Week Ending 8/30/24
Harlan shake
I’m eight features and one short into TIFF and they’ve all been pretty good so far. Should be able to get another six or so done before heading over the border next Friday. The big question is which public tickets I will be able to secure on Sunday so I can start to maybe finalize my schedule. It’s still very much up in the air as I’ve been striking out with publicists. Might need to drop a couple assignments.
The JUSTIFIED rewatch has been fruitful. I forgot how funny it was. Not that there would ever be a debate to call it a comedy like with THE BEAR (which I fall firmly on the side of calling a comedy). It’s just nice to get a chuckle every once in a while as the characters bust each other’s balls.
I love playing Where’s Waldo? with since-completed shows too. Sure, there are the big names like Margo Martindale and Mykelti Williamson and the TV regulars like Jim Beaver and Jere Burns. But what about Billy Miller? A guy I wouldn’t recognize to save my life except for the fact he played Harvey’s brother on SUITS and therefore was fresh in mind when he popped up in Season 2. Stu Buzzini himself, Ian Reed Kesler, also makes an appearance in Season 4. The SUITS to JUSTIFIED connection is real with both airing concurrently.
The biggest surprise for me, though, is remembering just how little screen-time Jacob Pitts and Erica Tazel receive despite being series regulars and in the opening credits for all 78 episodes. Talk about having some good agents.
What I Watched:
The FRESH HELL Trilogy
THE EXORCISM OF SAINT PATRICK
(VOD)
At one point during Quinn Armstrong’s THE EXORCISM OF SAINT PATRICK, seventeen-year-old Trick (Michael J. Cline) asks Pastor Pat (Steve Pinder) why the church can’t simply accept him for who he is. The latter—hired by the former’s parents to conduct a one-on-one conversion therapy retreat with the boy—starts spouting vagaries about how the “Book” says so. When Trick pushes back, however, Pat finally gets to real reason: Because the more concessions Catholicism makes, the less uniquely special those who belong become. His religion (all religions, for that matter) isn’t therefore about salvation. It’s about control.
Trick’s parents want control over his identity. The church wants control over humanity. Pat wants control over his life. And in order for all those entities to achieve that power, they must destroy whoever stands in the way … even if they know it’s wrong. Because Pat does know that things aren’t like they used to be in the past. Some lines aren’t supposed to be crossed anymore—not because of morality or decency, but because the church has changed course in a bid for self-preservation. This institution still wants to “save” young gay boys and girls from damnation, but they don’t want to be sued in the process.
Armstrong does well to portray the generational history of this barbaric act by opening the film with a character (Maya Jeyam’s Alana) we won’t really get to know until the end. We watch her get kidnapped during the night before being forced to watch a video from her parents explaining why they’ve allowed it to happen as a means to save her soul. Her pain and tears are enough to guess the result of her conversion. She becomes a glimpse at the pattern continuing today with Trick. And while the rest of the film progresses from the vantage point of his “therapy” with Pat, we never fully escape the pull of the past.
The supernatural underpinnings of this horror are subverted as a result. Whereas we’d usually be watching ghosts frighten people with malicious intent, the shadows Trick sees are instead offering help. Why? Because they know what he’s feeling. They know that his greatest fear isn’t death, but the eternal realm in which he’s destined to reside in its aftermath. That’s the power the church holds over him. Homosexuals and suicides burn in Hell. So, if Trick can’t be “fixed,” what alternative is there? What escape has God provided? Can those ghosts be a sign that it’s actually okay to die? That he won’t suffer alone?
It’s an intriguing tale that can get a bit too unwieldy once we inch closer to the end. Armstrong is perhaps giving us too much credit insofar as realizing there’s more than one ghost in the distance. Talk about Alan (Alan Tyson) and an appearance by Meredith (Caitlin McWethy) also do more to distract than enhance until the denouement finally supplies the context with which to understand how they fit. The whole is thus better upon reflection than it might seem in the moment. I think that eventual clarity does ultimately redeem it from my initial indifference, but I understand if it won’t be enough for others.
- 6/10
WOLVES AGAINST THE WORLD
(VOD on 9/3)
Louis (Michael Kunicki) is a reformed neo-Nazi trying to stay on the straight and narrow via support groups and sobriety. Once a drummer for a death metal band led by the man (Jordan Mullins’ Helvete) who molded his and best friend Anders’ (Quinn Armstrong) rage into hate, he struggles to reconcile the realization that who they were and what they did was wrong against the memory of just how great those days felt. So, he takes a leap of faith to reconnect with Anders in the hopes that they can travel this new path of healing together. He needs to ensure he made the right choice.
WOLVES AGAINST THE WORLD gives shape to that violent anger that remains inside of Louis through the form of lycanthropy. It conflates white supremacy with the supernatural to make it so the rhetoric of purity and race holds double-meaning with both Nazism and werewolves. It’s actually why Louis was able to leave in the first place. He might have drunk the Kool-aid and done some heinous things, but he was never fully “turned” like Anders. Rather than go back to kill his friend and end the disease (Helvete is already gone), however, his goal is to bring him back into the light.
The parallels Armstrong (who writes and directs as well as stars) makes are intriguing. He connects the dots in ways that allow his theme to shine through, but I’m not certain it ever amounts to much. More than the first chapter of his “FRESH HELL”, this entry feels like the sort of CREEPSHOW piece that inspired the trilogy. It has overt political messaging, creates some memorable shots, and holds about as much substance as one would assume a twenty-to-forty-minute vignette would. Stretching it to eighty, though, is simply too much. The inherent repetition doesn’t compound its resonance. It merely exposes its hollow core.
I’m sure others will disagree. I myself cannot say that I didn't enjoy the ride. Armstrong's aesthetic choices alone are worth admission. It just never grabbed me beyond that level of superficiality. I never really felt the guilt and regret demanded of Louis because his arc for redemption isn’t towards those he harmed. No, his journey is to save another man who might also not deserve salvation. It’s a Nazi trying to earn forgiveness from himself by offering it to another Nazi. Maybe that works if you fold in the addiction aspect a bit clearer, but that stuff proves more means to an end here than focal point. Same with the sporadic werewolf genre tropes. The concept is sound, but the execution doesn’t match its potential.
- 4/10
DEAD TEENAGERS
(VOD on 9/10)
Now this is what I was anticipating from Quinn Armstrong’s FRESH HELL trilogy after loving his previous project SURVIVAL SKILLS. Right from the beginning of DEAD TEENAGERS we can see something is amiss when Mandy (Jordan Myers) readies herself in the mirror before catching a strip of masking tape on the frame that says “Camera 1”. It gives her pause, but not enough to ruin the mood. She’s about to go for a walk with Ethan (Angel Ray), after all. Nothing can distract her from the possibilities love might bring on this glorious spring break vacation.
That’s not the only oddity either. There’s also a steel light stand in the woods. And a weird cable running along the side of the cabin … just like the weird cable found and forgotten during both THE EXORCISM OF SAINT PATRICK and WOLVES AGAINST THE WORLD. Because despite all three of these films working as standalone pieces, they do connect courtesy of the main set. So, where the first deals in the ghosts of victims and the second in the bloodlust of monsters, DEAD TEENAGERS zooms out to turn the craft of filmmaking into its unknown force haunting those on-screen.
Mandy doesn’t know it know it, but she can sense it. Echoes of Pastor Pat and Louis flash before her eyes either via moments from their respective films or behind-the-scenes sessions wherein they can also, maybe, see her. It’s as though the place itself holds the memories of the other productions shot there. Visions to infiltrate the minds of those currently on set despite them not knowing they’re on set. Because we’re watching Mandy, Ethan, Jamie, Ben, and Nicole. Not Myers, Ray, Maya Jeyam, Tony White, and MaryCharles Miller. They are simply living their lives as characters in this film, slowly discovering the emptiness behind their words.
That’s when their own monster arrives (Chris Hahn’s Torch). And also (as stated in the synopsis) where he dies. The question becomes whether he was supposed to perish in that instance or at all. Because what’s the point of a monster if you’re not going to let it kill anyone? No one is paying money to watch a slasher where the only blood comes from the killer’s own decapitated head. So, it’s no surprise that this beat proves to be a crucial point in the existences of both the characters and the actors (if you can even separate the two when the former don’t realize they are the latter). Everything that happens afterward is therefore presumably off-script.
Those who’ve seen SURVIVAL SKILLS will know this is only the start as the line between reality and fiction blurs until reality is completely dissolved. These teens try to get things back on-track if only to jumpstart time itself, going through the motions in ways that prove the writer’s words are sacred regardless of intent. Some attempt to cheat that rule to the detriment of others (blood will be spilled—more than twice the first two FRESH HELL films combined) while others look to become the writer themselves. It proves an ingenious thrill ride through the fourth walls of previously shattered fourth walls.
All the actors are great with over-the-top melodramatic moments and those full of the bone-chilling dread of confusion and uselessness. Jeyam’s Jamie is the type who wants control and has no qualms putting ideas into the heads of those like White’s Ben, someone who will skip like a scratched CD if not given the necessary input to push through. Myers is the most memorable (save Beau Roberts’ scene-stealing cop) due to Mandy becoming de facto lead and she doesn’t disappoint once the world around her starts switching on the fly—a feat that gets the pulse pounding thanks to Armstrong and crew’s impeccable production design and editing.
- 8/10
SCARED SHITLESS
(FrightFest 2024)
Whatever it was that killed Sonny’s (Daniel Doheny) mother has rendered him incapable of living without a bottle of Bismuth to ease his stomach. He didn’t used to be a germophobe, but now he can’t even eat dinner without first scrubbing a layer of skin off his hands. So, it doesn’t help matters that his father (Steven Ogg’s Don) is a plumber who more or less swims in germs all day. Unless they can use that fact to their advantage. Maybe taking Sonny on Don’s latest job to unplug Mrs. Applebaum’s (Marcia Bennett) toilet can serve as exposure therapy and snap him out of it. If only they knew what was actually hiding inside those pipes.
We the viewers do thanks to an opening prologue where director Vivieno Caldinelli and screenwriter Brandon Cohen set the tone via Canadian icons Mark McKinney and Julian Richings. Not only do their Dr. Robert and Professor Cummings introduce us to the monster at the heart of SCARED SHITLESS, but they do also so in a broadly comedic way that ensures we’re in the right mindset from the start. How? By letting the former try and hide his research from the latter by saying “Project X” doesn’t exist … despite literally everything in his lab being labeled with those exact words.
The result is an organic killing machine the likes of which Earth has never seen. Think a Facehugger from ALIEN but with the four-cornered mandible-laden mouth of a Predator. The creature latches onto its victim, tearing it to shreds en route to consuming the entire body when possible. So, while it’s a good thing that it’s trapped inside Dr. Robert’s building’s septic system as far as keeping it quarantined from the rest of civilization, it’s a horror show for those few tenants still inside for the long weekend. And regardless of whether they are the heroes these people want to save them, Don and Sonny—with help from the landlord’s daughter Patricia (Chelsea Clark)—are the only heroes they can hope to get.
What follows is a fast-paced seventy-minute romp full of gruesome kills and Dad jokes. The effects work (courtesy of cult favorite Steven Kostanski) is impeccable and the filmmaking a ton of fun thanks to meticulously planned blocking for added suspense and humor as well as some unforgettable cuts (“You gotta do something about that finger.”). And since the bathroom is the one place we cannot live without, this monster has plenty of potential meals to dismember, eviscerate, or drag right down through each porcelain throne. Add ready-to-hatch eggs, a justifiably doubting police force, and the best work gloves on the market, though, and maybe Sonny is exactly where he needs to be.
SCARED SHITLESS lives up to its promise. It’s funny, gross, and extremely Canadian. There’s even a healthy dose of horror-fueled sexuality—just not always the sort you might expect. It’s a love letter to 1980s creature features with a game cast who’s ready to get their hands (and faces) dirty to save the day and characters tough enough (or numb enough) to get through some harrowing events without so much as batting an eye. So, allow that initial store of vomit to be expelled early on like Sonny does and enjoy a viscous ride through bodily fluids and snaked pipes. You never know what might be lodged in the flange.
- 7/10
STRANGE DARLING
(in theaters)
Nothing is as it seems in JT Mollner’s STRANGE DARLING. Except, of course, that being told as much means everything is exactly as it seems. The problem with marketing your film as unpredictable is that audiences inherently stop thinking about where things should go and start hypothesizing where they will instead. Suddenly everything we see as one thing automatically becomes its opposite because we know that pitch means the filmmaker must make us believe the bait in order to activate the switch. It’s why many such works fail.
The fact that this one doesn’t is meaningful as a result. Yes, it’s easy to guess the broad-stroke red herrings Mollner uses. His job is therefore to ensure where he takes us in response to their unveiling is worth the trip. Considering I haven’t heard a single bad thing about it (straight down to Ed Begley Jr. tweeting “I haven’t been in a film this great in decades.”), he objectively succeeds in that pursuit. Because Mollner knows it’s not enough to simply pull the rug. He must make the rug entertaining as well. So, he can give us the role reversal we expect and then provide another (or more) for good measure.
It helps that the script itself does the same. First it tells us that this is going to be a story told in six chapters. Then it commences out of order. The assumption is then that what we seeing is real because enough time has passed off-screen to make it so. That’s why there needs to be so many false bottoms. The middle is a result of the beginning just as much as the end is a result of the middle yet cause and effect don’t always align with good versus evil. Victims can sometimes become killers seeking revenge. Killers can sometimes become victims if things go south.
Add notions of role play, gender norms, and desperation to the equation and the actual pitch becomes “nothing is as it seems precisely because what we see is all real.” The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) is being pursued by The Demon (Kyle Gallner) and his rifle. She’s also asking him to rough her up in bed. One does not negate the other and how they play out together differs depending on which happens first. Shuffle that progression around and how we perceive the dynamic becomes blurred even more. It’s not that Mollner is manipulating his characters to hide the truth. He’s manipulating our preconceptions to heighten it.
As you can tell from my getting this far without supplying more than two lines of plot (he chases her, she seduces him), going in blind is paramount. Let Mollner’s machinations unfold in real-time and, if you’re able, stop yourself from trying to guess what’s next despite the marketing begging you to do so by making its twisted strings a selling point. Because this is ultimately a film about two people pushed to the edge of self-preservation. He must kill her. She must kill him. They must survive each other. And those in their path (Begley Jr., Barbara Hershey, Steven Michael Quezada, etc.) are destined to suffer being in the wrong place at the very wrong time.
Do the ends justify the means? My initially thought was “not as much as it wants.” The serial killer angle is kind of shoehorned in despite it being one of the few truths we’re given in the synopsis (leaving the justification for killing less interesting than it should be on paper) and the “Mountain People have guns” angle is perhaps too comical not to derail some of the tension (regardless of Mollner saying the absurdity is intentional). But neither truly impacts the result. There are enough twists and turns in Fitzgerald’s performance alone for those aspects to never become more than blips amongst the whole. I was never bored. I was always invested in the pursuit(s). And the underlying desperation breeds mess. So why not embrace it?
- 8/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw INTERMEDIUM (2024), JACK REACHER (2012), and THE SUPREMES AT EARL’S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT (2024) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
Rosamund Pike dropping an f-bomb in JACK REACHER.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 8/30/24 -
1992 at AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Quaker
ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES at Regal Transit & Quaker
AFRAID at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
CITY OF DREAMS at Regal Transit & Quaker
REAGAN at Dipson Amherst, Flix & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
SARIPODHAA SANIVAARAM at Regal Elmwood & Transit
SING SING at North Park Theatre
SLINGSHOT at Dipson Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE at Dipson Capitol; Regal Transit & Quaker
Streaming from 8/30/24 -
CROSSING – MUBI on 8/30
THE DELIVERANCE – Netflix on 8/30
THE FALL GUY – Peacock on 8/30
“So, if you enjoy Leitch's work (namely BULLET TRAIN and the quippy HOBBS AND SHAW), you should have a good time here. I probably enjoyed the former more, but THE FALL GUY is probably the most accomplished of the trio.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
(UN)LUCKY SISTERS – Netflix on 8/30
THE WATCHERS – Max on 8/30
“Strip everything away and this is a solid if generic thriller that delivers the goods on a purely formal level. Add back some of the flavor and you see where Ishana can go if given the time and room to grow.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
APOLLO 13: SURVIVAL – Netflix on 9/5
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
THE EXORCISM OF SAINT PATRICK (8/27)
Thoughts are above.
HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON (8/27)
KINDS OF KINDNESS (8/27)
RUNNING ON EMPTY (8/27)
YOLO (8/27)
BORDERLANDS (8/30)
CROSSING (8/30)
FIRST SHIFT (8/30)
TRAP (8/30)