The Handmaiden
It's kind of wild that I only recently watched the entirety of Park Chan-Wook's 2016 film. It's the kind of movie other people would watch and say "I bet Jenny loves this movie!" In fact, I watched the first third of it a few years ago with a friend but we stopped partway through for some reason. Which is a shame because the first third is the most boring part of the movie! It gets reallllly interesting after that.
Based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith, but set in early 20th century Korea instead of Victorian-era Britain, The Handmaiden follows a con man and a pickpocket who team up to steal an heiress's fortune. The con man (Ha Jung-woo) pretends to be a rich count and the pickpocket, Nam Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), takes a position as Lady Hideko's (Kim Min-hee) handmaiden--encouraging Lady Hideko to fall in love with the Count. After the Count marries Hideko, he will commit her to an asylum and he and Sook-hee will make off with her fortune. But who is playing who in this cat-and-mouse game of seduction and betrayal? And what happens when Hideko and Sook-hee start falling for one another?
This 144 minute long film contains a LOT more plot than what I described above, as well as many, many scenes of eroticism. I ended up watching it after listening to John Mulaney describe to Stephen Colbert how he accidentally watched the very sexy movie with his girlfriend's mom. Whoops!
The film is absolutely gorgeous and super erotic (but classy!). The plot can be a bit confusing at times, but will thrill viewers with its twists and turns. Highly recommended.
Grade: A-
***
The Killer
The latest David Fincher movie is not his best, but is still entertaining enough. Fincher is one of my favorite directors, so I know he can do better. The movie follows a professional assassin (Michael Fassbender, kinda perfect in this role) who, after having a long internal monologue about how good he is at his job, fucks up his job in a huge way: he fails to kill his target. In response, whomever hired him turns around and hires some goons to rape and beat up his girlfriend, sending the Killer (who is unnamed in the movie) on a hunt to track down and murder everyone responsible.
The joke of the movie is that this supposedly badass alpha male (I'm sorry, sigma male) assassin is actually just a dork who listens to The Smiths, wears a dumb hat, and fucks up his job a lot. But Fincher plays the movie almost straight, so a lot of viewers seem to think that the Killer is the hero of the movie. I don't really think the movie is that deep--it's about a guy killing a bunch of people, and there are some laughs and a good scene with Tilda Swinton. I enjoyed The Killer for what it was, but can't see myself revisiting this movie the way I often revisit other Fincher films.
Grade: B
***
Bride of Chucky
What can I say? Bride of Chucky is a campy, goofy delight. When I was a kid, the very *idea* of Chucky--a doll that kills people--was enough to give me nightmares for months. I avoided watching any of the Child's Play movies until well into adulthood. Strangely enough, Bride of Chucky was the first film in the franchise I watched and it was enough to cure me of my fear of dolls. Well, of one doll at least.
Bride of Chucky is where the Child's Play franchise splits from more traditional horror into straight-up horror-comedy (although the original Child's Play has some pretty funny moments). Brad Dourif returns to his role as the voice of the little monster of a doll, but it is Jennifer Tilly, playing Tiffany--the titular Bride--who steals the show. The movie wouldn't be half as good without Tilly playing a sexpot, trailer trash psychopath who really wants to kill people and look good doing it. When she rejects Chucky, he kills the human Tiffany and transplants her soul into a doll via black magic. Then the two dollies hit the road, stowing away in the car of two runaway teenagers (Katherine Heigl and Nick Stable), to travel to where Chucky's human body is buried so that he can repossess his human form.
Really fun movie--and, side note, treats the gay sidekick character really well for a movie that came out in the late 90s.
Grade: B
***
Seed of Chucky
The tradition of Chucky movies being weirdly cool with LGBTQ characters, Seed of Chucky follows the child of Chucky and Tiffany--Glen/Glenda (voiced by Billy Boyd). There's a whole plot involving Jennifer Tilly playing herself and getting forcibly impregnated with Chucky's foul seed, but the real story is Glen/da reuniting with their parents. Glen/da is nonbinary--sometimes feeling like a girl, and sometimes feeling like a boy--and, more offensive to their parents, they don't have a killer bone in their body. Or do they? There is some last minute twist reveal that the body of Glen/da is actually shared by two souls: a murderous girl, Glenda, and a gentle boy, Glen. For a B movie about killer dolls, this is an unexpectedly beautiful metaphor for gender non-conformity, isn't it? It also works out really well since Tilly gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and Glen/da is able to transplant their soul into both children, while Tiffany possesses the body of Jennifer Tilly and they all live murderously ever after.
Yeah, the movie is kind of confusing and playing by its own rules regarding possession and black magic, but hey, it's a Chucky movie. Whattaya gonna do? It's fun and campy.
Grade: B
***
The Others
And now for something a little more dignified. The Others--a haunted house movie starring Nicole Kidman--came out in 2001 and I saw it around that time and have not revisited it since. I decided to rewatch it and WOW is it good. The film takes place in a big, old estate at the end of WWII. Grace Stewart (Kidman) and her two children, Nicholas (James Bentley) and Anne (Alakina Mann in a superb performance as a very strong-willed daughter), live a very isolated life while they wait for the return of Grace's husband and the kids' father from the war. The children have a deathly sensitivity to light, forcing the family to spend most of their time with the curtains drawn, living by lamplight.
When three people show up a Grace's door, offering their services as groundskeeper and housekeepers, Grace is taken aback...but she does need the help, so she accepts their offer and introduces them to the eccentricities of the house. But then strange things begin to happen in the manor: mysterious noises, rooms that were locked suddenly becoming unlocked, and the children insisting that they are visited by a little boy. A devout Christian, Grace refuses to entertain supernatural explanations, instead choosing to believe that her new servants are screwing with her and her children are lying to her. Grace is a very complex character and woman for whom denial is not just a river in Egypt.
If you haven't seen The Others yet, stop reading and go watch it right now! It's a spooky story that will stay with you long after the credits roll.
Grade: A
***
The Sentinel
I really wanted to like this 1977 film. The plot sounds fantastic: a woman, Alison (Cristina Raines), moves into a fully furnished Brooklyn brownstone apartment for a great price. She meets strange neighbors, including an eccentric man who invites her to a birthday party for his cat and two lesbians who act salaciously around her. When she complains about these neighbors to her landlord, the landlord informs her that she's one of only two residents living in the building--the other being an old priest who lives on the top floor and does nothing but stare out the window all day. Alison is shocked and we find out that, in fact, the building is where the entrance to Hell lies. The priest serves as the guardian--or sentinel, if you will--to the entrance and the people Alison met are actually the damned souls of a bunch of murderers.
Sounds like a really intriguing movie, right? Well, it actually kind of sucks. It's shockingly boring with WAY too few scenes of Alison interacting with these neighbors and too much time spent on Alison's slick, asshole boyfriend (Chris Sarandon) doing the investigating for her. Also, the final scene is pretty controversial by today's standards: a bunch more damned souls get released from Hell's entrance and the director hired people with facial and physical deformities to play them. While hiring actors with physical disabilities and deformities is generally a cool thing to do, it really depends on the role you're giving them--and these nameless, voiceless individuals were just used to horrify the audience. Ugh.
So, yeah, The Sentinel had a lot of promise but was ultimately a big disappointment.
Grade: C+
No comments:
Post a Comment