Summer Bucket List Inspo

New in town and I’m making the ultimate summer bucket list. What screams “Portland summer” to you? I want the deeply essential experiences—like if summer came and went without them, you’d feel like you missed it. submitted by /u/sydney69 to r/askportland [link] [comments]

I have the summer off with my three kids age 15, 12, and 10. Money is tight so we haven’t signed them up for camps and only have one vacation to Maine planned. I can tell my kids are a little disappointed so I’d like to come up with some fun day trips. Most likely it will be me and the two younger kiddos as the oldest is working with dad during the week. They are excited to do the Aquarium and Canobie Lake. We are familiar with all the beaches so don’t need ideas relating to that. We are located in Merrimack Valley and willing to do up to an hour drive. Thanks! submitted by /u/Accomplished_Bed7120 to r/massachusetts [link] [comments]

After 4 plus decades, I’m heartbroken to be leaving the Bay Area this summer. With the time we have left, with my family, I want to hit the spots that we’ve missed, and possibly weren’t even aware of. I combed the responses from previous posts and made the list below, but wanted more opinions in case there was anything quintessential or awesome & obscure that I’ve missed. I myself have done several of the things listed, but my 6 year old hasn’t. Edit to add: I have done a ton of stuff in the Bay Area (Winchester, Sonoma, Alcatraz, etc), but it’s almost impossible to list everything, so I’d rather be inundated with ideas than miss anything. Appreciate all the great suggestions, please keep them coming! - Bioluminescence kayak tour Tomales Bay - Exploratorium alcohol night - Eat in-season crab…somewhere - James Lick Observatory - Gilroy Gardens - Hakone Gardens - B&R Farms for Blenheim plums - Summer weekend in Tahoe - Gold country weekend - Walk across Golden Gate Bridge - Go to El Faralito - Arzimendi Bakery - Hike Mt Tam/Marin headlands - Fentons Creamery - Concert in Stern grove - Rosicrucian Museum - Picnic in Golden Gate Park - Ferry ride to Sausalito - Muir Woods - Big Sur - Salesforce Park - Japantown submitted by /u/justpassingthru_1992 to r/bayarea [link] [comments]

Every year, I go to the movie theater as much as possible. It's my favorite place in the world. I first started keeping track/scores/reviews/ticket stubs in 2015. Since then, I've seen 1,827 different movies in theaters: 5 in 2015, 9 in 2016, 146 in 2017, 162 in 2018, 192 in 2019, 44 in 2020, 86 in 2021, 270 in 2022, 325 in 2023, 298 in 2024, and 290 this year. For this ranking, I'm only counting movies I saw in theaters, nothing that I watched at home. I'm not counting re-watches. I don't have a specific scoring system, it's just a rating I give to the movie right after watching. I've included a few re-releases, short films, and TV series, as long as they were seen in a theater (and for the first time). This is all just for fun and not meant to be taken super seriously, I'm not a professional movie critic. I just like going to the movies. I attended 9 film festivals in 2025 for a total of 124 movies. 97 movies had cast and/or crew in attendance for Q&As. There were 26 World Premieres, 11 North American Premieres, 11 Canadian Premieres, 11 East Coast Premieres, 17 Southeast Premieres, 20 Florida/Georgia/Orlando/US/Tampa/South Florida/International Premieres: Toronto International Film Festival - 29 Movies in 7 Days SCAD Savannah Film Festival - 29 Movies in 8 Days Fantasia Film Festival - 18 Movies in 6 Days Florida Film Festival - 13 Movies in 5 Days Miami Film Festival - 11 Movies in 5 Days Popcorn Frights Film Festival - 11 Movies in 8 Days Gasparilla International Film Festival - 6 Movies in 3 Days Miami Jewish Film Festival - 5 Movies in 3 Days Rendez-Vous Cinema Quebec - 2 Movies in 2 Days There were 11 movies that I re-watched in theaters: One Battle After Another - x7 Hamnet - x3 Nouvelle Vague - x2 Sinners - x2 If I Had Legs I'd Kick You - x2 The Testament of Ann Lee - x2 Highest 2 Lowest - x2 The Life of Chuck - x2 Him - x2 Twinless - x2 Sentimental Value - x2 I have AMC's A-List, Regal's Unlimited, Cinemark's MovieClub, as well as memberships to the Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Toronto film societies. I saw 290 movies in theaters in 2025. Here is my full ranking: The Testament of Ann Lee - 10/10 - It's a sprawling, intoxicating, and beautiful historical-epic with some of the best dance-sequence choreography I've ever seen on film. All of the performances are perfect, the songs/prayers are all memorable, the narration grabs you from the first second and never lets go, and it's got the most confident directing of the year. I wanted 5 more hours of Mother Ann's story. In a fair world, Amanda Seyfried is the runaway Best Actress Oscar winner. This'll go down as one of the best period-dramas of the 21st century. There's one or two masterpieces per year, Ann Lee a no-doubter for one of those spots. One Battle After Another - 10/10 - Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville Junction. Marty Supreme - 10/10 The Perfect Neighbor - 9/10 - I've not cried in a movie theater this much since Moonlight. It's the kind of movie that will make your blood boil and will make you melt to your seat by the end. The bodycam footage where the dad has to tell his two sons that their mother isn't coming home is something that will leave a scar on your heart forever. It's also very impressive on a technical level, the best documentary editing since Apollo 11 in 2019. I can't imagine all of the work that went into piecing this thing together. Sinners - 9/10 Brokeback Mountain (Re-Release) - 9/10 - I'm a bit late to the party here, this 20th anniversary theatrical-release was the first time I've seen this movie, and goddamn was it worth the wait. One of the most powerful love stories ever shot. It's the ultimate "what could've been" love story. Heath's performance is generational. I'm now a card-carrying member of the Brokeback Mountain Was Robbed for Best Picture by Crash Society™. Warfare - 9/10 - You can't talk about Warfare without first shouting out the insanely-great sound design. You could watch this movie with your eyes closed and still be impressed. An impossibly-tense war movie that makes 95 minutes feel like 10 minutes. It's really this generation's Black Hawk Down (huge compliment). It's a lot more grounded and believable though, with an outstanding ensemble cast. I love that nobody is a supersoldier in this, just guys in a bad spot in a bad point in time. It doesn't glorify but it also doesn't minimize. This movie will stand the test of time as one of the best war films of the decade. This thing was custom-built in a movie-lab just for me. Sorry, Baby - 9/10 - Eva Victor is 2025's major revelation. This movie is heartbreaking, hilarious, bittersweet, and soul-warming. It's probably the best Original Screenplay of the year too. This made me realize how much I really missed Lucas Hedges. So cool to see him pop up again. Bugonia - 9/10 - Yorgos doesn't miss. Hamnet- 9/10 - An all-time child-actor performance from Jacobi Jupe. This movie is equally soul-crushing and hopeful. Jessie Buckley's close-up when Hamnet dies is pound-for-pound the best single scene of the year. F1 - 9/10 - As far as fun-summer-blockbuster movies go, F1 is as good as it gets. It's this year's Top Gun: Maverick. Was it cliche? Yes. Was it predictable? Yes. Did I have a fucking blast for 2 hours? Also, yes. Keep pumping these out, Apple. The Phoenician Scheme - 9/10 - Asteroid City & The French Dispatch were slight missteps, but Wes Anderson is officially back. This movie overflows with heart & laughs. (with 10/10 production/set design as usual) Sacrifice - 9/10 - Anya Taylor-Joy was born to play an Icelandic eco-terrorist and Chris Evans was born to play the narcissitic, A-List actor in a rut suddenty thrust back into the limelight. Gorgeously shot, laugh-a-minute first act. I had a really great time with this one, it reminded me a lot of Don't Look Up. Very surprised everyone hates it. The Smashing Machine - 9/10 Magazine Dreams - 8/10 - Jonathan Majors comes in with maybe one of the most physically-demanding performances of all time. Without the real-life drama, this might've been an Oscar-winning role for him. Great movie. Highest 2 Lowest - 8/10 - If it wasn't for an extremely uneven first act and some classic weird Spike quirks in there, like insane transitions and some "how do you do, fellow kids?" moments , this would be one of the best movies of the year. It's still really really great, and the insane score kind of grows on you as it goes. Denzel is at the top of his game. My favorite Original Song of the year at the end. Train Dreams - 8/10 - It takes a while to grow on you. It might take an hour, it might take 5 days, but it'll eventually hit you like a....train (sorry). It's a beautiful slow burn about appreciating life's fleeting and rare moments of joy. The world keeps going on without you, and that's okay. It's extremely reflective and existential. Beautiful stuff. It did what A Ghost Story did for me a few years ago. Presence - 8/10 - Lucy Liu. No notes. It Was Just An Accident - 8/10 - A lot more humor than I expected. The most impressive longshot of the year with that interrogation scene near the end. Mariam Afshari deserves more attention. And holy fuck does that pin-drop ending hit. There's a few ways you can interpret the ending too which is really cool. The Threesome - 8/10 Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie - 8/10 - If you like satirical comedies (like Borat), just do yourself a favor and check it out. You’ll laugh more in the first 30 minutes than in any movie of the past 5 years. I'm Still Here - 8/10 Black Bag - 8/10 Nouvelle Vague - 8/10 - A fun, sweet, breezy, delicate ode to the French New Wave. A movie for movie nerds. Zoey Deutch is a delight and Guillaume Marbeck is one of the year's breakout actors. Left-Handed Girl - 8/10 - A beautiful slice-of-life family drama that’s right up my alley. Wonderful performances from the 2 young leads (their first major roles) and possibly the catchiest theme track of the year. All fans of Sean Baker should check this one out. Nina Ye killed it at the Q&A. Splitsville - 8/10 - Hilarious, sharp, sexy. One of the better recent romantic-comedies (big emphasis on comedy). I laughed more during the first fight sequence than probably any other single scene this year. Advice for any shlubby screenwriters out there: co-writing a sharp, funny screenplay where your romantic interestes are 10/10s like Dakota and Adria is a good move. It Ends - 8/10 - Sometimes you're lucky enough to catch a great movie from a first-time director and you know they'll blow up soon. This is that movie for 2025. The Count of Monte Cristo - 8/10 - You don't get these types of epics much anymore. Really well made and crafted. It's the best Monte Cristo has ever looked on screen. Oh, Hi! - 8/10 Sacramento - 8/10 - Michael Cera, how I've missed you. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning - 8/10 Is This Thing On? - 8/10 - Career-best stuff from Will Arnett. If only Laura Dern's character wasn't so poorly-written and shitty. Great, improv-like scenes in the comedy club. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery 8/10 - Doesn't quite reach the peak of the first one, but it's a step up from the 2nd. It's a lot more personal and dark than the other 2, which I really liked, and it keeps the (sometimes-outdated) humor. Fucktoys - 8/10 - It's Anora on mushrooms. It's weird, it's gross, it's got a ton of sex and some violence. It's kind of a modern nasty fairy tale. It's everything you want. Would recommend. Annapurna Sriram is a major talent to watch out for. Urchin - 8/10 - Part Safdie, part Glazer, part Leigh. A really confident and impressive debut film from Harris Dickinson. Harry Dillane is magnetic. Eternity - 8/10 Predator: Badlands - 8/10 A Quiet Place w/ Live Commentary (Re-Release) - 8/10 - This was the first "live commentary" screening I've ever attended. It was with co-writers Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (who also co-directed Heretic), moderated by Josh Malerman (who wrote Bird Box). A very fun screening, very insightful and amusing. Think Mystery Science Theater 3000, but for an actually-good movie. Final Destination: Bloodlines - 8/10 Companion - 8/10 No Other Land - 8/10 - Incredible achievement in documentary filmmaking. almost unfurls like a narrative drama. The only documentary other than 20 Days In Mariupol that's made me want to look away. It's really impressive how angry it makes you but also weaves in beautiful little funny moments of humanity that bring you back down to earth. You would think that "pouring cement down village water wells" was a cartoonish movie-villain move that would never actually happen in real life, but nope, it happens. The Girl with the Needle - 8/10 - Sometimes you just need a Cristian Mungiu-like hit of depression. This filled that hole. 28 Years Later - 8/10 The Long Walk - 8/10 - Not shying away from the brutality/violence is this movie's biggest strength. David Jonsson and Cooper Hoffman are perfect together. It's a very unique post-apocalyptic film, a different feel from the usual YA slop. Mark Hamill is very goofy and bad though. Rough casting there. Sentimental Value - 8/10 - This was a lot better on 2nd watch. In her limited screentime, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas puts in the best supporting performance of the year. She is the heart & soul of this movie. Truly heartbreaking stuff when Renate reads her the monologue at the table. The History of Sound - 8/10 - Shoutout to this movie for introducing me to Silver Dagger, probably the greatest folk song ever. I've had different covers of it playing on repeat since the minute I left the theater. Paul Mescal was amazing in his rendition. Beautiful, Brokeback Mountain-like love story about what could've been and regrets. A House of Dynamite - 8/10 - It's only fair to score this by act: First Act: 10/10 - Movie-of-the-year potential. Thrilling and engaging. I wanted to cry everytime Rebecca Ferguson was on screen. Second Act: 8/10: The greatest TV pilot episode you've ever seen. Greta Lee keeps getting done dirty though. Third Act: 3/10 - What a fumble nooooooooo Kathryn noooooooo. My Mom Jayne - 8/10 Sirat - 8/10 - Sound design that will have your clothes shaking during the rave sequences and have you jump during the (extremely) unexpected death scene(s). A great (but extremely bleak) odyssey through the desert set against the backdrop of the world falling apart. Good shit. She Dances - 8/10 - Whenever Steve and Audrey Zahn are on-screen together, the scenes burst with authenticity and genuineness. The script is sweet, funny when it needs to be, and sometimes brings out a few tears. Really great little family-drama. Hamilton - 8/10 Bring Her Back - 8/10 - Danny and Michael Philippou should be thrown in fucking jail for that scene of the kid chewing on the knife. Sovereign - 8/10 Weapons - 8/10 Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair - 8/10 - Confession: I had only seen bits and pieces of both Kill Bill movies prior to this. I had an abolute blast. The 2nd half doesn't quite live up to the first though. Avatar: Fire and Ash - 8/10 - Oona Chaplin awoke something in me. i'm now a Varangsexual. Mile End Kicks - 8/10 - Chandler Levack is Canada’s brightest up and coming filmmaker since Xavier Dolan. Pls keep her on your radar. Now she needs to make a movie without an annoyingly-unlikeable lead. Nuremberg - 8/10 - Your dad's pick for Best Picture. I had really low expectations, a 2.5-hour WW2 courtroom drama sounds like Oscar-bait 20 years too late, but a really tight script and perfect pacing kept me thoroughly engaged. It's also the best Russell Crowe performance since...Gladiator? Good stuff. I'm back on the WW2 movie train. Leo Woodall knocks it out of the pack with his monologue too. Out of nowhere. The Naked Gun - 8/10 Twinless - 8/10 Rebuilding - 8/10 - Lowkey family-drama set in the aftermath of a fire that destroys a man's family ranch. Josh O'Connor is outstanding as usual. Eric LaRue - 8/10 The Life of Chuck - 8/10 Frankenstein - 8/10 - It's undoubtedly technically impressive, probably deserves Oscar nominations in most tech categories. The cast and crew is stacked, and it's solid, but there's a major thing keeping it from being truly great/top 25 of the year: an interesting story. It's really good but classic GDT style-over-substance like Crimson Peak. Megadoc - 8/10 - Almost makes up for the actual movie. Almost. The Francis/Shia and Aubrey/Dustin dynamics were really fascinating to watch. Really great doc about the chaos of filmmaking. It's a shame Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel didn't want to be filmed for it, but I can't say I blame them. Jay Kelly - 8/10 Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere - 8/10 - Everyone else is wrong, this thing was good. Atlantic City forever. Rosemary's Baby (Re-Release) - 8/10 Hurry Up Tomorrow- 8/10 - Maybe throw me in jail for this but I thought this thing rocked? Part Vox Lux, part Misery, part Good Time. Jenna Ortega absolutely smashes it (wish the whole movie was from her POV tbh) and Keoghan/Abel are pretty solid as well. If you can look over the self indulgence (which is kinda the point) and a bad 5-minute sequence near the end, this is a banger. The score and camework alone make it watchable. Trey Edward Shults fan until the day I die. Together - 8/10 Americana - 8/10 - It does jump the shark a bit near the end when like 45 people die and it becomes a bit unbelievable, but it's a fun Tarantino-like crime story and Sidney Sweeney/Paul Walter Hauser are great together. It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley - 8/10 The Fantastic Four: First Steps - 7/10 The Damned - 7/10 - Claustrophobic period-pieces are my shit. An overlooked January-dump movie that deserves more praise. The Ballad of Wallis Island - 7/10 She Rides Shotgun - 7/10 Christy - 7/10 Roofman 7/10 - A perfectly-solid action-crime-comedy with a stellar Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. This would've made $200M domestic 20 years ago. It doesn't have the usual emotional devastation that you'd expect from a Derek Cianfrance film, but that's fine. Thunderbolts - 7/10 - Like most people, I'm kinda "over" the Marvel formula, and in general this was a bit more of the same, but Pugh and Harbour commit really hard and keep it very engaging and just-different-enough. It's one of the better recent MCU efforts. I liked Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a Veep-adjacent role. Materialists - 7/10 Dead Man's Wire - 7/10 Rental Family - 7/10 Sisu: Road to Revenge - 7/10 - A nice improvement over the first one, rare for a sequel. Some really impressive kills. Mickey 17 - 7/10 Shin Godzilla (Re-Release) - 7/10 The School Duel - 7/10 Eephus - 7/10 - A local beer league baseball team plays their final game at the local park. Makes you feel nice and fuzzy and warm. Dangerous Animals - 7/10 - Some actors are born for a certain role. Jai Courtney is that actor in this movie. Ballerina - 7/10 Vermiglio - 7/10 Violent Ends - 7/10 Good Fortune - 7/10 - There are some glaring flaws (like Aziz's acting & delivery), but it does a lot of things very well and has a sweet enough ending to keep this pretty good. Keanu's character is a highlight and has a ton of great lines ("I used to be a celestial being and now I'm a chainsmoker", etc) Secret Mall Apartment - 7/10 Blue Moon - 7/10 - Ethan Hawke is outstanding and basically shows off and runs circles around everybody for 100 minutes, but chamber pieces just aren’t reaching “great” level for me recently. Wicked: For Good - 7/10 The Surfer - 7/10 Eleanor the Great - 7/10 - Pure boomer catnip. Your grandma's favorite movie of 2025. June Squibb is a national treasure. Protect her at all costs. Blue Heron - 7/10 - An Officer and a Spy - 7/10 - Polanski still has a bit of juice. Nobody is doing courtroom-dramas like the French recently. California Schemin' - 7/10 - It gets a bit repetitive but it's a solid directorial debut effort from James McAvoy. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey - 7/10 Villes Jacques-Carton - 7/10 - Quebec represent. (weak year for Quebec cinema I'll admit) Normal - 7/10 - If you like John Wick and John Wick-like clone films, you’ll like this. Lots of fun kills. Lots of blood. Good popcorn flick. Not breaking any new ground though. The Ballad of a Small Player - 7/10 - Macau is a sick setting for a film, and I really dug the first hour, a degenerate gambler just digging his own grave, and the score from Volker Bertelmann is a standout of the year, but it loses its way a bit when he dies (or maybe he doesn't? who knows). Also, more Fala Chen please. Jurassic World: Rebirth - 7/10 Superman - 7/10 - There's some funny lines, solid needledrops, and Rachel Brosnahan is great as usual, but it's not enough to make it really pop. Solid movie, another decent entry in the comic book movie category, but it doesn't reinvigorate my enthusiasm for the genre as a whole like I'd hoped it would. Tatami - 7/10 One of Them Days - 7/10 - Katt Williams being the highlight of a movie in the year of our lord 2025 was not on my bingo card. We need more crowd-pleasing comedies like this in theaters. The Seed of the Sacred Fig - 7/10 Fackham Hall - 7/10 - The Trainspotting poster bit was so good. Non-stop bits and easter eggs, a fun time. The Wizard of the Kremlin - 7/10 Caught Stealing - 7/10 - Zoë Kravitz is gone far too soon. I Love LA (TV Series) - 7/10 Fight or Flight - 7/10 - It sequel-baits a bit too hard and the tech-villains are way too cartoony, but some solid kills, great lines/editing, and Josh Hartnett fully committing to the alcoholic, down-on-his-luck assassin bit really keeps it entertaining enough. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life - 7/10 Sisters - 7/10 Parthenope - 7/10 - It's a gorgeous-looking movie, I could stare at Celeste Dalla Porta for 10 more hours, and I'm a big Paolo Sorrentino fan but this feels a bit more style-over-substance than his usual output. The Monkey - 7/10 The Luckiest Man in America - 7/10 - When an indie budget is stretched to the limit and puts out a good movie. Terrestrial - 7/10 Two Women - 7/10 Sharp Corner - 7/10 - I watched this dubbed in French so the performances definitely took a hit, but it was a pretty biting look at the pressures of the workplace and family leading to a man's downward spiral. Ben Foster is always solid (even when he's dubbed in French-Canadian). Sweetness - 7/10 Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues - 7/10 - I have still not seen the original, but this was good enough as a standalone. The final performance scene leaves a bit to be desired, but there's enough humorous dialogue to keep it chugging along ("in the daytime, ghosts are just rumors" is my personal favorite". Almost Popular - 7/10 My Dead Friend Zoe - 7/10 I Am Frankelda - 7/10 The Amateur - 7/10 - It's basically Bourne-lite, but they don't make these globe-trotting spy movies enough anymore. I enjoyed it. Torture-by-pollen was a wild move though. On Swift Horses - 7/10 Merrily We Roll Along - 7/10 - As far as theatrical pro-shots go, it's below Waitress & Hamilton. At first the constant cuts are a bit annoying/nauseating, but it works itself out. Radcliffe has one really amazing/impressive song number (during the TV interview), Groff is outstanding throughout. Was not a fan of Lindsay Mendez at all. I wanted a bit more emotionally from the whole thing. The theme song is amazing. Heart Eyes - 7/10 No Other Choice - 7/10 - good but kinda very long, innit? Freaky Tales - 7/10 The Wedding Banquet - 7/10 - Fun little rom-com brought down a bit by rough acting and awkward line/joke delivery from Bowen Yang and the Korean guy. Lily and Kelly carried them big time. Loved the “we have to de-gay the house!!!” bit. Great ending too. (never saw the original) Freakier Friday - 7/10 Rust - 7/10 The Ugly Stepsister - 7/10 Come Closer - 7/10 La Grazia 7/10 - Location scouts for Sorrentino movies need special recognition. The Accountant 2 - 7/10 - The story is a bit overcooked (the X-Men-like school for autistic super-hackers is a crazy turn for this movie to take) and it gets a bit too Sound of Freedom-y, but the Affleck/Bernthal scenes together keep it from falling apart completely. Rise (Short Film) - 7/10 Tornado - 6/10 Inheritance - 6/10 The Housemaid - 6/10 Anemone - 6/10 - [Sean Bean stares in amazement at DDL's performance] x10. There's a few good lines ("god doesn't need undies, cause he's not full of shit like you are", "the explosion was so loud you couldn't hear it"), two amazing DDL monologues, and it looks amazing, but feels kind of empty as a whole. Definitely something missing. Spider & Jessie - 6/10 Orwell: 2+2=5 - 6/10 - Some sequences are truly must-see pieces of documentary filmmaking (like the grilling of the ghoulish tech billionaire fucks and the January 6th bits) but then others are so truly scattered and shoehorned that it disconnects you from the message of the movie. 9/10 potential here if it could get out of its own way. Don't Let's Go to The Dogs Tonight - 6/10 Charlie Harper - 6/10 - A cute story about a highschool sweetheart couple (an aspiring chef and an underachieving alcoholic, classic) that’s shot really great and acted well (othet than the non-existent drunk acting from a supposed alcoholic) but ultimately burdened by a mountain of cliches. Song Sung Blue - 6/10 The Toxic Avenger 6/10 - A Troma film should have more nudity. Let's bring nudity back. Put me down for more nudity. Tron: Ares - 6/10 If I Had Legs I'd Kick You - 6/10 Anaconda - 6/10 - One day soon I'll be tired and over and the ironic, meta, big-studio-movie, but today is not one of those days. I had a decent time with this. A The Legend of Bagger Vance reference in 2025 deserves some respect. Death Does Not Exist - 6/10 40 Acres - 6/10 Locked - 6/10 Paddington in Peru - 6/10 Clown In A Cornfield - 6/10 Captain America: Brave New World - 6/10 - Adding this to the never-ending list of good-but-forgettable comic book movies. The genre is stale as hell. Wolf Man - 6/10 - Really liked the POV switches, sound design, and creature design, but the rest is by-the-numbers horror flick. Drop - 6/10 Blood for Dracula (Re-Release) - 6/10 Taylor Swift - The Official Release Party of a Showgirl - 6/10 - The lyric video stuff was whatever/boring/filler but I really liked the behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Ophelia music video. I could’ve watched an entire doc of Taylor directing that video. Great song too. And the closing song rocked too. Fanny - 6/10 Find Your Friends - 6/10 All Her Fault (TV Series) - 6/10 Fairyland - 6/10 A Nice Indian Boy - 6/10 Eddington - 6/10 - There's some interesting stuff in here, but overall kind of a mess. That's been Ari Aster's vibe recently. A Minecraft Movie - 6/10 To Kill A Wolf - 6/10 Keeper - 6/10 Waltzing with Brando - 6/10 - Billy Zane is super convincing as Marlon Brando. The rest is forgettable. Re-Animator (Re-Release) - 6/10 Opus - 6/10 - John Malkovich could not have been more horribly miscast. There's a good cult movie hidden in here somewhere, but Ayo by herself couldn't bring it out. Needed some more passes at rewrites. Grand Theft Hamlet - 6/10 Den of Thieves 2: Pantera - 6/10 Novocaine - 6/10 Barcelona (Re-Release) - 6/10 The Roses - 6/10 - This was a Dollar Tree Marriage Story. Very tonally-uneven. Kate McKinnon is distractingly-bad. Cumberbatch and Colman work well enough together to keep it watchable but it's kinda messy. IT: Welcome to Derry (TV Series) - 6/10 Modern Whore - 6/10 100 Nights of Hero - 6/10 Ick - 6/10 Algiers - 6/10 Everything's Going to Be Great - 6/10 - I really wish Bryan Cranston didn't die early on in the movie. His character and charisma really kept this afloat at first. It mostly fall flats after he's gone, except a few sweet moments. Weirdly over-religious vibes to the movie. Angel Studios was probably close to landing this one. Abraham's Boys - 6/10 I Know What You Did Last Summer - 6/10 - Worth seeing for the Nicole Kidman AMC intro reference alone. Death of a Unicorn - 6/10 Clorofilla - 6/10 I Don't Understand You - 6/10 On Becoming A Guinea Fowl - 6/10 - It's hard to think of a more recent ending that's so unsatisfying. It's good until that. Fuck those last 5 minutes. Allen Sunshine - 6/10 Night of the Demons (Re-Release) - 6/10 La Gloria - 6/10 The Legend of Ochi - 6/10 - It's a gorgeous movie and very Wes Anderson-coded, but too childish to make a real impact. If I'm honest, Helena Zengel should've just spoken German (with subtitles) instead of intelligible English. Cleaner - 6/10 Bonjour, Tristesse - Lily McInerny is outstanding, one of my picks for "breakout" performances of the year, and I'm a sucker for a sun-drenched Mediterranean setting, but Chloë Sevigny is just so bad and sinks the rest of the performances. Love Machine (Short Film) - 6/10 The Shrouds - 6/10 Mermaid - 6/10 - With 20-25 minutes shaved off, this could've been great. It captures some of the gross underbelly of Florida that not a lot of movies can (The Florida Project being the best example), but it's dragged down by bad performances and a plot that's too dragged out. I wanted it to end at least 5 times. Dog of God - 6/10 Trust - 6/10 Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale - 5/10 - It loses a lot of the charm of the first 2 films. Dead of Winter - 5/10 The Friend - 5/10 Him - 5/10 Somnium - 5/10 Hard Truths - 5/10 Borderline - 5.7 - Full disclosure: I saw this in a theater but left about halfway because I saw a big ass rat crawling through the aisle (2nd time I've ever seen one in a theater. Other time was in 2019 for The Best of Enemies). That's gonna be a no from me, dawg. Finished the rest at home. All that being said, Samara Weaving is good but she can only do so much to carry a weak story. Hunting Daze - 5/10 The Chronology of Water- 5/10 - A completely incomprehensible first-45-minutes (by design I guess?), but Imogen poots puts in one of the most daring & brave performances in a while. A huge huge swing by Kristen Stewart for a directorial debut. Sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses hard. www.rachelormont.com - 5/10 - This movie is fucking disgusting. I'm pretty sure real-life misdemeanors/felonies were actually committed during the filming (seriously). But it's just weird and funny enough (especially during the meta, audience-speaking portion) to keep you locked in. A wild ride that I wouldn't take again but that I'm happy to have taken off of the bucket list. Honey, Don't! - 5/10 - "My left or your left?", "We're facing the same way" is one of the year's best exchanges, and there's a few of those gems, but ultimately this is one of the most disjointed movies involving A-list talent I've ever seen (looking at you, Amsterdam). Too much going on, some really awful performances (Charlie Day, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans). Only Margaret Qualley showed up. She rocks. Swiped - 5/10 - We have The Social Network at home. Bone Lake - 5/10 Black Phone 2 - 5/10 - There should be a law capping Blumhouse horrors at 95 minutes. Big drop-off from the first one. Madelaine McGraw was fantastic though. The Woman in the Yard - 5/10 Seven Veils - 5/10 M3gan 2.0 - 5/10 - I've gotta admit that there's a lot of really solid & memorable one-liners in here, but this movie really needed an R-rating and 25 minutes less of runtime. Fuze - 5/10 Now You See Me Now You Don't - 5/10 The Running Man - 5/10 - Edgar no :( Ella McCay - 5/10 - There's some truly baffling stuff going on in this movie (30-year old Ema MacKey unconvincingly playing a 15-year old for a part of the movie being one of them), but I love James L. Brooks too much to give it a lower score. #EllaMcCayChallenge Sketch - 5/10 The Well - 5/10 Queens of the Dead - 5/10 Unmoored - 5/10 Last Breath - 5/10 Mr. Blake at Your Service! - 5/10 Hedda - 5/10 - Aside from the solid costume and set design (and a few moments when I was reminded of Babylon), this was a pretty nothing-movie with a confusing plot and extremely unlikeable characters. The Virgin of Quarry Lake - 5/10 - Visually striking but much too slow. Mr. Melvin - 5/10 Armand - 5/10 The Bearded Girl - 5//10 Karate Kid: Legends - 5/10 Test Screening - 5/10 Sounds of Glass (Short Film) - 5/10 Invention - 5/10 The Penguin Lessons - 5/10 Another Simple Favor - 4/10 - This might be the most overcooked script of the year. There's just so much going on, you can't keep track of any character motivations, and it just throws in twists for the sake of twists. The original was fine, this was not good. Good Boy - 4/10 Hacked: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma - 4/10 Hot Milk - 4/10 - There's something good hidden in here, but it's irritating as hell. The Room Next Door - 4/10 - All of the bad of Almadovar (clunky dialogue, overly-melodramatic, etc), with none of the good. Boring as well Sister Midnight - 4/10 The Devil’s Bride - 4/10 After the Hunt- 4/10 - ??????????????? Snow White - 4/10 - I think Rachel Zegler is great. Whenever she wasn't on screen, I didn't care. Disney live-action remakes have to start caring a lot more about what they're putting out there. The returns are diminishing big time. Of Dogs and Men - 4/10 Shelby Oaks - 4/10 Nobody 2 - 4/10 - I never want to see Sharon Stone in anything ever again. Take the Oscar nomination away. Wish You Were Here - 4//10 The Baltimorons - 4/10 Die My Love - 4/10 - Shoutout to John Prine. The Carpenter's Son - 4/10 Dust Bunny - 4/10 The Rule of Jenny Penn - 4/10 - Painfully repetitive. Enough lens-flare-induced-blindness to probably qualify for a class action lawsuit. Flight Risk - 4/10 Anniversary - 4/10 - About as subtle as brick to the temple. Jesus christ. Ash - 4/10 Reflection in a Dead Diamond - 4/10 - Zzz... Apostasy Blues - 4/10 The Christophers - 4/10 - A very rare Soderbergh L. Such a bore. Did not help that I couldn't understand a single word Ian McKellen was saying and that Michaela Coel was horribly miscast. The G - 4/10 Rosemead - 4/10 Teacher's Pet - 4/10 - Coming to a Tubi near you soon. Ex-Husbands - 4/10 The Unholy Trinity - 4/10 - Bland RedBox (RIP) fodder. Samuel L. Jackson surprisingly cares so that kept it from a rock-bottom score. Away with the Fairies (Short Film) - 4/10 Atom & Void (Short Film) - 4/10 Eastern Western - 3/10 Cujo (Re-Release) - 3/10 - Had not seen it before, and I can still tell you it hasn't aged well. Awful. High Rollers - 3/10 Auction - 3/10 - There aren't many things in life more pretentious than art-related French films. The Thing With Feathers - 3/10 - Man this was a rough watch. The Home - 3/10 Thank You, Places! - 3/10 - A valiant effort by a local theater group to shoot & produce a movie during the height of COVID but I could've seen anything else and been more entertained. One Big Happy Family - 3/10 Homebound - 3/10 Good American Family (TV Series) - 3/10 The Story of Three Sisters (Short Film) - 3/10 First Rites (Short Film) - 3/10 Love Hurts - 2/10 - If I had a gun with two bullets and I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, and Love Hurts, I would shoot Love Hurts twice. Kiss of the Spider Woman - 2/10 - I really enjoyed the 12-minute sequence of Diego Luna graphically and aggressively shitting himself (3 feet away from a toilet for some reason by the way?) while the lead character wipes it all up, that was super cool and cinematic and necessary. This movie was hot ass, in more ways than one. Extremely overhyped out of Sundance, there's one every year. Deserved flop. One of the few times a year I walk out of a movie theater angry. Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman - 2/10 - Amateur hour. The worst Goodfellas rip-off you've ever seen. If you told me this was originally a Youtube short from 2008, I would believe you. The Verdict - 1/10 - The filmmakers should honestly be ashamed for submitting and screening this unfinished soap-opera-masquerading-as-a-film. The festival progammers should be ashamed for programming it and charging people for it. I should be ashamed for staying the entire 100 minutes. Shame all around, really. Nobody wins here. It’s like if a group of blind preschoolers decided to remake Anatomy of a Fall. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 - 0/10 - I thought Netflix’s truly-apocalyptical purchase of Warner Bros was the worst thing to happen to theatrical moviegoing in a hundred years, but then I saw Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Theater Distribution by Venue/Chain: AMC - 103 Regal - 58 Cinemark - 7 Cineplex - 3 VIP - 3 Landmark - 2 Silverspot - 2 Independent/Festival/Other - 112 (Bill Cosford Cinema, Cinema Centre-Ville, Cinema du Musee, Cinema Paradiso, Classic Gateway, Coral Gables Art Cinema, Enzian Theater, Hall Theater, IFC Center, Lightbox Theater, Lucas Theater, Miami Theater Center, Movies of Delray, Olympia Theater, Princess of Wales, Roy Thomson Hall, Royal Alexandra, Salle J.A. DeSeve, Savor Cinema, SCAD Museum of Art, Scotiabank Theater, Tampa Theater, Trustees Theater) Theater Visits by Month: https://i.imgur.com/JxMd5Qt.jpeg January: 19 February: 11 March: 27 + 1 Re-Release (Barcelona) April: 37 + 1 TV Series (Good American Family) + 1 Re-Release (Rosemary's Baby) May: 17 June: 15 + 1 Re-Release (Brokeback Mountain) July: 24 + 6 Short Films (Atom & Void, Sounds of Glass, First Rites, The Story of Three Sisters, Love Machine, Away with the Fairies) August: 23 + 5 Re-Releases (Re-Animator, A Quiet Place, Cujo, Night of the Demons, Shin Godzilla) September: 43 + 2 Rewatches (One Battle After Another x2) October: 24 + 2 TV Series (IT: Welcome to Derry, I Love LA) + 1 Short (Rise) + 1 Release (Blood for Dracula) + 12 Re-Watches (One Battle After Another x3, Nouvelle Vague, Sinners, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, The Testament of Ann Lee, Highest 2 Lowest, Hamnet, The Life of Chuck, Him, Twinless) November: 16 + 1 TV Series (All Her Fault) + 1 Re-Watch (Sentimental Value) December: 15 + 2 Re-Watches (Hamnet, One Battle After Another) Theater Visits by Day of the Week: https://i.imgur.com/wD0Tsx6.jpeg Monday - 16 Tuesday - 28 Wednesday - 32 Thursday - 53 Friday - 57 Saturday - 65 Sunday - 39 Notable Missed Movies: https://i.imgur.com/42reKIv.jpeg Cast/Crew/Filmmaker Q&As/Appearances: https://i.imgur.com/5kl6qWn.jpeg Favorite Performances: https://i.imgur.com/mf6Bren.jpeg Past Rankings: 2018 (162 Movies) 2019 (192 Movies) 2020 (44 Movies) 2021 (86 Movies) 2022 (270 Movies) 2023 (325 Movies) 2024 (298 movies) Please support your local movie theater. Go alone. Go with others. Buy popcorn. Sneak in snacks. Go on a Discount Tuesday. Disconnect for 2 hours and watch a movie on the biggest screen possible. Don't let corporate greed and stockholder profits destroy a hundred years of laughs, tears, and communal joy. See you at the movies in 2026 :) submitted by /u/BunyipPouch to r/movies [link] [comments]

So 15 years ago today I fucked up bad and today I found out why. I was in highschool and our school had a pretty normal dresscode policy until this new younger woman teacher started. 3 months into her being there, she brings out this extremely strict dresscode policy but only for girls. It was the start of summer, the building had no a/c and the new dresscode limited girls to basically a frumpy tshirt and baggy jeans while boys could wear whatever we want. I being a rebelious little fuck did not like this. My girlfriend at the time was sad. Everyone had to go buy new clothes and every day they didnt do it they got handed this ugly big brown t-shirt of shame that says "i was out of dress code" and these big brown sweats. It was extremely uncomfortable. So what did I do? I started wearing every banned girls article of clothing. I wore short shorts that barely hid my ass because it was allowed. I wore lowcut shirts. I cut the sides off every tank top so it just showed my torso. I even wore a short skirt and a croptop one day to prove a point. I got away with it maybe twice before I started getting dresscode violated every day. I was in every detention for several months. I got suspended. I had to go to two weeks of summer school that year as punishment. I fought the system very hard. And others joined in. It got be almost every dude was getting dress code violated to stand up for the girls. Anytime we got the brown clothes we wore it with pride. It was damn hot in that building you'd pour buckets of sweat. They should have been allowed to wear shorys. I made my list of demands. Girls can wear tank tops, they can wear shorts. They can wear 4 fingers low cut tshirts. We all fought for it and eventually they caved in and gave it to us. I was so happy. It was a formative experience for me because I was willing to take any punishment no matter how severe to fight some perceived injustice. So I'm back in my home town its a small suburb of the outskirts of a city. And at the one bar everyone goes to I run into the teacher who forced the policy all those years ago. I go say hi and she instantly remembered me. So I sat down with her and her friends and we talked about it since it was so long ago and now i'm at the age she was when she was enforcing it. Boy did I get that situation wrong. So there were 4 particularly creepy male teachers at that time. 1 everyone knew about and 3 that were only known by faculty. They were preying on the girls. Taking random pictures of them, being extremely creepy, all sorts of innapropriate things they shouldnt have done. So she went to the board, brought evidence and reported them but they decided not to investigate. She told the police but when aftet a month nothing happened she changed the dress code to protect the girls but she couldnt explicitly state why she was doing it. Modern times caught up with those teachers and they are now fired but as an adult I see now that I ran a campaign to put the girls back in danger. Tl;dr In high school i fought an oppressive dress code system because i thought it was unfair to the girls. But 15 years later I found out it was to protect the girls from pedo teachers. Edit: added context Theres a couple questions about the logistics of how she enforced a dress code being so new. I'll try and give more details but again its 15 years ago i may not get it exactly accurate she was not the only teacher who wanted this but she was the strongest voice to stand up for this. Basically with the backing of several teachers she convinced the principle to implement the dress code. A lot more than just dress code happened. Prom had the bright lights on that year and girls got their dresses measured at the door. It was a fullscale push from a big section of teachers. But this particular teacher definitely was the one who championed it. these pervy men didn't exactly hide. The one we all knew about was actually a beloved and favorite teacher of the school because he was very funny. His policy, and I am not kidding. If you wore a low cut shirt and bent over when turning in your exam he would give you extra points on it. For fairness he did this for guys too so everyone in his class on test day effectively had their chest exposed. And we thought it was hillarious and saw nothing wrong with it because our older siblings all went through the same thing. I had to ask my mom to take me to buy my first low cut shirt freshman year because of this class and I explained why. Its genuinely crazy what you get away with if you're funny, well liked and dont act like anything is wrong. so when she came with a policy like this she was just a few years ahead of her time. There was a serious issue the dress code had slipped pretty bad. She and everyone who pushed the policy definitely over corrected. Looking back this was the logical finale to having several new eyes in an inappropriate school environment. I dont have enough characters to get into it its probably a whole other post on just my high school in that era's tea. But there was scandle after scandle that went unanswered and just became rumor. This really wasnt Edit 2: this post is still getting a lot of attention and I'm seeing a lot of similar comments so I'll add this In the moment of writing this I definitely was incorrectly swayed by her. I believe now what I did was right and and punishing the victims was not an appropriate way to handle creepy men. Looking back more on it the way they enforced the dress code was not ok. It was frequent use of humiliation to the girls. So not only were they being predated on by pedos, they were also being bullied and humiliated by those who claimed to protect them. Gross. submitted by /u/RemyAvo to r/tifu [link] [comments]

https://preview.redd.it/1bhy00ilmaef1.jpg?width=1819&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87e08c5d2ae4e91aa53fa9b69690f7fc8ce02f5f Clinic: Wink Plastic Surgery Doctor: Dr. Seunghyup Choi, Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon, KSPRS #106811 Surgery: Incisional Double Eyelid Surgery, Epicanthoplasty, Ptosis Correction Surgery Date: 7/5/2025 Cost: Please DM :) Note: When I started my journey on getting DES, I told myself that I was not going to let price dictate my decision. If two clinics recommended the same procedure, I wasn’t going to choose the cheaper one just because it was cheaper. I really wanted to make a clear, informed decision based on the doctor’s skill, their recommendations and the clinic itself, and if it happened to be the most expensive one, then so be it. I did 4 in-person consultations and I ended up wanting to go with the most expensive clinic anyway. Disclaimer: The review “requested” was only to write about my experience, but I am going out of my own way to write this recap as part of a complete guide since it was hard to navigate this DES journey myself and I’m hoping this will help others. So take this for what you will, but I hope it’s evident that these are my honest thoughts. -- Background: 32F, Southeast Asian (born and raised in the States), one double eye-lid, one monolid, relatively healthy and this is my first (and hopefully only) double eyelid surgery. Reasoning: Not that I need to share this to justify why I did this surgery, but I want to write it out in case there are others who have similar experiences. I have an asymmetrical bone structure and my different lidded eyes make it more noticeable. There would be days when I would wake up and my right eye had a double lid and I felt my face was noticeably more “balanced” so I figured why not make this permanent. My goal overall is for my face to look more balanced, not shift my bone structure. Goal: Shape: In-line, with the fold starting near the inner corner and tapering out gently. I wanted a natural, subtle crease height – not too deep or dramatic and avoiding the “sausage” eye as much as possible. I didn’t want an exaggerated crease that would result in overpowering my eyes. I wanted to do incisional because I wanted this to be a permanent, one and done, surgery. I know a lot of people opt for non-incisional but the results may fade after 1-2 years (could be a good or bad thing, depending on the results), but I do not have that much money or PTO days to do this over and over again. I understood that incisional would be a higher risk which is why I wanted to do in-person consultations to meet with the doctors before I put my trust in any of them. I was open to either just doing surgery on my right eye or doing both eyes but I wanted to do whatever will achieve the best symmetry overall, so I left it to the doctors for their recommendation. I wanted the doctor to base their recommendations on my overall facial structure, not just “stamp” a crease on my eye. Approach: I did a two-trip trip. One for the in-person consultations and one for the actual surgery. I would highly, highly recommend doing at least 2 in-person consultations before committing to a surgeon. I knew I wanted incisional, which would mean I would need at least another 5 days in Korea to take the stitches out before my flight back. I have a limited amount of PTO days so I had a very narrow window of what days I could schedule the actual surgery. But of course, the catch is in order to secure a surgery date, you have to put down a deposit and I did not feel comfortable doing that without meeting the doctors first. There are people who make their trip to Korea 3-4 weeks long so they have the flexibility on their surgery date, but I did not have that luxury. After I narrowed it down to 4 different clinics, they each asked for a $200 - $300 USD deposit. Whether or not this was a scare tactic, the clinics said summer-time is very busy for them since that is when school is out. Since I already planned to do my surgery in the summer due to my office WFH policies, I had to act fast. My choices were to either pick one and pray for the best (which honestly wasn’t an option for me), put a deposit in for all clinics and just budget that as part of the cost of surgery, or actually do in-person consultations to ensure I felt confident in my decision. I realized I had enough travel miles and credit card points to get a flight to Korea that would actually cost less than putting down 4 deposits, so I decided to go that route. The warning on all the reviews I’ve read online is that you are not choosing the clinic, you are choosing the doctor. And I wanted to make sure I met with all the doctors so that I can choose the one I felt was the most competent, who fully understood my goals and who I felt most comfortable with. Regardless of your approach, you should be asking as many questions as you can with the consultants to help guide your decision and asking the same questions again when you finally meet the doctor. Step 1 – Research: These are the channels I used when researching doctors, clinics and results: Blogs, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram Naver Map reviews (app) Gangnam UNNI (app) Purse Forum (website) There are two sites to check if the surgeon is Board Certified. The Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons: https://www.prskorea.co.kr/english/sub/sub_03.asp Korean Society of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons: https://www.plasticsurgery.or.kr/eng/ I’m honestly still confused on the difference between the two but my understanding is that “Korean Association of Plastic Surgeon” is used more broadly but they may refer to the same organization depending on the context or translation. If anyone has more information, please help us out LOL! It’s hard for me to differentiate which reviews are fake or not (maybe I’m just gullible) so I relied on actual videos from actual accounts, not the clinics social media. With that said, I learned that influencers were getting discounts to write the reviews and more specifically, English-speaking influencers, to reach out to foreigners, and the more you saw a clinic being promoted by an influencer, the less real it is. But how would I be able to see real, non-photoshopped results and sort through the hundreds of clinics without social media, so who do I trust? My thought process was that even if the influencers are being paid, they did do the surgery so I at least had some photo/video data to see real-time results and recoveries, and if anything, I could mute the video if I didn’t want to hear their thoughts. After researching for what felt like forever, I narrowed it down to 4 clinics: Luho Plastic Surgery: Dr. Park has years of experience and his before/after photos were more along the style I wanted: conservative, natural, in-out/tapered folds. He seemed personable and warm in his videos and his English seemed pretty good so I felt I’d be able to communicate with him easily without having to hire a translator. Link Plastic surgery: Reddit had quite a lot of positive reviews of Dr. Jung Min-Su that seemed legit with results looking great. EYEHO Plastic Surgery Clinic: This clinic only does eye surgeries, and only operates 2 surgeries a day, which I liked. There were much less reviews on this clinic but I figured it was less marketed to foreigners, which could be a good thing. I did read quite a lot of reviews of this being the clinic that people would almost choose. Wink Plastic Surgery: This clinic popped up quite a lot on many social media channels, with everyone praising the head doctor, Dr. Choi. I was cautiously optimistic about this place because of the potential that the reviews were being promoted/inflated. Step 2 – Connecting with the Clinics: I downloaded Kakao to start reaching out to the clinics. It’s basically like a WhatsApp. It’s in Korean but you can change the language to English and it’s pretty easy to navigate. You chat with the consultant and send pictures/videos of yourself, along with any inspo pics if you have any (I recommend really researching to choose the right inspo pics. As I said, I have a double eyelid on my left eye so I basically just told them to match it to my right eye. I threw in some inspo pics that I thought matched my left eye and come to find out, it was a completely different fold LOL. So truly be as descriptive as possible). Luho: WhatsApp; friendly, easy and responsive. Link: Kakao; friendly, responsive and detailed. Eyeho: Kakao; friendly and informative. Immediately called out my bone structure and I appreciated the transparency and felt that the doctor took my whole face into account and didn’t do like a “default” setting. Again, the goal is facial harmony. Wink: Kakao; friendly informative and responsive. Quoted me a cheaper price if I did my surgery with Dr. Kim instead of Dr. Choi. All of them had a different “diagnosis” and all of them requested a deposit if I wanted to secure a specific surgery date. While the consultants didn’t pressure me, I felt pressure on myself to make the right decision. But how could I do that without meeting the doctors? Of course, I can ask as many questions as possible and do whatever I could online to feel comfortable choosing one, but I knew I would have “what-ifs” haunting me if I didn’t go in person first. I had gone in thinking I wanted incisional but 3 of the 4 doctors in person recommended non-incisional so it truly does help with meeting them. When scheduling the in-person consultations, I lined it up so that it was all in one day and made sure to buffer in time for commuting and if appointments ran late. Step 3 – In-Person Consultations: Pro-Tips: I built out an entire questionnaire and personal review and printed it out, one for each clinic. I knew I couldn’t only rely on my memory because I would start mixing up clinics and details so I wanted to be prepared. And, maybe it’s the millennial in me but I prefer hand-written notes rather than using my phone. I also wanted to be able to jot down my thoughts immediately after each consultation to capture my thoughts, feelings and then a more in depth review, again to make sure I was truly making an informed decision. I brought a mini tri-pod with me to record the sessions with my phone. I ended up not using it but feel free to do so if you want iron-clad details. I think visiting 4 was the right amount. I did this on a Saturday so office hours are shorter (10am – 5pm) rather than a weekday (10 – 7) and it took up the whole day. I didn’t even have time for a sit-down lunch but I had snacks that I munched on throughout the day. 10:00AM – Luho There was a mix-up and the in-house translator was not there. The Dr’s English was a lot more limited than his rehearsed videos on IG but it was enough for him to understand what I wanted and get my goals across. He was very kind and patient. There was a fancy photobooth to take current/before photos. Staff was very kind, office was very clean. The photo booklet of b/a looked very realistic and natural, which is what I wanted. I never felt rushed by the consultant or the doctor, but after about 15 minutes speaking with the Dr., another consultant came in and stood there so I knew it was another way of saying to hurry up. It did seem very busy in the front, this early in the morning. Surgery Recommendation: Non-Inciscional and epicanthoplasty, $2,000,000 won, after a 20% discount if I put in a deposit same day and wrote a Purse Forum review. 12:00PM – Link This office was not as busy as Luho, which I personally took that as a good thing. The in-person translator was very nice. I realized how much more helpful it is to have one in general, but there was slight skepticism if they were translating all of my thoughts or summarizing it and potentially missing out on what I would think are important details. Dr. Jung was pretty stoic, which isn’t a bad note as I knew that is how some Korean doctors are. I could tell he could comprehend what I was saying even though he responded back in Korean. He also gave specific feedback on the operation and how he’d go about my specific case that I never thought about before. Surgery Recommendation: Non-incisional and ptsosis correction, $2,750,000 won 2:00PM – Eyeho Another office that wasn’t as busy, which was expected, due this being a 1 doctor operation, specific to eyes. There is no in-house translator so the consultant used ChatGPT translator. I felt very comfortable with the Dr. His English was maybe the same level as Luho’s doctor but he was the most in-depth thus far, playing around with my eyes the most. He showed me before and afters and even found specific pictures that were specific to my situation, only operating on one eye. He called out how risky it is to do this, but that is his specialty. Not a lot of doctors do this because they fear mismatching but he was very confident and I believed him. At this point, I definitely wanted to go with Eyeho. I felt the most comfortable and confident with him. I decided I’d have to hire an in-person translator but his pricing was the lowest and I knew I would be able to afford this additional expense. Surgery Recommendation: Non-inciscional on one eye, $900,000 won ($10,000 won for an in-person consultation fee) 3:30PM – Wink Most of the staff was very fluent in English. I think Dr. Choi spoke better English than me. Emma, my consultant, was truly incredible. She was super kind and walked me through the types of surgeries done for eyes which added to my comfort that the entire staff knows what they’re doing. Within 5 minutes of talking to Dr. Choi, I knew he was going to be the one to do my surgery. He was very knowledgeable, patient and kind. He called out how I use my forehead muscles to try and “balance” my eyes and when he told me to relax it and redid his toothpick consultation, it made such a huge difference on how the eyelids would look like. He walked me through how he would work on my eyes specifically with different techniques. His recommendation was the most expensive but he explained why he recommended each surgery. I did not feel rushed at all even though it was basically “closing time.” Surgery Recommendation: Incisional, epicanthoplasty and mild ptosis correction. Please DM for final price :) Decision: Even before I reviewed the questionnaire and feedback form for each clinic, I knew I wanted to go with Wink. For the most part, all the doctors answered my questions but Dr. Choi went above and beyond to walk me through his reasoning behind the recommendations and his techniques. I also realized how important it is for me to speak the same language as the Doctor. While a translator would help, there could be things lost in translation that I may deem to be important but the translator may think otherwise and decide not to translate it. I knew I was paying a higher fee because of his reputation but also his English speaking skills, but I felt peace of mind knowing I can directly communicate with him. I also have a slight stutter, so I don’t know if that would throw a translator off but I knew Dr. Choi was listening to every word. It was also easier for me to continue asking questions and poke around further and I know I was able to do that more easily because he spoke English. I still did review my notes and questionnaire and feedback just to make sure I went over everything and felt very confident in my decision. By the time I finished Eyeho’s, I was truly ready to choose them but Dr. Choi changed my mind almost instantaneously. Step 4 – Deposit and Preparation for Surgery Deposit: I paid the 10% deposit on Wise and secured my surgery date. There are other apps that also send wired payments with less fees (e.g. Instarem) but Wise seemed to be the most legitimate. I was annoyed with their lower conversion rate but the money was sent instantaneously. I immediately deactivated my account with them as soon as payment was confirmed from both Wink and my bank account. During the time period between my in-person consultations and my surgery date, I would send a list of questions and Emma would answer it, line by line. I was worried that once I put in the deposit, I would be ignored but nope, as soon as the offices were open, my questions were answered. Lodging: I decided to book an AirBnB instead of a hotel. My priority was to have my own kitchen so that I could cook my own food for a couple of days. I chose an AirBnB that was a 15 minute walk from Wink. What I brought from home: uncooked rice grains, low-sodium chicken broth, jujube dates, goji berries, collagen powder, berry superfood smoothie pouches, deli container Tupperwares, SINECCH arnica pills, Vitamin C pills, micellar water, reusable face cotton pad, extra Q-tips, lightweight UV protection sunglasses, bucket hat, tops that were button-ups or had a wide neck opening, disposable shower caps, face shields for the shower* What I bought in Korea: chicken breast, ginger, apples, eggs, green onions, bag of ice*, clear-framed glasses** * = didn’t end up using ** = this wasn’t obvious to me because I do not wear glasses but having clear framed glasses was definitely useful at night/indoors if you are self-conscious of your bruises/stitches and also added protection from dust, etc. What I cooked: Chicken and ginger porridge: recipe based off of https://seonkyounglongest.com/chicken-porridge/ (did not add any salt and I added lots more ginger pieces in to eat). Jujube tea: recipe based off of https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIElovYPq5y/?igsh=MWtuaHRvaWpjejRpYg== Hard boiled eggs Step 5 – Day of Surgery I traveled to Korea alone to do my surgery. It was scheduled for 2:30PM. Three surgeries are scheduled every day (10AM, 12PM, 2:30PM) and while I initially wanted the morning one just so I can get it over with and the Dr. wouldn’t be tired by the last surgery, I actually liked that I was the last. There were less people in the clinic and it gave me time to make sure everything was ready for post-surgery. Honestly, I had 0 nerves on the day of my surgery. I was honestly scared at the fact that I wasn’t scared lol. I truly think the in-person consultation helped a ton because I had full confidence in Dr. Choi. This would be my second cosmetic procedure but the first time under local anesthesia. I fasted for essentially 14 hours, with the exception of one sip of water at 7AM. I made sure all the food was cooked and the dishware needed was out on the counter. I stacked my pillows high enough so that I would sleep essentially at a 75 degree angle. I had everything placed exactly where it needed to be so in case, God forbid, I came back blind, I knew where everything was. I also made sure to document my own “before” photos and videos. I highly recommend documenting your own journey so you can track the progress yourself. I wore a sleeveless button up shirt, a sports bra with a clasp, elastic waistband shorts, clean underwear that I was okay with throwing away in case of any accidents and slip on sneakers. I walked 15 minutes to Wink and got there around 1:45PM and was ready to come out brand new! I picked up the medication from the pharmacy downstairs, which included antibiotics, anti-bacterial cream, eye drop ointment and eye drops (~$35USD). I also brought 4 pumpkin juice pouches (~$6 USD). The recovery kit that Wink provided included an eye mask (I asked for a second one but didn’t really need it, one is enough), gauze pads (they give extra if you ask), double-ended q-tips (they do not give extra so pack extra yourself), one pouch of pumpkin juice and recovery instructions. I went back upstairs and was taken inside to my recovery room and changed my clothes to the clothes provided. I double cleansed my face, gargled mouthwash and was whisked away to take before pictures. I then sat down with a staff member to read the risks and potential complications. This is when I started to get nervous as there were some complications that I was not aware of previously. After I signed the documents, Emma dropped by and talking to her really helped ease my concerns. I was alone for this surgery so her presence was very comforting. I met with Dr. Choi one last time to go over my goals, he assured me the end result would be natural and not dramatic, and then I was whisked away to the surgery room. There were about 3 nurses that I counted before I was strapped in. My entire head was covered so that only my eyes and nose were showing. The only time a nurse spoke to me in English was when she told me she was going to sanitize my face; everything else was in Korean. I heard another mans voice and got scared it was a ghost doctor lol so I opened my eyes but saw Dr. Choi right above me, so I closed my asymmetrical eyes one last time and I was hit with the anesthesia. It felt like I took acid, everything was super trippy – like I was seeing colors and shapes and abstract images in my mind. Once the anesthesia wore off, I could hear voices and felt tugging and pulling on my eyes, but nothing painful. The nurse would press on the left side of my chest occasionally. I opened my eyes maybe 3 or 4 times for Dr. Choi and eventually I heard “Great job [name]!” and that was the last I saw of Dr. Choi. I barely felt any pain, honestly. It was probably a 2 out of 10 but it was more so discomfort. I could feel the tightness around my eyes but it wasn’t painful. When I first opened my eyes, it barely opened halfway, but it eventually widened out. For the rest of the week, I made sure to not furrow my eyebrows or bulge my eyes and moved my neck up if I had to look up rather than just using my eyes to look up. Anyway, I laid there for a bit (I have no idea how long, my perception of time was thrown off) while the nurses unhooked my IV. I think they put on an ice mask on my eyes, I forgot. They helped me out of my chair and walked me to the recovery room. I was slightly woozy and had a bit of blurry vision. The first time I saw myself in a mirror was a bit of a jumpscare lol. The eyelids were definitely prominent, swollen and bruised up with some dried blood around my eyes. I took my time to change back into my clothes, and the longer I was up, the more the wooziness wore off. The last photo I took was at 3:05PM and when I checked my phone again afterwards, it was 5:30PM. I initially said I was going to take an Uber back but I felt completely fine so I put on my sunglasses and bucket hat and walked home. I did not drink any water until I got back to my Airbnb. When I got back, I waited for maybe about another 5 minutes and finally drank a sip of water to check if I would get nauseous. I didn’t feel it, so I drank more water, heated up my porridge and tea, and documented my results. I slept for a couple hours upright and by the time I was awake, it was morning back home so I was able to Facetime friends. Post Surgery, Day 1 – 7 I ate porridge, hard boiled eggs, jujube tea and the berry smoothies for every meal for 3 days. I iced my eyes 10 minutes every hour on the hour. I slept upright at a 75 degree angle all week long. On average, I walked 15K steps a day, usually doing my walks in the early morning or at night, avoiding the insane heat during the day. I didn’t really experience dry eyes but I would use the drops to sort of “wash” my eyes because the ointments and creams would get on my lashes and would blur my vision a bit. I literally only sneezed once during the week before I got my stitches removed (IDK how) and I avoided blowing my nose. You cannot get water on the stitches so I had to be very careful. For my showers, I cut a hole in a disposable shower cap and put it over my face and under my chin to cover my eyes. That pretty much did the trick so I didn’t really need the face shields I bought. For washing my face, I just soaked my cotton pad with micellar water and gently swiped it over my face for the week. I avoided pulling on the skin because I would feel the epicanthoplasty stitches. Absolutely no water got on my face for 6 days. I had my first follow up 3 days later, which was pretty quick. The nurse cleaned up my stitches and reapplied the ointment, followed by a 20 minute red light therapy session. 6 days later, I went back for the second and final follow up. I did a 20 minute right light therapy session and then got my stitches removed. Honestly, that was more painful than the surgery itself. It was the epicanthoplasty stitches that hurt the most. Idk if it’s because they were smaller and/or right in the corner of my eyes but it was like tiny needle stabs that were digging into my eye. I was literally almost in tears by the end of it. I met with Dr. Choi for 5 minutes and he said it was looking really good and gave me post care instructions. After that, I took the after pictures and had to write my Google review in person. I said my goodbyes and voila, that’s it! I went downstairs to buy the scar cream they recommended ($45USD). I use my own NewGel+ with SPF in the morning and use their Dermatix cream at night. In Progress Results: For the first week post surgery, I was loving the results and truly was so happy with my decision to do this. I do not know if me watching my salt intake for the first couple of days or the arnica and Vitamin C pills helped with anything, but the swelling would go down significantly every day. I loved waking up every morning to see how my eyes were settling. Seeing both eyes with double eyelids just makes me so giddy. I am now on Day 16 and I am in the “trust the process” phase. The eyes are healing at different rates so it looks like two different eye shapes to me, which is making me freak out a bit, ngl. You can see some of the epicanthoplasty scarring too. The folds look different for each eye and idk if I’m being paranoid, but I think it makes my asymmetry even more noticeable than before. I reached out to Emma with pictures but she assured me this is not the final result and to continue applying scar cream. This was also discussed in the consent forms so I was well aware that this was phase was going to happen. I am doing my best to stay positive because of how much I loved my results initially, so I’m just praying it corrects itself and settles in quickly and properly. My vision was a little blurry for the past 2 weeks and I attributed it to not being able to wash my eyes with soap for 14 days, but I think my vision is getting back to normal. I have been straining my eyes so that I can see clearly which I think is giving me headaches by the end of a work day. If I bulge out my eyes, I can still feel the tightness and if I furrow my brows, I can feel a slight pinch with the epicanthoplasty. FYI, I have been wearing blue-light glasses at work and I don’t think anyone has noticed (if they did, they haven’t said anything). My Asian friends can tell the difference and my non-Asian friends can tell now that I’ve shown them a side by side comparison. When I put on the glasses though, they definitely can’t tell. For now, I am not letting my barely healed results dictate my overall experience rating. Working through everything with Wink has been pretty seamless, so in that sense, I am glad I chose them. I will wait until my 6 month progress to give a full-encompassing rating. If you made it all the way to the end, thank you so much! It has been therapeutic writing this all out and I hope this helps someone who is on the same journey 😊 submitted by /u/newsetofeyez to r/SeoulPlasticSurgery [link] [comments]