This Week in Cinema, I Learned…Oct 27-Nov 2 2024
Written by Cameron Geiser
Welcome to This Week in Cinema, a yearlong film criticism project wherein I will be watching a new film that I haven't seen every single day.
Welcome to the final week of October! First things first though, I made it through all of October without having to “break glass in case of emergency” and swap out a Horror movie for the comfort of the Paddington movies, and I’m proud of myself. Am I slightly more unnerved than the usual spooky season? Yes, but that’s okay because I saw some incredible movies that I would not have otherwise made time for. This week in cinema straddles two months with the first two entries of November coming in hot. November’s theme is Awards films, or prestige cinema. Any film that has won an award, been nominated, or is likely to be nominated qualifies for November’s theme. With the exception of two moderately high scoring films, most of this week was so-so when concerned with overall quality. Children of The Corn and American Psycho were better than I expected but the remainder of the week was less than stellar. Though admittedly, I did enjoy Thanksgiving for the campy slasher entity that it is. It wasn’t trying to be more than the very simple and entertaining premise that it set out to be. It is the one film of Eli Roth’s that I have enjoyed most so far, apologies to Eli Roth fans, but I do not like most things he has done (The highlight being his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds). The remaining films are middling at best overall. I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Birds, and Grand Prix all had their moments or aspects that made them stand out from the crowd but I found Blue Jasmine to be a torturous viewing experience personally.
The lesson of the week is that, sure, you can craft a story about miserable characters, but to what end? Take The Wolf of Wall Street for example. I can't watch that film again, as it is infuriating because those characters are absolutely despicable and loathsome, but there is a point to the story and it is an incredibly well made film by Martin Scorsese. Thanksgiving has some characters of questionable morality too, but with Horror we expect the awful people to be killed without question. It's just about the how and the when of it all. However with Blue Jasmine, and American Psycho to a lesser degree, I was left wondering what the point was when the credits rolled. Obviously there is drama to be had in both films and the acting is commendable all around, but when stepping back and looking at these stories as a whole, I found little value in them. Triangle of Sadness and The Menu both exquisitely do what these films greatly lacked, but this may also be more of a personal taste issue as well. Anyways, I learned something, trust me.
October 27th
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
3/5
While Scream may be more etched into the mainstream Horror of the 1990s blockbusters, I Know What You Did Last Summer has a more accurate tone to what living in the 1990’s was actually like. In America, at least. However, this movie hungers to have the success that Scream had, and you can tell. The juice just isn’t there though. It’s a capable big budget slasher, but it’s also very bare bones in execution. Essentially a few rich kids get drunk one night and accidentally hit a passerby in their car. When they find the body and dump it in the ocean, they make a pact to never speak of this horrible act again and try to move on with their lives. One year later those involved with the pact of silence begin to die off with some receiving threatening letters to boot. This makes them all suspicious of each other and infighting reigns as they attempt to solve the mystery and survive the summer. I Know What You Did Last Summer is a decent slasher, but the major difference between this and Scream is obviously the lack of a true horror icon like Wes Craven behind the camera. Also, the number of “fake” jumpscares you put in a given movie is only acceptable once or twice in the right context. If you throw those around like properly spiked eggnog at a Christmas party- eventually I begin to lose interest.
October 28th
Children of The Corn (1984)
3.5/5
With a Ninety minute runtime and a good hook to pull you into a creepy premise, Children of The Corn succeeds in creating a satisfying genre flick. The opening of the film is a brutal scene where all the kids in a small rural town take up knives and start to kill all of the adults. Fast forward a couple of years and the kids have created their own community based on the religious adjacent whims and demands of "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", which is some sort of demonic entity. Things get spicy when a couple of adults arrive and challenge their ways. Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are traveling cross country to Seattle when they accidentally hit a kid running out from the cornfields while driving through Nebraska. They head to the nearby town to seek help but realize the kid had his throat cut before they hit him. They get wrapped up in the ongoing shenanigans involving a corn cross crucifixion, betrayals, bloody sacrifices, and even some possession. It's a pretty good time. I enjoyed the riff on organized religion and how hysteria can catch hold among groups. It's a pretty simple structure, but hey, I had a good time with it.
October 29th
American Psycho (2000)
4/5
This is a very well made film, but I despise the main character and I absolutely hate the ending. American Psycho is admittedly a fascinating watch, it’s like observing a wild animal at the apex of their environment with no predators, not knowing which lesser animals to kill, and which ones to befriend for trivial purposes like propping up social expectations in the jungle. Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street executive type who also moonlights as a petty, jealous, and small-minded serial killer. Through his inner monologue we get insight into the machinations of this psycho to see how he ticks. Oh and boy does he tick- much like a bomb about to go off. He gets off on control, manipulation, and killing his competitors and peers when they appear to out-do him in social circles. The reason to watch is Christian Bale in the second half of the film where he tries to cover up his misdeeds and begins to crack under the pressure. Too bad it’s all for naught and he just gets away with it, even after admitting to everything. This one was a hate watch for me, good filmmaking, despicable characters.
October 30th
The Birds (1963)
2.5/5
The expectations I have going into every Alfred Hitchcock movie is fairly high. He is a filmmaking legend after all. I figured with the infamy that this film has in pop culture that it would be at least one of the better films of his, unfortunately not so in my opinion. There are some decently composed scenes, but the overall pacing, and trivial family drama with a bit of pointless romance all meshed to make a sub-par Hitchcock film. The first bird attack doesn’t really even come into play until fifty minutes or so into the two hour film. Which wouldn't be unforgivable if there were more to the story and characters. However, I didn’t find too much to love here. It’s mostly just a story of survival when nature attacks. It’s not terrible, but from Hitchcock, I expect so much more.
October 31st
Thanksgiving (2023)
2.5/5
While the score for this film is a bit lower, I actually did enjoy my time with this film. I just don’t think it has earned a tremendously high score. Thanksgiving began as one of the trailers in the Grindhouse movie years ago. With the other films already released in Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun, it was finally time for Eli Roth to make good on his goofy B-movie trailer. The basic revenge slasher begins with some teenagers live streaming a hyper violent Black Friday massacre and then a year later one by one the kids in the video are killed off in increasingly gruesome fashion. You essentially know what you’re gonna get with this one, but the entertainment is in the execution. The script is very cheesy with puns and crass humor throughout. The violence is incredibly gore-tastic and disgusting. All this while riffing on excessive materialism and cardboard thin characters that exist only as slasher fodder. It’s stupid alright, but it’s self aware and there’s some fun to be had with that.
November 1st
Grand Prix (1966)
2.5/5
This film is on the list because of another Patrick H. Willems youtube video wherein the film essayist goes into detail about car chases and the movie that initially got the ball rolling on realistic filmmaking in car chases, Grand Prix. Director John Frankenheimer made some pretty good films in his time, but my favorite film of his is Ronin. It’s a whip smart action thriller with an outstanding, heart racing, and perfect car chase filmed in the streets of Paris. However, Frankenheimer’s first round with realistic filmmaking depicting cars going at incredible speeds was done thirty years prior, in Grand Prix. Frankenheimer revolutionized how cars are filmed in movies with Grand Prix by affixing cameras to the actual cars, and allowing for attachments to move the cameras during the scenes while racing down the tracks. However, despite absolutely thrilling race sequences, the rest of the film is a bit drab at times. The absolutely stacked cast including James Garner, Yves Montand, Eva Marie Saint, and Toshirô Mifune was also a bit of a let down as I found everything in between the races to be sluggish and painfully slow at times. None of the performances really stood out and the plot felt like it was drawn out as thinly as possible. Which is a shame because the race scenes are pure cinema. It’s worth a watch, but it can be a bit tepid occasionally.
November 2nd
Blue Jasmine (2013)
2.5/5
Whether you love or hate Woody Allen, he sure has made a lot of movies over the years. The last film of his that I have seen and enjoyed was Midnight in Paris. Owen Wilson does a lot in that film to imbue the lead character with a charm that the script does not have. I thought that one had something interesting to say about nostalgia and how not to get trapped in a loop of desperation by constantly putting your inspirational heroes on pedestals. Blue Jasmine however is far more mixed overall, and fairly miserable to watch. The only reason the score is this high is because it’s a well made film with decent performances by a capable cast. The story though, is trash. Cate Blanchett stars as the titular Jasmine, and Jasmine as a character is a mean-spirited, out of touch, annoying, and hollow person. Her priorities in life are materialistic and shrewd, and as time goes on we learn that she's essentially been flying by the seat of her pants her whole life, high on luxury and wealth. When it all comes tumbling down she moves in with her working class sister, Ginger, played by Sally Hawkins and Jasmine essentially tries to manipulate Ginger and her love interests throughout the film. There is some unique casting, like the comedian Andrew Dice Clay as Ginger’s first husband, and Alec Baldwin is perfectly within his wheelhouse as the disgustingly slimy Businessman husband of Jasmine’s before they split. The script really reinforces my philosophy that the wealthy create 90% of their own problems and would gladly kill us all if they could just get a slightly higher shareholder percentage for their investors and themselves. I found this film aggravating and questionable at best.
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.