Peruvian Idle

May turned out to be a pretty lackluster month as far as new releases. I found myself still playing a bunch of Balatro, slowly chipping away at those last two trophies, and going back to watch a bunch of old stuff. There were a few bright spots though!

🎮 Games

Hades II

Hades II released in early access and it's surprisingly polished for being in such an early state. I came pretty late to the first Hades but fell in love with its tight gameplay and compelling characters. I don't know if I'm rusty or the sequel is just considerably harder, but I haven't even made it to the first boss in my limited play time. It doesn't help that there seem to be a lot more systems in place, something that a lot of sequels (Horizon: Forbidden West comes to mind) suffer from. Maybe it'll click for me at some point. I've been reluctant to play more because the text is nearly illegible to my ancient eyes when playing on the Steam Deck. [PC]

Stellar Blade

I rolled credits on Stellar Blade this month. Towards the end, the bosses felt a little repetitive, but overall I had fun with it. I really liked the feel of the movement and combat. Parrying a series of enemy attacks and countering with a powerful flourish was super satisfying. There's not much incentive to play New Game+, where you start over with all the abilities you unlocked on your first play through. While you do unlock a harder difficulty, there's no trophy for beating the game on that difficulty, so the early parts of NG+ are trivial and frankly, kind of boring. I still enjoy the game and the platinum trophy seems pretty attainable, so I'll probably knock those last few trophies out before calling it quits. [PS5]

Other games I enjoyed

I still spent most my gaming time playing Balatro. A new balance patch made the higher stakes a little more forgiving. I've completed about 100 of the 120 stakes so far. I also played a little bit of Ravenswatch, a co-op roguelike from the makers of Curse of the Dead Gods, which I enjoyed. It's kind of like Hades meets Diablo with characters from fables like the Pied Piper. I picked up Animal Well based on its strong word of mouth but it didn't really click for me. Likewise for the free-to-play Call of Duty clone, XDefiant. The game looks gorgeous, but just doesn't have the same crisp feel as Call of Duty.

🎬 Movies

There's been a lot of talk about the tepid box office numbers for May. With no big Marvel release, films like The Fall Guy and Furiosa really struggled. The Fall Guy is already available to rent just three weeks after its opening. It's no wonder people aren't going to the theater when they can just wait a few weeks and see new releases in the comfort of their own homes.

Planet of the Apes Marathon

In anticipation of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which I didn't actually end up seeing, I re-watched the most recent trilogy, featuring Andy Serkis' Caesar. I loved how grounded these movies were, and seeing the advancement of the motion capture technology over the course of three movies was impressive. The films really hit different now that I'm a parent.

I also watched the original Planet of the Apes and its four(!) sequels. I had seen the first one before but the only thing that stuck with me was that iconic final shot. It still holds up as a strong sci-fi film. Having grown up on reruns of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, it was totally up my alley. It should not have surprised me to find out that Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, was a co-writer of the first Apes. Charlton Heston is perfectly cast as the hyper-masculine hero and there's some really great cinematography on display.

The sequels get progressively lower budget and the endings more and more dark, culminating with Battle for the Planet of the Apes, which is just completely pointless. It's no wonder they didn't go back to the franchise for several decades.

I skipped the 2001 Marky Mark-led Planet of the Apes reboot. I hated it when I saw it in the theater. [VOD, except Kingdom, which is in theaters]

The Last Stop in Yuma County

I can't say too much about this fun crime thriller other than that it certainly draws inspiration from the darker Coen Brothers films as well as Quentin Tarantino's work. Jim Cummings is great here as one of several people stuck at a roadside diner waiting for a fuel truck to arrive. As you can guess by the poster, things go awry. It's a tight 90 minutes and the way the final act escalates is wild. [VOD]

Problemista

Writer/director and star Julio Torres makes his feature debut with a delightfully creative and sweet film about a young, aspiring toy designer from El Salvador who takes on a job with an eccentric artist (played to perfection by Tilda Swinton) in order to secure a work visa and avoid deportation. This really took me back to my younger days, working lots of shitty jobs to make ends meet and sometimes working for eccentric older people. Torres is such a unique talent. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does next. [VOD]

Molli and Max in the Future

A fun millenial mash-up of When Harry Met Sally and Idiocracy, with a Tron aesthetic. I was initially turned off by cheap look and the incongruity between the futuristic setting and the contemporary 2020s dialogue, but I soon grew invested in Molli and Max's relationship. There's a lot of good satire about the time we live in, complete with a plague and a Trump-like ruler, expertly played by Michael Chernus. Relatable on many levels. [VOD]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

They say you can never have too much of a good thing. Furiosa asks, “are you sure?” This movie has more everything. More Gastown, more Bullet Farm, more idiotic Immortan Joe offspring, more chases, more shooting, more dialog. It clocks in at 30 minutes longer than Mad Max: Fury Road but it doesn’t really earn it. That said, there’s some pretty spectacular action scenes and one rivals Fury Road in its creativity and sheer moreness. Chris Hemsworth is just having a good old time here as the villain and Anya Taylor-Joy does a serviceable job channeling Charlize Theron. Can’t say I was too disappointed. Fury Road set the bar for all action films impossibly high. [In theaters]

Other movies I enjoyed

I re-watched Nightcrawler in VR with the guys, since Scott hadn't seen it before. It was my favorite movie of 2014 and it still slaps. Even though I'd seen it several times, it still had me on edge as Jake Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom goes to greater lengths to advance his budding career as a freelance news videographer. I also checked out L.A. Confidential (my 100th movie logged this year on Letterboxd!) for the first time in at least 25 years(!). This is one of the quintessential 90s guy movies. It's still pretty great, even though all the racism, misogyny, homophobia and Kevin Spaceyness haven't aged all that well. What a wild climax. Made me want to play L.A. Noire again.

📺 TV

I really did not watch much TV this month. It was mostly John Mulaney-related.

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction

I've been a fan of Mulaney for awhile (fun fact: his sister starred in my Second City writing show) so I was pleased to see him appear on David Letterman's Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. He and Dave have a very candid conversation about John's recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism and tour John's old high school, here in Chicago. I really appreciate that John is so open about his issues and mines it for laughs. During the show, John plugged his own Netflix series, which I watched next. [Netflix]

John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's In L.A.

In this six-part series, which aired live(!) on Netflix, John hosts a bunch of funny people and talks about various Los Angeles-themed topics like coyotes (we have them here in Chicago, too, LA. You all didn't invent that shit). I've only seen the first couple of episodes but it's a good time so far! [Netflix]

Other shows I enjoyed(?)

I'm not sure I'd say I'm enjoying it just yet, but I'm slowly working my way through Nicholas Winding Refn's 2019 Amazon series Too Old to Die Young. It's very similar in tone and theme to his 2011 film, Drive but, holy hell, is it slow. Tons of long takes and extremely slow pans where nothing happens. Still, the show has a compelling vibe and I'm keen to see where it goes.

📱 Videos

• In honor of his hosting the season finale of SNL, I revisted the most hilarious and unhinged thing Jake Gyllenhaal has ever done, Music Everywhere, from Netflix's John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch.
• From said SNL finale, I loved this press conference sketch.
• My best friend, Eldridge passed away recently and I revisited this short we made for an editing class I took at Columbia College called The Hit.
• Ryan is obsessed with this song and can't stop giggling when I do this every time it comes on.
• An incredible new music video from Donald Glover, a.k.a. Childish Gambino, called Little Foot Big Foot.
• Ben Schwartz is doing an improv tour called Ben Schwartz and Friends and has been posting some great clips on YouTube.
• At 11ty Conference, Dan Sinker talked about his ambitious project creating an entire fictional town through a series of websites.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you enjoyed this issue of Peruvian Idle. I send this out on the first of every month. You can subscribe at peruvianidle.mikeaparicio.com or via RSS.

There's a TON of new stuff coming out next month. I'm not sure how I'll get to it all. There's the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Destiny The Final Shape, Season 2 of FX's The Bear, new Disney+ Star Wars show The Acolyte, Season 2 of Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Orphan Black: Echoes, Inside Out 2, The Bikeriders, new Yorgos Lanthimos film Kinds of Kindness, and A Quiet Place: Day One. On top of that, I'm looking forward to seeing who the Bulls take in the 2024 NBA Draft. And I'll also be appearing on Learn with Jason this month!

What are you looking forward to in June? Let me know!