(2026 dir. Solís / Galocha) Date Seen: June 4 2026
Its heart is undeniably in the right place, but in execution it frequently collapses into a weirdly bland visual language; tacky color choices & the generic plasticky modelling thing do the story and characters a disservice. There's good-natured sweetness getting trapped here within bubbles of "muy feo".
236) SACCHARINE
(2026 dir. Natalie Erika James) Date Seen: June 4 2026
Earnestly has something interesting to say about weight-loss culture + body image, and it's by Natalie Erika James so you know it's always at least going to look very cool. This one's pervasive theme of maladaptive perfectionism (bordering on a Freudian death drive) structurally reminded me a lot of THE NOVICE 2021 oddly enough. Both at school & at work I have watched so many women absolutely destroy themselves in similar ways to these & it's never not heartbreaking (in 2 cases in particular they never got better). Maybe SACCHARINE does get a little predictable towards the end w/ regards to horror tropes, but it does offer enough batshit cannibalistic ghost imagery to overall make it worth a viewing. Natalie's previous film RELIC featured one of the most disarmingly poignant endings in modern horror, so maybe that being in the back of my mind during this got my hopes up a bit too high. [Reminds me I still need to see the ROSEMARY'S BABY prequel she did for Paramount+]
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