Overall: GOOD
Comedic actor-turned writer/director Jordan Peele's directorial debut Get Out may fall short of greatness, but he does a crackerjack job for a first swing at the horror genre. There is thankfully only one jump scare and the tone is simultaneously dread-fueled and bizarre, with the unease fascinatingly built-up until we find out what is going on. That is the unfortunate thing though; "until we find out what is going on", because once we do, the movie ends up stumbling towards its high-tension conclusion. The big reveal certainly packs a WTF punch for the audience, but the large leaps in logic in order to make it all hold together, (which it does not), is the bigger issue. Plot holes, flimsy logic, and things like expository dialog being delivered at ridiculous moments all unfortunately break verisimilitude. This is not to mention the comic relief that while funny and enjoyable, also makes for an awkard tonal clash. Still, it is an ingenious move to pervert liberal inclusiveness into something horrifically macabre, so even if every detail does not hold up after the initial jolt of uniqueness wares off, it is an impressive work.
A GHOST STORY
Dir - David Lowery
Overall: WOOF
A failed experiment by filmmaker and Milwaukee native David Lowery, (once again teaming up with actors Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara), A Ghost Story has wonderful ideas on paper that translates incredibly poorly into a movie, particularly into an hour and a half movie. Few films try a viewers patience from the comical, irritating, confusing, and infuriating extent that this one does. One scene in particular, (involving a chocolate pie of all things), boldly goes for grief-stricken profoundness, yet ends up being laughably ridiculous instead. Most of all though, it is just aggressively boring. There is a rare, long section of dialog where a random hipster rants like the world's most pompous party guest about how everything every human being will ever do in life is utterly pointless. Which brings up the question as to whether or not that was Lowery's entire point to begin with; to make a movie that is utterly pointless. The concept of a ghost rapidly experiencing time only to rewind the tape and sit through it again is part provocative yes, but it is also pretentiously perplexing. The small amount of characters who we meet are completely barren to us and once it becomes clear that we are simply going to witness a spirit's depressing waste of an afterlife for ninety-minutes with no further, emotional investment into anything, the whole film falls drastically apart. It is certainly different, but it is different in an alarming, disastrous way.
Dir - Spencer Maybee
Overall: GOODThe full-length spin-off of the Canadian, LGBTQ-centered Carmilla web series simply titled The Carmilla Movie fuses cutesy, Gen-Z humor with mild, non-threatening undead world-building. Both the series and film clearly adhere to a type of PG-rated Buffy the Vampire Slayer framework where a group of friends with certain quirks and expertise battle and/or investigate supernatural forces, fueled by endless quips and good-natured comradery amongst them. The lighthearted tone is established right from the get go and the film never loses its comedic intent, even as the drama conventionally mounts up in the final act. While some of these jokes are groaners, the entire thing has an innocent charm that is heightened by likeable performances and an inventive script that borders on convoluted yet harmlessly so. There is minimal bloodshed and profanity, (almost to a non-existent quota), plus nothing happens that even a toddler would find frightening, but by far the strongest attribute is the respectful depiction of queer and lesbian characters, all but one of which are biologically female and most of whom are portrayed by actors identifying outside of the straight spectrum. Even with one or two hot and steamy sex scenes, (sans nudity of course), it has none of the exploitative sleaze commonly found in genre movies as a whole and the core love story involving Natasha Negovanlis and Elise Bauman is delightfully sincere as well as easy to root for.
No comments:
Post a Comment