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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I have been having fun with some really trashy and sleazy 80s b-movies, or borderline soft-core.
Forbidden World (1982) is a blatant rip-off of Alien, just with a dumber, and hornier, crew. Despite the low budget, it does have some pretty impressive set design. The plot is mostly just Alien, and we see the alien's POV looking the at female crew getting undressed.
Deathstalker (1983) is an outright distasteful misogynistic Conan-ripoff. The "hero" rescues women from rape, but in his logic his reward for the good deed is that he gets to have sex with her. Consent seems optional. Almost all the woman are topless and look like Playboy models. It is a terrible film by practically every standard, but I was sort of fascinated by its very existence and how wild 80s fantasy films were.
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) is by far the best of the bunch and the title is the whole plot. A serial killer on the loose killing high school students at a slumber party. His weapon of choice is a very large powerdrill, used to penetrate his victims. The phallic symbolism is impossible to look past. Obviously also plenty of scenes of the female high schoolers taking showers and undressing. Its redeeming qualities comes from it feeling like it is really self aware satire, in a Verhoeven kind of way. Originally the film was written as a parody of the genre (both writer and director are women by the way), but apparently the studio wanted it more straight forward. But some of the original intent shines through.
Body Count (1986) was the most disappointing. A very straight forward slasher in the woods, but despite a cool score by the giallo master Goblin, there are too many characters and almost no attempt at building a narrative around all the killing. I liked the setting though. Reminded me of First Blood.
Yeah I really like Slumber Party Massacre.
From that decade I like Parents (1988), Combat Shock (1986), Naked Vengeance (1985), Re-Animator (1985), The Brother From Another Planet (1984), The Toxic Avenger (1984), Sleepaway Camp (1983), Basket Case (1982), Ms 45 (1981).
Both Naked Vengeance and Ms 45 feature prolonged rape scenes, so just a warning for those. Naked Vengeance is like a rip off of I Spit On Your Grave, which was already an exploitation film.
I rewatched The Worst Person in the World and it was just as good as when I saw in the theatre. Amazingly relatable and remarkably authentic in every way. Almost too close and personal at times. Highly recommend it.
The Dog Stars
This got a lot of negative reviews, it's Ridley's worst received film in a while, I think since Exodus: Gods and Kings.
I loved this. I loved that the first 40-50 minutes of this is just seeing Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin survive in this post-apocalyptic world. Most of the movie is just that. It's contemplative and philisophical. The characters frequently contemplate about the simplicities of life that they miss, including things that we perceive as burdens. It's also a gorgeous film, it's shot by Erik Messerschmidt, who won an Oscar for Mank and is currently shooting The Batman Part II. People have made a lot of hubbub about how Ridley now shoots with multiple cameras, so his films don't look as good anymore. I disagree, this and The Last Duel are really pretty movies. And I don't think the multi cam set up is that much of a handicap for determining shot composition.
There's two scenes where this film becomes a schlocky action film. The first scene is still more grounded and fits with the rest of the film, but the second really comes out of nowhere and has so many horror visuals. Maybe some people are gonna deduct points because of that scene, but I loved how much of a whiplash that was. And then we go back to being a grounded talky drama.
And, the film has much more of a sense of humor than you'd expect.
There was a recent thing where Scott has been saying Paul Mescal was not masculine enough to have been in Gladitator II.. Mescal was originally supposed to be in this film, but Scott fired him and replaced him with Elordi. Scott is 80 years old so he's past the point of propriety. But, I agree with Scott for the most part. Mescal isn't a captivating screen presence, and there's something about him that doesn't come across as masculine. I don't think Elordi is super masculine either, but so many young stars don't really fit into that Russell Crowe masculinity anymore. Scott should have gone with someone like Austin Butler or even Nicolas Galltzine.
Mayday is a light, silly buddy movie. This is one you watch once and forget in a week.
I watched a lot of movies in August -- I think the most movies in a month this year for me. A couple rewatches (The Big Short and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse).
Biggest duds:
Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning. Just, what the fuck was this movie. The first, like, hour of the movie is incomprehensible with random intercuts of scenes from previous movies because I guess they had no faith that the audience would remember anything at all. It eventually settles into a rhythm but never tells a very interesting story. I lost track of how many characters gush to Tom Cruise how awesome and good he is.
White Noise. I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. I love Adam Driver, and Tim Meadows was fantastic. I enjoyed the academia scenes the most (as someone who went to grad school thinking I wanted to be a professor but decided I really did not want to work in that environment). But the dialogue just didn't work for me. It works far better on the page than it does actually spoken aloud. There's a great scene that I swear could've been cut from a National Lampoon's Vacation movie, but overall I felt like it just missed the mark.
The Sheep Detectives. Honestly I did like this movie but I had a lot of people talk it up to me as being very moving, and it just felt like a very standard family movie to me.
Movies I greatly enjoyed:
Anatomy of a Fall. This was a long movie but very good. The actor who played the kid was great, the scene with the dog was extremely distressing, and I loved that you never really know what happened. The whole movie is about where we look for answers when the truth is uncertain, so that worked for me. I love legal dramas, and holy shit the French legal system seems fucked?
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. This felt like a movie they just don't make much of anymore. Very fun, extremely weird. Sam Rockwell was great.
Everything Everywhere All at Once. What a weird and incredibly profound movie. Blows my mind that this was taken seriously enough to win Best Picture. I mean the central conceit is a metaphor about an everything bagel and there are weaponized dildos. Wild.
Others:
Manhunter. I've been working my way through Michael Mann's oeuvre. My wife hated this but I liked it as a progenitor to things like Criminal Minds. Not my favorite of his movies, but I enjoyed it.
Quiz Lady. Solid, funny movie. Awkwafina and Sandra Oh had great chemistry. I definitely just threw this on in the background cause I learned it was written by the sister of a jeopardy contestant who's run earlier this year was very impressive.
Windfall. I hadn't heard of this movie until I was randomly scrolling through Netflix. I immediately clocked it as a COVID movie (small cast, single setting, etc.). I liked it if I thought of it as a stage production, it's fine as a movie. People seemed to really hate it online though lol
Donnie Brasco. I forgot Johnny Depp had a part of his career where he was just a normal guy, pre Jack Sparrow. I guess same with Al Pacino, who's much more subdued here. I thought it was funny that the movie ended and my wife turned to me and asked what the name of the movie was lol
Ope, edit to add Backdraft. Kurt Russell rules, that is all.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) is so good. It's been a minute since I watched it, but every part of it is so cleanly laid out.
It's such a small detail, but I really appreciate that Thomas Crown still gets junk mail and doesn't have his help toss it out.
edit: i can only assume he hired all of those randos off of craigslist.
edit: Prime Cut (1972)
My August in summary:
Exceeded expectations:
Disappointing (not necessarily bad, can also be "meh" to highly-reviewed films):
Other notables watched:
Want to watch soon:
Yeah I also don’t really care for Planes Trains and Automobiles. John Hughes is one of my favorite screenwriters but that’s was a dud for me.
Atonement and Children of Men are the Oscar things you watched. I really like both of those. Children of Men was one of the first movies I watched when I was getting into film as a teenager. Like an intro to art house for me.
Atonement is good Oscar bait. It’s such a beautiful looking film and the oner sticks in my brain.
I've really been striking out on full-on comedies, so Planes et al. was kinda just the next in that line. Arsenic and Old Lace is the only one to really buck the trend.
How do you distinguish "Oscar bait"? Midsommar was also more of an artsy, less crowd-pleasing type of movie, but you didn't include it as Oscar bait.
Having played The Last of Us, it was really interesting to see all the parallels/influence from Children of Men.
Oscar bait is a way to describe something that was made for the sole purpose of getting awards. It's a derogatory term, but I use it either way as I acknowledge that something could be made for that purpose and still be good.
Midsommar is not Oscar bait because, for one, horror is not a genre that the Academy or most voting bodies are attracted to. When a horror movie gets awards attentions, like Sinners, The Substance, and Weapons in the past few years, it's because they overcame the genre bias. Usually a mix of great critical reception, big box office, and cultural impact. But, secondly, Midsommar just wasn't made with that in mind.
To give recent examples of Oscar bait: Hamnet (2025), A Complete Unknown (2024), Conclave (2024), Maestro (2023), Women Talking (2022), King Richard (2021) and Belfast (2021).
These are all middle-brow films. Usually period pieces, either based on a book or a historical event or figure. It gives off this sense that it's about something important. But, they are still highly accessible in terms of their presentation. These films were all primarily financed because the studios behind them saw awards potential. Something like Midsommar would be considered more high-brow.
Now, awards bodies don't just nominate middle-brow stuff, they also nominate high-brow stuff. Again, in modern times examples of this are Sentimental Value (2025), Anora (2024), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), The Brutalist (2024), Tar (2022), and Drive My Car (2021). While these were all successful with awards bodies, they don't fit into what we think of as Oscar bait. These are usually auteur driven, lower budgeted, and made purely for the art.
There's some in-between stuff. Wicked (2024) is a good example. That was greenlit because the Broadway musical it's adapting is incredibly popular, so it would have been a big blockbuster anyway. But, Universal was also pretty open about how they also wanted the prestige of awards for this, and they greenlit it with that in mind.
It all gets pedantic. But, I hope that gives you like an understanding of what I mean.
NOPE (2022)
I normally like a slow-burn buildup, but this one was a touch too slow, IMO. It felt like it tried to have the heft and pacing of a serious drama which detracted from its sci-fi/horror elements. I think if it had been trimmed down a bit it would have gone from good to great for me.
Also, based on the (excellent) visuals and sound, I think this is one that was probably much better to experience in theaters than at home.
Mass (2021)
Speaking of slow-burns, this one is exceptional.
It’s about two sets of parents who meet up in a church after a tragedy to discuss it. The bulk of the film is simply them talking in a single room.
It takes a while to get going, but once it does it’s impossible to look away from. All of the actors do an exceptional job.
Given the spartan setup, I assumed this was a movie adaptation of a play, so I was surprised to learn that it was made for the screen. I think would do well on the stage too. The script is very strong.
I just wanted to pop in here to say:
Watch Mayday (2026), which came out today on Apple TV.
It's about a Navy pilot (
DeadpoolRyan Reynolds) getting shot down behind enemy lines during the cold war while on a recon mission and trying to get out of the Soviet Union with the help of a former KGB agent who's a massive fan of Top Gun.I'm mostly recommending it because a friend of mine has a role in it, but it was actually an entertaining movie for me. It has a good mix of action and comedy (some actual laughs from me, which is rare even for a comedy these days), some neat cinematography, and some good quiet moments.
It might be a bit too on the nose with the "you are not immune to propaganda" theme though.Scratch that, after talking with a few people, it seems that that particular theme didn't even come to their mind after watching it; those people tend to view movies as "content" though, so your mileage may vary.