So, I did go to the cinema a few times this year.
The first one to call me back was the cinematic re-run of Scorsese’s ‘Taxi
Driver’ which I hadn’t seen in at least a decade and was just, of
course, one of the best. At my friend’s invitation, I thought it a great film to
return to the cinema with. Earliest De Niro was so good at portraying people
that, should you knock and pry, didn’t have so much indoors. By which I mean a
troubling absence of a key piece, and this made them scary.
…Of course, this rerun was the apparent design of some cinemas to keep things bubbling over by showing recognised classics again. Which was nice and I wish the big chains would keep it up, but this was dropped as soon as the regular schedule was back in force. For a while, maybe...
‘Freaky’ (Michael Landon):
undemanding genre-savvy fun where, like the ‘Jumanji’ revival, the “body
swap” angle proved acres of comedy potential, and Vince Vaughn throws himself
in with often hilarious aplomb. Lightweight but entertaining.
Aso musing: the gaming in-jokes gave ‘Free Guy’ (Shawn
Levy) a lot of mileage, Ryan Reynolds can do this in his sleep without losing your
interest, and it was fun but a little too tied to convention to truly break the
mould.
‘Spider-man: No Way Home’ (Jon
Watts) was acres of fun and cheered everyone up. Overstuffed to a pleasant degree.
Me, I couldn’t quite get past the fact that it all happened on a whim of Dr
Strange to help Peter Parker without discussing what the crucial spell would
mean until they were in the middle of casting it, causing all the problems;
especially as Strange seemingly knows all about the dangers possible (the irreverence
and flippancy of MCU superheroes also makes them careless). Just as ‘Homecoming’
(slacker Spider-man thoroughly got me interested again) took from Miles Morales,
‘No Way Home’ took from ‘Into the Spider-verse’ (the best), but
all the multi-verse stuff was well handled, the cameos surprising and pleasing,
the fight scenes seemed better than usual and, overall, a whole shebang of entertainment.
Tom Holland is my favoured incarnation of the webslinger, but the stuff with
the others only retroactively made them better, with lots of neat and loving interaction.
All the mushy melodrama doesn’t shake me, but there was a lot for fans to be moved
by. Definitely better fan-service.
I did not see any other superhero films at the cinema except for ‘Shang-Chi
and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, which had superior melee sequences,
an enjoyably light touch and a neat dragon. We expect effortlessly dazzling CGI
special effects (has it taken away the awe?) so physical and well-edited fight
scenes are where it’s at.
Nia DaCosta’s revival of ‘Candyman’ was overstuffed
too, but perhaps biting off more than it could chew at the expense of a
streamlined, fully coherent ending. But the conversations around black culture and
the history of ghettoization, art and slavery were vital and engaging, using a
horror bogeyman as the unleashed Id. It looked great too, even before the end
credits shadow-puppet show chilled deeper with real horror than any genre
tropes.
Ben Wheatley’s ‘In the Earth’ surprised me in how
divisive it was: even friends I thought would like it on principle, being Wheatley
fans, did not. Again, overstuffed with allusions and homages to Seventies
British genre and topped with psychedelica and Clint Mansell’s buzzy score, I
enjoyed how it feinted this way and that and thought it would hit better on a second
watch and that it would gain reputation more over time.
Scott Cooper’s ‘Antlers’ married monster mayhem with family
miserabilism. There was the sense that it didn’t quite gel, despite a beautifully
desaturated palette and a considerable monster. It was fun in a downbeat way,
but didn’t quite excel.
For simple, excellently executed monster fun, you didn’t
have to go much further than John Krasinki’s ‘A Quiet Place part II’.
The ‘A Quiet Place’ formula was for me all about the thrills and chills
of the set-pieces over full explanations, and this sequel didn’t mess with
that, and in fact felt even more assured.
But I wanted more out of Ilya Naishuller’s ‘Nobody’ than just the usual action movie kick-ass fantasies. I was excited to see Bob Odenkirk in this scenario, thinking it may have something to say with him at the helm, but Derek Kolstad’s screenplay didn’t really get past his ‘John Wick’ template. For that, it was shallow fun and had great bus fight, the equal of that in ‘Shang-Chi’.
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So I didn’t see so much in the actual cinema and so caught up with new
releases through streaming and, of course FrightFest and Grimmfest festivals.
Cody Calahan’s ‘Vicious Fun’ was as the label said and
colourful, even if it had a protagonist that ran a commentary about things as
they happened. And of course, the satirical recognition of genre serial killer
types was post-modern anyway, but it had more plot than its frivolous nature
perhaps implied. Conor Boru’s ‘When the Screaming Starts’ trod
similar territory, also funnin’ with genre tropes but had a little more to say
about the derangement of serial killer super-fans.
But seriously:
Marc Fouchard’s ‘Out of the World’ was one of those
deathly earnest and grim killer films that want to put you through the crusher
someway. It proved an evocative, haunting character study. Keane McCrae’s ‘Shot
in the Dark’ had similar near-dreamy/nightmarish aesthetic, often a
narrative mosaic to relay the fractured nature of mindsets and memory. James Ashcroft’s
‘Coming Home in the Dark’ was another not for the faint-hearted;
another gruelling family-under-siege drama that took the Home Invasion outside as
a reminder that there is nowhere to hide from past horrors.
For straightforward thriller delights, there was Oh-Seung Kwon’s ‘Midnight’,
the kind where some physical difference (hearing-impaired) accentuates women’s
vulnerability to a serial killer. It proved hugely popular, and South Korea
excels at this kind of thing, but for me it started to drag when the point was
well made and yet was more cat-and-mouse games to come. Far more interesting to
me was Hong Eui-jeong’s ‘Voice of Silence’, this time with the
fantastic Ah-in Yoo as a man who inadvertently kidnaps a young girl with his
colleague; this is what happens when you’re a clean-up crew for organised crime.
Nothing new, but beautifully shot, a little farcical and pleasingly wry.
Kyle Rankin’s ‘Run Hide Fight’ proved a little uncomfortable
and misfiring in making its high school massacre just a backdrop for another
kick-ass revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, Martin Guigui’s ‘Paradise Cove’
was just too pedestrian to be of interest.
A film like the impressive ‘Slapface’ (Jeremiah Kipp) pulled
together real and imagined horrors, coming-of-age and supernatural, and hit the
marks when exploring the consequences of violence and unleashed Ids. In this, was
more successful in this than ‘Antlers’. For bildungsroman, Jane
Schoenbrun’s ‘We’re all going to The World’s Fair’ was
more an articulate portrayal of how fans are self-aware and utilise the genre. It
was more a character drama than horror, with an exceptional young performance from
Anna Cobb. Also, the fact that it all took place over the internet coded it as
a lockdown film, although surprisingly colourful for that.
Jeanette Nordahl’s ‘Wildland’ was a more traditional
coming-of-age drama with a young protagonist has to battle with fledgling
morality and being plunged into a criminal family. No Id’s unleashed here, just
the tension and threat that comes with family relations against a drained
background and Sandra Guldberg Kampp’s great performance. Michael Meyer’s fun ‘Happy
Times’ also played on the horrors and selfishness of family, this
time turning a dinner part with a wealthy family into violent farce: the natural
end of privilege is to kill to keep what you have… or just from grievance. Yernar
Nurgaliyev’s ‘Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It’ was the more
rumbunctious violent farce, more broad in its humour, a little suspicious in
its gender politics, but also fun.
For visual delights, Alexey Kazakov’s ‘Mara’ presented
colourful heightened realities, energetic aesthetics and psychedelic visual
play to the witch genre. Jaco Bouwer’s ‘Gaia’ was also quite beautiful
with a hint of fairy tale, mixing off-the-grid delusion, eco-horror and body
horror is a fascinating mix that felt as if it just fell short of its target, although
not denying its fascinating quirks.
‘Hotel Poseidon’ was also compelling
in its set design, as a blacky humoured tone poem about surreal decay; like ‘Delicatessen’
on downers, or an aimless Peter Greenaway. It’s the kind of film to make you
want t turn the heating up and to have a bath afterwards.
Alexis Brushon’s ‘The Woman with Leopard Shoes’ proved a
visual delight too, which was surprising as it centred on just one man in a
room (and filmed in his parents’ house) – must have been the black-and-white. Mark
O'Brien’s ‘The Righteous’ also had gorgeous black-and-white photography,
and one of those Arrival Of The Stranger With Secrets scenarios that always
allow for a riveting slow burn. A smart, intriguing script that turns apocalyptic
made this stand out.
Films such as Lluís Danés’ delightfully theatrical ‘The Barcelona Vampire’ and Francesco Erba’s impressive labour of love ‘As in Heaven, So on Earth’ had a formal daring that showed that these tiny films on the edges are happily and thankfully working outside the conventional, or even neo-conventional. ‘Heaven/Earth’ especially was bold in its insistence in telling its tale in large part with animation, offering both gothic and contemporary “found footage” horror. That the time-jumping and shuffling aesthetics held together and provided some decent frights was all the more impressive. The shadow-play of ‘Candyman’ shows that occasionally these formal tricks can stretch to the mainstream, but mostly its in these outskirts that films go where others won’t.
Then there were films gleefully playing with genre. There was ‘Night
Drive’ (Brad Baruh and Meghan Leon), that showed its hand late
in the game so the film you thought you were watching… wasn’t. And then there
were adaptations of graphic novels that allowed surprises galore in narrative
and genre play: David Prior’s ‘The Empty Man’ was a tribute and
full-hearted ride through many different facets of horror. And I shall never
forget having to go to the bathroom during the first act of Rob Schroeder’s ‘Ultrasound’
(unforgivable, I know) and re-joining it to realise I was in a totally different
film, and one I couldn’t wait to see a second time now that I knew what it was.
The topical:
Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ came over as a usual
female revenge narrative, but it was far more complex and colourful than that,
frequently and upsettingly usurping expectations and convention. There has been
a lot of exciting female-centred genre lately, showing that the horror excels
in articulating their experience in particular topics, and ‘Promising Young
Woman’ came over as a culmination of the discussion.
And Natasha Kermani’s ‘Lucky’ pushed the limits of horror
as allegory for this discussion. Writer and star Brea Grant’s previous ‘24
Hour Shift’ (which she directed) had a pleasing and naughty unapologetic
edge to her female anti-hero, but this was something else entirely, fully
immersed in the anxieties of women constantly under threat of male violence. ‘Lucky’
was also surprisingly moving by the end. These films were a welcome, more
thoughtful alternative to murder as feminist statement. Speaking of which…
‘Last Night in Soho’ looked
like it was muscling in on this too, and it looked great with Wright’s reliable
razzle-dazzle, but using ‘Puppet on a String’ to signal the exploitation
of the girls’ was not at all subtle, and, ultimately, it was asking us for
sympathy for a serial killer. It was a film that, despite the agreeable “nostalgia
kills” theme and obvious artistry, seemed undercooked upon reflection.
Randall Okita’s ‘See for Me’ seemed to misguidedly let its obnoxious privileged lead off the hook for her despicable behaviour because she was upset about being blinded. It was one of those scenarios where she causes the worst of the thriller dilemmas through her selfishness, but we are meant to celebrate her as an anti-hero and her overcoming, despite the deaths. A film like Ryan Gover ‘The Strings’ showed a film can have a detached female protagonist without insisting we relate and assume they are worthy of empathy.
To backtrack a little: ‘Lucky’ was also the kind of film happy to
end on the abstract and unsolved, and I found my genre taste moving more in
that direction. Because irresolution or/and not quite knowing, that’s a horror
too. Jim Cumming’s ‘The Beta Test’ did a similar thing, hinged
on another brilliant performance by Jim Cummings. After the favourite ‘The
Wolf of Snow Hollow’, Cummings is obviously genre-friendly, but his fascination
for the lost men he plays, conflicted between wanting to do good and their innate
assholeness and latent violence – means that he’s just as interested in character
studies, producing quite fresh horrors. ‘The Beta Test’ was also
relevant to the #MeToo and post-Weinstein discussion, an essential peer to Kitty
Green’s excellent slow-burner ‘The Assistant’.
And whilst we’re on this subject, just a mention of ‘Black Friday’ which was a B-monster movie (customers are monsters) that was at its best when letting its staff/victims casually discuss work.
And maybe a little on Covid films:
Paul Schuyler’s very home-made ‘Red River Road’ seemed
to me to catch the feeling of the sense of unmoored reality during lockdown. And
I do mean very home-made: starring his family; named after the street they
lived on… a very lockdown film that was impressive by using this to imply an
increasingly imploding existence with instructions but without clear definition.
Stay out or in? People disappear without explanation? What is all this? Another
film where the irresolution seemed essential and chilling. Impressively
unsettling and capturing that feeling of introspection spiralling into failing
reality.
Even more claustrophobic was Alexandra Aja’s ‘Oxygene’.
Although a film set entirely within a cryogenic chamber may seem like it will
be a chore, the chamber is always active, bright and futuristic, and Mélanie
Laurent’s performance always compelling. Of course, there are a few flashbacks (which
the trailer of course makes good use of) but for the most part we are entombed.
And when it does open out, it’s satisfying, if not spectacular, starting with the
intimacy of sci-fi ideas and then getting bigger and bigger. Also it’s a
broadening for Aja who, with this film, swapped his typical ruthlessness for humanity
with this one.
And Ben Wheatley’s divisive ‘In the Earth’ was a Covid
film in that it was conceived and made and is set in the time of the pandemic
(like ‘Oxygen’). Some were disappointed that the pandemic wasn’t a prime
antagonist, but acknowledging this period was more Wheatley’s aim. Besides, it
also presented a somewhat passive protagonist that wants to know things and falling
into an unhinged world torn between faith and science both trying to know an
abstract force, which was surely totally of its time.
Films like John Valley’s ‘The Pizzagate Massacre’,
‘Lucky’ and ‘The Beta Test’ also felt of
the moment, as well as Jacob Gentry’s creepy ‘Broadcast Singal Intrusion’
for its portrayal of a man spiralling downwards and irretrievably into
conspiracy theories. And excepting ‘Pizzagate’ and like ‘The Empty
Man’, they all ended in the kind of existential terror that really makes a
film haunt. Perhaps a slight open-endedness or vagueness of terror and
resolution is a product of very unstable times. It’s the kind of ambiguity you
can only find in indies, unless you are Paul Thomas Anderson.
John Valley’s ‘The Pizzagate Massacre’ was
thoroughly of the moment, and certainly the title directly referencing the
Trump period (although called ‘Duncan’). A film looking at those caught
up in a right-wing conspiracy cult, looking to humanise some and give them
complexity. Starting out seemingly a lot broader, Tinus Seaux’s performance of
Duncan supplied the complexity the film aimed for, even as it kept it’s broad
strokes. It’s no mistake that the most vacuous and ultimately manipulative characters
are of the media. It certainly felt heartfelt and authentic in intention.
And that’s what I got to see at the cinema and the
bulk of festival watched.
Oh, I left Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune' feeling quite wowed.
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