Watched the Japanese remake of Cube from 2021 and it’s terrible. Very little insight into the characters outside of like, one guy, and the story is much less violent–basically pg-13 I guess. Then we just rewatched the original 1997 Cube and had a great time.
I don’t think Cube’s philosophical message about the world holds up (that vast evil plans and outcomes are created by bureaucracy itself and not intentionally by the actions of any one malevolent leader or group). The whole time Worth was explaining the Cube to the group at the end of the first act, I was thinking “okay, yes, bureaucracy can be evil, but damn this did not really bear out as a metaphor for 21st century evils, did it.” Like I can see this being more compelling a few decades ago, when it was easier for the powerful to hide themselves, but in a world of Elon-posting it’s a really dumb monologue for that character to give. On some level though I have to forgive a movie from 97 for not predicting how the internet would enhance the capacity of individuals, companies, and leaders to multiply their power and do evil actively and not by accident… but on another level it is kinda dumb as a plot, isn’t it??
Well, I guess I can forgive Cube for being a little dumb
it worked real well for me when it came out, because at the time i hadn’t really considered that systems can basically have built-in goals that exist outside of each individual part. also i was like, 13 when i saw it
anyway cube squared hybercube is also fantastic but in a much dumber way, if you haven’t seen it. i can recommend it. it’s very stupid.
i watched henry fool which had hilarious physical acting (the way everyones moves are exagerratted, over the top grabbing of objects, giant 180 degree spins, sliding into frame, posing, speaking) that cracked me the fuck up but by the end i literally couldnt understand why anyone was doing anything and it just dragged on. the soundtrack is one of those self-aware jokey soundtracks but hte director i think was still learning howt o make music becuase like listening to the soundtrack you could SEE him hunched over a piano hitting it with one finger over and over. very john carpenter soundtrack but not as charming
BUT THEN I WATCHED FAY GRIM WHICH WAS THE MOST HILARIOUS SHIT EVER and elevated by the loose story of henry fool. like apparently the guy didnt know what people wanted out of thrillers so he read the davinchi code and made a movie of entirely dutch angles. but it is thrilling! parker posey tells people to go away by saying EVAPORATE and basically the whole movie is the jamie lee curtis playacting a spy part of true lies
I saw the new Ari Aster movie Beau is Afraid today. I don’t know if I’d call it good, but it was worth seeing. Sort of felt like a much more unhinged and less mannered take on Charlie Kaufman style material. I guess it’s like if Kaufman partnered with the Safdie brothers or something. Like, everything that can go wrong for this guy does, constantly, but in inventively surreal ways. It’s kind of just a bunch of set pieces worked into what are essentially little anime arcs. Some of those worked better for me than others.
The movie really threw me off at first with its extended opening bit that to me scanned like a paranoid rural Republican fever dream of life in a big city. At first I was like “wait, is this movie SUPER reactionary!?” At best maybe it was a heightened satire of that worldview? Felt pretty uncomfortable to watch this ultra-violent depiction of demonic homeless people and minorities randomly assaulting people, behaving like wild animals, and storming into the white protagonist’s house and trashing up the place for no reason. Didn’t really feel like it earned that! I did really like the scene where he’s finally alone in the bathtub and he notices droplets splashing from above, then looks up to see a man splayed between the walls, barely holding himself up parallel to the tub, just silently weeping down onto the protagonist. Potent image!
A later segment felt like a satire of upper middle class white suburban families, so maybe Aster was just trying to depict the most paranoid possible understanding of different American folkways or something, but maybe that’s giving him too much credit.
Anyway, I’d say it was less than the sum of its parts, but some of those parts are exceptional. There are some truly great horror scenes and comedy bits mixed in. The phone call with the UPS guy, the part where he gets bullied by teen girl stoners, the absolutely ridiculous sex scene, etc… Go see it if you’re in the mood for a bizarre, ambitious (likely) failure.
Edit: Forgot to mention: The build up to the attic scene was great, but the actual payoff was such dogshit, total A24 stunt bullshit, designed to be posted about on reddit and reacted to in youtube videos, lame lame lame
Actually liked the movie’s philosophy overall because I took it to be more about the banality of evil (and how all cops are inherently fascists), that there’s no good answer for the cube existing because its just the sum of capitalist processes and bureaucratic disinterest that no one stopped the cube from being made.
Anyway, I love anything that feels like a twilight zone episode so I’m perhaps more liable to find a redemptive reading of the film’s sloppier bits.
Yeah it’s clear that the cube is a metaphor for plenty of actually bad stuff, but the actual text of the guy’s monologue involves lecturing Holloway, the doctor, about how the cube is NOT created by the police, multinational corporations, Pentagon imperialism, etc. Like the movie’s actual textual argument is that bureaucracy itself created the cube and that the real purveyors of evil in our world (cops etc) are not smart enough to actually Cubify anyone because evil is stupidity and bureaucracy is stupid. At the end, the lethargy that overtakes one of the characters is about his dread that he will have to confront the boundless human stupidity of the outside world and it’s this kind of apathetic self-satisfied sentiment that the movie seems most preoccupied with (even if it does criticize that attitude a bit).
The movie also however does clearly argue that cops are monsters. I think part of the reason I am so willing to forgive it is that it is definitely about people who are in conversation with one another re: the source of evil in our world… it lets Holloway have her say, it does challenge Worth’s take about stupidity, it does present the evidence of Quentin’s maniacal cop shit, and so on. But it absolutely has a Favorite Guy who it treats as Probably Right, and it’s that guy’s monologue I’m reacting to.
Jesus, three hours? I’m not really surprised since it’s AA, but his movies feel like homework for movie vloggers, which I guess makes this a midterm research essay.
honestly I think the fact that the guy playing Worth is obvs the best actor in the movie really undercuts the potential ambiguity of the script. I agree that his actual ‘explanation’ of the cube is limited but I also kind of feel that the script sees its limitations as well.
Strange World isn’t as good as Raya and the Last Dragon. got that goofy 3d character design aping traditional Disney models, except for the designs lifted right out of Encanto. shaggy dog & squeeze ‘n’ bounce comedic relief.
sound design was weird, I heard lots of Star Wars-derived SFX & motifs, droid noises & John Williams swells?? no songs, no catchy music
the jokes are either slapstick or “slow down!! slow down!! ::being chased:: speed up!!!”. real joyless corporate sitcom commissioned for streaming services gags. these types of jokes can be funny when they’re delivered well, which I think they were in Raya thanks to Awkwafina
monster design is fine, environments good, nice membrane textures. I enjoyed trying to identity what marine organism/biological process was the inspiration for different things.
Dennis Quaid’s performance is great, got me “is that…? hmm, no, Jim Gaffigan?! acting!?!”
the moral is “compromising on your dreams to live a quiet life in harmony with the earth is killing it, so you have to kill the thing your career is based on to save it”. also dad stuff. neither of which seems relevant to the interests of the target audience (children). people complained it was shallow, cardboard characters, and I wonder how many other childrens movies they have watched.
the explicit diversity feels a bit weird and lazy, lots of stereotypical markers. yes, Indian dudes do love to curly their luxurious moustache. but maybe they could have one or two other visual traits?? oh I should watch Atlantis: The Lost Empire again
this slaps. Mike Mignola’s designs are great, dumb jokes every minute from the crowd of ridiculous backup characters. massive bodycount, 180 crew die in the first act, “their sacrifice will not be in vain, now let’s get that bread people”
dangerously edgy, every time Michael J Fox bowdlerised a curse I think “oh he’s gonna say it”. characters hang dong (just out of sight). floaty facial animation of the villain’s henchman reminds me so much of Æon Flux I had to check if Peter Chung worked on this (he did not).
Jim Varney makes a joke about his old-timey western character’s tattoo of all 36 states in the Union, “now watch me make Rhode Island dance!” what child would think this is funny let along understand it. comedy genius
i’ve now seen two michael mann movies. one of them was great and the other was miami vice
it’s pretty funny to have your sting operation compromised by any number of federal agencies and then go “who can we trust to be competent and trustworthy in their place. ah yes, two random cops from miami.” why. why do those two cops even agree to do it? the movie doesn’t really establish anything about them at all
never watched a movie with a romance so wooden that when it starts me and the person i’m watching it with both go “why are they staring at each other like that.” the cuban love interest is haunted by a ghost who starts playing audioslave whenever she has sex
they’re so bad at being undercover. “watch out, we have eyes on us,” our guy says on a police radio channel before getting into a cop car
the climax has a nu metal cover of in the air tonight. yeah that sure is the only part of the tv show i know about, and i would rather watch that again, you’re so right
