Dir - Gaspar Noé
Overall: MEH
As one would expect from a filmmaker who is always eager to find new angles to make his viewers uncomfortable, Gasper Noé's Lux Æterna, (stylized as LVX ÆTERNA), is equally frustrating and pretentious as it offers up a contemporary take on Federico Fellini's movie about movie-making 8 1/2. Conceived of as a short film yet ultimately stretched out to fifty-one minutes, a brief intro montage of witch torture utensils over narration, (ala 1922's Häxan), gives way to various single take/"fly on the wall"/split-screen/on set documentary-styled footage of a faux production of a film called God's Craft which follows various actors, producers, extras, cameramen, and other personnel around. Chaos increasingly erupts which is probably difficult to follow by design and it all culminates with a seizure-inducing barrage of strobing lights while quotes from famous directors about maintaining control over one's art are shown on the screen. It could be saying something about women's objectification in cinema, the enormous struggle of getting a movie made, the desire to create something profound in an often shallow medium, or just random religious stuff, but good luck trying to come to any profound revelations upon viewing. It is bold, silly, often gorgeously shot, hurts your eyes afterwards, and is definitely something that only Noé would have the gall to unleash in the first place.
Dir - Robert Rodriguez
Overall: WOOF
For more noble reasons than its end product is worth, Robert Rodriguez decided to make his own solo version of a bottom-barrel Redbox movie with Red 11. Meant to be an inspiring experiment done with no crew, virtually no money, and shot on real locations within a remarkably small filming schedule, Rodriguez' independent spirit is in the right place at least. Yet the lesson here turns out to be an unintended one in that producing something with such a DIY trajectory is not nearly enough to warrant it as watchable let alone not alarmingly terrible. As one could guess, it looks as cheap as it actually is, more like a mid-tier YouTube video than something from the guy who made visually exciting, cinematic delights such as Sin City, Planet Terror, and From Dusk Till Dawn. Every other aspect is equally as underwhelming though, from uncomfortably amateur performances, wretched plotting, cricket-chirping attempts at meta-comedy, accidentally hilarious/bizarre schlock, and an overall story that is astonishingly convoluted and lame. It is impossible throughout to properly gauge what in the hell Rodriguez was going for here as it joins the ranks of Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt as a perplexingly embarrassing time-waster from a filmmaker that has long proven to be far, far, far better than this.
Dir - Dan Berk/Robert Olsen
Overall: GOOD
Filmmaking team Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's Villains hits a handful of familiar home invasion/wackadoo Jesus-loving couple beats along its route, but it is also a mostly successful pairing of comedic and suspense laden sensibilities. The script was on 2016's Black List with production beginning two years later after Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe signed on as the two cocaine-snorting, Bonnie and Clyde leads who eventually square off against Kyra Sedgwick and Jeff Donovan's significantly more dubious bad guy couple, hence the movie's title which applies to all parties involved. The cast's overall likeability goes a long way as we root for the two love-struck bank robbers who are up to no good while feeling a certain level of pity for the love-struck psychopaths who are also up to no good. Berk and Olsen make some stylistic visual choices that are fun and build up a handful of nerve-wracking set pieces that still manage to have a few well-placed, outrageous chuckles thrown in for good measure. The grand finale somewhat suffers from a noticeable tonal shift that sends the whole thing off on a more heartwarming-via-tragedy angle, but the performances, complex characterizations, and occasional trope tweaks make it darkly entertaining for all of the intended reasons.
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