadn't seen before. This movie was also very funny! A very good addition to the Knive's Out series!

Geppetto (2000)

Okay so, I watched this during my birthday with my friends 'cause one of my friends is obsessed with Brent Spiner, who is in this movie.

The thing about this movie is that everyone is great in it except for Drew Carey, which sucks when he's playing the main and titular character. The production on this movie is fucking crazy, with amazing costumes, sets, pretty good effects, and actual dance choreography. Apparently this movie actually won a few makeup and costume awards, was nominated for even more, and the kid who played Pinocchio won a kids acting award. The cast of this movie is also kinda crazy, with 2 Star Trek actors — Brent Spiner and René Auberjonois — going ham, Wayne Brady in a quick bit part, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a supporting actress, fucking Usher shows up part-way through??

There's no "reception" section in this movie's Wikipedia page, and I'd never heard of it before watching it, so I can only imagine how the general public feels about it. Just a very fascinating movie. Oh yeah, did I mention this movie is also a musical? And you can probably guess what Drew Carey's singing ability is like. The music was also composed by fucking Stephen Schwartz, man behind Pippin, Godspell, and fucking WICKED?? 90% of the music is very forgetable, but Brent Spiner has a song that genuinely goes very hard and is definitely a highlight of the movie.

Anyways, Geppetto (2000) is a movie where Geppetto is a selfish asshole who begs God for a son and then hates him. And it's a musical made-for-TV starring Drew Carey. Everyone go listen to Bravo, Stromboli!

Milk & Serial (2024)

Very good!! Milk & Serial 's director (Curry Barker) is also the director of Obsession, and with the popularity of that movie, I wanted to see what other stuff he's made. Apparently that other stuff includes this movie!

Curry Barker — along with Cooper Tomlinson, who co-stars in this with Curry — started doing sketch comedy on YouTube, but he's also had a few previous horror projects. Other than Obsession, Curry's horror projects include horror shorts like Heavy Eyes and The Chair in 2022, Warnings and Enigma in 2023, and his future projects include the feature-length film Anything but Ghosts and the upcoming Texas Chainsaw movie!

I'm not even sure what I can say about Milk & Serial without giving too much away. What I will say is that I like this movie a lot. Curry and Cooper's acting is very very good and I love a lot of the camera work. It's the kind of movie that I would love to make one day.

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

I started sobbing less than 20 minutes into this movie and didn't really stop until after the credits rolled. I sometimes see Lars and the Real Girl labelled as a comedy, but I wouldn't really call it that, with most of it's comedy coming from its absurdity and darker themes.

I would really compare this movie to one of my favourite movies, Little Miss Sunshine. They both deal with very similar topics — though the events of both movies are very, very different — and they both have a very tender and bittersweet feeling to them that I love so much. I also see a lot of myself in the characters of both movies, which makes them resonate with me even more.

I feel like Lars Lindstrom is, of all of Ryan Goslings roles I've seen, the one that he disappears into the most. It might because most Ryan Gosling roles I've seen are usually charasmatic guys who crack jokes all time, and Lars is very much not that. I think Lars and the Real Girl is just soso wondeful, and I'd say it's now one of my favourite movies.

currently:

• listening to: NO EULOGIES — jamie paige
• thinking about: how I should definitely go eat something