SLUGS

Conner O’Malley is back with another short film. I haven’t been able to wrap my head all the way around this one but between the references to classic cinema combined with what I’m convinced is some sort of troll-ish commentary on red pill/blue pill online masculinity – this is a piece of art made specifically for Marcus Pinn (I love movie references, I hate red pill/blue pill people and I think Conner O’Malley is one of the funniest people alive).

Terminator / Slugs

The Conversation / Slugs

The Terminator / Slugs

 

Taxi Driver / 

Slugs

Click here and here to read my thoughts on O’Malley’s films from last year, and check out his new film below

SINNERS

I’ve come to the harsh realization that while Get Out is a movie I still enjoy – it has become more of a curse than anything else. I don’t know what it is but almost any prominent movie or television show to feature Black people dealing with issues concerning race and/or racism has to be analyzed through the lens of Get Out. It’s like a default setting. And the plots to a lot of these movies don’t do anything to shake this perception. Almost everything is some variation of “watch out for those white women” or “beware of the white boogeyman” or “watch out for those outsiders”. There are obviously a few exceptions but when you list everything off you’ll see that I’m right. Lovecraft Country, Them, Ma, Queen & Slim, Run Sweetheart Run, The Front Room, Tyrell, Master, Alice, Tales From The Hood Part 2, etc. They all have strands of Get Out’s DNA. Recently they put all nuance aside and made a psychological thriller called Karen about a racist white woman that terrorizes a Black couple. There are more cases but I think the 11 examples I just gave from the last five years alone proves my point. If not – perhaps you’re just a contrarian that wants to mindlessly disagree with everything. I’m well aware that movies like Dutchman, Murder In Harlem and Story Of A Three Day Pass existed decades prior. But filmmakers haven't taken from those movies like they've taken from Get Out.

I say all this because even though Sinners falls somewhere between Good/fine/entertaining (I personally found everything non-vampire related to be the most interesting), it still has the stench of "Get Out-sploitation". On one hand, it isn’t Ryan Coogler’s fault that everyone’s critique of this film is some insufferable super personalized think piece about race or the role of Black people in society or the so-called dangers of interracial relationships between Black men & White women (it's always only Black men and white women and never a critique on any other type of interracial relationship). It’s par for the course. Folks put a lot of weight on movies & television shows. For some reason a large sector of Black folks would rather seek validation about their Blackness from a movie or a TV show instead of real life. But at the same time – Coogler has to know that a movie with a predominately Black cast set in 1930’s Mississippi where a group of white vampires terrorize a Black establishment is going to bring on this type of dialogue. Outside of the basic premise which lies somewhere between Night Of The Living Dead and The Thing from Another World, Sinners has all the standard elements & themes I brought up earlier like; “beware of the white boogeyman” and “watch out for those white women”. 

Outside of the basic story about a group of characters trying to survive a vampire coup, Coogler made a genuine effort to touch on everything from the great migration to the history of Black Americans and their African roots. I don’t think everything was a success but I’m still glad I watched it on the big screen. Streaming Sinners at home won’t give you the same experience. I found some of the character’s decisions in the second half of the movie to be very stupid but I’ll give Ryan Coogler the benefit of the doubt on that. Perhaps he wanted to bring back that old school feeling of shouting at the screen when someone makes a stupid decision in a horror movie. I certainly found myself talking to the screen when someone does something dumb. This is clearly a movie that’s more than just a simple vampire movie so there is room for a deeper analysis. But reading through a lot of people’s tweets, tiktoks, letterboxd reviews and social media rants exposed that some folks needs to touch grass, go to therapy or do a combination of both. Good lord. You could argue that I'm giving too much attention to the opinions of people online. But if you think these aren't real life opinions then you're being naive....

*SPOILER* Mary & Stack proceed to stay together for 60+ years and counting but please tell me more about how they weren't together for a long time...

Notice the critique is just about Black men bringing white women into our spaces and nothing about Black women bringing white men into our spaces when the main villain in the film is in fact a white male vampire. God forbid...

 

And if you don’t want to go to therapy – watch more movies.

I’m happy that a filmmaker like Ryan Coogler remains successful but if there’s one thing that Sinners exposed it's that people need to watch more movies. You would have thought this was the first vampire movie ever. And if not Sinners, you would have thought that From Dusk Till Dawn was the first vampire movie to do what it did (…it wasn’t). For those that don't know, many people are saying that Sinners “stole” from From Dusk Till Dawn. 

@thestorytimeguy I love the movie Sinners but... its From Dusk Till Dawn #Sinners #fromdusktilldawn #vampires ♬ original sound - Matthew Torres

To that claim I will reemphasize that people need to watch more movies. From Dusk Till Dawn is a collage movie much like Pulp Fiction. It’s an homage to a handful of pre-existing genres. Last time I checked, the basic premise of Sinners is very similar to Ernest Dickerson’s Demon Knight (a movie released a year before From Dusk Till Dawn), which got it’s basic premise from George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead (Dickerson worked under and learned from Romero before he became a director himself). Again – watch more movies before you decide to step out there and be loud & wrong.

Night Of The Living Dead /
Sinners

Coogler is still not above influence. Outside of Night Of The Living Dead by way of Demon Knight, Sinners also borrows from typical sources like The Shining

   

The Shining /
Sinners

Whatever criticisms I may have about Sinners really doesn’t matter. It’s a major success. My words won't sway any box office numbers (to be clear – I think this movie should be seen by as many people as possible). I just thought it would be nice to present a slightly more sane perspective on the movie.

PERSONAL PROBLEMS

I included this film in my recent piece over at Okayplayer.com about the modern Black Film Canon (click here to read), but I felt like going a bit more in depth over on my own personal blog. If you're exhausted with all the insufferable takes on Ryan Coogler's Sinners and are looking for an alternative perspective on Black American life - look now further than Personal Problems. But please approach with caution as this is a Black film that can't be dissected through the lens of Get Out (is it me, or does it feel like most popular modern Black films can't be analyzed unless it's through the lens of something Get Out-related?). Contrary to what the average film twitter or letterboxd "critic" will have you believe - there are plenty of Black films with stories that exist outside of the white boogeyman or "stay away from dem white women"...

In the era of the Black-led/“Black Is Beautiful” films like Beale Street, Moonlight, Dope, Nickle Boys, the discovery/re-discovery of works like Bill Gunn’s Personal Problems is a breath of fresh air. Not to take anything away from the films of Barry Jenkins & Ava Duvernay (their films do serve a purpose and have a somewhat authentic audience) but there is a little more substance to the work of Gunn. While a lot of today’s popular “Black films” don’t go beyond the surface of saying; “Black Skin & Black people are Beautiful” (which, as a proud Black person, is obviously something I subscribe to), a movie like Personal Problems delves in the complexities of “Blackness”, loyalty, infidelity, the power dynamic in the Black household and so much more (the same could be said about other older recently rediscovered Black films like To Sleep With Anger, Ganja & Hess, Ashes & Embers, etc). The more I watched Bill Gunn’s epic 2nd feature, the more I saw my parents, uncles, aunts and various 2nd cousins who used to drop on & off the grid from time to time. It’s almost like you could feel the cigarette smoke emanating off of the actors. I’m a child of the 80’s & 90’s so I remember when parents used to smoke cigarettes (...and weed) directly in to a child’s personal space. One Of my oldest memories of growing up during the 80’s in a Black household is that thick cigarette smoke, Alongside Hennessy bottles, soul music & loud laughter. Personal Problems is all of those things and more (I also relate to Personal Problems on a deeper level as my Mother & Father are from South Carolina & New York City, respectively, like our protagonist couple in the movie).

While there is a plot (the two act film centers around a Black family living in Harlem as they struggle with money, work, infidelity & death), Personal Problems is really about the banalities and authentic qualities that you cant find in most films about Lower-middle class Black America. For those of you that don’t know, Personal Problems was shot on what appears to be a camcorder which just adds to the authenticity. At times you almost feel like you're watching a mix between a documentary and a heavily improvised Shadows-era John Cassavetes film full of energy and wonderful mistakes.

Personal Problems is a transgressive work of cinematic art that intentionally alienates some of its audience. It’s almost three hours long and the fact that it was shot on a cheaper camera brings on a whole additional chain of issues (the audio is far from perfect and it should go without saying that the visuals are quite grainy). But, in my opinion, more Black films need to be transgressive & complex as opposed to catering to the opinionated (yet often uninformed) social media audiences that just want to be spoon-fed nice & happy things (especially when it comes to movies about Black folks). I mean how often does the issue of someone’s body Oder come up in a movie in a non-comical way? We get things like that in Personal Problems because Bull Gunn delves in to the nasty crevices that a lot of filmmakers avoid.

The theatrical release of Personal Problems couldn’t have come at a better time with the universal praise of Barry Jenkin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. These two films would make an interesting double feature. Again - not to take anything away from Jenkins and his success, but at times Beale Street felt a little “Safe”. The issues in Beale Street (which come from James Baldwin’s writing) are quite real and not to be taken lightly, but the stylized slow-motion sequences and non-stop close-up shots of (beautiful) Black faces started to take precedent of the actual meat of the story. I don’t necessarily need a film (or anything/anyone) to remind me that Black is beautiful. I know this. But perhaps some folks don’t know this and need to be reminded of this from time to time (we still live in a world where Black lives don’t always matter). And that’s fine. That’s the audience for Beale Street. I like to think I represent the audience Personal Problems. There is a place in this world for both movies to exist. I just think there needs to be more complex & “difficult” films to balance out all the “safer”, “less threatening” films that focus on Black life in America.

Honestly – I’m just glad we have a new (Black) director’s body of work to include in the unofficial Black film canon that’s been curated mostly by white cinephiles and Black cinephiles who don’t delve deeper than Daughters Of The Dust and/or Killer Of Sheep. No disrespect to Julie Dash (Daughters Of The Dust) or Charles Burnett (Killer Of Sheep) but there’s a whole world of modern Black cinema out there waiting to be re-discovered and placed on a pedestal.

PERFECT DAYS - SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL *UPDATED*

 

A Hen In The Wind / Perfect Days

Last year I shared my thoughts on Wim Winders' Perfect Days and it's connection to the work of Ozu (click here to read). Not every cinematic comparison could make it in to the original post. After a while, a lot of Ozu's signature shots can get pretty similar/redundant and I didn't want to repeat myself. 

Below are the cinematic parallels that I saved from the cutting room floor...

Late Spring / Perfect Days

Tokyo Twilight / Perfect Days

Tokyo Twilight / Perfect Days

Tokyo Chorus / Perfect Days

Tokyo Chorus / Perfect Days

An Autumn Afternoon / Perfect Days

A Hen In The Wind / Perfect Days

Late Spring / Perfect Days

Dragnet Girl / Perfect Days

End Of Summer / Perfect Days

End Of Summer / Perfect Days

End Of Summer / Perfect Days

Tokyo Story / Perfect Days

The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice / Perfect Days

An Autumn Afternoon / Perfect Days

Tokyo Chorus / Perfect Days

TIMESTALKER

I don’t always mean to force a connection between two unrelated films but there’s no other way for me to praise Alice Lowe’s Timestalker without bringing up Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast. Both movies are darkly comedic time traveling love stories involving stalkers that subconsciously reference the work of David Lynch. 

David Lynch has always been a big inspiration, as well, and you can definitely see the inheritance of that in the film - Alice Lowe, Filmmaker Magazine

Eraserhead / Timestalker

There’s a lot more to both movies but those basic similarities combined with the fact that they were both released within a year of each other makes the comparison more than understandable. It’s like when Cronenberg’s Crash and Lynch’s Lost Highway both got released around the same time. Yeah they’re different but on a surface level, they’re both existential hyper-sexual films that sort of focus on automobile-based eroticism. Or, more recently, Fincher’s The Killer and Linklater’s Hitman. both movies are incredibly different but at the same time, it would be weird to not draw some comparison between two new hitman movies where the protagonists screw up big time and have to correct their errors.

I’ve been a fan/defender of Bonello’s work for more than 20 years but I found his time traveling stalker story to be a bit disappointing. I know I’m in the minority on this. Most folks love The Beast. I just thought it kind of lingered on and took forever to come to an end. I appreciate the audaciousness of it all and the subconscious nods to folks like Leos Carax, David Lynch and Maya Deren. But at the end of the day it just didn’t move me (click here to read my thoughts from 2023).

I hate bringing down one movie to prop up another but Timestalker is what everyone thinks The Beast is.

Lowe has compared her own film to Baby Reindeer. Like Timestalker, Baby Reindeer is another UK-based story about a stalker that takes place over a few different time periods. This pairing makes sense but it’s kind of driving me crazy how more folks aren’t making the connection between The Beast and Timestalker. It’s like when Cronenberg’s eXistenZ came out a few weeks after The Matrix. Again - both movies are different but also very similar. Even today, rarely do you see many parallels drawn between the two movies but they’re both “virtual reality” sci-fi stories where characters use their bodies as ports to log in to another dimension. And they both played in theaters at the same time! 

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t draw a comparison between Timestalker and one of the most famous time traveling movies of all time: Highlander. Lowe has said herself that outside of folks like Lynch, Powell and Pressburger, etc that she was inspired by a lot of pop culture movies from the 80s.

Timestalker is really influenced by eighties films, which had a fun way of dealing with massive ideas. This boy traveling back in time with his mum fancying him, which was a big mainstream hit! The eighties got away with dealing with complex matters in a light way. I miss that we don't really get to explore these fun and fresh ideas, because we don't get those sort of conceptual films anymore - Alice Lowe, themoviewaffler.com

Recently on twitter Lowe said the similarities to Highlander were not intentional but I couldn't resist making a side-by-side. There’s even a duel scene in both films!

Highlander / Timestalker

I've always been really influenced by Powell and Pressburger - Alice Lowe, Filmmaker Magazine

Black Narcissus / Timestalker

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp / Timestalker

A Matter of Life and Death / Timestalker

Tales Of Hoffmann / Timestalker

Normally I don’t like comparing anything to Stanley Kubrick in 2025 because what movie isn’t influenced by him on some level? But Lowe used some of the techniques in Eyes Wide Shut for Prevenge so it isn’t out of line to assume the same techniques were used for Timestalker.

I said to the DoP that I found the thematic use of artificial coloured lights throughout Eyes Wide Shut really creepy, and I wanted to try and get some of that - Alice Lowe, BFI 

Eyes Wide Shut / Timestalker

Timestalker is the story of a perpetually reincarnated woman (“Agnes”) who finds herself falling in love with the same man over and over no matter what time period she finds herself in. It’s easy to read this as a basic female-driven story about finding yourself caught up in a redundant dating loop or falling in love with the same type of men over and over again and having it go nowhere. And that would make sense. I just suspect there’s more. It’s been over 8 years between Pervenge and Timestalker. I can’t help but think this movie is Lowe working through the frustrations of trying getting a film made and be a consistent director. There’s a lot of runaround and disappointment when it comes to getting a film off the ground. Meetings, scraping together budgets & resources, asking favors, etc. At a certain point, low/mid budget filmmaking has to feel like an endless loop much like Agnes finds herself in Timestalker. 

It’s best to go in to Timestalker without any preconceived notions of Lowe’s debut. Prevenge is a personal psychological horror about motherhood. Timestalker can’t really be categorized as easily. On one hand it’s a psychological time traveling period drama. But it’s also a dark comedy science fiction story about a stalker sort of being stalked herself. The same dark humor and quick spurts of violence in Prevenge can be found in Timestalker but that’s about it (and even the violence in Timestalker is more gruesome and over the top than in Prevenge). This is new territory for Lowe that she handles masterfully.

RATS!

 

Rats! fits in perfectly with movies like Repo Man, Tapeheads or even Dude Where’s My Car? (judge all you want but that movie is funny). The basic plots are all similar on a surface level – an aimless stoner gets caught up in a plot involving guns, murder, nukes and/or bombs, aliens, the FBI or a close combination of everything in the case of Rats! After getting busted for tagging, a young punk/graffiti writer (“Raphael”) is used as a pawn by a crooked police officer to go undercover to try and bust his cousin who may be in possession of nukes. These nukes are just the tip of the iceberg as we’re exposed to one absurd semi-connected event after another.

On the most surface of levels, Rats! is the type of movie to be compared to the work of someone like Harmony Korine because of all the vulgarity, randomness, occult imagery and connections to death metal. But, the more you watch Rats! the more you’ll find it pulls from recognizable sources like Spielberg, DePalma, Tarantino and Lynch (at this point in time, what movie doesn’t).

Crrie / Jaws / Rats!

Reservoir Dogs / Rats!

Blue Velvet / Rats!

Un Chien Andalou / Blue Velvet / Rats!

I doubt Wild Style played a part in the development of this movie, but the graffiti element made me think Zoro and his tagging...

Wild Style / Rats!

If you’re looking for a contemporary comparison, this falls in line with the films of Joel Potrykuys (we cover Potrykus’ work a lot on this blog). The opening scene of Rats! Is very similar in tone to the opening scene of Potrykus’ Ape (both directors are also very reference-heavy so the connection makes even more sense). I doubt Rats! director Carl Fry is familiar with Potrykus but it’s interesting to me how both of their movies start with an aimless small town youth tagging up their town as a way to show rebellion.

 

Ape / Rats!

Rats! plays out like something made by the little brother of an old gen-xer. Someone who never actually saw a full episode of Pete & Pete or you can’t do that on television, but instead they heard about it from their older sibling and watched a couple of clips on youtube for context (based on everything I’ve said so far, it should come as no surprise that this movie relies heavily on nostalgia). Rats! is also the perfect movie to share with someone who loves to complain about things being too “woke”. The type of movie that disproves the whole; “you could NEVER make a movie like THIS today” or “everyone is SO easily offended”. At times you’ll find yourself questioning if this movie is completely satirical, completely offensive in a rebellious immature teenager kind of way, or a combination of the two. I’m still not completely sure but I do know that this movie is genuine and has heart. I’ll need to watch it a few more times but after my first viewing I can say I enjoyed it very much. I wouldn’t blindly recommend this to most people because there is a lot of gratuitous vulgarity and senseless violence. But if you don’t mind that kind of stuff and are looking for a surreal, fun and sometimes uncomfortable 79 minutes – this might something you’d enjoy.

10 RARE MOVIES THAT BELONG IN THE BLACK FILM CANON

 

I recently wrote a piece on Okayplayer.com about potentially updating the Black film canon. 

Click here or the image above to go to the article.

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS *UPDATED*

I was put on to this film at a very peculiar time. After a recent podcast appearance I found myself rethinking & second-guessing how I feel about intentional movie references & homages. I know I just said this in my previous post on Nickel Boys but in 2024 alone we got so many films that relied heavily on visual callbacks. Between new releases like The Substance (click here & here to see all the key homages), Cuckoo (The Brood), In A Violent Nature (click here & here to see all the homages I compiled), Longlegs (Silence Of The Lambs), Rebel Ridge (First Blood & Billy Jack), Nosferatu (beside it being a second remake, Eggers references Possession) and more – filmmakers seem to be focused more on pulling from the past or shouting out their cinematic heroes and less invested in trying something new & innovative. I’m starting to wonder if new releases were nothing more than mixtapes/compilations?

I say all this to say that while Hundreds Of Beavers is interesting, it’s also very much an homage-style movie. But I liked it! A lot! In fact – this movie is an homage of other homages. Hundreds Of Beavers is from the school of Guy Maddin who is a very reference-heavy director himself. He may not pay homage to more recognizable sources in the way Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez does, but Maddin’s films are almost always layered with tons of references & callbacks to folks like Bunuel, Murnau, Fritz Lang, Dreyer & David Lynch. This means that by proximity, Hundreds of Beavers is also inspired by those older filmmakers. I think that’s part of the reason why I like this movie so much. Had this film referenced anyone else I would have probably written it off but Guy Maddin is one of my favorite filmmakers and I kind of appreciate that we’ve come to a point where he’s a reference point. It’s about time he get shown the type of respect I think he’d appreciate (I would hope a reference-heavy filmmaker like Guy Maddin would appreciate being referenced himself by a younger filmmaker). Underrated, misunderstood & unsung are often overused to described artists but in the case of Guy Maddin I think these descriptors are fair. The art scene Maddin that came up in is rooted in references. He came to prominence alongside fellow reference-heavy filmmaker John Paizs (click here & here to read more about my love for Paizs).

I just felt like I was good friends with Luis Buñuel just because I watched his movies so often – Guy Maddin, thefilmstage

Un Chien Andalou / / Tales From The Gimli Hospital

As strange as Eraserhead is, it is a very honest portrait of personal...[pauses] When I saw that movie I didn’t need to know that David Lynch had been through an unplanned pregnancy and that he had stuck around long enough to see the baby through its infancy and … it was pretty exciting to me to see someone pull off a real tug-of-war but not just a two way tug-of-war, but one in so many different directions you couldn’t even count them. And that to me is pretty inspiring. So, I’ve always used Eraserhead and the Buñuel movies not as atmospheric role-models, I like the atmospheres in them, but I just like what they pull off psychologically with what is really broad strokes and really big gestures. It gets really baroque, gross at times, but still achieves moods and flavours of moods in your soul – unease, pleasure, excitement – that seems to be running very quickly through the inventory of all the things you feel in the course of a year, but you can get them in one 90 minute experience. That is really exciting to me, that art can do that. Lynch has fine tuned it over the years so that things are more sophisticated so that now you are really wondering where these feelings are coming from and stuff like that. The strokes aren’t as broad, but the… I don’t know why I keep talking about Lynch, but he is kind of doing what painting has been doing for years, and I’m not saying that his images are painterly, but that he is doing with narrative what painting does – Guy Maddin, Screenanarchy.com

Eraserhead / Tales From The Gimli Hospital

I just thought if I had that Guy Maddin style – that grainy 16mm look – mixed with my brand of humor, it would make for a unique movie. Because usually it’s one or the other. Comedies, especially nowadays, they’re not very sophisticated. It’s two guys standing in a room. Single shot. Single shot. Single shot. Let’s improvise – Mike Cheslik, onmilwaukee.com

My Winnipeg / Hundreds Of Beavers

We like Guy Maddin and Guy Maddin seems to like us! Definite influence. Mike Cheslik has seen all of his films  – Kurt Ravenwood, reddit

The Heart Of The World / Hundreds Of Beavers

The Saddest Music In The World / Hundreds Of Beavers

Careful / Hundreds Of Beavers

Cowards Bend The Knee / Hundreds Of Beavers

Careful / Hundreds Of Beavers

Tales From The Gimli Hospital / Hundreds Of Beavers

Tales From The Gimli Hospital / Hundreds Of Beavers

Archangel / Hundreds Of Beavers

This isn’t the first time that Mike Cheslik pulled from the cinema of Guy Maddin… 

Right before I had the idea for "Lake Michigan Monster," I watched "Brand Upon the Brain" from Guy Maddin. And that was a big inspiration because obviously that’s in the same kind of visual style, but also because it took place on an island with a lighthouse and there were scenes on a lake – Mike Cheslik, onmilwaukee.com

Brand Upon The Brain / Lake Michigan Monster

The story & themes also owe a lot to Maddin. Putting aside the old timey silent film aesthetic, Hundreds of Beavers plays out like a Guy Maddin film. The story, which puts a major emphasis on the continent of North America in the dead of winter, deals with a fur trapper battling the elements and other subconscious sexual perversions during the 19th century. Those of you that are familiar with Maddin’s work can't deny that on paper this could easily be one of his own films (to be clear – Maddin did not invent the derivate style that he’s known for. He might be one of the best to do it but he doesn’t own it). Another non-visual Maddin-ism that looms over Hundreds Of Beavers is the budget. Mike Cheslik utilizes his imagination to make the best of his small budget in the same way Maddin has for almost 40 years.

The emphasis on the mascot suits, the appreciation for silent comedy gags and making the story seem big on such a small budget is all success in my book. I guess my only criticism/question is; will Mike Cheslik continue to associate himself with Guy Maddin or will he try to eventually shake the comparison?