The Silence of the Lambs. Re-watch (previously). Masterpiece. I noticed the close-ups much more this time around. The face are very, uh, in your face. Jack Crawford might be the most unsettling character in the whole movie.

American Honey. Second viewing (the first). I still don't know what to make of it, thematically, but I was entranced again.

The Master. Second viewing. I liked it a bit more than the first time I saw it. The argument at the party is such a great scene. I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman. :(

I spent a few hours at my favorite nearby park today. Heavy rains had the creek running high in the banks. Chilly air still had some snap to it, a different damp, one that makes your cheeks flush but makes you more eager to set out rather than bundle up. Walk along the creek, look out into the forest, and see the flora feeling the same way – branches blushing green, let's get started, stretching out from the greys and browns of the last few months. Buds to unlayer and blossom soon enough. Just you wait. A few weeks ago I spent a week volunteering in Saguaro National Park, which was mostly grey and brown. I learned all about the cactus, succulents, flowers, trees, and more than I thought there was to know about grasses. It rained a bit before my arrival there, and there too I got to the first greens of the season peeking out. It was a preview of a preview, a hint of spring before spring. I came back home craving the first greens and what comes after. And out today, I think I see the plants craving it, too. Following through on their own promise. Just you wait. We'll make it through the grey and brown and step out again.

I was having trouble sleeping a couple nights ago, so I read some Kay Ryan poems to settle my brain a bit. This one helped:

The Girl With All the Gifts. Has anyone written about how in movies, if a child is portrayed to be courteous and well-behaved with adults, we think they're creepy? There's just something off about a kid who cares a little too much about adults. I like the fine line this one walks, betraying our sense of what a happy ending should be. I think my favorite parts of zombie movies are when they have to sneak by them. This one has a couple good scenes like that, and they made me remember and appreciate similar ones in Shaun of the Dead, Train to Busan, and World War Z.

The Gift. Second viewing (the first). Very nicely done. Love the characterization through costume. Edgerton's character consistently has something in the wardrobe that's on the border of "uncool" and "unsettling". Love how it shows people wrestling with intuition vs. manners, protection vs. politeness.

Annihilation. I dig it. Interesting to see scifi that leans so much on biology. One of those slower exploratory scifi movies that later gets crossed with some truly horrific gore (Stalker meets The Thing?). Great score, especially the climactic scenes. The music was so... three-dimensional. It felt novel somehow to have a discernible rhythm in there, not a long fermata.

Blade Runner 2049. Pretty. Good. Can't say I like it as much as the original. I think they could have bumped the pace a bit without losing much. But there are far worse ways to bathe in goofy visuals.