The order he chose to present the events in pretty much ruined what would’ve been a solid movie.
6 August 2018: Trilogy of Terror
I like Karen Black as much as the next guy, but this has not aged well. The first segment especially. Very rapey. Two things keep it from getting a one star rating: 1) it’s an hour & ten minutes long & 2) you can’t not love that doll.
4 August 2018: Tragedy Girls
Took about 20 mins for it to win me over, since horror comedies are decidedly not my thing. Turned out to be a worthy successor to Heathers & Scream, with pretty much the same problem as both those movies - a messy story. Everything else works great, especially the editing & the performances from the leads.
4 August 2018: Three Identical Strangers
I feel like it might be better if the results of the study were published & analyzed. That way at least something might be learned, & some good night come out of it. Is that the worst idea ever?
28 July 2018: Eighth Grade
Perfectly captures all the awkward highs & lows of being that age. It took me back to middle school so hard I could practically smell the flop sweat & gross cologne. It took me back so hard I had three new pimples when I walked out of the theater. Also, the character of Gabe is incredibly precious & needs his own movie.
23 July 2018: The Blood on Satan's Claw
The Wicker Man it ain’t. Score is nice, & there’s a bit of humor that works, but the plot is all over the map. Some storylines are arbitrarily dropped (wtf happened to the aunt?!) & there doesn’t seem to be much internal logic.
22 July 2018: Blood Simple
Finally got around to the Criterion version I’d gotten for Xmas. Looks & sounds gorgeous. Tough to think of any American filmmakers who’ve made better twisty turny crime stories. I love that our two “heroes” here have close to no idea wtf is going on. Classic Coens.
21 July 2018: Shivers
Even with no Debbie Harry, it was still better than Videodrome.
18 July 2018: Revenge
Whew, that was a lot of blood. More thoughtful than the average rape revenge thriller, but every bit as lurid. A few extra implausible scenes made me go a bit Comic Book Guy, but it didn’t quite veer completely out of the realm of logic & into Hush territory.
15 July 2018: Leave No Trace
I was a little bit let down, & not just because a lady behind us was making strange noises throughout. This had a lot of the same things that made Winter’s Bone great, so it’s tough to say what was lacking. Maybe a better understanding of what Ben Foster’s character was struggling with would’ve helped. I can see not wanting to get too into that, since the movie is from the daughter’s perspective & she doesn’t understand his motives. But I was so frustrated for the poor girl that I had a hard time focusing on anything else. Her performance was absolutely the highlight of the film, btw.
14 July 2018: Ganja & Hess
An interesting mix of a lot of genres that somehow manages to pull most of them off. The creepy stuff works, the surreal imagery works (especially in the dream sequences) & the romance works. Even the extended church sequences work! It’s a bit self-indulgent & could stand to be a little shorter, but I’m glad I finally got to check it out. Must also mention the great, trippy sound design & how neat it was to see Duane Jones in something else.
7 July 2018: Whitney
Poor Whitney 😢
4 July 2018: Midnight Special
Pretty disappointing after Take Shelter. It felt weird structurally. I usually like to be plopped into a story already in progress, but there didn’t seem to be any reason behind doing that here.
30 June 2018: Won't You Be My Neighbor?
I didn’t learn much, but I sure did cry. If you’ve read a couple magazine profiles on him & watched his testimony during the defunding hearing, etc., you won’t find anything new here. But I didn’t mind celebrating the guy for an hour & a half.
28 June 2018: The Interior
It’s brave to completely change the tone of your movie partway in, but it usually doesn’t work. This had way too short a run time to feel like such a slog. There were a few moments that felt absolutely terrifying here, but not enough to redeem the whole.