Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 225

I Saw the TV Glow - 8/10, but I’ll probably like it better on a rewatch. I went in blind and I need to fully absorb it. I want a tv show of The Pink Opaque to be made pre-time skip. It seemed more like Twin Peaks than Buffy, which the director said was the inspiration.

 

Hazbin Hotel - 9/10
I binged all eight episodes with my wife in one sitting. I guess we went in blind cause we didn’t even know it was a musical. The songs and characters were well done and I can’t wait for a season two.

 

The Substance - 8/10 kinda dumb, but also incredibly entertaining.

 

Watching Branagh's version of Love's Labour's Lost and I don't blame anyone who isn't into it, but it may as well have been created in a lab for me. One of Shakespeare's silliest horny farces set in '30s Europe and done in the style of a Golden Age musical with Porter and Berlin songs. The humor is goofy and mugging in the best way. Nathan Lane as a vaudeville clown doing schtick. Timothy Spall with a ludicrous accent and silly mustache doing a Spanish-tinged "I Get a Kick Out of You" after a great ass turns him into a Tex Avery cartoon. Delightful.

 

I think Wild at Heart is my favorite lynch so far.

 

The Bikeriders (2024, Jeff Nichols)
It was fun hanging out with everyone doing the accent and wearing the jackets.


The Straight Story (1999, David Lynch)
The camera is still Lynch but Davids not here to expose the seedy underbelly, at some point you run out of time for that and you gotta go tell your bother you love them before you die. The only taste of darkness we get is from old stories long past, with everyone getting along and cooperating, the tension in this beautiful world is that one day you will have to leave it and only the when and where you'll be is up for discussion.
The ending with Harry Dean Stanton felt like a nod to another great American road trip Paris Texas.

 

Watching this now. Super cozy. It’s weird that I am nostalgic now for 2010 youtube videos. Maybe I’ll talk my wife into taking a ride to Lambertville this weekend

edit:

Looks like Dolores is still at it!

 

I...kinda really liked Megalopolis. It's so much movie. Like if Baz Luhrman made Angels in America stuffed full of classic cinema references and silent movie tricks and with a hard-on for Art Deco. But dial all of that up to 11. The work of an artistic madman and I found myself smiling right through it.

 

I financially cannot keep up with Megalopolis and Saturday Night and every other movie coming out in the next three months that I'd like to see.

I'll write a review soon, but Strange Darling is a wild fucking ride.

 

Thank god for the AMC subscription. Especially this time of year

 

Transformers One (2024, Josh Cooley)

Just fun. Age 34 me had a good time, and my 10-year old nephew had a better time. Cool fights, cool animation, cool everything.

 

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)
Im with George. Car culture is ruiness, dont dream of labour or building capital, and stop trying to bang my mum you queer duck.


Trap (2024, M. Night Shyamalan)
Bring your daughter to work day the movie. M night plucks us from the audience, takes us by the hand, leads us up the stage and says “the best thing that could happen to you is to meet my daughter”. M Night crafts a lovely sentiment in a clever way, doing nepotism out in the open without coming off as snide and overly selfware. Its reflected in the text where the dad's primarly goal is to dodge a murder rap but also giving his daughter a special night. M Night in the back of the van leaves us smirking knowing he got away with making this movie.

The movie is at its best while it stays in the concert. The tension rides on him staying hidden looking for escapes while balancing being a concert dad, which works better than the mastermind super criminal arch outside. The concert itself is banging, best set of rip off soundtrack songs i've heard, the FM synth plonk in Like a G6 goes harder than the original, i've had dark horse and Cudi in my head and just been in a 2010s club vibe all day.

Theres so many fun and cool moments, many of them don't make literal sense but the choices create a world where you suspect youre trapped in a dream but can't quite prove it.
Everytime time the enemy mum is on screen is glorious. The cuts to her in the crowd with her daughter screaming “DONT TELL ME HOW TO BREATH” and another cut with her response “YOU BEAST”. The way M Night cuts and frames the scene where shes talking to Cooper while the police smash some guy. The mum is framed off centre so you can see the action behind her and the cut back to copper is dead center and very close with a slight angle, but when the action is over and we cut back to the mum he keeps the angle and its effect together with the performance really come together to amplify the scene.
Cudi's (The Thinker LOL) fig kombucha bitch! line and then yelling at his assistant to “KNOCK HARDER” at a door he's standing next to.

The one part that annoyed me was the singers handcuff limo escape, as I said there were plenty of choices in the movie that didn't make literal sense but often added tension to a scene or contributed to the vibe, this one felt lazy and was uninteresting and an unsatisfying resolution to the scene and the singers' arc in the movie.

The best twist is when after the bizarre car role play scene the garage door lifts and the family is just standing in the driveway. We are mentally prepared to start the car prisoner sequence with copper in the driver's seat, instead we get a jump scare subversion, Copper’s monster is being exposed to his family, caught off guard, not in control, in broad daylight and having that confrontation forced upon him in full view of the neighborhood.

 

The tacked on happy ending to Ambersons is the greatest crime against cinema.

 

I still dream they'll find the footage like Metropolis, but if they haven't by now...

 

Excellent write-up on Trap @Long Century

 

Hazbin Hotel - 9.5/10
8 animated episodes on Prime. I went into this blind and was blown away. I didn’t even know this was a musical until the first musical number started. All the songs were great. The characters are all demons in Hell, but the show did a good job of making them feel human. It’s animated, but the most adult cartoon I can think of…they are in Hell after all. It’s an interesting premise: the daughter of Satan and Lilith opens a hotel to rehabilitate demons to get them into Heaven. Good characters, songs, animation, voice acting…damn, I hope we get another season.

 

Bodies Bodies Bodies - 7.5/10

 

The Wild Robot is incredible. I teared up more than once. So beautiful, too.

 

Very good movie

 

Sorry, bear with me, I have so many to log lol

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master - 5.5/10
Fun, predictable, junk food. What might be a sweet spot for some fans of this franchise is also the moment it stops really taking risks, at least until Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Even the characters leftover from the very special third film stand out less here, and the writing is about what you'd expect (and maybe even want): Freddy saying "bitch" a lot and being given even more chances to goof kids to death. Renny Harlin is on autopilot, but the roach motel sequence is a disgusting franchise highlight thanks to Screaming Mad George. Killer soundtrack.

Fear of a Black Hat - 8.5/10

Killer Klowns From Outer Space - 8.5/10

Repo Man - 8.5/10

Strange Darling - 9/10
Tarantino, eat your heart out. A post-MeToo puree of Kill Bill and Death Proof presented as a non-linear, yet simple thriller revolving around two stellar performances from Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. There's a good chance you might call the twist from the film's opening crawl, but the execution is stylish and devilishly told that even the most unbelievable moments are likely to whiz past you like bullets. One of the best looking films of the year and easily one of the best thrillers of the year. Just a total blast.

V/H/S/Beyond - 7.5/10
Lowkey one of the most consistent and fun horror franchises running right now. The decision to focus on sci-fi horror this time around is a bold one that mostly pays off. If anything here feels a little corny, it is almost immediately covered up by how self-aware it is, how much fun it's having, and sick it all looks coming to life on-screen. There are some digital effects in one segment in particular that feel pretty distracting, but you're liable to forget about them by the time you reach Justin Long's Tusk-adjacent short, which is somehow the queasiest and the least belonging here. The mockumentary wraparound featuring real media personalities feels particularly inspired. You already know if this is for you or not.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person - 7.5/10
A cute, unique, and mostly well-written story about an ethical vampire seeking to improve a suicidal person's last night on Earth. We've seen pieces of this premise before, and while it can occasionally feel YA-adjacent, the film is admirable for wearing its heart on its sleeve, with the ending landing a particularly well-earned emotional moment. Not typically my favorite kind of horror, but a nice change in pace for those who don't want their Halloween season filled with doom and gloom.

Eight Eyes - 7/10
A stylish, bonkers, and surprisingly restrained pastiche of Hostel and House of 1000 Corpses, or perhaps a Euro-centric take on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Eight Eyes wears its influences proudly, and even if there are moments that you wish it took its batshit crazy premise a bit further, the film gets by on sheer ingenuity and DIY charm. Bradford Thomas steals the screen. Looking forward to revisiting this one with friends in the future.

Adam Sandler: Love You - 8/10
We are so lucky to have the Sandman doing stand-up right now, even if he refuses to keep Rob Schneider away from his specials. Effortlessly charming and funny. The sincere song about comedy at the end feels a bit like a fumbled attempt to recapture the love from his song for Farley in 100% Fresh, but even then, the guy has earned his keep and I'm happy to listen to him play his guitar and do his silly voices on stage anytime. Having a Safdie direct this and insert that level of tension and chaos into a comedy special is an inspired choice. I haven't seen a lot of comedy this year, but from what I have seen, only Conor's special tops this.

The Substance - 10/10

Spookies - 8.5/10

The Birds - 7.5/10
I remember this film scaring me at a young age, and it's not hard to understand why on rewatch. One surprisingly graphic shot of the aftermath of a man's eyes having been pecked form their sockets still feels particularly shocking. Years later, if this film needs anything, I think it's an editor. The first 45+ minutes of exposition are actually very well-written and charming in the way you would expect from Hitchock. Similarly, the birds' attacks growing in severity and consistency is effectively frightening, especially the sequence in which hundreds of them pour in through the fireplace. But there is some connective tissue and dialogue that really seems to make the film sag in the middle. Hitchcock was not someone who went for cheap scares from his audience; he was an innovator, but The Birds' pacing leaves you almost wondering if he was too afraid to deliver something a little more conventional to his audiences. Regardless, and as abrupt as the ending may feel, the decision to end the film in chaos and without answers is a striking one. Is it satisfying? Your mileage may vary, but it certainly feels effective, even today.

 

Also ran everything I've seen from the decade and logged between a 4.5 and 5 on Letterboxd to come up with a Top 10 Films of the Decade So Far:

1. NOPE
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. I Saw the TV Glow
4. Skinamarink
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Zone of Interest
7. Dune (Part One)
8. The Substance
9. Pearl
10. Bodies Bodies Bodies

 

I'm liberal with my ratings but, in some order (aside from the top 2, I think)

NOPE
Killers of The Flower Moon
Dune Pt 1
Dune Pt 2
Pig
Belfast
The Mitchell's vs The Machines
The Iron Claw
Godzilla Minus One
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

 

Strange Darling is good! The haters are wrong.

 

I need to rewatch KotFM, good chance that makes the cut. I should rewatch Pig, too.

 

I think you mean you need to rewatch Godzilla: King of the Fucking Monsters