Friends for life

Because movies, well, they live forever

Latham Arneson

Jun 19, 2026

THE QUOTE 🎬 💬

“It means your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it.

So make it a good one, both of you.”

hint: eventually every series goes west

THINK THOUGHTS 💭

The big movie this week is Pixar’s Toy Story 5. More on the “5-ness” of it all in the actual overview, but one theme I get into is how characters in such a long running series can start to feel like real friends.

Well funny then that I’m currently traveling through Colorado to meet up with some real friends of my own. Ones I’ve known even longer than Woody and Buzz have been around. Which as a long time at this point.

……..

You’re old. But instead of traveling to the movie theater, Chesaré (my partner) and I are driving thousands of miles.

Well, currently she’s the one navigating the windy roads of Gunnison County as we head from Telluride to Longmont. All so I can get you your movie fix… on time? I don’t even know what that means anymore, but I do know I’m sending this earlier than I have in a while.

So maybe the answer here is more road trips. Which is truly a great answer to most of life’s questions.

NEWSY BITS 👾

‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ Sequel in the Works with Jim Carrey, Ron Howard - huh! - The Hollywood Reporter

Fox Is Buying Roku in $22 Billion Deal - oh christ, 100 million households should get ready for lots more ads for Fox Nation’s Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints - Variety

Netflix Says ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Spent 52 Straight Weeks On Its Global Top 10 List - significant since Netflix not being able to create content that “lasts” is a big narrative - Deadline

NOTABLE NEW RELEASE(S) 🎟 & 📺

Toy Story 5

Think of your best friends. And then think of the best time you ever had with them. A trip abroad together where you almost died yet talk excitedly about at every dinner party? Or maybe it was just a random Tuesday trolling Costco buying cheap-ass sweatpants laughing at the absurdity of acquiring clothing from a store known for $1.50 hot dogs? Did you hang out with them again after such a momentous high?

Of course you did. Because one unrepeatable amazing time doesn’t prevent you from seeking loads of future really darn good ones.

And at 31 years(!!) old, the Toy Story franchise and its characters have very much become friends to many a moviegoer. Yet there is this insistence from certain people, Quentin Tarantino chief among them, that the series should’ve ended after the epic Toy Story 3. They wanted the perfect Hollywood ending from a Hollywood which never ends anything that’s still making money.

But the money here actually indicates people really still do like spending time with Buzz, Woody, Jessie and crew (see: part four taking in over a billion dollars at the box office). Like I said, they’re our friends. And like a great friend often does, they teach us things. About life, ourselves, relationships, time and its passing. They also make us laugh.

How lucky for those of us who consider Pixar’s creations our friends then that our fifth adventure with them looks like it’s another pretty darn good—at times bordering on amazing—time. It’s probably worth mentioning that in this outing the crew comes face to face, literally, with technology that goes well beyond Buzz’s laser.

But honestly, when you’ve got friends like these, it really doesn’t matter what you’re doing, just that you’re spending quality time together again.

Watch the Trailer

Out: Today

Where: Movie Theaters

Details: 1 hr 42 mins | PG | 🍅: 95%

The Death of Robin Hood

Literal and metaphorical.

The title that is. As this a movie from Pig director Michael Sarnoski that looks to deconstruct the narrative around one of the west’s great mythical stories. Because what if it was just that? A story. One crafted to make people believe in something to manipulate them. Where the gleeful robbing was actually barbaric murdering. How would the “hero” at the center of all that dissonance reconcile the hypocrisy? If you watch this dark vibey revisionist take, you’ll find out.

Hugh Jackman plays “the hood” who is looking for a way through that murky moral quandary as he convalesces after a battle he thought would be his last. He won’t have to go it alone though as Jodie Comer plays a nun who will not only help nurse his wounds, but possibly his soul.

Watch the Trailer

Out: Today

Where: Movie Theaters

Details: 2 hrs 3 mins | R | 🍅: 78%

EXTRA CREDIT MOVIE(S) 📝

Girls Like Girls - Haley Kiyoko is a singer who turned the music video for her song “Girls Like Girls” into a young adult novel and now turned that book into a full narrative feature, which she co-wrote and directed. Talk about multi-talented. The reviews say the story about a young woman forced to move to Oregon after losing her mother, who then finds love in a new friend, is sweet and promise filling in all the right ways. Limited Theaters Today

Maddie’s Secret - absurdist… comedy? where John Early plays a woman who becomes a viral sensation for creating recipes and seemingly “has it all,” except the pressure of her newfound fame starts to reveal a dark secret from her past. The reviews say this mock Lifetime-esque story always seems to find the right tone, no matter if it’s melodrama, horror-twinged, satire or actual earnestness. Limited Theaters Today

Voicemails for Isabelle - a woman (Zoey Deutch) calls her sister’s phone and leaves life updates as voicemails, except 🥺, her sister is dead and the number is now in possession of a sweet young lad (Nick Robinsin) who begins to fall in love as he —creepily?—follows along. Sort of a one-sided You’ve Got Mail for the modern era (shit, I just rewatched the trailer and they literally namecheck that movie). Although honestly I might have to say “semi-modern era,” because who the hell leaves voicemails anymore? No reviews yet, but I’m sure this rom-com from The Flix will give you your 🥰 fix. Netflix Today

Never Change! - what if you and your entire graduating class had to go back to high school at age 35 because, well, you didn’t actually graduate. Awesome or awful? I think it’d kinda be both. What’s changed, what’s the same? Who’s still got that secret crush? The reviews say this Wet Hot American Summer-esque comedy is ridiculous, but maybe not ridiculous enough since most critics kinda hated it. Hulu Now