It Ends
In Alexander Ullom's directorial debut, four friends (three of whom just graduated college) go out for late night munchies and accidentally turn onto a never-ending road. Their lighthearted bickering over who would win in a fight--50 hawks or one "average" man with a gun--turns to panic as they realize the country road they're on just...never ends. And when they stop to get out...well, I won't even say what happens, but it's scary as fuck.
Although it has some deeply scary moments, It Ends is more of a philosophical mind fuck than a horror film. The four friends--Day, Fisher, Tyler, and James--don't know how to comprehend what is happening to them. The car drives for miles with no gas. They don't get hungry, but a wound on Fisher's arm heals normally. They can't sleep. They can only stop for brief periods before they are forced to get back into the car by horrors they don't understand.
Most of the film focuses on their methodical attempts to figure out what is happening. They discuss if they might be in purgatory or Hell. They explore the woods beside the road in the few minutes they have before being forced to continue driving. James (Phineas Yoon) in particular is goal-oriented and treats their nightmare like a research project, calculating every small variable and finding hope in every slight deviation.
The social commentary of It Ends feels quite obvious: young people facing a never-ending road ahead. No hope, no significant progress, and untold dangers. Is that not what young people (and people of all ages) are facing in reality? Recent graduates staring down the barrel at a terrible job market, AI taking their jobs, the prospect of owning a home and fattening up a savings account not even visible on the distant horizon. But the clear metaphors within the film are not a strike against it: this is a strong and self-assured directorial debut with very strong performances by the young (and, for the most part, unknown) actors.
It Ends will frustrate filmgoers looking for a straightforward horror movie. Yes, the concept of the film is horrific, but not in the ways you think. But patient filmgoers may find a much more rewarding movie that brings up many questions about what the "meaning" and "purpose" of existence is, and where the line between "giving up" and "accepting reality" lies.
Grade: B+
***
The Drama
Kristoffer Borgli's dark comedy The Drama has elicited some extremely negative reactions in folks, and I can't really figure out why. It's a skewering commentary about moral hypocrisy and our nearly obsessive desire to be "good" relative to other people. We love downplaying our own bad behavior and moral flexibility while harshly judging others for their own imperfections. What's gross about this isn't our own failings, but our rush to turn our noses up at other people's failings. Our judgment is a worse sin than many of our worst sins.
The Drama's central drama concerns Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson). They are a week out from their wedding and at a wine tasting when they get into a conversation with their friends Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim) about the worst thing they've ever done. After Mike, Rachel, and Charlie share their worst deeds (which are all pretty bad, but mostly get laughed off), Emma shares hers...and all hell breaks loose.
I won't reveal what Emma's secret is, but it's a doozy. And it also happened many years ago. But it threatens to destroy all that Emma and Charlie have built over the last 2+ years and it does beg two questions: "what is the worst thing YOU'VE ever done, viewer?" and "what would you do in Charlie's shoes?"
I think only a non-American director (Borgli is Norwegian) could have made this film since it really holds up a mirror to a very specific aspect of American culture and rubs some salt right into the wound. The Drama has some deliciously dark and fucked up humor. It's a movie I wouldn't recommend to everyone, but if my description makes it sound like your cup of tea, it's absolutely worth watching and finding out where you stand.
Grade: A-
***
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
How do I even begin to explain Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie? Basically, there are two guys playing themselves: Matt Johnson (a director, who most recently directed the Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony) and Jay McCarrol (a musician). These two guys created a web series titled Nirvana the Band the Show, which ran from 2007-2009 and chronicled Jay and Matt's (fictional) attempts to book at gig at The Rivoli, a performance space in Toronto, by doing bizarre publicity stunts (and never succeeding).
Nearly two decades later, the boys are back with Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (yes, "Nirvana" has one "n" in the web series and two in the movie title--I think for copyright reasons). Matt once again comes up with a scheme for the two to jump off the CN Tower and parachute into the SkyDome of Rogers Centre during a baseball game in order to promote their (not as of yet booked) show at the Rivoli. When things go awry, Jay starts making plans to play a show without Matt, while Matt accidentally creates a time machine.
Yeah, you heard that right. Matt accidentally turns their RV into a time machine by pouring Orbitz on the time travel equipment in the RV. If you're reading this review and think you might be having a stroke, you're (probably) not. It's just a very bizarre and wacky movie and it's difficult to explain.
Imagine if Jackass and Back to the Future had a baby. Matt and Jay use guerrilla style filmmaking (often without permits), as well as editing old footage from their web series into the film so it looks like they are interacting with their younger selves from 2008, to make a movie about the different paths they could have taken if they stopped working together back then.
You don't need to know anything about Matt and Jay and you don't need to be familiar with their web series to enjoy this movie. It's fucking hilarious. Let me repeat that: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is fucking hilarious. It's just such a weird (and deeply Canadian) movie. Even if you read this review and you're like "Jenny, what the fuck are you even talking about?"...I get it. Just go watch it!
Grade: A
***
I Want Your Sex
I've only seen two other films by director Gregg Araki: Kaboom, which I barely remember, and Mysterious Skin, which is a straight-up masterpiece and also one of the most depressing movies I've ever watched.
His latest, I Want Your Sex, is neither a masterpiece, nor is it depressing. It's the movie equivalent of licorice flavored cotton candy: fluffy with a dark side, and definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
Co-written by Araki and Karley Sciortino (founder of the "Slutever" website), I Want Your Sex is about Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), a 23 year old hired to be the assistant to Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), an artist whose work is sexually provocative. Erika has terrible ethics and propositions Elliot immediately. Elliot is in a relationship with Minerva (Charli XCX), a grad student who never wants to have sex and doesn't really like Elliot, so the young man jumps at the chance to explore his sexuality with Erika.
And explore he does. The two engage in a BDSM relationship that quickly spirals out of control on Elliot's end when he wants more from Erika. He knows that she is manipulating him with sex, but he is so addicted to the way she makes him feel, he can't stop. Although the movie has a lighthearted feel throughout, Erika's violation of Elliot's boundaries and her emotional manipulation of him gets really gross really quickly.
Gregg Araki manages to have a bit of fun at the expense of Gen Z and their supposed fear of sex as well as their self-conscious woke politics without (in my opinion) being too "old man yells at cloud" about it. It helps that the movie feels very cartoonish (sometimes it features actual cartoons) and funny. That said, I think some folks who are very sensitive to issues revolving around sexual consent and emotional manipulation will find I Want Your Sex to be a difficult and not very funny watch. You have to leave your politics at the door to really enjoy this dark comedy. Personally, I enjoy Gregg Araki's filmmaking quite a bit, so I had a good time watching I Want Your Sex and I'm looking forward to checking out more of his work.
Grade: B
***
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
I really wanted to love Close Encounters of the Third Kind, considered by many to be among Spielberg's best films (if not the best). But sadly I just found it kinda...boring. The film explores one of Spielberg's favorite themes: contact between aliens and humans. A series of events occur all over the world: aircraft that disappeared in 1945 carrying WWII servicemen reappear (sans servicemen) in the Sonoran Desert; in Indiana, a toddler awakens to find his toys moving on their own and toddles out of the house; across town, electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is on his way to help out with a widespread power outage when his car completely shuts down and he sees an object of the unidentified flying variety hovering above him with blinding lights.
After Roy has his close encounter, he becomes obsessed with the shape of a mountain and is driven to draw it and sculpt it, eventually driving his family away (the last straw is Roy throwing a bunch of dirt and trash inside the house so he can sculpt the mountain in the living room). Even Roy doesn't understand what he's doing until he sees a news report from Wyoming with Devil's Tower in the background. Without even knowing it, Roy has been sculpting this mountain. And unbeknownst to him, scientists have received communication from space in the form of geographic coordinates: the coordinates to Devil's Tower.
Roy and Jillian (Melinda Dillon), the mother of the toddler who was abducted by aliens, make their way to Devil's Tower and discover scientists and government officials there, ready to make contact. I will say that the way the scientists figure out how to communicate with the aliens is pretty cool.
But Close Encounters of the Third Kind left me feeling...little. It reminded me a lot of Disclosure Day, a more recent Spielberg film that I felt quite "meh" on as well. The overarching theme in both films is that something greater than humanity can bring humanity together. It's about the power of awe. Meeting extraterrestrial beings is on par with meeting God. And these aliens are good, kind, and have something to teach us. Personally, I felt that theme much more strongly in E.T. because in that film you see the personal connection between an alien and a family. Both Close Encounters and Disclosure Day left me thinking "Ok. And?" in a way most of Spielberg's other films don't.
Grade: B-
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