A 70's classic still delivers

"The Amityville Horror" stands out among the late 70's horror films inspired by "The Exorcist," offering a surprisingly nuanced narrative that has stood the test of time. The film weaves together multiple compelling storylines: a demonic presence, a man grappling with his new family dynamics, a priest whose faith is tested, and a persistent police officer driven by curiosity.

The movie's strength lies in its character development and the gradual build-up of tension. It explores the psychological impact of the haunting on each character, showing how the supernatural events slowly erode their sense of reality and sanity. This approach creates a more immersive and unsettling experience than relying solely on overt paranormal occurrences.

However, the film leaves several intriguing plot threads unresolved. The abrupt ending, with the Lutz family fleeing the house, leaves viewers with unanswered questions about the fate of secondary characters and the significance of certain plot elements, such as the Vietnam-veteran monk.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the film is its portrayal of the demon's influence. The scene where the priest is blinded after praying in the church raises questions about the extent of the demon's power and its ability to affect sacred spaces.

The movie's connection to real-world events adds another layer of intrigue. The actual Amityville house played a significant role in popularizing ghost hunting, particularly through the involvement of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators who later purchased the house.

The film could be viewed as a metaphor for insomnia. The blurring of reality and hallucination, coupled with the prominent role of sleep-wake cycles in the story's pacing, supports this reading. This perspective adds depth to the narrative, inviting viewers to question the reliability of the characters' perceptions.

In conclusion, "The Amityville Horror" succeeds as a horror film by balancing supernatural elements with psychological tension. Its exploration of faith, family dynamics, and the gradual descent into madness creates a compelling narrative that continues to resonate with audiences. The film's infamous line, "That room is the gateway to hell," aptly encapsulates its ominous atmosphere and enduring impact on the horror genre.

Confidently Well Done

I re-watched LA Confidential after a decade+ away and it feels like a completely different film. It reminded me what used to be great about dramatic movies. Every character goes through multiple emotional and dramatic evolutionary arcs, their history, psychological baseline, and motivations are explored several times throughout the film, even side characters like Sid and Buzz Meeks.

Many of the key story beats are perversions of expectation based on these established baselines:
* Bud failing to kill Ed in revenge for his sleeping with Lynn
* Exley's moral failure in the last scene
* DA Loew expecting Exley's moral virtues to protect him from Bud
* Sid being too trusting for a change and ending up dead.
* The entire denouement, which I will not spoil.

These perversions happen not because of some middlebrow Knives Out-esque need to conquer the audience's preconceived notions, but because the characters are people reacting to the events that happen as they occur with no omnipotent morality police cataloging the rise and fall of every prostitute. The protagonists and antagonists are changing because circumstance is forcing them to adapt or join the growing pile of bodies. Even the main plot is filled with beats about what looked like minor or insignificant characters that turn the entire paradigm of the plot's power hierarchy upside down.

The bad guys is not the bad guys, the good guys are not the good guys. There is a layer of political commentary that was probably relevant in the 90's that is no longer relevant now, but the middle of act three is no less coherent because of that subtext (the shotgun shooters).

The story links together episode after episode of seemingly unrelated daily drips of crime and violence with our collection of characters until it all comes swirling together in a whirlpool of cultural criticism weaving the corruptible influences of police and city politics, paparazzi culture, and show business evils into a thoroughly well written and well acted tableau of refreshing art that I honestly forgot existed.

A vacuous, feminist girl power fantasy that falls into droll idiocy

Poor Things runs the gamut of coming of age story to borderline pedophilia apologetics. While I cannot recommend watching this film, it's director Yorgos Lanthimos has done a lot with the source material. Poor Things is a film version of the same-named first book of the series that tells the story of our protagonist Bella (Emma Stone) from the prospective of Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef). Somehow the film manages to promote post-modern fifth wave feminism beliefs through anatavistic fetishism of the female body, Poor Things' cinematography for the entire film could be less charitably viewed as an exploration of The Male Gaze.

The first two acts are quite entertaining and light hearted. We slowly learn the horror of Bella's existence and origin story, the proverbial God (Willem Dafoe) and his inhuman experiments on the recently dead. In twenty minutes, Bella grows from infant to teenager, from catching a ball to catching venereal diseases. At it's core, Poor Things is a feminist power fantasy with quite a bit of character development along with a spectacular Victorian steampunk backdrop.

As Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) to explore the greater world, the film goes into a blender of original, inspired story telling and post-modern male hating effigy burning. The line running through the second half of the film can best be summarized as: the only way a woman can find happiness and freedom in this world is by selling her body for money and be happily alone ever after. Bella is naked for about a quarter of the movie with graphic sex scenes and various sundry along the same lines. She cultivates a clinical appreciation for sexual appetites during the final act of the film, but the dissonant tone is as conflicted with reality as the texture of the scenery is absurd.

Yorgos did a fantastic job of making this degenerate drivel into a fun and entertaining film, but I cannot recommend it for casual viewing.

6.5 out of 10 anonymous johns who knock your teeth out for fun.

Much better than it deserves to be

Thanksgiving is funny, brutal, gruesome and quite fast paced for a 106 minute slasher flick. This movie could have gone so wrong in so many ways. Instead, drawing on the best of Scream without being quite so hamfistedly meta, Roth brings the hammer down quite literally on quirky film comedy built for children and instead creates an unsubtle comedic slasher that has the viewer cheering on as blood and guts literally rain from the sky. The opening scene is absolutely pitch perfect and fills the viewer in on everything they need to know to enjoy the violence to come.

Thanksgiving compares well with Evil Dead Rises, a movie I find myself thinking about while watching the gore and slasher scenes. Much like Rises, Thanksgiving has AAA-quality horrific blood and gore that curls the toes of all but the most stout combat veterans or drug-addled surgeons. Unlike Evil Dead, Thanksgiving has an actual story and character development to fall back on. Between the hatchet kills and grusome oven scenes is a mystery.

The acting is forgettable and largely average with the sole standouts being Patrick Demsey as the Sheriff and Rick Hoffman's lovably hatable Thomas Wright. Hoffman is such a charismatic shithead that his smile alone carries half the scenes he is in. Every single female actor is basically the same character with little verisimilitude. Jenna Warren (Yulia) is so marble-mouthed at certain points that I had to check if English was her first language before criticizing her. This is probably my main knock against the movie, but it is a rare slasher fan who is going for the great acting and emotionally-laded soliloquy.

In every other respect, this film delivers and is one of the best of 2023. I will probably not rewatch it casually, but I am looking forward to both Roth's next film (Borderlands) and the Thanksgiving sequel.

Thanksgiving gets 7.9 out of 10 final girls.

A rebuke of modernity masquerading as a smart feel-good movie

The Holdovers is a slow burning evolution of conflict in isolation, a feel-good movie that does not rely on musical theater crutches or fictitious airport hi-jinx to surface what glues important relationships together. The film is two weeks of three people struggling with loss of family and desertion. The school is an island slowly replacing the ocean with snow and walls shielding the outside world from view. Every shot is extremely myopic, we are very close the characters.

Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is a father without a son, and Mr. Tully (Dominic Sessa) is a son without a father. The entire film is a meditation upon the relationships between parents and children from the lost Curtis Lamb and his mother Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) to the lost Quarterback Jason Smith (Michael Provost) being in a stubbornness contest with his literal helicopter flying dad who comes into pull the rest of the Holdovers to the ski slopes, abandoning our trio to solely exist with themselves for ten days.

There is not a lot wrong with the Holdovers, perhaps with the exception of the running time. I don't understand why it was nominated for Best Picture, but I do understand why Da'Vine Joy Randolph was nominated for best supporting actress. Randolph does a great turn as Mary, the grieving mother of Vietnam KIA Curtis Lamb, and is the character with the most depth, evolution, and clear motivation for her actions. Randolph manages to carry a world weary weight with her through every scene despite being the only truly happy person in the entire film.

There are many parallels between the world of 1970 and today, illustrated perfectly by Mr. Hunham's unprompted opinion of the state of the world during Christmas party small talk :

"the world doesn't make sense anymore. I mean, it's on fire. The rich don't give a shit. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity is a punch line. Trust is just a name on a bank."

Hunham is a martyr awaiting a sword upon which to throw himself and Tully seems to be a walking weapons rack, they are a match made in heaven and a fitting denouement for the relative lack of action.

7.4 CGI'd eyeballs out of 10

Purposefully ambiguous, well acted and well written. Anatomy of a Fall evolves heavily over the course of the 150 minute runtime from a slice-of-life introduction to the household to inter-family drama to a murder mystery to a courtroom drama that freely switches between English, French, and German. The chemistry between Sandra and the interviewer contrasted with the overbearing presence of Samuel off screen through 50 Cent's PIMP playing at deafening levels manages to create both tension and duality, conflict lurks unseen in this house and just off-stage.

Samuel's shadow is necessarily over every frame of the film. The home is empty and quiet after his passing whereas every retelling of memory of Samuel is loud from the music to the shouting to the fighting with thrown glass and recriminations. Samuel is everywhere from the first frame until Sandra's fate is sealed, where his presence relents and she is alone. The purposefully long courtroom scenes that give the viewer a feeling of what it is like to just sit interminably while Sandra's life is decided, it fits with the evolution of the film. Both lawyers (prosecutor and defense) are very good actors who carry half the show, maybe more, with tightly written dialogue and logic.

Justine Triet has accomplished something fantastic by managing to keep viewers engaged through what is fundamentally an argument between two lawyers twisting facts to suit their own narrative in a way that invites the viewer to join the jury and think. What would you would decide, who would you believe, how would you interpret the facts.. or lack of facts? There is no conclusion, Sandra even states this at the end "it's just over". The viewer applies their own logic and reasons, but ultimately that does not matter.

We are left wondering about Sandra's feelings for Vincent (Swann Arlaud, her lawyer) to whom she put her life into his hands. The french legal system cannot be real, yet we are assured by others that it does work this way, truly eye opening with regards to liberté, égalité, fraternité. This is not the best picture of the year, but it was a good film. Sandra Huller as the protagonist is fantastic, as is most of the cast including Milo Machado Graner as Daniel.