In-Review: March 2024
Kristen Stewart and Bodybuilders, Dev Patel, and Plenty of New Links
Remember that time there weren’t any new movies coming out? Those times were quiet and uneventful. Now there’s something worthwhile hitting the cineplexes every week! Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire shook the box office over the holiday weekend and now we’re being treated to movies like Monkey Man, Civil War, and Challengers. Subscribing to a movie ticket program never looked so good.
The programming at home looks swell too. New TV shows on Netflix like the adaptation of 3 Body Problem or Ripley are equally exciting. Not to mention the glut of documentaries that have been coming out— The Truth vs. Alex Jones on Max or Spermworld on Hulu, the nonfiction realm has been exciting as well. Still to come in April are the exciting new shows Fallout on Amazon Prime Video and The Sympathizer on Max.
As for me, I’ve updated the podcast website and I’m meeting with some reps from newsletter provider Beehiiv about migrating the newsletter to their site. Hopefully, that will mean nothing to you, but figured I’d share that information here anyway. I’ll let everyone know if we make the move.
Instead of talking about a movie you can’t watch, I wanted to spotlight a new category on the Criterion Channel for April. They’ve collected seven of Makoto Shinkai’s movies for subscribers to watch (It’s more like four and three shorts, but we’ll call it seven). Most of his works are there except Weathering With You and Suzume which can be streamed on Max and Crunchyroll respectively. I’ve loved Shinkai’s movies for a long time and I’ve been excited to write about his films (here, here) and interview him in the past. The international sensation Your Name. is the best place to start when picking which one of his features to watch, but honestly, Voices of a Distant Star has always been my favorite. The weakest movie is probably A Place Promised in Our Early Days, but it’s a filmography well worth checking out.
Here are the movies I caught up with in March:
Mini-Review - Love Lies Bleeding
The sophomore feature from director Rose Glass has a little bit of everything. Are you looking for steroid abuse from a jacked lady bodybuilder? We’ve got that. Are you looking for strange hippie drug lord Ed Harris? We’ve got that too. How about a queer love story between Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian? Well, that’s there too.
What I’m getting at is Love Lies Bleeding is a whole lot of movie. It’s set in the late ‘80s, where Lou (Stewart) maintains a crappy gym with an equally crappy plumbing issue. When we first see Lou, she’s elbow-deep in a clogged toilet expunging it of whatever disgusting refuse was contained within. A local girl (Anna Baryshnikov) has the hots of Lou, but she’s not all that interested. The only reason why Lou continues to work this dead-end job is to support her sister who is trapped in an abusive relationship. Lou’s world instantly becomes more exciting when she meets Jackie (O’Brian). Jackie dreams of competing in a bodybuilding event in Vegas— her new relationship with Lou might be the support she needs, even if that support comes from an unlimited supply of steroids.
A movie about substance abuse might be entertaining in its own right, but Love Lies Bleeding has other plans. I won’t spoil the twist here, but this absolutely turns into a thrill ride. The heart of it all is O’Brian’s performance. I wasn’t familiar with her work before, but she’s incredible in this and holds her own against Stewart. It’s not surprising that shortly after the release of Love Lies Bleeding the trades announced she had joined Mission: Impossible 8. Love Lies Bleeding is a terrific feature that kept me on the edge of my seat until the strange and beautiful end. [B]
Podcast
The first podcast episode with new co-host Evan Crean is live wherever you listen to podcasts (most likely). We discuss the movies of Actor/Director Dev Patel ahead of the premiere of his feature debut Monkey Man.
Our next episode will be on the Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End) in honor of Shaun of the Dead’s twentieth anniversary.
Links
I was surprised at how well Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire did on opening weekend (I wasn’t even sure when it was opening, to be honest.) Apparently, I was alone on that front since the movie took in a cool $80m over the Easter holiday. Here’s a new interview from RogerEbert.com with the director of the movie, Adam Wingard.
An interview with Twin Peaks actor Kyle MacLachlan? Discussing his role in the ‘80s Dune movie? That’s a must-read in my book.
Having just finished watching The People’s Joker (you can watch it in select theaters on April 5th), I instantly wanted to read more about Director/Star Vera Drew. Polygon has an interview with the director and RogerEbert.com looks at other movies that were caught in legal trouble.
The other day would’ve been Marlon Brando’s 100th birthday. This article from Indiewire ranks his performances. I’ve learned that I’ve seen far fewer Marlon Brando movies than I thought!
I also caught up with the new Steve Martin documentary on Apple TV+. It’s billed as a documentary split into two parts, but the parts are so different it’s essentially two different movies entirely. Both are worthwhile. Here’s an article on Vulture that talks about the two parts of the doc.
Now that The Abyss is available for everyone to watch on home video or digital services again, Vulture has taken a look at why it was a flop when it first came out.
Conde Nast recently dismantled Pitchfork, but twenty years ago it was the pinnacle of Indie music reviews IMHO. One of the most notorious reviews ever was of Jet’s Get Born album. It wasn’t even worthy of a written review, instead, it received a score of 0.0 and the review consisted of a video— the video was of a monkey peeing into his mouth. Now The Ringer is looking back at that famous review and how it came to be.