The Night House
If you want to watch a movie that will scare you shitless, The Night House (especially seen in a threatre) is your movie. Following a newly widowed woman, Beth (Rebecca Hall, whom I will rave about below), The Night House is a horror film about grief, depression, and coming to terms with the secrets our closest loved ones keep from us.
The very night of her husband's funeral, Beth starts hearing things in her house at night. She also begins having incredibly realistic--and disturbing--dreams. Beth is a hardcore skeptic, but clearly something is going on. So she begins to look through Owen's laptop and workshop (he was an architect who built the lake house they lived in...that Beth must live in alone now). She discovers some unnerving things, such as a floor plan for a house identical to theirs, but the floor plan is backwards, and images of dark-haired women who look very similar to her in Owen's phone.
The dreams begin to get real weird: one night Beth dreams that she find the reverse-house across the lake and sees her husband with another woman in it. The next day, she treks through the woods...only to discover that, indeed, Owen WAS building a house. It's incomplete and spooky as fuck, made only spookier by the discovery of a voodoo doll-type thing in it. The film teases us: was Owen having an affair? Was he killing these women? Is he now a ghost, haunting his wife and driving her to the edge of insanity? You'll have to watch to find out!
Although I felt there was something lacking in the conclusion of the film, I have to give The Night House two things: 1) it scared the crap out of me, making me jump and watch through my hands for half the film and 2) Rebecca Hall takes what could be a very average role and elevates it. Hall is a very intelligent and gifted actor, and she makes full use of her withering glare and pithy insults in this film. Her portrayal of a woman in grieving was so very, very honest: she hides her deep hurt and loneliness with irreverence and "jokes" that come off as mean. But that's what a lot of people in grieving do--they lash out, they make jokes to hide the pain (even hiding it from themselves), and they do crazy shit. Hall single-handedly takes what could have been a mediocre haunted house movie and elevates in to a meditation on grief and existentialism.
Grade: B+
***
Pray Away
This documentary, directed by Kristine Stolakis, follows former leaders of Exodus, a ministry focused on conversion therapy. The majority of the people in the film left Exodus and are now fully out as gay or bisexual. If you grew up in or around fundamentalist Christianity, you might be familiar with such names as Randy Thomas and John Paulk, who were huge figures in the so-called "ex-gay" community. These individuals engaged in religious "therapies" meant to root out the "reasons" they were gay, confront those reasons, and get back on the God-approved path of being straight. Many of them lived lies, including getting married to a spouse of the opposite sex and having children, for decades before the truth caught up with them. Even though the were acting straight, deep inside they were still gay.
Pray Away is a solid and harrowing documentary. It is important to show that people CAN change (and by "change" I mean...leave the church and live their actual truth, not the false truth the church wanted them to live) and they can get out of the cult mentality of fundamentalist religion. However, the film has received backlash since it focuses on people who, although victims of the larger culture themselves, victimized many, many others. One reviewer pointed out that as a queer person who grew up facing hostility in her religious community, it was hurtful to see the very people who allowed such hostility to flourish living their best lives now. While I understand why the film focused on the leaders of this "movement" (seeing the most rabid believers turn away from their previous beliefs is undeniably interesting), I can imagine and understand the bitterness of queer people raised in the church seeing the faces of the movement that tormented them get to say their piece and explain themselves.
For me, a heterosexual person who was indirectly influenced by conservative teachings about homosexuality (essentially, such teachings lead me to reject dogmatic religion), Pray Away just reminded me of how much I truly despise people like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and other leaders of the 80s-90s era fundamentalist Christian culture who profited off the suffering of so many people. Like many people, I have extended family members who still believe bullshit like this and it means I can't have a close relationship with them because their "values" are sickening to me (and, quite likely, my opinions of sexuality are sickening to them).
It's not just Christianity--there are other religions, including Islam, that consider homosexuality to be sinful. But Christianity is what I grew up with, and is the dominant religion in the United States. So I'm more comfortable shitting on Christianity than a religion I have no connection to and much less knowledge of. In any case, I do recommend Pray Away despite its imperfections. Although some people will feel hurt that the leaders of a ministry that harmed many people get a chance to explain themselves and are living happier lives, I do think seeing them publicly reckon with the damage they caused and admit that their sexuality was not a sin and was never wrong will help a great many others.
Grade: B
***
Southland Tales
Southland Tales is Richard Kelly's follow-up to his masterpiece, Donnie Darko. And it is a hot mess. The film is a genuine work of passion, but it is overly long, rarely makes sense, is nearly impossible to follow, and is just plain bizarre.
So Kelly apparently wrote three comic books that take place in America in the not-too-distant future. The dropping of nuclear bombs on El Paso and Abilene, Texas lead America into World War III. This leads to the return of the draft, a fuel shortage, and mass surveillance of United States citizens. The government is heavily Republican, so groups of Neo-Marxists start cropping up and committing acts of terrorism against the government. Southland Tales opens on "Chapter 4". So basically, you're supposed to read the comics first and then see the movie. But most people don't even know the movie exists, let alone the comics.
The main plot revolves around the disappearance and reappearance of Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), the son-in-law of a powerful Republican senator. Santaros disappeared in the desert and then reappeared, but now has amnesia. He crosses paths with Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an ex-porn star. The two start a romantic relationship and write a script called "Southland Tales" which takes place in the not-too-distant future. Only it so happens that their script actually predicts the actual future. Because when Santaros disappeared, it was actually a rip in the time-space continuum, so the Santaros who reappeared was his future self who, of course, knows what happens in the future.
Confused yet? I sure was! It's funny because the Wikipedia synopsis of Southland Tales is surprisingly short, despite the film's many layers and complexities. I think it's because whoever wrote it was like "gahhhh, fuck this!" and couldn't deal with writing a detailed synopsis. That said, Southland Tales is just so fucking unique and so clearly a passion project for Kelly that I can't bear to give it the grade it "technically" deserves (a D). I'm going to bump it up a whole letter grade for a few reasons: 1) it has some genuinely funny, and genuinely moving moments; 2) Dwayne Johnson is actually pretty good in it, or at least very fun to watch; 3) you can see Kelly's vision underneath the layers of insanity--this film is a mess, but at least it's authentic and earnest.
I really hope that Kelly has another good movie in him. Donnie Darko, while certainly not a perfect film, is fucking great and truly holds up as a cult midnight movie. Kelly has talent...but whether or not he will learn how to refine that talent into a intelligible film...only time will tell.
Grade: C
***
V/H/S
I was very surprised to find that I did not like V/H/S. Like, at all. Shit, I'm giving it a lower score than Southland Tales, which is an objectively bad film. But V/H/S was VERY boring and a huge disappointment.
This found footage horror anthology horror film came out in 2012 and contains five short scary movies within a frame story. The directors of these short stories are all top-notch talent: David Bruckner (who directed The Night House [see above] as well as The Ritual), Ti West (The Innkeepers, House of the Devil), Joe Swanberg (better known for his acting work, but he has directed some good films, including Drinking Buddies), Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest) and Radio Silence (a team of three directors who most recently directed the excellent Ready or Not).
I think the fact that the movie was so chock-full of talent is why it was such a disappointment to me. I was genuinely bored during the entire movie. I was not scared, like, at all. Horror anthologies are tricky and I would say that, in general, I don't care for them (although I love scary short stories). Perhaps that's because what I love about horror movies is that build-up of suspense. Short horror films are like the hitachi vibrator of movies: you blow your wad so quickly you can't even enjoy it. But that's not a great analogy because there was nothing even remotely orgasmic about this film.
I feel like V/H/S is a basically a classic at this point, especially in the found footage sub-genre, but I can't recommend it. You're better off seeking out the feature-length films of any one of its directors than you are wasting time and/or money on this sad, boring anthology.
Grade: D
***
The White Lotus
Created by Mike White, The White Lotus is an acidic, well-written show that both criticizes the self-absorbed nature of rich, white people...while ironically falling prey to the "white gaze" itself.
The show takes place at the titular resort in Hawai'i, run by the incredibly charming Armond (Murray Bartlett, excellent here). Armond welcomes a new crop of guests: a family traveling with their two kids plus the daughter's friend, a newlywed couple, and a single woman traveling on her own. All of the guests, barring the daughter's friend, are very, very wealthy white people. The White Lotus shows how rich, white people use and abuse the people whose job it is to serve them, and leave a trail of destruction in their wake all while truly believing they are good people who earned their success in life.
The acting on this show is INCREDIBLE. Jake Lacy and Alexandra Daddario play the newly married couple, Shane and Rachel Patton. Jake Lacy risks us all hating him by playing an absolute entitled asshole who, upon finding that he and Rachel are not in the room his mother booked for them, makes it his mission to make Armond as miserable as humanly possible.
Jennifer Coolidge leans into type by playing an alcoholic, aging woman who has come to the island to lay her mother's ashes to rest in the ocean. Along the way, she forms a connection with the spa manager, Belinda (Nastasha Rothwell), a Black woman who is so used to performing emotional labor for the guests of the resort, it is second nature to her--at her own peril.
The Mossbacher family consists of mom Nicole (Connie Britton, just so fucking good here), the CFO of a search engine and all-around type A girlboss; dad Mark (Steve Zahn, a wonderful surprise), who is desperate to regain some of the masculinity he felt he has surrendered in life, especially in regards to feeling having the respect of his wife and son; daughter Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and her friend Paula (Brittany O'Grady) who are sophomores in college and are at that point in life where they love to lecture adults about the dangers of neoliberalism while refusing to look at their own flaws; and son Quinn (Fred Hechinger), a 16 year old on the autism spectrum who is one of the only decent people on the show.
On a technical level, the show is brilliant: the writing, acting, and cinematography are all top-notch. The only problem is that in telling us this story, The White Lotus doesn't add much to the conversation about class and race in America. In fact, two of the characters of color come off as foolish and gullible despite the fact that in real life they almost certainly would not be as naive as they are portrayed in the show. When Tanya suggests to Belinda that she would be willing to fund Belinda starting her own wellness resort, Belinda believes it and goes so far as to write up a business proposal. I'm sorry Mike White, but you're a fucking idiot if you actually think a character like Belinda, who is explicitly written to be very intelligent, intuitive, and self-aware, would take Tanya, a self-described "alcoholic lunatic", seriously. There's just no fucking way, and this subplot actually reveals Mike White's white-blindness, so to speak. The other character is Kai, a native islander who starts a relationship with Paula. When Paula suggests a truly harebrained scheme for Kai to "take back" what was stolen from his people by the government, he actually goes along with it, and ends up paying dearly for his mistake. I could *kind of* see Kai making this very foolish choice because he's young and because he trusts Paula (a person of color herself), but both Kai and Belinda losing their common sense seems a bit insulting.
So, the show's strengths mirror its weaknesses: in portraying the destruction white/rich entitlement and white/rich self-absorption causes, Mike White falls prey to his OWN white self-absorption by writing the very few characters of color to be naive and helpless victims to the white characters. It's a very good show, and I do recommend it, but if you're looking for a show that says something brave, insightful, and/or unique about race and class, you won't find it at The White Lotus.
Grade: A-
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