Pop Culture
Connemara, 2025 - ★★
Grosse déception.
J'avais beaucoup aimé le livre, de Nicolas Mathieu, d'une part, et j'avais beaucoup aimé Guy, d'Alex Lutz, d'autre part. Mais le slam dunk attendu s'est transformé en airball. Ça joue bien mais le montage est haché, la fin trop abrupte, et les ellipses sont trop généreuses. Certaines scènes me seraient passées complètement à côté si je n'avais pas lu le bouquin.
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I love Letterboxd. This morning, the website is down and this is what it shows. It makes me love it even more. 💻 × 🍿
Shrinking S3
After a few episodes of season 3, my wife and I were grateful to hang out with Shrinking’s characters again — but also surprised by how few real conflicts they faced. Conflict usually drives a story, yet here it barely surfaces. When it does, mid-season, it feels almost incidental.
Shrinking deals with conflicts at the opposite end of the spectrum from something like Seinfeld. Every internal struggle is discussed in the open and solved quickly, as opposed to a new drop in George Costanza’s already overflowing bowl of agitated anxiety.
It’s almost a literal feel-good show, with sharp fast-paced dialogue, a terrific ensemble cast — Harrison Ford leading the regulars, with the addition of personal hall-of-famers Michael J. Fox and Jeff Daniels — that you watch losing count of both laughs and tears.
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Austin Powers in Goldmember, 2002 - ★★★
The opening self-parody works. Mini-Me becoming Mini-Austin is hilarious. Michael Caine is brilliant. The mole scenes with Fred Savage are memorable. 20-year-old Beyoncé is already a star. 🍿
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, 1999 - ★★★
I will state the obvious: silly but funny overall. The Mini-Me introduction and Scott on the Jerry Springer Show work, and Heather Graham is charming. 🍿
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, 2026 - ★★★
No surprise: a solid film from the always-reliable Illumination Studios. It’s a crowd-pleasing fan-service ride packed with lovable characters, strong music cues, and well-placed nostalgic nods. The plot is predictable, as expected.
The 3D + Dolby screening was pricey, but we had Chandler & Joey–style recliners, which made the premium feel worth it.
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TIL La biographie de Jean Chalopin ressemble au scénario d’un Serge le Mytho.
Une récente édition de la newsletter de l’INA propose son portrait, qui le décrit comme « le papa d’Ulysse 31 et des Mystérieuses Cités d’Or ». Dès la fin de cette vidéo, j’ai plongé dans le trou de lapin, qui m’a amené à découvrir qu’il avait ensuite contribué à sortir la Gaîté-Lyrique de l’abandon pour la transformer en parc d’attractions, Planète magique, fermé après seulement 12 jours d’ouverture (et qui fait l’objet d’une vidéo de la chaîne Arkeo Toys). Il était récemment président d’une banque aux Bahamas liée aux cryptomonnaies.
Sortez le popcorn et allez-y.
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Another act of genius by XKCD! Which do you prefer, “Grayscale mode” or “Greyscale mode”? 🍿 × 💻
I just got RickRolled by this link from the New York Times’ Morning newsletter. I wonder what that says about me. 🐟 × 🍿
