Multiplex Madness
The Boogeyman
⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Horror
Director: Rob Savage
Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair, David Dastmalchian
Not Hollywood's first attempt to blockbuster horror the concept of the Boogeyman, as Sam Raimi produced a lackluster film in 2005 that featured Lucy Lawless and Zooey Deschanel, which in turn spawned direct to video sequels starring Saw's Tobin Bell and former Power Ranger Erin Cahill. And say what you will about that movie, but it's commitment to making the Boogeyman a little grey CGI man in a dumb outfit was...well, not commendable, but you have to pat it on the head and say "You tried." This new Boogeyman movie has more pedigree behind it, being written by the guys who wrote A Quiet Place and based on a short story by Stephen King. That short story was about a guy who was relating his experiences with the Boogeyman to a therapist, but the movie largely uses a similar situation to springboard a story about the Boogeyman now haunting the therapist's family, who are reeling from the loss of their mother. One thing the movie gets right is that since traditionally the Boogeyman is a childhood fear of anything in particular (usually the dark) manifested into a catchall entity, the movie wisely tries to keep to a youthful perspective, which was something the last Boogeyman movies weren't smart enough to do. Why it decides its main character needs to be a twenty-something actress pretending to be a high schooler is anybody's guess, but at least this movie isn't about a grown-ass man screaming "The Boogeyman is coming to get me!" The film does the traditional themes of grief, loss, trauma, and fear that horror movies do best, though not as well as others. Last year's Smile runs rings around this movie, for example. Where the movie shines brightest is in its sound design, which is pretty is well weaved into the film and gives the suspense sequences some oomf. Horror fans looking for a traditional "Don't open that door!" experience will likely have fun with this, though probably the best manifestation of a "boogeyman" in general is still Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Shin Kamen Rider
⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Superhero, Action
Director: Hideaki Anno
Starring: Sosuke Ikematsu, Minami Hamabe, Tasuko Imoto
Shin Godzilla begat a rather interesting trend in that Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno seems to be hounded by studios to do modern reinterpretations of their tokusatsu properties after that film's great success. He passed off directorial duties of Toho/Tsuburaya's Shin Ultraman to his Shin Godzilla co-director Shinji Higuchi, while Anno just took screenplay credit. Anno instead went to Toei to develop Shin Kamen Rider, which would be his first of these films without Higuchi by his side, choosing to write and direct by himself.
Kamen Rider is pretty niche in the west, with most only having the reference of the American rebranding off the back of Power Rangers, Masked Rider, which bombed hard enough that even the people involved with it don't want to acknowledge that it happened. Shin Kamen Rider takes its influence from the first Kamen Rider series, which saw a motorcycle stuntman turned into a mutant soldier by the secret organization S.H.O.C.K.E.R. for world conquest or something (like one does), but is freed from their control and chooses to combat their animal hybrid beings as they are set loose on the public. Unlike Ultraman, I haven't seen the entirety of the original Kamen Rider series (which is a whopping 98 episodes, which is an insane run for a toku show). I've seen maybe ten or so episodes. It's a gnarly show, in its own way. Campy as fuck, but it goes for the jugular, trying to go as hard and dark as it can while still being a kids show (is it a kids show? Because it's insane, if it is). It has a very distinct look and feel to it too, one that I saw reflected in Shin Kamen Rider, which like Shin Ultraman shows an intense love for the property it's portraying. All three of the Shin movies have had a reverence for what each franchise was in its original incarnation and tried to polish it up and modernize it while also trying to reflect what made it popular, doing so in different ways. If Shin Godzilla leaned into reestablishment and Shin Ultraman leaned into nostalgia, Shin Kamen Rider leans into kitsch, fused with elements of pulp and body horror. It takes those elements of that original series vibe and cranks them up to 11 for an enhanced vibe of its own. Its earnest embracing of absurd 70's Toei tokusatsu is entrancing. It's not without fault, as its episodic structure can sometimes feel like certain segments are more interesting than others while there's an odd sense of humor at the expense of its own self-seriousness that is weirder than it is funny. Because of that, it's probably the weakest of the Shin movies. However, it's also arguably the most fun, and it's the only one of the films that doesn't lose steam in its third act.
The question is whether or not there is anything left for Anno to take on in this genre. Shin Gamera? Shin Super Sentai? I'm rooting for Shin Japanese Spider-Man, myself. And speaking of Spider-Man...
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Superhero, Action, Sci-Fi
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Oscar Isaac, Daniel Kaluuya, Issa Rae, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jason Schwartzman
I'd like to think my expectations for Across the Spider-Verse were in check, even as a life-long Spider-Man fan. I thought Into the Spider-Verse was a great movie, absolutely deserved the applause it received, but also found myself reserved on it, likely because my nostalgic love for Spider-Man 2 eclipsed it even as it was doing so many things so right and innovating not just the Spider-Man series, but animation in general.
Then I saw Across the Spider-Verse. I'll put it this way, an hour after I came out of it I found myself angry. Not because it was bad, but I was angry that I wasn't still watching Across the Spider-Verse. I could go home and watch Into the Spider-Verse again, but it doesn't hit the same. This movie is a fucking drug. It is so beautiful to look at, with a gorgeous color palette that is constantly shifting and evolving as it goes, the visuals stimulate the senses while the story snuggles your heart, warming it with its emotion and threatening to smother it with as it hits heavier beats than you'd expect it to. I've seen great superhero movies before: Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles, The Dark Knight, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War...none of them made me feel like this. Across the Spider-Verse seeks to broaden the scope of a superhero story to create something emotional, beautiful, and human. It's a enveloping symphony of color and sound telling its story through its characters' emotional state, all the while wearing the mask of a superhero cartoon. It's not only quite possibly the best Spider-Man movie yet, but, and I don't say this lightly, an argument can be made that it's the greatest superhero movie ever made.
There are caveats that come with this. Personally there is very little about the movie I would change, but certain aspects create a double-edged sword. The film is not nearly the clip that Into the Spider-Verse was, as its story is slower and more about self-discovery and taking control of your own destiny than a traditional good vs. evil narrative. Because of that, this movie probably won't be an easy watch for young children, even if they sit through the first film just fine. It's a long movie, running 140 minutes, which is almost unheard of in animation. This isn't just because of child attention spans, but also because animation takes so long to do that studios often have to work more efficiently with their stories to spare the time and cost of creating longer and more intricate films like this one. The film also doesn't tell an entirely self-contained story, choosing to instead end on a cliffhanger that doesn't quite wrap as much of the film up as you would like a film to do. But this movie is also written so smartly that it doesn't just tell its story, it causes you to look upon that first movie in a whole new light, and we're constantly discovering new tissue among this overarching story. And the plus side to its open ending is that even if the two-part film experience isn't immediately gratifying, I still have two more hours of this experience to look forward to.
Into the Spider-Verse became the surprise frontrunner and winner of the Best Animated Oscar when it was released, and well deserved too. And unless the other animation studios really step up their A-game later this year, it's looking likely that Spidey is going home with another trophy. And if they keep this up, he might do it again next year too. See you then, Spider-Man.
Art Attack
Sanctuary
⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Thriller
Director: Zachary Wigon
Starring: Margaret Qualley, Christopher Abbott
This indie erotic thriller does its best Hitchcock presentation, with lengthy camera takes and intricate composition to tell a twisted, mostly real-time story focused solely on two actors pushing their limits in a single set setting, and even concludes with an ending that Hitch totally would have done if this were his movie. Revolving around a business man who has just severed his relationship with his dominatrix, only to have her to start playing mindgames in retaliation. The movie has great moments, and while I think Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott are good in the movie, I don't love them in it as much as the filmmakers seem to. They're often the victims of stilted and calculated dialogue, which forces them to get too theatrical for the movie's own good. It kept me from getting too invested in the story, even as the movie worked hard to stimulate. I admire the movie's confidence in itself, even if that confidence keeps it blind to certain things about it that don't function properly. Is it a good movie? Yeah. Or maybe I should call it a bad movie and tell it to crawl on its knees and beg for a good rating. Am I doing this sex thing right?
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Kandahar ⭐⭐1/2
The Little Mermaid ⭐⭐1/2
The Machine ⭐⭐
You Hurt My Feelings ⭐⭐⭐1/2
New To Digital
Hypnotic ⭐⭐
Fool's Paradise ⭐⭐⭐
John Wick: Chapter 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
New To Physical
65 ⭐⭐
A Good Person ⭐⭐1/2
Coming Soon!
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