One time I got a comment on a video saying my mouth looked like a prolapsed asshole. Flattered as I was, I couldn’t deny there was something to the concept, something Peter Vack seems to have realized to its most extreme conclusion with this film, designing its whole aesthetic around the visuals of herpes (red and yellow text graphics, poppers bottles, costume design and set dressing) and, of course, assholes (all the A names, the prolapsed asshole-mouth on the poster,…
-
-
-
Black Mirror: Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too 2019
Mmm yeah this one’s not great. Starts off with a compelling parasocial relationship but devolves into Drake and Josh: Really Big Shrimp (except RBS slaps). The holographic resurrection/Hatsune Miku commentary is pretty surface level and I think the parallels to Miley’s own career actually hurt more than they help.
In any case, I’ll stop bombarding your timelines with Black Mirror episodes now. Thank god. I just had to finally knock this out so I can move onto a different hour-long…
-
Black Mirror: Smithereens 2019
Andrew Scott kills it here, using a hostage procedural is a great way to subliminally show the privacy violations these companies are committing on all of us even though on the surface they’re doing a net “good,” and a mid-movie Topher Grace reveal is welcome anytime. There’s some eh social-media-is-consuming-us commentary and the backstory was particularly underwhelming, but for a lukewarm Dog Day Afternoon this is far from the show’s worst. I gotta wonder how bad the Miley Cyrus episode has…
-
Black Mirror: Striking Vipers 2019
I don’t know if it was the low expectations from season 5 being universally damned or what but I thought this was pretty good. There are some shutter speed/focus-related oddities here and there, but I think it captures domestic dread and repression quite effectively with some solid chemistry. This is exactly what it’s like when I’m Peach and Sebastian’s Little Mac.
-
Black Mirror: Black Museum 2017
I really liked the Cronenbergian first bit, but it ended up being the least relevant to the overarching story, and the rest paled in comparison imo. The big twist was alright, but the smaller reveal at the very end actually kind of contradicts some of the philosophy from the second bit I feel.
-
Black Mirror: Metalhead 2017
2017 was a crazy year for Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
-
-
Black Mirror: Crocodile 2017
Fuck it I liked this one. You just can’t go wrong with sci-fi tech in an analogue body, and the end is so silly I have to commend it.
-
Picnic at Hanging Rock 1975
Hanging Rock is a white whale of sorts — a mythical, possibly supernatural being we’ll never understand, the pursuit of which brings everyone’s underlying tensions to their most extreme conclusions. In this case it’s confronting repression itself head-on, from the seemingly surface-level but all-encompassing visual of wardrobe etiquette to the abuses endured but never confronted in the school’s bureaucracy to the characters’ base desires. Sara’s forbidden love for Miranda, Michael’s guilty infatuation with the schoolgirls, Albert and Sara’s past which…
-
Bo Burnham: Inside 2021
Really good stuff. I’m always wary of people acting sad in front of a camera, but above all else this is about craving attention from an audience, so any moment where Bo is handsomely brooding in a perfectly composed shot doesn’t come off as disingenuous but more like a self-reflective coping mechanism, and at that point, whether it’s authentic or not doesn’t really matter. The internet and quarantine jabs somehow aren’t annoying well over a year into covid, and the reacting to himself bit is an all-timer. I wish I had done more with my time in the past year.
-
Mare of Easttown 2021
Pretty captivating case, and you can’t go wrong with small town tight web of characters who all know each other. Stellar cast and terrific performances across the board, despite some really iffy dialogue. Guy Pearce is surprisingly perfect for such a regular guy, and it’s nice to see Sosie Bacon in something that’s not 13 Reasons Why, not to mention the actual leads ie Kate Winslet’s accent. Unfortunately, I think it bites off more than it can chew in 7…