Stuff I Watched in...September, 2023

Bottoms

Bottoms is an unhinged high school sex comedy in which two lesbian high schoolers, PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), start a self-defense club to get the attention of Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu). The movie is borderline surreal with a principal who says things like "You two better stay in your lane until you're munching beaver at Wesleyan" and a school cafeteria where pineapple is unilaterally banned because the most popular jock in school, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), is allergic. Bottoms is definitely going for satire over realism. 

I got a distinctly "Gen Z" feel from this film, which makes sense given the director (Emma Seligman) is 28 years old, and the stars are similarly aged. I think the weird and fast-paced jokes made me feel a bit like an Old, but that's ok. I am a fan of the youths and it's really cool that there's a movie about nerdy high school girls trying to get "cooch" where the fact that they're gay is besides the point. And rather than present them as perfect paragons of queerness, Bottoms lets Josie and PJ be regular old horny, self-centered teens looking to score. 

When their fight club (ahem...self-defense club) becomes popular with both the uncool girls *and* the cool girls (including Brittany and Isabel), PJ and Josie think it's smooth sailing to pussy town. But after Isabel starts ignoring Jeff in favor of Josie, the jocks plan to sabotage the girls and reveal that they started the club not to support women, as they claimed, but to score with women. Will PJ and Josie be able to salvage the relationships they build with the girls in the fight club? Or will trust and credibility be destroyed until they're munching beaver at Wesleyan? You'll have to watch to find out!

Quick notes that 1) Ayo Edebiri is one to watch. She's in everything right now, including a leading role in Hulu's acclaimed series The Bear; and 2) former football player Marshawn Lynch plays Mr. G, PJ and Josie's history teacher who also serves as the fight club's faculty advisor---he is so goddamned funny in this movie. 

Grade: B

***

School of Rock

I rewatched this 2003 Richard Linklater film and was delightfully surprised at how well it holds up, not just as a family-friendly comedy, but as a movie plain and simple. In fact, School of Rock feels like one of the purest, most wholesome-but-not-schmaltzty movies I can think of. It truly has a heart of gold, mostly due to Jack Black's performance as a PG-rated version of himself.

Black plays Dewey Finn, a musician who is kicked out of his own rock band and is forced to find a way to make money to pay the rent to his friend Ned (Mike White) and Ned's ball-busting girlfriend, Patty (Sarah Silverman). Ned is a substitute teacher, so when Dewey answers the phone while Ned is out one day and is told about a long-term sub job at a prestigious private school, he of course pretends to be Ned so he can earn a quick buck. Oh, the days of landlines. The advent of cell phones would make this film impossible.

Dewey thinks he can just tell the 5th graders of Horace Green Prep to "have recess" all day while he naps at the desk, but when he listens in on the students' music class, he realizes that he can, well, exploit their talent. He can turn them into his new band and they can participate in Battle of the Bands and win the grand prize (which, of course, Dewey won't share with them--but it will help him pay the rent).

Put aside the impossibility of the entire premise for a minute and enjoy the child actors' genuine musical ability and Black's performance as a selfish asshole who morphs into someone who actually cares about these kids and bonds with them through love of rock n' roll. School of Rock is a love-letter to music and shows how life-changing music can be for young people. Like I said, this film, like many of Linklater's films, is just good vibes all around. It's a movie with a kind heart that doesn't feel saccharine or preachy. I dug it in 2003 and I still dig it today.

Grade: A

***

Interview with the Vampire (television show)

Despite a few criticisms I have, this adaptation of Anne Rice's classic novel of toxic vampire love is excellent. Season 1 of this show has been updated in a few ways that really make the story shine. First, instead of being a white plantation owner in 1790s Louisiana, Louis de Pointe du Lac is a mixed Black and Creole man living in 1910s New Orleans. Jacob Anderson, previously known for his portrayal as Grey Worm in Game of Thrones, does just the perfect job as this iteration of Louis. 

Louis is from a wealthy family, but because they are Black they have limitations on how they are able to build that wealth. Louis is a brothel owner in the Storyville neighborhood of New Orleans. He is tolerated and even "included" (sort of) by the affluent white men of New Orleans (for example, he is invited to their card game nights), but he is not respected by them and they constantly look for ways to undermine Louis and his goals. 

Louis meets Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid, in turn both menacing and charming), a French man who has strange abilities, such as being able to communicate telepathically. Louis, deeply in the closet, gives in to his desires and begins a sexual and romantic relationship with Lestat that the two insist is just a close business relationship. But after a horrid tragedy brings Louis to a place of despair, Lestat forcibly turns him into a vampire. Lestat spends a lot of time trying to convince Louis that this is the perfect life for the two of them: they don't have to worry for money (Lestat has plenty of it), Louis doesn't have to be beholden to the rich, white assholes who treat him as an uppity nuisance, and the two can fuck and kill as much as they want, as long as they're discreet.

But Louis misses his family and craves love and closeness that Lestat can't give him. He makes an impulsive decision to save a 14 year old girl, Claudia (Bailey Bass), from a fire and convinces Lestat to turn her. Louis thinks they can be a happy family. But it is not to be.

Interview with the Vampire is a melodramatic feast for the eyes. The cinematography is beautiful. The musical score is overbearing. The drama is a little much at times. But overall, this adaptation of Rice's novel is...dare I say it...better than the beloved, campy 1994 film starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. It's both gayer and more interesting. I'm excited for season 2.

Grade: A-

***

Carrie (1976)

This was a rewatch for me (I watched it with my horror-curious friend), but it had been a long while since I last saw Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's novel. Boy, I had forgotten how truly misogynist this movie is. 

If you live under a rock, here's the plot: Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a 16 year old girl who is relentlessly bullied at school and lives with her religious nutcase mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie). When Carrie gets her first period and subsequently freaks out in the locker room showers, the other girls throw tampons and pads at her, telling her to "plug it up". They all get detention and Carrie is, of course, massively traumatized. Her mother never told her about periods and then tells her that she is a sinner because she wouldn't have gotten "the curse" if she never sinned. 

Sue Snell (Amy Irving) feels truly remorseful about her participation in the bullying, so she makes her boyfriend, Tommy (William Katt), take Carrie to the prom. Mean girl Chris (Nancy Hargensen) and her boyfriend, Billy (John Travolta), conceive a plot to humiliate Carrie: they will rig the voting so that Carrie and Tommy are elected Prom Queen and King and then dump a bucket of pig's blood onto Carrie when she is up on stage in front of the entire school. This humiliation triggers Carrie's telekinetic abilities and she basically kills everyone, including her mother. 

Carrie--the book and the film--is a product of its time. The intense emphasis on the importance of the prom and getting a boyfriend feels very dated in today's world (even knowing that those things are still important to many young people). Even the gym teacher who feels bad for Carrie tells her "You're a pretty girl--a little makeup would bring out those eyes". Even the "good" people in this movie are all about getting Carrie a date and a makeover. To be fair, there are many people who still believe that a woman's worth lies in her looks and the quality of the man on her arm. But the movie just feels old school as fuck.

Despite the misogyny, the horrific thrill of seeing Carrie humiliated and then immediately at the height of her powers, killing every dumb motherfucker in sight, is undeniably breathtaking. Who among us hasn't fantasized about having some kind of power over the people who hurt us? Whether that power is a murderous one, like Carrie's, or even just the ability to say the most cutting remark that will make the bully a laughingstock in front of everyone. Carrie is massively relatable. Unless you're a Chris or a Billy (or a Margaret), in which case I'd just be careful about who you bully. 

Grade: A-

***

The Other Black Girl

Based on the book by Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl is a 10 episode series on Hulu. I was...not crazy about it. I was really not into the message of the series, which seems to be that Black women will screw other Black women over to make it in Capitalist white America.

Nella Rogers (Sinclair Daniel) is an editorial assistant at Wagner Books and dreams of being a full-time editor so she can usher stories about Black people into the world and the "little Nellas" out there will be inspired the way she was inspired by Burning Heart, her favorite book growing up. Nella is also the only Black employee at Wagner. That is until Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray) shows up. Another editorial assistant, Hazel at first claims to want to be friends with Nella, but quickly proves herself untrustworthy by throwing Nella under the boss in front of her boss.

Despite getting off on the wrong foot, Hazel tries to woo Nella back into friendship, even through Nella's boyfriend and best friend Malaika (Brittany Adebumola) don't trust her. But when Nella meets Hazel's "sisterhood" of close girlfriends--all of them polished, poised, and fiercely ambitious--Nella realizes that something is very off. When she and Malaika try to investigate, they find themselves in danger from the very women who claim to have their backs.

The Other Black Girl has been called "Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada", but it's not as socially relevant as the former nor as entertaining as the latter. Like I said, the message of the series is a little bit fucked up. I don't love it. It was entertaining enough to binge in a couple days but I can't say I recommend it.

Grade: C+

***

Joyride (2001)

Not to be confused with the 2022 film, this turn-of-the-century (!!) thriller stars the late, great Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, and Leelee Sobieski. And the iconic voice of Ted Levine (best known for his role as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs). Walker and Zahn play Lewis and Fuller Thomas. Lewis is a college student making a cross-country trek home from college. He picks up his ne'er do well brother, Fuller, from prison in Salt Lake City and the two get on the road to Boulder, CO, where they plan to pick up Venna (Sobieski), a hometown friend whom both guys have a crush on.

Fuller gets a mechanic to install a CB radio in the car so they can listen to truckers' conversations (and get tips about speed traps). But when the boys decide to play a prank on a lonely long-haul trucker (going by the name Rusty Nail), they make a deadly mistake. They pretend to be a woman, Candy Cane, and lure Rusty Nail to a motel and a direct him to the room of a guest who was rude and racist to the night manager of the motel. But the next morning, rude guy is discovered with his jaw ripped clean off. Turns out that Rusty Nail doesn't like to be the butt of a joke.

Rusty is able to track the boys down and nearly kills them, stopping when they apologize and beg for forgiveness. But when they pick up Venna, Rusty is back on their tail, having an almost preternatural ability to find Fuller and Lewis. We don't see Rusty until the very end of the movie, only hearing that iconic Ted Levine voice (I can't help but think of him asking Jodie Foster, "Was she a big, fat person?" in Silence of the Lambs) over the radio. 

Joyride is a fun, ridiculous movie that will make you never want to play a prank on (or even do that "blow the horn" motion at) a long-haul trucker.

Grade: B