There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson - 2007

★★★★★- I think about this movie almost daily. Can interpret the film in about five different ways: Daniel never loved anyone and what he says to HW is a revelation, that he really loves HW chose his fake brother because HW seemed dangerous and this is his big life mistake (which is why he kills his fake brother [also why he’s obsessed with Eli being a false prophet]), that he loved HW but his drinking and rage made him crazy, that he deals with pain by throwing himself into his work which just makes him angrier over time, or that he has always been miserable and wants others to be miserable because of his success. This is all Daniel Day-Lewis, who is in another league. Everyone else suffers from this performance. This is the best performance ever. No shit. 

This Jordan-esque Interpretation was how I saw it this time. “I have a competition in me. I want no one
else to succeed… I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.” Once his son becomes his competitor, he takes that shit personally. Never has there been a more complicated father-son relationship on screen. So good. 

We get glimpses of Plainview losing control several times up to the end when he completely fucking loses it in the greatest meltdown of all time. I have a little of that competition in me on my worst days. This isn’t comforting. 

Maybe my favorite scene is when Plainview runs HW in his arms after the accident. Then he runs to the well. “ What are you looking so miserable about,” he asks rhetorically. “There is a whole ocean of oil underneath our feet and I’m the only one that can get at it.” HW OK? “No he isn’t.” 

Less complicated is what’s going on with Daniel and Eli. These absolutely hate each other. Daniel treats Eli like an idiot who he has no respect for the beginning. Then he goes to that sermon, immediately realizes he’s full of shit, but also that he’s the one he’s gonna have to deal with. “And if I have no teeth I will gum you!”

If you don’t watch this masterpiece at least three times, you can’t even have a discussion about it. There is so much to take in through every second of the film. I love it. Truly. It is my favorite movie of all time maybe. 

Phenomenal soundtrack. When the music plays, it is on. It’s chilling. I listen to it often. The cinematography is crazy too. We are mostly distant and when we get closeups, it’s uncomfortable and ambiguous. 

Jesus fucking Christ. I rewatch it whenever I hear anyone mention it. Plainview goes through hell and he ends up a reflection of that. Absolutely profound. A goddamned masterpiece.

Search Party

★★★★★- Wow. What an insane show. I felt it kept getting better and peaked with Cole Escola. Then the last season was way too much with a BA-NAN-As ending. I loved it. Also, a great contemporary New York City show, like Broad City.

The overall gist... is sort of impossible to explain. Focusing on the first season, Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat), whose life is in a rut, throws herself into trying to find an acquaintance from college who has gone missing. Her horrible friends--weeny boyfriend Drew Gardner (John Reynolds [whom people say I look like but I don't see]), flamboyant serial liar Elliott Goss (John Early, sort of a millennial that guy), and vapid actress (Meredith Hagner)--rightly think she is losing it. This ultimately leads to the literal end of the world. The missing girl, who, spoiler, shows back up, one Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty), is hilariously dumb. 

The second season focuses on trying to cover up various deaths they have caused while the third season is a trial for one of those deaths. Louis Anderson hilariously plays the defense attorney in this season. He's great. 

The fourth season is where shit veers hard with Chip Wreck, a psychoticaly obsessed man played by Cole Escola, kidnapping and brainwashing Dory. Susan Sarandon shows up in this season as an insane presence in Chip's life. She's perfect. 

The last season is where shit goes to crazytown. Dory is a cult leader funded by a Big Tech Pharma company. Her disciples are the aforementioned friends and a group of social media influencer brought together by their patron, a billionaire tech mogulTunnel Quinn played by Jeff Goldblum. Dory and the team are attempting to achieve transcendental enlightenment through a pill. It is a complete disaster. 

Couldn't recommend it more. The first couple of episodes were meh. If you get through those, it really pays off. It shan't disappoint. Five stars. 

The Furies - Tony D'Aquino - 2019

★★★★- Games gone wrong night for the Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge.  Love a good hunting humans movie. Goes back to the days of Surviving the Game and The Pest for me. So a logical game gone wrong night for me. Really liked it, though it is not for everyone. Female viewing companion liked it as well. Just saying. 

Gist is a woman is kidnapped and wakes up in the woods. She and a group of other women find themselves fighting to stay alive as unwilling participants in a deadly game where women are hunted by “masked” men. The masks are all disgusting. One has a Leatherface thing going except with a whole human outfit. 

The main girl has a friend who just sucks. Giving her tough love and what not because she isn’t tough enough. This is not what I want from a friend, yo. 

In the middle of that when the ladies get kidnapped and wake up in the shit. Doesn’t have her seizure pills. My female companion is in this boat. If she misses one dose, she’s seizing. This woman is in a bad way. Most of the girls have something going on. 

The friend, again, sucks. She doesn’t go looking for the main epileptic girl because, according to another girl, “she isn’t a real friend.” Plus, she has adult braces. 

Flick is brutal. One random example. Guy throws an ax at a woman. Misses. She pulls the ax out of the tree and tries to hit him with it. He blocks it and slowly cuts off her face with it. Doesn’t waste any time getting there either. “It’s a fucked up world full of fucked up men.” That it is. 

There are some dumb things. Running off with no weapon bullshit. You are getting chased by killers, but leave the ax/machete on the ground… How the main girl finds one of the dudes in the cult or whatever, won’t get into that, and sees her dead friend. Does set up a sequel I’d sure as shit watch.

They/Them - John Logan - 2022

★- Another Nightmare on Film Street challenge movie I did in October. This one for twist endings.  

Yeesh. Went to school with several people that went through this conversion camp shit. Extremely fucked. On top of portraying all that, this flick packs in a shitty movie with a completely inexplicable tone. 

Lot of shit that don't make sense. Why would they split up constantly like they do? Why would the camp have straightbait? Why wouldn't that bait guy get conversion therapy?  

In any case, this is how you make a slasher. Torturing kids. Makes sense.  

Super bad movie. Also, it is very bad. Should have payed more attention to the audience score which is a paltry 22%. 

Makes the cardinal sin of killing the dog and features a bunch of bullshit. Fuck this movie. One of the worst I've ever seen. Also, Anna Chlumsky from My Girl shows up after god knows how long for this POS? Whatevs.

XX - Roxanne Benjamin, Sofìa Carrillo, Karyn Kusama, St. Vincent, Jovanka Vuckovic - 2017

★★★★- Watched this for Witchy Women night for the Nightmare on Film Street challenge movie. I guess this one qualifies. 

Anthology flick with segments all directed by women. As with most anthologies, some are better than others. Overall, it is solid though.

First one is about a family that stops eating after the sun peaks into a strangers mysterious gift box. The second one, which stars Melanie Lynskey, who I adore, is throwing her daughter a birthday party when she discovers her husband has committed suicide and decides to hide him. Great segment. What a fucking nightmare. This one was my favorite. Surprisingly a lot of humor in it. 

Third one, titled “Don’t Fall,” finds foursome climb a cliff where they find a cave painting of demons. One gets possessed and that is that. Fourth one is about a woman who sign is about to turn 18 and appears to be a psychopath. Rips her kids fingernails off at school (which the school seems to wanna give him an award for or something), abuses the dog, killed a squirrel, so forth. A real piece of shit. She is terrified of him. Let’s just say that Rosemarys baby is required viewing to really appreciate this last segment. It's fantastic. I’d watch the feature length of this flick. The end is pretty stupid though. 

Connective segment is some creepy Tool-esque stop motion shit. Sort of like Mad God. Just a bunch of art house stuff.

Speak No Evil - Christian Tafdrup - 2022

★- One of those elevated horror movies. Gonna have to remember that I almost always hate them going into the future. This was supposed to be up there with Barbarian and Nope for this year's best horror. Nah. 

Gist is a Danish family--mother, father, daughter--visits a Dutch family--mother, father, mute son--that they met on a vacation at the beginning of the movie. The hosts, it becomes clear, are fucking insane. The Danish couple, however, don't know how to read the signs and get the fuck out as shit starts to escalate and become more and more nightmarish. 

Hardly any of the movie is believable. The evil Dutch folks, it is revealed, has been up to some shit for a long time. One would assume 100s of years when we see the extent of it. However, I'm pretty sure we aren't supposed to think that they are supernatural in the end. 

All that said... I can’t imagine hating a movie more. Dahmer or Funny Games would be a palate cleanser after this fucked up watch. DO. NOT. RECOMMEND.

American Horror Story: Cult

Finished this season last month. Just in time for the midterms. Evan Peters… you okay, brah? Some Tyler Durden project mayhem stuff going on with his character, except way more unhinged.

The line between political and religious cult is pretty thin here. The “sacred copulation” that happens is exactly what you’d imagine an insane cult orgy would be. It’s indescribable. The “climax” is really something. Goes there.

Sarah Paulson’s performance is dope. Paulson, me thinks, led the team this season, which is one of the best. There were several in a row that were unwatchable leading into this one. Back to being a fan now.

Cursed Friends - Laura Murphy - 2022

★★- More forgettable crap. Group of friends play a fortune telling game as kids and the stuff they predicted starts happening when they are adults. 

Not exactly how they come up with this, but they  think they have to like kill the people they predicted they’d marry to break the curse. Then if one does kill their spouse, the curse is broken for all of them, so they mistakenly think. Long story short, Guillermo straight up murders Rob Riggle, and his friends are cool with it. This even though it doesn’t work. Which is all to say, a crazy, complicated storyline that is nearly impossible to follow. 

So, yeah. Overall, pretty bad, but fun. Sort of. They were advertising the shit out of this when I was in NYC a few months ago right before it came out… but why?

Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty

Rich people drama. Docuseries on HBO about a family that USED to be above the law. type of families I went to school with. Entitled, rules don't apply to them, parents have a Wikipedia page, so forth.

It eventually comes crashing down. This is all still happening. Hopefully families get some justice. Interesting watch.

Goodnight Mommy - Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala - 2014

★★★- Yeah, fuuuuckkk this movie. Good or whatever, but extremely disturbing. Not happy I watched it. Cannot recommend.

The film is about a set of twins with a very complex relationship with their mother who had some sort of facial trauma. They live in a large isolated house where their mother seems off. The boys begin to question the mother's identity, believing that she isn't the same person as the one who went into the hospital. They begin to question if she is their real mother, and then, where their real is if this is in fact not the woman they know.

Slow burn leads to a horrific ending. The audience, like the boys, are never sure if this is a stand-in until the end, when the unimaginable answer becomes definitive. I see it has been remade in English with Naomi Watts as the "mother." I don't recommend that either. 

American Psycho - Mary Harron - 2000

★★★★★- Rewatching for the first time in a long time. I tend to really like adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis, but hate his novels. As a dude, he seems horrible. Talking trash about homosexual media, “I like the idea of Glee, but why is it that every time I watch an episode I feel like I’ve stepped into a puddle of HIV?” among many other things, and then coming out as gay to make it okay. 

His fiction is just as toxic with the intent of glorifying America's problems. Plus he called David Foster Wallace, once my favorite writer, "the most tedious, overrated, tortured, pretentious writer of my generation" after DFW hanged himself. He offered no evidence for any of it and came off as professionally jealous. 

So, anyway. I can deal with his whole irredeemable bleak worldview for in two hour chunks, but I'll never read another one of his novels. I think this treatment, though, American Psycho as satire, is exceptional. However, I am not sure many see it as such and come away with the wrong lesson by not seeing it for what it is. 

Bale is great. Really made him a star. But the whole cast is pretty stellar. I don't watch this often and haven't seen it since college, but I'm glad I revisited, which sort of surprised me.

The Night House - David Bruckner - 2020

★★★★- This was ghost night for the whole Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween challenge thing. 

The gist is a widow whose husband just committed suicide begins to figure his disturbing secrets. Ends up finding this murder house he built in the woods that is exactly like their house except for sort of off and unfinished. All is not what it seems.

Interesting movie. One of the ghost-as-a-metaphor movies. Like the Babadook except without an annoying child.

Concept was super interesting. The inverse house adds to the whole dream quality. Similar to Us in that way.

The Rental - Dave Franco - 2020

★★★- Slasher night. Woohoo. 

More than decent (but forgettable) debut by Dave Franco. Stars the lovely Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand, and Jeremy Allen White. Toby Huss is also in it as a red herring. So, yeah, incredible cast.

It follows two couples who rent a house in the wilderness. Things start to happen and they suspect they are being watched. It's creepy as shit. 

Things escalates. People make poor decision and get themselves killed. Recommend.

Dark Glasses - Dario Argento - 2022

★★★★★- Another Nightmare on Film Street challenge movie. This one for Italian films. Argento, the master of Italian horror, has a new film so that was an easy choice. A true return to form for him. Loved it.

Gist is a guy who is out there killing prostitutes. One played by Ilenia Pastorelli, a very pretty lady, loses her sight in a car accident that results when the killer pushes her car into oncoming traffic. Her car hits and orphans a Chinese kid. 

She eventually goes to visit the kid in an orphanage. He escapes and they make a deal. He’ll be her guide if she lets him stay there. Eventually, they get to tracking down the killer to get their revenge.

Like what they have going on here, the female lead and the Chinese kid. That is until the kid calls the killer thinking it's a cop the killer murders cop. By the by, this features a lot of incompetent Italian cops. You don't say, right? Anyway, the kid tells the killer where they are hiding out. Spoiler. Kids are fucking stupid. 

This all leads to a cool scene where her and the kid work together to try to shoot the killer. 

Another cool scene comes when Pastorelli’s character gets lost in the woods and feels her way to a building. Once there, she accidentally turns the lights on and has to get them off before the killer shows.

It becomes clear at one point that Argento doesn't know much/anything about snakes.

Great dog movie. Good girl. Also, it is a positive portrayal of sex work. That’s sweet. Like Dressed to Kill, but not transphobic.

Get Smart - Peter Segal - 2008

★★- Not a tight movie. Basically, every time I check to see how much time was left, I was shocked. How is there an hour left? How can there be 45 minutes to go? There are 25 minutes left in this movie, are you kidding me?

Weird to see a Rock movie where he is the fourth banana. Also, him and Terry Crews teaming up together is cray.

Lot of suspension of disbelief. Steve Carrell goes from paper-pusher to superhero as soon as he is promoted to field agent. Anne Hathaway, my queen, was looking fine though.

Gone Girl - David Fincher - 2014

★★★★- I just watched this over the weekend. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. What a fucking nuts movie. Towards the bottom of my flicks for Fincher, but still stellar. Love his films.

It’s almost humorous how elaborate the plot gets. Lotta Fincher themes getting explored here and done really well. Narcissistic sociopathy. Check. Scathing media takedown. Check. Trouble relationships with money and power. Check. Extreme misogyny. Triple check there. Amanda Dobbins, whom I love on The Ringer, asks if the film is “a misogynistic summary of all the ways that a woman can falsely accuse a man.“ Also, based on a Gillian Flynn novel. 

The Amazing Amy shit is a really great way to fuck somebody up. She has no real friends, a total sociopath, the only people in her life are her parents and people she’s manipulating (her husband, the dumb pregnant girl, so forth), but she is pretty capable and plays a great victim. Her husband, Ben Affleck’s character Nick, is really gonna have a shitty life. And in the end, they’re back where they started, in a loveless marriage but now there are no illusions, I guess. Here you are raising a child with a woman that was going to kill herself to frame you. That kid is going to be fucked, one of her playthings. 

Loved Tyler Perry. Wasn't a fan Neil Patrick Harris. Structure of the movie is pretty good. One thing I couldn’t really get behind is how the detective and everyone when the gone girl returns after having obviously murdered someone is just like, “meh, it was just a goof.” White people are indeed crazy.

Ravenous - Antonia Bird - 1999

★★★★- Like ‘Cannibal! The Musical,’ it’s based on this Donner Party-type incident regarding one Alferd Packer, who ate some dudes on an ill-advised trip for gold. It’s up for debate whether he or someone else on his trip, whom he said he killed in self-defense, murdered people in the party.

A frontier/cannibal comedy-western about getting "the hunger" after eating human flesh as well as coked-up energy and super healing. It was pretty great. 

I somehow watch a lot of cannibalism movies. I can’t stomach the thought of meat—long time vegan. (Parker is rumored to have been a vegetarian after this all went down, by the by). I feel like a starving in the wilderness scenario would be the only way I would ever eat meat again. But that would indeed be some shit that I would t be able to bounce back from. It’s one thing to say that you could do it if you were starving. But having a chunk of long-pig in front of you that you gotta eat to live. That would fuck up me real bad. So, yeah, exploring the deep questions here. Ye olde “would you eat someone” dilemma.  

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas - Todd Strauss-Schulson - 2011

★- Wanted to watch a dumb comedy Christmas movie. Saw the original Harold & Kumar White Castle movie back when only halfway paying attention while talking and drinking with buddies. It was fine for that. The director did this movie I really like called The Final Girls. I figured why not. Yeesh. I also see that they go to Guantánamo Bay, which sounds like a hoot.

Pretty terrible and quite offensive. I feel like it was pretty inappropriate in 2011, and has aged terribly. They call some shit “gay“ twice, for example. The combination of racial, rape, child pornography, and children doing drugs humor is really something. Not exactly a Christmas classic.