Reviews

This is the real reason why native Hawaiians don't want mainland U. S. citizens coming to the islands. Just watch this and you'll see what I mean.

To be honest, this is quite the stain on the legacy of an otherwise iconic family series, and a really unfortunate way to wrap it all up. Of course, it doesn't really matter because most will likely forget about this, I mean I didn't even know it existed until Disney+ recommended it to me as I began watching the series.

While Season 1 and 2 of the series were mostly pure gold, the 3rd and final season was a lot more flimsy. It's funny to me because Beans is the only thing you really hear people reference at this point in time, but when they start making Beans a major character is right when the show starts to degrade in quality. It seemed to me like Season 3 was trying too hard to be zany and more "out-there" with the plots, which in the end really lost focus on what made the show great, and that was the actual chemistry and mechanics between the family and their close friends, and classmates. The episodes that focused on school were definitely the strongest ones, and it starts to veer from that in Season 3. The movie, however, veers WAY off the road, completely losing the majority of all the elements that made Even Stevens great, and even manages to have 95% of its jokes feel cheap, unimaginative, and most unfortunately, not funny at all. Majority of the dialogue and moments throughout the entire movie fall flat.

The cast do their best but it's mostly the horrendous writing that makes this movie barely watchable. Tim Meadows is always a welcome addition to any cast, and brings this movie its strongest moments, which is...maybe two of them. There's a plot twist about halfway through that was pretty much the only thing I found any real value in through this entire film, but it wasn't enough to redeem the low quality of the movie - it kind of falls right back into its own cesspool of badness immediately.

There are some fun over-the-top moments towards the very end of the film that fans of movies like Spy Kids 2 might enjoy, but otherwise there's really not much here I can point anyone towards. It's quite the stinker. The series is totally worth watching, especially Season 1 and 2, but I would avoid the movie like the plague. I'm a big Shia LaBeouf fan and this was never on my radar when it was on TV, so I wanted to consume, see where it all began for my guy. Gonna check out his breakthrough drama features that followed after this, soon....

Barely "a movie", yet so much more than a movie. My Dinner With Andre is the greatest podcast episode you've ever listened to, or the greatest book you've ever read, but in the format of a film. You may ask yourself, why would I want to watch a 2 hour film that is literally just two men having a conversation over dinner? Well, because the conversation they are having is perhaps the most profound one I've ever heard, and perhaps the precise type of conversation in which no higher tier of profundity is even possible. This is basically an existential instruction manual - at the very least, designed to remind you to rethink things, in the same manner that a psychedelic experience would.

The most powerful part of this film is in the manner that it is one of few pieces of media that has the power to make time seem much less relevant than it does on a day to day basis. Though this was made over 40 years ago, it feels as if it were written for us, today. The themes and ideas discussed transcend the concept of time and era, thus making the movie itself timeless in some form. While I say that, it also feels mind-blowingly relevant in regards to where we are currently heading as a society, including the progressions of technology, and how it's effecting us, etc. Every lick of the conversation conjures wonder, intrigue, and naturally, universal reflection.

It was a bold move for the filmmaker(s) to carry on producing such a "minimal" film with such maximal concepts. The team must have had the same level of confidence that lead Andre Gregory portrays in the film to know that this would be something worth making. I see now that the film was also written by its two leads Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, making this whole thing all the more real and intense. This has put Andre Gregory on the map for me, as an instant legend.

"It's inconceivable" how effective this little slice of philosophical offering manages to be. It really feels like it transcends the expectations of what one generally attains from consuming a film, or any single piece of media, for that matter. I absolutely cannot imagine how most of the world swallowed this epic pill in 1981, before the internet, before the access, before everything that defines our world now. I have a feeling this is something I will be returning to more than once throughout the remainder of my life. This has entered the category of a small handful of films that were so profound that I started bawling either just before the closing credits hit, or in the moment that they hit. I can't even call it a masterpiece because that word doesn't feel right... that word correlates with a piece of art, but this isn't just a piece of art; it's more than that.

I have not HATED a movie this much in YEARS.

I'm not sure I've ever felt more misled by hype. Albeit the content itself feeling potentially cliche, the trailer was so tasteful in a visual regard that I felt the movie might deserve a watch. But it was the immense hype on Twitter that's been pushed into my feed the last couple days that made me believe it would truly be something special. That assessment could not be more wrong.

First, I will acknowledge the movie's few strengths. Shot on location in Italy, many of the environments are relatively gorgeous. The costumes and set design are well done. And I found that the cinematography was very tasteful, and most of the lighting and color grading looked very nice. But the positives END THERE...

First and foremost, if you have a hollow script and hollow characters, it is very rare that any other elements will redeem your film. NONE of these characters have ANY depth or actual personality, with the exception of maybe Maria Caballero, the only actress who gets the chance to bring even the slightest bit of charisma to this film, even if its on the most base level. Thus, by default, the majority of the dialogue is a slog to sit through, as it mostly consists of basic exposition, and stale exchanges. Around the half hour mark, I began wondering if I should leave and get my money back, but I decided to hold out and give it a chance. Now, I can say that that was a mistake. It's been quite a while since I sat through an entire movie in which I could not wait for it to be over.

Through the first half, it was floating around a 5 out of 10 for me, but as it carried on, it kept giving me more and more reasons to despise it. I must say that it's greatest offense is that it features hardly a SPECK of originality. This is one of the most uninspired movies I have ever seen. Clearly the director chose some very excellent classic horror movies to rip off, but the problem is that outside of it's VERY blatant rip offs, it has no personality of its own. The only memorable scenes in the entire film are clear lifts from other iconic moments. The most memorable death sequence in the first half begins with a nod to the original Omen then attempts to take the original Suspiria's most iconic death scene and "up the ante" - while it is probably the coolest scene in the entire film, seeing how uninspired the rest of the film was afterwards makes me look back on it with the sourest taste in my mouth.

On the subject of SUSPIRIA, much of the music score was a direct lift of cues from Goblin's iconic Suspiria score. This director very much seemed to be a fan of Argento's legacy, as he seemed to cast a girl who very much resembled young Asia Argento as seen in Dario-produced films like The Church. And noting The Church, another one of this film's "primary horror sequences" was a direct ripoff of a scene in that! But WORST OF ALL.... WORST OF ALL.... was the BLATANT ripoff of the greatest scene of all time, Isabelle Adjani's subway breakdown in Possession. When THAT happened, this film created an eternal grudge with me, and I will never forgive it. It is VERY obvious that the director had lead actress Nell Tiger Free study the scene and try her best to replicate it EXACTLY. ALL of the details were ripped off - there was nothing subtle about it. It was PAINFUL to watch. To see THAT, the most legendary horror sequence of all time, ripped off to a T in a movie this vacant of any merit or inspiration, enraged me to my core. Who let this happen? I have never hated a scene in a movie so much in my life.

I had read a lot of hype about how stellar lead actress Nell Tiger Free's performance was, as well. While she gives a respectable effort, this script is honestly not giving her much to work with. The movie is actually mostly plotless and there's not a lot of legit connection from one sequence to the next. Because of this, the tension never really gets built up at all. And, I felt what the "big plot twist" was gonna be about halfway through the movie.

Uninspired, vapid, and straight up disrespectful to the classics, I am gonna go ahead and say this is one of my least favorite horror movies of all time. I was really hoping that this would be a solid year for American horror films. American horror films have primarily been garbage for the majority of this century. We NEED a revolution. That's what I want this year. I was hoping this would help to kick things off, but this is the epitome of the type of insincere, uncreative carbon copy garbage that has made horror the worst genre in American movies for the last 20 years. When will it end?

It is FLABBERGASTING how bad this movie is. I believe I will be adding it to my "Worst Movies of All Time" list.

Director Abel Ferrera is clearly capable of making great films (like Bad Lieutenant, Ms. 45, Driller Killer, etc) but it really feels like he's not even trying here. In fact, it feels like NOBODY on the cast is trying.

Christopher Walken is Christopher Walken'ing as hard as he's ever Walken'd, but it feels like full parody the entire time, and he feels fully checked out - it's impossible to take him seriously in this. Willem Dafoe gives the film some noble energy but the script he's working with is as vapid as can be, and it feels like he's clearly aware of it. I'm sure it didn't matter much for him because he spends half of the movie in prolonged sex scenes with Asia Argento at the peak of her seductress years. As far as Asia goes, she is very sexy and you can tell she's sort of just being herself, kind of confidently mumbling through each scene, which works in some movies, but this movie needs less realism and more CHARACTERS, and it doesn't really have ANY.

In the beginning of the film, it kind of feels like we're going to get this ultra stylish, almost cyber-punk-ish type of movie, but after the first 10 minutes all of that is abandoned and we're left with a silly plot that is so broad, you can almost feel that it's not going to work from the very start. They lay the plot out for you in the beginning, and as interesting as it potentially could have been, you don't actually see any of it go down through the entire film. You just "hear about it". Instead, you just get endless meandering conversations between Dafoe and Argento between love-making, in which they are basically saying nothing notable...for the entire film.

As if the first hour of the movie wasn't bad enough, the final 1/3 is mostly composed of flashbacks from the first hour of the film!!! They literally just replay over 15 minutes of boring scenes from the first hour, in a 90 minute movie!!! Those scenes weren't even entertaining the first time!!!!!! This is an absolutely INSANE move!!!!

All I can think is that Abel Ferrara was almost trolling in some form. He probably just wanted to hang out with Asia and Willem and Walken for a while and got funding and was basically just knowingly wanking off and flatulating with this hackjob of a movie. I can't believe how bad it is!

This is the coolest movie I've watched in a good while...possibly years. I've absolutely never seen anything like it. And maybe that goes without saying because it's the only "Russian folk horror" movie I've ever seen, but literally every element of this took me to what feels like a world I've never set foot in before. It's the only movie I've ever seen where nearly every single character has a bowl cut and a mustache.

The visual aspect of the film definitely steals the show, combining excellent makeup work and striking practical effects with unique editing tricks that nowadays will likely be perceived as "cheap" to some people and brilliant to others. Either way, it is an extremely stylish film with character all of its own and (unless you are insane or have no taste) will imprint images in your head that you will either find terrifying or iconic.

While the middle of the film is quite slow, it has thrilling bookends that make the movie entirely worth it and it's rather easy to swallow at a mere 78 minute runtime. While the plot seems simple on paper, the way things unfold and the things that happen around it were unpredictable and otherworldly to me (and I have seen A LOT of horror movies).

The cinematography and environments were immaculate and awe-striking. The music was intense and powerful. The cast all did a balanced job of giving the movie just the right edge of subtle humor in combination with a fairy tale-like surrealism.

The only things I could even compare this to in the slightest is some of Werner Herzog's early films. Say if you combined The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Heart of Glass, and Herzog's Nosferatu, then added a bit of Mario Bava, you would START to get into a similar realm, but even then....this thing exists so much in it's own fantastical world, it really can't be pinned down. It can only be experienced to be understood.

It's also just really surreal to me that this is from 1967. It doesn't feel like it's from the 60's. Technically, it feels much newer. I feel like this would have been absolutely mind-blowing to see in the 60's. It's still mind-blowing now! It has an extremely timeless value, in my opinion. I know that this is not for everyone but I think everyone should give it a chance, especially everyone who is open to retro-horror or Euro films of the past. What a special, iconic, inspiring film! Masterpiece.

The most commonly used word by people who appreciate this film is "meditative" and I would have to say that I agree with that sentiment. Who would have thunk that a film simply covering seven suicides could somehow feel so disciplined, artful, and often even calming? Of course one of the key reasons for this is due to the phenomenal music score, which is mostly very gentle and very melancholic. But, it's also directed with great precision, shot rather gracefully, and paced and structured in a very immaculate way, which gives the whole thing a very satisfying cohesion.

I think this film is often referred to as exploitation but honestly it doesn't really feel like an exploitation film at all, tone wise. It feels like art by a visionary. Yes, it has some gnarly sequences of violence (like a castration and a lot of relatively realistic gun deaths), but they are mostly quick and not designed to beat you over the head or over-bear you. I feel that this movie is primarily about mood, atmosphere, and visual character, and I felt that is was a very tasteful and singular experience.

Obviously, if a movie that simply covers seven suicides does not sound appealing to you, then you should absolutely not watch this. But for those who can find the value in such a thing, this is a surprisingly impressive piece of art, that even manages to feel "from the heart" for moments at a time.

This is the first film from Berlin-based Jorg Buttgereit that I have seen, and although I've heard that it is his best, I liked it enough that I do feel inspired enough to check out his more-talked-about Nekromantik.

Visually, this movie is strikingly majestic and beautiful.

It also features a very unique combination of elements.

I've not seen a movie quite like it, aside from maybe The Devils.

But, sadly I found the movie itself to be quite boring.

I will say that finally in the last 20 minutes, when things come to a head, it has it's magic moments, but it's not enough that I would ever recommend this to anyone.

I didn't know until after I watched this that it was by the same guy who made The Red Shoes. I felt very similar about that movie. Very striking visually but the movie itself did very little for me. I feel like fans of movies like that, Days of Heaven, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, or Stalker, are the kind of film fans who would also appreciate this. Movies where very little happens, just in a rather intriguing environment.

Really, the only thing I truly appreciated outside of some of the extremely gorgeous shots, was the performance of Kathleen Byron in the final 20 minutes. There are a couple shots where her face looks so striking that it will remain etched in my memory. In one shot, I think I even said aloud to myself "Did they do something to her eyes?!?!" She looked nightmarish and I don't know why!

I imagine this would have been fully mindblowing in the 40's, and its still something special, just not totally my cup of tea.

Another movie I watched recently with a very similar energy was Diabolique, the French film from the 50's, only that film featured a much stronger payoff at the end, so I would have to lean towards that.

This movie hits a lot different once you're no longer a naive 18 year old suburban midwest boy and you're now a 39-year-old sex worker living in a big city. Frankenhooker herself is a bit of a mascot and an icon.

All killer, no filler. Not a single moment of seriousness. Just nonstop cheap thrills all the way through. Henenlotter really had the formula down with his best films, making him one of the kings of this kind of movie. Though BRAIN DAMAGE is still definitely my favorite of his films, Frankenhooker delivers and certainly holds a special place in the history of the B-movie, for good reason.

Hardly anything about it makes sense, and it never even tries to, and that's why it rules. It just has a good time with every dumb step that it's story takes. Gnarly practical effects, thrilling nonsensical deaths, endless jokes that are so bad they're good, and of course Patty Mullen looking like an absolute babe in all that purple flair! It really does feel and function like a perfect swan song for the entire decade of 80's schlock transitioning into the other kind of soft-core-digital-synth weirdness that was the early 90's in film/TV. Everyone should familiarize themselves with Frankenhooker.

"My magnum opus came out of my puss puss"

I believe that Betsey Brown is such an immense genius that all her brilliance gets balled up into utter chaos, and it's all so much that it will never find semblance as something that is palatable to the majority of human beings, but the glimpses are consistent. I was first exposed to Betsey in Dasha Nekrasova's directorial debut The Scary of Sixty-First, a relatively psychotic film in which my main takeaway was that Betsey Brown is a ridiculously talented and very intense actress. I have been paying attention since, and when I saw that she would be unleashing her own directorial debut, I was wholly intrigued (especially with its insane cover art and promo images).

Actors is one of the most unapologetically unhinged films I have seen in some time. As is suggested by the title, the film is meta in a multitude of ways, not just because it's made by actors and is loosely about their struggles in the business, but also because the main characters all consist of Betsey's real life family. If anything, I felt that I learned more about the actual Brown family from this than anything else. To me, it partially functions as a bizarro mockumentary of sorts, in that regard. It is Betsey's (and seemingly her entire family's) utter disregard for the general rules and formulas that viewers expect when they go to see a movie that is precisely what makes Actors such a respectable monster.

So, why would anyone want to watch a movie about some family they've never heard of? Well, you won't know until you watch. And it's kind of something beyond words, and that's what makes a rare movie experience like this so special. No one or nothing is stopping this family from being as "themselves" as possible. The one thing that CAN be put into words and is impossible not to notice, is how much graphic sex and nudity Betsey wrote and directed for herself in a movie where the cast, outside of her boyfriend, is literally just her brother, mom, and dad. That, in addition to certain transgressive plot elements, just shows that the Brown family are very UNAFRAID to make exactly what they want to make. Their movies are very clearly only for them, not for the audience, and that's refreshing.

Way too many people go into movies looking for "a message" now, and I'm not clear as to why. In the 80's and 90's (when cinema was great), people just wanted an experience, and it was lovely that way. Actors isn't going to give you some tale of advanced morale that you can adapt into some sort of text lesson, or implement into a Facebook thread. This film is about diving into unique minds; psychotic minds, even. The film is self-exploitive in an immense manner that is equally bold, brave, and hilarious. You should all feel privileged whenever someone this interesting makes a movie this sincere.

When you strip away all the by-the-books bull, you're left with an intensely personal experience, from the deepest parts of the psyche. It's hard to compare the film to much, but there are a few things that come to mind. It exists somewhere in a realm between art legend Ryan Trecartin's I-Be Area, Asia Argento's Scarlet Diva, and the works of commensurates in Betsey's circle, like director Eugene Kotlyarenko. I'm sure most people wouldn't even know how to process this, but I had a blast with it. Betsey is constantly bringing the drama and the meta up to 11, and I was cracking up plentifully. The pregnancy stuff was a riot and the nod to Possession towards the end meant a lot to me!

All hail the weirdos!

Is that a young Leonardo DiCaprio? No! But clearly they wanted a kid with his vibe. Oh, it's the young man from Madmen, Vincent Kartheiser, years before he found success with that series. What a gnarly way to kick off your career...

This is certainly not a pleasant watch but it's definitely a peculiar one. It is a unique amalgamation of flammable parts. This was infamous director Larry Clark's follow-up to his wave-making depresso collaborative masterpiece with Harmony Korine, KIDS. I suppose after the success of that, he needed to join forces with another fireball of some sort, but this time in the form of a Hollywood actor who's been roped in for much longer, that being James Woods.

Oh, James Woods...utterly gnarly James. If cocaine took form as a human being, it would basically just be James Woods. I've heard rumors that he is a colossal hothead in reality. Is anyone shocked by that? You can feel the potential of his heinousness through every scene whenever he is on screen. And here, in this film, as is the case with many films, he plays an absolute monster. Of course, he produced this film, so he put the whole thing together so he could play a monster. I'm sure it comes very naturally for him!

What else do we add to the equation? Why, Melanie Griffith of course! The charming babe who had a hideously disturbing beginning as a teen actor in Hollywood, then broke through as an indie darling in the mid 80's, then found mainstream success at the end of the decade, only to be cast in endless stinkers throughout most of the rest of the 90's. It seems awfully fitting for James Woods to reach in and grab someone with an immensely abusive and traumatizing past to play his punching bag throughout this entire film! In one sense, it's nice to see Griffith returning to grittier films, but in another it's kind of dark when you hear so much about the reality of these actors.

The movie starts somewhat shockingly abrasively as our protagonist seems to nearly get beat to death within the first 5 minutes. It's extremely bloody, and I was very confused as to why it was so brutal, but I was very intrigued. As a big fan of Clark's two most celebrated films (Kids and Bully), I was quickly reminded why Larry Clark is a name no one ever forgets - he makes his movies bleak and heavy, as heavy as possible, and this one NEVER lets up. You get brief glimpses of relief and humanity, but it's mostly one brutal or depressing sequence after another, with a REALLY horrible and wholly unfitting soundtrack playing over the whole thing.

Of course, I did enjoy the Clarence Carter appearance as I am a big Clarence Carter fan, but the rest of the of the soundtrack was the worst part of the film, and really took away from the whole vibe of it in my opinion. The directing and cinematography is full-on typical Larry Clark, a lot of extended sequences of our young leads just lying around mostly nude, extremely high, fornicating, etc - but the horrible music I'm gonna assume was just picked by James Woods (LOL, it seems to fit his energy?), in an attempt to create some sort of Tarantino-ish juxtaposition, sporting "feel good rock and roll" songs over utterly bleak sequences, but it just never works. This isn't a dark comedy, so don't soundtrack it like one. If this film had a fittingly dark soundtrack or score, or at least a moodier or more unique one, I think the film would have been more highly regarded and hit people harder. At it's core this is a very, very heavy movie and all the ill-fitting soundtrack does is take away from the effectiveness of that.

I wouldn't recommend this to many people but if you are a Larry Clark fan (or a James Woods fan? LOL) you definitely should see it. Some of the gun fights are actually pretty top notch. Lots of blood, lots of drugs, and lots of horrible, horrible people, making horrible decisions. It's not perfect, but it does stand out as a bizarre installment in the filmography of everyone involved.

THERE IS NO RENEWAL!

I'm kind of shocked to see all of the mediocre ratings for this movie on here. In my opinion, this is the epitome of what was great about classic cinema, which we will never see again. High concept, high production value, high ambition, insanely detailed and colorful sets, thoughtful props and set pieces, tasteful pacing, performances that exist outside of the flow of reality which help take the viewer to another place, and one unpredictable progression after another. Logan's Run exists to be utterly entertaining and it absolutely is.

While it does borrow heavily from a few other tasteful films, primarily THX 1138, it very much holds it own. It's like a really colorful version of THX 1138 with a fair dose of Barbarella-esque kitsch and even a bit of 2001: A Space Odyssey with all its sci-fi flair.

Richard Jordan played a great villain, and I very much enjoyed the presence of both leads Jenny Agutter and naturally, Michael York, as I recognized him from one of my favorite comedies of all time, Wrongfully Accused, in which he plays Hibbing Goodhue alongside the legend Leslie Nielsen. I couldn't stop hearing him say "McKintyre" in his powerfully British accent the whole time, in my head.

The movie does slow down for a tick during the second half, and the leads playing coy and naive during that segment doesn't work as well as the rest of the movie does, but if it weren't for that slow patch I would consider this movie a 10 out of 10. This is definitely one of those films that could have had 15-20 minutes chopped from it and it would have been better off overall. Of course there are a few elements that don't quite make sense, but what good is sci-fi/fantasy if every single thing makes sense to a mere Earthling?

May I add that Jerry Goldsmith's synth score thoroughly rules?

All in all, Logan's Run deserves to be lauded as a classic of 1970's cinema. This movie holds a whole lot of everything that I love in movies, and I'd take this over Star Wars in a heartbeat.

YOU CAN LIVE! LIVE!!!

Well, I definitely would have had a field day to this 2 or 3 times if I had known about it in 2005 when it came out. But, not to Joseph Gordon Levitt dropping all those N-bombs...

Havoc is definitely not a GOOD movie, but it is a bit of an anomaly and its definitely wholly entertaining. It exists in a realm somewhere between Larry Clark (I'm thinking BULLY) and something like Alpha Dog, though it's not as good as either of those.

I'm not sure how Anne Hathaway got placed as the lead in this right in between The Princess Diaries 2 and The Devil Wears Prada. Her sex appeal is definitely off the charts in this movie, and she "bares more" here than in any other movie I'm aware of, but it also feels like such an odd role for her outside of that. While she is typically a very strong actress, in this film where she is supposed to portray a "rich Pacific Palisades girl obsessed with "gangsta" culture", at no point does it feel believable. She will randomly dip into talking with slang and accents for moments at a time but then most of the time speaks like her normal self, yet the characters verbally reference her "talking hood" even when she's not at all.

On that note, nobody puts in a particularly good performance in this, but I'm sure that has a lot to do with the writing and directing as well. Bijou Phillips is great playing the same type of cute and vulnerable character she always tends to, and Freddy Rodriguez and Raymond Cruz (Tuco from Breaking Bad) do the best job out of the whole cast with the material.

It's a ride that's fully cringe all the way through, and a lot of little things don't make that much sense. Why is that one kid filming everything? What is he making a movie about? What for? Or at least, why are these kids that think they're so hard just letting him?

The actual movie itself really doesn't have an ending at all - the closest thing we get to a finale is our protagonist basically acting as a rape apologist, and then suddenly it's just over? I dunno if that qualifies as a finale.

I feel like this was the tail end of when movies like this got funded with actual stars on the cast. Half of the cast are A-listers now...seeing Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in these roles is...hilarious.

Freak show of a movie that would never be made now.

After seeing this, I do believe that Lenny Cooke would have been a big star if he had been chosen for pro level.

There's not much to this very simple documentary but it's an eye-opening watch for curious parties. Lenny Cooke was the #1 high school basketball player in the country and was up for the NBA Drafts - and though there was a ton of hype around him at the time, all of his commensurates got picked, and he didn't. And then, nothing else ever happened for him. Witness the build up, the disappointment, and then the void.

To me, it does feel like it has a slightly exploitive edge to it but it's the Safdie Brothers and speaking of edges that is where they initially found theirs. I mean, have you seen their next movie, Heaven Knows What? Do you know the story behind that one? One of the darkest films of the century, through exploitive means, and it's a masterpiece. God handed them the torch and they carried it.

After exploring the Safdie's earlier works, I really appreciate their dynamics and diversity. While Good Time and Uncut Gems have quite a lot of similarities, all of their other films are extremely different from one another, yet they all have a lot of merit. Truly some of the most admirable filmmakers of the last 15 years.

I hope Lenny is doing well.

I...don't think I've seen anything quite like this. It takes you on an unexpected tonal rollercoaster, and it works. During the first half of the film, it feels like a relatively cliche and predictable quirky dark comedy, albeit an extremely HORNY one once you get 20-30 minutes in. Then, halfway through there is a hard shift and the whole thing gets surprisingly heavy. It's not a typical dark comedy, nor is it a typical drama, it's just...something else...something wild, I suppose.

I remember Melanie Griffith mostly playing flirty characters in 90's films when I was growing up but it's really pretty nuts to look at her full trajectory from an adult perspective. Basically, in 1981 she almost got killed by a lion in her film debut, under the direction of her own mother. In 1984, she put in an iconic performance as a porn star for Brian DePalma in Body Double, and then for the rest of her career she was continuously cast as a sexpot. Body Double is nuts but I think the sexual content in this movie might take the cake. She adds a lot of fun, allure, and intended frustration to this film.

Even more importantly, this movie features the breakthrough role of the always terrifying Ray Liotta, immediately showcasing that his ability to be frightening is one that is unmatched. It is because of him that this movie is effectively transformed from quirky to riveting, when he shows up. It's also fun watching Jeff Daniels in this, considering I got to know him as Harry Dunn in Dumb & Dumber. He has a very odd charm about him. My girlfriend even commented that he was HOT during one scene...now that I've never heard before. This is a really great character for Daniels - there is a lot to his arc, and a lot of complexity there.

All in all, this is a major standout film, that I'm surprised I had never heard of until a few months ago. The wildest part is probably that the director went on to do SILENCE OF THE LAMBS just five years later, quite a different beast. The unique score by Laurie Anderson and I can't remember who else is often pretty standout too. If you are a fan of any of these 3 actors, or are some sort of 80's completionist, you definitely need to see this. But really, everyone who likes good movies should see it, because it's a very good movie.

My girlfriend suggested we watch this on Valentine's Day, and I have to applaud that decision, because wow, it's romantic as heck if you're TWISTED (and I am?).

In the beginning, it feels like typical French fare for the era. The yellow-tinted aesthetic focusing on the character's darkly comic childhood with a lightning pace to it reminded me very much of Amelie. The two child actors are phenomenal and this does a great job of setting up the outlandish tone and premise, however, once we get to their adulthood, I never could have expected things to take the sort of twists that they did.

This movie is incredibly unique, especially in the sense that if you view it the way I did, you often won't be sure whether to laugh or be disturbed, but the movie has an impressive way of functioning with equal strength in both regards. The leads have a very strong chemistry and put in mutually strong performances, giving this insane floaty story some serious anchoring, which it needs in order to work. Marion Cotillard is breathtaking and breathes tons of feeling into this - Guillaume Canet matches her viscera. It seems that Cotillard's career really skyrocketed immediately after this film, and I can see why.

There is some really goofy, over-the-top editing that comes into play in the second half, which could be viewed as tacky, but I kind of love it at this point - it's fully a product of this very bizarro era for cinema: the early 2000's.

I had never heard of this film, and my girlfriend just happened to stumble upon a copy of the DVD in a bargain bin like a decade ago, but I'm glad she did and I'm glad she showed me. It's a wild ride and quite a beautiful film in the end. There are definitely multiple ways you can look at it. Recommended if you're a fan of films that observe "toxic love", or simply...France. This might be the "most French" film I have ever seen.

Ok, wow. I had this recommended by a few horror-loving friends, and I would say that it lived up to its legacy. It's definitely low-budget and definitely mostly consists of rather amateurish elements, BUT what it achieves in concept and most importantly performance by its lead actress AnnaLynne McCord is what earns it the title of new-school genre classic.

It takes a lot to disturb me when it comes to film and television but this film is truly disturbing, and it's not just by way of heavy gore or anything of the sort - it's psychologically effective. This is primarily achieved through the arc of the film's lead character, Pauline. Through the early parts of the film you feel kind of fond of the character, like aw she's just an angsty teen with really weird mannerisms and taste in stuff! Then, you get a little further in, and you start to get more concerned, and then that concern starts to turn to fear. She is truly, truly a terrifying character - the actress's performance is scary good.

The film feels a bit like a dark comedy in some of its early bits, featuring fun small roles by cult legends such as Traci Lords, Malcolm McDowell, and even John Waters, but the awkward laughs pretty quickly take a back seat as the tension creeps its way into your psyche. The cool thing about the movie is it doesn't really have much of a plot at all, but in the end, it properly functions without one.

There are only a couple of movies that come to mind that I could compare this to, but I can't, because that would be too much of a spoiler regarding what happens in the end, hahaha. I will say that Starry Eyes is one decent comparison, only in the sense that they are from the same era, both require a comfortability with a certain level of amateurishness due to budget constraints, but both manage to conjure something equally effective, only that movie is WAY gorier than this one. I'll just say that if you like disturbing movies, or horror, and you haven't seen this, you 100% should.

SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH PAULINE!

This may very well be the most underrated film of this century.

I certainly noticed when this very bizarre looking George Miller film came out in theaters, but I never heard a peep about it. When it hit Amazon Prime, I knew there was a good chance it'd be a quiet gem, but it HIGHLY surpassed my expectations.

It's one of the most creative, unpredictable, and transformative big-budget movies I have seen come out in America since the turn of the century. It's full of CGI but it's all implemented so creatively and so impressively that it doesn't take anything away from the magic of the experience. Every single scene seems to take you to another bizarro world which you have never been to before. I always thought the pairing of Idris Alba and Tilda Swinton seemed kind of odd for these roles, but it really feels convincing in a highly surreal way when you are watching. Sometimes it feels a bit like a live-action version of the trippiest sequences you've ever seen in the entire history of animated films, and it not only pulls it off but does it's own thing entirely with that energy.

It's hard to say much more about this movie other than it is an astonishingly unique experience that is extremely entertaining and I would like to watch it at least ten more times. This is PRECISELY what we need more of in American cinema - visionary films bursting at the seams with creative concepts and imagery! George Miller (Mad Max, Babe: Pig In The City, etc) is somehow one of the most under-appreciated filmmaking geniuses of our lifetime. SEE THIS MOVIE.

Funny how something can come out when you're a teenage boy and you can ignore it and write it off as complete garbage but fast forward 23 years to being a 39-year-old man and all of a sudden it's the ultimate time capsule for that year and is actually a bit of a piece of comedy gold.

It's pretty sad that this film apparently heavily damaged the careers of both the writer/directors and its lead actresses Rachel Leigh Cooke and Tara Reid (apparently Rosario Dawson managed to stay afloat), because it's actually full of more concept, purpose, and heart than the majority of comedies that were coming out around this time. The funniest thing is that it is now streaming on the CRITERION CHANNEL and that's where I watched it.

Any way, there's not much you can say about comedies but Parker Posey plays a hilarious, grade-A villain in this. Alan Cumming lays it down as he always does. Rachel Leigh Cooke is beautiful and endearing and perfect as usual - the other two gals fill out the roles properly. It's plenty dumb but very consciously so, therefore it comes off as quite smart in the big picture. I thought the music was pretty bad but it's definitely funny. Big Avril Lavigne energy.

What really matters is that this movie is heavily entertaining all the way through and I laughed a lot. It's a comedy - that's really all that matters. Recommended.

I...don't get it.

Kevin Kline won an Oscar...for this? I don't think I understand his appeal. At least, not in comedy. His character is effectively obnoxious, but I don't think I laughed once at anything he did or said. He is pretty good at accents though. I actually don't think I laughed once at this entire movie, to be honest, and it definitely seems like its sole purpose or intention is to incite laughs, so I've gotta say - it seems like maybe a comedy that worked in 1988, but not anymore? It seems like they wanted Jamie Lee Curtis's primary purpose in this film to be SEXY, but I cannot for the life of me see her that way, and never have been able to. In fact, it's always made me uncomfortable whenever she's made to be perceived as sexy. That stripping scene in True Lies has been cringe kryptonite to me since 96.

I want to respect John Cleese for at least making an original comedy with a weird name, but sometimes that isn't enough. He had some whacky ideas, but after finishing the whole movie, it kind feels like the only real joke was "having her fake brother watching in the window every time we make love" in as many different places as possible, almost as if the whole rest of the movie was just filler to make that "joke" work. I'll have to give some of Cleese's early comedy works (late 60's thru early 70's) a shot if I stumble upon them...

I honestly didn't dislike this movie, there's just almost nothing worth praising about it either. It's mildly entertaining - it's just rough how badly it wants to be funny when it's not. One of my earliest memories is being in the back of my parents' station wagon for a double feature at a drive-in theater in Minnesota in 1991. They were playing this, and a movie called Soapdish. Of course, I was 6 years old and didn't understand what was going on in either of the films so I mostly slept. But, I figured all these years later I'd give it a whirl. I'm glad I did, but it's really not good.

This movie is fantastic. This is how you do straightforward character drama correctly. The whole cast is fire and everyone gives fully locked in, intense performances. The pacing is slow-burning in a way that makes the whole thing feel immensely visceral. I had a feeling it would be an emotional ride before turning it on and it absolutely was.

To Leslie is not an easy watch, but that's what makes it so great. It all feels very real, and thus it's quite painful. While the surface story moves in a somewhat predictable manner (as life generally does), it is all the nuance and fine detail that the writing, acting, and directing bring to the table which make the movie so phenomenal.

Andrea Riseborough's performance is astonishing. One of the best and most believable portrayals of a full-blown alcoholic I've seen since I watched Rourke and Dunaway in Barfly, except this is more-on-the-nose and even more impressive. I was a big fan of Andrea after Mandy and Possessor but this showed a way different side of her ability and took my respect for her to a skyrocketed level. Marc Maron really impressed me in this as well, bringing the most warmth for the film out of anyone - I've really only know him as a podcast guy and then I saw him in one other thing that I really didn't like (that series, GLOW), but it really impressed me how much humanity he brought to this film. Stephen Root (Milton from Office Space) and Allison Janney also put in very effective and memorable spots as a volatile biker couple - it's cool to see them be so aggressive. I definitely bought it.

I'm seeing a lot of really low ratings for this film and I'm really pretty flabbergasted as to why. Out of all the films I've watched lately this was one of the stronger ones. I think a lot of people really do just hate movies that illicit genuine pain. I dunno about y'all but those are the best movies if you ask me! Life is pain, baby!

There has never been anything quite like this and probably never will be again. The way the series seamlessly blends Safdie's style of bleak, anxious, and raw but darkly funny cinema with Fielder's ultimately dry fusion of uniquely satirical reality-meets-fiction works so insanely well, these two were destined to collaborate. Emma Stone's expert-level acting is the glue that allows it to function with the semblance of a traditional narrative series, which may be necessary for the viewers who are otherwise unfamiliar with Safdie and Fielder's work and their complexities or transgressions. Put all 3 maestros in the pot, and you've got something that straight up transcends.

The series was impressive enough as it was through the meat of it, through all of its unique intricacies and endlessly hilarious sequences, but then featured a conclusion that was so unexpected, so artful, it brought my view of Nathan Fielder from "a king" to an even higher tier - the highest, to be honest. We thought we knew him at this point, but once you experience this series as a cohesive whole, you will see a side of him you never could have imagined. I can't say more than that, but I can say that I know it will be a while until I consume another film or television series that will effect me as much as this one did. I've watched it twice all the way through and haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since. The Curse is beyond legendary.

Super interesting to see that this is how the Safdie Brothers really got their filmmaking careers started. While it does feature similar pacing and cinematography to their other 3 primary feature films, its mostly missing the utter anxiety and claustrophobia. Though things are going "wrong" throughout it, this film's greatest strength is in how touching it manages to be in its rawness. It simply feels immensely real.

Ronald Bronstein does a great job as the dad who can't keep up with his own life and isn't doing the best job of taking care of his sons. And the boys are adorable and totally believable - it never feels like they are acting. They just feel like real kids being kids.

This definitely qualifies as a "slice of life" movie, "a real New York slice" in this case, as not a lot of profound events really occur, but it has enough charm that it functions well as just that. It's really wild that the bros went from such an endearing first feature right into the junkie tale HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT as their follow-up, one of the bleakest movies made this century. What an insane dynamic to flex with your first two films - no wonder they started getting celebs on board fast for Good Time (one of my favorite films of this century) and then Uncut Gems! Rise Safdies, rise!

Meandering bait. If it were leading to something it may have been worth it, but it's one of those movies that baits with you intrigue through seemingly nonsensical mystery, while you wait for answers or a purpose, then you never get one, after two and a half hours of jiggling around on puppet strings and tolerating terribly obnoxious characters. The majority of the characters are just about unbearable, outside of Mahershala Ali's, and the daughter played by Farrah Mackenzie. Mostly everyone is an intolerable nitwit, but in the way that it is not even fun to take in their bumblings - they are all irritating. There are a few sequences that feel mildly intriguing in the moment but as the wrap up they don't leave you with much to think about or remember, and I said, in the end, they are all worth even less. I like Obama but this is one of the worst wide release films of 2023. Harsh debut for an ex-president turned film producer.