ignore my initial 2 1/2 star rating. upon third rewatch i’ve decided this is Good, actually. ohhhh yeah, like a Don DeLillo novel-turned-Cronenberg movie where rats are the currency, Robert Pattinson gets a prostate exam in a limousine, and a beloved character actor pops up in a third-act reveal isn’t inherently Good? grow up (i certainly did)
5 star movie after a day of visiting its filming locations on my custom-made Cronenberg walking tour of Toronto. deeply romantic, tragic, gooey… Geena Davis is always hugging The Fly with no hesitation, even after he’s leaking fluids and his skin has fallen off. and i think that’s the definition of love
“Celibate for Celluloid! Death to all who are cinematically incorrect! Make good movies or die! Wear the privileged scar of cinema sainthood with pride and horniness! I’m an outlaw cinema girl now! WOMEN IN FILM!”
^ just a handful of the quotes that had me laughing laughing laughing in the theater. had been meaning to watch for yeaaaars because of my ion for campy punks and movies about making movies, but was waiting to see it on the big screen…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
i relate to Paris because i would also be down to do emergency amateur surgery on an English character actor :) anyone else sense that Paris and Benji had major vibes? like, sexually?? their chemistry was so randomly white-hot that i truly expected the ending Trafalgar Square scene to reveal they’d become a couple. aaaand don’t be like “it’s because Simon and Pom are such good friends in real life!” okay? are they also DOING IT???
other than that, this…
jarring performances that take a bit to get used to, but TRUST that the MASTER Mike Leigh knows what he’s doing! once you submit to the whiplash between the characters’ manic, jerky style of the past and their more controlled cadence of the present, it morphs into something that’s kinda never been done before... genius directing that makes you wonder why you ever had any doubts...
also an incredibly accurate depiction of the punk college student to career girl pipeline.…
my favorite character in the Batman universe is Ben Mendelsohn as corrupt businessman John Daggett!!!!!! he has maybe seven scenes total and wears a black blazer in all of them—occasionally with a black turtleneck if we’re lucky. i’d rather focus on that instead of why they expect us to pretend like the city’s entire police force being trapped in the sewers for three months isn’t a hilarious situation. it would be like when that Boston cop fell down that slide x 10000
ok so something they don’t tell you about the Los Angeles Film Journalism Industry is that most of the press screenings take place in a Beverly Hills medical center. you park in a garage with a bunch of spots reserved for surgeons. then you take the elevator up and check in to watch a movie—right next to the waiting room where patients check in for their MRIs.
that’s right; i watch the majority of new releases inside an MRI speciality hospital. as a Woman of Navel Piercing Experience… i hope the release of this film enacts some much-needed change…
“I thought of beauty as of a constant effort to eliminate corporeality.” —Elena Ferrante, The Days of Abandonment
the worst possible thing i can imagine happening to the human body? well, it happens in this! but an echoing well of sadness overpowers squirmy disgust. what The Ugly Stepsister proffers isn't necessarily new information (women go to extremes to be beautiful! we know!), yet the visual-auditory language elevates the message: phallic, slithering imagery contrasts against gauzy pink filters. grotesque sound design…
in a just society, this made $300 million at the box office. David Hyde Pierce was nominated for an Academy Award for Best ing Actor. he didn't win the Oscar, but he did win the Golden Globe, and eventually a Tony when the Broadway musical adaptation was staged.
the success of the film kickstarted a wave of smart & snappy homages to classic cinema, featuring bonafide movie stars with heart-melting chemistry, lavish sets, glorious Technicolor, extravagant song-and-dance numbers, and bespoke costume…
we are so very very back!! maybe the most well-crafted of the whole saga?! Final Destination Die Hards like myself know what to expect at this point (there's a horrific accident, it's prevented via premonition, all the survivors die in Rube Goldberg-like fashion), but the writing and editing deftly subvert every expectation at every turn. toes the fine line between being satisfying for the fans, while also being an easy entry point for newbies!
we got a comic relief-goth guy…