Yeah, I thought it was an improvement on the original and an overall good time in the theater.
Little weirded out by some plot points that seem to imply that the boy Rian Johnson is not familiar with, uh, natural gas or jet fuel but I’ll live
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this is so interesting to me coz i found it way too self-satisfied and so kinetically-edited as to be totally overwhelming in theatre, where the first was quite refreshing. Janelle Monáe was great of course, as were Daniel Craig’s little outfits, but the entire ending was so indulgent in script and sequence that i found myself wishing i’d just watched it at home so i could flit onto my phone for a minute
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Yeah that shit really dragged lol
I like Mandy but I suspect I like it for reasons Cosmatos would consider “wrong” because I don’t take any moral message from it. He does have a visual style that appeals to me, and I love the abusive cult depiction, as well as drug rampages. There’s a lot of small interpersonal quirks, Nic Cage does a great job, and it doesn’t feel its length (where BTBR literally put me to sleep multiple times). I’ve seen it 4 or so times and enjoyed it (and noticed more fun details) each time.
I’m a sucker for languid media with weird style choices, and also exploitation media with buckets of blood and evil vibes, and Mandy is both. I don’t really have to like him because all the reasons I like Mandy are divorced from him as an “auteur” or what have you. I am a simple creature of simple tastes.
I find Stranger Things more personally repulsive because it is JUST pop-culture slurry, at least what I’ve seen of it. Sometimes the interpersonal stuff rises above “mediocre” (Winona Ryder kicks ass) but it’s too Marvel-brained for me.
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There are shifts in genre going on during scenes in Mandy that are also kind of inspired, but ymmv with caring for that or even appreciating it. I think when Mandy came out the same part of me that found the reddit man child 180g audiophile Funko pop vinyl collectables in Doom Eternal offensive was triggered by some of that film and its way way way too warm reception.
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I watched that episode of guillermo’s anthology show in iowa, and even at 40 minutes panos comatose can’t get it done. his shit needs to be eleven minutes max. the only good thing he’s done so far was the trailer to beyond the black rainbow.
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how did this guy and blomkamp escape their videogame art director destinies and get to instead subject entire terrible movies at us
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yeah, similarly, i fell asleep watching BTBR and never bothered trying to rewatch it because of how dull i found it. didn’t even gather that there was a drug element to it.
i guess i, too, am super curious about the director’s take on drugs, because after watching Mandy, it seemed extremely tongue in cheek to me - like an obvious send up of the satanic panic, anti-drug culture that was occurring during the era of film of which Mandy is a pastiche. and with the Elijah Wood production credit (again, baselessly) i just assumed it was a fun movie made by cool people who like drugs.
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At least his dad made movies I can remember anything about. I’ll never forget Stallone cutting up a slice of pizza with a scissors. Even I have rights, don’t I, pig?
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I remember one animator friend of mine going nuts about Hotel Transylvania having a part where Dracula puts on socks and shoes. Her mind was blown like gaming people were when Nathann Drake took off a jacket annd hung it up. It was crazy.
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I mean, at the end of the day Blomkamp didn’t, eh
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I watched Bodies Bodies Bodies like a week ago and it was so bad I’m still a little upset about it. did you know that weaponizing the language of privilege and victimhood can turn social circles into circular firing squads?? it’s the kind of braindead moralizing that lets everyone walk out feeling superior. uncritically literalizing these dynamics feels like tacit endorsement of reactionary fears about the real impacts of cancel culture.
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Lydia Tár would never
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i did watch Tár the other day and the last act of that movie is actually hilarious.
so many people seem to be responding to that one as chilling character study when it’s basically a Leos Carax movie.
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well now I’m interested, though I can’t imagine it’s even a fraction as interesting as a leos carax
We watched Don’t Worry Darling and it is a strictly much worse version of Serenity starring Matthew McConaughey, and it’s very bad. It’s not even a bit good enough to justify all the hubbub and drama surrounding its development. I have seen Serenity starring Matthew McConaughey 3x even though that movie is also bad, but that one is so batshit and wrong and frustrating that I’ve never been bored by it, and it’s almost kind of fun to watch it and howl. However, I was bored by this one constantly.
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I think howling is one of my favorite ways to have fun as an adult. Never could have imagined it.
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awooooooo
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my favorite media is media that makes me say “what??” with more and more As and ?s
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Another Albert Pyun watch night ended in the delightful and weird Radioactive Dreams.
Pyun really gets a lot of use out of every location he uses, and here he uses Hawaii’s lava fields to great affect, depicting a totally annihilated nuclear wasteland better than any CGI.
I have never really envied a character like Marlow and his ability to just hurl himself through a hostile world with boundless optimism and enthusiasm. I think one of the running themes Pyun liked to do is having no fucking clue what side anybody was on, except for maybe one or two protagonists. It creates a tension in every scene because you’re like “auh, are they gonna get betrayed? (yes!) when? (soon)” and then the characters come back and switch sides.
There really is an unpredictability to his films that I find refreshing. There isn’t a common 3 act structure, and you can never tell what’s going to happen from one moment to the next.
I like that our heros manage to retain their hats, even with all the trouble they end up tumbling through. When they find new suits and come back as wiser, tougher people and they step through the fog I was like “fuck yes!”
Even with the shitty VHS to DVD release, some of the color and lighting choices come through, like this cigarette that just stands out here.
And then it ends with a dance scene. I can’t even begin to talk about how good the original music was.
I do feel like this review says more than I can about the movie
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