Agent10

I'm not a horror fan, not the least. I don't care much for slashers or jump scares or evil incarnate characters. What I do like is societal horror, where the machinations of our being are dissected and put on display. The Substance is just a massive, in your face tirade against a variety of social ills like beauty standards, self love and shallow entertainment.

We meet the venerable Elisabeth Sparkle, who is still vibrant and fresh but has the unfortunate issue of growing old. Despite being outwardly beautiful, she is still longing for the love and adoration she receives from her position in society. Like many women and older people alike, much of our society tosses these natural changing ideals down the street rather than embracing them. Who cares about experience, we need something new and shiny to get us away from our bright phone screens.

It's fitting Demi Moore plays the lead role, who 20 years ago lit up the headlines by spending millions to turn back the clock on her face and her body. These days, Botox and lip fillers can be done during lunch. BBL's are attainable by even regular women as opposed to just the elite with enough zeroes in their bank account. If Moore did what she did 20 years ago again, no one would bat an eye. Call it the Kardashian effect I guess, for there is never a price tag or punishment high enough that wouldn't be worth changing your appearance and looking more youthful. Our 4K world has made it tough for people to age, so to speak.

The story is simple enough. Take an elixir and for seven days, you can be a younger and more attractive person. The issue of course, every Faustian bargain comes at a price. As the movie moves along, Elisabeth's alter ego, Sue, becomes extremely popular and thus a war begins between the two women. How much do you sacrifice for popularity?

In this film, it's everything. And boy, it gets unsettling at the end. In fact, this whole film is a skin crawling foray into the insane. Every slurp, rip, drip and tear can be felt. Kudos for the sound team for putting this disgusting sound design to life. Never have I been more queasy by a film's sound design. If I have to describe it to anyone, I call it a David Cronenberg body horror film mixed with Showgirls, Barbie and techno music. Watch it if you dare.

The Rocketeer is not really a classic film in the dictionary sense, but it is definitely a film that evokes feelings of nostalgia and joy. It's a silly throwback from Disney's golden era, retrofitted with modern technology (for its time) and solid talent. It's funny, interesting, exciting and also just a well made ride.

I think the reason why it slipped through the cracks was the fact it was in that weird sweet spot, where PG movies were no longer considered films that PG-13 audiences would be interested in. But I can also understand its failure due to a lack of true star power in the leads. Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly were great, but they were still fresh in their careers.

Overall, The Rocketeer is a propaganda film about the greatness of America, much like the films in the era it depicts. However, it's so light hearted and pure in regards to the subject matter that it still makes the film a delight. No dark agendas, no cynicism to be seen. It's pro-America but it's not some cringe worthy embarrassment. It was definitey a film of its time, before EVERYTHING became politicized and polarized.

Sure, the film has some problems, but then again, they are not enough to ruin the experience. The early CGI was not up to snuff, but then again who cares. Hopefully they never do a remake of this great film.

I'm not a horror fan, but I am a fan of thrillers and bizarre character studies. Judging by the budget and the brain behind the project, what I got was a tense, well constructed horror/thriller put together by people that didn't want to overly rely on cheap gags.

Anyway, the first thing I would like to say is this film feels like a deep homage to all things 1995, the year this film presumably takes place. The Seattle Mariners were cool, moody rainy set pieces were the rage due to Vancouver's influence in the television world, and a female FBI agent with solid dress sense was front and center a la Dana Scully of The X-Files. It took me back to my teenage years when I first watched the show. If anything, this film also comes off as an homage to two premier 1995 films, Se7en and The Usual Suspects. Pacing, lighting and even acting in some spaces were utilized. So even if the story didn't engage me, the overall atmosphere and tone would.

Fortunately for me, the story did grip me. A serial killer, somehow killing with no trace, is running rampant in Oregon. It's a perfect settling, as weather and overall gloom make it a good set piece for a serial murderer. The build-up to the conclusion was interesting until it became a little off the beaten path. If the ending had been more grounded, I would have given it an 8 or a 9. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it's obvious this world is not realistic and when it comes to thrillers for me, the scariness and intrigue is based on if it could actually happen.

I'll say this was a good watch overall. Not overly long and not too slowly paced. Some have complained it is not scary enough but I think it was leaning more toward a mind bending approach as opposed to a slasher film approach. Anyway, give it a watch.

When prepping yourself for any movie, you must have expectations for the subject matter. You must have a glimmer of an idea for the story, the motivations and possibly the overall plot archetype. We get none of that with Kinds of Kindness.

Much like most of my countrymen's inability to look at satire or even understand it due to our school system that focuses on standardized tests rather than art and media literacy, we are foisted upon a dense and enigmatic triptych. Utilizing virtually the same cast and ideas, we look at the darkest levels of control and how it influences us. The film will test your resolve, because it is long and pretty uncomfortable, but each section speaks about the hidden institutions that deprive us of the only thing we possess in spades....that being freedom.

In the first chapter, a man gives up his free will to mesh and cavort with the lucrative and shadowy corporate world. He bends to its expectations and its desires and its conformity, incapable of making any decision for himself. It's a simple look at corporate America, its inability to create and institute mechanisms that aren't malleable to the changing world.

The second story is an obvious knock against marriage. As one partner changes, the dynamic of the marriage changes. Unless both are willing to adjust, violence can happen whether it can be physically or with a piece of paper.

The final story is an obvious slap in the face to tribalism. The US in particular has become a cesspool of division, and the fact our main characters are bound to the desires of a cult leader who has no true healthy intentions for them displays their lost minds.

The entire film has horrific scenes littered throughout, from murder to rape to even animals abuse. It's not an easy sell and I can fully understand why some people are reacting to the film the way they do. It's reminiscent of the film Funny Games, which showed us a potentially Tarantino-like film chalked full of quips, extreme violence and hipster music. Instead we got a slow, quiet film that stares at you with judgmental eyes. Kinds of Kindness was quick to add Lanthimos' most accessible films as a lead in to what the this film might be. The Director of the Favourite and Poor Things were plastered all over the advertising. Nope. This is Greek cinema Lanthimos work. I described it as "American Dogtooth" in both its energy and look. Much like Dogtooth, a central male figure leading and manipulating the violence to his own desires.

This movie is not for everyone. You will be appalled, disgusted and sometimes shocked. Heck, I've seen some wild movies and it managed to make me squirm. Go in with an open mind and possibly and empty stomach.

I'm not gonna lie, I was blown away by this film. Yes, it is terrible and bizarre and any superlative you think of, but there is truly nothing else that hits this level of strangeness. Tommy Wiseau may not be a film visionary, but his ideas are borderline Lynchian. It's incredibly hard to figure out what Wiseau was doing, primarily because he engaged in so many tenants of bad film making. Bad dialogue, poor pacing and plot structure, but sound....it's all there. We knew the CGI would be bad, but woof!

My friends pointed out a strange thing about this film....it might have been a hallucination and a dark cautionary tale about alcoholism. I mean, it's all there when you think about it. The shark seems to show up after our heroes have been drinking or are inebriated. One of the heroes disappears and we assume that he might be "dead" due to choosing a sober life. Who knows, this thing was out there.

It's a movie that only Wiseau could make. He truly is on his own wavelength.

The underlying message that came at the end of this documentary was essentially "Did you ever do anything wrong?" It's a good question to say the least, for no person is ever living in a glass house. But it was the way the question was kind of asked that seemed rather gross. Yes, I have done bad things, but participating in a riot isn't one of them.

In all honesty, I don't get the angle of this documentary. While the directors clearly state what they wanted to convey, that we as a society need to treat social media as a potentially revealing tool, it's hard to see that from those that participated. If anything, there is a documentary subject in this film, but the Canucks riot should have only been a piece of the puzzle, not the only angle. I think this could have been a tremendous look at how technology has allowed us to see thousands of angles at once, possibly starting with 9/11 as a jumping off point (since I am American). It would have revelatory to think that 13 years ago this happened, and now we have people claiming everything is a false flag with crisis actors, even with the technology in front of us pointing out the obvious.

One thing is for certain, that typical Canadian smugness many don't talk about was in full force, especially from the so-called good guys. It was a strange juxtaposition against the weirdly remorseful but "remorseful I got caught people" who were interviewed. Unfortunately, such is the state of social media. It is the new mob, and it is more powerful than most can believe. We are truly never responsible for what we do.

Also, go Kraken!

I had a real hard time trying to figure out a score for this film, much less an overall impression of it. Frankly, you just don't see film like this any more.

I can understand if some audiences don't get it, mainly because it feels like the Star Wars Holiday Special on a severe drug bender. But once you peel away the Sasquatch mating rituals, birthing scene and other idiosyncrasies that make up this experience, you start to piece together the meaning the Zellner brothers were most likely seeking. They posit the reason why we don't see sasquatches is because they just don't exist anymore.

Like the last days of a failing empire, this very well might be the last Sasquatch family in the Pacific Northwest. Some people won't like the reasoning behind it, but it's the usual blame falling on deforestation and human infringement. I'm sure some might derive more meaning, but this is the base understanding I took away from this film.

Sasquatch Sunset is definitely not for everyone, but if you are a curious film goer, you might find something interesting in this bizarre and completely one of a kind movie. Just be ready for weird nature stuff....because I sure wasn't.

Someone needs to give Sean Michael Argo some money, because clearly he has some interesting ideas jumping around his head. While I give him the credit for putting his ideas to screen, it's hard to give him too much credit due bare bones results.

Much like a couple other movies I have seen with him, namely Ember Days and The Cleric, Binary Samurai takes on a lot of the weird and distinct tropes he has peppered in his films. This time around he takes a stab at cyberpunk, which is interesting considering the world he built is distinct and detailed. In an alternate 1999, the internet shut down. Millions were still "jacked in" and thus their minds were lost to the digital realm and left on hard drives called nodes. These nodes are worshipped by Otaku, people devoted to technology who hide from the general populace. Samurai walk the earth killing Otaku and ronin along the way as our two leads serve an evil hacker named Demogogue. They quickly discover there is a digital entity hiding in the digital realm known as the Kami of Wires. Needless to say, that is the end of it.

Truthfully, we get little insight into what the Kami of Wires is meant to represent. Maybe a messianic figure? I don't know, it was never quite explained. The story overall is pretty vague, and overall it's hard to gauge what is really going on. I suppose one of the bad guys is a robot? Overall, the film looks pretty good for a micro-budget production, mixing in elements of Neuromancer and Snow Crash with movies like Hardware and Cyborg. So how could all of this fail?

Besides some wonky sound design, it's the weird interpretive dance. I felt like I was watching a how to video about tai chi, and it happens a lot. This whole idea was utilized as a way to differentiate the real world with the digital, and in some ways it is interesting. But it just kept going on and on, and ultimately it got silly when two characters got into a "fight."

There are elements in this story that would make an interesting movie, and the scenery and sets Argo used and created are top notch. But it falls short and ends up as another deep cut on free streaming services.

If seeing through someone's lies and deceit was as simple as the color they were projecting. Such is the case for this movie, which I watched under the title "The Cassandra Cat." In a small town in Czechoslovakia, a teacher is conveying the beauty of free thought, expression and art to his class, something that does not go over too well with the rigid and conservative hierarchy of the school's leadership. The teacher tells his kids about a cat with the ability to see through the veneer of someone's outer deception, painting them in vivid colors which clash mightily against the drab and cold backdrop of the town.

During this time, a lot of changes were happening in Czechoslovakia, especially from a social standpoint as the tenets of Soviet communism clashed with a desire for national democratic socialism. These sort of things happen when your country falls into an economic stagnation, which is visualized in the film as no one seems to really live a comfortable life. Ultimately, this film didn't see much of an audience for years as the country decided to keep its more rigid outlook on economics and free thought. Hence, this is why the film is so divisive.

The Cassandra Cat, as was once described in an old magazine many years ago, sees through the "bulls**t" that many people are projecting. If you take the glasses off the cat, your true colors come out so to speak. Red if you are in love, yellow if you are unfaithful, purple if you are a hypocrite and gray if you are dishonest. So yes, it would be quite scary to see this cat come into your town even under the guise of a whimsical performance troupe.

Ultimately, this movie speaks about the frailty of the human condition and how malleable it can be. As the final scene showcases, a person can change colors quite easily, especially when it comes to the less desirable colors of the Cassandra Cat's gaze. Only those with the purest of hearts can be the red color. Either way, its a great film to watch, witnessing how other countries were going through similar political and social turmoil like the United States.

And for all intents and purposes, the cat was adorable.

I'm so glad this was brought to my attention. While watching a documentary about the Minnesota Vikings, I learned about the interesting life of Carl Eller, and this movie came up. Needless to say, I had to watch it. From a genre viewpoint, it was a pretty standard Blaxploitation movie, but dang was it kinda funny.

The story is basically the saga of a peace loving biker club, who all happen to be comprised of some of the best football players in the NFL during this era of the early 70s. It was a nice time capsule so to speak, as there was strife in the NFL during this time and the players felt they were not being properly compensated. Only the best could live off the earnings of their NFL paychecks in those days, for many of those men had to get second jobs during the offseason. It only made sense to bring in some well built, hungry football players to portray a tough motorcycle club that was seeking answers for a mysterious death. The fact they got Mercury Morris, Willie Lanier, Eller, Gene Washington, Lem Barney and Mean Joe Green is quite amazing, considering the profile these players had during their time.

All of the tropes are there. Black man gets killed for dating a white woman, the brother of the man searches for answers in a nearly all white town, no one talks, some casual racism is spouted out, good guys battle racism, etc. There is nothing different about this film than from any others beyond the fact the good guys hilariously destroy a racist cafe owner's establishment. Trust me, that scene is gold.

My main critique is the end. Boy oh boy what the heck happened. It's clear they ran out of money, because even though it looked like our boys were going to get burnt and killed by the racist motorcycle gang, the movie just stops and basically tells us they won. How? Anyway, weird ending aside, it's a fun movie and worth checking out.

In all honesty, I would only recommend this movie if you are a glutton for punishment. It's bizarre, weirdly kinky and full of bad film making tropes. I have a hard time really saying anything about this film because in reality, the whole thing feels like a long running joke. Our protagonist is a woman that is clinging to the idea that she is still a sex symbol (and nailing it) while taking on bad guys that really present no danger to her. Plus, for a movie called Lady Street Fighter, she doesn't do a whole lot of fighting.

If anything, if you love the trashy B-movies of the 1970s that were equal parts midnight movie and equal parts grindhouse, then you might get a kick out of this. Beyond that, just stay away.

The guy flipping off the audience/good guy while burning to death is quite apropos.

So, apparently this movie was found somewhere in a basement, saved by Vinegar Syndrome and thrust upon the world. Frankly, I wish this was still rotting away somewhere.

First of all, I will give it some praise. It certainly was a fun premise of its time. A group of people lost in a time warp hotel on a picturesque island. The island itself seems to be alive, right down to the tables and fisherman netting. The make-up was pretty solid, and it was fun to imagine the joy the people might have had making this film. But alas, the biggest issue was the budget.

When money is tight, the less violence and blood is used. If he movie had one problem, the set-up just took too long. From a cultural perspective, American horror films routinely get to the killing. At least with this film, the filmmakers tried really hard to give us some background on these characters...which was not too necessary.

Anyway, this is a good bad film to say the least, and I praise Vinegar Syndrome for saving it. But don't expect to be wowed by this one like say New York Ninja.

Before we start the blasphemous destruction of John Carpenter's name, he did not make this straight to video tripe. Carpenter's bad movies are way too good to be on this show, so stuff it.

Now a shameless, straight to video knock-off film? Have at it. This movie in general was a train wreck and I'm glad Kyle and Bryan hated it. I'm mean, the acting and set pieces were mediocre to say the least, but it deserves to be toasted on a show like this.

Not much happened in this show, but we got not one, but three instances of Careless Whisper! They went hard on the first use of that trope and I thank them for that!

Whenever you see an ill advised sequel, what is the first thought in your head? Will I be able to follow it? Will the carefully set threads from the previous films make sense coming in blind? Will I understand the pace of the story? Good thing you don't need any of these things to get a laugh out of it.

I'm sure the guys chose the film on the "I wanna eat your "p+++y" line, but this episode was awesome due to the introduction of one of their greatest show tropes....the use of Sarah McLachlan's song Angel. It was a fitting moment in show history, mainly due to the fact the first use was very apropos to the videos that McLachlan herself said she cannot watch. A dog is playing fetch with his owner and his owner runs into the water and gets eaten by the Megalodon. Bryan's girlfriend (who at this point we still didn't have Katie's name) was sad. "Who's gonna take care of the dog?" Never mind a man just got eaten.

This all around was a great episode even though I didn't like it the first time around. From someone water skiing into a shark's superimposed mouth to a bad submarine explosion, this episode had it all.

In the most bizarre of scene continuations, Bryan and Kyle came back from a year long hiatus. In so many words, they came back in an incredible way. The man who would ultimately become a legend in the series, Neil Breen, makes his first appearance. Ironically, they used Fateful Findings rather than his first film Double Down (which they ironically did a failed review for).

Needless to say, we needed this to get back on a roll. It was nice to see this and still ranks as one of the best reviews in the duo's filmography. Needless to say, someone made claims on this episode once and thankfully it came back. YouTube really needs to get their stuff together so fake people can't issue takedown claims.

Now I am not saying this about the review. Bryan and Kyle rightfully roasted and destroyed this movie as it should have been. I'm just saddened by the fact it was ever made in the first place.

Stephanie Meyer is awful, so awful I don't care if I spell her name wrong. She is a blight o the Arizona landscape and the worst thing to happen to this state since Global Warming and Doug Ducey. Her prose is awful and worthy of a trash bin, but since movie executives are awful people and only see dollar signs instead of art, we were gifted with this atrocity. I'm glad Bryan and Kyle are one of the few who have rightfully take it down a peg.

As for the review, the duo were great because we saw the side of them that pop up frequently in this series....both hosts losing their damn minds. It is the first and thankfully not the last time!

What I mean by the title is this....this was really the first time Bryan and Kyle found a groove that worked for them. While Kyle has always been the straight man in the reviews, both hosts lost it repeatedly when reminiscing about the abject weirdness of the film.

Ben and Arthur has some muddied perspectives about sex, marriage and cultural mores, but none of those things were conveyed properly in the film. This episode was the first time we were introduced to what I like to call, "Hyterical Bryan," where he loses it so badly that one has to conclude he is high. Both of hosts lose their minds frequently, and point out The Room and Birdemic as the peers of this said movie. The best moment has to be from the debate point "how much more serious can you get after killing someone? Spiritually, this is the true first episode of the series.

One month after releasing their first episode, we get a second episode from our daring duo. Ironically, they chose a movie from a 1990s stalwart, the legend himself, Lorenzo Llamas. You may know him from the epic syndicated show Renegade, which should be lampooned more for its silliness.

The episode definitely had an issue with length and taking points, mainly because the movie just was not terrible enough by bad movie standards. So one can say it was a misstep, but it was still pretty entertaining. From reveling in ridiculous murders that happened in the movie to the duo's first video game argument, this episode felt like the precursor to the modern episodes.

When beginning any venture as a YouTube personality, it's tough to get the ball rolling. The good thing for Good Bad and Bad Bad, Kyle and Bryan both work in film and television related industries and thus, their show looked good from the outset.

The only downside of course was the subject matter. Robo Vampire is just an awful film, and the two correctly surmised the movie was two movies in one. The observations are funny through, from comparing the lead bad guy to Edgar Allen Poe and also making a joke about 20 drunken writers making the film, it's a good start to a series that had modest beginnings.

M83 has made a career off making music that heavily appears to the youth of the world. From the Hurry Up We're Dreaming album, they put together a quadrilogy of music videos about a group of super powered children. From the album Youth = Weekend, we get more videos of young people witnessing an alien first contact. Heck, they contributed songs to the Divergent series, which is about the youth of a dystopia rebelling against their society. It's a marketing campaign that has worked perfectly. While attending a recent concert in Phoenix, it's pretty astounding to see so many young fans for a group that has been making music for 20 years.

Anyway, this video is far more abstract and thus doesn't have an interesting artistic narrative. Instead we get three youths running into a strange world of imagery and color, experiencing euphoria, pain and self examination. All the while, some omniscient being is watching them, most likely seeking explanation to their actions. Either way, a great song off the new album Fantasy, to say the least.

Quentin Dupieux never seems to make a conventional movie, and for that, I love him. The bizarre imageries of his imagination makes me curiously wonder what his daily thought process is. For Cigarettes Causes Coughing, it's yet another subversive trek that will leave you confused and wanting more explanation.

The American advertising made this look like a weird take on Marvel movies, but as usual, it morphed into something else entirely. We have a superhero group that is in malaise, breaking due to other conditions of the typical human experience. Jealousy, selfishness, family obligations and so forth are making them ineffective in the field. So what is needed? A group retreat.

But we don't see any real hashing out of emotions or team building per se, it's mostly just existential dread and stories about the inevitability of death. It's always a tough sledding to figure out what Dupieux is trying to convey, simply because his version of reality is rarely coherent. Amidst the washed out color of the worlds he creates, he leaves all meaning for the viewer to decide. What would happen if Nick Fury was in the middle of a love triangle with Black Widow and Captain Marvel? It's one of those weird scenarios that I am sure Dupieux thinks of while sipping his cognac.

The trick to watching these types of meaning is to understand there might not be one, or it might require some reading to figure it out. On the other hand, they sure are strange and entertaining anti-film.

Willem Dafoe has defined his career with a lot of risky ventures, especially when it comes to characters heavily seeking some form of self enlightenment. With his newest project, he takes on the grotesqueries of art and life by showcasing the canvas of his disheveled and imperfect body.

Dafoe plays a near over the hill Art thief who is trapped in the luxurious apartment of a well to do art dealer. Pretentious and lacking function, the apartment serves as an artistic representation of the modern capitalist mindset. While we can see the flashy and eye pleasing layers from the surface, it lacks functionality and depth. You can't survive on condiments and crackers, and what exactly is the point of a heavily chlorinated reflecting pool.

From an allegorical sense, the art in the apartment encapsulates the modern human condition. All of the art misrepresents the human form, twisting the subject or obstructing the view, never allowing us to see a perfect representation. We never truly get to see the people in the artistic works for who they are...much like Dafoe's character. We know he is intrepid, but what life must a person live where he is removed from the world yet so easily forgotten? At one point he claims each man is his own island. His character might as well be on another planet.

It's an interesting work to say the least as Dafoe descends into madness, eating dog food and fish, making up oratories of the apartment staff who frequent the building. We see the trajectory of life and death as Dafoe kills the expensive fish for nourishment and watches an injured pigeon pass away. Eventually the home turns into one of the pieces of art adorning the over the top apartment, gruesome and discombobulated.

I commend Dafoe for always taking on these sorts of projects, but it can be disturbing to see what an artist is willing to put himself through. I'm also thankful the ending was somewhat simple and direct, for I was fearful it might give us a rather wink-wink kind of pretentious ending which was frequently eluded to due to the type of art on display. Thankfully the film makers thought better of it.

Over the course of the last 20 years, a lot of wannabes have sought out to be the next bad film movie maker. Dreams of being Tommy Wiseau trying to act like James Dean or failed attempts at turning eagles into evil avatars of Earth's destruction have been imitated to no avail. A good "bad film" needs to come from the heart, which is why people like Neil Breen and Scott Shaw exist in all of their beautiful ego driven glory. And then you got the DIY movement.

Every state in the union has one I'm sure, but Arizona presents a unique setting due to the topography and the ability to shoot year round. Aliens and dystopic futures are perfect for my home state. So Clay Moffatt and his friends have carved out their own straight to video niche and in the process, created Pocketman and Cargo Boy.

It was a silly concept, but as each film continues to move along, the story got more convoluted. What started as a cheap Spy Kids knock-off evolved into Doctor Who. Jaden Hill was just a good run of the mill agent and by the third film....he's a time lord? And he is messing with the time lines of the universe? It's pretty amazing Moffatt came up with this idea before the film Everything Everywhere All At Once hit the theaters. Can't even accuse him of stealing that idea so bravo!

It made sense I guess. The availability of some actors was evident as cast changes were made, and the shortness of the film implies everyone involved didn't have much time to spare. You can even say Jaden Hill's messing with the universe was a way to explain the cast changes, like him changing history came with dire consequences. They had a story there, they just didn't have the time or budget to make it happen.

Of course, this film still has all the tenants of Tubi streaming flare, like bonkers ADR and over the top, clear as day one take acting moments. But hey, they tried, and it's way more than I am doing while I sell paint to the world. Someone needs to give Moffatt a budget because he clearly has ideas to make a film....just doesn't have the means.

I'm man enough to admit I watched this show, but I'm also man enough to admit this show kinda stunk. But it was fun I guess. During a time where dating shows were frequent and often times syndicated, Bzzz was no different from the odd assortment. From a show that gave people surprise makeovers to shows where people were chained together, Bzzz was kind of the puritanical show amongst all these concepts.

Annie Wood (who I had a huge crush on) would introduce multiple suitors through a looking glass, and the person involved would have to choose the person they want to date of "buzz" them out. Simple concept. Humiliating in a sense but what do I know, I'm not attractive enough to get on these kinds of shows.

I will say this, it was a great way to start goofy conversations with a college instructor I had the hots for.

P. T. Anderson has a very unusual and distinct style which has created a hallmark for the type of storytelling and visual spectacle he engages in. Some films it seems like he is the perfect torchbearer for Stanley Kubrick, engaging in long drawn out shots and showcasing non-conformist relationships. And then there are strange outliers like this film.

Having finally seen it after 20 years, it's hard to really gauge what Anderson was aiming for. Much like David Fincher needed a massive departure from Seven, The Game and Fight Club when he made Panic Room, Anderson went rogue as well after three consecutive films which showcased a certain style in Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Rather than long and drawn out scenes of coherent and well placed dialogue, this film is one chaotic scattershot of Robert Altman dialogue scenes and long experimental "in the moment" shot composition. It's seems like little planning was put into the film and everything was shot on the fly, but it all makes sense.

Barry Egan is chaotic neutral, triggered by his bullying sisters and lashes out frequently, yet can't admit to his problems. Hence, the oddly shot and cobbled together scenes of the first half of the movie reflect who he truly is. Jon Brion's score reflects this mood, taking on some cues from Damon Albarn's Ravenous score. It is not until he meets Lena Leonard when the film stabilizes, indicating his mood evening out in addition to being more truthful about who he is. While the film finalizes rather abruptly, we get the idea the world is about to be more calm for Egan.

I won't say this is a perfect film, but it was certainly a necessary reset for Anderson. Much like Licorice Pizza (to rather poor results) made us long for his dark period pieces, Punch-Drunk Love allowed us to reset the expectations that allowed Anderson to seek out new avenues and thus, present the world with some of his best work.

Either way, an interesting and chaotic film.