Last Week Was a Movie: Sep 9 - 15, 2024
Film Vomit's weekly recap: What we watched, what we recommend, and what to avoid.
Film Vomit is back to its regularly scheduled program of watching way too many movies this week. After (finally) finishing all of his Telluride reviews, David checked out the Netflix movie that has taken film Twitter by storm, revisited some flicks with sequels coming down the pipeline, and dove into the filmography of horror master John Carpenter as a tone-setter for the impending Halloween season. Here’s everything we at Film Vomit watched last week:
David: 8.25/10
Finally caught up on the movie that had film Twitter buzzing all last weekend—Jeremy Saulnier’s latest crime thriller Rebel Ridge. The film lives up to the hype: an engaging and timely neo-Western that kicks copious amounts of ass. In a star-making performance, Aaron Pierce plays an ex-Marine whose cash, meant to post his cousin’s bail, is unjustly seized by a corrupt police force. Pierce proves himself to be a fully formed action hero, fresh out of the box, capable of holding the screen with the same physical intensity as the Keanu Reeveses and Tom Cruises of the world. His character haunts the disreputable small-town police force—headed by the great Don Johnson, chewing as much tobacco as he is scenery—like a non-lethal Jack Reacher, always disarming and de-escalating rather than attacking.
In this sense, Rebel Ridge upends the expectations of both a revenge thriller and a typical Saulnier picture. But don’t let its lack of murder fool you; the film is gritty as hell and not lacking in catharsis. It’s taut, too—a particularly impressive feat considering the multiple stops and starts its production had to contend with. After being postponed due to the pandemic, and then again due to a revolving door of talent (John Boyega, Erin Doherty, and James Badge Dale were all originally cast but left for various reasons), Rebel Ridge arrives with the cohesion and tension of a film crafted over an intense and intimate 15-day shoot.
There’s a compelling argument floating around that the script gets too big for its britches in the second act—admittedly, things do get a little convoluted as the conspiracy in this fictional Louisiana parish unfolds—but I’m willing to forgive a film whose ambition exceeds its grasp when what it does manage to grab hold of is this gripping. Saulnier describes the film as Michael Clayton meets First Blood, and while Rebel Ridge doesn’t reach the heights of the former, it deeply understands the appeal of the latter.
Rebel Ridge is the kind of movie I live for: a rock-solid, hard-nosed, B+ genre flick with big ideas and small stakes. I highly recommend Rebel Ridge, something you won’t often hear me say about a Netflix movie.
David: 5.5/10
Joker may well be the most hypocritically constructed film ever made. Director Todd Phillips admits—nay, brags—about using the Joker iconography as a mere mask to disguise a contemporary riff on Martin Scorsese’s films from the '70s and '80s. Yet the film has been hoisted above its peers, celebrated as an evolution in comic-book-inspired cinema, despite being just as derivative as every other superhero movie released in the past decade. There’s a distinct nothingness at its core—an echoing hollowness that grows infuriating over the course of 122 self-absorbed minutes. It desperately masquerades as a movie without an agenda or message, though it was quickly embraced as a timely portrayal of society's indifference toward mental illness.
The great irony is that, in the mind of its director, Joker is ostensibly about the state of comedy and the supposed inability to create anything truly funny under the oppressive weight of "woke culture." Arthur Fleck essentially becomes a mouthpiece for Phillips during the iconic talk show sequence—“You decide what’s right or wrong the same way you decide what’s funny or not,” he says. Through Phillips’ own juvenile musings about comedy’s state of decay, the film stumbles into a half-baked, adolescent philosophy on how capitalist structures create violent men. All of this is possible only because Phillips stretches Joker’s mythic skin over his plagiarized story.
No character has been mythologized in popular culture quite like the Joker—the role that drove Jack Nicholson crazy, the role that killed Heath Ledger, and so on. The way this totemic idea of the character consistently seizes the zeitgeist never ceases to amaze me, as if the insanity of the Joker is capable of leaping off the page and possessing the actor inhabiting it. The idea that a film this utterly empty could cave in Joaquin Phoenix’s psyche or inspire an onslaught of real-world violence is funnier than anything Phillips could ever conceive. The film’s every line and moment is laden with thudding obviousness, forming an artificially bleak atmosphere that, in the end, is simply brutally boring.
Its only redeeming qualities are Lawrence Sher’s cinematography, Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score, and Phoenix’s admittedly committed performance. However, even these start to lose their luster with repeated viewings. There’s no denying Phoenix’s status as one of the finest performers working today, but his work in Joker lacks the sense of discovery and engagement found in his roles in Her, You Were Never Really Here, or even Beau Is Afraid and Inherent Vice. So much of the heavy lifting is done by the emblematic makeup and costuming, along with Phoenix’s extreme weight loss—again, his commitment cannot be questioned. But as he strains and contorts to elevate the material, the only thought occupying my mind during this rewatch was how much I’d rather be watching almost anything else than this overrated farce.
The simple fact of the matter is that you’ve probably already seen Joker, so a recommendation (or in this case, the lack thereof) is irrelevant. That being said, if you haven’t seen the two movies that Joker heavily borrows from, I highly suggest checking out Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy—both of which are much better films.
David: 6.25/10
With an onslaught of jump scares, Smile quickly establishes itself as a modern sleepover classic. It’s the kind of familiar yet mean-spirited horror that's perfect for scaring the hell out of the tween demographic without psychologically tormenting them beyond repair—two hours of nightmare fuel and nothing more. Parker Finn’s directorial debut joins the ranks of curse-based horror films like The Ring and It Follows, inheriting many of their more tedious investigative elements while modernizing itself with a near-constant stream of therapy-speak. This is certified Trauma™ horror at its core, something almost unavoidable in contemporary horror, but there are enough straight-up genre thrills to balance how much the film talks about trauma versus showing it. You could probably shave off about fifteen minutes—ideally the sequel-baiting final sequence—and end up with a lean horror gem. As it stands, however, Smile is a solid first installment in a franchise that will likely overstay its welcome in the next decade.
Smile is an effective, easily recommendable horror film best enjoyed with the company of friends – the more squeamish the better.
David: 5.5/10
Venom is an aggressively silly throwback to early 2000s superhero flicks, entirely elevated by the zany, committed performance of Tom Hardy. Without Hardy—who adds another hilariously compelling weird voice to his extensive catalog as the titular symbiote—this would be almost unwatchable. Still, there’s an undeniable clunky charm to Venom, one that both endearingly reminds audiences of simpler times in superhero cinema and highlights how far the genre has—or, in many cases, hasn’t—come. Riz Ahmed sleepwalks through an Elon Musk impersonation as the villain, while Michelle Williams inhabits the hapless love interest role with visible disinterest. Though, at one point, Williams becomes Lady Venom and makes out with Tom Hardy to transfer the symbiote back to him—so that’s cool. The film features wonky CGI throughout and a thudding cacophony of exposition dumps, but whenever things get too boring, Hardy rescues the mess with his amusing physicality and the hysterical inflections of his voiceover performance. You can feel the movie straining against its PG-13 rating. A grislier, R-rated version capable of depicting the graphic violence and body horror potential of being possessed by extraterrestrial goop would undoubtedly be better. Yet, Venom survives as an intermittently amusing, sporadically entertaining, low-investment movie—perfect as comforting background noise or decompression after a long day.
Cook dinner, fold laundry, wash dishes, or get some work done while “watching” Venom—just make sure to pay attention whenever Hardy is on-screen.
David: 6.25/10
I first caught glimpses of John Carpenter’s Dark Star at Grindhouse Killer Burgers — a Georgia-based burger chain that projects the kind of B-movies you’d find at a grindhouse theater in its dining area. Audio-less glances taken between burger bites concealed just how influential this film is on the science fiction genre. Co-written by Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon (who also serves as editor, special effects supervisor, production designer, and stars as the reluctant Sergeant Pinback), Dark Star is essentially a dry run for the blue-collar space shenanigans depicted in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece. However, here the goal is comedy rather than horror, as evidenced by the alien haunting the halls of the derelict spaceship—a spray-painted beach ball with clawed feet.
Legend has it that the audience’s unamused reaction to the film is what motivated O’Bannon to create the terrifying Xenomorph, resolving to frighten viewers if he couldn’t make them laugh. This student film turned feature (a conceit that’s palpable in almost every frame) functions largely as a lampoon of 2001: A Space Odyssey, upping the ante with a talking computer and sentient bombs. Despite its shoestring budget, the special effects—later stolen by Star Wars—are impressive considering the limited resources available to the filmmakers.
Modern audiences not under the influence of the psychedelics that likely inspired Dark Star may struggle to find amusement or enjoyment in it, but for cinephiles, this film serves as an intriguing relic of sci-fi history and an early glimpse of John Carpenter's unique sense of humor.
David: 8.75/10
More well-versed movie buffs than I will quickly identify Assault on Precinct 13 as a mash-up of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, but even someone unfamiliar with those films can appreciate the zombified qualities of John Carpenter’s neo-western. With a documentary-like demarcation of time, Assault on Precinct 13 chronicles a ragtag group’s attempt to survive the night as a seemingly endless onslaught of violent gang members besieges a derelict police station. Inside the station are a newly promoted lieutenant, a two-woman secretary skeleton crew, a couple of inmates, and a man seeking refuge from the violence chasing him outside.
Carpenter wisely keeps information about the gang to a minimum; they are multicultural, have an almost supernatural disposition, and are utterly ruthless. After the police gun down six gang members, Street Thunder swears a blood oath of revenge, and the streets of Los Angeles become their war zone. It’s a testament to the enduring power of cinema that a film this old, and one that has been iterated upon by countless video games and movies since, can still be shocking. Yet Carpenter crafts a sequence so unexpectedly horrifying it surpasses even the best moments of the horror masterpiece he would make next.
The movie is effortlessly cool, too, and never loses its tension despite how often it makes you laugh. As the night wears on, the line between cop and criminal is obliterated, and the inhabitants of Precinct 9, Division 13 (not quite as catchy, is it?) must band together to outlast the waves of soulless assailants pouring into the station. In this way, Assault on Precinct 13 is both a lean survival thriller and an engaging melodrama about earned respect overcoming identity, the lengths we should go to for our fellow man, and, most importantly, where we’re getting our next cigarette.
Assault on Precinct 13 is an easy recommendation—a film that has stood the test of time and remains one of the most gripping and provocative action thrillers you can find.
David: 10/10
What could I possibly add to the discussion of John Carpenter’s masterpiece? There isn’t a single second of Halloween that doesn’t feel iconic. From the jack-o’-lantern title sequence to the glorious perfection of the final 20 minutes, and every note of Carpenter’s seminal synth score in between, this film is totemic. Michael Myers may be evil personified, but Halloween distills the essence of the holiday so succinctly that it instantly evokes the feeling of fall, no matter when or where it’s watched.
It’s impossible not to feel the chill of an autumn night while watching Halloween, to be drawn into the illusion crafted in a Southern California spring—despite every palm tree and bright green leaf betraying the time and setting. Every time I watch this movie, I feel like a kid again, instantly transported to the days of trick-or-treating, wearing a costume, walking down dark suburban sidewalks with an irrational fear that something is following me or hiding just behind those bushes. That’s the great power of The Shape: he’s not just a man, but the very feeling that makes you run up the basement stairs after turning off the lights. He’s not lurking in the dark—he is the dark—but you don’t turn on the lights, because everyone is entitled to one good scare.
Halloween is mandatory viewing—an unimpeachable classic and one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
David: 5.75/10
Objectively speaking, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is only marginally better than its predecessor, but it’s a whole lot more fun to watch. By swapping out Ruben Fleischer for Andy Serkis as director, the sequel sheds the few tiny shreds of self-seriousness that the first Venom had, fully embracing the screwball nature of Tom Hardy’s performance as Eddie Brock/Venom and running with it as the film’s major selling point. The movie wisely pivots away from Michelle Williams as Hardy’s chemistry-less love interest, investing much more time into the odd couple of Eddie and Venom, essentially turning their host body-symbiote relationship into an allegory for same-sex relationships. Venom even goes to a rave and literally declares himself out of Eddie’s closet in the film.
It’s silly, but the reconciliation of Eddie and the alien symbiote living inside him as a metaphor for finding self-acceptance is, surprisingly, almost endearing. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is irreverent and ridiculous, but its blink-and-you’ll-miss-it runtime zips by so fast that there’s not a single moment to be bored. Longtime Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino cinematographer Robert Richardson captures every slimy, tentacle-filled second beautifully.
For those capable of embracing the joys of a dumb movie, Venom: Let There Be Carnage provides swift enjoyment.
So, that’s everything we watched last week, but we want to know what you’ve been watching! Jump into the Discord and let us know if you’ve seen anything good lately.
David Lee
Published September 16, 2024