9. Just Not My Jam (But Others Seem to Like Them and That’s OK)
Despite my ability to avoid movies I hate, there are always a few that come so highly recommended and that seemingly everyone else falls for that I go and see in complete expectation of being awed only to be left scratching my head. But it’s no biggie, because everyone has different tastes!
Brightburn
“What if Superman was evil?” was a rad idea, and I’m almost always on board for evil/creepy kids, but I did not care for this movie. I particularly didn’t like the way it creates all this ambiguity about the main character’s consciousness of what he’s doing. Elizabeth Banks is the classic mom who thinks her child can do no wrong, but she’s in denial for far too long for someone who knows what she must know from the beginning. This might not have been on a lot of critics’ lists, but a lot of genre fans seemed to like it and I just … ehhh. (Only available for rental through disc services; streaming options all require you to buy.)
Hagazussa: A Heathen’s Curse
I love me some folk horror (see one of my number ones), but I didn’t like this that much. If you saw The Witch, this movie is its much less uplifting, glacially paced German cousin. Yes, even more glacially paced than The Witch, which compared to this is a Fast and Furious movie. It’s beautiful to look at and it has a great, simple, terrifying score, but it is SUCH a downer and, honestly, is kind of pretentious. It has some smart things to say about how society treats women who make it on their own, without men, and how these women get their own back, so to speak. But it just wasn’t enjoyable to me at all. Not that every movie has to be enjoyable, but this was beyond my tolerance for despair. (Streaming on Shudder and available for rent from most streaming sources.)
The Mustang
Not to be confused with the Turkish-French film Mustang from 2015. There seems to be a new rash of movies reexamining traditional masculinity, and I’m all for that. But this movie, about a violent convict who takes part in a therapy program that involves training wild mustangs, can’t decide what it wants to be. Is it a gritty, realistic emotional drama or a fantasy where things happen just because it’s a movie and people expect certain things to happen? (Ask someone who knows about horses how realistic this movie is.) Great performances, but this fell flat for me. And the metaphor is so on-the-nose I had a hard time taking it seriously. (Only available for rental through disc services; streaming options all require you to buy.)
The Souvenir
Look, I know. I KNOW. It’s on every Top 10 list I’ve seen this year. But it took me until almost halfway through this movie about a toxic, codependent relationship to even realize that the two main characters were even *in* a relationship. I can get behind subtlety, but there’s subtlety, there’s subliminal, then there’s this movie. Movies like this make me feel dumb, which then makes me angry. I did like the scene featuring an unrecognizable Richard Ayoade, which was kind of the first point in the movie where I actually understood what was going on. I feel like I should give this another look, though, especially as there’s a sequel coming out next year. (Available on Amazon Prime.)
No comments:
Post a Comment