8.5
NowTV
Four broken people sit down together in a church basement meeting room. Two of them are the parents of a child who lost his life during a school shooting; the other two are the parents of the shooter. They all want to understand how this could have happened, to make some sort of sense of this chaos that has destroyed their lives. Maybe even to heal. Needless to say, the level of raw emotion here is almost overwhelming…
9
MUBI
I must admit that my expectations for The Souvenir Part II were not especially high, as I had found the naval-gazing, emotionally distant The Souvenir a real struggle to get through. In fact, I haven't really felt a connection with any of Joanna Hogg's previous films, aside from her wonderful feature debut Unrelated.
To my delight (and surprise), however, I was utterly enraptured by The Souvenir Part II from start to finish. Not only does it look incredible…
5.5
Blu Ray
Some strong individual moments for sure, such as the self-immolating bird and the sight of Freddie Alien-ing out of Jesse (the practical effects are pretty solid throughout, actually). The gay subtext is precisely as clumsily handled as I assumed it would be. But the biggest issue with the second Nightmare is the bizarre decision to largely ignore the dream haunting concept, the film pivoting to become a possession movie instead. This completely neuters the unpredictable, anything-can-happen vibe of the original and kind of robs it of its magic. It is isn't terrible by any means, but it is rather forgettable.
5
Blu Ray (Criterion Collection)
A stunning achievement in terms of cinematography- has Australia ever looked as verdant as it does here? The framing of every scene is also magnificent, as is the acting (Judy Davis especially). And thematically it makes some interesting observations about sexual politics in the late 19th century. But story-wise, this is just such a chore to sit through. Every scene pretty much just repeats the following exchange: "You are super ugly but I guess you're…
9.5
Amazon Prime Video (Rental)
* SPOILERS *
A knowing deconstruction of the revenge thriller, as typified in recent years by the John Wick and Taken franchises (amongst many others), Pig tees up a classic genre scenario: the mysterious loner who has something precious taken from him (in this case, an adorable truffle pig named Apple) and goes on a mission to get it back. The filmmakers then go even further into this territory by casting Nicholas Cage (who as…
9.5
Blu Ray
Rewatch (2nd viewing)
What does it mean to be human? David Cronenberg's Frankenstein-esque cautionary tale stars Jeff Goldblum as a nerdy scientist who accidentally fuses his DNA with a fly, gradually becoming more and more insectile in nature until he literally falls apart.
My personal favourite Cronenberg film, this has everything: the purest expression of his obsession with the malleability and spongy, liquidy grossness, but also the beauty, of the human body; a brilliant lead performance from…
