@Zola
If the 2010s were the decade of Arthouse Horror then @Zola suggests the same kind of makeover is coming for raunchy boner comedies. If it'd been made in, like, the 2000s it wouldn't be...
this. And 'this' is the most shrewd, defiantly creative movie about strippers I've ever seen - the
Magic Mike movies are objectively tactical clinics on filmmaking but Zola is on another level. It manages to baldly adapt the wildly unpredictable Twitter thread it's based on while experimenting with stylistics and never losing step with the high-strangeness comedy nor the tightening tension. The willfully grainy photography gives the world texture and sensation; there's a great moment where all the sound drops out, including dialogue, just so Janicza Bravo can have the rhythmic dribbling of a basketball pair up with Mica Levi's hypnotically drone-y score to lower your guard. Bravo will distract us with something just to yank the rug out: I was on my ass for pretty much the whole movie. And I thought
Bad Trip was the funniest road trip comedy I'd see this year but Zola is, no hyperbole, screamingly funny. Every character is humanized
just enough to keep them noticeably human when they act like, well, Floridians...or, in Colman Domingo's
X's case, a paranoid, sociopathic Nigerian. Between this,
The Florida Project,
Moonlight,
Spring Breakers, and
The Beach Bum, '
FLORIDA' should just be its own subgenre at this point. Zola would be at the top of that shelf.
AShiva Baby
This is
Uncut Gems without the impressive simulated chaos comedy. There are a few too many plot conveniences and absurd
bullshit that's meant to heighten the anxiety but feels like exactly
what it is: desperately inauthentic. And every bit of awkward comedy
falls completely flat, just to twist that butter knife. Further wounding everything: the performances are all over the place. Our lead overacts for
nearly the entire movie and her Father, played by the [usually] reliable Fred Melamed, is so
oafish and bumbling that he's a fucking cartoon. What works makes me
grit my teeth cuz I can't dismiss it all to the trash: there's some
great insight into how young people manifest insecurities into seeking
validation thru sex - especially for millennials in the internet age. I
would love, love, LOVE this movie if the lead had been told to dial it down.
On paper, Danielle is fantastically written, but on the day, Rachel
Sennott doesn't bring her to life. That makes this the most frustrating
movie I've seen this year.
C+The Green Knight
Okay, so, I used to think that Arthurian Fantasy/Adventure fare wasn't for me. This kind of media has rarely ever made me wanna come back to it. The Lord Of The Rings movies are flat-out toothless and I barely got into Game Of Thrones before watching it burn to the ground in its final season. Willow gets close, Legend gets closer, and Valhalla Rising gets closest to something I love... but they all lack that extra bite (in the case of Valhalla, it's a tad too languid). Shrek doesn't count because that's, like Princess Bride, too irreverent for the point I'm driving home - I love them for very different reasons. But, recently, Gretel & Hansel and The Green Knight finally gave me what I've been wanting all these years: atmospheric, creepy, challenging Fantasy Adventure. Knight wins out, too, for having such a sprawling and soulful story. G&H always feels a little too insular while showing us an incredible world outside of the story. Knight hikes throughout its world and made all three of my screenings feel massive. It's also massively head-scratching since it has a Twin Peaks: The Return-level mosaic of mystique. I've spent 3 days, and will spend many more, unpacking it. The central story is obvious and satisfying, with a funny and sweet ending, but it has so much playful curiosity that it demands intrigue with an undeniable majesty. I say yes every time it commands I consider yet another answer to its rhetorical queries (why is Alicia Vikander playing two roles, what's with the literal and fake puppets/puppeteering, why do the Giants sing with the fox????). Past that, our [unworthy] Hero, a [pseudo] Noble [who wants valor handed to him], is relatable in ways I'm not even willing to admit. He's unlikable and endearing in equal measure - which always makes for a dynamic and interesting character. Anything I detest about him is shit I'm either guilty of or had to outgrow. It's also worth noting that this lush, living and breathing movie was made for $15 Million and has more special-effects grandeur and eye-popping photography than most of the $100 Million Hollywood blockbuster plastic. It's a feat of filmmaking that proved I am a fan of this subject matter. It just needs a specific touch. A+
OLD
A 109-minute emotional workout; if I wasn't laughing, I was crying. If I wasn't frozen from tension or recoiling from horror, I was going through a couple of existential crises.
It's like
Boyhood but with body horror, gallows' humor, and a kooky
story that only M. Night Shyamalan could weave. Anyone else
would have leaned in and made a dry, miserable, humorless arthouse
movie OR dumbed it down and made forgettable, artless camp. Night does
his typically skilled and artistically daring high-wire stand-up act
that he's been riffing on since
The Visit. OLD's not as good as
Split but it's good
enough that, if he keeps making movies of Old's quality, I'll be
completely content as a fan because I know he has it in him to transcend that. Old's been banished by some to the wrung of his Shit Tier but it's also being lauded as a masterpiece and this is where Night belongs: polarizing the masses. It's even polarizing for me; as much as I love it, the ending is maddeningly unnecessary. There's a perfect point for the credits but Night just keeps rolling and wounds what's, otherwise, a strong victory lap after
Glass. This is an exciting time for his
career: he was humbled by a sobering fall from grace--dude went from
being called "
THE NEXT SPIELBERG" to getting collective groans when his name
was shown in a theater--but now he's leaning into what he's best at: making elevated schlock. Shyamalan's Gonna Shyamalan.
B+
This starts strong and gradually winds down. It goes from one of
the most tense home-invasion movies I've ever seen, with some
crackerjack dialog, to a typical and predictable heist movie. The double-crossings and
backstabbings and...whatever--I actually don't remember--ended up bringing
me to a might-as-well-finish-it obligation to watch. It's not bad. It's not great. The cast is incredible and the visuals are voyeuristic without
being shot in that typical, stale DocuDrama style. That's it. Sure. B-
Pig
Pig
isn't bad, at all, but it didn't
quite hit me the way I wanted it to. Everyone's been talking this movie up as the next great classic but it's.......fine.
It almost got me; my heart fluttered a few times and I got a lump in my
throat at a certain point, but I never outright broke. It's a funny,
sweet, softly satirical, well-shot and well-acted movie but suffers from a
few amateurish editing choices and a narrative that feels too small for
its 90-minute runtime. The world-building and well-drawn characters need
more room to grow. Broken into three different chapters, they never feel like they get enough oxygen. Maybe on
rewatch it'll get a stronger reaction out of me but, as it stands, it's
just solid. Anyone calling Nic Cage's performance 'revelatory' clearly hasn't paid much attention to Cage or they've been giving him the wrong
kind of attention. He carries this movie and he's not even breaking a sweat.
B
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