— छह हज़ार बत्तीस —
Not much to update on today. I went to a movie right after work yesterday, a horror movie called
Obsession that is hardly an instant classic but is still way better than most movies like it are.
It was interesting to browse through other people's takes
on Letterboxd, though. People are
loving this movie, especially if they are horror fans—it has an average of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd, which is quite high, and even more complementary than the
77 score on MetaCritic that was the biggest reason I saw the movie to begin with.
For my part, I gave the movie a solid B as a letter grade, but still gave it 3.5 stars on Letterboxd. And here is something I often do: I filtered the Letterboxd reviews to only those with my same rating or lower, just so I can make sure I wasn't crazy and there are other people on the same page. In the case of this movie, though, it was here that I found the sprinkling of one- and two-star reviews who can't believe no one else can see how "bad" the movie is. And more than one of them mentions how it's really about a rapist, because the protagonist becomes fully aware that the woman he has wished to fall in love with him has had her autonomy completely taken from her and she has sex with her anyway. I'm a little embarrassed I didn't see that fully for what it was, but the take is correct.
I'm less angry about it being about that at all than I am slightly frustrated that the writer-director, Curry Barker, seems fully conscious of this aspect, but does not at all fully explore it as a theme, and still centers the man in the story. These are all pretty problematic details if you dig deep enough. I find myself wondering how much better this movie might have been had it been made by a woman. But, that doesn't make me think I should have given it a lesser grade than I did; there's still a lot in it that's very well done, in spite of its flaws—particularly the performances. Letterboxd reviewers almost exclusively rave about Inde Navarrette's performance as the possessed woman, but I thought Michael Johnston's performance as the anxious, insecure, and wildly selfish protagonist was extraordinarily well-done.
— छह हज़ार बत्तीस —
— छह हज़ार बत्तीस —
The movie was at 4:30, which made it an easy bike ride over to Pacific Place, where I parked my bike at the racks in the back of the first level down in the parking garage as usual, and then I rode it home after the movie was done. I spent the next hour or so writing the review, and then I hung out with Shobhit for a while as he continued binging old
Malcolm in the Middle episodes on Disney+. He's on the sixth season, and there was one season after that, at least until the recent reboot. It's kind of wild how many hit TV shows from a couple of decades ago have been rebooted with nearly all the same cast in recent years:
The Connors (formerly Roseanne),
Frasher,
Night Court,
Scrubs,
Will & Grace,
And Just Like That (formerly
Sex and the City),
Malcolm in the Middle. And that's just a few of them. I don't know if you want to count
The Comeback, which has had three seasons which all consistently got released about once a decade. That one's title is sure an evergreen one for its release model though.
Anyway. Last night was the second of
four movies I'm seeing in theaters this week, although one of them I won't need to write a full review for: I'm seeing a 4K restoration of
Barry Lyndon at SIFF Cinema Downtown (Cinerama) tonight, and I'm pretty excited about it. I keep thinking about how long it was known as an incredibly slow, three-hour movie, but since the last time I saw it, years and years ago, I have slogged through such
truly glacial movies (
A Ghost Story;
Memoria; after it ranked #1 on the latest Sigh and Sound poll, I even sat through
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, promting
my first-ever Letterboxd review), I expect
Barry Lyndon to feel perfectly well-paced by comparison. Even at a runtime of three hours and 5 minutes. I'm actually rather looking forward to it, just because it'll be the first time I see it both in 4K and on not just a big screen, but the best cinema screen in town.
Tomorrow starts a four-day stretch of time spent with Gabriel. I'll be taking the Sounder train down to Kent Station and meeting up with him, Lea, Tess, and Tess's girlfriend Berkeley to watch
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars film release in seven years, and it's been nine years since a particularly
good Star Wars film was released. I'll take the bus home after, and then Gabriel will pick me up on Friday on our way up to our weekend getaway on Lummi Island. I'm really looking forward to it all.
— छह हज़ार बत्तीस —
[posted 12:27pm]
