pop culture
Here’s what’s holding my attention
I managed to make it to the theater to see not one, but two movies! I’m only recommending one of them, though.1
Forbidden Fruits (2026)
Left to right: Fig, Apple and Cherry leaving Free Eden, the pretentious apparel chain at the local mall.
This movie is straight-up camp and I loved it.
Set completely inside a mall, Forbidden Fruits is about a group of hot girl friends who invite a new girl to join their coven. It’s being compared to Mean Girls and The Craft for its satirical approach to a story about female friendships. All the girls are named after fruits (lol), including Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Lili Reinhart (Riverdale), Alexandra Shipp (X-Men Apocalypse) and my favorite Victoria Pedretti (Hill House and Bly Manor).
I know yesterday was… whack, but it’s really not my fault because I Googled it and Mercury was in retrograde.
It is a comedy-horror movie, so be prepared for some gruesome violence. It really wasn’t too bad, but it depends on how squeamish you are. It’s super silly and I’d recommend seeing it in theaters with some friends. We’ve been quoting it nonstop since we saw it on Saturday.
Selena y los Dinos (2025)
I was only five years old when Selena was tragically killed in 1995, so I didn’t really learn about Selena until after her death. Still, I love her music and adored the 1997 movie starring Jennifer Lopez as Selena. This is why the documentary, Selena y los Dinos, stands out.
I’ve been trying to find the words to describe how wonderful it was to see Selena as a complete person. It’s incredibly hard to believe that Selena was only 23 years old when she died on March 31, about two weeks shy of her birthday on April 16.
After her dad was laid off, he leveraged his background as a performer to create Selena y los Dinos in hopes of helping his family re-establish financial security. With Selena as the lead singer, Suzette on drums and A.B. on guitar, the band was born.
Right before Selena’s death, the band was about to successfully crossover to the American market. One of the last songs she recorded was in English, called “Dreaming of You.”
Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I stay up and think of you
And I wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too
We never got the English album, nor will we ever know what the future had in store. Happy birthday, Selena <3
“Alphabet Aerobics” by Blackalicious (1999)
“Alphabet Aerobics” by Blackalicious is a masterclass on wordplay in alphabetical order. You just have to listen to it.
Elan tried to make fun of me so hard for knowing “Reanimation” through a CW show about Chad Michael Murray and basketball, but at the end of the day, I still knew it! (I feel extra validated right now because the first comment on the video is “OTH fam” lmao.)
But anyway, I’m not here to point out that song specifically, though I do recommend listening to it! I also recommend watching One Tree Hill too, but again, I’m off topic.
Dogs > humans
That’s it for this week!
Mercury Retrograde ended on March 20, but if you’re ever in doubt, you can always check out this website.
1 I also saw Project Hail Mary and most people will think I’m nuts for preferring Forbidden Fruits, but I did. I can understand that PHM is a “good movie,” but it was 2.5 hours of Ryan Gosling on a space ship. There is an autistic-coded alien that livened things up a bit, and of course, Gosling is always pretty charming, but these “man trapped in space” films just aren’t my thing.