Exactly what it says on the box: alligators in your basement in a hurricane and the water level keeps on rising.
Minimalist in concept, capable in its execution, all around a pretty tight little horror film with decent effects and good performances.
Alligators/crocodiles are legitimately terrifying creatures and this does well to dress them up as little as possible — that groundedness really helps sell the dread.
Worth a watch.
No, not the wonderful Joss Whedon Space Western of the same name from 2005.
In fact, just go and watch that. Even if you’ve already seen it. Even if you didn’t care for it much. Anything but this.
This is 116min of utter pointlessness, even factoring in what should have been a fascinating and intriguing twist (google it) there’s nothing of any weight, feeling or consequence here at all. On paper this might have seemed like a great idea. On film it’s entirely unremarkable in every way.
I’ve heard this decried as the worst film of the year and I think that’s being generous. It’s so severely mediocre as to be a waste of such a grand title, much like this is a complete waste of your time.
Pass.
Only Taika Waititi could take a film about a fanatic 10yo Nazi boy and make something so charmingly funny, heartwarming and honest.
Waititi himself plays Jojo’s imaginary friend Hitler, spurring him on to be the best little Jew investigator he can be.
In anyone else’s hands the premise would be tasteless, especially in today’s climate, but here we have a whole cast of strange, damaged, hilarious figures riding the farce with enough emotional weight that its silliness never floats away.
It’s wonderful, a must watch.
One half a slow, darkly funny buddy-sailor drama about isolation, one half a hallucinogenic, intense psychological nightmare.
Brilliantly disturbing performances from both Dafoe and Pattinson draped in gorgeous cinematography, stark imagery of tempestuous dread and unnerving sound design.
That it’s filmed in a square aspect ratio only further serves to make it feel like the horrifying relic of some dark, forgotten avenue of filmmaking.
Not for everyone, but those who can appreciate it will find a lot to chew on here.
Recommended for a stormy night.
You probably remember this as “one of the good Adam Sandler movies”. I know I sure did.
But I’m here to break it to you, bucko, that you only really remember the awesome soundtrack and that it’s a bad movie.
Not as outright terrible as a lot of Sandler films, but still a bad movie. Google Adam Sandler Movie Bingo instead and save yourself 96min.
A pitch perfect follow up to THE SHINING that makes the world of people gifted with the Shine much larger and much more dangerous.
Compelling characters, fantastic visuals and stylish direction from King champion Mike Flanagan.
A little slow at the start to build the world and populate it, but once it gets going it’s a great take on a classic.
Absolutely worth your time.
What if MULTIPLICITY but Paul Rudd?
Feels like a drawn out BLACK MIRROR episode erring on this side of existential terror. It’s good, but didn’t delve into the scifi/identity crisis aspects as deeply as I’d have liked in any ways that haven’t been explored with more complexity elsewhere.
Still, worth a watch with potential for developments in seasons going forward.
Basically what would happen if you gave BROAD CITY a bunch of mushrooms and speed and then cast it with animated birds.
A rare thing to have a show about modern friendship told in such an irreverent, hallucinatory way that also highlights what’s possible with an animated medium when you skew hard for an adult audience.
It’s disappointing then that T&B didn’t get renewed and will remain a single season gem so full of energy and promise.
It’s fun and weird and really good and you should watch it.
As BOJACK goes this is by a wide margin the most existentially optimistic season, taking the time to explore each of the characters at turning points in their lives where they’ve mostly grown out of their old selves but are still feeling out where to go next and who they now are.
And knowing BOJACK one can’t help but feel uneasy, that this is the calm before some terrible storm, that all the work that’s been put in for everyone to pull themselves out of their black pits and to make genuine, earnest, earned progress… that all of it might be the setup for an even bigger fall. For a riotously funny show about anthropomorphised animals behaving more humanly than humans it always feels like it’s dangling over the edge of the abyss. It’s frequently a masterful exploration of the darker aspects of humanity and modern life, and a little reprieve from the earlier seasons’ heaviness is welcome.
So this season was emotionally hopeful, and if it ended here that could be enough in many ways. But, being BOJACK, something dark is waiting when the final stretch of episodes lands early next year. There are still consequences due.
The only place really left to go after the crescendo of TS3 was out into the wild, into the larger world, and in doing so opening up some bizarre questions about the nature of living toys and their identities.
Sure, it’s a fun and beautifully realized film but Pixar has once again instilled that wonder with mature questions that would sail over children’s heads and send their parents into existential crises.
Surprising that they managed to make such a compelling case in the fourth film, and with it create some of my now favourite characters from the whole franchise. Pixar really are the best of the best.
Not as emotionally heavy as #3, nonetheless highly recommended.
NERVE.SQUID.PILOT 