Writer, composer/producer, pain & disability warrior, queer adjacent
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The Courier 2020
I described this to someone as a solid mimicry of minor Spielberg but that’s too easy given that it covers almost literally the same ground as “Bridge of Spies.” I liked “Bridge of Spies” but agreed with the consensus that it overdid sentiment and softened its effect. “The Courier” is similarly corny, and has a sort of radiant phoniness that I can’t quite put a finger on. Maybe it’s the goofy attempt at Khrushchev, or Benedict Cumberbatch’s strained performance, or…
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The Rules of the Game 1939
“Put an end to the farce!”
“Which one?”I probably understood a good half of the social context, though the racism & anti-semitism were bright and clear. But, the rich are monstrous no matter the era or the language. They are thoroughly shredded by this slapstick Gare du Nord of jealousies, which is pretty funny when it doesn’t feature the murder of an abundant number of animals. This is also in line with the core thesis, but man, I’m glad that live slaughter was eventually banned from most commercial film production.
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Malignant 2021
I’ve never quite warmed up to James Wan’s films outside of Fast & Furious 7. His stuff is sometimes populist to a fault; he leans in on conventions that audiences recognize and enjoy, and frees us from emotional connections with characters who are so naive and boneheaded as to defy reality.
But the righteous thing about Wan is you can always hear him laughing during every single gag, behind the camera and in the edit suite. He’s no revolutionary but his…
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The Suicide Squad 2021
Hell with it, you absolutely bananapants psychopath of a movie, have a fiver. It’s a big slushy mess, sure — it’s overwritten and under-edited, with some beats agape at groan-inducing jokes but whatever, who cares.
This film:
* Is a $185m splattercore bonanza; you can feel Gunn laughing through every second of it because it’s a sort of homecoming for him.
* Is utterly, shamelessly stupid and yet, somehow, all of its silly superpowers and dicks and exploding heads had…
