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Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: April 2025 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-04-30 15:00:42
Imported:
2026-06
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Alan:

Hello Heroes!

April has had very few showers. Hope there are more than adequate amounts of May flowers.

What I’m reading!

Before and Afters Magazine (Various Issues) by Ian Failes. This is a spiritual successor to Cinefex magazine and is a great resource for VFX professionals, but also just for people who are interested in the filmmaking process. Ian does in-depth reporting, either on a film, or on a VFX topic across multiple films. He also hosts a couple podcasts, and just seems like a lovely guy.

Influx by Daniel Suarez. Honestly, I didn’t care for this one. It kinda suffered from Chrichton-syndrome. “I wanna tell a story about X. What’s a cool sci-fi explanation for doing that?” Proceeds to come up with a technology that is far more interesting than the story he wants to tell. It wasn’t terrible. Just felt like a wasted opportunity.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. It's just your typical moon-suddenly-and-inexplicably-turns-to-cheese sci-fi anthology story. We’ve all read/seen this story a hundred times. Lol. I’m a Scalzi-head. This was great. Not super-serious. Had some things, though nothing particularly deep, to say about humanity. But mostly it was just a good time with people being sarcastic to each other about the moon turning to cheese, then threatening to wipe out humanity by erupting a giant slice of moon-cheese into a decaying orbit. Pretty great.

What I’m watching!

Light & Magic S2 on Disney+. Is it self-congratulatory? Sure. Does ILM deserve a bit of self-congratulations for literally inventing visual effects as we know it, and allowing the explosion of amazing films and TV shows (and video games, frankly) that we’ve witnessed in my lifetime? Yep. I want 10 more seasons of this show.

The Studio on Apple TV+. I swear, I’m not just shilling for Apple here. They just make really really good shows! The Studio is incredibly crass and a bit mean, and it fills a whole I didn’t realize I’ve been missing since VEEP. Angry, venal, stupid people trying to lead large teams and do intelligent things? I’ll watch that all day. As long as the insults are creative. And they ARE!

The Residence on Netflix. HOLY CRAP GUYS!!! Friend of the show, Giancarlo Esposito gets murdered in the White House during a state dinner, and a bird-watching super-sleuth solves the case over the course of the season. It's incredible!!! I love a good Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, and this is the best one I've seen since the Knives Out movies! STRONG recommend on this one! (Rated M. Swears and blood and silly sex-talk.)

Casablanca. Guys, have you heard of this movie? It’s pretty good. Only my second time watching it (first was in my late teens. What can I say? Life-long movie nerd!) It’s even better now that I’m a grumpy old man, and I know a TON more about Hollywood history.

What I’m playing!

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Still flying around on my Ikran (her name is Storm, and she’s beautful. We’re best friends, okay!) killing human RDA soldiers and trying to restore Pandora to its natural state of beauty and wonder. But the Indiana Jones game just came out on PS5, so…

Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)

Jono:

Hey all! Hoping that you're doing well and April's treated you right! This month in theaters I greatly enjoyed Ryan Coogler's Sinners (it's especially good in IMAX), as well as the 20th anniversary presentation of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Both experiences further cemented my bias that the theatrical experience is culturally vital and worth preserving and supporting.At home I've been watching a bunch of movies for CT and making time to rewatch both Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the Mission: Impossible films leading up to this summer's grand finale. The former makes me giggle nonstop and the latter dazzles and thrills me.I had also heard a lot of good things about The Chosen, and after seeing the lead actor on The Tonight Show I finally jumped in. Well-made and well-acted, no matter your personal beliefs or views.As for what I'm reading, a friend gifted me The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, so I'm starting that epic journey for the first time now!I'm also playing something! I own several retro '90s arcade machines, and I've been loving the '90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my kids. 

What about you all? What have you been getting into?

Files

Comments

SaucyJTB

Mistborn is AMAZING. Looks like it's time for my fifth re-read... daaaaaaaarn 😂. So excited for you to start it, Jono! I managed to catch Pride & Prejudice and Revenge of the Sith in a much better theater than my local theater. Absolutely agree that theaters continue to be an amazing experience to see movies. Seeing movies on a beautiful screen, excellent sound system, and surrounded by company who respect the movie-going experience is lovely ❤️.

Olga Makarova

I watched Casablanca in my 20s, and it felt so emo. Definitely expected more from such a classic movie. But I have zero knowledge about Hollywood history, maybe that's the reason I can not appreciate it :)

Missa Carlson

I watched School Spirits on Paramount+ and it's become my new obsession. Girl dies at school, but wtf actually happened? There are currently 2 seasons, and it just gets better as it goes. Phenomenal script, great acting. I just finished reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. It was interesting, but really hard to follow sometimes. It's also REALLY long, which doesn't help. Probably similar in length to, like, It by Stephen King. But, it was published in the 1850s, and is considered to be the first Victorian detective novel, and it has aspects of supernatural peppered throughout. The ending makes it worth it.

2eTherapyJamie

I recommended Brooklyn Nine Nine for a client of mine to do Cinematherapy with months ago, and he told me last week that he finally started watching it so we could talk about it!! It’s such a huge comfort show for me, because it represents different flavors of neurodiversity and relationships in such a loving and realistic way.

KrissyArtist

What I am reading I didn't do to much reading this month u less you count graphic novels. I started reading some Daredevil comics mainly the Chip Zdarsky run which is phenomenonal espically if you are a fan of the netflix show which I am. Daredevil The man without fear by Frank Miller. The show was Inspired mainly by this run and it is really good I loved it. My boss who is a comic book geek also let me read Daredevil yellow another fantastic graphic novel. I didn't read any novels this month I am hoping 2 next month. What I am watching: The Life List on Netflix. It was a wonderful movie that is a little predictable but overall really cute and touching. Highly recommend. Shrinking on Apple TV this show is hilarious and also very touching. Jason Segal and Harrison Ford are great j. This show. I love seeing Harrison Ford get to be comedic (I'm pretty sure he is just playing himself in this show). Really good story, I haven't finished it yet but it is amazing! The biggest one Daredevil Born Again. This show is definitely in my top 5 Marvel Shows basically behind Daredevil and The Punisher. I loved this show it wasn't perfect but it was still great. Season 2 I think is going to be better but this season was a great buildup to some amazing stories and action. The writing, acting, action, and cinematography were amazing. Charlie Cox, Vincent Dinofrio, and Jon Bernthal, should be in the list for perfect marvel casting. The chemistry between all 3 of them is some of the best I have seen in television. Espically the scenes between Jon and Charlie. I will say the rest of this cast is great as well even if some of the character development wasn't there for some of the characters. Overall I loved it and can't wait to see what they do going forward. I hope this show makes it past a season 2. This show is having conversations in the MCU that has been needed for a long time. I will agree DC needs to be considering doing the same. Anyway most people either thought the show was okay, good, or bad. I personally loved it. What I am playing honestly nothing this month haha. I have been doing a bit of sketching hoping to do a lot more and get into some classes. Hope everyone had a great April!

bryt.knee

I'm a little 🤏🏽 obsessed with Sinners. I've seen it twice at my local theatre and am reminded that I need to watch for it's release at my local IMAX. So I can watch it there 😍

Sara Wagiström

I’ve been reading ”The Undying” by Anne Boyer. It was insanely good. Triggering if you or a loved one has gone through chemo though. I will try to finish Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (sequel to Fourth Wing) today because I so badly want it off my desk. I have not liked it but a friend wanted me to read it so I’m gonna finish it anyway. I’ve been watching The Pitt on Max, really enjoyed that. Probably watched a lot more but I can’t remember any stand outs 🤔 I did catch three concerts live though so that has been the highlights of my month 🪩

Story-Power

Alan, I love Casablanca. It's a lightning in a bottle movie. I used to use it when I taught the Dramatic Structure class at the college level. Nobody thought it was going to do well. Bogart and Bergman thought the dialogue was hokey. But with so many actors who had escaped Nazi Germany, it had heart and connected with the audience. And Bogart and Bergman had real chemistry. So, good on ya! I hope you watching it again. And you're right Apple + has a bunch of great offerings. Jono, We just finished watching season three of The Wheel of Time. I have never read the books, but I love the series. I understand Brandon Sanderson finished The Wheel of Time series due to Robert Jordan's death. Let us know what you think of The Mistborn series. I've watched The Gorge, G 20, The Wheel of Time series, Silo, and now we're watching Surface. I'll have to check out The Residence. For my YouTube channel with my sister, Classic Cinema with the Sage Sisters, I watched 12 Angry Men, Inherit the Wind, and The Best Years of Our Lives. I've been reading the entire Miss Silver mystery series by Patricia Wentworth, a contemporary of Agatha Christie and loved those. I also read, The Book of Doors for our virtual book club. That was great. I also read the fifth book in the Discovery of Witches series, The Black Bird Oracle and now I'm reading Fast Track by an upcoming podcast guest, John DeDakis.

Mary Flynn

MISTBORN!!! And you need to read the follow-up series too, it has my favorite Sanderson character.

tres 🫶🏻

I LOVED THE RESIDENCE!!! The writing, the cast, the staging, THE SET!? Phenomenal. It instantly made top 5 for me. Also, I'm a Christian, and I can't stand pureflix/typical low-budget, faith-based films. Going into The Chosen the bar was SO LOW, but instead of just making a decent show, they blew my expectations completely out of the water!! It is so good!!

Lydia Hartzler

Mistborn is FABULOUS. And ironically enough, I just started rewatching The Chosen! We have Prime this month so we also watched House of David - WOW. Also been watching The Divorce Insurance which is so funny and really sweet watching people work to move past their own divorces. G20 was a fun action movie, plus Unstoppable, The Tomorrow War (rewatch), Island, and True to Love. Read: A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic, A Fellowship of Librarians & Dragons, and Service Model (funny and subtle...and also not at all subtle sci-fi).

Ayesha Ali

I'm almost finished with Oathbringer by Sanderson (and oh man! How is that Sanderlanche better and more satisfying than the last two?). That took me all month. And I'm watching the NHL playoffs, no time for TV (though one of my teams just got eliminated last night. No matter, we weren't supposed to make it, and every single game was absolutely wonderful playoff hockey)

simdoodles

omg I watched casablanca for the first time a couple months ago! totally one of those movies where you're like "ohhhh I see why everyone bangs on about it"

Toffee Dog

The first two Mistborn books were really fantastic. I never could finish the third. It just lost its juice or was taking too long to re-up the intrigue in the third story. Absolutely no regrets on reading the first and second, though!

Shilo Loree

I'm excited for Jono to read Mistborn and it would love to hear his thoughts on it. Brandon Sanderson's work have themes that feel natural and earned. His characters feel real and deal with real world issues and concerns. Even his magic systems are great fun. And as a writer his commitment to his fans is inspiring.

Nancyjane Bailey

I just finished the Mistborn. There is a lot going on in those books (themes, characters, plot)

Mad Bartender

Casablanca is one of my fav movies of all time. Plus has arguably THE BEST Russian character of all times and the best line in Russian 💛

Sarah Rodrigues

I don’t actively watch The Chosen but when I’ve seen parts of it when my parents watch it I appreciate not only that it’s actually accurately cast but the characters actually feel like real, ordinary people. I feel like Biblical adaptations usually take a very serious/somber energy and style of speaking that makes even the humans feel both antiquated and dramatized; The Chosen makes Jesus and the Disciples relatable because they feel like an actual friend group and they talk and carry themselves in a way that makes them feel like they could be your neighbors