Author: John Stark

Blogger. EIC of macthemovieguy.com. Contributor to mjsbigblog.com and houseofgeekery.com. Previously featured on starpulse.com.
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Going In Blind: Ai weiwei’s Turandot

John Stark

Heading into this, I had no idea who Ai Weiwei is. Listen, I’m into film, television, and pop culture. I’m telling you, I kill it from my living room at Pop Culture Jeopardy. the problem is I can’t enter as a solo act. However, I am loosely familiar with Tura dot. In my free time, which actually is a misnomer because my free time goes to this stuff, and the other thing is how I get money, but I work with musicians. Classically trained musicians, music theatre performers, choirs, musicals, etc. I work in the performing arts. So as a … Continue reading Going In Blind: Ai weiwei’s Turandot

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In Your Dreams

John Stark

2025 has not really been a banner year for animation, which perhaps has worked in favor for Netflix, who went to the bank with a certain group of singing demon hunters earlier this year. The largest opening weekend for an animated feature went to CrunchyRoll, for their continuation of Demon Slayer. I’ve been waiting for a film to really pull some emotion from me. I like my animation to have a bit of heart with it. Not that it can’t make me laugh myself silly, but my favorite animated movies have a punch to them. An emotional gut punch. We … Continue reading In Your Dreams

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The Small Screen Diaries: 11/06/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Boots: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, Devil In Disguise: S1E3 (Peacock) with audio description, Sheriff Country: S1E3 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, English Teacher: S2E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Name that tune: S4E6 (Hulu) no audio description, Elzabeth: S3E2 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, and… Gabby’s Dollhouse: S1E1? (Netflix) with audio description. Boots- Why do I feel like the character who is trying to decide whether or not to reenlist secretly had a gay relationship, and in this don’t ask don’t tell world, is trying to pretend like nothing happened and move forward? But basically Cameron … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 11/06/25

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The Small Screen Diaries: 11/05/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Down Cemetary Road: S1E2 (Apple TV) with audio description, Wayward: S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Tracker: S3E3 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Squid Game The Challenge: S2E1 (Netflix) with audio description, The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball: S1E12 (Disney plus) with audio description, and The Paper: S1E10 (Peacock) with audio description I usually go in order, but I did finish both Wayward and The paper, and intend to do a full review for both. Look for that. Down cemetary Road- A lovely mystery is unfolding, with some really surprising twists along the way. I gotta say, I … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 11/05/25

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Going In Blind: Peter Hujar’s Day

John Stark

Here is a little film with some big talent behind it. Peter Hujar’s Day is Ira Sachs’s follow up to Passages, which also starred Ben Whishaw. The two are back together to provide not so much a biopic of photographer Peter Hujar, but more like a docudrama dramatization of a conversation he might have had with a friend (Rebecca Hall). He recounts parts of his life that are the most memorable to him, in a near stream of consciousness experience. If Hujar was given more emotionally taxing and bombastic moments, it would be a tour de force for Whishaw, since … Continue reading Going In Blind: Peter Hujar’s Day

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The Small Screen Diaries: 11/05/25

John Stark

TV Shows watched: High Potential: S2E7 (Disney plus) with audio description, Chad Powers: S1E6 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Anne Rice’s Talamaska (AMC Plus) no audio description, House Of Guinness: S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Murdock: S1E4 (Disney plus) with audio description, The Chosen Adventures: S1E3 (Amazon) with audio description, and The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) no audio description High Potential- The Fall Finale. The Thomas crown Affair meets High Potential as an art piece goes missing, and it’s up to our team to recover it. but when the insurance company associated with the owners of the painting sends … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 11/05/25

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Going In Blind: I Wish You All The Best

John Stark

A promising victim of a system where I ask for accessible screeners and don’t get them. I did a short review for Good Boy a while back, which I struggled with, after getting a screener for that with no audio description. Now I’ve been offered the film AGAIN (I shit you not) as part of IFC’s FYC campaign, and it still isn’t accessible, and their reps will not respond to my email to save their lives. When you say “audio description”, I might as well be speaking High valerian. I reviewed another film recently which I enjoyed very much, and … Continue reading Going In Blind: I Wish You All The Best

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The Small Screen Diaries: 11/03/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Black Mirror: S5E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Mr Scorsese: S1E3 (Apple TV) with audio description, The Chair Company: S1E4 (HBo MAX) with audio description,Crutch: S1E1 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, and Last Week tonight: Most Recent (HBO MAX) no audio description yet Black Mirror- Miley Cyrus’s episode is my nomination for a gateway episode to Black Mirror if you’re trying to introduce your friend to it, and they may not get the eccentricities of other things. Some of the episodes are wickedly smart, highly satirical of our lazy asses, … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 11/03/25

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Nuremberg

John Stark

it feels like it has been ages since Russell Crow has been in a film of note. It hasn’t been really that long, but after films like Kraven The Hunter, The Exorcism, Sleeping Dogs, Land of Bad, The Pope’s Exorcist, and others, it is tough to remember a time when he made a good film. it seemed like he had been submitted for film jail. Nuremberg could change all of that for him. In every film he’s done,he’s been the best thing about it. Nuremberg is finally a great film to match his talent, and he’s on screen with a … Continue reading Nuremberg

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The Small Screen Diaries: 11/03/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: the Witcher: S4E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Robin Hood: S1E1 (MGM Plus) with audio description, Star Wars Visions: S2E1 (Disney Plus) with audio description, ghosts: S5E3 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Have I Got News for you: S3E9 (HBO MAX) no audio description, Matlock: S2E3 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Loot: S3E3 (Apple plus) with audio description the Witcher- One day, I may find someone, fall in love, and they may say to me… The Witcher. I’ve never seen it. In that moment, maybe, I will watch it, long after the series has finished. when I can … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 11/03/25

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The Naked Gun (2025)

John Stark

Cast: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, Written By: Directed By: Akiva Schaffer Release Year: 2025 Studio: Paramount runtime: 85 minutes Audio Description Produced By: Written By: Narrated By: What is it?: A continuation of the trilogy that starred Leslie Nielsen, with Liam Neeson portraying his son, Frank drebin Jr., who finds himself in very similar hilarious setups, and delivering the same dry, deadpan humor. He has to help a blonde bombshell (Anderson), who he obviously will fall in love with, just like his father, and go up against a tech billionaire (Huston), who is seeking to … Continue reading The Naked Gun (2025)

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Task: Series Review

John Stark

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, tom Pelfrey, Amelia Jones, Martha Plimpton Length: 8 episodes Release Year: 2025 Streamer: HBO MAX Audio description Provided By: Point 360 Written by: James Mason Narrated By: what is It?: A drug deal goes horribly awry, and a federal task force is formed to figure out what happened, who is responsible, and what happened to a young boy that was in the house at the time and is now missing. Beneath the surface lies an underbelly, a dangerous drug dealing motorcycle cult and its deadly way of handling internal conflict. What Works: Mare Of East Town was … Continue reading Task: Series Review

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Going In Blind: 31 Candles

John Stark

Cast: Jonah Feingold Written and Directed By: Jonah Feingold release year: 2025 Studio/Streamer: Level 33 *There Is no Known Audio description For this title* What is it?: Leo is just looking for love, and is in the middle of a situationship. he’d like it to be more, but alas, he’s unlucky in true love. when he runs into an old classmate, he thinks he knows where hope may lie. In order to get back in the game, he decides to finally have his bar mitzvah at 30 years old, and for his mitzvah, he’s going to find a real relationship. … Continue reading Going In Blind: 31 Candles

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Shell

John Stark

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Kaya Gerber, Ziwe, Elizabeth Berklee, Mary Lynn Raskjub, Este Haim, Dustin Milligan, Peter MacNicol Written By: Jack Stanley Directed By: Max Minghella Release Year: 2025 Studio/Streamer: Republic/Paramount Runtime: 100 minutes Audio description produced By: Media Access Group Written by: Narrated by: Peter Jaycock What Is it?: It’s very much like a Demi Moore film from 2024. You know, that one. In this film, an aging actress (Moss) seeks to give herself a competitive edge in the casting room,and finds herself drawn to a new experimental drug company that promises she’ll look like she hasn’t aged … Continue reading Shell

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The Small Screen Diaries: 11/02/2025

John Stark

Y’all have no idea how many times I type the title and my fingers trip and spell “Dairies”. Nearly every morning. TV Shows Watched: The Last Frontier: S1E4 (Apple TV) with audio description, From: S3E8 (MGM Plus) with audio description, DMV: S1E3 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Starting Five: S2E2 (Netflix) with audio description, 911 Nashville: S1E4 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Tulsa King: S3E6 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, South Park: S28E2 (Paramount Plus) no audio description yet, Boston Blue: S1E2 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Abbott Elementary: S5E5 (Hulu) with audio description, and Nobody Wants this: S2E1 (Netflix) … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 11/02/2025