March 2024

Dune: Part 2 (Electric Dunealoo)

Sorry fellas, but I'm just not Dune-pilled.

I wasn't a huge fan of the first Dune film, but went into the sequel optimistic. Unfortunately, it retained the exact same problem. To me, Dune is so overwhelmingly monolithic, bursting with plot and awash with solemn gravitas, that I just find it to be impenetrable, even to the point of unfeeling.

It's like a machine: intricate and impressively crafted, but cold (ironically), sterile and synthetic nonetheless, incapable of stirring any emotion within me beyond "that looked cool" - I simply couldn't care LESS about Paul or Chani. I was desperately searching for its heart, but was left in a state of dispassionate detachment.

"I believe if you come out of a movie and the first thing you say is, 'The cinematography was beautiful,' it's a bad movie" - John Waters

Monster (2023)

You wanna talk feeling? Check this out...

Children should be seen and heard, and no one understands this more than director Hirokazu Kore-eda, one of my all-time favourite filmmakers. Monster continues his legacy of championing a sincere, honest and gently observed empathy towards childhood, in all of its pains and frustrations, conflicts and frictions between young and old, parents and kids. Here, he helms a constantly evolving, Rashomon-inspired fractured narrative, enticing viewers with his typically masterful attention to humanist details, gradually planting delicately nostalgic hints and subtleties, before leading to a crescendo of a climax that left me in a fully gobsmacked, hands on face, "DID THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN" state of disbelief: when it hits you, it HITS you.

A complexly weaved treasure trove of a movie from one of our finest auteurs working today.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Drive-Away Dolls is occasionally quite funny. Operative words being "occasionally" and "quite".

I'm a huge Coen-head, and although it's just Ethan this time, there are remnants here of some of the brothers' best work. However, they can't help but feel like hollow, redundant recreations, often coming across as awkward, forced or laboured. Some goofs and titters are certainly amidst, but compared to another recent, sapphic counterpart, Bottoms, 'Dolls' lacks the zip, zest and punch (pun intended) that made that film so enjoyable. I didn't howl - I wanted to HOWL! It's strange that a raunchy lesbian sex comedy could feel so mellow, no matter how many rubber cocks are strewn about the screen.

Chucklesome, yet deeply undercooked. Where's Joel when you need him?

Showing Up (2023)

If you're an artist, or even if you just create things, you kinda need to see Showing Up.

Kelly Reichardt's trademark style of a rustic, organic ambiance lends itself wonderfully to the tranquil rhythm of creative practice, and the everyday conflicts that quietly disrupt that flow: distractions, procrastination, no hot water - god, landlords suck! It's a brutally relatable reflection and a sly jab at capitalist regime, and much like the best character studies, you become invested in the headspace of Michelle Williams' sculptor lead Lizzy, so much so that a local art exhibit feels gargantuan and simple pigeon seems sacred. You might just tear up over that pigeon. I know I did.

Terrorizers (1986)

After falling in love with Goodbye Dragon Inn last year, I've decided to venture deeper into Taiwanese New Wave with an early tent-pole from Edward Yang.

A far cry from his usual 3-4 hour epics, Terrorizers retains his densely detailed world building, but instils it with an enigmatic sense of voyeurism. The audience intrudes on the external, as well as the inner mind-scapes of its protagonists, exploring the parallel strands of dreams and reality: a want for escapism amongst an air of ennui. Scenes of monologues delivered directly to the camera are uncomfortably intimate, adding to a theme of meta-commentary that I found particularly fascinating; it's a story about stories and the characters' relationship to fiction, whilst viewers play an active role through experiencing the film itself - we are the camera in a way.