Bring Her Back

In 2022, brothers Danny and Michael Philippou released their first feature film, Talk to Me. I saw it in the theatre and it was one of the best theatre-going experiences I've had. The movie is terrifying and uses body horror in a way that makes people genuinely flip out. The audience reactions--screaming, groaning, whimpering--just added to the experience of the film. I gave Talk to Me an "A" rating.

Now the Philippou brothers are back with another horror film titled Bring Her Back. The teaser-trailer was terrifying and the hype just grew and grew. 

Bring Her Back is one of the most grueling and punishing horror movies I've seen. On every level, this film is viscerally upsetting. It's a deeply unpleasant watch and it absolutely succeeds as horror. But it's so intense and so relentless that I just couldn't vibe with it. Not the way I wanted to and not the way I vibed with Talk to Me, which is a similarly bleak film. 

Bring Her Back is a movie that is more horrifying than terrifying. I consider a movie "terrifying" when it scares me--my pulse is pounding, I'm curled into a ball on the seat, and I have trouble sleeping that night. Movies that have terrified me in the past include The Ring, It Follows, The Descent, and the Philippou's last movie Talk to Me. Bring Her Back, however, didn't "scare" me. Instead, I watched a film with grotesque body horror (which was impossible to watch, but not "scary") and relentless child abuse and gaslighting. And to be clear: the movie is not shocking for the sake of shocking. It has a very clear and strong message and the emotional and physical torture are for a reason (I'll get to the plot in a minute). But that kind of thing doesn't "scare" me...it horrifies me. It plunges me into rage and despair.

I'm really selling this movie, right? Haha.

Ok, so the plot: teenage siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) are recently orphaned. Their dad dies of a heart attack while in the shower and mom is out of the picture. They are put in foster care with a woman named Laura (Sally Hawkins in a powerhouse performance), who also has a strange, mute son named Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips).

Right from word go, we know something is very wrong with Laura. She mentions that she had a daughter who died. The daughter was blind. Piper is also blind and Laura is immediately smitten with her. Laura is not so thrilled that Andy and Piper come as a pair, and she's especially annoyed that Andy is three months away from turning 18 and plans to apply for guardianship of Piper when he's old enough.

Laura also locks Ollie in his room everyday, so that's not cool.

Bring Her Back is not a mystery: we know exactly what Laura's plan is. She has somehow discovered weird videotapes of an occult ritual where people are able to bring back a dead person. It involves using a demon inside someone to eat the corpse of the dead person and then purge the soul into a new body. Laura sees Piper as that new body, and she's using Ollie as the vessel to transfer Cathy's soul into Piper. Meanwhile, Laura embarks on an epic gaslightling campaign to convince social workers, Piper, and Andy himself that Andy is not suited to be Piper's guardian, despite the very clear love and care he has for Piper. To me, a grown woman torturing a 17 year old boy and driving him insane when all he wants to do is protect his baby sis is the most disturbing aspect of the movie. Moreso than horrific scenes of possessed Ollie chewing on a sharp knife and breaking his teeth on the edge of a table.

Sally Hawkins as Laura, a mother struggling with complicated grief that drives her to destroy other people's lives, is astounding. Laura is a rare villain who is completely three-dimensional, yet I could not empathize with her one bit. In fact, I'd go so far as to say she's not even "evil" despite committing evil acts. She's desperate. Absolutely desperate. But what she does to Ollie, Andy, and Piper is unforgivable. 

This is also a random connection, but I'm in the middle of reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, which is about a lot of things, but especially about how children--especially children in the foster system--are taken advantage of by adults charged with protecting them. Those same exact themes came up in Bring Her Back. Laura doesn't see Piper as a person--she sees her as a means to an end: bring Cathy back. And she sees Andy as an obstacle to get out of the way. 

Bring Her Back is a good movie and very effective as horror. But it is too bleak for me. The movie is suffering heaped on suffering. For ALL the characters. And though some people may empathize with Laura's mindless, desperate drive to bring her daughter back, I did not. I hated Laura. Loving your child is not an excuse to torture other children. Parenthood is not, in fact, sacred in this way. And the movie reminded me of one of the best quotes in horror media of all time: "Sometimes, dead is better."

Grade: B+

Movies that make you feel something: a review of Ghostlight

Last night I watched a remarkable movie called Ghostlight. I was going to include a short review of it along with my monthly "What I watched in..." update, but by the end of the film I knew I had to give it it's own separate review.

Spoiler warning. Do not read this review until you've seen the movie and...please. Please! See the movie.

Ghostlight is about a grieving family navigating the aftermath of a horrible loss. The film mostly focuses on Dan Mueller (Keith Kupferer), the middle-aged father who works a blue collar job in construction and is struggling with how to rein in his rebellious teenage daughter, Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), and remain connected to his wife Sharon (Tara Mallen). You'll notice that the Mueller family is played by an actual family. Ghostlight is, above all, honest and realistic. Most of the actors are not well known, so there's no star power getting in the way of believing that these characters are real people. 

The loss that the Mueller family is processing is the suicide of son Brian. They are suing the family of Brian's girlfriend, Christine (Lia Cubilete), who they believe encouraged the suicide. The teens decided to kill themselves when Christine's family planned on moving and Brian couldn't move with her. They both took pills. Christine woke up. Brian didn't. 

Dan gets pulled into a role in a community theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, purely because his construction site is outside of the playhouse, and lead actress Rita (Dolly de Leon) notices that Dan seems on edge and angry. She invites him to read for the part of Lord Capulet, explaining that it seems to her that Dan might want to pretend to be someone else for a while. Despite Dan being extremely outside his comfort zone, he keeps coming back and eventually he is cast in the role of Romeo with Rita as Juliet. The two are middle-aged--the wrong ages for the part, but the right ages to match each other.

Now, at this point you might say "Hmmm, a grieving father cast in the role of a teenage boy who makes a suicide pact with his girlfriend, just like the man's own son did? Pretty big coincidence!" Indeed, this is the only aspect of Ghostlight that is a bit silly and unbelievable. But if you can set that aside, or see it as a situation in which life gives you exactly what you need in the moment, it really is a beautiful example of how art imitates life and vice versa, and how art allows us to process and face difficult emotions. 

Through acting and theatre, Dan is able to finally empathize with how his son felt at the moment he took his own life. Dan's rage transforms to understanding, allowing him to really grieve and, importantly, forgive Christine and Christine's family. There is an absolutely heartbreaking moment where Dan runs into Christine at a mini golf park and she tearfully apologizes to him and says "I didn't mean to wake up". GAH.

Ghostlight is one of the most humane, honest, vulnerable, and real movies I've seen in awhile. It reminds me of why I love movies (and books) so much: they help me feel things. You can't connect with your emotions while scrolling through social media, not really. You may feel anger and rage and self-righteousness, but those are shadows of the actual emotions lurking beneath: the hurt, the fear, the vulnerability. That's where longer form art comes in. Movies, TV shows, books...fucking opera, man. You need something more in order to access and process those more complex feelings. And many people either can't or won't go that deep. I've lived a pretty sheltered and lucky life, with some struggles but nothing like the loss of a child. But I want to be able to understand and empathize with someone who has struggled with that. Not because I actually want to experience trauma and loss myself (who does?), but because despite my introversion and misanthropy, I want to connect to other human beings. And just as Dan finds that art allows him a safe space to feel and process, I find that movies like Ghostlight are a safe space to feel and process. 

Don't be afraid to read and watch sad things. By doing so, you become more human.

Grade: A+

Stuff I watched in...May, 2025

I had the chance to watch a ton of stuff in May because I was ill for almost the entire month! Yay? Enjoy the reviews...

Dying for Sex

This 8-episode series on Hulu is based on the life and death of Molly Kochan, who co-hosted a podcast of the same name shortly before she passed from cancer. After receiving a terminal diagnosis, Molly left her husband and began having many, many unique sexual encounters before her death. While the choice to leave one's spouse and go fuck-crazy knowing you'll die in two years probably sounds like a nightmare (and selfish) for many, I can kind of see why someone would do it. If you KNEW you were going to die, what would you stop putting off? Or, more pointedly, when would you start getting off?

Molly is played by the doe-eyed, lovely Michelle Willams. Her best friend and caretaker, Nikki, is played by Jenny Slate. First and foremost, Dying for Sex is about the power of female friendships. Molly leaves her husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), and avoids her mother, Gail (Sissy Spacek), because neither of those people can provide Molly the emotional care she needs.

After confessing to a hospice worker, Sonya (Esco Jouley), that she has never had an orgasm with another person, Molly decides "fuck it, I'm dying, nothing matters" and begins hooking up with strangers. But she specifically goes the BDSM route and begins playing with men who want to be kicked in the balls, treated like a dog, and humiliated. On the eve of her death, Molly is born a Domme. 

Dying for Sex is quite funny, but also deeply poignant and so, so empathetic towards dying people. It shows that even people who are dying have goals and might not be these beautiful, perfect "angels" in the event of their death. Our culture surrounding death is abominable--they way we hide it, medicalize it, and care more about keeping a body alive than caring for the spirit inside the body. I wouldn't be surprised if some viewers found this show repugnant--a woman leaving her caring husband to do weird shit like pee on submissive men? WHILE DYING?? I imagine it would blow some people's minds. But they found the right viewer in me because if there are two things that fascinate me and that I have a very open mind toward, it's sex and death. 

If it sounds like a show you'd like, give it a try. Be careful--you'll need tissues. 

Grade: A-

***

Queer

Speaking of sex, Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of William Burroughs' novel, has a lot of it. Based on his own life, Burroughs follows William Lee, a gay man in the 1950s who moves from the United States to Mexico City. He pursues a younger man, Eugene Allerton, who is probably not gay but sorta...lets Lee do things to him. Lee eventually convinces Allerton to travel to South America to search for ayahuasca so they can go on a powerful drug trip together.

In the film, William Lee is played by Daniel Craig, and it's a perfect fit. Craig is a handsome older man, but he reeks of desperation and lust in this role. It's believable that he would be able to seduce younger men, but also that these same younger men wouldn't exactly...respect him.

Eugene Allerton is played by Drew Starkey. It's kind of left up to interpretation as to whether Allerton is bisexual or just straight but super chill. He seems amused at Lee's attention, but plays coy until Lee makes an explicit pass and then he allows Lee to pleasure him and continues to hang out with the older man. But Lee is obsessed with Allerton to the point where it's embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch. Trust--this is not a love story. It's a story about loneliness and fumbling desire, which director Guadagnino is reigning king of. 

When the two men make their way to South America and find Dr. Cotter (Lesley Manville), a doctor studying the effects of ayahuasca, the film takes a turn for the slapstick and the surreal. The huge tonal shift from "quiet erotic drama" to "The Three Stooges do drugs" somehow works--or at least it did for me. And the ending of this film will leave you in tears.

Queer is not for everyone. It's a bit slow, it's strange, it's got anachronistic music (which I know some people absolutely hate in movies), and the characters aren't likeable. But it also felt quite profound and, honestly, just a lovely movie to watch. It's languid and non-judgemental. If you're a fan of Luca Guadagnino and his particular brand of film, you'll probably find something to enjoy about Queer. 

Grade: A-

***

From Here to Eternity

I have a soft spot for media about WWII. The 1940s are a fascinating time in the United States: after coming out of a long Depression, the whole country had to work together to win the War. Women worked in goddamned factories and did engineering work. Some men who got classified 4-F literally killed themselves in shame. Teenage boys killed Nazis. 

Obviously, there's plenty that was fucked up about American society and the War itself, but I feel very strongly that we modern people cannot judge the men and women who lived 90 years ago because look where we are now. Are we any better than them? Definitely not, and I believe we're worse in some ways. 

So yes, I romanticize an era where it seemed, at least, that people were more willing to work together and sacrifice for the common cause. That said, people had dumb little petty problems like we do today and From Here to Eternity is about those dumb, petty problems. Well...maybe not too petty. But petty compared to what is about to happen in the film.

From Here to Eternity follows the lives of several men living on the Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawai'i in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor. The main players are First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), who is risking prison time by having an affair with his boss, Captain Holmes' (Phil Ober), wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Karen and Milton are the ones we see making out on the beach in the iconic scene from the movie.

Then there's Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), who transfers to Schofield. Captain Holmes finds out that Prewitt is a former professional boxer and asks him to join the company's boxing team. When he refuses, Holmes authorizes his men to bully and intimidate Prewitt until he complies.

Prewitt is friends with Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra), who makes enemies with Staff Sergeant James R. "Fatso" Judson (Ernest Borgnine), who oversees the stockade and vows that if Maggio ends up in the stockade, he will make Judson's life a living hell. Well, guess who ends up in the stockade? 

So, basically, it's a movie about men being wretchedly inhumane to one another and ends with...the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. So not exactly a happy ending. Given the film's reputation, I found it just ok. It felt more like a soap opera instead of a war movie, which was ok by me since I'm more interested in people's daily lives during the War as opposed to the actual bang-bang shooting. But it was a little much. 

Below, I review another WWII drama, The Best Years of Our Lives, and found it a far, far more emotionally accessible watch than From Here to Eternity. FHTE came out in 1953 and I have to say that I find movies from the 1950s very emotionally alienating. I had the same issue with Rebel Without a Cause, which seemed melodramatic and phony to me, and I think FHTE suffers from the same fate. 

Grade: B

***

The Ugly Stepsister

The Ugly Stepsister is a body horror film from the perspective of Cinderella's ugly stepsister. Sisters Elvira (Lea Myren) and Alma (Flo Fagerli) travel with their mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) to a castle where the mother marries an older man, assuming he has wealth. When he passes away, it is revealed that he was penny less (as are Rebekka, Elvira, and Alma). Now, the family's only hope is for Elvira to marry into wealth.

As luck would have it, Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) is hosting a ball in 6 months and he will likely pick his bride at this ball. Alma is too young to go, but Elvira and her lovely stepsister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess), plan to go. But while Agnes is beautiful and graceful, Elvira is normal. As in, not pretty enough. So Rebekka forces Elvira to make changes to her appearance with crude plastic surgery and a tapeworm. As Elvira gets prettier, she also becomes crueler, and when Agnes is forced to become to family servant, Elvira calls her "Cinderella" and bosses her around just like her mother does.

The Ugly Stepsister is an ugly movie, with body horror out the wazoo. But what is interesting is that all the torture is self-directed. I thought this movie would be a slasher where it was actually Cinderella tormenting Elvira and Elvira getting her revenge. But no, it's all self-harm and self-mutilation with the goal of getting a prince. While I appreciated the twist on the Cinderella story and the body horror is impressive to say the least, this is not a very pleasant or satisfying viewing experience. It's feminist in the sense that it shows how women destroy themselves to be beautiful and get a man. But it's also just kind of a bummer. 

Grade: B

***

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives won Best Picture for the 1946 Oscars and it's easy to see why. The film follows three WWII veterans as they integrate back into civilian life. 

First, there is Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), a decorated bombardier who suffers from PTSD and who married a party girl before he left for war and comes home to find out that she's an unfaithful gold digger. When Fred can't find work, their relationship turns sour.

Then, there's Al Stephenson (Fredric March) a middle-aged man with a wife and two young adult kids who was an Army Sergeant during the war and finds himself increasingly relying on alcohol to cope in civilian life. 

Finally, there is the best character in the film, Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), a Navy man who lost both hands in the war and is outfitted with two mechanical hooks for hands. Russell was a real life veteran who actually did lose his hands. Although Homer is very adept with his hooks, he sees the pity and the stares from friends and family and he hates it. He is also convinced that his fiance, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell), doesn't want to be with him anymore (which couldn't be further from the truth--she is obviously deeply in love with him).

I went into The Best Years of Our Lives expecting a typical 1940s "Gee whiz! Golly gee! Let's go down to the soda fountain and forget our worries!" type movie. What I got was a deeply layered, emotional but not sentimental film about three men who must face their own vulnerability head on. 

I love movies that explore masculinity through a non-toxic frame, and boy is this ever one of those. The Best Years of Our Lives explores alcoholism, PTSD, and disability in an honest way with no easy answers. It's remarkable. Even the "villains" of the movie, namely Marie Derry (Virginia Mayo), aren't two-dimensional. Although Marie is a selfish woman, we also kind of understand her point of view. She was expecting Fred to come home and be a celebrated war hero who looked impressive on her arm in his uniform. Instead, he never wants to wear the uniform again and can only get a job as a soda jerk making the same money as a teenager would. 

The movie really has no heroes and villains, just people trying to get along after a world war. I was shocked at how sensitive and deep The Best Years of Our Lives was, and if you're into WWII films, you can't do much better than this one.

Grade: A

***

Manhunter

The Silence of the Lambs is one of my all-time favorite movies and I recently decided to finally read the book. While reading it, I rewatched TSOTL, but I also decided to check out Michael Mann's Manhunter, which is an adaptation of Thomas Harris's first book, Red Dragon. 

It was very boring! It follows Detective Will Graham (William Petersen) as he is pulled out of retirement by Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) and put on the case of a serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy (because he bites his victims). Graham is the one who hunted down and eventually caught this dude you might know as Dr. Hannibal Lecter (spelled "Lecktor" in this film) and sustained massive injuries to body and psyche in the process. But he goes to visit Lecter (played by Brian Cox) to get insight on the Tooth Fairy.

There is another adaptation of this story called Red Dragon which came out in 2002 and stars Ralph Fiennes as the Tooth Fairy, Edward Norton as Graham, and this dude you might know named Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Lecter. Philip Seymour Hoffman is also in it, and he elevates any movie he's in. So, as I watched Manhunter, I wished I was watching Red Dragon. 

I don't know if it's Michael Mann's direction or the 1980s of it all, but Manhunter fell flat for me. It's not awful, it's just "meh". It certainly wasn't scary, and as good as Brian Cox is as Lecter, he's not Anthony Hopkins. 

Grade: B-

***

Novocaine

This fun action comedy stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, a man born with an inability to feel pain, as well as heat or cold. He has lived his life in a bubble with safety precautions such as tennis balls attached to the pointy parts of his furniture, a gauge in the shower to stop him from making the water too hot, and a deep knowledge of first aid. Because not feeling pain isn't a superpower: it's an extremely deadly condition that kills most sufferers before age 25. But Nathan has beat the odds and the 30-something now works as an assistant manager at a bank.

He even might be on the verge of having a girlfriend! Amber Midthunder plays Sherry, a new bank teller with a mysterious past whom asks Nathan out to lunch after she accidentally causes him to burn himself with coffee. The two hit it off and spend the night together. However, the next day, tragedy strikes: three men dressed as Santa Claus rob the bank. They kill the manager, force Nathan to open the safe, and then take Sherry as a hostage.

Nathan, in full panic mode at the thought of Sherry's safety, steals a cop car and goes on a mission to find the criminals and save Sherry. And, of course, not feeling pain puts him at a distinct advantage.

Novocaine is really fun and goofy. Jack Quaid is charming as hell as a man who has lived in a bubble his whole life, but is secretly a badass who can step up to the plate when the woman of his dreams is in danger. He and Amber Midthunder also have serious chemistry. The movie reminded me a lot of Richard Linklater's Hit Man, which is also about a mild mannered man and a hot, mysterious woman. As someone who prefers "beta" type heroes, I was into it. And there are some real laugh out loud moments in Novocaine as well. 

Grade: B+

***

Twisters

Twisters was very much not my kind of movie. I put it on to have something going in the background, but it did not hold my attention. It's been a while since I've seen Twister and this film is a spiritual sequel to that 1996 classic. But it's so predictable and paint-by-numbers that I really didn't like it at all. 

I don't have much to say about it. If you're into disaster movies, you might like it. It was probably a lot more impressive in a theatre, but at home it's not likely to be all that exciting. Not worth your time, I'd say.

Grade: C

***

Pretty Woman

Gary Marshall's classic tale about a hooker with a heart of gold was one of my movie blind spots. It's the kind of movie you don't even need to watch to have watched, you know? It's all over our culture, with references every way you turn.

After finally watching it, I can now say: it's ok. It really just is...ok. 

My criticisms of this movie are mostly about how I don't buy Julia Roberts in this role, and frankly I don't buy Julia Roberts in any role defined by sexuality. Now, this is just my opinion, but Julia Roberts feels like one of the most non-sexual actresses of all time. She's sweet, she's pretty, but I just don't buy that this lady fucks. Which of course is what makes her perfect for the role of Vivian Ward because Pretty Woman is a movie about a sex worker that you can take your grandma to. And you can't take grandma to a movie that's actually about sex work with characters who actually fuck and suck. Instead, we have this very cleaned up fairytale version of sex work that is really about materialism. 

And that's my second criticism: this is a movie that says "how you look to others is the most important thing". Vivian is saved not by just the love of a good man, but by the money of a good man. Without money, Edward (Richard Gere) is nothing. Literally, this man has no personality. Rarely has a hero in a romantic comedy been this boring and just...bland. 

Pretty Woman came to theatres in 1990, but it's a quintessential 1980s movie. It's all about looks, clothes, money, and material possessions. I could not feel more alienated by the values that Pretty Woman espouses. People often see movies like Pretty Woman as comfort watches--something that doesn't challenge you and makes you feel good and believe in happy endings. Pretty Woman feels emotionally to me what movies like Hereditary feel like to non-horror fans: deeply uncomfortable, wrong, fucked up, and just sad. Pretty Woman is the horror movie--the horror of capitalism that we've all bought into and the horror of a movie about an interesting and edgy topic sanded down to nothing. 

The one bright spot is Hector Elizondo, a Gary Marshall regular, who is cast as the hotel manager and brings dignity, humor, and fun to any movie he's in, including this one. 

Grade: B-

***

The Handmaid's Tale, season 6

The Handmaid's Tale started strong and got increasingly ridiculous as the series diverged from the Margaret Atwood novel. I watched the entire series out of a dark fascination and a sunk-cost fallacy. Finally, the show has ended after 6 seasons.

Many of the problems of the show have to do with the stubborn insistence on following the story of Offred/June Osborn (Elisabeth Moss). While it made sense to follow her for the first season, she quickly became the main character for the entire series and we were forced to watch her make stupid and ridiculous choices that would have gotten her killed instantly if all of this happened in real life. 

Also, there's the issue of Moss being a Scientologist. She is a member of a cult that has ruined lives--including the lives of countless women and children. So it's a little rich that she's the main actor and often episode director on a show about misogyny. 

There's also the issue of the show being race-blind and assuming that a patriarchal theocracy would see all colors as equal, especially with the goal of repopulating the country. This is obviously bullshit. Any patriarchal regime in the United States of America would be racist as well as misogynist, and that's not a conjecture--that's a fact. 

So while the novel is one of the greatest depictions of a dystopia of all time, the show is very pretty looking bullshit. But I followed it to the end. 

Season 6 was by far the worst season, with a rushed and unrealistic ending that again put all the power in June's hands. My friends pointed out how awful the last episode in particular was, focusing more on the healing than on the righteous anger that should still be part of these character's lives. Instead, we see June doing karaoke with newly freed handmaids and forgiving Serena and Aunt Lydia. What a hollow ending to a show that started angry and fierce and slid down a slope into a show that wants to say something about spirituality, faith, and forgiveness but doesn't earn it.

Overall, I'd rate season 6 a D+ and the overall series a B. Now, the book is must-read. It's a classic and one of the most important books ever written, in my opinion. Read the book. It's worth your time and attention.

The revolution is her. Because that's how revolutions work.

Sinners

The hype you've undoubtedly heard about Ryan Coogler's latest film, Sinners, is true: the movie is an immersive, rollicking good time with hot actors and hotter music.

If you know little to nothing about the movie, I recommend going in blind. Just know that it's absolutely worth the price of the ticket.

For everyone else, beware of spoilers ahead...

***

Sinners takes place over the course of a single day and night in the Mississippi Delta in 1932. Twins Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (Michael B. Jordan)--not their real names, by the way, just cool monikers they go by--are back in town after making their fortune in Chicago. How did they make that fortune? Stealing from gangsters, obviously. 

They're going to use that money to open up a juke joint in their hometown of Clarksdale and most of the day involves buying an old barn from a racist white guy, recruiting their musically-inclined cousin, Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), and pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to be in charge of the music, hiring local grocers Grace and Bo (Li Jun Li and Yao) and Smoke's estranged wife, Annie (a luminous Wunmi Mosaku), to supply and cook catfish for 100 patrons, and convincing field worker Cornbread (Omar Miller) to work as a bouncer.

Stack also tries to avoid Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), a white woman he had a fling with who is furious that he up and left her for Chicago and is now back in town. 

News travels fast in a small town and by nightfall most of Clarksdale's non-white citizens who are also ok with booze and blues are at Club Juke. The drinks are cold, the music is hot, and they can't help but attract the attention of three white people who show up at the door asking to be let in.

If you've seen the preview, you know that the villains in Sinners aren't just any old white folks. They're...creatures of the night. Remmick (Jack O'Connell) shows up at Joan (Lola Kirke) and Bert's (Peter Dreimanis) door, begging to be let in and claiming that he is being hunted by some Native Americans. Once they invite him in, he turns them. Later, the three show up at Club Juke with their fiddles, asking to be let in and allowed to join the party. Smoke and Stack are suspicious and don't allow them inside...but these sneaky vampires eventually find a way.

Sinners is, first and foremost, a love letter to the power of music and how it connects all of us. There is a scene at the juke joint where Sammie starts to play and sing and the power of his music allows other music-makers, past and present, to pierce the veil of time...so we see singers and dancers from many eras and countries jammin' alongside the dancers of Club Juke. It sounds cheesy to type it out, but it was a breathtaking scene done in a single take.

What is interesting is that even the vampires have their own connection to music. Remmick leads his victims in an Irish folks dance, which was a delightfully bizarre sight (who could have guessed that vampires can riverdance?). These vampires are not just mindless predators...they're seductive beings who offer the patrons of Club Juke the opportunity to live in communion with one another--no racism, no hatred, only a hivemind and shared music for all eternity. 

Viewers are going to have many different interpretations of what the message of Sinners is, especially given the film's themes on race, music, and monstrosity. At face value, these vampires seem to be offering something of value: eternal life, the ability to read one another's thoughts (which--in theory at least--can lead to greater empathy), and a "heaven on earth". But at what cost? Smoke's wife, Annie, forces him to promise her that he will kill her if she gets bitten by one of the vampires because she fears her soul being trapped on earth for all eternity...especially since she and Smoke had a child who died as a baby and she knows their son is waiting for her in the great beyond.

For Annie, the power that lies in being immortal is not worth losing her soul in the process. Similarly, after Sammie survives the night, he leaves his little town to become a blues singer--against the wishes of his preacher father. Sammie is willing to leave everything he knows behind to be true to his soul--the soul of a musician. Both Annie and Sammie are true to themselves, despite the cost.

What are we to make of the fact that the vampires are white? Is the movie saying that all white people want to prey on Black people? Maybe, maybe not. I read it as a message against assimilation. In the vampire lore of Sinners, when a victim is turned, they know the thoughts of everyone else in their little vampire family (Remmick being the patriarch of this vampire nest)--they act as a hivemind with the main goal to turn others. Similarly, even "good" white people throughout American history have tried to coerce Black people into assimilating. Sure, they may like Black music and want to party with Black people, but at the end of the day they expect Black people to not be "too" Black. Many white people are more comfortable when Black people act white...and act deferential to white people. 

By rejecting the vampires and fighting them until their own deaths, the patrons of Club Juke who fight back (many get turned by the end of the night) are rejecting the seductive invitation to assimilate. To them, staying true to their own souls is the most important thing...even if they die.

Well, that's one interpretation at least. I'm sure there are others! Sinners clocks in at 2 hours and 17 minutes and, honestly, I would have watched another 40 minutes of it easily. In fact, I think one of the film's flaws is that it feels quite rushed near the end. The pacing is a bit off.

Despite the film's small flaws, Sinners is a powerful, funny, and just plain fun film with gorgeous cinematography and one of the best soundtracks since O Brother Where Art Thou. It's the first must-see movie of 2025. 

Grade: A-

Stuff I watched in...April 2025

Severance, season 2

The first season of Severance, the science-fiction show about people "severing" their memories in half so that their work selves have no knowledge of their non-work selves and vice versa, blew me away. It immediately became one of my top TV shows ever with its intriguing mix of dystopian world-building and gut-wrenching emotional depth.

Season 2 lost a bit of that season 1 shine, but there are three episodes in particular (episodes 7, 9, and 10) that hit it out of the park. We learn more about the fate of Gemma Scout/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) in ep. 7, which treats us to flashbacks of Gemma and Mark's relationship as well as chilling scenes of how Lumon is using her now. Episodes 9 and 10 give a lot of airtime to one of the series' best characters, Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman), a man who has given his all to Lumon only to receive disrespect in return.

Severance is a show that is not afraid to ask some pretty intense questions about human consciousness. The ability to be severed begs the question of what makes us us. Who would you be if you were "born" tomorrow as a full grown adult, but without any memories or experiences that would repress or influence your "true" personality? 

Grade: A-

***

What Lies Beneath

The last time I saw this supernatural homage to Rear Window I was in high school and it scared the hell out of me. I randomly rewatched it and really enjoyed it! Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford play Claire and Norman Spencer, a well-to-do middle-aged couple getting used to being empty nesters after their daughter heads to college.

Norman is a scientist who works at a university and Claire stays home in their absolutely gorgeous lakeside house in Vermont (in addition to being a spooky movie, What Lies Beneath is total house porn). Claire takes an interest in her new neighbors, Mary and Warren Feur, especially when it appears that there may be domestic violence occurring between the couple. With not much to do around the house, Claire becomes a bit obsessed with spying on the couple, leading to tensions between her and Norman.

However, there are darker secrets at play that are revealed in good time throughout the film. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, What Lies Beneath is a very satisfying homage to Hitchcock with a supernatural twist. It's also a rare movie where Harrison Ford plays a villain. Well worth checking out if you haven't watched it, or revisiting if you have.

Grade: B+

***

The Rule of Jenny Pen

This New Zealand horror film is absolutely bonkers and unlike any horror movie I've seen before. Geoffrey Rush plays Stefan Mortensen, an older judge who has a stroke and is forced to convalesce in an assisted living home since he has no family to help him. Mortensen is very intelligent and also quite arrogant. He sees himself as not like the other old folks in the care home who are in various stages of aging, dementia, and illness and has trouble making friends with them. 

Mortensen becomes suspicious of another resident, Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), who always has a puppet, named Jenny Pen, on his left hand. The employees at the care home think Crealy is a harmless old coot, but Mortensen comes to find out that Crealy used to be an employee at the very same home and uses his old access card to wander the home at night, torturing the other residents. The residents are terrified of Crealy and won't snitch on him. 

There are a fair number of horror films that focus on elderly people (Relic, The Manor, The Taking of Deborah Logan, and The Visit come to mind), but not like this one. The Rule of Jenny Pen taps into the fear of aging and losing independence while also allowing the characters to retain dignity. But it's also a delightfully weird and surprisingly nasty little movie. Lithgow is genuinely scary as Dave Crealy--a sociopath with a captive group of victims to bully and abuse. Rush is sympathetic as a man who is frustrated by his situation and uses his superiority complex as a shield to protect himself from his fears of aging, disability, and death...but who eventually realizes that he wants to protect the other residents from the psycho roaming the halls. 

Many horror movies about elderly people either treat the geriatric population with kid gloves, or do the opposite and lean into eldersploitation, goosing the audience with images of adult diapers and drooling mouths. The Rule of Jenny Pen does neither: it shows that older folks can be just as brave and determined (or just as mean and violent) as anyone else, and it shows the hard realities of aging while never looking down on its subjects. 

Don't sleep on this one!

Grade: B+ 

***

The Game

I really thought I would like The Game since it is directed by one of my favorite directors, David Fincher. However, I was not impressed. The film is about a wealthy investment banker, Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas), who is gifted a "personalized recreational experience" on his 48th birthday by his brother, Conrad (Sean Penn). 

Turns out, the "game" is basically a bunch of people trying to ruin your life to make you appreciate everything you have. It's kind of like Saw but with less razor wire. Van Orton is thrust into a series of situations which threaten his reputation, his money, and his life. 

Spoiler alert: he's totally fine! It's all a game. And it helps him appreciate his life a lot more and heal from his traumatic past. *farrrrttttt* This movie was boring. I found myself playing computer solitaire while watching it, which on the one hand was my choice and I could have paid more attention and possibly appreciated the movie more, but on the other hand, movies that are actually good tend to hold my attention and this one obviously didn't. Michael Douglas is kind of a drag in The Game. He underreacts a lot. If I was in the middle of "the game", I would be absolutely losing my shit. Crying, throwing up, curled up into a corner and rocking. Douglas just kinda...gets mad. He doesn't even yell that much! He just seems annoyed.

Fincher mostly turns out excellent thrillers: Gone Girl, Se7en, Zodiac...but this is one movie of his that I was bored by. I guess they can't all be winners!

Grade: C

Stuff I watched in...March, 2025

Anora

I didn't get a chance to see Sean Baker's Anora before the Academy Awards on March 2nd and when it sweeped with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay I was champing at the bit to see it. I think going into it with high expectations hurt my viewing of it a tiny bit. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good movie...but I can't say it blew me away.

Anora is about a 23-year old stripper/escort, Anora "Ani" Mikheeva, who meets 21 year old Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov at the strip club she works at. When he asks if she "works outside the club", she agrees to meet him at his insanely huge mansion and the two begin a relationship that starts as purely transactional but seems to deepen into something more. 

After a glamourous sex-and-drug-filled week in Vegas, Vanya reveals that his parents are making him return to Russia to start working for the family (it's unclear what exactly his family does, but it's very clear that they are oligarchs of some sort and have more money than God). On an impulse, Ani and Vanya decide to get married at one of those Vegas chapels so that Vanya doesn't have to leave. And they live happily ever after! The end!

LOL. Of course not. When Vanya's parents find out what happened, they send Vanya's godfather and some toughs to the mansion (which is, of course, owned not by Vanya, but by his parents) to force the couple to annul the marriage. Hijinks, both funny and sad, ensue. Ani slowly comes to grips with the immaturity of the man she married. The boy she married, really, because despite being of legal age, Vanya is still just a boy under his parents' thumb.

Anora is very funny, though at times it's a lot. There is a lot of screaming and yelling, which irritated me after a while. It's also a little hard to believe that Ani, ostensibly street smart due to her line of work, wouldn't realize that marrying Vanya is an incredibly stupid idea. But then we have to also consider that she's only 23, not yet cynical about the world, and is caught up in the fantasy of wealth and star-crossed love. 

If you're up for a funnier and sadder version of Pretty Woman, you'll likely enjoy Anora. Did it deserve Best Picture? In my opinion, no. But I'm not mad that it won.

Grade: A-

***

Tangerine

Immediately after finishing Anora, I watched Tangerine, which is also directed by Sean Baker and is also about sex workers...although Tangerine could not be more different than Anora. Tangerine is a very short, slice-of-life type of film about Sin-Dee Rella, a Black, transgender sex worker who is recently released from a month in prison and finds out that her pimp/boyfriend, Chester, is cheating on her. She goes on a quest to find the "fish" (cisgender woman) Chester cheated with and confront both of them.

Hijinks ensue. This is kind of Baker's whole vibe: hijinks ensuing. 

Tangerine is VERY funny and outrageous. It's interesting to compare it to Anora, which is also about a sex worker, but a higher end, white, cis sex worker. Sin-Dee Rella (played wonderfully by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and her friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) are basically homeless. They are streetwalkers. One bad day could mean ruin for them. Yet, they're also deeply protective of one another. When Sin-Dee is released from prison with 2 dollars to her name on Christmas Eve, she spends the 2 dollars on a donut that she gives to Alexandra as a Christmas gift. 

Sean Baker has come under criticism for his personal politics, but also about the way he portrays sex workers. Some people feel that he looks down on them, or essentially makes his bread off of "poverty porn". I can see that angle for sure, but I also think that he gives a voice to people that many wouldn't even give the time of day to. And he avoids the "hooker with a heart of gold" stereotype, instead portraying sex workers as three-dimensional people with flaws and strengths just like anyone else. I admire his work, even if it's not perfect.

Grade: B+

***

Eve's Bayou

This film, directed by Kasi Lemmons, had been on my "to-watch" list for a long time. It wasn't what I expected at all, but I still enjoyed it. The film poster makes it look like a sultry romance, but there isn't much romance to be found in this film at all.

The movie takes place in 1960s Louisiana. Eve Batiste (played by Jurnee Smollett) is 10 years old. One evening, at a party, she accidentally catches her father, a well-respected doctor, having sex with a woman who is not his wife. This freaks Eve out and her father, Louis (played by Samuel L. Jackson...miscast, in my opinion), convinces her she didn't see what she saw. Eve's older sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), who is very close with her father, also convinces Eve that she misunderstood what she saw.

During the rest of that summer, Eve spends a lot of time with her Aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan), who has the gift of sight and tells fortunes for a living. Eve herself has the gift too, although she doesn't fully understand it yet. Eve's Bayou reminded me a bit of Practical Magic--another film that focuses on sisters and aunts and magical powers. But Eve's Bayou is far sadder and melancholic than Practical Magic. 

I wanted something more out of Eve's Bayou. I wanted it to be spookier and more empowering or something. It's a sad, Southern Gothic soap opera with some bewitching moments (such as when Mozelle tells Eve the story of when her husband confronted her lover, leading to tragic consequences), but overall the film felt a bit limp. 

Grade: B

***

The White Lotus, season 3

I was very impressed with the third season of The White Lotus, the anthology TV series that follows rich people at various "White Lotus" hotel locations around the world. Season 3 takes plan in Thailand and has some really fantastic actors: Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins among them. 

I won't go into much detail since I can't review an entire season of television in a paragraph, but I'll mention a few things I found particularly interesting or well-done this season. There is a focus on spirituality in season 3 that I found very profound. Specifically, it's about the limits of spiritually and what happens when the shit really hits the fan. The two actors I was most impressed with this season were Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff and Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett. Timothy is a very wealthy financier who finds out that a former business partner just got busted for illegal activity that implicates Timothy. He spends the rest of the season contemplating how his and his family's life will change is he loses everything and ends up in prison. Rick is a middle-aged guy with a younger girlfriend who clearly has some heavy baggage due to the death of his father. He is in Thailand to try to find the man who killed his dad. And he'll go to any length to meet this man face-to-face.

Series creator Mike White (a bit of a controversial figure himself) walks a very fine line between satire and sincerity. There are a lot of moments in the series where you don't know if you're being encouraged to laugh at the privileged, entitled rich characters or the empathize with them. Or both. Say what you will about the series, it definitely gives three-dimensions to the majority of its characters, even when that means they disappoint us in the end.

Grade: A

***

The Pitt, season 1

I never watched ER and have rarely watched any medical shows (with Scrubs being the exception, although I've only seen a few seasons), so I was surprised when I found myself drawn to The Pitt, a show that takes place in real time during a very long shift at the Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Hospital. 

Noah Wyle plays Dr. "Robby" Robinavitch, the senior attending in charge of the day shift. On this particular day, he is supervising two medical students and an intern as well as a number of residents. The Pitt really throws you in the deep end with all the medical jargon and hierarchies. 

The thing about The Pitt that people will either appreciate or hate is that it takes time to give attention to social issues that impact medicine. For example, a Black woman is brought into the hospital tied to a gurney because she was exhibiting "drug-seeking behavior". Turns out, she has sickle cell anemia, which can cause agonizing pain. One resident recognizes this and treats her correctly. All of this is discussed out loud for the benefit of the viewer. Issues such as neurodivergence, fatphobia, drug addiction, and human trafficking come up throughout the day, making each episode have a bit of an "afterschool special" vibe. But despite some awkward exposition, I still think The Pitt fucking slaps. 

If you can handle a bit of medical gore, it's worth checking out. It's very bingeable. 

Grade: A

***

Yellowjackets, season 3

The first two seasons of Yellowjackets, about a girl's soccer team that ends up stranded in the Canadian wilderness, was the perfect blend of spooky and edgy. Cutting between two timelines, we saw the horrible things the girls had to resort to doing to survive in the woods and the aftermath of the survivors, trying to live normal lives 25 years later.

Season 3 has lost some of that magic. It opens during the springtime and shows the girls not just surviving, but thriving in the encampments they built after the cabin they discovered and lived in during the first two seasons burns down. I know this show isn't supposed to be realistic, but to me they were really pushing it with all the extra shit the girls seem to have made or found allowing them to do fancy crafts like paper lanterns. They also have a pen of animals like goats and sheep...do many goats and sheep roam in the mountains of Canada? I guess that's the supernatural part of the show coming to the forefront. 

Despite the show spinning its wheels a bit, it's still a really good time. My main beef is that it seems to be tilting more towards the ridiculous than the genuinely creepy in this season. But I'm going to keep watching! I just hope they get back on track in season 4.

Grade: B+

Mickey 17

I consider Bong Joon Ho's Parasite to be the best movie of the 21st century. When it won Best Picture that year, it was like "Oh, finally. The Academy chose the actual best movie of the year to win". I think I actually placed Promising Young Woman ahead of it in my "best of the year" list in 2020 and I take it back! It was a confusing time! The pandemic! 

In any case, after seeing an expertly crafted film like Parasite, I had high hopes for Bong Joon Ho's most recent film, Mickey 17. Although I wouldn't consider it to be a "bad" film...it simply did not live up to those hopes. 

Mickey 17 is a sci-fi comedy that takes place in 2054. Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) sign up to leave earth as part of a mission to populate the planet Niflheim. Mickey, having no skills, signs up to be an "expendable". Basically, they collect his DNA and memories and then use him for scientific experimentations (or dangerous chores) and when he dies, they just reprint his body and upload his memories. So, you know, pros and cons: he gets to essentially live forever, but he has to experience death over and over and over.

When they land on Niflheim, Mickey is sent out to explore and, after an accident, is presumed dead. However, the native creatures (who look like a cross between pillbugs, elephants, and dogs) help Mickey (in his 17th life, hence "Mickey 17") survive and get back to the ship. too bad they've already printed out Mickey 18! And Mickey 18 is kind of a jerk, quite frankly.

You might think this is no big deal: two Mickeys for the price of one! Except according to the law established with the human printing tech became a thing, in the case of "multiples" being printed, all multiples have to be...put down. Which seems kind of stupid and wasteful, but what do I know? So, we now have two Mickeys battling to be the surviving Mickey and trying to hide from everyone.

That plot in and of itself would have made for a great film. It's funny, it's interesting, there are a lot of questions it brings up about exploitation of labor and also the concept of a soul. But Bong had to cram about a million more plotlines into this damn movie, making it feel overstuffed.

In addition to the Two Mickeys plot, there is a plot about the creatures on the planet Niflheim, which are seen by the people in charge as menaces and they want to kill them all. Speaking of "the people in charge", Mark Ruffalo plays Kenneth Marshall, a politician in charge of the expedition to Niflheim who is clearly a Trump-like character (at least Ruffalo plays him that way). His wife, Ylfa, is played by Toni Collette. I love both Ruffalo and Collette and I was deeply unimpressed with them in this film. They felt over-the-top, which isn't unusual for a Bong film, but I guess I just wasn't feeling it this time. It felt too pointed, almost groan-worthy, such as when Marshall discusses his vision for "a pure, white planet" (referring to the snow on Niflheim). 

So, the overall feelings I got from this movie were: too much; all over the place; satire done with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel; poorly written; too long; jokes not landing.

I still have to give Mickey 17 some credit for really interesting ideas (specifically, the concept of an "expendable") and a great lead performance by Robert Pattinson. Pattinson is hilarious as Mickey(s), especially when 17 meets 18, because 17 is kind of wimpy and pathetic while 18 is braver and more aggressive--but they're literally the same person. I LOVED how the movie shows that we all contain multitudes. We all have different personalities in one body. Late in the movie, Mickey 17 says something along the lines of "when I'm feeling unsure, I just think 'what would 18 do?'" I love this idea that you can be inspired by not just other people, but by your own better self. 

If there's one thing that Bong nails consistently, it's the contradictions of humanity. And how beautiful those contradictions can be.

So, yeah, Mickey 17 is just ok. I think if Bong could have stuck to one main plot and really put all his energy into that, it could have been an A-level film. As it stands, I have to give it...

Grade: B