Movie Diary
a) Dune
My dad had a huge personal library of sci-fi novels, so I grew up being able to easily pick up and read a lot of canonical 20th century sci-fi. But I think I only got about halfway through the first Dune book, it was one of those moments where I felt like I hit my limit on that kind of thing and went back to reading something that grabbed me more like Vonnegut or Douglas Adams. So I sympathize with the view that Dune is a bit dry, but now that the Star Warsification of sci-fi is pretty complete, it is cool to see someone with a huge budget pretty much let Dune be Dune. I think I would still say I prefer Lynch's Dune (and, for that matter, that Arrival is still the best Villeneuve), but I really liked it, great cast. I'm watching it a second time right now because I dozed off a little the first time, but I don't mean that as a slight, I had just gotten up really early that day. I'm glad they'll get to make more movies, since this one based on half a book kinda felt like it ended abruptly and unsatisfyingly where it did.
I love that I saw Jonathan Majors in The Last Black Man In San Francisco and wished to see him get cast in everything and almost immediately got my wish, he has such a unique screen presence and stands out even in a stacked cast like this with Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, and many more. I think the cast was better than the movie, though, the first time director Jeymes Samuel (Seal's brother, apparently!) didn't wow me visually, it might have deserved someone a little more seasoned.
c) Censor
A British horror movie that managed to be both an homage to low budget '80s splatter horror and a sort of artsy modern psychological horror, and blended those two elements together really brilliantly, highly recommend it.
I haven't seen director Patrick Brice's previous movies but I wanna check them out now, There's Someone Inside Your House put a little twist on slasher movie conventions that worked well, but mostly I thought it just looked great, lots of arresting visuals and interesting choices in terms of visual storytelling and suspense building.
This movie, about an undocumented immigrant woman who moves to Cleveland and lives in a dilapidated border house that appears to be haunted by ghosts, took 2 or 3 big turns that I didn't see coming at all. I was really prepared to be happy with a more straightforward horror movie and enjoyed having my expectations upended.
Apparently Books Of Blood was the short story anthology series that launched Clive Barker's career and has been adapted into all sorts of stuff including Candyman and Midnight Meat Train. But I didn't know all that when I put the movie on, and I found the three interlinked stories in this movie a little underwhelming.
I kind of forgot that Endgame wasn't the last movie of the third phase of the MCU and there was a whole Spider-Man movie that came out right after it. But obviously it's a more self-contained little adventure and I'm glad I finally got around to watching it, really solidified how good Tom Holland is in this role.
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on Thursday, November 04, 2021 at 12:22 PM.
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