Quick Pix Returns

Cold Skin (Shudder)

Cold Skin (2017) is what I suspect a lot of us thought we were going to get going into The Lighthouse after seeing The Witch. While I will continue to insist that the former movie lies somewhere between domestic drama and domestic comedy, the latter is definitely an aquatic horror movie. Many of the starting plot points between the two movies are the same. In 1914, a young man (billed only as Friend on IMDb, played by David Oakes) arrives on an island near the Artic Circle to act as a weather observer for 12 months. The only other person on the island is the elusive lighthouse keeper (Ray Stevenson). The young man soon learns that, every night, the island is besieged by fish people coming out of the sea (example: above poster). The lighthouse keeper, played with the same intense weirdness by Stevenson that characterized Dafoe’s performance in The Lighthouse but with a lot more nudity, captures a female fish person (I don’t have a better term for them), who is later named Aneris by Friend, and keeps her prisoner with him in the lighthouse. A lot of the attacks at the end of the movie appear to be attempts to get her back. There’s even one attempt at bargaining by the female population with the two men on the island, that does not go well because at least the lighthouse keeper clearly sees Aneris as his property at that point.

I don’t have a ton to say about this movie but it’s a solid aquatic horror movie. The performances are off kilter and fun, without becoming downright silly. The tone is always kept straight and serious. The creature design for Aneris is really beautiful, although a bit reminiscent of The Shape of Water. The CGI for the hordes of fish people is a little dodgy but there’s so much going on in those scenes, it doesn’t really matter. The performances of the three main actors make up for any flaws and I wish this movie would get more attention. Now would be a great time to check it out on Shudder.

The Lodge (CW: Suicide, Cults)

Between about two weeks of minor illness and some travel, I almost didn’t catch this one in the theater. It was actually the last movie I saw before all the theaters in my area started shutting down. This may not be the best movie to watch while you’re holed up with you family, but if The Shining is on your list of things to binge, maybe give this a go.

Richard (Richard Armitage) takes his two children, Aiden and Mia (Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh) to a rather remote house in the woods during winter break to get to know their soon-to-be step-mom, Grace. Aiden and Mia are still grieving the loss of their mother, Laura (Alicia Silverstone, whom I barely recognized), after she commits suicide. Grace was once a member of a suicide cult and a subject in a book written by Richard. Grace clearly, at some point, became “the other woman” because Laura hated Grace and, before her death, was poisoning the children against Grace with her words and actions. Laura’s suicide is truly shocking, partly because I expect an actor like Alicia Silverstone to get more screen time in a movie like this. It’s a powerful scene that resonates through and sets up the rest of the movie.

Once the four of them get up to the titular “lodge”, Richard has to go back to work for a couple days but promises to be back by Christmas. This leaves the two children, Grace, and her dog in isolation, working out their differences. At the moment when everybody seems to warm up to one another, something happens that, once again, plunges everyone into paranoia, distrust and fear.

I don’t really want to spoil the twists this movie takes because they genuinely made me go, “Woah, wait…what?” in the best way possible. I will say that I’m not entirely positive on this movie and found it, for lack of a better word, mean. For me, it fits into the same movie category as Martyrs. If you ask me if you should see this, my answer is, “Hell, yeah!” Just don’t ask me to watch it with you. I’d have to be in a really good mood to watch it again because I think it’s pretty honest about human behavior, even involving children. I do have one spoiler that’s more of a content warning so stop reading if you don’t want to know: *******************************************************************************************************SPOILER********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The dog dies. While the actual death is offscreen, there are several scenes of it’s lifeless body. I burst out crying because I am that person. Give me a gruesome human death and I’m like, “That person’s acting.” Give me an animal death, especially that of a pet that I find particularly unnecessary and cruel, I will cry. I have turned movies off for this, but those have usually shown the death onscreen and include animal violence. This one just made me feel super sad and angry. No spoilers for anything else but I have never felt my emotions pivot so hard against characters in a movie before.

Unfortunately this movie is not yet streaming, but should be available on DVD on May 5th. Hopefully that date remains accurate because, by my estimate that will probably be just about the time everyone starts to get really tired of being stuck quarantined in their own homes and all the family drama will rear its ugly ahead. Sit down, take a deep breath and watch this movie together.

Little Remakes

Every so often, I find myself immersed in the conversation about Hollywood and remakes. Are they necessary? Are they killing any original thought left in cinema? Do I find them annoying? Answering these questions in reverse order:

Personally, I don’t find remakes that annoying. I’m not personally offended when I find out my favorite movie is being remade. I’ll watch the preview and decided for myself whether it’s worth my time or money. I don’t judge others for finding a current remake better than the original or an earlier remake. I think which version of a movie that’s been remade you feel connect to is a very personal thing. It could have to do with ideas added to the story, pacing fixed, technological advances in special effects or just that you weren’t the intended audience when the other versions came out. My best example of this would be the announced Blumhouse The Craft remake: I loved that movie in my teens and still have strong nostalgia for it. I hope the remake connects with teenage girls now as much as the original connected with me. But I probably won’t see the remake. I just feel too old for it now. Professionally, it can be a little frustrating to parcel out which Halloween or A Star is Born someone wants me to get for them. Seriously, when A Star is Born came out there were remakes I didn’t know about coming out of the woodwork.

The other two questions are simple: Are they killing all original thought? No. Just go see Parasite and Knives Out to see that’s not true. There are plenty of original ideas left in Hollywood. We just need to provide the opportunities to see those movies. So, if one is playing at your local multiplex, go see it. It improves the visibility of the creative team involved and their next movie could get more press and be seen on more screens. Are remakes necessary? This I’d take on a case by case basis. Some remakes take a story and tell it from a fresh angle. Some remakes update things for a new audience that might not be aware of the original. This might draw a new audience to the original. Is the Little Women remake necessary? In my opinion, no but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad movie. I’m just not sure I find it Oscar worthy.

It’s exceptionally hard to add anything new to Little Women. Originally published in 1868, it is a novel for young girls showing how young, white girls of that era lived and had very little agency over their own lives as they grew into adulthood. The semi-autobiographical story follows Jo March and her three sisters from their teens into young adulthood. It’s a 150-year-old book so beloved that only faithful adaptations work. You can’t just switch things up and have Beth live. Greta Gerwig tries to add a fresh spin by adding a meta ending in which Jo deals with her publisher to try and sell the novel. I could argue that this might only be interesting to viewers with some background of how copyright and the publishing industry work. Viewers like me.

Jo writing of the novel Little Women within the context of the movie isn’t new. Again, I found the writing montage entertaining but I’m also a writer. I enjoy glimpses at other authors’ processes, especially from an era where you couldn’t just hit the delete key to remove something. The 1994 movie doesn’t have as clean of a writing montage but Winona Ryder can be seen carrying the finished manuscript at the end. To see Jo argue about whether or not fictional Jo should marry ( a thing Alcott wrestled with) by the end is slightly a new idea but I think it’s kind of messily handled. Although we don’t see Friedrich in that final scene, Jo could still be married to him. I don’t need Jo to remain a “literary spinster” to see her as an independent woman. This is also messy because, in the scene with the publisher, Ronan seems to momentarily cease playing Jo and start playing Alcott but that’s not what the scene really intends.

A lot of the things Gerwig does to try and make the film feel fresh are technical, directorial decisions. After a while, I started to notice several shots framed like the actors were in tableau on a proscenium stage. This works for the actual play scenes but is visually boring for others. There are also instances where first a character is monologuing into the camera and then it goes into voice over. The monologues took me out of the movie.

I’m also not sure how I feel about the decision to tell this story non-linearly and with the same actresses playing both the younger and older versions of themselves. There were some scenes that I could only track which part of the story we were in by the length of Jo’s hair. To put Beth’s battle with scarlet fever interlaced with her later complication of a weakened heart lessened the shock of her death for me. Honestly, I was a bit irritated Beth’s death is expressed through the emotions of Jo and her mother but this may be due to my nostalgia for Claire Danes’ death monologue in the 1994 movie. The 1994 movie is the only version of Little Women where Beth dies “on screen”. I put that in quotes because the actual death still happens while Winona Ryder looks away for a moment. Beth always feels like the forgotten sister in the lives of the more effervescent March sisters and, in this movie, she’s not even able to express how she feels about that. That death scene is the most the actress who plays Beth has to do in any version of this story. Eliza Scanlen was robbed, in my opinion. I really liked her scenes with Chris Cooper. Their connection felt real while not coming off as creepy.

The interesting part of the casting for this movie is that, despite the four sisters having different personalities, they all felt very similar. In the 1994 movie, Trini Alvarado, who played Meg March, felt so much older than her sisters that her desperation to find a suitor and settle down felt realistic. The young Amy, played by Kirsten Dunst, was actually twelve so her petulant behavior felt annoying but age appropriate. I thought Florence Pugh does a wonderful job as the older version of Amy but out of place playing a girl barely in her teens. It makes Amy more obnoxious because you expect someone who appears to be in their 20’s to know how to act. I think this movie could have benefitted from breaking up the role. It also would have clarified Amy’s age in some of the scenes that take place in the March home, specifically the scene where Amy burns the beginnings of Jo’s novel.

Pause for a confession here: I could never get into this book. I tried at a couple different ages and I cherish the copy I got as a child, probably because I’m a book nerd and it has a cool cover. The story was just never my thing but I really enjoyed the 1994 movie. Jo and Amy are the two March sisters I have always connected with. I connect with Jo’s independent, creative spirit and even her slight spacey-ness (I want to say I am not the type to set myself on fire because I’m writing a story in my head, but I totally am). I find young Amy to be kind of mean in her attempts to get attention but I identify with her attempts to atone for her behavior with Jo and her feelings about having to give up her own artistic aspirations to do what she is told is best for family, marrying rich. Amy’s compromise is marrying someone she has loved her entire life who is just slightly less rich than her first suitor, Fred. Jo wants to be independent and also be loved. Even with the fact that Alcott was somewhat forced to have Jo marry, I think this is a feeling many can identify with. You want to feel like you matter to someone without losing your sense of self. This is possible in marriage now, not so much for women in the Civil War era.

Overall, this new version of Little Women is entertaining but I didn’t find it special. The cinematography is beautiful but I expect that from a movie positioned to be an Oscar Pony from the start. I absolutely agree that we need more women being nominated for and winning Oscars in the field of directing. However, I just don’t think Greta Gerwig was really overlooked for this movie. I think everything that needs to be said about these “little women” has been said. It’s time to explore new stories. But, again, that’s just how I feel and maybe I’ve aged out of feeling attached to this story. If this adaptation leads a young woman to explore other adaptations and the original book, I’m all for that. It’s just not for me.

Rise of the Fanfiction (Spoilers Ahead)

I have enough emotional attachment to the Star Wars franchise to have manipulated my work schedule for all 3 sequel movies so I could see them opening night. It became a fun little thing to do right before the madness of the holidays began . Unfortunately, it means that I am writing this review after the holidays are over, struggling to remember exactly what happened in this movie.

That is my biggest issue with this movie. It feels small and forgettable, which is not how I want to experience Star Wars. How does a Star Wars movie feel small you ask? By not explanding out its world building and instead creating a story where all the characters either know, are aware of each other, or are possibly related. By being afraid of the “anyone can have the Force” message set up by Rian Johnson in The Last Jedi, which set up the possibility of being able to explore the Star Wars universe without the main character’s name having to be Skywalker or Solo. We’ve been following the same family for 40 years now. Jusr because fans are very comfortable with these characters, it doesn’t mean that Star Wars filmmakers shouldn’t try to invent new ideas, characters and stories. With the exception of The Last Jedi, this sequel trilogy feels like a soft reboot of the original, paying more attention to fan service than actual storytelling.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of movies that seem to be working off a checklist of things the studio thinks fans want to see. Rise of the Skywalker is fan fiction for a small, vocal minority of gatekeeping fans that might also be Russian bots. Rise of the Skywalker does a ton of walking back on ideas that The Last Jedi tried to introduce. The Last Jedi explicitly states that Rey’s parents were “no one”. Rise of the Skywalker walks that back by making her the granddaughter of Palpatine, the Emporer who just won’t fucking die. The only reason I enjoyed Palpatine being brought back is that Ian McDiarmid throws decades of playing this character behind his performance and clearly enjoys himself. Palpatine is some sort of Force Zombie causing Rise of the Skywalker to have the darkest opening of any of the Star Wars movies, almost edging it’s way toward being a horror movie. Not an opening I would want to expose a young child too, which is disappointing because my nephew is going through a serious Star Wars phase right now. But if he thought Paige Tico’s death was “too scary”, Zombie Palpatine is definitely going to be too much.

Rise of the Skywalker feels like a fan fic checklist because familiar elements like Palpatine feel jammed in with no explanation. Who needs an explanation if a character is already known and beloved? The fact that there is no explanation for how and why some characters return is confusing, to audience and characters alike. If I think about it too much, I’m also confused about where Lando Calrissian shows up. Maybe there’s some back story in the novels or comics as to how he showed up on that particular planet but I have my doubts Disney expects the majority of theatergoers to have done their homework. It’s obvious that Disney wanted to dig into fan nostalgia with the return of more old characters. The old trope of buring a beloved fantasy character under a gigantic hood was alive and well for Calrissian’s reveal and even I will admit that hearing Palpatine’s Vincent Price-like cackle at the end of the first trailer gave me chills. Then I thought, “Isn’t he fucking dead? How the hell…?” Just like in The Force Awakens, these moments only serve as a wink and a nudge to the audience. Too many are distracting to the plot of the movie in front of me. However, one guy in our theater cheered every time one of these moments happened, so these moments obviously work for some people. This guy, unfortunately, happened to be sitting next to my husband.

My face when anything fan service-y but nonsensical happened

The most inexplicable moment of fan servicing has to be the moment of Kylo and Rey kissing (to which Obnoxious Guy responded by yelling, “Bring on the fan fiction!” so thanks for titling this blog post, dude.) For me, this isn’t even just a The Last Jedi walk back. From The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is set up as the antagonist for Rey. He’s just a bit more grey than past Star Wars villians. He’s hurt and angry and falling victim to an ideology that fits those emotions. Rey comes along and challenges him, both in an action movie way and emotionally. But their relationship never feels like they have romantic feelings for one another, just shared struggles. The kiss feels really, pardon the pun, forced. It actually made me angry because Kylo spends a lot of time in the first two movies toying with Rey’s emotions and, quite literally, her mind, as she attempts to push back and be a positive influence on him. This dynamic followed by a big passionate kiss sets up just another toxic relationship in the Star Wars universe and Rey seemed to have healthier choices. I don’t think “You can change the guy who keeps putting you through shit” is a message that Star Wars should be putting out there for its young female viewers who have adopted Rey as a role model.

Then there are the female characters created for the final movie in a trilogy that seem to only be there in response to that small, obnoxious minority that almost made me not want to bother discussing my dislike of this movie at all. Zorii Bliss and Jannah are two new characters we meet in this movie that appear to be introduced only to throw a supposed wrench into the character development of Poe and Finn as a potential couple. Poe and Finn having feelings for each other was definitely something that took off through social media after The Force Awakens but it was backed up with so much chemistry between John Boyega and Oscar Isaac that it seemed Disney might totally head that way. I had my doubts after Rose Tico was introduced in The Last Jedi but her character’s relationship with Finn felt more developed, probably because of the whole Canto Bight subplot in The Last Jedi. There was something budding there. Jannah, a character with a similar background to Finn, might have been interesting if I thought her character was going to be more developed in coming movies. Here she feels like a replacement on the side mission for a side lined Rose and her big scene with Finn is an exposition dump that stops the momentum of the movie. Here they are, in a hurry to fix the ship, and they have to plop down to get to know each other? Did anyone else hear tires screeching?

It’s disappointing because learning how Finn’s actions in The Force Awakens had a ripple effect throughout the Storm Troopers could have been interesting. Here it feels more important that Jannah is a girl than that she’s a former Storm Trooper. The weirdest thing is it never pays off. Finn basically ignores her during the victorious ending. She’s left on her own, the only other thing interesting that happens is that it is hinted at that she might be related to Lando. Or Lando is hitting on her. Honestly, that interaction was weird as fuck.

Zorii Bliss has a bit more to do, possibly because she’s played by J.J. Abrams’ friend Keri Russell, but her character seems to just be there to prove that, at one point, Poe dated women. It amuses me that Disney seems to think this refutes that Poe and Finn might have feelings for one another. It’s a very binary way of looking at sexuality. In the end, Finn still celebrates their victory with Poe.

I would be remiss to discuss the many loves of Finn without mentioning Rose Tico. Kelly Marie Tran gets her own fucking paragraph in this review because she was royally screwed by the The Rise of Skywalker. Being reduced from a secondary character in The Last Jedi to having a minute and 16 seconds in The Rise of Skywalker is bullshit. In the context of the movie, it seems to be something Disney either expected fans to celebrate or not notice. It’s noticeable. Especially when faced with Dominic Monaghan’s (Another Abrams former collaborator, a white male) incredibly distracting cameo. Every time he came on screen, I was like, “Why is he here? Why are these lines not going to Rose, if she’s supposed to be Leia’s woman on the ground?” I don’t buy the “CGI Leia not working” excuse for a moment. It seems convenient for Disney to put that out when the only two people who could refute it are either dead or no longer active on social media due to harassment. Rose was an established character. It was logical for her character to grow in Rise of the Skywalker. She was the heart of The Last Jedi. She seemed to be on her way to a relationship with Finn. The Rise of Skywalker takes place about a year later so that must have a been a fast burning relationship. Finn and Rose barely speak and, when they do, that dialogue is as stiff as Palpatine’s body should be. It seems so obvious that she should’ve been part of the group that goes off with Rey. Once again, Disney listened to the racist whining of a vocal minority and this movie suffers for it. I felt the absence of Rose like a dark cloud throughout. The good guys win in this movie. The heart of their group should shine in it. It made the victory a little more hollow for me.

Let me make something clear. As a science fiction action movie this film is fine. It’s got some exciting bits. The acting is good for what the actors have to work with. If it was a stand alone, I’d call it “a good waste of 3 hours”. But I expect more from a series that created the idea of a larger multimedia universe. I expect more from a series that has spanned more than my lifetime. Star Wars is not the series to be written, even in part, by Twitter. It’s that disappointment that kills me. Overall, I decided to focus on the characters in this review because I think Star Wars‘ strength is in its characters. That’s why we cheer when old friends or enemies return or get attached when new characters are created. Plot and messaging is secondary. I think this is why The Last Jedi is devisive amongst fans that are not just racist, misogynistic assholes. It had things to say. As a filmgoer, I found that interesting but I can accept that not everyone wants that in their entertainment. Some people just want to eat popcorn and cheer at explosions and that’s fine. I like that too. It’s why I like the original trilogy. Unfortunately, I think this attitude stagnates any growth in a universe that could go in so many unique directions. Luckily, I think the Star Wars TV series may have some more freedom. Even after disliking Rise of the Skywalker, I really wanted to go home and watch The Mandalorian, which feels unique in the Star Wars universe while still having some nostalgia.

Wise beyond his years, he is.

Marketing Still Matters

In the most recent season of Mindhunter on Netflix, there was an episode where two people go to a movie. They’re running late, meaning they’ll miss the previews and possibly the beginning of the movie. This upsets one character way more than it does the other. This scenario totally reminds me of my husband and I whenever we go to a movie. I hate walking into a movie once the lights have gone down and not just because I have trouble walking in the dark. I just want to feel settled before the previews start. I have always been someone who enjoys the previews. When I was younger, it was one of the only ways for me to find out what I wanted to see in the coming weeks and months. Previews and reading Entertainment Weekly from cover to cover. With the advent of streaming, I can still use EW and the internet to find out about movies and TV I may want to check out soon, but there’s a new trend with Netflix that kind of annoys me. Netflix loves to premiere one preview and then drop the movie or show shortly after. With limited room to promote on their site, this means I might miss something I’d enjoy. Last week I saw two movies back to back, both based off of TV shows that ended several years ago, El Camino and Downton Abbey. Afterward, I started thinking about how the marketing for each film may have affected my viewing of it.

El Camino is a Breaking Bad movie that begins right where the TV show ended and provides Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) with a redemption arc. It was the proper way to do a Breaking Bad movie, focusing on a beloved character who’s story had ended on a cliffhanger. But was it necessary? And was it necessary to release it in theaters? The movie really feels like two Breaking Bad episodes tied together and injected with filler to expand it to an appropriate movie length. ********************************SPOILERS*****************************With some time to think about it, I ‘m not even sure I buy that the movie gives Jesse a real redemption arc. The show gave him an arc, taking him from a young, small time dealer who teaches his high school science teacher the business side of meth dealing to someone brought low and held hostage by Walter White’s ambition. The show leaves Jesse a victim and leaves the audience wanting to see him rise from that to make his own choices with his life. The movie sets up a 2 hour escape sequence that will allow him to do that at some point but there’s so much fan service in it that it feels like he’ll just fall into old patterns again. The movie runs on two timelines, one pre-escaping in the titular El Camino and, in the other, Jesse being on the run after his escape. So even the movie covers some of the same territory that the TV show did.

For a show that I and a lot of America was obsessed with for five years, It doesn’t feel like Netflix did a ton of promoting to bring in new viewers. Possibly Netflix’s hands were tied by the fact that the movie does zero hand holding and little reminding you of who characters are for a show that has been off the air since 2013. The movie doesn’t feel like it was trying to bring in new viewers. It was resting on the idea that fervor for the show was still what it was back then. I had maintained some of that fan fervor, making me curious, but my brain does not retain information well enough to remember small details of a show that ended six years ago, so instead of being excited at the fan service, I was busy racking my brain for tucked away character information.

Most of what I saw in terms of promotional ads and articles were done only weeks before the movie dropped on Netflix. For a movie that was shown in select theaters, I would have thought that I’d see at least one ad in a theater. This lack of promotion makes the movie feel even more like an extended television episode. Overall, I sort of wish that I had stayed home to watch this. My local theater brought in the El Camino that was used in the movie for people to take pictures with but we could’ve pulled into the parking lot, taken pictures and driven home. I wonder if Breaking Bad only feels cinematic when it’s on the small screen.

In contrast, I saw a featurette for Downton Abbey before almost every movie I’ve seen in a theater for the last couple months, even when the two movies had nothing in common. I saw the featurette so many times that I, someone who had never seen the show, had time to ponder whether it would be something I’d enjoy, be convinced by a co-worker that it would, watch all six seasons (Ok, some are kind of short), and still see the movie in a theater. The really nerdy part of me that loves historical melodrama, especially one with serious production value, had time to enjoy that journey. I also think the movie gives you enough information about the characters to be able to follow it even if you haven’t watched the TV show. The plot starts a few years after the series finale, with the Crawley family home, Downton Abbey, being thrown into upheaval due to an unexpected royal visit. There is also a subplot that introduces a new distant cousin and deals with a different inheritance. There are still the same hijinks downstairs with servants and the ritual spectacle upstairs that a fan would expect from the show and a newcomer could enjoy on it’s own. There’s even the fantastically humorous use of Matthew Goode, as Mary’s husband, as little more than arm candy (probably due to scheduling). There were a couple characters that supposedly left Downton to do other things at the end of the series that are brought back and this could be seen as fan service but the movie covers this pretty well. The greatest thing about this TV show getting a movie is that the budget allows them to explore the village and outdoor locations a bit more so it feels like characters that left the house but not the village would still be hanging around. I also liked how the characters continued to grow and adapt to the changes of the world around them. That seems like it is a theme for Downton Abbey. Being a relative newcomer myself, I do sort of wonder if I would have enjoyed the movie as much if I didn’t have immediate recollection of the characters and storylines from the show. I wouldn’t necessarily say the movie holds the viewer’s hand as much as it focuses on these characters in the moment they’re occupying. There are few call backs, mostly jokes and not major plot points. Newcomer or not, this movie feels a thousand times more cinematic than El Camino. It’s a story that has always steeped itself in spectacle and you can feel real production value in every fiber of it’s being.

Maybe it’s not the marketing’s fault. Maybe it’s me. Maybe my tastes have changed over the years and Breaking Bad just doesn’t excite me the way it used to. I haven’t rewatched it since my initial viewing. I haven’t revisited Downton Abbey either, but I found myself missing the experience of bingeing it this week when I had no more episodes left. It feels like a show I could go back to. When my husband asked me how I liked the movie, I immediately said I wanted to buy it when it comes out on DVD. It could also be that these movies evoke two different emotions in me and one just makes me feel happier. That’s ok, but I still find it kind of amusing that I would not have known that if that featurette hadn’t worked so well on me.