I watched 6 movies last week:
 |
 |
 |
- The Chronology of Water is challenging and upsetting and disjointed—very much, as Sheila O’Malley wrote in her review about how “old memories ambush us in the present” and how the trauma of them “obliterate linearity.” It’s a complicated, but phenomenal work, a remarkably self-assured first feature from Kristen Stewart, with some fantastic performances, not least from Imogen Poots.
- Sound of Falling is slow to reveal itself, and entrusts its audience to follow its nonlinear path, shuffling back and forth between decades and characters, leaving you with impressions of characters—some of whom vanish entirely, or are only mentioned in passing in the generations that follow. It’s complicated and impressionistic but also an incredibly well told glimpse at nearly a century of young women.
- I’m very much of two minds about Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, which is vibrant and mad, trading faithful adaptation for a boldly colorful fever dream full of fun dialogue and performances…until the last third, when Heathcliff returns, and the characters turn mostly unpleasant, and the film stopped working for me at all.
 |
 |
 |
- The Telegraph‘s description of The Testament of Ann Lee, quoted on the movie poster, as “fearlessly feral,” seems apt, and there’s certainly a ferocity to the titular performance by Amanda Seyfried, who has arguably never been better. And yet I also felt like the film kept me at arm’s length, asking me to witness the rise of the Shakers and Ann Lee’s spirituality rather than understand it.
- Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a lot of things, many of them brilliant, but it is not subtle. It’s loud and frenzied and messy, in the way that a lot of great art is, and in a way that often but didn’t always work for me personally. I don’t think it’s as effective, much less as disciplined, as
Jane Schoenbrun’s previous film, I Saw the TV Glow, but it’s clearly as much of a passion project for them, and the interplay of slasher horror and sexual awakening, combined with more meta-jokes than you can shake a machete at, is definitely a wild and bloody ride. - Eleanor the Great is a little contrived, and maybe a little too pat, but June Squibb is frankly fantastic, even when you’re invited not to like her character very much. It’s an impressive, if not extraordinarily so, directing debut from Scarlett Johansson.
I also rewatched They Live, which probably isn’t in my top five John Carpenter movies, but is definitely in the top ten, and Spider Baby, which I don’t think is a good movie, but which is too weird too be called bad.