Summing Up End of Summer Movies
Summing Up End of Summer Movies
Thoughts on Good One, Sing Sing, Trap, Longlegs, and Blink Twice
Good One
Coming to VOD platforms soon, hopefully.
Mumblecore pleasantries slowly give way to gendered menace in this deceptively simple film about a seventeen-year-old girl, her dad, and her dad's best friend who go on a backpacking trip in the Catskills. It’s a terrific debut feature from India Donaldson, who's fortunate to have found such a compelling leading actress in newcomer Lily Collias. When we watch her watch other people, it conveys so much information that in the film’s best moments, words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm, as everyone involved learns by the end of the weekend hike.
Donaldson takes a lot of directing cues from the excellent Never Rarely Sometimes Always, with the way that camera attunes us to what young women observe in a world of older men. Both the cinematography and sound design are top notch and the sensory experience adds to the discomforting tone.
My viewing experience was similar to when I saw Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla in a theater: I would hear young women in the audience sharply inhale any time there was a moment that reminded them of an unpleasant adolescent memory.
Sing Sing
Currently in a handful of theaters and will eventually stream on Max.
Colman Domingo leads an ensemble of actors who were formerly incarcerated in this unique drama about Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a drama program in Sing Sing. Sometimes they do Shakespeare, but in this movie they put together an original play that somehow combines time travel, Hamlet, and gladiators. It’s a surprisingly crowd-pleasing movie that's also emotionally wrenching, and by casting former prisoners to play versions of themselves, director Greg Kwedar also blends fiction with fact.
Sing Sing is not afraid to explore such contradictions. In this era of mass incarceration, a program that seems as trivial as a theater troupe can be a life-saving balm: one of the prisoner-actors says that “we here to become human again.” In a sense, acting becomes a form of emancipation: freed from the stereotypes and constraints placed upon these men, they discover they can be anyone they want to be, or not to be. Domingo is excellent, as he always is, so it's remarkable that he's almost upstaged by Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who brings to the table his real life experience imprisoned in Sing Sing and being a part of Rehabilitation Through the Arts.
While the film never explicitly makes any political stances (“prison abolition” is never uttered in this film), I think that this more on the ground approach works to broaden the appeal of this movie. Not everyone supports overhauling our justice system, but everyone can hopefully recognize that every incarcerated person is human, and that no one is as bad as their worst day. The film's production did have a radical compensation structure, with everyone getting paid equal wages and varying equity stakes, a rare case of a film production putting the liberal ideals of its creatives into practice. (That the film was fully financed by Black Bear Pictures, which was created by the son of Trump mega-donor Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of private equity firm Blackstone, which tried to do a leveraged buyout of a private prison operator in the 1990s, is something that is conveniently not brought up in press notes.)
Trap
Currently on VOD platforms and will eventually strean on Max.
Love the ludicrous premise. A dad takes his daughter to a concert, which he discovers is also a sting operation to catch a serial killer (he learns this from the merch guy). But! The dad is the killer, with a victim tied up somewhere, and now he must get out of the arena without getting caught. So much of this movie defies logic, with plot holes so large you could drive a limo through them. But I had a HUGE blast, and so did M. Night Shyamalan. Deeply unserious movie with a magnetic Josh Hartnett at its center. He plays his part perfectly, as a serial killer masquerading behind the image of a respectable white suburban family man. His obsession with keeping things in place wouldn’t make him stand out, he probably has tight HOA rules to contend with.
Folks have talked about Shyamalan sort of being in his Hitchock era, making a bunch of fun thrillers built around a killer (heh) premise. With Trap, perhaps he's riffing on Brian de Palma riffing on Hitchcock. (And not just because of that split diopter shot). But Shyamalan is no de Palma; he doesn't have an appetite for the lurid gore of stuff like Dressed to Kill.
It’s funny that this movie was basically made so M. Night Shyamalan could cast his aspiring pop star daughter as an actual pop star, but the moody songs are just… not that good. The popularity of “Lady Raven” (selling out a 20K capacity arena) is yet another thing to suspend disbelief about1. Writing for the Times, Robert Rubsam is dead on the money when he says that “the concert has been set up to trap [Cooper, the serial killer]. Yet you don’t side with the police: Listening to Lady Raven with him, you sympathize with Cooper’s need to get out.”
One could make the case that Lady Raven’s music is intentionally mediocre, putting the viewer in the shoes of the devoted dad who’s just there to make his daughter happy. But I definitely do not think that was the intention. The film does have an actual star in its cast; Kid Cudi shows up for about three minutes and they’re the three funniest minutes in the whole movie!
The forthcoming Smile 2 is also a movie with an in-universe pop star of Indian descent. Based on the two songs that have been released by “Skye Riley,” they’re a lot better than anything from Trap. One song, “Grieved You,” was a cast-off from Tate McRae’s album.
Longlegs
Currently on VOD platforms and will eventually stream on Hulu.
The tone of dread and unease is perfectly executed, and I love the wide angle shots that situate the characters as a small part of something larger than they are. But where the plot ends up is an example of why a lot of horror films just don't work for me.
I would go on, but I will instead direct you to Angelica Jade Bastién’s excellent review of the film and the failure of American horror to meet the moment of global doom:
Bluntly speaking, who is truly scared of this shit? I’m not talking about the fleeting pleasure of a jump scare or the kind of lewd grossness that makes you uncomfortable. I mean the kind of scared that stays with you. That froths to the surface of your mind in the lonely dark. The kind of horror that is boldly entertaining but sneakily obsessed about commenting, toying with, or considering a genuine fear that exists out there in this world of ours.
Blink Twice
Currently in wide release.
A poor woman's Get Out. Though suspenseful and propulsive, Zoë Kravitz's film reveals itself to be largely devoid of any true insight into gendered power dynamics. What happens in between this movie's final two scenes would be way more interesting or insightful than what we were given. If there was subtext all along, perhaps I blinked and missed it. Channing Tatum seems... miscast? He's not particularly charming or menacing. Awfully generic title too (the original name, Pussy Island is better, though probably a harder sell to most people.)
I did like seeing all the food that Simon Rex was cooking up… Frankly, it would be a great dinner party if you ignore what happens after. It’s an accurate parody of global cuisine for the well-heeled, where local foods are put through a Franco-Japanese process. Mofongo is served in amuse-bouche portioned croquetas, the local fish is marinated in soy sauce.
The food and drink rundown from the movie:
Champagne, served in a coupe with a raspberry inside it
Mofongo croqueta with fried squash blossoms
Dry-aged steak
Bluefin tuna sashimi
Pop rock tangerine mojito sorbet (AKA a fancy frozen mojito)
Snake venom tequila shots
Soy poached grouper
What I can't suspend disbelief for is the fact that the concert takes place in the AFTERNOON and tons of people are milling around the concourse DURING the show.