The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 567: Sh*thouse, Cooper Raiff, and Pet Turtles
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Mark and Joey (@soulpopped on X) discuss the 2020 comedy-drama Sh*thouse. Directed and written by Cooper Raiff, and starring Cooper Raiff, Dylan Gelula, Logan Miller, and a pet turtle, the movie focuses on a lonely college freshman having a simultaneously excellent and terrible weekend. In this episode, they also talk about IFC movies, walking and talking, and the excellence of Cooper Raiff.
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 566: The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti, and Hormonal Vulgarians
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
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Mark and DJ Valentine discuss the 2023 comedy The Holdovers. Directed by Alexander Payne, and starring Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa and some hormonal vulgarians, the Academy Award winning movie is absolutely delightful. In this episode, they talk about excellent screenplays, trampoline injuries, and Paul Giamatti. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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Kinds of Kindness (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B+ – This pitch-black triptych anthology is loaded with big laughs and wild moments that harken back to director Yorgos Lanthimos earlier films Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It will turn off many with its violence, nudity and offbeat humor, but if you are a fan of storytelling that doesn’t hold your hand and takes you to unique places – you will love it.
Made up of three tales featuring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie, Kinds of Kindness exists because of the award-winning success of The Favourite and Poor Things. While they are far from mainstream, they are more accessible than the revenge-driven theatrics of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, or the fenced-in compound shenanigans in Dogtooth. I love both films but it’s easy to understand why they are critical darlings and not box office blockbusters. It wasn’t until Lanthimos adopted a more mainstream aesthetic (which is still incredibly non-mainstream) that he found worldwide success and this afforded him the chance to reunite with co-writer Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) to make Kinds of Kindness.
The first story (The Death of R.M.F.) focuses on a man (Jesse Plemons) trying and failing to take charge of his life by denying an extreme request given to him by his controlling boss (Willem Dafoe). The second story (R.M.F. is Flying) is about a police officer (Plemons again) becoming suspicious of his wife (Emma Stone) after she returns home from a boating accident. The final story (R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich) involves a water-loving cult member (Stone) who is searching for a messiah while also dealing with a family she left behind.
All three stories find humor from bodily harm, orgy watch parties, and the sight of Jesse Plemons is a brightly-colored turtleneck. You can tell Lanthimos enjoyed stepping away from the period piece aesthetic, and creating something in a contemporary world that is home to water cults, broken tennis racquets, and doppelgangers. I think he’s done his best work in modern environments (that are incredibly heightened) and I don’t think I’ll ever forget about the animal death in The Lobster and Dogtooth, or anything Barry Keoghan does in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The early reactions to Kinds of Kindness have been interesting because they seem to be coming from people who are only familiar with The Favourite and Poor Things. I don’t think anything in Kinds of Kindness is shocking because I know what Lanthimos is capable of, and I know that Lanthimos and Filippou excel in creating uncomfortable situations because “life itself makes people uncomfrotbale.”
After The Favourite and Poor Things, Emma Stone continues to excel while working with Lanthimos (she calls him her “muse”), and her performance in Kinds of Kindness proves that after winning multiple Academy Awards she’s still down to act in films that require her to cut off her thumb and feed it to Jesse Plemons. The MVP of the movie is Jesse Plemons, who portrays characters who range from manic to paranoid to petty. His deadpan delivery and death stare are perfect as he’s begging Wilem Dafoe for forgiveness or asking his friends to watch a sex tape while his wife is missing. I’d love to work on a Lanthimos set because it would be cool to see how he creates an atmosphere of absolute trust in which Hong Chao feels comfortable licking sweat off bodies or Joe Alwyn agrees to play a date-raping husband.
While leaving the press screening I heard several people mention that the movie doesn’t have a point and were wondering why it exists. This seems a bit unfair as anthologies rarely change the world (very few movies do), and exist to tell condensed stories that are largely hit or miss (the cult short in V/H/S 2 is a big hit). If you’re looking for supreme meaning with Kinds of Kindness you are out of luck, but if you’re looking for a film that features Margaret Qualley jumping into an empty swimming pool (twice), then it’s the movie for you.
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John’s Horror Corner: Inbred (2011), an ultra-gory, pretty cheaply made British horror comedy.
MY CALL: This British “hillbilly horror” may just be the bad movie you’re looking for if you enjoy insufferably awful writing complemented by ambitiously very graphic, low budget gore. But frankly, this movie just didn’t give me enough recommend it.
On a team-building weekend trip, a group of teen delinquents (including Chris Waller; Fright Night 2) and their chaperone caretakers (James Doherty and Jo Hartley; Slaughterhouse Rulez, Prevenge) clean up a condemned cottage and salvage valuable from an abandoned train depot in the remote village of Mortlake. The Mortlake locals include some horrendously toothy mouths. Truly, these fake teeth are ill-fit and look laughably stupid. And just as stupid, the acting and writing is pretty rough. The first 40 minutes is a brutally boring slog. And even once the violence and gore kick off, the scenes in between just drag.
A hostile interaction with some of the locals results in an accidental injury which spirals out of control into murder and really weird abduction. These inbred hillbillies restrain and torture their victims as part of a literal “performance” for the locals. Produce is jammed into one victim’s nostrils as a thonged organist scores the live act. There’s a completely lackluster death by “casually walking horse” and the derpy locals applaud by clacking rocks together like cavemen. Another victim is orally pumped full of farm feces until he literally explodes on the elated audience. And yes, some of these moments were enjoyable. But they were just that—“moments.” Moments amid long stretches of “why am I watching this?”
The gore highlight for me was a silly mangled hand, mutilated from a gunshot. Or perhaps the simplicity of the landmine explosion of one of the delinquents. These amounted to more than just moments, but hardly qualified as anything more than brief scenes. I wanted more of this, but I suspect budget was the limiting culprit here.
When there is violence, it transpires entirely on-screen, it’s brutally abrupt and graphic, and quite gory. The special effects rely noticeably on CGI. But the CGI is more to its complement than its detriment. Again, budget and brevity are what hamstring my enjoyment. Too bad. Even the very best screen grab that got me to watch this movie was on screen so briefly that you could blink and miss it entirely (below).
To call this movie stupid would be a gross understatement. However, its efforts in the gore department must be commended. When things get shot or explode, they really do so in graphic fashion. Some of you may appreciate this kind of bad movie fare. But this one just didn’t do it for me “enough” to recommend.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 565: Timeline, Trebuchets, and Michael Crichton
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Erik discuss the 2003 science fiction film Timeline. Directed by Richard Donner, and starring Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, Frances O’Connor and several trebuchets, the movie focuses on what happens when a group of archaeologists travel back in time and get involved in some historical shenanigans. In this episode, they also talk about Michael Crichton adaptations, trebuchets and Paul Walker. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 (2011), a grisly sequel deserving of a part 3!
MY CALL: Not as good as part 1, but still a gory, gooey, sticky, gross slasher delight that remains mean to the bone. MORE MOVIES LIKE Laid to Rest 2: For more ultra-mean and ultra-gory slasher fare, be sure you saw the original Laid to Rest (2009), The Hills Run Red (2009), Hatchet I-IV (2006-2017) and Terrifier 1-2 (2016, 2022).
Director and writer Robert Hall (Fear Clinic, Laid to Rest) picks this sequel up with the very scene that ended Laid to Rest (2009), as our nameless final girl is driven from the gas station with Tommy (Thomas Dekker; A Nightmare on Elm Street, Village of the Damned, Laid to Rest). Our amnesiac final girl from part 1 (Bobbi Sue Luther) is replaced with a new actress (Allison Kyler; Maneater, Toolbox Murders 2, Prom Night).
Preston (Brian Austin Green), a detective investigating the crime scene, discovers Chromeskull’s camera and… Chromeskull (Nick Principe; Xenophobia, Laid to Rest) is not dead! Preston then tracks down our final girl and reveals his sinister motives when he slices her up on camera.
The cadaverous gore remains pleasurably graphic and intense. The first victim boasts some seriously macabre imagery, and the surgery scene (saving Chromeskull) is really grotesque, with a post-op face that is quite the spectacle!
Apparently Preston is involved in “something” that affords him access to a Swiss bank account, a really swanky office decorated in “Chromeskull” masks, and an assistant Spann (Danielle Harris; Hatchet II-IV, Halloween I-II, The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond). They work for Chromeskull.
Some disagreements in the chain of command create insurrection in this apparent “Chromeskull LLC.” This may add some complexity to the story (compared to part 1), but not in any manner that garners my favor. Frankly, I’d rather have some of my yet unanswered questions from part 1 addressed. But instead, I just have more questions. But you know what? As long as all the death scenes and gore effects remain flaming red hot, I’m not going to complain! I don’t mind that this steers away from the mysterious slasher and instead steers in the direction of Saw IV-VI (2009).
These movies really feature some truly inspired death scenes. The creativity behind these knife lacerations makes slashers exciting again. Knives get jammed and caught in some unexpected places, and their dislodging often entails the unfurling of large flaps of flesh revealing huge, gaping, sticky wounds. My favorite death scene may have been the one when a guy’s head is sheered vertically until the two halves flop in either direction. It was also a splendor when a victim’s throat (or entire neck) was minced to roast beef until the weight of its body beneath yanked itself decapitated.
This sequel was definitely not as wow-tastic as the original. But I really enjoyed it still! The gore is persists turned up to an “11” with incredibly creative implementation of that gore and the death scenes themselves.
We end the film with the knowledge that Chromeskull and his organization still function. Unfortunately, there never came about a part 3. With the recent success of the ultra-mean, ultra-gory Terrifier (2016, 2022) movies, I can only hope Chromeskull may likewise find his due resurrection.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 564: Wild Things, Trashy Thrillers, and Neve Campbell
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
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Mark and Zanandi (@Zanandi on X) discuss the 1998 crime thriller Wild Things. Directed by John McNaughton, and starring Neve Campell, Denise Richards, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, and several alligators, it’s one of the best trashy thrillers of the 1990s. In this episode, they also discuss pool fights, peeping animals, and the best trashy thrillers of the 1990s. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Bad Movie Tuesday: The Boogeyman (1980), a pretty lame but pretty fun to watch B-movie about a campy evil spirit in a mirror.
MY CALL: This silly, campy, extra bad movie is a perfect Bad Movie Tuesday. The death scenes occasionally don’t seem like they’d be fatal, we never properly understand what the evil entity even is, and the “rules” of this horror movie seem to develop and change scene by scene like even the writer never had a proper grasp on it. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Boogeyman: For more Boogeyman movies, try The Boogeyman (2023) and The Boogeyman (2005). Then move on to Candyman (1992), Jeepers Creepers 1-2 (2001, 2003), Darkness Falls (2003), The Babadook (2014), The Bye Bye Man (2017), which I find to be yet more fun and/or better and/or intense movies with much better “horror” backing their Boogeymen.
Growing up with their abusive harlot mother, Lacey (Suzanna Love; Boogeyman II, The Devonsville Terror) and Willy (Nicholas Love; Jennifer 8, Twin Peaks) were two traumatized kids. Young Willy murdered his mother’s horrible boyfriend as his kid sister watched. Needless to say, if their mother’s abusive boyfriend becomes a ghost, he’s gonna’ be a problem for these two.
Now adults, Willy is a mute farmhand and Lacey has a husband and child. They receive word that their mother, who they haven’t seen in twenty years, is dying and wishes to see them one last time. This brings about graphic, mildly sexualized nightmares in Lacey. Meanwhile, Willy seems to be violently triggered by sexuality, and both siblings seem to be having irrational responses to mirrors.
Dr. Warren (John Carradine; Evils of the Night, The Nesting, The Howling, The Sentinel, Buried Alive) advises that Lacey face her fear and revisit her childhood home, the origin of her trauma. At her mother’s house, a mirror is accidentally broken and some form of evil is somehow freed to wreak lame havoc on this movie. Shortly after it shatters, a young woman in the house is forced (I guess by an unseen force?) to stab herself in the throat with scissors in a rather dull death scene. And then her kid brother is I guess killed when a window seemingly softly drops down on his neck. Finally a medicine cabinet door bitch-slaps the remaining sibling—killing her!?!?! Yup. Death by medicine cabinet bitch slap. That’s a thing in this movie.
So the rules apparently are as follows: 1) mirrors are bad and bring out the worst in us, and 2) the presence of broken mirrors turns truly deadly. I’m glad we cleared up this very well-written concept in this garbage movie.
In the name of all things stupid, a piece of mirror flings itself to the floor where Lacey’s son steps on it. Mind you, this is now a different mirror back at Lacey’s house. It then sticks to the boy’s shoe (SOMEHOW) and he transports it to the lake behind their property. Then, while the boy is sitting by the lake fishing, the sun reflects off this piece of mirror on his shoe to an abandoned cabin on the other side of the lake, where some twentysomething couples are hanging out. We hear heavy breathing and see POV of I guess the murderous spirit of the mirrors as a knife telekinetically stabs a guy through the back of the head and out his mouth, which then “kiss stabs” his girlfriend with the aid of more telekinesis slamming her in the butt with the car door (into the deadly kiss) in a very dumb, but admittedly laughable “so bad it’s good” death scene.
Okay, let’s review the new additional rules. So apparently 3) the mirrors and their broken fragments are intelligent and self-ambulatory to some degree AND mirrors are connected like a phone network with other mirrors; 4) the glare reflection of the mirror counts as the presence of an evil mirror regarding the mirror’s evil, murderous influence; and 5) the Boogeyman of the mirror has the power of telekinesis and is a mouth-breathing panter. I guess this better explains the scissors death scene from earlier. And now with this heavy breathing, it finally feels like there is a poltergeist-boogeyman, whereas before this just felt like a bunch of haphazard supernatural effects.
After our incorporeal boogeyman sexually assaults Lacey, they call their local priest. More dead bodies (that we never saw killed) turn up, the boogeyman cuts the phone lines and possesses Lacey, the lighting turns green because “why not, Argento does it, right?”, and levitations and in-door windstorms ensue. The priest attempts a weak-ass exorcism and gets stabbed in the back with truly a dozen kitchen knives. It’s all so horrible and campy, but amusingly watchable for its tremendous faults.
In the end, they somehow explode a mirror by dropping it in a well on their farm, and everything seems to be fine again. Or is it? Oh, snap! It’s not okay. Cue heavy breathing sounds! At least we now know for the sequel, yes there’s actually a sequel to this craptastic bad movie, that 6) priests don’t work against evil mirrors, and 7) farm wells detonate evil mirrors BUT then the mirror respawns like a FPS videogame avatar to start killing again. And knowing’s half the battle, G. I. Joe!
This movie is bad. The death scenes occasionally don’t seem like they’d even be fatal, we never properly understand what the crap this evil entity even is, and the “rules” of this horror movie seem to develop and change scene by scene like even the writer never had a proper grasp on it. Director and co-writer Ulli Lommel (Boogeyman II, Zombie Nation, Return of the Boogeyman, The Tomb) clearly knows exactly how to make an effective Bad Movie Tuesday. So you may just expect future coverage of his sequel here on Movies, Films and Flix.
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John’s Horror Corner: The Boogeyman (2023), an enjoyable PG-13 “family therapy horror” with a shadow demon.
MY CALL: This would be better advertised as a jumpy “monster in the closet” type of “monster movie.” It’s fun, creepy, well-acted, and exciting once the monster is in play. Definitely not the “terrifying” film that was advertised, though. I’d call this a satisfying one-and-done, Friday night popcorn flick.
MORE MOVIES LIKE The Boogeyman: Maybe something like Shadow People (2012) or Cobweb (2023) for mature dread, or more like Mama (2013) or Lights Out (2016) for similar energy.
For more (and more intense) horror films about grief and dysfunctional family, consider Frailty (2001), The Uninvited (2009), The Babadook (2014), Goodnight Mommy (2014, 2022), Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), The Lodge (2019) and Relic (2020).
Our opening introduces us to young characters’ apprehensive of the dark recesses of their closets. Recently bereft of her mother, Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher; Yellowjackets) has a tough time returning to school. As a therapist, her father Will (Chris Messina; Devil, I.S.S.) helps others with their fear, grief and guilt on a daily basis. Yet his greatest challenge is connecting to help his daughters.
An unexpected walk-in appointment to Will’s in-home practice, Lester (David Dastmalchian; Late Night with the Devil, The Belko Experiment) has recently lost his three children to something that he cannot explain very well. It’s something of a ‘shadow monster’ that comes and takes your children “when you’re not paying attention.” Lester comes to a tragic end compounding the trauma of the Harper family. We learn Lester’s monster attaches itself to vulnerable families and claims them one by one.
This “monster in the closet” emerges from the shadows as a very tangible creature to fear. Resembling a gangly-limbed demon of sorts, it swiftly skitters under the bed, hiding in shadows, rattling and slamming doors, even crawling on the ceiling. Sadie’s kid sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair; Bird Box) is stalked by this entity, and it toys with her, knocking on doors and imitating voices.
Yeah, PG-13 horror is generally much less intense than its R counterparts. And yeah, that means I’m usually in no rush to see them. But exceptions rise above. Movies like The Ring (2002), Mama (2013), Lights Out (2016), and now The Boogeyman stand out as solid, jumpy, creepy, tense installments to PG-13 horror—even if Boogeyman ranks below the aforementioned titles. The creature is legitimately off-putting and manifests from the darkness, skittering about to avoid the light. It’s definitely an engaging viewing experience.
The monster is fast, feral, and gives wild chase, making the movie quite energized at times. It lacks the dire dread of The Ring (2002), but it has its brief moments capturing some of the exciting flavor of A Quiet Place (2018). This is more like A Quite Place-LITE. But still fun. I’d say director Rob Savage (Dashcam, Host) is now three for three in the horror genre, even if this may be his lesser work.
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The Watchers (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – C – Directed Ishana Night Shyamalan, this adaptation of A.M. Shine’s 2022 novel never feels cohesive as there are multiple elements and twists that work against the flow of the supernatural thriller.
At first glance, The Watchers, a film about four people being trapped in a dense supernatural Irish forest, was the perfect property for Ishana Night Shyamalan to adapt into a feature length film. Ishana grew up watching her father trap people in places (Signs, Split, The Village, Lady in the Water, Old, Devil, Lady in the Water, Knock at the Cabin, The Visit, After Earth), so directing a film about four people becoming prisoners inside an isolated bunker surrounded by mysterious monsters is a smart idea. However, the film never really comes together because there’s no clear focus on a central theme. The movie looks good (1.85:1 aspect ratio gives the forest a nice height), and the performances from Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell (watch Barbarian – she is so good in it), Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré (Mandy, Sea Fever – watch them too) are solid, but The Watchers never feels like a cohesive or focused endeavor.
The Watchers focuses on an American named Mina (Dakota Fanning), who lives in Galway and is struggling with demons from her past that will play an important part during the climax of the movie. She works at a pet shop and is tasked with delivering a sassy bird to its new owner in Belfast. On her journey, Mina gets lost and finds herself deep inside a dense forest that is home to monsters who live under the ground and come out at night. She miraculously finds safety inside a well-fortified shelter that has a mysterious two-way mirror covering an entire side of it. Inside the bunker, she meets Ciara (Campbell), Madeline (Fouéré), and Daniel (Finnegan), who have been trapped in the bunker for at least five months. Together, they forage for food during the daylight hours, and spend their nights being watched by the creatures outside their shelter. In a cheeky bit of irony, the only entertainment they have in their safehaven is a DVD copy of a cheesy reality dating show that they watch each night. Since it’s a Shyamalan family film, I don’t want to spoil any more of the plot because there are inevitable twists and turns that occur in the woods.
The biggest problem with the film is that Shyamalan can’t keep the narrative flowing smoothly – which grinds the movie to a halt several times. Thrillers are deceptively hard to write and direct because they rely on building tension that cannot be interrupted with a bad edit or misplaced scene. Successful thrillers draw audiences in and immerse them. Less-successful thrillers kill the suspense when the story isn’t focused or there are too many competing themes or characters. It’s a bit frustrating because if certain elements were combined (or dropped for the sake of pacing) The Watchers could’ve been wrangled into a fun high-concept thriller that takes place in a single location. Instead, Shyamalan splits up the action and turns a simple idea into something a little too complicated. As a first-time feature director she’s shown a lot of promise, and there’s no doubt she’ll learn from this and come back stronger with a tight script and focus for her next project.
Movies, Films & Flix 