Adventures in Film: January 2024

Saltburn (2023)

Watching this a second time I think I enjoyed it more. Being able to see Barry Keoghan's Oliver Quick behaviour with the added vision of retrospect turns the film into an entirely different experience. At what point does he decide to commit to his plan? Did he have everything planned from the start? Did he fall into it before he realised what he was doing? It was just as funny on a rewatch, and Richard E. Grant really stood out for me again. The aspect ratio also really worked for me watching it at home in a way that it didn't quite do so in a theatre, creating a really claustrophobic and breathless atmosphere. "Murder on the Dancefloor" is still stuck in my head.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

The first of a few films I put on in my new house after moving to settle in. Dr. Strangelove is such a comfort film for me, I never get tired of watching Peter Sellers' performances. I have always felt like Kubrick's dry sense of humour gets overlooked in just about all of his films, and it's such a joy to see it take the foreground in this film.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Another comfort film for me. I often dream about driving through the countryside and seeing the abandoned carnival in the distance, wondering about all of the unspoken and secret possibilities that exist in there, waiting to be found. I actually got emotional watching it this time around.

The Lighthouse (2019)

I was given the A24 special edition 4K for Christmas, so what better time to revisit The Lighthouse? It's so simple in its brilliance, relying almost entirely on the chemistry between its two leads, Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. It's truly singular, I think - name another film that is as funny as this while also being mysterious, terrifying and enigmatic. If other films like this exist, I want to see them.

The Princess Bride (1987)

A real childhood favourite, this time enjoyed in the company of some great friends. It's just so endlessly quotable and unapologetically silly, and feels dated in a way that only contributes to the film's timeless storybook feel.

A Grand Day Out (1989)

I have so many memories associated with watching Wallace & Gromit on VHS as a kid, and rewatching these films is a perfect time machine for me to feel like a kid again.

A Close Shave (1995)

Probably my favourite of the Wallace & Gromit films. I just think that this is the peak of everything Aardman and Nick Park achieved with Wallace & Gromit - it's technically stunning, it's hilarious, it's heartfelt, and it has one of the most exciting chase scenes put to film. I also find Preston's eventual fate deeply disturbing.

Repo Man (1984)

This one had been sitting on my shelf for probably over a year before I finally put it on, and I'm glad I did. Through no fault of the film, though, I found myself just feeling a little removed from the film, not quite able to fully give myself over to it. I think it's kind of like when you are around other people who have an established inside joke; it doesn't make the joke less funny for the people who know it, but it definitely makes it a little more difficult to relate to those people. I sometimes feel this way about cult films from the 1970s or '80s - I'm just a little too far removed from the joke. Overall, though, this sort of quirky, offbeat, offensive, sci-fi driven comedy is my jam.

Dream Scenario (2023)

I loved this, and after watching it it makes complete sense that Ari Aster was once attached to this project as director. It has the same twisted sense of dry, dark humour as Asters films have, especially Beau Is Afraid, and exists in the same slightly uncanny parallel universe of barely detectible artifice. Kristoffer Borgli's direction is great, especially in the way he crafts a film around the strange, larger than life quality that star Nic Cage has for audiences. In Dream Scenario he takes this idea and inflicts it on the other characters in a hilarious but also disturbing way, and watching Cage's character go through a journey past all of the different stages of accepting his new place in everybody's lives was a transformative experience. Every time Cage entered another character's dream with that same gait, posture, and faintly gormless expression I was in hysterics.

Small Axe: Mangrove (2020)

Another film that has been on my shelf for far too long, largely because of the overall length of Steve McQueen's Small Axe project, and I'm so glad I finally put it on. The first of the five films in Small Axe, this feature length film effortlessly transitions from a frighteningly evocative period drama about racism into one of the best courtroom dramas I've seen in recent years. Letitia Wright absolutely crackles with on screen energy; I have heard people singing her praises for years, and this is the film that finally showed me that she is the real fucking deal.

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

Did the job. I was looking for some gory, silly schlock and this delivered in spades. I've been sleeping on the two Re-Animator sequels for a while now, and while I don't think this comes close to touching the campy glory of the original, it still carries the same spirit of twisted and dark humour.

Ferrari (2024)

Michael Mann's new film is one that always impressed me but never quite grabbed me. As a main character I found Adam Driver's Enzo Ferrari chilly and unapproachable, something that I am sure was a choice and a deliberate decision to stay true to the real person, but something that nonetheless acted as a blocker for me finding a way into the film. It culminates in a truly devastating and emotionally affective moment that makes the whole film worth watching.

Small Axe: Lovers Rock (2020)

While I wasn't as compelled by Lovers Rock as I was by Mangrove, I was still completely swept up in the warmth and comfort of this second Small Axe film. Sometimes it just feels good to spend an hour hanging out with people that you just want to be around. Totally infectious, and full of fantastic music.

Joy Ride (2023)

I enjoyed this overall, partially because I knew exactly what it was I was getting into before I watched it. It's exactly what it says on the tin - a road comedy with young women doing things that were largely saved for the young men in the films of the previous couple of decades. Following in the footsteps of but never quite reaching the hilarious heights of Paul Feig's Bridesmaids, it has more than enough laughs to make it worth a watch and more than enough transgression and filth to curl your grandmother's hair.

Renfield (2023)

As a concept I thought that this film looked interesting on paper, so I approached this with expectations high. Nicolas Cage as Dracula? Come on. My major gripe with Renfield is that it almost immediately abandons any pretensions at being horror comedy, instead leaning into being a hyperviolent action comedy that riffs on the age-old buddy cop archetype. It is occasionally funny, never scary, and often quite boring. How they managed to pull that off with Nicolas Cage in such an iconic role I will never know. Also, I hate CGI gore, and this film is full of it.

The Black Cat (1934)

Rewatched this Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi crossover flick to get a dose of campy gothic horror. It's actually pretty transgressive for a PG-rated studio picture from the 1930s.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Having seen and enjoyed A Haunting in Venice back in September of last year I felt like I should go back and see Kenneth Branagh's previous work in the world of Hercule Poirot. I just found this to be a little hollow, and I wasn't invested enough in any of the characters to actually care that much about solving the central murder. In the end it played a little too much like clockwork for me; it looks great and the performances are entertaining, but at the end of the day it didn't feel like much more than machinery clicking into place.

The Bourne Identity (2002)

My partner loves these films, and I haven't seen them in something like ten years. We watched this again on her suggestion, and it has sparked in me a desire to rewatch Supremacy and Ultimatum before finally seeing Jason Bourne, a film that I missed when it came out back in 2016. Lots of people make fun of the shaky, handheld cinematography in the fight sequences, but unlike so many imitators that borrow the technique to hide sloppy or indistinct choreography and storytelling, you can follow and track every single punch, kick and pencil stab, all driven by character and plot. It's a technique in filmmaking that they nailed and continued to nail over the course of this series, and has been misunderstood and misused in so many other films in the aftermath.

The Incredibles (2004)

It's the best Fantastic Four film and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Watched this with the rest of the Top Year boys (if you know, you know) and it was a great time. I love the animation style, and I wish that more animated films would lean into the form more like this film does. I'm kind of sick of animated films trying to look more and more photorealistic, and I don't understand why more filmmakers working in animation aren't trying to continue pushing the form like this film and the Spider-Verse films are. All of that said, I now couldn't tell you what happened in this film.

The Holdovers (2024)

I'm sure I'll write a longer piece on The Holdovers when I get a chance, but I'm fairly certain that at this stage it will take some very special films to keep this out of my top 5 of 2024. Paul Giamatti is wonderful, and the whole cast rise to meet his impossibly high standard of character work. It's this generation's Dead Poets Society.

Dead Silence (2007)

Holy fuck does this movie look dated. I kind of love how camp and arch this got as it went on, and by the time it got around to its third act reveals I was thrilled by how silly it got. This is possibly the most 2000s horror film that ever 2000s'd, and almost nobody has seen it.

Two Hands (1999)

Thanks to my friend Tim for recommending this to me - I got my hands on the Umbrella Blu-ray and had an absolute blast with Heath Ledger and Rose Byrn leading the way through the crime underbelly of Sydney in the 1990s. Every time I see another film with Heath Ledger in it I imagine what incredible things he would still being doing if he were alive today. He was absolutely peerless. Also, what a thrill to see the monorail in a film!

Wonka (2023)

I approached this with my arms crossed. A prequel to my favourite film? You're going to have to do something pretty special for me to feel like it's anything other than a cash grab. I'm not surprised that Paul King pulled it off, because let's be honest, if anybody could pull off Wonka it's him. The songs are great, it's heartwarming and charming, and the fact that Timothée Chalamet can't really sing didn't bother me once. He evokes just enough of Gene Wilder's Mount Rushmore performance as Wonka to make this feel connected to the 1971 film, but overall I think one of the great successes of this film is that it spends more time establishing itself as it's own film in its own delicious, giddily artificial world than it does attempting to recreate the magic of the original. That should be applauded, and is something that I think more remakes and legacy sequels should spend more time doing.

Kids (1995)

I found this to be pretty nauseating, not because of the content of the film, but because of the lens through which we are being asked to observe it. The whole thing feels like a scare campaign, and reeks of a film made by somebody who fundamentally misunderstands the people that it is trying to depict. It is a fascinating film to watch as a case study in a director being so utterly out of touch with their subject matter.

Hercules Returns (1993)

Hilarious.

We Were Once Kids (2021)

A fascinating documentary about the creation of Kids (1995) that only cemented my feelings about that film. It's a difficult thing to recommend, but I do think that Kids is worth watching if only because you can then watch this doco. Big thanks to Umbrella Entertainment for hosting it on their new streaming service, Brollie.

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

There are a bunch of Studio Ghibli films that I still haven't seen, this being one of them, and I've decided to make my way through them on my box set (especially with one eye on seeing The Boy and the Heron). This was just magical, and is the sort of film that I can't wait to show to my kids one day. It is full of the sense of wonder, fantasy and slight threat that makes all Ghibli films so instantly recognisable, and there is something so comforting about the way these earlier Ghibli films have such a tactile, storybook feel to their animation.

Priscilla (2024)

I spoke about this film on an episode of Filthy Hope - you can check it out here.

Reality (2023)

This one passed me by last year, not having a huge cinematic release in Australia, but I caught it on Binge and I am so glad I did. I have literally never seen a film like Reality. It portrays the true story of Reality Winner (yes, that's her name) and her arrest after her involvement in the leaking of sensitive documents relating to the Russian government's involvement in the 2016 American election. What makes it so unique is the fact that it follows word-for-word the actual transcript of the confrontation, as recorded by the FBI. Occasionally the film will cut to that original recording, as if to remind the audience that it is still following that central tenet, and characters will literally disappear from screen momentarily as they deliver dialogue that has been redacted from the official transcript. The result is an unbearably tense docudrama that never lets go of the audience's throat. Sydney Sweeney is compellingly watchable, and completely disappears into the role in a way that I had unfairly written her off as not being able to do. At only 80 minutes it's not only a quick, thrilling and compelling watch; it's also an urgent, important film that addresses us today as much as it comments on the past.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

In my quest to cross off the final few Halloween films from my watchlist, I inevitably had to get through this stinker. I actually found it pretty entertaining in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way, but it never quite transcended that in the way that the best of those films do. That is to say, I never lost sight of just how shit Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was, whereas in contrast a film like Samurai Cop or Freddy Got Fingered will somehow transcend to something glorious. I've still got Halloween: Resurrection to cross off, then I'm done with these fucking movies. Next up will be the Nightmare on Elm Street films, which I am genuinely looking forward to.

Incredibles 2 (2018)

At the height of the superhero film bubble Brad Bird put out both the best superhero film of the year (in the same year that Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War were released) and the most scathing critique of superhero films that nobody seemed to either understand or even acknowledge. I think Incredibles 2 is an underrated masterpiece, and was far too sophisticated in its critiques of our modern, digital society for most people to recognise.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Some friends of mine were travelling through New Zealand and watching these films, and so I was inspired to watch them again. I connected to these characters on an emotional level in a way that I don't think I have done in the past. I was also struck for the first time with just how much the Dark Souls series borrows from these films in particular. I suddenly realised just how similar those worlds look and feel to the way Peter Jackson portrays Middle Earth, and couldn't unsee it from that point onwards.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

I didn't particularly feel like watching this film, but we will be talking about it on an upcoming episode of Filthy Hope so I forced myself to sit down and endure it. And endure definitely is the correct word to use in this case, because Mel Gibson clearly has no other intentions with this film other than to depict the pain and suffering of Christ. From about twenty minutes into the film, it literally becomes an exploitation horror film, fetishising and revelling in the infliction of pain on the body of Christ. As you'll well know, I'm no stranger to a gory film, and I love myself some exploitation frosting on my cake, but to be honest I just found it boring. As a follower, I'm also not entirely sure what I'm meant to be getting out of this film in terms of revelation about the Passion narrative. Immediately loses points for blatant antisemitism, too.

Anatomy of a Fall (2024)

Much like The Holdovers, it will have to be a pretty terrific year of films for this not to appear in the pointy end of my 2024 list. I'm currently working on a longer piece about this film, and once it is finished I'll have a link through it it right here.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

The Two Towers has always been my favourite of the Lord of the Rings films, and on rewatching it this time my opinion has only been cemented. The battle of Helms Deep is literally one of the most epic things ever put to film, and the narrative trick it plays on the audience in forgetting about Gandalf's promise until the sun comes up never fails to give me goosebumps.

Hell or High Water (2016)

Taylor Sheridan's trilogy of films about the American frontier combine to be one of the great bodies of work in 21st century American filmmaking. While I don't think Hell or High Water reaches the level of tension and thrills as Sicario (2015) or the emotional resonance of Wind River (2017), it is nonetheless a rich tapestry detailing the convergence of character, economics, politics and history through the language of the heist thriller. Chris Pine is totally magnetic, and his dance with Jeff Bridges is what makes this film compulsively watchable.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)

I will never understand the decision to market this film as The Dry 2 instead of focussing on Eric Bana's Aaron Faulk as the connective tissue. While the novel it is based on is technically a sequel to The Dry, other than the presence of Eric Bana as Faulk there is little to no connective tissue between the two films. Whereas The Dry is set in drought-stricken regional Australia, the drama of Force of Nature takes place in the rainy, foggy Dandenong Ranges in Victoria. Force of Nature has narrative ambitions greater than that of its predecessor, adding layers of conflict over its central missing persons case that hint at further Aaron Faulk mysteries (the third novel, Exiles, was published in 2020). Anna Torv is unsurprisingly fantastic, and it is a very bold choice to have the person at the centre of your murder/missing persons case be the most unbearably annoying and unpleasant character in the film. There is on major technical gripe that I have with both of these films - in the flash back sequences they both employ a really obvious and low-quality film grain overlay that immediately removes me from the drama. It's not a huge deal, but I just found it funny to see that reappear in this film.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

I don't think I'd ever actually seen this since the first time I saw it between the hours of two and five in the morning at the age of 13, so large sections of the film felt completely new to me. This was also my first time seeing the extended edition of The Return of the King, and so the sequence depicting the death of Saruman was a pleasant surprise. Do I need to tell you how epic these films are?

The Marsh King's Daughter (2023)

Ben Mendelsohn is great in his role, and it's great to see Daisy Ridley again after her early experiences being swept up in the Star Wars juggernaut. Overall, though, this was a bit of a nothing film. There is some good tension set up, and some of the home invasion style sequences generate some excitement, but overall it felt like it was treading ground that we have all seen before (especially in recent years), and the abrupt, unsatisfying ending left a lot to be desired.

The 400 Blows (1959)

I'm now a true cinephile. Get me into the Criterion closet, let me educate you on real cinema and tell you why your taste in film is not only bad but actually incorrect.

Infinity Pool (2023)

Having not quite connected with Infinity Pool the way I was hoping to the first time I saw it last year, I'm so pleased that it really worked its magic on me this time around. My initial dislike of Alexander Skarsgard in the lead role has flipped; whereas I originally thought that he was miscast and felt out of place in the film, I realised this time around that his casting is actually central to understanding that character. He does feel out of place in his own skin, and does feel out of place amongst these people he finds himself with. Mia Goth is fucking iconic, and every time she appears in another film I am more and more convinced that she is the definitive scream queen of our generation. She continues to make bold, weird choices both on screen and in the projects that she signs on to, and is never not the most interesting thing in a frame. This time around I felt like the film addressed a small part of me that I am still interrogating and coming to terms with, and took me to some wonderfully uncomfortable and challenging places. Possessor is still my favourite film of this century, and Infinity Pool doesn't reach that high personal mark that Possessor holds for me, but I am glad that now I can be confident that Possessor wasn't a fluke. The things that I love about Possessor are all here in Infinity Pool, only this time wrapped up in the vehicle of satire and pitch black comedy. I can't wait to watch it again, because honestly I can only see this getting better and better for me.