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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story 2022
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
There’s something special about Weird Al’s brand of brilliant stupid comedy. It’s something that I enjoyed as a kid and that I still find delightful as an adult, with no embarrassment. It’s impressive to see his ability to translate his niche humor into a different, long-form format. This isn’t on the level of ‘UHF’, but that’s one of the great silly comedies. Like ‘Walk Hard’, this brings the ‘Airplane’ sensibility to the musical biopic. It’s a stacked cast of comedians and Daniel Radcliffe is a solid central figure. He has an earnest intensity that works well with the absurd, over-the-top material.
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Oddity 2024
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
It’s a great ghost film. The scares are genuinely good - both effective jump scares and extended creepy sequences. The house is a nice location and you have a coherent sense of the layout, so it’s easy to stay oriented. The nonlinear elements give a nice texture to the story without getting confusing. In general, it feels satisfying, in part because it’s full of Checkov’s guns that payoff nicely (including the final image). Strong acting as well, with Bracken having…
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Bye Bye Blue Bird 1999
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
The novelty comes from the Faroe Islands setting, which is quite integral to the narrative. Part of the central joke seems to be that, while they appear to be traveling a great distance, they clearly aren’t because they keep running into the same people. The film manages to convey a sense of ambivalence about the islands; the landscapes can seem by turns bleak and lovely. The characters’ connection with the islands also gives them an interesting perspective, although I imagine…
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Final Destination 2000
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I didn’t like it the first time I watched it, probably for the same reason that I enjoyed it the second time around: it’s very silly! It’s a novel high concept riff on the teen slasher film that does a nice job explicitly dealing with young people’s fears of mortality. There’s a bit of poignancy and melancholy, but it’s mostly dumb black comedy. The deaths are a nice mix of Rube Goldberg set pieces and quick rude jokes. The effects…
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