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Oppenheimer (2023)
Now that it’s been released, Oppenheimer feels like such a natural project for Christopher Nolan, a writer/director whose works have always been concerned with concepts. He approaches his stories rather like a theoretical physicist, starting with a baseline of plot and twisting it back and forth across many permutations, dissecting time travel, space exploration, unconscious…
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Barbie (2023)
I saw the Barbie movie and it was… fine? I’m not really sure what I was expecting and was probably expecting too much. This is really a movie for little girls and women trying to get in touch with their inner little girl, so I feel bad criticising it for things like plot and nuance,…
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Blood Feast (1963)
Described as the worst horror film he’s ever seen by Stephen King, Blood Feast is a notorious 1963 splatter film by celebrated schlockmeister and “godfather of gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis. I say “celebrated”. He’s discussed and referenced fondly by artists who cut their teeth on the sort of pulp trash that Lewis made his name…
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Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
So I saw Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One and it was… bad? I don’t consider myself a contrarian. I normally have views that fall somewhere in line with the general critical feeling. I might be more or less moved by a particular film than others were, but normally if one receives what can be…
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The Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968)
It’s possible to interpret Curse of the Crimson Altar, on the surface another hoary old tale of black magic and fleeting nudity in the same vein as The Devil Rides Out (also ‘68) and The Skull (1965), as a transitional sort of swan song in British horror. It’s very much an old man’s film, the…
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
I just saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and it was an enjoyable if somewhat forgettable coda to the franchise. It’s been getting the usual sneering reviews from critics who must think it a sign of their cine-literacy to hold their noses when passing pulp trash, but it’s a watchable piece of hokum…
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Asteroid City (2023)
I just saw Asteroid City by Wes Anderson and it was great. It took a little while to win me over and it’s possibly too mannered and esoteric to be widely beloved, but it tells a very simple story with a simple message at its core and is one of the sweetest, sunniest comedies to…
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Sisu (2022)
I just saw Sisu and it was ehhhhhhhh… alright. A war film with an exploitation edge, it struggles to escape feeling Tarantino-lite, with its chapter headings and gore and pulpy characterisation. With Tarantino that works because he’s a genius at what he does, managing to stuff every frame with detail and create a whole film…
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Tenebrae (1982)
One of director Dario Argento’s most renowned giallo films, 1982’s Tenebrae (Italian for “darkness”) is a murder mystery set in Rome and following an American suspense novelist called Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) as he’s stalked by a serial killer whose crimes appear to be inspired by Neal’s latest book, titled Tenebrae. Argento’s frequent collaborator Daria…
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Terrifier 2 (2022)
I just saw FX maestro Damian Leone’s Terrifier 2 finally, and it was pretty okay if you like this sort of thing, and probably the worst film ever made if you don’t. I dithered about watching this one for a while because of its reputation for sadistic violence but pushed ahead because the material I’d…
I Just Saw
Telling you about movies I just saw
