I Live I Die I Die Again

Bring together me in raising a glass to Quibi, the seize with teeth-sized video service that everyone in the world knew would neglect except the leadership at Quibi. From launch to close down in six months — that's truly remarkable.

Although it's funny to see this idea blow up so robustly in the faces of Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, it sucks for those lower on the ladder. They worked difficult to produce shows they knew no one would scout, and now they're out of their jobs. I'm certain in that location was good stuff on the service! But I was never, always going to lookout man it.

In meliorate news, after final week'southward pocket-sized respite, our selections for this calendar week get back to the Blench Blog themes you know and honey/hate.

"The Wailing" (2016)

Prime Video, rated R, 156 minutes

Jun Kunimura in "The Wailing." Photograph source: Prime Video.

There's a new rule that I desire to implement, and the rule is that every movie must contain dueling religious rituals fix to increasingly loud and frenetic music.

"The Wailing" taught me this. "The Wailing" too taught me — reminded me, to exist more accurate — that Due south Korea makes better horror films than anyone else. Those filmmakers understand the importance of feeling, of atmosphere, is much greater than that of jump scares.

Here we have Jong-Goo (Kwak Do-won), a detective who is not quite bumbling but certainly not elite at his job. He messes up sometimes, which isn't unremarkably a huge deal in his modest village; naught much happens there. Until stuff starts happening there. Brutal killings, a string of them, each by a unlike person. The perpetrators are connected by the brutal rash they share, pus prominently presented. This rash/expletive remains, draining them of their mental capacities, until they somewhen die.

Signs begin to point to a secretive Japanese man (Jun Kunimura) as the 1 putting a curse on these people. Some even refer to him as a ghost, even though he's visibly mankind and blood. There are stories of him eating the raw see of a deer carcass on all fours deep in the woods, his eyes glowing red. When Jong-Goo has a dream that matches these stories, it's enough to spring him into activeness. He and his partner (Son Kang-gook) pay him a visit.

What they detect chills them, but it'due south not plenty to make an arrest. And things get from bad to worse when Jong-Goo returns home to find his adolescent girl (Kim Hwan-hee) starting to develop the murderous rash.

Kim Hwan-hee and Kwak Exercise-won in "The Wailing." Photo source: Prime Video.

"The Wailing" is frightening in all the right means. Director Na Hong-jin keeps the motion picture's mysteries locked abroad for much of the run fourth dimension, keeping the audience guessing as to what's actually happening. The surface level story is dark, and the unsaid story might exist even darker once you connect a few dots and think about how these people are getting sick. But the motion-picture show won't do that for you; "The Wailing" is a complex story, and if you desire to solve it all, you might take to watch it twice (at least). Information technology touches on a lot of things, main amidst them what information technology means to believe in something. Is sight and touch enough? Or tin our eyes and hands be deceived? How do we always know who to trust?

It also tries to be a lot of horror genres at once. In that location are scenes that pay homage to possession films, zombie films, cult films and serial killer films. Somehow, it all works, maybe because the whole narrative is fractured from the starting time. If a film is consistently messy, it is really messy at all? Or is that part of the appeal?

Complexity aside, the picture show does come up to a conclusive catastrophe, and it's a knockout. Not one that volition make sleeping like shooting fish in a barrel, heed you. I don't want any complaints if this keeps yous up at night. But it'south a peachy one all the same, paving a hereafter for certain characters without needing a sequel to see their stories through. You lot already know what lies in wait for them, for better or worse.

And again, before I movement on: I really must insist that all movies feature dueling rituals. I cannot stress enough how compelling that scene is. Watch it and give thanks me later on.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015)

Google Play, rated R, 121 minutes

Tom Hardy in "Mad Max: Fury Road."

Ryan, why are you lot putting a directly-up activity film in Cringe Weblog? Oasis't you lot strayed from the theme enough this twelvemonth? I mean, concluding week's installment had 2 movies that barely qualified under whatsoever metric. Where's "The Haunting of Bly Manor?" Where's "Rebecca?" Where'due south the HORROR?!?

Good questions, Ryan. Commencement of all, shut up. Second of all, my blog, my rules. Third of all, i of those might be coming next week. Fourth of all, "Mad Max: Fury Road" is the ultimate Halloween picture show. Or it should be, anyway. Really, nosotros should exist talking about the phenomenon that is this movie every day for the rest of time. But allow'south focus on the Halloween of information technology all for now. Is information technology set in the autumn? Tough to tell when it'southward set in the apocalyptic Australian outback. A strike against it? Mayhap, but mind to my other points start:

• Put all of the characters in this movie, big and small roles alike, into a hat. Option one. Smash, that's your Halloween costume. A groovy choice. You seriously cannot go incorrect. Await at this guy. Look at this person. Look AT THE DOOF WARRIOR. There has never been a cooler small-scale character in whatsoever movie than the Doof Warrior, the leader of the War Boys' traveling battle band who signals his army's arrival by admittedly shredding on an electric guitar (that shoots flames) while strapped to bungee cords on a big-donkey truck.
• Furiosa (Charlize Theron). That's it, that's the bullet signal.
• The opening scene, where Max (Tom Hardy) tries to escape from the War Boys while being haunted by visions of his past failures, is incredibly scary, even more so considering director George Miller, an actual insane person, made the conclusion to speed up the footage to the bespeak where the human middle tin canjust barelycomprehend what it is seeing. The upshot is an almost 3D-like effect, or similar you're at a haunted house with never-ending strobe lights. The offset time I watched it, I wondered if my brain was breaking. Now I think information technology's vivid. At that place are other frightening things in this movie, such equally the quick shot of the crow fishers in the swamp, but nil beats the opening scene.
• For someone who doesn't get that much to do, Immortan Joe is an all-fourth dimension great villain, mostly considering his name is Immortan Joe and he looks similar this. (Costumes!) Miller makes him terrifying through other people'due south reactions to him as much as his own deportment. When he runs, he looks similar an adult version of a "Power Rangers" villain and it rules.

Charlize Theron in "Mad Max: Fury Road."

• Furiosa!
• It is genuinely incredible to me that no died while making this picture show. The entire movie, more or less, is a massive car chase involving fire and big rigs and off-road cars and leaping motorcycles and many, many pole stunts. Tom Hardy spends 45 or so minutes literally strapped to the front of a motorcar going 140 mph like the figurehead on the bow of a ship. If you have a half hour, I highly recommend this backside-the-scenes look at the film and how information technology pulled off a lot of these stunts. Information technology's worth it to hear how 18-carat the terror in Hardy's voice is when talking about it all.
• At one bespeak, a character says "Witness me, bloodbag," a seemingly breathless trio of words to anyone who has not watched the flick, but in authenticity a powerful and emotional trio of words. That's what proficient movies do: create a globe from scratch, teach yous it's rules and culture and then make you lot care nigh those things.
• A dude gets his face ripped off, which is pretty sick.
• FURIOSA!!!!!!!
• "Fury Road" manages to simultaneously exist a "women get revenge on their abusers and take control of their lives" picture and exist a "dudes rock" movie, which is an unheard of feat. It should take won Best Picture show for that alone. (Thanks, "Spotlight," a movie but journalists call up exists now.)

I feel like I have made my case for "Fury Route," the all-time activeness moving picture of at to the lowest degree the by twenty years if non longer. If, nonetheless, you still take some complaints, please feel gratuitous to email them to [email protected].

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Source: https://www.yourobserver.com/article/cringe-blog-i-live-i-die-i-live-again

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