Thanksgiving (2023) - Movie Review

For as much shit as I’ve given Eli Roth over the years, I freely admit that I was actually looking forward to him releasing this film. The fake Grindhouse trailer that inspired this remains, for me at least, his greatest cinematic artwork. It’s a prime example of his bloodsplattered sense of humour, but without the annoying and/or smug underpinnings that keep getting in the way of the fun in his feature productions. I have a deep love for all things connected to Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse project, including the fake trailers and the films that eventually spawned from most of them. I may understand Edgar Wright’s stance on making his Don’t trailer into a full film, but a man can still dream.

Millie Lies Low (2022) - Movie Review

Just as Australians know their crime dramas and Italian know their Westerns, New Zealanders sure know their cringe comedies. Only this example is a bit different than what I’ve looked at before. Its depiction of a woman who, after a panic attack, has to miss a plane to New York… but goes to increasingly bizarre measures to try and convince everyone that she didn’t miss it, certainly fits in with that social cringe spectrum, but it’s a lot more anxious this time around. There’s a definite Safdie brothers pace to it, gradually escalating just how much worse things can get for the main character, and with its fixation on social media and social pressure, it fits in with the recent trend towards influencer thrillers.

Sissy (2022) - Movie Review

This film has a lot in common with Bodies Bodies Bodies. It’s a black comedy-horror slasher type deal that takes the piss out of social media influencers and the kind of attitudes they engender. Except, where Bodies Bodies Bodies had a bit of a voyeuristic bent to it, treating the influencers with some distance between them and the audience in terms of relatability, this one is more of an inside-out affair. It focuses on Cecilia (Aisha Dee), a mental health advocate on social media, who is invited to the hen’s night of her school bestie (Hannah Barlow’s Emma, who also co-wrote and co-directed the film with her husband Kane Senes). Shit accidentally goes wild.