Not very good, but didn’t hate it? At least is was trying something a little different I guess. Two star rating the equivalent of a participation trophy.
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Down Terrace 2009
First 45 minutes or so crackle with tension, which Wheatley immediately dissipates when he starts playing the murders for comedy instead of pathos. Obviously the jumping off point for what would become the absolutely useless Sightseers a few years later, and indicative of Wheatley’s shortcomings as a dramatist, i.e. going for the cheap punchline.
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Kill List 2011
Don’t have much use for Wheatley these days, but this still works like gangbusters. The gradual movement away from kitchen sink realism to full-blown, expressionistic horror impresses, as does the very fine performances (Neil Maskell does dead eyed psycho extremely well). Also resonates as a kind of epilogue/ne plus ultra of the 2000s ‘torture porn’ cycle; here, soldiering is explicitly linked to contract killing ala Blackwater-esque contractors, while mysterious, rich old men pull the strings. Certainly a Wicker Man riff,…
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Synchronic 2019
Has its moments, and it’s nice to see Mackie in something that isn’t a Marvel movie. But this never really builds up a head of steam, switching from horror-adjacent to hard sci-fi to sorta action-adventure. The various time travel vignettes just sit there, never particularly thrilling or dangerous. Unsurprisingly given Benson and Moorhead’s other films, this really shines in the relationship between Mackie and Dornan (side note, who knew that guy could actually act?). Great to see these guys swing for the fences, but it’s not entirely clear that they have the skill set for a larger production like this. The cinematography also looks like shit.
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The Blackout 1997
Hard to read this, coming in 1997, as anything other than Ferrara exorcising a debauched decade (New Rose Hotel notwithstanding). Have seen people call this his version of Vertigo, which fair enough, but it’s also clearly the work of an addict consumed by guilt. That it ends on a transcendent grace note speaks to the power of recovery, I think.
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This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection 2019
The most beautiful film I’ve seen since at least Costa’s Vitalina Varela. Has echoes of Costa, Kiarostami as well, without being beholden to those influences. Remarkable stuff.
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The Pink Cloud 2021
Appreciate that this recognizes how horniness and depression can go hand in hand.
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Zack Snyder's Justice League 2021
Don’t have much to add to the mountain of words already spilled here and on Twitter, so I’ll just say that while this is a marked improvement over the theatrical version (how could it not be), it’s also absolutely way too much of everything. The first couple of hours are the most interesting, fleshing out these characters and this world, but it’s a big problem that it becomes mostly a slog as soon as Superman returns. I’m not sorry I…