Nikki Glaser: Bangin'
Parts of this stand-up were funny, but if I'm being honest, the real reason I watched the whole thing was I couldn't believe the words coming out of Glaser's mouth. She's made a career out of talking about sex, and it seems there's nothing she won't say. It's a little admirable and a little uncomfortable.
In The Tall Grass
This was really bad. I went into it thinking it was either going to be interesting in a Gothic Americana way or terrible, no in between, and I was right on one front. It was American Horror Story: Kansas, in terms of plot holes, effects, treatment of women, everything. Skip it.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Fantastic. I'll admit I was nervous about this because I think the Breaking Bad finale is perfect – but it goes above and beyond to settle the tale of Jesse Pinkman. I loved it.
Disturbing Behavior
This movie had extreme X Files energy. It was less than 90 minutes long, involved teens behaving weird because of some unknown (but eventually revealed) force and featured very silly effects, some not-PC treatment of neurodiverse and mentally ill people and even music by Mark Snow. There was one scene in particular that had me like "oof" because 1998, but the rest was fun.
The Return of the Living Dead
I 100% watched this movie because of this ridiculous, fantastic song from its soundtrack. And here's the thing: I don't condone serious zombie movies because zombies are silly. So, this movie does a good job of being an extremely silly zombie movie. The acting is over-the-top, it's pretty funny and the '80s fashion is great. I could've done without the graveyard striptease and gratuitous nudity that followed – but I can't say that wasn't extremely "1985."
Jenny Slate: Stage Fright
Jenny Slate is so good, she's like a force of nature. Over the course of this hour-long special – her first, somehow – she made me laugh out loud and feel deeply melancholic, sometimes at the same time. It's bold to say, but she's the first comedian to remind me a little of Robin Williams (a once-in-a-lifetime talent). Like a cartoon come to life, her brain goes so fast and she's so consistently energetic and entertaining that you get the sense there's Something Else lurking underneath – something Slate addresses right in the title of the special.
The Love Witch
This movie is basically Bewitched on hallucinogenics. Aesthetically, it's stunning and I get that a lot of what it's doing is paying tribute to the horror films of the '60s. But I still just found it really weird. Probably partially because I didn't realize it was "unrated" before I pressed play...
Greta
As previously stated on this blog, I love an obsession movie. They're all campy and dumb, extremely low-brow stuff, and that's what makes them wildly entertaining. This one checks all the boxes, with the twist of the dynamic being an old woman obsessed with a young woman in a messed-up mommy issues way. I also like Chloe Grace Moretz, and Isabelle Huppert does a thing with her facial expressions that I couldn't quite pinpoint but was deeply unnerved by.
The Innkeepers
I really liked this one! It's a sloooow burner and, more often than not, really more of a spooky buddy movie than a full-on ghost story. It doesn't get traditionally scary until the end, but it's a good movie the whole time because it's not really about ghosts -- it's about boredom and what it does to your mind. Also a little about the camaraderie of working boring shifts with someone. Bonus: (part of) the ending is a shocker.
The House of the Devil
After being so impressed by The Innkeepers, I decided to seek out what else director/writer/editor Ti West has done. The House of the Devil came out in 2009, but it's set in 1983 and through 16mm film and attention to detail, it's almost impossible to tell it's not some lost VHS classic. It's well-done and genuinely shocking at times. I'm not a huge "Satanic Panic" horror fan, so when the real ritual-ing started, I was less engaged but then the great use of gore got me back (there's also one thing that is not explained well, but it's not a dealbreaker). Definitely recommend.
I'm also alllmost finished with The Body, which has been very enjoyable and also serves as one of the rare times I've been sure a character was perfectly cast in a movie (River Phoenix as Chris Chambers). Next up is Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare, a book Maggie has lent to me.
Also this month, I binged all of Prime's Modern Love, based on the New York Times column -- which then meant I had to go read a million of the columns too. I liked some of the episodes a lot and didn't like two of them at all, but overall my experience reading the essays has been good. These are my favorites so far:
- Am I Gay or Straight? Maybe This Fun Quiz Will Tell Me
- No Labels, No Drama, Right?
- You May Want to Marry My Husband
- At the Hospital, an Interlude of Clarity
- Why Can’t Men Say ‘I Love You’ to Each Other?
- Years Ago, My Sister Vanished. I See Her Whenever I Want.
- Need to Find Me? Ask My Ham Man
I also started watching Good Girls Revolt on Prime, knowing I'd love it and be heartbroken it was canceled. I was right.
No comments:
Post a Comment