Forelock: A feels-neverending series of people either taking advantage of each other or being taken advantage of (true!), where the most/one innocent character looks a lot like Superman and the one that seems to have the most/only fun in the chaos looks a lot like Super Mario Maker-era Mario.

King Hamlet: When you work through stuff, that makes what you work on even more important. Adds weight. It's got to be good, to be great, and you've got to give your best for it. Because if not, then what was the point? It never can feel worth it, but it can feel more worthless if you fail or quit.

Ariana Grande - petal: Scattered thoughts after my first/headphones listen*: Really like it, the second half is where it truly shines. Still her worst of the 2020s but that's more praise of positions and eternal sunshine than anything. like i do has potential to be my most played pop song of 2026,

Charli xcx - Music, Fashion, Film: As I and many many others acknowledged upon release of the Wuthering Heights soundtrack, the best way to follow up something like brat is...not to. To leave that in the past and embrace something different. To pursue recreating moments is to pursue something false.

Exit 8: My one gripe, and the debate I had with the rating, was with the messaging they give via the main character here. Overlooking that, this is maybe the best game adaptation I've seen in years? Cleverly filmed, unsettling often, and shockingly well-paced! Anomaly games are good btw

Gracie Abrams - Daughter From Hell: I'm going to be kind after my first listen and say I think this is an OK album with 4 great songs IMO, and I respect her and her intentions enough to give my thoughts at least 1 more listen to improve. And it got off to a great start! Frontloaded but still!

Paytime: 60min foreign crime film paced like Uncut Gems with a bleak end/final shot that perfectly nails the theme and left me not even mad or wanting more, yeah I love that A betting man is never happy, so a betting man never stays still. A curse more than it ever could be a gift

Rock Burwell - Obsession (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): My film of the year and now my score of the year. Eerie, haunting, tragic. Got me even more fucked up in the middle of a heatwave day. Favs: Obsession, Love is in the Air Pts 1 and 2, Hansel, Billionaire

My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Deluxe Edition/15th Anniversary): MCR's most underappreciated album gets a second chance at recognition. As a diehard, I'll never be able to stop loving this band or this album.

Jackass: Best and Last - I can't laugh this long at something and not love it. Is it mostly a clipshow? Yes. A damn funny one, and a (not too surprisingly) sweet sentimental one. Goodbye to the most American franchise there ever will be

Evil Dead Burn: Going in = those trailers really did a disservice by showing all this violence. Coming out = those trailers didn't show even a fourth of the violence, and also, those trailers really did a disservice by foregoing just how fucking funny it frequently gets

Tinsman Road: A found footage ghost story that makes time to honor the dead, the living, the grieving, and the Blair Witch Project equally. If you hated The Outwaters you'll probably hate this too; I'm glad I'm basically in love with both. Don't make me wait so long for the next one, Robbie!

Supergirl (2026): No shock here folks, I liked it! Milly's perfect Rest of the cast was fine, even Momoa who I had reservations about (listen, I'm a dipshit, I wanted a Lobo film forever, I'd have just preferred it being someone less known so I didn't already have expectations or baggage)

And shorts-wise if you can only see one, make it The Lord of All Future Space & Time. A brilliant, beautiful, funny and bloody time travel story that sets the bar going forward

Other highlights include in photo-order Frankie Maniac Woman (a very messy, bloody, heartfelt expansion of the director's short debut), Blood & Guts (a doc about the incredible Adams Family), Misper (a Brit black comedy about tragedy trapping people), and of course Peril at Pincer Point, an

The standout feature has to be Lenore, a modern spin on the Poe character that deserves double-featured with this year's Faces of Death, 2 phenomenal works detailing from different perspectives how broken some of us have become by ability to access everything/everyone we could imagine at all hours.

The Death of Robin Hood: A story about the stories told, regardless of why they're told or who's telling them, and how any and every aspect of them can seem different depending on the perspective of the listener. Death of the author made literal.

The Furious (2026): I want to run through four brick walls. An instant classic in an all-timer year of film that's barely half over

Yura Yura Teikoku - Yura Yura Teikoku [Selftitled 1, 1992]: I love when either friends or the ~algorithm~ recommend me something obscure I immediately completely vibe with. And brother, Japanese psychedelic rock is something I completely vibe with.

Find Your Friends: I don't wanna be mean and say it either could have worked with a better cast or a better writer-director, but I think there's enough in the material itself this had a chance in someone else's hands. As is? Trippy hallucination leading to real-or-not altercation happens too often.

Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love: A special talent that an album this good may not even be her best. The first half is deliriously hopeful, the second half emotionally descends, and it all feels perfectly...beautiful? Heartbreaking? Both? It's both. Risks can be both.

Disclosure Day: On a rewatch I'll give this the essay it deserves. For now, two points: 1) Emily Blunt gave the 2nd-most authentic portrayal of how a panic attack feels and looks (source: me for mine) and it might not even be her 3rd-best scene. Best Actress is her or Inde Navarrette, lock it in.

Wuthering Heights (book): I was ecstatic enough about this year's film I went and bought, and just finally finished, the original book. Yeah, I know, one of those classics that always eluded me, mostly because it was the rare one not school-assigned. Sad I missed out on it so long!

reggie - UNDRA: Sometimes I hate being so behind on music I'm late to something, and sometimes the artist makes it simple and waits for me. reggie's been making music throughout the 2020s but only now does he release his first album. As songtitles express, it feels like him: still a work in progress

Is God Is: Some uncomfortably-brutal moments, some rapturous-feeling moments. Such great choices throughout (juxtaposing the twins' desires, one for revenge and wrath, the other for hope+seeking to just move on. To feel both valid. To see Sterling K Brown command attention enough with just a grin

Trash Baby: Jacy Mairs' directorial debut is a powerful, stunning, at times very difficult (comes with a massive, massive trigger warning for midway through that I wish I knew about) watch depicting the life of a 13-year-old and her growth amidst other, older trailer park residents.

Backrooms: Enough expansion on the lore that having seen the shorts (at all, or recently like me) feels satisfying, enough questions given that you can see this explored further in more shorts, more features, for years to come.

Lemonade Blessing: Think this might be the standout of the May Letterboxd Video Store Unreleased Gems! Skye Friedman and Jake Ryan are both wonderfully talented (Skye gives a delightfully insane performance that would be the standout in...well...any other month but this one so far.)

Amoeba (2026): Beautiful, funny, charming, and with a devastating monologue towards the end. Infectious chemistry throughout this queer coming of age rebel drama

The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick: There was 1 time I ever even thought I knew what was going to happen next, and for getting it right I was bombarded by three weirder more insane things coming forward. I think I loved it? Of course this was made by the Jethica director; excited for Erupcja!