movie night
MaXXXine | Billie Elliot | Possession | When Evil Lurks
Hello Friend,
Movies have never been my go-to storytelling medium until recently. The past year I watched more movies than I had in the prior three combined.
Sitting through some amazing films and developing new favorites I put together that the barrier to entry for me lied within my mindset. Instance, I can binge season upon season of Gilmore Girls, but I fear I’ll be restless for a 2-hour film. Or a fall into the condescending parent to petulant child trope only allowing myself to watch a film if I also cram folding laundry, clearing my email and seeking a better job in the leisure hours. I overstimulate a viewing experience, but in truth all a film asks of you is to watch it.
Movie nights are about allowing yourself to become immersed in an unbreaking story. While I love episodic narratives, sometimes brevity with a story offers more fulfillment and closure.
You can also decide if you’re feeling a solo or social watch experience. The vibe is all on your terms. All the films I saw this month I watched with a friend. In part because I love an intimate viewing where you can share thoughts after, but also because I need an accountability partner to get through the first 20 minutes.
MaXXXine ★★★☆☆
What really made this movie for me was the theater experience in the city. Plaza Theater is an art deco style theater founded in 1939. It remains Atlanta’s longest running independent cinema and provided an inconspicuous and intimate viewing experience to the 80s set slasher.
This third installment of Ti West’s X films had a daunting expectation to satisfy. I particularly enjoyed X and Pearl, and Mia Goth always leaves me wanting more, yet the mark was not met for me.
As a standalone work, the film never really took off. The high stakes and relationships were actually flat sequentially weakening their impacts. Consequence is handled flippantly. This is a new film so I won’t include spoilers of course but I will say the climax of the narrative relies too heavily on the success of the prior works; alone the slasher reveal seems insignificant.
Clearly of the three X installments I liked MaXXXine least. As a squeamish viewer I’m surprised to say I wanted to feel scared. Yes, I felt suspense. Yes, the aesthetics were atmospheric. But I got no release. No satisfaction. No bite.
Perhaps that is what is essential to these films, however. The only characters who are truly fleshed out over the course of 3 movies are Pearl and Maxine. Everyone else — an endearing side character but ultimately collateral damage.
The reactiveness, unpredictability and fiery ego unify the girls uninhibited wills. They are ready to rise up to madness and eclipse it. Goth crafts the mood of these films with expression and style. There is an art to the way she exudes tension, drive and madness in her characters.
It was sexy, fun and chaotic but this conclusion to the slasher films did not payoff. So I give MaXXXine 3 stars. Had a great time at the theater though!
Billie Elliot ★★★★★
A work of art. Oh my goodness. I haven’t given it much consideration yet, but I believe this may have made its way to my top 10 favorite movies. Billie Elliot is just as much gut wrenching as it is heartwarming. There is an overall quietness to a film that's soundtrack is heavily T-Rex alongside The Clash and Eagle Eye Cherry, but what is not said is shown. Much like dance culture.
This coming-of-age drama is about an 11-year-old boy who against the odds of social stigma, financial struggle (due to his father and brother being miners on strike during the 1984-1985 UK miners’ strike), and family duties such as the caretaking of his grandmother with Alzheimer's, takes an interest in ballet.
Taboo 80s themes are observed without pretention such as homosexuality, gender roles and police brutality. Billie’s dancing during the height of his emotions shares his talent and need to express; his expression guides the audience through love, frustration and fun.
I am here for the grunged down ballet-core aesthetic. Here for the social awareness. Here for the controlled and confident attention to emotion the actors, writer (Lee Hall) and director (Stephen Daldry) took in making this masterpiece. If ever you need to recover from a Black Swan viewing and restore your faith in ballet, maybe put this classic on. 5 stars. Easy.
Possession ★★★✮☆
To start, what the fuck.
This is not one I would readily recommend anyone, but for any horror watcher who has not yet added this to their letterboxed yet, do. And let me know after if you’ve seen anything more fucked up.
I’ve seen Massive Attack’s music video for “Voodoo in My Blood” which was inspired by a central scene of this film. I recommend the video with more ease. So, after watching Possession I determined that I’ve never seen anything like it before and that Isabelle Adjani is formidable. Kudos to Sam Neill for being able to hold his own in a scene with her.
Possession is a story of marital strife and divorce but the disturbed manner in which the relationship unfolds surpasses designation to horror. Fucked is what it is. I definitely did not get everything and even found myself bored in some lulls of the film, but I also laughed through much of the intensity and was completely transfixed upon Adjani in a way I’ve never been. 3.5 stars!
When Evil Lurks ★★★☆☆
The actors were pillars in this film. The characters, all being families and from a small town, truly rely on one another for survival as a possession passes through the town like a parasite, marking hosts as “Rotten.” Two brothers make their way with their family trying to get distance between them and the possession but discover they must stop the evil from taking form. Do they take the right action? Do they follow the rules of the “Rotten?”
Fun fact! This is an international co-produced film between Argentina and the US and is Shudder’s first Spanish-language production!
Any recommendations from you, accountability partners? Just let me know!
Possession is just so relatable