My Review of House Of The Dragon: "Queen's Landing"

 

Written by Sara Hess

Directed by Clare Kilner 

Daemon (to Rhaenyra): "In this moment, you will become queen."

I thought last week's opening episode should've been the finale for last season but actually, it's this episode that should've ended the second season. What an episode.

In those last moments, Rhaenyra finally became Queen after over twenty years of being promised the crown. It should've been a moment of joy for Rhaenyra but it's clear as day that it wasn't the victory she had hoped for. How could it have been?

In such a short space of time, Rhaenyra lost three of her six children and she was struggling big time with Jace's death throughout this episode. Daemon practically had to push Rhaenyra into asserting herself as Queen. Rhaenyra's first act - why killing Otto of course.

I've disliked Otto Hightower from the very first episode and his death was totally on him. Otto's scheming and overreaching finally came to roost and I liked that Rhaenyra was the one to do it. Otto absolutely had it coming and there was no way that he could've been kept alive. Alicent might have looked shocked but surely, she should've expected it.

Speaking of Alicent, she maintained her word in helping Rhaenyra seize King's Landing while trying to protect Helaena. It almost went spectacularly wrong for her when Jasper attempted to rape her until Orwyle stepped in. Jasper got his just desserts and now Alicent and Helaena are at Rhaenyra's mercy. Going by next week's trailer, Alicent will be fine.

As for her feckless sons, Aegon managed to escape reuniting with his sister while still being rather mad at Larys for outing his identity. Aemond stormed Harrenhal, killed the Strong clan, bled a lot and found himself at the mercy of Alys. 

Last but not least, Corlys survived the events of the Gullet and had some choice scenes with both Baela and Alyn. Rhaena on the other hand found herself at odds with Lady Jeyne and she can't go back to her family. Yeah, Rhaena really got the crap end of the stick this week. 

- The episode introduced Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen). He went along with Alicent's plan and remembered his past with Daemon.

- Orwyle clearly believed Jasper when the latter revealed Alicent's plan. He also quickly swore fealty to Rhaenyra.

- That's two episodes in a row that Alicent has been a victim of sexual assault. It's not a great pattern. 

- Daemon might have set Hugh and Uluf to eventually betray Rhaenyra. I liked his scene with Mysaria in this episode too.

- Harry Collett had his name in the credits as well saw Rhaenyra grieve over Jace's corpse early in the episode.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Queen's Landing felt like a finale for the previous and now that Rhaenyra has the very thing she's clamouring for, it's come at a horrible price for her. By far, the best episode so far from the show.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of My Adventures With Superman: "All's Fair In Love And W.O.R.M.S."

 

Written by Jack Sentell

Directed by Grace Liu

Giganta (to Jimmy): "My friends call me Gigi but you call me Giganta."

Why are we getting a prominent Wonder Woman villain in an episode and not even having a reference to Diana herself? It's a valid concern, right? Anyways, hello Gigi.

Jimmy Olsen took a huge chunk of the story this week and all because Kara decided to take his advice about exploring her options as a single woman. This meant Jimmy throwing his lot in with W.O.R.M.S. (World Organization for Romantic Matchmaking Science), which was ran by Zazzala and Tazzala respectively.

Anyways, Jimmy's exploits into this particular dating field had him mostly paired with Giganta. For some reason, she turned him into a wolf and when he was cured, he developed spaghetti arms and then when he was properly cured, Giganta decided to recreate that one scene everyone knows from King Kong until Superman and Zazzala/Tazzala saved the day.

Elsewhere, Kara was having the time of her life being in such demand on another dating app while discovering the joys of a mall. Lois spent most of the episode being anxious about the way her relationship with Clark has progressed. There's also a musical number that didn't quite land.

Of course the biggest shocker of the episode was the future trip. Yup, another alien invasion in Metropolis but where's Superman? Dead seemingly. Saying that, there's a bald Lex Luthor trying to do the right thing by sending Superboy (Darren Criss) back in time to prevent the disaster they're living in.

- Lois was a fan of Black Canary's music, which Supergirl discovered.

- Clark trying to work on his model farm was cute. We saw a Krypto looking dog.

- Cyborg Superman's hero career was over after his altercation with Silver Banshee backfired on him.

- Chronology: Shortly after the events of the second episode.

All's Fair In Love And W.O.R.M.S was a pretty solid episode overall with the last scene really setting up the events for the rest of the season.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Multiple Maniacs (1970)

 

Written And Directed by John Waters 

Lady Divine: "And you're still the most beautiful woman in the world! Nothing can change that!"

I had something of a challenge with Mondo Trasho and in a lot of ways, this follow up had some similar issues. Fortunately, it's a talkie, so no intrusive music to be had. That somewhat helped with this one.

Once again, we've got Divine leading proceedings and here, she went by Lady Divine. Divine ran The Cavalcade of Perversion. It's as depraved as you'd expect it to be. There's even a character called the Puke Eater. Oh and Divine's rather murderous in this one when she wasn't stealing from customers too.

She's also got a man named Mr David (David Lochary). Needless to say, he's been cheating on her with another woman named Bonnie (Mary Vivian Pearce) and before she can confront them, she's sexually assaulted by two glue sniffers. Yes, it's a rather grim display here.

Throw in a daughter named Cookie (Cookie Mueller) and the latter's boyfriend, Steve (Paul Swift) and maybe it's no wonder that Divine turned to lesbianism with a woman named Mink (Mink Stole). They met in church and certainly committed unholy acts of love making.

The rest of the movie then just upped the body count. David and Bonnie murdered Cookie and had Ricky (Rick Morrow) tied up and gagged. Ricky was later killed by Mink. Mink was eventually killed by Divine and the latter killed both David and Bonnie. Yes, there's a high body count on display here.

I'm not sure the movie was totally successful in showing how Divine got so crazy but what she did to David was probably the most gruesome act in the film. Divine's own fate on the other hand was a pretty daft but oddly humourous way to give her a comeuppance of sorts.

- I watched the Criterion release of this with commentary from John Waters. That proved to be insightful.

- Other players in this movie included Edith Massey, George Figgs and Michael Renner Jr.

- Standout music: There's a memorable use of America The Beautiful at the end of the movie.

- Chronology: It was filmed in Baltimore and presumably set there too.

I'd say marginally better than the movie that came before it. Multiple Maniacs certainly didn't hold back on the depravity or outright silliness on display.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Supergirl (2026)

 

Written by Ana Nogueira

Directed by Craig Gillespie 

Supergirl: "Here's the thing. My cousin and I have very different ideas about what it means to be a hero. He sees the good in everyone and I see the truth."

Oh, DC - what to do with you? You came out swinging last year with Superman (2025) amid a petulant hate campaign and sadly, it seems that Supergirl (2026) fell victim to an even more mean spirited one. Is this the end of the DCU? Of course it isn't. 

Now I'm not gonna pretend that this isn't a movie without it's flaws and I'll delve into them during the review. In the comic book world, Tom King's a divisive writer but his miniseries Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow was one of the few things that DC fans seem to like. I can see why it was chosen as a potential adaptation.

Having already met Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock) in her cousin's movie, her solo adventure focused on her going from planet to planet getting drunk. It's also Kara's 23rd birthday and aside from Krypto and her well meaning cousin, Superman (David Corenswet), Kara's basically got nobody. Then she's roped into the big story itself.

Let's throw in Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). The poor girl had to witness her parents being murdered by Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) and she naturally wanted revenge. This was something that Kara wanted no part in but then Krypto got poisoned and had three days to live and the antidote was on the Brigands person. Those reasons alone were enough for Kara and Ruthye to team up.

Putting the source material to one side, when watching this movie yesterday I was reminded of Birds Of Prey (2020). In some aspects, the dynamic between Kara and Ruthye wasn't that dissimilar to Harley Quinn and Cassandra Cain. It's a slightly gentler version with Kara opening up about her life on Krypton, her parents and the differences between herself and her famous cousin.

Anyways as Kara and Ruthye ventured through different planets in order to get to Krem and his cohorts, there was also the presence of intergalactic bounty hunter, Lobo (Jason Momoa) himself. He's only in a handful of scenes, was moderately helpful to Kara and Ruthye and Momoa was well within his comfort zone, performance wise. Lobo's inclusion felt like a set up for an inevitable future solo project of his to be announced.

With most comic book movies, the third act was something of a mixed bag. There's a subplot involving human trafficking and changes made to Krem's character to give him more context. Krem wasn't a particularly compelling baddie to watch but at least Ruthye got closure, Krypto got cured (was there ever a doubt?) and Kara did what was necessary to stop Krem and his crew.

As for Superman and the Krypton scenes. I liked how they were spread out throughout the movie and I'd argue they're handled well here. Kara's parents Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham) were written as good people and there's a nice backstory for Krypto. Kara's scenes with Superman were some of the best in the movie, especially the final scene between cousins. I love their rapport so much.

- For the first time in a while, there are no mid or post credit scenes and honestly, they're not missed here.

- Seth Rogan had an uncredited role as a small alien that Kara met on the space bus. There was a lot of different aliens in the movie, including Sklarian Raiders.

- We had to wait until the third act for Kara to don her Supergirl costume. She used a lot of martial arts and got shot with Kryptonite as well.

- There's a few changes made to the source material, some being more noticeable than others. Most were fine tbh.

- Standout music: Claudia Sarne did good with the score and other than that, there's Cheek To Cheek by Ella Fitzgerald and Catch These Fists by Wet Legs.

- Chronology: Kara turned 23 and one of the many planets she visited was named Bilquis, after the artist of the source material. We also saw Krypton, Argos City and Metropolis.

Supergirl (2026) might not hit the same way that her more famous cousin's movie did a year ago but I'll side eye the hell out of anyone who'd claim this to be a bad movie. It's not bad in the slightest. As an adaptation to an acclaimed comic book miniseries, it's mostly faithful to the source material. The colour palette's a bit too drab and Krem isn't an interesting baddie but Milly Alcock has proved to be fantastic casting as Supergirl. 

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Mondo Trasho (1969)

 

Written And Directed by John Waters

Divine: "Oh Mary! Oh Holy Trinity! Oh God! It isn't easy being Divine!"

For the next few weeks, I'll be delving into the filmography of transgressive extraordinaire John Waters. However, for the moment I won't be watching his short films. I will tackle them at a later date.

Going with this movie first, it's his first one that reasonably long form and it's a rather bizarre debut. You've got Waters frequent collaborator, Divine as themselves but also a Greaser in Alley. As themself though, they're mostly carrying another character.

The other character being The Bombshell/Cinderella (Mary Vivian Pearce). She's there to be objectified, assaulted, killed, resurrected, partially transformed, harassed and insulted. All of this happened within the space of this movie.

Cut with some rather strange sequences while The Bombshell was in the throws of pleasure, she then got ran over by Divine. Divine had been distracted by a rather handsome man (Mark Isherwood) that she imagined naked. 

From that point onwards, everything's a chaotic mess. Clothes are stolen, the police are interested in Divine's antics, there's a sequence with the Virgin Mary (Maggie Skidmore) and the utter madness of Dr. Coathanger (David Lochary) and his ill nurse (Berenica Cipcus). It's all so utterly batshit crazy.

By the end of the movie, Coathanger tried to kidnap a school girl, Divine was left in the woods and The Bombshell had bird's feet and was getting flashed at and insulted in a rather unsatisfactory conclusion to the whole thing.

- The opening scene involved chickens being slaughtered. Bombshell was reading Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon.

- Mink Stole had the roles of Homeless Woman, Snob #1 and Asylum Inmate. She's another frequent collaborator of John Waters.

- Standout music: It made up the majority of the movie with some songs repeated and scant dialogue to boot.

- Chronology: 1960s Baltimore for the whole film.

Gotta be honest - the idea being Mondo Trasho was interesting. The execution, not so much. It's a messy movie, the music was a hindrance and whole thing just felt disjointed and unsatisfying to watch. Probably not something I'd ever watch again.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

Horror Updates Again

I swear this isn't going to be an ongoing thing (or maybe it will). Saying that, let's get into, shall we?

Robert Eggers proved back in 2024 that audiences don't mind a bit of Christmas horror, considering that his version of Nosferatu turned out to be such a massive hit. Hoping to repeat that succees again, he's got the upcoming Werwulf, which will be released on Christmas Day for the US and January 1st 2027 for everywhere else. The film was co-written with Sjón (who also co-wrote 2022's The Northman). The film will reunite Eggers with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. A first look trailer is imminent.

Remember a while back there was discussion of Michael Myers going to the land of television? As it's been apparent for a good while, nothing has materialised with that. As a result, there's rumours spreading that a TV show has been scrapped in a favour of a new movie. Assuming this is true, the new movie would undoubtedly be aimed for 2028, marking the 50th anniversary of Michael Myers terrorising the residents of Haddonfield in Halloween (1978). Again, there's no official source for this and personally, it seems more like an educated guess on the matter. I imagine we'll get an actual update before the year's out.

Now let's talk about the two biggest movies of the summer that aren't blockbusters? Yup, at this point unless you've been purposely avoiding them, there's no way you don't have thoughts on both Obsession and Backrooms. As of now the former has clocked in $337.1 million and the latter $301.8 million respectively. This is good news for directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons as well as some of the cast members. There has been some recent talk of award nominations for the former, including Inde Navarrette but we'll see how it goes as the year goes on.

Now as it's still Pride Month for the next few days, I should shout out Australian gay horror Leviticus, which is currently in cinemas. I do plan to see it soon. It also got me thinking about other upcoming LGBT themed horror films. You can expect Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma. The film stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw The TV Glow). It'll be in theatres from August 7th. There's a horror short called Four Itchy Boys starring Nico Greetham and Booboo Stewart, directed by Andrew Herbert. There's also the upcoming LGBT Giallo inspired Until You're Alone, which recently revealed it's first trailer on YouTube.

You know what? This might be a monthly thing. I'll think about it.

My Review of Ammonite (2020)

 

Written And Directed by Francis Lee

Charlotte (to Mary): "You, were the most fascinating person there tonight. And I think, the most beautiful."

I'm a huge fan of Francis Lee's God's Own Country and I've been meaning to catch up with Ammonite for the longest time. As Pride Month heads into its final week of sorts, it was time to finally watch this film. I'm glad that I did.

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are two incredibly talented actresses and here, they're both well cast as two women who form a connection with one another under the most trying of circumstances for both of them.

Mary Anning (Winslet), a paleontologist and small shop owner lived with her mother, Molly (Gemma Jones). Her talent for digging fossils and identifying ammonites have given her quite a reputation. In fact, archaeologist Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) was eager to learn from Mary's unmatched skills.

Roderick was also eager to offload his depressed wife, Charlotte (Ronan) onto Mary while he went on his own adventure. Mary and Charlotte weren't particularly keen on one another to begin with. Then Charlotte got sick and Mary had to play nursemaid under the advice of Charlotte's doctor, Lieberson (Alec Secăreanu).

From that point, there was a bond that was formed between the two women. I think both Molly and Lieberson noticed it a little and Mary's ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Philpot (Fiona Shaw) certainly noticed it. In fact, Elizabeth went out of her way to encourage Mary to act on her feelings towards Charlotte, following Molly's untimely death.

These sort of period based films are never an easy time for gay or lesbian couples. Mary and Charlotte had some form of domestic bliss until the latter had to go home. Charlotte's attempts to recreate that in her home with Mary went awry. Saying that, there's a nice final moment between both women in the British museum.

- Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot of course were real life people as was Charlotte. The movie doesn't cover their deaths.

- Alec Secăreanu, who played Dr. Lieberson previously appeared in God's Own Country as Gheorgie. 

- Standout music: Gesellschafts - Walzer, Op. 5, composed by Johann Strauss Sr.

- Chronology: 1840s, Lyme Regis, Dorset as well as London.

Ammonite (2020) isn't exactly a laugh a minute but it's a breathtakingly somber affair with dynamic performances between Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. Both women are incredible to watch and have very strong chemistry. Francis Lee's writing and directing were on fine form.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

 

Written by David Reynolds And Chris Williams And Mark Dindal

Directed by Mark Dindal

Pacha: "Why did I risk my life for a selfish brat like you? I was always taught that there was some good in everyone, but, oh, you proved me wrong."

Kuzco: "Oh, boo-hoo. Now I feel really bad. Bad llama."

I'll admit that this movie was a recent watch for me. As someone who's a fan of Eartha Kitt, I do slightly regret not watching this one much sooner but what can you do?

In this movie, she's the scheming advisor/alchemist Yzma and she's out to take over the Incan empire. Considering that the emperor in question Kuzco (David Spade) actually sucks at being an emperor and thinks that tearing down a village was the way to celebrate turning eighteen, perhaps Yzma had a point.

Unfortunately for Yzma, she had a rather incompetent henchman in the form of Kronk (Patrick Warburton). Instead of killing off Kuzco, the latter ended up being changed into a llama and let's just say, it took Kuzco a while to prove he was capable of being a decent person.

It somewhat helped that he ended up being paired with villager Pacha (John Goodman). The whole Kuzco and Pacha dynamic made the movie. They're a fun pair who undermined one another as they gradually grew to rely on each other.

As a villain though, there's something delightfully menacing about Yzma. While she's not as iconic as other bigger Disney baddies, I liked how ruthless she got as things went along. Saying that, it took little for Pacha's family to get the better of her and Kronk's last minute heel turn somewhat became her undoing.

- Kuzco was named after Peruvian city, Cuzco. It still exists in the Andes mountains.

- Despite some similarities, it's not based on The Emperor's New Clothes.

- Standout music: My Funny Friend And Me and Perfect World, both courtesy of Sting and Tom Jones.

- Chronology: South American during the Incan empire.

The Emperor's New Groove turned out to be a fine 2000s addition to Disney animated movies. While I don't think it's a classic, there's plenty of fun to be had and Eartha Kitt unsurprisingly steals the show from David Spade and John Goodman, though they're good too.

Rating: 7 out of 10