Hopefully with uni over I'll eventually get this back down to weekly installments. As it is, I had to split this up from my other fortnight and hope for the best. Maybe I'll actually write something worthwhile. As always, read the plot details in the descriptions, I'm here to talk about my experience with the movies themselves.
304. Elvis (1979) - November 12th
I'm glad watched this before I watched Bohemian Rhapsody, because it showed me just how much of a meme the 'musical biopic' story structure has become for how similar the too films are, from the framing device of a dramatic point where the artists are out of practice to the all too sombre ending (understandably) mourning the loss of a titan of music. The difference here is that Elvis does so almost forty years Rhapsody attempted, so the fact that the narrative structure hasn't evolved over that time and has in fact warped itself to better fit this style of story so overplayed that it was lampooned over a decade before by Walk Hard puts both this film in a more positive light and Rhapsody in a more negative one. It's a movie with enough room in it for Russell to breathe, too, allowing for a truly nuanced performance of the lost king, one that characterises his flaws as much as his virtues. It's really solid stuff that shows how limitations can be strengths, and how this story structure was so obviously gold that it's been done so often since, even to this year. - 7/10
305. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - November 12th
One outstanding performance can't save a movie made up of a story so lacking in commitment it can't be bothered to properly examine anything it shows and just relies on shorthand to force its way through a trite version of the musical biopic story that's been told again and again for decades. That said, one outstanding performance can make that sort of movie worth watching despite itself. My full review can be found here. - 6/10
306. The Station Agent (2003) - November 13th
This movie is pretty incredible, offering all the nuances of a lonely existence; the not-quite gruff approach to every uncomfortable conversation, the teetering contentment of solitude juxtaposed with those scattered moments where being alone gives no room to breathe. Writer-director McCarthy had real vision here for the characters, and they all offer their own take on that need to connect with other people that we just can't avoid no matter how hard some of us try. He knows every moment to show, and just when to show them, and because of this we get one of Dinklage's best performances. - 8/10
307. First Man (2018) - November 14th
This is the sort of film you need to experience in a cinema. While the softly spoken moments of humanity and the turmoil you can only see within the eyes of Gosling make the movie, well, moving, it's the thrum of the machines around him and sudden silence that follows that make the movie feel alive in a way that only the cinema can evoke. My full review can be found here. - 8/10
308. Halloween (2018) - November 14th
After suffering through so many bad sequels, Halloween finally gets one that's worthy of the original, a taught, angry, surprisingly wholesome horror that builds on the themes and experiences of the first and gives Curtis room to create a powerful performance. My full review can be found here. - 7.5/10
309. Hotel Artemis (2018) - November 16th
I appreciated the cast more than the movie itself. Foster, Brown, Boutella, they all give performances that go beyond the one note in the writing and actually give the movie something really worthwhile beyond its distinct style. - 6/10
310. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) - November 16th
Movies are generally used to tell stories, not needlessly expand lore in a way that only further exposes how haphazardly it was put together in the first place. If The Crimes of Grindelwald actually had a plot instead of a sequence of disconnected events that sometimes happen to the characters, I might have liked it. My full review can be found here. - 3/10
311. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - November 17th
While some shorts (1, 2, and 4) are stronger than others (3, to an extent 6), this occasionally uneven anthology has all the trimmings of the Coens' work, a bizarre mix of the macabre and the serendipitous that aims to treat all manner of life with a bit of laughter. At its best, this feels like both a lampoon of the Western genre's lionisation of certain themes and ideas combined with a reflection on their own work through the lens of the Western genre. The opening short (the best of the bunch), its name the same as the title, manages to disarm while also blatantly expressing the type of character Buster is, all with the help of Tim Blake Nelson's perfectly goofy smile; it's the touch of insanity and strange fortune that acts as a perfect little microcosm of the stories the Coens tell. Each piece that follows does things differently, but they all express an aspect of Westerns with a Coens' twist, and while every outcome isn't as satisfying as each other, it all adds up to the weird yet haunting sensation of both peace and restlessness that the Coens' are masters of leaving you with. - 8/10
312. Jack and Jill (2011) - November 17th
Al Pacino and the three times that I actually laughed were enough to scrape this movie from the absolute bottom of the barrel and not make me want to burn my eyes out for committing to watch this painfully dull affair that shows the exact moment Adam Sandler traded his soul for money. - 1.5/10
313. The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918) - November 17th
Meet the blockbuster of the 1910s, the film that tries to wow you with spectacle and had to have its artistic vision cut down to size so that theatres could make enough money off of it by showing it more. Time hasn't changed the industry that much, I guess. As with The Great Train Robbery, it's hard to gauge an experience with a film like this, because it's so prototypical within the medium that it's more about the existence of the film and the importance of early film such as this that played its part in getting us to where we are today than it is about any individual consideration at this point. That said, the fact that this was cut down came as no surprise because the film essentially does what it advertised, first explaining how the characters got to a land of dinosaurs and then showing the dinosaurs in that gloriously stiff early stop-motion animation, and then the film just cuts abruptly, with the conceit of it being a story one of the characters tells his nephews. Make of that what you will.
314. First Reformed (2017) - November 19th
I'm a sucker for films that actually manage to capture the agony of moral quandary when framed through the Christian lens. Writer-director Paul Schrader (who co-wrote with Scorsese on The Last Temptation of Christ) manages to juxtapose humanity between religious dogma and political diatribe in a way that is both moving and frustrating. It feels like a perfect partner to Scorsese's own recent Silence, in the sense that it turns its perspective inwards and questions our capacity for the faith we hold dear; in this case, First Reformed is a challenge to consider the politicisation of spirituality and how we measure the value our own beliefs. The film literally deals with a church dying in the shadow of a megachurch, questioning whether or not the simple beliefs of love and acceptance at the heart of the faith can be preserved in the complex and brutal world that is slowly destroying itself and causing the church to do the same with its focus on financial stability causing it to bow to the needs of those who will maintain it. It's a deeply critical inward look at the state of the church in the 21st century, the kind of film that makes you think about the direction of the church and question what can and needs to be done for the faith at its core to survive. - 8.5/10
315. Waterworld (1995) - November 21st
This is such a strange case, because the effects were incredible and felt before their time, but the story was so haphazard it felt like it was playing catch-up. It's as if the concept of the world was considered, and the producers said "tragically ironic Mad Max, I like it, let's do it" and green-lit the project before they hammered out the details for how a story would play out in that world. As it is, they basically pulled a Mad Max 2 on the ocean, at its core a pretty good idea considering how great Mad Max 2 is, but with no real depth or attachment to the characters and a weird over-emphasis on The Mariner's moral ambiguity in the first half that's so excessive it's more a disconnected shock than a realised hope when he inevitably turns around to be the hero. Still, the effects and action sequences are excellent, more riveting than anything the story or characters have to offer, with an extravagant weight to them that makes their locations feel that much more buoyant. The film doesn't meet its ambitions, but I had a decent time when it was moving. - 6/10
316. The Intouchables (2011) - November 21st
This is the kind of story that I find lovely while I'm watching and then forget about pretty quickly afterwards. It's a good movie that could have been better, marked by charismatic performances that don't offer much depth and and easy answers to complex situations in need of more considerate examination. It makes the comedy beats breeze by in a dizzying series of bounces between the two leads, and the dramatic moments hit with all the weight of a pillow. I like it, but I'm not going to think about it after I finish this sentence. - 6.5/10
317. Total Recall (2012) - November 22nd
The world this movie introduces is more interesting than the movie itself, and what's left isn't enough for me to really enjoy this humourless and redundant piece of filmmaking. It's not bad, but the original exists. - 5/10
318. Wonder Wheel (2017) - November 23rd
I feel like Woody Allen is stuck in a loop at this point, covering the same sort of ground over and over again, as if he's looking for something new in the stories he's already told, and in the process he's forgotten how to do anything really effectively outside of directing talented actresses. The story is bland, and no amount of pretty images or clever blocking can disguise that, but Winslet applies wonderfully tragic aplomb to her role nonetheless, and I have to give credit to that no matter how stilted the love triangle and all the betrayals that come with it feel. - 5.5/10
319. Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - November 23rd
This is Wes Anderson's work as expected; I'm not sure what else to say, the guy has a distinct style that both works for him because it always gives him a lens through which to view what he creates and limits the number of ways he can tell a story because of how slavish he is in applying it. Moonrise Kingdom showed me that no matter the kind of story he wishes to tell, it's going to be defined more by the Wes Anderson eccentricities than by the genre it draws from; Kingdom is a coming-of-age film that's defined by its twee surrealism, with callbacks to everything from Stand By Me to Lord of the Flies presented in a way that's distinctly his. As a result, a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses are expressed again, with characterisation left largely shallow and the plot scattered between witty and wonderful comedy beats and unfelt drama beats, and the rest of the film so technically dazzling that the uneven mix of everything else hardly matters to most. Visuals are always a great strength, with the soft pastel playing beautifully against such a natural backdrop. There's not much else to say about the film without diving deeper, and I didn't feel engaged enough by the movie to really do that here, but I encourage anyone who reads this to do so if they were moved by this movie. I was grabbed by the visuals and the comedy, but not much else. - 7.5/10
320. The Proposition (2005) - November 24th
Now, I might be biased because of my nationality and how rarely this happens, but this is one truly awesome Australian movie. It's absolutely unyielding in its bleak view of the world and the time in which it's set, with no character ever given even the opportunity to act truly good, and the entire concept of good being brought in to question as acts of lawlessness are precisely what set every aspect of the story in to motion. The proposition itself is an act of lawlessness done in the hope of redeeming the world, one in which innocence can't ultimately exist as it's lashed by the hatred of those in pain and driven towards total destruction. Every step of this movie is so casually brutal, and it has no remorse for the story that has to be told; see this if you can stomach it. - 8/10
321. Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) - November 24th
This is surprisingly effective as what amounts to an abridged version of the first quarter of the original series. While the first half is a little disjointed as it tries to simultaneously introduce and gloss over the key conflicts from that arc in the show and thrust the movie straight in to the first angel fight, but by the end the themes and key imagery have all been placed coherently enough for the story to have a proper climax that feels like the ending to a key conflict that also acknowledges the inevitability of future ones. For what is essentially a quarter of a story that is itself made up of six smaller stories, it's actually effective at telling a complete story without being a complete mess. Of course, it also helps that the animation and imagery are more beautiful and stylish than they've ever been; aside from one awkward moment of CGI, the whole thing is absolutely beautiful and disturbing to look at, as to be expected from Hideaki Anno at this point. While the abridging of the story means the whole thing is exploring less and ultimately leaving viewers with a watered down version of what the original series tackles, and this movie in particular has too much world to establish to really explore even what it does introduce with any real depth just yet, it's still a solid introduction to the ideas of the original story if you've never had an inkling about what Evangelion really is. - 7/10
322. Sorry to Bother You (2018) - November 25th
This is one of the most absurd movies I've seen all year, and I love it for how well it manages to intertwine that absurdity with burning satire. The film is original, funny, and all kinds of both right and wrong, so I won't spoil anything here and just say you should watch it. - 8/10
Re-watches
64. Unbreakable (2000) - November 24th
This is still one of the best superhero movies ever made for how well it understands the humanity beneath it all that makes the sort stories told in comic books compelling; the sort of thinking present in the film has been expressed in a lot in superhero fare since (and there's certainly been a lot of superhero fare since), but this film strips all of the tropes down to a select few and uses them to tell a story about the mythology of man as hero and what that actually means; the powers and the tropes are spoken about openly because the film just uses them to tell a story about how we find and make meaning in our lives, and how superhero fare is an extension of that. To top it all off, re-watching this film has cemented my hype for the upcoming sequel, Glass, and given me hope that there will be something both different and good in this superhero-saturated movie landscape. - 8/10
Published November 26th, 2018
Sunday, 25 November 2018
Sunday, 18 November 2018
2018: A Fortnight of Movies - October 29th to November 11th
Much of this will be disjointed, since my recollection of a lot of these is hazy, but with all of my assignment done for the year, I'm feeling pretty good. As always, check out the plot descriptions in the links in the movies' titles.
291. A Night at the Opera (1935) - October 30th, 2018
In retrospect, I feel like it was a bad idea to start on the Marx Brothers with Duck Soup, because as funny as this is, I only have their best to compare it to. It's still filled with a bunch of great comedy bits, my favourite being the contract scene, as well as bites of social satire, but none of it really had me going the same as something like the mirror scene from Soup. It's also still an important piece of comedy history, at least as it's considered one of the Marx Brothers' best, but the increase in musical numbers and my mental state at the time left me a little checked out of this one. - 8/10
292. Elf (2003) - October 31st
Yet another reminder that Will Ferrell can actually be quite delightful when he's not constantly screaming. While the film's story is paper thin and the turn-around of the father is hardly earned, I can't dislike such an unabashedly warm and happy film. Even the sly digs the film makes feel free from cynicism, instead opting for a much more charming lens on everything, happy to just be a nice Christmas movie that's suitable for the whole family, without really trying to think deeper about what it has to say. - 6.5/10
293. Tequila Sunrise (1988) - November 1st
Good actors give good performances with minimal characterisation as they wade through an overwritten story. There's a lot of betrayals and twists and no real focus, but everyone plays their part with undeniable presence that suits what little is actually given about each character. - 6/10
294. Road to Perdition (2002) - November 2nd
I honestly felt very little about any of the characters in this movie, but the film nevertheless drew me in with its incredible sense of atmosphere, the mood of each scene backed by strong performances often enough for me to not care that much about the film's central conflict. A good movie, worth yof recognition, just not one I fell for. - 7/10
295. In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - November 3rd
John Carpenter's horror is always intriguing, even when it's not at its best, and this movie's meta-commentary is crazy enough to make this worth a watch. If you liked the crazy Sam Neill in Event Horizon, I definitely recommend this one, it's a lot of bleak Eldritch horror that isn't dampened by its foregone conclusion because of the weird level that the film is working on. - 6/10
296. The Great Train Robbery (1903) - November 3rd
This feels a little like cheating to add this to the list, since it's only about twelve minutes long, and I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to rate this sort of thing, since the film as it exists is both a piece of history so removed from what we understand film to be today, and fundamental to that understanding. Something as simple as the camera moving is now a default, yet was unconventional at the time of the film's release. This film can be pointed to as one of many that pushed the medium forward in its time and became an important stepping stone in getting to where we are today.
297. The Other Side of the Wind (2018) - November 5th
This is harder to talk about than the other films, not in the least because it's technically forty years old and directed by one of my favourites. As Orson Welles' legacy, this is a must-watch, but the content of the film and the genre that it satirises is so niche in scope that I can't imagine who I would recommend this to. As satire that's almost unrecognisable from its source, this is pretty outstanding stuff, with lots of obnoxious imagery that it beats you over the head with planted within the story of the film itself; the film is two layers of satire that work very well together, but the film is satirising a genre and style within that genre from forty years ago. This feels like a great piece for film historians, and it's the sort of work with such a self-deprecating touch that I couldn't help but recall such masterpieces as 8½ . - 8/10
298. Never Hike Alone (2017) - November 6th
This is a low-budget fan-made Friday the 13th movie, and it's also one of the most surprisingly good films I've ever seen. It's not amazing, but the creators obviously understand horror techniques, and trade the tasteless gore of the actual films in the franchise for something tighter, tenser, more intimate, and ultimately better than almost every actual Friday the 13th film (not a high bar, but a cleared one nonetheless). The film's first half is a little padded for such a short movie, but the focus on a single character's survival and some really damn good early scares kept me invested as it transitioned in to a sometimes terrifying and sometimes experimental second half. I liked this film, which is something that feels strange to say about a Friday the 13th film. If you're interested, I urge you to check the film out - it's available to watch for free right now on YouTube, and it's only 50 minutes long. It's well worth the time. - 6/10
299. The Boxtrolls (2014) - November 7th
My only previous experience with Laika's work was Kubo and the Two Strings, which is the third-best stop-motion feature film I've ever seen (I love it, but it can never replace Aardman's early feature work in my heart), and probably the best animated film of 2016, so my expectations were set pretty high. The Boxtrolls met those expectations in the animation department. The film's art design is so imaginative, and seeing it move with such tactile grace was often astounding. I love the way everything is distorted, these malformed villains and teetering buildings on uneven cobblestone roads, both lifeless and yet charming, and in the villains' case supported by a wonderful voice cast. Unfortunately, I was let down a little by the story, which was decent, but didn't stand out nearly as well as the animation. It's weird to feel negatively about something that was quite good, especially the sly criticism of the system in which the story works through the final act of its main villain (one that didn't really get followed up on outside of the idea that it's self-perpetuating by way of ignorance), but it's more that after the film was over, I cared far more for what I had seen than what I had watched. - 7/10
300. The Phantom (1996) - November 8th
Another surprisingly enjoyable film, The Phantom fits the era of 90s camp very well, but manages to be significantly better than other silly films of its time. There's a real passion in the work being done here; this mash-up of Indiana Jones and Superhero fare is served well by the unwavering commitment to having fun with every silly addition to the story, from the most cartoonish of femme fatales to quips and dialogue that feels ripped right out of the pages of comic books. As a small note, I loved the set design of this film; it's a weird thing to think about, but the film does a great job of making them feel "real" despite the era and the nature of the sets themselves, and it's not usually something I examine, but I couldn't help myself here because they really were well done. This was the sort of fun palate cleanser I needed at the end of a hard semester. - 6/10
301. Suspiria (2018) - November 9th
This was messy and unsettling, with subtle performances alongside not so subtle imagery and a lot of passion but a lack in focus. My full review can be found here. - 6.5/10
302. Coraline (2009) - November 10th
This was super lite on the horror, and still ended up being the most compelling horror movie I've seen recently. The incredible animation is supported by the creepy imagery to create a candy-coloured sense of unease that is juxtaposed so well again the drab lack of stimulation in the real world. Combine that with an interesting take on the meaning of happiness, the nature of sacrifice, and the reconciliation of the two as a part of growing up, and you have my favourite film in this set. - 8/10
303. The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - November 11th
Hardly Wes Anderson's most revelatory work, mostly developing the themes and ideas he originally explored in The Royal Tenenbaums, but if you appreciate his aesthetic and don't mind something a little 'done before' by the same director, this is definitely a good movie, assuming you don't think to hard about how little it actually cares for the culture it uses as little more than window dressing. - 7/10
Published November 19th, 2018
291. A Night at the Opera (1935) - October 30th, 2018
In retrospect, I feel like it was a bad idea to start on the Marx Brothers with Duck Soup, because as funny as this is, I only have their best to compare it to. It's still filled with a bunch of great comedy bits, my favourite being the contract scene, as well as bites of social satire, but none of it really had me going the same as something like the mirror scene from Soup. It's also still an important piece of comedy history, at least as it's considered one of the Marx Brothers' best, but the increase in musical numbers and my mental state at the time left me a little checked out of this one. - 8/10
292. Elf (2003) - October 31st
Yet another reminder that Will Ferrell can actually be quite delightful when he's not constantly screaming. While the film's story is paper thin and the turn-around of the father is hardly earned, I can't dislike such an unabashedly warm and happy film. Even the sly digs the film makes feel free from cynicism, instead opting for a much more charming lens on everything, happy to just be a nice Christmas movie that's suitable for the whole family, without really trying to think deeper about what it has to say. - 6.5/10
293. Tequila Sunrise (1988) - November 1st
Good actors give good performances with minimal characterisation as they wade through an overwritten story. There's a lot of betrayals and twists and no real focus, but everyone plays their part with undeniable presence that suits what little is actually given about each character. - 6/10
294. Road to Perdition (2002) - November 2nd
I honestly felt very little about any of the characters in this movie, but the film nevertheless drew me in with its incredible sense of atmosphere, the mood of each scene backed by strong performances often enough for me to not care that much about the film's central conflict. A good movie, worth yof recognition, just not one I fell for. - 7/10
295. In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - November 3rd
John Carpenter's horror is always intriguing, even when it's not at its best, and this movie's meta-commentary is crazy enough to make this worth a watch. If you liked the crazy Sam Neill in Event Horizon, I definitely recommend this one, it's a lot of bleak Eldritch horror that isn't dampened by its foregone conclusion because of the weird level that the film is working on. - 6/10
296. The Great Train Robbery (1903) - November 3rd
This feels a little like cheating to add this to the list, since it's only about twelve minutes long, and I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to rate this sort of thing, since the film as it exists is both a piece of history so removed from what we understand film to be today, and fundamental to that understanding. Something as simple as the camera moving is now a default, yet was unconventional at the time of the film's release. This film can be pointed to as one of many that pushed the medium forward in its time and became an important stepping stone in getting to where we are today.
297. The Other Side of the Wind (2018) - November 5th
This is harder to talk about than the other films, not in the least because it's technically forty years old and directed by one of my favourites. As Orson Welles' legacy, this is a must-watch, but the content of the film and the genre that it satirises is so niche in scope that I can't imagine who I would recommend this to. As satire that's almost unrecognisable from its source, this is pretty outstanding stuff, with lots of obnoxious imagery that it beats you over the head with planted within the story of the film itself; the film is two layers of satire that work very well together, but the film is satirising a genre and style within that genre from forty years ago. This feels like a great piece for film historians, and it's the sort of work with such a self-deprecating touch that I couldn't help but recall such masterpieces as 8½ . - 8/10
298. Never Hike Alone (2017) - November 6th
This is a low-budget fan-made Friday the 13th movie, and it's also one of the most surprisingly good films I've ever seen. It's not amazing, but the creators obviously understand horror techniques, and trade the tasteless gore of the actual films in the franchise for something tighter, tenser, more intimate, and ultimately better than almost every actual Friday the 13th film (not a high bar, but a cleared one nonetheless). The film's first half is a little padded for such a short movie, but the focus on a single character's survival and some really damn good early scares kept me invested as it transitioned in to a sometimes terrifying and sometimes experimental second half. I liked this film, which is something that feels strange to say about a Friday the 13th film. If you're interested, I urge you to check the film out - it's available to watch for free right now on YouTube, and it's only 50 minutes long. It's well worth the time. - 6/10
299. The Boxtrolls (2014) - November 7th
My only previous experience with Laika's work was Kubo and the Two Strings, which is the third-best stop-motion feature film I've ever seen (I love it, but it can never replace Aardman's early feature work in my heart), and probably the best animated film of 2016, so my expectations were set pretty high. The Boxtrolls met those expectations in the animation department. The film's art design is so imaginative, and seeing it move with such tactile grace was often astounding. I love the way everything is distorted, these malformed villains and teetering buildings on uneven cobblestone roads, both lifeless and yet charming, and in the villains' case supported by a wonderful voice cast. Unfortunately, I was let down a little by the story, which was decent, but didn't stand out nearly as well as the animation. It's weird to feel negatively about something that was quite good, especially the sly criticism of the system in which the story works through the final act of its main villain (one that didn't really get followed up on outside of the idea that it's self-perpetuating by way of ignorance), but it's more that after the film was over, I cared far more for what I had seen than what I had watched. - 7/10
300. The Phantom (1996) - November 8th
Another surprisingly enjoyable film, The Phantom fits the era of 90s camp very well, but manages to be significantly better than other silly films of its time. There's a real passion in the work being done here; this mash-up of Indiana Jones and Superhero fare is served well by the unwavering commitment to having fun with every silly addition to the story, from the most cartoonish of femme fatales to quips and dialogue that feels ripped right out of the pages of comic books. As a small note, I loved the set design of this film; it's a weird thing to think about, but the film does a great job of making them feel "real" despite the era and the nature of the sets themselves, and it's not usually something I examine, but I couldn't help myself here because they really were well done. This was the sort of fun palate cleanser I needed at the end of a hard semester. - 6/10
301. Suspiria (2018) - November 9th
This was messy and unsettling, with subtle performances alongside not so subtle imagery and a lot of passion but a lack in focus. My full review can be found here. - 6.5/10
302. Coraline (2009) - November 10th
This was super lite on the horror, and still ended up being the most compelling horror movie I've seen recently. The incredible animation is supported by the creepy imagery to create a candy-coloured sense of unease that is juxtaposed so well again the drab lack of stimulation in the real world. Combine that with an interesting take on the meaning of happiness, the nature of sacrifice, and the reconciliation of the two as a part of growing up, and you have my favourite film in this set. - 8/10
303. The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - November 11th
Hardly Wes Anderson's most revelatory work, mostly developing the themes and ideas he originally explored in The Royal Tenenbaums, but if you appreciate his aesthetic and don't mind something a little 'done before' by the same director, this is definitely a good movie, assuming you don't think to hard about how little it actually cares for the culture it uses as little more than window dressing. - 7/10
Published November 19th, 2018
Saturday, 17 November 2018
2018 Film Review: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Directed by: David Yates
Written by: J.K. Rowling
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterson, Johnny Depp
IMDb Link
The Crimes of Grindelwald manages to combine everything bad about prequels with everything bad about cinematic universes, telling us a story that serves as little more than preamble to an actual story that is itself a foregone conclusion. Not much of what happens matters to the story being told, and what little does is awfully contrived.
This whole story is like three different plots with ties to Harry Potter lore, all wrapped up in convoluted claptrap that nullifies every significant outcome of the last movie. Dark wizard Grindelwald (Depp) escapes custody, and he wants wizard-kind to rule over muggles, but he can't do it completely because a magic blood pact he made as a kid prevents him from attacking Dumbledore (Jude Law), so he has to convince Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller, surviving his apparent death in the last movie) to do it, because apparently his Obscurial powers make him powerful enough to match Dumbledore. Meanwhile, Dumbledore can't attack Grindelwald for the same reason, so he sends Newt Scamander (Redmayne) to try and apprehend Credence before Grindelwald can get to him. Meanwhile, Tina Goldstein (Waterson) is sent to Paris to look for and kill Credence, and her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) and muggle Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) get involved through a series of reveals about Jacob not actually having his memory properly erased and some barely-examined drama between the two them about muggle and wizards not being able to get married in America. There's also yet another person looking for Credence for reasons too time-consuming to reveal here, and a subplot about Newt's childhood friend Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz) that involves her long-dead half-brother. If this sounds like a lot of unnecessary detail, then you understand the film's biggest problem.
The movie is so filled with plots and subplots that have tenuous connection at best and are all fighting each other for screen-time. No individual idea is really bad, but the movie forces itself through each one as quickly as possible just so that it can tell every one, so nothing the film does has any impact and you're left with no time to care or think. Things just happen in this movie, jarringly jumping between every plot and subplot with no sense of rhythm or pace. Additionally, some of the subplots require numerous bloated flashbacks that have little to no bearing on the plot, and some of the others don't actually go anywhere and are mostly just set-up for the next movie. Queenie and Jacob are unceremoniously forced back in to the movie because they were the best characters from the last one, but then they have nothing to actually do outside of their own melodrama, so most of the time they're nothing more than a distraction that drags their characters through the mud. Tina and Newt had a massive reset on their relationship because of some misunderstanding in a magazine, and they don't even develop properly from that because what little screen-time they have together is spent watching the plot happen or getting that sit-com mishap sorted. Leta's personal backstory is actually interesting, but it's wrapped up in some of the most contrived family bloodline drama that is itself just a red herring to haphazardly toy with the prophecy trope and set-up a twist that goes nowhere because it's just more set-up for the next movie. Half the characters in this film could have been cut, and nothing would have changed about the main story of this film.
This abysmal writing could have been forgivable if the movie really looked good, but even from the start the action is almost unwatchable for how incoherent it all is, and when you can actually see what's going on the action itself is nothing but pointless noise and flash that feels like the start of movie, not its climax. The only aspects of the film that I can give praise to are some of the performances and a brief return to Newt's menagerie. Depp is cold and oily yet charismatic as Grindelwald, a good visage for a villain who pretends to be deeper in his motivations than he actually is, Law is charmingly mischievous as young Dumbledore, Redmayne still pulls Newt with appropriate discomfort, and Kravitz gives such real weight and emotion to Lestrange that I almost cared about a character who simply didn't matter. Likewise, Newt's menagerie is still the best thing about these movies, filled with charm and imagination and life otherwise absent from the movie, and it's quickly left in the dust as the plot charges forward with its all too self-serious nonsense.
The Short Version: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a contrived mess of incoherent and meaningless action sequences, jarring comedy beats, and dull, self-serious sequences of people standing around talking about nothing. It's the kind of terrible franchise-bait that has no interest in telling its own story and haphazardly sets up twists that it doesn't intend to address until the next one. Don't bother.
Rating: 3/10
Published November 18th, 2018
Written by: J.K. Rowling
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterson, Johnny Depp
IMDb Link
The Crimes of Grindelwald manages to combine everything bad about prequels with everything bad about cinematic universes, telling us a story that serves as little more than preamble to an actual story that is itself a foregone conclusion. Not much of what happens matters to the story being told, and what little does is awfully contrived.
The movie is so filled with plots and subplots that have tenuous connection at best and are all fighting each other for screen-time. No individual idea is really bad, but the movie forces itself through each one as quickly as possible just so that it can tell every one, so nothing the film does has any impact and you're left with no time to care or think. Things just happen in this movie, jarringly jumping between every plot and subplot with no sense of rhythm or pace. Additionally, some of the subplots require numerous bloated flashbacks that have little to no bearing on the plot, and some of the others don't actually go anywhere and are mostly just set-up for the next movie. Queenie and Jacob are unceremoniously forced back in to the movie because they were the best characters from the last one, but then they have nothing to actually do outside of their own melodrama, so most of the time they're nothing more than a distraction that drags their characters through the mud. Tina and Newt had a massive reset on their relationship because of some misunderstanding in a magazine, and they don't even develop properly from that because what little screen-time they have together is spent watching the plot happen or getting that sit-com mishap sorted. Leta's personal backstory is actually interesting, but it's wrapped up in some of the most contrived family bloodline drama that is itself just a red herring to haphazardly toy with the prophecy trope and set-up a twist that goes nowhere because it's just more set-up for the next movie. Half the characters in this film could have been cut, and nothing would have changed about the main story of this film.
This abysmal writing could have been forgivable if the movie really looked good, but even from the start the action is almost unwatchable for how incoherent it all is, and when you can actually see what's going on the action itself is nothing but pointless noise and flash that feels like the start of movie, not its climax. The only aspects of the film that I can give praise to are some of the performances and a brief return to Newt's menagerie. Depp is cold and oily yet charismatic as Grindelwald, a good visage for a villain who pretends to be deeper in his motivations than he actually is, Law is charmingly mischievous as young Dumbledore, Redmayne still pulls Newt with appropriate discomfort, and Kravitz gives such real weight and emotion to Lestrange that I almost cared about a character who simply didn't matter. Likewise, Newt's menagerie is still the best thing about these movies, filled with charm and imagination and life otherwise absent from the movie, and it's quickly left in the dust as the plot charges forward with its all too self-serious nonsense.
The Short Version: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a contrived mess of incoherent and meaningless action sequences, jarring comedy beats, and dull, self-serious sequences of people standing around talking about nothing. It's the kind of terrible franchise-bait that has no interest in telling its own story and haphazardly sets up twists that it doesn't intend to address until the next one. Don't bother.
Rating: 3/10
Published November 18th, 2018
Thursday, 15 November 2018
2018 Film Review: First Man (2018)
Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Written by: Josh Singer
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke
IMDb Link
Some of the best movies in history have considered the scale of the universe against the perspective of one man. I think First Man attempts similar goals; it's a very intimate look at the life of one man who was at the very heart of humanity's greatest achievement. It's as much about Armstrong's long road to the moon as it is about mankind's.
That's the entire story of First Man: Armstrong's (Gosling) journey to the moon and the personal trials he faced while getting there. It's a slow, ponderous experience that relaxes in its idyllic moments, but never forgets the weight of the death he carried in his life, and never feels more alive than when we see him reach for the height of humanity. There's tragedy and doubt and the inability to connect, and the power of all that falling away as we gaze in to the eternity of space with Armstrong, the entirety of existence placed right next to the life of one person. It's sometimes uneven and there are a few moments where you'd wish the camera would stop shaking, but these flaws pale in comparison to the film's ambition and how it recognises the power of the achievement it shows.
What a way to show that achievement, too. Despite the film's generally deliberate pace, the switch to faster, nail-biting sequences of space flight contrast perfectly, the knowledge of control and testing and understanding played against the inherent uncertainty of life, the paranoia of that improbably small chance of failure. It's what makes the moments of success so much more satisfying, and why the awe the film inspires with its view of the universe feels earned, especially when we watch alongside the man himself.
Gosling as Armstrong puts him right at the centre of this tale, and he carries his role with that same brooding he's come to exude in his roles so well that it's as breathing to him. There's so much that he's capable of saying just with his eyes and with his hands, an ache or a twitch or the way the energy fades from his expression as he disconnects to save himself from feeling the weight of the deaths that beset his life; it's exactly as subtle as it needs to be, and in the few moments where he allows himself to show real emotion it pays off tremendously.
The Short Version: First Man is a terrific examination of Armstrong and the experiences that shaped his life, with Gosling providing a fantastic performance as the man who walked on the moon. It feels authentically human.
Rating: 8/10
Published November 16th, 2018
Written by: Josh Singer
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke
IMDb Link
Some of the best movies in history have considered the scale of the universe against the perspective of one man. I think First Man attempts similar goals; it's a very intimate look at the life of one man who was at the very heart of humanity's greatest achievement. It's as much about Armstrong's long road to the moon as it is about mankind's.
What a way to show that achievement, too. Despite the film's generally deliberate pace, the switch to faster, nail-biting sequences of space flight contrast perfectly, the knowledge of control and testing and understanding played against the inherent uncertainty of life, the paranoia of that improbably small chance of failure. It's what makes the moments of success so much more satisfying, and why the awe the film inspires with its view of the universe feels earned, especially when we watch alongside the man himself.
Gosling as Armstrong puts him right at the centre of this tale, and he carries his role with that same brooding he's come to exude in his roles so well that it's as breathing to him. There's so much that he's capable of saying just with his eyes and with his hands, an ache or a twitch or the way the energy fades from his expression as he disconnects to save himself from feeling the weight of the deaths that beset his life; it's exactly as subtle as it needs to be, and in the few moments where he allows himself to show real emotion it pays off tremendously.
The Short Version: First Man is a terrific examination of Armstrong and the experiences that shaped his life, with Gosling providing a fantastic performance as the man who walked on the moon. It feels authentically human.
Rating: 8/10
Published November 16th, 2018
Wednesday, 14 November 2018
2018 Film Review: Halloween (2018)
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Written by: David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak
IMDb Link
Finally, we have a genuinely good sequel to the original Halloween; not just a decent sequel, not a sequel that's weird enough to get by on its own merits, but a piece of work that stands above the rest, nearly as tall as its namesake, by recognising what worked about the first and actually playing to those strengths, while also carving out enough of an identity of its own to stand by itself.
Forty years after Michael Myers wreaked havoc on Haddonfield, we find him trapped in an asylum, having never spoken a word, the evil within him festering all that time, his thoughts never straying from his urge to kill that defined that fateful Halloween. Laurie Strode (Curtis) has seemingly been trapped in the same night; through multiple divorces and forcible removal from her daughter, she has never truly been able to move on from Michael, instead preparing every day for the moment when she can finally finish him. The movie sidesteps the terrible input of all the sequels by ignoring them completely, instead treating this as if only the first really happened. It's a good move, making the set up for the story very clean while also establishing that the first movie is the key reason why this film exists as it does. This focus is maintained throughout the film; while a few moments seem to echo plot points from the otherwise unused sequels (Myers escapes during a prison transfer, similar to Halloween 4), the new Halloween is a love letter to the original's best attributes.
This is particularly notable in the way the horror of the plays out; tension is the basis of every scare, a build-up and pay-off that plays with the genre tropes while still being satisfying in its execution. Myers moves through the movie like a phantasmal force, stepping from one shadow to the next and always just at the corner of your vision. It's truly excellent horror work that is clear in its intention to take from its predecessor to make something new. A few times the film will transition to a scene that feels ripped right from the original, only to mix things up while still finding time to pay homage. It's a delicate balance of new and old that never feels overbearingly nostalgic or out of ideas, and it makes for some genuinely chilling moments between story beats. The film also does take the time to try something much more original for the series, with a skillfully-crafted look in to the slow, methodical approach Myers has to simply killing for the sake of killing. It traps you with Myers and makes you bear witness to primal, chaotic evil as it moves once again through Haddonfield. At times it can feel like pure shock value (the movie has its fair share of blood, guts and brains), but the film recognises what Myers is and simply tries to show that.
That said, well-made though it may be, the gore is the least interesting aspect of what the movie has to offer in terms of horror, and it's also most notably attached to the only story beat that I didn't find particularly intriguing. To be fair, it is a coherent thread, with Myers' doctor becoming fascinated enough with him to want to emulate him, it's just that it does so little to affect the plot meaningfully that I can't help but feel it was the writing team's attempt to echo some sort of intended fate for Dr. Loomis had Donald Pleasance been alive to play the part; the earlier sequels played with this idea too, and had the character actually been Loomis it might have been more satisfying, but it was attached to a substitute character who had way less development and relevance to the mythos, so the thread ultimately fell flat.
What doesn't fall flat is Curtis' return as Laurie Strode. She absolutely nails the character, scarred by her experiences with no want to heal, consumed by vengeance and paranoia and the tragedy that she can't let go. The emotional toll it's taken upon her plays so well, with Judy Greer as her daughter, Karen, playing fantastically opposite her, with disappointment stemming from a want for the best and a complicated understanding of why this is all so destructive without blaming Strode for what happened to her. Strode carries so much pain and doesn't know how to stop it, but she fights it with no less fervour; she's a survivour, and more than that, she's a survivour in a horror movie. It's hyper-real, a representation of abuse survival that cuts to the heart of the experience and then dials it up to eleven with a booby-trapped house designed to trap even the most elusive of horror monsters. Here the meta-commentary and the abuse metaphor are taken full circle, and the result is so satisfying because of how truly convincing Curtis is in every moment.
The Short Version: Halloween does great work as a sequel to the original, and has enough going on to be its own thing. The tension is real, the callbacks are thematically appropriate, and the performance of Curtis transcends the expectations of the genre, with notable supporting work from Greer creating an interesting family drama underneath all the slasher fare.
Rating: 7.5/10
Published November 15th, 2018
Written by: David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak
IMDb Link
Finally, we have a genuinely good sequel to the original Halloween; not just a decent sequel, not a sequel that's weird enough to get by on its own merits, but a piece of work that stands above the rest, nearly as tall as its namesake, by recognising what worked about the first and actually playing to those strengths, while also carving out enough of an identity of its own to stand by itself.
This is particularly notable in the way the horror of the plays out; tension is the basis of every scare, a build-up and pay-off that plays with the genre tropes while still being satisfying in its execution. Myers moves through the movie like a phantasmal force, stepping from one shadow to the next and always just at the corner of your vision. It's truly excellent horror work that is clear in its intention to take from its predecessor to make something new. A few times the film will transition to a scene that feels ripped right from the original, only to mix things up while still finding time to pay homage. It's a delicate balance of new and old that never feels overbearingly nostalgic or out of ideas, and it makes for some genuinely chilling moments between story beats. The film also does take the time to try something much more original for the series, with a skillfully-crafted look in to the slow, methodical approach Myers has to simply killing for the sake of killing. It traps you with Myers and makes you bear witness to primal, chaotic evil as it moves once again through Haddonfield. At times it can feel like pure shock value (the movie has its fair share of blood, guts and brains), but the film recognises what Myers is and simply tries to show that.
That said, well-made though it may be, the gore is the least interesting aspect of what the movie has to offer in terms of horror, and it's also most notably attached to the only story beat that I didn't find particularly intriguing. To be fair, it is a coherent thread, with Myers' doctor becoming fascinated enough with him to want to emulate him, it's just that it does so little to affect the plot meaningfully that I can't help but feel it was the writing team's attempt to echo some sort of intended fate for Dr. Loomis had Donald Pleasance been alive to play the part; the earlier sequels played with this idea too, and had the character actually been Loomis it might have been more satisfying, but it was attached to a substitute character who had way less development and relevance to the mythos, so the thread ultimately fell flat.
What doesn't fall flat is Curtis' return as Laurie Strode. She absolutely nails the character, scarred by her experiences with no want to heal, consumed by vengeance and paranoia and the tragedy that she can't let go. The emotional toll it's taken upon her plays so well, with Judy Greer as her daughter, Karen, playing fantastically opposite her, with disappointment stemming from a want for the best and a complicated understanding of why this is all so destructive without blaming Strode for what happened to her. Strode carries so much pain and doesn't know how to stop it, but she fights it with no less fervour; she's a survivour, and more than that, she's a survivour in a horror movie. It's hyper-real, a representation of abuse survival that cuts to the heart of the experience and then dials it up to eleven with a booby-trapped house designed to trap even the most elusive of horror monsters. Here the meta-commentary and the abuse metaphor are taken full circle, and the result is so satisfying because of how truly convincing Curtis is in every moment.
The Short Version: Halloween does great work as a sequel to the original, and has enough going on to be its own thing. The tension is real, the callbacks are thematically appropriate, and the performance of Curtis transcends the expectations of the genre, with notable supporting work from Greer creating an interesting family drama underneath all the slasher fare.
Rating: 7.5/10
Published November 15th, 2018
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
2018 Film Review: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Written by: Anthony McCarten, Peter Morgan
Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee
IMDb Link
It's ironic that a film, whose namesake was known for its creativity and experimentation, could be so damn formulaic. Bohemian Rhapsody isn't bad, in fact Rami Malek alone is enough to make it worthwhile, and listening to a Queen's Greatest Hits album is always a good time, but it's such a shallow examination of its subject, so twisted to fit the expected structure of a musical biopic that nothing the film offers is more than fleetingly exciting.
The film's about a band called Queen; you might've heard of them. It's also fleetingly about other aspects of Freddie Mercury's life, including his relationships, heritage, and sexuality. I do mean fleetingly; the film plays everything super safe, not wanting to deviate from the focus on the music and Mercury the showman, giving only the smallest of glimpses in to Mercury the person. Even more than that, the film never tries anything new, twisting its source to fit in to the musical biopic structure, hitting the same old tired beats for the sake of forced drama and some obvious music cues that set up moments so contrived they feel ripped from a parody. Mercury dazzles Brian May and Roger Taylor with a spontaneous break in to song, John Deacon plays the base line of "Another One Bites the Dust" when Mercury and Taylor are fighting, that sort of thing; moments that are too fortuitous to feel anything other than manufactured. By adhering to a decades-old formula and never dwelling on anything long enough for it to feel real, while playing moments clearly constructed for the movie with such a straight face, the film amounts to little more than shallow entertainment.
That said, the entertainment shouldn't be discounted. The film is happy to twist the story for some easy drama, but it's much more forgivable when it does the same for a few light quips and a little fun. A few scenes are cobbled together to give the film a few comedy beats that are worth a laugh or two, Mercury getting all of the best retorts (in reply to "Bohemian Rhapsody going on 'forever': 'Darling, I feel sorry for your wife if you think that six minutes is forever'). There's also a handful of scenes with the band at work, and a couple of lively montages that keep things fun without building up any sense of the impending drama. There's also the music itself; even if we're looking at what is essentially a cover band, it's their music, as powerful an energetic as ever, and a reminder of their once ground-breaking work. It doesn't do much to justify this being a film as opposed to an album, but the music is so good that it is enough for me to cut this film a few breaks. It's light entertainment, but entertainment nonetheless.
In centre-stage, making all of this work well enough to be watchable, is Malek. He's the only part of the film that feels genuinely charming, with a magnetic performance that evokes the same stage presence as Mercury himself, and emotional expression that suggests a performance that could have gone far deeper, had the writing been there to support him. He doesn't have much material to work with, but he does everything he can to make Mercury seem fully realised on-screen, a larger-than-life figure on the stage, beset by doubt and self-hatred, with a fabulous persona to shield his insecurities. In the few moments the film takes to actually breathe and let him play the part of a real person and not an advertisement, Malek shows us the makings of something special that never gets a chance to bear its fruit.
The Short Version: A strong performance from Rami Malek is not enough to make this contrived and formulaic version of a good story amazing, but the good pieces of the film add up to a positive enough experience to accept alongside the bad.
Rating: 6/10
Published November 14th, 2018
Written by: Anthony McCarten, Peter Morgan
Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee
IMDb Link
It's ironic that a film, whose namesake was known for its creativity and experimentation, could be so damn formulaic. Bohemian Rhapsody isn't bad, in fact Rami Malek alone is enough to make it worthwhile, and listening to a Queen's Greatest Hits album is always a good time, but it's such a shallow examination of its subject, so twisted to fit the expected structure of a musical biopic that nothing the film offers is more than fleetingly exciting.
The film's about a band called Queen; you might've heard of them. It's also fleetingly about other aspects of Freddie Mercury's life, including his relationships, heritage, and sexuality. I do mean fleetingly; the film plays everything super safe, not wanting to deviate from the focus on the music and Mercury the showman, giving only the smallest of glimpses in to Mercury the person. Even more than that, the film never tries anything new, twisting its source to fit in to the musical biopic structure, hitting the same old tired beats for the sake of forced drama and some obvious music cues that set up moments so contrived they feel ripped from a parody. Mercury dazzles Brian May and Roger Taylor with a spontaneous break in to song, John Deacon plays the base line of "Another One Bites the Dust" when Mercury and Taylor are fighting, that sort of thing; moments that are too fortuitous to feel anything other than manufactured. By adhering to a decades-old formula and never dwelling on anything long enough for it to feel real, while playing moments clearly constructed for the movie with such a straight face, the film amounts to little more than shallow entertainment.
That said, the entertainment shouldn't be discounted. The film is happy to twist the story for some easy drama, but it's much more forgivable when it does the same for a few light quips and a little fun. A few scenes are cobbled together to give the film a few comedy beats that are worth a laugh or two, Mercury getting all of the best retorts (in reply to "Bohemian Rhapsody going on 'forever': 'Darling, I feel sorry for your wife if you think that six minutes is forever'). There's also a handful of scenes with the band at work, and a couple of lively montages that keep things fun without building up any sense of the impending drama. There's also the music itself; even if we're looking at what is essentially a cover band, it's their music, as powerful an energetic as ever, and a reminder of their once ground-breaking work. It doesn't do much to justify this being a film as opposed to an album, but the music is so good that it is enough for me to cut this film a few breaks. It's light entertainment, but entertainment nonetheless.
In centre-stage, making all of this work well enough to be watchable, is Malek. He's the only part of the film that feels genuinely charming, with a magnetic performance that evokes the same stage presence as Mercury himself, and emotional expression that suggests a performance that could have gone far deeper, had the writing been there to support him. He doesn't have much material to work with, but he does everything he can to make Mercury seem fully realised on-screen, a larger-than-life figure on the stage, beset by doubt and self-hatred, with a fabulous persona to shield his insecurities. In the few moments the film takes to actually breathe and let him play the part of a real person and not an advertisement, Malek shows us the makings of something special that never gets a chance to bear its fruit.
The Short Version: A strong performance from Rami Malek is not enough to make this contrived and formulaic version of a good story amazing, but the good pieces of the film add up to a positive enough experience to accept alongside the bad.
Rating: 6/10
Published November 14th, 2018
Saturday, 10 November 2018
2018 Film Review: Suspiria (2018)
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Written by: David Kajganich
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth
IMDb Link
I'm not entirely sure what I watched. Suspiria is stylish, and has its fair share of genuine moments of unsettling horror, as well as engaging dance choreography and wonderfully subtle performances from Johnson and Swinton, but I lost the point of it all somewhere in the layered metaphors.
A coven of witches in 1977 Berlin, masquerading as a prestigious dance company, use the bodies of young recruits for rituals to keep the rulers of the coven living forever; their newest target (Johnson) is ambitious, quick to learn, and forms a complicated connection with the dance choreographer (Swinton). Meanwhile, an old man (also played by Swinton, an absolute chameleon), stricken by grief and a therapist of one of the previous recruits (Chloe Grace-Moretz), begins to investigate the dance company after her disappearance.
The film fluctuates like an odd nightmare, at times drawn out for emphasis, executing every step with time offered to take in every detail, and no emphasis placed on any point, giving it a strangely detached feeling, and at other times focused so keenly on something that it isn't immediately clear what, and only becomes apparent by the time the film's regular evocation of paranoia sets in. At times the effect didn't hit me as intended; the inevitability of so many events that should have filled me with dread were sometimes as likely to leave me bored enough for my mind to wander. However, this is a film that is ambitious enough to try so much that a shot that lingers far longer than it should, or a reveal so plain it's a wonder why it took so long to be fully realised, is often immediately replaced by the sharp pull in to focus of something so horrifying it's hard to look, and so cold in how it gazes that it can be morbidly fascinating. I didn't always experience the intended reaction, but the film held me long enough that when it was finally ready to show everything is had in its finale, I couldn't look away no matter how hilariously disgusting it got. There's such a mix style in its approach to everything, from its meticulous composition of shots to the choreography of its dances that shifts between flowing, primal and yet robotic, one reveal after another trying to find nuance in its vague and broad existence. I found it to be messy, but undeniably interesting to watch pan out.
The consistency within this fickleness is the key performances from Johnson and Swinton. Johnson shows subtle, forceful ambition beneath a persona of vulnerability and innocence, moving piece of the film around in ways that don't become apparent until later. Swinton pulls double duty as both witch and psychotherapist (and triple duty as another character whose existence would be a spoiler to mention here). Her role as Madame Blanc is a perfect complement to Johnson's own, the strange, artificial, austere motherhood slowly dissolving in to a much more real version of itself. As the therapist, Josef Klemperer, she is utterly unrecognisable in her old man makeup, and completely believable as the man who assumes he knows more than he does, only to find out too late how little is in his control; the grief is real, too, simple moments of misty eyes an a nervous thank-yous betray the haunted being he hides behind his intellect. The two of them are performed so well that it's easy to forgive how unfocused much of the film's latter half feels.
The Short Version: It definitely isn't for everyone, but Suspiria offers a paranoid, slow burn horror experience that spirals out of control as it reaches its mind-blowing conclusion.
Rating: 6.5/10
Published November 11th, 2018
Written by: David Kajganich
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth
IMDb Link
I'm not entirely sure what I watched. Suspiria is stylish, and has its fair share of genuine moments of unsettling horror, as well as engaging dance choreography and wonderfully subtle performances from Johnson and Swinton, but I lost the point of it all somewhere in the layered metaphors.
A coven of witches in 1977 Berlin, masquerading as a prestigious dance company, use the bodies of young recruits for rituals to keep the rulers of the coven living forever; their newest target (Johnson) is ambitious, quick to learn, and forms a complicated connection with the dance choreographer (Swinton). Meanwhile, an old man (also played by Swinton, an absolute chameleon), stricken by grief and a therapist of one of the previous recruits (Chloe Grace-Moretz), begins to investigate the dance company after her disappearance.
The film fluctuates like an odd nightmare, at times drawn out for emphasis, executing every step with time offered to take in every detail, and no emphasis placed on any point, giving it a strangely detached feeling, and at other times focused so keenly on something that it isn't immediately clear what, and only becomes apparent by the time the film's regular evocation of paranoia sets in. At times the effect didn't hit me as intended; the inevitability of so many events that should have filled me with dread were sometimes as likely to leave me bored enough for my mind to wander. However, this is a film that is ambitious enough to try so much that a shot that lingers far longer than it should, or a reveal so plain it's a wonder why it took so long to be fully realised, is often immediately replaced by the sharp pull in to focus of something so horrifying it's hard to look, and so cold in how it gazes that it can be morbidly fascinating. I didn't always experience the intended reaction, but the film held me long enough that when it was finally ready to show everything is had in its finale, I couldn't look away no matter how hilariously disgusting it got. There's such a mix style in its approach to everything, from its meticulous composition of shots to the choreography of its dances that shifts between flowing, primal and yet robotic, one reveal after another trying to find nuance in its vague and broad existence. I found it to be messy, but undeniably interesting to watch pan out.
The consistency within this fickleness is the key performances from Johnson and Swinton. Johnson shows subtle, forceful ambition beneath a persona of vulnerability and innocence, moving piece of the film around in ways that don't become apparent until later. Swinton pulls double duty as both witch and psychotherapist (and triple duty as another character whose existence would be a spoiler to mention here). Her role as Madame Blanc is a perfect complement to Johnson's own, the strange, artificial, austere motherhood slowly dissolving in to a much more real version of itself. As the therapist, Josef Klemperer, she is utterly unrecognisable in her old man makeup, and completely believable as the man who assumes he knows more than he does, only to find out too late how little is in his control; the grief is real, too, simple moments of misty eyes an a nervous thank-yous betray the haunted being he hides behind his intellect. The two of them are performed so well that it's easy to forgive how unfocused much of the film's latter half feels.
The Short Version: It definitely isn't for everyone, but Suspiria offers a paranoid, slow burn horror experience that spirals out of control as it reaches its mind-blowing conclusion.
Rating: 6.5/10
Published November 11th, 2018
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