Owner of the site Mondo Digital, author, commentator, and movie junkie.
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Dr. Caligari 1989
Stephen Sayadian/Rinse Dream's sole "legit" movie is still an eye-popping, hilarious wonder of DIY craftsmanship, crammed with costumes, sets, and makeup that never cease to keep your eyes entertained. The game cast manages to fire out deadpan one-liners left and right while holding together some semblance of a plot about the latest in the line of Dr. Caligaris (Madeleine Reynal) whose personality-swapping fluid transplants involve frenzied, sexual maniac Laura Albert. Fox Harris nearly steals the whole film, though to say how or why would spoil things. mondo-digital.com/caligari.html
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In The Water... Which Makes Bubbles! 1961
Heavily indebted to The Trouble with Harry, this amusing, slightly macabre farce set at the French-Swiss border features a dead man named Mr. Preminger narrating his after death experiences including being fished out of a lake by Louis de Funès, getting dragged to a garden by his wife and her would-be lover (and his business partner), and causing other complications with some black market gangsters in the area. The whole thing has a lyrical touch with some gorgeous monochrome photography, and though it's a very minor entry in the French comedy pantheon, it's a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes.
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Pearl 2022
Mia Goth should get serious awards consideration for that monologue scene alone. A riveting and deliberately excessive character study that tones down the Tobe Hooper vibe of X in favor of some unholy mash up of Alan Ormsby, Ken Russell, and Douglas Sirk. Also winner of the best lingering closing shot since Call Me by Your Name.
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The Lighthouse 2019
For years people will be debating whether this is a horror film, a dark comedy New England period piece, a twisted Americanization of the Prometheus and Sisyphus myths, and/or a bitterly amusing portrait of male aggression and (terror of) intimacy. Any way you slice it, this is a visually intoxicating and brilliantly acted two hander from Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson that manages to surpass Robert Eggers' mostly excellent The Witch (or The VVitch if you wanna be all 7even about it) by sticking the landing all the way to the unforgettable final shot. Easily worth repeated viewings and one of the great macabre nautical nightmares.
