In the French Style

Movie: Passages

(spoiler warning for the entire review)

If you read this blog regularly, you'll notice that I have an aversion to "kids' movies", which means I'm probably missing out on some great films. I'm just not interested in movies that have a G or PG rating, except for maybe the occasional nostalgia watch.

Now, a movie like Passages, which is about a gay man who cheats on his husband with a woman, leading to the upheaval of their relationship, which originally had an NC-17 rating before the director argued it down to an R. Well, that's a movie I want to watch. A movie for adults.

Passages is a very French movie, which means that it has a lot of sex and a lot of people being mean to each other. Directed by Ira Sachs, the film stars Franz Rogowski as Tomas, a movie director married to Martin (Ben Whishaw). The film gets right into it when Tomas, feeling rejected by Martin after wrapping up a shoot, goes home with Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos) and sleeps with her. He then proceeds to straight up tell Martin. The audience picks up that Martin and Tomas already have problems that predate Agathe--but it's not entirely clear what those problems are. It seems that Tomas is craving the excitement of new relationships while Martin is comfortable in a routine. 

To me, it became clear very quickly that Tomas is not as sympathetic as one might suspect. He is incredibly needy--going back and forth between Agathe and Martin for validation and attention while not giving either of them much in return. I thought Passages was going to be about a man discovering he is bisexual or a couple transforming into a throuple...well, it's actually about a guy with a personality disorder blowing up his life. 

Rogowski is excellent at playing a weaselly, unlikable guy. It's not JUST that he cheats on his hubby...he also gets his partner pregnant and then acts like an asshole to her understandably concerned parents. But perhaps the worst sin he commits is getting up Martin's hopes about raising the kid together, knowing that Martin has always wanted kids, and then failing to tell him when Agathe (again, understandably) has an abortion. 

Ben Whishaw is good in everything he's in, but he's especially wonderful at playing the wounded Martin. At first, you see him as this grumpy, rigid guy. But it becomes obvious that he's been partner to a selfish man and when he finally cuts Tomas off, saying, "I want my life back and I don't want you in it." I felt like cheering. 

Adele Exarchopoulos has perhaps the most difficult job in the movie: playing a woman who would sleep with a married, gay man but still retaining the audience's sympathy. She's not an innocent here, and it's hard to understand her motivations. But Passages is one of those movies where the fact that people make bad choices is what makes the movie so real. Because people DO make bad choices, especially in the heat of the moment.

Passages is a sad, French, extremely sexually explicit (seriously, there is one scene that was...*fans self*) movie. I enjoyed it, but I guess it was a bit of a bummer. I wanted it to be more about the exploration of sexual fluidity and the expansion of relationship bonds, but it was about some asshole who needs therapy instead of getting laid. That said, if you like movies about complicated adults, this is one for you!

Grade: B

Explosive Genius

Movies: Oppenheimer

The very first thing I want to say about Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated film about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is that it is loud as fuck. It's loud during the parts that are supposed to be loud, but it's also loud when people are having conversations, to the point where not only could you not hear the dialogue, it also seemed borderline comedic. Imagine two men yelling at each other while the swelling film score drowns them out. It's like "did someone fuck up?"

Apparently, this is just a Chris Nolan thing and he doesn't care. I remember seeing Interstellar, which had the exact same problem. Leaving the film, my friend said "the person who did the sound mixing for this movie should win the Razzie". Frankly, I find this annoying as hell. It's fine to have a loud soundtrack, but when your audience is straining to hear and you, the director, know this is an issue and don't care, it's arrogant and disrespectful to your audience. 

I mean, maybe this is Nolan's way of getting people to see his movies more than once because I'm already looking forward to being able to rewatch Oppenheimer at home with subtitles. So there you go. Even though it was ear-blastingly loud, it was also a good movie and I want to watch it again. I also think subtitles would help me understand all the science talk a little better. 

Oppenheimer is an epic film and some are calling it Christopher Nolan's "masterpiece". It certainly feels like a masterpiece, but I'm not fully convinced it actually is. I was impressed with the acting, which is excellent across the board. There were certain scenes that were truly outstanding, such as when they actually test the bomb for the first time. But the movie is also needlessly long and convoluted. Nolan aims to get a lot of information across in this movie. We learn about Oppenheimer's school years, his introduction to the Communist Party by his brother, his teaching years, his relationship with his wife and his lovers, him being recruited to oversee the Manhattan Project, his regret after he realizes that a fucking bomb will be used to kill people, his fall from grace due to the manipulations of Lewis Strauss, and Lewis Strauss's fall from grace. That's a lot. The movie is based on a book titled American Prometheus and damn if Nolan didn't try to film everything in the book.

But what's more is that there are multiple timelines in the movie and the events are not linear. So we're constantly jumping back and forth in time. And for a three hour movie, Oppenheimer is extraordinarily fast-paced. There are very few scenes that are just allowed to breathe. So when you pair a fast-paced film packed with a million details taking place on a non-linear timeline and you also can't fucking hear half the dialogue...it almost feels like it was intended to be confusing. It feels, as the expression goes, that it was trying to muddy the waters to make them appear deep.

That said, it's still a very interesting film. I guess if I knew more about the Manhattan Project I would have enjoyed it more. The cinematography is stunning. The acting, as I mentioned, is incredibly strong, especially Cillian Murphy as the titular "Opp" and Robert Downey Jr. as Oppenheimer's betrayer, Lewis Strauss. The other thing I'll say about this movie, which isn't really a shock, is that it's a very masculine, white movie. There are two significant roles for women in the film: the hectoring, alcoholic wife (Emily Blunt, wasted in a thankless and one-dimensional role) and the suicidal lover (Florence Pugh, who also deserves better). Both of these women are fully defined by their relationship to Oppenheimer. 

And then, let's be real, the movie doesn't REALLY let us think too hard about what Oppenheimer's genius wrought. We don't see the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We don't see the aftermath. All we get is Oppenheimer's tortured soul. I mean, I get it. The movie is titled Oppenheimer. The film tries to make the point that if we didn't build the bomb, someone else would. Which is true...but the introspection stops about where you'd expect. Which is fine. History happened how it happened. We Americans like to think we're the good guys. And hell, maybe we're just as "good" or bad as anyone else in this crazy world. But I think the movie plays more at appearing nuanced than actually being nuanced. Which seems to be par for the course for Christopher Nolan. He's very much a "both sides" type of director. He's not radical. And giving space for Oppenheimer to regret his involvement is about as radical as this movie could possibly get.

So. Barbenheimer. I saw Barbie and it didn't quite live up to what I wanted it to be. I saw Oppenheimer and it didn't quite live up to what I wanted it to be. So maybe this issue is that I'm going into these movies with expectations that are too damn high. 

Oppenheimer is a good movie and worth watching again. But there's a better movie underneath all the confusion and noise.

Grade: B+

Talk to the Hand

Movie: Talk to Me

Talk to Me, a horror film directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, who were popular YouTubers before making their feature-length directorial debut, is one of the most punishing movies I've seen in a while. It's both terrifying and emotionally devastating. There is one particular scene that is one of the most brutal I've seen. In other words: alllllll the trigger warnings. But I loved it!

Set in Australia, Talk to Me follows Mia (Sophie Wilde in a hopefully star-making turn), a teenager grieving the death of her mother. When the movie opens, it's been two years since her mother died by taking too many sleeping pills. Mia believes that her death was an accident. Mia also ignores her father's attempts to connect with her...yet she desperately craves connection. In an early scene, she goes to her friend Jade's house (Alexandra Jensen) and tries to hang out, but Jade is glued to her phone, more focused on chatting with her boyfriend than paying attention to Mia.

Yeah, I know there are a lot of horror movies about grief. Talk to Me is part of that genre, but it really leans heavily into the isolation that grief causes and I think it makes some very canny points about how teenagers in particular grieve: they want to connect with friends, and (sometimes) reject connection from adults. So Mia is left in this limbo where she is very lonely and edging closer to destructive behavior.

Well, destructive behavior finds her in the form of an occult party game. Two other teens, Hayley (a magnificent, bullying Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio), have come into possession of an embalmed hand that supposedly belonged to a psychic who could commune with the dead. There's a little ritual you do, involving lighting a candle, grasping the hand, and saying "talk to me" and a dead person will appear, holding your hand. I love that the movie just presents this as reality, full stop. There really is no ambiguity here: these teens are fuckin' talking to dead people! 

What's more, you can say "I let you in", and the soul of the ghoul will enter you and be able to talk to people in the room. And let me just say: dead people are real dickheads. I mean, these guys are assholes. Each of them seems to relish humiliating people in the room, as they know things that the living don't know.

The game can only go on for 90 seconds or "they'll want to stay" as Hayley smirkingly puts it. These dumbass teens looking for a thrill are having a great time...the hand is clearly a metaphor for drugs, which kind of fits in with the whole isolation piece. Mia is captivated by a game that makes her feel something after such a long time of feeling numbness and grief. 

Things go wrong when Jade's younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird, excellent here), wants to play. Jade forbids 14 year old Riley from playing, but when she leaves the room, Mia allows Riley to take a turn. When Riley ends up channeling the spirit of Mia's dead mother, the game goes on longer than 90 seconds, since Mia is desperate to talk to mom...and then it all goes to literal hell.

At a certain point, Riley becomes possessed with...something. And whatever possesses him makes him do awful things to his body that the other kids try to stop. This was a scene that made people in my theatre flip the goddamn fuck out. I'm genuinely surprised that no one left the movie. I mean, I was thrilled. I don't think I've watched a scene that left such an impression on me since the cliff-diving scene in Midsommar. But man, was it brutal. 

Riley is taken the the hospital. The cops are called. Mia is officially persona non grata to Jade and Jade's mother (the lovely Miranda Otto) who (rightly) blame her for allowing Riley to play. But Mia has bigger fish to fry. In the chaos, she stole the hand...and goes on a journey to contact her mother again. But whoever--or whatever--she is contacting...is it actually her mother? Or is it an interloper from the netherworld trying to gain entry? 

Talk to Me is filled with brutal and terrifying imagery. It uses no jump scares because it doesn't have to. And it fits the truest definition of horror that I can think of: when good people are punished. It's one thing to see bad people get killed or punished in a horror movie. We can easily say they deserved it. But it's another thing when it's an innocent, like Riley, or a less-innocent, but still needy, grieving teen like Mia. Mia makes some terrible choices in Talk to Me...but she's supposed to be like 17 years old! And her mom died! This is a girl who needs care and understanding. But instead, she reaches out to the abyss...and the abyss grabs her hand and won't let go. It's genuinely tragic.

Horror junkies will love Talk to Me. The slick visuals and excellent sound make the film feel polished and elegant. The acting is perfect. Also, the movie is only 90 minutes long (and, honestly, could have been longer and I wouldn't have minded). People not into horror--stay away! Go see Barbie instead! This isn't me being condescending, it's me giving folks a fair warning that Talk to Me goes to a dark, dark place. Make sure you're in the right headspace if you watch it.

Grade: A

Life in Plastic

Movie: Barbie

Sometimes a movie is bigger than the sum of its parts. Greta Gerwig's Barbie is one such movie. What could have been a cheesy movie about an iconic (and problematic) toy produced mostly to sell products transcended into a cheesy movie about an iconic (and problematic) toy produced to sell products but also to raise feminist consciousness. Gerwig, who has previously directed female-centered films such as Ladybird and Little Women, elevated this movie into something funny, campy, surreal, existential...but also totally in line with the capitalist impulses that were behind the creation of Barbie in the first place. Barbie is a subversive movie, but not too subversive. I mean, it's not directed by John Waters (now that would be an interesting Barbie film).

Even though I contend that Barbie is good, not great, I think Gerwig did the absolute best she could given the parameters of this film. Mattel was never going to allow for a movie that truly tears Barbie to shreds (and would we even want that? Barbie is indeed beloved by many people). And the PG-13 rating keeps the film squarely in family-friendly territory. Given the limitations in place, Barbie is fairly radical.

I mean, the plot of Barbie is basically "Ken brings toxic masculinity to Barbie Land and must be stopped". Well, the first half of the plot is "Barbie realizes she is becoming less perfect, which means there is a rip in the space-time continuum and she must go to the real world to find and help the sad little girl who is making Barbie develop flat feet and cellulite". But once she and Ken go to the real world, Ken discovers horses and patriarchy and goes back to Barbie Land and nearly ruins the pink-hued gynocracy for everyone. So the second half of the movie is stopping Ken's takeover. I truly did not expect Ken to play such a big role in the movie and I am not mad about it because Ryan Gosling steals the show. Gosling rarely gets to show off his comedic chops, and he was great as the bleach-blonde, sensitive-but-misguided hunk. 

My main beef with Barbie is that the message of the film, which is actually two messages, is spoon-fed to the audience. The first thesis of the movie is that women are expected to be perfectly balanced in all things (pretty, but not too pretty; smart, but not too smart; confident, but not a bitch, etc). About 2/3 of the way through the movie, America Ferrara, playing a woman from the real world whom it turns out was the cause of Barbie's existential crisis, lays this thesis out in a big speech. For some people in the audience, this is probably the first time they've heard thoughts like these expressed. But for me, well, I was rolling my eyes (SORRY!!). It was just so clunky. But I guess in a world where a guy like Trump can be president, we need obvious feminism spoonfed to us. There's no room for subtlety and nuance in this irony-free hellscape we live in now.

The other message of the movie, which was more intriguing to me, is that maybe neither men NOR WOMEN should rule the world. Because all is not well in Barbie Land, where women can be astronauts, construction workers, mermaids, Nobel Prize winners, and the president...but Ken can only be Ken. I'm not going to lie--I got a lil choked up when Ken confronts Barbie about taking him for granted. Deep within a movie that screams feminist empowerment from the rooftops is the message than men also want to be considered full humans too. And toxic masculinity may look like it allows for men to be anything...but it actually is just another cage. Most guys I keep company with resent toxic masculinity as much as women do because it forces them to tamp down their true emotions, passions, and vulnerabilities. I was very happy to see that Barbie acknowledges this and doesn't turn Ken into a one-dimensional villain.

There's also a Ken dance-off (or "beach-off", if you prefer), which was awesome. 

If you think I'm being too critical of Barbie, don't worry, I did like the movie. Gerwig sneaks in a lot of weirdness, camp, and plain old funny jokes into the film. The acting is also great. I already mentioned Gosling, but Margot Robbie is perfect as "stereotypical Barbie". She brings warmth, humor, and vulnerability to the role. But Gosling and Robbie are nearly overshadowed by the many, many smaller parts and even cameos throughout the movie. Kate McKinnon does what she does best as Weird Barbie. Michael Cera plays timid, earnest Allan. Simu Liu plays Ken's arch-nemesis...Ken (there are many versions of Ken in the movie, all vying for the attention of various Barbies). Hell, even John Cena makes an appearance as Merman Ken. 

Overall, Barbie isn't perfect. But maybe that's the point. A friend of mine pointed out the similarities between Gerwig's task to create the perfectly balanced Barbie movie and the message of the film that women are expected to perfectly balance our lives and selves. So maybe I'm being a tad harsh when I say that the movie was good rather than great. Or maybe it's ok for some movies to just be good.

Grade: B+

Stargazing

Movie: Asteroid City

Wes Anderson does not miss. Even his "worst" movies (Bottle Rocket and The Darjeeling Limited, in my opinion) are still solid. But if you're not into Anderson's whole vibe, you'll never be into his movies because he doesn't stray far from said vibe.

Anderson's latest, Asteroid City, contains all the classic Anderson tropes: perfectly framed shots, Daddy Issues, quick deadpan dialogue, and a striking palette of colors. But it also has some extra weird shit thrown in for the true fans. The plot is a frame story. So, "Asteroid City" is the name of a play written by Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). The portions of the movie that take place in "reality"--Conrad writing the play, actors auditioning, Conrad attending an acting class to find talent, etc--are filmed in black and white and at a 1.37:1 ratio (basically, the screen is a square). The portions of the movie that represent the play itself are filmed in color at a widescreen ratio. This makes the "reality" portions of the movie feel fake and "fake" portions of the movie feel real. 

The play itself is about events that take place over one week in the very small, Southwestern town so named after an asteroid that landed in the area thousands of years ago. Asteroid City is hosting an astronomy convention where the scientific inventions of young "Junior Stargazers" will be celebrated. This convention brings together a large cast of interesting characters, including Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer and recent widower with three daughters and a son (one of the Junior Stargazers). Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), an actress, is also there with her daughter, Dinah (also a Stargazer). Like many characters in previous Anderson movies, Midge and Augie bond over their shared melancholy. 

The plot is pretty complicated and the cast, as is always the case with Anderson movies, is stacked. A partial list of all the actors in Asteroid City include Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend, Steve Carell, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, and Margot Robbie. While I really liked Asteroid City, this huge cast (especially given that Anderson's last movie, The French Dispatch, also featured an enormous cast) made me long for the relatively stripped down early Anderson movies, like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums where there were fewer characters and more complex character development. 

Despite the consistency of Anderson's whole *gestures broadly* thing, the director really does try new stuff all the time. He's done animation, non-linear movies, and metatextual movies. Asteroid City strikes me as uniquely weird for Anderson, which is very exciting. It's a movie I will definitely need to watch a second time in order to pick up all the little things I missed the first time around. I like that his movies reward multiple watches. 

I feel like I'm rambling and also saying nothing in this review, but Asteroid City really is a movie you just need to watch to understand--and you'll probably need to watch it a couple times. If you're an Anderson fan, you'll probably appreciate the film even if it's not among your favorites. If you're not an Anderson fan, this won't be the movie to turn you into one. 

Grade: B+

Stuff I watched in...June, 2023

Magic Mike's Last Dance

The third movie in the Magic Mike trilogy is not as good as the first two. However, taken together, the films make a certain logical sense: the first film, Magic Mike, directed by Steven Soderbergh, was more of a funny, but slightly melancholy take on male friendships than a sex-drenched ass-fest. The second film, Magic Mike XXL, directed by Gregory Jacobs, is what people thought the *first* film was going to be: a thoroughly campy, good-hearted comedy about a bunch of hot guys taking their clothes off. This most recent (and final?) installment, directed once again by Soderbergh, is a love story, with almost too obvious tropes (the main characters can't be together for...reasons; forced proximity). It's also less funny and more sedate--but also more sensual--than the first two.

If Magic Mike is a quality craft beer and Magic Mike XXL is a tequila shot, then Magic Mike's Last Dance is a four-ounce pour of a very expensive Cabernet: it's lush, it's relaxing, it's sexy, but it ain't a party drink.

The film opens in present day, presumably about 7 years after the events of Magic Mike XXL. Mike Lane has lost his furniture making business in the pandemic and now works as a bartender for a catering company. While working at a fundraising event, Mike meets the hostess, Max Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault). Max finds out about Mike's past as a male stripper and offers to pay him a tidy sum for a dance. Mike protests that he is retired, but gives in and gives Max the dance of her life and the two end up sleeping together.

The next day, Max proposes and even crazier idea: Mike will come with her to London and spend a month training a cadre of male dancers to perform in a show at a theatre that Max's ex-husband bequeathed to her. Max's reasoning? She feels that if all women could experience the pleasure that Mike gave her through dance, it could change the world. Also, the show is a "fuck you" to her ex, a stuffy, wealthy British man with a reputation to protect.

It's all VERY contrived, and the entire "Magic Mike" trilogy goes a little overboard with the whole "if you just give women a little erotic attention, their lives will change" concept (If Mike drove women across state lines to access abortion services, he might be a little more "Magic" in my humble opinion, but yes the dancing is very good). But like a romance novel that is a fair bit ridiculous, Magic Mike's Last Dance has a way of charming you and making you smile despite yourself. It definitely has the most sensual dance scenes of the trilogy. Worth the watch!

Grade: B-

***

Elle

Elle, a French-language film directed by the slightly infamous Paul Verhoeven and starring the remarkable Isabella Huppert, is one of my favorite types of films: rape and revenge. Huppert plays Michele Leblanc, a middle-aged divorcee who develops video games for a living. Basically, she's cool as fuck. One day, Michele is raped in her own home by a masked assailant. Though she doesn't go to the police and appears relatively unfazed when she tells her ex-husband and best friend at dinner later that night, Michele begins to look suspiciously at all the men in her life. 

Michele eventually discovers the identity of the man who raped her and begins a very ambiguous cat-and-mouse game with him that could easily get her killed. As viewers, we're led to wonder what Michele is getting out of this. Is she a masochist? Is she planning some horrible act of revenge? Is she simply in denial that this man is a danger to her? Or is she suffering severe guilt due to the fact that her father was a notorious serial killer in the 1970s (did I forget to mention that Michele's father was a notorious serial killer in the 1970s)? 

Verhoeven is known for occasionally directing "trashy" movies, such as Showgirls. Elle could have easily been a trashy--almost retro--take on rape and "women's fantasies"...and some critics have argued that the movie is exactly that: a male fantasy about how women want to be ravished. But I found Elle to be a fascinating character study of a woman who is so sure of herself, so smart and powerful, that she may truly not understand the level of danger she's in. But, of course, being so smart, Michele does understand the danger she is in even as she is attracted to it on some level. It's a film that shows human emotion and motivation for the cipher it often is. Sometimes we don't even understand the choices--and risks--we make. 

I was blown away by Elle, but I strongly caution people to really consider if they want to watch a movie with multiple, explicit rape scenes which also contain a scary amount of physical violence. 

Grade: A-

***

Black Mirror, season 6 and Bandersnatch 

I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that the most recent season of Black Mirror is excellent and possibly even the best season of the entire series. There are five episodes and not a dud among them, although the first three--"Joan is Awful", "Loch Henry", and "Beyond the Sea"--are truly exquisite. "Beyond the Sea" in particular feels like it could have been a straight up film that I would have paid to see in theatres. It's also horrifically devastating. 

While "Joan is Awful" is, hands down, the funniest episode of Black Mirror ever, "Loch Henry" and "Beyond the Sea" bring that classic Black Mirror hurt--they're almost sadistic in their emotional devastation. And then the final two episodes, "Mazey Day" and "Demon 79" bring something unexpected to the table: supernatural horror. Typically, Black Mirror sticks to the realm of science fiction horror, but the final two episodes of season 6 venture outside that boundary quite a bit. And I was here for it. 

I also finally got around to watching Bandersnatch, Black Mirror's interactive movie. While Will Poulter was a delight, overall I was not impressed. The concept of a "choose your own adventure" movie is a cool one, but in reality I have to wonder how many people decided to watch it more than once to get a different ending (especially since it would offer you the option of returning to a previous choice when you reached an ending). I just don't think the movie itself is good enough to inspire multiple viewings. But I have to give it points for trying something different.  

Season 6: A

Bandersnatch: B

***

The Five Devils

This French film, directed by Lea Mysius, is a mix of genres, ranging from family drama to fantasy to horror. Young Vicky (Sally Drame) has a magical nose: she has a truly extraordinary sense of smell (she's able to smell her mother from 20 feet away while blindfolded, for example), but she is also able to create scents like some kind of prodigy perfumer. 

Vicky lives with her parents Joanne (Adele Exarchopoulos) and Jimmy (Moustapha Mbengue) and their life seems peaceful (even if Joanne acts a bit forlorn at times). But when Jimmy's sister, Julia (Swala Emati) comes to live with the family after being released from prison, Vicky's quiet life is rocked to the core. Through scent, Vicky is able to experience people's memories--namely, Julia and Joanne's. She sees that Julia and Joanne were once very close until something pulled them apart.

The Five Devils is a thinker of a movie, and honestly, I'm not fully sure if I understood it. There are some really interesting ideas in this movie, but none of them seem fully fleshed out. One idea that keeps emerging is Vicky's realization that if her father and mother hadn't gotten together in the wake of the event that sent Julia to prison, she would not have been born. The Five Devils takes this very normal existential realization and plays a bit with it, suggesting that maybe Vicky is able to time travel via the power of scent and even interfere with events that occurred before she was born. But the movie never really commits to this idea one way or another.

Overall, a very interesting and beautifully shot film, but not clear enough to feel fully satisfying.

Grade: B

***

Evil Dead Rise

Sadly, I was disappointed by the latest film in the Evil Dead franchise. Set in a condemned high rise apartment building, Evil Dead Rise had the potential to be a really cool movie. It focuses on single mom Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan), and kids Danny, Bridget, and Kassie (Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher). 

Beth is a ne'er do well who has a history of ignoring her sister until she needs her. Well, upon discovering an unwanted pregnancy, Beth shows up at Ellie's door. But the sibling drama only starts to simmer before the kids discover an old-ass book bound in human skin and end up releasing untold horrors into their apartment. 

I'm not really an Evil Dead person (I still haven't seen the first two movies, which I know is blasphemy to admit as a horror lover) so I might not have followed the plot as well as an Evil Dead fan would, but basically if you read certain words out of the book, some kind of demon possesses someone, and they can pass that possession onto other people through bites and scratches and stuff. Look, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the movie! I'm sorry!

Chaos reigns, bodily fluids are flung far and wide, and a chainsaw comes into play by the end of the movie. But at that point I was mostly playing on my phone and not watching. I'm not sure why, but the film failed to hold my attention. That said, a lot of horror fanatics loved it, so if you like horror, don't let my opinion keep you from checking it out.

Grade: C+

Stuff I watched in...May, 2023

Yellowjackets, season 2

Showtime's Yellowjackets is one of the most addictive shows I've ever seen, with a cast of top-shelf actresses. 

The gritty show takes place on two timelines: in the mid-90s when a high school soccer team's plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and the survivors of the crash are forced to figure out how to survive in the unforgiving woods; and present-day when the now 40-something survivors must reckon with the trauma of their past and the evil presence that may or may not have followed them out of the woods. 

Yellowjackets teases a supernatural entity that drives the girls' behavior in the woods without fully revealing what's really going on. Yes, the show is a lot like Lost (or so I'm told, as I never watched Lost), but hopefully the writers have a clear answer to what is happening and won't fumble the conclusion (which I heard happened with Lost). While season 2 was great and led to a truly devastating finale episode, sadly we may not see season 3 for a while due to the Writer's Strike (totally worth it for Hollywood writers to be paid what they're worth). 

Also worth noting that the soundtrack for this show is ON POINT. Ranging from Tori Amos to Seal to Radiohead, the needle drops always manage to hit you right in the feels. 

Grade: A

***

Barry, season 4

When season 1 of Barry aired in 2018, I would have never guessed the dark turns it would take. Created by Bill Hader and Alec Berg, Barry is a dark comedy about a hitman who tries to turn his life around by taking an acting class in LA. Probably the first hint that this series is going for something very different is the season 2 episode "ronny/lily", which has a completely different feel to the rest of the series thus far. It signifies a break in Barry where he begins to backslide into the sociopathic tendencies that he suppressed since starting his acting career.

By the end of the series, the audience knows that Barry, and many other characters in the show, cannot be redeemed and the only thing we can hope for is a just ending. Understandably, some viewers were not into the direction Barry went in, and even I (lover of all things dark) was a bit taken aback since the sardonic humor was more what I was looking for. But I think Hader and Berg had a strong, uncompromising vision and they were able to carry that out, which is something very special.

Even in its darkest moments, Barry has some really good humor. And then acting...oh, the acting! *chef's kiss*. Overall, a deeply worthy and deeply disturbing show that pulls no punches and leaves a bittersweet taste in one's mouth.

Grade: A-

***

Missing

Directed by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson (in their directorial debuts), Missing is a spiritual sequel to 2018's very, very good Searching. Both films take place almost entirely on screens and they both involve, well, missing persons. In Missing, Storm Reid plays 18 year old June Allen, who lives with her single mom, Grace (Nia Long). When Grace and her newish boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung), go on a trip to Colombia, June looks forward to a weekend of very much not-sanctioned by Mom partying. But when she goes to the airport to pick up Grace and Kevin and they don't show up, June starts to worry.

The film becomes an edge-of-your-seat thriller with twists and turns galore. It leans in to the almost soap opera level of ridiculousness, which is really to the movie's benefit. This is not a realistic movie, but it's definitely a fun movie and it managed to keep me off *my* screens for the duration, which is saying something! Highly recommended for a fun, thrilling time.

Grade: B

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Love and Leashes

This South Korean romantic comedy about a man and woman who work together and develop a BDSM relationship held a lot of promise but sadly wasn't all that. Seohyun (yes, she goes by one name) plays Jung Ji-woo and Lee Jung-young plays Jung Ji-hoo (and yes, a lot of jokes are made about how similar their names are). They two work in the same office and when Ji-woo is accidentally sent a package meant for Ji-hoo and discovers a dog collar inside, it sets off a string of events leading to the experienced submissive Ji-hoo asking the inexperienced Ji-woo to be his Master.

Love and Leashes is a very cute movie, with no nudity and some very questionable BDSM practices. Namely, the two get up to naughtiness *in their office*, which made me really uncomfortable. Also, there are no scenes where Ji-hoo explicitly tells Ji-woo what he actually wants. She literally downloads a Master/slave contract from the Internet for them to fill out. Thank goodness none of the questionable behaviors were violent or involve consent being violated. They just involve ignorance and, frankly, foolish public play (which I guess leans into the "couple being quirky in public" trope that a lot of rom-coms have). 

I'll give Love and Leashes a B- because it tried. It really did. There are not a lot of portrayals of Femdom in movies and TV, especially this more gentle, less sexual version of Femdom, so I have to respect that. And I'm guessing there might be some cultural stuff going on here...I've heard that Korea is a little more prudish about non-normative sex in films (please correct me if I'm wrong about that), so perhaps that cultural disconnect is playing a role here. 

Grade: C+

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The Last Exorcism

A thoroughly mediocre found footage movie about a preacher, Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), who has been performing fake exorcisms for years and decides to come clean by having a documentary crew film him performing one last exorcism and then revealing all his secrets. Unfortunately, he made have picked someone actually possessed to perform this final exorcism on. 

The premise is actually pretty interesting, but the execution is just...regular ol' found footage. A lot of shaky cams and a teenage girl contorting herself into impossible positions. I think I just don't like found footage that much. I feel like these types of movies rest a little too much on the "inherent" scariness of found footage without also having compelling dialogue and good acting. If found footage is your thing, you might be into The Last Exorcism. Otherwise, feel free to skip this one.

Grade: C

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From Hell

I am currently reading Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's epic graphic novel From Hell, which is about Jack the Ripper, and I decided to re-watch the movie adaptation (which I have seen before, but it's been a long time). I knew it wasn't going to hold a candle to the book and I was right! The movie, which stars Johnny Depp as Frederick Abberline, who is investigating the Ripper murders, and Heather Graham as Mary Kelly, a sex worker whose friends are being picked off one by one, really couldn't portray the evilness that comes through clear as day in Moore's book. Instead, From Hell the movie is just a spooky semi-true historical drama (both the book and movie present a theory about Jack the Ripper that makes for great fiction but is almost certainly not what really happened).

So, if you want to watch the movie and read the book, watch the movie first so you'll be less disappointed. And if you're only going to do one of those things, then just read the book. It's miles better.

Grade: C+