Howdy gamers, welcome back to DYODM! To be transparent, October was a bizarre month for me. I saw three new releases in theaters but can barely remember most of them, so sorry in advance if this is a weird post. It doesn’t help that I’m almost certain that none of the people reading this will have seen any of the movies I’m going to talk about, given that they’re all pretty obscure. The combined box office gross for em at the time of writing is a little over 55 million dollars. For reference, that’s about a third of what Morbius made (167 million).
That being said, even as someone that’s never seen the Morbler, I’m pretty confident that all three of the below films are a higher quality overall. So that’s something, right? Anyway, let’s get rolling, here’s some thoughts on some films!
#3 – Kiss of the Spider Woman
Please don’t let my lack of things to say dissuade you from checking this out if you’re in the very small subset of people that read these and also enjoy musicals. It’s a fun time, I wish more stuff like this got made.
It’s an adaptation of a stage show from 1992, and you can really feel it while watching. J-Lo, the twink from Andor, and a third guy whose name is dangerously close to a Hawk Tuah joke are all giving solid performances, but some of the humor and general framing feel a bit dated. Which is contrasted by how unapologetically gay the whole thing is.
That gayness is both really cool to see on a big screen, and the fuel for the only fun anecdote I have about my experience watching. There was a middle aged couple and their daughter sitting a few rows behind me in the theater. Despite the first act being very open about one of the male leads being at least mildly interested in the other, any homoerotic vibes were completely missed by that group. This culminated in a full volume “WHAT DA HELL???” from a woman in her 50’s the second that dudes started kissing. Absolute Cinema.
#2 – Roofman
For the most authentic experience, please put Spoonman by Soundgarden while reading the rest of this section and pretend that he’s singing “Roof” instead of “Spoon”.
Roofman follows an absolutely bonkers story of a guy that robbed a bunch of fast food joints by drilling holes in their roofs, went to jail, broke out, and then spent a few months living in a Toys-R-Us. It’s got the framework of a standard “thief with a heart of gold” story, and depending on how much you hate big corporations you might end up outright rooting for the guy by the end.
It helps that Channing Tatum is just stupidly charming. He brings the right level of confidence to make you believe that yeah, he probably could get away with this. Then you toss in Kirsten Dunst giving a ridiculously on point divorced mom performance along with Peter Dinklage being a jerk and it all just works. The plot and trailer make it seem like this is going to be full of wacky hi-jinks, but it plays things shockingly seriously. Everything is a lot more grounded than you’d expect, and the ending really drives this home.
Which leads into the actual best part which is that, despite what you might think as you’re watching, Roofman is shockingly accurate to the real life events it’s based on. Every wacky Hollywood contrivance that comes up actually happened irl, and the credits even toss in footage of news reports referencing those events. It rules.
#1 – Bugonia
This is the most conflicted I’ve ever felt about my number one movie for a month. It’s in the awkward spot of being one of the most interesting things I’ve seen this year, while also not fully working for me. But it got 5 stars on Letterboxd, so clearly the good outweighs the bad, right?
I’m listening to the OST while typing this, and almost as if it’s challenging me, a gigantic fart of a brass section started blasting into my ear when I hit enter on that last paragraph. How dare I act like I didn’t love this movie? Who am I kidding, it’s the exact type of thing that I’m finding I adore as I’ve gone through this year-long film watching journey. It’s weird, it’s unapologetic, it’s gorgeous, it’s funny. It’s da movies baby. A new, more approving blast of triumphant horns from the second most popular song on the OST agrees.
So where does that indecision come from? I think at least part of it is the plot being so uh….. Direct? Bold? Striking? The best way to put it without spoilers is that the movie is based entirely around a single yes or no question. Depending on how quickly you land on the correct answer, I could totally see someone loving or hating the whole thing. Personally, I’m really gullible and was bouncing between both sides the entire time. So all the weird, discordant choices that Yorgos Lanthimos made throughout kept my attention. Those aforementioned explosions of horns do a great job of keeping you on edge. Hell, even the licensed music kicks ass.
Maybe this is just one of those cases where something that’s not quite firing on all cylinders is hitting in a way that’s great for me specifically. Time will tell if Bugonia is going to be remembered fondly, but for now I’m happy with what I saw. That’s the cool thing about art really. The viewer is just as important as the artist.
I could spend another paragraph or two raving about how great Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons are, but you already know they’re good at what they do. I could also put in a spoiler section, but like, if you’ve seen it, you already know my thoughts based on the above. Instead, I’ll leave it here. Bugonia good.
Sometimes writing these posts out at the beginning of a new month feels like a huge release in pressure. The pimple of all my thoughts is popped and released into the world, and I’m left feeling like I’m carrying a little less detritus in my mind. My back is cracked, my spine realigns and I get to go into the next month satisfied with a job well done.
This month feels more like I finally cleaned my brain’s kitchen. There was a slight layer of grease around the burners on the stove, the counters were inexplicably sticky, and the sink was filled with the remains of a few too many meals. It took a few hours of focus, and I’m walking away sweaty and coated in a faint perfume of synthetic lemons, but at least it’s over. Hopefully next month is less of an ordeal.
THE LIST
- One Battle After Another
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- 12 Angry Men
- The Lighthouse
- Presence
- Bugonia
- Superman
- Americana
- Punch-Drunk Love
- The Phoenician Scheme
- Eddington
- Sinners
- Jaws
- Gone Girl
- Roofman
- BlackBerry
- F1
- Mickey 17
- Baby Driver
- The Bad Guys
- Honey Don’t!
- Kiss of the Spider Woman
- My Old Ass
- Splitsville
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Death of a Unicorn
- John Wick
- The Shining
- Michael
- Matrerialists
- The Big Lebowski
Flamoctapus 