A Fortnight of Movies - October 15th to October 28th

It's that time of year again, where instead of watching endless horror movies in the lead-up to Halloween, I barely watch any movies at all as uni assignments suck up almost all of my free time and make me contemplate how much I'd rather be in a horror movie than have to write one more word about my supposed vocation. I'd rather get pursued by Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers at the same time in a Freddy Krueger nightmare, only to wake up in Leatherface's slaughterhouse than have to deal with the assignments on my plate, but I have been for the past few weeks, and as a result, instead of watching 14 movies in the last two weeks, I've watched... eleven, and at most three of them could be considered horror. Wow, I didn't figure that out until just now, I've actually seen quite a few movies, even if I'm still falling behind. As it is, I went out of my way to watch (for the most part) really damn good movies over the last fortnight, and even the only decent or barely mediocre movies on this list are worth a watch within their niche. Half of these will be pretty bad, since I'm writing all of them at midnight on a Sunday night after several hours of assignments, so fair warning if none of this makes sense. As always, check out the descriptions in the titles to see what the movie's about and get an idea if it's really for you.

285. The Garden of Words (2013) - October 15th

This movie was animated more beautifully than real life. This could have been little more than a tech demo and it would've been one of the best things I've watched all year, but stacked on top of this work of art it a weird but heartwarming story of loneliness and the connections we make in the hardest times. It's simple, but emotionally rich, and the odd nature of the friendship between the two main characters is made that much more interesting when the reason it formed to begin with comes back around. Between the music and the art work, I feel like I could watch this all day, although the complicated perspective I have on the characters' friendship is something I'll have to reconcile first. - 8.5/10 

286. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - October 15th

Apparently Welles' version of this film was much longer, which makes sense because really does feel like a truly fantastic movie that's had its guts pulled out, leaving only an excellent one. It's still a layered melodrama with Welles' distinct style and performances from some of the greats of the time like Joseph Cotten, but I can't help but feel as anyone would at hearing that this movie has been ripped apart, a certain lament about what could have been. - 8.5/10

287. Enemy (2013) - October 17th

Villenueve gets really weird with this one, and I kind of love it. It's broad enough of an idea to be open to interpretation (though, upon first watch,  I like Gyllenhaal's interpretation the most), with enough absurdist points that the ending makes as much sense as it done make none. It's slow, it's uncomfortable, it's transfixing, it's Villenueve does Lynch. - 7.5/10

288. The Philadelphia Story (1940) - October 19th

Classic comedies are 50/50 for me: Either I get them immediately and they're the funniest thing ever (see Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove or Duck Soup) or the comedy exists in a state that I either don't get or for whatever reason don't find particularly funny (His Girl Friday, The Producers, or this). Far be it from me to call this unfunny; humour is incredibly subjective and this has been added to the annals of classic comedy for a reason, but whether it be my state of mind or me missing the context of the jokes, a lot of them didn't land for me. This is still a movie that contains both Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart, which puts it well above most, but it's a great film by star power and reputation for me, as opposed to something that really resonated with me on a personal level. Still, I don't define greatness. - 8.5/10

289. A Star is Born (2018) - October 23rd

I didn't feel this one on a personal level, but it's still an excellently made film that deserves recognition. Most of the emotion that could have been wrought from me by this had already been done prior by the three previous versions (okay, only really the second one), with only a scene with Sam Elliot shedding manly tears doing anything to elicit something new from me. The music is absolutely wonderful, with a clear distinction between its ideas of what makes things real and what fails to, and phenomenal talent at work to make each track carry so much emotion. The performances are almost as noteworthy; films like these live or die on the chemistry of their leads, and Gaga and Cooper have it in spades, with a real attention drawn to every slow, deliberate romantic motion each one makes and the strength to live in moments where the characters destroy themselves and each other. Aside from a few moments to hilarious to be intentional given their context, this film was great from start to finish, even if it wasn't something that appealed to me personally. - 8/10

290. The First Purge (2018) - October 24th

The politics are clumsy and the performances aren't good enough to make the hammy dialogue work, but despite having as much nuance as my overtired brain on a Sunday evening, the race angle and the recognition of a system that has caused drug dealers to be seen as heroes of the community are interesting enough ideas on their own to make this film worth watching. It's not great, but it's as angry as it is awkward. Combine that with a surprisingly fantastic final act that sees the director's choreography of violence take centre stage, and you have a halfway decent action-horror that almost manages to make a legitimate point during all the carnage. - 5/10

Re-watches

59. Blade Runner (1982) - October 20th

This is the sort of film that gets better on re-watches. The first time I saw this I was completely underwhelmed despite the fact that this was the movie that essentially started the cyberpunk aesthetic; I was put off by the unlikable Deckard (culminating in still the worst scene in the movie, whose thematic potential doesn't really justify its existence when you consider its outcome) and the strange pacing of the film that felt as if it just fell from one beat to the next. The second time, however, was a much stronger viewing for me, as I got much more focused on the themes and the look and the damn near perfect music that really highlights the marriage of sci-fi and noir that makes up this film's entire approach to existence. My appreciation for this film was only furthered by its sequel, whose existence was not only furthered by this but also furthered this in the process. The third time around, problems with it aside, I fully appreciate this film's contribution to sci-fi and am more readily comfortable with the film's pace, which makes it much easier to ignore how little I care for Deckard and focus on all of the replicants, each of whom are interesting in their own ways as they all add up to a lot of suggestions about the way the world works while reinforcing the film's biggest themes about what it means to be human. Not quite Ridley Scott's master work (Alien exists, after all), but this has a legacy for a reason. - 8.5/10

60. Aliens (1986) - October 22nd

This is one of the best movies of all time, and one of my favourite pick-me-ups when the situation calls for it. Ripley's arc in this film, defining her not just by her womanhood, but by her motherhood, is so fantastically interwoven into the backbone of one of the most action-y of action movies ever, and the combination of the two ideas it so unbelievably perfect for how well it represents her character. Cameron's action always builds and cascades so perfectly, with one piece of incredibly personal tension flowing straight in to the next as easily as breathing, something that's hard to remember to do during that whole last sequence of events from the moment the Xenomorphs make their final assault to the escape from the planet, with not a single second wasted and a culmination of everything that has defined Ripley's character over this film and the last, only to do so all over again after barely a moment's rest and letting Ripley utter one of the most iconic lines in cinema history. What makes it all work so well is that Ripley's emphasised femininity, something that was largely left out of focus during the first Alien, ends up complementing the insane action perfectly, offering a tenderness in the quieter beats that peaks when Newt calls her 'mommy' and absolutely breaks your heart. This film is a perfect piece of pure action with a hell of a lot of heart and subtext to it, all of which I wish I had the time to talk about here, because everything from Ripley's 'birthing' dream to her interactions with Bishop to the Queen womb explosion are layered enough to be worth discussion. - 10 out of freaking 10.

61. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) - October 24th

Also known as Walk Hard meets Hot Rod. This is actually pretty consistently funny, if never quite as laugh out loud as either of the other two, with all of its jokes landing a few years too late, and not a lot of comedic flair outside of its satire. Something like Hot Rod could get away with being everything from satirical to surreal, and Walk Hard did all the same sort of stuff almost a decade earlier, so nothing about Popstar really stands out, but it approaches everything it does with a real joy that makes it pleasant regardless of how obnoxious it gets; it's the Andy Samberg Effect. A lot of the film's comedy tries to toe the line between in-your-face and clever while usually falling on the side of the former, but it does so with enough gusto that you don't mind. - 6.5/10

62. 22 Jump Street (2014) - October 24th

This, on the other hand, toes the line between obnoxious and clever perfectly. A lot of the story beats are made plain as day and the metaphors are all cheesy and obvious, but at the best of times it's layered enough to be absolutely hilarious. I will never not laugh myself silly at the 'Red Herring' joke; it's the perfect example of this film's best comedy, at once so obvious that it's literally in your face, but also so unexpected as a comedy beat that it ends up working on two levels. Between that sort of stuff and everything involving Schmidt banging the Captain's daughter, this is one of my favourite comedies of the last few years. - 7.5/10 

63. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - October 27th

It's a shame Star Wars peaked nearly forty years ago, but at least they've gotten close to this point recently. Still, for the foreseeable future, this is the best Star Wars movie of all time. The cheesy dialogue, the goofy comedy, the pulpy sci-fi and the palpable drama are all here in their best forms, with a slightly muted feel that stops any one aspect of the film becoming overbearing and allowing each aspect to shine in their own way, flowing well in to one another consistently. For fans, the development of the philosophy of the Jedi and the meaning, power, and application of the Force was all golden, with the realisation that belief is what is most needed in the use of the Force being one of the most intriguing developments of the the film series' perspective on its own little Deus ex Machina, quite literally accounting for the idea that anyone can have that sort of power, and that training is actually about understanding and discipline, rather than power. It reinforces the constant dichotomy of light and dark, and it gets all the more real with every piece of wisdom Yoda spouts. "Do or do not, there is no try" and ("I don't believe it") "That is why you fail" are still the two most poignant lines the series has stated in its entire existence, all wrapped up in Yoda's little lesson about how lifting an X-Wing is no different to lifting a rock, because belief that you can do it is what matters most. I love this film, it's inspiring and adventurous, and even after all of the exhilarating fun it has, it still never forgets to remind you of how dire the situation is, culminating in the devastating and most iconic twist in all of cinema. This is  yet another classic that has gotten me through these past couple of weeks. - 9/10

Published October 29th, 2018

2018: A Week of Movies - October 8th to October 14th

This week's been busy, and I can feel my brain leaking out of my ears, so apologies in advance if this isn't my best. As always, if you need a reminder of any of these movies' plots, check out the links in the titles.

280. 48 Hrs. (1982) - October 8th

This feels like a "Seinfeld is unfunny" moment for me, because I know that this was critically acclaimed and basically started the buddy cop genre and Eddie Murphy's career, but this basically blew straight past me as I watched it, none of the comedic moments hitting me with any particular memorability and not even the chemistry between Murphy and Nolte standing out to me. I want to give this the benefit of the doubt, more for what it is than what I make of it, so for now I'll hold off on saying more until I watch it again.

281. The Spirit (2008) - October 8th

This was kind of terrible outside of its distinct sense of style, but part of me loves it a little for how ridiculous it all is. The plot is an incomprehensible mix of noir send-ups and Greek mythology, from love triangles with femme fatales to underworld beings and the blood of demi-gods. It fits together about as well as you'd expect, in no small part due to how the film seems to have no consistent idea about how it wants the audience to feel. The ludicrous nature of it all seems to be for comedy's sake (how could it not be in a movie where Samuel L. Jackson pulls out increasingly silly sets of guns in a firefight?), but it's all weighed down by one plot non sequitur after another: I feel like I'm supposed to be laughing, but the film keeps ruining those chances with so much convoluted nothing. Still, it's really nice to look at; the obvious Sin City vibe may feel like parody at times because of everything else, but it's still incredibly striking, beautiful even, a pure stylistic adaptation of comic book fare that feels ripped from the page. It's a shame that's not enough to make the film worth watching. - 4/10  

282. The Wicker Man (1973) - October 9th

This film is excellent, a horror classic even, but I'm now forever distracted by several questions I have about how and why the Nicolas Cage version exists as it does; I can't think about how good this is without thinking about how bad the other is. Still, at least for the next few minutes, I'll try to think about only this version.

The Wicker Man has some of the best aspects of classical horror, refined to the point of being a sort of 'last gasp' of the style as films like The Exorcist  gave way to modern horror. The film has an eerie atmosphere and a subtle pace that coalesce to create a constant sense of paranoia that is intentionally made to seem unjustified until the tragic final moments of the film. That idea that everything's a little bit off is made plain; the culture divide between Neil Howie, played with complex empathy and appropriate strain between logic and irrationality by Edward Woodward, and the residents of Summerisle, makes the unease from Howie's close-minded perspective seem excessive. At the same time, the fluctuations between kindness and obtuseness from the people around him as soon as the topic of the missing girl Rowan comes up keeps you on constant edge: they just seem odd until they become deceptive, and seem to do so almost as second nature. The effect of all of this is maximised by Christopher as Lord Summerisle, who is the very image of a cult leader, with the right mix of nice and uncomfortably forceful in person before becoming positively theatrical in front of a crowd. All of this builds to such an excellent finale that just forces you stay with an entirely helpless man as he burns, his last words that of the faith that with such irony led him to this point. - 8/10

283. Insidious: The Last Key (2018) - October 9th

One more entry takes this film series from extremely middling to extremely middling. The Last Key has a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessors, with Lin Shaye's performance holding up her material and the interesting designs of the demons at work at least being memorable enough to make up for every cheap jump scare abused to build them up, but those same cheap jump scares coming about largely unearned and much of the horror set so cartoonishly that it seems more like unintentional dark comedy. Giving Shaye's Elise Rainier a backstory that ties in to the main plot through some time shenanigans is as interesting as it is ridiculous and insular, but that's par for the course with Insidious, so credit to the film for trying to make a cohesive thematic throughline about abuse, even if it takes an awkward route to get there. It's very slightly more than more of the same, and at least an improvement upon its predecessor, but that's it. - 5/10

Re-watches

57. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) - October 14th

This is hardly the worst film in the franchise, and is still an improvement on its predecessor due to tighter direction, but another dose of Colin Trevorrow's writing just serves as another reminder of why I'm glad he's not working on Star Wars: Episode IX anymore.

Jurassic World: FK is so dumb and cynical that the story regularly distracts from the emotional roller coaster the film tries to take you on, and while the cinema allowed for the film's strengths to be far more emotionally engaging, here at home, even after weekend so busy that 'turn your brain off' is more of a given than a choice, the film's contrivances took away far more from my experience than they did the first time around. It's not without impressive spectacle, it's just that it feels so empty; it reminds me how much mood can affect the experience, because here I only needed noise, and it's exactly what I got out of the film. The problems I had with the film were the same problems I had last time, so stuff like the movie acknowledging the existence of Isla Sorna but then ignoring all of its implications because extended material may or may not remove it as a concern for the plot, or how poorly the film's message was handled by muddying its own potential for nuance, or how the cynicism of Jurassic World seems to have blend in to this and become callous at times for the sake of easy emotional manipulation, all of it becomes amplified when I can't engage with the movie. It doesn't really change my overall perspective of the movie (although I noticed a couple of set-ups in the writing that I missed the first time around, neither of which make their respective payoffs less stupid, just stupid with context), and it's still the third-best Jurassic movie (not that that's meant much since the 90s), so I still feel about the same as the first time. - 6/10

58. Mandy (2018) - October 14th

This is my third time watching this movie in a month; it's not the best I've seen this year, but it might be my favourite just on style alone. At this point I could just start mentioning things that happen in the film, and if its kind of crazy suits you, you should watch it. Nicolas Cage lights a cigarette on the burning, severed head of drug-psycho he murdered with an axe he forged himself when a crossbow bolt to the throat wasn't enough. Nicolas Cage wordlessly intimidates a chemist in to releasing a pet tiger. Nicolas Cage crushes a cult leader's skull with his bare hands after declaring himself that cult leader's god. This all sounds metal as hell, but it's nothing compared to the experience of watching it. Outside of the style, three times over and I'm still not entirely sure what the film has or is even trying to say. There's some stuff about religious perversion of love through declaring ownership over it, and an ungodly amount of phallic imagery (particularly dis-empowerment of it; one of the earliest shots is a collapsing tree, one of the last is a perverted cross falling flaccid before falling apart, followed by the cult church building doing the same. There's also the chainsaw fight, which makes the whole exercise positively comedic). It's all very interesting, but I'm not sure how deep I want to dig in to it; I love this movie for its aesthetic above all else, its use of colour and lighting to be utterly hypnotic before becoming frantic and destructive with only the smallest of changes, with consistency to every chosen motif. - 8/10

Published October 14th, 2018

2018: A Week of Movies - October 1st to October 7th

A new version of A Star is Born is out soon, so I decided to start the week off by watching the three previous versions and comparing them a little. I also watched Venom, which wasn't good, but competent enough for me to get over my personal bias and lower my opinion of The Predator further. As always, if you need to brush up on the plot of something I watched, follow the IMDb link in the title(s).

273. A Star Is Born (1937) - October 1st

- 7.5/10

274. A Star Is Born (1954) - October 2nd

- 8/10

275. A Star Is Born (1976) - October 3rd

- 5/10

Rather than trying to awkwardly segue between the three individual discussions, I'll just give you my ratings of all three up front, because despite the merits of each film what I found most interesting was the changes made between them in terms of style and structure. Each film feels like a product of its time and means of production, and I think it's kind of neat to see how the three films differ.

As a quick primer, all three films follow a woman with aspirations of stardom who gets a chance through an older once-celebrity now fading out of the limelight.

The original has its focus squarely on its lead, Esther, with the entire film encapsulating her experience of things first and foremost, from the start in her small town to the late introduction of Norman Maine, only through her eyes, to the way the film uses the whole thing as both cautionary tale and as biting satire of Hollywood. It's riddled with melodrama and is sometimes saccharine to compensate, with a saturated Technicolor palette and a slow, deliberate pace cut inside a relatively short running time, all calling cards of 1930s Hollywood fare. Esther is a fully realised and understandably old-fashioned character who makes the movie far more emotionally complex than I expected of this sort of film, with everything coming back around to her and how she processes the story's events, which makes Norman's late entrance in to the film, his continued involvement despite general unlikability, and his somewhat abridged character arc all fit well enough. This is Esther's perspective, and Norman is the cold mirror through which we perceive the fall after the rise that no-one wants to think about, and the idea that he would drown himself rather than get in her way is both a very powerful event for Esther and the most cutting thing you could say about how Hollywood perceives people as a commodity, even more than everyone's incessant exploitative words and actions.

A lot of this gets more layered when we see how the story is told in 1954. Bigger, brasher, but less biting, A Star is Born (1954) is every bit the excessive '50s Hollywood musical I expected it to be, down to the use of the red carpet opening. As much as I find this to be the best of the three films, I also can't help but find it lacking, specifically because everything that this film does was done shorter and sharper not two years before in Singin' in the Rain (aside from the ending). That said, as long as this film is and as soft the satire feels by comparison to both Singin' and its predecessor, the length is padded with good material and the call-outs of the Hollywood studio system are still present.

A lot of the new material has to do with how the film starts its leads off and where it goes with Norman. Instead of starting in her home town and exposing her to failure a few times before giving her a chance, Esther is already in Hollywood and has failed a few times by the time she's introduced to Norman; the character development is short-handed for the sake of how the movie wants to divide its time between the characters. In this introduction, the characters appear at around the same time, signifying the shared nature of the story this time around: Esther's poised for a rise and Norman for a fall with no more than a few moments on-screen. This is really succinct visual storytelling, with set-up for the movie's final turn in the opening scene and the symbolism for both the character's current states and the movie's entire process played out before a literal Hollywood audience. It's actually kind of amazing that a movie this concise in its storytelling at first glance is the one that goes for three hours.

Still, after this the movie treats Esther similarly to how she was treated in the original, but with far less naivety on her part; she's quite a bit more cynical and capable and world-weary, which means that significant aspects of the story have to change for it to still be believable that she would shackle herself to Norman and still have difficulty within the Hollywood system. The latter was easy enough for them to change, simply by reinforcing how unfair the system can be at all times and giving her the awareness to know it up-front and keep trying anyway. The former, however, required significantly more thought put in to the character of Norman Maine. This time around, he is far more complex, and by introducing him alongside Esther we get to see their respective career trajectories move alongside one another as well. A lot of hard moments in the original are given more despair than anger, such as the public nadir, where Norman strikes Esther, which is made accidental and far more apologetic. The emotions attached to his fall are as drawn out as the emotions attached to her rise are, and we see it largely from his perspective this time around, so his tragedy is much easier to attach to. The things that makes this ultimately watchable are the performances of the two leads. The original's Janet Gaynor and Fredric March were both great for their time, serving the melodrama while still appearing human, but with so much extra material to work with here, Judy Garland and James Mason make for easily the best coupling of these three movies. You can really believe that Mason as Maine was a real Hollywood darling who has orchestrated his own demise; he's both charmingly sincere and painfully closed off, at once supportive and too proud to admit that he needs help himself, he expresses all of the complex emotions understated or absent from the previous incarnation, free now with the time he is given to be a complete character. Garland is in a similar boat as Esther, evoking the best of Gaynor with an updated range fitting the new tone and the same complexity that makes the character all the more moving for the system she operates within.

Of course, there's also the musical numbers to add to the running time, which are as garish yet delightful as the best Hollywood musicals often are; there's not much for me to really say about them, they are a wonderful yet almost always unnecessary product of the era that ultimately add to the movie's experience because of how well they are put together. They are the '50s equivalent to an action scene, which is just fantastic at the best of times.

Then, there's the 1976 version.

While the 1954 version's musical numbers largely added to the experience, the 1976 version's musical numbers are the only reason to sit through it. No amount of poorly streamlined or re-oriented storytelling will remove Streisand's musical talent, but they can make the non-musical portions of this film often unbearably contrived or otherwise ridiculous. Instead of a satirical look at the Hollywood system, this film is transplanted in to the era of rock 'n' roll, and follows aspiring singer Esther Hoffman instead of aspiring actress Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester, as well as rock star John Norman Howard instead of fading star Norman Maine. It's so strange how poorly it comes together, in no small part due to the lack of chemistry between the two leads and particularly some surprisingly forced acting from Streisand (Kristofferson seems checked out, but it suits the character well enough here). It's all thrown together with so little thought.

Rather than derision at a system that propagates itself through always passing over of the old in favour of the new, the 1976 version seems completely unaware of the world outside its two main characters. This time we start with Norman instead of Esther, who seems to be within a solid place of stardom but behaves self-destructively regardless. This might initially seem like a comment on how the drug of stardom is itself the problem and not the fall from it, but instead the movie uses this opening as one of many ways to contrast how much of a mess Norman is in comparison to Esther. Where the 1954 re-make wised Esther up but also improved Norman as a person to compensate, here Esther is sharpened even further but Norman made more boorish and unlikable and even cartoonishly destructive. In the previous two versions, Norman is imprisoned for drunk and disorderly, but here he can shoot at a news helicopter and face no repercussions. These sorts of moments feel like they're supposed to mean something, but instead they're largely ignored or simplified or excused, and Esther ends up with Norman anyway.

It's a destructive relationship, more explicitly so than in previous versions, but the film can't quite get clear on its messaging, at once admonishing Norman, but then rewarding him, then destroying him, and then rewarding Esther for going through it all, but still wanting the tone of love from her as it builds to its climax. The film wants to have the focus squarely on the characters, even removing or streamlining other characters that had previously represented cogs in the system that dictated this story from the get-go, but it still needs Esther to make some of the decisions that make her a weaker character, without the reasoning behind those decisions being properly developed, while also wanting to present Esther as without fault. It feels like the predecessors' critical yet thoughtful and understanding perspective of Esther and Norman's relationship was thrown out the window with the changes to that relationship, and what we're left with is a toxic, abusive relationship with seemingly no redeeming factors that forgets why they came together in the first place. It's so contrived by comparison, with these forcibly 'deep' moments like Norman spray painting Esther's name on to the wall of his home even though it's only the second time they've met, or re-framing their marriage as her proposal and acceptance of his flaws rather than him proposing and getting turned down until he promises to stop drinking. Nothing about the film that's centred around these two really works, even at the best of times, and it's only the music that got me through this, even as it ends on a seven-minute rock ballad planted squarely on Streisand's face that ends with her in a Christ pose, no better a representation of this film's ego than in that moment.

As the third version shows, this story is easy to tell poorly, but the differences between all three show just how malleable and hopefully timeless this story is, the rise and the fall meeting side-by-side as powerful an idea made stronger by the recognition of the system in which it has to work in order to exist at all. The first two also serve as solid microcosms of the sort of style that was indicative of the time, and make great stepping stones for anyone wanting to look in to films of their respective eras. The third is less this, its only recognition of the world in which it was produced in the choice to make it about rock 'n' roll. With this in mind, I hope that the 2018 version gets right what the 1976 version got wrong, transplanting the story but using that story to recognise the toxicity of the system while also making complex and compelling characters for us to watch rise and fall, and by all accounts so far, it has.

276. Venom (2018) - October 4th

This wasn't good, although it wasn't particularly bad either. As far as weak franchise starters go, this at least had the decency to be better than the Dark Universe The Mummy or the DCEU Batman v Superman and keep everything that it does within the story it sets out to tell, with no forced segues in to set-up for future films outside of a post-credits scene. Beyond that, its general strengths and weaknesses have been highlighted in my review here. - 4.5/10

277. Top Gun (1986) - October 4th

Here's a movie whose legacy makes it a better film. Top Gun received middling reviews upon release, with a lot of praise deservedly directed towards to the movie's flight choreography and a lot of ire directed towards everything that involved characters talking. More than thirty years later and those dogfights still hold up as some of the best, from the editing to the design to the use of actual planes to make everything feel that much more real, but just as importantly the dialogue, the human moments in the film, the cheesy one-liners and the music, have all become iconic. That stuff is still 'bad' in the sense that it's a terrifically overdone example of the 80s' excessive style, but that style is now an important part of film canon that's been hugely influential on the development of the style of action movies, even today, and Top Gun is one of the most memorable contributions to this. In any other similarly styled movie I couldn't care less about the human elements, from the rivalry between loose cannon and dickish stickler, to the haphazardly conceived love story clearly designed as a box to check and a time filler, but here all of those pieces are on display in a movie that made those pieces common enough to be cliche in the first place. I had as much fun with the dogfights as I did counting off the number of times something in this film has been parodied or otherwise satirised since its release, some I hadn't even realised were references until I saw the film; this was a delightful time. - 7/10

278. Primeval (2007) - October 6th

I should be ashamed of the number of films on my list this year that are just bad crocodile movies. I should be, but I'm not, and I'm even slightly proud of this one, no matter how mad it is, because I find Dominic Purcell watchable in anything (even Blade: Trinity, which is still worse than this; and while I say this I haven't watched any of the Uwe Boll stuff he appeared in, which may easily cut my enthusiasm short). This is a big, dumb crocodile movie that tries to be slightly more than a big, dumb crocodile movie, but is so clumsy in the process that it ultimately comes off as a big, dumb, slightly insulting crocodile movie that only gets by on the fact that it's in a genre of almost entirely terrible movies, so decent effects, watchable performances, and anything more than 'croc eats idiots' makes this a near-zenith of its kind, which still puts it far closer to the bottom overall. - 3.5/10

279. Paper Man (2009) - October 6th

Emma Stone is always perfect, and everyone else from Jeff Daniels to Ryan Reynolds to Kieran Culkin all play appropriate character-actor roles, but it isn't enough to save this film from being anything more than a middling dramedy of the standard 'self-destructive adult learns a life-lesson' (or perhaps 'coming-of-middle-age') structure. The set-ups are contrived at best and what little wisdom given out is frightfully trite, the film's inflated sense of self-importance over such revelations about loneliness ultimately coming off as fake, which is a shame because there are moments where the acting or the music or even the dialogue come together enough to make it almost affecting, like the writers wanted it to be honest but didn't quite know how, and the actors knew enough to do what they thought was right, but never enough to overcome the inherently strange approach this film takes to its arrested development and awkward set-up. - 5/10

Published October 8th 2018

2018 Film Review: Venom (2018)

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Written by: Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, Kelly Marcel, Will Beall
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
IMDb Link

Earlier this year, Logan Marshall Green starred in the movie Upgrade, which is probably the movie you should watch if you want to see a good Venom movie.

Eddie Brock (Hardy) is a down on his luck reporter whose life was destroyed when he challenged corporate CEO Carlton Drake (Ahmed) about Drake's malevolent experimental practices. Said practices include bonding people with alien parasites that give people super powers and slowly eat them from the inside, one of which gets on Brock and turns him in to Venom. While initially at odds with the parasite, Brock must inevitably work with it because the rest of the alien parasites are working to bring a bunch more to eat  everyone and destroy the world.

In case you hadn't noticed, the plot is pretty silly, and the film's progression and execution of certain points seem slapdash or arbitrary at best. Stakes get raised with half-hearted deceptions or explanations on the fly, and the movie doesn't seem to care too much about them in the first place. Most of the film seems constructed purely for mass appeal, and a lot of the time, that just means being entertaining in the moment without much thought to the next. This leads to a lot of tonal issues in the film: Venom never seems quite sure if it wants to be a gritty body horror or some goofy kids movie, and this problem is so consistent that it's the sort of the thing that will likely make you either love the film ironically or hate it outright.

Personally, as much as I know that these sorts of tonal issues make for a bad film, they're so forced in Venom that they create some of the most unintentionally funny moments in any movie I've seen this year. Eddie eats a live lobster while cooling off in a lobster tank, Venom makes Eddie wolf down Tater Tots, Venom bonds with Eddie's ex Anne (Williams) and they kiss to transfer the bond, so Eddie literally makes out with a gender-bent Venom. Some of these moments I'm sure were meant to be actually funny, but I could only laugh at how bad it ended up coming across in the same film where homeless people are being captured for the purpose of experimentation and Eddie loses a friend as a result. It's a shame, too, because if it had been properly committed to, the gritty slant might have worked, but it's so undercut by awkward attempts to be funny that the darker side of the film just comes across as bland. I guess the writers felt it was just necessary for Venom to give dating tips to Eddie, to be arbitrarily too aware of how humans work or completely oblivious to it as the script needed, and for him to drop that disasterpiece of a line: "... like a turd, in the wind."

The action fairs a little better, but with the stakes changing on a dime, Venom's seeming invincibility, and his sound weakness only coming up a couple of times, decent execution of car chases and monster brawls becomes a lot less interesting. A lot of what Venom can do is really cool in concept, but he's so unstoppable at all times that it becomes tedious for how long it goes on. There's a few moments that show off Eddie getting used to the powers that are kind of fun, but it's mostly just noise.

Thankfully, Tom Hardy is every bit the (anti) hero we need to make this watchable. He gives every scene exactly what the character needs to be likable: he's excessive and brooding and goofy all when the script demands it, so even though the movie keeps throwing scenes that are all off tonally, it's not his fault, because it's clear that he's doing exactly as the scene demands, even if the scene shouldn't have demanded it. As much as I don't want any more movies from this franchise, I'd be happy to see Hardy as Venom again.

The Short Version: The action is serviceable and Tom Hardy gives it a damn good try, but Venom doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Gritty one moment and goofy the next, either tone if committed to would have worked fine, but Venom never makes that choice, and a lot of scenes suffer as a result, meaning I was left with a film that I was laughing at more often than I was laughing with.

Rating: 4.5/10

Published October 5th, 2018