THE MENU (September 2022)

 

THE MENU

(September 2022)

“Twelve customers, total.”

“A night? How do they turn a profit?”

“Twelve-fifty a head. That’s how.”

“You’re f*cking kidding, right? What are we eating, a Rolex?”

Searchlight Pictures invites us to experience The Menu (or so the opening title cards tell us).

Mark Mylod, largely known for directing some major HBO titles (like Entourage, Game of Thrones, and Succession), takes a script written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy*, and presents us with this darkly humorous, class conscious piece that sees Ralph Fiennes as noted celebrity chef Julian Slowik.

“Here, we are family.

“Each day starts at 6, with 5 hours of prep work.

“We harvest. We ferment. We slaughter. We marinate. We liquefy. We spherify. We gel.”

Slowik, who we are told has “… always been keenly aware of food as a history of class” has risen in the ranks of celebrated chefs and now runs an exclusive restaurant on Hawthorne Island (apparently named after the restaurant, the island is “twelve acres of forest and pasture” surrounded by “the bounty of the sea”, as explained during the guided tour).

A restaurant that charges largely self-involved, entitled richies $1,250 a head for the privilege.

A restaurant described by Slowik as his “entire life”.

A restaurant run obsessively by Slowik in a practically cult-like manner, on an island without a boat or phone service.

So many red flags…

“Trust me, he’s telling a story. That’s what makes his food so exciting. He’s not just a chef. He’s a storyteller. And he doesn’t give a f*ck about the rules.”

To say any more would risk ruining the “wonderful surprises” indicated on the one sheet featuring Fiennes, so perhaps we should leave it at that, for those of you curious enough to seek this title out.

Not exactly a comedy, but not really a full-on horror movie either**, The Menu is smart, biting commentary with a killer cast (yes, that is indeed Anya Taylor-Joy on the second one sheet) that just begs to be savored and relished, as Slowik would have it…

So go on and do just that, yeah?

“You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.”

* The script appeared on the 2019 Black List, alongside the screenplays for:

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Kevin Etten and Tom Gormican);

Don’t Worry Darling (Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke; the screenplay as filmed is credited to Katie Silberman, with the Van Dykes and Silberman getting “Story By” credits);

and the upcoming Knock at the Cabin.

What appeared on the 2019 List was the initial draft, still titled The Cabin at the End of the World, adapted by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman from the Paul Tremblay novel.

What we’re going to get with Knock at the Cabin is the script, as rewritten and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (on the one sheets, the credits read: Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan and Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman).

** Even the awards-giving bodies seem torn; most of the film’s nominations fall under the Comedy category, but Colin Stetson was nominated for his score at 2022’s Hollywood Music in Media awards under the Horror/Thriller Film category…

To be fair though, the HMMA apparently has no Comedy categories…

And, for the record, Michael Abels took home that particular award for his Nope score…

(The Menu OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

BARBARIAN (August 2022)

BARBARIAN

(August 2022)

“That's not... An Airbnb. In Brightmoor?”

More so than any other horror film released last year that I had the opportunity to see, Barbarian is definitely the title that begs to be seen as arctic cold as possible, with the barest minimum of knowledge about what the movie is about. (Arguably, even more so than Jordan Peele’s Nope.)

And, for those of you who are familiar with the Iguana environs, you’ll know that I’d sooner say what the movie is actually about (its thematics) than say what the movie is apparently about (its narrative/plot).

The thing is, I can’t even get into Barbarian’s thematics without possibly spoiling what could be a very enjoyable and surprising horror ride for you, so, this is all you’ll get here:

Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) arrives at 476 Barbary only to discover that there’s apparently been a double-booking, with Keith Toshko (Bill Skarsgård, also an Executive Producer) already there.

Then… let’s just say things go on and develop from that starting point, leading to some very dark and twisty places, territories which are not for any sensitive, faint of heart souls…

“You’re just as put out as me.”

Writer/director Zach Cregger cites Jordan Peele’s Get Out* as a prime motivator for Barbarian (like Peele, Cregger has a background in comedy), which is just one more reason to thank the esteemed Mr. Peele for his role in helping enrich and enliven contemporary horror cinema.

Now, get on out there (heh) and seek this one out to see what all the fuss is about…

“No, you shouldn’t be there.”

* In Cregger’s own words: “[Get Out] is a perfect movie and it gave me permission to change genres, write for myself, be funny and have something to say.”

(Barbarian OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

NOPE (July 2022)

    

NOPE

(July 2022)

“I will cast abominable filth at you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.”

--Nahum 3:6

“What if I told you… that in about an hour… you’ll leave here different?”

Just as Us was a different cinematic animal than Get Out, so is Jordan Peele's latest, Nope, a different beast, perhaps even more so.

It isn't the same kind of “social thriller” Get Out and Us most definitely were.

His assertions regarding “the big summer blockbuster spectacle film” and “the violence of attention”? Well, he rather effectively addresses those with Nope…

“Who is gonna go down there and get the star out of his trailer?”

Even more than his two previous films, Peele’s Nope asks its audience to enter it knowing as little as possible and with the least amount of preconceived notions.

Which, admittedly, could be a big ask for some simply because Get Out and Us were so very clearly about Something.

Well, Nope is about Something too, just not in the same way…

Or, you could look at it as Peele choosing to interrogate that Something in a different, more subtle way than his previous efforts.

“We don’t deserve the impossible.”

So let’s just talk about that cast instead, shall we?

Not only do we get some strong, noteworthy performances from the three top billers, Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer (as the Haywood siblings) and Steven Yeun, but the fine character writing by Peele extends even to Brandon Perea’s lovelorn retail jockey, Angel, and to Michael Wincott’s “legendary cinematographer,” Antlers Holst (particularly to the latter).

And speaking of that cast, we also get familiar ¡Qué horror! face Osgood Perkins*, sadly appearing all too briefly as Fynn Bachman.

We even get Donna Mills (Knots Landing, yo!) in the package!

“How exquisitely stupid is that?”

So just trust in the Peele, and go into Nope with as blank a slate as possible, and simply allow yourself to be dazzled by a genre virtuoso who very clearly levels up his filmmaking craft with his latest…

“Nobody f*cks with Haywood, b!tch! Nobody! You hear me?!”

* Peele and Perkins previously worked together on The Twilight Zone’s “You Might Also Like”.

Perkins, of course, has also appeared ‘round these parts for The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House.

(I really should get around to catching up on Gretel & Hansel…)

(Nope key art courtesy of impawards.com & bloody-disgusting.com)

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT (January 2022)

   

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT

(January 2022)

“Well, a lot of things are still mysteries. You just don’t expect to witness one on a sh!tty afternoon in your cheap apartment.”

Yes, another Moorhead & Benson Film crash lands ‘round these parts…

“I mean, what’s crazier? Believing every single coincidence you ever see or just ignoring them all?”

In Something in the Dirt, Levi (Justin Benson) has just moved into his “cheap” L.A. apartment, when some strange phenomena start, drawing in neighbor John (Aaron Moorhead), and resulting in both deciding to make a documentary to get everything on record and hopefully, find an explanation along the way. (And maybe, make some scratch too, if they can sell the doc to, oh, say, Netflix?)

“Well, why can’t it be a group like the Freemasons or the Moose Lodge or… what’s the one that’s on Discovery Channel all the time? It’s the Rose Croutons.”

“‘The Rose Croutons’? The Rosicrucians?”

Moorhead and Benson’s latest--which, from a certain perspective, is essentially their attempt to make The X-Files today--is a fascinating exploration of how people impose their own meanings onto everything that surrounds them, and how, in trying to solve the mysteries that face us, our own imperfections and obsessions tend to obscure and tarnish what should otherwise be the purity of the unknown and the unexplained.

“Stop being paranoid. It’s weird.”

Parting Shot: The duo’s past ¡Qué horror! mentions can be found here, and here, and here, and here.

(Something in the Dirt OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

SHE WILL (August 2021)

   

SHE WILL

(August 2021)

“We must all keep terribly, terribly calm.”

Imperiously curt and dismissive, Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) is an aging actress who’s recovering from a major medical procedure. Accompanied by her private nurse, Desi (Kota Eberhardt), Veronica is spending some time away from the glaring tabloid scene, at a retreat located in an area in Scotland where “about 3,000” women were once tried for witchcraft (these unfortunates referred to as “the burnt”).

It’s a place where the soil has a “very high proportion of human ashes”, the wind “sounds like whispers”, and it occasionally rains soot, which the locals call “witch feathers”…

“Desi, if you think you’re gonna survive this sh!tstorm called life by doing what’s ‘advisable’, you are seriously mistaken. You have to be all teeth. Claws. Trust me. The bastards will stop at nothing to grind you down.”

As it turns out, Veronica once worked on a film called Navajo Frontier, and was said to have had “a special bond” with the film’s director Eric Hathbourne (Malcolm McDowell).

Please note that she was just 13 years old at the time.

“Imagine that. To be able to love without ghosts in your bed. Look in the mirror. Feel hopeful. Clean the bastards out of you.”

Both Veronica and Desi are haunted, each in their own measure, and the dark territories they find themselves in have much to say about what these women should do with their personal ghosts.

Now, I’ve been a fan of Krige going all the way back to John Irvin’s adaptation of Peter Straub’s* Ghost Story, and she does not disappoint here.

Meanwhile, Eberhardt is a revelation as Desi. It’s a quiet and fiercely intelligent performance that serves to complement Krige’s more cutting and acerbic Veronica.

“Foucault wrote of the male gaze, that the act of seeing is neither transparent nor neutral, but an imposition of power.”

“Millennia of patriarchy dictate how we see.”

Directed by Charlotte Colbert (an impressive feature debut), from a script written by Kitty Percy and Colbert, and with Dario Argento as one of its executive producers, She Will is a potent concoction that signals Colbert as a name to watch for.

Please note the score by Clint Mansell, and the cinematographer/editor(s) combo of Jamie Ramsay and Peter Strickland’s frequent editor, Matyas Fekete**, tag-teaming with Yorgos Lanthimos’ frequent editor, Yorgos Mavropsaridis***.

There is also the presence of Rupert Everett as Arturo Tirador! (I honestly did not recognize Everett and had no idea he was in the film till the end credits roll.)

Oh, and props for the end credits song choice, a Nouvelle Vague cover of a song from 1984…

“Just need the famine, the pestilence. We’ll have our very own apocalypse.”

She Will is a darkly evocative portrait of female rage, the kind that simmers just beneath the surface, silent, as if muffled and restrained by a scold’s bridle, often emerging in sublimated form, simply waiting for something to trigger the catastrophic eruption, and the smothering rain of witch feathers in the aftermath…

“It will torture you.”

* RIP. (Just one of many heart-breaking losses on the creative front we suffered last year.)

** Apparently, the only Strickland feature film Fekete did not edit was Berberian Sound Studio.

*** Mavropsaridis was the editor on Kynodontas, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Dennis Iliadis’ +1.

Parting Shot:

If this kind of narrative speaks to you, then might I humbly suggest an interesting double bill with Elle Callahan’s Witch Hunt.

(She Will OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

FLUX GOURMET (February 2022)

   

FLUX GOURMET

(February 2022)

“Cooking and performing is always a hazard.”

Peter Strickland is in the shops, going through the aisles and tossing performers he’s worked with in the past into his shopping trolley--Gwendoline Christie and Richard Bremmer and Leo Bill from In Fabric, Fatma Mohamed from all of his feature films and the “Cobbler’s Lot” segment from The Field Guide to Evil--then adding Ariane Labed, Asa Butterfield, and Makis Papadimitriou to the lot.

He then breezes through the checkout and rushes home so he can whip up yet another luscious Technicolor dish for us with Flux Gourmet, perhaps the oddest effort of his that I’ve seen yet.

Christie plays Jan Stevens, Director of the Sonic Catering Institute, which sponsors “culinary collectives” (otherwise known as Sonic Caterers) on a monthly residency basis, to actively “…encourage the artistic pursuit of alimentary and culinary salvation.”

Described by one of the film’s characters as “feckless faux provocateurs”, Sonic Caterers are basically performance artists working to find the “sonic and performative potential” of foodstuffs.

Or something like that…

Like I said, it’s the oddest film I’ve seen from Strickland yet…

“To taste their shock is to be controlled by it.”

Flux Gourmet follows the residency of the collective led by Elle di Elle (Mohamed), and the tension engendered from the conflicts between Elle and, well, everybody. (Weeks into their residency and Elle still hasn’t decided on the band’s name.)

Not to mention the “escalating threat” from The Mangrove Snacks, another collective that was denied residency…

There’s also a (possibly life-threatening) gastrointestinal illness and some scatological hijinx somewhere in there as well…

“I do wonder sometimes if you’re perpetuating an archetype of epicurean toxicity with all this culinary hysteria. I don’t want to give the public the impression we’re espousing any kind of dysfunctional alimentary ideology.”

Absurdly humorous with some oddly touching moments sprinkled throughout, Flux Gourmet doesn’t really have the horror-tinged streaks found in Berberian Sound Studio and In Fabric, but it is, nonetheless, clearly a Strickland piece, with his aesthetic fixations and preoccupations plain to see.

So if all that sounds like something that might agree with your cinematic palette (and stomach), then by all means, dig in…

“When I see joy and abandon, my mind always reverts to this: why can one stomach be so free and another can’t?”

(Flux Gourmet OS courtesy of impawards.com.)