June 2025 Wrap Up: Annie Bot, 28 Years Later, David Lynch's Dune, Do The Right Thing + Star Trek DS9

This month, I discuss the eeriness of Annie Bot and how it feels thematically linked to a video game I'm currently playing, Detroit: Become Human.

On the film front, I watched Spike Lee's masterpiece Do the Right Thing and David Lynch's Dune, which sits on the opposite side of the spectrum as one of his worst films. I also talk about (and pretty much have to stop myself from crying) 28 Years Later and another recent release, Ballerina, the John Wick spin-off starring Ana de Armas.

TV shows include rewatching an all-time fave, Babylon Berlin, starting my Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) journey and recent Korean Drama Our Unwritten Seoul.

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Jane Austen Wrecked My Life Review

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Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane Austen a gâché ma vie) is a French language (and some English in there too) romantic comedy written and directed by Laura Piani.

It feels like this rom-com was made specifically for me: An aspiring writer who works at a bookshop* in Paris goes to a writer's retreat in the English countryside that’s hosted by descendants of Jane Austen. Well, I suppose it's just the dream of every bibliophile who has perhaps watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice at least 100 times and bawled their eyes out reading Wentworth’s letter to Anne at the end of Persuasion.

Agathe sits in front of her lap top but rests her chin on her hand staring wistfully offscreen. Writer's block has never looked so romantic

Writer’s Block be like…

But perhaps what hit me the most about this film is how Agathe avoids things; she’s coasting through life and has massive impostor syndrome, which stamps out her creativity. Her best friend is the one who gets her onto the retreat. Still, she tries to resist going due to past trauma (involving a car accident- though girl could have taken the Eurostar?) but also because she’s worried that everyone else will be better than her and that she doesn’t really belong there and that she is only fooling herself that she is a writer.

Hmmm, a bit too relatable on the avoidance front.

Agathe and Oliver dance at the Jane Austen themed Ball. They are looking deepely into each others eyes.

Agathe and Oliver dance at an obligatory ball scene - one does not simply do Jane Austen without making the main character share an intimate dance with a love interest or two.

The film is rather charming and plays out like a Rohmer feature, perhaps a Hong Sang-soo movie, and unfortunately, one must mention Woody Allen too. There’s also a recurring musical motif which, to my Wong Kar-Wai obsessed brain, has a very In the Mood for Love vibe to it - I can’t seem to track down the piece, but the opening refrain sounds very similar to Yumeji's Theme by Shigeru Umebayashi. But maybe that’s because they are both Waltzes…I dunno, I’m not particularly clued up on music.

Agathe and her friend Félix look at each other with friendly smiles. Agathe is holding an umbrella to keep both of them kind of dry in the English rain.

Agathe and her friend Félix,

In conclusion, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life wears its Rom-Com tropes on its sleeves, which isn’t a bad thing as it satisfyingly delivers them, and one can’t not mention that there’s also a very Hugh Grant-esque love interest who echoes Mr Darcy through and through (though no Hand Flex™ in sight). Just wait for this film to become every bookish girl's, gay’s, or they’s fave comfort movie.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it, the poem that is recited at the end of the movie is one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching moments in the whole film. I actually cried while it was being read out because it just felt like it was literally written for me. I really needed to hear Jack Hirschman’s words, and this film delivered it to me.

Path by Jack Hirschman


*The Iconic Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Interestingly, after a short amount of research, Piani actually used to work at Shakespeare and Company - this time in her life was a clear inspiration for the film.

May 2025 Wrap Up: I Who Have Never Known Men, Star Trek TNG movies and I cried at Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Welcome back for my May 2025 wrap-up, featuring highlights such as existential dread in 'I Who Have Never Known Men', watching all the Star Trek: The Next Generation Movies and crying at the final TNG episode. I also cried at Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, got exasperated by the latest Wes Anderson movie and lost my sh*t after my camera died with 1 last thing to talk about.

I also had a sojourn in Germany, which included a couple of movies (one set in East Berlin in the 1980s and another by my fave German director, Christian Petzold) and a funny, weird comedy show that merged mindfulness with murder.

April Wrap Up: Bonjour Tristesse, Sinners, Black Mirror, French movies, Carême + more

April was such a great month for movies and TV shows. Ryan Coogler dropped an absolute modern masterpiece with Sinners, and Apple TV+ released some great shows with Your Friends & Neighbours and Carême. Oh, and I finally started delving into Black Mirror properly after the newest season dropped on Netflix, and let me tell you I am hooked!

I also had a decent reading month by finishing Dune Messiah and Recitatif by Toni Morrison. I also read Bonjour Tristesse and made a nice dent in The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.