Watching Movies 11/2

All I can say after a month of horror movies is I'm tired of the spooky dream sequence cliche. Almost everything I saw had one, and one was the entire movie.

Nicely structured horror film with a variety of well-drawn characters and an especially fun performance from Amy Madigan. I have some small quibbles: The running kids look silly. Julia Garner is annoying. What's the point of the rifle? Why does she need the children? Nothing that ruins the movie, esp. one with so many nice turns, but I think it ultimately could have hit harder to explore this community of missing children. I guess there's The Sweet Hereafter for that. 

A simplistic premise where the director is more adept at ludicrous kill scenes than building an intriguing drama. It's essentially a comedy, but there's a lot of downtime between laughs and all the characters are hateful to each other. Theo James gives a reticent performance in a double role that needed to go over the top. Elijah Wood only shows up for five minutes of the movie, which is unfortunate.

An attention-grabbing movie that feels pieced together from other films - not just Cronenberg, but Kubrick and Aronofsky and All About Eve and The Elephant Man and... was that a bit of music from Vertigo? Dennis Quaid could have stepped right out of the Hunger Games. It's one thing to show your influences, but crafting a whole film out of them is a bit much. Thankfully, Demi Moore goes absolutely nuts with the role and makes it worth watching. The movie kept escalating the campiness in a way that negated all the logical questions that kept arising. 

While I was unimpressed with X, Pearl was different enough to get me to watch it and made me appreciate Mia Goth, and Maxxxine is another unique continuation of this world. This is how you do sequels (and prequels). Goth is fairly bland this time around though, surrounded by more interesting characters and drenched in 1980s style. Kevin Bacon is the real attention-getter playing a James Woodsian slimeball. The story isn't particularly intriguing, but it's serviceable and it captures the essence of the 1980s better than X captured the 1970s, or maybe I can just relate to it more. 

One of those movies where all the characters have no enthusiasm and deliver all their lines in a detached monotone. Every line. It's a story about teenagers that are obsessed with a surreal 1990s TV show, but there's a lot of tell, don't show, and it didn't add up to much. I'd like to see the lead actor Justice Smith in a more dynamic film. 

Goldthwait wrote and directed this short-lived eight episode series of amusing horror/sci-fi/fantasy shorts that explore a variety of styles, a few of which are gems (the first three episodes), but it's a mixed bag overall. The best part is going behind the scenes with Goldthwait at the end of each episode. 

I like weird movies, but too often the pacing is often atrocious, and Mandy is no exception. This movie just trudges along, and it's not helped by its very basic and cliche revenge story. Sorry, but you've got to be a lot weirder and more interesting than this. I should be excited by a chainsaw fight to the death, not completely bored.

A small movie about grief and mental illness that's mostly contained in a house with two characters, but thanks to Essie Davis' wide-ranging performance and Noah Wiseman as a very believable kid, it's never dull. It would have worked just as well without the Babadook contrivance, but I guess horror movies need their scary monsters.

Satan scholar Frank Langella hires book expert Johnny Depp to find the rare books that will allow him to summon the devil.  Polanski made a spate of classic horror films back in the 60s and 70s, but this is not a welcome return to the genre. Polanski is not at the top of his game here. The story is interesting enough even if the puzzle is easy to figure out, but Depp is lifeless and miscast. The role needed someone more vulnerable and much nerdier. Langella is fun. 

I admire what they did even if I was completely detached the whole time. The dystopian world was just too alien and weird to really get involved with the characters, and the comic book/musical presentation was even more distancing. If it leaned more comedic like Phantom of the Paradise it might have worked better, but it was too mired in 1990s cyberpunk grunge to be anything more than the broadest and most obvious satire. That said, the cast is excellent (including Paris Hilton) and we don't get enough contemporary musicals turned into films.