Last month, I wrote that I felt I was at a crossroads for what I want this blog to be. That I might shake up the format and move away from the end-of-month recaps as I've been doing them for years.
I'm still figuring it out, but this month, I decided to focus on the films that had the biggest impact on me, for better or worse.
First up, I watched the entire John Wick trilogy this month. And it made me reconcile with a crucial element of my movie taste: I really like action movies.
But it's complicated. When I say "action movies," I largely (but not exclusively) don't mean movies about 1) the military, 2) superheroes or 3) big beefy guys blowing stuff up (see like, The Expendables). I mean action-adventures like The Mummy (1999). Blow-stuff-up movies that are also funny like the original Die Hard. And movies like the John Wick trilogy, which have so much lore I want to know more about but that do not tell me any of it because they are about gun ballet and nothing else.
My only critique of the John Wick movies is that each is slightly less tight than the last. But even though Parabellum is the weakest, there's still a scene with a library book you should look up even if you don't want to watch the movie.
The next May movie experience that is sticking with me is Men, a true for better, for worse situation. Because here's the thing: A good portion of this movie is effectively menacing. It does suffer from "I saw this in the trailer" Syndrome, but I still thought it was good. In fact, one section was genuinely terrifying.
But...then.
I won't spoil what happens in the final act of Men. I will just say that I hated it, and I hate that I hated it because, though it's a little unfair to compare a director's works, Ex Machina and Annihilation are both so much better.
Men made me feel sick to my stomach more than once, for different reasons and with a different...takeaway? Some of the time, I felt like "wow, this is good filmmaking that I'm having such a visceral reaction to this" and some of the time, it was more like "wow, this is terrible filmmaking because I don't even want to look at this." Watching it is definitely A Time.
Another major May movie moment was rewatching Hereditary, which I did as soon as I got home from seeing Men.
The first time I watched this film, in 2019, I gave it one and a half stars on Letterboxd. I felt like it was a movie that prioritized disturbing images over good writing and, though I recognized the performances were good, I just didn't like it.
After I watched it this month, I gave it four and a half stars. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where this shift occurred, but I think it had a lot to do with already knowing what I was getting into. Nothing took me by surprise, so I was able to focus on the films strengths: the way it actually looks and, again, the performances. There's a great thing going on with the miniatures Annie makes versus the way "real life" looks and Toni Collette is, as always, incredible. The fact that she wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award for this role remains a travesty and a great example of Academy failure.
Finally, The Bob's Burgers Movie was not The purest movie experience I've had so far this year – that was Everything Everywhere All At Once – but it was a damn delight and a source of joy I deeply needed after a relentlessly horrible week.
In other news, I also watched these films for the first time: The Wicker Man (2006), Vampire's Kiss (I hated this), The Fifth Element, Old (also hated this, but for different reasons), The Rental and Dune (2021 -- liked this a lot more than I thought I would). And I rewatched these: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond, all bangers to this day.
The best non-movie media I consumed in May was Harry's House (duh) and I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (also duh). Every book Casey has written so far has made me laugh out loud one minute and cry the next. This one, their first YA, about what it's like to grow up queer in a community that doesn't want you to fully exist, definitely had me copying whole passages down to process them. It's also just so much fun.
And "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" is obviously the best Harry's House track.
No comments:
Post a Comment