2022: The Best and the Rest

Movies: Best of

2022 was a shitty year for me and my family. I broke my leg, had surgery, the surgery failed, and then I had to get a second surgery. Plus, I had to put my sick cat down. I spent nearly three months living with my parents, which was tough on all of us. Various other family members experienced injuries, sickness, and other challenges. 

But challenging years are usually the years in which we grow the most. I learned A LOT about myself during the multiple times I had to spend flat on my ass recovering from surgery. I learned how important physical movement and being in my own space is to my well-being. 

You might be surprised to know that I didn't watch a ton of movies during my recovery periods (I struggled with concentration and a short attention span)...however, I did gain an appreciation for the role that movies play in my life. Movies are to me what poetry and prayer are to others. They provide a chance to reflect. To immerse myself in another world. To see difficult emotions reflected back at me. Movies are both a safe space and a challenging space to me. 

I don't think 2022 was a particularly great year for movies overall, but I do think it was a great year for horror movies specifically, and you will see that horror and thrillers make up the bulk of my favorites this year. Horror is therapeutic for me, so I'm glad I had some really excellent horror movies to get me through this bitch of a year.

***

The Best

10) Bones and All

It might be recency bias, but I do have to give the number 10 spot to Luca Guadagnino's dreamy cannibal romance movie. Although I wanted more from it, it still delivered excellent performances, shocks, intensity, and blood. Taylor Russell and Timothee Chalamet as the cannibalistic lovebirds, Maren and Lee, have the intense chemistry that only people under 25 can experience and it is a privilege to watch both actors lean into this vulnerability and passion. 

9) Men

A lot of people hated this movie, and I understand why. It's outrageous, unexpected, and the final third is a Freudian nightmare that will be laughable to many viewers. But I thought that Alex Garland's surrealistic meditation on grief, guilt, and misogyny was pretty dang good.

Harper (Jessie Buckley) is a widow recovering from her husband's suicide. She rents a house in the English countryside to rest and recuperate, but the owner, Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear), is a bit of a creep. Harper begins to experience strange things, such as a naked man following her on her walks in the countryside. And no one in town seems to take her seriously. Men, to me, is a movie about how men protect and cover for other men...and how misogyny is so commonplace and so embedded into our culture, that it becomes exhausting and dull. Where others found the symbolism too on the nose, I thought it was nightmarish and accurate.

8) Benediction

Terence Davies' melancholic biopic about WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon is slow, long, and sad. But it wasn't a slog. The film has a quiet beauty, not unlike one of Sassoon's poems. Sassoon, played by Jack Lowden as a young man, has passion and hope in his life: he is a gay man who has multiple affairs with other men and he is also a veteran of WWI who becomes staunchly anti-war. But over time, we see that hope and passion leak out of his life until he becomes a depressed, embittered older man (played by Peter Capaldi) who converts to Catholicism to find meaning in old age.

Benediction is a film that serves as a visual poem and honors a man who never quite received the love and intimacy he truly desired.

7) Bodies Bodies Bodies

Bodies Bodies Bodies, directed by Halina Reijin, is a horror-comedy that leans heavily into the comedy. A group of privileged early-twentysomethings gather at a mansion to ride out a hurricane. To pass the time, they play a game of "Bodies Bodies Bodies" (also known as "Werewolf" or "Mafia" to some). But when an actual dead body turns up, it's not long before these immature, entitled brats turn on one another, using the Gen Z trick of weaponizing the language of self-care and mental health to blame others. 

I actually found Bodies Bodies Bodies to be one of the funniest movies of the year. Pete Davidson, Lee Pace, and Rachel Sennott are particular standouts as the funniest actors in the bunch. I don't really feel like the movie hates on Gen Z too much; rather, it satirizes the most privileged among that group. But then again, I'm a Millennial, so what do I know? 

6) Nope

Maybe this is a controversial opinion, but Jordan Peele's most recent film is also his weakest. To be clear, even Peele's "weakest" movie is still pretty dang good. Nope is about spectacle and our collective desire to not just see, but record, amazing sights--even if it kills us. It's also a movie about how Hollywood uses and abuses both animals and crew. 

Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer play siblings OJ and Em Haywood--the children of Otis Haywood, a horse trainer for Hollywood movies. When Otis passes away in a mysterious accident. OJ and Em must take over the family business. However, a strange object hovering over their ranch takes up all their time and attention. When they (particularly Em) become intent on capturing the mysterious thing, they risk their own lives to get "the Oprah shot". 

The b-plot involves a former child star, Ricky "Jupe" Park (played by Steven Yeun, excellent in this movie), who runs a ranch/amusement park and is still recovering from a traumatic experience on the set of the sitcom he acted in as a kid. The scene where we see what actually happened is one of the best scenes of the year, for my money. 

5) Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a nearly indescribable film. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"), EEAAO follows Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh, wonderful in this role), a Chinese immigrant, wife, and mother who runs a laundromat and feels deeply unfulfilled in life. While being audited by the IRS, she encounters a man who looks exactly like her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, playing the sweetest man on earth), but claims to be from a parallel universe. It turns out that there are infinite universes, but that all of them are in danger due to a disgruntled young woman, Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu), who is intent on destroying all of the universes and everything and everyone within them. 

Only Evelyn--boring, unfulfilled Evelyn--can stop this disaster. Why? Because she is the least talented version of herself in all the universes...and thus has the most potential. 

EEAAO is, you might have guessed, very philosophical. It is about regret, how our choices run out over time, and how love might make it worth it to live in whatever timeline you're doomed to live in. But the philosophy is wrapped up in a bow of comedy, action, and surrealism. This is an eye-popping, insanely detailed film that rewards rewatches. If you're looking for a movie that says "life, warts and all, is worth living", this is the one you want to watch

4) Barbarian

For sure this was the scariest movie of my top 10, but it also has many moments of humor to break up the incredible tension. Tess (Georgina Campell) arrives at an AirBnb in a run down suburb of Detroit, only to find that a man, Keith (Bill Skarsgard), is already staying there. But it turns out that Keith isn't the scariest thing in the house.

Directed by Zach Clegg, Barbarian is the wildest roller coaster ride of the year. There is no way to predict the twists and turns this movie makes. Barbarian is also very rewatchable, and is one of the movies I see returning to over and over on this list...especially if I'm showing it to someone who hasn't seen it, because the look on their faces will be priceless. If you haven't watched it, please don't read anything about it and just go in blind.

3) The Banshees of Inisherin

The Banshees of Inisherin, directed by Martin McDonagh, is a movie about depression, rejection, and loneliness. On the fictional island of Inisherin, off the coast of Ireland, in 1923, two friends--Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson)--become not-friends. Colm stops speaking to Padraic one day. When Padraic pushes for an explanation, Colm tells him he's dull and boring and Colm doesn't want to waste his limited time listening to "aimless chatter" and instead wants to write and compose folk music. 

When Padraic won't leave Colm alone, Colm threatens to cut one of his own fingers off for every time Padraic bothers him. Does he follow through? You'll have to watch to find out!

Banshees is a deeply sad, yet deeply funny movie. Truly, a difficult line to walk! But Martin McDonagh, who directed In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is the right director to walk it. His movies are never *just* dramas. They are drama-comedies that also push things a little too far. Gleeson and Farrell give incredible performances as men who desperately need therapy, but only have the pub and the confessional booth as tools to work on their mental health. Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon also give excellent performances as town weirdo Dominic and Padraic's sister (and the only person with any sense on the whole island), Siobhan, respectively. 

2) Tar

Director Todd Field's monumental film, Tar, is 16 years in the making. This exquisite film, starring Cate Blanchett as a fictional orchestra conductor Lydia Tar, is a fiercely and intimidatingly intelligent film about the rise and fall of a wildly talented narcissist. 

Clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, Tar feels epic. It begins with reverse credits, honoring the people who would be last credited in traditional credits that run at the end of a film. It then drops the viewer into the world of orchestra and classical music and doesn't hold our hands. Lydia Tar is elegant, intelligent, polite, and fearsome. However, her own actions bring her down by the end of the movie.

Todd Field was very likely inspired by Stanley Kubrick (he even had a significant acting role in Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut) and that inspiration can be seen in Tar, which feels cold and methodical but also with an element of madness and danger. Tar is very much not everyone's cup of tea, but I was mesmerized by it, and especially by the sure to be award-winning performance of Cate Blanchett at the center of the film.

1) Tie: X and Pearl

Ti West's films X and Pearl seemed to come out of nowhere this year and managed to steal my heart away. The two films are set in the same universe. X takes place in 1979 and Pearl in 1918. Both take place on a farm in Texas near the gulf. 

X follows a small crew of adult filmmakers who rent out a guest house on the above-mentioned farm in order to film a "classy" porno titled "The Farmer's Daughters". The ensemble playing this crew is wall-to-wall excellent. Mia Goth is Maxine, an ingenue who dreams of becoming a huge star via the adult industry. Martin Henderson, doing a hilarious and pitch-perfect Matthew McConaughey impression, plays Wayne, Maxine's boyfriend and the director of the movie. Brittany Snow is Bobby-Lynne, an experienced adult actress, and Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi) is Jackson Hole, an experienced adult actor. Owen Campell is RJ, the cinematographer, who dreams of making an artsy porn film like the European ones. Jenna Ortega is Lorraine, RJ's assistant and girlfriend.

The reason I took the time to name all the main characters is because the ensemble cast is what makes X so dang good. The characters play off of each other perfectly and the movie is very funny because of each character's quirks. 

Inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, X is a slasher and the killers are, well, unexpected. The two elderly people who own the farm, Howard and Pearl, harbor secrets of their own and don't look too kindly on the people renting their guesthouse. 

Pearl was released after X and is a prequel to the film. Mia Goth plays Pearl, a young woman living on that same farm who dreams of being a star in the pictures. But her strict, German immigrant mother and disabled father squash any hope of Pearl making a more exciting life for herself. That repression leads Pearl to lash out in ways that won't be surprising if you saw X! Mia Goth is sooooo good as Pearl in Pearl. The movie is a wonderful surprise--it's more of a "weepie" in the style of Douglas Sirk than it is a horror movie (though it is that, too). Pearl is filmed in gorgeous colors and feels both incredibly sensual and highly dangerous...like the characters might fuck or kill depending on how they feel that day. 

While I think some of the movies on my list a "better" than X and Pearl, these two movies are definitely my favorites of the year and the ones I will likely return the most too.

***

Honorable mentions:

Resurrection, The Northman, The Black Phone, Flux Gourmet, Good Luck to You Leo Grande, Watcher, Pleasure (2021), The Menu

***

The "Coulda Been Better" Award:

Crimes of the Future -- I was very hyped for David Cronenberg's dystopian film where humans begin growing new organs, but sadly the movie fell flat. Maybe I'll enjoy it on a second watch.

The "Holy Shit, Fuck Me Up Why Don't You?" Award:

Speak No Evil, Soft & Quiet -- two very, very good movies that feel absolutely, skin-crawlingly disturbing. Watch at your own risk.

***

The Worst

3) Don't Worry Darling

Olivia Wilde's follow-up to the very good Booksmart is a beautiful mess. The costumes are gorgeous, the acting ranges from good (Flo Pugh and Chris Pine) to indulgent (Olivia Wilde, giving herself a needless role in the movie) to wooden AF (Harry Styles, honestly very disappointing...he seems like a cool guy, but he was awful in this movie), the plot is ludicrous. When the major plot twist is revealed, the movie plunges downhill, racing to the end, as if Wilde was less interested in the world she created than in the pretty dresses women wear in that world. Don't Worry Darling has entertainment value, but it's not a well-crafted film.

2) We're All Going to the World's Fair

My online cinephile friends will be disgusted that I found this movie to be INSANELY boring...but I gotta calls it like I sees it. This low budget indie, starring a wonderful up-and-comer, Anna Cobb, was marketed as a horror movie and, friends, it's about as scary as a garden hose. The film is more about loneliness and isolation (which, admittedly, are scary things) than anything else. But the movie was such a slow burn, it drove me up the wall. 

1) Sissy

This Australian horror film is about a social media influencer who runs into her long-estranged friend and is invited to said friend's bachelorette weekend. During that weekend, Cecilia (or "Sissy") comes face to face with the bullies of her past and her own violent impulses. This movie sucked. The characters are awful. They are bad people, which is ok, but they have no redeeming qualities: they are boring, stereotypical, unfunny, cruel, and one-dimensional. Sissy has been compared to Bodies Bodies Bodies since it's a slasher about entitled young people, but where BBB is funny, well-acted, and captures something that feels true about Gen Z, Sissy is boring, poorly-acted, and rings false. 

***

And that's it! See you all in 2023!

The Broken Leg Diaries: The Return

Hi, it's me again. In March, I broke my leg and had surgery...but the surgery didn't take and so here I am again, recovering from a second surgery to hopefully actually fix my leg this time. 

What does this mean for movie-watching? Well, it means I can't really see movies in the theatre until I'm at least able to walk in a boot. Which really sucks because I wanted to see Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All in the threatre and might not be able to. But I will hopefully be able to catch it before I make my "Best Of 2022" list in January since it seems like the kind of movie a sicko like me would enjoy.

EDIT: I rented Bones and All! Read my review here.

For now, here are some movies and shows I've watched on streaming while my bitch-ass leg recovers...

***

Soft & Quiet

This movie fucked me up. Like, I lost sleep over this movie. Not because it's "scary" in the traditional way, but because it is one of the most intense, emotionally jarring movies I've ever seen. I hadn't even heard of it until I watched a YouTube video about "disturbing thrillers". In that video, the reviewer doesn't reveal the main conceit of the film and so I won't ruin it for you here either. The most basic plot description is: an elementary school teacher, Emily, convenes a meeting of like-minded women. When they move to another location to keep the wine flowing, they run into a woman from Emily's past and things get...insanely intense.

The film is also shot in real time and in one take, adding to the realism and intensity. If you like disturbing thrillers in the vein as Funny Games and Speak No Evil, I recommend checking out this movie and going in as blind as possible. If you're curious about it but sensitive to, well, basically anything that would be triggering to the average Joe, I recommend doing a little research to see if it's something you can handle. 

My only criticism is that there are parts of the film that strain believability. In the sense that I think some characters wouldn't behave/do some of the things they do. Otherwise, a fantastic, timely, devastating film.

Grade: A-

***

Profile

I also watched this movie because it was on that "disturbing thrillers" YouTube video. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, Profile is about a British journalist who pretends to be a new convert to Islam in order to catfish an ISIS recruiter into spilling his secrets. 

The entire film takes place via computer, similar to movies like Unfriended, Host, and Searching. I will admit that I'm a sucker for this gimmick. I even watched the movie on my laptop to give it a more "authentic" feeling. The form of Profile is the best thing about it.

The movie itself strikes me as wildly unrealistic. Now, I'll admit I know next to nothing about ISIS recruitment of young, white women from Britain and the United States, but the amount of red flags Amy (Valene Kane) immediately gives off to Bilel (Shazad Latif) would clearly signal she's not sincere. On the flip side, the movie tries to convince us that Amy starts having actual feelings for Bilel, which just...ugh. Yeah, I could see that happening for women who *actually* want to be recruited, but for a journalist who is putting on a show? Although Bilel is more than a two-dimensional scary terrorist guy, you don't forget for a moment that he's...a scary terrorist guy! It feels like the movie is leaning into the "women can't resist a bad boy" trope. 

Is the movie Islamophobic? Ehh...it definitely toes the line. I mean, these are ISIS recruiters and, as @dril famously tweeted, "You do not, in fact, have to hand it to ISIS". I don't think it's Islamophobic to portray terrorists as terrorists...however, since there is the whole "white woman pretending to be attracted to a scary Middle Eastern man" element in Profile, I think the movie still preys on Western fears (and desires) of Middle Easterners. Put it this way: the movie is a gimmicky thriller, not a nuanced look at Middle Eastern politics. Anyone who already thinks all Muslims are scary or backwards won't have their minds changed by this film. 

Profile is entertaining for what it is, but it's not one you *have* to watch. 

Grade: B-

***

His House

His House, directed by Remi Weekes, has been on my watchlist for a while and all I can say is that I'm glad I watched it during daylight hours. The scares in this movie are INTENSE. Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) are refugees fleeing from war-torn Sudan to England with their daughter, Nyagak. During the trip, Nyagak falls off of the boat they're on and drowns.

Dazed and grieving, Bol and Rial make it to England and are given shabby government housing to stay in as the begin they process of applying for citizenship. They are warned to not move out of this housing, or they will be forced to return to immigration detention and possibly deported. Too bad the house is haunted AF!

While Bol tries hard to assimilate by purchasing more "western" clothes, watching football games in the local pubs, and eating every meal with cutlery, Rial continues to hold on to her culture, preferring to eat with her hands, wear clothes similar to what she wore in Sudan, and speak to her husband in her native language. This leads to tension between the couple. Additionally, both Rial and Bol are tormented by something in the house that takes the form of their dead daughter or other ghastly figures. Rial believes what they're seeing is an apeth--a night witch haunting them for misdeeds they committed in their native country. Bol just represses everything until he nearly loses his mind. 

His House is a deeply layered film which touches on the vulnerability of being an immigrant, racism, and how one's demons can follow you no matter where you go. This movie is really good and really scary!

Grade: B+

***

Dublin Murders

This 8 episode series mashes together two of Tana French's "Dublin Murder Squad" series: In The Woods and The Likeness. Detectives Rob Reilly (Killian Scott) and Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene) are called to the scene of a crime in which a 13 year old girl was murdered in the woods behind a housing estate. Rob grew up in the same estate (basically the Irish version of subsidized housing) and also lost two friends to the very same woods when he was young. Those friends disappeared after witnessing something awful and their bodies were never found. Rob's family moved to England and changed their name. The only person who knows about Rob's history is Cassie, since he would never be allowed to work in the murder department if the truth was known. 

A b-plot involves the murder of a twenty-something woman who looks exactly like Cassie. Since Cassie used to work undercover, her old boss pressures her into assuming the identity of the dead woman and moving back in with the woman's housemates to get to the bottom of the murder. Pretty dumb idea, right!?

Dublin Murders was very entertaining with great acting, especially Killian Scott as the tortured Rob. They really didn't need to cram two plots into one series, but this was still a comforting watch for the first leg (heh) of my recovery.

Grade: B+

***

The White Lotus, season 2

If you want to enjoy The White Lotus, you have to be ok watching rich people behave badly and not always receive comeuppance. I really enjoyed the first season, which is set in Hawaii, and is filled with entitled brats treating "the help" like crap.

The second season takes place in Sicily, with the only returning characters being Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and Greg (Jon Gries). 

Season 2 is less juicy, but also perhaps more nuanced than the first season. There is less drama overall, except for Tanya's storyline. Aubrey Plaza is a standout as Harper, the wife of a newly rich man, Ethan, who feels a lot of wariness towards their new financial status. Additionally, Meghann Fahy is also excellent as Daphne, the wife of Cameron, Ethan's best friend from college (the couples are vacationing together). She appears at first to be a clueless, entitled housewife, but over time you discover she's smarter, more canny, and--frankly--a lot more fun than she appears at first blush.

Overall, a fun "good-trashy" watch ("good-trashy" = well-made, but thematically trashy) that doesn't say anything interesting or new about rich people.

Grade: B+

***

A Little Princess

Sometimes ya girl just wants to watch a really sweet movie! Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, 1995's A Little Princess was a childhood favorite of mine. Rewatching it now, I have to say that it holds up for the most part. Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) is a preteen who lives with her father, Captain Richard Crewe (Liam Cunningham), in India. It's 1914, so India is under British rule (an issue definitely NOT addressed in the movie!). When WWI begins, Richard is called to go to war. He sends Sara to a girl's boarding school in New York City--the same school her (dead) mother went to as a girl.

The school is run by the comically evil Miss Maria Minchin (Eleanor Bron, a veteran actress hamming it up in this role). Miss Minchin is extremely strict, but treats Sara well because her father is rich. Sara is very popular among the girls because she's kind to everyone, both the bullies and unpopular girls alike, and because she tells wonderful stories. But when word of Captain Crewe's death (and the seizure of his financial assets) reaches Miss Minchin, she strips Sara of everything she owns and forces her to work as a servant girl alongside Becky, the Black servant that no one except Sara is kind to. 

Despite some troubling racial representation (there is a "magical Indian" gentleman who lives next door to the school, and Liam Cunningham also plays an Indian prince in Sara's stories), A Little Princess is overflowing with values you would want any child (or adult) to be exposed to, namely, the importance of giving to others. Sara Crewe (a bit too angelic to be believed) gives generously to everyone, even when she has nothing. One of the most heart-tugging scenes in the film is when Sara is forced to be a servant to Miss Minchin and is given some money on the street (since she looks poor) while running errands. She buys herself a delicious pastry with the coin, but then sees a mother and three young children begging. She gives them the pastry. *SOB*

But because she gives so generously, others give generously back to Sara in her darkest times...and, of course, the move has a happy ending (which I won't spoil here). Between gorgeous cinematography, an enchanting soundtrack, and some really excellent child acting, A Little Princess is a movie that both children and adults can enjoy and benefit from watching. 

Grade: A

***

The Secret Garden

1993's The Secret Garden is another childhood favorite of mine, and similar in many ways to A Little Princess (for one, they are both based on books written by Frances Hodgson Burnett). I loved the idea of living in an enormous, old mansion filled with rooms to explore. However, I didn't love the idea of having both your parents die when you're 12 years old.

That's what happens to Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly). She lives with her parents in India (again, the colonialism remains uncommented on and unexplored), but when they die in an earthquake, Mary is sent to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor on the cold moors of Yorkshire, England. The housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, is played brilliantly by Dame Maggie Smith in just a classic Maggie Smith role: Medlock is mean, cold, and prudish. She has no idea how to interact with children, let alone the spoiled and deeply traumatized Mary.

But when Mary is forced to play outside, day after day, she discovers a garden behind a locked door. She finds the key in her dead aunt's bedroom and explores the garden with Dickon, the brother of housemaid Martha. At the same time, Mary discovers she has a cousin, Colin Craven, a supposedly sick boy who is kept hidden away from everyone. Colin's mother fell off a swing while pregnant with him and Colin was born prematurely. Then, his mother died. Lord Craven (played by John Lynch) was so brokenhearted by the death of his wife, he refused to see his infant son, afraid he would also die and thus double Craven's suffering. But 12 years later, Colin is still alive...though he is convinced he'll die very soon.

With Mary's encouragement, Colin begins to embrace life. He eventually goes out in a wheelchair to the secret garden, which is blooming with flowers. He then learns to walk, having never left his bed in 12 years. 

Like A Little Princess, The Secret Garden has a gorgeous soundtrack and eye-popping cinematography. The only negative aspect of the film is that Mary and Colin are truly bratty. They order servants around, yell at each other, and throw tantrums. It makes sense, given that they are unloved and ignored, but it gets old after a while. Still, this is another great classic for both kids and adults. 

Grade: A-

Top 100 movies of all time--what I've seen

Recently, Sight and Sound, a film magazine, published their top 100 films of all time list. This is a list they publish every decade, incorporating new films and reconsidering the best of the best. Additionally, Variety, another film and entertainment magazine, published their top 100 as well. 

From a quick glance, I can tell you that I've seen 40/100 of Sight and Sound's list and 60 of Variety's list. The Variety list strikes me as less pretentious and more "in touch" with the tastes of the...well, maybe not "average" moviegoer, but moviegoers who like both artsy-fartsy films and just plain old fun films.

So, for fun, I'm going to copy and paste each list below and bold the ones I've seen. At the bottom, I'll list out my top 25 picks from the two lists combined.

***

Sight and Sound's list:

(the movies I've seen will be bolded)

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

2. Vertigo 

3. Citizen Kane

4. Tokyo Story 

5. In the Mood for Love 

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey 

7. Beau Travail 

8. Mulholland Dr. 

9. Man with a Movie Camera 

10. Singin' in the Rain

11. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 

12.  The Godfather 

13. The Rules of the Game 

14. Cleo from 5 to 7 

15. The Searchers

16. Meshes of the Afternoon 

17. Close-Up 

18. Persona 

19. Apocalypse Now 

20. Seven Samurai 

21. The Passion of Joan of Arc 

22. Late Spring 

23. Playtime 

24. Do The Right Thing 

25. Au hasard Balthazar

26. The Night of the Hunter 

27. Shoah 

28. Daisies 

29. Taxi Driver

30. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

31. 8 1/2 

32. Mirror 

33. Psycho 

34. L'Atalante 

35. Pather Panchali 

36. City Lights 

37. M 

38. Breathless 

39. Some Like it Hot 

40. Rear Window 

41. Bicycle Thieves 

42. Rashomon 

43. Stalker 

44. Killer of Sheep 

45. Barry Lyndon 

46. The Battle of Algiers 

47. North by Northwest 

48. Ordet 

49. Wanda 

50. The 400 Blows 

51. The Piano 

52. Fear Eats the Soul 

53. News from Home 

54. Le Mepris 

55. Blade Runner 

56. Battleship Potemkin 

57. Sherlock Jr. 

58. Sans Soleil 

59. La Dolce Vita 

60. Moonlight

61. Daughters of the Dust

62. Goodfellas 

63. The Third Man 

64. Casablanca 

65. Touki Bouki 

66. Andrei Rublev

67. The Red Shoes

68. The Gleaners and I 

69. Metropolis 

70. L'Avventura 

71. Journey to Italy 

72. My Neighbor Totoro 

73. Spirited Away 

74. Imitation of Life 

75. Sansho the Bailiff 

76. Sunset Blvd. 

77. Satantango 

78. A Brighter Summer Day 

79. Modern Times 

80. A Matter of Life and Death 

81. Celine and Julie Go Boating 

82. Blue Velvet

83. The Spirit of the Beehive 

84. Pierrot le fou 

85. Histoire(s) du Cinema 

86. The Shining 

87. Chunking Express 

88. Parasite 

89. Yi Yi 

90. Ugetsu Monogatari 

91. The Leopard 

92. Madam de... 

93. A Man Escaped 

94. Once Upon a Time in the West 

95. Tropical Malady 

96. Black Girl 

97. The General 

98 Get Out 

***

Variety's List

(the movies I've seen will be bolded)

1. Psycho

2. The Wizard of Oz 

3. The Godfather 

4. Citizen Kane

5. Pulp Fiction 

6. Seven Samurai

7.  2001: A Space Odyssey

8. It's a Wonderful Life

9. All About Eve

10. Saving Private Ryan 

11. Singin' in the Rain

12. Goodfellas

13. The Rules of the Game

14. Do The Right Thing

15. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

16. Casablanca

17. Nashville -- Should probably see this one.

18. Persona

19. The Godfather Part II 

20. Blue Velvet

21. Gone With the Wind 

22. Chinatown 

23. The Apartment 

24. Tokyo Story

25. Bringing Up Baby 

26. The 400 Blows

27. Bonnie and Clyde 

28. City Lights 

29. Double Indemnity 

30. The Empire Strikes Back 

31. Network

32. Vertigo

33. 8 1/2

34. Stagecoach 

35. The Silence of the Lambs 

36. On the Waterfront 

37. Annie Hall 

38. Lawrence of Arabia 

39. Some Like It Hot

40. Fargo 

41. The Wild Bunch 

42. Moonlight

43. Shoah

44. L'Avventura

45. Titanic

46. Notorious

47. Mean Streets 

48. The Piano

49. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 

50. Breathless

51. Apocalypse Now

52. The General

53. In the Mood for Love

54. The Road Warrior

55. Pather Panchali

56. Rosemary's Baby

57. Brokeback Mountain 

58. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial 

59. Vagabond 

60. Moulin Rouge! 

61. The Passion of Joan of Arc

62. Dazed and Confused 

63. Bambi 

64. Carrie 

65. A Man Escaped

66. Paris is Burning 

67. Bicycle Thieves 

68. King Kong 

69. Beau Travail 

70. 12 Years a Slave 

71. My Best Friend's Wedding 

72. Breaking the Waves 

73. Intolerance 

74. My Neighbor Totoro

75. Boogie Nights 

76. The Tree of Life 

77. Goldfinger 

78. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

79. Waiting for Guffman

80. Pixote 

81. The Dark Knight 

82. Parasite

83. Kramer vs. Kramer 

84. Pan's Labyrinth 

85. Natural Born Killers 

86. Close-Up

87. The Sound of Music 

88. Malcolm X 

89. Belle de Jour

90. The Shining 

91. Scenes from a Marriage

92. Pink Flamingos 

93. Le Samourai 

94. Bridesmaids 

95. Toy Story 

96. A Hard Day's Night 

97. Alien 

98. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 

99. Twelve Angry Men 

100. The Graduate 

***

My personal top 25 picked out from these lists:

Boogie Nights

Fargo

The Shining 

Pulp Fiction

The Silence of the Lambs

Get Out

Rosemary's Baby

Breaking the Waves 

The Piano

Blue Velvet

Bridesmaids

Parasite

Titanic

Brokeback Mountain

12 Years a Slave

The Graduate

It's a Wonderful Life

Taxi Driver

Some Like it Hot

Rear Window

Casablanca

Breathless

Annie Hall

Moulin Rouge!

Dazed and Confused

What I can tell from my list above is that I gravitate towards 1) More recent (1980-today) films, 2) Films made in the United States, 3) Films from a white perspective, and 4) Horror/thriller films.

This shows me that I need to continue expanding my movie horizon, especially in regards to international cinema. Even being a more open-minded and curious filmgoer, I do still tend to pick English-language films.

If you've made it this far and there are movies on these lists I haven't seen that you highly recommend, please let me know!  

Hungry Hearts

Movies: Bones and All

General spoiler warning

Well...I spent $20 to rent this movie "early access" on Amazon. That's how much I wanted to see it. Was it worth it? Eh, not the full 20, but probably worth the 12 bucks I would have paid to see it in theatres if I could have.

Bones and All is the latest Luca Guadagnino film (he directed my favorite movie of the last 10 years, Call Me By Your Name) and he brings his signature dreamy style to a story about two fine young cannibals who fall in love on a road trip across America.

Based on the young adult novel by Camille DeAngelis, the movie takes place in the 1980s and follows Maren (Taylor Russell), a teen girl who has intense, cannibalistic urges. Her single father, Frank (Andre Holland), protects her from the consequences of biting and eating people by moving them from state to state whenever Maren gives in to her urges. But shortly after her 18th birthday, Frank abandons Maren, leaving her some cash, her birth certificate, and a cassette tape explaining that Maren first began eating people when she was 3 years old and Frank came home to find the babysitter dead and Maren covered in blood. 

With nowhere to go, Maren buys a bus ticket to Columbus, Ohio to begin a road trip to Minnesota, where she believes her mother, Janelle, lives. In Ohio, she meets Sully (Mark Rylance) and man who approaches her after smelling her from half a mile away. Sully explains that he is an Eater and that Eaters can smell other Eaters. Maren, thinking she was the only one with this problem, is shocked that there are others. She goes with Sully to a house where he reveals an elderly woman dying on the floor. When the woman passes, Sully and Maren eat her together. But Maren is creeped out by Sully and leaves the next day.

With her new knowledge that she can smell people like her, she sniffs out Lee (Timothee Chalamet, wonderfully genderfluid and queer in this film), another young Eater, in a grocery story in Indiana. Lee offers to drive Maren to Minnesota, and the two develop a relationship along the way. Lee even introduces Maren to his sister, Kayla (Anna Cobb)--a teenager who doesn't know about Lee's proclivities.

The two lovebirds also run into some potentially dangerous Eaters along the way. An excellent scene with Jake (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Brad (David Gordon Green), two very creepy Eaters they meet while spending the night near a lake, was my personal favorite scene in the movie: a scene of genuine unease and danger. But the film focuses less on the underground world of the Eaters and more on Lee and Maren's relationship, which disappointed me a bit.

They do eventually track down Maren's mother, which leads to perhaps the most devastating scene in the movie. Janelle, played by Chloe Sevigny, is in a mental institution. Both of her forearms are amputated, as she cannibalized herself. A nurse gives a letter to Maren than Janelle wrote, but instead of providing love and comfort, Janelle tells Maren in the letter that she, Maren, would be better off dead than living as a "monster". Janelle then tries to attack Maren, who runs away.

All the tragedy they experience brings Lee and Maren closer together. Lee reveals that he killed and ate his abusive father and Maren doesn't judge him for it. The two resolve to find a place to live, get jobs, resist their urges, and try to be "people" together. But fate has a different plan for them.

I'll forgo revealing the ending, but let's just say that Bones and All is a tragedy...and how could it not be? Every older Eater Lee and Maren meet is screwed up. The isolation, the nomadic lifestyle, the justification of constantly violating a universal taboo--it makes any Eater who survives into middle-age a weirdo at best and a violent sociopath at worst. Lee and Maren attempt to live a normal life for a while, but like all the other Eaters they encounter, life as a normal person is simply not in the cards.

Overall, I found Bones and All to be good, but not great. As I said above, I was more interested in the secret world of the Eaters. I wanted to know more about Sully and Jake and Brad. But the film is ultimately a romance, focusing on the emotions between Lee and Maren. This is fine, and the romance is believable and intense (the way Chalamet and Russell kiss each other looks a bit like cannibalism in and of itself), but I feel like there was another movie in the periphery of this one that I would have enjoyed more.

Some have said that this is the grossest movie of the year, but to be honest, I found it to be pretty tame for what it is. It's a cannibal movie for cripes sake. I mean, I ate chicken tacos and beans while watching it and I was fine! 

I would recommend this movie to people who feel like they can handle it. I know that cannibalism in particular is a hard no for many people. If you're the kind of person who thinks "young love cannibal road trip movie? I'm in!", then you'll probably enjoy Bones and All. Me? I liked it...but it left me hungry for more.

Grade: B+

Stuff I Watched In...Nov. 2022

Sissy

Boy, I did not vibe with this movie. Sissy is a Shudder original film about a social media influencer, Cecilia (Aisha Dee), who runs into her childhood best friend, Emma (Hannah Barlow), after more than a decade of being estranged. Emma is getting married and invites Cecilia to her "Hen's Weekend" (that's Australian for bachelorette weekend). Cecilia jumps at the chance to reconnect with her childhood best buddy, but once she arrives at the secluded location, she realizes that Alex (Emily De Margheriti), her childhood nemesis who came between her and Emma as kids is also at the Hen's Weekend.

Guys, I hated this fucking movie. It's being compared to Bodies Bodies Bodies, because it's about a group of privileged young people who weaponize the language of mental health to attack one another (and also...murder happens in both movies). But Bodies Bodies Bodies is 1) better acted and 2) actually funny. Sissy (which is Cecilia's childhood nickname that Alex used to tease her) is mean-spirited without the humor to balance it out. The characters are, to a one, awful. Cecilia is portrayed as a weak person who is just barely hanging on until she's pushed to the brink by not just Alex, but Emma's other terrible friends too. It's very unclear whether or not the movie is on her side. The characters who die all deserve it but the movie doesn't feel righteous the way other revenge movies, like Carrie, do. 

Basically, it's a movie with insufferable, cruel characters and the whole "lol millennials/gen Z SAY a bunch of shit about tolerance and wellbeing, but actually they're all assholes" vibe is eye-rollingly overplayed and stupid. Skip this one.

Grade: D

***

Doctor Sleep

The Shining is one of my favorite horror movies of all time, yet I was skeptical of Doctor Sleep, a movie based on the sequel written by Stephen King. For one, the bad guys didn't seem that scary. For two, the movie is long AF (Over 2.5 hours). But after re-watching The Shining this year, I was ready to give it a chance.

Doctor Sleep follows Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) as an adult. Dan is an alcoholic, just like his dad. He uses alcohol to block out his "shine", which lets him see into the past, see into the future, see ghosts, and communicate telepathically. Dan views this as a curse. But when alcohol becomes the bigger curse, he moves states, joins AA, gets a job as an orderly at a hospice, and tries to start fresh.

Meanwhile, a group calling themselves "The True Knot", led by the beautiful but deadly Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson...and yes, "Rose the Hat" is a terrible name for a villain), travels the country looking for children who "shine" so that they can feast on their fear and pain. Basically, these people are vampires, but they live on "shine" rather than blood. They age very slowly as long as they have "shine"--preferably from a child, and preferably when the child is in terrible pain and fear. But fewer people shine these days, so when they hear of a child who has incredible powers, they set off to find her. This child is Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran) and she is able to telepathically communicate with Dan Torrance. Just as Dick Halloran was a mentor to Dan, Dan is now a mentor to Abra.

The movie is a bit convoluted, but director Mike Flanagan manages to pull off a very difficult task: stay true to King's book, as well as aspects of the book The Shining, while still paying homage to Kubrick's The Shining (an adaptation which King famously hated). It's a lot to balance and while Doctor Sleep does not reach the level of greatness that Kubrick's The Shining does, it's a solid and surprisingly sweet film. It's actually not that surprising, given that Flanagan is a sweet director. His movies and especially his TV shows, though terrifying and gory, have a kind and gentle center. Themes of familial love, overcoming addiction, facing fears, and coming to terms with death permeate Flanagan's oeuvre. 

If you're a fan of The Shining, you'll probably find something to like in Doctor Sleep. 

Grade: B+

***

Scream (1996)

Can you believe I had never seen the 1996 Wes Craven classic self-aware teen scream Scream until now? It's true! I didn't see it as a kid and then I just never got around to it...plus, I'm not crazy about traditional slashers in the first place.

Well, sadly, I think I missed the boat on enjoying this movie. If I had seen it as a teenager, I probably would have liked it more and/or been more scared. Seeing it now all I can think is how 90s this film is, and not in a good way. Just like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream feels like a very specific product of its time, which isn't necessarily a bad thing...but it's not MY thing.

The movie just...isn't scary. And it's not that funny either, although Matthew Lillard's performance is pretty amusing. The self-aware stuff was probably REALLY fun back in 1996, but now all I can think is how Cabin in the Woods and Tucker and Dale Versus Evil did it better. Similarly to when I watched The Blair Witch Project, I feel like I have to give this movie props for how it affected the horror genre even though I personally didn't care for it. 

Grade: B-

***

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Just like his music, the film biopic about Weird Al is a parody. Mixing some true stuff with a lot of fake stuff, Weird is delightful, funny, fluffy, and, well, weird. I don't know enough about Al Yankovich to get all the references and Easter eggs but I enjoyed the references I did understand. 

The film opens when "Alfie" Yankovic is a child growing up with a strict father (Toby Huss) and a kind mother (June Nicholson). Al is obsessed with the accordion and polka music, but his father forbids him from playing. His mother secretly purchases an accordion for Al, who then attends a verboten "polka party". When Al's father discovers the instrument, he destroys it and Al moves out.

After writing the song "My Bologna" and doing an open mic night at a rough bar where he and his buddies perform "I Love Rocky Road", Al (Daniel Radcliffe) catches the attention of radio personality Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), who takes the weird young man under his wing. With Demento's mentorship, Al creates more parody songs which skyrocket in fame. 

But fame changes Al, who becomes an aggressive alcoholic who also dates Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) and ends up facing off against Pablo Escobar (Arturo Castro), whom he kills and then briefly contemplates taking over Escobar's drug cartel. So, as you can see, some liberties are taken with Al's story. 

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has been compared to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. But look, it's no Walk Hard. It's closer to Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping: intermittently funny but not groundbreaking. I enjoyed it and I especially enjoyed all the celebrity cameos, but it probably won't be one I return to very often. 

Grade: B

***

Pontypool

Man, I really wanted to like Pontypool, a movie that I had been trying to see for years (but it's really difficult to find...a friend sent me a link to it on YouTube...thanks, Murph!). The concept behind Pontypool is that there is an outbreak turning people into crazed, cannibalistic monsters...but the vector is the English language. Certain words are infectious to certain people. 

The film takes place entirely in a radio station where shock jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), radio station owner Sidney (Lisa Houle), and tech assistant Laurel-Ann (Georgina Reilly) are starting their day. Reports of a group of people trying to break into the office of one Dr. Mendez come through but there is not enough information to fully report on it yet. There is a ton of confusion as the characters and audience slowly figure out what is going on: people all around Pontypool, Ontario, are becoming infected with something. But the disease isn't bloodborne or airborne, it's wordborne. Certain terms, particularly terms of endearment spoken in the English language, seem to be triggers. 

The idea behind this film, which is based the novel Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess, is brilliant. The execution, however, is lacking. The film is pretty confusing, with lots of characters talking over each other, and get tedious at times. Additionally, the soundtrack is SUPER LOUD, making it even harder to hear the characters--truly a bizarre choice for the director to make for a film where you really need to hear what's going on. The novel has also been made into a radio play, which seems to make more sense as a medium. 

If you're a horror nerd, Pontypool is worth checking out. Because it's so hard to find, it's cool to say that you were able to see it at all. But if you don't particularly care for horror/zombie movies, it's ok to skip this one.

Grade: B-

***

Se7en

This was a rewatch for me, and for all I know I may have reviewed this David Fincher thriller on this blog before. 

David Fincher is one of my favorite directors. He's a master storyteller who focuses on the darker, grittier side of life. Believe it or not, Fincher has only directed 11 films (a 12th is in the works). And not all of them are created equal. I will rewatch Zodiac, Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Social Network over and over. But I haven't even seen Mank, I've only seen Benjamin Button once, and I don't know if I even like Fight Club all that much.

I would probably put Se7en (yes, I'm going to continue spelling it that annoying way) on par with Fight Club. It's gritty, masculine, and stars Brad Pitt. It's also kind of edgelord-y. The fact that Kevin Spacey plays the bad guy doesn't really help, although Spacey is excellent as a self-righteous piece of shit who thinks he's more important than he actually is, since that's how Spacey is in real life. This time watching the movie I really felt the fatphobia and whorephobia a lot more than during the previous times I watched it. Yes, most of the hatred for the fat man who is murdered via force-feeding and the sex worker who is murdered via sword-dildo is coming from John Doe, the bad guy. But Brad Pitt's character is a judgmental asshole too. I don't know...it just felt both meaner and lamer this time around.

Still, I feel compelled to give Se7en a high rating. It's a good movie, it's compelling, it's interesting, it's thrilling, and it has one of the all-time greatest jump scares (IYKYK). 

Grade: A-

***

The Wonder

Sometimes direct-to-Netflix movies are good! Directed by Sebastian Lelio, based on the novel by Emma Donoghue (who also wrote the screenplay), and starring the one and only Florence Pugh, The Wonder takes place in Ireland in 1862. Pugh plays an English nurse, Lib Wright, summoned to the Irish countryside to keep watch over an 11 year old girl, Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), who has apparently not eaten in four months, yet seems to be in good health. The townsfolk believe that this is a miracle from God and the O'Donnell's receive many visitors wishing to see Anna--though the family takes no money from these visitors. 

Lib, and a nun, Sister Michael (Josie Walker), are to take 8 hour shifts in watching the girl to see if this is indeed the religious miracle it seems to be. Lib is skeptical and believes that either Anna is hiding food or the family is secretly feeding her. When she banishes Anna's family from being in the same room as her, Anna's health declines rapidly and Lib figures out how Anna was surviving for so long while supposedly not eating.

I won't spoil anything, but I will warn that this movie is more tragic than I thought going in. It's a story about how people cling to stories and beliefs to give their lives meaning and purpose. It's also a film about the dangers of religion and how religious beliefs, such as the concept of eternal damnation, can make people do seriously fucked up shit in this life. 

The Wonder is good and I'm sure the book is even better. There are so many things that are touched on but not fully explored in the film, such as how the Irish Famine still haunts the characters, the history of young women starving themselves for religious reasons, and how misogyny lays the blame of the world's ills at the feet of women. I bet the book goes more in depth into those concepts. But the movie is a fine place to start.

Grade: B

***

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Another rewatch for me. It had been a few years since I watched this Francis Ford Coppola directed interpretation of the Dracula story, and I realized that I forgot everything that happened after Gary Oldman tells Winona Ryder he "crossed oceans of time" to find her. Probably because everything that happens after that scene is more boring than all the scenes that came before it.

Oldman plays Vlad the Impaler/Count Dracula, who rejects God in the 15th century after his wife, Elisabeta (Ryder), commits suicide after she is tricked into thinking her husband is dead. The Church says that Elisabeta is damned because of her act of suicide, so Vlad says "fuck the Church, imma be a vampire" and he...does. 

Cut to 1897. Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves, just straight up BAD in this movie) is a solicitor selling a number of properties in London to the Transylvanian Count Dracula (Oldman, in heavy makeup). But when the Count sees a picture of Mina (Ryder), Harker's fiancee, he traps Harker in his castle and travels to London in search of the woman he believes to be the reincarnated Elisabeta. 

Bram Stoker's Dracula is lush, romantic, campy, and filled with mostly good performances. Oldman is great as Count Dracula, playing the part of nasty old man and slick seducer with equal talent. Reeves is a weak link here, but it's almost endearing how terrible he is. Tom Waits even has a role as Renfield, Harker's colleague who goes insane after dealing with the Count. 

Overall, a very fun--yet flawed--movie. But I think I might get that "oceans of time" quote tattooed on at some point. Truly one of the greatest lines in movie history.

Grade: A-

Eat the Rich

Movies: The Menu

Warning for spoilers in this review.

Directed by Mark Mylod, The Menu is a perfectly cast dark comedy-thriller treat. Margot (Anya Tayor-Joy) is a down-to-earth girl who has been invited by Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), a food snob to the nth degree, to join him for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dine at an exclusive restaurant that takes only 12 patrons per night at $1250 per plate.

The restaurant, Hawthorne, is located on an island where the restaurant grows and harvests all the ingredients for each exquisitely made dish. Joining Margot and Tyler on the journey are two regular customers, Richard and Anne Liebbrandt (Reed Birney and Judith Light), washed up actor George Diaz and his assistant, Felicity (John Leguizamo and Aimme Carrero), famous restaurant critic Lillian Bloom and her assistant, Ted (Janet McTeer and Paul Adelstein), and three absolutely insufferable finance bros, Soren, Bryce, and Dave (Arturo Castro, Rob Yang, and Mark St. Cyr). The 12th guest for the evening is the chef's own mother, Linda (Rebecca Koon). 

Taking care of the guests is Elsa (Hong Chau), Chef's formidable right-hand woman.

Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), is a man from humble roots who now commands his restaurant with an iron fist and a quiet voice.

So, I took the time to name all the main characters and the actors who play them because the acting in The Menu is one of the film's strongest features. Taylor-Joy is wonderful as a woman who doesn't really give a hoot about all this fancy food bullshit, but is happy to go along with it as long as it's all on Tyler's dime. Nicholas Hoult is perfection as a man we've probably all met and hated: the food snob. He is obsessed with Chef Julian, but also immediately breaks Chef's rule that no pictures of the food should be taken. He is worshipful, yet entitled.

I also especially enjoyed Janet McTeer as the powerful restaurant critic who finds even the smallest imperfections in Hawthorne's haute cuisine. And Ralph Fiennes is quietly terrifying as a man who has turned fine dining into, well, a death cult.

If you've seen the previews for The Menu, you know that something goes horribly wrong during this evening of luxury dining. As each course is served, the theme of the courses becomes increasingly hostile towards the patrons of the restaurant, starting with a bread course in which there is no bread, only savory dippings for the breads. Chef explains that since bread was historically a food of the lower classes and all the patrons of the restaurant are not in the lower class, they will go without bread. While the finance bros are a little pissed off at this, the food snobs in the room all marvel at Chef's creativity and "food as social commentary". 

But things only get worse from there on out. It becomes clear that these guests were chosen to be part of a "final menu" that, well, is going to be pretty damn final if you know what I mean. However, there is one problem: Margot. Originally, Tyler invited his girlfriend to join him at Hawthorne, but the GF dumped him. Margot is an escort whom Tyler hired for this special evening. Right away, both Elsa and Chef know that Margot "doesn't belong". Over the course of the evening, Margot tries to find ways to escape. Chef confronts her and asks if she is with "them" (the customers) or "us" (the cooks). What he means is Margot is a giver or a taker? A server or the served? Margot's answer won't make a difference in the end, however, since Chef is adamant that no one will leave the island alive. Once Margot realizes Chef's plans, she has to race against time to find a way out of this terrible situation. 

The Menu is another "eat the rich" film--a genre that has been very popular over the past few years (I wonder why?). Joining the ranks of Ready or Not, Us, Parasite, Knives Out, and many others, The Menu pits a working class protagonist against rich and powerful people. However, this film turns some of the tropes of class warfare on its head because in this movie, the "working class" (i.e. Chef and his assistants) are actually more powerful and deranged than the rich and powerful they are serving. Margot is literally the only person in the room who doesn't give a fuck about Hawthorne and its fancy, bullshit food. Therefore, she may be the only one who doesn't deserve the fate Chef has planned for everyone else.

Although The Menu has a few plot twists I found annoying, the film is overall really fun, funny, and tense. The script is filled with humorous bon mots that I couldn't hear half the time since the sound in the theatre sucked...so I'll definitely be watching the movie again with subtitles on! 

As a girl who far prefers a cheeseburger to a breadless bread course, I really savored The Menu and plan to partake of it again. 

Grade: B+

Young, Gay, and Sad

Movies: Benediction

Directed by Terence Davies, Benediction is a slow, meditative, melancholic film about the life of poet Siegfried Sassoon. I didn't realize until near the end of the film that I watched it on Veteran's Day, which is very appropriate given that Sassoon served in WWI and went on to be staunchly anti-war.

The film opens with Sassoon writing a letter to his commanding officer stating that he will no longer serve in a war that he feels is being prolonged on purpose by the powers that be. This letter, titled Finished with the War: A Solider's Declaration states, "I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest."

Sassoon was declared unfit to serve due to shell shock and sent to the Craiglockhart War Hospital to convalesce, which pissed Sassoon off since he would have preferred a court martial, which would have allowed him to further express his anti-war opposition in public. Even though he potentially would have faced execution, Sassoon wanted to take the risk of dying for his beliefs rather than being declared emotionally unfit and hidden away in a hospital. This is the first of many blows life dealt Sassoon.

A significant chunk of the movie is dedicated to exploring Sassoon's sexuality and his many affairs with men throughout the 1920s before he finally married a woman, Hester Gatty, and fathered a son. The film bounces back and forth between Sassoon's later years in life, when he is a very sad and angry older man who converts to Catholicism as a way to find some measure of peace, and the his younger, more hopeful years. Jack Lowden plays the young Sassoon who, perhaps not surprisingly for a poet, is a romantic. Two significant relationships are explored: one with actor Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine), who is cruel, preening, faithless, and catty, and one with aristocrat Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch), who is capricious, fey, and also not a super nice guy.

What's interesting is that Benediction really aims to give the viewer more of an impression than accurate or clear details. Watching the movie, you might think that Novello was the great love of Sassoon's life, given the amount of time spent on their relationship. But, in fact, Sassoon's relationship with Tennant not only lasted longer (6 years), but was also far more devastating and impactful on Sassoon's life. When Tennant abruptly broke things off with Sassoon via a letter, Sassoon went on to marry Gatty, whom he stayed with for decades. Much of the context and timeline I gathered from reading the Wikipedia article about Sassoon and not from the film, which is rather confusing.

Peter Capaldi plays Sassoon as an older, depressed man. It's an interesting casting choice since Capaldi doesn't look much like an older version of Lowden, and Capaldi's thick Scottish brogue is incongruous with the fact that Sassoon was English. Gemma Jones plays the older version of Hester Gatty, which is also a strange casting choice since she looks as old as, if not older than, Capaldi--but in actuality Gatty was two decades younger than Sassoon. 

So, clearly this movie has some flaws and questionable choices. But as an impressionistic piece about a man with a beautiful soul and mind who tries to find steadfast love but never quite finds it, it's a very good movie. The film is interspersed with Lowden in voiceover reading Sassoon's poetry over footage from WWI. There is a wistfulness that permeates the film, and a beauty as well. This is very much a movie that is not for everyone and I don't even know if it's a movie for me. I've only seen one other Davies film, Deep Blue Sea, and I didn't care for that one. That said, I was surprised at how quickly and easily this long film (2 hours and 17 minutes) flew by. 

Overall, I have to give Benediction a positive score because it really is a beautiful film. My bias in favor of sad, young, gay, white men might be skewing my thoughts a bit, but oh well! I love my sad, young, gay, white men and I will not apologize!

I'll end my review with the words of another reviewer, from Vox, who really sums up Benediction perfectly: "There is no happy-go-lucky ending here, only the sense that an ineffable longing we have, to know and be known, is so precious and rare that most of us never find its fulfillment here on Earth. But the film's title lays bare its aims: to offer words of blessing over a man who never quite found the love he craved and, yet, kept looking." 

Grade: A-

Rictus Grin

Movies: Smile

Smile, directed by Parker Finn, is a nerve-shattering horror movie that leaves you feeling empty and sad. It's one of many horror movies where a ghostly or demonic entity is a stand-in for trauma and mental illness, which is a tricky line for a scary movie to walk. Films like Lights Out and The Lodge have faced criticism in their depictions of mental illness. For example, in the 2016 film Lights Out, the scary ghoul that haunts the main character is a metaphor for depression. The film ends with the main character killing herself to protect her loved ones from the ghoul. While it may not be the intended message of the film, it seems to suggest that the family and friends of chronically depressed people are better off without them--a very, very dangerous message for folks struggling with suicidal thoughts. 

Similarly, trauma is at the heart of Smile and the ultimate message of the film, intended or not, seems to be "don't bother facing your trauma and making peace with your past, because it's all pointless anyway." Again, a severely dangerous message to be putting out there, especially during *gestures broadly* all this. That's not to say that films can't explore these dark feelings, just that it's something to be mindful of, especially given that this is a very popular movie that many people will see. And even though Smile works very well as a horror film, I ultimately have to dock it points for the way it handles trauma.

Now, onto the plot of the movie: Sosie Bacon (excellent in this role) plays Dr. Rose Cotter, a therapist at a psychiatric hospital. Rose encounters a patient, a young woman, who is absolutely terrified. The woman witnessed her professor complete suicide in front of her and now she is seeing something--something that is smiling at her, "but not like a friendly smile". When she begins screaming at Rose, Rose calls for help--but the young woman takes a piece of glass and, while smiling creepily, slices her neck from ear-to-ear.

Witnessing such an event would rattle anyone, even a professional like Rose, but Rose is more than unsettled. She, too, begins to see people staring at her, smiling unnervingly. She keeps having flashbacks to her childhood, when she watched her mother die of a drug overdose. She can't sleep. And within just a couple days, she is in a complete mental health crisis.

Sosie Bacon plays the role of a professional, put together woman slowing unraveling so perfectly, that it's almost more haunting than the many jump scares (and there are many) and creepy smiles in the movie. What's worse is that her sister and fiance don't believe her when she tries to convince them that she's seeing whatever the young woman saw. If there is a positive message in this film, it's the importance of believing people when they are having a mental crisis and not turning your back on them.

After doing some research with the help of her ex, who is a cop, Rose realizes that this chain of people killing themselves in front of other people goes back a long way. Only one man seems to have escaped the chain, and it's only because he killed someone else--in front of a woman who then went on to continue the chain. When Rose visits this man in prison, he explains that the entity needs trauma to feed on. Rose's only way out is to kill someone else in front of someone to the point where the witness is traumatized by the event and the entity jumps to them. Well, Rose isn't ready to commit murder to save herself. Instead, she holes up in her dilapidated childhood home to avoid other people and to face her demons.

Through flashbacks, we find out that Rose not only watched her mother die of an overdose, she had the opportunity to call for help and didn't. That guilt has been haunting her for decades. However, facing that guilt head on and forgiving that little girl who was scared and not at fault for her mother's decisions isn't enough to save Rose. The entity enters her and causes her to kill herself--right as her ex enters the home, effectively passing the curse on to him. Fin.

Pretty sad, right? Very hopeless. I don't mind hopeless movies but this one didn't sit right with me. I have to give Smile credit for being genuinely scary on multiple levels. The movie had tons of jump scares and creepy imagery, but the horror of watching Rose lose her mind and those closest to her turn away from her was probably the scariest thing of all. As I said above, this is truly a nerve-shattering, feel-bad movie. If you like horror, you'll probably find something about it to enjoy. 

Grade: C+

Depressed Friends

Movies: The Banshees of Inisherin

Martin McDonagh's most recent film is a complex and heartbreaking exploration of loneliness, isolation, social ostracism, depression and relationships. It's a comedy, but also a tragedy. And there's even a bit of horror mixed in there. Like McDonagh's other films, such as In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the movie pushes us a bit past our boundaries and expectations. But I would say that this film is transcendent in a way that his earlier films are not. McDonagh has really perfected his craft here.

Banshees takes place in 1923 on the fictional island of Inisherin, off the coast of Ireland. The Irish Civil War rages on the periphery of the characters' lives, but they don't seem to understand or care about the fighting. They have their own petty grievances to attend to.

Brendan Gleeson plays Colm, a folk musician, who is best friends with Padraic (Colin Farrell), a simple farmer and self-described "happy lad". One day, Colm stops speaking to Padraic and when Padraic pushes for an explanation, Colm says "I just don't like you no more." Padraic is baffled and hurt, of course. Colm explains a little more: Padraic is dull. Colm is getting older. He doesn't want to spend his precious time listening to Padraic blather on about what he found in his pony's shit. Colm wants to write and play music, with the hope of leaving behind some kind of legacy. 

After Padraic continues to push Colm and talk to him after Colm has told him not to, things take an...interesting turn. Colm tells Padraic that if he talks to him again, Colm will take a pair of shears and cut off a finger and give it to Padraic. He'll continue to do this until Padraic gets the message or until Colm has no fingers left. And remember: Colm is a musician. Losing his fingers is a big deal.

Padraic and Colm aren't the only citizens of Inisherin who have shit going on in their lives. Padraic's sister, Siobhan (Kerry Condon), is becoming increasingly lonely and restless on the island where everyone knows everyone else's business. When an opportunity for a job on the mainland falls into her lap, she has to decide between leaving to save her sanity and staying behind to support her brother. There's also Dominic (Barry Keoghan), a weird young man who we find out is being abused by his alcoholic policeman father. Dominic is a heartbreaking character, played wonderfully by Keoghan. He's straight up creepy and inappropriate, but he's also the victim of his terrible father. Keoghan finds a balance of repulsive and sympathetic and walks that line really well. 

Banshees asks the question: what do we owe other people, and what do we owe ourselves? Each character has flaws and each character has good reasons to behave the way they do. Each character makes mistakes. Each character hurts another character, either on purpose or accidentally. Colm, for example, certainly has a right--and good reasons--to want to hang out less often with Padraic. But cutting him off completely seems a little harsh. And then cutting his own fingers off to make a point is straight up insane. It's pretty clear that Colm is suffering from something bigger than just being bored by a tiresome friend. When he goes to confession at church, the priest asks "How's the despair?" This is what therapy was like in 1923 Ireland: your priest asks how the despair is going and then gives you Hail Marys to say instead of SSRIs to take.

Although Banshees is a dark comedy--and it is indeed very funny--there is true and genuine heartbreak in this film. Anyone who is sensitive to rejection will feel this movie in their bones. Gleeson and Farrell have enormous chemistry, with Gleeson playing his character as more resigned than cruel. Colm doesn't want to hurt Padraic, but he basically "just can't even" with him anymore. Farrell gives a stunning portrayal of male vulnerability. Padraic goes through all the stages of grief in this film: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. He is an enormously sympathetic character who captures that swirl of feelings anyone would have when facing a situation where a friend just stops wanting to be your friend. Hell, I've been there! We all have!

The Banshees of Inisherin is a revelation of a movie. Definitely one of the best of 2022 and probably McDonagh's best. I feel like I can't fully explain it in this review because it's a movie that you feel more than you think about. It is truly a masterpiece and I highly recommend it to everyone--just be sure to bring tissues with you.

Grade: A