Immaculate

If you're only going to see one horror movie this Easter, let it be "Immaculate." Sydney Sweeney plays Sister Cecilia, a nun who has moved from the US to Italy to join a nunnery, which we know from the opening sequence is a place where bad things are happening. What exactly is going on isn't revealed until the third act, or in this case third trimester. Yes, you read that correctly. Sister Cecilia soon upon arrival finds herself immaculately pregnant - Jesus be praised, it's a miracle! Or is it? "Immaculate" is pretty much your standard horror nun fun, until we get to the ending. While many horror films, or films in general, fail to stick the landing, it's the opposite with 'Immaculate." The ending is so good, so unhinged, wildly intense, and yet so utterly satisfying, the ending lifts the whole film up. It's largely because of the incredible performance of Sydney Sweeney - she is a beast in this movie. Last year she was in HBO's "Reality" She is a remarkable young actor and I loved her in that performance and in this one. She's someone to watch. Catch this holy-moly this Easter, in theatres.     

Late Night with the Devil

It's far too early to say but "Late Night with the Devil" might just be my favourite horror movie of 2024. It has a lot going for it. It's a faux documentary about a fictional late-night talk show host, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian). Jack's show, Night Owls, is competing against Johnny Carson for ratings in the year, 1977. Jack's show isn't doing well, so to boost his audience score, he hosts a Halloween special and invites psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), psychic debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) along with her devil possessed patient, Lilly (Ingrid Torelli). Let the fun begin! A lot of the enjoyment is merely the 70s clothing and the set of UBC TV's Night Owls; like a repurposed set of The Price is Right, the brown, yellow, and orange paint stripes flow Yellow Submarine style about the walls, wrapping around in the background. In the foreground is a hipster's wet dream - vintage retro second hand furniture. The movie itself is "Quiz Show" meets "The Exorcist" - the escalating late-night episode building slowly and dramatically - and not without lots of laughs along the way: STAY TUNED, WILL WE RIGHT BACK AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL BREAK. Catch the devil by tail, playing at night, in theatres now.    

 

Origin

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel Wilkerson, an American Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who wrote, "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" and it won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Our true story begins with Wilkerson being asked to write a piece about 17-year-old Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman. Trayvon was just walking home. Soon after, Wilkerson has some personal losses in her life and she kind of has an epiphany: racism in America, it's not really what we think, it's the caste system. If you don't know what that is, well it's the Indian hierarchy of class. She makes a case that both American Slavery and WWII's Jewish holocaust were largely created by dominating class structures - Caste. Whether you fully buy into Wilkerson's theory or not, it doesn't change the fact this film is full of powerful emotional moments and stories. There is one about a little league team going swimming at a public pool where their only black player wasn't allowed to use the white-only pool - it choked me up. Both cruel and heart-wrenching stuff. The movie overall is an indictment of humanity and the unimaginable cruelty it's inflicted on those not born of good fortune and wealth. It's also a movie about personal loss and carrying on in the face of tragedy. Catch this on in theatres, on streaming, or grab a copy from your local video store. In Ottawa that would be Movies 'N' Stuff. 

Love Lies Bleeding

One of the major reasons I love "Blade Runner" is the soundtrack, the music, composed by Vangelis. (who also did the music for "Chariots of Fire"). I loved "Witness" and "Dead Poets Society" also for the music composed by Maurice Jarre. "Love Lies Bleeding," the music crafted by Clint Mansell (who has worked on the films of Darren Aronofsky) has brought the spirit of these two composers to his work. Mansell has channeled the zeitgeist of the 1980s and pumped into his score like a weightlifter pumps iron - it's muscled and yet feminine. Which brings me to the subject matter of this film, muscled and feminine. Katy O'Brian plays Jackie, a she hulk who dreams of competing and winning a body building competition in Vegas. Along the way she meets and falls in love with gym manager, Lou (Kristen Stewart). Jackie also lands a job with Lou's dad (Ed Harris - who resembles Cousin Itt crossed with Uncle Fester, or maybe the Crypt-Keeper with really long hockey hair). Lou Sr. is a bad dude with a ravine full of dead bodies and has the FBI sniffing around like dogs hearing a cheese slice being unwrapped. Director and co-writer Rose Glass has crafted a film noir thriller that resembles something like a Coen Brothers film but add in a touch of magic realism - it's film-arty and I dug it. "Pain is just weakness leaving the body" Get pumped to see this excellent film now in theatres. 

Seven Veils

Atom Egoyan at the opening of IFFO 2024

I had the good fortune to attend the open night of this year's IFFO - the International Film Festival of Ottawa. Atom Egoyan was there in person for the festival's showcase opener, his film "Seven Veils." The Ottawa audience gave him a standing ovation at the end. Well deserved. It's an intense film with many moving parts and lots of characters - it's also arty as stink. I loved it. What's it all about?  Amanda Seyfried plays, Jeanine, a woman who is tasked with putting on an Opera, Salome (pronounced Sal-a-may). Jeanine has done this before, but under the wing or tutelage of her former boss, who has recently passed away - this is at his widow's request. Jeanine had an affair with her old boss and Jeanine's husband seems to be currently having one with the caretaker of Jeanine's mother. Confused yet? There is more! There are flashbacks to Jeanine's childhood and arty-farty home movies made by her dad where Jeanine was the star. Then there is the production and the play of Salome itself, a gruesome play involved unrequited love and a beheading. There is a lot going on here and it's a miracle (or maybe it's genius?) Egoyan manages to keep it all straight for us. Like some of his other films, themes of sex, love, and voyeurism prevail - these things are messy and lines between these elements get crossed both literally and figuratively. I found it to be a fascinating watch. I need to see it again. Catch this one in theatres when it comes out for wide screen distribution.  

Red Rooms

Much like the "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," the protagonist of "Red Rooms" is Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) and she is always going to be the smartest person in the room. Writer and director, Pascal Plante has given us one hell of a movie. It's a serial killer flick, set in Montreal, where Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) is standing trail for the murder of several young girls killed live-streamed on the dark web. The subject matter is grizzly. In the age of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, "Red Rooms" felt uncomfortably real. I watch a lot of horror films and I was taken aback. However this is no "Saw" film or torture porn - most everything is left for your own mind, which might just be worse. "Red Rooms" is the closest thing I've seen to being a David Fincher film without it being one. And the performance of Juliette Gariépy as Kelly-Anne was remarkable - she reminded me of Michael Fassbender in "The Killer," cold, calculating, and driven. The clever thing about "Red Rooms" is you aren't sure where this is going or who is who until the gotcha moment - a moment in film I will likely never forget. Burned into my mind. Powerful. Wild. This film might have made my top ten of last year had I seen it sooner. Catch it now streaming on Crave. Or grab a copy from your local video store. In Ottawa that would be Movies 'N' Stuff. 

Perfect Days

Wim Wenders. He was a director that I greatly admired back in the late 80s. "Wings of Desire" and "Paris, Texas" were (and still are) important films to me. They were arty and intelligent and had an emotional punch to them. They were/are brilliant. Then I got older and like a stuffed toy from my childhood, I forgot about Wim Wenders. Looking over his career on IMDB I realize I have only seen a few of his films since then; documentary "Buena Vista Social Club" and docu-dancery "Pina." Like cleaning out an old closet, I found Wim Wenders again! He has been in Tokyo making "Perfect Days." This film follows Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) as a man who cleans Tokyo's public toilets. Say wut? Yes, you read that right, our protagonist is a kind of Tokyo toilet cleaning monk and we follow him on his daily journey from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to bed. He has a routine (as we all do) and he follows it almost religiously (or maybe it's a little OCD). Hirayama doesn't seem to be concerned at all with his status or what others may think of him; he is living his best life, moment by moment, appreciating the trees, reading his novels, and enjoying American rock classics on cassette tape as he drives his toiletmobile minivan about the city. This voyeurism into the life of someone we normally wouldn't pay attention to is the brilliance of Wim Wenders, the brilliance of his film; that's the joy of it. It's a wonderful film if not a touch melancholy. Catch it in a theatre near you or on streaming services or on DVD when available.      

The Empty Man

I pride myself in knowing what films are coming out; I watch tons of movie trailers. I try and keep a pulse on everything coming out from blockbusters to small indie films, foreign films, documentaries, etc. How "The Empty Man" from 2020 flew by me without noticing is odd. It was the pandemic after all but still. This is a horror film I had never heard of, had no knowledge of until last week. On a whim I watched it. Blown away. "The Empty Man" is one of the best horror movies I have watched in the last few decades, ranking up there with last year's "Talk to Me," and giving it a place alongside "Don't Breathe," "It Follows," "Hereditary," "Us," and "Split." It's a firecracker with a somewhat slow burn: clocking in with a runtime of two hours and eighteen minutes, it flies by. It's big and ambitious. What's it all about? To keep it simple, it starts out with a "Candyman" style teenaged ritual, blow into a bottle and the boogeyman will appear. Then it turns into an investigation of a missing teen by a former cop with a drinking problem and a tragic past (played by James Badge Dale, who is bloody fantastic in this). His investigation leads him to something bigger, strange, San Francisco-weird! The movie is a blast with strong performances from all of the supporting cast. And the music! Oh man, did I love the music - like tasting different spices from other horror films - you know them but can't name them, a kind of subtle thematic ode to beloved films of the 70s and 80s. I loved this movie. Catch it streaming now on Disney+. Or grab a copy from your local video store. In Ottawa that would be Movies 'N' Stuff.