Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The climax is the least enjoyable bit - a more or less generic battle (despite the martial arts theme) in the shadow of a more or less generic threat to the world as we know it. But more or less everything up to that is plenty enjoyable - nothing extraordinary but zipping along. Plus Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh for some serious ballast.

Argo

Rewatch. Last time.

Moonlight

I think it's the combination of how straightforward the story is (its directness surprised me) and the poetic nature of the visuals through which it's told. This is a real one and I can tell it'll stay with me.

My Neighbour Totoro

Had not seen this before. It's properly lovely. The intimacy and child eye-level imagination are what really make it, complemented by the animation itself as always with Miyazaki.

Eternals

Definitely the moodiest and most lovely-looking Marvel movie I've seen as well as comfortably the most diverse. Has a bit of an intrigue factor therefore, which balances out the messiness of its story architecture.

John Wick 1-4

Rewatching the first three (1 & 2, 3) and then the 2 1/2 hour long 'Chapter 4', it's striking how coherent and taut the whole affair is. This last one felt a bit video game-y at times but it also felt duly epic.

She Said

What She Said has going for it: an important story, told in a way that centres women and, in moments, conveys the horrific nature and impact of Weinstein's abusive and violent behaviour; quality actors (Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, enjoyable supporting actors all round); the inherent drama of the journalists' investigation. 

What's lacking: beyond that inherent drama and the urgency of the topic itself, there's no real sense of dramatic conflict or uncertainty (we know how the story ends); despite 'the system is enabling Weinstein' being very overt text, those broader aspects never really come properly into focus; in general, there's something a bit context-less about how the story is told, lacking the texture for example of Spotlight.

The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story edited by John Freeman

Aims to collect a sample of the 'best and most representative' American short fiction from 1970 to 2020. That's more or less my sweet spot, so while I'd only read a small handful of these before - "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Le Guin), "Taking Care" (Joy Williams), "Sticks" (Saunders), "The Great Silence" (Ted Chiang), "The Dune" (Stephen King), "The Midnight Zone" (Groff), each good-to-excellent, though the Chiang one isn't one of his best, and Williams, Saunders and Groff in particular being all-timers for me - as a whole it's rich pickings. 

Elsewhere there are familiar writers (Raymond Carver, Lydia Davis, Karen Russell - her "St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" is devastatingly good/sad), a couple who I've wanted to read for some time (Denis Johnson, Tim O'Brien) and quality all the way through (I have a weakness for flash, but still, Sandra Cisneros' "Salvador Late or Early" is great). Notable themes: trauma and hardship, sensitively and clearly depicted, seemingly often from personal experience. 

Ted Lasso season 3

In this season, Ted Lasso is a show that no longer knows what it's for. Still has a fair bit of charm, but a lot of that's on the coat tails of the previous seasons.