media update: October

Whew, what a shitty month!  I'm not at liberty to share some of it, but one thing that sucked immensely?  I flew to Florida to surprise my dad for his 80th birthday, and we ALL got a surprise when we left his birthday dinner and I tripped off a curb and sprained my ankle so badly I almost puked from the pain. It's a long story, but somehow I managed to get back to New Mexico two days later (many, MANY thanks to Delta because I had to arrange for a wheelchair on the way back with a very tight connection in Atlanta and it went much smoother than expected).  I just went to the podiatrist the other day because my foot still looked bad, but he said it seemed to be healing well and to just take it easy.  

Anyway!  Asterisks denote something I particularly enjoyed or found especially worthy of my time; double asterisks are reserved for the creme de la creme.  As always, your mileage may vary.

FICTION

1. A Dark Place by Linda Castillo:  A collection of short stories featuring ex-Amish police chief Kate Burkholder.

2026 TOTAL SO FAR:  10

NONFICTION

1. Bloodlines by Joe Manganiello:  A memoir about the actor's debilitating struggles with a horrific autoimmune condition.

2026 TOTAL SO FAR:  5

MANGA/GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. The Emperor's Caretaker vol. 6 by Ichiha Hiiragi, Aya Shouoto, and Haruki Yoshimura

2026 TOTAL SO FAR:  14 volumes of manga

MOVIES

1. The Furious**:  A father looking for his kidnapped daughter and a man looking for his missing wife join forces.  It's exciting as hell, with innovative fight choreography that had us cheering more than once.

2. Backrooms:  A man finds a nightmarish alternate dimension in his furniture store.  Unlike the other huge horror sensation this year (Obsession), I didn't really get the hype, but there's enough promise in it that I'll be curious to see what the writer/director does in the future.

3. Scary Movie:  A spoof of (doy) scary movies with a few decent laughs. We watched the 2026 version, not the original.

4. The Invite*:  When Joe and Angela (Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde) invite their upstairs neighbors (Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz) over for dinner, the night takes an unexpected turn.  Sharp and funny, with excellent performances, especially from Seth Rogen.

5. Kiss of the Spider Woman:  A political prisoner (Diego Luna) gets a new cellmate (Tonatiuh) who regales him with a retellling of the titular musical, with Jennifer Lopez playing the title role.  It's good, but the thing that stood out most to me is that the musical segments are absolute costume porn.  There were at least three outfits that had me making appreciative noises.

6. Toy Story 5*:  The toys band together to fight a new enemy: an interactive tablet named Lilypad who's taking away Bonnie's desire to play and create.  There's a subplot that doesn't really go anywhere, but overall it's a cute movie with a scene that legitimately made me sob.

7. They Will Kill You:  A woman gets a job at a hotel that turns out to have some very unusual residents.  It needed a bit of script tweaking, but there are some fun scenes and buckets of gore.

2026 TOTAL SO FAR:  62