We recently watched the following.
Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous: Hilarious and heartfelt, Bo Burnham never fails to impress with his wit and insight. His observations of social media, it's influence on young people, perceived reality vs. actual reality, and the need for constant recognition is brilliantly executed on a comedic level but also with the detached self awareness of a true intellectual, despite the absurdity of the situations Zach creates for himself and his loved ones. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Seriously I can't recommend this show highly enough. Sadly it was cancelled after only one season, but it ends on such a perfect note that it almost doesn't need any further exploration.
I have to give to my wife credit for suggesting the following to watch as I don't know that I would have necessarily picked them myself. I'm open to different types of stories, but to her credit I'm glad she did because these were eye openers.
Don't Worry Darling: A mediocre film that falls apart under further examination. Even the great performance by Florence Pugh, who impressed me enough where I want to see more of her work, couldn't save a half baked script. The biggest issue with this story is the fact that while the screenplay wants to flex it's ambition for a lofty statement about "toxic masculinity," it never manages to establish it's premise clearly enough to warrant such a bold theme. Especially one as dominant as this when we live in a time where it would feel the most relevant. Without giving too much away, it doesn't help matters that it can't decide what genre it belongs to. Some films can deftly blend genres to great effect, but this movie fails to establish the stakes and characters enough to justify any credible emotional response from the audience and the few tropes that do exist are used to dress the story with something interesting to watch, not actually to further the plot or character. The twist comes out of left field with little evidence to support it and most of the mysteries introduced never get explained other than to give interest to an otherwise bland concept. If you want to see movies that deal with the themes of abusive men and the women who can survive them, I'd much more recommend....
Fresh: A charming and sinister gore/ horror film with stellar performances by Daisy Edgar Jones and Sebastian Stan. I'm not a gore hound but this was done with such style and dark humor that it drove it's point home with the visuals rather than having lengthy monologues about the horrific behavior and treatment of women among emotionally unequipped men. While the end did play into the standard horror tropes, and for this I can't completely fault it as it honors the genre, it does go a bit over the top. It's entertaining and most of its charm is the charismatic performances by Jones and Stan. If you're a horror fan, it's a fun watch.
Promising Young Woman: This was very difficult to watch but was the most realistic take on the kind of predatory and sinister ways men can treat women. Very powerful messaging but done with real style and emotion that felt natural. Despite the current climate and the incessant need to drive home the negative attitudes towards heterosexual men, this film manages to be very well written and might end up being a benchmark in it's genre. It's a revenge movie in the tradition of I Spit on Your Grave, a film I have yet to see, but one that came highly recommended from one of my best friends. This movie is proof that when done right, you can take a theme that's complex, relevant, controversial, and make it engaging enough without having to brow beat you into submission with its theme. I was very impressed with the character development and I was rooting for the protagonist as her motivation was clearly established.
Glass Onion: I've made no bones about how much I dislike Rian Johnson. I wasn't all that impressed with Looper and felt it was overrated. I absolutely loathe The Last Jedi, and Knives Out was another overrated mess. Fast forward to last week when my wife suggests this movie because the mystery genre is one of her favorites. I was hesitant because of Johnson, but I was very pleasantly surprised that I actually enjoyed this one. I wanted to like Knives Out. After my dismal experience with his turn at Star Wars, I still wanted to see what everyone thought of as "brilliant" about this guy and I felt like I should try and be objective about giving Knives Out a chance. It was his own original concept, but it just flopped for me. Who makes a whodunnit and reveals the killer forty five minutes in and then leaves another hour plus to go? Just terrible.
With that said, the introduction of Daniel Craig's character in the previous film did save Glass Onion from having to establish him again, but merely reintroduce him. This is the type of mystery that Knives Out promised but failed to deliver. The characters in Glass Onion are established well enough with clear motivations, the stakes are set and the danger feels real. There's enough of a lighthearted vibe to elicit a few chuckles, and while it's not to the genius level of movies like Clue, which features Tim Curry's incredible performance, Glass Onion is slick and bouyant enough to not forget that it's escapist entertainment. If only Johnson hadn't been so arrogant and pretentious with Star Wars, he might have actually delivered something good! I digress. Glass Onion is an entertaining mystery with a fun ensemble cast and an interesting enough mystery that kept me watching to seeing how it would all come together.
Perhaps Johnson has matured as a writer to not feel the need to buck tradition and damage his scripts with unnecessary subversion. Subversion has its place, but not in every story. Glass Onion establishes it's clues well and times the reveals of the mystery appropriately. There's a reason why the traditional format and tropes of certain genres work within their respective stories and it seems he finally understands why that structure works as well as it does. The thing is that within those confines there's a lot of room to still explore the writer or director's creativity enough to have the work be their own, without having to strong arm their mark onto the story by upending their own efforts in order to shock their audience. While I normally would be averse to giving such praise to competent work, in Johnson's case I have to applaud his efforts here as his previous movies have clearly disappointed. If he continues in this vein, I might actually be more open to his movies going forward.
Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous: Hilarious and heartfelt, Bo Burnham never fails to impress with his wit and insight. His observations of social media, it's influence on young people, perceived reality vs. actual reality, and the need for constant recognition is brilliantly executed on a comedic level but also with the detached self awareness of a true intellectual, despite the absurdity of the situations Zach creates for himself and his loved ones. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Seriously I can't recommend this show highly enough. Sadly it was cancelled after only one season, but it ends on such a perfect note that it almost doesn't need any further exploration.
I have to give to my wife credit for suggesting the following to watch as I don't know that I would have necessarily picked them myself. I'm open to different types of stories, but to her credit I'm glad she did because these were eye openers.
Don't Worry Darling: A mediocre film that falls apart under further examination. Even the great performance by Florence Pugh, who impressed me enough where I want to see more of her work, couldn't save a half baked script. The biggest issue with this story is the fact that while the screenplay wants to flex it's ambition for a lofty statement about "toxic masculinity," it never manages to establish it's premise clearly enough to warrant such a bold theme. Especially one as dominant as this when we live in a time where it would feel the most relevant. Without giving too much away, it doesn't help matters that it can't decide what genre it belongs to. Some films can deftly blend genres to great effect, but this movie fails to establish the stakes and characters enough to justify any credible emotional response from the audience and the few tropes that do exist are used to dress the story with something interesting to watch, not actually to further the plot or character. The twist comes out of left field with little evidence to support it and most of the mysteries introduced never get explained other than to give interest to an otherwise bland concept. If you want to see movies that deal with the themes of abusive men and the women who can survive them, I'd much more recommend....
Fresh: A charming and sinister gore/ horror film with stellar performances by Daisy Edgar Jones and Sebastian Stan. I'm not a gore hound but this was done with such style and dark humor that it drove it's point home with the visuals rather than having lengthy monologues about the horrific behavior and treatment of women among emotionally unequipped men. While the end did play into the standard horror tropes, and for this I can't completely fault it as it honors the genre, it does go a bit over the top. It's entertaining and most of its charm is the charismatic performances by Jones and Stan. If you're a horror fan, it's a fun watch.
Promising Young Woman: This was very difficult to watch but was the most realistic take on the kind of predatory and sinister ways men can treat women. Very powerful messaging but done with real style and emotion that felt natural. Despite the current climate and the incessant need to drive home the negative attitudes towards heterosexual men, this film manages to be very well written and might end up being a benchmark in it's genre. It's a revenge movie in the tradition of I Spit on Your Grave, a film I have yet to see, but one that came highly recommended from one of my best friends. This movie is proof that when done right, you can take a theme that's complex, relevant, controversial, and make it engaging enough without having to brow beat you into submission with its theme. I was very impressed with the character development and I was rooting for the protagonist as her motivation was clearly established.
Glass Onion: I've made no bones about how much I dislike Rian Johnson. I wasn't all that impressed with Looper and felt it was overrated. I absolutely loathe The Last Jedi, and Knives Out was another overrated mess. Fast forward to last week when my wife suggests this movie because the mystery genre is one of her favorites. I was hesitant because of Johnson, but I was very pleasantly surprised that I actually enjoyed this one. I wanted to like Knives Out. After my dismal experience with his turn at Star Wars, I still wanted to see what everyone thought of as "brilliant" about this guy and I felt like I should try and be objective about giving Knives Out a chance. It was his own original concept, but it just flopped for me. Who makes a whodunnit and reveals the killer forty five minutes in and then leaves another hour plus to go? Just terrible.
With that said, the introduction of Daniel Craig's character in the previous film did save Glass Onion from having to establish him again, but merely reintroduce him. This is the type of mystery that Knives Out promised but failed to deliver. The characters in Glass Onion are established well enough with clear motivations, the stakes are set and the danger feels real. There's enough of a lighthearted vibe to elicit a few chuckles, and while it's not to the genius level of movies like Clue, which features Tim Curry's incredible performance, Glass Onion is slick and bouyant enough to not forget that it's escapist entertainment. If only Johnson hadn't been so arrogant and pretentious with Star Wars, he might have actually delivered something good! I digress. Glass Onion is an entertaining mystery with a fun ensemble cast and an interesting enough mystery that kept me watching to seeing how it would all come together.
Perhaps Johnson has matured as a writer to not feel the need to buck tradition and damage his scripts with unnecessary subversion. Subversion has its place, but not in every story. Glass Onion establishes it's clues well and times the reveals of the mystery appropriately. There's a reason why the traditional format and tropes of certain genres work within their respective stories and it seems he finally understands why that structure works as well as it does. The thing is that within those confines there's a lot of room to still explore the writer or director's creativity enough to have the work be their own, without having to strong arm their mark onto the story by upending their own efforts in order to shock their audience. While I normally would be averse to giving such praise to competent work, in Johnson's case I have to applaud his efforts here as his previous movies have clearly disappointed. If he continues in this vein, I might actually be more open to his movies going forward.
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