Everything Everywhere All at Once
Gillipedia Official Rating: A multiverse of… sadness and real emotions?
If you haven’t heard of this film, the
less you understand is better. It’s a bonkers film, yet it still feels contemporary.
All I’ll really reveal is that it deals with multiverses and the characters
playing multiple versions of themselves, so it has an MCU approach, but in a
very self-aware way that remains surprisingly grounded because of its familial
themes.
Starring a terrific Michelle Yeoh, she
plays a stressed out laundromat owner with a milquetoast husband who sounds
like what I imagine—wait a minute… -Gill furiously types away on the internet-
I was just about to make a comparison that the husband reminds me of what Short
Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would sound like if he
grew up. AND IT IS SHORT ROUND! Oh man, I love this film now. Rest of the review
doesn’t matter. Frikin Short Round had a starring role and I thought he looked
like whenever Jackie Chan plays a nerdy character, and still I subconsciously
recognized him. Excuse me while I have a moment of happiness
Two technical
difficulties later…
Michelle also has to take care of her
aging father and deals with an emotional lesbian teenage daughter. They’re also
dealing with financial issues and have a meeting with an IRS agent played by
Jamie Lee Curtis. This is around the 15-20 minute mark and where the curtain
starts peeling back. I’ll give the movie huge props for introducing us to the “normal”
characters in an organic way without taking much time before the real plot
rolls in, but remember: characters play themselves, there’s a multiverse, my
lips are sealed beyond that.
…
…
…
It just happened again. I was just ready to talk about how you should understand what style of film to expect because this is an A24 film. I was then just about to follow up by saying the style of humor reminded me the most of the Danielle Radcliffe and Paul Dano film I previously reviewed called Swiss Army Man shamelessly plugging that 6-year-old review here… That’s a film by Daniels—the same two Daniels that also directed this film. Wow, it’s like I’m good at this movie thing or something.
I think it’s fair to say that this
film will fall into a category of either you’ll love it or hate it. I’m more in
that former group. This movie was extremely funny. And the great thing about it
is you could ask 5 different people what the funniest moment was and you will
get 5 different answers. The way the multiverse comes into play is with “statistical
anomalies.” The characters have to trigger these anomalies, so their characters
act in bizarre ways, and there’s a solid 12-15 different methods used that are
all unbelievably creative and usually downright hilarious in execution. But it
is very strange and won’t necessarily be for everyone either, so just keep that
in mind.
I think the themes are executed well,
but if I’m playing a devil’s advocate, I think they were also a bit
predictable. But the fact that there is plenty of heart with the dynamic relationships
spanning 3 generations of families is plenty enough for me to go along with the
humor. The music is incredible, the cast is all-star, and this is one of
the most unique films you can watch this year. There’s heart, humor, and lots
of action. And they brought Short Round to me. You gotta love it.
Suspiria
Gillipedia Official Rating: This ballet studio is a little sus, not gonna lie
This was not an enjoyable experience. Suspiria
is a very moody, disturbing horror film with lots of metaphors, and it just
didn’t come together for me. The Call Me by Your Name director followed
that effort up with this film starring Dakota Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Tilda
Swinton. Dakota travels to Berlin in hopes of attending Tilda’s prestigious dance
company, but it doesn’t take long to realize there’s something darker and supernatural
going on. For one thing it starts off with Moretz seeing a therapist with many
strange claims about the company, and there are rumors of ballerinas
disappearing.
In the first act, there’s a particular
scene where Dakota does a routine in front of the class, and it affects another
dancer that had just previously quit the company, and she ends up doing some
nasty contortionist stuff. That night Dakota has strange dreams that are truly disturbing.
It isn’t a good time to be eating your dinner (cheese curds every night since I’ve
moved to Wisconsin in case you were wondering), but it’s well-edited and
crafted for me to be on board with the direction of the film.
It’s also at this point that I was
hoping it would continue to build the dread, sort of how Hereditary did.
But it continues to get stranger and stranger without adding much lore or
characterization. It’s a long film, and you feel the length. As I started
losing focus, so did my sense of wonder and dread. I have nothing but good
things to say about Dakota and Tilda’s performances, but the film’s script isn’t
strong enough.
The film could build its thrills and
have a killer last scene like Hereditary, there’s potential for it to
have gone in a more psychological direction like the other superb ballet film Black
Swan, but I think it settles more in the realm of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes
Wide Shut. It has an absolutely bonkers final act, but I really can’t tell
you much about what was going on beyond some satanic crap. It’s very strange
and dark and I guess mythological? If the film was making a point or going off
some story I’m supposed to be familiar with, it just didn’t land with me. It also doesn't help that in this ballet studio, they're practicing modern dance. I'm sorry, but despite the physicality needed to perform the moves, it's just not very entertaining to watch.
The score is one of the worst in a
film I’ve seen recently, it’s overly long, and whereas the prior film in this
review combined real themes with its bizarreness, Suspiria couldn’t ever
fully decide on what film it wanted to be, so its ludicrous climax was a true
horror show—just not in the way I think it wanted to be. I've heard positive things about the original Suspiria that came out decades prior, but I haven't watched that yet to make an informed opinion. If you want a horror
film that will make you feel terrible about yourself, Hereditary and Midsommar
do so in incredibly effective ways with true craftsmanship, but Suspiria
will leave you confused and a little icky too. Also don’t confuse it with Shia
Labeouf’s Disturbia.
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