Viewing Journal: 8/11/2026

327) COUP DE TORCHON

(1981 dir. Bertrand Tavernier) Date Seen: August 11 2026

Isabelle Huppert got that irresistible mystique..

#Criterion #bluray

Viewing Journal: 8/10/2026

326) SEND HELP

(2026 dir. Sam Raimi) Date Seen: August 10 2026

Based off ads alone, you'd be forgiven for going into this expecting a maximalist black-comedy riff on the "Matilda Effect".. but this is Sam Raimi & his penchant for pushing things into kabuki territory can sometimes be a double-edged sword. It's always interesting to see if the politics of a piece can survive specific brands of silliness. Surrealists like Buñuel were masters of using absurdism to amplify political statements, but i'm not so sure with stuff like this and TRIANGLE OF SADNESS. A part of me feels like farcical excess can detract.. Rachel McAdams is dependably great in this, but O’Brien is operating at MACGRUBER levels of pathetic & infantile 🤣. Like he might as well be running around the island doing Three Stooges sound effects. & That is not a complaint. Btw I’ve been enjoying how many recent films (APEX, DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE MENU) keep treating these misogynist self-help bros as inherently dopey & harmful to society. 

Potential spoiler blocked out - highlight to reveal: I was confused about whether SEND HELP's ending is supposed to be taken as nihilism & cynically materialist OR if it's a sincere girl-boss W.. The specific musical choice might have thrown off my tonal compass.

Even with my quibbles; It's always illicitly pleasurable to watch a master filmmaker like Raimi cook -- & one who remembers movies can construct meaning through actual pictures!

Viewing Journal: 8/9/2026

325) ONE NIGHT ONLY

(2026 dir. Will Gluck) Date Seen: August 9 2026

trying really hard to be sexy and edgy and failing to be either.

"i don't want to look into somebody's eyes during the banging"

"I just want to - to Bang!" 

324) WARLOCK

(1989 dir. Steve Miner) Date Seen: August 9 2026

Surprisingly audacious movie considering its budget. & made all the better by the sheer luck of landing those 3 enormously charismatic leads: Julian Sands, Lori Singer (coulda swore she was Daryl Hannah), and especially Richard E. Grant; who even approaches genre pulp with the conviction of a man doing Henry V. I do feel like I need to say that this film is saddled with that dated & dogmatic equation of anything being vaguely witchy = Satanism. but whatever, that trend is almost an entire subgenre within western media. + there’s this subplot involving an aging curse Lori Singer's character gets that I think was supposed to worrying but it's so damn funny.. So there’s a buncha tonal miscalculations throughout. Still, WARLOCK’s got enough energy and genuine risk-taking in it, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't immensely entertaining.

323) WARLOCK II: 

     THE ARMAGEDDON

(1993 dir. Anthony Hickox) Date Seen: August 9 2026

Hickox (director of WAXWORK) always does cool photographic stuff & showcases neat analogue vfx, so i'm sad to say I found this one dramatically static.

Viewing Journal: 8/8/2026

322) THE SAMURAI 

         AND THE PRISONER

(2026 dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) Date Seen: August 8 2026

On the surface Kiyoshi's newest plays like a surprisingly breezy samurai whodunit about reason + the self-deception people practice to justify their violence. But we quickly realize all that detective procedural stuff about solving murders becomes existentially far less simple during a clusterfuck of a war; Where truth itself is clear as mud.. All that's left is just a bunch of competing RASHOMON-like narratives.

Viewing Journal: 8/7/2026

321) GAIL DAUGHTRY 

& THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS

(2026 dir. David Wain) Date Seen: August 7 2026

Zoey, Miles, & Ben Wang make great new additions to David Wain's recurring ensemble.. But we especially do not deserve Fred Melamed. The reservoir of untapped comedy potential that guy represents.

Viewing Journal: 8/6/2026

320) SPIDER-MAN: 

        BRAND NEW DAY

(2026 dir. Destin Daniel Cretton) Date Seen: August 6 2026

As an action movie, this was a huge step up from DD Cretton’s last Marvel outing YÁNGZǏ & THE QUEST FOR GOLDEN TREASURE, + I dug the darker lighting and the way Peter’s erased personal life occasionally approached the existential devastation of something like The Shining Girls. But man, in its latter half this movie goes overkill on those unearned catharsis scenes! Every other emotional beat hitting the record scratch so somebody can deliver a soap-opera speech full of the mushy vague platitudes.. I guess if you dig cornball sentimentality you'll lap that up -- but i felt like genuine sentiment wasn't within.

also: this is not a dig at BRAND NEW DAY's narrative details, but i do wish one of these things would've visually depicted the "Neogenic Nightmare" Peter went through on the old animated series! That "Man-Spider" thing scared us to death as kids. But I fear maybe ol' Sony has become a little too namby-pamby now to try anything like that. When it comes to superhero/supervillain stuff, they're almost like the Rod & Todd Flanders of movie studios.. (Look at what they did to Carnage)

Viewing Journal: 8/5/2026

319) THE ISOLATE THIEF

(2026 dir. John Suits) Date Seen: August 5 2026

After years cutting his teeth on director-for-hire schlock, this director (Suits) has clearly picked up some mint filmmaking chops along the way; 'cause this is a downright handsome western and it even manages to be thrilling at parts. Some of the editing & narrative pacing could’ve been tighter, but I hope he keeps trying adventurous stuff like this. I might actually rate it higher after a repeat viewing.

More Mackenzie Foy in lead parts! (she was the child version of his daughter in INTERSTELLAR).

318) DRAGON GIRL

(2020 dir. Katarina Launing) Date Seen: August 5 2026

There is something admirable about a children’s Christmas movie wearing a genuinely Christian concern for refugees and war orphans so openly on its sleeve. So it's a shame DRAGEVOKTERENS JUL packages these themes in such a thoroughly generic & sanitized little world, where even chasing a wild dragon feels overly safe and manicured. Like posh holiday decorations at Euro-Disney.. but make it the freaky Norway version.

Btw the baby "Dragen" is an adorable design.

Viewing Journal: 8/4/2026

317) SHEEP IN THE BOX

(2026 dir. Hirokazu Koreeda) Date Seen: August 4 2026

While clearly lesser Koreeda, I still found it to be aight food for thought for most of its runtime. Comparisons to Spielberg's A.I. are obvious, but the film it really brought to my mind was Julie Delpy's MY ZOE (2021). Where you kinda want to strangle the adults in the family for being so selfish & shortsighted.

Viewing Journal: 8/3/2026

316) 

BLACK BOX [FLIGHT 298]

(2026 dir. Steven Quale) Date Seen: August 3 2026

Like 2010's ALTITUDE, this had some potentially cool & spooky ideas thumping around. But almost everything the director & his team does with them lacks inspiration. The cinematography is particularly ass. There's scenes within an air traffic control tower that are lit like a DeVry commercial.

same director did that fun 3D FINAL DESTINATION 5 back in 2011..

it's difficult to wrap my head around.

Viewing Journal: 8/2/2026

315) I WANT YOUR SEX 

(2026 dir. Gregg Araki) Date Seen: August 2 2026

Heard someone refer to Araki as the "Gen X Alt-Rock John Waters" at a bordello party once. I happen to disagree with the comparison, but for the sake of this analogy -- suppose he was. Then I WANT YOUR SEX is the equivalent of PECKER '98. A whole heck of lot less stylish & transgressive than what we'd usually expect from the filmmaker, but at least it's accessible & funny for the most part.. + anything sex positive with Olivia Wilde in it is potentially titillating.