Primetime

You only have me for so much longer A24 so savor it while it lasts.

I will come clean 110%, I heard about this movie in passing and didn't really think it was for me until about 3 weeks ago, when I saw the trailer before Onslaught and that trailer alone made me want to see this movie. Now...did the trailer perfectly encapsulate the film? Nnnnno, it looked like a mix of psychological thriller and a police procedural, just mental as shit. The movie is kinda half and half between a slightly fictionalized look at the To Catch A Predator series and then we go to Denton, and it becomes an A24 movie. Granted the focus is on Chris Hansen and a decoy by the name of Dan Plum as they navigate quite possibly the most difficult show to ever film, as we build up to the suicide stinger that got the show canned back in the day. Robert you absolute madman I love you to bits, and it is fascinating watching this performance cause like I said it goes by the numbers and then as we near closer to the end it gets out there, and it without a doubt is an exaggeration of Chris but I'm so invested in the plot and was really having fun with Pattinson's acting to where I didn't really care. Skyler I feel has the most dramatic of roles to play as this regular actor who doesn't even know what show he's auditioning for as he has to condition himself to confront these horrific people and how Chris slightly guides/utilizes him for these arrests. Merritt Wever as the producer Andie took me awhile to grasp what she was laying down as this aloof, deadpan voiced, pretty much head honcho of the show but I got it by the end. And this is gonna sound weird as shit, I know it's probably just me but this movie kinda got some laughs out of me. It's not super on the nose comedy but it has these almost for lack of a better term, self-aware moments where if you really take a step back and look at the situation it's fairly ridiculous and it got some chuckles outta me. Go figure! Now this takes place in 2006, I was 11 at the time, I didn't have an opinion on whether the series was sensationalist television or anything like that cause it was so far off my radar it practically didn't exist. Now, yeah it's a fair bit obvious that the show did not have to exist for these operations to go into effect, and whether or not it made a dent in pedophilia or forced them to be more subtle and crafty I couldn't say and will leave that to more intelligent minds. I'm just here to tell you what I think about the movie and I really liked it! It certainly has no problem showcasing the zeitgeist of that era which I get a kick out of, every goddamn movie is 80s this or 70s that, it is going to be a fucking trip when we start getting early 2000s nostalgia in our movies man. But the production was sharp from the damn good cinematography, the more artsy lighting, the rock solid direction, the acting, it all worked and worked very well. It's an interesting movie to say the least and it likely won't work for everybody but I can give it an odd recommendation. Just see it cause this is one of those movies where you can only judge it for yourself. For me I give it 3.5 stars, 8/10, and we are shifting gears hard fucking core tomorrow.

Under The Skin

Holy balls.

I'm stumped for words. What the f***?? I mean I loved it, I was there for it, I was invested from the first second, I don't really know what any of it meant...but I'm okay with that. So, I'm gonna attempt and attempt is the key word here to describe exactly what I just witnessed. Alright so the movie stars Scarlett Johansson (Huzzah!) as this woman who for unknown reasons prowls the streets looking for men to lure, and essentially basically kill. It kinda sorta shifts and evolves for lack of a better term as the movie progresses but I'm not saying a damn thing more. Now first up, this is so not a movie for everyone. Not by a long shot. It is weird, it is bordering on an experimental student film with loooong stretches without dialogue, fairly long takes, interesting but slightly off camera angles, gorgeous with a capital G scenery, and visuals that simply are unforgettable. This is a movie all about the visuals and the experience, dialogue is used so sparingly and you really are thrown into the deep end and you just gotta roll with it. Now for me that works, I was endlessly fascinated and throwing out ideas to exactly what in the flip flapping hell was going on. And I don't wanna hear a word about, oh Scarlett Johansson is fully nude in this movie no wonder you praise the gorgeousness of the film, you should be ashamed of yourself you f***ing pervert. I have said this before and I will damn well say it again every time, I genuinely do appreciate actors getting nekkid because that is no easy thing to do, you have to be utterly comfortable in your skin, you have to be so brave to shoot nude scenes for anything, they have my respect for that both men and women. I was too busy shitting my weight in bricks regardless, I never ever thought I would be terrified of Scarlett Johansson in my entire life but sweet Jesus. She can do anything. Really, she can do any part and I will be there to see it. Young, stuck, intellectual Charlotte from Lost In Translation. Capable, asskicking, assassin/spy Black Widow in your Marvel's. Goddamn terrifying, unearthly, mysterious woman in Under The Skin. Wow. It's been awhile since a movie has flat out given me the heebie-jeebies, freaked me out, horrified me, and yet I wanted to see it all the way to the end and was completely and utterly invested. The overall cinematography is stunning, and needless to say the location shooting in Scotland is divine, it just looks so damn good. A24 is a mental studio capable of producing any film imaginable, a studio that is truly genreless and specializes in weird, offbeat, interesting, and slightly avant garde cinema almost built exclusively for film critics and people who love arty movies. And apparently it's based on a book, and you can bet your bollocks I am reading that soon. So what's the rating? Haven't a clue. I loved it, I was going a wee bit off the wall watching it, but I loved it so. I'm flabbergasted. Definite 4 star movie, I don't know if I can give it a 10/10, it's just such an anomaly. I'll give it a 9.5/10, and leave it at that. But boooooy howdy, you are going to be in for a trip if you watch this, and we'll be back tomorrow with a (hopefully) less odd film from A24 involving a certain decade.