Recent theatrical viewings

[Rev. Powell]

HOT SPOT: A detective living in a city run by a totalitarian AI, surrounded by wastelands, investigates a murder at a refugee camp and a series of cyberattacks that are accelerating the rate at which citizen's heads are exploding. Many will complain that genuinely interesting sci-fi concepts are left by the wayside in favor of meaningless psychedelic trip sequences, but this is still likely the most entertaining movie about a telepathic post-apocalyptic detective in a blond mullet who is slowly turning into a big cat after an encounter with a cyber witch that you will see all year. 3/5. I was the only person in the theater, which made the world feel right again.

[Rev. Powell]

BUDDY: Big orange unicorn Buddy turns homicidal whenever the children don't play along with his lessons. Told almost entirely from within the reality of a kid's TV show, it's like if a demon-possessed Barney became dictator at Pee-Wee's Playhouse. There are hints, if not a complete explanation, of what Buddy really is and how his world works. It's also at times very cruel, and probably metaphorically represents what it's like to have an abusive father. Despite all this, it's not as unhinged as what I would have expected from Caspar "Too Many Cooks"/"Adult Swim Yule Log" Kelly; it's coherent enough that it's almost aimed at a commercial audience. I remember standing at the urinal afterwards thinking to myself, "he really toned down the weirdness for mainstream audiences" when a perturbed patron walked in muttering to himself, "what a weird movie." 3.5/5.