One Cut of the Dead (2019)

One Cut of the Dead begins with a single, unbroken, thirty-minute shot of a crew of filmmakers–making a zombie movie–being attacked by real zombies. It’s impressive from a technical standpoint but the story, characters, effects are nothing to write home about. If you went into this film blind you’d think it was another run-of-the-mill zombie b-movie with nothing new to say about the genre. Make it past that 30 minutes and you’d be wrong. It’s rare that a movie takes such a 360 turn but One Cut of the Dead is special. So much so that if you plan on or are interested in seeing this film I recommend you stop reading right here. This movie has a twist. A big one and I’d hate to spoil the gift that is the last 65 minutes of One Cut of the Dead

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Hereditary (2018)

Looking over the scores on our individual scores on Herditary‘s Letterboxd page, it appears I liked it the most out of the Mildly Pleased crew. Contributor Michael Sevigny gave it the lowest score of all of us and went on to say in his Midsommar entry “Ari Aster’s filmmaking is anathema to me.” Harsh, dude. Why is it that our biggest cinephile was coldest on the film, while our least film-savvy writer (me) liked it the most? I could have just asked, but let’s guess instead.

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Climax (2018)

A great poet once said, “Everybody dance now. Dun dun dun dun dun.” Those words have never been truer than in Gaspar Noé’s drug-induced nightmare dance party Climax. Before Climax I had never seen a Gaspar Noe film. I’m too afraid to watch Irreversible and have never been high enough to watch Enter the Void. So with generally positive reviews and a non NC-17 Rating (a rare feat for Noé) Climax seemed like a good entry point. Did it stick the landing?

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The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Does it make me a basic bitch if I need to engage with a film on its most literal level to enjoy it? Or, to take a step back, is it fair that I need to enjoy a film to like it? The Killing of a Sacred Deer clearly has a lot going on that thoughtful critics can engage with: complicated social criticism, obscure references, deep themes, and deliberate deconstruction of cinematic tropes. But it’s also, for me, a movie that pushes director Yorgos Lanthimos’ stoic style too far. When I hear the phrase “it’s not for everyone,” I always think “I’m not everyone, it must be for me.” But in this case, a deliberately off-putting movie made me too uncomfortable to really like it. And I think that may be my problem, not the movie’s.

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Creep 2

Three Shocktobers ago, I reviewed the micro-budget horror Creep for reasons that are hazy to me now. I’m sure I had no idea what to expect (other than a lot of Mark Duplass), and I was pleasantly surprised. That said, I would have never expected that a remake would’ve come to fruition, since it’s like, who knows about this movie? As far as I know it was released only on Netflix, and it wasn’t even one of those hit Netflix movies that teens love. But like a lot of horror movies, I’m sure a sequel was made for the simple fact that it’d be cheap to make. Once again, I didn’t have many expectations, but was pleasantly surprised to find that Creep 2 is just about as good as its predecessor. Continue reading →

1922 (2017)

The year is 1922. A gallon of gas costs $0.22. Warren G. Harding is a shitty president. Germany can’t get enough of that Nosferatu and Wilfred James has done a very bad thing. Adapted from Stephen King’s 2010 novella of the same name and written/directed for the screen by Zak Hilditch, 1922 is a Southern Gothic thriller in its purest form. Except it’s the Midwest. Nonetheless, you have murder, transgressive thoughts, desires, impulses, ghosts and corn in a brooding thriller far better than its Netflix Original trappings.

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