The Suggestion Box #112: Creeps, and Vamps, and the French, Oh My!

Posted on by Lauren

Wondering what to do with your upcoming free time? Good thing we have some suggestions for what you should be watching, playing, reading, listening to, etc.

Lauren’s Movie Pick: Abigail – Move aside, M3gan, there’s a new dancing terror in town; with pointy teeth to go with her pointe shoes. If you’ve seen the trailer then you know all about the big vampiric twist in Radio Silence’s 2nd entry into their “old money family with a deep dark secret haunting the halls of their big ass mansion primed to be redecorated with the blood and viscera of exploding bodies” trilogy – seriously, let’s all pretend Welcome to Raccoon City never happened and give these guys a crack at adapting the first Resident Evil game for the big screen. Good news is that knowing it’s coming doesn’t dampen the fun to be had both pre and post reveal (which doesn’t actually come until almost halfway through the film) thanks to the phenomenal performances from the entire cast. Dan Stevens continues to be Dan Fucking Stevens, but a special shout out goes to the extra playful dynamic between the unlikely pairing of Kathryn Newton and Kevin Durand’s characters; and Alisha Weir kills it once she goes full tilt into “I’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me” mode. Don’t get me wrong, the script is intelligently written as it pokes fun at the genre it spills into, but the cast truly elevates each and every one of their lines once their characters realize how truly out of their depth they are.

Ben’s Movie Warning: Napoleon – I’m admittedly no history buff, but from what I do know of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ridley Scott seems to have missed the mark by quite a bit with his latest historical drama. Instead of a legendary tactician and conqueror who inspired his men, Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon is an unlikable, whiny manchild who I couldn’t fathom soldiers choosing to follow of their own free will. The film never adequately explores or explains how Napoleon was able to accomplish what he did, and instead focuses on a romance that isn’t all that impactful or entertaining. It’s not like they didn’t have the time to make it all work considering the two and a half hour plus runtime; yet it still manages to feel double that seeing as the time is so poorly used. The painfully slow pacing and bland whimper of a final act leave us with a filmgoing experience that not only had me questioning why it was made, but why I chose to subject myself to it for as long as I did.

Ben’s Movie Pick: Nightcrawler – Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite actors (second only to the living legend that is Nicolas Cage) thanks to his wide range of great-to-phenomenal cross genre performances – from action films, to dramas, to, well, whatever the hell Enemy is – with my favorite role being the deeply creepy Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. At the start of the film, Lou pivots from the role of thief to a career in freelance photojournalism thanks to his knack for getting the best shots of fatal accidents and brutal crimes, unhindered by an unwillingness to cross legal, ethical, and/or moral boundaries to get them. It’s an uneasy but compelling watch as Lou’s rise in favor with the news station contrasts greatly with his plummeting morals. Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed are terrific as Lou’s main news station contact and “employee” respectively, but Nightcrawler is definitely Gyllenhaal’s show, and he doesn’t let a single moment go to waste.

Ben’s Movie Pick: Shrek & Shrek 2 – I was a little concerned that these classic Dreamworks films wouldn’t hold up considering it’s been over a decade since I last watched them; fortunately I was worried for nothing. Matter of fact, Shrek and Shrek 2 are even better than I remembered them being. The animation still looks great, the ensemble voice cast definitely understood the assignment, the characters are all tons of fun, and the fantasy/real-world satire is still equally clever and funny all these years later. The tone of the movies feels like they were made with meme potential in mind (even though there’s no way they were), which is probably why the franchise has not only had such staying power, but is seemingly resurging yet again. Oh, and the soundtracks are unreal, both in regards to the musical choices and how they’re implemented, with Shrek 2 potentially being one of my all-time favorite film soundtracks.

So what do you think about these picks? What content did we miss over the past two weeks while we were spending time with these? Be sure to leave a comment below letting us know about everything (both current and simply new to you) you’ve been consuming lately!

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