Peruvian Idle

Saturday, November 2 at 8am Central, I'll be playing video games for 24 hours to raise money for Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. This is my 11th Extra Life and to date we've raised over $49,000. We're very close to hitting $50k all-time! Your donation could help get us there!

🎮 Games

This month I got the platinum trophies for Space Marine 2 and Astro Bot (on the same day, no less). Typically once I plat a game I stop playing it, so that freed up time to grind my favorite "chore-based" video games. I picked up a bunch of new games that I'm saving for Extra Life, so next month's games should be a bit more meaty.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

The latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise released this month, featuring a new campaign, all new multiplayer maps and a return to the "round-based" zombies mode. As much as I enjoy Call of Duty, I found this one to be a bit underwhelming. The campaign tries to do some innovative things besides just going from place to place shooting things, and that's when it's actually at its best. There's more of an espionage element to this one, complete with an Ocean's Eleven-like casino heist. There's also some interesting levels involving hallucinogens that are straight out of Control. The combat is actually the most boring part. I kind of wish they had leaned into the other stuff more. Multiplayer is fine. None of the new levels feel particularly fresh and all of the weapons just feel like the typical COD collection. It's still fun to play, but I'm not sure for how long. I really enjoy how COD evolved its zombies mode the last few years into a more open-world experience. Ditching that to go back round-based wave-defense gameplay feels like a step back, though I know a lot of people prefer that experience. Aside from the interesting campaign, I find this year's Call of Duty to be hard to recommend to anyone but the most devoted fans. [PS5, Xbox, PC]

Super Mario Party Jamboree

My 5-year-old, Ryan, loves Mario Party Superstars, so when I saw there was a new Mario Party I surprised him with it. He gets pretty frustrated with the minigames, though he's slowly getting the hang of it. My goal when playing with him is to keep the CPU characters from beating him rather than just outright letting him win. The latest edition of Mario Party has some cool new courses, a bunch of new minigames, including motion-controlled ones, and a huge pool of characters to choose from. There are also some new modes we haven't checked out yet, including a massively multiplayer online battle. I think that'll have to wait until he's a little older. [Switch]

Other games I enjoyed

Added 13 more gold joker stickers in Balatro, leaving just 17 until I get the platinum trophy. I've also been playing on mobile, which is incredibly dangerous. I started getting into NBA 2k25's MyTeam mode again, which has you collecting cards to form a team and completing various challenges to get more cards. It's really a huge time suck that eventually results in every card being a 99-rated card, making it incredibly boring. But the early months where even a 90+ player is hard to come by are usually fun. Destiny launched some new content which feels like it was custom-made for me to not enjoy. All of the new content and perks are geared around Stasis and grenade launchers. And the current Halloween event is incredibly grindy. At this point it feels like I'm only still playing it out of habit or nostalgia.

🎬 Movies

With fewer games in the rotation, I was back to watching movies. Almost 3x as many as I watched last month. And there were some doozies.

The Substance

Very rarely do I find myself watching a movie and realizing that it will be among my all-time favorites before the credits even roll, but The Substance grabbed me from the start. Coralie Fargeat’s follow-up to 2017’s excellent Revenge is so confident and well-executed. It “yes ands” itself to absurd heights (depths?) in a way that elicited such joy that I couldn’t help wish I had seen this opening night in a packed screening. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are excellent. Fargeat asks a lot from them and they deliver. I don’t know that I can recommend this to literally anyone but for me, it was perfect. [VOD]

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

A deeply moving documentary that recreates the online life of its subject in a unique, if at times cheesy, way. It’s a loving tribute to a person who touched so many lives despite his physical limitations. But it’s also an examination of how people use video games as an escape, while also being able to form deep and meaningful connections with others. Keep the tissues handy. (I learned after watching this that it’s by the same director as The Painter and the Thief, another excellent documentary.) [Netflix]

Saturday Night

I was predisposed to liking this, having grown up with SNL (we both turn 50 in 2025) . This is an earnest and loving imagining(?) of the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode. I’m sure very little of this happened that night and characterizations of real life people are far from accurate, but like the show Winning Time, I couldn’t care less because the subject matter is something I enjoy and have deep knowledge about. Love the casting — the SNL regulars were largely unknown to me but each do a passable job of capturing the essence of their real life counterparts. The more known actors around them are inspired casting. I wish the movie had spent more time fleshing out the main SNL cast, it gives particularly short shrift to the female cast members, spending most of its runtime following Lorne Michaels. It’s still quite enjoyable, though probably less so if you’re not familiar with SNL lore, particularly those early years. I can imagine this being nearly unintelligible without that context. When they finally say the iconic opening line, I got a little choked up. [Theaters]

Interstellar

Ryan is recently obsessed with black holes. I showed him a clip from this on YouTube and he asked to watch the whole movie. He patiently sat through the whole thing (a rarity) until the climactic black hole scene, by which point he was pretty invested in the story, even though a lot of it went over his head. Try explaining a tesseract to a toddler. At the end he asked if there was a sequel and was disappointed to learn that sometimes movie endings are ambiguous. Hoping this, of all things, finally sparked an interest in film, rather than the crap he watches on YouTube. [VOD]

Other movies I enjoyed

I rewatched Double Indemnity for the first time in forever. Often imitated, never duplicated, this noir is among the best. I also revisited Shaun of the Dead just in time for Halloween. Hard to believe it's 20 years old. Such a clever spoof of the zombie genre that serves as a great example of the genre itself. The dialogue and comedic timing is so meticulous and the pace of the gags unrelenting. It's What's Inside recently came out on Netflix and features a brilliant premise. I went in knowing absolutely nothing and when I realized what was happening I had a real “oh shit” moment. I re-watched Coralie Fargeat's Revenge in VR with some first-timers and everyone loved it. Such a confident debut feature. It was no surprise that The Substance was equally daring. I realized I had never watched 2004's Man on Fire, which is very self-indulgent, in the most/best Tony Scott way. Denzel is great as usual and surrounded by a pretty solid cast, including an adorable Dakota Fanning.

📺 TV

Disclaimer

This limited series written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón is kind of incredible. Just gorgeously shot by Emmanuel Lubezki and featuring some great performances by Cate Blanchett, Lesley Manville, Sacha Baron Cohen in a rare dramatic role, and an almost unrecognizable Kevin Kline. Blanchett plays a journalist who discovers a novel featuring her as the main character, which reveals a dark secret from 20 years ago. It's a slow burn but as the show reveals whats going on through its non-linear narrative, it gets pretty good. Maybe not for everyone, but as a fan of Cuarón and the cast, this feels tailor-made for me. [Apple TV+]

Nobody Wants This

A fun show starring Kristen Bell as a podcaster who falls in love with a rabbi, played by Adam Brody. I first saw Brody, like many people, on Fox's The OC, where he stole every scene he was in. I was surprised he never became more of a star. Here, he and Bell are both effortlessly charming and have great chemistry. It's probably not going to win any awards but it's a breezy show to watch while you're folding laundry or something. [Netflix]

Shrinking

Another fun show entering its second season about a therapist, played by Jason Segel, who gets way too invested in his patients' lives. Harrison Ford plays his boss and I love the dynamic he has with Segel. The show is co-created by Bill Lawrence, who also did Ted Lasso, so this show has a similar vibe, if you're into that. [Apple TV+]

Other shows I enjoyed

I watched the first episode of Starting 5 on Netflix, which follows five players through the 2023-24 NBA season. It's an interesting behind the scenes look at what it's like to go through the grind of a season. It doesn't have the immediacy of something like Hard Knocks but I'm looking forward to finishing it. I still need to check out the latest seasons of What We Do in the Shadows and The Diplomat, and Silo also returns this month, so lots to catch up on in television.

📱 Videos

• Varun Rama talks about how much working at Amazon sucks. We had a lot of ex-Amazon folks at Groupon and I they brought a lot of toxic elements from Amazon's culture which really sapped morale.
• I love a good Triumph video. For The Daily Show, he roasted Trump supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally.
• Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh teach kids how to act. Incredibly charming.
• Billy Eichner and Will Ferrell are Loud White Men for Kamala.

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.

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