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I wanted to call attention to this movie because it blipped across my radar before the pandemic hit, but I didn’t really know much about it until I watched it tonight. Now, if you can get on it’s oddball wavelength, I think it’s one of the funniest comedies to be released this year. All of the actors are awesome (particularly the Maeve Higgins and Barry Ward) and it mixes (and subverts) horror and rom-com cliches in clever and funny ways. Obviously taste is subjective and it got decent—not rave—reviews, but I’ve been watching some heavy films lately (I pretty much watched Relic and She’ll Die Tomorrow back to back for some fucked-up reason) and this was a film that I was thoroughly, unexpectedly entertained by. With the world the way that it is, it was a refreshing distraction, which right now is a small miracle. But maybe I’m just a sucker for movies where Will Forte plays an inept Satanist. P.S., I don’t recommend judging it by the trailer, it just makes it look weird and dumb.

This is basically me repeating myself from Cameron’s post about top movies of the year because I wanted to call attention to this one. The more I think about it, the more it REALLY stuck with me. I’m curious what other people thought. Here’s my reaction from earlier: i Just watched Jennifer Kent’s (director of The Babadook) The Nightingale on Hulu. Holy shit. I don’t believe in ordered lists but for me, this is going behind Parasite as number 2. a lot of controversy surrounded this film and people walked out of theaters when it screened at festivals. This is due to the fact that the film contains THREE rape sequences (including a gang rape), the death of children (including a baby) and some brutal violence. Plus it’s almost 140 minutes long. There’s no doubt that this is a film seething with rage. It’s also a very human and extremely well-made one, that is extremely well-acted and beautifully shot in the Outback. It has moments of character-based humor and is a buddy movie as well as a feminist revenge Australian western. For it’s length, the film never drags and Kent doesn’t shy away from the horror of the rape sequences, but she doesn’t linger on them either (plus, on Hulu you can just skip through them, which I was guilty of once or twice). she is a master of building to a brutal set piece, then easing back to observe the characters. It’s an unexpectedly moving film, actually. This film seemed felt similar to Django Unchained and The Revenant, but feels more grounded in reality. Like Ive said, Kent does not shy from brutality, but neither does Tarantino or many other male directors. I just feel like this film deserves to be talked about more and will age really well.  Here’s the preview: