Week Ending 9/6/24
RIP Johnny Hockey
What a tragedy. In town to attend their sister’s wedding the next day and an allegedly drunk, former National Guardsman that works at a local rehab clinic aggressively tried to pass another car on the right where Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau were riding their bicycles. Johnny Hockey would have assuredly been finally heading to the Olympics in 2026 for Team USA. How completely unnecessary.
That story has pretty much been at the top of all my news feeds this week, so I don’t really have much else to talk about save the dumb rehashed standing ovation debate at Venice and Telluride. Oh, and maybe Joaquin Phoenix’s intriguing answer when asked to explain why he abruptly left the explicit film that he brought to Todd Haynes, effectively shutting down production and sending everyone counting on that paycheck home. His reply: “It wouldn’t be fair to talk about it without the other parties here to tell their side.” Is that him skirting the issue? Or is there actually more to it than we thought with Haynes and longtime producer Christine Vachon needing to answer some yet unstated accusation on behalf of Phoenix? My guess is the former.
As for the week ahead: I’m currently driving to Toronto to cover my eighteenth year of TIFF. Like last year, rather than inundate your inboxes with two issues today and one every day for the next seven-plus, I’m going to just publish them under the Festival tab and TIFF tag. So, please take a look there each morning if you’re interested in my review dispatches.
What I Watched:
NO SLEEP TILL
(Venice Film Festival world premiere)
“It's a quiet piece with gorgeous shot set-ups and interesting characters engaged in the seemingly wild juxtapositions inherent to maintaining a mundane status quo through the uncertainty of impending chaos.”
– Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
RED ROOMS
[Les chambres rouges]
(limited release)
It takes seventy-five minutes for Clementine (Laurie Babin) to finally ask the question we’ve been desperate to have answered since the beginning of Pascal Plante’s RED ROOMS: “Why are you here?”
A lot happens in that time to make the query more relevant than ever due to the discovery that Kelly-Anne’s (Juliette Gariépy) stoicism in the face of a trial that contains horrific truths is real. She’s not a groupie like Clementine—blindly believing the system has persecuted Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) and set him up for the grisly live-streamed murders of three teenage girls. As Kelly-Anne admits with a blank stare when interviewed by a newscaster, she’s merely curious. About the crime itself? Maybe. About how the crime was committed and discovered? Definitely.
Because Kelly-Anne is very tech-savvy. Rather than avoid liabilities like AI personal assistants, she makes sure to insulate her use of them from prying eyes. How? By knowing how to exploit their back doors and infiltrate the lives of regular folk who trust too much in the promise of convenience over safety. Kelly-Anne is so proficient (and sociopathic in her lifestyle) that it’s easier to think her fascination in this case is about how to better protect her own crimes than it is caring about whichever way the verdict goes. It’s not necessarily a game to her, but it is a show.
What she cannot anticipate, however, is letting Clementine get close. A bona fide sycophant in need of help, this young woman concocts the most outrageous conspiracy theories to ensure her baseless delusions don’t fall apart. Not to say that there isn’t a chance Chevalier may be innocent (the prosecution is tasked with proving he’s guilty beyond all reasonable doubt). Clementine simply refuses to believe the opposite. And why not? The most damning evidence in this trial comes from recorded snuff films found on the dark web. It’s easy to imagine what you want when there’s no way to be refuted beyond conjecture.
Kelly-Anne doesn’t take a shine in Clementine because they are kindred spirits, though. The latter is a raw nerve—all emotions, all the time. If anything, Kelly-Anne pities her at first and seeks to teach her the means of coping with them later. The result, of course, is that her mask begins to slip. Rather than being able to hide behind her screens and AI assistant playing online poker and hacking into the accounts of the victims’ parents, Kelly-Anne suddenly finds a human connection. She begins to care. Become protective. And, when her pragmatic outlook on this case isn’t matched, angry. That’s when mistakes happen.
What’s so captivating about Plante’s RED ROOMS is that we can’t know if Kelly-Anne is actually making mistakes. That was my initial read in the moment once the last twenty-five or so minutes start to unravel. The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder if her paranoia wasn’t about getting caught. Maybe it was about ensuring she didn’t go too far down the rabbit hole before those on her trail could catch her. Because Kelly-Anne is too smart to not know what she’s doing. Whether her plan was to secure the missing piece of this puzzle from the beginning or not, it is by the end. And “getting caught” doesn’t necessarily mean being caught. Not when we’re talking about 1s and 0s.
It’s a stunning tightrope walk that expertly weaves together a taut script, sensory overload (via very intentional and effective cinematography and score), and an enigmatic performance from Gariépy. She’s the most crucial part as her poker face leads us to believe nothing she does is impulsive. Kelly-Anne is methodically building a nest egg through clandestine means augmented by an extremely public career that must be taken into consideration when the time to push all her chips in arrives. Eventually that sterile condo and her crazy courtroom stunt make perfect sense together. Because to catch a ghost, one must become a ghost too. Sometimes that means becoming invisible. Sometimes it demands you cause a fright.
- 9/10
TRAP
(VOD/Digital HD)
I’m glad M. Night Shyamalan’s TRAP proved to be as goofy as that poster with Josh Hartnett’s eye opened wide to the point where his mouth can’t help smirking. When I first saw that image, I couldn’t stop thinking about the James Franco meme from THE INTERVIEW where he’s wearing a scarf and standing up with a “How dare you?!” face. That whole faux rage masking the knowledge that the entire scenario is absurd. That’s what I wanted from TRAP and it’s exactly what I got.
It makes sense too since the premise is so stupid. Is law enforcement really going to put more than two hundred thousand innocents in danger once they figure out the serial killer they’re after (known as The Butcher) will be attending a pop concert? Are they really going to bring every single available officer from every single branch of police to this centralized location and allow themselves to be seen so that the killer knows something is up? It doesn’t matter if their profiler (Hayley Mills) is psychic, she won’t be able to cover every exit or ensure the stadium staff she’s enlisted as undercover agents are up to the task.
So, the film needs the latitude to go crazy. Let Hartnett’s Cooper (who we know to be a murderer, regardless of whether he’s actually The Butcher, about five minutes in) do some wild stuff to test the perimeter and find weaknesses. Let the script gift him ways to do so like a loquacious merchandise seller (Jonathan Langdon) or the potential to “win” backstage passes. The more conveniently dumb things get, the more fun we get to have. Because if Cooper isn’t sweating from the heat, he’s laughing about his small victories. Then things can get outrageous upon escape.
I did not expect Saleka Shyamalan (as Lady Raven, the concert’s main attraction) to have such a large role considering she isn’t an actor. But, as we see once again with M. Night giving himself a cameo, not everyone on-screen is anyway. And that lack of experience only feeds into the undercurrent of comedy too. Both when we’re supposed to believe she’s scared and when she turns around to try and be the hero by leaning into her wheelhouse (enlisting her Swiftie-level online horde to crowd-source answers) and stretching credulity even further via half-baked attempts to psychologically subdue this monster.
The idea is surely to distract us from remembering that this whole thing is a trap and therefore realize there’s no way Lady Raven would ever be allowed to do what she does. I don’t care if you’re Madonna—no one is actually leaving that arena without being checked and no way you’re that famous and not receiving a police escort if you somehow do. This whole film is predicated on everyone but Cooper being as dumb as a box of rocks so that every angle can be compromised in such a way that the so-called blanket of security surrounding him proves to be a loosely crocheted net instead.
Again, though, none of this is a mistake. Neither is Shyamalan only casting people at least a head shorter than Hartnett so his Cooper towers over everybody. He’s a big dude on his own, but the way he’s shot here makes him seem like Andre the Giant. As a result, the fantastic “fake” acting he does when trying to get answers from unsuspecting strangers hits perfectly. All these people know a killer is on the loose and yet they melt at the sign of this hulking figure’s smile. They want to be his best friend even though it would take a moron not to know he’s lying. It all goes back to the trailer “giving away” his identity. You knowing the truth doesn’t ruin your chance to feel smart. It allows everyone else to look stupid.
So, don’t think my enjoyment of TRAP means I think it’s a good film. It’s not. It’s as dumb as its characters. But boy is it entertaining. Hartnett is having a blast. Salenka’s music is a lot catchier than her concert’s obvious target for pop satire. And the back end possesses some genuinely enjoyable twists and turns insofar as how they back Hartnett into corners to see how he gets out. It’s the type of pulpy good time that we rarely get with conscious intent anymore. Too often we end up laughing at a film like this. It’s nice to laugh with this one.
- 6/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw THE FALL GUY (2024) and SWING KIDS (1993) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
Robert Sean Leonard dropping an f-bomb in SWING KIDS.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 9/6/24 -
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE at Dipson Amherst, McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
THE FRONT ROOM at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME at Regal Elmwood & Transit
I’LL BE RIGHT THERE at Regal Transit
THE THICKET at Regal Transit
TOKYO COWBOY at North Park Theatre (late show only)
Streaming from 9/6/24 -
REBEL RIDGE – Netflix on 9/6
THE BOY AND THE HERON – Max on 9/6
“Think of this tower as a 'Wonderland' that morphs and distorts reality to be simultaneously scarier and safer than the conflict and emotions our young protagonist simply doesn't have the means to process or reconcile on his own.” - Full thoughts at HHYS.
THE DEMON DISORDER – Shudder on 9/6
BOXER – Netflix on 9/11
TECHNOBOYS – Netflix on 9/11
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
COUP! (9/3)
DIDI (9/3)
THE GOOD HALF (9/3)
SKINCARE (9/3)
“Peters and company do a good job providing closure, but the truth of who is doing what adds up to a fatefully unlucky finale doesn't quite land with the impact we expect.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SWEET DREAMS (9/3)
TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS: WALLED IN (9/3)
WOLVES AGAINST THE WORLD (9/3)
“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.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
BETRAYAL (9/6)
DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS (9/6)
A NEW YORK STORY (9/6)
OFF RAMP (9/6)
THE PARAGON (9/6)