By my metrics, 2024 has been a terrible year for movies. From far, FAR too much member-berry dogshit (Deadpool, Planet of the Apes, Alien, Beetlejuice), to overhyped disappointments (Longlegs) to just a whole lot of movies I instantly forgot about (Love Lies Bleeding, Blink Twice, I Saw the TV Glow, Cuckoo, this list goes on), I had not walked out of a movie theater this year feeling truly excited and satisfied. And then The Substance came around…
The Substance is not…
An ambient movie about a quiet man who walks through the woods in search of his lost necklace. Yes, he has a pair of rusty hooks that he uses in some creative ways, but this film, in its essence, is as much ASMR as it is a slasher film.
In a Violent Nature attempts something admirably risky in its attempt to subvert the slasher genre. Rather than following the killer's victims as they make all the classic slasher movie mistakes,…
I can’t think of a more daunting task in the history of film than following up Mad Max Fury Road. Where is there to go when you’ve already achieved perfection? Could the next installment even hope to meet expectations? As it turns out, the answer to that question is a resounding no, although that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Fury Road is perfect, full stop. Without question, one of the greatest movies ever made, and to this day remains the…
THIS IS THE RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT
The language of cinema comprises of a holy trinity: sight, sound and motion. A great movie requires mastery of all 3, and a viewer should be able to identify an instance of each, long after the credits roll. Beau Travail is a 90 minute masterclass on the whole trifecta, with moments of sheer cinema that I will never forget, and finale that will forever live in the pantheon of greatest film endings.
If…
