Recent theatrical viewings

[M.10rda]

I hadn't seen a movie on the big screen in months. Last night I made it just in time for a seasonal horror double feature at my local drive-in on the last night of their season.

THANKSGIVING (2023):
I'd argue that CABIN FEVER and the first two HOSTELs are at least offbeat and interesting enough to provide Eli Roth w/ the necessary coolness credentials to, say, hang out w/ Quentin Tarantino. His last few films, however, haven't offered anything particular that you won't get in most other mainstream genre flicks. Although the GRINDHOUSE trailer upon which it's based had a real Video Nasty vibe about it, THANKSGIVING is another extremely mainstream effort... mostly professional and painless to watch (until the end)  but pretty much bereft of anything like distinctive auteurial voice or authentic artistry, besides a few scenes of moderate splatter. I suspect Roth wanted to recreate the kind of "classic" early 80s workmanlike slasher that was no better than decent when it was released but which we still think back on fondly... MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a good example. Those vintage flicks depend on nostalgia for their charm, though - so does that mean we need to wait 40 years before we can fully appreciate THANKSGIVING?

The one sort of nifty thing about THANKSGIVING also ends up being a primary shortcoming - it's got a huge cast of suspects and victims, some of them relatively interesting and some not, but at least the sheer volume of characters keeps you mentally engaged about who will bite it next and who is (or whom are) operating behind the killer's cheesy pilgrim mask. This backfires on Roth by the end, however, as there are at least half a dozen distinct major and minor characters who never end up playing any significant role in the action (but also, in most cases, never pay off in juicy scene-stealing Tarantinoesque character bits). I could forgive this oversight if Roth actually was playing fair with his Whodunnt, but when the killer is revealed (LIGHT SPOILER) it's a character who couldn't possibly have committed several of the murders and other mayhem w/o violating laws of space and time or having a PRESTIGE-style army of clones. This is a real let-down in real time as it plays out onscreen, and it continues to diminish THANKSGIVING's internal logic hours later as one recalls all the ways in which the reveal is impossible. Did Roth have to reshoot/change his original ending? Other slasher movies have sillier and worse endings, but it is unfortunate that Roth couldn't have come up w/ something a little stronger, particularly w/ a screenwriting partner and 15+ years of development time!

2.5/5
...There is a scene where the killer acts w/ unexpected decency that will please all cat lovers.  

[M.10rda]

Part 2 of last Saturday's trip to the drive-in (top-billed was THANKSGIVING):

IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE (2023):
About 20 minutes in, the protagonist gets a text inviting her to a "New Year's Eve" party already in progress, though the fact that it is indeed Christmas Eve has been repeatedly established. Really BadMovies.org is the ideal home for IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE, which boasts on average one similar world class forehead-slapper of idiocy or incompetence every five minutes. Whereas Roth's THANKSGIVING aims low and still manages to misfire, this Christmas-themed companion piece has far loftier ambitions... and ends up screwing the pooch catastrophically. Although it hinges on a similar premise as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, there's no actual guardian angel to establish metaphysical or supernatural ground rules, in spite of the protagonist (Winnie) and her sidekick/quasi-love interest (Bernie) debating which of them is the other's "Clarence". (Groan.) Nevertheless, the characters spontaneously arrive at inexplicable rationalizations for how Winnie's non-realist predicament can be resolved, and somehow their magical thinking ends up being entirely accurate. I'd swallow it though in the absence of the other incidental implausibilities and inanities that sail through the film like clockwork.

Sadly, there's just enough potential in this dumb movie and its earnest aspirations to wish it was much less inept and laughable. It delivers the kind of righteously indignant fantasy justice to its "Mr. Potter" stand-in that SNL envisioned way back in the 90s (and that my oft-mentioned bugbear WW84 truly required), but it rings hollow in IAWKNIFE, where Mr. Potter isn't Lionel Barrymore or even Pedro Pascal, but instead Justin Long giving a broad, mawkish sketch of a psychotic fascist demagogue. (I think Long is consciously channeling Mike Myers channeling Martin Short, though who knows!) There are also more LGBTQ+ characters in this film than in any other mainstream slasher I've seen - at least 6 confirmed, four of them major characters, and none of them purely victims. That isn't to say they're all well-written, and at least one seems entirely cosmetic, or perhaps more accurately irrelevant/unnecessary: a character with (or played by a performer who has) an enormous birthmark or discoloration covering half their face. Said character has (iirc) two throwaway lines, is most often seen hanging off their lover, and their offscreen death is only briefly remarked upon. Now, if the Coen Brothers for instance included a character, or cast a performer, with an enormous facial birthmark in a minor role in one of their films, and their appearance was never remarked upon, we'd all take it more or less in stride or even admire them for their unforced spirit of inclusiveness. Regrettably, a film as pervasively moronic as IAWKNIFE generally is becomes an easy target for ridicule from internet trolls, who can cry "tokenism" or accuse these filmmakers of being "woke" - and who will bother to defend a film this dumb?

I dunno, maybe me! Winnie and Bernie are likable enough, sympathetic enough, almost sufficiently cute enough together to deserve a more intelligent vehicle for their starcrossed misadventures. Also, it was nice to see Katherine Isabelle from GINGER SNAPS as Winnie's lesbian aunt. 20 years on she's looking a little rough but... I still kinda' dig her! I suppose that's not very woke of me, though.  
2/5

[Rev. Powell]

DREAM SCENARIO: Nicolas Cage stars as a mild-mannered evolutionary biology professor who starts appearing in random strangers' dreams, which turns him into a international celebrity. Cage stretches by giving a performance that's not 100% crazy all the time; the movie loses steam as he gets "cancelled" and turns into an even more pathetic wretch, but the premise and performance are good enough for a pleasant DREAM. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE BOY AND THE HERON (2023): A Japanese boy who has lost his mother in WWII meets a mysterious heron creature who guides him into a fantastic netherworld between the living and dead. Hayao Miyazaki's imagination and design sensibilities haven't dimmed with age--witness the man-eating parakeets--and HERON ranks alongside his best work, with a minor complaint being that it wraps up too abruptly. 4.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

POOR THINGS (2023): Bella, a mad scientist's creation with (literally) the mind of a child, runs off with a rakish attorney to explore the world. Perhaps a tad long, and Yorgos Lanthimos' random experiments with different lenses can be distracting, but the cast (especially Emma Stone) are magnificent, and there is much magic and wit in this Frankenstein story turned social satire. 4.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

GODZILLA MINUS ONE: In post-WWII Japan, a cowardly, shell-shocked pilot seeks redemption by volunteering to fight a new threat to his homeland: Godzilla. Predictable but well-done crowd-pleaser that's the most seriously-intentioned Godzilla since the 1954 original (and yes, Tokyo does get stomped). Would make a good (if long) 2023 double feature with OPPENHEIMER. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

AMERICAN FICTION (2023): An arrogant literature professor who writes dense novels on mythological themes poses as a thug from da hood after his parody novel, written under a pseudonym in black vernacular, is optioned for six figures; the dumber he acts, the more money he makes. A smart and funny comedy about racial stereotyping that will wring laughs from the woke and anti-woke alike. 4/5.

[M.10rda]

Interesting...! Rev, do you know if this film is intentionally a criticism or parody of novelist Marlon James? (I've read one of his big mythological books as well as his recent urban crime novel and I uhhh liked the urban crime novel more...)

[Rev. Powell]

Interesting...! Rev, do you know if this film is intentionally a criticism or parody of novelist Marlon James? (I've read one of his big mythological books as well as his recent urban crime novel and I uhhh liked the urban crime novel more...)

I don't know, but I doubt it. It's based on the novel "Erasure" by Percival Everett and I think it has an autobiographical inspiration (he wrote an adaptation of Medea in his youth).

[M.10rda]

Ah okay then. Thanks.

[Rev. Powell]

THE ZONE OF INTEREST: An SS commander and his wife raise their family in a lavish village on the grounds of Auschwitz. Obviously, a serious and respectful work; the only problem is, there's almost no plot and no one to root for, so once you grasp the premise, the movie does little except parade its procession of small, if chilling, ironies. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

SCRAMBLED (2023): A mid-30s party girl and eternal bridesmaid with no husband prospects heaRs the first ticks from her biological clock and decides to undergo a procedure to harvest and freeze her eggs. Raunchy but empathetic, and confident enough to nail a joke at a miscarriage support group. 3/5.

[Trevor]

The subsidy scandal film DEATHWALKERS (1988) which is on YouTube: I lasted a minute into it 😳💩

[M.10rda]

The subsidy scandal film DEATHWALKERS (1988) which is on YouTube: I lasted a minute into it 😳💩

Wait, on Youtube or in the theater? Because if you sat one minute in a movie theater and then walked out....... I salute you, sir!      That's a Boss Move indeed!

[Trevor]

The subsidy scandal film DEATHWALKERS (1988) which is on YouTube: I lasted a minute into it 😳💩

Wait, on Youtube or in the theater? Because if you sat one minute in a movie theater and then walked out....... I salute you, sir!      That's a Boss Move indeed!

😁😁

I think it was more like 30 seconds 😳😉