Year: 2023
Rating: 8.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Blood, suicide
Summary: Sasha, a vampire, is traumatized at a young age from seeing her family kill a clown for her birthday. Because of this, she suffers from PTSD and her fangs do not grow in. After decades, her parents send her to live with her aunt who tries to get her fangs to pop out. Along the way, she meets and befriends a suicidal teen boy, Paul, forming a pact so she can kill him with his consent.
I really like this movie and I think it's a unique little gem. It's a movie that does a great job developing characters and having its own fun spin on vampire lore– having fangs grow in like adult teeth, and there being a possibilty they don’t grow in at all. I think the chemistry between the main actors– Sasha and Paul– is really nice and feels realistic. I think the storyline is a fresh take on a vampire film. I really like the ending as well, thinking it fits well with the rest of the film.
I was shocked to find out this movie was the debut feature film by the director. It’s incredibly well done and I’m looking forward to what they put out next.
Year: 1993
Rating: 7.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Institutionalization, Stigmatization of mental illness, child death, offscreen implied attack of a child, death, police brutality, nail trauma
Summary: Clean, Shaven is a film about a man (Peter) with schizophrenia who has recently been released from a mental institution and is searching for his daughter who has been adopted out. The film primarily revolves around this journey, and intertwined, a mystery about another girl who has gone missing.
I do think the movie is technically very good. The acting is good, the mood is good– it captures the nervousness and anxiety Peter feels about the world around him very well. I think it’s incredibly well-done to capture a sense of nervousness all throughout the movie, a constant feeling on edge and the fear of the harm that could come to Peter from those who misunderstand him.
I cannot say if the representation in this film is good or bad in terms of how it shows the manifestation of schizophrenia, as I do not have schizophrenia and do not feel qualified to say either way on it. On a similar note, I’d be interested in a review by someone with schizophrenia and their take on it. The director did have a friend with schizophrenia and said he wanted to make a movie that wasn’t about sensationalizing the illness.
I do really see how this movie does set itself apart from the sensationalization of mental illness in media, especially of the time, and I will give it flowers for that (especially as people still like to demonize mental illness). I think the backbone of the story– the man just wanting to see his daughter– is very sad and I was invested in that storyline. The ending especially was very sad to see.
Year: 1993
Rating: 6.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Sex, forced amputation, car accident
Summary: Boxing Helena centers around a surgeon named Nick who has recently moved into his deceased mother’s home. He has a girlfriend, Anne, but remains fixated on a woman named Helena who he once had slept with. Helena ends up struck by a car outside of Nick’s house, and Nick takes it upon himself to ‘fix’ her, much to her dismay.
Boxing Helena is one of those movies that's been on my radar for years now– literally since a teenage me heard “Helena” from the Misfits. I've wanted to see this movie for years, so maybe I put my expectations too high on it being a “good” movie.
It's a messy movie– one that isn't the best. However, I don't think watching it was a waste. I definitely don't think it's as bad as critics seemed to– though I was shocked who's daughter made it. Sad she left filmmaking over it because I could see potential in the work of the film. I do think there were some odd choices, such as the obvious “Why does Nick have an English accent when he lives in America/his family is shown not to have one?” Very strange, but I think viewing the film as camp is more enjoyable than as a serious drama (sort of like The Room).
Is it a perfect movie? Not in the slightest. Does it do an interesting job of exploring themes of unrequited love and turning an obsession into selfish cruelty? Yeah, yeah it does. If things were tighter, I do think it'd be a better movie, but it's not a waste by any means. I can enjoy it as it was released, strange and campy.
Year: 2009
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Content Warnings: General NSFW, Sexual assault ( in the form of coercion ), Eating Disorders (specifically bulimia)
Summary: A blowup doll comes to life and starts navigating the world and people around her.
I think if a movie can make you cry by the end of it due to the sheer emotion of it, it’s good art. In addition, I think if a movie is 2 hours long and you’re still wanting more, that’s a testament to what a good film it is. This movie hit both of those marks for me.
Air Doll is an interesting movie and the first 10 or so had me cracking jokes, and I truly did not expect to become so invested in this movie by the end. It’s incredibly lovingly crafted and the acting is stellar– especially the main actress who does a breathtaking job of providing realism to a story that on the surface is very fantastical.
The story is so much more than it’s base plot, as it delves into topics such as the meaning of life, the emptiness people feel, the pressures on being ‘beautiful’, objectification (and infantilization) and probably more that I've missed. The story has a lot of interconnecting small storylines– a father and his daughter, a bulimic woman who lives in a messy apartment, a woman in her 30s or so who is feeling the pressure to look young, an old man who’s on oxygen, the store our main girl, Nozomi, eventually works at, the man who bought the doll originally, and a few other smaller storylines.
Everything feels very organic and realistic in this movie. It definitely is upsetting at times to watch, especially as she becomes human and becomes objectified by those around her (those scenes felt particularly heart wrenching to watch). By the end, I felt so connected to the characters and story told before me, and the last few scenes had me crying. I’d like to think the end of the movie wasn’t the end of the journey for Nozomi, along with the person who gazes upon her, and it symbolized a better beginning for both of them.
I feel like my review makes it sound like it’s a totally sad movie. It’s not; It has a lot of heavier topics and sad moments, but I think it’s a really beautiful and heartfelt movie, with joy in the same note. I think it captures loneliness, but it also captures small, subtle beauty in life as well.
I’d liken this movie to Poor Things; definitely not a 1:1, but it has similar themes and undertones (and for the record, I really liked that movie as well). I think if you’ve watched either of them, you’d like the other.
Year: 2001
Rating: 7.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Sexual assault, implied animal cruelty, gore, death, suicide
Summary: 54 teen girls jump to their death in front of a train. The movie follows the days after and the uptick in suicides that result from the intial incident.
Sucide Club is a movie I’ve wanted to see for a long time now, probably as long as Boxing Helena. The story is jumbled, but at it’s core, multiple people are effected by the number of suicides that have been happening, trying to find out why this is happening. As people try and find answers, they come up with scapegoats and people who are trying to make a name off of claiming they’re responsible.
I think I understand the general feel and message this movie was trying to get across about the glamorization of suicide, peer mentalities and blaming the media (as it seems we never get a real conclusion of if there is in fact a group behind these occurrences, and it seems more or less that there’s not by the end.)
I think on a technical and plot level it’s very shaky. It feels very disjointed, and not because it’s multiple storylines converging. The acting is up and down and sometimes you can feel it more than others, but I’d be hard pressed to say it’s ever really good. The gore and blood is gnarly– a good portion of it is over the top, but there are some really gross and uncomfortable displays and scenes (I really did not like the bowling alley scene at all, but it did evoke an emotion in me and that was discomfort, which i’m sure it was aiming for.)
Overall, I wish it was better. I think it had the bones of something good, but it didn’t land the mark for me. I don’t regret watching it, but I do feel disappointed. I am interested in the prequel film of it, hoping that’ll add more structure to it.
2:13pm .. .. // 9.23.2024