Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism (2023) - Movie Review

There is something especially Aussie about a small-budget independent local production finding its way into the modern trend for exorcism horror… by playing into the nation’s predominant fascination with true crime stories. This is based on the real-life death of Joan Vollmer, a 49-year-old Antwerp resident who died in January of 1993. She was being exorcised by her local congregation, with her husband Ralph being the one who instigated and took part in the proceedings, and she died during the attempt. Four of those involved, including Ralph, were charged with manslaughter but ultimately walked away with such a slap on the wrist that they and their congregation “clapped, sobbed and hugged each other at the news”, with Ralph himself saying that the magistrate’s finding was the will of God

The Justice Of Bunny King (2021) - Movie Review

This one seems like a no-brainer: Get one of Australia’s best working actresses, and one of, if not the, best young New Zealand actress, and put them in a movie together. Besides both Essie Davis and Thomasin McKenzie being in some absolute winners this year already, they’ve been putting in a lot of strong work over the last few years. And this film adds another notch to their respective belts, to the point where this might be my single favourite Essie Davis performance yet. As the titular Bunny King, she is mama bear personified as a hard-done-by squeegee woman who just wants to go to her daughter’s birthday party. The sheer conviction she gives with this role is incredible, perfectly portraying someone trying to make the best out of a terrible situation. Well, several terrible situations that have piled on top of each other.

Girl (2021) - Movie Review

We’re in niche mode for this review, as I’m once again deciding to review a film purely because I make it a habit of keeping note of any and all names attached to the things I watch. And this is a particularly ‘me’ iteration of that mindset, as I basically grew up on the work of actor and now-writer/director Chad Faust through his role in The 4400. I got into it a bit when I looked at Project Power, but suffice to say, I loved the hell out of that show as a kid and still love it plenty to this day, and his role as the sleeper agent turned superpowered shaman Kyle Baldwin is a big part of that. Naturally, seeing him step into the director’s chair caught my attention, although I can easily see why the film itself might not have the same effect on others.

Horse Girl (2020) - Movie Review

After briefly talking about Alison Brie in my last review, I figured it’d be worth checking out her latest starring role today as well. And man, was I thrown for a loop; she is straight-up unrecognisable in this thing. I mean, I literally just watched her on the big screen just a few hours earlier, and yet seeing her in this, I had to keep reminding myself that this is the same actress who first caught my attention in Sleeping With Other People. And the content itself is reflective of that, both in that it’s a marked departure from her more comedic work, and that it’s largely about surreal disconnects from reality. Namely, her own.

Butt Boy (2020) - Movie Review

I cherish films like this that make their way to my radar. The kind that, were I not someone who actively looked for out-of-the-box releases, I likely never would’ve come across otherwise. And no, this isn’t me reviewing porn again; it’s actually a crime thriller closer to something like Michael Mann or Denis Villeneuve’s pre-sci-fi days. Believe this, it’s only going to get weirder from here, so strap in.

Hot Mess (2020) - Movie Review

With how much I never managed to get into shows like Girls (or really anything to do with Lena Dunham), and how this ‘indie comedy-drama-romance-thing about twenty-somethings trying to find their place in the world’ mumblecore premise is pretty old hat by this point, I wasn’t really expecting much out of this one at first. And after a weird case of mistaken identity, a fit of inactivity, an expired screener link, and wanting to override missing a FilmInk screening by doing all the work I could in one day (this and the previous two reviews were written concurrently), I found myself sitting down to watch this. And hot damn, am I glad I did.

The Greasy Strangler (2016) - Movie Review (1000th Post Special)

Well, this is going to be a very special review. This marks my 1000^th blog post, a number that has steadily built up over the past five years, encompassing movie reviews, lists, articles looking at my critical influences, and a few one-off experiments that didn’t really make it off the ground. What began with a spur-of-the-moment trip with friends to see a One Direction concert film has grown (or possibly mutated; the lab results are inconclusive as of yet) into not only an uneven-yet-prolific amount of writing material but also a chance to write for proper publications and even getting into doing podcasts. None of this would have been possible without my dear readers, every one of you who has ever taken the time to read what this uneducated dude has to say about the latest releases. I humbly thank all of you out there, and here’s to a thousand more.

Hounds Of Love (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: On her way to a party, teenager Vicki (Ashleigh Cummings) is picked up by suburban couple Evelyn (Emma Booth) and John (Stephen Curry), who offer her a lift. However, they don’t take her to the party; they take to the same place they took the last few strays they picked up from the side of the road: Shackled to a bed in their home. Turns, Evelyn and John’s sexual tastes lean to the more… adventurous, and if she wants to make it out alive, she’ll have to figure out how to turn the tables against her captors.

Swiss Army Man (2016) - Movie Review

Um… how in the holy name of fuck do I introduce a movie like this? At this point, this film’s reputation is well established, and yet I am unable to initially add much that doesn’t just involve me breaking down and asking "What the hell am I watching?" over and over and over again. To make things weirder, this film might actually have merit beyond its well-publicised oddities. How? Well, let’s get started and I’ll hopefully be able to explain why.

Tallulah (2016) - Movie Review

A common misguided opinion when it comes to most media is that the moral fiber of the characters translates to the quality of the work; or, in layman’s terms, having hateful people as our leads means that the film sucks. Now, even though I’ve echoed similar ideas in the past like with the Eli Roth films that I’ve reviewed on here before, I want to try and clear up that misconception. It is possible to make good stories using not-so-good characters; the entire popularity of shows like Seinfeld exists because of that very reasoning.

The problem is that the characters require the right thematic framing to work. If they’re conveyed as awful people and we’re not supposed to sympathise with them, it shows that the creator at least knows what the reality of the people in the work is. It’s when these same character traits are portrayed as something we’re supposed to agree with that things start to fall apart; unless there’s extenuating circumstances involved, finding sympathy in the loathsome is a difficult task. It’s because of this that I feel Bad Santa 2 works as well as it does… and why I honestly think that this film doesn’t. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself; we should start from the beginning.

This Giant Papier Mache Boulder Is Actually Really Heavy (2016) - Movie Review

Sci-fi is a genre with a long and proud history of being enjoyed by losers stuck in their parents’ basements. As such, it has also garnered a certain mockable reputation that, in recent years, has begun to recede into just being another aspect of human life. For all the hate I have for The Big Bang Theory, it is regrettably part of that assimilation process so I have one thing to be thankful to it for. While my brain tries to process me giving that piece of crap any credit, I will conceit that all of this acceptance doesn’t change one simple fact: Sci-fi is also incredibly goofy, even on a good day. As a result, riffing on films within that spectrum is probably the easiest of any genre; hell, the entire idea of riffing came about thanks to the kitschier titles of the 50’s and 60’s. Now, making fun of silly science fiction is all well and good, but then we get into feature-length spoof movies… and now the fear has set in. I say that because the spoof movie died a rather loud and obnoxious death a while back thanks to chuckleheads like Friedberg & Seltzer; people rarely make them anymore, and the few we do see are outright garbage. So, will this micro-budgeted New Zealand effort break the chain?

You're Not Thinking Straight (2016) - Movie Review

When you’re someone who obsesses over films as much as I do, finding films purely by accident just doesn’t happen to me anymore. I mean, I follow the release schedules of my local cinemas quite closely; lord knows I need to know just how long it will be before the next film comes out that actively makes me question my sanity. Today’s film is a bit different, even within its boundaries of Australian independent cinema which I have covered on this blog a few times before. Basically, the guy who wrote/directed this film is a friend of friends and the Facebook page for his film just cropped up on my timeline a few weeks ago out of the blue. Since I will always look forward to witnessing a new Lead Me Astray and seeing something produced locally that is worth championing beyond national pride, I went along to the screening. But how is the film itself?

Appropriate Behaviour (2015) - Movie Review

 

While We're Young (2015) - Movie Review

As part of my going back and checking films that I should’ve seen earlier in the year, I am also spooling through the archives for films that I only saw segments of to complete. Back when I was doing some part-time work in movie theatre as ticket checker/clean-up crew, along with growing to hate Home even more because those sessions were easily the messiest of the entire day’s run, I also caught bits and pieces of today’s film. Something about a guy in a robe talking about his boat and David Bowie’s Golden Years playing over the credits; that’s pretty much all I know. Somehow, I’ve seen scenes from the actual film and this is still the blindest I’ve gone into a film all year. Well, hopefully Ben Stiller is still waiting to give a decent performance; considering Night At The Museum 3 and Little Fockers, I can’t be sure. So, as a sort-of road test before next year’s Zoolander 2… because, clearly, thatneeds to exist, let’s get stuck in today’s subject.

It Follows (2015) - Movie Review

If there’s anything that is more subjective than comedy, it is horror. Subjectivity is the critical man’s kryptonite, so talking about what can get under people’s skin like I know anything for absolute certain is rather stupid. That said though, and as much as I like to believe otherwise, the current trend in horror films that leans more towards ‘music video horror’ has an audience and I can see why. I know full well that not every moviegoer thinks as intently about what they watch as I do, and that is very much a good thing, and scares generated from smash cuts and sudden loud noises in the soundtrack may not be that substantial but they still work at getting the heart racing. There is as much a place for this breed of film that focuses primarily on editing and soundtrack (hence the term ‘music video horror’) as there is for films that creep a little further under the skin; I just wish that one didn’t far outweigh the other in today’s market. So, with the current prevalence of junk food scares, does today’s subject add to their ranks?