Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 183

Need to rewatch personal shopper, I remember liking it but not loving it.

 

I love it and most Assayas I’ve seen

 

def gonna give this a go i too havent watched the anime since i was a kid but ive played some of the newer games and still play pokemon go every few days

 

Fight Club - 9/10 think I've underrated this one for a long time to fit in with film Twitter's general opinion that it's a fault of the film that some chuds wanna be Tyler Durden, every bit of project mayhem feels like childish dreams of a nihilistic middle schooler, and it has SOOO much fun after the reveal

 

The Red Turtle - 9.5/10

absolutely stunning animation

 

X2 - 8/10
Yeah, pleased to report that was my favorite growing up for a reason and remains about as good as I remembered it being. Starts by reiterating a lot of the same themes and plot points as the first film, but quickly develops into something deeper and somewhat complex for a superhero film, especially at the time. Characters continue to be more nuanced than you'd expect, but this is a film that gets really dark -- Stryker's abandonment and manipulation of his son is the stuff of pure horror to me, and even on a surface-level, a lot of the film's third-act conflicts take place in a grimy underground lair fit for a Saw movie.

Earlier in the film, when Iceman "comes out" to his parents, his mom naively asks, "Have you tried...not being a mutant?" It was a very funny line when I was 10 or so, but takes on a much darker tone when you grow up and see the (very obvious) metaphor being presented. That entire sequence at Bobby's parents' house is one of my favorites in a superhero film ever. For all of it's very dark moments and themes, the film manages to remain true to its characters' mission by being underlined with hope. It's a little long in the tooth and suffers from having at least three different ending scenes, but even as I look forward at revisiting the rest of these films, it's hard for me to imagine another one being more quintessential than this.

Rottentail - 6.5/10
Obnoxious and patently insane in equal measure, consistently waffling between genuinely funny and so-bad-it's-good. The whole thing is very Troma-coded with a heap of Grindhouse influence by way of Full Moon Features' cheapness. This will absolutely not be for everyone, but for a very specific kind of horror fan, it's a real blast. Watched on Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In.

The New York Ripper - 8.5/10
Finally got to this one, a classic of sorts that has been on my list for quite some time and seemingly inspired Ti West's upcoming Maxxxine. What an absolutely brutal giallo-slasher-detective drama combo. It features the same Italian-to-English dialogue silliness to be expected with most giallos, and a lot of the detectives' subplot (and ultimate reveal) feel somewhat nonsensical, but it's hard to pull yourself away from such a frightening, well-directed, and downright gruesome murder mystery. Your mileage may vary with some of the gender and sexuality politics featured her, but taking the right amount of sleaze into account, it mostly comes together as a really special experience. (The killer doing a literal Donald Duck impression throughout the film is just the cherry on top.)

 

Tokyo Godfathers - 9/10.
My second Satoshi Kon film. I went into this blind and was pleasantly surprised. I might have a new favorite Christmas movie.

 

Imo his worst which is saying something because it's still so damn good

 

I liked Paprika a lot more. I’m marathoning all of them.

 

The Skeleton Twins - 7.5/10
It feels a little transparent as a "let's put two comedians in a dark, capital-F 'Film" kind of project, but it holds up shockingly well, Bill Hader's gay mannerisms be damned. It's the kind of film where you're willing to overlook occasional jumps in logic just to experience the story unfolding in front of you, one that is emotional, relatable, and occasionally very funny. The film borders on great any time Wiig and Hader are given the chance to improvise and make each other laugh as siblings; their chemistry is undeniable. Luke Wilson playing the straightest man on Earth is also hilarious and extremely inspired casting. It doesn't have the lightest touch in the world, and the main-character syndrome on display can be frustrating, but it's just a joy seeing such a likable cast do something different and act circles around a pretty good script.

Sorority Slaughter 2 - 6.5/10
Surprise! If you read my review of Sorority Slaughter (or are at all familiar with W.A.V.E. Productions), you will not be shocked to learn that this is more of the same, which could or could not be a good thing based on your tolerance for hyper-sleazy shot-on-video fetish(?) horror. Another one from Whitson that fails to reach the heights of Psycho Sisters, but Sorority Slaughter 2 is marginally better than its predecessor if only for putting a little more focus on the "slaughter" part of its title, as well as having a little bit more of a discernible plot. Tina Krause and co. are great in this, but be forewarned there's still about an hour of sorority paddling and nudity before the film goes anywhere. (It's still more charming than I'm making it sound, which I'm realizing in turn makes me sound like a real freak.)

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne - 7.5/10
This feels pretty unique for the time, if slightly unsubstantial. It's similar to Patrick Brice's Creep, but darker given the "method" performance from director/star/editor Adrian Tofei. From everything I've read, the production was completely on the up-and-up with co-stars having language switches anytime they needed to speak out of character, but in essence, you're watching one man's vision of someone with an Anne Hathaway obsession creating faux-snuff films (with his real-life mother, no less) in order to impress her, which on its own is very unsettling. Points for being more psychological (most violence takes place off-screen) and having an interesting, albeit ambiguous, ending. I'm not quite as sold on this being as revolutionary as some reviews have made it out to be, but the sheer commitment being showcased across the production and in its performances are undoubtedly impressive, and that makes this worth a watch for horror fans alone.

Imaginary - 3.5/10
I really, really wanted to give this a fair shot, because the effects shots I was seeing seemed genuinely cool (they are) and the reviews felt a little stilted towards what was probably a fine, albeit generic, teen horror film dumped in the beginning of the year. (After all, M3GAN arrived in January, and that was plenty of fun.)

Imaginary is a collection of largely interesting ideas in a script that feels messy at best and shockingly inept at worst. Why did they cast such a young-looking actor as the father of a 15-year-old? Why did they make him a touring musician that leaves a third of the way into the film and never comes back? Why is Betty Buckley delivering exposition dumps that feel like part of an I Think You Should Leave sketch every time she's on screen? Why is the child actor literally outperforming everyone on screen who isn't DeWanda Wise?

This is the rare case of a low-stakes horror film that should be a slam dunk being seemingly mishandled on nearly every level, from scripting and dialogue to all the way to casting, editing, and performance choices. It's not bad enough to really be fun -- and as I said, the final set piece and its practical effects creatures feel pulled from a MUCH better version of this film -- but it's also not good enough to even be just okay. Imaginary is a really unfortunate failure that has already outperformed much better films (such as Lisa Frankenstein) this year, and while it's hard for me to complain about non-IP stories hitting the big screen, it leads to a bigger question about the quality of the films Blumhouse has been delivering to horror fans ever since The Exorcist: Believer (or maybe even Insidious: The Red Door).

 

I've had Skeleton Twins on DVD for a while now and haven't gotten to it

 

It's good! Very dark. But definitely a feelings dramady with a really great cast.

 

Ghostbusters (1984) - First time watching, never saw it as a kid. It was fine, Sigourney Weaver blows everyone else out.

The Eternal Daughter (2022) - Also fine, may of just been in blasé mood this week. The themes were fun, mixing in ghost stories with mother daughter idenity issues, coming to terms with the reality of an idealised past. Most of the scenes are Tilda vs Tilda and I found them flat and generally unengaging, occasially the receptionist would pop in to breath some life.

 

Ghostbusters has always ever only been fine

 

Yes that is the kind of confidence my reviews should have

 

Night Swim - 7/10

I'm somewhat baffled at the overwhelmingly negative reception to this, not because it's a particualrly good movie but because it has a lot of parts that work as opposed to, say, Blumhouse's Imaginary, which attempts to make up for its mess with a single third-act set piece and some practical creature effects. Night Swim has a great (and honestly somewhat unique) premise comparable to Death Bed, but played almost completely seriously, with an alright script and a really great cast. It's well-shot, too. The film's reach definitely exceeds its grasp a bit -- there's some connective tissue missing with occasionally goofy dialogue or a weird line read, and one of the digital pool ghouls in particular looks pretty bad -- but even if this one isn't bound for any end of the year lists or set to scare anyone under the age of 15, it's sufficiently creepy and very watchable.

 

Stopmotion - 6/10

I fell asleep so many times while watching this, if you’re wondering how entertaining it was.

 

Boooo

 

I mean I’ll give it another shot but it continuously put me to sleep. I don’t really know what you’d like me to say about that but I liked a good majority of it, it just drags a whole lot in spots. I intend to watch it again tho to see if maybe I was just too tired to be watching it

 

A Face in the Crowd - 9/10
The comparison everyone draws here is to 1976's Network, but because I have yet to see that, the whole thing felt like an unhinged update of sorts to Citizen Kane. The script is episodic in the best way, paced relatively briskly for a two-hour film so we can really sit with Lonesome Rhode's rise and fall. There's some masterful stuff happening here; Andy Griffith's performance as Rhodes is simultaneously charming and deranged, just as his character is. His final scene as he attempts to gives one more speech to an audience of no one with only a crony running canned laughter and applause for him would be hilarious if it didn't feel so damn haunting. Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau also give great performances here.

Of course, just as with Citizen Kane, it's difficult to watch this film today and not make some connections to That President - you know the one. (It's also frustrating to feel the need to repeat what everyone else has already said, but I digress.) The only thing I have to add is. that we've finally surpassed this morality tale where one man can be brought down by disrespecting the people that got him there in the first place. If That President were to do the same thing, his fandom would no doubt find reasons to justify if not outright celebrate it. I said it about Kane, and I'll say it again here: films about corruption tend to age very, very well.

 

Did you see/have thoughts on Censor? Because this felt like a body horror version of Censor to me, complete with nightmare logic or whatever you want to call it. It really grossed me out.

 

loved Censor

 

Yeah, I would give this one another go then. Not saying it's user error or anything, I can definitely understand your thoughts (especially considering how quick Censor is), but I feel like this might do more for you in the right headspace. Apologies in advance if I'm incorrect.

 

we shall see

 

A Face in the Crowd rules