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Woodshock (2017)
Woodshock (2017)
2017 | Drama, Thriller
Kirsten Dunst's 𝘙𝘦𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴. Something about plants or some shit idek, trees haven't made this little sense since 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 but by God would you *look* at it? At its best unbelievably emotive and ethereal, you could even call it fragile by the way its temperamental existence unendingly slips in and out of consciousness. At its worst the same mopey, stupid, meandering indie trappings that A24 had an intolerable fetish for that year but still done wildly better than the likes of shittier 2017 fare such as 𝘈 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘐𝘵 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘈𝘵 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, and 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦. Kind of wish this just dropped the subpar 10% of a story that leeches onto the otherworldly artistic bouts of pot-fueled dainty chaos but it honestly doesn't get in the way too much. Too many gorgeous frames to even count. Spent the last half hour of this with watery eyes and mouth agape not only for its sheer beauty, sheer singularity in spite of genre trope reusage... but for how commandingly it bats for the fences and doesn't let up even a little bit. Not concerned for a second about being coherent or restrained at all beyond one feature length bad, trippy, fully immersive high. Pretty much a live action Nicole Dollanganger music video.
  
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
1991 | Animation, Family, Musical
Beauty and the Beast is an example of animated Disney at the top of their game, and stands proudly amongst the string of high quality outputs from Disney during the tail end of the 80s and through the 90s.

The aesthetic is quintessential Disney fairytale material, alternating between the bright and colourful un-named village that Belle lives in, to the dark and gothic castle where The Beast resides. The animation is wonderful, especially when it comes to characters. Characters such as Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Mrs. Potts are bought to life in such a vibrant manner, it's another argument for why the live action adaptions will never quite capture the same magic, and the likes of Belle, The Beast, and Gaston are memorable and visually iconic Disney inhabitants.

The story is straight down the middle for this kind of thing, but it's crowd pleasing, heart warming, with a perfect helping of melancholy, a formula that has always been Disney's bread and butter along with catchy songs. I struggle to get on board with musicals for the most part but some of the music demonstrated here is superbly written and occasionally beautiful.

Beauty & The Beast is classic Disney through and through. It's truly timeless and will be enjoyed for generations to come.
  
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Hocus Pocus (1993)
1993 | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A full-tilt ball, I tend to be averse to anything ruminating with *this* much untamed theater kid energy - but Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and of-fucking-course Bette Midler are 110% off the chain. I admit that the odious 90s stereotypes in this are hard to stomach, but I miss when Disney's live action allowed for such sublime scenery-chewing like this trio of perfect performances instead of Will Smith and some dude tepidly talking about jelly for what feels like an hour. I hate to be that guy, but something this lively just couldn't be recreated from the company today; Kenny Ortega's knack for brilliant practical effects and super impressive CGI for the time today is replaced by plastic visuals and flat soundstages where any sense of fun all but evaporates. Make no mistake, this is still not much more than pure fluff at the end of the day - but Lord it's such a blast. One of the few millennial-worship films I can fully understand the hype for, a delightful cross between 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘬 and "The Three Stooges". It's also consistently funny. "I Put A Spell On You" is a bop, and maybe I'm just getting old but the stuff at the end had me genuinely choked up.