The new IT remake is surprisingly great. Stephen King’s fiction was a (the?) major component in the pastiche that is Stranger Things, and now, ironically, that show has turned around and become a major influence on a Stephen King movie. This film does the whole “charming 80’s kids make friends and face up to bullies and the supernatural” thing with panache. The new Pennywise is pretty interesting and true to the book - it’s less of a sadistic clown and more of a totally alien being that picked up a vague notion of what clowns are 200 years ago and has been using it to lure kids ever since. The scares are legit, the effects are cool, and the acting is solid. The biggest surprise for me was the film’s sense of humor. It has WAY more comedy beats than you normally see in a film like this, and they’re legitimately really funny. There’s a bit with a New Kids on the Block poster that comes out of nowhere, completely interrupting a scene with a bunch of disruptive, non-diegetic editing and sound cues that had me laughing my ass off.
It’s one of the top Stephen King movies I’ve seen!
Also, today I finally saw the famous feminist structuralist film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. I knew the film by its reputation and its primacy in film academia but I had only a vague notion of what it was actually like. I went into the theater pretty blindly. I didn’t know it going in, but the film is about 3.5 hours long. And it feels a lot longer than that. It takes place over the course of three days in the life of a stay-at-home single mother, and it’s mostly composed of extremely long still shots of the mother taking care of various chores and errands. It’s so detailed and realistic that it feels ethnographic and almost documentary in nature. I learned how to prepare veal from watching this movie. I got some legit tips on shoe shining technique too. I also had a lot of thoughts about my own mom and what she must have gone through while I was busy being a dumb baby.
As the film goes on, it becomes clear that there’s some rather difficult stuff happening in this woman’s life, and you see her trauma manifest in such a realistic way that it’s deeply disturbing. Eventually the film went to a place I did NOT expect. The ending was amazing.
It was a very difficult film but I’m really glad I saw it.
That’s what I like to call watching your vegetables!
I went to see the new It today with my girlfriend. My was pretty much ripping my arm off by the end.
It kinda reminded me of my own childhood where I was convinced that I was being haunted by some kind of ghostly arm that would wave at me from my peripheral vision. This came around the time my friend had convinced me that he saw another arm made of sticks in his backyard floating around his go-kart. So the two of us kind of formed a little ghost-hunting group, hiding under a tarp on his dad’s trailer waiting to see if any paranormal stuff went on. Later on at school, the ghost toilet paper incident happened.
My main gripe with the movie is that the title destroys a good opportunity for a horror movie based around an ill-fated game of tag.
Also strangely, this afternoon on the walk home from the shops we saw a suspicious red balloon tied to a metal stake in a reserve next to the road.
I watched Shutter Island and except for a few of the more obviously CGI bits I actually thought it was really well done, visually. The twist was obvious from a mile off but I figured it would be going in so I didn’t really pay it any mind. It had enough mystery to maintain the dramatic tension.
I enjoyed IT 2017 except whenever the modern assembly line horror movie intruded on the expletive-loaded childhood sentimentality. All the effects were so damn lame and Pennywise wasn’t anywhere near the delightful 12 pound country ham that Curry played the character as. Instead he was a silent hill x cirque du soleil boss. The only scares that worked for me involved the actual menace posed by the parents, not goofy survival horror lepers. I know it’s a boring and obvious take, but CG is truly the worst thing to happen to horror filmmaking since Kevin Williamson.
I can’t remember if I ever posted about Valerian itt, but my quick take on it is that it was vastly underrated, but still not particularly good. The best scene in the entire movie is the opening sequence, and you can now watch it here
I’m not too proud admit that I am exactly the type of nerd who weeps openly while watching this. There’s just something so amazing and beautiful about creating a montage that goes all the way from the dawn of the space program off into a truly weird distant future, and to do it all with such optimism, hope, and wonder. This opening sequence is, arguably, the best Star Trek movie ever made.
I loved Valerian and wanted it to be on par with The Fifth Element but ultimately I think the scope of the movie was just too big for its own good. There was fat that could have been trimmed, like the whole bit with Rihanna (not that it wasn’t a cool part but it was basically cruft and unnecessary for the story), and just generally been shorter.
Looks Pretty Nice Mostly
Action Setpieces almost work as Comedy Setpieces
Bruce Willis’s Tank Top
Bruce Willis Giving The Steely Bruce Willis Look At Chris Tucker
Chris Tucker Was Really Good in DEAD PRESIDENTS
THE BAD:
Luc Besson Crafts A Female Lead That Makes it Way Unsurprising He Had Recently Impregnated a 15 Year Old???
-Everything Else
Shrug, awful people can make great things and it’s still okay to enjoy those things. Appreciating a great thing an awful person was responsible for and recognizing it as great does not also mean you endorse the person and their awfulness.
But yes I concede the bandage outfit Jovovich had to wear became even more skeevy when I found out what kind of person Luc Besson is.
On that note DOn quioxte is apparently done! Lord hopes it is good. The thing about a Gilliam film is it always looks like a Gilliam who knows what that means sometimes.
