Decision To Leave (2022) - Movie Review

So, while still floating on my little cloud of happiness after watching Bros, there was a moment in it that stuck with me for… other reasons. It’s when Bobby talked about gay romance films like Call Me By Your Name, where the appeal is out of things not ending happily because mainstream audiences like seeing Gays be miserable. And while there’s some truth to that (same deal with white audiences and Black cinema; the depressing shit tends to get more pop traction), I feel like it leaves out a weird truth about romantic media: The better stories tend to be the ones that don’t end well. Mulholland Drive, Romeo & Juliet, Her, Phantom Thread, Being John Malkovich, Chasing Amy, Behind The Candelabra; either they end with the main couple not being together, or they are together despite how unhealthy the relationship is for them both. 

Okay, I’m going with examples of the stuff I like here, and I could probably make another connection between that and my love for edgy shit… but that leaves out how these kinds of stories are just more interesting than the more idealistic romances. Maybe it speaks to the more toxic ways that affection can manifest in people, maybe it feels more realistic if it doesn’t have a happily-ever-after conclusion, or maybe we just like seeing fucked-up people find love as some perverse pat on the back that there’s still hope for us; whatever the case, there’s a certain pull to these stories. And the latest from Korean auteur Park Chan-wook falls into this same broad category.

Loveland (Expired) (2022) - Movie Review

Independent Aussie sci-fi films are quite the rarity, which is quite a shame as an Australian filmgoer who loves sci-fi and also loves supporting (good) local product. As such, respect is due for this film existing in the first place, as a lack of budget and, in a lot of cases, a lack of production ambition often get in the way of such things. But when looking at this film specifically, again with that minimum respect in mind, there’s a fair amount that I like about this, and just as much, if not more, that I have questions about.

The Batman (2022) - Movie Review

There’s an easy joke to be made about there being yet another Batman movie in cinemas right now. And while it’s certainly true that the Dark Knight can be quite oversaturated, both on the screen and in the comics, that’s largely the result of just how versatile he is as a character aesthetic. Some put emphasis on the psychological edges of his choice to be a Bat-man who regularly fights insane asylum escapees, like in Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum. Others focus more on the tragedy of that existence, where he’s fighting an endless war for a city he knows far less about than he realises, like in Scott Snyder’s New 52 run. Others still frame him as the father of a family of crimefighters (something that has taken on a literal dimension in recent years thanks to Damian Wayne), finding a substitute for the family he lost when he was a child, like in Marv Wolfman’s A Lonely Place Of Dying.

It’s stuff like this that can keep a pop culture figure fresh even after eighty years, and it’s part of the reason why I have and likely always will look forward to seeing a new take on Gotham’s protector. I had next to no apprehensions about this thing from day one of hearing about it, as Robert Pattinson has gone from strength to strength in his post-Twilight script picks, and Matt Reeves has some exceptional work under his belt with War For The Planet Of The Apes, as well as Cloverfield and Let Me In. And thankfully, all of that talent pools into something that… well, there will always be a debate to be had over where this sits alongside past efforts, but it most assuredly stands out from the pack in a number of ways.

The Crime Boss (Arkansas) (2020) - Movie Review

Merely seeing an actor’s body of work isn’t always enough to predict the kind of stories they’ll want to tell if they step behind the camera. Watching Jordan Peele’s sitcom and sketch-com work doesn’t exactly feel like the lead-up to becoming the man currently leading the charge for black horror in the mainstream. Ben Stiller’s frequently-frothy leading man roles feel a bit out of step with his penchant for tearing the entertainment industry several new ones as a director. And in the case of today’s film, seeing Clark Duke as the nerdy Jacob in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (the only close-to-watchable part of that entire flick) certainly didn’t prepare me for his first step into writing/producing/directing to be this Southern-fried trailer park neo-noir.

The Burnt Orange Heresy (2020) - Movie Review

Looks like the déjà vu train is still in service, only now we’ve gone from things I’d much rather not fixate on to something actually worth remembering. Specifically, we’re dealing with a slice of art-world satire wrapped up in genre thrills, much like last year’s Velvet Buzzsaw. However, while the two carry a certain similarity in tone, their respective approaches to the art world are somewhat different. Where Buzzsaw was informed by the perspective of the artist and largely stayed with it, even when focusing on other characters, The Burnt Orange Heresy is more intently trained on the role of the art critic… and why it’s really not worth taking all that seriously.

What Did Jack Do? (2020) - Movie Review

I honestly never thought I’d be able to do this on this blog. I always assumed that the window in which I could watch and review new David Lynch movies had past me by. But then this little number showed up on Netflix, a former art gallery exclusive from 2017 (these reviews are dated by Australian release/access date, hence why I’m getting away with calling this ‘new’), and there’s not a herd of wild horses that could stop me from grabbing this chance with both hands. And he doesn’t seem to have lost a touch of his weirdness after all this time.

Under The Silver Lake (2019) - Movie Review

The latest from It Follows writer/director David Robert Mitchell is… a tough one. Like, this is the kind of film designed to be looked at over the course of several months just to figure out what in the fresh hell is even going on. It’s a puzzle film, and like the best of its kind, all of the pieces are presented to the audience, even if it isn’t entirely obvious that what is being shown is part of the completed picture. After having to admit to my previous critical shortcomings a few times already this past month, I’m in the mood for some serious deep diving, so if the following review comes across like the desperate scribbles of a madman, not only is that likely accurate, it’s also fitting for the film itself to be analysed in this way.

Serenity (2019) - Movie Review

I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one: This film is fucking insane. I see no point in writing a poncy introduction to lead into that simple fact because this is an oh-so-very special kind of insane. The kind that only comes into being through just the right mixture of all the wrong elements in all the right places. The kind that makes the audience just how much of the film is meant to be taken seriously, if it’s meant to be taken seriously at all. The kind that turns a merely bad film into the stuff of bad film legend. It is the frontrunner for Best Worst Movie Of 2019, and if something else comes out that can challenge it, I fear I might end up in a padded cell just for looking at it.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) - Movie Review

John Wick may be the single most important non-superhero action franchise still active today. While Fast & Furious and Mission: Impossible may have the longevity and their respective fanbases, it’s hard to argue that John Wick didn’t still have the larger impact on the landscape. Whether it’s the fight scenes, the visual style, the kind of world-building that puts most comic books to shame, or even just the moment when people finally started to take Keanu Reeves seriously as an actor (even The Matrix, as popular as it remains, couldn’t manage that), it has captured the zeitgeist in a way that very few film franchises ever could, both past and present. And with how Chapter 2 concluded, stakes are very high for the latest in this series to measure up to the grandeur of what came before. To the surprise of likely very few, this film manages to do just that and with gusto.