Thoughts on 5 Films

1. Poor Things - I can understand the backlash to this, if you take the film at a pure surface level - it's kind of, like, what the fuck am I watching? But, I don't think it's supposed to be taken literally. So, on the surface, the movie is a modern day, gender-swapped, story of Frankenstein('s monster), and he creates his monster by putting the brain of an unborn fetus into a dead woman to revive her. Things get a bit icky when this "monster", named Bella Baxter, begins to explore her sexuality - as she (literally) has the brain of a child. But I think the intent of the "baby brain" is supposed to be more of a blank slate type situation, not necessarily one of immaturity. I think her brain is trying to catch up to her adult body, and I also think there is a lot of interesting discussions to be had about where our sexuality comes from, as in its part of human nature to explore it and discover it for ourselves. Bella is able to be uninhibited in ways that many women dream about - she doesn't follow social norms, says exactly what she's thinking ("I must go punch that baby"), and openly enjoys having a whole lot of sex. Women often have to walk a thin line, a balance, in many aspects of life in order to appease men (men want women who are successful, but not too successful; smart, but not too smart; experienced, but not too experienced), and Bella just...doesn't bow to any of it. So, I can see both sides of this film. I can understand how some people can't see past the pedophilia implications (especially people who have been victims of abuse), but I can also see the story that I believe Lanthimos is attempting to tell about female liberation. Whether you like the story or not, I think any film enthusiast can see the talent in the filmmaking, though. The production and costume design are fantastic - oddly futuristic, fantastical and surreal, while also seeing Victorian influences - completely creating a new aesthetic. It's Oscar-worthy, for sure, but I still think Barbie should have won both of those awards. And even thought I was rooting for a Sandra Huller shock, I think Emma Stone is absolutely deserving. The way this character has to evolve over the course of the story is any actor's dream role, and Stone took this opportunity to show exactly what she can do - both in the physicality of the role and the psychological range. Unfortunately, I think Mark Ruffalo is the weak link - and I mean, he's close to ruining the whole movie. He's just miscast, and whatever accent he's doing is hard to listen to. It's shocking that this performance was nominated, when CHARLES MELTON WAS RIGHT THERE! Now that I've seen all of the nominated films, this snub is even more egregious. His performance is better than FOUR of the nominees! 

2. Mean Girls (2024) - I'm so behind on theater stuff that I didn't even know that they made a Mean Girls musical. I know it seems weird to remake a movie that seems so new, but it is 20 years old, whether you want to believe it or not. But if you are going to remake it, I think you have to do something different, and a musical version is an attempt at something different. I guess I should start off by saying, I was never much of a Mean Girls fan to begin with -  I don't hate it by any means, but it's a solid 3 star comedy. A bit stupid, but it's cute and has some touching moments. It's sort of amazing how much of a success it became and has remained (even I quote it regularly - my fave being "Get in loser, we're going shopping"). And while most of the cast were already familiar faces, it significantly launched the careers of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, and Lizzy Caplan. And I think this version is going to launch Renee Rapp into superstardom. I heard her name a lot within the theater crowd, but this is the first time I've seen her in anything and she is wonderful. AND OMG her voice is so good - I immediately began adding a bunch of her songs to my Spotify playlist. The "Someone Gets Hurt" song is SO GOOD! I also really like Angourie Rice (she's been in a lot lately, but I'll always remember her as Gosling's daughter in The Nice Guys). Her comedic timing is ON POINT (when she responds to "no way Jose" with "it's Cady"....I died). I think the biggest flaw in the film is that it doesn't seem like they updated the fashion? No 16 year old girl would wear any of those outfits. But otherwise, I mostly had a good time with it. Also, casting Busy Phillips as the "cool mom" is GENIUS casting (and Rapp looks a lot like her! Uncanny, really). 

3. Wonka - While I will admit that I didn't hate this as much as I assumed I would, I also didn't love it or see how it received such a positive response from both critics and the general public. I'll also say, again, that I don't understand the popularity of Timothee Chamalet (Chalamet? I will never know which one is correct). I appreciate that he's doing something different here - showcasing a more theatrical "showier" performance than his other much quieter roles, but he's just so bland. And he can't sing? Why are we pretending that he can sing??? And did NOBODY in the costume department not notice that they dress him up like Gonzo from A Muppet's Christmas Carol?? It took the internet .05 seconds to notice it, but a whole film got made and nobody said anything? WILD. The story is also a bit stupid, and they basically turn the business of chocolate into, like, a drug cartel? That's not exactly kid friendly (I realize that the original movie is also not exactly kid friendly, either). I just think this is just...not for me. I found it offensively bland, the songs are so dull (the only one that made me giggle is when they start to do the Oompa Loompa song and Hugh introduces it as basically the most annoying song of all time), it's not humorous or fun, and the production design feels off because it looks like it's supposed to take place in the late 1800s, but I guess it's supposed to be the 1940s (which would make more sense with the timeline) - if you showed me, literally, any still from this production and asked me the date I would most definitely guess 1890. I also just found the whole thing, once again, pointless. 

4. American Fiction - Funniest film I've seen in a while. I didn't know much about it, just that it got some awards traction towards the end of awards season - enough to push it into several Oscar nominations (and a surprise win for Screenplay!). It definitely caught me by surprise. I think the reason that I connected to it so much is because how he feels about racism is the same way I feel about feminism. Like, YES, we want equal rights, but I also hate the way everyone feels the need to separate women when talking about accomplishments (I'll use women in film as my example: my body physically convulses when I see people brag tweet about watching "52 films by women". I also HATE that actors are separated by gender in awards categories. AND people are actually arguing for there to be a gendered director category. Kill me.); it's the same way this author (played brilliantly by Jeffrey Wright) gets upset seeing his book listed as "black literature". BUT, as seen in this film, as much as we get frustrated by the push for our perspective race or gender to be the focus, we still face microaggressions every single day (a taxi passes him in favor of picking up a white guy, his name is misspelled, etc.) creating stories that are gender or race focused. It's just a truly smart script that presents the audience with the frustrations, but never pretends to have solid answers because there are too many layers for a simple answer. The cast is great - Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, my love Issa Rae, and Erika Alexander (I love her voice so much - it's so soothing). AND, of course, Adam Brody! I literally screamed when I saw his name in the opening credits, and he's so fucking perfect in this role of the elitist white film bro who is trying to "connect" with him as this cliched black character. It's so fucking funny. I do think it's weird how quickly they move on from ****MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD*** the sister suddenly dying (and I'm talking SUDDENLY. I looked down for 2 seconds and she was dead. I had to rewind because I was like "what the fuck just happened?"), but also focusing on it any further would take away from the comedic intent of the film. Although, it is mostly dark comedy (my favorite bit is when the one guy makes a motion of taking a gun and blowing out his own brain, and then he's like "oh sorry, you're dad" because their dad committed suicide. I laughed. BECAUSE IT'S FUNNY!). I also laughed at the bit when they are talking about scripts being passed around in Hollywood and he says "the whole town runs off book reports" because that is totally true. They are called script readers and they read scripts and then write up a coverage report (there is a followed format that is very book report-esque) and then add it to the appropriate pile of scripts and send the coverage report to the higher-ups. I did it for about 8 months and I think I read like 150 scripts and maybe put 10 in the pile of "definitely read this" (and 3 actually got made into movies! I'm really proud of that). But I did feel like I was writing a book report pretty much every day. Anyway, this is very enjoyable, it moves quickly, feels fresh, has killer dialogue and a hilarious ending. Highly recommend.

5. The Zone of Interest - I don't know much about Jonathon Glazer, but I do know that Under the Skin is one of the best films of the last 20 years. I've seen both Birth and Sexy Beast, but remember very little about either one. But Under the Skin will live with me forever - and I love how it was adapted because the book is an entirely different thing. This will stick with me, too, but in a much different way - because it's deeply harrowing and horrifying. It's interesting to show a story about the holocaust (and more specifically about Auschwitz) from the perspective of a Nazi officer and his wife. Glazer does a great job of somehow using a tactic of "humanizing" the villain, by completely de-humanizing them. There is NO humanity to these people - the way they so casually talk about murdering thousands of people, even an attempt to show them having a party by the pool is still so cold and sterile. Sandra Huller is incredible in this, and probably should have received another nomination for Supporting Actress (far better than the actual winner of the category!). I love that she had two films that both won Oscars this year (Issa Rae could have had her beat with THREE of her films nominated for Oscars this year!). Anyway, the way that she shows off her house and her garden to her mother, is so astonishing - just an unforgettable sequence, with the muffled sounds of a FUCKING CONCENTRATION CAMP NEXT DOOR. The way she just keeps going, as if she doesn't hear the horrors happening just a few feet away is just stunning. Also, the scene in which she's trying on the victim's clothing that now belongs to her?? Fucking vile. It's interesting that an audience can watch this and not see Glazer's views about what is happening in Palestine, especially when there are videos that circulated with Israeli soldiers taking stuff from the homes of Palestinian people they've either killed or run off their own property. The controversy surrounding his Oscar speech is so fascinating - first, all of these people signing what looks like an excel document is hilarious, I don't really see the point of it? Oh...you don't agree with what he said, so you're going to sign a document saying so??? For what? But also, they are focused on him saying the words "I refute my Jewishness" but they don't include the full quote, in which he also talks about the Oct 7th attack on Israel. He's talking about the dehumanization that is occurring in this conflict, and how it is what allowed for the holocaust to happen. We should be learning from past horrors of war and conflict, but instead we're repeating the same pattern. The ending of this film also hits extremely hard (I won't spoil it) but be prepared to be stunned into silence.