We're All Going to the World's Fair
Jane Schoenbrun's slow burn horror film is a little too slow burning. The film follows teenager Casey (Anna Cobb in her film debut) as she records and uploads videos of herself after taking "The World's Fair Challenge"--an internet phenomena where people, after ritualistically declaring their intention to take the challenge, document changes happening to their bodies.
We're All Going to the World's Fair is not scary, nor is it gross. It's actually quite boring. It's a movie that's more about loneliness and isolation in an age when we're (supposedly) more connected than ever, given how big of an audience we can reach via the internet. But despite that larger message, I didn't find it particularly profound or deep either.
Casey begins communicating with a man who goes by the name JLB and expresses concern for her, but never shows his face. The scariest part of this film was wondering if this guy is a predator. But ultimately, he's just a very lonely man who assuages his loneliness by becoming invested in strangers' lives.
Despite the very naturalistic performance by Anna Cobb, who looks like and acts like a real teenager (because she is!), We're All Going to the World's Fair was just too slow with too little plot for me.
Grade: C+
***
Flux Gourmet
Peter Strickland is one of my favorite directors. His films feel like adult fairytales--filled with sex, violence, and a general sense of otherworldliness. His latest is Flux Gourmet, which follows a group of "sonic caterers"--basically, an art collective whose art comes from making sounds by using food. The collective is composed of Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed), Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), and Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield). They accept a residency at an artistic institute where they are expected to create art and perform on a regular basis. They are followed by a journalist, Stones (Makis Papadimitriou), who documents everything they do and even sleeps in their quarters.
Elle is the dominant and narcissistic leader of the group, and whatever she says goes. She clashes with Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie), the director of the residency. Meanwhile, Stones is dealing with severe stomach problems that make him incredibly gassy and terrified of farting in front of all these glamorous art people and embarrassing himself.
Despite the bizarre premise, Flux Gourmet is Strickland's funniest and most accessible film to date. It lampoons the art world while also showcasing the genuine beauty of the art itself. Strickland clearly has a thing for strange sounds, as one of his earlier films, Berberian Sound Studio, is about a foley artist who often uses--you guessed it--food to create sounds for films. In fact, Flux Gourmet may be lampooning Strickland's own art. His films are bizarre, could be considered pretentious, and often have ridiculous premises...yet, they are filmed with gorgeous cinematography, have striking soundtracks, and are very interesting and appealing in spite of (or maybe because of) their weirdness.
If you haven't seen anything by Peter Strickland, I recommend starting with my favorite of his films, The Duke of Burgundy. But really all of his movies are worth checking out.
Grade: B+
***
The Hunt
Ah, the infamous The Hunt. This is the movie where liberals hunt down conservatives and the marketing tried to milk the supposed "controversy" surrounding it. It turns out there is nothing particularly controversial about this movie except for the fact that it tries to "both sides" it where it should have fully embraced the concept of liberals murdering conservatives (not a new idea, by the way: 1995's The Last Supper had a similar conceit). I guess if I want to watch a film that says "it's fully ok to punch Nazis", I'll watch a WWII movie.
Despite the very silly "liberals and conservatives are equally bad" whataboutism of the film, The Hunt is actually pretty fun and entertaining film. A group of very rich, privileged liberals (to be clear: NEOliberals...these assholes are all for sucking capitalism's dick) lose their jobs when a joke they make about hunting conservatives in a private group chat is leaked. So they decide to...actually hunt conservatives.
But one of the people they kidnap fights back, and fights back hard. Where most of the MAGAts die pretty quickly after they wake up from the cocktail of drugs they're given, Crystal (Betty Gilpin, excellent) has survival skills that bring her face-to-face (and knife-to-knife) with the rich bitch leader of the murderous liberals, Athena Stone (Hillary Swank). And guess what? It turns out that Athena doesn't really "care about the facts" either. She just wants to take her frustration out on other people.
Acolytes of Horror, a YouTube channel I love, did a great video essay on horror that resists politics, and The Hunt is heavily featured in it. But even though The Hunt's take on politics is milquetoast at best, it's still a funny, entertaining movie with a few surprises.
Grade: B
***
God's Own Country
Call it Brokeback Mountain, only set in the UK. In modern times. And no one dies.
God's Own Country follows Johnny (Josh O'Connor), a very lonely Yorkshire sheep farmer who lives with his grandmother and disabled father. His grandma and dad are up his ass all day, constantly berating him and condescending to him, even though he does most of the work on the farm. He takes out his aggression through binge-drinking and anonymous sex with men.
When Johnny's father hires Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian migrant worker, to help temporarily with the farm, Johnny is at first quite hostile to the young man, calling him a "g*psy" over and over again. The two men are tasked with camping out in the pasture for a few nights to be closer to the flock since it's lambing season and sheep are giving birth left and right. Just like in Brokeback, those lonely, cold nights inspire some interesting ways of keeping warm.
When Johnny and Alec first have sex, it's rough and Johnny refuses to kiss Alec. But Alec encourages more tender intimacy the second time they do it. It's clear that Johnny desperately needs some warmth and intimacy in his life, and when he gets it he becomes a different person. He's less likely to turn to binge-drinking and is gentler with his father and grandmother. He wants Alec to stay on and even move in with him. When Alec expresses skepticism, Johnny slips back into old habits and nearly destroys their relationship. I won't reveal the ending, but like I said above--no one dies! This is not a #BuryYourGays movie.
God's Own Country was good, though not the most memorable of all time. Definitely recommended as a tender, gay romance.
Grade: B
***
Summer of 85
(Spoilers in this review)
I really wanted to like Francois Ozon's film about two teenage boys who engage in a passionate--and doomed--love affair in Normandy, France during the (you guessed it!) summer of '85, but there was something incredibly shallow about this movie.
Alex (Felix Lefebvre) meets David (Benjamin Voisin) when David saves Alex after Alex takes his friend's boat out and a storm causes him to capsize. David is incredibly charismatic and by the end of the day asks Alex to work in his family's store with him and his mother. The two teenagers (Alex is 16 and David 18) engage in an intense relationship for about 6 weeks before David gets bored and ends it.
Immediately after David breaks up with Alex by telling him he's boring, a tragedy occurs and David dies in a motorcycle accident. Alex is not able to properly mourn because David's mother blames him for David's death and doesn't allow him to attend the funeral. But Alex finds David's grave and--honoring a pact he and David made--dances on the grave. Only to be arrested. He then has to explain why he was dancing on a grave to the court.
Summer of 85 is just not good. It *sounds* like a movie with a lot of depth--I mean, it has young love, tragedy, crime! But everything in the movie happens so rapidly. Alex and David fall into a relationship so quickly, and then after just a couple scenes of them together, they have a blowout fight. And then David dies. And the rest of the movie is Alex trying to process what happened. Nothing in this movie--not a single emotion--is given time to breathe. No character is allowed to truly develop, but David is an especially thin character. He comes off as capricious asshole, which is par for the course for an 18 year old, I guess. But it doesn't really help the movie, in which you're suppose to sympathize with a 16 year old losing his first love. If the first love is a dickhead, it makes it a little harder to connect.
I checked this movie out because I like movies about gay men, but I'd say skip this one. What a better gay movie, like the one I reviewed above!
Grade: C-
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