I didn’t intend to wait another two weeks before publishing again, but hours after my first post went live, some news came in that threw my week out of whack. But a new week arrives, and with it some time to go over what I was able to watch once everything settled down.
I settled on checking out Smile, Parker Finn’s horror movie that became a smash hit when it came out at the end of September, since I wanted something easy to watch. Paramount’s been having a strong year with box office hits like the Scream reboot/sequel, The Lost City, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and of course Top Gun: Maverick. It’s funny to see this happening after the studio made a deliberate effort to back away from theatrical and lean into streaming with its Paramount+ platform, a move designed to please shareholders in the short term. General trends still gravitate toward streaming and subscription-based forms of revenue for the film industry (a change with a whole host of problems, but that’s a topic for another day), so it’s nice to see theatrical still have enough power to kick back.
That story is more interesting than anything in Smile, which got a surprisingly decent critical reception. I wonder if people just collectively forgot about horror films from the 2000s like The Ring, The Grudge, and Feardotcom, since this is just a lesser version of those movies, only with a slight tweak of “elevated” themes of depression and trauma since that’s what most horror movies are doing now. Other than a strong opening and some nice off-kilter choices (my favourite being the unusually spacious/sparsely furnished consultation room in the pre-credits sequence), this is passable at best, with a bad screenplay and weak performances. I’m glad to see Robin Weigert still being typecast as a psychiatrist though, which speaks to Big Little Lies’ staying power. I recommend you watch Santiago Menghini’s Intruders instead, since it’s almost a dozen times shorter than Smile and has a sequence that Finn clearly took inspiration from for his film’s final act.
Meanwhile, one of the better films of 2022 came out last week with little attention paid to it. One arbitrary way I measure a movie’s demand is how quickly it leaks online, and as of right now Andrew Bujalski’s There There has yet to attract the interest of piracy aficionados despite a VOD release several days ago.
It’s unfortunate since Bujalski is one of the few genuinely interesting and individual names working in American independent cinema right now, but maybe the lack of buzz around his latest film is further proof of that. Bujalski came up with There There during the initial months of the pandemic, then once vaccines got into enough arms he found a way to remotely direct the six conversations that make up his movie: shoot each side of the conversation with iPhones and a skeleton crew, then use good ol’ editing and sound to stitch it all together.
On a technical level alone it’s impressive how well There There works. Eyelines match, the sound mixing is pretty much flawless, and there’s a sense of visual continuity despite these scenes taking place in two different locations (according to Bujalski, some parts were recorded before they even finished casting the other roles). Yet he’s not trying to trick anyone, showing off the seams through shots and reverse shots that emphasize the two different locations within each sequence.
It’s experimental but unassuming at the same time thanks to its reliance on one of the most common ways of filming a scene. And the paradoxical nature of watching human connections through disconnected performances fits in nicely with how we’ve adapted over the last several years to converse online, and the intimacy that form of communication can bring out of us. I was afraid the muted reception to There There after its premiere at Tribeca meant this might be a lesser effort from Bujalski, but it’s a pleasant time with a six great performances (MVPs are Lennie James and Molly Gordon but they’re easily interchangeable with anyone else in the cast) and a lot more going on in terms of the space this film establishes, demolishes, and then rebuilds from one shot to the next.
Other Writing
Over at The Film Stage I reviewed Mark Mylod's The Menu, which I’d recommend watching in a state of transit, whether it’s on a plane or while visiting your family who happens to have HBO. I saw this at TIFF in September at its world premiere, which had a gift bag in every seat containing a fancy mug. After the screening, Searchlight parked a food truck outside the theatre to hand out free cheeseburgers to everyone as they left (cheeseburgers tied into one part of the movie, in case you’re wondering). I was impressed by how much money Searchlight shelled out for the premiere, and realized The Menu gave me more monetary value than almost everything else I’ve seen this year. So it has that going for it, at least.
I also reviewed Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, which opens with a bold conceit before settling into a pretty mediocre period piece.
And at EDGE Media Network I wrote about Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. I saw it so you don’t have to.
Other Titles Watched
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, S1E3 - ‘The Autopsy’ (2022, dir. David Prior)
EO (2022, dir. Jerzy Skolimowski) [Rewatch]
Aftersun (2022, dir. Charlotte Wells) [Rewatch]
Poser (2021, dirs. Ori Segev & Noah Dixon)
Cette maison (2022, dir. Miryam Charles)
On Cinema, S13E3 - ‘Black Panther Wakanda Forever & The Fabelmans’
On Cinema, S13E4 - ‘The Menu’ & ‘The Santa Clauses’