The Movies

During this 31 Days of Halloween series, I've viewed things that would make Isaac Newton crawl back into his mother's womb. Thankfully, one of those isn't Robert Eggers' crack at NOSFERATU, released in 2024.I'm a fan of Eggers' last three films (2015's THE VVITCH, 2019's THE LIGHTHOUSE, 2022's THE NORTHMAN.) They seem to not only faithfully recreate the enivronment of past histories, places and times, but also the attitudes present in the lives of those who lived in these settings. For all the ways technology can open us up to discovering new stories and learning new information, its stewards (us) have done a piss-poor job at preserving the information already discovered. When histories die, the people who wrote them gasp a final breath from the grave. I don't think Eggers can stand that. I think he believes there's still a wealth of knowledge to glean from those who stressed, struggled and discovered, long before Google or Claude.In pursuing these recreations of century-old film aesthetics, Eggers seems to start from a place of darkness and chip away with light, in a manner similar to how a sculptor would use a chisel to chip away at stone. Light cuts through shadow like a blade; blood gushes from a vampire's victim like a geyser. It's an elegant, if haunting mixture that leads to a dreamlike effect lying out of grasp on 1931's capability.As much as I'm charmed by DRACULA and its Gothic sensibilities, the special effects limitations of its time lend themselves to a kitschy charm. It looks like a play. NOSFERATU (2024) looks like an actual nightmare.Here, the nightmare can't be vanquished with a simple stake to the heart, a grave damaged enough to foil a vampiric retreat. It, like all true nightmares, remains in the mind, bolstered by the obsessive fear of the person sleeping. The journey of Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) has been deemed by some reviewers as psychosexual, though I find the first part of that term to be more present than the latter.Her cry to be comforted by any spirit capable of hearing the plea reads less as a sexually stunted housewife and more as a woman terrified by an inability to control/manage her burdgeoning psychic abilites. As incomplete is psychological treatment within the late 1800s is also the rationale of men to explain why a woman feels disturbed, despite her telling them.If there's anything sexual here, it reads more as a homoerotic dick-waving contest between Thomas and Orlok.Maybe they should've watched NO REST FOR THE WICKED...---Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Throw a couple dollars in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tip jar!

DELIVER US FROM EVIL occupies an intriguing crossroads in genre film: police procedurals with demonic horror. I've read Scott Derrickson's 2014 film described as a blend of SEVEN and THE EXORCIST, which is accurate. To take it a step further, this movie's based on the real accounts of one Ralph Sarchie, a NYPD detective-turned-demonologist for the Catholic Church. Having a trained policeman in your church's back pocket when it comes to investigating demonic claims proves to be fortuitous: Sarchie can sniff bullshit from miles away. But this movie isn't based on the fakers; these stories aren't dismissed as poorly handled mental illness. Cops are used to witnessing fucked-up shit. But fucked-up shit that's inexplicable?That's where the movie finds Eric Bana's Sergeant Sarchie (sounds like a G.I. Joe figure) as he and his partner (a lovably brash, dual-knife-wielding Joel McHale) investigate a series of bizarre crimes in the Bronx. The evidence points to three veterans who've returned from Iraq with the spiritual remnants of a dark discovery.When Jesuit priest Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) informs Sarchie of the high likelihood this comes from the demonic, the cop's skepticism wastes no time presenting in rolled eyes and sarcastic quips. But Mendoza, a man with his own difficult burdened past, recognizes a lost soul when he sees one. One of the best qualities of DELIVER US FROM EVIL is its focus on Sarchie as a faithless man, calcified by a bombardment of hate and trauma. This shell won't be easy to crack at all, let alone crack wide enough to allow faith in the cosmos or God to manifest. I've watched enough of Derrickson's movies to clock his leads as people in search of possibility, a new way of being, inner explorers of faith. But either from societal rigidity or internal roadblocks, they resist any worldviews they don't immediately understand, of which their knowledge can't be used to dominate/control their environments. But when the shell shatters, it fuckin' shatters.Derrickson's movies don't paint these journeys as easy. The dude who directed this and THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE doesn't present demons you could wave away as elaborate makeup jobs. Their movements look inhuman. They shudder. They scurry out of windows. They grind their fingers down to nubs frantically sketching a demon's mantra. If you're gonna dare to face down the Devil, he's not gonna go without a fight, without threatening loved ones and dredging up dried wounds. But it makes the pursuit of goodness that much more worthwhile.---Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Throw a couple dollars in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tip jar!

Is it crazy to still be working through last year's 31 Days of Halloween in September of this year? Yes. Yes, it is. However, I doubt it's as crazy as what Oscar-winning animator extraordinaire Phil Tippett (JURASSIC PARK, ROBOCOP, RETURN OF THE JEDI, fuckin' PIRANHA) did: drop his magnum opus after three decades of work.MAD GOD is a stop-motion masterpiece: a descent into hell the likes typically reserved for Hieronymous Bosch paintings. The one character we follow is named The Assassin, dressed in a leather coat and gas mask (looking like the dude on the cover of FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS). He's arrived in a world that looks like the detritus of every other failed civilization. Only remnants remain. Statues, cracked buildings, abandoned machinery. No hierarchy exists outside of predator and prey. Even then, what alphas could remain? What would they even live for?I feel more like a witness than a viewer. This is the result of a man and his team painstakingly crafting every beam of light, clay creature and miniature piece of rubble, placing each in a precise location. It's the closest, I'd argue, filmmaking will get to humanity resembling a capital-C Creator. To allow myself to start comprehending how Tippett pieced together these elements and worked them into such a lovingly presented hellscape is to immediately launch open a headache. This is a movie that defies recommendation; there's no questionnaired flow chart that should lead you here. It's simply: Are you human? Yes? Then sit your ass down. Press play.---Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Throw a couple dollars in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tip jar!

JUST PLAY DEAD marks a different sort of challenge for Martin Campbell. The director, best known for GOLDENEYE, CASINO ROYALE and THE MASK OF ZORRO, is used to staging rough-and-tumble fights, car chases, fiery explosions. But JUST PLAY DEAD posits its tension around a couple whose marriage gasps its last breath in service of a wicked game of wits.In JUST PLAY DEAD, Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Wolfe, a career criminal whose empire looks to crumble as the feds will indict him for financial frauds within a few months. Nick's plan is to fake his own death and pocket the life insurance payout with his wife, Nora (Eva Green), whose lover Chad (Jason Fernandez) will be framed. One problem: Nora actually wants Nick dead.But Nick didn't get to this age, wealth and notoriety by being naive. Nora didn't spend 11 years married to Nick without also knowing that he would grow wise to whatever plan she'd concoct. It's in this back-and-forth that JUST PLAY DEAD shines. These people are not "good" people but they surely don't hate each other. One moment where Nora lays in bed with her other lover, a cop, has her bemoaning that she could have any stud in bed. The trick, she says, is finding someone she can talk to.For as much as the husband and wife cross each other, they find a sick sense of play in it. Campbell could easily toss a chessboard in the middle of the living room, if he were a worse director. It's in Jackson and Green's banter that Nick and Nora's marriage takes its last gasping breaths, a look into what qualities attracted them together and ultimately, lead them to mutual admiration and even, if I dare say it, respect. But there's no way they'll stay together. Jesus Christ, what a nightmare.In our interview, Campbell discusses the joys of crafting this kind of marriage, the process of leaning into its gauche beachside melodrama and the fearlessness required of any actor to engage with this goofy-ass world, something that Eva Green, especially, handles with aplomb. This is a rare interview in which me saying her accent in this sounds like Katharine Hepburn and Norma Desmond by way of Jennifer Coolidge...is a compliment.JUST PLAY DEAD is now available to watch in select theaters and on VOD.---Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Throw a couple dollars in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tip jar!

Danny Bourque is the one-man-band behind SUNSPARK, a new animated short playing at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival. The movie follows a plucky robot named Zap, who lives in a humanless post-apocalypse characterized by flat, dry, dusty land. That is, however, except for two things: Zap's humble Dust Bowl-era abode and a mountainous junkyard, managed by really-late-stage capitalist Jimbot, who accepts payment in the form of sunflowers.On a search for supplies, Zap finds the discarded shell of a robot and dedicates themselves to the project of repairing and restoring them back to life. The dedication is so strong, it even includes stripping parts from their own body to give to this other robot.With no dialogue, SUNSPARK manages to tell a gentle sci-fi story that's appropriate for any aged heart, while intriguing the mind regarding subjects of relational sacrifice, the nature of sentience and the effects of humanity's flawed stewardship of the Earth.Danny was able to produce this entire project in less than two years with assistance from the Render Network, a non-profit seeking to provide independent creators with the computing resources needed to produce high-quality work with even higher levels of detail. By stringing together a network of computing/rendering power across a global, decentralized network, Danny was able to bring scenes to life that should've taken more than 10x the time to do so with an individual's home computer power. It speaks to one of SUNSPARK's focuses, the magnifying power of community.It's a beautiful short, one whose universe I'd love to spend more time in. My kids enjoyed hanging with Zap and I'm sure they'd like to peek into more stories and characters in the future.---More info on SUNSPARK can be found here.⁠Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Throw a couple dollars in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tip jar!