The Night Clerk (2020) - Movie Review

This is something I’m likely going to get into more detail with a review I can already see approaching early next year, but just to get it out in the open: I don’t have an inherent problem with non-autistic people playing those on the spectrum. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Asa Butterfield, and Ben Affleck aren’t on the spectrum (far as I know, at least), and yet their respective depictions in Mary & Max, X+Y, and The Accountant still resonated with me.

Being able to depict something that close to my heart in a truly empathetic way means the world to me, regardless of the status of the actor doing it, and while I get the problem with the lack of IRL autistic representation in these movies (it’s been happening for so long, it’s become the norm to the detriment of working autistic actors), that on its own isn’t the issue. It just adds salt to the wound when the film’s understanding of the condition is already as fucked as it is in films like The Night Clerk.

Evolution: The Genius Equation (2020) - Movie Review

There are few cinematic ambitions greater than wanting to make an audience better through the inclusion of a filmmaker’s work in their media diet. And writer/producer/director/cinematographer/editor Paulina Amador wishes to do such with this documentary; to transform viewers into more hyper-inquisitive beings, akin to interviewee Jason Padgee who purportedly became a maths whiz after a chance head injury. And to her credit, that is the effect created… in that it induces a celestial-sized headache trying to watch it.

Possessor (2020) - Movie Review

It’s been quite a while since a psycho-horror flick got under my skin as effectively as this has. Honestly, it felt like I had lost my taste for the stuff, since I haven’t been as ga-ga over this genre for a while now in my reviews. But then this little number comes along, the sophomore effort from writer/director Brandon ‘Son of David’ Cronenberg, which is about as literal as it gets for a psychological horror film. Namely, that most of the truly horrifying stuff happens exclusively in the main character’s mind. Or, rather, minds.

She Dies Tomorrow (2020) - Movie Review

It’s good that people are able to talk openly about their mental health status. As much as it can easily be fetishised within certain Internet cultures, that is still preferable to when there was such a crippling stigma attached to it that no one talked about it, no one treated it seriously, and all we did was suffer in silence. I myself have been quite open (perhaps a little too open) about my own conditions and neuroses, which I mainly discuss on here to try and explain my own perspective when interpreting a given film.

But there’s something about that level of openness that can also be a serious problem, namely the effect it can on those listening in. Same with just about any other medical condition, if you spend too long reading about it, and start seeing connections to your own behaviours, it can make you worse. It can either exacerbate your own conditions, or even instil a psychosomatic effect where you convince yourself that that’s what’s happening, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. It’s one of the reasons why Googling medical symptoms is rarely (if ever) a good idea, and it’s the main reason why this film in particular taps into something unnervingly real.

You Should Have Left (2020) - Movie Review

Unless he somehow found a way to resurrect Jimmy Saville to star in it, there’s basically no way that David Koepp’s latest turn in the director’s chair could possibly turn out worse than it did with his last film Mortdecai. And since Secret Window remains one of his best efforts to date, it makes sense that he would return to a similar psycho-horror vein for this, a haunted house yarn starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried. However, while that decision is advisable, it seems that he went a little too far in that direction, as this is basically Secret Window 2: The Housening.

Palm Springs (2020) - Movie Review

Oh dear, it’s another time loop movie. And I’ve already used up basically every remotely useful way I can introduce these movies; I can’t even go full meta and acknowledge this constant stream of time loop movies itself feels like I’m stuck in a time loop, because I’ve already done that too. These past six years since Edge Of Tomorrow has seen a lot of filmmakers try their hand at this, with both good and bad results, but quite frankly, I’m just tired of it all. It’s been done. The chances of something coming along that can add a fresh spin to the idea is growing thinner by the day. It's part of the reason why I wasn't exactly looking forward to this, regardless of how it turns out... and yet it's also the reason why this is such a blast of fresh air.

Sequin In A Blue Room (2020) - Movie Review

Here’s a rarity for you: An erotic thriller that’s actually good. Like, beyond any potential for Googling the raunchier clips to watch for ‘the articles’, this is a nice and effective mixture of the sensual and dangerous. And like with the better examples in the genre, it works because the two are ever-present within the narrative framework, here shown as a look into hook-up culture in the age of social media.