Staghunters reviews!

Sorry this got accidentally deleted when I was adding the Weapons review :'). I did really like this one, even more than the first movie in this series.

I actually recently got the screenplay and wow it's surprising how much the opening sequence changed between writing and shooting the film.

Had seen this before, but now had the opportunity to watch the 25th anniversary restoration. I'm not that well-versed in restorations to know the differences, but an view on the big screen is usually very nice.

Knowing the plot ahead of time made it easier to catch other details, like how the movie already drip feeds the match cuts that it will use later to highten the sense of disorientation in Mima in the second act of the film. There's use of collage, of extreme close-ups, of reflections in surfaces and angles that are purposefully obscuring parts of the action. It's an exercise in framing that is done so masterfully, it's hard to find a comparison, even in the "real life" movies.

A part that may annoy some viewers but I liked is that the bigger projection area blows up the image so much and so crisp that you can see the minute movements of animation cells when characters are doing something in more or less a stationary position. Mima's legs cut into the table in the scene where she's on the phone with her mom, and it breaks immersion in the pleasant way that you notice how much craft went into this.

Therefore I don't think it's overstated that this is a debut film. Kon clearly brings in his expertise from his anime production work, and uses that in combination with techniques otherwise reserved for live-action films to push how an animated movie is suppossed to look. The themes contribute to this in a heavy amount, at the same time being a voyeuristic work as it is a heavy, on-the-nose critique of celebrity/idol culture.

So this had been on my watchlist since I heard about it, and despite being warned by other reviews as they came trickling in, I had some hope going into it. This did little to make this a better experience. Spoilers ahead btw because I want to VENT. I didn't watch this in the cinema though I was tempted to, but wow am I glad I skipped that for an at-home watch.

I think part of why this doesn't work is because it drags on so much. There are some very clear beats at which you may anticipate it kicking into a higher gear, but the movie never really delivers on that. Equally so I'm suppossed to believe that this is a couple on the edge of divorce and it doesn't feel like it? They could be strangers who happened to be stuck in the same shitty situation at random, and it would change very little to change what is shown on screen.

Maybe I'm most pissed at the lacking in the werewolf department. You can have fun with that, but you have to understand what you're working with as a writer/director and see the potentials in that. The blurb on danger coming both from outside and within had me, for example, thinking that the situation would get increasingly more tense for the characters as there is a very real threat prowling outside, while they also have a ticking bomb inside the house.
Do you lock him up? Do you put yourself away in a safe space to wait it out? Do you risk going outside to get to another location?
None of this happened in the movie. They kept going back and forth between the same four locations.

The film seems to be too interested in the internal conflict of our wolf man; having him gorge at his own arm at one point and peachy keen the minute after. None of it is believable when control can be regained when things finally seem to get more dangerous. Werewolves have been the perfect monster to show that fear of losing self-control. Having it be a viral disease can do wonders to take another kind of losing control into it. It doesn't work when you don't commit or chicken out of getting into the nitty gritty of it. I guess daddy-o is a nice guy, and he struggles, but he struggles for too long.

Anyway, hear me out on this redirect...
Like, maybe instead of having non-descript occupations like "writer" and "journalist", she's a resident doctor who's barely home for the kid, while he's a writer with one book on the bestseller list and struggling with the second while taking care of the kid and feeling an increasing level of envy for his wife being more succesful? Maybe the entire "past" segment is left out but they mention his rural off-grid childhood, the dragging case on his dad, and then the push to go to the house once he's declared dead, but also so husband man can feel like he's finally in control and "providing" for his family. Wolf stuff still happens but she can recognize that this is some nasty virus, he pretends everything is okay because he finally feels capable. Maybe the real monster was misogyny all along!

A classic I wanted and needed to revisit, and based on my old rating, I had a much better time now. It's an Emma adaptation for sure, but only in the general sense. There are details that are drastically different or new additions added to the plot that keep it fresh for both people that have read the book, and those completely... clueless.

In any case, it feels like a parody of teens at the time, and yet the bizarreness of those parts doesn't feel dated or stale or overdone. Things are kept quite contained within the service of the scene. The cast also makes that work for them big time. The writing offeres up a lot of material to play with and it hardly ever feels like anyone's struggling on their lines.

I think the only minor flaw is that there are some hard cuts in when it switches acts. From when Christian comes in I lose some interest in the plot, maybe because he's the only one Cher has her focus on for the next big chunk of the movie. I like her co-op with Dionne in the earlier minutes of the story.

Shoutout to props, costuming, and production design departments as always

One of those movies that is elevated by the cinema experience of it. I think the low droning of Hanging Rock in the very first minutes of the movie had me hooked immediately. I haven't read the novel (yet), but this stands very strongly on it's own as a story about something sudden and strange and tragic striking a relatively small group, but rippling into greater losses.

What exactly happened at Hanging Rock isn't in this film's interest to answer. I'd say it's stronger with the mystery staying "intact" (pun intended). There's enough revealed to make it all the more bizarre of an event, and yet nothing is shown but the briefest glimpses. We, the audience, are just like those outside of this event, on the "safe" side of things. We are here because we did not see behind the rock. Whoever goes to look either forgets risks the same fate.

In all that, it has a very (cosmologically) horror atmosphere. It's mentioned frequently how old the Rock is, and yet how young and alien it is within it's landscape. All this othering trickles down into the group we follow; Sarah's exclusion as an orphan and gay become central to the post-disappearance part of the story. Girls disappear at the Rock, and they vanish in a system once again when you have no use for them. Or tread on dangerous heights.

Maybe the clearest this movie is, is when Irma compares Sarah to a baby deer her father once brought home: sometimes you can see at a glance if someone is doomed.

Great to get the chance to see this on the big screen with a packed theatre, even if the reason for it is sad. It's something that will stick with me for a while, from it's meticulous composition to it's frustrating lack of final puzzle piece (in a good way).

A lot of it requires a "open mind" to the fact that this movie will not make sense all of the time, something that didn't sit well with some people I overheard in the bathroom afterwards. It has the typical Lynchean slapstick and quotes, which make it better rather than worse to me, personally. His films often are about really dark things, yet this doesn't mean that there should be no room for a laugh. The absurdity of real life is just as key to Lynch cinema as his mind-boggling visuals.

Both Naomi and Laura are Amazing in this! They really carry this story with their megawatt disposition and forlorn slouching, and flip it up to a whole new level in that final part of this.

A friend said the scariest bit is the Man behind the Winkie's, and the scene is spooky; I still got all tense even though I'd seen it on a small screen totally out of context before. Whatever the guy there is referring to, though, is fucked up and ties the whole mystery of the movie's main plot together: what if you noticed your dream unfolding in real life? What if it kept following the same beat, and you know the horrible end that is coming. You won't know for sure unless you take a peek around the corner, but can you handle seeing what has always been there?

Wasn't sure what to expect, with how little I know of the OG Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula beyond the stuff that's in popular culture. This may have aided my viewing because I could constantly be surprised by what was going on or going to happen. The trailer, to its credit, doesn't betray anything important of the plot.

I think the only "bad" Eggers experience I've had was The Northman, with the best being The VVitch. This, like The Lighthouse, falls pleasantly in the middle. It has some flaws, but in general has that lovely part of Eggers' charm that he gets creative with his lore and doesn't take too much time to explain it. The exposition bits were sometimes too much, but felt very much like a movie that is taking a lot from its predecessor.

Every actor pulled their weight. There's an amazing Count Orlok, and for being such an effort in the make-up department, I'm still glad they didn't show him too early. The final shot, as jarring in constrast, works exactly because of that. A lot of contrasts also happened in the editing, with very slow tilts and turns being juxtaposed by hard flip-cuts on the perspective we were on. There's so little actual jumpscares for how many I was expecting.

A film!

The disclaimer for this is that I did actually go in with way different expectations of the kind of movie this was going to be. Like, I'm personally more lenient towards vaguely-supernatural thrillers, or straight-up procedural stuff. This was more middle-of-the-road, but in a way that did surprise me!

Another disclaimer that I'm not religious, nor super skeptic. I was raised catholic, did the whole shebang, and now don't really direct myself at anything specific. Maybe I'm more towards the movie's ideal audience for that: I was an objective audience for either party in the movie to win over. I think it speaks of the performances that the Mormons had it! Sister Paxton, you kind, kind, kind soul.

Another great element was the very well-balanced trust this thing had in its audience. Shots linger, or don't, but in general the viewer is given all the information and puzzle pieces they need to figure something out on their own, alongside our protagonists. I think it was a strength that I usually either took for granted, or so rarely saw utilized to its best potential that I'd forgotten all about it. Some parts I figured out, some I didn't, but for all there was a moment that it was called back on by a diegetic element and so nothing was lost. A great safety net that never felt condescending.