GrahamS.

My main problem with this movie—which took me awhile to realize—is that it uses a real mental illness that unfortunately has a stigma to put the whole movie in motion. The unseen sister—who murders the protagonists entire family—is mentioned as being bi-polar. A good number of people in the U.S. are bi-polar. The majority of them don’t murder their families. Movies and TV shows that sprinkle mental illness on their plots to make events more dramatic are annoying at best and harmful at worst. There was no solid reason in Midsommar why the sister had to be bi-polar. The only reason I can think of to have it is that Florence Pugh’s character seems mentally unstable at the outset and depression and bi-polar run in families. This detail could have been developed in an interesting way, but nothing was done with it. Unlike Hereditary, it really felt to me like we weren’t really allowed to see the movies’ events through the protagonist’s head. The film kept her—and all of the characters—at arms length. The film was interesting enough to keep me engaged for about half of its length, and although its use of mental illness as a plot device bugged me from the get-go, I was initially willing to ignore it. it wasn’t until the final third, where the film really didn’t seem to have anything coherent to say about grief or mental illness or romantic relationships (despite acting like it was), that I began to resent it for being an empty vessel and its use of mental illness felt especially cheap. If you enjoy the style behind it, and like it, cool! For me, it’s the definition of “the emperor has no clothes,” and I never want to watch it again. P.S. Not trying to put people on the defensive for liking it. this realization of WHY I disliked it so much only occurred to me over two months after I’d seen it (and initially posted about it).

If they had a Marvel/Clue movie where they plotted to actually murder each other in an old mansion, I would totally get behind that! I’ve gotten pretty jaded with comic book films, but that would be a fun crossover. Just put your Avengers action figures on the Clue board to try it out!

I had the Clue board game as well. I vaguely remember that being an attempted trend in the 80s—incorporate your VCR into your board game! I vaguely remember there was one for Trivial Pursuit, too. i think we played the interactive Clue game once or twice but I watched the video a bunch of times. Don’t remember a damn thing about it.

Never mind, I was able to remove my entire trail of ill-gotten likes.

I accidentally liked my own post due to my clumsy thumbs. I will atone by giving myself a hedgehog,

The Devil’s Candy is a hard book to find but it’s a great portrait of how a film can go disastrously wrong. i saw the movie when I was in high school, then read the book to make sense of the movie but the book was kinda over my head (I was 15 when the movie came out). i rewatched the movie after finally getting ahold of—and reading—The Devil’s Candy and all I remember about the film itself is that it’s an amazing train wreck.

I’ll be honest—I have not seen this film, nor am I sure I will ever see this film, but... I DO NOT THINK THIS IS A FILM ANYONE ASKED FOR. EVER. Making R-rated horror films out of obscure Hanna-Barbera shows seems like a dubious proposition at best, but who knows, maybe it’s brilliant? I liked “Meet the Feebles” (a pre-“Lord of the Rings,” REALLY fucked up Peter Jackson movie) back in the day, but I’m not sure that it’s a style that needs to be revisited. Anyhoo, here’s the YouTube link to the trailer and it’s currently available for streaming. Maybe this film is worthy of discussion, maybe not.

I would add something worthwhile to this discussion, but I had to get so stoned to make it through this movie that I barely remember it. And I watched the Mystery Science Theater version. i remember...bright twinkly lights. The feeling that the space journeys were very slow and plastic-y. Lots of plastic in general. Being confused as to what everyone was talking about, Hoping that they kept the set warm for the skimpy outfits. vaguely thinking that the woman should be kicking ass but it seemed like all the men were saving her. Even the robot did. I dunno, that could just be the pot talking and it’s possible I hallucinated large chunks of this film. generally being amazed at how terrible all the men’s hair looked.

The Beach Bum is written and directed by Harmony Korine, who specializes in WTF movies. His two most conventional films are Spring Breakers and Kids (which he wrote), which says something (but for the record, I actually liked the oddball Spring Breakers). I haven’t seen The Beach Bum, but I’m sure it’s bonkers, because all of his films are.

When I saw this movie when it was in theaters, the fire alarm went off when it got to the batshit visuals, which felt oddly appropriate. The only other thing I remember from it was that Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn were both terrible and the movie felt like a standard-issue, gross serial killer movie. Oh, and Vince Vaughn’s being disgustingly disemboweled (not that there’s such a thing as a pleasant disembowelment). So I guess I remembered more than one thing..

I have to say, Billy the Kid looks awfully pasty in the poster for a Wild West gunslinger.

Is it the American outlaw Billy the Kid? If so, lots of genre-hopping here.

Just wanted to say I agreed with your observations 100%. I also was curious to see it and had no set expectations, so I cant say I was disappointed either. I also questioned how the mom could hold onto him without social services getting involved. I think the film could make a really compelling depiction for the main character’s natural psychological devolution into Joker, and I really like that idea, but the film just gets too busy with its various plot threads. As a result, crucial details like this kinda get the short end. —spoiler ahead Would a longer cut help? Possibly, but the film started losing my interest when it hinted that he and Bruce Wayne were half-brothers. I REALLY wanted the film to head into this fucked-up territory, but it chickened out. it didn’t ruin the film for me, but it was one of the plot lines that ended up diluting the movie. I also don’t think a longer run time would help flesh out the supporting characters—it simply doesn’t seem to be what the film cares about. I’d still watch it—like I said, there are things in the movie that I liked, it just doesn’t cohere as a whole, and I doubt that can be fixed in 30 minutes. out of curiosity, I got You Were Never Really Here (another Joaquin movie) that’s supposed to be a similar type of character/performance. I’ve heard it’s really good, but haven’t watched it yet. If there’s any notable comparisons, I’ll write about it.

IT IS ALREADY STREAMING FOR FREE ON HOOPLA. This is two months after it first started streaming. Haven’t watched it yet, but will watch it soon.

It’s ...something. The performers give it their all. I watched it for a fun Halloween-y movie and it’s not that. It felt like it was trying to be on a Black Swan-type head trip and it’s not that either. it is nuts, I just found it overbearing. It’s worth mentioning that it includes strongly implied scenes of sexual assault, just FYI.

Maybe someone should mail it to Paul!

Holy shit, this entire movie is on YouTube for free! It’s subtitled in Spanish. I made it three minutes in before I had to turn it off. I’ll give it credit, I was laughing that entire time. Maybe if I stick to a 3-minute a day dose, I’ll have finished the movie in 30 days.

I admired this video, but was blown away by the “girl next door” one, where none of the lyrics seemed to fit together in the same song. I also liked the irony of her singing that she wasn’t the girl next door while dancing around a very bland looking carnival. From these clips, I could honestly picture June liking this movie.

Is the choreography like the Spike Jonze/Fatboy Slim community theatre video? Because that would be something.

So I didn’t watch it this weekend because I was sick with a bad cold and had a few other things going on (saw Al Franken speak, which was interesting, saw a play, saw Joker). I think I have to pay for it because I don’t have Amazon (I have HBO, Hulu and Shudder and Netflix. That’s enough for me). I am willing to do it to put my two cents in and want to participate with the group, if it’s worth it at all. Is it? (Full disclosure, I did watch the trailer and it looked TERRIBLE).

No, you weren’t being a Debbie Downer at all. I agree with all the observations/frustrations people have talked about in this thread. I just mentioned those episodes as things to look forward to, not trying to be critical of what everyone else was saying.

I will say, both Fateful Findings and The Visitor (NOT the Richard Jenkins movie)—which I saw live—will make for amazing conversations, whenever those episodes air. There’s always new stuff to look forward to!

But one the other hand, I hear ya. When I first started my account, I posted about how much Midsommar sucked (and I still think that film sucks). Everyone has their own opinion.

Much rather have this than the majority of Zack Snyder’s films.

Have to disagree with you one million percent. Just saw it in IMAX tonight and loved it. But I guess it’s going to be divisive because it resists easy categorization.