A friend of mine who works for Innersloth (Among Us - yes, that one) is sending a bunch of my original musical compositions to the developers next week to see if they'll find these little tunes I've made appropriate for any of their upcoming projects.
Wish. Me. Luck. 😁🤞☯️
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Hope that dickhead choked on his fucking lamb
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Adolescence is a show that plays with storytelling conventions in a spectacular way. It lays all of its cards on the table very early on, plain for all to see. The magic comes from the fact we don't believe those are the cards we saw. We're so conditioned by the storytelling tropes of fiction at large that we believe there'll be incredible twists that alleviate the peril, and the show capitalises on this by leaving us little breadcrumbs, stabbings of hope that these characters will turn out to be pawns in some unbelievable conspiracy that will unravel by episode 4. But above all things, the show is interested in holding a mirror to reality, and that's rarely how real life works. Our addiction and engagement comes from our own dread that we might find out how simple this mystery really is.
It's tough to narrow down a primary theme in a series that asks so many difficult questions. We touch on the cyclical violence, toxic masculinity, grief, good and bad parenthood, the surveillance of children, the responsibility of educators, accountability. We observe the proceedings from a deliberately detached, clinical perspective, with no room for narrative trickery. Every character is rich, nuanced, flawed and expertly portrayed (Stephen Graham delivers the twitchiest close-up this side of Pearl). The show never gives the impression that it wants to tell you how to think. Therefore the only solutions we can expect to find in these very real societal issues can exist only in ourselves.
'No regrets' is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot. I've never believed in it. How can you grow as a person if you believe you've never made a mistake?
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Bob = Albert
Leon = Leland
RoboCoop?
I've given the Academy my fair share of shit over the years for their decision making process and values, but they may never have been more right than when they handed a statuette to ten-year-old Tatum O'Neal for her first ever performance on screen. This may be the best performance by a child actor I've ever seen, rivalled only perhaps by Brooklynn Prince in The Florida Project; she has all the attitude, charisma, control and nuance of Martin Sheen in his prime and she was tugging at my heartstrings from her first moment onscreen.
Sometimes a film will come along and make you question every decision you've made as a critic in recent times. I genuinely want to go back and drop almost everything I've watched in the past month a half star because it didn't grab me as immediately and forcefully as Paper Moon. Not since the days of Better Call Saul have I been as engaged by or in favour of the shenanigans of the dishonest man. That's the strength of the bond between Addie and Moze; even though you know they fuck over dozens of innocent people per day, you still want to see them succeed. They bounce perfectly off each other like a perpetual pinball machine and it makes for completely electric cinema.
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Took a swift recommendation from Carrie Coon this afternoon, courtesy of her comb through the Criterion Closet. You were absolutely right, the narration is masterful! One of my big eye-rolling gripes in film is narration, or more specifically purposeless narration, lazy narration. The Cremator sets itself apart from the getgo by making you question whether what you're hearing even is narration; Kopfrkingl is the type of eccentric to repeatedly bellow his misguided philosophies to everyone who'll listen, in the same mantra-esque way he'll recite them in his head.
But the trickery doesn't stop there. The whole thing is given an even more deranged level of 'oof' with the placement of the camera. Far too often characters look and talk directly into the lens, piercing right our souls and making accomplices of us. Herz wants us to really feel like part of that same crowd that were slowly but surely psychologically changed. A little ideological reinforcement here and a little promise of fulfilment there go a long way.
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There's only so many times I can review this and say the same thing, so I thought instead I'd share my Robbie Williams playlist that I made after seeing the movie. Two and a half hours of absolute CHOONS. You're welcome.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/18YZjYO4JBOhCjJoapNMvP?si=VVgf6f7oQDajibAKUnxucw&pi=ZfOOTDbRQKOgi
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I can't fucking deal, man, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080p HD Bruxelles
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This review may contain spoilers.
my partner was really not pleased to be awoken by the sound of an intellectual French silver fox railing his dead wife's sister this morning
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Sincerely a powerhouse contender in the already harshly competitive race for the stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen.
Akin to a modern take on Funny Games, only it's directed through Discord by four ten-year-olds who've never met in person, and they torture the viewer instead of the family. And that's probably exactly what Harmony Korine intended. Man's cooked.
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Nathan Fielder, Matt Johnson. Both Canadian. Both determined to make my skull literally split in two through the quest of the distinction of their work between fiction and non-fiction. Have you Canucks just developed some sort of reality hyperawareness from sitting too close to the USA, seeing what can happen if you don't care enough? Either way, I'm on board. These guys do to real human beings what Charlie Kaufman does to fictional depressed dudes.
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The bizarre reality of the abstract emotion of death, as distorted through the eyes of the aroused adolescent. Maybe the saddest GUNS!!! BEWBS!!! 'SPLOSIONS!!! 70's horror movie there ever was, and certainly the one with the greatest sense of style. The mausoleum setting almost a reverse Twin Peaks red room, and over a decade earlier! When you consider the individual elements it almost seems too ridiculous to work for more than ten minutes, but it's got this transfixing, quicksand atmosphere to it...
Si handed me five blu-ray discs of all the sequels on my way out of his flat, so expect writing on those too. Apparently they're wild.
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Irrefutably the most Lynchian thing in cinema that the man himself had nothing to do with. It successfully simulates what hypnotism might feel like by making you view the proceedings from a distant, floating place; a powerless bystander caught dead in the headlights by the terror of the inexplicable. I've never, ever seen a film that knows how to use space in a more effective way, and the way certain rooms are lit often feels ripped straight from an episode of sleep paralysis. Cure claws at your soul and pulls you in deeper as you find yourself mesmerised by the dripping water and the flickering flame; a haunting reminder that these things may not be as far-fetched as they seem.
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Every so often, Simon would just look over at me with this perfect expression of alarm and disbelief; only for him to find me struggling to breathe, as if I'd been flung out of a spaceship airlock. Some movies really are out of this world.
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This review may contain spoilers.
A great fucking family movie.
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It's like the film version of getting into a car on Grand Theft Auto and then handing the controller to an infant. Sweet, unpredictable, hilarious violence.
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that was just Bong's 2 hour and 17 minute way of telling us he stands with Luigi Mangione
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oh, ya. kinda funny-lookin'.
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genuine Godfather 2 scale upgrade with this one, even the mice can see that
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This is incredible, now Movie House is the first house in history to have two different unrelated motion pictures filmed inside! Leave it to New and Gregg to break new cinematic ground with every single project. The People Under the Stairs house just doubled in value, and nothing can take that away.
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Poor Joe Estevez, man. C'mere, gimme a hug
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call me crazy, i don't think these lads really did a lot of this stuff
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I'm a little bit sad. I held off for a good few months to finish this weirdo trilogy proper, and now I'm all out of Fool. Where do I get my Fool fix now?? I miss my ensemble. I'm scrambling to find these actors' work in other things, watching Venture Bros, White Lotus, Difficult People... How come Thomas Jay Ryan never got another longstanding character to sink his teeth into? Give him a TV show where he's a disgraced art critic or something, I need him to spout more pretentious dialogue and be all around morally objectionable.
Ned Rifle doesn't take the same kind of risks Fay Grim did, rather walking the tone back a little bit to match Henry Fool's understated freak. Make no mistake though, it's no less engaging; there are surprises here, twists and turns that'll make you giggle and spit. It's a film that has a lot of empathy and support for its titular main character, embodying that Luke Skywalker archetype, untainted by evil even in spite of the sins of the father. He almost comes off like a God-fearing Dale Cooper at times; a source of bravery, goodness and grounded wisdom in a world of freaks and liars.
Aubrey Plaza fits into Hal Hartley's bizarre universe like a jammy dodger into a cup of tea, that is seamlessly and deliciously. It's a celebration of the deadpan and the dead crazy after all, and who embodies both qualities better? She and Liam Aiken have the perfect dynamic as these polar opposite characters with the same goal, almost like Frodo and Gollum on the same treacherous quest for the ring. Though a new addition to this franchise of crazies, she turns out to be one of the most important to the entire series narrative; bravo Hartley.
It's a satisfying conclusion to the world of these characters, and I'm sure I'll rewatch it and grow to love it as I have its predecessors. This world has a magnetic quality to it; I hope with this triptych of reviews that I've convinced you to lend an eye. There hasn't been a more discourse-provoking trilogy since Kieślowski's own Trois couleurs. Go, get the word out!
Run.
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Here's a fun fact about Fay Grim: every single shot in the final cut of the film was captured from a Dutch angle, except for two. And the only reason those two weren't was because Hal and his crew forgot to tilt the camera.
What is Fay Grim? What the fuck is Fay Grim? I feel uncomfortable even typing the question, as if even attempting to answer it will trigger a squad of snipers to zero into my location and prevent me from hitting send on this review. I once said Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was the greatest sequel ever made purely because of the vastly different direction the film took from its predecessor, rehashing nothing and playing with expectations like marbles. But lo and behold, here comes Fay Grim to make me eat my words. Bogus Journey didn't have the gall to make us completely rethink everything we knew about the very grounded world of the previous film. We're completely jumping genres from indie comedy drama to fucking spy comedy thriller. Has that ever happened before? Since?
The new revelations we learn about our beloved HFCU characters hit you like a Lynchian mind-screw. Almost every line of dialogue is exposition, and all are read in Hartley's familiar flat monotone. The more audacious the statement that comes out of Jeff Goldblum's mouth, the harder my sides split. Imagine The Dead Don't Die if it wasn't about zombies, but was instead a low-key 007 parody. Parker Posey is completely magnetic in a performance that comes off borderline alien. She never closes her mouth and feels like she's in a completely different world to every character around her, which makes her the perfect protagonist for this film. Fair warning, the film is convoluted as shit and you WILL get lost. It took me four attempts after spending most of the first three busy laughing over the sound of crucial dialogue.
I don't know how else to sell this without completely ruining it, so I'll just say this: you've never seen a film like Fay Grim. I'll put money on that. An honest man is always in trouble indeed.
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Have you ever loved a film so much that you can't even wax lyrical about it? You want to, but it's like fourteen people trying to escape through a small door simultaneously, all sticking together within the frame like some Society abomination, each mouth screaming joyfully and incoherently about a different aspect of the film it found exciting.
I saw Henry Fool for the first time last Summer, and I've watched it five or six times since. Through this overabundance, no charm has dissipated, no boredom elicited, no love lost whatsoever. I've only become engrossed deeper and deeper in these incredibly rich and unique characters and the bizarre, disgraceful circumstances that brought them together and bind them. I feel more in tune with the empathy and understanding for the eccentric outsider, flawed they may be. And I just laugh harder and harder. This is a film that I find endlessly philosophically intriguing, but also contains my favourite diarrhea scene in the history of cinema. You can't tell me all bases aren't covered!
It's simultaneously cosy and provocative, and it inspired me to write poetry without fear of judgement, just like Simon Grim. Everyone deserves to have their voice heard.
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Jagger made another film, he did! A delightful wicker basket of secondhand joy that made me yearn for the days of my youth; the days where my friends and I would cause moral panic by recreating scenes from the Saw franchise and taking pictures. And then showing them to people. And telling them it was real.
Is the editing a little clunky? Of course it is. Does it employ some questionable, distracting needle drops? Maybe. But the sense of invention and whimsy here outweighs those things. Jag clearly knows his way around a camera, most of these shots look really fantastic from a technical perspective and there's a sense of invention to be found within the staging of the performers - I'm drawn especially to that Ti West-esque title sequence. And one cannot overlook the comedic talent on display here, not only in the timing of the action, but the quality of the writing. These characters with their bizarre, skewed priorities feel pulled straight from a Jarmusch film, and it made for unpredictable viewing; in today's cookie-cutter landscape, that's about all you can ask for.
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why do these freaks call him the baby jesus, he's not been a baby for ages
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I, for one, welcome our new Cyberwoman overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Letterboxd personality, I can be helpful in rounding up other dipshit entitled men who need their just desserts.
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06:38
08:05
23:04
33:42
51:51
01:08:23
01:14:17
01:17:32
01:22:40
01:27:35
Oh, don't mind me. Just noting down every time this claymation coming of age film made me rub tears out of my eyes.
I love you Rabbitface 🖤
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"It's like if Pink Flamingos and Cremaster had a baby and the baby was a fucking idiot."
-Geo
Thank you for making me watch this Oren. You fucking psychopath.
It's the kinda movie that'll make you vomit sherbert and marshmallow fluff. The realistic equivalent would be spending the entire holiday season locked in a greetings cards shop with nothing but five chickens to keep you company. Except the chickens can speak English. But they still only have around five minutes of memory capacity. And they're trying to use guns to threaten each other, but they don't have the types of fingers and thumbs one would need to effectively operate a firearm. And they're all really rich, and they suck each other's cocks all the time. And sometimes they see a chicken who isn't rich like them, and they say "HEY! HE'S POOR! WE SHOULD SPIT ON HIM, HA HA! WHAT A JOLLY LIFE WE LIVE, EY? WITH OUR MONEY? THAT CHICKEN ISN'T FIT TO LICK OUR SEED DRIBBLE! DO WE EVEN SALIVATE AS CHICKENS? I DUNNO!" And then there's a whip sound or a submarine noise, and it's all filmed in portrait so they can put it on TikTok whilst easily hiding the fact they didn't bother hiring out any decent locations for the purpose of shooting this film. And then you get diabetes and cancer from all the sherbert and marshmallow fluff and then your teeth fall out and you die and the chickens eat your decaying flesh while laughing and drinking 49-year-old whiskey.
It's a great movie, and I'd recommend it to everyone.
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Humanity has never come close to deserving Who Framed Roger Rabbit. We haven't worked hard enough, or been kind enough, or opened our hearts enough collectively as a species to reap this kind of astonishing, transcendental reward. The experience of watching it feels like stealing money out of the church bowl.
There are moments where I'm moved to tears, not because of the content of the story, but from the sheer effort of the production team. Can you imagine what a complete ballache it must have been to have those animated penguins carry around those very real drink trays? They didn't need to do that, but they did, because they cared deeply about their craft and wanted to be incredibly proud of something they created. Every single corner of every single frame is carefully calculated and fine-tuned to create a wholly magical experience for children and adults alike. The movie dares you to believe that these magnificent abstractions are a real possibility.
It's the greatest family film ever made. You might not realise it, but one day the reality of that statement is gonna come down on you like a ton of bricks.
🧱💥🥴
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Hello everyone, I hope you're all in a good place
Drop your Instagram usernames in the comments and I'll follow every one of you! Mine is VincentJello. Social media - and by extension, the world - has become a very weird and dangerous place. I wanna see some content on there that I'm actually interested in, whether that's the films or music you're enjoying, your happy little lives, the delicious food you're eating... I wanna take back some control of the things I see when I open my phone. I'd love to have some real discourse with some of you guys, you're a lovely bunch, you're open-minded, you're creative, you're interesting! I'd also like to add that anyone who needs to vent their frustrations about anything at all is welcome at my open door. I know that's an option I wish I'd had at my worst times.
Mi casa es su casa 🏠🌼
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I don't remember what my life was like before these damned dirty apes showed up, and we're talking hours ago here.
How did this blockbuster about CGI apes fighting make me cry twice, force me to drag my ass across the bed towards the telly like a worm-ridden dog and give me vivid flashbacks to both Children of Men and Persona? The world may never know, but it's certainly a much better and brighter place for accommodating that very specific set of circumstances, that's for sure.
I'm genuinely struggling to fault it, which really makes me question my strength as a critic. Could every movie I've ever slated have been saved by adding computer generated simians? Monkey and Me? Sex Lives of the Potape-o Men? NosferatHOO!? How can you even trust my recommendations? Why are we even writing and reading reviews when we could be watching primates cuddling and hitting each other with pipes?
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My partner and I collectively jumped up and screamed when Caesar rode in on that horse
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It's honestly heartbreaking to me that one of the worst musicals I've ever seen has been nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, and one of the best musicals I've ever seen is being subject to intense vitriol for no other reason than deliberate ignorance.
Quality used to be important to people
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Kanye West be like
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Watching this is a bit like being repeatedly chucked off a cliff and caught by a giant hand, which then slaps you as hard as it can. There's nothing like it, it never gets boring, and it's a hell of a way to kill four hours.
Every time that Yura Yura Teikoku song with the tribal beat comes on, I have to get up out of my chair. The vibes are just too strong for the mortal body to ignore
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This isn't a fiction film. This is a documentary about what would happen to you if the people in your life started treating you so much like an inconvenience that you became an inconvenience to yourself. This is humanity, starved of empathy and left to flop around, struggling to breathe in a cold, dank pit.
I urge any person who sees themselves in Frownland to have a long, hard look at the people in your life and ask yourself how you got there, and how you can get out. You can be saved. I know it because I've been there.
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That scene where RadiatorGal™️ is stepping on all those gooey worms works as a perfect commercial for a vasectomy
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He honestly scares me a little bit. He twitches like there's a thousand bugs under his skin and they're going to tunnel outwards at any moment, and his eyes effortlessly penetrate your soul like homing missles. You can try as hard as you can to appear to be a placid, zen mule farmer, but I will always see you as the deranged lunatic who made Freddy Got Fingered.
Which is a masterpiece, by the way. Tom Green has my respect and admiration.
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is it possible to block a movie on here?
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Geo loved this one, as you can probably imagine
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Watched on Sunday January 26, 2025.
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Something really wonderful and charming to cap a weekend of joyful experiences and personal growth!
Les Choristes may trip over its individual elements at times in its attempts to create a neat and compelling whole, but it still functions as a fine rumination on the beneficial practices of empathy and understanding over impulsive punishment, especially in the context of children and their education. Not to mention the transformative power of music!
Very cosy and very cute, and only a teeny bit undercooked. Whatever, call it all dente if you like.
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There it goes. My final ever David Lynch film. I've been saving it for a special occasion for many years, putting it off because I didn't want the journey to be over. But now is the time.
The Straight Story is not only David Lynch's most unique film, but one of the most unique films I've ever seen. The closest thing I can compare it to is David Byrne's True Stories, another film that radiates an incredible warm energy like a power generator from inception to reception. It's like Ned Flanders bringing you a cup of warm cocoa with the flame-throwed marshmallow. It exuded so much joyful elation that I spent most of the runtime in happy tears.
Alvin Straight is a protagonist who we should all aspire to emulate in our attitude towards life; with bright eyes of wonder, ears for each and all and an incredibly strong sense of self, mustered through years of mistakes, trauma and tragedy that gives him the determination of a bull. He's a gentle, tender, unstoppable force; love and strength balanced in tandem. The way that he's able to unintentionally open the hearts and minds of every stranger who passes him by on the road bleeds through the screen and into your soul.
The journey is brought to life by the most incredible American countryside photography you can imagine, with the glowing red and orange hues providing a soft blanket for Angelo Badalamenti's tender melodies to wriggle around and lie in. These scenes are a testament to Lynch's ability to do so much with the bare minimum, and they've left a rich tapestry for the new generation of filmmakers to draw from. Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All was born and bred in these fields and inherited their serene floaty atmosphere in spades.
This was a really tough couple of hours, but it was worth every teardrop, and I can finally finish this list now.
Lynch, Farnsworth, Badalamenti, Stanton, goodbye ✨️🌌🌠🌟
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Insecurity is a double-ended blade; it kills the wounded and the wielder. Mulholland Drive is the perfect cautionary fable to let you know that you aren't alone. There are people in this world that understand that lack of self-worth you're experiencing, but they won't be able to offer you any love or guidance if you keep those feelings to yourself. And if you don't get those feelings in check, you'll damage every relationship you have until you're in the worst position possible; cold, hard rock bottom, facing these abhorrent thoughts with no one in your life to support you.
Don't keep too many secrets from the people you hold dear, or you could end up holding a blue key of your own.
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Whatever you do, do not watch this and then go for a drive straight away afterwards, especially not while listening to 'I'm Deranged'.
You'll get too excited, and then you won't have a car anymore.
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Erase Ventura: Head Detective
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I don't cry at the end of the movie; I cry towards the middle, when John Merrick feels so overwhelmed by the sudden abundance of kindness and generosity he has received that he bursts into tears of joy.
Happy Transcendental Meditation day, hope you're using this time to think about the things in your life you appreciate, like a great piece of art or a loyal friend. Focus on the doughnut, not the hole 🍩
]]>the monochrome set
- The Night of the Hunter
- Eraserhead
- Werckmeister Harmonies
- The Lighthouse
- Paper Moon
- Stranger Than Paradise
- Persona
- Nosferatu
- Sunset Boulevard
- 12 Angry Men
...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>In no particular order, and definitely everchanging...
These are the ones that changed me, made me cry, ruined my sides with laughter, made me think about things the way I never have before, made me want to create. They sort of make me... Me!
- True Stories
- Mulholland Drive
- Dig!
- Irreversible
- All That Jazz
- Brazil
- Unbreakable
- The Greasy Strangler
- Wet Hot American Summer
- Fateful Findings
...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Very conscious of the fact I'm slackin'
- I Saw the TV Glow
- The Substance
- Memoir of a Snail
- Better Man
- Challengers
- A Real Pain
- Longlegs
- In a Violent Nature
- It's What's Inside
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>hoo hoo
]]>Hey hey! There's a lot of movies out there and I don't know which ones I'd dig. Gimme some ideas! ONE AT A TIME PER PERSON!
List view for reviews and credits.
- Tokyo Blood
Recommended by CuddlesworthGw.
My ★★★½ review: boxd.it/4m9vB1
- In the Earth
Recommended by Simon Ramshaw.
My ★★★★ review: boxd.it/4mg8Hz
- Septem
Recommended by geo.
My ★★★ review: boxd.it/4mNiHF
- The Night House
Recommended by Daniel.
My ★★★½ review: boxd.it/4mPzoJ
- Layer Cake
Recommended by Prem Singh.
My ★★ review: boxd.it/4n47qn
- A Special Day
Recommended by Genesio De Rosa.
My ★★★★½ review: boxd.it/4p1LTV
- Memories of Murder
Recommended by Moresbi.
My ★★★★★ review: boxd.it/4plWxL
- House on Haunted Hill
Recommended by Marissa J.P.
My ★★★★ review: boxd.it/4pOGy7
- The Fisher King
Recommended by Goliwadekar.
My ★★★★½ review: boxd.it/4qstCZ
- The Riot Club
Recommended by XoBok (Inhaler's Version).
My ★½ review: boxd.it/4rCFEH
...plus 87 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Recommendations welcome! For clarity, I'm including films here that aren't necessarily horror films, but that stir up a particular form of horror within the viewer: the feeling of never wanting to be in a room with other people ever again.
- The Curse
- All My Friends Hate Me
- Beau Is Afraid
- Compliance
- Speak No Evil
- The Stepford Wives
- mother!
- The Invitation
- No Exit
- Punch-Drunk Love
...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- 06 Tiros, 60Ml
- 100 Tears
- 100 Years of Horror: Scream Queens
- 100 Years of Horror: The Walking Dead
- 100 Years of Torture: The History
- 10/65: Self-Mutilation
- 10b/65: Silver – Action Brus
- 11 Letters Inside
- 1+1+1
- 12 Years a Slave
...plus 2383 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Asteroid City
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
- Dream Scenario
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Barbie
- Bottoms
- BlackBerry
- Enys Men
...plus 32 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>This Halloween, I'll be watching nothing but nasty nonsense. All films from section 1 of the DPP video nasty list, prosecuted under the Obscene Publications act! All new watches.
I may regret this, if I live to.
- The Driller Killer
DAY 1
My ★★★ review: boxd.it/4Vor27 - I Spit on Your Grave
DAY 2
My ★★½ review: boxd.it/4W7gkf - Tenebre
DAY 3
My ★★★★ review: boxd.it/4WgJJV - SS Experiment Love Camp
DAY 4
My ★ review: boxd.it/4WKQeP - Bloodeaters
DAY 5
My ★★½ review: boxd.it/4WOd2N - Exposé
DAY 6
My ★★★ review: boxd.it/4XdeTD - Cannibal Ferox
DAY 7
My ★★★½ review: boxd.it/4Xnr1T - Blood Feast
DAY 8
My ★★★ review: boxd.it/4XRRPb - The Last House on the Left
DAY 9
My ★★★★ review: boxd.it/4Yra81 - Absurd
DAY 10
My ★½ review: boxd.it/4YShQ9
...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>It’s Halloween everybody! To celebrate, I’m going to watch a horror film I’ve never seen every day of the month. Unless I fuck up, which is probable.
]]>It's almost time for Saw 10, so now I need to see 9. God help me.
]]>When a director makes an itty bitty film that turns out to be a surprise hit, then the studios give them all the money... And subsequently regret it. Submit your unfairly maligned masterworks here.
]]>my most personal list yet... sometimes when i think about a film that i've seen, a specific song plays in my head along with images from said film. sometimes the song is part of the soundtrack, sometimes the lyrical content matches themes of the film, sometimes the connection is something i can't explain, only a feeling. the songs are listed in the description of each entry, so this is best explored in list view.
]]>PSAs, PIFs, adverts and short films that are so fucking scary that they've stayed in my head longer than most horror flicks. Viewer discretion advised.
]]>- Black Mirror: White Christmas
- Black Mirror: Metalhead
- Black Mirror: Demon 79
- Black Mirror: The Entire History of You
- Black Mirror: Shut Up and Dance
- Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits
- Black Mirror: White Bear
- Black Mirror: San Junipero
- Black Mirror: Playtest
- Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea
...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>www.denofgeek.com/movies/barbie-cast-required-viewing-suggests-a-darker-movie-than-you-expect/
]]>ya really need a description, sweetie?
]]>In no particular order...
See List View for more details.
- Twin Peaks: The Return
Twin Peaks. All seasons.
- Jam
- The Last Supper: A Sopranos Session
The Sopranos
- Nirvana the Band the Show
- Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
- Better Call Saul Presents: Slippin' Jimmy
Better Call Saul (why is THIS on here)
- Six Feet Under: In Memoriam
Six Feet Under
- Ghost Tour
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
- The Kingdom: Exodus
Riget. All seasons.
- Making The Leftovers
The Leftovers
...plus 19 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Updated as I see more of these films.
- Dancer in the Dark
- Paris, Texas
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
- Titane
- Barton Fink
- Parasite
- Secrets & Lies
- Pulp Fiction
- Wild at Heart
- Taxi Driver
...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Every episode of the Shearsmith and Pemberton show ranked in order of greatness.
Release order: 4 > 1 > 5 > 2 > 3
]]>Every John Waters movie, watched in reverse chronological order. Some new watches, some rewatches! Let's go sexin'!
- A Dirty Shame
I found this absolutely delightful, quotable and hilarious. The fierce battle between sexual liberty and conservatism, with the thrown punches of both sides turned up to eleven, makes for wonderful satire.
Admittedly it's a structural clusterfuck and it feels pretty darn cheap at times despite a $15 million budget (I'm looking at you, horny squirrels), but the film charmed me so much that I'll give it a pass mostly. Plus Sex-Jesus the mechanic is the role Johnny Knoxville was born to play.
I'm never going to be able to listen to this song the same way again.
- Cecil B. Demented
"There are no rules in outlaw cinema Miss Whitlock, only edges. We believe technique to be nothing more than failed style."
Maybe the most punk movie ever made, and immediately one of my favourites on that initial viewing. I can't believe there isn't a huge cult following around this one.
It feels sort of structurally similar to the follow-up A Dirty Shame, only a lot tighter and more disciplined. I'm fascinated by Waters' ability to gradually ramp up the insanity throughout until the climax, although his movies never start out exactly normal. Every performer is slurping down the scenery like oysters, which makes it very hard to pick a favourite, but I have a huge soft spot for Maggie Gyllenhaal's delightful satanic make-up artist.
It's extremely on-the-nose with its messaging, sure, but if you're coming to a John Waters movie looking for subtlety, you're barking up the wrong tree. Demented forever!
- Pecker
A charming little cautionary tale about the dangers of fame, with an amusing if shallow take that towards those big square art folks. Every now and then it wanders in the area of some Waters absurdism, but overall it probably isn't funny enough to overcome the clichés dragging the story department.
It is wholesome, though. My man John Connor turns in the most happy-go-lucky performance you could imagine. Even the looming threat of an isolated existence couldn't break him down. A distant relative of Bill S. Preston perhaps.
- Serial Mom
I can't remember the last time I saw a film with six cold-blooded murders in it that was this infuriatingly wholesome. I was grinning cheek-to-cheek for almost the entire runtime, which I'm hoping says more about John Waters' talent for goofy atmosphere and character writing than it does about me.
It gets a little bit drab at the end during the whole courtroom process, but the first two acts more than make up for it. Similarly to A Dirty Shame, a lot of the comedy comes from that contrast between classy, white-picket suburbia with some truly horrible realities. It's a gear shift away from Blue Velvet, and it's perfectly encapsulated by one of my favourite jokes; a scene in which Mom reads from a birdwatching book, found in reality to contain a different book consisting purely of pictures of serial killers.
- Cry-Baby
It's silly, it's goofy, it's got maybe the funniest tragic character backstory scene I've ever witnessed. I wish the film leaned more into the brief but gold stabbings at visual comedy (the tattoo, the jar of tears) to distract a bit more from the narrative - things start to slow down a great deal around two thirds of the way in.
It's a bit like Grease and Wild at Heart eloped and birthed a kinda lame kid who wasn't nearly as good at writing tunes. Definitely worth your time, but unlikely to make much of an impression, especially in the context of Waters' filmography. What I have noticed going backwards through his filmography is that the older the film, the more comfortable they feel. A Dirty Shame and Cecil comparatively have this underlying tension that makes it seem like they're struggling to exist.
- Hairspray
Easily the most warm and involving fun I've had on my John Waters journey thus far. In his later films there is a lot of focus on groups of misfits that the audience watch from the sidelines. I loved some of those movies, so it's by no means a complaint, but having a protagonist as delightful as Tracy Turnblad that you desperately want to succeed feels like a very fresh thing at this point. Pecker wishes I would jump into a race riot with him.
There are some things in the film that haven't necessarily dated particularly well, for example a good few lines about the Black experience, but you just know Waters' intent is so golden that it doesn't really take away from at least the initial watch. I grinned constantly through this thing, and now I just wanna dance, which is something I've never gone out of my way to do. I love you, Baltimore.
- Polyester
"The producers of this film believe that today's audiences are mature enough to accept the fact that some things in life just plain stink."
Maybe the most comically cruel universe I've ever seen outside of Better Off Dead. This one really struck a cord with me, I wasn't expecting it to be nearly as emotionally driven, even after experiencing the feel-good function of his follow-up Hairspray; Waters really was on a proverbial roll.
It's Divine's long-suffering suburban housewife vs the world, and for a good two thirds of the film, she doesn't even get to throw a punch. She's abused by her unfaithful pornographer husband, her foot-fetishist delinquent son, her crackpot crude daughter and even the rowdy patrons of an AA meeting. All of these characters, in true Waters fashion are heightened and exaggerated to the max and they make great pawns for absurdist situations. My favourite of these is what must be the most unexpected car chase in cinema history.
As funny as Polyester manages to be, Divine is consistently able to fuel a fireball of a potent emotional core at the centre. His performance is wonderfully delicate and believable and there wasn't a moment I didn't connect with Francine's struggles and oppression. I can't wait to see more of the work he did for Waters. They're like the perfect beautiful freak duo.
- Desperate Living
"Bitch at the air, bitch at the trees, but don't bitch at us!"
Maybe John Waters' angriest film, he treats us to Alice in Wonderland by way of Salo. Mink Stole completely embodies what would nowadays be referred to as the ultimate 'Karen', and splits my sides entirely whenever she's fully unleashed, screaming and spitting on those who don't fit her uptight view of life and how it should be lived.
It's amazing how we're able to empathise so much with a society who solve their problems with ultraviolence and cannibalism. It's very clear that Mortville has been poisoned into degeneracy by these silly rules imposed by the folk in charge, how can we honestly oppose their behaviour?
Shout out to the score and the delightfully hideous set design. I love the glory hole innovation.
- Female Trouble
Divine fucks himself, gets himself pregnant and then tells himself to go fuck himself. Kino.
- Pink Flamingos
"What you are about to see is the real thing!"
I'd like to think that Divine, Cotton and Crackers are still out there to this day, with their hot pink dyke attire, crew cut and blonde dye, spreading the great word of filth, dirt and justice. The heroes we need.
It's a very special month indeed. Why? Because Spookyween rhymes with 2019! It's like, once in a lifetime stuff!
You know the drill. One film a day, none of which I've ever seen before, for various reasons. I go back and leave a review when I watch them.
You might look at some of these films and think "really? He had such a sheltered childhood that he hasn't seen fucking Nightmare on Elm Street?" and I'd say, yeah! I saw one of those idents for the Sci-fi channel when I was 8 and had nightmares for weeks. But I will catch up to you kinographers in time.
- Funny Games
I've never seen a filmmaker jam his dick so vigorously into the fourth wall that it actually proceeds to skullfuck the audience.
If you didn't like that sentence, then Funny Games probably isn't the film you should open your Spookyween with. It's extremely bleak, evenly spread with clear as day ultra-realistic violence towards every member of the family, no holds barred!
So yeah, of course I enjoyed it. It's far from perfect though, and it isn't a film I can see myself revisiting very often. - Trick 'r Treat
Trick 'r Treat is exactly the kind of film for those members of older generations who still love Halloween to this day, but find themselves unable to get involved and feeling alienated as a result. The non-narrative fashion in which all of the collected stories are told allows for constant thrills in a sweet shop variety palette.
I can't imagine any breed of horror fan who'd turn their nose up at it.
- The Burning
It's pointless complaining about the standard Slasher narrative, because it's the little details that matter, init! The practical effects and make-up are (mostly) fantastic. The sound design is astounding for the time and the scale of the production. The score slaps.
The problem with The Burning lies in the pacing. After one of the most exciting openings in Slasher history, we're treated to about 40 minutes of humorous, but not particularly memorable summer camp foreplay. It's almost like that entire second half has to come in and save the first with a defibrillator. But save the day it certainly does.
- Event Horizon
It's been three days since I saw this, and I still can't quite figure out how I feel about this movie. Maybe liqueur and friends isn't necessarily a good setting for watching your Spookyween movies when you intend to write informed reviews about all of them, but lesson learned I suppose.
It speaks volumes about how goofy Event Horizon is that when it was over and we turned on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! afterwards, there was not the slightest jarring change of tone in the room. There is a whole bunch of stupid shit going on, like the blatant religious symbolism, or the space travel jargon, or some of the more dated effects (is THAT how water behaves in space?), but honestly it all just added to the experience for me. I had so much fun, and I'd definitely watch it again. Sam Neill is great as always. I'll give it a 6, but it's bound to go up.
- Murder Party
Either the few reviews of this film that I'd seen had lowered my expectations sub-80's slasher cheese, or this really is one of the most fun Halloween movies I've ever seen. Working with and around art people, I think I've met every single character, even if they don't know it and even if they wouldn't necessarily be audacious enough to hatch this kind of scheme.
There are a few holes that are probably worth mentioning. The dialogue could have been swept up a little at times, the art criticism could have been a little sharper and the beginning of the film does little to get us on board with the main character - as one captor eloquently puts it "anyone stupid enough to come to a murder party deserves to die" - but I was rarely that bothered by any of these problems. Especially considering the spectacle that the power duo of camera and editing deliver. I felt like I'd taken whatever Alexander had. - The Amityville Horror
It's a great atmosphere. The problem is, pretty much nothing ever happens and there's no reward at the end for sitting through two hours of the nothing. At least the performances were pretty good?
- Martyrs
I'm not happy
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
<div><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I love it, I love it, I love it, thank you Santa Claus, it's exactly what I wanted. I can't believe there's a film released before Evil Dead 2 that blended squick horror and ridiculousness just as well. It's so creative and hilarious. It loses some points for the pacing, but it gains them back for a dual chainsaw-weilding Dennis Hopper.</span></div>
- Audition
- V/H/S
...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
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