There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
It's been said every cynic is just a broken optimist, and I feel that in my bones. Between my brainworms and just kinda... *gestures at everything*, I'm definitely on the cynic side, but I am a hopeful cynic.
Vonnegut never lost his optimism, though. Through it all, through the firebombing of Dresden he wrote so eloquently in Slaughterhouse-Five to the literal annihilation of the…
(with apologies to Neil Stephenson)
Until a film-bro is twenty-five, he still thinks he could make the baddest motherfucking movie in the world.
"Yeah," he thinks "I could get together every titan of action movies, stage not one not two but three insane action setpieces that would be the final act of other movies but are just the filler in this one. I could do it, me, a film-bro"
That movie, however, can no longer be made. Chad Stahelski has made it.
It's cute!
A fun little bit of play where the time-jumps serve a purpose other than just leaving the audience confused, by giving us a way to reframe what we're seeing. There's some great, fun performances and Mila especially, as an interloping white woman, is the most fun as an oblivious, selfish creature.
Given the incredibly small cast and constrained locations, this was a lot better than it had to be, even if "haunted app" is a little silly.
A decidedly derivative entry in the "90s nostalgia slasher" genre behind Lisa Frankenstein, Totally Killer and their ilk.
An ill-conceived idea to give the main character Ferris Beuller-style 4th-wall breaking skills makes this a much more irritating affair than it needed to be, but the killers and their reveal is a pretty clever and funny section of the short.
I liked it, didn't love it, and wish it had one original idea in its runtime.
I don't give up on movies often, even bad ones, because I think if you make a movie, you've earned the respect of the viewer to see it through. That said, I threw my hands up at this GLACIALLY-PACED snorefest. It's a 30m short film that added 200% more filler than meat, and it shows. The look and feel is pitch-perfect, but it's in service of a terrible nothing script.
