Yours
Under the Skin (2013, Jonathan Glazer)
Haven't seen it since it first came out but I loved it then. I would need to rewatch it to give a better assessment, but I found it lovely, disturbing and hypnotic. 9/10
Mine:
The Last Slumber Party (Stephen Tyler, 1988)
This movie doesn't deserve any stars. Stars should be taken away from it. It's terrible in every way, shape and form... but I don't think me and my friends have ever laughed so hard while watching a movie before. This is the perfect "bad party movie." Loved it. 1/10 (or 10/10)
Thanksgiving (Eli Roth, 2023)
I’m not a big fan of Eli Roth as a director. As a horror fan who is friends with a lot of other horror fans, I’ve seen most of them, but something about them just doesn’t really click for me. I find his sense of humor to often be that of a middle school boy. I find his characters extremely annoying. His gore effect/kills are often well done, but he does them in so much excess that I frequently just get tire of them. Overall his films just don’t work for me. Much to my shock, I really liked this one. It has all the problems I usually have with him, but this time he makes it work. It seems more controlled; less juvenile and much more polished. Also, rather than doing his usual exploitation style film, he’s playing firmly into the slasher genre and he does it with love. He uses the classic holiday theme with kills that are visual puns on classic American Thanksgiving traditions. It’s all good fun. Also, while the opening is over the top, for anyone who has worked retail on a Thanksgiving/Black Friday, that felt way too real. When the killer started going after some of the terrible shoppers, there’s a little part of me that sat there going “good for him.” 8/10
Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)
This is week eleven of my examination of the films of Paul Schrader... and this I'm kind of amazed I've kept it up this long. I think it's a testament to how consistent most of his films are. This was his first film as a director, and personally I think it is one of his best. It's a hard hitting movie taking on pretty much any subject that gets in his way. Corporations, unions, laws, whatever... in this film they're all the same corruption putting people against each other to keep their status quo. Frankly it feels almost like a horror movie, because he's pretty much right. Performances here are all solid but special note needs to go to Richard Pryor who takes a rare serious role here and shows that he had true acting talent. He does occasionally slip into Pryor the comedian role when he rants, but he plays his role well here and gives a genuine performance. 8/10
Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)
I’m not a big fan of war movies as I’ve mentioned on here before. That said, I like Oliver Stone and decided to give it a shot. Glad I did as it’s well made and one of the better war films I’ve seen. 8/10
Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron, 2022)
Visually a feast for the eyes. It’s well made eye candy for three hours, which is impressive. That said, much like the first film, I can’t really say that I liked it. The world created here is beautiful, but nothing I’m interested in from a plot standpoint and Cameron continues to bludgeon people over the heads with his ideas. I get it, whaling is bad, can we try to have a more interesting plot now? 5/10
Female Yakuza Tale (Teruo Ishii, 1973)
This is a sequel to Sex & Fury which I watched and reviewed last week. I loved that movie and was so pleasantly surprised by it. I'd honestly say it's one of my favorite views of the year so far. So what did I think of the sequel? Well, frankly it's a bit of a disappointment. As I mentioned last week, I'm not an overly big fan of the Pinky Violence style films, but where that one had a bunch of artistic flourishes that kept me impressed, this one leans more heavily into the sleazy aspects. We lost the director of the first film and gained Teruo Ishii, whose films I personally find hit or miss. They often have a weird sense of humor and disjointed feel and both of those aspects are very much on display here. Fans of his work may find this an improvement, but I couldn't help but be a bit let down. Complaints aside, there's fun to be had here and the final fight has to be one of the craziest ever put to film. 6/10
The Beast (Walerian Borowczyk, 1975)
I don't know what the hell I watched, but it has got to be one of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences I've ever had. 6/10
Samurai Wolf (Hideo Gosha, 1966)
Well now, this is a gem of a samurai movie. At only 73 minutes long, this movie doesn't have time to slow down for a second, managing to tell a story of a samurai drifting into a small town, getting involved with helping a courier service, fighting a corrupt official and dealing with a hired killer swordsman. It sounds like it's packing a lot into its short run time, and it is, but the pacing is well done and it doesn't feel like it's cutting things out to get to the "good bits" faster. It's extremely well paced and a whole lot of fun. It must be noted though, this owes just as much, if not more, to the Italian Westerns coming out at the time rather than the classic samurai film. Sure, these are sword fights rather than shootouts, but from start to finish it has the grittier tone of those westerns. It's score also sound like it would have been at home in a Sergio Leone film and doesn't sound like anything else coming out of Japan at the time. This is one I hadn't really heard of until this year and that's a shame. It's a hidden gem of a samurai film and one that all classic film buffs should check out. 9/10
Samurai Wolf II (Hideo Gosha, 1967)
A much more somber film than the first one. While this one is shorter (well, only by one minute... but that still puts it only at 72 minutes long), it is also much slower in pace. Where the first one didn't waste a single moment, this one takes its time getting everywhere. It's never boring, and visually it has some stunning moments, it feels like a much different film than the first. While many of the Western genre elements remain, this one felt to me more like a traditional samurai film, with codes of honor being very much at stake. It makes for a more dramatic, if less fun, approach. Of the two films, I prefer the first. This one is still a solid film and well worth a watch for classic movie/samurai fans. A shame they only made two of these. I'd honestly watch a full series of them. 8/10
Eight Men to Kill (Shigehiro Ozawa, 1972)
Third and final of the Bounty hunter series starring Tomisaburō Wakayama. This one brings back the director of the first who had skipped out on making the second film. Despite what one may think from the title, this one does not follow our bounty hunter getting a list and going after eight men. In fact, while I didn’t count the exact number of men he kills (more than eight though I believe) the title doesn’t really make sense in the context of the film as it really just follows him trying to recover some government gold. Of the three films, this one is easily my least favorite. There’s still some fun to be had here, but it felt like the laziest of the three in terms of writing. 6/10
Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986)
A movie about the day in the life of a sex worker. Didn’t really feel like it had much to say about the subject and looking at it from the point of view of just a slice of life drama, it still had a lot to be desired. 5/10
Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass, 2024)
If a movie was a kid that grew up in the 80s obsessively watching every Coen Brothers movie as it came out, it would grow up to be this film. It's a damn good crime movie with a bonkers final that needs to be seen to be believed (and even then you might not believe it). Kristen Stewart is really good in this one (as is most of the cast) but I found the two stand outs to be Katy O'Brian and Ed Harris. O'Brian gives a great performance showing both a fun side and vulnerability, while Harris is rather terrifying. Both are excellent. 8/10
Cemetery Man (Michele Soavi, 1994)
This is such a delightfully weird movie. It starts off zombie horror movie with a sense of humor, becomes increasingly surreal and finally turns into an Italian style American Psycho with more surrealism. It's certainly not a movie for everyone, but those who delight in its weird sense of humor will never see anything quite like it again. 9/10
The Nevadan (Gordon Douglas, 1950)
Not bad, but kind of a bland and forgettable Randolph Scott western. 5/10
Tokyo Living Dead Idol (Yûki Kumagai, 2018)
Honestly, this is kind of awful... but it has such an enthusiastic goofy charm to it that I can't even say I disliked it. It's stupid, but it's clear that everyone involved is having a good time and trying to make something different. I cannot in good conscience really recommend it to anyone, but if you want to see a really ridiculous take on zombies, you could certainly do worse. 5/10
We’re Broke, My Lord! (Tetsu Maeda, 2023)
A Japanese comedy about the son of a fish merchant who finds out that he's actually the illegitimate son of a feudal lord. He takes over the spot only to discover that his domain is in overwhelming debt. It's a light bit of comedy that I found amusing but nothing spectacular. I do like the colorful look of the film as well as the cheerful nature of it. It's just an entertaining film with no real ambition towards "art" and that's okay. It's worth a watch if you want to spend a silly two hours. 6/10
Session 9 (Brad Anderson, 2001)
Atmospheric as hell with a wonderful location. The film follows a team of cleaners, trying to fix up an old asylum. It is the slowest of slow burns and aspects of the plot really don’t fully work for me, but there’s something about it that gets under your skin. 6/10