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Sinister (2012)
Scary but unimaginative
All in all it was, as even Ebert had to acknowledge, an 'undeniably scary movie' and I concur to that. I counted 12 jump scares, that were really real scares and maybe half a dozen semi scares. This matches the observation of this one study that came out and ranked Sinister as the 'scariest movie' according to measured heart rate of the participants, watching the horror flick. In this regard, it's probably difficult to cram in more jump scares without getting dull. Even here, I thought at times "okay, it's night again, here we go again".
From the get go, one thing that bothered me a bit was the setup. Like, you move across country without telling your wife why and that you are moving into a murder house? To write a novel in order to get out of 'poverty' (yet somehow they always live in great and big houses?) You find a random box of murder movies in the attic and won't wonder? I don't know, it was a bit too much for me.
Further difficulties with suspension of disblief was how the main character always got up at night and the wife didn't notice anything. He roams around the house with an axe or a knife, even though he professes elsewhere that he doesn't believe in supernatural stuff. But then as the projector is running at night or he sees sort of quasi-undeniable evidence of supernatural stuff in the video (like this bagul deity/murderer/scary person or when he fell through the attic and hands were visible on his shoulders) he just let it go. I think the alarm bells should be rining. All in all this set up of him waking up every night was a bit monotonic.
For a moment, when only 4 murders were shown on the video, I thought maybe they are going to be the 5th one. I even figured that the murders are the 5 elements, the hanging on the tree is wood, burning in car is fire, drowing is obviously water and the throat cutting with the knife could be iron, so he would be burrier alive to represent ground. It would have been a lame premise but it fit kinda well.
To get to some positive points, I thought the cinematography was well done and enhanced the uneasiness in every shot. E.g. In an innocuous scene, they shoot it in a way that displays a lot of open background for the viewer to be frightened for the next jump scare.
I also thought the ending was kind of good. I thought he probably closed the portal to the nethern world by burning the projector. But somehow, the girl got possessed. The gore at the end didn't touch me much but if the viewer isn't well versed in horror, it might add a bit.
As a side, one thing that the movie also did well was the idea that it could all be an alcoholic dream. When the police officer so and so spelled it out for me, my hypothesis for it being a fever dream was boosted again. I like it when such movies play with the idea that it could be a mind break (just like the OG in this regard, Kubrick's Shining).
White Noise (2022)
Good highlights, all in all okay, the book was better
I reviewed the book a few years back, here's the pertinent part:
"I loved practically everything, sometimes hard to pin point what it is. The gloomy atmosphere of death, consumerism, and odd existential crisis-inducing triggers was absolutely phenomenal. [...], but apart from that we have the whole struggle-bus of person vs. Machine, person vs. Reality, person vs. Simulation (Baudrillard let's go!), person vs. Death. I laughed out loud many times over the juxtaposition of extremely accurate descriptions of products or sentiments of the characters. When they say 'reality is stranger than fiction', it's mostly true, but DeLillo captures the essence of exactly that reality that we refer to which is stranger than fiction. [...]"
I think the adaption was great when it was on point, which was unfortunately only a handful of times. I think he nailed the Hitler studies, the supermarket, and the hyper self-awareness when Adam Driver is at the hotel room at the end. Other than that it was mostly just okay entertainment, if you're into discombobulated, vaguely post-modern fiction, a bit strange and unclear, if you're not into that. The airborn toxic event was much funnier in the book, when they lingered a bit more on the simulation vs. Reality bit. Moreover, the book was in my view carried by the details, the little interactions, nobody listening to each other, constantly repeating themselves, the product descriptions, the atmosphere, the indifference or incapacity of people to deal with a crisis at hand. Most of these more 'ambient' motifs were hard to convey, even though they did a decent job disorienting the viewer in terms of conversations that they run in parallel. Spoiler (skip to the end of the paragraph): the fact that they didn't do the Wilder bit at the end, is a pity, after foreshadowing that all plots go towards death.
All in all decent, but maybe more of a rounded up 7, since I'm a fan, otherwise it might be more of a 6, but whatever.
P. S.: I just wrote the title of the review with the ultimate "the book was better" ... I promise I'm fun at parties, but I'm aware that "the book was better" does not bode well for me.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Novel type of chaos
I think the rating of this film depends a bit on the angle that one wants to emphasize along some traditional rating axes: In terms of a story, the narration disorients the viewer constantly, baiting them into believing "the movie is about *that*" and then taking it away again. In the end, some viewers might find that it wasn't really about anything, in a straightforward kind of manner. In this regard I might give it a 7.
From a novelty standpoint, I think it's really a fantastic piece of art, somewhere at a solid 9. We've seen multiverse stuff going to the extreme, e.g. In Rick and Morty, where nihilism, metafiction, and identity play a role as well and the "everything happens" part is interpreted in a very, very literal way, but much more doesn't come to my mind. Moreover, in non-cartoon cinema, it really feels like a first. The shots where they cycled through what felt like a good 100 frames of different incarnations of the main character where crazy, not just from an editing point of view but just as the experience of the viewer. It literally feels dizzying to watch it, particularly on a large screen.
For the themes, the directors didn't shy away from ambitiously trying to incorporate many layers (as far as I interpret it). One obvious aspect is the Asian-American experience that is highlighted a bunch in the beginning. As Anne Anlin Cheng put it, the movie plays with the Asian pendent of Afro-pessimism (which has gained some traction recently), Asian-pessimism. I'm sure she would have a lot to say about it, and I can only figure how in analogy to Afro-pessimism, the confrontation in the film tries to stipulate the 'yellow woman' as Cheng might posit the Asian body as she does in her work, as a mode of transport of vaguely liberal identity-based analysis (similar to the slightly topical book by Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown, 2020). This mode of transport is questioned and in the film ultimately left only touched upon (e.g. The scene of the hot dog universe where the main character has a relationship with the tax accountant), emphasizing the internal redemption with her daughter.
Another more or less straightforward interpretation is the depression mother and daughter go through, most of the imagery serving as an underscore of the various facets of said depression. Not only does nothing matter, but while it seems to matter, we witness its decay, the horrid circumstances that lead us down the path to death (the bagel as a dadaist-nihilist image), even making redemption ultimately impossible. Unless, well, spoiler alert, in the end redemption was possible in some sort of Dan Harmon-esque "let's watch TV and not bother" way.
One last bit that I really liked was the metafictional scenes, where the main character was playing herself, dragging me, the audience, literally into the boat, making us think about our own place in the multiverse. Ending the film with some credits in the middle of it (as did The Simpsons in the The Simpsons movie) was great and works every time for me, even though some viewers might find it a bit trite.
All in all it's really worthwhile, even if you are not into (vaguely) experimental stuff. There are so many themes going on that there will be enough to talk about for everyone. And if you hate overinterpreted/overinterpretable postmodern cinema, watch it for the crazy-ass pictures and fantastic soundtrack.
Climax (2018)
Some great moments but ultimately a bit too inaccessible
As a person who doesn't know a lot of dancing, it might have been more difficult for me to appreciate the extended dancing scenes. I really tried to focus and absorb everything but the two long (all in one take!) shots of dancing were too difficult for me to understand/stay focused. I see that they really tried to convey an entire vibe, which worked well for the other parts, but the dancing was a bit too much.
I also didn't really get the credits in the middle of the film as well as the prologue with the interviews. I mean, it's fine, but I feel it wasn't really 'used' in order to achieve a particular emotion in the viewer. It felt more like "why don't we put interviews in the beginning".
The rest, i.e. The long shot(s), walking around in the party area and confusedly changing perspective and angles (great cinematography!) was really good. The film 'climaxed' for me early in the last shot when the pregnant girl got mistaken for the one that spiked the drinks. It was really heart-wrenching and the bad trip was extremely palpable. Towards the end it got a bit out of hand and lost a bit of suspension of disbelief (even though it was still well within the possible; I suppose it just happened due to the extremely believable first bit).
The Belko Experiment (2016)
Extremely bad ending
No. Absolutely not.
We all know this type of movie and some of us like it. Any sort of Battle Royale set-up comes down to
1) setting up characters
2) putting them through gore
3) reason why they were put through gore / katharsis
The most important part is obviously the 3rd step. I found it extremely underwhelming: A zoom out of CCTV screens where many people are just finishing such a gruesome experiment maybe a la Black Mirror or more meta group of experimenters. It just ultimately doesn't answer any questions in a satisfying way but also doesn't create mystery or tension by avoiding the answers. It's just bad, not higher trick or idea.
Not even the gore was particularly new or ground-breaking.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Fun and unexpected
I didn't read any summary of the film before watching it and was really confused when it got weirder and weirder, which was a fun ride. It's clear that Boots Riley, the director and writer, has participated in a union before and knows the underlying theory: most stabs at capitalism were on point and the satire worked well. I think even people who are firmly on the capitalist side of history can enjoy it and probably admit to some of the parallels.
It's All About Love (2003)
It wasn't all that bad
It does feel a bit like Vinterberg was exhilarated after the success of Festen but It's All About Love wasn't all that bad as the critics say, I think. I agree that the plot was very confusing, at times slow or left questions open, but in a bit of a different setting it might have been received differently. I really like the postmodern trope of imitation and simulation and didn't mind the 'trite' twist of Elena having clones. But I also think it wasn't cinematically trite at 2003, before many cloning sci-fi movies came out. The weirdness of the things that happen alone isn't really a good reason to dismiss it either. The absurdities reminded me a bit of Heller's Catch-22 or the dialogue might come out of a DeLillo or Barth novel, which are all well praised. Of course a 1:1 translation to the medium of a film doesn't work but if Lynch was the director here, the metacritic rating might have been 5, not 3.2, and we'd call it lynchian.
Submarino (2010)
Classic Danish-male high-variance redemption hybrid
Vinterberg has a great grip on playing out human drama. Even though the circumstances are extreme and might feel a tiny bit too much, I never felt the emotions displayed are overplayed or inauthentic. The subtleties of the main actors were very nicely used to convey dread as well as sympathy with the two brothers. All in all it felt like a roller-coaster of redemption-feelings, since with every chapter closed, yielding the actual redemption, another backside opened, inducing jarring unfinishedness, unansweredness, and despair.