#81 - DRAG ME TO HELL
2009; dir. Sam Raimi; starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver
Sam Raimi is a personal hero of mine. A Michigan guy makes an independent horror film suffused with idiosyncratic style and goes on to become one of the most respected filmmakers, without losing the sense of what made him unique? Sign me up, cap’n!
His 2009 Drag Me To Hell had such a rad narrative baked in, too. Coming off the heels of his ginormous Spider-Man trilogy, exacerbated by the third one’s wonky reputation and behind-the-scenes drama (though somewhere exists footage of me telling my local news station post-midnight screening that “the special effects were really good”), Raimi was returning to his lower-budget horror roots. I saw the heck out of this picture upon release and loved it, particularly its metaphorical read, its wacky sense of humor, and its astonishing yet technically unsurprising ending. When Shout Factory announced a collector’s edition, of course I had to pick it up!
And then, well, two things. One: this movie is loud, broad, centered around poor CGI, and straight up mean-spirited (that last one gets applied to a lot of Raimi’s horror work, often as a compliment, but here it feels particularly unmotivated). Watching it contemporarily felt like getting yelled at a bunch, making its inventive, gross-out scares feel annoying rather than gleeful.
And two: the blu-ray restarted itself about halfway through. So, like, I can’t keep that!
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#82 - EDGE OF TOMORROW
2014; dir. Doug Liman; starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
This is a powerful first half of a movie. It’s edited sharply, it’s thrillingly satirical - and these performances! Blunt is An Action Star, full stop, and this is one of the flicks that cements her as one of my favorite and most versatile actors working today. And Cruise as a cowardly shitheel is a great look for the performer, one he should clock into more often; he is so ruthlessly funny and accessible here!
But, gosh. Once the movie hits the midpoint, and everyone stops all the fun so we can solve the plot and figure out the time loop and get back to yada yada blah - I really check the heck out! It starts to feel perfunctory, merely functional, losing the specialness of its first half just so it can neatly put all its toys away.
I dunno! Don’t run away from your premise! Or make sure the stuff a film “needs” still has the stuff an audience “wants”!
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#83 - EMILY THE CRIMINAL
2022; dir. John Patton Ford; starring Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke
This is exactly my kind of movie, the personal-stakes crime thriller that meshes character study with capitalism/country study with heart-stopping suspense set pieces to boot. It’s agonizing, enthralling stuff, with two lead performances working in great tandem with each other (Plaza is steel, Rossi is water).
I’ll be honest - I rewatched this film while folding laundry, and something like 15 minutes in, I completely stopped the laundry and had to lock TF in for the rest of the runtime. It’s that kind of enrapturing.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#84 - EUROPE TRILOGY
1984-1991; dir. Lars von Trier
The Element of Crime, von Trier’s debut feature, is one of the most beautifully photographed films I’ve ever seen. It’s so intentional and idiosyncratic that it almost feels inhuman; like some cursed or alien object we’ll never fully understand. Its narrative is almost ancillary, or even irrelevant, but the raw emotions it plumbs within the aching desperation of its lead (a beyond-committed Michael Elphick) stick and linger. It’s expressionistic Kafka and I absolutely love it.
Europa, von Trier’s third feature, is another of the most beautifully photographed films I’ve ever seen! This time, the narrative is essential and devastating, a sad, muted howl in the face of the lingering horrors of World War II. Von Trier is playing with the textures and impulses of classic Hollywood noir and romantic cinema past its general guardrails and norms; a mode of filmmaking I respond to 10 times out of 10. Really, really good.
These two films are so formally precise and engineered, it kinda baffles me that von Trier’s reputation becomes so linked to Dogme 95 “naturalistic muckraking” kinda movies. And the second film in the set, Epidemic, puts forth this DNA completely - and it’s why I like it the least, haha. But two out-and-out masterpieces buoy the middle dud and thensome!
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#85 - EVENT HORIZON
1997; dir. Paul W.S. Anderson; starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan
I love this sick lil’ movie so damn much lol.
It’s a great example of how to heighten, no matter the genre (though this movie gets really genre, so I understand if many are too yucked out to appreciate the lesson). It starts in the psychological; the mere idea of seclusion, paranoia, and madness being enough to provoke the characters and audience. It pushes in that direction as far as possible, until the ceiling breaks into the physical realm - and then we start with drips and drabs in that world as well. And the heightening it undergoes in this realm is absolute sicko mode, bending and breaking everything past the traditional imaginations of similar types of films and, frankly, good taste. All in service of “the idea,” saying “if we’re doing this idea, we’re doing it as hard as possible until we go.” Inspiring!
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
Thanks for checking out Greg’s Blu-Rays A-To-Z! Next week: Three bonafide genre classics, and one that’s on its way.