Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

@Dirty Schwein , reading the wikipedia page on Anya Taylor-Joy now, and she's been in a boatload of horror movies I've never seen, but would like to earn my certificate in ATJ Film Studies. Any recommendations, or ranks on the Schwein-o-meter for the following (not all horror):

The Witch
Split
Glass (made $247million on a $9million budget, no wonder they keep shitting out M Night movies)
Thoroughbreds
Marrowbone
The New Mutants
Last Night In Soho
The Northman
Amsterdam
The Menu
 
@Dirty Schwein , reading the wikipedia page on Anya Taylor-Joy now, and she's been in a boatload of horror movies I've never seen, but would like to earn my certificate in ATJ Film Studies. Any recommendations, or ranks on the Schwein-o-meter for the following (not all horror):

The Witch
Split
Glass (made $247million on a $9million budget, no wonder they keep shitting out M Night movies)
Thoroughbreds
Marrowbone
The New Mutants
Last Night In Soho
The Northman
Amsterdam
The Menu
Northman and the Witch would be the 2 i'd recommend from that, both excellent. 2 of the best movies of the last 20+ years. I enjoyed Menu too.
Split was probably one of M Nights better movies. Glass was pretty poor really
New Mutants was watchable but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it, think she has a dodgy russian accent in that one. Last Night in Soho was pretty forgettable, i was barely paying attention to it.
 
@Dirty Schwein , reading the wikipedia page on Anya Taylor-Joy now, and she's been in a boatload of horror movies I've never seen, but would like to earn my certificate in ATJ Film Studies. Any recommendations, or ranks on the Schwein-o-meter for the following (not all horror):

The Witch
Split
Glass (made $247million on a $9million budget, no wonder they keep shitting out M Night movies)
Thoroughbreds
Marrowbone
The New Mutants
Last Night In Soho
The Northman
Amsterdam
The Menu
The Witch is top tier. Watch that first.

I enjoyed The Menu, although I had a personal nitpick. I would recommend that one.

Split is a good Shyamalan film.

Glass is dog shit.

Northman is worth watching, makes you want to go gym right afterwards.

Last Night In Soho is ok but feels like a missed opportunity for something amazing. The horror elements ruin it.

New Mutants is awful.

Marrowbone was ok but I don't remember it that much. Might need to watch it again myself.

Haven't seen Thoroughbreds and Amsterdam.
 
Northman and the Witch would be the 2 i'd recommend from that, both excellent. 2 of the best movies of the last 20+ years. I enjoyed Menu too.
Split was probably one of M Nights better movies. Glass was pretty poor really
New Mutants was watchable but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it, think she has a dodgy russian accent in that one. Last Night in Soho was pretty forgettable, i was barely paying attention to it.

The Witch is top tier. Watch that first.

I enjoyed The Menu, although I had a personal nitpick. I would recommend that one.

Split is a good Shyamalan film.

Glass is dog shit.

Northman is worth watching, makes you want to go gym right afterwards.

Last Night In Soho is ok but feels like a missed opportunity for something amazing. The horror elements ruin it.

New Mutants is awful.

Marrowbone was ok but I don't remember it that much. Might need to watch it again myself.

Haven't seen Thoroughbreds and Amsterdam.
Thanks, fellas. It's helpful to have @caid 's opinion alongside @Dirty Schwein 's because the latter will lead you right up the garden path and you'll find yourself watching some horror film that will scar you for the rest of your life!

I'll give the ones you both liked a watch!
 
@Dirty Schwein , reading the wikipedia page on Anya Taylor-Joy now, and she's been in a boatload of horror movies I've never seen, but would like to earn my certificate in ATJ Film Studies. Any recommendations, or ranks on the Schwein-o-meter for the following (not all horror):

The Witch
Split
Glass (made $247million on a $9million budget, no wonder they keep shitting out M Night movies)
Thoroughbreds
Marrowbone
The New Mutants
Last Night In Soho
The Northman
Amsterdam
The Menu
Out of these, I would recommend The Menu and The Witch. The Northman is worth a watch as well .

Split is certainly one of M Nigth's strongest, but it still is Shyamalan. Glass a lot worse. I thoroughly enjoyed Last Night In Soho, but I know it was quite divisive. Marrowbone and Thoroughbreds are both decent movies.
 
HBO'S Salem's Lot was silly but still very enjoyable vampire movie. Very heavy Stranger Things vibes.

3.5/5
 
Woman of the Hour
True story of Rodney Alcala, a serial rapist & murderer who went on a dating TV show and won. Directed/produced by and starring Anna Kendrick, this was a decent thriller about a heinous man.

The performers were excellent and Kendrick showed restraint in portraying the violence, which is good for a common audience.

With that said, some of it felt over-directed, a common pitfall of debutants, it also struggled to capture the true feeling of the 70s because Kendrick looked exactly as she does in something like Pitch Perfect. The film also felt a bit empty, like it was missing something, which wasn't helped by a load of side characters being killed to simply show more horrific crimes of Rodney.

There was a great scene between him and Kendrick though, that was very tense.

Overall, I thought it was decent and will have loads of people googling about the true story 6/10
 
SALEM”S LOT (2024) bears all the hallmarks of post-production reshoots and tinkering and is very uneven as a result. The usually splendid Alfre Woodard looks like she was on the Jack to deliver some clunky lines.

The Tobe Hooper 1979 TV version is still the best of the three versions. This one is the worst.
 
Happy 70th birthday to greatest monster in cinema





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SALEM”S LOT (2024) bears all the hallmarks of post-production reshoots and tinkering and is very uneven as a result. The usually splendid Alfre Woodard looks like she was on the Jack to deliver some clunky lines.

The Tobe Hooper 1979 TV version is still the best of the three versions. This one is the worst.
On the jack or had the jack?
What does that mean?
 
Instant Family. A comedy-drama with Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as a couple who decide to adopt three foster siblings, including a teenager (Isabela Merced). I half expected this wouldn't work (Wahlberg's films are often more hit than miss for me), but this one is pretty sweet and often quite funny, and also appropriate earnest about the foster children and your experiences. 7/10

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile. A kids movie about a singing crocodile that turns out to be living on the attic when a family moves into a New York house. Apparently based on a popular kids book, but I didn't know it. It's really fun. The story is a little lame (even one of my kids asked when it would have its turn), but the film is fun and really quite enjoyable. It also features Javier Bardem as a goofy and sweet magicien, and what more could anyone ask for. 7/10
 
?? What makes it so?
In terms of pure filmmaking, if you're talking about only the technical aspects, I get it. It's a gorgeous looking film despite being dirty and grimy, with some standout scenes. It lacks a little something to be a masterpiece, in the end it's a rather straightforward adaptation of the Hamlet story, if a little grittier than the usual adaptations. Everyone in it is very good, and Skarsgard in particular delivers an impressive primal, physical performance. It's a very good film.
 
Ballerina
Korean revenge movie on Netflix. A female bodyguard is unable to protect her ballerina friend, who commits suicide after being drugged and sexually assaulted by a gang member who filmed it, and sets out on a mission to get justice.

I tthought it was a bit meh.
The bodyguard and ballerina went to school together but hadn't seen each other since. Their reunion seems forced, but montages display a wonderful friendship that blossoms. They lose touch again. Then the ballerina calls the bodyguard out of the blue, the bodyguard goes to the ballerina's apartment and finds her dead in the bath, having slit her wrists.
The ballerina's phone rings, the bodyguard answers it and says nothing, and the gang member on the other end demands that the ballerina meets him at 2am under a motorway bridge. The bodyguard observes him from afar, then tails him, breaking into his house after he leaves. She finds BDSM paraphernalia and flash drives of the abuse he's perpetrated on dozens of drugged girls, including the ballerina.
She then deliberately puts herself in a position to be drugged and abused by him in a seedy hotel that reminded me of Hostel. However, she isn't really drugged and they end up having a fight, where she slashes his face before escaping with one of the girls who is being abused. However, the girl is soon recaptured by the gang member, so the bodyguard goes on the warpath to get her back.

The bodyguard gets tooled up, goes to the gang's drug manufacturing plant, shoots the big boss dead and kills about 30 gang members. She finds the gang member and the girl (who appears dead), there's a gun fight, then the bodyguard flamethrowers him to death.
It's all a bit forced and far-fetched for me. I don't really understand the motives of anyone in the film. I don't know why the bodyguard and ballerina end up friends. It doesn't seem to be a sexual relationship. I don't understand why the pharmacist who makes drugs for the gang member is so happy to get involved in violence. It might be a much better film if it was 30 minutes longer because the characters' backstories were fleshed out. As it is, it's a 5/10 for me.
 
Fair Play (2023), starring Phoebe Dynevor, Young Han Solo.

Ignore the little teaser scene that plays if you hover over this title on Netflix. This is a psycho-sexual drama, in the style of Closer or Oleanna, or A Streetcar Named Desire, or maybe even Blue Valentine. Phoebe and Young Han Solo work for a hedge fund (? finance ? stock broker ?) and are a hot couple. The opening scene kinda sets the tone, and thank feck I wasn't watching this with my kids.
They hook up in a bathroom at a wedding reception, and Solo goes down on her and comes up with blood all over his face, hands, and shirt; she's got blood on her dress, because she's ovulating.
That scene was kinda rough and out of nowhere. Brace yourself.

The story: a vacancy at the company means someone is getting a promotion to PM (Pokemon Master?). They both think it's going to be Solo, but Phoebe gets the gig. Since it is against company policy to date subordinates or co-workers, they must keep their romance secret. Meanwhile, jealousy, careerism, and more jealousy screw up their relationship. Is she weak? Is he a loser? Will their love survive? Will no one think of the corporate capitalist pigs?

I was unfamiliar with this writer/director, Chloe Domont, who mainly is a TV hired gun director. As the writer of this, she's allowed to get away with some pretty racy/rancid dialogue, that if the writer were male, you'd think it was Joe Eszterhas in disguise. Solo does a good job of eliciting sympathy. There is a jarring scene
that becomes basically a hate-feck, a bit dirty and violent, and she hits her face on a sink a few times. She accuses him of rape. But was it rape? From her vantage point probably yes but from his vantage point probably no. I'm not going to go back and rewatch it, but I recall they are again doing it in a bathroom, doggie style, and it's loud and he closes his eyes as he races to the finish line and doesn't hear her tell him to stop. He's surprised when she accuses him later.
The ending is very much a downbeat, now-we're-all-broken ending. I found it to be a pretty interesting movie, even though I definitely sided with one character over the other. I think a stronger script would have left the viewer with a 50/50 opinion on who was wrong and who was right, but they tip their hand a bit too much in this one.

Phoebe Dynevor is a Manchester girl, and only when she is yelling does her accent slip. She does really well except when she's reciting the data that is supposed to make her a wunderkind, she's saying it like she's reading chemical formulas and doesn't know what any of the words mean. Beyond that, she was great. Alden Ehrenreich is very good in this, way better than he was in the Han Solo movie, kind of a young Brando vibe. He burns and rages, and then cools to wounded puppy, and back in the blink of an eye. And that one scene is going to divide audiences.

Not recommended for Family Night or Date Night.

8/10
 
Ballerina
Korean revenge movie on Netflix. A female bodyguard is unable to protect her ballerina friend, who commits suicide after being drugged and sexually assaulted by a gang member who filmed it, and sets out on a mission to get justice.

I tthought it was a bit meh.
The bodyguard and ballerina went to school together but hadn't seen each other since. Their reunion seems forced, but montages display a wonderful friendship that blossoms. They lose touch again. Then the ballerina calls the bodyguard out of the blue, the bodyguard goes to the ballerina's apartment and finds her dead in the bath, having slit her wrists.
The ballerina's phone rings, the bodyguard answers it and says nothing, and the gang member on the other end demands that the ballerina meets him at 2am under a motorway bridge. The bodyguard observes him from afar, then tails him, breaking into his house after he leaves. She finds BDSM paraphernalia and flash drives of the abuse he's perpetrated on dozens of drugged girls, including the ballerina.
She then deliberately puts herself in a position to be drugged and abused by him in a seedy hotel that reminded me of Hostel. However, she isn't really drugged and they end up having a fight, where she slashes his face before escaping with one of the girls who is being abused. However, the girl is soon recaptured by the gang member, so the bodyguard goes on the warpath to get her back.

The bodyguard gets tooled up, goes to the gang's drug manufacturing plant, shoots the big boss dead and kills about 30 gang members. She finds the gang member and the girl (who appears dead), there's a gun fight, then the bodyguard flamethrowers him to death.
It's all a bit forced and far-fetched for me. I don't really understand the motives of anyone in the film. I don't know why the bodyguard and ballerina end up friends. It doesn't seem to be a sexual relationship. I don't understand why the pharmacist who makes drugs for the gang member is so happy to get involved in violence. It might be a much better film if it was 30 minutes longer because the characters' backstories were fleshed out. As it is, it's a 5/10 for me.
This sounds familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. I think I've seen this, but if not, it was remarkably similar. I don't remember there being a ballerina, though!