Murder of a Cat - Gillian Greene - 2014

★★★- Not an easy film to follow. Love the idea, and the script was apparently pretty popular. Neo-noir with a cat murder at the center. Lotta potential but poorly executed. Extra points for cats though.

The Blue Dahlia - George Marshall - 1946

★★★★★- Very pretty ladies in this one with Veronica Lake and Doris Dowling (who plays the awful wife). Coming in hot, this movie. The first 20 minutes are like seven different movies. 

Starts with casual racism, however, I’m not really sure if the guy that gets called a “monkey” is not actually a swarthy white guy. Then we say that the guy who dropped the “slur” had a traumatic brain injury and has a plate in his skull. He also seems to have some PTSD and major memory issues. Turns out to be sort of a gentleman though.

He comes home to a bunch of drunks and his wife making out with some dude. Then they have this exchange after he slaps the guy shooting his wife. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I think you had better leave. My husband would like to be alone with me... He probably wants to beat me up. Perhaps you wouldn’t want me to apologize. “Apologize, darling? But you don’t have to; you’re a hero. A hero can get away with anything.”

I think this sort of thing happens a lot. Soldiers get married young before they go off to war. Come back to find their wives or husbands who they probably don’t know that well with someone else. I had a great aunt that Had some other guy besides her husband’s kid and he was basically just like, “well, get rid of the kid but I guess we will stay together and I’ll just treat you like shit for the rest of our lives.” That was before people got divorced and what have you as is this film. It looks like it’s going to be a wonderful life there, soldier. 

Before he and his wife get everybody out of the house pretty much his buddies call. They said they would whenever they found an apartment. I thought this would be like a month from then or something, but they’ve already got one, moved all their shit in, and everything like 10 minutes after tying one off at the bar/causing minor property damage.

The neighborhood has a house detective, what the fuck is that? Tell him to keep it down and pull the shades down if he’s going to push his wife around. The tone, I thought, was definitely, “don’t fucking touch her.”

This movie is just one thing after another. Find out that they had a child that is now dead. Dude starts grilling his wife about it and she went to one of her parties got wasted and then has a “car smash.” This appears to be fine legally back then. Sort of just frowned upon, killing your child while drunk driving.

Then the real action starts. Great film. Highly recommend. But be ready, this movie is a pretty demanding watch.

Watcher - Chloe Okuno - 2022

★★★★★- Solid flick. Love Shudder for showcasing new and diverse voices.

Gist is a woman moves with her BF to Bucharest, Romania. She thinks that a guy across the way from their apartment is watching her whilst someone is going around decapitating women. 

It’s a psychological, Hitchcock-esque horror film. Hits all those beats of a Rear Window or Suspicion. Simple, slow moving, classic type of flick. Rosemary’s Baby vibes at times, even. 

Stars horror darling Maika Monroe as the lead, Julia. Might recognize her from It Follows and The Guest. She is sort of it market correct Keira Knightley type for lowish-budget horror. 

Within the movie, Julia goes and sees the Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn movie Charade, which is a personal favorite. I am a sucker for a scene where someone goes to a movie theater to watch an old movie, especially one I love.

You really sympathize with her if you’ve ever spent any time somewhere where you don’t speak the language. Even though she does a lot of questionable shit for a woman in a horror movie. 

Makes me realize, again, that being a woman must be incredibly hard. Especially a woman in a foreign country who doesn’t speak the language. Plus her husband, this gaslighting mother fucker, being all dismissive even though there is a serial killer in the neighborhood and shit. I don’t know, with people getting murder in front of the apartment, maybe if I were a cop or a guy whose wife was like “this guy is fucking following me, giving me murder dreams,” maybe I would fucking listen. That just me though.

The guy she thinks is stalking her, by the by, looks exactly like Elon Musk except with more hair.  Also, less of a psychopath.

Intense final 20 minutes. Wasn’t sure about it. But I liked where it went. Great final shot.

Hocus Pocus 2 - Anne Fletcher - 2022

★★★- Watched this for the final night of Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween challenge. This one set on Halloween. Behind a few with posting, obviously.

Exiled from Salem, which is actually good for them considering what all goes down in there. Assume the studio people were like, “meh, who knows what really happened with witches in Salem at this point.”

I was pretty much in love with SJP in 1993. She’s definitely still my favorite, besides the zombie dude from The Shape of Water, Doug Jones. Plus Tony Hale and Sam Richardson, who is kind of an asshole in this.

Sort of goes down a road I wasn’t expecting… but wasn’t surprising. It was kinda touching though. 

Actually liked it better than the original. Watched it last year and wasn’t a big fan. This one was ok. 

Only Murders in the Building

★★★★★- First season was near perfect. Doesn't get better than Martin Short and Steve Martin. The Three Amigos was one of my favorite films as a child and I love when they are together. They are treasures, these two. Great premise too. Been going to New York a lot lately. The guy I visit has a nice apartment, but nothing like this, which is sort of like the Dakota, if you are familiar with that famous location. It's where John Lennon lived and the building where he was shot. The exteriors are from the Belnord. I'd love to live in an apartment where the residents talk and solve mysteries and shit. 

★★★★- Didn’t like the second season nearly as much. Too much Selena Gomez and her artsy girlfriend. Thought it was a little mean spirited too. Really shits on this Poppy chick who is just some country girl who faked her death trying to make it in the Big Apple. Still liked it though. Will definitely watch season three. Martin Short and Steve Martin are amazing, of course. As are many of the other peripheral characters.