#Mona reviews

[monathedefiant]

my thoughts on thor: love & thunder

don't read if you don't want to be spoiled!! i'm taking a full deep dive into what i absolutely loved and what kind of got on my nerves about thor: love & thunder⚡

ngl i was not v impressed with the first 30-45 minutes of the movie. like. i did appreciate the flashes of thor being on his eatpraylove/action-hero journey. but that's always been one of the things i love about thor in the mcu. he's this big buff guy but he wears his heart on his sleeve and is at his best when he just gets to feel his emotions openly instead of doing the whole stoic dude bro thing.

that being said, between zeus stripping him at the stadium and sif's death, there were some comedic moments that felt like they should've been more serious. so it left them feeling really awkward, almost uncomfortably so. this is where i go back & forth with korg because a lot of times it was his commentary that would break a tender moment.

he's still one of my faves tho so i can't be too mad at him for it.

beyond that? i fucking LOVED it. thor: love & thunder did so many things that i absolutely enjoyed:

the way it introduced jane as mighty thor. she's diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. mjolnir calls to her. apparently king brunnhilde trains her before she does the big hero reveal (need that footage) while thor is fighting the shadow demons. her death at the end isn't just to fuel thor's manpain. it's the conclusion to her own journey, her own story, and her own battle with a deadly disease. she even goes to valhalla afterward and meets up with heimdall. two people the thor movies haven't been allowed to exist beyond their relationship with thor. i thought it was fitting.

king brunnhilde aka valkyrie gets wayyyyy more screen time than i was led to believe. she's active in almost every scene. she has her own personal stake in what's going on -- getting out of the monotony of being a ruler, saving the missing kids, apparently being bff's with jane (seriously i need the footage!!!), and we also get to see her grief over her lover's death be named explicitly as her grieving the loss of the woman she was in love with as well as acknowledging how lonely she's been since she lost her sisters. could she have had more screen time? hell yeah. would it have been nice to see her in her own transformative journey rather than just going along with the hijinks? absolutely. but i don't feel like she was cheated out of the part she played. plus, with thor being retired (???) and jane having passed on, it leaves room for brunnhilde to have a bigger part to play later down the line.

the fact that love was the name of the god killer's child that thor ended up adopting after gorr died is wild and i love it. it's even better because the actress that played love is chremsworth's actual child!?!!! thor getting his daughter ready for the day -- making her breakfast & helping her get dressed. then them going outside to kick some ass. that whole ending sequence was just stupid cute.

all in all, i liked it a lot more than i expected. it wasn't perfect but it had a lot of heart and also wasn't afraid to just have a good time. nothing world ending or galaxy altering. just the god of thunder & some friends getting into heroic hijinks.

good stuff.

#thor: love and thunder #mona reviews #mcu

[ladyantiheroine]

I really have to hand it to Rian Johnson. The whole whodunnit murder mystery genre is one that can get really stale. There’s only so many unique things you can do with the set-up of “someone is dead and we need to figure out the who what where and why of it all.”

But Knives Out and Glass Onion managed to make the genre feel fresh and genuinely twisty. Not just in the typical “the murderer wasn't who you thought it was, it was actually this guy!!” kind of way.

When I saw the Glass Onion trailer with the whole “every person has been invited to a murder mystery party game” set-up I found it…a bit corny. But I shouldn’t have underestimated this franchise because it took that Clue-like scenario and completely flipped the table on it.

Anyway, Glass Onion is a great movie. It has similar themes, archetypes, and tropes as Knives Out but not in a way that feels like a copy-paste of the latter. It rhymes but doesn’t repeat.

My brain is leaking but in a good way.

#thank you for coming to my ted talk #or movie review I should say #glass onion #rian johnson #knives out #daniel craig #janelle monae

[chaoticace22]

Glass Onion has Stefon’s full recomendation

#glass onion #glass onion a knives out mystery #stefon's review #benoit blanc #daniel craig #janelle monae #edward norton #kathryn hahn #kate hudson #jessica henwick #madelyn cline #hugh grant #ethan hawke

[arinewneanias03]

"BUNNY by Mona Awad Full Audiobook"

Finallyy i found it

#books #book community #booklr #book review #dark academia books #books and reading #book recs #book tumblr #bookaddict #bookstagram #bookblr #bookstagrammer #bunny #bunny mona awad #mona awad #Youtube

[comfort-zone-magic-zone]

Let’s talk Glass Onion:A Knives Out Mystery! Janelle Monáe did her thing!!! Honestly, it was better than Knives Out! The cast was spectacular and it was really funny and enticing. Y’all should know I love a good murder mystery by now and this one was a great. Y’all at home watching Christmas movies and I’m over her watching Monáe burn the mother fucking house down! Go watch!

#netflix #glass onion #knives out #janelle monae #murder mystery #benoit blanc #daniel craig #edward norton #kate hudson #dave bautista #leslie odom jr #kathryn hahn #friday night #movies #movie review #bingeworthy #black girl magic

[the---hermit]

Bunny by Mona Awad

I know everyone who talks about this book says it's really weird, and I was expecting it to be weird, but not this much. I had no idea where it was going for the whole time, but I had a lot of fun with it. It has been described as dark academia, mostly because we follow a group of creative writing students at uni, but that is just a frame for the story. There's some other typical dark academia elements, like a very closed off group of students in which the main character gets sort of accepted, but again the book is so much more than that. The base of the story is set around this group of girls who call each other bunny, and in general tend to act like little girls. It was the only thing that I knew before reading the book, and to be honest I think the less you know about this the more enjoyable it will be. As I was saying this is really weird. There's no way you can see what is coming next, only at the very end I could imagine where things were going, but it's such an absurd story it's worth diving into not knowing much. This is described as a psychological horror as well, and I can see why. There is a sort of tension in the background at all times, and I found myself anxious while reading it. I think it's really worth the hype, I have no idea how the author came up with the ideas behind this book, because as I was saying it's totally absurd. It's also really fast paced and the writing flows amazingly, I think I read it in just a two or three of days, and I am a slow reader. I definitely recommend giving this novel a try, and I think it will stay in my mind for a while now.

I read this for the studybr w/ knives horror reading challenge for the psychological horror challenge.

#book #bookblr #booklr #books #2022 book #studyblr w/knives reading challenge #horror reading challenge #book rec #book recommendation #book review #popular books #bunny #mona award #psychological horror #dark academia #book cover #pretty books #reading #studyblr #mine #the---hermit

[thecomicsnexus]

TMNT: SATURDAY MORNING ADVENTURES - APRIL SPECIAL

April 2024

By Erik Burnham , Sarah Myer, Jack Lawrence, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Ed Dukeshire.

April gets zapped into a different dimension where she has to help Ace Duck get to the heart of K'avila. In the backup story, Raph and Mikey help Mona Lisa get to the bottom of a case.

SCORE: 10

It may be the presence of Ace Duck, but reading this special reminded me of when I was little, and I would read these books that had a few Disney comic-books each. This universe has the potential to be like that. I wouldn't mind monthly specials going side by side with the main series (but I think right now these are kind of quarterly).

This was also an excellent opportunity to shine a light on April, and she did great in this adventure. I guess, in a way, reporters are very much like adventurers.

Also, first cameo of Scratch, as I predicted...

The book also implied that Mona Lisa has been a friend of the Turtles ever since they met (and she has been learning ninja skills from Splinter as well). But because she is from New Jersey, they can't hang out all the time. We also find out about Don Turtellini... not to confuse with Don Turtelli. He's another cousin. This probably also explains why there were two different looking Don Turtellis with the same MO.

It was great reading April, and revisiting Mona Lisa. Really loved this issue.

#comics #review #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #post modern age #saturday morning adventures #2024 #mona lisa #ace duck #idw comics #idw publishing #sarah myer

[hotandfunnywomen]

"One of the biggest gifts you can have as an actor is to play a character with secrets..."

Janelle Monae 's speech from the National Board of Review gala is an absolute must-watch; check it out here with an introduction by her Glass Onion co-star Daniel Craig !

#janelle monae #daniel craig #national board of review

[cinnamongirll-444]

Just started reading bunny don't think I'll make it out of this sane

#bunny #bunny mona awad #mona awad #coquette #pink blog #lana del rey #lizzy grant #manic pixie dream world #pray for me #im just a girl #femcel #ribbon #pink bows #booktok #book review #book quotes #girlblogging #it girl

[cult-of-the-eye]

Spoilers for bunny by mona awad

I had no idea what I was getting into with this book

I'd read the good reads blurb thingy and a friend of mine read it and recommended it to me saying it was weird and I love weird books and I also I did enjoy this one

It's a lot though. It genuinely did hurt at some points, when they were hurling insults at Samantha it just seemed so personal and it was like all my fears as a brown autistic person personified into one skinny rich white bitch

I adore the critique of the wealthy, entitled spoiled girls who say so much and yet so little

I was devastated at the Ava reveal honestly I don't think I'll ever get over that I desperately wanted them to be happy together

The whole storyline with the lion just fit so well like I was sort of trying to guess where it was going but by the end the fact that what happened was really just Nothing Much made it a lot more I don't know, contrasting maybe to the constant drama and sex of the Drafts

I was very confused through a lot of the book, just waiting for the pieces to fall into place and once it was revealed who max exactly was and what he represented it made a whole lot more sense

The description is so VIVID and intriguing like each sentence made me feel like I was eating the words and feeling exactly what they were feeling

The capitalisation of words like the Body, the Work and the Process was really cool I think it captured the pretentiousness of the whole institute

I just adore the way Ava was described I love Ava and I'm sad she's gone

I'm sure there's a lot to dissect about it but rn I just need to process lol

#bunny mona awad #bunny #book review

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I saw “Glass Onion” a few days ago with one of my cousins. Just some miscellaneous thoughts:

1) I hope Jeremy Renner has seen the movie. If he hasn’t, he definitely should once he gets out of the hospital.

2) Some of the cameos were…random. Like, yes, the role of “vaccination checker” definitely needed the talent of Ethan Hawke to bring out the complex layers of the role. But seriously, it feels like some of the actors were just bored and had a free day to help Rian Johnson out.

3) I did like how the movie was structured. It was sort of a pseudo-Rashomon where instead of conflicting accounts, we were just not seeing the full picture because we were not aware of a different character’s POV. It’s actually clever.

4) If I had to nitpick, I was a little annoyed that Benoit Blanc was written in a way that he just happens to know the answer to everything. Yeah, I know, he’s the detective, but the way he’s written in the movie makes him feel omnipotent. It’s fun to figure the mystery out along with the character, so it’s a little disappointing when the mystery is just solved for the audience, if that makes sense. It’s like they’re telling us what was happening instead of showing, which isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, but can still be annoying.

5) My cousin: “Jessica Henwick was just vibing in the movie lol. Everyone else had these big dramatic roles, and then there’s Jessica just showing up every now and then.”

6) Rian Johnson claims this movie isn’t about Elon Musk…but I feel Musk had to have inspired this movie a teensy bit. Maybe that’s just Rian covering his ass so he doesn’t get sued for defamation.

7) Amogus

8) If I had to pick a cast member who stood out, I’d obviously pick Janelle Monae. But Batista definitely gets second place, he really killed it as Filipino/Greek Andrew Tate.

9) Okay, another nitpick. I liked the overall movie, but I did not like the “look how quirky I am!” tone that Johnson was going for. It’s fine for the first third of the movie, but just becomes obnoxious as the movie goes on. I would’ve preferred a more mature, grounded mystery, but hey, that’s just me.

Overall review: As someone who didn’t care for “Knives Out” (I think I gave that movie a letter grade of C or C-), I thought “Glass Onion” was a massive improvement. The mystery was better thought out, the characters were more engaging, and, aside from Jessica Henwick, the cast was better utilized. I just would’ve preferred less quirkiness and a climax that wasn’t just Daniel Craig explaining the mystery. So, for a letter grade, I give it an A-.

#glass onion #glass onion a knives out mystery #knives out #rian johnson #mystery movies #movies #movie review #film review #2022 movies #jeremy renner #ethan hawke #benoit blanc #jessica henwick #janelle monae #dave bautista #batista #Netflix #netflix glass onion #netflix movie #daniel craig

[rosesandvanity]

bunny by mona awad — a reflection

i can definitely say that i enjoyed and highly relate with this book in a sense that me, a girl in art school whos also trying to develop a strong online image for myself centered on my creative endeavors or fashion focused visuals, could see just how absurd the creative space is? i relate to samantha, putting myself in a creative, subjective field and putting myself in a space where the most absurd forms of critique or experimentation is so common, all the while developing judgements against these methods.

putting yourself through the ringer, through pain, through trauma and experiences you never really wanted to experience is what makes your art tasteful, thoughtful, informative, compelling and all these other adjectives that make art art. which just isn’t the case for all people. yes, art of the most compelling and thought provoking nature can be created through trauma as a way of coping, but should i subject myself to a horrendous experience just so that i can receive comments like ��you can feel their pain, it is truly a beautiful piece of work.” i find that this obsession with the morbid, gore and negative emotions can appear like fronts or facades. they seem hollow, almost cynical.

i relate to the book in a way that i want to so desperately fit in the mold other girls have put that it momentarily makes me lose my own identity of myself.

i want to be that secret history, camilla macaulay, a morbid longing for the picturesque, obsessed artist type so bad. this this is the brandish of woman i want to achieve

that dark red romantic victorian almost gothic aesthetic (which is my reiteration of the aesthetic i just illustrated above) which i cureated made me lose sense of what i actually wanted to look like and feel.

this book did a marvelous job of putting into writing the experience of almost becoming the kind of girl i try my best not to be. they truly are my bunnies except im not samantha, a ghost of my own shell. this isn’t to say that consuming the secret history or if we were villains or gone girl, virgin suicides, any heavily dark academia, femcel, woman rage, obsessed artist, depressed writer centric piece of media immediately shoves you into that box or makes you pretentious but rather in my observations of the internet that is around me, people embrace the titles and stories without actually understanding what the themes entail or are trying to criticize. the internet, though vast and brimming with knowledge, has the tendency to only appreciate and consume things at face value without any real meaning or understanding of what that media is.

#bunny #bunny mona awad #girlblogging #this is a girlblog #darkacademia #coquette #coquettegirl #bookblr #book review #reading #tbr list #mona awad #female rage

[saraclements]

Rian Johnson has done it again. Just like an Agatha Christie novel, Glass Onion feels fresh and even bigger than the previous Knives Out mystery. It scratches that same whodunnit itch as the first, but it also feels entirely different. There is a new mystery, a new location, and new characters, but Johnson also finds new ways to keep the audience on their toes. A film that’s genuinely hilarious from beginning to end, and with a powerhouse ensemble, we need at least five more Knives Out mysteries.

Continue reading my review.

#knives out #glass onion #writeblr #review #film #movies #writing #saraclements #my stuff #janelle monae #kathryn hahn #kate hudson #jessica henwick

[arinewneanias03]

I just finished reading bunny by mona awad i need opinions about that book Guys I completely loved it

#book review #booklr #bookstagram #book community #bookish #bunny mona awad #mona awad #dark academia books #books and reading #reading #bookism #books #bookblr #booktok

[balimode]

I'm kind of flabbergasted that the Monochrome Monarch, who would ordinarily kick ass with the theme of "black and white, keep it sleek", would go with this.... but I'm choosing to believe this is a fuck-you to Karl, so I'm cool with it.

#janelle monae #red carpet #met gala #bali reviews #bali reviews met gala

[mothymusings]

Second Entry

“In the end, a simple happiness is better than a complex disillusion.”

― Janelle Monáe, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

Synopsis

Memory Librarian and Other Stories is an anthology inspired by Monae’s album Dirty Computer. Each story is set in the near future, where a new government called New Dawn controls everything a person does down to their memories. Within each short story is a message of Queer, POC, and Female resistance against the rigid conformity New Dawn tries to impose.

There are five stories within the anthology, every single one could be read independently of the other, however there are references interspersed each novella. The titular story, Memory Librarian, follows Seshet as one of the high ranking officials in New Dawns order. Her job focuses on categorizing as well as monitoring the memories of her city until strange circumstances cause her to question her loyalties and even her own memories.

Nevermind follows the residents of the Pynk Hotel, a resistant group of queer women who have run away from New Dawn, dubbed Dirty Computers. However things are not as harmonious as they assume, as tensions between those who try to restrict what it means to be Pynk threaten to destroy the safe haven forever.

Timebox centers around two women who have found out that their closet has time altering powers, and the arguments on how best to use such a valuable resource as time for the benefit of the whole, or the individual.

Save Changes also deals with time, as Sisters Amber and Larry deal with being outcasts due to their mothers status as a reformed resistance leader. Gifted with a stone that their late father claims to rewind time, Larry tries to save her sister and mother from fates worse than death.

Timebox Altar(ed), the final story, is about a young child named Bug, who with their friends find and create art in a clearing with the help of Mx. Tangee, a strange woman who almost seems to have magical powers.

First Impressions

Wow! Memory Librarian blew me away with the descriptive prose and inventive stories of rebellion and love in an oppressive society. I enjoyed each story and the messages they imparted. I think my favorites were Nevermind and Save Changes, especially Save Changes with how well it mixed technology and magic together. I think for me it was definitely a fun read all the way through

The Good, The Bad, and The Fuzzy

The good has to go to the inventive worldbuilding of the setting Memory Librarian is in! Details are kept vague in terms of how New Dawn gained power, how memories are able to be used as a resource as well as what being a Torch entails. But I think that vagueness is in its favor from a narrative standpoint as the characters we meet already know all these things (Save for Bug and their friends), as well as for the reader to keep drawing you back in. It’s a nice blend of sci-fi contemporary without being set in such a heavily futuristic setting, there’s technology everywhere but it doesn’t feel like it’s the main focus or detracts from it.

The bad, I will admit I had trouble reading through some of the prose, especially in the Memory Librarian novella. I had to go back and reread many large paragraphs to try to figure out what exactly was going on. I think other than that I couldn’t really find anything else I had a problem with?

The fuzzy is more to deal with plots being abruptly cliffhangers, however I don’t find it as a fault due to the formatting but I still had moments where I would go “And then what??!!” before turning the page to be met with a new story.

Conclusion

Memory Librarian and Other Stories from Dirty Computer is an amazing anthology that talks about being different in a society that tries its hardest to stamp it out through the lenses of black queer women. Its sci-fi setting is friendly enough to those who aren’t familiar with the genre while also providing an interesting spin on the genre. I think this is a perfect read for those that enjoy evocative short stories within the same world as well as fans of Monae’s music. Listening to Dirty Computer while reading definitely helped immerse me in the world of New Dawn.

Rating

A nice 8.9/10 lamps!

Upcoming…

Next entry in this blog will be Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir!

#book review #bookblr #mothymusings #the memory librarian #janelle monae #my art #moving image #science fiction #queer books #poc books #anthology #long post