March Movies Part 3: All of Us Strangers & Love Lies Bleeding

To close out March, I watched two very different queer movies. One is a gory, funny, and surreal thriller, the other is an introspective, melancholy romance. But both are incredibly compelling and well worth a watch. 

Love Lies Bleeding: Directed by Rose Glass, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Weronika Tofilska, this movie is set in 1989 and stars Kristen Stewart as Lou, a loner who runs a gym in the middle of nowhere. When a ripped woman named Jackie (Katy O'Brian) shows up at her gym, sparks fly. Jackie is hitchhiking her way to Las Vegas for a bodybuilding competition that will take place in a month's time. Lou has access to steroids (managing a gym seems to have its perks) so she suggests Jackie take some to augment her already fantastically muscle-bound figure. This...will have consequences.

I won't go into too many specifics because this is a short movie and you need to let the thrills and action unfold for itself. Suffice to say, it starts out as a sexy romance, and then quickly turns into a murderous thriller as our two heroines get involved in a bit of righteous vengeance against abusive men and then have to cover up their tracks. Ed Harris and Dave Franco deliver some menacing turns and let's just say the wig department on this movie was having a grand ol' time with all the mullets required. 

This movie is bizarre and twisted and great. When emotions are extremely heightened and every surface is splattered in blood, it still takes the time to let each scene breathe and insert plenty of wry, hilarious dialogue. Stewart and O'Brien deliver insanely good performances and even when this movie takes some artistic license and gets a bit surreal, these two actors keep everything grounded yet magical. I've never seen a movie quite like this, and again, this is why we need more women writing and directing movies. Because this is the kind of weird and imaginative brilliance they come up with.

All of Us Strangers: Written and directed by Andrew Haigh, and based on the Japanese novel, Strangers, by Taichi Yamada, this is a devastatingly gorgeous movie about one lonely man who experienced a lot of grief early in life and is still dealing with the fallout. Andrew Scott stars as Adam, a man who lives in a newly-built apartment building. He's one of the first people to move in, so he lives a very solitary existence, until one day, a neighbor named Harry (Paul Mescal) shows up outside his door with a bottle of whiskey. Adam rebuffs that initial advance, but later decides that maybe he does need some companionship and reaches out. The two quickly strike up a sweet romance.

In the meantime, however, Adam is reconnecting with his dead parents. Yeah, I don't know quite how else to put it. Essentially, he keeps going back to his old childhood home, and then has a dream/hallucination that he is visiting with his parents, who tragically died in a car crash when he was twelve. In these visits, he can finally catch up with them, tell them about what he has been doing with his life, and even come out as gay, a fact that both parents react to in very different ways. Jamie Bell and Claire Foy play Adam's parents, and they are spectacular, but Scott is the star in these encounters, reverting to a little boy who misses his parents so much and is so desperate to seek their comfort and reassurance.

Of course, Adam's worlds must collide. The movie so beautifully captures this man's metamorphosis as he finds more love and acceptance in his life, but trying to introduce his boyfriend to his dead parents is naturally going to be a big ask, and things unfold in very dramatic fashion. This is a movie that hits you squarely in the feels - every scene is directed with such evocative grace and some of the transitions are stunning pieces of cinematography. It is beautifully acted and while the story is fantastical, it is so resonant and personal and universal. It may be the very specific story of one gay man in London, but it also feels like the story of all of our collective childhoods, out little heartaches and challenges with our parents, our struggles to grow up and find a partner, and the ultimate joy and pain of being alive. It is simply stunning.

March Movies Part 2: The Taste of Things & Irish Wish

Today I present you with both a high-brow option and a low-brow option. Watch one, watch them both, either way you will have a grand time!

The Taste of Things: Written and directed by Tran Anh Hung, and starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, this film was France’s official entry to the Oscars. When you sit down to watch it, please ensure you have already eaten or have plenty of snacks on hand because you are going to be starving by the end of it.

Set in 1889 on a French country estate, this is a story of Dodin (Magimel) and his cook, Eugenie (Binoche), two people who are obsessed with preparing incredible meals. They are also lovers, but while Dodin wants to get married, Eugenie doesn't see the point. Her life is perfect as is, why ruin it with marriage? Over the course of two hours, you will be treated to sumptuous, languid scenes of these two people (assisted by a woman named Violette and her young niece, Pauline, who proves to be a culinary wunderkind) making delicious meals. These scenes were all shot using real food instead of cinematically staged items, and there is no soundtrack except for the sound of vegetables being chopped, meats sizzling on the stove, and wine being splashed into a pan. Sidenote, my fiance, who was a chef in a former life, would routinely call out the next step in the recipes they were preparing, and he would be right. So, the script is certainly brimming with culinary accuracy.

There is plenty of interpersonal drama afoot, but everything between the humans takes place in the background while the food is the delicious foreground. This is a contemplative, lush film and I can't imagine anyone would have any regrets when watching it. Well except that they are now very, very hungry.

Irish Wish: From the sublime to the ridiculous. Directed by Janeen Damian, with a script from Kirsten Hansen, this is Lindsay Lohan's latest Netflix romcom. And frankly, I am quite charmed that this is the direction she has chosen for her career. One can never get enough of silly romances that take place in spectacular settings, and this one certainly delivers.

Lohan plays Maddie, a book editor who is hopelessly in love with Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos), an Irish author whose book she has helped write. Unfortunately, she doesn't tell him about her true feelings, and at the book launch, he is charmed by her best friend, Emma (Elizabeth Tan). After a whirlwind courtship, the two are headed to Ireland to get married, and Maddie is on her way as a bridesmaid. When she gets there, she goes on a tour of the scenic countryside, happens upon a magical "wishing chair," wishes that Paul was marrying her instead, and when she wakes up the next day...well, you see where we're going, right?

What follows is your standard set of tropes about getting what you wished for, which makes you understand what you should have actually wished for. There's a handsome Englishman, James Thomas (Ed Speelers), who is serving as the wedding photographer, but...you can see where that's going, right? This film is spectacularly dumb and spectacularly splendid, and if you're not sprawling on the couch and watching it this weekend, you really have not made good life choices. I watched it to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, and while I'm sure Irish people are mortally offended by this film, I had a swell time!

March Movies Part 1: Dune Part Two, The Eras Tour, Lift

Well the Oscars are over so it’s back to watching a hodgepodge of films for me. I managed to watch one in theatres and the rest on streaming so read on to find out what might float your boat this month.

Dune: Part Two: If you saw Dune, then you already know what you're getting into right? I don't really know what to tell you about this film. First off, it's nearly three hours long. So surely that is already a bridge too far. Did I think this movie needed to be three hours long? Absolutely not. Did I think it was filled with sci-fi jim jams, Game of Thrones tropes, and truly spectacular desert cinematography interspersed with lots of lingering shots of beautiful actors looking out onto the vista or at each other with ambiguous intent? Absolutely yes. 

Listen, this is a long fantasy epic that feels exactly like the first movie except now we spend way more time in the desert riding a bunch of phallic-seeming sandworms. This movie is...fine. I sat through it all, enjoyed all the cinematic sequences, and remembered exactly 5% of it after I left. It looked like a lot of effort went into putting it together, and I'm sure the fans of the novel are so spectacularly glad to have this cinematic ode to it, much like I was when the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out. So this is not my jam, but if you're a Dune person? Go ahead and run to the theaters.

The Eras Tour: Um, again, you already know what you're getting into right? It's a 3-hour concert film and Taylor Swift is going to go through all of her greatest hits. As someone who only got into her music when she released the Folklore album, I definitely spent the majority of this movie waiting for the Folklore section to come up. But there were plenty of good bops along the way that I recognized from their periodic resurgence on the UK Top 40 and other pop culture tidbits that have been popping up throughout the year as this record-setting tour took over the United States. I might not be a Swiftie, but I don't live under a rock people. 

This concert is an absolute extravaganza and is choreographed to perfection. Swift is the consummate entertainer, and between the production design, costumes, and yes, the music, this is definitely an incredible way to spend a long weekend afternoon. Obviously, having some knowledge of Swift's music is helpful, but as long as you know some of the songs, I highly recommend you give this film a watch. If nothing else, you can feel like you're part of the zeitgeist without having to bankrupt yourself for actual concert tickets. 

Lift: Do I remember 5% of this movie? Um, maybe less. But is it a perfectly serviceable action thriller when you're home and on the couch and need a new Netflix jam? You bet!

Kevin Hart plays Cyrus, a high-end thief who is enlisted by Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a former flame who now works for Interpol (of course), to help her catch an evil billionaire with a plot to take over the world (of course). The plot involves an NFT heist, so this is definitely a movie of our times, but otherwise the rest of it is a standard series of tropes and action set pieces throughout Europe, including some shenanigans in Venice, which is always a grand place to have some chase sequences. Will you be surprised by anything in this movie? No. But will you be entertained? Sort of!

And the 2024 Oscar Goes To...

Yup, another year has passed and I'm back with my Oscar hot takes. Barbenheimer was the cinematic event of 2023, but we still live in a patriarchy, so the wrong movie seems to be nabbing all the kudos during awards season. Le sigh. Follow along for more feminist ranting below!

Best Picture: Overall, this is a solid list of films, featuring powerful stories, tremendous performances, and a real range of genres. My personal pick for the Best Picture of 2023? Past Lives, hands down. That movie made me feel more feelings than I had felt in eons. It has zero chance of winning Best Picture this year, which is a real shame, but I'm glad it at least nabbed a nomination. My pick for runner-up is a tie between Barbie and The Holdovers, two movies that I absolutely loved, that both feature comical performances but oh so much soul. And who also owe a great deal to their wonderful production design - one is very pink and vibrant, the other is capturing New England in the middle of a blizzard, and it's all perfect for telling a story about humans and/or dolls and their everyday struggles. American Fiction and Anatomy of a Fall are tied for third place - one is an insane and incisive comedy, the other is a moody French courtroom drama. They couldn't be more different from each other, but they both were wildly unique and entertaining and had me glued to the screen. Then we have Poor Things and The Zone of Interest, again, two wildly different movies, but both of which tell extremely compelling stories. These are good movies, and they have been feted by critics, but while they certainly had interesting moments and featured some brilliant feats of storytelling, production design, and sound design, neither film was consistent throughout the entire runtime, and I would find my attention wavering at various points. And then finally we have Maestro, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon, a trio that I would categorize as "important" pictures directed by white male "auteurs." Maestro was probably the most entertaining of the three, but maybe that was because I could watch it leisurely at home on Netflix and revel in some of its funnier moments and flourishes. Oppenheimer held some interest for me as a former scientist, but lost me with its moral ambiguity and extreme maleness. Yet, somehow, it is the frontrunner to win this award, which I find tremendously annoying. And Killers of the Flower Moon? Sigh. I don't care how much you tell me that it is centering Native American stories. It is still mostly just about white men exploiting Native Americans and that's a hard pass from me. Especially if you're going to tell that story for an interminable three and a half hours. 

Best Director: So, in a year where three of the Best Picture nominees were directed by women, we still only nominated one woman for Best Director? Cool. Cool, cool, cool. As such, I am rooting for Justine Triet to win for Anatomy of a Fall, but the chance of that happening is 0%. I would have loved for Celine Song or Greta Gerwig to pick up the statuette for Past Lives or Barbie, but that is not to be. Instead, it seems like Christopher Nolan might have the edge for Oppenheimer, which...fine. Not because I liked this movie, but because I have loved his previous movies, and he has never won Best Director in the past. So this is more of a lifetime achievement award. I certainly don't think Martin Scorsese needs another Oscar for Killers of the Flowers Moon. Yorgos Lanthimos and Jonathan Glazer have both done creative and inspiring work in Poor Things and The Zone of Interest so I wouldn't be mad if they won, but again, I didn't particularly love those movies. As far as I'm concerned, none of these nominees are my pick for Best Director this year, so bah humbug.

Best Actress: Lily Gladstone seems to be a lock for Killers of the Flower Moon, and while I hated that movie, I can't fault her performance in it, so I am down to hand her the award. I do think Sandra Huller was masterful in Anatomy of a Fall, having to act in three languages and be insanely ambiguous throughout so you are always questioning her motives. Plus she was also in The Zone of Interest, delivering a chilling performance as a Nazi - what a year she has had. Emma Stone was incredible in Poor Things, delivering a full-body performance that relied on her speech and physicality to convey the evolution and growth of the protagonist. Annette Bening was great in Nyad, and Carey Mulligan was fine in Maestro. Overall, a wonderfully strong category, but Gladstone's going to win and make history, and that will be great.

Best Actor: Cillian Murphy has this locked for Oppenheimer, and much like Nolan, I'm willing to go along with this as more of a lifetime achievement award. He does fine work in this film, so even if I didn't like the movie, I can't fault the actor. Personally, I would love to see Jeffrey Wright win for American Fiction, but at least he finally got a nomination. Likewise with Colman Domingo, who has been popping up in everything lately and seems fated to win an Oscar in the very near future. He was wonderful in Rustin, but he will not be able to stop the Oppenheimer express. Paul Giamatti also delivers an absolutely brilliant performance in The Holdovers - again, this is a strong category, but the frontrunner is running away with it.

Best Supporting Actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph is going to win for The Holdovers, and I am 100% on board. She is phenomenal in that movie - I keep thinking back to one wordless scene she has with her sister that manages to convey an entire relationship within a few seconds. I'm very glad America Ferrera was nominated for her epic monologue in Barbie, and both Danielle Brooks and Jodie Foster delivered searing performances in The Color Purple and Nyad respectively, so I was happy to see them get recognized. I love Emily Blunt, but her role in Oppenheimer certainly wasn't anything to write home about, so good for her, but also, *shrug.* Let's go Da'Vine!

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr. appears to be the foregone conclusion here for Oppenheimer. For the life of me, I cannot tell you why. Every year, people rally around some film or performance that I find so perplexing, and this category is the one where I find myself most confused. Why would you award Downey or Robert De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon, when you could be giving a statue to Sterling K. Brown for his engaging work in American Fiction, or Ryan Gosling for playing a freakin' Ken doll? Mark Ruffalo was decidedly weird in Poor Things and I wouldn't say he was "acting" so much as he was hamming it up, so I'll pass on that. This category is just a mystery to me. I will be scheduling my bathroom break for when they hand it out.

Best Original Screenplay: I dearly hope Celine Song wins for Past Lives. But Justine Triet and Arthur Harari seem more likely for Anatomy of a Fall. Which is fair, but still. Justice for Past Lives! I wouldn't be mad by a win for David Hemingson for The Holdovers, but I'll pass on Maestro and May December. That's all I have to say about that. 

Best Adapted Screenplay: This category is WILD. It is ridiculous that Barbie is nominated here when it's one of the most Original movies I've seen, but that's the wild and wacky Oscars for you. I would love for Greta Gerwig to take home a statue for this screenplay, but I have no idea who is going to win here - the current favorite appears to be Cord Jefferson for American Fiction, which I absolutely cannot quibble about. Obviously, I am not rooting for Oppenheimer, and I am lukewarm on Poor Things and The Zone of Interest. So I am certainly looking forward to seeing who gets this award on Sunday night, because it might be the only one where I'm genuinely surprised and delighted. 

That's all for the major categories. A Best Sound win for The Zone of Interest would be cool as that's the only movie where I actually paid attention to the Sound Design, and I would love for Barbie to at least get some love for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. It has been a rather staid run-up to the event, with all the same people nabbing the awards over and over again, so this promises to be a rather boring ceremony. I'll be hoping for some lovely speeches from deserving winners, but I wouldn't say no to some spectacular upset where suddenly Barbie and Past Lives end up beating out Oppenheimer for everything. Hey, if there's one thing Barbie taught me, it's that a girl can dream.