A lot of those people probably watch tons of serial killer documentaries and their main takeaway is that the killer is good looking or some shit.
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In Which I Briefly Review Movies
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A lot of those people probably watch tons of serial killer documentaries and their main takeaway is that the killer is good looking or some shit.
Thirteen Lives, 2022, Ron Howard, 7/10 - Man, I delayed watching this because I already had this idea of what I was gonna say in my head, and then the movie didn't turn out to be what I thought it would. I think Howard is mostly a hack. Thing is, it's ideal to tell a story like this matter of factly with absolutely no added drama, no corny score, and cinematography that is straight and to the point. As you probably know this is the story of the Thai cave kids who got trapped in the flooded cave and had to be taken out by cave divers. This is the story of that and it's interesting for me because I didn't pay all that much attention in the first place. It was during the World Cup, as the movie regularly reminds you, and as such those details went by the wayside for me. If that gets you intrigued in any way it's probably a good idea to watch this. My assumptions about the film were simply wrong.
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The Banshees of Inisherin, 2022, Martin McDonagh, 8.5/10 - I know that I've missed some movies in the theater this year, but I feel comfortable stating this is one of the year's best. Banshees is a story about two former friends, one of whom decides all of a sudden that he hates his bud. Colm (Brendan Gleeson) is a musician and he would rather not speak to Padraic (Colin Farrell) ever again. Padraic lives with his sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) and has a really simple life which seems to be Colm's problem. Padraic is dull. When Padraic won't leave him alone, Colm says that he'll start cutting off his own fingers if Padraic can't get the message. This is a great performance from Farrell, but Barry Keoghan steals the show as 'touched in the head guy' Dominic. This movie is really funny and Dominic's scenes were difficult to not immediately start laughing at. I should clarify that Banshees is more In Bruges than Billboards, so if that's what you were hoping for that's what you'll get. It helps that the setting is more familiar to McDonagh. I'll probably watch this again.
The Rental, 2020, Dave Franco, 6.5/10 - Funny little movie we have here. I seem to remember this was the first movie to come out when drive-in theaters were reopened, but I don't go to drive-ins and I hadn't seen it. For the most part I was thinking whether or not this should actually be classified as a horror flick, but then things started happening and shit and obviously the answer is yes. There's another movie I have to write a review for where I'd say the answer is no, but I'll get around to that tomorrow. The story here is good, I really liked the ending, but there are some questions I have that remain unanswered and I don't always care for a couple of the scenes that lead you to believe the racist guy is also a pervert and whatever else. Slightly piling on perhaps. I also thought that the characters lose too much of their intelligence when deciding what they're going to do after the fight scene. But anyways, not a bad way to spend my time.
The Menu, 2022, Mark Mylod, 7/10 - More than any other movie I've seen in a while, The Menu has to walk a tightrope in order to keep things from going to a point of overboard at which there's no return. The film just barely does that and as a result I feel like more than any movie I've seen in a while, the inclusion of one or two poorly timed scenes would have made me hate this one. Instead I did not. Every character here is carefully crafted to being a certain kind of bad consumer. There is one note that sticks out as not being hit but this is done deliberately so in order for the movie to make its point. The Menu is a satire but the film also has layered meaning you can apply to any form of art. In this case it's being a chef but you can easily see how this extends towards making movies, art, and music. I will repeat what I said above when I said I didn't think the next movie I was going to watch was actually a horror movie. This isn't one. It's original and has some great moments but horror it isn't. There are lots of strong performances here but I feel like if you're marketing this as a horror movie you're under some kind of obligation to back that up. That's not here.
Devotion, 2022, JD Dillard, 7/10 - I'm really surprised that this movie wasn't marketed better, or that this didn't serve as a profitable backpack movie to Top Gun 2, and well I can't explain why that is. Maybe the ads are not clear enough about what this actually is. This is a story of a unit that progresses more and more towards serving in the Korean War. The movie is mostly about fighter pilots Jesse (Jonathan Majors) and Tom (Glen Powell). More Jesse than Tom though. Devotion also has what I would consider to be a surprise ending, good scenes where planes shoot at stuff, and some non-war adventures in a foreign country. There's not really a negative point here other than that such a story has limitations and a movie like this one can only be so good. They are matter of factly telling this story, there's some emotion here but not too much personal perspective, and in that case the movie is what it is.
Night of the Kings, 2020, Philippe Lacote, 7.5/10 - I watched this because it was submitted to the Academy for the Foreign Film Oscar, and look at the review scores for this thing. That usually does it. This film is in French and takes place at a prison in Cote d'Ivoire. The inmates are in control of this dumb and their leader is a man called Blackbeard. He calls the shots until he's too sick to call them anymore, then someone kills him. Right now he's pretty sick and it's nearly his time to go. Knowing this, Blackbeard decides to use a new inmate as a griot to tell stories during the upcoming red moon. When the griot is done, if it's not morning, all these dudes are gonna kill this boy. The boy (unnamed) tells a whole bunch of stories to try to save his life, through these we get a picture of what Cote d'Ivoire is, what happens in their society, what a griot means to people in West Africa, and the power of telling stories (even if untrue). And that's cool man. The movie has a great ending and a lot of unnamed memorable characters. In some cases it's 'this guy with a shirt' but hey man, that's good enough for me and that was the point.
RedJed
Rasslin' Rambler
I went into this blind not sure what the vibe was, but I have to say that I felt by the end of it, it at least had horror elements to a degree. I took things more as a satirical arthouse-esque black comedy of sorts if this was to be defined as anything, But still with a bit of horror elements intertwined in there. Not much though!
The Menu, 2022, Mark Mylod, 7/10 - More than any other movie I've seen in a while, The Menu has to walk a tightrope in order to keep things from going to a point of overboard at which there's no return. The film just barely does that and as a result I feel like more than any movie I've seen in a while, the inclusion of one or two poorly timed scenes would have made me hate this one. Instead I did not. Every character here is carefully crafted to being a certain kind of bad consumer. There is one note that sticks out as not being hit but this is done deliberately so in order for the movie to make its point. The Menu is a satire but the film also has layered meaning you can apply to any form of art. In this case it's being a chef but you can easily see how this extends towards making movies, art, and music. I will repeat what I said above when I said I didn't think the next movie I was going to watch was actually a horror movie. This isn't one. It's original and has some great moments but horror it isn't. There are lots of strong performances here but I feel like if you're marketing this as a horror movie you're under some kind of obligation to back that up. That's not here.
The way they set up the characters and how those characters arcs were done......fascinating stuff. Blown away Will Ferrell and Adam McKay produced this.