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Movie Reviews, Movies

Review – Saint Maud

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A24 has grown to occupy a unique standing in Hollywood. They are quite possibly the biggest independent film studio at the moment. But it does feel like they have grown into one of the biggest studios in Hollywood, along studios like Warner Brothers and Paramount. Their brand and style has become well known among critics and general audiences alike. They are best known for producing movies with a unique dramatic and/or horror focus. Even for films where they only acted as distributors, they often carry a style that’s pretty similar to other work A24 has been involved in. That can be seen with this British Horror film which had flown under the radar for a lot of people but has gone on to be considered a modern classic of the genre.

A former hospital nurse known as Katie has left her job prior to the film to become a hospice nurse, going by the name Maud. In addition to the professional change, she has recently converted to Roman Catholicism and takes her faith seriously. To the point where she claims to feel God communicate with her, although not with words but sensations that her body feels. She likes the work that she does but feels like everything is leading her towards some higher purpose that God has planned. This seems to take shape when she becomes the nurse for a sick former dancer named Amanda. Things seem to go well at first, and it appears as though Amanda might have an interest in sharing Maud’s religion. Maud takes that as a a sign that she could save a soul and takes it seriously. But when she becomes a bit too involved in Amanda’s personal life, things take a sharp turn downward. All of it leading to Maud making violent choices with no opportunity to turn away. Even if she wanted to back out.

This film serves as the directorial debut of Rose Glass. Watching the movie, you start to notice how the movie is influenced by Horror flicks of the 1970s. A couple of comparisons that have been made are to the films “Carrie” and “The Exorcist”. But I think another film that might have inspired Miss Glass’s movie is the Scorsese film “Taxi Driver”. Maud’s personal life is shown as being practically non-existent ever since she left the hospital and converted. Her personal apartment is very small with only the bare essentials. She doesn’t seem to have any friends, although one former friend that also worked at the hospital does make an effort to try and reconnect during the film’s plot. Maud is solely focused on her work that she considers noble. But finds bigger purpose with Amanda, despite her firing Maud following a physical altercation. She takes it on herself to become the savior of someone she sees as in trouble.

Based on that, Maud does have vague similarities De Niro’s character Travis Pickle. But adding in the influence from those 70s Horror films turns it into a more unique film. Maud appears to have some sort of literal connection to the supernatural, which she views as God communicating to her. However, if you pay attention to the scenes where the supernatural events occur, she is the only one actually experiencing it or reacting to it. The movie’s visuals play with the idea of what Maud is experiencing is actually happening or if she is imagining it. Of course, Maud truly believes that it is God. But Amanda, despite seemingly interested in converting, eventually reveals that she was just playing with Maud. Her reasoning being that dying is boring. There is one scene early on in the movie where you do get the feeling she isn’t being entirely sincere. But that scene also starts fueling the possibility that the other supernatural elements aren’t actually there either, serving a dual purpose.

A more recent film to compare this movie with that also was influenced by Martin Scorsese’s work is “Joker”. That film could be read as happening in a variety of different ways. It is heavily debated whether any of the events in the movie happened, if it was all real, or if some of it was real but actually played out differently. The movie leaves all of those possibilities and theories open. But with “Saint Maud”, despite playing with the idea of how much of it is actually happening, you get the feeling that the movie prefers you view the supernatural elements as all being in Maud’s mind. While not explicitly described, you get enough of Maud’s past to know that a horrible death happened at her old hospital job where she tried to save the patient’s life but failed. The former co-worker who tries to reconnect with Maud tries to re-connect and give her support. But despite latching onto the offer for a human connection, Maud continues to isolate herself and keep focused on what she views as her mission. All of Maud’s actions and choices since that day at the hospital could be her mind’s way of making sense of what happened. Quite possibly breaking down over a period of time.

And that’s what brings us to the overall theme of the movie. Maud’s passion in her faith and mission to save Amanda’s soul starts being shown as a woman losing herself in obsession. Someone who is trying to comprehend past trauma but ultimately succumbing to violence resulting in death. Maud would no doubt view her story as something similar to “The Exorcist”, a story of someone wresting with faith but ultimately winning over evil both internal and external. But to the audience, it’s a mixture of “Carrie” and “Taxi Driver”. Someone who has become socially isolated, views her environment as a decaying world and ultimately a distraction from her mission. And while human connection does seem to be teased and become a reality, it is ripped out from under her, and so she takes matters into her own hands.

If you are a fan of 1970s Horror and/or enjoy psychological suspense that plays with perception of reality, this is an easy pick to watch. You will become engaged with Maud as you follow her throughout the movie’s running time. And by the end, regardless of how you view the supernatural elements, you will feel both fear of Maud as well as pity for her. This is a hidden gem that deserves to be seen.

Movie Reviews, Movies

Review – Everything Everywhere All at Once

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Comic book readers are already familiar with the multiverse. It has opened up a variety of story-telling potential and has inspired the imagination of who knows how many people. But now it appears the TV and movies are starting to play around with the concept. Whether it’s to bring 2 different Spider-Men together or explaining why “The Batman” doesn’t connect to Ben Affleck, movies are now seeing the potential as well. But now it’s time to take a look at how an indie studio like A24 handles such a concept. And it is an insane – and touching – as you might expect.

We begin with Evelyn Wang getting ready for an audit by the IRS. There’s her husband Waymond, daughter Joy, and her estranged father referred to as Gong Gong. Which naturally means this is the right time for her husband to be taken over by a version of himself from the Alpha Verse! Jobu Tupaki is a threat that threatens the safety of the multiverse and it happens to be Evelyn’s daughter from the multiverse. She must now utilize verse-jumping to find the skills necessary to fight back.

I suppose we should start off with how the movie deals with the multiverse concept. It’s existence is explained by how different choices in the timeline creates a new universe, leading to really an infinite multiverse. It’s a common way of explaining a concept like this, something comics themselves have used a couple of times. But it’s important to remember that it isn’t limited to different choices Evelyn or her family make. We get glimpses of different universes that were not shaped by Evelyn or anyone in her family. As for verse-jumping, people from the Alpha Verse have tech and are trained to mentally access another version of themselves. Their memories, skills, and bodies. But this also runs the risk of them being distracted or pulled back by that other universe as their minds are kind of split in multiple universes. They are trained to deal with that fallout, but it affects Evelyn for better and for worse. Overall, this multiverse isn’t that different from ones people might have experienced in other mediums. But trust me when I say it is still a very unique film.

One of the main things that establishes this multiverse story as unique is how they are able to verse-jump. They have to perform random actions that allow them to access certain versions of themselves. The weirder the action the better chance of finding skills that are useful in your scenario. Examples include getting 4 paper cuts in between all your fingers, downing a 2 liter bottle of orange soda in seconds, or furiously humping a lamp. And those are the examples that don’t spoil anything in the movie! This obviously leads to a lot of funny moments and bits that really land. The way this movie is shot and presented is similar to a number of South Korean films. What I mean is that it blends a lot of different styles and emotions together into a single movie that shouldn’t work as well as it does. But you are going to have a blast all the way through!

As for an underlying messages, this is sort of a 2-in-1 situation. Let’s first look at the larger theme. Jobu Tupaki is a version of Joy from the Alpha Verse that gets pushed during Verse-Jumping training so hard that she is seemingly lost. But when she comes back, she is described as this entity of darkness and nothingness. She talks about how due to the overwhelming size and scope of the multiverse, looking at the morality of specific actions and choices in one single world seems pointless and insignificant. And chances are, we might make a new discovery that’s even larger and will make us even more insignificant. So she views existence from a “nothing matters” perspective and tries to get Evelyn to see things like she does before ultimately ending their existence.

But the movie ends up deciding to not take Jobu’s side. It is easy to see things that way, easy to fight back against an idea or concept that scares you. But in a multiverse as massive an insane as this one, the most important thing that remains constant is love. Caring for one another and showing compassion. There may be things that are massive and terrifying, but that means family and loved ones are even more important.

Time for the second underlying themes that goes hand in hand with the first. The importance of making Evelyn and her husband Chinese immigrants is to show the cultural divide that within their own family that can honestly be applied to any family. You have older members sticking to traditional ways of living and their own beliefs that don’t seem to account for how the modern world has evolved. The younger ons who have grown up with this world and end up being at odds with their own family about their beliefs and the way they live their lives. And some family members trying their best to bridge that gap but might be making things more difficult without realizing it. This movie is trying to show that institutions and old concepts and ideas can be limiting. They can damage our relationships with other people. But if you can realize that and try to move past it, you can work on fixing damaged relationships and find some deeper meaning.

And these ideas are told in the most entertaining of ways. This movie takes advantage of the multiverse concepts and shows off some wild action scenes and peeks into bizarre worlds. The actions required to verse-jump are incredible and the good kind of stupid. All the actors get a chance to show off their wide range, especially Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn. But in all of this madness, there is an emotional anchor that makes this an extremely relatable story. Please check this out in theaters while you have the chance. Or at least make a plan to seek it out and just watch the insanity unfold a touching human story. I promise you won’t regret it.

Movie Reviews, Movies

Review – X

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I still hate it when you have these reboot sequels that have the exact same film as the original. Blumhouse’s new Halloween film that’s a follow up to John Carpenter’s original is also called “Halloween”. Or how the Jordan Peele produced sequel to “Candyman” is also just called “Candyman”. But at least they had more than one letter in their title? All I know is that anyone looking for a review of this movie is going to have some trouble finding what they’re looking for. As you can tell this is a little more casual than most of my other posts but let me still try and give some insight.

This little flick comes from film studio A24. They’re the ones that are behind films like Spring Breakers, Ex Machina & The Witch. Basically films that embrace their weirdness but also turn out pretty good. And while this film has a little bit of weird, I can’t say it’s on the same level as the ones I mentioned. Without getting into spoilers, it’s about a group of people who set out to make a porn movie. There are a few actors, the producer, the director & the director’s girlfriend who does sound. They stay at this guest house owned by this elderly couple. The old man doesn’t know they are doing it so they try and do it in secret. But it turns out it’s the couple that has a secret and then the scares happen.

In case you were wondering, the “X” of this film refers to the X factor that makes someone a star. And that’s the main deal with the main actress of this film who believes she will become a star. But honestly, I don’t think she is that great. This is a movie with Jenna Ortega and yet their biggest name is more of a supporting character. She starts off as the shy girl they call Church Mouse. She kinda has a story of sorts but not really. But screw it, I’m using her character poster as the featured image of this review. Because she was the only one I cared about. It’s not because the protagonists of this film are horrible people. They might have a couple of moments that make them look like assholes. But they’re okay people. Which unfortunately means they just leave an okay impression.

And the scares are kind of hit and miss. A couple of jump scares that are obviously and just annoying. However there are a few moments that are pretty decent. The first kill that happens includes some audio of the song “Don’t Fear The Reaper” so I might be a little biased when it came to that scene. But I liked it. Looking on it now however, I think this film went in the wrong direction with it’s execution. I feel like this could have been a movie that should have been a horror comedy. Something of a satire. It has the potential for that. And while there are a few moments of dark comedy and chuckles, it’s hard to tell if those were on purpose or not. Or maybe they could have dropped the horror angle altogether and make it an insightful movie about the different views of sex & love between generations and various backgrounds. Again, it does have that material. A24 doesn’t always do Horror, they could have gone this route.

But nope, this is what we got. And it’s fine honestly. Nothing really obviously wrong with it. Some scene transitions that are weird is the biggest offense. At least I can appreciate this is something based off a new idea instead of being another sequel or reboot or remake or whatever. Nothing inherently wrong with any of those, but with so many of those being made right now, this is a little refreshing. If your a little curious about it, there’s no harm in checking it out.