4v291o
Midnight screening @ Coolidge Corner w/ introduction from Cinematic Void’s Jim Branscome
Happy Giallo January!
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They got the damn “The stakes have never been higher, time for every conversation and action to be done very slowly and nonchalantly”
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The more I watch these the more I realize the value of a book lol. It feels like any and all substance has been cut out completely. I’m mostly just left asking dozens of questions even though half the dialogue is committed to answering dozens of others. Dobby death would be more impactful if he didnt show up just to die! I feel like any nuance on the muddying of Snape’s morals is probably gone from the books too, they hardly touch on him playing both sides it feels. Would also like to see/know more about Malfoy’s moral struggle. Seems to be hyped Voldemort trusts him but also unable to bring himself to do anything violent. Why? I dunno. Probably explained in the books!
Worst part is the egregious trope of one of the friends getting mad for a completely nonsense (and preventable) reason so there’s added drama… to the movie where they’re on the run from being hunted while also doing a treasure hunt while also racing to beat a ticking time bomb while also
2 stars for heist scene, that was fun!
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Shockingly bad script and this movie is yet another hideous installment that feels genuinely afraid of color. Maybe i’m dumb but I also could not follow a good 50% of what was happening. What the hell!
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I guess this is the lowest rated one but so far its the only one that seems to have any meaningful themes to me. Something something working class rebellions bc you can’t rely on those in power to do anything. Denying fascism is happening bc you’re a liberal who would rather feel safe than do anything about it. I’m sure these are all on accident given JK Rowling is a conservative chud.
Nothing really happens for the most part tho and it’s pretty fucking ugly!
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I think if this movie existed in a universe without Streetwise (1984), it would probably feel a lot more meaningful. Instead, it feels like it’s cosplaying as the real thing. Its major glaring flaw is that in the real world humans still have some humanity. Making the characters cartoonish villains feels more like it’s playing into a boomer’s nightmare than anything with real commentary. Maybe that’s the point? For me, it loses all value as an examination of poverty, neglect, misogyny, and really anything else because its far too caught up in trying to shock. I guess I just don’t really see a point in bringing attention to all this horrible shit if we’re not even gonna feign interest in what causes it.
I like how it’s shot, and I think maybe it’s trying to get across the same desperate plea as something like Streetwise, but it was written by a genuine child and I think that shows.
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Waited outside for 7 hours in the cold to be first in line for an advanced screening today, made some amazing friends in line, absolutely worth it.
However. Something ain't right here. I gotta see it again ASAP, but I have some concerns. Mostly re: characters and depth, themes and performances a lil bit.
Beautiful movie tho- lots of really intense and scary shit. Lots of the performances ARE fantastic. Will talk more about positives and negatives on second watch but as a first reaction I feel disappointed.
I like how Eggers’ movies usually make me feel like a complete idiot, this one really didn’t.
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This movie brings me back to when my anxiety disorder was at it’s peak and I tried to kill myself bc it’s so ugly, off putting, and unnerving that I genuinely spend every second begging for it to be over. Whenever I watch this movie my chest gets tight, my hands get clammy and my stomach feels like it’s turning. Truly a horrific and honestly visceral experience. I will somehow forget all of this and rewatch again next year.
P.S. Knee surgery tomorrow
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I do not like how every human Disney character has no facial expressions of skin texture anymore. The songs are also much worse than the first movie. Rather than being part of a musical plot, they’re mostly just unrelated music videos that stop the plot.
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Watched this after finding out Martha was at a Godspeed You! Black Emperor gig the other night, thinking she might have some interesting views.
Kinda just seems like a stock standard billionaire narcissist, pretending everything positive they did is only attributable to them and everything bad is only attributable to others. Martha complains about her husband cheating, calling him a piece of shit, and in the same breath says it was fine when she did it before him… only after the interviewer presses her about her own affair(s)!
There’s one scene where she tells the unnamed help on her giant farm “don’t break this planter” when he’s not even touching it. She reminds me of every annoying middle management loser I worked under during my retail days. Not sure she had a single nice thing to say about any of the (surely thousands) of people who work/ed under her, amassing her fortune and stardom with their labor.
No thanks lady!
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After 7 years of working in and studying psychology, I can confirm this is all true. This is exactly how the human brain works.
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Trying to wrap my head around all the ego in this movie. Friedkin had a huge ego, but after watching any of his movies it’s like… he kinda should, right? Which makes it even more interesting to me that this movie feels like its wrestling with one half condemnation of ego and one half celebration of it. I don’t love important thematic information being text-dumped at the end, but learning that the criminal gets away and the cop gets demoted certainly feels like it brings Friedkin’s view into focus (and I think amends a kinda lame unseen gun-shot ending). I don’t even really think our hero being constantly racist and irrational is some negative implication on cops, I honestly imagine Friedkin had a lot of respect and iration for the character and man it’s based on (not saying Friedkin loves racism, just the gruff, morally grey NYC cop stereotype). That being said, it seems like Friedkin has the same iration for the clever and sly French criminal mastermind. I’m honestly not sure if Friedkin would think both men lost or both won in the end.
All that ego aside, it is most certainly a 70s movie that is dead locked on morality, like so many were. How important is it to catch a “bad guy” when we’re speeding past the deaths of “good guys” and civilians?
I love Friedkin’s NYC, and I say that as someone with very little attachment to NYC beyond stories of 42nd street theaters. I still don’t think I grasp “the city as a character”, but I imagine that might be one thing special to those who have spent extended amounts of time there. I suppose anyone talented enough could make a city-character out of their hometown, although I’m sure NYC residents would argue it’s unique to their home. I think it probably comes down to NYC being a microcosm of the United States as a whole at any point throughout the country’s history. I probably don’t know enough about the city to really say!
Technically, don’t think there’s anything worth adding to 50 years of discussion and DVD special features. It’s fucking crazy but still masterfully executed. I wish I had more to say to connect it to how it made me feel, but I think the cinematography, performances, colors and dialogue really just service a consistently seedy world perfectly.
It may not be amongst my favorite movies ever, but if I was describing it to a friend, the first and maybe only word I would use is BADASS!
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I think it can be hard to it and fully live in the fact that people are just people. Maybe it’s part of my educational or political background to place “blame” at environments and power structures, but it deeply colors how I view the world. Rehab over punishment, forgiveness, “looking for the good in people”- however you want to put it. I don’t think Wenders or his film are interested in convincing you that Travis is right for what he did, or that he deserves forgiveness from his child, wife, brother or even the viewers. I think instead it presents variables that potentially tell us why Travis did what he did, which is what matters to me, ultimately. Humans are influenced by billions of stimuli over every moment of their lives. From relationships to environments, from peers to parents, from addictions to unfulfilled needs. I find it a lot more interesting (and worthwhile) to examine, however we can, what goes in and what comes out. It can be a hard pill to swallow especially for cases of violence and abuse. Or if I’m being topical, it can be difficult to look past a voter and see someone struggling to survive, throwing a hail mary for some relief that is continuously promised but never comes.
Alcoholism is important here. Which is interesting because the script doesn’t spend too much time pointing a finger at it until the confrontation between Travis and Jane. I understand why someone might believe in the concepts of personal responsibility and free will, but I think it does very little to actually predict and influence behavior. Of course we can never go back in time and change what we’ve done, the best we can hope for is someone making the right decision in the future. I think that applies to an individual that has already committed horrible acts as well as to those “on a similar path” that we could potentially intercept.
Even then, a deeply flawed individual is probably not gonna be successful or “good” at righting their wrongs. I think the movie would be a lot less interesting if Travis had some perfect 180 and “fixed” everything. His abuse was horrendous, and even in trying to “make up” for it in earnest, he removes his son from a loving home and forces a responsibility onto his wife that she wasn’t pursuing. Even if she feels some renewed sense to be a mother (who can say how long that feeling lasts?). He also forgoes sleep to clean his brother’s house, he explores what it means to be a father, I believe he is honestly trying to make good on his sins. However, a problem arises and not knowing how to do that effectively in a more complex situation.
I don’t think Wenders was necessarily calling for systematic rehabilitation but my interpretation certainly includes an aspect of that. The man is a monster trying to figure out how to heal the wounds he created with only his own introspection to guide him, to the point he forgets how to talk to other people. He learns from seeing how his brother interacts with his son, but how much can he apply his brother’s nuclear family to his own?
For me, this movie takes a micro lens to the desire to be better, and shows it for how messy it can often be. I don’t think anyone other than yourself can tell you if you should/would/could forgive Travis. I don’t even really think that’s the point. Whether we wanna look at it or not, flawed people who do horrible things exist. I think how we react to them is where the potential to reduce harm is held, which will always be the most important outcome to me.
I have a lot more I could say about the nuclear family and my own experiences with a father who is desperately trying and failing to be a “good dad”, but this is already an essay. Maybe on rewatch, but for now it feels great to have a movie that’s given me so much to think about and feel!
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(This is almost entirely self reflection and has little to say about the film making itself- although I think the connections are clear.)
I work and study in behavior analysis, a form of psychology that is helpful in a number of contexts, but is mostly used for predicting and influencing behaviors in individuals with developmental disabilities (namely autism spectrum disorder and down syndrome). It’s still a fairly new science, even theoretically speaking, but major strides have been made in ethics and cultural responsibility. That being said, it’s not perfect and the science is often still misused. There are centers open that still use electric shocks as a punishment procedure (albeit somewhat nuanced, given the behaviors they’re trying to change are often self-injurious or dangerously aggressive towards others). But even then, it’s not always the case. The field has been partially co-opted by venture capitalists rather than therapists, which leads to failures in both oversight and adherence to principles that have addressed ethical issues.
The companies I’ve worked for have thankfully put a strong emphasis on the fact that we are not there to change someone’s personality. We are there to help foster behaviors that lead to more independence. This is typically social skills, hygiene, education, work experiences, etc… There’s a lot more to our ethics codes, but I feel this is the most relevant here. I think this film obviously leans heavily on themes of mistreating those we don’t fully understand, both socially and clinically, especially those uniquely oppressed due to intersectionality of a diagnosis with their gender, race, or class for example. However I think it goes a step further by humanizing and trying to understand the people guilty of mistreatment.
I’ve had coworkers, and even families of students, that show little understanding or empathy for the consequences of what we do. People that I know are trained and are in master degree level training for this field that still don’t understand why our students behave how they behave. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about people as just people. I think Cassavettes taps into something similar here.
Especially post-election, it can be hard to see people as “just people”, victims of their environments that they’ve realistically had little to no control over. Especially when you can plainly see their attitudes and behaviors harming others. But ultimately that’s where I stand. I don’t think Nick or my coworkers or conservatives/liberals are inherently evil. It can be a hard hurdle to get over, especially when you see someone vulnerable like Mabel or my students being misjudged and unfairly treated. However I think any real change has to be informed by the ease of how people are molded to behave, and should lead with comion. Lord knows my professors and supervisors never yelled at me to consider the unique challenges of my students. I also don’t yell at my students to change their behaviors. I just don’t see the value in that strategy in any context. Whether Cassavettes would agree with me on that, I don’t know. However, I think his humanistic view of the most vulnerable individuals, which also extends empathy to the people trying and failing to them, simply put, takes a lot of balls.
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All of my friends are extremely into golf, and I am not, but they were over tonight so I had to show them this masterpiece. Well deserving of the 30 foot projector screen outside after some Mario Party, fantastic evening!
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Drove 8 hours alone to see this on 35mm at the Mahoning Drive-In. Happy Halloween! 🎃
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Effective and creepy, great score, feels way ahead of its time in that regard. I think it’s very cute that Pumpkinhead looks amazing but they messed up the blood effect when Haggis cuts Ed’s hand for the potion thing.
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This review may contain spoilers.
It’s just Barbarian and Malignant again. Market as serious and then bait and switch with massive amounts of gore or goo. Every Horror Fan TM will go WOWEE I DIDNT EXPECT THAT!!!! And then clap for you, even if the first half of your movie is filled with 2010 Edgar Wright editing! I miss movies that could keep a serious tone without smashing the panic button of purposeful cringe or cynical attempts at satire for the dumbest people on earth. It reeks of desperation, like begging the audience to like your movie instead of just making a good movie. “HEY guys… wouldn’t it be whacky if I told you my movie was Neon Demon and then it turns out it’s Street Trash 😂”. At least slop like Terrifier tells you what you’re getting on the tin.
Bare bones premise is a good idea but it’s presented so fucking ham-fisted and with zero depth or respect for its audience that it doesn’t even matter by the end. Like if Brandon Cronenberg was afraid to take himself seriously.
Imagine if in Hereditary, Charlie’s head came back to life and turned into a monster shaped like gene alleles and shot blood everywhere, so you understood that the movie HEREDITARY was about ed on trauma.
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Watched on Saturday August 31, 2024.
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Watched on Saturday August 31, 2024.
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Excited to see this filling up my home page… im watching with yall. Also chatting shit on the shudder subreddit live thread. Come hang!!
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Ive only ever seen the first movie, and I thought there was too many references to that. I have since been informed that everything else I liked about it was also a reference to an Alien sequel. That sucks but I didn’t know that while I was watching it so I had fun!
Lotta nitpicky stuff I could say in of logic but whatever, who really cares? Dude playing Andy the Android was fantastic. I saw it in IMAX and the sound was crazy, specifically the gun noises.
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Don’t care if it makes me annoying or mean, if you’d give this less than a 10 I consider you to be unserious.
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Started kinda confused and was thinking hey nice I don’t know where this is going! Then like half way through I was still confused and I thought hey this is sorta annoying. Then I become not confused by way of super villain speech and it lost a lot of good will. Lots of small stuff I thought was silly or missing, and ultimately didn’t enjoy a lot of the stylistic choices. I will say it kinda suffered being somewhat similar to The Watchers for me.
One half star bonus for the restraint to not misuse the word non-verbal.
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Watched on Monday August 5, 2024.
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Watched on Monday August 5, 2024.
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Never huge on horror comedies but this is pretty cute
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Watched on Thursday August 1, 2024.
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The Halloween mood has struck me for the year.
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Watched on Saturday July 27, 2024.
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Watched on Friday July 26, 2024.
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@ Mahoning Drive-In’s VHS Fest 2024
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@ Mahoning Drive-In’s VHS Fest 2024
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@ Mahoning Drive-In’s VHS Fest 2024
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@ Mahoning Drive-In VHS Fest 2024
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Watched on Friday July 12, 2024.
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Watched on Wednesday June 5, 2024.
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Watched on Saturday May 18, 2024.
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Watched on Wednesday May 8, 2024.
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Watched on Sunday April 7, 2024.
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Watched on Sunday April 7, 2024.
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Watched on Saturday March 30, 2024.
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Watched on Monday March 25, 2024.
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Watched on Sunday March 24, 2024.
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Watched on Sunday March 24, 2024.
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Watched on Saturday January 20, 2024.
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Watched on Saturday January 13, 2024.
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Watched on Monday January 15, 2024.
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Watched on Monday January 15, 2024.
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Watched on Monday January 15, 2024.
]]>Watching em all
- True Stories
- Persona
- The Blob
- Eraserhead
- Don't Look Now
- The ion of Joan of Arc
- The Seventh Seal
- Godzilla
- Dazed and Confused
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
...plus 120 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Sometimes I forget there’s a shit ton of horror/adjacent stuff I haven’t watched so this is here to remind me whats streaming or whats in my collection that I still haven’t gotten to!!!
- Puppet Master
- Alucarda
- Four Flies on Grey Velvet
- The Blood on Satan's Claw
- Mirror Mirror
- What Have You Done to Solange?
- Alone in the Dark
- At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
- The Dunwich Horror
- Curse of the Crimson Altar
...plus 108 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I have not watched much.
]]>Keeping track so I don’t accidentally miss any :)
]]>Following the lead of Sarah Stubbs, it's time for spooky shit I've never seen! Aug-Oct 2021
]]>Films that Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats have referenced through song titles, album art, merch designs, music videos, etc... I'm sure I'm missing many of them still!
- Simon, King of the Witches
- Blood Orgy of the She-Devils
- House of Dark Shadows
- Werewolves on Wheels
- Blood and Roses
- Doctor Dracula
- Something's Happening
- Medium Cool
- Blood and Black Lace
- Deep Red
...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>On a conquest to watch an ass ton of a vampire movies and I gotta keep track.
Not all good but I definitely watched em.
- Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
- Dracula
- The Brides of Dracula
- Martin
- Blood of the Vampire
- Dracula
- Twins of Evil
- Countess Dracula
- Vampire Circus
- Let the Right One In
...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Tombs of the Blind Dead
- Attack of the Blind Dead
- The Ghost Galleon
- Night of the Seagulls
- At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
- This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse
- The Awakening of the Beast
- Embodiment of Evil
- The Rape of the Vampire
- The Nude Vampire
...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Thirst
- Stoker
- Alucarda
- Son of Dracula
- Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
- Taste the Blood of Dracula
- Scars of Dracula
- Dracula A.D. 1972
- The Satanic Rites of Dracula
- The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
...plus 64 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Beauty Raised from the Dead
- The Haunted Pot
- The Story of Jang-hwa and Heung-ryeon
- The Swamp
- Appeal on the Cross
- The Phantom Cat
- White Fan
- The Vampire Moth
- Ghost-Cat of Gojusan-Tsugi
- The Ceiling at Utsunomiya
...plus 212 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
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