What I Watched in April
The month of 7 a.m. movies
April was a month of early mornings, sunny days, and evenings where I was so tired and overwhelmed by schoolwork that all I could muster was half an episode of Dance Moms before crashing. Still, I watched a good handful of movies, and generally enjoyed everything I watched, which was nice. (Once the semester is over, my monthly wrap-up will probably double or triple in length, btw.)
As always, you can follow me on Letterboxd, and see me live up to my bio: “Big time movie director with perfect opinions.” @jaslaughter8
Bullet Train (2022)
April 1, 2023: “You just know those guys were in the writers room and somebody said ‘omg what if one of them is just like obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine XD’ and they were all dyinggggg laughing.”
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this - I think I can do action movies if they’re funny, which this one (for the most part) really is. I enjoyed the star-studded cast and the punchy editing, it really just felt like a good-ole-fashioned action-comedy. To be honest, I was not the most sober I’ve ever been while watching it, so I can’t say I fully understood everything that was going on, but I definitely did understand that Joey King absolutely SERVED as that little British girl.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
April 2, 2023: “I love how everyone in this is dressed/styled in a believably 1950s way, except for Julia Roberts who looks like she just stepped out of a 2004 JCPenney catalogue the entire movie.”
This was recommended to me by one of my most avid readers, my dear friend/former ballet teacher, Miss Hannah. Over the years, Hannah and I have often established the fact that we are twin flames, that she is me if I were a millennial, that I am her when she was a college student. So I did, in fact, drop everything and watch this movie when she sent it to me, and, lo and behold, of course I loved it. I once said that Peppermint Soda was Dead Poets Society for girls, but I have since adjusted my statement for this movie. It’s charming, warmhearted, has a teacher who changes up a stuffy private school, and is super-duper gay: Dead Poets Society for girls. Truly my only gripe was Julia Roberts’ styling. Who let her wear a claw clip and low-rise jeans in a movie that’s supposed to take place in the 1950s?!
Never Been Kissed (1999)
April 6, 2023: “I’ve never seen this movie before now, and yet, I feel like I’ve seen this exact movie at least 1,000,000 times.”
One morning at my grueling 7 a.m. shift at my cushy desk job, I was far too exhausted to do any homework or read, so I decided to put on a movie on low volume on my laptop. I scrolled through Hulu until I found this one, which I’d been meaning to watch for a while, since it’s part of the genre I adore and have based a lot of my own screenwriting upon: corny, girly early 2000s high school romantic comedies. This movie, however, veered into deeply strange, highly illegal territory, where rather than living happily ever after, everyone probably should’ve ended up on an FBI watch list. Drew Barrymore does give a wonderfully endearing and awkward performance; it hit all the tropes, which was comforting in a way, but was so strange that I couldn’t really get behind it.
Easy A (2010) (rewatch)
April 8, 2023: “Apparently it’s becoming a tradition for me to watch this on Easter every year?? Emma Stone is my Jesus.”
On Easter 2022, I got back to my dorm from my family’s brunch before all my friends got home from visiting their families, so I spent the afternoon chowing down on Easter candy, and watching Easy A for the first time, and immediately fell in love with it. Flash forward to Easter 2023, I got home from dinner with my parents, and two of my roommates were debating about what movie to watch: one of them hadn’t seen Easy A, so we threw it on, before I even realized that I had watched it exactly one year ago. So now I will have to watch Easy A every Easter now for the rest of my life: it’s what Jesus would have wanted. While this does occasionally have slightly cringey millennial-y jokes, most of it is hilarious and clever and has everything I love in a corny, girly early 2000s high school romantic comedy. Emma Stone is a genius. This movie also literally invented “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield.
I Want You Back (2022)
April 20, 2023: “You can’t tell me that’s not Jake Johnson.”
Yet another early morning watch at my cushy desk job. I’ve been meaning to watch this for a while now, and I am so glad I finally got to it: Jenny Slate is so brilliant, and while I didn’t know Charlie Day before watching, he reminded me so much of Jake Johnson that I fell in love with him immediately. I appreciate a romantic comedy that’s heavy on the comedy, and this was truly hilarious, and veers just enough into the absurd without completely losing its way. Finally a really really good romantic comedy!!!
A League of Their Own (1992)
April 22, 2023: “Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell please date.”
My friend Lauren and I were left home alone one Saturday night, so we made some microwave popcorn with hot sauce, cracked open two single-serving bottles of Prosecco, sat down on the floor and watched this classic. It was highly inspirational, with fun sports montages, and Tom Hanks as a lovable villain. It was definitely gay in tone, but could’ve been gayer; I also wanted to see more of the other team members and how the women bonded, and could’ve done with fewer baseball scenes. When the credits rolled I didn’t know who half the characters listed were. I was also waiting for Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell to kiss at the end.
The Namesake (2006)
April 25: “Book was better but still had me holding back tears when I watched it while I was at work.”
You guessed it: to fight off sleep at the desk, I watched a movie. This time, I decided to rent the movie adaptation of the book I just finished re-reading; I first read The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri in my high school Contemporary Lit class and was immediately deeply impacted by it. I re-read it recently when I remembered how much I loved it, but couldn’t remember why; it truly is one of my favorite books of all time, I think. The movie is generally a very faithful adaptation, and I thought Kal Penn was particularly strong as the oft-moody but deeply caring Gogol. I think the movie oversimplified certain characters and events, but that is often the nature of film adaptations, especially ones based on books that are so contemplative and internal such as The Namesake. Overall, it had me wanting to immediately read the book again.
Palm Springs (2020) (rewatch)
April 27, 2023: “Ready and willing to be Andy Samberg’s controversially young girlfriend.”
In today’s chronicles of the 7 a.m. shift, I woke up at 7:02, which was the perfect way to start my day (my boss loves me). Sitting at the desk, grumpy, un-showered, and hungry, I decided to rewatch a quarantine fave, the Hulu original, Palm Springs. I think this movie came out at the perfect time: in an era where everyone was trapped at home, feeling like every day was the exact same, a quirky romantic comedy about being trapped in a time loop in paradise really made the people feel seen. I love when a romantic movie is super weird! And this was the perfect amount of that. Excellent chemistry between the leads, although I do think Andy Samberg was distractingly sexy. Also, who knew Derek from Teen Wolf was in this?!
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) (rewatch)
April 27, 2023: “It’s lit.”
On a rare evening that all of my besties/roommates were available, we decided to set aside our finals and de-stress with a movie night. I sent out a Google Form early on in the day to vote on what to watch; the items on the ballot included other films we had discussed as possibilities, including Pride and Prejudice (2005), Funny Girl (1968), Daddy Day Care (2007), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), and Night at the Museum (2006). However, the vote was unanimously Catching Fire, as it is undeniably the best movie on that list of options. Decidedly not sober, we munched on peanut butter M&Ms and, in my case, non-dairy Ben & Jerry’s, and were enthralled for all 146 minutes of this masterpiece sequel. I am always transported to a simpler time when I watch a Hunger Games movie; it is truly a hallmark of my pre-teen years. Josh Hutcherson, you will always be famous.
