‎‘Longlegs’ review by Aubra

Longlegs 2024

★★★★

Watched 23 Aug 2024

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This review may contain spoilers.

With The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House, Osgood Perkins established that he’s a master of crafting atmosphere and freakiness. Longlegs shows that he can develop and pace a compelling plot as well.

This film had the quiet sinisterness of his others, but the story took an equal role in things. I actually would have loved for this to have been even longer, so we could have seen the narrative and dialogue punched up even more. Would have welcomed even more scenes to punctuate the characters’ backstories.

Loved all of the imagery and surprises here. I actually enjoyed the supernatural element, and to see Oz back on his Devil shit. Great performances. A spooky good time. Nic Cage’s character was terrifying.

Spoilers below:

My one complaint is sort of what people gripe about in YA properties - “chosen one” syndrome. If our protagonist is going to be the reason for everything happening, I’d like more attention paid to how she got there and how we meet her. Why and how did she become an FBI agent? When did the psychic stuff start? How did she end up on the case? I’d like things to feel like an interesting coincidence, because then the surprise hits harder and feels believable. As it stands, it sort of felt like those things happened because they were convenient to the film, not because they made sense in the development of the character. For me, addressing this would have made things even stronger. I understand that she forgot a lot of stuff and had a mystic connection to Longlegs due to the past, but from an audience perspective, I still want to understand all of the moving parts better. Lee did not strike me as the type who would pursue or be selected for a career in the FBI, so I needed the story to convince me the character belonged where she was, for example.

(This concludes my mini “spiders in the movie’s title” marathon!).

Aubra_ liked these reviews

All

' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_a7b48aad-86db-4937-9af7-0d97de61baf3" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-a7b48aad-86db-4937-9af7-0d97de61baf3'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div -tile300x250 -alignleft -bottommargin'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'med_rect_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-a7b48aad-86db-4937-9af7-0d97de61baf3'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-a7b48aad-86db-4937-9af7-0d97de61baf3'));

' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_083b1953-07df-4ac8-914e-d08cf01a2084" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-083b1953-07df-4ac8-914e-d08cf01a2084'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-083b1953-07df-4ac8-914e-d08cf01a2084'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-083b1953-07df-4ac8-914e-d08cf01a2084'));

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Review by Aubra_ Patron

Longlegs 2024

Aubra_’s review published on Letterboxd:

Aubra_ liked these reviews