REBEL RIDGE

This was better than I expected it to be! When I saw the trailer a few weeks ago I was completely turned off. It looked like raceplay fanfiction. That is absolutely not my thing. I’ll never be a fan of directors using Black people to push some cringey nonsense. I’m also just not a big fan of Jeremy Sauliner’s films. Green Room was fine for what it was but I haven’t revisited it. Blue Ruin was “ok” but I never understood the hype/push behind it. I thought Hold The Dark was very bad. The ingredients were there for a potentially good movie but when everything was put together it was just a big nothing-burger. So it took a lot for me to watch Rebel Ridge. Yes - I absolutely prejudged this movie. That’s on me. But can you really blame me? It seems like now more than ever when a Black lead is cast in a film it’s done for some type of disingenuous political statement. Casting Black people in films simply to annoy people that already don’t like them is so empty & childish to me. I know this sounds like a broken record on this blog but I don’t like movies that look like they were made for cringey political twitter discourse: A lone stoic Black marine taking down a corrupt small town police system. At the end of the day that is essentially what Rebel Ridge is about, but Jeremy Saulnier managed to make it enjoyable & entertaining. Had this been in another young/young-ish director’s hands this would’ve been more of an insufferable political statement and less of a movie. This felt like a Craig Zahler movie made for people that don’t have the same political & social views as him (I do find his movies interesting but at the same if they didn’t exist it wouldn’t make any difference in my life). Rebel Ridge is so S. Craig Zahler-esque (on a surface level) that Jeremy Saulnier even casted one of Zahler’s regular actors (Don Johnson) in a very Zahler/modern-day Don Johnson-type role (evil redneck sheriff with an angry southern drawl).

Obviously, any & all comparisons to First Blood are fair (Rebel Ridge also comes from the same school as the Reacher series where the lone badass details every way he’s going to hurt every one around him before actually doing it, but it’s more First Blood than any thing else).

First Blood was in my lookbook – Jeremy Saulnier, GQ Magazine

First Blood / Rebel Ridge

But the comparisons are deeper than surface visual similarities. *SPOILER ALERT* Like First Blood, Rebel Ridge has plenty of blood shed (I guess) but very little actual deaths. If I’m not mistaken, the only deaths in Rebel Ridge are either offscreen or non violent. This is where the Zahler comparisons stop. Had this been an S. Craig Zahler movie – the murders would have more than likely been very graphic (racial tension does obviously loom over the film but there isn’t any racist name-calling or anything like that). I imagine Saulnier & Netflix didn’t want to present a film where a large Black man is murdering white police officers. But there’s still a decent amount of violence in the movie with an emphasis on close hand-to-hand combat (strangely enough, this is one of his most non-violent films when compared to Green Room or Hold The Dark). There’s always a close-up or an emphasis on our lead character whenever he disarms someone and makes a point to empty the bullets out of whatever gun he gets a hold of...

The trailer (and the opening scene) might mislead some folks that are expecting nonstop action from start to finish. There isn’t. This movie plays off of tension more than anything else. The big action doesn’t even really take place until the very end. This might not be for everyone and I do think Saulnier played it safe in the end by redeeming one of the corrupt police officers and sort of kind of redeeming another one (making the lead character former military also makes it easier to digest the violence towards police instead of him just being some guy off the street). But at the end of the day I had very low expectations about this one and ended up being pleasantly surprised.

DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS

This was originally published for cutprintfilm.com back in January of 2015. But since the site has apparently vanished - I'm posting it here with a few updates. Enjoy...

 

Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is not as bad as critics made it out to be. It's far from perfect and I think late period Spike Lee will always be a bit tone-deaf and somewhat out of touch, but I respect him for the ambitious undertaking of remaking a cult classic that is kind of out of his wheelhouse. Sorry, but these days if I have the choice between something “safe”/non-threatening versus something imperfect & ambitious – I’m going to go with the latter.  Much like how A Most Violent Year is a non-gangster GANGSTER film, Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is a non-vampire VAMPIRE film. The story centers around “Dr. Hess Green” – a lawyer & collector of ancient African artifacts who comes under a mysterious spell that makes him addicted to blood. He’s not exactly a vampire (he doesn’t have long sharp teeth and isn’t allergic to sunlight) but his thirst for blood (and what he does to attain it) would make you think he is a vampire. Like most vampire (…or vampire-ISH) films, Dr. Green’s curse becomes too much for him to handle and things spiral out of control.

In some circles Ganja and Hess is looked at as a low-budget cult film. But beyond that, it went on to influence the next generation of Black American filmmakers. If anything - Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus gave the original a momentary spotlight for rediscovery...

My tree scene was an homage to Bill Gunn's Ganja and Hess. I figured it's all part of the continuum of the Black aesthetic - Julie Dash

Ganja and Hess /
Daughters Of The Dust

Between Only Lovers Left Alive & A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, vampire films were a “thing” again within independent/art-house cinema between 2013-2015. In some ways, Spike’s latest reminded me of Claire Denis’ Trouble Everyday (another modern non-vampire vampire film where you never actually see any sharp teeth, but there’s plenty of blood & murder). There’s even a painful scene in Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus where our protagonist Dr. Green murders a woman during sex that kind of mimics the disturbing finale of Trouble Everyday where Vincent Gallo literally “eats out” his poor victim.

There are quite a few levels to this film yet no one seems to be looking deeper. Putting aside the noir-ish/thriller aspects of this movie, it obviously touches on issues like addictions, gender, racism & class. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus also clearly acts as a metaphor for the transmission of STD’s (specifically HIV & AIDS) among people of color. Is this Spike Lee doing his iteration of Abel Ferrara's Addiction?

I found myself getting incredibly frustrated at people (specifically so-called Spike Lee fans) dismissing Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus upon seeing the trailer (I honestly thought the trailer was great). Unfortunately, whether Spike Lee fans realize this or not, he’s held to a strange (unfair?) high standard where people are still expecting him to make another Do The Right Thing or Malcolm X (I guess that’s what happens when you’re one of the very few talented black filmmakers working in the mainstream). Some of you may disagree with that statement but that’s the way I see it. Perhaps some folks forgot Lee’s indie/D.I.Y. roots (Joe’s Bedstuy Barbershop & She’s Gotta Have It). From the subjects & characters in Shirley Clarke’s films to the work of Melvin Van Peeples, the origins of black people in independent film has always been a little against the grain, “left field” & grass roots-based. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is no exception. Plus, not every Spike Lee film is going to be a game-changer. I think some people have a hard time accepting that. If you aren’t expecting a 40 acres & a mule classic and just looking for an interesting film to kick back with (it’s now streaming on Vimeo), Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is certainly worth your time (although I don’t think it needed to be 130 minutes long).

No matter how problematic this movie is, it represents Spike Lee’s ability to still step outside of his comfort zone and do something different. It shares strands of the same DNA as his previous work. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus definitely takes place in the same cinematic realm as Redhook Summer. The opening sequence feels like a scene out of He Got Game, there’s a touch of She Hate Me in there, and the supporting cast features long-standing Spike Lee repertory actors like Joie Lee, Cinque Lee & Thomas Jefferson Byrd.

There’s been a tiny black cloud looming over Spike’s head (and his career) for quite some time. That’s partially his fault. His last film Oldboy (a remake of the popular Korean film) felt a little flat, and his film before that, Redhook Summer, might be the worst thing he’s done since Girl 6 (sorry, just my opinion). Lee caught a lot of heat for crowd-sourcing his latest project and I understand that on some level. Back in 1992 he reached out to a few famous celebrities & athletes (Michael Jordan, Bill Cosby, Janet Jackson, etc) for additional funding in order to finish Malcolm X when he went over budget. That was in 1992. What stopped him from reaching out to his famous (wealthy) friends/peers in 2014? Why does he need our money? Maybe that’s none of my business. I certainly don’t want to be in other people’s pockets. I just find it peculiar when rich people take to crowd-sourcing to fund a project. Spike’s recent rant about gentrification in New York City also didn’t sit well with some folks, even though he was right in what he said for the most part.

Because of all this, I feel people are going unfairly judge and/or dismiss Lee’s new work (possibly before even seeing it). Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus has a lot working against it. It’s being released with its back against the wall which is unfortunate because it really isn’t that bad. Had Ava Duvernay or Lee Daniels made the same exact film, I’m sure people wouldn’t be so harsh.

PHOENIX

This was originally published for cutprintfilm.com back in July of 2015. But since the site/publication has apparently vanished - I'm posting it here with a few updates. Enjoy...

On one hand, Phoenix is a callback to certain specific cinematic elements that I appreciate very very much. It has the spirit of a lesser-praised German New Wave film from the late 70’s (The Left Handed Woman, The Last Days Of Katarina Blum, The American Soldier, The American Friend, etc) combined with the noir-ish qualities of a Neil Jordan film (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, etc). Phoenix also falls in line with other semi-recent German-based WW2/Post-WW2 films like Carlos, Sophie Scholl  & The Baader Meinhof Complex (some of you might be scratching your head at the Carlos namedrop but the main motivation behind the misguided radical German leftists that we saw in Olivier Assayas’ film was based on extreme anti Nazi-ism that came about from the second world war which ended up backfiring).

Some might find Phoenix to be a little tedious or, dare I say, a little boring (and if not tedious and/or boring, possibly deceptive?). Within the first act it’s more than obvious that we’re in for some kind of a psychological drama but nothing traditionally “thrilling” or “startling” happens for quite some time, yet we’re almost led to believe otherwise (early on there’s a very potentially cryptic scene that takes place in a hospital that builds up to something that might be seen as anticlimactic or disappointing). It should also be noted that the performances (especially in the first half) are intentionally cold and slightly tense (highlighted particularly by co-star Nina Kunzendorf who plays Nelly’s friend “Lene”). Again – these are aspects that some might appreciate while others might be turned off by. Personally, I don’t mind it. I appreciate slow build-ups and I’m also more interested in things being conveyed through a look, hint or an implication rather than drawn-out dialogue. But I imagine this film was made for an audience larger than just myself so hopefully folks will appreciate what Christian Petzold was trying to do.

In Phoenix we follow “Nelly” (Nina Hoss) – A concentration camp survivor/lounge singer living in post World War 2 Berlin. At the very beginning of the film we learn that her face has been disfigured from her time at the concentration camp and she requires extensive reconstructive surgery. And to make things worse, it’s quite possible that her mysterious husband “Johnny” is the cause of it all. Nelly’s new post-surgery face gives her a new identity (her face is pretty unrecognizable to those who knew her before the surgery) and she uses this to her advantage. Nelly, now posing as a different woman, tracks down her husband Johnny to find out if he really sold her out. The two old lovers strike up a new relationship (Johnny doesn’t realize it’s Nelly although he does acknowledge the similar facial features) and Nelly finds herself taking the place of her old self (the identity switching draws an obvious comparison to films like Vertigo and Lost Highway). Both parties have ulterior motives with each other.

Christian Petzold is no stranger to referencing Hitchcock...

At the beginning of making Yella, I’d seen Hitchcock’s Marnie again. We ordered very expensive tracks that stretched one hundred meters on a train platform, and Nina Hoss had to stand on this platform like Tippi Hedren - Christian Petzold, Criterion.com

Marnie / Yella

And Phoeinx is just another example with this scene right out of Vertigo...

Vertigo / Phoenix 

The Wrong Man / Phoenix 

Phoenix can be seen as an obvious take on issues ranging from trust to the idea of “rebirth”. It’s also a comment on the self worth that women have of themselves and the sometimes strange loyalty they show for their unworthy male counterparts.

Some might look at Phoenix as a response to something like The Night Porter. In the Night Porter, Charlotte Rampling plays a concentration camp survivor that strikes up a relationship with her former Nazi overseer. In Phoenix we see a female holocaust survivor start up a similarly complicated/detrimental relationship with a man who is the possible cause/source of her pain. The female protagonist is an understated fixture within modern German-based cinema. Besides some of the aforementioned works I referenced earlier on (Katarina Blum, Sophie Scholl, The Left Handed Woman, etc), films like Coup De Grace, Barbara (another collaboration between Petzold & Hoss), The Marriage Of Marina Braun & Lola are further examples. Although not as prolific as most films from the German New Wave movement, Phoenix does come from the same school of thought 

If you appreciate modern German cinema (with a complex female lead) or personal/intimate stories with a historic backdrop, Phoenix might just be up your alley.

LOST IN THE NIGHT

This is the first time in history that I’ve watched something by Amat Escalante and didn’t walk away amazed in some way. I’m a little conflicted. Without question this might be his most beautifully shot film to date. Seriously – from the opening frame to the closing shot everything is crafted & framed as if it was shot by 70’s era Nester Almendros (lots of sunsets, magic hour, etc). Now…The basic premise is interesting but gets lost in the end.
A common theme for a lot of new releases I’ve watched this year involve the story falling apart in the second half and Lost In The Night is no exception. But regardless of how “imperfect” this may be, there’s still something special about it that got me to write down my initial thoughts. The story of Lost In The Night is about a young man infiltrating a system in an effort to solve the mystery of his missing activist mother. Naturally class divide plays a huge part in this story (like all Escalante films) but this is his most in your face film about classism & corruption in Mexico.

The problem is that by the end of the movie, the missing mother and her activism are almost forgotten about. 

Our main character is supposed to be solving this mystery/cover-up but he gets sidetracked by a love interest. Young men have historically been known to lose sight of a goal over the attention of a woman but this seems pretty egregious. I dunno…maybe I missed something?


It should be noted how, more than ever, modern architecture is used in Mexican cinema (and just modern cinema in general) to represent “evil”. I don’t like this blanket belief system that any design that’s modern equates bad or elitist or out of touch. But that’s just the modern design student in me.

When we’re introduced to the wealthy family that might have been involved in the disappearance of the protagonist’s mother, police are on the scene. There’s this subconscious association with modern architecture and criminality…

Lost In The Night

Escalante’s mentor/former collaborator also does this with Post Tenebras Lux. Our first glimpse of modern design is associated with a husband & wife having marital problems… 

Post Tenebras Lux

The Mexican film Time Share takes place in an ultra modern setting where everything goes wrong.

Time Share

Some critics have called Lost In The Night “Lynchian” but to me - it’s a combination of Carlos Reygadas meets Chantal Akerman (we seriously need to abolish the Lynchian term). I guess it's considered Lynchian by some because there's a shot like this in the film? 

Lost Highway / Lost In The Night

Escalante is on record numerous times name-dropping Akerman as a source of influence...

Whenever we shoot a film, there’s always a shot that we say, ‘oh this is the Jeanne Dielman shot,’ because there’s always someone at the sink washing dishes. It’s a sad anecdote but when we were shooting The Untamed, there’s a scene of a woman washing the dishes and we were filming her from behind. The day after that, I read on the news that Chantal Akerman had died. The day she died, we were shooting and said, ‘this is the Jeanne Dielman shot. - Amat Escalante, extraextramagazine.com

Jeanne Dileman / Lost In The Night

Jeanne Dileman / Lost In The Night

Another Akerman-esque moment from Lost In The Night...

Hotel Monterey / Lost In The Night

This does have replay value and I will certainly revisit it a few more times before the year is over. Right now I’m just a little underwhelmed. It’s like watching an A student get a B-/C+on a test. But that could all change after another viewing.

CUCKOO

I didn’t think Cuckoo was bad but it was definitely made by someone that thinks they understand late 70s/early 80s Cronenberg when in fact they’re way off in their understanding of his ideas. 

I really can’t highlight this tweet below enough:

Without giving away too many spoilers, Cuckoo really is what someone would think is an updated take on The Brood. This isn’t an exaggeration. Even the final moments of Cuckoo are literally the final moments of The Brood right down to the ominous zoom in on the surviving child. The film involves murderous feral children birthed from a mysterious surrogate and an Oliver Reed-esque scientist/borderline cult leader (but instead of things being told from the perspective of the father, we see things from the view of an angry teenager).

Again - I didn’t think this was bad I doubt I’ll never make an effort to watch it again. My time and money weren’t wasted at the theater but one viewing is enough for me.
In the same way Oz Perkins may have felt like he was doing a respectful homage to Silence Of The Lambs with Long Legs (…he wasn’t), Tilman Singer thinks he’s doing a proper homage to Cronenberg when he really isn't.

I know this all sounds arrogant as if to say “I understand Cronenberg better than the director” BUT…in this specific case - it’s like if a 17 year old thought; “you know what would make The Brood better? A shootout in the end! Just two crazy guys shooting at each other with machine guns” (I’m aware guns are fired at the end of The Brood but it’s nothing like in Cuckoo). Imagine if a young filmmaker thought; “what if Shivers made absolutely no sense at all??”

The Brood / Cuckoo

The Brood / Cuckoo

The Brood / Cuckoo

And this is my problem. Movies like this force you to be that annoying person to call out the stupidity & silliness within the plot when you don’t really want to. I’m fine with something that makes absolutely no sense but the movie needs to start off on that foot. Cuckoo doesn’t do this. The first 3/4 are building up to something and then the final quarter just throws the little bit of logic out the window. Now you’re forced to go “so wait - what’s the point of all this?” Only for some pretentious dork to go “WHO CARES ABOUT MAKING SENSE?” Well…in the case of Cuckoo, Tilman Singer cared about making sense until the last half hour. As the viewer I’m just following the director’s lead.

Much like when something is barely weird or slightly “off” it gets called Lynchian, anything with any type of body horror element gets labeled Cronenberg-ian. Now…Cuckoo actually is Cronenberg-ian but that’s not a good thing in this case. Influence isn’t always a positive. This is Cronenberg-ian for bad surface reasons. Instead of taking away any type of deeper understanding from stuff like The Brood (a story that was birthed out of personal family drama between David Cronenberg and his first wife) or Shivers (a clever take on sexually transmitted diseases and promiscuity), it’s as if all Tilman Singer got from those films was gore and shocking imagery. I think Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Evolution (2015) did a much better job at whatever I think Singer was trying to do with Cuckoo.

There are some positives. Jan Bluthardt does give an entertaining supporting performance as the detective investigating the homicides within the film. But it isn’t enough.
Overall I’ve been disappointed with this recent string of new horror films. Between this, I Saw The Devil and multiples viewings of both Long Legs and In A Violent Nature - you can’t say I didn’t try.

THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD

I think it’s safe to say that The Saddest Music In The World is what got Guy Maddin his biggest spotlight at the time. At least that’s how it seemed to me. Not only was this heavily pushed on home video and in constant rotation on the IFC channel, but it was his first film to feature more well-known actors (it should be noted this was the start of Guy Maddin & Isabella Rossellini’s ongoing 20+ year partnership). Frank Gorshin & Shelly Duvall do appear in his 1997 feature; Twilight Of The Ice Nymphs but, due to how different that film was compared to the rest of his work at the time, it sort of became the forgotten Guy Maddin movie within his filmography…

You could walk in to any Blockbuster or Hollywood video and rent one of his movies. This wasn’t always the easiest thing to do. His films had been released on DVD prior to this but distributors like Kino and Zeitgeist weren’t always the easiest to come by as they mostly specialized in “art house” films which weren’t in high demand at your average video store chain. Now…mom & pop video stores may have carried Maddin’s earlier films but those types of stores were few and far between by the early/mid aughts (speaking from personal experience - I lived in southeast Virginia between 1999-2004 and couldn’t find any of his films to rent until moving to the tri-state area in late 2004).

At the end of the day, it is my opinion that video store chains like Blockbuster were ultimately a negative (click here to read why), but being able to discover the work of Guy Maddin was one of the positives.

As accessible as Saddest Music was, it still features all the standard ingredients that go in to a typical Guy Maddin film: Cucking, Kink-shaming, leg obsession, Canadian pride expressed mostly through hockey and tons of visual homages to older films. His style was not compromised in the least bit.

This is the third Maddin film we’ve looked at this year so far so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his films are full of references & homages and Saddest Music is no exception…

Fellini

I had been life-alteringly ardent about a number of Fellini films - Guy Maddin, uofitlaian

Juliet Of Spirits /
The Saddest Music In The World

Dziga Vertov 

I loved THREE SONGS ABOUT LENIN and MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA - Guy Maddin, UAlberta 

Man With A Movie Camera /
The Saddest Music In The World

Man With A Movie Camera / The Saddest Music In The World

Man With A Movie Camera /
The Saddest Music In The World

Buñuel

I feel kind of Buñuelian - Guy Maddin, Offscreen.net

The Exterminating Angel / The Saddest Music In The World

Tristana /
The Saddest Music In The World

Von Sternberg

People might be saying I was inspired by those geniuses. Particularly Von Sternberg, who I was watching rabidly, just before and soon after I first picked up a camera - Guy Maddin, Screen Slate 

Docs Of New York / The Saddest Music In The World

Busby Berkeley 

I wanted to be Busby Berkeley, for crying out loud! I wanted to have chorus girls stomping their heels in my casting office - Guy Maddin, theQuietus.com

Whoopee / The Saddest Music In The World

(In addition to Maddin’s obsession with legs - the musical numbers in Saddest Music also pull from Busby Berkeley)

David Lynch

It goes back to when I first saw Eraserhead and started looking up every interview possible with David Lynch - Guy Maddin, criterion

The Amputee / The Saddest Music In The World

Homages aside - the story of Saddest Music In The World is quite unique. Maddin weaves the story of a music competition with a love entanglement/cuck-ish relationship between a father, his two sons, a beer baroness and a flighty songstress. …And it’s a musical! There’s a lot going on here (all under 2 hours), but this might be Maddin’s most “fun” film to date.

On a previous entry I noted that Cowards Bend The Knee might be the best entry point for Maddin beginners but I’m starting to think Saddest Music is the safest bet. This isn’t his “best film” (although it will always have a special place in my heart because this was my entry-point in to Maddin’s work), but it’s certainly his easiest feature to digest and work your way backwards in to his filmography. You can see the seeds of Saddest Music and his love Bunuel all over his earlier work…

The Criminal Life Of Archibaldo de la Cruz / Archangel

Tristana / Archangel

COREYS *UPDATED*

 

If you’ve been reading my thoughts on this blog recently then you know that I absolutely despise movies made with ironic film twitter/cynical letterboxd people in mind. But Conner O’malley’s short film Coreys is an exception. I love this film so much that I don’t care who likes it even if it’s for disingenuous reasons. And to be fair, I don’t even believe he made this movie with that audience in mind. Coreys is just the kind of thing that will draw that type of crowd no matter what. It’s a surreal existential "body horror"/comedy made by someone associated with stuff like Joe Pera & I Think You Should Leave. This is something that would absolutely appeal to short attention span adult swim folks (like myself), people that make liking “bad movies” a part of their personality, or people that love modern classics made by the likes of Cronenberg, Lynch & Carpenter. This is a short film made by someone who loves The Thing, Alien, Scanners, etc – but doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Instead of writing lengthy think-pieces on the existentialism of the body horror genre, they’d rather just enjoy the images in front of them and appreciate the craft that goes in to the visual effects.

Is Coreys a film about the pressures of being a good father & husband? Or is it some kind of commentary on wanting to escape from the monotony of small town life? It’s probably a mix of those things and more. Personally, I’m more fascinated by the humor that’s catered to my very specific taste (again – fans of Joe Pera, I Think You Should Leave, Adult Swim, etc will absolutely love this), and all of the movie references (some are clearly intentional while others are coincidental). It makes sense that Conner O’Malley shows up in Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The Tv Glow. Coreys feels like a like side-quest birthed from that movie.

O’malley clearly has some type of ironic fascination with The Mask (or maybe he just genuinely likes the movie, I dunno…)

The Mask / Coreys

 

But he also pulls from a lot of other recognizable sources…

The Shining / Coreys

The Shining / Coreys

2001: A Space Odyssey / Coreys

2001: A Space Odyssey /
Coreys

Scanners / Coreys

Scanners / Coreys

Lost Highway / Coreys

Lost Highway / Coreys

Lost Highway / Coreys

Lost Highway / Coreys

Eraserhead / Coreys

And like most things labeled "Lynchian", you can trace things back to filmmakers like Maya Deren who predates a lot of the imagery in Lynch's films...

Meshes Of The Afternoon / Coreys

At Land / Coreys 

Shivers / Coreys

Alien / Coreys

The Thing/ Coreys

Half of Coreys revolves around our lead character hypnotized by weird videos on his phone. I found myself watching this nonstop on my phone for the last 48 hours. And, like our lead character/Corey – I have a fair amount of self-induced pressure to be a good husband and father, and I don't like spending time in places like Target (the film opens in Target and the ambiance is more scary & uneasy than it is calming).

This is the first thing I’ve seen since Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka (2023) that has reignited my love for seeking out new movies. I’ll probably have more to say on this towards the end of the year but for now I just wanted to share my initial thoughts.

It's only 11 minutes long so you can check it out right here: