Anyone wanna talk Dark City? With some caveats it went straight among my top 5 best science fiction.

The Criterion Channel has put together a great selection of Murderous Melodramas and I have been having so much fun with it. Does what it says on the tin - stylish excess, lovely Technicolor, ridiculous melodrama combined with various scheming murder plots.

The highlight so far has been Written on the Wind (1956). The plot is full on soap opera, with rich oil barons and their mess of a private life. Not the least thanks to the performances, with Lauren Bacal's unimpressed demeanor and Robert Stack's desperation. Gorgeous environments and sets, a loud score screaming the emotional beats in capital letters and every character acting utterly self-destructive, yet it never tips over into ridiculousness or camp.

With Niagara (1953) we get Niagara Falls and Marilyn Monroe, a great combo. Fantastic setting with plenty of use of the beautiful location, delivering more than just scenery as it falls naturally into the narrative. Admittedly Monroe is more looks than acting capability here, but then Jean Peters makes up for it as she was the most interesting and fully fledged character. And arguably the true main character along with Joseph Cotten who plays Monroe's husband. Interestingly to see how Monroe is clearly depicted as the ultimate sex symbol, and when Max Showalter - playing the husband to Peters - tries to (literally) picture Peters like that, she isn't willingly playing along. Mirroring Peters' real acting career choices as well, at least according to her Wikipedia saying she did try to fight the Hollywood push to make her sex symbol. Monroe may get top billing and the immediate eye catching look, but I end up falling for Peters and her down to earth persona, her intelligence and genuine empathy where others were too occupied.

Leave Her To Heaven (1945) is somewhat like a prototype for this type of film. Lovely Technicolor texture everywhere. It is somewhat slower going and less bombastic than the movies from the 50s in this vein, but what it does have - is Gene Tierney as the ultimate archetype of a scheming psychopathic woman. Her jealousy is all consuming, her manipulation goes above and beyond - ending in a wild finale. I was quite surprised with how far it goes, especially with one quiet drawn out horrible scene, as it didn't expect that kind of display of calculated calm cruelty from Hollywood in the 40s. I admit it was a bit boring at times, but all worth it for where it ends up.

Also watched Desert Fury (1947) and Violent Saturday (1955), both a bit more crime noir feeling, with an added element of domestic soap opera drama. And jealousy galore of course.

I change my mind, I don’t think Brand New Day is trying to be The Dark Knight. I think it’s trying to be The Batman. Including that it feels very comic booky and it’s a little too long.

Anyways, one thought I’ve had for years now was regarding the casting of Homecoming. Because, once Disney took over production duties it led to them putting Zendaya in the film. Disney loves having plans for their stars.

Here’s the thing. During Shake it Up, which I saw as a kid, it was a bit obvious that Disney was prioritizing Bella Thorne, not Zendaya. They would often pit them against each other to spark competition. From what we know, Disney had a plan to make Bella Thorne a huge actress with the goal to echoe Emma Stone’s career. Unfortunately, Thorne rebelled and started doing some crazy stuff like directing porn. So, by the time Spider-Man came along and the role of MJ was clear, Thorne was no longer an option so they went with Zendaya.

But, imagine a world where Thorne followed the plan set by Disney. I think she would have been locked for the MJ role. Her career probably looks entirely different after that. Zendaya probably isn’t as famous as she is now, but she still would have done Euphoria so she would be more of an artsy actress. So many implications there, including on Tom Holland’s personal life.

One Night Only

For those of you that don’t know. This is the movie where sex is illegal except one night a year. Basically the purge but for sex. Lots of people have been complaining about the premise, saying something about fascism, yada yada.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the premise. I think it could be interesting, and I think this does interesting things with that premise. The best stretch of the film is when the characters are operating within the limits of this world. But, because we need to fill 100 minutes of a romcom in it, the characters all react in such a non human way. It makes Monica Barbaro’s character insanely unreasonable. Like, just have sex with him for fuck sake.

Another issue I have, this is the second movie I’ve seen where everyone treats Callum Turner as this incredibly hot guy. They did the same with Eternity and I will not be gaslit into this. I said Noah Centineo should have been him in Eternity and I think he could have been him here. And I’m not just saying that cause he looks like me, he plays the charming good guy much better than Turner does. Turner just comes across as villainous a little bit, I really hope he’s not Bond lol.

Also came out that they cut out most of the sex scenes in this because test audiences were uncomfortable with sex. It’s become a trend for younger millennials and GenZ to hate sex on screen. Because, morality or whatever. That wouldn’t improve it, it’s not like there was gonna be a graphic sex scene with Barbaro involved or anything like that. Her body is tea regardless.

It’s a disappointing because I really like Anyone But You with Glenn Powell and Sydney Sweeney (who make hilarious cameos in this film). But that film was better written, the characters were funnier and not frustrating. The dynamic of pulling back actually made sense there. It’s a comfort watch for me. He also did Easy A and Friends With Benefits. A really solid romcom director, which is a dying breed. Hope he keeps making stuff like this, just with better scripts.

Haven't been to the cinema by myself in a very long time, only for seeing things with the kids like Toy Story and Super Mario Galaxy, but yesterday I caught a special event showing of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and will be the highlight of the year for me. With that title and starring Gillian Anderson, it is tailormade for me personally. Sort of thematic/interpretive(?) spoilers below.

This film is made with so much love for the 80s slasher films like Halloween and Friday the 13th, but the good thing is that offers so much more than mere fanservice and references (though it has plenty of those too). You don't get a slasher pastiche, but a wild satirical sexual awakening story wrapped in a double meta-narrative reaching directly to the viewers (or me at least) own relationship with these type of movies. Katie Welsh writes in a review:

... a sharp, playful, sexy and surprisingly warm Hollywood satire about repressed millennials who have outsourced their sexual desire to the movies. The film is a loving send-up of film nerds who’d rather intellectualize and compartmentalize than truly feel in any sort of sensual or embodied way.
...
The message here is to get out of our heads and into our bodies, and it’s OK if we need movies to do that.

(hangs my head in shame)

The film is screaming its metaphors from the rooftop. The killer in this fictional franchise is literally called Little Death, acknowledging the established interpretation of slasher films connection between death and sex, and the le petite mort concept of orgasm being a little death. Part of the main idea in the film is the two female characters that can only find their own true sexual desire and get an orgasm through the killer, called Little Death, as they get stabbed to a bloody death by an enormous fishing spear.

There is enough self awareness in the film to make it genuinely ambiguous whether the over analyzing is really just an excuse to find an artistic reason to like seeing skampy clad teenagers screaming while they are "penetrated" by big sharp phallic objects. It really hits a personal nerve, as my wife is often looking at the tv and puzzled asking what the hell I am watching (I am not making it easy by being a fan of Italian giallo and Verhoeven), and there is undeniably elements of eroticism in these films. The screaming in terror and final breath as death occurs are eerily close to the sounds of pleasure, making these films sit in a conflicting place in your body when you watch them. What makes the film brilliant in my mind is that it refuses to give a definitive resolution to these of questions. There is a core message about going back to basics, "flesh and body fluids" and stop overthinking, but there is also enough self aware mocking satire of its own discourse, pulling the rug on the whole analysis, that fans or slashers are not given a completely free pass.