Round-up Week 4: New Movies and Such

The weather picking up the past week or so has given me second wind, especially regarding my creative endeavors. I've spent a good chunk of my time the past couple of days writing and working on my screenplay(s) I got going, it feels tremendous to get over the temporary hump of writer's block. I'm going to make an effort to update my works through the portfolio section of the site, so if you're at all curious as to what I'm working on, don't hesitate to check it out.

As far as my movie-watching goes, I started the week with a rewatch of one of my all-time favorite films, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Given my many ailments, I do believe I've sat through this one in its entirety close to twenty times since its initial release, of which I got to experience in theaters. It was a special event, being the first Tarantino film I was old enough to be able to see in theaters. I recall going with my father on one of the opening nights. What makes this one so special, beyond being my first theatrical Tarantino experience, is the tightness and reference to which it was made. For some, it's meandering and self-indulgent, but to those who have been long-time fans of Quentin's work, the vision of the world he was recreating not only feels very alive, but like a thank-you love-letter to the era and to all those who dream of it. Call it a guilty pleasure, whatever, I will always return to this with a smile on my face. QT wasn't kidding when he called DiCaprio and Pitt the return of Redford and Newman, the chemistry jumps off the screen and their comic timing carries the tone throughout.

Next I watched Gimme Shelter, a documentary about a live performance by the Rolling Stones using the Hell's Angels as security that goes very awry. And that would be putting it lightly. The tension builds subtly, with the tracklist for the evening unfolding at the surface, and the rising action of the Hell's Angels' fury bubbling underneath. What actually incited the violence, I still don't understand, maybe I missed it and need to watch again (I would totally watch this again), but what appeared to me was an error of judgement on the Stones' part in hiring those knuckleheads to begin with. I mentioned in my Letterboxd review that this may be my favorite documentary of all time, and this is primarily due to the lack of documentary-watching I'm doing, but I stand by it on the personal experience level: this was a monster production, particularly in the editing department. The use of parallel editing was off the charts, and in a quietly wrapped up 89 minutes, that goes especially far. The horror on Mick Jagger's face throughout is essentially a mirror to my own, what a wild ride. Also helps a bit when all the music slaps as hard as it does. The live performances are something to behold, from this era of the late 60s particularly. No one did it quite like Mick Jagger and the Stones.

On Wednesday, I watched Eyes Without a Face, a '60s French body horror film, with some interesting themes and pretty cinematography. What struck me most while watching this one was the emphasis on the female perspective, especially for the era it was released. I suppose that's more credit to the French New Wave and the lasting effects it has had on cinema around the world. And not only in theme but in its visual aesthetics as well. As I mentioned, the cinematography is tight, the use of light and shadows to

intensify the crescendos is brilliant and very deliberate. The body horror itself was impeccably executed for the time as well; the sequences of mutilation are not sparing on details, and while of course nowhere near the level of horror effects used nowadays, you can easily see the influences taken for the likes of later Hitchcock, Cronenberg, and Aronofsky. An excellent piece, highly recommended for any horror fans looking for something different.

It took me two nights of stomach churning nonsense and behind-the-scenes hyping myself up to get through the next one. Teeth (2007) was written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein and is a dark comedy and body horror film about a young Christian woman who discovers her vagina has grown, well, teeth. What starts as a campy B-style dark comedy very quickly devolves into psychological and splatter horror when the protagonist is physically assaulted and raped in a remote cave, and if that isn't enough, and you couldn't put two and two together, what follows involves a lot of blood and a severed penis. What blew my mind the most about this movie, I think, is how they got away with an R-rating. The graphic nature of the horror sequences goes a step beyond shocking and into the nauseating realm. I'm not well-versed in the criteria for what makes a film NC-17 territory, but whatever it is, this was pretty damn close if not in it. Thematically simple, but definitely effective in its use of blood and guts. I will never touch this film again.

New episode of Severance went hard as expected, lots of questions looming, but I appreciate the care given to the audience, is how they're being explored. I don't expect everything to be answered next week, but I'll be curious to see how they decide to wrap up the season.

Planning some cool stuff to write about in the coming weeks and months, but I am open to engagement from the audience. Please feel free and open to use the comments section! Sign up for the site's alerts and get in touch!