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The Neon Demon

10/30/2019

2 Comments

 

C-
1.67

A model takes the LA fashion scene by storm, attracting unsavory characters.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, and Bella Heathcoate
Review by Jon Kissel

Picture
Nicolas Winding Refn works at two opposite poles, with raw crime stories at one end and deliberately frosty exercises in audience estrangement at the other.  Whether he’s making Drive or Valhalla Rising, there’s always going to be a mostly silent protagonist surrounded by people Refn largely doesn’t like and a lot of red, both in the lighting or as an aftereffect from some grotesque act of violence.  For the Danish director’s 10th film, The Neon Demon is a balanced medium between what makes him compelling and frustrating.  It tells a coherent story with recognizable people in it, but it also contains surrealist touches that are included because why the hell not.  A film set in fashion and modeling is going to have the requisite amount of style and misanthropy, because making fun of the fashion world is low hanging fruit.  That I can describe a film with corpse fondling and cannibalism as middle-of-the-road suggests what kind of filmmaker Refn is.


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Black Swan

10/24/2019

1 Comment

 

A-
​3.67

A repressed prima ballerina experiences frightening visions ahead of her dancing the lead in Swan Lake.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel
Review by Jon Kissel

Picture
Darren Aronofsky is a director who lives in the extremity of human experience, for good and ill.  Something like Requiem for a Dream tracks the depths that people are willing to descend to for their narrow definition of happiness, while his self-described Perfection duo, The Wrestler and Black Swan, are both about performers dedicated to feats of physical excellence despite the damage this does to their psyches and bodies.  He’s also an obvious devotee of body horror master David Cronenberg, a guy who made his bones by taking the psychological ailments of his characters and manifesting them in decaying flesh and pulsing tumors. Black Swan is Cronenbergian body horror shot through with Aronofsky’s bravura directorial flourishes, a film about transformation and transcendence that includes breathtaking moment after breathtaking moment.  It’s also campy and melodramatic and soapy, and maybe sexist depending how one views it. Nine years after its release, Black Swan is still a thrilling and powerful watch that holds up cinematically even as I wonder if it holds up thematically.


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El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

10/16/2019

2 Comments

 

B-
​2.71

The television series gives its put-upon co-lead an epilogue as he contemplates the next step of his life.

Directed by Vince Gilligan
Starring Aaron Paul, Jesse Plemons, and Robert Forster
​Review by Jon Kissel

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​The 21st century golden age TV shows have introduced the culturally aware to the idea of the ‘bad fan,’ the usually misogynist viewer who takes exactly the wrong message from whatever they’re watching.  Rick and Morty has them, clogging up Twitter and reddit with gibberish about how much they see themselves in Rick and remembering how awesome the show was before women were hired in the writer’s room.  The era’s inaugural hit, The Sopranos, had them until the end, perpetually wondering when a series that started in a therapist’s office was going to erupt in a bloodbath between mobsters and missing Russians.  Breaking Bad had the most vocal bad fans, prompting series co-star Anna Gunn to write an op-ed defending her character from morons who chose to interpret a megalomaniac’s evil deeds as a beaten-down man living into his most empowered self.  The showrunners and creators of all three aforementioned shows disavowed their bad fans, but in two of the three cases (David Chase wrote his disdain for fans of all kinds into his show), there are traces of blood in the water that kept them going.  


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2019 Mediocrities

10/10/2019

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Best Film

First Man
First Reformed
Logan - WINNER
No Country For Old Men
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Take Shelter
Best Performance

Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men - WINNER
Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
Michael Fassbender, Frank
Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Garance Marillier, Raw
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Masturbating Kevin Memorial Award for Most Uncomfortable Moment

Armstrong family dinner, First Man
Toller wraps himself in barbed wire, First Reformed
Frank and Jon perform at SXSM, Frank
Hair vomit, Raw
Bikini wax sequence, Raw
Curtis explodes at a community potluck, Take Shelter - WINNER
Dingo Award for Best Pet


President Pierce the terrier, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - WINNER
Brandy the pit bull, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Borras the mutt, Roma
Quicky the German shepherd, Raw
SP//dr, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Jon Kissel Award for Best Monologue

Ray speaks to a youth group, High Flying Bird
MacGruber details his romantic history, MacGruber
Sheriff Bell describes his dreams, No Country for Old Men
Sheriff Bell's getting too tired for this job, No Country for Old Men
Curtis explodes at a community potluck, Take Shelter - WINNER
JR Peters Award for Best Scold

Jong-su scolds Hae-mi for dancing topless, Burning
Ray foster scolds Queen about Bohemian Rhapsody's length, Bohemian Rhapsody - WINNER
Reverend Jeffers scolds Reverend Toller about his negativity, First Reformed
Balq tells Toller to mind his own business, First Reformed
Justine scolds her classmates for eating meat, Raw

Tom Topper Artisanal Award

Scotch and Pepto cocktail, First Reformed
Folded whole pizza, Green Book
Chocolate popsicle, Inherent Vice
Giant plate of weed, Inherent Vice - WINNER
Wolf brand rat-flavored dog food, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Human finger, Raw
Joe Setnor Headstrong Award

Ernst Toller, First Reformed
Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet
Bigfoot Bjornson, Inherent Vice
Kingpin, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
MacGruber, Macgruber - WINNER

Shane Setnor Aggressive Accent Award

​
Jeff Bridges, Rooster Cogburn, True Grit
Boyd Holbrook, Donald Pierce, Logan
Rami Malek, Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortenson, Tony Lip, Green Book - WINNER
Allison Sudol, Queenie, Fantastic Beasts
Ambulators Award for Best Physical Performance

​Michael Fassbender, Frank, Frank
Dafne Keen, Laura, Logan
Rami Malek, Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody - WINNER
Ezra Miller, Credence, Fantastic Beasts
Brad Pitt, Cliff Booth, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Worst Performance

Leonardo Dicaprio, The Beach - WINNER
Alden Ehrenreich, Solo: A Star Wars Story
Carmen Ejogo, Fantastic Beasts
Josh Gad, Murder on the Orient Express
Allison Sudol, Fantastic Beasts
Worst Movie

The Beach
Bohemian Rhapsody
Green Book
Hold the Dark
Unicorn Store - WINNER
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