Projects #013 - "Adventure is out there!"

White Lotus finale, a manga rec, and a flying house!

Project Updates 3/31-4/6/25

How it feels sometimes

Welcome back! RIP Val Kilmer! I have no idea what’s going on with the Switch 2 and tariffs! American Dad has been officially renewed for four more seasons at Fox!

Film & TV

2025 Films

A Working Man dir. David Ayer

Did find this deeply evil, but also quite boring. Bog standard conservative fantasy of your kid loving you and being on your side of the custody battle, with some confusing and probably inaccurate “human trafficking” thrown in. Climax takes place in Luigi’s Mansion with the biggest moon I’ve ever seen in a film. Looks like the play scene from Beau is Afraid I swear to god… Regal Solomon Pond in a vain attempt to get the Working Man hard hat bottle opener keychains.

52 Films by 52 Women

19. Deep Impact (1998) dir. Mimi Leder

20. Alma’s Rainbow (1994) dir. Ayoka Chenzira

21. Citizenfour (2013) dir. Laura Poitras

TV

Common Side Effects - Season 1 (2025)

Pretty impressed with this thing, glad it got renewed! Nice to see an adult animated series with a plot, not just Rick and Morty jokes. For the unfamiliar, this series focuses on a man who has discovered a mushroom that can cure anything, even bring people back from the brink of death. The world’s elites are on his tail, on the behalf of giant pharmaceutical companies. What would this mushroom mean for humanity? Can it be produced at a large enough scale to meet demands? And who are the little guys you see when you eat the mushroom? Mercifully we’ll get to go deeper into this story when season two drops. Can’t wait!

Side note: co-creator Steve Hely played Jerem on 30 Rock! He collects posters!

“That’s not that much cheese.”

ER - Season 6 (1999-2000)

MORALE HAS NOT IMPROVED. A lot of good stuff this season - Carter and Lucy’s stabbing, Mark and his dad, any time Benton does anything, Kerry continuing to keep the ER afloat with her bare hands-, a lot of dumb stuff - Corday and the serial killer, Carol just being a huge idiot, etc etc. But we gained Dr. Luka Kovač, a beautiful man. Imagine fumbling that bag. Carol and Doug deserve each other!!!

Dying for Sex - Miniseries (2025)

Remember Chloe? RIP Chloe.

Found myself unexpectedly quite moved by this horny cancer miniseries starring Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. Michelle’s character is probably how I’d act if I got cancer. Slate’s best performance ever? She gets so much room to shine. Bonus points for Rob Delaney’s furry tits getting dommed by Michelle, who kicks him in the balls for sexual pleasure. Yay!

The Studio - Season 1 (2025)

Can finally talk about this after being embargoed for months. That being said, are you all fucking stupid? Are you falling for this? This is just more Hollywood self-sucking, disguised as a stupid The Player for our modern era. I’ve nothing against Seth Rogen, but this whole thing is just defanged and lame. They’re not saying anything! It’s just “hur hur Hollywood sure is stoopid huh?” without getting nasty in the slightest. They should be dropping slurs like crazy! Do not fall for the cameos or Birdman-esque pacing! There’s an episode that claims Olivia Wilde is a good director!

The White Lotus - Season 3 (2025)

I had a horrible time! They spent six months in Thailand for this? This season was mostly stupefyingly boring with some of the most bananas reactions I’ve ever been cursed to witness on the computer. Feel like White can only get away with this one more time, but HBO has so little that they’re gonna grind this down to a fine dust. Highlights: Aimee Lou Wood’s teefs, basically anything with the three white ladies, Parker Posey’s accent, Sam Rockwell. Lowlights: Interminable episode lengths, the French Canadian girl who looks like Babyface from Toy Story, Parker Posey’s actual performance, cruel and unfunny ending, the general aimlessness of the season driving everyone insane devising theories that don’t make any sense. I’m told “Lisa” is an international star? GET REAL!!!

Reading

Books

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

Fun sendup of the ‘modern age’ but I do need to read less about being on one’s phone. The whole reason I read is to NOT be on my phone! Also because reading is one of my oldest loves and made me who I am, but that’s beside the point. Still very fun to put oneself in the mindset of a crazed gay incel.

Manga

Hirayasumi by Shinzo Keigo

Arman recommended this series to me months ago and I finally caught up. A slice-of-life manga that isn’t cloying or pointless or cute for the sake of being cute. An actually meaningful meandering through life with charming characters and lovely illustration work. Feels like it’s really building to something profound. Ideally Viz will start simulpublishing these chapters so I can stay current!

Restaurants

Michael and I had some excellent ramen at Miraku in Brookline, though a group sat next to us and immediately left when they learned there were no vegetarian options. You didn’t do any research before you waited for an hour? Or during that wait? Amateurs. Great ramen, highly recommend.

Pixar Project #010 - Up (2009) dir. Pete Docter

People only ever talk about the first twelve minutes of Up, the love story of Carl and Ellie told without words, set only to Michael Giacchino’s iconic ‘Married Life’. We see Carl and Ellie meet, grow up, fall in love, live their lives together, have good times and bad, and eventually die. Well, Ellie dies. Carl is left to mourn alone, turning him crabby and fussy. I’m not a monster - this is a very effective sequence, another example of Pixar attempting to push the boundaries of computer animation and storytelling in these kinds of movies. A lot of hay is made over Ellie’s implied miscarriage, but it’s a quiet, sad moment that works well for the story. Unfortunately, that’s the sort of storytelling that goes right out the window when the film actually starts.

I like Up just fine! I saw it in theaters twice when it first came out. It was the first Blu-Ray I ever bought! There’s gorgeous landscapes, fun characters, and genuinely thrilling peril. But do the first twelve minutes handicap the rest of the film? Would the more fanciful story beats have been kept if not for this exceptional prologue? Does the love story montage stand in such contrast to the actual adventure that it, ironically, keeps it from totally soaring?

Carl Fredricksen (the late, great, Ed Asner) lives in grumpy solitude in his and Ellie’s home. He rarely leaves, napping in front of the tv and yelling at construction workers to stay off his lawn. His picture-perfect house is the only one left in the middle of a city, and the developers want him gone. Carl’s rage gets the better of him and he bashes a bureaucrat in the head with his cane, drawing blood. Carl is served and forcibly evicted, a retirement home van picking him up in the morning. Not to be like “remember, this is an animated film for children” but…

Of course, Carl’s not going to some retirement home. He’s taking off! Carl has affixed hundreds of balloons to his house, flying off into the sky and heading toward Paradise Falls, deep in the jungles of South America¹, as that was always Ellie’s dream. We’re forced to assume Carl plans to die there, as he doesn’t really have a return plan once he reaches the Falls. Unfortunately for this suicidal old man, he has a stowaway - a perfectly designed boy scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai). This is the rare Pixar movie where the human designs aren’t making me scream bloody murder. They look good because they’re just basic shapes come to life - Carl is a rectangle, Russell is an egg, Ellie has a round circle face, and our villain, Charles Muntz, is all angles and sharp corners. No one needs hauntingly realistic human beings rendered in CG, so don’t even try!

Thanks to a big storm, Carl and Russell end up at the wrong end of the Falls and must drag the floating house across the jungle plateau. Russell is cute enough that I don’t find him annoying, though Carl certainly does. Russell is so clearly lonely that I could never be mad at him. He mentions that though he tries to connect with his father, his new girlfriend Phyllis says he ‘bugs him too much’. And sorry, who are YOU, Phyllis? I’ll tie YOU to some balloons!

Despite how it may seem, they’re not alone. Russell befriends a giant bird, another excellent example of character animation. The newly named Kevin is quite the sight to see, a majestic combination of a peacock and a flamingo, with the stupidity of a dodo. Though very jumpy, the bird sticks around for Russell’s delicious chocolate. Carl and Russell have no idea what they’ve stumbled into, as they are soon confronted by a talking dog named Dug (Bob Peterson), who is very interested in the bird.

Here’s where things go a bit sideways. While Dug is cute, and the ‘talking dog’ joke is fun, the whole concept breaks my brain. Dug and the rest of Muntz’s pack have special collars that translate their thoughts into speech. They sometimes speak with weird grammar and no contractions, but not consistently. They yell “SQUIRREL” and refer to Russell as a “small mailman”, despite having lived in the jungle their entire lives. How do they know about those concepts? I *know* this is an animated movie for kids, but it stands out! If the jungle side of things stayed as fantastical as planned, I could stomach it more.

Carl and Russell are brought to disgraced explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer, doing a great job sounding 100 years old even though he never did in life), who has been living in self-imposed Heart of Darkness exile at Paradise Falls in search of a certain rare bird. According to the Art of Up book I’ve had for fifteen years, the original plan was for Muntz to be magically extending his life with the bird’s eggs, a sort of omelet of youth. Instead, he’s just old as fuck, somehow still standing even though he must be about 20 years older than Carl. A story focused on a flying house could have handled a couple of magical eggs!

Muntz has gone mad in the jungle, convinced that anyone he encounters is after ‘his bird’. How many innocent people has he killed? Seems to be at least five, though I’m sure his dogs have plenty of bones to play with. Muntz discovers Russell’s connection to Kevin, using the kid to draw her (yes, the bird is a girl, making her the only other female character besides dead Ellie) out of hiding and into his trap. Muntz also sets the house on fire, a cruel villain move if ever there was one². Carl prioritizes saving his wife-house, and Muntz takes off with the bird. Though Carl reaches his destination, Russell isn’t happy. He takes off on a leafblower with a handful of balloons to rescue his bird friend. The house seems stuck, but Carl, emboldened by his discovery of Ellie’s final note to him, pushes all his furniture out the window and goes after the kid. Clinging to memories of the past can keep you down!

The finale takes place up in the sky, where the house catches up with Muntz’ dirigible. There’s an old man sword fight, a canine hijacking, and dogs in biplanes shooting tranq darts at a child - which I imagine would be more painful than regular bullets! Muntz is ruthless, absolutely ready to blow the kid’s face off with a shotgun, but Carl manages to use his bird against him. Muntz tries to jump out of the house after Russell, Dug, and Kevin, but gets twisted up in balloon strings. Ironically, he’s the only person the balloons don’t support. Goodbye Muntz! We need Disney villains to die horrible deaths again. This is the same year Doctor Facilier is dragged to hell by voodoo demons in front of Tiana. It feels good to watch him die after everything he’s done! Let kids feel safe bloodlust again!

Carl and Russell bring Kevin back to her babies and return home, Dug and the other dogs in tow. Carl bestows upon Russell the Ellie badge, an honor far greater than “Assisting the Elderly”. Unbeknownst to the pair, happily eating ice cream, Carl and Ellie’s house has landed safely on Paradise Falls, where it will remain happily ever after. Aww!

Fun movie! It’s all quite moving, though I don’t really cry when I watch it. Perhaps Pixar’s most unsequelable? The closest they’ve come was the terrible short in front of Elemental, which doesn’t count. This is the second animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture after Beauty and the Beast, which feels crazy for a couple different reasons. Surely there was another animated film since 1991 that could have made it into the five? WALL-E was probably closest, as that and The Dark Knight getting snubbed led the Academy to RUIN Best Picture by making it ten slots. That’s not Up’s fault, but it’s still a strange honor.

For better or worse, the film’s legacy is that opening montage. Later Pixar films try to “do Up” and most fall on their faces. Up feels the most co-opted by what we refer to as “Disney Adults”, or maybe just “Millennials”. “Married Life” could easily be the number one track any random TikTok is set to, especially cutesy straight couples going to Disney World, or painting a house, or whatever. Everyone wants to be Carl and Ellie before tragedy strikes, but you can’t outrun that shit forever! It doesn’t feel like these people (generous use of the word here…) actually learned anything from Up. Carl comes to understand that his memories, though precious, are holding him back from actually living. These people just want to live in their memories forever, not experiencing anything new. And Disney encourages this! As we get deeper in this project, we’ll start to look at the ways the Mouse infects Pixar, stifling creativity and letting the Silicon Valley brain take control… uh oh!

Up: Three point five out of five bouncing lamps!

From the archives

My copy of Up is the first Blu-Ray I ever purchased! Hank for scale.

Mary Fran Corner

The beginning of Up is beautiful, but designed to devastate people of all ages as they watch a montage of the main character, an elderly man named Carl, grow up in love and eventually become a widow. But I suppose this is necessary in order to justify Carl’s bad attitude and temper at the beginning of the movie. And to introduce the audience to the adventurous spirit of the movie, as the montage showcases Carl and his late wife’s shared dream of exploring "Paradise Falls" in South America!

One day, Carl iconically decides to fly his house into the sky using countless helium balloons. Unbeknownst to him, a wilderness explorer scout, Russell (who was just trying to earn a badge for helping the elderly), inadvertently joins him. This stressed me out a ton the first time I watched it. Russell is a minor and is just frisked away into the air — eventually making his way to another continent? Not to mention the poor thing is suffering from his parents’ divorce and father’s courtship to Phyllis, who does not pass the vibe check.

When the unexpected pair lands close to Paradise Falls, Carl and Russell develop their own version of an Indiana Jones/Short Round dynamic. They encounter a giant, colorful bird named Kevin, who is hands down the most reliable character to interact with at Disney. She is is so cool and a friend to all, but back to the movie. Carl and Russell also encounter a dog named Dug who is wearing a color that translates his thoughts into human speech. Carl is icy toward everyone at first but as time goes on, he warms to them.

It turns out that Carl’s childhood idol, an explorer now in his 90s, is also in the jungle, where he has spent decades looking for a bird—which happens to be Kevin. He has literally killed people who got in his way and would make no exception for Carl and Russell. Luckily, the motley crew prevails and saves the day/Kevin and her family! And Carl FINALLY makes it to his beloved Paradise Falls. But most importantly, Russell gets his well-deserved “Assisting the Elderly" badge!

Up is literally uplifting in so many ways. I love how it shows you can heal and turn things around and try new things at any age. It’s not over till it’s over.

Links and Recommendations

• Great piece on The Pitt!

• My German pal Fabian’s movie SAD JOKES has its US premiere this weekend in New York! Wish I could make it, break a leg Fabian!

1. Paradise Falls is technically in Venezuela, as seen on Carl’s plane tickets, but the country is never said out loud. Keeps it more fantastical!

2. I really like the damage the house takes throughout the journey - the thing gets scraped against cave walls, set on fire, smashed into trees, and keeps on truckin’!