84. Funny Games (1997) - April 2nd
It is both outrageous and admirable how sickening this movie is. The film is essentially a metaphor for the power the author has over the story and their ability to abuse the contract of trust that they enter in to with the reader/viewer, while also taking a few cheap shots at the bourgeois. I'm aggravated by the constant way the movie messes with its characters and audience while also acknowledging and mocking the audience with its own power, but I'm impressed that Haneke actually had the stones to do this in the first place. It reminds me of Knock Knock, but with a few significant differences that make this movie easier to stomach.
The story is just a microcosm in a seemingly endless cycle of torture and murder, a cruel exercise that suggests an audience's own implicit need to observe is in itself a statement of their agreement to let events play out on screen as they do, and using that thesis to essentially carry the movie in any direction Haneke pleases. Anything can happen in any way because the director has explicitly told us it will, and the film conforms to or bucks expectations as the metaphor that the film's antagonists represent decides what it wants to do, often with meticulous intent, sometimes simply on a whim. Funnily enough, when antagonist Paul's control over the events of the movie become literal, I was reminded of Yu-Gi-Oh! of all things. The final arc of that show's original run saw a story play out under the control of main villain Bakura as he toyed with Atem, but and when an unexpected boon gave Atem the strength he needed to beat Bakura, Bakura literally turns back time and wins instead because it's "his game". This exact idea plays out Funny Games, it's uncanny how similar these two plot threads are.
Anyway, I get and appreciate the point of the movie's abuse of both its characters and the contract it creates with its audience, even the frustrating opener that acts as a microcosm of the whole movie, but even so I find the experience drags as we are reminded for the tenth time that this is not going to end well, that we can't do anything about it, and that by watching it we allow it to happen. There is the ultimate twist that brings everything in the movie together, but after that point everything that happens is also essentially rote. While the thesis is a compelling and challenging idea, there's only so many times the movie can suggest that hope will be ignited before blowing it out and confirming total and direct control before you wish the story was as deep an idea as it is broad. - 7/10
85. Funny Games (2007) - April 2nd
I understand that part of the original Funny Games' point was to satirise the violence in media, particularly American Horror culture, and so I see why re-making the film in an American context makes sense as an idea, but when the idea behind the original satire was to make a very violent but otherwise pointless movie, it's no surprise that the re-make ultimately feels redundant, like Gus Van Sant's Psycho re-make. The film is almost shot-for-shot the same, and almost none of it feels improved by the translation. The exception is this version of Peter, whose combination of creepiness and innocence seems to play out way more organically, which to some might be an issue for some because of how we are supposed to see these characters as inhuman, but otherwise is really compelling. Unfortunately, that doesn't make this film any less somehow-less-than-pointless, regardless of how well it's made by virtue of mimicking the original. - 5/10
As it is, watching both Funny Games back-to-back was a good exercise in bad nihilism that I do not want to repeat any time soon. The films feel akin to Eli Roth's work, with a meta-narrative that essentially punishes the audience for enjoying or feeling ambivalence towards movie violence, and a general anti-affluent attitude, which would all be great if it had more to say than its one concept over and over.
86. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) - April 3rd
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the G.O.A.T.s of the horror genre, with a huge influence upon even other classics, and a sick sense of humour couched within the unnerving force of its excellently crafted atmosphere. The remake was part of a long list of cash-grab remakes of horror classics produced by one studio; it's hardly a surprise it didn't measure up.
To be fair to the film, it's at least somewhat competently made, and were it it's own thing and not a re-make of a horror classic, it would probably be passable. There are a couple of scenes that momentarily remember that things don't need sudden loud noises accompanying them to be scary, and they at least maintain one of the most important factors that made Leatherface scary (the fact that he actually chases his playthings down instead of slowly stalking them while they amble fearfully), and regardless of the problems in its depiction and glorification of violence, the film is at least slick and consistent in the style and delivery. We never need to see that a woman has shot herself in the head by following the camera through the bullet hole, but it's not out of touch with everything that the movie goes for. There may be a commentary on the differences in the depictions of violence between this movie and the original as a metaphor for the changes in what the audience deems as acceptable viewing, but it's not really found within the text on its own, as most of what happens is little more than overly-stylised shock value. It's not scary or disturbing, it's just gross, and in this regard it largely fails at one of horror's most important tenets. What's worse is that the film's attempts at upping the ante also created more explicit sexual overtones somewhat akin to the awful The Hills Have Eyes 2, with every member of the cast of disturbed locals exploiting women, alive or dead, at every opportunity. It's really vile and completely unnecessary, and on top of the fact that it doesn't even have the decency of the original to create an effective atmosphere or somewhat sympathetic characters shows what the filmmakers actually got out of the original. - 4/10
87. The Wild Bunch (1969) - April 5th
The first paragraph is just me talking about the depiction of violence in film and the way films respond to it, so if you just want to read my thoughts on The Wild Bunch skip ahead to the second paragraph.
As an aside to start, it's interesting to me that the majority of movies I've watched this week so far use excessive violence for similar but contrasting purposes. Funny Games was a commentary on violence's representation in media, taking violence to a pointless extreme to highlight the pointlessness of depicting violence for violence's sake. Violence in The Wild Bunch is stated to have been a response to the way the effects of violence in media was glamorised, lashing back at the bloodless depictions with its own excess. Funny Games feels almost like it's commenting on films like The Wild Bunch, as the choice to depict violence in The Wild Bunch is largely meta-textual. However, I don't think that criticism fits as, meta-textual or not, the depiction of violence in The Wild Bunch has explicit purpose that reflects the misgivings of the media's current use of violence in film and the issues with the media's coverage of the Vietnam War. In truth, Funny Games is probably more a response to films like the Texas Chainsaw remake (though obviously not this film specifically, considering the original was made six years prior, but the fact that Haneke felt it necessary to tell the same story again suggests that he thought his thesis was still valid at that point). Those sorts of films fail to understand the point of the violence in films where violence actually has a point, and instead chooses to depict it without any thought as to why it was depicted in the first place. It makes for intriguing differences between all these different films, all made at different times by different people with different intentions, but all with the theme of violence at their cores. The Wild Bunch suggests the point of depicting violence is to not mislead the audience about the nature of violence and the significant effect it can have on life and that it is an immutable truth of life's experience that must be understood rather than shied away from. Funny Games suggests either that this point is not enough to warrant such explicit depiction, and that depicting is pointless, or that people have forgotten this point in their own depictions of violence and in doing so have rendered their own depictions pointless. The Texas Chainsaw remake is simply evidence to the latter.
On the movie itself, The Wild Bunch is a truly fantastic film, a meandering, character-driven story filled with raw emotions fueled by incredible performances that sell even the most abrupt moments. There's a fluctuating intensity to the whole experience as it moves between the angry, the humorous, the melancholic and the blood-curdling. I love a movie that manages to grab you from the start, and with some clever visual metaphors and a slow, tense build-up, The Wild Bunch ramps up to an introduction that will be on my mind for days. It's really excellent, but apart from my spiel about its themes of violence, that's all I really have to say about it right now. The rest of the film lives up to the precedent the intro sets, even with its sometimes awkwardly placed flashbacks, and moments like Angel's scene with his girl are completely resonant with even the smallest set-up and the least inherently likable characters. I appreciate the emotional complexity of the film, the way it treats the violence of its leads as both a calling and a curse, one that gives them purpose but that they cannot escape from, as they lament both the innocence of youth and their inability to change in a changing world, reflecting on regrets and trying to educate the young not to make the same mistakes while needing them to keep living a life that they can't give up on. It's all really well done, and as both an individual film and a reflection on the evolution of the Western genre, this is possibly the best (Once Upon a Time in the West is obviously a contender, but that's more a reflection on Leone's own work in relation to American Westerns, where they're similar and where they differ). - 9/10
88. A Quiet Place (2018) - April 6th
I love horror, and I love it when a good horror movie comes out. People should see this. My full review can be found here. - 7.5/10
89. Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988) - April 6th
Before you judge me, understand that this scene is what convinced me to watch the movie.
This is one of the most absurd, most meta things I have ever seen, and despite the comedy being somewhat hit-or-miss, the film is so unbelievably charming in how it is absolutely shameless in its cheapness and self-awareness, so committed to its bit in how elaborately it builds upon the idea of a world recovering from a literal war with tomatoes, that I can't help but love it. - 5/10
90. The Phantom of the Opera (2004) - April 7th
I'm always up for a bit of over the top theatre dramatics, but this movie is just the freakin' most.The colour palette is so overwhelming gaudy that my eyes felt like they were melting after half an hour. It's a shame it's a distraction too, because the costume and set design is fantastic, with incredible detail imbued in to every seam and seat. The story fairs far less well, dragging its feet at every possible moment and devoid of some of the less palatable tone of the original, in the process making it less interesting to watch than such a loud and silly movie should be. Still, the music, save for a couple of occasions, is really damn good, and carries the movie to its end. Overall, this is in a similar vein to The Greatest Showman, but not even as good as that; the sort of movie whose panache covers for the fact that it doesn't do enough with everything it has going on. - 5/10
91. The Director and The Jedi (2018) - April 8th
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is one of my favourite films from last year, and with a recent watching and re-watching of Brick, Rian Johnson is quickly becoming a personal favourite modern director of mine. The Director and The Jedi is a really well made look in to the Rian's process, taken from so many perspectives, with the conflicts and the passion turned out in equal measure, that also reminded me what a fantastic and herculean undertaking filmmaking, especially filmmaking of this scale, can be. It's really great to see all the hard work put in to making the film, to learn a little about the amount of pressure they were all under, especially Johnson, and also the immense support everyone gave each other as they were making it happen. It's also fantastic to see all of the practical effects work in production and compare them to how they look in the final product, the sheer time and effort that was taken to put the film together, the bits and pieces of the process. Johnson is a director who loves film and loves Star Wars, and if The Last Jedi wasn't more than enough to convince you, The Director and The Jedi shows so much of what makes the film and what makes the film great. - 7/10
92. The Witches of Eastwick (1987) - April 8th
It's probably cheap to say it, but this movie about witches is charming. Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, it's a star-studded cast brimming with dark and twisted humour, only losing its effect as it spirals out of control moving in to the finale. I appreciated the absurdity of it all, the idea that three women could unknowingly be witches and accidentally make a deal with the devil, and everyone gives a performance that sells the whole thing, with Jack Nicholson channeling a combination of his other works to create the ultimate disgustingly irresistible creep, and Cher, Sarandon, and Pfeiffer each offering a distinct character turn that has surprising detail and personality. There is a bit of issue with telling us things as opposed to showing from time to time, such as Pfeiffer's five kids essentially being a non-factor on-screen and only spoken about, and as I said the film really loses focus as it barrels towards its ending, but the whole experience is still a distinctly positive one, a perverse romp with a bit of woman empowerment going on. - 6.5/10
Re-watches
There's nothing better than showing a friend a movie you love.
16. Evil Dead II (1987) - April 3rd
This is the very best of bad taste comedy and campy horror, and watching this again was a reminder of why Sam Raimi is one of my personal favourite directors. Evil Dead II is just the best, it's pure silliness, slapstick and screams abound as we watch Bruce Campbell's chin do battle with ghosts and demons that possess everything from his girlfriend to his hand. It's a brilliant and unrefined mix that never fails to delight me. - 8/10
17. Brick (2005) - April 4th
Everything I said about this in last week's entry remains true here, so I have no particular need to re-iterate anything right now, I just really love this movie and loved showing it to a friend. - 9/10
18. Edge of Tomorrow (2014) - April 7th
This movie is the good video game movie people have been trying to make. It follows the Groundhog Day blueprint to treat one day as the single hardest video game checkpoint ever created, and in the process makes for one of the strongest emotional arcs and series of action sequences to come out of action films in the last five years. Cruise grows as a person as he learns and fails over and over, overcoming each obstacle by facing it again and again, becoming embittered and hopeful and stricken and furious over the course of the longest day of his entire life. It's the core of the movie and why it's so emotionally resonant, which is what makes the ending so excellent. Despite the fact that the day is saved and no one has to die anymore, the thing that became most important to him over that time, his relationship with Emily Blunt, must be attained once again, and that cheeky little smile and out of breath laugh just sells that combination of victory, hope, and the lightest of defeat that contrasts so well with the rest of the movie. - 8/10
Published April 9th, 2018
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