👏👏 MOVIE REVIEW
Dark City (1998)
In my quest to watch more cult movies I heard of this film that partially inspired the aesthetics of House Delaque in Necromunda, alongside inspiring many scifi films after it despite predominantly living in their shadow- which makes sense, since this movie came out only a year before The Matrix and covers similar enough themes. That and a grand conspiracy at play were all I knew going into this- and I'm glad I didn't dig deeper. To keep your experience in line with mine, I won't be spoiling much of this movie as I do recommend it.Dark City is about a man that wakes up with amnesia and a dead woman nearby. He receives an ominous phone call telling him that people are after him and he must not let them catch him. After this unfolds a story about memories being manipulated on a major scale and a city that can't fathom what happens in the shadows. Any more than that would get into spoiler territory. However, I have to talk about what I didn't like about the film because some of it is very apparent very early on. The pacing at the start is close to abysmal- things happen at breakneck pace without any time to sit or develop, such as the main character's identity not really being a mystery. I also have to mention that the climax of the movie feels very dated and cliche. It was over the top and almost unintentionally comical, and the ending afterward felt probably too over-explained. The acting is also... on the low end of okay.
With the negatives out of the way, I definitely want to mention what I like about the film- starting with the reason for the rushed setup. All of it was just leading up to reveal that something much, much bigger is at play than just a simple amnesia and stalking case. When the current case detective visits the former case detective, it really cemented how interested I was in the mystery. It felt very True Detective in the best possible way. This movie also oozes atmosphere. It's always dark and grimey and filthy, set in a constantly moving nightmare city who's architecture is equal parts Gotham and weird future art deco. The special effects are also, mostly, pretty solid especially with what they swing for in the film. It all comes together to form a very unique and genuinely cool scifi mystery movie.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
One of the Trifecta of the greatest movies ever made. Mulholland Drive tells the simple story of a young woman named Betty trying to make it in Hollywood. Unfortunately, this is David Lynch's Hollywood.Betty, immediately after moving to Mulholland Drive meets Rita, who is wounded and has amnesia and has decided to make herself at home in Betty's apartment. The story of Betty and Rita searching for the latter's true identity is interspersed with seeming non sequiturs about a film director whose wife cheats on him with Billy Ray Cyrus, and a homeless person jumpscare. The search for who Rita is leads them both to a disturbing, dreamlike state where the truth is revealed to them, and in a way to us the audience.
Much of this is left to interpretation but all the pieces to the puzzle are at our disposal. Roger Ebert wrote "There is no explanation. There may not even be a mystery." Whatever we derive from the film is correct. It is about alternate realities and the Hollywood machine and the death of the American Dream. Each time I watch Mulholland Drive, I have a different takeaway. It has not gotten old in the decade since I first saw it, and I can't imagine it getting old later.
The Swimmer (1968)
I began the year watching a few "cult classic" films I had never watched for one reason or another, and my most recent one was The Swimmer. This film is based on a short story that was only 12 pages long and may be the first instance of a film adding elements to a story that don't feel like plot contrivances.I think it is best to go into this movie knowing nothing, so I will spoil nothing except the barest synopsis: a man of apparent wealth swims in his friend's pool and decides he will swim in all of the pools between this home and his own. What unfurls through this journey is a tragic look into the American dream and the consequences of wealth. This is a hazy, dreamlike journey where you learn the deep flaws of the protagonist but cannot help to pity him by the end. All of this is bolstered by an absolutely fantastic musical score that adds so much value to the scenes. I think this movie was genuinely ahead of its time and I think more people should see it.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
This was a movie I had been meaning to watch for a few years now but I never went out of my way to do so. Recently it was free streaming, thanks Tubi, so I was able to sit down and be entranced by it. So entranced that I immediately wanted to watch it again.Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley, a chameleon of a man who basically makes a career off of playing as other people. Through one of these jobs, he meets the wealthy Mr. Greenleaf who thinks Tom went to school with his son, Dickie, and asks Tom to go to Italy to convince Dickie to come home. Tom obliges as his expenses will be covered, and he befriends Dickie- and Dickie's girlfriend- by posing as an old friend from Princeton. Through getting to know him, Tom becomes obsessed with both Dickie's extravagant lifestyle and Dickie himself. Through some great acting, you as the viewer also become accustomed to these characters before a second act twist changes the course of the rest of the movie- which I will not be spoiling here. There are a few places where I feel the movie drags a bit but overall the escapades of Tom Ripley are a great experience.
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
This movie inspired the aesthetic for Bloodborne and that was my entire reason to watch it. Honestly, outside of the beginning the aesthetic was not very present throughout the movie so, in hindsight, that was a terrible reason to watch it. However, I absolutely do not regret my decision to use two and half hours of my time to watch a French 🤢 film.To start, I could only find this movie with an English dub and even though French is an abomination it goes without saying that this movie would be leagues better in its native language. That aside, this movie totally rips. It is set in the late 1700s, about a French naturalist, Grégoire, and his Mohawk tribe 'brother', Mani, being tasked by the French royal court to track down, identify, and bring back the mythical Beast of Gévaudan- which in the real world was probably a wolf but the legends of it and stories from the time basically put it on par with a werewolf and it is a very fascinating story. Throughout the hunts, Grégoire befriends a young Marquis and begins a romance with a Madame while having affairs with an Italian courtesan.
The first half is a monster hunt and the second half is a man hunt, when it is revealed that the beast has a master that it follows. I don't think the reveal of who the master is ends up being all too surprising, but the reveals surrounding it are pretty awesome and deeper than I anticipated. The movie has some flaws, like how it uses more slow-motion than a Zack Snyder movie and how Mani is severely underutilized, but it is a cool story, is visually interesting, and does have a pretty sweet aesthetic even when it's not Bloodborne- I am a sucker for the1600s to 1800s French aesthetic because of swashbuckling movies like the Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo. The movie is sometimes hurt by the 90s to early 00s cheese, but in the final confrontation the villain pulls out the full "Roar Zabimaru" and it totally fucks. This movie is absolutely worth your time if you want a different action movie. It also makes me want to revisit the Mask of Zorro for some reason.
Rob Roy (1995)
In this period drama that google suggested was a swashbuckler, Rob Roy, Liam Neeson plays Scottish highlander Robert Roy MacGregor under 18th century English occupation. He lived his life and made a name for himself among the highlanders, and now just cares for his people. He decides to make enough to support them better by taking out a thousand-pound loan from the ruling Marquess that he will use to turn a profit in cattle sales. This, however, turns sour as his trust and honor are taken advantage of and lead to the misfortune of his people.I love the highlands as a setting and honestly this might be the best Liam Neeson acting I've seen (still just kinda aight tho) but the real stars are Jessica Lange who plays his wife, and Tim Roth who plays the most easily hated villain I've seen in a while. If any part of this movie takes from swashbucklers, it's him. The film almost says something about masculinity and what honor means, but it also wants to portray Rob Roy in the most legendary way possible, so it does shy away from those bigger topics, though I don't feel this takes away from the movie too much.
The movie is a little long at two hours but it keeps things moving fast enough especially past the halfway mark and it ends with a fantastically realistic sword duel. Just a few film cuts, no music, no shakey-cam. Two men- pretty sure they aren't even using stunt doubles- and their blades going at it for a few minutes. It rocks, even if it might not be bombastic enough for modern audiences. I think the subdued nature only helps sell the realism. I'm probably going to rewatch The Northman now.
a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (TV)
My only experience with Game of Thrones was watching two or three episodes on my friends couch before a party. All I remember was shirtless Jason Momoa. After the catastrophe of the ending of the show, I decided I probably just shouldn't bother with it- and I didn't. But from the start, this intrigued me. A limited series and a very grounded story about a knight. By episode four I heard only great things and decided to give it go. Overall, I'd say it's pretty good! It's pretty cliche in what it does, and the surprises aren't too surprising- even for a non-GoT knower. Everything in the show is small-scale, grounded, and for the most part well-shot. I wish the combat wasn't as messy as it was but it's supposed to put you in Duncan's shoes so it gets a pass. I think episode four was definitely the peak, and episode five was my low. By that point you're pretty set on Ser Duncan's side, so having like half an episode dedicated to his pre-knight backstory felt unnecessary- where he started doesn't matter here. And episode six started with a, in my opinion, very unfitting musical sting and was sent to credits with Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ford?? which almost made me laugh out loud at how goofy it was but doesn't impact the story at all. If you have around 4 hours to kill I would recommend a Knight of the Nine Kingdoms.
Heathers (1989)
Heathers is one of my trifecta of perfect movies, imperfect as it is. It's a satirical black comedy about a girl named Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) who happens to be friends with (useful to) the popular group of girls, the Heathers. She meets an amazingly cringey anarchist named JD who likes to say a lot of things with no meaning and falls hard for him. With his planning, they "stage" the "suicides" of multiple popular students as pranks, in reality just straight murdering them. Blinded by JD's coolness, it takes Veronica a while to realize he's kind of messed up and needs to be stopped.Heathers is a borderline mean-spirited black comedy that hates the ideals of small-town America and really hates the sappy teen movies of the 80s. It makes light of serious topics in the most absurd manner and is always funny. With one of the (attempted) kills, JD could find nothing wrong with the Heather's life so he just takes her copy of Moby Dick and just circles the word "eskimo" because it's mysterious and he's stupid- and the school faculty also buy into it. And who could forget "I love my dead gay son!" This movie just hits all the right buttons and everything is perfect. It even steals from Lynch with a blue-light dream sequence.
I feel like if I talk about the movie I should mention the musical- it's good. My favorite songs are Our Love is God and, of course, My Dead Gay Son. If you know any younger women of loose morals they probably like the song Candy Store. I like that the musical doesn't really change all that much, just adds some fun songs to it which in some places does really halt the pacing, because it tries to give everyone their song spotlight including the very much side character Martha "Dumptruck", which I had to fast forward through.
Before ending, I should also mention there was a reboot show made for I believe Paramount+ that had like 12 episodes all filmed but only got 3 of them aired before being cancelled because it was that bad. I recommend just watching a youtube video on that trainwreck because it is impressively bad. I should have mentioned it in my "the left isn't funny" post because it is a prime example of very liberal comedy people writing something that comes off practically redpilled because of how badly they handle satire. ANYWAYS Heathers the movie is good and is my most rewatched movie and I think everyone should watch it!