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Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (2023)
I just saw Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 and it was pretty fantastic. The Guardians movies are the only Marvel franchise that I have any sort of fan relationship with, although I’m somewhat partial to Spider-Man and enjoyed the last Doctor Strange, perhaps largely because of Sam Raimi’s involvement. The Guardians films are more…
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Infinity Pool (2023)
I just saw Brandon “Son of David” Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool and it was very silly. It was a work of fart, on loan from a fart museum. All of my analysis can’t improve on a perfect review that my friend gave in one sentence: “It was too long and now my eyes hurt.” None of…
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Missing (2023)
I just saw Missing, the new “found footage” thriller, on a whim and it was pretty good. I was about to reflect that “found footage” is really an outdated term for this genre, since the footage isn’t really supposed to be “found” (a la “this was the campers’ video diary during their stay in the…
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Evil Dead Rise (2023)
“Mommy’s with the maggots now…” I just saw Evil Dead Rise and loved it. As an example of its genre and what it’s trying to accomplish as a commercial product, it’s pretty perfect. It was refreshing to see a new Evil Dead movie that absolutely gets what such a film is and how it works.…
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Dark Glasses (2022)
Released both theatrically and to streaming in 2022, Dark Glasses is Italian horror maestro Dario Argento’s first directorial work in 10 years, preceded by 2012’s infamous Cannes Film Festival disaster Dracula 3D. It’s an improvement over some of his more recent work, which isn’t saying much. Dark Glasses is more what you’d expect from a…
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Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
The giallo is a curious breed. Italian for “yellow”, the word refers to the colour used for paperback crime fiction that was sold in Italy and intended to be quick, exploitative, pulp entertainment. The term in its colloquial sense means murder mystery or horror thriller. Also known as Spaghetti Slashers (a la Spaghetti Westerns), the…
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Suzume (2022)
I just saw Suzume, an anime sub, and it might be my favourite film of the year. It’s funny, moving, suspenseful, visually splendid, and an almost perfect film experience. It was kind of shocking to see a fantasy film, set in the present day, with such genuine warmth and innocence about it. The fantasy films…
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Renfield (2023)
Vampires have had a long and storied history in fiction, but in recent years the Dracula mythos in particular has been used to explore the dynamics of relationships between these creatures of the night and those whose lives they touch. Since the Dracula story was always in part a metaphor for sexual predation, it’s perhaps…
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Prom Night (1980)
This is a slasher film to make you appreciate both the fine artistic craft of the original Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the crude efficiency of the Friday the 13th sequels. Heck, even the original Friday the 13th wasn’t this dull. I’d be interested to see the 2008 reboot of Prom Night…
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A Rainy Day in New York (2019)
Set mostly over 24 hours, A Rainy Day in New York is a romantic comedy starring Timothee Chalamet as the evocatively named Gatsby Welles, a gambler and gadabout who takes his girlfriend, student journalist Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), for a romantic time in the Big Apple. Both are, however, sidetracked by misadventures and temptations as rain…
I Just Saw
Telling you about movies I just saw
