Welcome to for reels, highlights from my movie diary. Been away for a minute, working on some forthcoming shit ‘n recapping Perry Mason for Vulture. Excellent show, whole 2nd season now streaming on HBO Max. Check it out if you ain’t already then ready my recaps for the hazy but no less insightful commentary hehe. Anyway, here’s what I watched in April.
Things Could Always Be Worse (2023) - “but animals pee in plants all the time”
Hey it’s a rapid-fire double-stuffed for reels today. Top of the month I had the pleasure of catching Joel Haver’s latest feature—a 40-minute entry in the popular creator’s own “make a movie during the Oscars” challenge. Unsurprisingly, this is Haver firing on all cylinders, quietly coaxing a searing emotional current out of sparse materials. Described by one Letterboxd reviewer as “the reverse Banshees of Inisherin,” Things Could Always Be Worse stars Haver and frequent collaborator Trent Lenkarski as a couple of friends who get locked in a room together with no phones or screens or whatever and sort of casually rediscover their humanity together while fighting off boredom and trying to find a place to pee. Great stuff.
Just tap play above to watch Things Could Always Be Worse.
Death Becomes Her (1992) - logging under “fave Meryl”
Bob Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her turned out to be even weirder and more delightful than I'd anticipated. Truly incredible the resources, effects, and performances that went into this disturbed looney tune Hitchcock parody. Honestly I think this is my all-time favorite Meryl.
You can stream Death Becomes Her on Tubi.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - still shippin’ Peach + Bowser
Couple weekends ago I managed to get in three movies at the theater, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and Renfield. All of 'em enjoyable, serviceable popcorn fare with some extra meat on the bones somewhere or another, feel me? Mario in particular was fun, bright, and colorful but no less empty calories—a 4-star weeknight 3D theater experience in a 2 1/2 star kid's movie. Can't remember the last time I was this tickled by easter eggs and fan service. Everyone's a mark for somethin' I reckon.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still in theaters.
Crimes of Passion (1984) & Altered States (1980) - hangin’ with Mr. Russel
Been wanting to explore more Ken Russel for a while now. Had only seen The Devils, possibly the greatest movie ever made, and parts of The Who’s Tommy before I knocked these two bangers off the list. Crimes of Passion is an ideal blend of trashy neon Hollywood softcore facsimile and abrasive erotic art house about a fashion designer (Kathleen Turner) who lives a double life as a sex worker and falls in love with a handsome average Joe (John Laughlin) hired to investigate her while a psychopathic “preacher” (Anthony Perkins) stalks her. It’s ‘80s neon sleaze of the highest order and an infectious bit of nasty provocation. Also, highly recommend listening to Karina Longworth’s “Erotic ‘80s” episode of the You Must Remember This podcast where she looks at Crimes of Passion alongside Body Double (my favorite movie): “two auteurs defy the norms by releasing violent films about sexual obsession, sparking a controversial mini-trend which one critic dubs ‘Vioporn.’”
You can stream Crimes of Passion on The Criterion Channel.
Altered States isn't quite as "fun" in its perversions as Crimes of Passion, but it's no less perverted in its own way and much more horrific lol. Loosely based on neuroscientist John C. Lilly's psychedelics and sensory deprivation research, Altered States starts as a psychedelic horror film then veers over into a body-horror monster movie, then loops back around to all-out Lovecraftian interdimensional terror. The thinking sicko's idea of a good time.
You can rent Altered States on Prime.
Invisible Shark (2023) - more existential sharksploitation
Independent New York filmmaker Cody Clarke is the Paul Schrader of sharksploitation cinema. Having absorbed the totality of the shockingly prolific genre and put out the surreal, existential shark movie/visual novella No Shark last year, Clarke doubles down on the existential factor in this spiritual sequel about a woman whose life turns upside down after a violent encounter with an invisible shark.
“Seeing the attacks in the context of a cheesy b-movie is probably healing in some way. It makes one realize the silliness in all things. This mortal coil is nothing to be afraid of. This mortal coil is just a funnel cake or something topped with powdered sugar.”
You can rent or buy Invisible Shark on Prime.
Up in Smoke (1978) & The Big Lebowski (1998) - the old kush still hits
For 4/20 I didn’t really try to re-invent the wheel, just settled in with some mids and watched a couple stoner-movie classics. Next Movie and Nice Dreams are my favorite Cheech & Chong joints, but their first movie still holds up — an entertaining dark-slapstick document of late-70s burnout culture, and a drug-addled mix of mids and inspired moments from the top shelf. Also it can’t be understated how much of the look and tone of it old Paul Thomas Anderson directly emulates in Inherent Vice. Anyway, the clip above w/ Strother Martin poppin’ off fucking kills me every time.
As for The Big Lebowski, well, sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude, in Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Aw. I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced him enough.
You can stream Up in Smoke on HBO Max and The Big Lebowski on Prime.
Evil Dead Rise (2023) - “swallow this”
Nothing’s better than seeing a new horror movie in a packed theater, man. Nothing. Helps when the movie’s good too, and Evil Dead Rise was definitely a top-shelf April drop. Far from perfect and not as, like, in league with the OG Sam Raimi ones as you’d hope for, but a worthwhile companion piece to the 2013 Evil Dead (also pretty damn good) with plenty of its own flavor, well blended with all the franchise elements (the Necornomicon design in this one is fuckin’ sick). The move to bring the Evil Dead action from the woods to an L.A. apartment building was inspired for sure. Great performances from the whole cast, delivering a well-executed family-in-peril story at the center of all the bloody, goopy phantasmagoria. Solid late-pandemic horror flick in other words.
Evil Dead Rise is still in theaters.
Brewster McCloud (1970) - “how I yearn to throw myself into endless space and float above the awful abyss”
Whadya know we’re back in Robert Altman corner over here. Hit another one I been putting off for a long time ‘cause people say it’s a mess and like it is but also it totally worked on me man. “A very strange adult fairy tale about a mass murderer and a boy who wants to fly” is how Larry Karrazewski describes it in the Trailers from Hell above, and that’s as good a description as any for this, the stoniest and most radical of Altman joints. Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) plays the title role, a strange introvert with a hair-brained scheme to build workable wings for himself and fly above the Houston Astrodome where he secretly lives. To quote my favorite Letterboxd review of this movie, “this is Robert Altman's Playtime, a sprawling, somewhat freeform series of gag-filled scenes that are loaded with social commentary/criticism. It's an incredibly angry movie that uses a spoonful of sugar to help the vitriol go down.” It’s an anti-establishment anthem wrapped in live-action cartoon hijinx, portending late-Wes Anderson in its kaleidoscopic bird’s eye view of three-dimensional humans moving through immaculate, cluttered spaces under the cruel auspices of two-dimensional caricature.
You can rent Brewster McCloud on Prime.
What happened was… (1994) -
A perfect early-'90s indie written, directed by, and starring character actor Tom Noonan (Manhunter, Heat). Set entirely in a Manhattan studio apartment, the film tracks a doomed first date between two co-workers, Jackie (Karen Sillas) and Michael (Noonan) from its initial awkward moments to beautiful scenes of emotional connection to a heartbreaking conclusion. Sillas is a powerful presence even in moments of beautifully conveyed shyness and vulnerability, and Noonan moves through the location, both in front of and behind the camera, to weave an endlessly dynamic emotional and tactile journey. To quote Joel Haver, whose single-location low-budget indie we opened with, What happened was... is "a movie about saying nothing until it's too late to say something. Felt meandering but once that meandering was justified I cried lots of tears. Life is a fucker."
You can stream What happened was… on MUBI or rent it on YouTube.
Beau is Afraid (2023) - hi mom
Ari Aster really wasn’t kidding when he described this film as a “nightmare comedy.” ‘Cause all said and done, this aggravating A24 dream-logic anxiety fest is fuckin funny dude. Glad I saw it with a crowd that got that. Consistently punctuated by enthusiastic guffaws and gut busts throughout. A real magic trick for a movie so intentionally alienating. Buñuel and Tati by way of Verhoeven and the Farrelly brothers.
Beau is Afraid is now in theaters.
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