I'll try it again, but, eh, I don't know.
I'll try it again, but, eh, I don't know.
“What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, er... an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all.”
I liked it well enough, but it is really blunt and obvious in its subtext. It's well directed, but it doesn't have much meat on its bones. And I didn't think it was scary at all, because it was so obvious what was happening.Quoting Scar (view post)
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
I found this one more unsettling than scary, which is certainly a layer of horror, just a different one than I expected. Davis is solid here, and working an entirely different register than in Miss Fisher's..., and Kent's structure allows for a more overt subtext, so I didn't especially mind this.
Instead, I found some of the child's acting mannerisms to be too off to truly register. There are moments, such as his early freakout in the car, where it didn't quite feel pitched at the right level. Also, once it reaches its third act and the Babadook morphs into its real threat, a lot of the unsettling design that Kent achieves through the first two-thirds of the film start to deteriorate into a more typical film.
That said, a lot of the design choices and structure are good, and it's massively more interesting than typical horror films even when it hits the third act shift.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
Yeah. He improves in the latter half of the film, when the tantrums begin to subside. His expressions of horror and dismay scan as more authentic.Quoting dreamdead (view post)
Yes. The complexity and novelty of the mother-son relationship is one of the film's greatest virtues. Another example: when the magician hand gesture from the beginning of the film comes back into play near the end, during that same pivotal scene, it was very affecting.
Small criticism: the repeated use of some kind of dinosaur roar sound effect was a really ill-advised bit of foley work. I read somewhere that the effect in question is from the Godzilla films, but I'm not sure if that's true.
Hrm, this was okay I suppose. I think both Oculus and It Follows are significantly better examples of good modern horror movies, though.
To be fair Davis, how many films have you seen in the last 5 years? Like two?
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
Quoting Watashi (view post)
3. Maybe 4.
Watched it on Netflix last night. Terrified me.
The scares and construction was well done, but I hated every single character. A lot of the choices the characters made constantly had me going, "Whaaaaaa?? Who would do that??" And yes, I "get" the metaphor of the film.
But Skitch, if you dig deeper, there's a really cool metaphor about grief.Quoting Skitch (view post)
Yes! I'm no longer that only "nay" vote!
Last edited by Irish; 08-03-2016 at 08:39 AM.
The mom is quite possibly the worst parent of all time.
I like the first page of this thread a lot better than the second page.
After I saw The Shining recently, I read that one of Stephen King's criticisms of Kubrick's film is that, by casting Jack Nicholson, you know from scene one that he's going to go nuts. And so it kills some of his intended horror in seeing a basically decent person lose control. I kept thinking about that as I was watching the last half hour of this movie and marveling at how Kent and Essie Davis get that part right. Extraordinary performance. Yes, the kid is annoying, but that is purposeful! It fuels Amelia's emotions and struggle to be a decent mother. I thought this was just about perfect.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
That's a really great analogy Spinal.
Whoo hoo, I was on the first page.
Which is kind of the point I believe. I thought the movie was scary and atmospheric and tremendously Well acted, although its visualization of grief and how that never goes away somewhat on the nose, espesh come the final scenes.Quoting Skitch (view post)
[+] closer to next rating / [-] closer to previous rating
- Dark (S3) ✦✦✦½ [-]
- Fall (Mann, 2022) ✦✦✦½ [-]
- Ms. Marvel (S1) ✦½ [+]
- Dark (S2) ✦✦✦✦
- Moon Knight (S1) ✦✦½ [-]
- Get Carter (Hodges, 1971) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Prey (Trachtenberg, 2022) ✦✦✦ [-]
- Black Bird (S1) ✦✦✦✦
- Better Call Saul (S6) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Halo (S1) ✦✦✦ [-]
- Slow Horses (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- H4Z4RD (Govaerts, 2022/BE) ✦✦½ [-]
- Gangs of London (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- We Own This City (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Thor: Love and Thunder (Waititi, 2022) ✦✦ [+]
Crap review of it I wrote back in 2015 that I still agree with: https://madman731.wordpress.com/2015...jennifer-kent/
Blog!
And it's happened once again
I'll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up