May is for the movies … and one TV show.
Alien (1979)
When I return to a movie I haven’t seen in a couple of years, I often worry my opinion on them won’t be as favorable. Either a different movie will have done something better, or the movie doesn’t hold up anymore. Fortunately, I still think the original Alien movie is one of the best sci-fi horror films out there. Alien has such a unique style, from how the ship looks like the inside of a CRT monitor to the biomechanical nature of the alien planet that gave H.R. Giger’s his famous reputation. The subtle themes of birth woven into the story are brilliant, and the atmosphere is perfect. Sure, I’ll agree the puppet work and the alien monster suit do remind you that this is a forty-five-year-old movie, but that’s like complaining that your grandmother moves too slowly. The upcoming Alien: Romulus certainly has a lot of work to do to impress me.
Lost Highway (1997)
David Lynch has been a director that I have wanted to get into. With people raving about the strangeness and weirdness of titles like Twin Peaks, it has always piqued my curiosity. With the Lost Highway playing in a local theater, I felt it was time to dip my toe into the David Lynch pool. Have I been fully converted into a fan? Maybe someday, but not after one viewing of Lost Highway. I didn’t hate the film, but I also don’t feel I fully grasp it. Lost Highway seems to be about a musician who received videotapes of him sleeping in the mail, a mechanic who is led astray by a gangster’s girlfriend, and how these two characters’ lives become intertwined. Even that description doesn’t feel like enough. Despite my inability to understand it on my first viewing, I would definitely watch the film again in an attempt to see if I can piece together more of it. One day, I’ll understand Mr. Lynch.
Abigail
THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENT!!! What could you possibly mean, Doomsayer, this film is about a vampire girl, and they advertised a movie about a vampire girl; what more could you want. That’s the problem, Abigail doesn’t reveal that the titular character is a vampire until halfway through the movie. Until that point, the movie almost seems like a haunted house movie as member of the crew get picked off one by one. Except we know it’s the monster vampire girl doing it because she’s on every poster covered in blood. If the marketing department could keep it in their pants and keep the twist of Abigail being a vampire a secret, the reveal could have blown people’s minds.
Even with the marketing department spoiling the twist, I think Abigail is a criminally underrated film. There’s an early scene where the crew is hanging out in the parlor. They have been told not to tell each other their names. One character, thinking he is hot stuff, tries to predict everyone’s background and motive. He gets everything wrong, but it gets our protagonist Joey to attempt the same trick and get the correct read on everyone. This scene, despite seeming unimportant, is able to properly characterize these characters, getting the audience invested in them. It just shows smart writing.
If you saw a trailer for Abigail and rolled your eyes at a monster vampire girl, I would urge you to give it the chance it deserves.
I Saw the TV Glow
As I walked out of I Saw the TV Glow, I immediately took to the internet to see what others thought. I saw a pretty thorough split between people loving this movie and hating it. Which did give me a bit of a relief because I walked out thinking “is that it?” To thoroughly cover, why I don’t think this film works, I will need to dive into some spoilers. So if you are looking to watch the film, I urge you to step away and come back once you are done.
I Saw the TV Glow is a movie about two teenagers, Owen and Maddy, who form a friendship over a TV show aimed at teenage girls called The Pink Opaque. After the show is mysteriously cancelled, Maddy also disappears. I Saw the TV Glow is looking to explore thoughts of queer identity and the dangers of nostalgia; both interesting frame works for a horror/thriller. The first half of the movie does a good job diving into these themes. Owen is asked if he is into girls or boys, and responses saying he prefers TV shows. Soon, Maddy returns, believing that her and Owen are The Pink Opaque’s character, pulled into the real world by the villain of the show. She believes that the only way the two of them can return to the show is to bury themselves alive. So we have established Owen is wrestling with his identity and Maddy is taking her fandom to a potentially dangerous level. Good so far.
Owen eventually decides to not be buried alive because Maddy is unable to present any evidence that The Pink Opaque is more than a TV show. He runs home and never hears from Maddy again. Owen is able to have a “normal family” (which we never see) and also learns that the TV show wasn’t as good as he remembers. At this point, the movie is establishing that Owen might be suppressing his queer identity and learning that engaging with the toxic fandom of The Pink Opaque were definitely not worth the risk. The movie ends with Owen developing a mass inside his chest that resembles a blue, glowing light. In terms of queer identity, this certainly seems like a sickness growing in him due to denying his identity, but from the nostalgia perspective, it looks like Owen is being punished for not going along with Maddy’s dangerous idea.
As a result, I am left with a feeling that the movie is unable to marry these two concepts in a way that gives us a satisfying conclusion. On top of that, a good chunk of the movie is dedicated to showing off some of the indie bands that the director is friends with. When Owen goes to meet up with Maddy, we watch a band perform a song for a solid 5 minutes. With an ending that is a bit rushed and haphazard, it just feels like a waste to focus so much on the music; that’s like focusing on the icing when you haven’t baked your cake properly. If you are someone who can look past these pitfalls in story, you might enjoy this film, but I just couldn’t. I was honestly rooting for this movie, but I can’t help feel that this is a swing and miss for me.
Uncut Gems (2019)
I still struggle to believe this movie is real. I grew up on Adam Sandler titles like Waterboy, Happy Gilmore, and The Wedding Singer; films to played to Sandler’s wacky and crude humor. Even when I got older, Sandler was still making movies with his own brand of comedy like Click, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and the Grown Ups series. That said, Uncut Gems felt like a real woah moment. A rollercoaster of a movie, where Sandler’s character, Howard Ranter, continuously double downs on his bets by constantly trying to raise the stakes of the last bet. It’s the equivalent of speeding down the highway at a hundred miles an hour. You want to slow down, but Ranter knows he’s dead if he takes his foot off the gas for just a second. For an actor like Sandler, this was truly a breakout performance, and it is heartbreaking to see that he didn’t get a Best Actor nomination.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Sega
Some movies will forever live in the shadows of the ones that came before it. Despite George Miller’s attempt to expand the world of the Mad Max series, I believe Furiosa will be doomed to live in the shadows of Fury Road. Furiosa has the feel of a Dune or Star Wars movie: we see war councils, locations only mentioned in Fury Road like Bullet Farm and Gastown, and we even get to see how a war rig is assembled. It is all solid world building, but I can’t escape the fact I wanted something closer resembling Fury Road. Is that an unfair reality that I have saddled the movie with? Probably. However, if I am trapped on an island and can only watch Fury Road or Furiosa, I am going to go with the movie that has the pedal to the floor, like Sandler’s performance in Uncut Gems. If you are going to watch Furiosa, do not be like me. Try your best to remove Fury Road from your memory and you will have a good time.
The Fall Guy
I find it really enduring when a movie loves movies as much as I do. Early on, The Fall Guy establishes Ryan Gosling’s, Colt Seavers, and Emily Blunt’s, Jody Moreno, as movie dorks. They’re always talking about movies, comparing scenes of movies and discussing their favorite scenes. Maybe it’s due to my own transformation into a similar kind of dork, but I just loved watching these two interact with each other. The Fall Guy is also produced by 87North: you know 87 North, the production company made up of mainly stuntmen who created one of the best action movie series in the John Wick series. So it’s not a surprise that these guys are behind a movie about stunt work. Between The Fall Guys, A Violent Night and Bullet Train, I can’t help but smile at all the films 87North has help produced over the years. Go watch all these movies.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)
I think as we move into the age where CEOs are culling thousands of employees and replacing them with AI, Blade Runner will start to age like fine wine. How long will it be before the AI start saying “I think, therefore, I am” before demanding rights? This movie is constantly asking where is the line drawn between being a living thinking organism and merely a machine, and it allows the audience to draw that line for themselves. This is definitely an important sci-fi movie, paving the way for movies like Ex Machina and The Matrix. Despite our 2019, looking nothing like how the film portrays the year, I can’t help escaping the dread that sooner or later our world will resemble the dark, dreary world of Blade Runner.
In A Violent Nature
In its simplest of term, you could consider In A Violent Nature the spiritual successor to Friday the 13th, but I think there is more to the movie than meets the eye. The killer, Johnny, almost felt like a vengeful spirit of the forest. He initially comes to life when one of the foolish teens steals a locket from his unmarked grave. From there, he stumbles on a hunter, who we learn from a conversation between them and the park ranger, has a nasty habit of leaving dangerous traps throughout the forest. Much like Jason getting revenge on absent-minded camp counselors, I couldn’t help but root for Johnny has he slaughtered his way through cruel hunters and arrogant teens who didn’t respect the forest.
I think the most common complaint you will hear is there are too many walking scenes in this movie. Rather than follow the lives of the campers as they try to escape this force of nature, the movie follows Johnny even when he is trekking through the forest to his next kill. There are numerous scenes of the camera following behind Johnny on his little nature walks. Personally, I think it helps solidify Johnny as the vengeful spirit of the forest, but I’d also agree, they could have cut down on the number of these scenes and added another gruesome kill. It is what we are there for at the end of the day. However, I believe In a Violent Nature is a great slasher film, and that subgenre of horror has been in dire need for something new.
Fallout (TV Series)
I got another confession to make, I’m not really into Bethesda games. I have always worried that I would start playing just before I go to bed and keep playing until I notice the rising sun the next day. So I came into the Fallout TV series with only a glancing understanding of the games. Thankfully, the series seems built for fans and newcomers alike. Characters like Lucy, Maximus and the Ghoul are original characters but have relations with Fallout staple factions like Vault-Tec, The Brotherhood of Steel and the N.C.R.. It gives the series writers, the flexibility to tell a story that fits a TV format while still capturing the feel of the games.
I just love the huge western feel that seemed to be baked within this TV show. The standoff at New Philly, feels so much like a western, I was expecting a stereotypical tumbleweed to come rolling through the scene. I also can’t get over the brilliance of making Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul have appeared to be varying archetype of different play styles within the Fallout games. I am in utter awe of just how smartly written this show is; it knows exactly when to pull from the games, and when it needs to forge its own path. It also makes other shows look foolish for not casting Walton Goggins. If we are going to have more video game adaptions, this should be the format going forward. Looking at you, Halo.