February 2024

Under the Skin (2013) (Rewatch)

I'm of the opinion that Under the Skin is one of the best horror films of the previous decade, and seeing it in a cinema with an audience confirmed that. This may sound trite, but there's no other word to describe it but 'alien' - every inch of its ambiance and audiovisual presentation is stiflingly and disturbingly inhuman. It's cold and clinical, yet balanced with some strangely funny sequences?! The body-sucking scene is still one of the scariest ever put to film, evoking an audible "Jesus Christ..." from the woman next to me!

The Zone of Interest (2023)

Two light Jonathan Glazer films in a row!

Much like Under the Skin, The Zone of Interest seeps with discomfort. It emanates evil. It's the most sickened I've felt in a cinema in a long time, and it's all built upon inference and the implicit, aided by it's truly remarkable sound design. The muffled screams and distant roaring in juxtaposition to the eerily elegant mise-en-scéne and casual discussions of atrocities is deeply, gravely harrowing. It's raw, tedious and most probably don't want to experience it, but when confronted with the horrors of humanity, it's important that nobody looks away.

Nashville (1975)

I enjoy Robert Altman, but none of his films I've ever been truly enamoured with - until now. The scale of Nashville is titanic: the interconnecting stories and characters all flow together seamlessly, crafting such an organic and atmospheric world that you get the sense you're voyeuristically peering in as a viewer. The world building is only heightened by the stellar balancing of light and darkness; you'll be presented with the goofiest, 'MURICAN country schtick one minute, before having your heart ripped out a second later. Its brilliance lies in its tragicomedy: a gleeful exterior, with a sinister interior of racial and political tension, a microcosm for America itself.

Made me want to revisit and explore Altman's entire filmography, and this is a great place to start if you wish to do so too.

Perfect Days (2023)

Similar to Altman, Wim Wenders is a director I initially wasn't huge on, but Perfect Days has made me rethink his entire body of work: the film is utterly lovely. Finding beauty in minimalism and magic in the mundane, this is an ethereal observation on the simple pleasures of sentience and contentment, managing to be effortlessly charming, funny and my favourite emotion ever: happy-sad. It portrays how the bittersweet can infect even the simplest of routines, and amongst its plethora of Tokyo-toilet architecture and silent comedy, there is an almighty weight of a rich emotional tapestry that is slowly uncovered. Dare I say it...but I might have liked this more than The Holdovers.

It was the ending shot that got me. There may have been some tears. Maybe just one.

The Iron Claw (2023)

BOY OH BOY DO I LOVE HAPPY MOVIES

An antithesis to the labels of 'prick-flicks' and 'film-bro' cinema, The Iron Claw dissects the toils of toxic masculinity and 'macho' culture with unflinching, unglamorous brutality, presenting the animalistic pursuit of insurmountable, self-destructive power in the name of parental approval and family legacy. It's tender and tactile, yet not as consistent or gracefully told as I would have liked it to be. The storytelling and pacing is often a tad cumbersome, much like the bulging physiques of its protagonists, although excellently helmed by Zach Efron (or 'Jacked' Efron as I've been calling him after seeing this).