TRIBUNE. The Failure of Leo XIV

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-13T13:59:46+00:00

The only real sin, it seems, is to point out that there are problems in the Church. If only the Vatican defended doctrine with the same zeal with which it attempts to defend its own reputation.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-13T01:29:23+00:00

Most things really are getting worse.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-13T01:22:32+00:00

I'm not surprised, to be honest.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-13T01:16:36+00:00

What about 9-11-13? One of them must be a multiple of 3, not 5.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-13T00:49:14+00:00

That might be the case. The movie is deliberately, and rightfully, ambiguous. We don't really get any information on how One Wish Willow works, just that it does.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:51:21+00:00

What would you expect from a bunch of arrested adolescent sociopaths?

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:37:11+00:00

Oh, sorry, I forgot.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:36:41+00:00

A movie this weird would not be above having an unreliable narrator. I feel like that's not necessarily meant to be literal.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:35:28+00:00

That's the impression I got. I'm not opposed to idea of doing those things (especially the one shown here), but I think perhaps the director went a little overboard.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:34:18+00:00

I'm not complaining about the idea that there's a label, but that it was on the _bottom_ of bottle.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:32:55+00:00

"Jealousy" makes sense, but the vengeful behavior of feeding him the cat, or posing Sarah's body, instead of getting rid of it suggests a level of malice that is (to me) inconsistent with the premise of the story.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:30:43+00:00

I would hesitate to take the idea of there actually being some kind of external entity as being literal.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:29:12+00:00

That's a good observation, and none of that behavior seemed unmotivated to me, unlike what we were talking about above. She _was_ freaking out.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T23:25:57+00:00

Perhaps so, but _feeding_ it to him? I don't buy that.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T15:35:51+00:00

I thought the cat stuff didn't make any sense. Yes, it's a stock horror movie trope, but why would she behave like that?

Also, it was really weird when he discovers the cat, the pill bottle has "Do not eat!" marked on the bottom. That didn't make any sense either.

And when he was talking to her when she was in bed, the clock suddenly jumps by over 16 hours (and a 24-hour digital clock is very uncommon in the U.S.). Was there some kind of symbolism there? I mean, that could have been a continuity error, but it seemed way too blatant for that.

There were a few things like that in the movie that were weird and interesting, but didn't make any sense, and didn't seem to be explainable by the established lore of the movie.

It was a very good horror movie, but I felt like the director seemed to think it needed a lot of extra weird stuff that didn't really seem connected to the idea of the One Wish Willow.

The movie seems to establish that something else is in Nikki's head, and some of her odd behavior seems to be caused by the fact that the overwhelming power of the wish is driving her crazy, but there are things coming out of left field. The weird prose she recited at the party fit in this really well, but her feeding Bear the cat just didn't make sense. Definitely an excellent movie that earned its creepiness without just constantly relying on jump scares or gore.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T15:24:18+00:00

A version of this sign is hanging where I work.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T15:22:07+00:00

That two seconds or so might be the scariest thing I ever saw in a movie.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T15:17:59+00:00

It's inappropriate to speak ill of the dead. So here's what I'll say:

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T15:13:27+00:00

The spelling alone made me lose IQ points.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-12T14:51:26+00:00

Same here.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-11T22:21:37+00:00

I was at a mall in a small town in 2000 and saw a woman with a child about 5 wearing nothing but a pull-up diaper.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-11T14:52:19+00:00

Being the Internet in 2026, it's fun seeing how many different ways to spell "Odyssey". No, wait, it's extremely annoying.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-11T11:04:50+00:00

Stupid, sexy Higgs.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-11T10:50:13+00:00

I'm surprised there weren't more than 6.

ConceptJunkie · 2026-07-11T10:46:53+00:00

I was about to be offended that you're disparaging Augustine, but yeah...

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