Weekly Roundup Episode 61: Sleep Keeps Me at Peace
Welcome to another edition of Weekly Roundup!
The other day I dreamt about a dear friend of mine back in High School Anissa Bass. I’m not too sure what happened within that dream, I believe possibly we were hanging out. Capturing her image while enduring this dream of mine, made me oh so happy, my body while I was asleep felt a sense of joy. When I woke up, the visuals were then realized to be all but a dream… I felt extremely upset. That’s the love/hate relationship I have with regards to sleep in general.
Being asleep is one of my rare few joys that life has to offer. The hardship of going through reality, especially today’s reality can make one immensely tired physically but more so mentally. Mentally lately I feel extremely drained, exhausted, as I’ve been feeling severely depressed for a good four weeks now. Some may question this feeling, due to the fact of my current living circumstances. Especially living in a state of Florida, where individuals can come as they are, think however they are, and can live life however they want to… Which has helped me immensely during these extremely difficult times.
However at the end of the day: I’m still a human being, unlike most I actually genuinely care about everyone. Whether or not I don’t know you, you were once in my life and now you’re not whether it’s by my choice or not my choice, or you're currently in my life regardless if we think the same or not… I still care, as I’m always here for everyone. Deep down no matter how the impact of social media has wrecked a couple generations regarding lack of having morals/principles, or how 2020 and today has wrecked the mindset of people… I still believe the beautiful beings I/those once knew before all of this, are still in there somehow.
This world we’re currently living in has been so accustomed to it’s insanity that we have lost our sense of humanity. It’s been hard to be around people or anywhere these last four weeks. Not because of the ongoing pain in the ass ordeal, I believe the hysterical fear mongering needs to end as it’s doing way more harm than actual safety. It’s been hard to be around people or anywhere because I feel so frustrated but mostly heartbroken about it all. Mostly everything going on right now should never be allowed nor accepted, this is not how you create a healthy environment, more importantly these kids don’t deserve to live in a world like this.
So you can understand: Why I would thoroughly enjoy sleep as of now. At my best I strive for a good recommended eight hours of sleep each night, the full eight hours of sleep makes me feel I’ve been fully rested. Within those eight hours… I feel at total peace. All I feel is total freedom for a good eight hours, sometimes within that freedom I’m granted such joyous dreams. Dreams in which I’m experiencing life to the fullest as I’m partaking in grand adventures, sometimes within those dreams I’m reuniting with old friends and loved ones I’ve missed so dearly in the past. I’m blessed that I get to endure dreams which can put my mind at ease and heal me, that’s what I love about sleep.
The hatred within Sleep is the idea of having to wake up, when you wake up you then realize you have to go on another day of your own reality and that feeling sucks. Majority of the time when I fall asleep… I don’t want to wake up anymore. They’ll be a time when that beautiful moment of going home will come, but in order to get there… You must continue to move forward along your story. Sleep should be taken as a reminder within those beautiful visuals your body and mind endures, the more you drive your mind/body forward within every triumph and struggle within a day, the closer you will be into being there.
It’s ok to feel yearning to go home early, we all feel like that sometimes, I believe a lot of people feel that way as of right now in some way. But we always have to keep going no matter how tough the battles we endure in life, but more importantly help one another get to another day as well, we’re all hurting man, there should be no feeling of shame or guilt behind it. Be more open about how you’re feeling. The rest of us: Listen and Make a Valid Attempt to Understand One Another. Just because one perhaps is different from yourself, doesn’t mean they’re life doesn’t matter. Everyone’s life matters and we should always be there with open arms for everyone regardless if they don’t align with your views and such, you can make a significant difference by just being there… That’s literally what we all ask for and people make it extremely hard to achieve this simple task, why don’t we shift our focus on humanity rather than insanity.
I’m gonna be ok. I can’t let the lies of the world get the best of me, I know the truth is within God’s vision of Patience, Positivity, Peace, Love, Hopefulness, and Togetherness. I just need to continue on being a friendly reminder that there is still genuine goodness in this world. To Conclude I say: I Love You All, I Wish You All Well, Continue Being Yourself, As I’ll Always Be There For You, God Bless… Time to Talk About Movies!
Pig Grade: B+
I’ve been looking forward to Pig since Nicolas Cage was talking about the film briefly with Patton Oswalt, after the viewing of 2020’s Color Out of Space. The poster within this film looked simply dope, as it felt like a clear indication that this was going to be a kick ass Nicolas Cage led film. Pig does Kick Ass most certainly, however it doesn’t Kick Ass the way you assume it would be from the first impression upon the poster or trailers.
The first half of the film felt like it was going to an exciting gruesome revenge story, about a Truffle Hunter Rob (Nicolas Cage) seeking vengeance for his truffle pig who was stolen. Rob looked extremely saddened but mostly angry, as you could assume he was on a mission to beat the living hell out of those who took his beloved pig. At a pivotal point where Rob was in this underground fight club for restaurant employees, you would assume at this moment this is where the film shows off the skills of Rob perhaps being a trained skill assassin like you normally see. Instead… Rob let’s the opponent beat his ass, as then the second half comes to play as it’s an entirely different film.
The second half to me is not only as good as the first half, I believe it’s even better than the first half, even though it’s a complete shift regarding tone. Pig goes beyond in retelling a man seeking vengeance for his beloved animal, as this is a truly deep emotional narrative that focuses on grief, loss, pride, and purpose. There are several moments within this film that truly spoke deeply within my soul, perhaps my favorite moment is when Rob and his business associate Amir (Alex Wolff) were at a fancy restaurant, as Rob delivers the harsh truth towards the head chef at the restaurant.
Pig is such an unexpected surprise. This film is visually stunning, has extremely well written characters that you care about and can relate to, wonderful written story, and the dialogue is strong as well delivering some striking moments. Nicolas Cage in this performance still has a lot left in the tank, as this is perhaps his best performance since Mandy, a truly emotional riveting performance indeed.
Overall, Pig is a great film. I highly recommend checking this one out, it’s a must watch indeed.
Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord Grade: C-
After watching this Netflix original documentary film, as I attempt to log it in my Letterboxd a couple minutes later… I totally have forgotten the title of this documentary film. That felt like my total mood while watching Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord.
Off the bat: This film is totally reminiscent of this year's Silk Road, only it’s about the true story of a young man Maximilian Schmidt who ran a drug empire from the comfort of his home in Germany. Max is well aware of Silk Road as he believed he could create a platform much better than Silk Road.
Throughout this entire documentary, I’m not too sure just how he made it better than Silk Road?! Basically it runs almost entirely the same as Silk Road just about, except the only thing I would say differs from Silk Road was Max creating a way in which he could reduce his prison sentence? That’s all I found different while comparing the two to be honest.
From a presentation perspective this film looked pretty bland, substance wise there is some interest however didn’t really intrigued me much of all. I think what made it less appealing was I’ve seen this exact story being told before, only Silk Road was done slightly better and was a bit more fascinating than this.
Overall, Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord was mediocre. I don’t really recommend this film, I much prefer watching Silk Road instead.
Jolt Grade: D
Temper Tantrum… THE MOVIE! What is with studios trying to create a superhero franchise?! Amazon Studios has been well known to make Oscar contending films, why are they even attempting crap like this shtick?!
Apparently this film is being compared to Crank, although I haven’t seen that film I can see the similarities, as this is also about a being that’s completely insane that needs a electric shock. When coming up with something positive to say about Jolt, I guess Kate Beckinsale’s performance?! I wouldn’t say it’s great, but at least her performance in this role kept me wanting to watch this film.
Other than that just about everything about Jolt, is such a ridiculously stupid film that I honestly can’t take seriously at any level. The story within itself is completely ridiculous, with regards to Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) trying to kill the culprit who murdered a man she went on a couple dates with… Shouldn’t the film at least give us more development in terms of that connection between the pair?! Because as a viewer, seeing one going all this way to try murder one she doesn’t really know… I’m sorry it’s just comes out ridiculous, as why should I care?! I get the plot twist at the end, but still it doesn’t justify the ridiculousness of it all.
The action in this film was meh, pretty standard. The comedy material was HORRENDOUS, it’s a goofy concept yet every attempt at comedy in this was dreadfully painful to sit through. I felt Laverne Cox was a total miscast for this tough and gritty cop role, she sounded more like a whiny cry baby if anything, most of her scenes gave me a headache. The plot twist was whatever, the ending sequence… Please, no one wants a sequel to this!
Overall, Jolt was bad. I don’t recommend this film. -Mitch Smietana