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Novocaine 2025
Is to Jack Quaid what Kuffs was for Christian Slater, the kind of low/mid budget genre piece that feels like it's gauging its star's leading man potential but ends up doing them more harm than good in the process. Blame the one-joke premise, which may have many applications but is still just one joke and not one that's well supported by a tired script that's all too content to indulge in "lonely guy steps up" clichés. Obvious twists don't help much, either. Action sequences dreamt up by people unafraid of schlocky gore carry this, but only so far.
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True Spirit 2023
Dramatized account of Jessica Watson's solo sailing excursion around the world that goes the saccharine "live your dreams!" route, complete with a godawful soundtrack, manufactured interpersonal drama, and even a cynical reporter whose heart eventually melts in the face of her continued bravery. Blech. The made for TV doc surely does her efforts more justice, as this stands as a perfect example of the kind of low-effort pap Netflix has dutifully hoovered up to fill out its content library. Admittedly, the target audience (families) might feel differently.
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Antichrist 2009
John Waters (bless him) wrote my favorite blurb about this movie:
"If Ingmar Bergman had committed suicide, gone to hell, and come back to earth to direct an exploitation/art film for drive-ins, Antichrist is the movie he would have made."
Lars von Trier by his own admission wasn't quite sure all the allegory works in this and I tend to agree, although the throughline of feminine subjugation at the hands of men, well-meaning or not, remains my strongest takeaway. Unpacking the rest is probably above my paygrade. Still a gorgeous film - Anthony Dod Mantle got some great shots in this one.
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Touched with Fire 2015
Bipolar drama that borders on caricature, with characters who would be solely defined by their disease if it weren't for liking poetry and "Starry Night". And that's about it. Katie Holmes portrays the ups and downs of the illness better than her co-star (he settles for "movie crazy") but their characters' relationship is well drawn, addressing pitfalls bipolar couples face such as having to choose between their regimens and mania highs. That the film treats this as a cautionary tale is a bit disheartening but at least it calls attention to an aspect of bipolar life that is rarely told.
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