Michael Myers vs. The Shape
John Carpenter is always the first to point out that he never set out to create some sort of mystique surrounding Michael Myers. The character is billed in the credits and the script as “The Shape”, rather than by its given name. This is a conscious decision by Carpenter and his co-writer Debra Hill to further imbue a sense of supernatural and pervasive evil that could not be matched by a flesh-and-blood human (as presented…
Dr. Pretorius or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Other
In James Whale’s completely bonkers 1935 masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein, a beautiful tale unfolds before us about the inborn desire of humans (or monsters) to seek out a mate with whom to share love. The nefarious Dr. Pretorius convinces the ever-so-slightly-less-nefarious Dr. Frankenstein to join forces with him in order to create the titular “Bride” as a companion to Frankenstein’s previous creation, The Monster. In doing so,…
The only documentary where every single subject is expecting to be doused in horse semen or punched in the dick the entire time they're being interviewed. JACKASS 4.5 is gutter poetry, a much needed balm of joyful people being joyful as they destroy themselves in the name of entertainment.
It always catches me off-guard when I'm reminded the dude behind HER and WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is a longstanding member of the JACKASS family.
SLICE is half-baked in an "I wrote this stoned" sorta way, but I dug how hard it was swinging and it never hurts to have interesting, talented performers delivering your lines. And it was filmed in my neck of the woods, which is always a treat. It isn't too far off in vibe from cult curios like REPO MAN or NIGHT OF THE COMET overall (though I wouldn't put it nearly on the same qualitative level as REPO MAN), and…
Apocalyptic Duality.
Jordan Peele is a master filmmaker, in every sense of the term. His writing is dense, filled to the gills with breadcrumbs and double entendre. Yet, somehow it's also light and always entertaining. His direction is steady, unrushed. Yet, his calculated pacing and knack for musical cues lend an air of almost Amblin-esque charm to everything he touches. I'm unsure of his exact technique for working with actors, but damned if every single performer we see isn't perfectly…
Not at all what I had expected from three decades of build-up with having only seen the few clips of this that invariably end up on any "cinematic greatest hits" montage; it's less fun, more lyrical, and generally a different beast than I had come to expect from watching mostly later-career Spielberg growing up. This isn't to say that this film doesn't feel like his work (it has all the character touchstones we've come to expect), it's just riding a…
