Infinity Pool - Brandon Cronenberg - 2023

★★★★- Near great film, but afterwards I had to ask myself, why the fuck do I keep watching this disturbing shit? 

Gist is a struggling writer and his wife are on vacation when they meet a couple at their resort and go to a forbidden beach to get drunk and give/get hand-jobs. On their way back, the writer hits and kills a local, punishable by death. Some I Know What You Did Last Summer shit. They cover it up, get caught, and learn that if you have the cash, then the country they are staying will create a duplicate of you and kill that instead while you watch. Shit gets weirder from there. 

Stars Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman. Directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of the famed Canadian director David Cronenberg. He also directed the films Antiviral and Possessor. Echoes Cronenberg the elder and Harmony Korine at times.

Goth is an immense talent. Where the hell did she come from? Skarsgård is no slouch either. But Goth is a goddamned star. She makes everyone in every movie she’s in seem like an amateur. Her lack of eyebrows is a little weird though.

There is a disgusting ejaculation scene. Can we just not put that in movies? This is not the first time cum has about made me puke while watching popular entertainment recently. Call me a prude, but I can barely deal with my own semen. The scene itself reminded me of Single White Female. Right after this is when he kills a guy and then pays to have himself cloned and have the clone killed in his place. In the end, quite a price to pay for an awkward, unwanted handy. But it's not like he really learns anything other than life is pointless and there are no consequences if you have money. 

Favorite line is “Never marry a broke writer.” Pretty good advice. 

Building a double to execute seems like some shit rich people would be into and not give a shit about. Your clone calling out to your wife for help. No coming back from that, really. That is indeed some shit that will break me. 

Thought the end was going in a completely different direction. That I knew what was happening, but I did not. Last half hour of the movie really just off-the-wall and completely unpredictable. Solid flick. Definitely recommend, especially with it being available to stream on Hulu. 

Boston Strangler - Matt Ruskin - 2023

★★★- Zodiac lite with some shades of Spotlight. You can watch it right now on Hulu. One of their originals. It's pretty good, but not nearly as great as its obvious predecessors. Though the combo of Keira Knightly (what a talent) and Carrie Coon (Gone Girl, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) makes this an enjoyable watch; however, the film has some problems. 

Gist of the movie is reporter Loretta McLaughlin (Knightly) breaks the story of the Boston Strangler murders. As the killer's body count rises, she continues the investigation alongside colleague veteran investigative journalist Jean Cole (Coon). The film has a lot to say about how shitty it was to be a working woman in 1960s, how cops sometimes take the easiest narratives, and how powerful old-school journalism used to be.

In addition to Knightly and Coon, the film stars Robert John Burke (I think of him as the lead in Thinner), Rory Cochrane (Dazed and Confused, Freck in A Scanner Darkly), Chris Cooper (Adaptation, American Beauty), David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight, Suicide Squad, Dune), and Alessandro Nivola (The Many Saints of Newark, American Hustle).

Moves a little fast and the story is all over the place. The beats keep coming at you. She's at a crime scene, now she's talking to a cop, now she's home, now she's at work, now she's talking to another cop, now she's at a bar with her writing partner, now she's getting chewed out by her editor, now she's arguing with her husband. Repeat like six or seven times. Listened to a podcast about this and the possible Ann Arbor connection called Stranglers. Not sure I would have been a follow all this without having a 12-part docuseries under my belt.

I sort of hate mine and everyone's fascination with serial killers. They disgust and repulse me to no end. Yet I consume a lot of media based on these sick fucks whom I loath for bringing so much suffering into the world. All the victims die bad. Every once in a while I watch something so disturbing that I have to stop. Such has been the case for the last couple months. But goddamn do I love an investigative journalism movie. 

More than anything I love how they show the life of a journalist living a story. I've been there. It's a tough grind. You put in an incredible amount of time for no money, but there is nothing like it. That buzz of election night, basketball sectionals, watching the cops bring in a murderer. Thinking hard about it. Pouring your soul out. You live for that shit. Like a lot of movies like this, the film does a great job of putting you in that world. Hesitantly recommend.