Latest Thoughts
A running stream of writing and Letterboxd notes, ordered by most recent
Tags20
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Really, we should wait for Jarnathan.
★★★★★
Read more →
Heretic (2024)
This review may contain spoilers. What a ride this movie was. I have a complicated relationship with horror movies. Most of them, in my eyes, don't stick the landing. This one... didn't really either. BUT, it didn't take a huge heel turn at the end. It remained mostly grounded. The first 75 minutes were incredibly tense with Hugh Grant just absolutely delivering on his character. His turn into goofy villain (and now straight up terrifying villain) has been very fun to watch over the years. He delivers on every aspect here. Every scene had me locked in and terrified for where it was going to go – his lines being delivered with incredible subtly – but remaining so exhausting in how tense and anxiety-inducing they were. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East equally delivered as the naive missionaries knocking on the wrong door. While a lot of the discussion in the movie came across as a post in a atheist-led debating subreddit, there was still plenty to chew on. The final moments didn't quite deliver the punch it intended to, while the point was a decent one. The visuals of what Grant's character had done were a little absurd. Regardless, lots of fun and very tense throughout. Highly recommend.
★★★★½
Read more →
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
If I review this comparing it to the OG, obviously it's nowhere near it. It's not even the same type of movie anymore. There's no real deliberation about the ethics, morality, and effects of bringing dinosaurs back. This is mostly just action set-piece fare these days. If I review it from a generic PG-13 action set-piece fare point-of-view, it was fun. Jonathan Bailey was a standout for me and was very entertaining. The sub-plot of the family capsizing and being accidentally involved in their dangerous hunt for the... whatever mutated dinosaur they were hunting was. Honestly, who even cares anymore? The plot is so lost at this point. I watch for loud noises, big music, and (mostly) cool CGI moments. Docked half a point because the D-Rex's design was straight up ass.
★★½
Read more →
Short-circuit Evaluation in React
Inline conditional rendering in React–but the gotchas!
Read more →
API Gateway - Mapping Templates with Serverless
Let's have a chat about AppSync VTL Mapping Templates 🗺
Read more →
Learnings from deploying AppSync and Lambdas using Serverless
Let's look at Serverless and deploying AppSync using Lambdas as data sources!
Read more →
Boolean Variables For Clean Conditionals
A quick tip to cleanup some of your code 🧹
Read more →