'Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma' A Review

Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma is a meta slasher romance about director/writer Kris(Hannah Einbinder) who goes to meet the original final girl of the Camp Miasma slasher series Billy(Gillian Anderson) as she attempts to write a reboot/legacy sequel. Themes of identity, cinema, sex, coming-of-age, and horror are explored.

Anderson gives a titanic performance, awards worthy although she will most likely be overlooked as this is a genre indie. She's totally present, totally evocative, in full control of her powers. Alluring and vulnerable, melancholic yet hopeful. It is stunning and even if some of the film's eccentricities may not be for a wide audience(it's pretty out there) she alone makes this a must watch. Einbinder's character is a bit more straight-forward but she too is compelling and emotional. The two fluidly glide between the myraid of ideas and tones with a grace the film absolutely requires.

Visually the film is rich and evocative, packed to the gills with love of the cinema, horror, and particularly slashers. Reminiscent of Stephen Graham Jones's Indian Lake Trilogy in that it celebrates the slasher, pays homage, and takes it further, providing more depth, for our modern times. The sets, the paintings, everything is lovingly and meticulously constructed. It is so full of ideas, so ambitious in what it's doing, it can be overwhelming but it is, without question, worth the investment.

A love letter to cinema, horror, and identity with a performance-of-the-year from Anderson.

Currently in theaters.

Don't Miss It.

'Pillion' A Review

Pillion is a romantic dramedy about Colin(Harry Melling) a sexually inexperienced introvert living with his parents in suburban London who meets Ray(Alexander Skarsgård) an enigmatic biker from a local club. Ray then initiates Colin into a strict BDSM relationship which Colin initially enjoys but ultimately struggles to find fulfillment in.

Melling gives an incredibly brave an honest performance, the character seems incapable of artifice and all of Colin's emotions wash over Melling's face(and body), his yearning for love most of all is so heartbreakingly apparent throughout, he is shattering in his vulnerability. Skarsgård, in maybe his best roll to date, is equally compelling if not as easy to read. He's mysterious but within that mystery he's able to find moments of revelation and eccentricity for the character, revealing to us circuitously his motivations, his desires, and his limitations. The two have phenomenal chemistry and although the support cast is wonderful, its the exploration and discovery of their dynamic that is the real beating heart of the film. Those scenes behind closed doors where power, pleasure, and absurdity are delved.

Visually simple yet beautiful and evocative. Dark suburban streets flicking by with the rev of an engine on the soundtrack you feel what Colin feels, you feel his liberation but also fear. The score is pitch perfect, passionate but haunting, and there's some diegetic music that's really effective. The costumes are great, all in all it's not flashy but totally harmonious production design.

Rich with emotion, intricate power dynamics and graphic passions.

Currently in theaters.

Don't Miss It.

'Wuthering Heights' A Review

Wuthering Heights is a gothic romance about the tortured relationship between Cathy(Margot Robbie) and Healthcliff(Jacob Elordi).

Although populated by talented actors the casting here is off from the jump. In the source material Cathy, Healthcliff, and Nelly(played by the criminally underused Hong Chau) are supposed to be in their late teens and the main three are all too old for the roles and the chemistry between Robbie and Elordi is spotty. That on top of the melodramatic machinations of the plotting make much of it, including the central romantic connection, hard to buy into.

The production design is ambitious, with some wonderful costuming and an appropriately mournful score, but it's tonally inconsistent, it's not period but it's not-not period so ultimately a lot of the choices seem unmotivated or at least seem to be driven by- is x cool? There's some BDSM stuff but that's not fully explored, some agency and relationship stuff that's not fully explored, thematically a lot is just left on the table and it's unclear if there's anything unifying behind any of it.

Maybe this is true of the source material(I haven't read the novel) but here, everyone is kind of a selfish scumbag so none of it really has any stakes. Whoever ends up with who, whoever dies, whatever the cost of any of the choices being made, none of it really has any narrative weight. And it's too long. The tragic ending leaves you relieved not effected.

Talent and ability desperately in search of coherent vision.

Currently in theatres.

Don't See It.

'Materialists' A Review

Materialists is a rom-dram, the sophomore feature from Celine Song after her breakout debut Past Lives, about NYC matchmaker Lucy(Dakota Johnson) and the tension between her actual feelings towards working class John(Chris Evans) and the magnetism of wealth from Harry(Pedro Pascal). What's a girl to do?

Johnson struggles to create a believable human, part of that is she's never displayed a particularly wide range but also, as written, Lucy and more broadly the whole narrative, has little basis in reality or interest. Johnson delivers all of her lines like she's reciting a memorized monologue but to her credit, that's how a lot of the dialogue comes across, like a socio-economics paper, not subtext, all text, all this kind of shotgun-blast punishing(and dated) argument about the intertwining of marriage and capital. Evans and Pascal are both decent, both charming, but they also struggle because their characters aren't particularly believable or compelling and said characters inhabit an absurd narrative. Give them an actual honest-to-goodness romcom and that's something that'd put butts in seats. The supporting cast is small and mostly forgettable. More broadly, why would a general movie goer care about the romantic travails of terrible, racist, shallow people complaining about making a quarter of a million dollars a year.

Visually Song continues to impress, the film looks incredible, every shot like a piece of art, the colors and textures rich and evocative. The score is consistently good but inconsistent with the tone, is this a rom-com, a rom-dram, a straight up drama, or an erotic thriller? The movie is confused and so the score, at times, doesn't really make any sense.

The big issue is the script. The themes and ideas are muddled and ultimately kind of repugnant. The movie feints at playing with rom-com tropes, postures at satirizing modern dating and marriage, but ultimately the message is this dated, regressive, quite frankly disgusting embrace of this purely capitalist kind of Girl Boss/Lean In perspective i.e. you can have it all as long as you make enough money. Which is, one, simply not true(Scrooge anyone?) and two especially offensive given what's happening in the US this year/right now, the economics they are discussing are not within reach of 95% of the population.

Blatant(seemingly unknowing) propaganda for the patriarchal capitalist machine.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

Don't See It.

'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' A Review

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a romantic fantasy about two listless mentally ill adults looking for love. A magical car rental service shunts these two sociopaths together for the titular adventure which is basically a linear walk down memory lane where they reenact/relive past individual moments together which serves as how they get to know each other. Sexy!

Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell are some of our most natural and magnetic movie stars so it is a feat here, and a fault of the direction/script rather than their talent, that they are so stilted, flat, and unengaging. They have no chemistry. The robotic, unnatural, and exposition heavy dialogue is an absolute albatross for them both and seems to take a baffling tell don't show approach. There is no subtext, no subtlety, all emotion and intent is bludgeoning clear in the punishing dialogue.

The production is whimsical and well done, not a surprise from director Kogonada, but this is the first feature which he did not write and that gulf is apparent as regardless of the effectiveness of the production design the result is impotent. Seth Reiss's script is dated, reductive, and so twee the cringe factor makes it virtually unwatchable, it is clearly an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind knock-off with none of the innovation, authenticity, or potency of that film.

Pretentious, ill-conceived, and pedantic.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.