“You are a nasty creature aren’t you? But in time I’ll beat it out of you.”
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“I'd confess for a sandwich."
"Confess what?"
"I don't know, depends on the sandwich."
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“You’re up to your beautiful hips in murder.”
Some good zingers and great casting. An intriguing, zany premise with a welcome appreciation for female friendship. Yet, some of the gendered relations hit a sour note. For all the on-paper pleasures to this film it just didn’t sing for…
“The working class has no fatherland” - Margaret
Quietude as chilling loneliness; the cruelty of bureaucracy and working in this thankless world only to be unceremoniously fired despite “15 years of devoted service”; the way a disconnected milieu can corrode the soul; cold, thin sunlight; failed suicide attempts even as you long for death; Billie Holiday crooning from a jukebox in a smoke filled bar of pockmarked faced men some of whom try to convince our lead that life is…
I get called pretentious a lot and you know what I am. I believe in gatekeeping too but that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally go for silly bullshit to watch that I can just vibe to from time to time. And this hits that sweet spot of intense melodrama involving terrible people that’s entertaining and yes, purely smooth brained. Wild ass ending. Men are trifling as hell. Thanks, Tubi!!
The Baroness:…While I was undressing?
The Robber: You were everything I anticipated.
What a romp! A fun, scintillating heist romantic comedy of the pre-code sort. There is so much weed smoking in this I was craving a joint, just a lil bit. I love how William Powell plays the Robber. All erudite, slippery, sweet, and cunning. I can’t lie I’m a sucker for the gentleman thief archetype. His conscious is “beautifully clear”. He’s a man, per his words, who lives…
“Being able to speak freely is the lifeblood of love” - Hana
What a warm, lovely, wild, emotionally profound film. God-tier Christmas/holiday season cinema. Satoshi Kon, the king that you were! I saw someone comment on another review about how the new version of the dub has a trans woman actor bringing Hana (my fave character!) to life. But what was most interesting was the note about the translated subtitles. In the copy I have the subtitles make it clear…
Diving deeper into the filmography of Johnnie To was one of the best creative decisions I made last year so I decided to keep that going. I found this film to be pretty fucking amazing. Tender, heart wrenching, honest. It’s so lovely watching grown ass people connect, fall in love, build communities. The Michael character is one of the most romantic, kind-hearted, giving and forgiving male characters I’ve seen in a while. The film he crafts for Sau at the…
Oh so tender and perceptive in both form and content. Rich with emotional detail. This really touched my spirit. Watching this also made me wonder how my own cats would narrativize my wild ass life.
I am thinking of the poetry born of red neon splashed against the dark of a city, the smell of a soon to be lover brought close to your nose as if to smell of them is to devour them in kind, the delicious tension in sidelong glances and fleeting touches with a person who realizes as you do that your attraction will be consummated (that café/corner store scene!), pushing a lover against a building entwining your hands in theirs…
I wrote an essay using the ending of Babygirl to discuss female abjection, the chilly cerebral nature of how the film explores wayward desire, the performances, and why I think this movie isn’t an erotic thriller so much as a half-formed women’s picture — if women fucked on-screen in that genre. It’s a well-crafted film that just didn’t excite me and leaves its most interesting concepts/ideas on the table. Excerpt below. Read the piece here, on Vulture.
“Babygirl is about…
When Miss Piggy says to Scrooge (Michael Caine in godtier acting mode) that she will “raise [him] right off the pavement” and beat his ass for always treating her man like shit? I felt that. The queen that you are Miss Piggy. Thank you for influencing my womanhood as much as Peg Bundy, Eartha Kitt, Diahann Carroll, and my intense mother. (If you know me IRL this mix of some of the women that left a deep impression on me…
Kinda cute but really didn’t hit for me as I hoped it would. Taken aback by the ending. The treatment of the black butler, Rufus, and a stray line about the Chinese eating dogs was so fucking racist it dampened my interest in the movie which was already waning pretty quickly. But the way tears glitter in Barbara Stanwyck’s eyes…that was beautiful.
A beautiful gown of careful craft that has no perspective or value on its own. We are truly in a sensuality starvation crisis in the arts. While I enjoyed The Witch I think Eggers, unfortunately, excels at aesthetic exercises with no soul and lacking a strong point of view, which Nosferatu cements for me. We have Bram Stoker’s Dracula at home, babes. I’ll stick to that.