Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Having made her feature debut with the highly accomplished and confident Saint Maud, Rose Glass put herself firmly on the radar of those who were rightly impressed by that film. It was going to be interesting to see how well she could follow up that film, and hearing about the cast and premise of Love Lies Bleeding just made many of us more intrigued. 

Set in the late 1980s, this is the story of a travelling bodybuilder (Jackie, played by Katy O'Brian) who ends up in a relationship with a gym manager (Lou, played by Kristen Stewart). Jackie is aiming to win a competition in Las Vegas, but things are soon made more complicated by her urge to help protect Lou from people who are hurting people she loves. Lou also has a hard time dealing with her father (Lou Sr., played by Ed Harris), a formidable and dangerous man who sees an opportunity to manipulate the whole situation for his benefit.

There are so many moments in this film that could have been ridiculous. There are also so many moments that could have been presented in a way that everyone would describe as “Coen-esque”. The fact that it avoids both of those labels is a testament to Glass, making every decision throughout to ensure that the script (co-written by herself and Weronika Tofilska) is translated to the screen in a way that aligns with her unique style and vision. Every main strand - drama, romance, crime, a little sprinkling of something else - is given equal time, mixing together in a recipe that would have ended in disaster if just one ingredient was incorrectly measured.

As for the leads, both Stewart and O’Brian are excellent. The former has been delivering one great performance after another throughout the last decade, and those still not aware of that should really start exploring her filmography, while O’Brian is a bit of a revelation in a role that utilises her emotions and physicality to make Jackie an unforgettable main character. Harris is as brilliant as he usually is, and he is used sparingly, but appears often enough to exude an air of menace, Dave Franco and Jena Malone do well in their supporting roles, and Anna Baryshnikov impresses as Daisy, someone who seems quite sweet, but also isn’t averse to a bit of manipulation if it can help her to get what she wants.

Once again delivering an ending that will divide viewers, and once again delivering a movie that is more than JUST that one talking point, Glass is currently two for two. I was hoping this would be good, but I really had no idea how it might all play out. It was brilliant, every aspect (from the production design to Clint Mansell’s score, from the make up to the visual effects, and lighting, editing, etc.) was fashioned to interlock perfectly with everything around it, and I will now just have to wait patiently to see what Glass does next. Whatever it is, I will be doing my best to get to it ASAP.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: Adventureland (2009)

Director Greg Mottola has been consistently entertaining for almost three decades now, on both the small and the big screen. I cannot comment on his short films made in the 1980s, but I don't think there's too much to be overly critical of from The Daytrippers (1996) onward. I'm not saying he has made classic after classic, and, as we can say about everyone, some will hate his work, but he's been doing very solid work throughout the majority of his career. This coming-of-age story remains one of his best.

It's 1987. Jesse Eisenberg plays James Brennan, a young man who ends up reluctantly taking a job at a local amusement park. His parents (played by Jack Gilpin and Wendie Malick) can't necessarily afford all the plans that James had in mind for his future student life, much to the surprise and disappointment of James. Unhappy with his role, things soon start to look up when James meets Em (Kristen Stewart). But can he make a good impression when everyone at the amusement park seems to be overshadowed by the cool and handsome Mike (Ryan Reynolds).

With Mottola taking on both the directing and writing duties this time around, showing that he's equally good in either role, what you get here is a sweet and amusing comedy drama that won't necessarily be embraced by those seeking out the very next feature from "the director of Superbad". Not that you can't see any connective tissue (Mottola knows how to show the insecurities of young characters as they make mistakes and stumble into what they think the next stage of their life should be), but this is actually a fair distance removed from that film, more in line with films such as The Way Way Back and The Kings Of Summer.

Eisenberg is a great choice for the lead role, bringing his usual mix of cockiness, intelligence, and the ability to be occasionally knocked down while he finds out that he doesn't always know more than everyone else around him. This is up there with his very best roles, and he's complemented by a pretty perfect selection of supporting performers. Stewart is equally good as Em, a young woman making her mistakes without the relatively comfortable background that James has, Margarita Levieva is well-cast in the role of another desirable young woman, Lisa, and Martin Starr excels as the more experienced park worker, Joel, who really should have moved on to something else by now. Gilpin and Malick are good fun in their few scenes, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are scene-stealers, as expected, any time they appear as the husband and wife park management team, and Reynolds is brilliantly utilised, with his charisma and good looks helping to soften the edges of someone who can viewed as very sad and quite awful, a man able to play at being king amongst youngsters who cannot smell the whiff of his BS.

The 1980s time period allows for a couple of great hits on the soundtrack (and I continue to be a big fan of Rock Me Amadeus, as performed by Falco), a main plot point allows for numerous Lou Reed tracks to be sprinkled throughout the film, there's a nice visual style that manages to feel both soft and crystal clear, and an air of authenticity runs through everything, from the content to the presentation. I highly recommend this, especially to anyone who has spent years avoiding it under the misapprehension that it was in the same vein as Mottola's previous teen movie.

8/10

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Crimes Of The Future (2022)

It's comforting to know that David Cronenberg has managed to remain resolutely David Cronenberg for the past four or five decades now. Crimes Of The Future reminded me of two things. One, I have yet to watch the much earlier film from him that shares the same title (although everyone has pointed out that the two films are otherwise unconnected). Two, despite his filmography seeming to take him further away, at times, from his very specific mindset and worldview, he has never let go of firm beliefs that have helped to shape so many parts of his oeuvre.

Crimes Of The Future is set, to the surprise of nobody, in the future. People tend to interface even more directly with machines and computers, often using the kind of furniture and equipment that looks like a cross between something ergonomically designed and something created as a torture device. Humans don't really suffer from disease any more, and physical pain is largely a thing of the past. That leads to people seeking more and more ways to feel . . . something. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) is one half of a performance art couple, partnered with Caprice (Léa Seydoux), and his special skill involves displaying his body while new organs grown inside him are removed. This is important, for the order of things that it threatens to unbalance, but it's also secondary to a plot that revolves around the potential next steps in human evolution, the ways in which people feel sexual thrills, and a mission to perform an autopsy on a dead child as a shocking work of performance art.

While full of great actors doing great work, Crimes Of The Future feels like Cronenberg being allowed to display and celebrate ideas that weren't allowed to be front and centre in his work years ago, despite always being there. He finally gets to craft something in which there's a beauty contest for the insides of the participants, something Cronenberg had a character state a longing for in the superb Dead Ringers, and there are ideas and images here that rank up there with the best of his work, although the movie, as a whole, suffers slightly if you compare it to his very best. But the very best films from Cronenberg are a very high bar to be measured against.

As well as Mortensen and Seydoux, who are both excellent in their roles, there's yet another great turn from Kristen Stewart, playing a nervy bureaucrat who seems star-struck by Mortensen's character, Tanaya Beatty and Nadia Litz make a strong impression in the few scenes they have, and you get solid performances from Don McKellar, Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, and Lihi Kornowski, the latter three all connected to that aforementioned dead child.

I think it's obvious from the plot description here that you shouldn't choose to watch Crimes Of The Future if you're after something light and fun. Mind you, that applies to almost every David Cronenberg movie (as well as anything by his son, Brandon). This deserves your time though, and I encourage people to get themselves in the right headspace for it. It's thought-provoking, disturbing, smart, and sometimes confusing. In other words, bearing in mind that you also get another impressive music score from Howard Shore, it nicely slots into the Cronenberg canon, and it shows that he's lost none of his brilliance.

8/10

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Happiest Season (2020)

Directed, and co-written, by Clea DuVall, Happiest Season is the LGBTQ+ Christmas movie that you never knew you wanted. And it's yet another great role for Kristen Stewart, who continues to prove herself with performances so often ignored by her detractors.

Stewart is Abby, a young woman excited by the prospect of spending Christmas with her partner, Harper (Mackenzie Davis), and Harper's family. She hasn't met any of them before, which makes the whole thing a very big deal. There's just one problem. Harper hasn't come out to her family. She asks Abby to play along for the time being, pretending to be just a flatmate, and assures her that she will tell everyone when the time is right. The expected shenanigans ensue, with Abby trying her best to please everyone.

A great blend of comedy, Christmas trimmings, and moments that feel painfully honest, Happiest Season really brings out the best in everyone involved. DuVall has been honing her directorial skills for a number of years, and shows just how good a match she is for this material (which feels very autobiographical at times, a personal movie that allows DuVall to share some of her own feelings/experiences from her life). There are moments that many viewers may think take things a bit too far, with people watching and insisting that if they were Abby then they would have left almost at the very start of things, but think back to your own relationships, to times when someone has asked you to just play along with a white lie, or to attend a function you didn't want to be at, and remember how long you would put up with it for the sake of someone you love. Meanwhile, your partner starts to relax, and forgets how uncomfortable, or neglected, you might be feeling. That's what happens here, but with the added tricky knot of sexuality, and someone being too afraid to show others who they really are.

Stewart is a great presence in what is arguably her best role yet, perhaps giving her moments she also already felt familiar with. Davis is also very good, and her casting in the role of Harper makes it a bit easier to tolerate her character as she continues to become a bit more selfish and insensitive. Alison Brie and Mary Holland play two very different sister, both competing alongside Davis for the affections of their parents (played by Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber). Brie does her all-too-perfect act that she's done a number of times before, while Holland, who also co-wrote the movie, is a scene-stealer as someone who hasn't achieved as much as either of her sisters, but is at least relatively happy in her life. As for the aforementioned Steenburgen and Garber, both are excellent, with Steenburgen having much more of the screentime, and a number of moments in which she is snippy to people destabilising her planned perfect Christmas. Aubrey Plaza and Jake McDorman are two very different ex-partners, allowing Abby to find out more about the woman she loves, a woman she is now not sure she even knows, and Dan Levy is wonderful and hilarious as John, a gay BFF who spends a lot of the movie advising Abby over the phone.

The best thing about Happiest Season is that every different element feels genuine. There are genuine laughs, there's a genuine authenticity to the central premise, and the moments that bring the drama and heart of the film feel genuine, and serve as a constant reminder of what so many people still go through in far too many households. Oh, it's also very much always a Christmas movie, so don't think I am suddenly viewing this as cinéma vérité, but the many small moments that need to feel real DO feel real.

Highly recommended, and I hope DuVall has enough success with this to allow her to pick another project that she connects to just as strongly.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Lizzie (2018)

 

"Lizzie Borden took an axe

and gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

she gave her father forty-one."

Is it even possible to write something about Lizzie Borden without quoting that macabre little rhyme? I think not.

There are a couple of reasons why I decided to watch Lizzie this week, and place the review here. First of all, it's a good story of intrigue and murder. Lizzie Borden surely remains the most famous, alleged, axe murderer in history (unless I am forgetting any other obvious choices). Second, although I have not loved all of the movies that she has been in, I have started to enjoy different performances from Kristen Stewart in recent years. She's actually been as eclectic in her choices as her past co-star, Robert Pattinson, but has received not a quarter of the praise. Is she his equal? I am not going to say. All I know is that my opinion on her changed after seeing her performances in a couple of Olivier Assayas movies (Personal Shopper being a real highlight) and enjoying her flair for the comedy in Charlie's Angels.  With the upcoming Happiest Season (a LGBTQ+ Christmas movie featuring Stewart in a lead role), it's clear that she has been picking and choosing her projects based on an instinct that has allowed her to both enjoy her post-Twilight career and show some more sides of her personality. 

Stewart plays Bridget Sullivan, a new member of staff to the Borden household in this tale. The titular Lizzie is played by Chloë Sevigny. Things start with the discovery of a hacked corpse, and then it is time to wind back and look at the days and weeks leading up to the murders, with the two main victims being Abby (Fiona Shaw) and Andrew Borden (Jamey Sheridan). You have standard family tensions, chemistry between Lizzie and Bridget, and creepy, predatory, abuse from Andrew. There's also an ongoing dispute over the potential family fortune, something that John Morse (Denis O'Hare) wants to keep an eye on.

Written by Bryce Kass and directed by Craig William Macneill, with neither individual having many other full movies to their credit, it's easy to see why Lizzie was viewed as quite an easy tale to make into a solid little biopic/crime drama. Most people tend to be familiar enough with the story, it doesn't need a whole lot of fancy bells and whistles, and there's the enduring allure of it being an "unsolved crime", mainly thanks to how things were handled in the immediate aftermath.

The thing is . . . Lizzie doesn't sell any of that angle. It settles for being a salacious telling of the crime that people think they already know. Want to know that Lizzie definitely committed the crimes? Sure thing, here you go. Blood on her clothing? Hell no, we'll make her naked. A look at the various conflicting and cocked-up evidence that wasn't properly used? Nope. But look . . . naked woman with axe. This is a film that seems to have been written from a basic notion of the crime, everything that has been assumed for years by people who haven't read even a little bit more on the case. I COULD be wrong, but they even seem to get Lizzie Borden's age wrong when the end title card notes her death years later.

Sevigny is very good in the main role, and Stewart works well enough alongside her. They may not give their best performances, but they're saddled with a script that wants to make this nothing more than a fairly standard tale of sex and violence. Shaw and Sheridan also do good work, with the latter having to play up every bad part of his character until he's almost a pantomime villain by the third act (if pantomime villains were also a bit rapey), and O'Hare is fun in his scenes. Kim Dickens isn't given much to do, playing Lizzie's sister, Emma, and the same goes for Jeff Perry, playing Andrew Jennings, the defense attorney for Lizzie.

Considering the various aspects, this isn't a bad film. The acting is good, the look and feel of the film works, even if it tries to make the most of the budget by being made up of mostly interior shots (which is fine, considering the story showing us the growing tension within one household), and it does a good job of depicting the actual act of the murders. It's just a shame that the script feels so sloppily put together, and takes no interesting turns.

5/10

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Mubi Monday: Clouds Of Sils Maria (2014)

I haven't actually seen that many films from writer-director Olivier Assayas, but what I HAVE seen from him has impressed me. He's a very talented director, eliciting superb performances from his cast and crafting scenes of sedate thoughtfulness that never feel just dull. Clouds Of Sils Maria is exactly in line with the other Assayas films I have knowledge of.

Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, an elderly actress with a rather unique problem/opportunity. She has been offered the chance to play the older character in a play that helped to set her on her way to stardom when, decades earlier, she has portrayed the younger character. Discussing the work with her assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart), Maria has to also adjust to acting opposite a new up-and-coming actress, Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz), and ends up using her time in preparation for the role as time spent also considering her own approach to her career, her life, and her relationships with some other key people, including Valentine.

At a shade over two hours in length, Assayas is in no hurry here, which is as it should be. The central character is herself delaying things, plagued with doubt and insecurity as she considers a big step that will draw a lot of attention to where she is in her career. There's also more weight to the decision because of the death of the director, Wilhelm, who helped her get that big break. In fact, Maria was on her way to accept an award on his behalf when she learns of his death. There's musings on mortality, a thought or two about certain immortality (certainly in terms of powerful performances that create a reputation to ripple through the decades), and the constant struggle of battling against the ravages of time, particularly in a business that often values youth and beauty above so many other qualities.

Binoche is at her best in the main role, as fierce and strong as ever, with moments of vulnerability that take place either fleetingly, or very much hidden away from those she fears seeing her in a state of weakness. Stewart works great alongside her (and Assayas would have faith in her again, giving her a fantastic role in the quietly effective Personal Shopper), the relationship between the two an interesting and complex one, muddied by the scenes in which they work through the play together. Moretz is . . . well, she's okay, but the weakest of the three central females. I like Moretz a lot, but she seems to have struggled in the transition from talented child star in the right roles to an actress with a fully-rounded skillset.

Easy to dismiss as languid and pretentious, Clouds Of Sils Maria is certainly one that will be appreciated best by those who are closer in age to Binoche than Moretz. It's a character study, superficially, but it's also a meditation on some things we all experience as we wander through life, and that could include grief (not just for the loss of loved ones, but for the loss of past glories, the loss of time, the loss of moments that we didn't know enough about to fully appreciate at the time, and more) as well as the unhalting march of the minutes, hours, days, and years.

8/10

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Charlie's Angels (2019)

I watched Charlie's Angels some time ago, when it was first released in cinemas. And I kept delaying my attempts to review the film. I knew that I'd enjoyed it more than I expected to, but I also struggled to write down my problems with it. So I waited, and waited. And waited. I waited so long that I ended up having to rewatch the film recently. I'm glad that is the way things worked out, because it turns out that most of my problems with this take on the classic trio of kick-ass young women aren't enough to stop me from recommending this, especially to the target viewers demographic.

Naomi Scott plays Elena Houghlin, a young woman who has created a device that could potentially replace the need for any major wiring and national grid. It can supply electrical power to a whole building, at the very least. Unfortunately, it can also misfire, killing anyone nearby with the human equivalent of an EMP. But people still want the device to be sold, which puts Elena in danger, and that is how she ends up under the protection of Charlie's Angels, mainly Sabina Wilson (Kristen Stewart), Jane Kano (Ella Balinska), and one of the main Bosleys (Elizabeth Banks). They all know what has to be done, but it soon starts to seem as if someone on the side of the baddies is getting some inside information.

As well as giving herself a major supporting role, Banks also wrote (Evan Spiliotopoulos and David Auburn get a story credit) and directed this incarnation of Charlie's Angels. That means that she got all the blame when it didn't perform as expected. Although I know not everyone will enjoy this as much as I did, I think it's a shame that people decided not to give it their time, and I think it mainly stems from the fact that a) people still don't really want to see Kristen Stewart in movies, and b) the recent movie versions of the Angels doesn't seem that long ago. Hey, that doesn't matter for Superman, or Batman, or Spider-man, I know, I know. I hear you. I just think it worked against this film more.

Speaking of Kristen Stewart, let's keep . . . speaking of Kristen Stewart. She's great fun in this, showing a decent flair for the mix of physicality and comedy given to her character. I was laughing aloud during the first main sequence, which has Stewart yelling out "you swiped right, I'm your girlfriend now" before headbutting a villain, and I was often smiling, at the very least, whenever she was onscreen, either being slightly behind everyone else as plans unfolded or acting dumb to put people off guard. The other leads work just as well in their roles. Scott is the newcomer, the one who can be shown everything along with the viewers, learning all about how the agency works, and how far-reaching they can be. Balinska is impressively fierce, and her working relationship with Stewart improves every time she sees her colleague get results, or at least try her hardest in her attempts. Banks is a good Bosley, Djimon Hounsou is another good Bosley, although hid role is a much smaller one, and Patrick Stewart is his usual wonderful self as a Bosley shown just at his time of retiring from the agency. Sam Claflin is the kind of businessman you know will want everything to go his way without him having to get his hands dirty, and Jonathan Tucker is excellent as the kind of tough "employee' always willing to get his hands dirty. There are also a number of familiar faces in smaller roles, and a selection of nice cameos (mostly throughout the end credits, which are at least worth sitting through once).

Banks has nothing to be ashamed of here. The film isn't perfect, mainly because it leans so hard into the idea of the Angels network being available everywhere, when needed most, but it's absolutely ideal for those who want to see an action thriller, with some comedy sprinkled throughout, that showcases young women who can take on their enemies with a mix of brains and fighting prowess. The action sequences are the best choreographed ones yet, for this particular brand, and things move breezily from one set-piece to the next, en route to an energetic ending that keeps the stakes high.

If you don't like the idea of another Charlie's Angels movie then I am not going to try to convince you that you should give this your time. You may still end up hating it, could think my rating and review too kind, and just be annoyed at me once you've given it your time. I will just say that it's better than the general consensus would have you think. And you MIGHT, just might, end up having as much fun watching it as I did.

7/10

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Still Alice (2014)

Julianne Moore is Dr. Alice Howland, a linguistics professor who starts to worry when she realises that her ability to recall words seems to be diminishing. After a number of sessions with a doctor it becomes clear, although not quite believable, that she has early onset Alzheimer's disease. She has to break the news to her family, and also has to set in place a number of measures that will help her live a nirmal life for as long as possible.

This is standard stuff, very much TV-movie-of-the-week. The screenplay, by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, is based on a novel by Lisa Genova, which at least makes everything more interesting and powerful by having Alice be a linguistics professor. She arguably knows the value of individual words more than most, highlighting the deterioration of her mental acuity in the first stages of her illness.

Glatzer and Westmoreland also direct the movie together. While they don't show themselves to be experts in the field, they're smart enough to cast well and intersperse the second half of the movie with some moving moments.

Moore is excellent in the main role, as you'd expect her to be. There are one or two moments in the first half of the movie that have her repeating herself from past performances, but it's when she starts to lose aspects of her main identity that she truly shows what she's capable of. It's not up there with her best performances, in my opinion. It's still very good stuff though. Alec Baldwin puts in another great supporting turn (he's never disappointing in those roles), and Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish are two of the three grown-up children who struggle as they see their mother losing her mind. But it's the third child I'm going to spend the most time discussing. She's an aspiring actress, and still finding her place in the big world before all of her hopes and dreams are dashed. Played by Kristen Stewart, she's the best of the supporting characters, and Stewart gives perhaps the best performance in the film. Often sidelined, and often treated as if she doesn't know her own mind, she can probably see the situation that her mother is going through from a much closer perspective than anyone else around her, leading her to be the most selfless and sympathetic of the group.

It's a shame that the film just isn't a bit better. I guess it's difficult to make a movie like this feel like anything more than a well-intentioned melodrama. The cast all try hard, but can only raise it up so far. It's worth your time, and those wanting some inoffensive drama will certainly enjoy it a bit more than I did. Ultimately, it's quite forgettable, which is a tragic irony.

6/10

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Sci-Fi September: Zathura (2005)

A sci-fi journey through ground already covered by Jumanji (which isn't surprising, they're both adapted from books by the same author), Zathura is, I think it's fair to say nowadays, the better of the two films. The fact that it's often forgotten about, or even dismissed, is a great shame, and I hope that maybe this review will spur one or two people to revisit it.

The book of Zathura may have been a direct sequel to the book of Jumanji, but don't worry if you haven't seen the latter before checking this out. The movies both work on their own, even if people who have seen both can observe the obvious similarities.

Let me get to the plot. Two brothers (Walter, the older sibling, played by Josh Hutcherson, and Danny, played by Jonah Bobo) are forced to spend some time together, waiting for their mother to come and pick them up from their father's house. Dad has to head off for something work-related, so he leaves the older sister (Kristen Stewart) in charge. Danny ends up finding a board game, Zathura, and starts playing it. He wants his brother to join in, which becomes pretty essential when it becomes clear that the board game isn't your usual piece of kit. Everything that happens in the game also happens in reality, making for some hair-raising moments.

Directed by Jon Favreau, which makes this a perfect transition between the family fun of Elf and sci-fi/superhero action of Iron Man, this is everything that you want from a family sci-fi movie. It's got a great concept, a wonderful mix of impressive practical FX work and impressive CGI, some nice lessons that are illustrated in an obvious, although non-irritating, way, and Kristen Stewart being cryogenically frozen for a few scenes (allowing viewers to make jokes about her being more lifelike and expressive than usual).

Hutcherson and Bobo both do well as the young brothers trying to survive the game. Stewart is, joking aside, just fine in her role, even if she's the least of the main characters onscreen, and Dax Shepard comes in at just the right time, playing a stranded astronaut rescued by the kids as part of the game. Even the father, a character moved out of the picture for the majority of the runtime, is played by Tim Robbins, making his few scenes all the better, thanks to him being Tim Robbins.

The script by David Koepp and John Kamps really helps to keep things ticking over nicely. Yes, this is a film in which some kids face up to one or two main issues, but it's not the kind of film to drag everything to a screeching halt while that happens. That's not to say that anything feels rushed. On the contrary, this is pitched perfectly towards the children and parents who make up the target audience demographic. The retro stylings of the sci-fi elements will certainly appeal to anyone who has fond memories of classics from the '50s and '60s, for example, while younger viewers will always enjoy the idea of a board game that leads to very real consequences.

Whether more people end up agreeing with me or not, this will always be the best movie about a dangerous board game causing real-life consequences as far as I'm concerned. I hope more people either check it out, or give it a rewatch at some point.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Zathura-Special-Josh-Hutcherson/dp/B000DBHX4M/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1409729884&sr=1-2&keywords=zathura