Tag: drama
His House
I'll protect you. His House is, ostensibly, a horror movie but it primarily uses features of the genre as a set of tools to explore trauma. It's more heartbreaking than generally frightening. There are outwardly supernatural elements here, but the real trauma, the real horror is what Bol and Rial fled. It's what Nyagak experienced, torn away from her mother by Bol and used as a means to effect his escape on a bus meant for women and children. It's losing Nyagak on the voyage across the sea and barely surviving. Yet, Bol and Rial make it to the other side of all of that and find the country where they seek refuge cold and uncaring. They're granted a home, but that home is run down, falling apart and the community around them is indifferent and unwelcoming. They try to hold it together, but their trauma manifests itself as ghosts, as a witch and as damage to the house as Bol lashes out, trying to drive the demons away. Bol and Rial pull apart, their caseworkers fail to understand and express concern only about what they can see. Bol burns the reminders of their past in a desperate attempt to free themselves from it. He realizes that he can't escape his past, his trauma and what he did to get to where they are now. He gives in to the witch, the apeth in a desperate bid to atone. Nyagak's ghost returns and, in a final act of forgiveness, of acceptance, Rial slays the apeth. Bol and Rial face their demons and arrive at an acceptance of where they are now. A new home, one that was also overtaken by the horrors of their past, but now with space for a more hopeful future.
The Way of the Gun
Karma? Karma's only justice without the satisfaction. I don't believe in justice. A weaving, vicious film, The Way of the Gun kicks off with a drawn-out, wildly offensive screed by Sarah Silverman (who is credited as "Raving Bitch"). Its toxic start gives way to a pair of drifters, Mr. Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Mr. Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro) failing their way into a kidnap-for-ransom plot. The entire cast of characters ranges from the deeply flawed to the repugnant with only Juliette Lewis' Robin being worthy of redemption. There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap. Though the action in the film is entertaining and the closing shootout is excellent, The Way of the Gun shines in its slower, mid-paced development of all characters involved. There's a constant tension around Robin and her child as the kidnappers fight to get paid, hired bagmen and security chase them down to effect a messy rescue and the real father, her gynecologist (of course), drifts in and out of reach until the baby is delivered via impromptu c-section. It's a movie as violent as it is profane, one with no sense of decorum. A bloody close sees one set of bad guys walk away, cash and child in hand. The powerful couple that kicked off the whole mess learn that they're expecting a child without the aid of Robin's surrogacy. The husband shows no reaction at all and the scene cuts to black.
Cobweb
Cobweb is a middling autumnal horror movie rooted in family secrets and childhood trauma. Lizzy Caplan excels at the crazy-lady role and is perennially trapped in it. Antony Starr is hard to mentally separate from his role as Homelander in The Boys . Starr is a capable actor but Homelander is such a perverse character and the shadow cast by a role like that is hard to escape. Peter is a quiet, reserved kid who hears tapping inside his bedroom wall until, one day, a voice calls out to him. His mother Carol (Caplan) and father Mark (Starr) are simultaneously dismissive, controlling and outwardly overprotective. They are, in reality, protecting the dark secret that lurks in their walls. The creature in the walls is, in fact, Peter's sister. A monstrous creature who alludes to having learned to climb while kept in the basement. She dismembers some bullies who break into Peter's house and Peter is rescued by the only person who actually cares about him, his teacher. They lock his sister in the basement and she promises to haunt him for the rest of his life. There's nothing to take away from this and no resolution. It's a dreary and only vaguely entertaining film.
Riders of Justice
Mads Mikkelson is a gift. While Riders of Justice sits comfortably within the action genre, there is so much subtly and nuance surrounding that gunfire filled core. It's a movie about the unpredictable nature of life, about family both chosen and not, about trauma, grief and loss. It's a moving film that I'd gone into expecting little more than violence. A bike is stolen in one country for a girl in another and Markus and Mathilde's lives are irrevocably changed. Otto has faced his own loss, buoyed only by his cantankerous contemporaries Lennart and Emmenthaler and now must face his own guilt over a chance encounter that left Markus grieving his wife and Mathilde her mother. Markus is physically distant, deployed in an unnamed military theater and emotionally distant upon his return. Mathilde tries to retrace her steps and events in a futile attempt to find the root of the tragedy. Otto explains as much — life is too complex, the world is too chaotic for tragedy to be attributable to one single thing. We're reminded of this as the girl is gifted Mathilde's bike, oblivious to the tragic events that ensued and rides in circles in the snow. A slow loop. Life continues and snow falls, indifferent to the world beneath it. What we find is that trauma can unite us and destroy us in turn. Otto wants answers, Lennart and Emmenthaler antagonize and care deeply for each other. Mathilde grapples with a father who wasn't there and is distant and controlling upon his return. Markus needs therapy but, instead, pursues revenge and metes out violence. His trio of accomplices are dealing with their own trauma and to varying degrees of willingness, align their own pursuits of justice with his. Lennart turns his years of therapy as a patient into an informal practice guiding Mathilde. Otto lifts Markus up at his lowest and helps him keep going. The whole thing is a beautiful, beautiful affair. It's improbable and questions are left open, but there's an undeniable warmth and love woven throughout an amalgamated family united by grief, empathy and love. The closing Christmas scene is adorable and, by my estimation, makes this one of the better modern Christmas movies.
Sick Puppy
Your husband is a serial killer. You've accepted that and you lend him a hand disposing of his victims. But you also want him to take a beat and watch a 90 Day Fiancé . Maybe he'll change. You get him a pottery wheel as a creative outlet, since it's not that different from his other hobby and hope for the best. Until he runs a lawnmower over a cat, gets distracted by a teenage girl who shows up at a local art fair and smashes his pottery. The bully that tormented Charlie and Dale in high school? He's a cop, naturally. It's a good fit. Until he catches on to them and ends up dead in their front yard, framed for their crimes (this is after Charlie kills someone who recognizes jewelry she's wearing that Dale gifted her from one of his victims). It's a twisted relationship and — perhaps — a loving one? It's twisted and Charlie and Dale are devoted to one another. Whether it's intended to be comedic or not, I don't know, but the odd, jazzy music and cock rock that make up the soundtrack do make an unbelievable film feel a bit silly.
Hush
Hush is a pretty ok horror movie about Maddie. Maddie is deaf, she's an author and she lives alone in a small home in the woods. Sarah and John live nearby and seem like pretty great neighbors. They stop being good neighbors when they're stabbed to death by a guy in a mask who then terrorizes Maddie for the duration. It's more or less what you'd expect, with some wrinkles provided by Maddie's condition. The killer can hear Maddie and she has to come up with a plan to survive knowing that he can hear her. This, erm, cuts both ways when he thinks he has the drop on her and she manages to stab him in the knee. Cool stuff. I realize I'm being blithe and a bit reductive, but I don't think a movie like this needs to be taken seriously. The circumstances are serious, but not terribly believable and it's a rather rote take on the whole slasher genre. But, for a low budget and a small cast, it is pretty fun.
Locke
Ivan Locke's a simple man. He pours concrete. C6, not C5. If there's a crack, it'll grow. The foundation will shift, the building could shift. But, like his concrete, he cracked. He's got a child on the way with another woman but, unlike his father, he won't abandon the child. So he drives to the hospital to witness the birth. He gets fired, his wife is distraught, his sons don't understand and he guides Donal through managing the largest concrete pour in Europe together (he's told repeatedly that it's the largest). He drives. Traffic is ok. He misses the birth, but he'll be there for the kid.
The Strangers
Do you think they ever found Tamara? What if they'd had a no soliciting sign? Remember those old phone chargers that inevitably turned into a knot? Or how you used to be able to swap out batteries in your flip phone? Glenn Howerton is so effective at always playing exactly that guy. Charming, Dennis-adjacent and always a jerk on the edge of getting very angry. The Strangers is frightening, arguably even terrifying. Opening with crime statistics is a choice. The statistics are significant but it leaves no question as to what's going to happen to Kristen and James here. Unscrewing the bulb and getting them to answer the door is a terrifying first step and things simply escalate from there. The whole thing is expertly staged — the intruders silently observing Kristen in the background, the masks, the messages, the ever present threat until the bloody end. A tense, unsurprising classic.
Outcome
Outcome is a frustrating movie. It’s a wall to wall wonderful cast. Jonah Hill is an absolute character , but there’s little substance here. Keanu plays Reef Hawk, who we’re told is an incredibly famous, talented, beloved actor who’s making a return after having kicked a heroin habit. He’s then blackmailed, goes on an apology tour trying to suss out the culprit only to find out it’s his next door neighbor. He pays the $35k to make the problem go away and is kind of thankful for the experience of having apologized to everyone? Meh.
Let Me In
Let Me In is a surprisingly tender and sweet film that happens to feature blood, immolation and dismemberment. It's incredibly easy to screw up remakes, vampire movies and remakes of vampire movies (I haven't watched the original yet — give me a minute). Eat some now. Save some for later. This applies to candy, but not people. You eat all of the people. Right now. At it's core, Let Me In , is an adolescent love story. Owen and Abby are both tortured (in very different ways, granted). Abby helps Owen navigate a distinctly human situation, urging him to defend himself and then by radically escalating things near the conclusion of the film. Owen helps Abby feel less alone, less monstrous and more human. That bond sees them escape, together and leaves me wondering if something similar had played out with Abby's "father". How old is Abby? How old was he when they met? Will Abby's affliction lead Owen down the same path?
The Punisher: One Last Kill
One batch, two batch, penny and dime... I enjoy the hell out of everything Jon Bernthal does. Whether that's in The Punisher , We Own This City , brief appearances in The Amateur or when I had the opportunity to see him perform live in Ojai doing theater in the round. He brings everything to every role. The Punisher: One Last Kill is a one off vignette following the events of The Punisher and is a welcome addition to the Marvel canon. Bernthal, naturally, brings Frank Castle to life in a fashion that puts him among my favorite modern day characters in the MCU. I hope that this isn't the last time we see Castle as the title implies but, if it is, it's a satisfying, violent conclusion.
Project Hail Mary
Fist my bump! Project Hail Mary is destined to be a modern science fiction classic. It represents the genre at its most hopeful. Humanity faces a clear, oncoming cataclysm and, rather than squabbling and wilting, they rally together and launch an appropriately named mission to save themselves. Amaze amaze amaze What feels most impossible here is that humanity actually pulls together to even attempt this. That and the serendipity necessary to arrive at the charted destination (relatively) successfully, at the same time as a friendly (and absurdly charming) alien on the same mission. It's rare that a movie is so successful when the story is so intensely focused on a single character and it speaks to Ryan Gosling's talent and charm that this lands so well (particularly at a 2+ hour runtime). Gosling, as Grace, navigates from a science teacher whose career was ruined by a combative defense of the possibility of life entirely different from that on earth existing, to being drafted into an emergency effort, to an unwilling astronaut who, in a natural redemptive arc saves humanity with an alien of exactly the type he argued existed. Grace and Rocky's friendship is a thing of beauty. From the initial, awkward attempts to communicate to the charming back and forth as Grace maps Rocky's gestures and vocalizations to a computerized English voice by way of repeated trial and error. They're devoted to saving their respective planets, but make sacrifices over and over again to save each other. The whole thing is a brilliant message of hope, friendship and humanity at its best. It's a message we need at a time when it all feels distant.
Sacramento
Kudos to the folks here who actually drove up the 5 from LA to Sacramento. It's not a bad drive and I've done it a lot, but it can drag. You get to know the rest stops, the gas stations, which exit has a Starbucks and/or an In-N-Out and the signs that your trek through the central valley is coming to an end. But, what's a road trip movie without the road trip? Much like the trip this movie depicts, it drags. Glenn is neurotic and unbearable, Rickey is more of a know it all who doesn't know that he needs to grow up. Meanwhile Tallie and Rosie are caring for children who have either already been born or soon to be while also attending to grown men who act like anything but. I didn't find it funny, but it was, thankfully, brief.
The Dreaming Void
Peter F. Hamilton has quickly become one of my favorite authors, having found his work via Exodus (which I realize is not the recommended starting point). There are concepts that cut across Exodus , Pandora's Star and now this entrance into the Void phase of the same universe. As I've read through this series I've come to realize I prefer this particular path of far future human development that Hamilton toys with. It's bafflingly, unimaginably advanced and beautifully realized and far grittier than * Exodus . Science fiction, at its best, offers warnings about possible futures, technologies and scenarios the author dreams up to challenge the reader. Hamilton does all of this while keeping his stories deeply rooted in human nature. There are myriad human factions pursuing their own future, one that's arrived at a point of post-scarcity that remains far from utopian. All of the political maneuvering one would expect on the part of these disparate factions is alive and well as is the religious fervor of a large portion of the population. It's deeply alien and familiar at the same time. Perhaps that's the lesson here, that things change but the broad strokes never change. You make contact with alien life and that contact is for the better, while one fervent splinter faction sets off to pursue a deeply held belief, the pursuit of which threatens all life. This pursuit anchors the story and is rolled out through a number of interconnected threads — whether it's the hunt for Inigo, the pursuit of the second dreamer, Edeard's growth within the void, the broader Commonwealth's effort to guide and control the situation. It's a wonderful, immersive read and one that Hamilton guides expertly into the start of the next entry in the saga.
Dead Man's Wire
Dead Man’s Wire is a well-made movie with a wonderful cast that isn't enjoyable to watch. I don't like my milk with ice and I don't particularly care for Tony Kiritsis either. Was he wronged? It sure seems like it and I'm the last person who's going to sympathize with some god-awful company. Kiritsis' captive puts a face on the crime as a proxy for his father but he comes off as weak, conciliatory and dull. I love both Bill Skarsgård (hell, his brothers and father too) and Colman Domingo but I don't care about their characters here. It's a hostage movie and we all know how those go. The hostage-taker has demands, law enforcement feigns compliance and things go sideways. Things, naturally, go sideways for Kiritsis (though he was found innocent by reason of insanity and remanded to a psychiatric institute, serving only ten years after refusing an early release with conditions he disagreed with). Rage, rage against the system.
F1
I put off watching F1 until now because I don't like the whole vroom vroom race cars go fast thing — but — I wasn't really right to do so. Yes, it's about racing. It's focused in on it, it's the core of the film. But, like most great sport films (yes, I'll concede it's a sport), it's not about the racing. It is, but it's really about the people and the sport, the passion around it, the goal, the tension — all of that — is what actually makes it compelling. Am I going to go watch formula one now? No, but I get the stakes and a talented cast headlined by Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Javier Bardem can't help but make this a compelling watch. I don't care about football, but Any Given Sunday and Friday Night Lights are both excellent. It's the fundamentally human nature of sports that makes it interesting. It's knowing limits, pushing them, pushing past them and achieving something you didn't think you could or the audience didn't think you could. It's why I watch nearly every single Lakers game — even when they suck . They're my team and I'm they're when they're terrible and can appreciate them when they're not. Even when they're terrible there's those moments where they'll steal a win and show you what they can do at their best. So, sports.
Small Engine Repair
This was an odd movie — it's uneven, but it manages to work because it's uneven. The first two thirds of it is a somber tale of lifelong friends, familial dysfunction and all involved try and do what's best for Frank's daughter. When all of that falls apart utterly and completely, they're faced with a disaster of a situation engineered by Frank in an attempt at revenge. Not only do they fail to exact revenge, they end up blackmailing Crystal's tormentor as a means to salvage the situation. Still, the lead characters manage to be a bunch of — against all odds — lovable knuckleheads. Lifetime friends, they've had to reckon with their own childhood trauma to try and spare Crystal the same. They don't succeed, but they all have each other in the end.
We Bury the Dead
It's incredibly rare for a truly compelling movie like We Bury the Dead to emerge from such a well-trodden genre. It's not the apocalypse, but in Tasmania, it feels like it is. We've seen this though, we've seen visions of the apocalypse, movies and shows covered in zombies and wanton violence. But it's so rare that we get something novel, something that isn't emerging from a respected franchise, but we do here. It's all eminently believable too. The United States accidentally deploys a new weapon near a populated but remote area. The rank incompetence necessary for that to occur is everywhere in the world we currently inhabit. Like so many movies that are a part of a genre but stand out with in it, We Bury the Dead is not strictly a zombie movie. It's a rumination on grief, loss and closure. It's about Ava's journey to say what was left unsaid when Mitch off took on a work trip in Tasmania after a personal spat. She wants to find him, she needs to find him, she does find him. But she never gets the closure she's looking for. She only gets the closure the world offers her and it is both cruel and inadequate. That last scene with Clay vomiting on Mitch's body shrouded in cloth on the way to a burial at sea? Fucking perfect. Exactly the right touch to throw some absurd humor into a harrowing film.
Bring Them Down
This felt quite similar to The Beasts , but less engaging and what felt like lower stakes. They both center on disputes among neighbors in rural settings, with Bring Them Down having a romantic link shattered by an accident and loss. In both films the antagonists want to better their fading financial prospects by exploiting land once used for farming. This is vacation homes, the other is wind turbines. Bring Them Down is dark, dreary and sparse. There's no score, but there is rising percussion to heighten tension at various points throughout the film. It helps contribute to the feeling of desperation and isolation. It's depressing. Utterly depressing. I simply couldn't connect with or feel for the characters here. I understand the tension, the slights, the crimes, the disagreements but I didn't come away from this feeling much of anything.
A House of Dynamite
A tense, pressure-cooker of a movie that does the whole single narrative told through a round robin of perspectives to make an extremely brief, unbelievably stressful sequence that much more stressful. This feels like a Netflix movie and not in a particularly good way. It never grants you catharsis and succeeds in its mission of inducing anxiety. The worst part of this? Imagine this same situation handled by the current gaggle of morons running the US government. Idris Elba is overwhelmed? The folks we have now would be catatonic, drunk or catatonic because they're that drunk.
Running an Telegram channel and chat
Thought i would start this with some thoughts on running a adult, trans related telegram group, I have been doing so for the last 4 years and it has been a ride. As i started transitioning i was in a few channels/chats often highlighting transfem characters with oversized genitals, while fun didn't match with real world experiences or enjoyment, transfems often dont enjoy having large masc genitals and estrogen more often puts and end to that anyways so
‘Don’t You Let Me Go’ Review – The Tender Beauty Of Unvoiced Sorrow
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
This is the movie I expected knowing it shared a name with Warren Zanes ' book about the same period on Bruce 's career. I'm not a dedicated fan of Bruce . I love the albums everyone loves and skip over the rest. I respect his talent, his charisma, his significance and his abilities as both a songwriter and a storyteller. I love that he tells stories about characters and parts of this country that, on their face, seem mundane but, in his hands, are anthemic, charming and relatable. Deliver Me From Nowhere finds Bruce coming off the success of The River and facing down a major label push for the next step up the ladder to stardom. Faced with this — with that daunting task — he holes up in a house and commits his darkest, sparsest record to tape. The rest is history, more or less. A haunted demo becomes one of his best albums, untouched, in Nebraska . The flip side of Nebraska and briefly considered half of a double album in Born in the USA is touched on briefly in Deliver Me From Nowhere but is used as this shiny hope dangled in front of the viewer, the listener and the label. It's the sonic inverse of Nebraska but not all that different with respect to lyrical tone. It's seen as overtly patriotic by everyone that's never read the lyrics, but it isn't that. I love that Deliver Me From Nowhere chose a narrow section of Bruce 's life and career, burrowed in and got as uncomfortable as he was. Nebraska stands out in his discography for a reason. It's the most uncharacteristic album he's ever released, the most challenging, the bleakest and arguably the most honest. Bruce was struggling with his own darkness and the film bounces abruptly back and forth between its selected present and his childhood, starkly contrasting the black and white of his past with the warmth of his present. It's a visual contrast that matches the sonic contrast of Nebraska and Born in the USA . A young man with an abusive father in a nowhere town that fights, scraps and sings his way to the top by telling stories not unlike his own. It's a good movie. But watching it feels a bit like it knows it's a good movie. Everyone loves Bruce , so we'll faithfully convey that. It works and it works well. Jeremy Allen White gives what is arguably the performance of his career (no small feat given The Bear ) and the rest of the cast shows up right along with him (Jeremy White disappears into the character of Jon Landau). I hesitate to say it's an essential watch, but it is if you're a fan of the boss and I imagine most folks are to some degree or another.
Bugonia
Humanity is cooked and every once in a while a conspiracy proves to be true. Plemmons' Teddy is a worker bee for Stones' queen (who happens to be named Michelle). The workers are dying out and the dynamic is collapsing for reason the queen doesn't care to understand. Leave at 5:30pm, that'll solve the whole thing. Also, shoot a diversity training video while complaining about using the word too much. Teddy lives in a hollowed out rural town where his mom was destroyed by a medical study, his cousin is all he has left and the only contact he appears to have outside of the internet are his coworkers and a cop that molested him. You know, at your core, what the issue is, but you're trapped and your brain rots out looking for a conspiracy theory grander than what's right in front of you. Bugonia is darkly comedic and farcical and it toys with this dynamic of having multiple villains. On a macro level, Michelle is the villain here — exploiting workers, poisoning the community, throwing money around and knowing she's irreplaceable because of the economic hold on the place. On a micro level, Teddy's the clear villain in this particular vignette. His brain is rotted through from conspiracy theories, he manipulates Don and drags him into his plot and has a trail of bodies behind him as he fights to prove his particular conspiracy theory is the right one. And it is. This one time. Hilariously, depressingly true. Jesse Plemons shines . He's a welcome sight in everything he appears in, but he's inspired and unhinged here. Emma Stone is incredible, as she so often is and Aidan Delbis is touching and heartbreaking. It ends with a genocide triggered by what looks like a balloon popping. : I defy you not to laugh when Teddy's severed head hits Michelle square in the forehead.
Sing Sing
Sing Sing deserves every possible superlative I can throw at it. Colman Domingo is transcendent. Clarence Maclin is truly incredible and seeing every "as himself" credit flow by destroyed me. Seeing Jon Adrian Velasquez credited here floored me after reading about his story in The Sing Sing Files . The US carceral system is designed to break and consume people. It never works to rehabilitate anyone. It puts people in a position to re-offend to survive. Prosecutors won't admit mistakes. Police won't admit mistakes. Private contractors need to fill beds for profit. It's a perverse exercise in institutional cruelty and exploitation. That a theatre group can exist and thrive under these circumstances is a blessing. Art is transformative, it's an escape and it's an outlet, some small measure of freedom from the circumstances faced by its participants. It's art as a means to re-establish humanity in a system that seeks to rob you of it. Beautiful. Essential.
The Smashing Machine
This is an undeniable tour de force on the part of all involved. It's the only movie I've seen Dwayne Johnson in where he disappears into his role and his character. He's such a towering, imposing figure that disappearing into a role is nearly impossible. It turns out that what he needed was to be cast in the role of a groundbreaking UFC fighter. It's unmistakably a Safdie brothers film — a warm, gritty cinematography, pervasive anxiety, a flawed protagonist. It works beautifully. Mark Kerr is undeniably sympathetic and flawed. He's a participant in a sport that's brutal by design, a sport that leads to addiction, an addiction that strain's his relationship and the cumulative effects of both, given enough time, lead to an inevitably short "career". Professional athletes often get paid quite a bit, quite briefly. Kerr gets paid relatively little, quite briefly because he's one of the groundbreaking athletes who preceded his particular sport's popularity. It's worth noting that the score is perfectly understated and adds so much to this film. Whether it's a solitary sax line, a lone drum performance or a spaced out, unexpected rock piece, it all works so unexpectedly well that anything else wouldn't make sense. I hope A24 keeps putting out incredible movies about sports I don't care for. : Dawn is unbearable and capably rendered by Emily Blunt.
Sovereign
You declare yourself a sovereign citizen like you imagined this was declared a sovereign nation. You reject a system you feel has failed you, you read, you cite legal code and you expect that rejection of what doesn't serve you to be accepted by those who are served by it. Are you sovereign? Are you a straw man? Is this a fiction? Are your beliefs? You’ve been failed, they’ve been failed and you all strike out on your own. Sovereign citizens staring down a collective that has failed you. Perhaps, you should act collectively instead. And a cop is down. And a cop is down. And you're buying ammunition in a supermarket and loading it into your battered minivan. And you’re down. And your son is down. And your dog survives, your dog escapes. But your dog isn't truly free or independent either. And you grieve. And you break. And you change, you pick up what you still have, hold it tight, walk into the calm, cool night and hope you can put something, anything back together again.
The Ritual
The scariest part of this movie is that you can never get back the time you spent watching it. Al Pacino is old and receipts scripture. Dan Stevens is young and confused. Abigail Cowen speaks in a lower register in languages unfamiliar to aforementioned actors. The camera shakes, sisters get abused by Cowen and eventually, mercifully, the movie ends.
Dead of Winter
Uff da There's parts of the United States that I can admire the geography of for its beauty, but could never bear to live in. This movie takes place in one of those places — the upper midwest. It's frigid, covered in snow, lakes frozen and all of the characters are bundled up, fighting against the cold and killed by it. This whole movie is an exercise in contrasts. Barb embraces the cold, her love, her memories are frozen in time, anchored there. "Purple Lady" (Greer) and "Camo Jacket" (Menchaca) are hiding in it, fighting against it, dying in it. "Purple Lady" is dying and fighting to live, Leah fought to end her own life and now wants to live. These contrasts define the motivations at the core of the film. Barb arrives at the lake to honor her late husband's last wish, stumbling into the a deranged woman's plot to harvest a kidnapped girl's liver in an impossible plan to save her own life, dragging her husband into the plot. What follows is a violent tug of war between the opposing sites as Barb fights to save Leah, Menchaca succumbs to hypothermia, passersby try to help Barb, fail to listen to her and are killed. Leah escapes, while Barb pulls Greer through a hole in the ice, sacrificing herself to save a child she never had, fulfilling Karl's wish as she sinks down and down below the lake where they had their first date. Tightly written, as violent as it needs to be and beautiful. Skol, Karl
Midsommar
🇸🇪🌅💐🐻🔥 I've watched a lot of weird movies and quite a few weird horror movies. This is terrifying, but not in the grotesque Cronenberg-ian sense. It's also not as immediate or as overwhelmingly dark as Ari Aster's Hereditary . It's more of a sun-soaked slow burn. Dani experiences an unspeakable tragedy, Christian's an uncaring douche, Mark's purely a douche (don't piss on the ancestral tree) and well, why not tag along on a trip to a festival in the middle of nowhere in Sweden. Aster manages to blend cults, worship and ritual into their most horrifying possible outcomes. This one is the polar opposite, visually, of Hereditary . Hereditary was all oily, murky darkness. Midsommar is glaringly bright, floral and slowly winds in horror as the ritual in Pelle's home village unfurls in front of everyone. Every 90 years, 9 sacrifices are required to purge the Hårga commune of evil. Four outsiders, four volunteers and one chosen sacrifice. The outsiders are increasingly terrified, the villagers are unmoved and Dani observes the ritual's conclusion with a slow smile. Absolutely horrifying.
Love Lies Bleeding
Dave Franco with the mullet, Ed Harris with the skullet. It's not lost on me that A24 is one of the last movie studios that consistently releases movies that are risky, challenging and genuinely artistic. They're not perfect, but they've released plenty of movies that are exactly or nearly that. Love Lies Bleeding is often beautiful, disturbing and infrequently grotesque. Kristen Stewart's been following a wonderful artistic path, delivering one compelling performance after another after starring in the banal Twilight slog (saga? Sloga?). But, as compelling as Stewart is, it's Katy O'Brian that really breaks out in this role. Jackie drifts into Lou's life, exploited by JJ, employed by Lou Sr. and so focused on musclebound competition that she readily settles into steroid use and abuse that Lou casually facilitates. Jackie and Lou connect immediately with a love that's visceral and physical. While Jackie's adrift, Lou's frozen in place — trying to escape her father and defend her sister. Women trapped by abusive, exploitative and violent men. Jackie's physicality and rage finds Dave and in death Dave devastate's Lou's sister, further entwines Lou with Jackie and Jackie spirals. Love. Violence. Love and everyone looking for an out. Jackie's steroid use is depicted through these close-up scenes of growing muscles, bulging and crackling that reminded me of something you'd see in a body horror film. Jackie vomiting on stage during her bodybuilding competition is experienced by her as disgorging Lou in a visual grotesquerie that reminded my of The Substance . It's visceral and a marker of their emotional distance. Jackie stumbles to an escape, fails, strikes out and is reeled back in when she desperately reaches out to Lou Sr. for help. And then theres Daisy. Clueless, hapless, clingy and disposable. Lou and Jackie running through the clouds together, colorful and free as they escape is arrestingly beautiful. That it ends with the borderline-comedic scene of Lou choking Daisy and dragging her into the desert while Jackie sleeps before pausing for a smoke break (so much for quitting) is a fitting solution. Casually violent. Lou caring for Jackie no matter the consequences and the mess. Beautiful. : Robert Pattinson's been following a similar artistic path.
Relay
Go ahead. A sharp, well-written and relentlessly engaging little thriller. The relay service was a truly novel idea. Riz Ahmed is consistently amazing and Lily James turns in a killer performance to match. Riz is a fixer, Lily engaged in some corporate espionage. The former helps the latter, things go sideways, there are some twists I won't spoil and this is one of my favorite thrillers I've seen recently. It feels modern while evoking some 90s and early 2000s thriller nostalgia. Highly recommended.
Descendent
Descendent isn’t entirely without its redeeming qualities. It sports some interesting visuals, a capable if largely unknown cast committed to their roles and emotionally-relatable dynamics. A loving couple falters after a serious injury to the husband. They navigate the injury and a pregnancy as best they can, faltering, stumbling and recovering. The husband sees flashes of aliens, grapples with his sense of reality and fails his family. Is any of it real? Is it the head injury? They dangle an explanation at the end, but don’t give you an answer. Emotionally compelling, narratively confused and flawed.
Hallow Road
When I see a run time so short I expect to either be seriously disappointed or very impressed. Hallow Road left me very impressed. Nearly the entirety of the film consists of Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys on and off the phone with their daughter — trying to discern exactly what happened, filling in details of what lead up to the muddled event(s) in question and expertly filling the whole damn car with stress, terror and dread. There's nothing quite like that parental impulse to do anything for your child, one which is so clearly seen in Rhys' rush to take his daughter's place. You see it in Pike's effort to carefully walk her daughter through saving the life of the girl she hit while driving. The parents crafting a story, the parents talking down their daughter, Alice's charming voicemail greeting when they can't reach her. It's dark, it's twisted, it has a score that makes Bohren & der Club of Gore sound maximalist in comparison. Oh yeah, DRIVE FASTER . Or maybe you won't see a twist or a turn coming much like I didn't when this ended.
The Order
White supremacy is a sad feature of the American experiment, not an outlier, not a bug, not abnormal. It's what the country was built on, tries to convince itself it wasn't, tries to push into the shadows and now, in our current moment, openly embraces it. Not by calling what it is, but by enacting it as policy and gaslighting anyone willing to listen to the stream of bullshit that envelops it. That The Order's story was rendered so effectively to film by British leads and an Australian director is a credit to all those involved and also benefits from the perspective granted by not growing up and living in a country steeped in this particular strain of racist bullshit. What you do get is brilliant, impassioned performances, an objective treatment of what us unequivocally a domestic terrorist organization and a conclusion true to reality. White supremacy is a poison. In American society it's been an ever-present poison and one whose strength waxes and wanes. The racist bullshit put to page that is The Turner Diaries features prominently — The Order lifted its name right from it and said waste of paper and ink has inspired not just their terrorist actions but those of Timothy McVeigh, the Aryan Republican Army, David Copeland, Jacob D. Robida and on and on. It's a vile text and the actions of those that see it anything other than that are similarly vile. Seeing The Turner Diaries read to a child as a bedtime story is appalling. It's a compelling film, an honest retelling and one in a long line of stories that will continue to be told as long as this country refuses to reckon with its history. We have an administration that, while less explicit in its rhetoric, is aligned and overt in its policy. Time is a flat, violent circle.
Black Bag
A brisk, modern spy film with (to my ear) a quirky score that still manages to work. A lighter Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy . Another laudable entry into the Michael Fassbender plays a spy genre (this time for the Brits — though I suppose we'll see about next season with respect to that reference). It's a stylish little thriller that pulls at Fassbender and Blanchett's marriage, a circle of friends and coworkers (I love late-stage Pierce Brosnan) and ties those relationships together with a neat little plan to uncover who exfiltrated a secret cyber weapon for a tidy sum. Fassbender clinically asking someone to release their sphincter muscle was pretty awkward though.
The Shrouds
I've said before that I'll watch any movie with a Cronenberg family member attached but this was fucking awful . Vincent Cassel is a talented actor and, I suppose, does the best he can with what he was given. Video screens in headstones, creeping on your wife's skeleton, sleeping with her sister, chatting it up with some god awful AI thing on your phone. There's another love interest, I guess? There's a Tesla and those headstones are probably going to kick into the blue screen of death. Unbearable, miserable dreck.
40 Acres
This was a wonderful, harrowing surprise. I love post-apocalyptic explorations whether they're movies, shows or books and went into this knowing enjoy it based purely on that. Danielle Deadwyler shines in this — she's an absolute badass. The score is perfect. A few overt, nicely placed syncs as Emmanuel throws on a walkman and goes on runs on an ATV. But it's mostly tense instrumental music that compliments scenes without overwhelming them. There's elements of horror, but it's not necessarily about the visceral, visual horror. Sure, things jump off with an assault on the family farm, but they fight off that assault together and survive together . They're mostly isolated, they tend to the land they have that produces what they need, they're an incredibly strong, blended family and they give everything for everyone in that family. They're disciplined, they're tough as nails but there's a love there. It's not unlike The Walking Dead inasmuch as society has collapsed and people are the most dangerous part of surviving in the aftermath. But it's focused, it's not overlong and it doesn't overstay its welcome. A brutal, gruesome and altogether welcome surprise. : Her performance was also the only reason to watch The Woman in the Yard .
Selling More Than The Drama
A new Commodore device hit pre-orders this week after weeks of rumors. But retro is nothing if not its irrational haters.
Last Breath
The true story underpinning this is far more impressive than the reality of the film. I like the cast — Simu, Finn Cole (big Animal Kingdom fan right here) and Woody Harrelson shines as the grizzled old weirdo — but, unfortunately, it's not a terribly interesting movie. It is remarkable that Chris Lemons survived this unscathed. Truly. But when rendered as a big-budget drama it's a bit flat. There's tension, heroism and all that but it feels rote. Not a bad movie, nowhere near a great one.
Presence
A haunted house movie shot from the perspective of the presence haunting it. Or, well, maybe not — the scariest presence in the house is the family. Sure — some stuff flies around. That's part and parcel of the genre, but the way the film is shot is the real novelty. Daughter loses friend, family relocates to escape the loss (but really to benefit the son that the mother dotes on). The daughter grieves, the father empathizes, the mom is weirdly close with the son who — by any objective measure — is a total asshole. Son hangs out with total asshole who is — predictably — a total asshole to his sister and does the only decent thing in the movie for the entirety of his time on screen and protects said sister. Family relocates to escape the loss but not before realizing that the presence in said house is said son (and I imagine the cycle continues). Decent enough.
The Witch
Picking apples, making pies. The atmosphere throughout this movie is so weighty it could sink a ship. Maybe it should have. Every step of it is brilliantly acted, shot in gray-ish, desaturated hues and hellishly dark. Move to the new world, bring the kids, it'll be a fresh start. IN HELL. Not the scariest movie, but a remarkable debut for Eggers and horrifying in its own way. The real monster here is the family's religious zeal. And maybe the goat. The goat is fine for most of it though. Or perhaps it's malnourishment and whatever's in the water. Strike out (get cast out?) on your own with the kids, have the oldest one parent the youngest, blame her when it goes sideways, coddle all the other kids that you prefer to her and then get even angrier when it goes even further sideways. I'd argue it would've gone better if you hadn't tried to pray your way out of it (that's a lot of firewood too — do you need that much?). I'm not surprised Thomasin and Black Phillip snapped after all that. Anyways. Fantastic movie in all respects and baffling that this is Eggers' debut. I liked Nosferatu more, but I'll be watching whatever he slaps his name on next (and whatever I've missed that he already has).
The Return
This was pretty to look at, well acted, rendered and about everything you'd expect from an objectively great film and I think it is that — a great film. But it's a great film that didn't click for me. A movie made for critics? I dunno. Fiennes was clearly committed to the role and Binoche is excellent. I'm not disappointed nor upset that I watched it, but I don't think I'd give it another watch.
Nosferatu
🏰🧛🏻♂️ Of course that was Bill Skarsgård. I had no idea, but he's also perverseley skilled at bringing the most vile creatures to life on screen. Artfully crafted, dark, immersive and drenched in atmosphere. One of the few horror movies I've seen recently that I've found legitimately frightening. Lily-Rose Depp is haunting and Willem Dafoe is frantic, creepy and engaging as ever. It's as much about the aesthetic and the atmosphere as it is about the story. There's no gloss, no romanticism. Orlok is a disgusting sight and that last scene, those final closing frames are haunting.
Shot Caller
A gruesome character study focused on Jacob (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) who has an idyllic life before fucking up royally (RIP Schmidt ) and forcefully pushing away his family in an effort to get them to move on and — ultimately — protect them. The American prison system isn't designed or built to reform anyone. It's designed to break and trap people. Jacob quickly learns that being housed with violent inmates means you're either a victim or a victimizer. He becomes the latter, climbing the rungs in a white supremacist gang that controls (to a degree) the prison that houses him. Decent guy breaks bad under pressure. Not an uncommon narrative and yet a deeply engaging one here because of how it's presented. You get a narrative that stitches Jacob's past with his present, his crime with the consequences that follow and the hole he digs for himself while he fights to survive. It's brutal, it's violent and there's action (if you're looking for that) — and I loved the cast. I could expound on how much I love Jon Bernthal but I'll spare you. He's awesome here. He's always awesome. I did not expect to buy Jeffrey Donovan in this role as soon as I saw him. He nailed it. Far better than I expected it to be. : I know I've seen him before and dammit I can't place him. : Privatizing prisons means introducing entities that are duty-bound to turn a profit, which means keeping prison beds filled and occupancy high. That's more compatible with encouraging recidivism than reform.
2073
I wanted a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie, I got a pre-apocalyptic documentary shouting at the viewer to turn back from a briefly previewed future dystopia that we're sprinting towards. It doesn't work perfectly, but it is deeply depressing. Asif Kapadia splices together present-day (and I mean hey it's 2024 and the world's falling apart present-day) footage and layers brief vignettes anchored by Samantha Morton's "Ghost" living in a destroyed shopping mall in the year of the film's title. Unfortunately, it's heavy-handed and doesn't quite work . I am oh so sympathetic to what the film is aiming for — we have a crumbling climate, rising fascism, tech leaders in power who absolutely shouldn't be — and this is a cry for action, a plea for action and yet, this feels (at least as a creative work) quite forced. I'm writing this as we're expecting 80-100mph winds in LA and Ventura County (where I live) and we're hoping the power stays on, that no catastrophe like last month's fire re-occurs. Will we avoid another fire because the last one burnt out all the fuel? Who the hell knows? Do we have a functioning society? Barely, I guess. Did we just re-elect a fascist? Yeah, quite depressingly. Are we soberly assessing the future we face and addressing it effectively? No, we're blaming anyone we can short of ourselves. Would we be better off with a functioning 4th estate and no social media? Yeah, we quite likely would. What we do have is a decimated journalism industry and a social media ecosystem that co-opted what little revenue said industry had before jettisoning any interest in truth or social good. I'm worried for the future and I'm doing what I can, but both concerns are independent of this film. I sympathize, but I'm not moved.
Gladiator II
Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal Mescal Pascal. Confused? Me neither. Most sequels aren't necessary and this wasn't either, strictly speaking. The original Gladiator left the door open for one and I'd forgotten that they did. 24 yours to make a sequel is a long time (especially nowadays when studios are obligated to run IP into the ground until ROI becomes less than or equal to zero). But this was a good sequel. Having Ridley Scott back to provide a steady hand after all that time surely helped and — what you have here — is something that walks through the door Gladiator left open while standing nicely on its own. It intersperses clips from the original tastefully, isn't beholden to any sort of lore and works just as well as its own movie as it does in the context of the original. It's not required viewing, but it's visually gorgeous, the cast is great and the plot is fun. I'll be here for Gladiator III in 2048. Or well, I will be if any of us are still here.
Saltburn
This movie is as unsettling as it is decadently rendered. And it's unsettling in part because it takes the popular (and justified) antipathy towards the rich and flips it on its head. The Cattons are flawed but kind, Oliver is a conniving manipulator that brings the family doom and tragedy, while lying about his comfortable middle class upbringing. It works, but I find that reversal of sympathies tough to accept. Felix is genuinely kind and a good friend to Oliver (he really does seem well-intentioned), his parents are a bit odd, but hardly cruel or otherwise suspect. Are the rich sympathetic? No. Is drinking bath water hygienic? No. Especially not that bath water. Is that an appropriate way to pay your respects? No, definitely not. Are Oliver's actions justified? Hardly, but I'm not sure that's the point either. I don't believe he has the moral grounding necessary to be conflicted. He quite clearly has (or had) a plan and it sees it through over the long term. He tears the Cattons down bit by bit and then dances naked through their house. Fin.
The Beasts
A captivating, simmering rural thriller. The tension between Antoine and his Spanish neighbors is evident from the outset, but Sorogoyen masterfully ramps it up and the pace at which he does so is agonizing. The shouts, the small conflicts, the vaguely threatening approaches — it all spirals and you can feel the tension pouring out through the screen. It builds and builds until Antoine is alone in the woods and Olga is quietly, stoically looking for his body. It's about money, it's about a couple that wants to stay and retire to a village that many of the locals are desperate to leave. A pay out to have a turbine planted in the middle of your home means nothing to Antoine and Olga and everything to Xan and Lorenzo. That conflict, that tension — when everyone has to agree and they couldn't be further from doing so — when the home you've sought is a place others are looking to flee shatters everything. Beautiful, beautiful film. Oh and that scene in the kitchen between Olga and Marie? What a performance on Marie's part.