Content Warning: This story contains mentions of abuse, sex.

With summer finally relenting and allowing fall to roll in, many people are looking for cozy activities and places to stay out of the rain. Luckily, one of the best and most rain free places to hang out in is a movie theater. Here are the two movies to see, and to avoid this autumn while you take shelter from the weather.

Good – Saturday Night – R

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a show beloved and hated by millions alike. I like it, but it’s not something I really care about past some mild nostalgia. This movie, however, made it seem like one of the greatest shows ever produced, and it certainly inspired me to go watch the first episode of SNL. Before seeing this film, I said it looked like propaganda for Lorne Michaels. I was 100 percent correct, but I didn’t really mind just because it was so well made.

Much like the other good movie on this list, this was made by people who love film. It’s very fast-paced, as it follows the real time events an hour before the first episode of SNL aired, and everyone on set absolutely nailed what could be a very easy process to mess up. From the actors to the writers to the director, everyone knew what they were there to do, and damn did they do it. Plus Willem Dafoe was in it, so really you should watch it based on that alone.

Best – Exhibiting Forgiveness – NR

I am deeply proud to say this is the first movie to make me cry in theaters, like full on shedding tears, since probably Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. And as much as I love Spider-Man, this one definitely deserved it more. While this movie isn’t rated, it probably would get an R for a lot of the stuff in it. The main plot of this movie largely revolves around abuse. If you’re sensitive to that at all, I would be careful with this one.

Normally when writing this, I have to wait till the very last day of the month to place everything. That way I don’t end up writing about something and then see another movie and have to delete all that to write about a different one. But right as I walked out of the theater, I knew this would make the list. 

This movie is clearly made by people who love film. The way it’s shot, the acting, the music, it all feels filled with passion. The whole movie is centered around art and creation, and in that, it frames itself like a delicate painting. It’s vibrant and personal yet perfectly fixed within the frame that is filmmaking. I want to compare it to I Saw the TV Glow, not because they’re thematically similar at all, but because I think everyone should see it just once just to get the perspective. Even if you don’t get it, even if it’s not usually something you’d be into, you should see it.

Do you ever love a film so much you know you can never watch it again, because it couldn’t be as good the second time? That’s how I feel about this movie. My description could never do it justice, and I beg everyone to go watch it at once.

Bad – Venom: The Last Dance – PG-13

This one really made me sad if I’m being honest, and I don’t even think it’s that bad of a movie. I really enjoyed Venom, and I wasn’t that opposed to the second one, but this movie feels like a compilation of viral moments from five years ago dressed up in a trenchcoat pretending to be a film. I genuinely wanted to scream when it ended. I was totally banking on them giving us a tangible romance plot between Eddie and Venom, and they didn’t because they’re losers with no vision. Instead we get a faux sentimental montage to that god awful Maroon 5 song “Memories.” I truly wanted to rip my hair out. It wasn’t an ironic flashback or whatever; it was so genuine I felt sick.

The Venom films have always felt like throw-aways to me, like a hail mary that happened to be good the first time by dumb luck. This one is just straight up nothing. It’s Cocomelon for adult Marvel fans that haven’t realized yet that Disney doesn’t actually care about making good movies. It’s just depressing. Go watch Venom, and pretend the sequels don’t exist, I can promise this isn’t worth your time.

Worst – Joker: Folie à Deux – R

I doubt anyone is surprised that this one ended up being my worst. What can I say about this film that hasn’t already been said? It’s boring, it’s weird, it’s uncomfortable. I don’t think it was nearly as awful as people made it out to be, but it still sucked pretty bad. Of course, it’s mostly redeemed because of Lady Gaga. Any scene with her in it–particularly the musical parts–were better because she was there. Except the sex scene. That was so much worse because she was there. It felt like I was watching Joaquin Phoenix hit on my mom or something. Very gross.

I saw a TikTok commenter say the people who thought this movie was boring were like the people of Gotham. That we were idolizing Joker, but we didn’t care about Arthur Fleck. And to that I say, yeah obviously I don’t care, why should I? In this movie and the last, they’ve given us almost no reason to sympathize with him. You can’t make a boring movie about a boring murderer and his boring manipulative girlfriend and then say I suck for thinking it’s boring.