Recent watches
Recently watched movies and my (usually brief) reviews, from Letterboxd.
A 21st century "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
Good writing and acting. Well paced. Mighty predictable plot.
I was alternating between hot and cold on this movie the whole time.
I was really enthusiastic in the first act, and part of that was that I've been watching a lot of Sesame Street since having a kid, so the children's show format was really hitting.
But overall, the premise gets stretched as far as it can over 90 minutes, to the point where it feels too thin. Like butter scraped over too much bread.
Shout out to Clint Howard and Michael Shannon for rescuing this movie in the middle.
Stellar first season. Impeccable acting on a well-written script makes characters layered and nuanced. And the show adopts the "documentary evidence" of the novel in really interesting ways too.
I also really like the timeline/technology updates, bringing the bullying story into the 21st century in ways that feel natural instead of forced.
The second half of the final episode sets up future seasons, and that's the point where it really starts diverging from the novel into something "new" in a "Stephen King Universe." It's a huge drag on the show's momentum and the source of nearly all of my complaints. But I don't think those late game errors make the series worse - it's still a delightful slow burn.
It was also great to see the best new band I saw at Outside Lands this year - Haute & Freddy - so heavily featured throughout!
There are definitely a few points where it stretches itself thin with the bloat. Great example is how DeWolfe vanishes from the movie about a third of the way in and then pops back up at the end.
There are also some scenes with atrociously bad CG digital compositing.
But there's a lot that works. In particular, the opening web swinging tank chase was a highlight. I really liked the way they depicted first person/close up swinging in the cinematography.
Imagine if The Monkees TV show were a Japanese horror film (in a good way).
I really liked all of the animation and chroma key effects. The head in the well and the piano eating the girl were my favorites.
"All cats can open doors. But only a demon cat can close a door."
A fun campy riff on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with early pre-fame Rain Wilson and Walton Goggins.
Even though it's set in the 70s, the "home movie" footage interspersed throughout has more of a 90s vibe, and it holds up well as a style choice 20 years later.
A perfectly serviceable horror sequel/reboot that avoids doing corny on the nose things like in Rob Zombie's version when they play Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed."
The kills and mangled bodies in this version are especially noteworthy FX.
Happy October! 🎃
Rewatching a year later, it holds up well. Plot is structured like a series of comic books.
If you like middling capeshit, it's fine! If not, it's not.
And Lobo was boring AF.
I never understood why Raygun got hate in the first place. It's an inspirational story.
May we all be so lucky, to go in front of the world to do something we love, and fail spectacularly.
One of the more "stripped-down" James Bond movies I've seen.
There's no featured car and the gadgets are really just a briefcase with some tools in it.
The plot revolves around actual spycraft. MI6 thinks it's a trap from the start. Bond takes a train using a fake name. The MacGuffin is a Soviet Cryptograph Decoder. All very ordinary when compared to later Bond adventures.
Visually it's top-notch. This is what you get when you use sets and puppets instead of green screening everything.
The narrative is derivative and predictable, although the movie is enjoyable enough to forgive those faults.
I'm also pumped that I coincidentally watched CLOSE ENCOUNTERS last week, so I could understand the riff on the 5 tone sequence.
RIP Tim Curry
I enjoy the fast-paced dialogue loaded with jokes, and the multiple ending theatrical release strategy is genius.
Truly excellent alien contact sequence through the last half hour of the movie.
Something that bugs me: from the perspective of Richard Dreyfuss's family, their husband/father just straight up went crazy and then disappeared one day.
Weird horror movie about an expanding buffet restaurant that consumes a town, told mostly through a string of local tv commercials news reports.
It didn't fully stick the landing for me, but I love the premise and it's impressive given the movie was made for almost nothing.
Bill - I know you're reading this - this movie 100% would have been my Thursday night pick.
What I most like about it is that it's about Mario AND Luigi. It keeps the "bros" in the title and plot.
I first saw this movie at age 15, when it first came out. I feel like that's the ideal age to watch it and enjoy it.
The part that held up surprisingly well is finding people that talk shit on the Internet and beating the fuck out of them.
As a black comedy, it's a laugh riot. It's just so much fun watching Robert Pattinson writhe in emotional turmoil.
Also the real villain of the movie is Rachel, the maid of honor.
It's a blast.
Heavy on the jumpscares if you're sensitive to them. Excellent third act and ending sequence.
"STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
One hell of an 80's B-movie.
It's got everything. It's got punks. It's got satire. It's got a car with dead alien bodies in the trunk that vaporize people. It's got a theme song by Iggy Pop.
Fun and creepy. Lots of "what's coming around the corner?!" horror. Not a ton of jump scares either, which is refreshing.
It's also a total rip-off of HOUSE OF LEAVES, with a thin "secret research institute" added to the plot
"You see, Bob...it's not that I'm lazy. It's that I just don't care."
Not nearly as good as John Carpenter's remake. The Thing is a kind of triffid in this one?
Dope pyrotechnics for the 50's though.
Not nearly as good as the first one. Runs like a grab bag of first movie rehashes that tested well with the focus group last time.
I like how they unceremoniously kill the protagonist of the first movie about halfway in, after he gets a single line about how he's ok dying even though he has a wife and daughter.
Still pretty sick. Fun fast action movie, but it suffers from the fact that they don't even get to the Mortal Kombat tournament in this movie.
Highlight is the buzzsaw hat bisection.
"This is my snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom."
I haven't seen much David Lynch, but it fits with what I've seen. One positive observation is that it uses The Wizard of Oz such that its dream-like sequences aren't as inscrutable as in, say, Mulholland Drive. It also isn't as good as Mulholland Drive. But it's still pretty dope.
"If you are truly wild at heart, you'll fight for your dreams.
Notice the difference in those two quotes from the beginning and end of the movie. From symbol to action, reflecting the core character arc.
Such a dumb pointless sequel
Another movie that exists more to advertise intellectual property than tell a story.
My favorite bits were Yoshi in NYC and Bowser's puppet show.
The predictability is overshadowed by the Rachel McAdams performance and that good ole Sam Raimi horror charm
Fuck the haters, this movie ruled.