In a Violent Nature – Spoiler Free Review

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My love for horror has been well documented here on Screen Love Affair already, but to add a bit more to the lore, the slasher genre in particular is how I got into horror movies to begin with. Gram was watching Friday the 13th: Part VII in the guestroom and I, despite being scared, wanted to impress Gram with my brave face so I sat through the rest of the movie with her. My brother Ty found his own way to the Friday the 13th franchise, but he is an even bigger fan than I am.  I don’t remember exactly when In a Violent Nature first appeared on my radar, but when I first heard about it I thought that this was a movie tailor made for Ty and I. What made us so interested was that this movie was a classic slasher, but told from the perspective of the killer.  So, was this a slasher fan’s dream, or our worst nightmare?  My Thoughts Unfortunately, very little worked for me about this movie. Before I get specifically into my thoughts though, I want to preface this by saying that this was a super small budget Canadian film made by people with no real credits to their names and filmed in the province of Ontario. Not to mention, this movie does something new and takes a chance and I hope that the financial return this movie gets is significant and that the creative team behind this film are able to keep honing their skills and developing more interesting ideas!  While this movie didn’t work for me, the fact this movie exists and got a significant theatrical push is worth celebrating and supporting.  On that note, I will start with the good. There were quite a few small details in this movie that demonstrated a familiarity with the genre and an admiration for what has come before. This movie was clearly inspired by the Friday the 13th movies, but it always felt more like an homage than a blatant and soulless ripoff. The movie opens with the inciting incident that sets our killer loose through the woods and the scenes where the soon to be victims appear all feel like they were authentically written as if this was a real 80s slasher (for better and worse) which I thoroughly enjoyed. This movie is loaded with all the classic horror tropes too, which add to its charm for this seasoned horror veteran.  Unfortunately, that’s where most of the good ends for me.  My biggest critique is that in no way did this need to be a feature length film. This is one of the longest 94 minute movies I’ve ever seen. It’s not entirely unfair to call this a “walking through the woods simulator” because for a significant part of the runtime, that is all that’s happening. While this could have worked better as 20-30 minute short, I really don’t see a way this even could work as a full movie.  If you’re familiar with the Friday the 13th movies at all, I kept thinking about the 2009 movie where Jason was much more kinetic. He wasn’t just big, he moved fast, and *GASP* he would even run after someone if he had to! He also had an elaborate tunnel and alarm system that explained how he could just seemingly appear and always knew where people were. Perhaps this movie would’ve worked better with a protagonist more like that than the more sluggish slasher villains of that older era where they really do just walk from point to point.  Aside from one and a half solid kills, this movie just made me feel absolutely nothing. No tension, no fear, no anxiety, no joy, nothing. I’ve seen this movie described as an “ambient slasher” but it doesn’t even feel particularly serene or anything either. There is no music, the sound effects are mostly dulled and lack any impact. The only time I felt anything was during one particularly creative kill and when the movie suddenly abandons the killer’s perspective and focuses on one of the characters so you feel some of that tension that you haven’t been experiencing this whole time.  Reading other reviews after I saw the movie also made me feel like I saw a different movie entirely. The current Rotten Tomatoes “Critic Consensus” reads, “As single-mindedly focused on mayhem as its demonic monster, In a Violent Nature serves up a deliciously disgusting feast for gore aficionados.”  I have an issue with almost every aspect of this, so I’m going to break down each section of that statement.  “As single-mindedly focused on mayhem as its demonic monster,” mayhem? What mayhem? To me, mayhem contains a sense of chaos that this movie just doesn’t convey. Most kills are done with broad gaps of time between them (filled with lots of walking) and are over fairly quick or are so confoundingly drawn out it left us all confused why we had a seemingly more creative mind than our killer. As for being focused on the killer, the movie entirely abandons that perspective at a certain point, but also breaks away from it throughout the movie as well.  “In a Violent Nature serves up a deliciously disgusting feast for gore aficionados.” So, feast implies an abundance. To borrow from James A. Janisse’s YouTube Channel Dead Meat, where they do “Kill Counts” (must watch for any horror fan), eight people are killed in this movie, which is about one every 12 minutes, but two of them happen basically off screen. Of the six we actually get to see, only one of them was really inventive and gorey, while the others were fairly tame by my standards. Your mileage may vary here, but as someone who has seen a lot of movies, I wasn’t overwhelmingly excited by much of what I saw in the kill department either.  Again, maybe I saw a different movie than these other critics but I’m not sure what these people are

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Challengers – Movie Review

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Sports have never really been my thing, but I’ve always loved tennis. I’ve been watching it since I was about 11 years old, and though I don’t follow it religiously these days, it still holds a special place in my heart. So when I heard that Luca Guadagnino was making a sexy tennis movie starring Zendaya, I perked up. Notable tennis movies are few and far between (Wimbledon and Battle of the Sexes are the only two that immediately come to mind), but I don’t think any have captured the sport quite like Challengers does. I’ll say right up front: this is a weird movie. If you’re going in expecting a straightforward love triangle rom-com on the tennis courts, you might be disappointed. The movie is centred around a single tennis match at a ‘challenger’ tournament in New Rochelle, NY. A low-stakes tournament in the scheme of things but one that ends up charged with the fraught history and relationships of our central trio of characters. Competing for the title are Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist), while Art’s coach and wife (and Patrick’s ex), Tashi (Zendaya), watches from the sidelines. With this simple setup, the movie proceeds to bounce us back and forth in time like a tennis ball, picking up more and more tidbits of the characters’ intertwined past and what led up to this final match. The time jumps can feel a bit chaotic, but I never felt overwhelmed or lost, which is a testament to how great the actors embody their characters at different stages of their lives. All three of the leads are phenomenal, but Zendaya and Josh O’Connor are especially good. It’s hard to believe this is Zendaya’s first time really leading a movie, but boy does she ever lead. As great as Zendaya is in Dune: Part Two (check out Shea’s review here), her role here feels a lot meatier and more complicated, allowing her to really shine in her own right and not just as a love interest to a male protagonist. Ironically, given her character spends a lot of time literally on the sidelines, she’s less sidelined in this movie than she is in films like Dune or the Tom Holland Spider-Man franchise. The way the characters interact is often unspoken. Everything is communicated through looks, glances, gestures. Tennis is a spectator sport. But while everyone watches the players, the players watch each other, so the act of looking holds a lot of power. It’s how you learn about your opponent. We all learn a lot about each other by the way we carry ourselves, our body language. And the film exploits that dynamic and uses perspective to remarkable effect. At one point, Tashi says that “tennis is a relationship” and this right here is the movie’s thesis. In Challengers, tennis is the means through which it examines the relationships between its three central characters. As chaotic as the timeline and filmmaking is, the movie never strays its focus very far from Tashi, Art, and Patrick. It’s as precise as an ace down the line. And that’s why it works so well despite all of its loud, flashy formal elements. But let’s talk about those formal elements for a minute. The filmmaking here is not just incredibly fun and absorbing to watch, but it’s exciting. The camerawork and editing and lighting and music are all operating at an incredibly heightened level—some of the shots and cuts are bonkers, but I couldn’t stop grinning throughout the entire movie because of how kinetic and alive the whole thing feels. I’m talking bold choices that most other filmmakers wouldn’t even think to try, let alone execute so beautifully and effectively. Some of those over-the-top choices are a little too on the nose, and some work better (how many phallic-shaped foods can the boys eat around each other?) than others (a literal storm of emotions), but I found myself enjoying it all nonetheless. The score, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, is a thrumming techno fever-dream, pulsating throughout the movie to give it electricity and life. I don’t often come back to movie soundtracks and just listen to them as I go about my day, but since leaving the theatre, I’ve been listening to the Challengers soundtrack quite a bit, because it makes me feel like I could run a marathon. The marketing for the movie really pushed the love triangle aspect, but this is the rare love triangle in which all three sides of the triangle have sexual chemistry and tension. Art and Patrick both fall head over heels for Tashi after watching her play tennis, but they’re as much in love with each other as they are in love with Tashi. And while Tashi loves the boys, she loves tennis more than she could ever love any one person. She’s a force, and her desire for power and control is matched only by her love of the game—and, consequently, by the omnipresent weight of what she’s lost and can never get back: her ability to play it. It’s this intense tangle of desire and motivation that makes the movie so compelling to watch. For such a sexually charged movie, it’s also notable that none of the sex scenes (or tennis matches, for that matter) ever play out to climax. We’re constantly denied the satisfaction of seeing how things finish, left to infer what happens next. It’s an incredible power move on Guadagnino’s part, but it also makes everything that much sexier. After all, for these characters, foreplay is everything. Sometimes it matters who wins what, but in the end, it’s the dance, the interplay, the unspoken conversation happening from opposite sides of the net, that excites them all. It’s in those rare moments of connection, whether on or off the court, that we can maybe reach something like understanding. Tashi describes it like so: For about fifteen seconds there, we were actually playing tennis, and we understood each other completely. So

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Nunday Sunday – The First Omen & Immaculate Reviews

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This past Sunday was lovingly dubbed “Nunday Sunday” after a brief workshop between Adriana, Sam, Ty, and myself. Why? Well, because last Sunday we went to the theatre for a double-feature of The First Omen and Immaculate! I figured since I saw them on the same day and they’re far more similar than I expected, I might as well review them together too.  So, were either of these movies a Revelation or did they cause a mass Exodus from the theatre?  The First Omen The first movie on Nunday Sunday was fittingly titled The First Omen. This is a prequel to The Omen (1976). Trying to think back, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the original movie, but I did see the remake when I was a kid (thanks Gram). It was so long ago, though that, save for the name of the kid in the original, I didn’t remember anything about it.  Thankfully, though, none of that matters. As a prequel, it doesn’t rely on you having seen the first movie for it to work. How well does it work though? Just well enough to get a positive rating from me! There were at least a couple good scares and tense moments and a little twist that added a nice wrinkle to the story. The real standout to me though was the director, Arkasha Stevenson, and actress Nell Tiger Free, who played the main character Margaret. This was the first feature film for Stevenson, whose capable direction was good enough to take a familiar story and still make it an enjoyable experience. This movie had some style to it that I wouldn’t have expected to see from someone making their first feature film.  Free was also great, playing the various sides of Margaret perfectly. She’s asked to do some tough things in this movie, including a oner towards the end that wouldn’t have worked at all in lesser hands. Free so far in her career has mostly been in TV, but that includes projects with Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) and M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense). I hope to see more of her in the future!  If I had to fault the movie for anything, it’s that it was a tad longer than it needed to be and it covered very familiar territory. There was a clear gap between the end of the movie and the rest of it too, as they did a lot of work to tie things into the first movie. One particular line actually made me laugh out loud because it felt like it belonged in a superhero movie, not this horror movie. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad ending or anything, you could just tell this was all part of the obligatory aspects of the movie being a prequel. Verdict Overall, if you’re looking for some chills and scares at the movies, you can do worse than The First Omen! Immaculate Speaking of things worse than The First Omen, next up we’re talking about Immaculate. The first thing I want to mention was how many beats were the same in both of these movies. It was so absurd that Adriana, Sam, and I were laughing throughout this movie. I’m not really faulting either movie for this, but it was incredibly bizarre and noticeable, especially when watching them back to back.  Unfortunately, this movie suffered from the same issue as The First Omen, in that it was covering very familiar territory, but it lacked any of the redeeming qualities that The First Omen had. The movie just fell flat at nearly every point. The scenes designed to build tension were so poorly put together and all ended very predictably. Narratively, the movie was pretty boring and uninteresting too. Funnily enough, where I think The First Omen could’ve shaved a few minutes off, I think this movie might have benefitted from a bit more of a build. I won’t spoil what happens (though you can glean part of it from the title of the movie), but I actually felt like this revelation happened much too early in the movie. It could have done a better job of creating a more sinister vibe or even adding a few more horror elements. Once this reveal happens, the movie shifts focus a bit and doesn’t do much in the scare or tension departments. With that said, though, nothing I saw really suggested that they would’ve done much good with more sequences, so I’m happy they stuck with the 89 minute runtime.  If you didn’t know, Sydney Sweeney stars as Sister Cecilia (she also produced the movie) and nothing I saw here really changed me feelings on Sweeney as an actress. I haven’t seen all of her work, but in the things I have seen, I’ve always felt she was fine. Both the movie and her performance take a sharp turn in the third act of the movie. It was definitely weird and kind of funny, in a morbid horror movie sort of way, but I thought everything near the end was done much better at the end of The First Omen, including the performances from our main nuns.  Verdict I think you can skip this one. It might be more enjoyable if you don’t watch many horror movies, and the ending was enough to shock some of the younger viewers in my theatre, but it didn’t do anything to excite this seasoned horror veteran. 

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Love Lies Bleeding – Movie Review

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If you’re one of the few people, myself included, who watched and loved Rose Glass’s debut, Saint Maud, then you might have some idea of what you’re walking into with her sophomore feature Love Lies Bleeding. But this is also a very different movie. For one, it isn’t a horror movie (or is it?). It’s a love story (or is it?), wrapped in a pulpy propulsive neo-noir crime thriller. The movie dabbles in a range of genres, deploying tropes and archetypes that we’ve all seen before, but it feels like it’s wearing those generic conventions in a way that I’ve personally never seen before, with characters and body types that don’t typically get featured in genres like this. Set in New Mexico in the late 1980s, the movie follows Kristen Stewart’s mullet-clad, chain-smoking gym manager Lou and Katy O’Brian’s Jackie, an aspiring bodybuilder from Oklahoma who’s just passing through. They meet, fall in love, and, well, things go off the rails. If I tell you any more, it’ll ruin a lot of the fun, so I recommend going in with as little prior knowledge as possible. I’ve been a big fan of Kristen Stewart’s for a while now, and she’s at her nervy, chaotic best here, a livewire set off by lust, loneliness, and anger. Some of her lines and line deliveries are so great and off-the-wall, yet she consistently delivers them in a way that’s fully believable. I was also incredibly impressed with Katy O’Brian in what will likely go down as a breakout role for her. As a former bodybuilder herself, she’s the perfect choice to play Jackie, who goes from free spirit with puppy dog energy to roid-rage-fueled desperation, and O’Brian doesn’t miss a beat—it’s a hell of a performance. Both actors imbue their characters with such visceral physicality, in very different ways, that it’s mesmerizing to watch. And speaking of physicality, the movie is, to quote Shea’s Letterboxd review, “very dirty, grimy, and horny.” It’s intensely focused on bodies—how they move and expand and break and change shape, whether out of love or rage or survival instinct. From montages of sweaty bulging muscles set to 80s synths to the open-mouthed desire with which Lou stares at Jackie to moments of explosive action, it’s a very visceral film. At one point, Lou tells Jackie, “I want to stretch you, see how far you can go.” It’s spoken in a sexual context, of course, but I was struck by just how much the line hits at the core of the movie’s thematic concerns. It could almost serve as the movie’s thesis. The movie is very horny, indeed, but it’s also about the extremes to which people will go for love, the way that love and desire can stretch us out into both the best and worst versions of ourselves, and the lengths to which people will go when they’re in the throes of intoxicating, mind-vacuating emotions like lust and rage. It doesn’t surprise me that Glass is so concerned with bodies (bodies that flex, split, stretch, break, bend, ooze), given her previous film is a horror movie. Horror is one of what Linda Williams calls ‘body genres’, along with melodrama and pornography. These are genres that both represent bodily fluids and simultaneously try to elicit some kind of visceral bodily reaction in their viewers, whether it’s jerking tears, jerking off, or just plain ol’ palm-sweating fear. Loves Lies Bleeding is melodramatic, erotic, and horrifying in equal measure. To me, Glass’s movies, and this one especially, feel emblematic of a new kind of body genre, one that encompasses all the fluidity that bodies have to offer. Love Lies Bleeding is grimy, sexy, gross, and violent. It’s also darkly funny and doesn’t pull any punches. It’s both grounded and fantastical, and somehow makes that all work in a cohesive way. The big swings may not work for everyone, but they never feel unearned. And the craft on display here is undeniable. Glass just has a great visual eye and a great instinct for how to use elements of genre. I found it really interesting to read that on both this movie and Saint Maud, she ended up doing reshoots after realizing what was missing when cutting together a first cut of the movie. I think it’s an approach that more filmmakers should be unafraid to take. You often don’t know what’s missing from a thing until you’re in the room putting it together. That kind of flexibility and willingness to go back and re-adjust is clearly working for her, because both of these movies feel very self-assured in a way that not many first- or even second-time filmmakers can claim. Verdict I can safely say that this movie will not be for everyone, but it felt very particularly made for my tastes. It’s bloody and funny and hot; it’s got guns, girls, and gore; there’s tense action and romance that makes you swoon until it turns twisted and toxic. The movie also looks great, with out-of-this-world visual flourishes and a sick soundtrack. There’s beauty and horror in equal measure here, and if that’s not your jam, then stay clear. Thankfully, it very much is my jam, and I was more than happy to go along for the wild ride.

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Hate to Love: Nickelback – Movie Review

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Look at this Photograph. Every time I do it makes me laugh. This is Ty and I acting like Animals at the Nickelback concert last year in Montreal. We figured they would Burn it to the Ground, but I don’t think we were ready for just how much fun we would have! I hope that Someday you get the chance to see them live and even if you’re too Far Away from Ty and I to see it together, there’s Gotta Be Somebody that will go with you. We’re not here to talk about the concert though, instead we’re talking about Hate to Love: Nickelback, a documentary that offers a glimpse into the Rockstar life of the band. The documentary takes an interesting approach and talks about how much hate the band received despite their overwhelming success. It really is Too Bad because Ty and I have always tried to understand the haters, and if you’re reading this and are one of them, we’ve never quite Figured You Out. “Why do people spend so much effort Trying Not To Love You?” we’ve often wondered. But what this documentary proves is that When We Stand Together as Nickelback fans, we can drown out the hate.  Ty and I went and saw the movie This Afternoon here in Montreal and we’re ready to tell you if this documentary will Lullaby you to sleep or if you’ll be back for the Next Go Round. My Thoughts Alright, now we’ve gotta get down to business. We’re only giving you a brief break from the song name puns, though, because they’re coming back in the verdict section!  Overall, this was a fun little documentary. Obviously Ty and I are fans of the band, but there was still a lot here to be learned in this movie. The documentary takes time to really focus on every member of the band, including some earlier members that aren’t part of it anymore. Learning more about the origins of Nickelback in Hanna, Alberta Canada was super interesting too, especially as Canadians. Love or hate them, Nickelback is definitely a Canadian success story.  As far as a focus goes, this was very much a documentary that the band was clearly happy to participate in and I think as a result it might not touch on some things in as much detail as some would expect if it was more of an “outside” view of the band. Without giving anything specific away, the documentary acknowledges the party lifestyle from lead singer Chad Kroeger but avoids any crazy stories that might’ve come out of living that life. Any Avril Lavigne fans will be disappointed to know that she is not actually mentioned in any real detail or even by name, except for a few headlines that appear on screen. I do think it would be fair to call this sanitized, but I didn’t feel like it was altering the truth of things either. This very much felt like Nickelback telling their story in their way.  This also is a good time to talk about the title and the theme of the whole thing. It’s been a popular thing in my lifetime to hate on Nickelback and I’m not afraid to admit that I was one of those hypocrites who would say out loud about how lame they are and then blast their music into my ears on my MP3 player back in the day. If I could knock this documentary for one thing, I wish they actually spent more time addressing this phenomenon than they did because it’s part of what makes Nickelback, and their story, so unique. While achieving some of the best commercial success in the history of music, they were also one of the most memed and dunked on bands in history.  I’m no musician and I’m one of the least qualified people in the world to talk about what is “good” music, so I won’t do that here. What I will say though is that there should be nothing wrong with just enjoying something that makes you feel good. I won’t name the person, but on a road trip I was on in the last few years, my brother and I queued up a few Nickelback songs and our travelling companion immediately started with the lines about Nickelback being lame and what not. Not two songs later that same person was singing at the top of their lungs with us as we laughed and formed a fun core memory. And that right there is why I love Nickelback. Their music is just so goddamn catchy and fun and it just begs you to sing along with it.  Hate to Love: Nickelback is a nice little look into the human elements of a band that, even to me as a fan, felt like more of a thing than a group of human beings with their own challenges and lives.  Verdict Overall, this was a fun look into a band that has been inescapable on the airwaves throughout the 21st century. Ty and I both liked this movie, but you don’t need to rush out to see it as If Today Was Your Last Day on earth. What the movie makes clear though is that If Everyone Cared about having a good time as much as they did about being a hater, there wouldn’t be anyone left to hate on Nickelback. If I’m ever in a bad mood and you’re wondering about Savin’ Me from myself, playing some Nickelback is How You Remind Me of what happiness is all about. If you do want to see the movie though and you can’t find someone to watch it with, I’d Come For You because as long as us Nickelback fans have each other, we’re Never Gonna Be Alone.  If you haven’t seen Hate to Love: Nickelback yet, What Are You Waiting For? Head over to the concession stand to get Something in Your Mouth and if after watching it you

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Late Night with the Devil – Spoiler Free Review

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Do you ever watch a movie that you think was made just for you? Well this is one of those movies for me. From the 70s era, to the late night TV setting, and some other things I won’t spoil here, I couldn’t have been more interested. Despite an exhausting week, I got enough energy to meet up with Adriana and Nick at Cinéma Moderne, which just so happened to be the only theatre showing this movie in Montreal apparently, and we had another memorable night out at the movies! But was it the friends and the unique experience of Cinéma Moderne that made it memorable or was the movie good too?  My Thoughts Written and directed by people that don’t even have a Wikipedia page (Colin and Cameron Cairnes), I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of this movie. What brought this movie to my attention was not the 70s aesthetic or the late-night TV setting, though that certainly helped, it was that this was the first real big lead role for David Dastmalchian. I wouldn’t expect you to recognize that name but I would be surprised if you didn’t recognize him from the image above. Dastmalchian has been in some phenomenal movies including The Dark Knight, Prisoners, Dune: Part One, Oppenheimer, Blade Runner 2049, and was also a supporting player in big blockbuster movies like Ant-Man and The Suicide Squad. That’s an impressive filmography for anyone, but this is the first real chance to see him carry a movie himself and boy does he manage to do that with ease. He’s absolutely captivating as Jack Delroy and you’ll find yourself seamlessly transitioning between pity and horror for his character throughout the course of the movie.  Dastmalchian’s Jack Delroy is the host of ‘Night Owls’, the fictional late night TV competitor to the very real ‘Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’. The movie sets itself up as a documentary/found footage film as we get a bit of a background of the circumstances surrounding Jack, the show, and what was happening at the time of this fateful Halloween night episode of ‘Night Owls’. What unfolds is not so much a traditional horror movie with plenty of jump scares or constant spooky goings on, but effectively you’re watching an episode of ‘Night Owls’. Fear not though, pun intended, there are some great horror elements to experience here!  This is what I think I liked most about the movie. It’s at times graphic, but also intriguing and funny throughout. As a horror veteran, I’m getting tired of the same old ghost movies being done over and over again. This was able to take familiar elements that we’ve seen before but package them up in completely new and interesting ways.  Even with some pretty minimal setup, I was really invested in Jack’s story and I was interested in the rest of the characters too, from the producer, to the sidekick, and even the guests of the show. The supporting cast was so great that I was surprised to learn afterwards that they were almost all Australian actors with very few acting credits to their names. This wasn’t a case of “Oh they were good for an indie movie” either, they were just really good, full stop.  Outside of the performances, the set and the way they captured the spirit of old school late-night TV was impeccable. I’m a huge fan of the late-night format, and have watched tons of episodes with hosts including Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Conan O’Brien. This didn’t try to adapt to what audiences today would recognize as late-night TV, but it really was true to the era it existed in and felt believable as an alternative to Carson’s ‘Tonight Show’.  I also want to commend the practical effects as well. I will almost always prefer practical effects like this to CGI, especially when it comes to basic horror and gore effects in movies. There were some digital effects to be sure, but the big set pieces included a lot of practicality which not only fit the vibe of the movie but was something I could appreciate as a fan of the genre.  As for things I didn’t like, there wasn’t much! I felt that the movie struggled a bit with the ending. It was a bit more scattered compared to the tight and focused movie that it was throughout. I felt like it could’ve ended with a little less going on that caused it to fill a little too rushed and full. I can’t say anything much without spoiling it, but I think you’ll understand what I mean when you see it yourself.  I also have to mention, even if I think it’s overblown, that there were some concerns raised (and even a boycott suggested from some) about the use of AI in the movie. There are transition images used within the context of the show that were AI generated and later touched up by artists and the images account for probably 20 seconds or less of total screen time. I’ve had a lot of conversations with Nick and Adriana about this and my personal take is that the reaction I’ve seen online is very overblown. Now listen, I’m a big film lover and I don’t like the use of generative AI used in movies at all. However, I think there is some important context to consider here. This movie first debuted in March 2023 at SXSW and would’ve been submitted to the festival much earlier than that. ChatGPT, a catalyst for the resurgence of the AI discussion, wasn’t publicly released until November 2022 and the big conversations that have happened in the last year or so all happened after this movie was already made. With that said, I don’t want to excuse this behaviour either because I don’t want it to catch on, especially when there are plenty of talented artists available for work like this at incredibly affordable rates. Beyond the moral or ethical concerns

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We Saw Dune: Part Two in Every Format So You Don’t Have To!

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If you’ve just woken up from a coma, you may not be aware that Dune: Part Two is currently out in theatres across the world! I’ve already published my spoiler free review here on Screen Love Affair. In that review I described Dune: Part Two as a generation-defining film the likes of which I haven’t seen since The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s a sci-fi epic that must be seen on the biggest screen and with the best sound possible, so you can be transported away to the spice fields of Arrakis and immersed in the world that director Denis Villeneuve brings to life.  After reading such overwhelming praise you’re probably already grabbing your phone right now to buy tickets. However, you’re now faced with a choice: What format should I watch this movie in?  Depending on where you live, there can be a lot of choices too. On top of a regular theatre, you also have 3D, D-Box, UltraAVX, ScreenX, 4DX, 70mm, IMAX, or some combination of those formats, and each one of them is advertised as the best way to immerse yourself in the movie.  I’ve realized that many moviegoers face the same dilemma of choosing the best format for their viewing experience, so in this article, I’ll give you a comprehensive guide to all of the non-standard formats and give you my personal recommendations! For reference, a ticket to a regular screening of Dune: Part Two is $14.00. All prices are shown in Canadian dollars and don’t include taxes or Cineplex’s predatory “online booking fee”. It does however include the extra $1 that Cineplex charges for popular movies. If you want to read more about my disappointment with Canada’s largest theatre chain over some of these practices, check out that article here. The Formats Ranked #6 – D-Box: $22.00 D-Box is a normal theatre in terms of screen and sound, but some rows in the theatre are special D-Box seats that move and vibrate. These seats can vary in size and looks depending on your theatre, but in Montreal they were just slightly comfier standard seats. Each seat has a settings pad where you can lower or raise the intensity of the experience. The movement isn’t significant even at the highest setting and just more or less can tilt the seat up, down, forward, backwards, and side to side. The movement and vibrations are set for each movie to try and match what’s happening on screen to offer a more “immersive” experience.  Given that this is last on my list though, I can’t say that this makes for a very immersive experience. In fact, I think it actively detracts from the movie.  A certain meme came to mind when reflecting on my D-Box experience: I’m not sure what I can say beyond this is just watching a movie in a vibrating chair that also occasionally tilts. It’s a pure gimmick and is so distracting that if you’re actually trying to watch the movie, you’ll just want to set it to low or move to a different seat. Unlike 4DX, though, which is also incredibly distracting, this doesn’t change the experience enough to justify doing this after you’ve watched the movie in a more ideal format.   Verdict: 💔💔 I can’t recommend D-Box to anyone for any reason and for $8 more than a normal ticket you should just avoid this at all costs.  #5 – ScreenX: $20.00 ScreenX is a unique theatre experience with two additional projections on the sides of the theatre as if it’s extending the screen. The walls were specifically designed for this projection too, so it’s not just projecting on the walls of a regular theatre. There are two projectors in the middle of the theatre projecting on the opposite walls so the whole theatre is much brighter than a normal screening would be too. I took a picture just before the movie started so you can get a sense of what this looks like: On the experience itself, I’m more mixed than I expected. Of all these new gimmicky formats, this is the one that has the most potential, I suppose, but also has the worst implementation.  The movie starts with the side screens in full use for the entire opening sequence of the movie and I was very distracted by it. It definitely makes you feel more surrounded, but I caught myself looking at the side screens a few times, and they definitely don’t look great. I’m not sure exactly how they do all of the visuals for the side screens, because the movie certainly wasn’t filmed this wide, but it was clear that they used some very low quality digital effects to try and simulate what would be there. The image quality on the sides is also noticeably lower too, so the image lacks detail and clarity. To make matters worse, the colours on the side screens were noticeably different as well. Shots of the desert in Dune: Part Two are a bit more white than the two side screens, which had a consistent orange tint to them that didn’t match up with the main screen most of the time.  The other issue I noticed right away was that there were noticeable gaps where the edges of the screens meet, which looked incredibly wonky. As people entered the frame on the main screen from one of the sides, there were noticeable misalignments and slight delays that made it feel off. Because the side screens are more squared too, there were issues with shots not being lined up. For example a shot of the planet Arrakis from space very early in the movie doesn’t line up properly so even in my peripheral vision I could see the planet looked jagged in a way it wasn’t supposed to. It’s not the best example, but you can even notice a similar issue on a picture I took before the movie started: In spite of all of these noticeable issues though, I started to

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Dear Cineplex, It’s Not Me, It’s You

Editorials /

Dear Cineplex, I feel it’s only right to start this open letter by expressing my profound love for movies. The website you’re reading this on was something I created to provide a place for my friends and I to write about movies. More than just being a movie lover though, I adore the experience of going to the movie theatre. According to a rough count of my logged movies on Letterboxd, I went to the movie theatre 62 times in 2023. Though 2024 was off to a slow start, I managed to make it to the theatre 15 times so far this year. Theatres offer a unique opportunity for friends and strangers alike to come together for a shared experience unlike any other. Some of the most profound thoughts and feelings I’ve ever had were experienced in a movie theatre.  Like most Canadians, Cineplex theatres are the only places for me to see the latest releases. Whether it was the Galaxy Cinemas in Owen Sound or the Scotiabank Theatres in Ottawa or Montreal, Cineplex theatres are where I’ve always gone to the movies. I’ve been a Scene member for 14 years and a Cineclub member from the very beginning. I give Cineclub memberships to friends as gifts, I bring countless people to the movies every single chance I get, and I often see the same movie multiple times (Top Gun: Maverick & Dune: Part Two will be tied for my personal record of 7 times each in theatres).  Basically, the point I’m making here is that I’m a very loyal customer and I always have been. But you haven’t been making it easy for me, Cineplex.  Movie theatres have been facing challenges from all sides. During the pandemic, theatres were regularly shuttered, with some never reopening again. At the same time, studios leaned heavily into streaming services. Some movies bypass theatres altogether, while others get incredibly short theatrical runs at a handful of theatres, or are released to theatres and streaming platforms at the same time. The competition is fierce and if you track the box office on a weekly basis (or follow someone like Dan Murrell who does it for me) you can see that we’re still struggling to generate box office levels comparable to the pre-pandemic era.  It’s never been more important to entice people to return to theatres. It would be easy to blame everything on companies like Netflix and their efforts to send movie theatres to oblivion as they did Blockbuster, but they aren’t your biggest problem. You are your biggest problem. You’re doing nothing to encourage people to return to theatres, you do nothing to keep the people that do go to theatres coming back, and to add insult to injury, you nickel and dime moviegoers every chance that you get. Whether it’s your absurd “online booking fees”, your price increases when a movie actually does manage to pull in an audience, or your consistent inability to enforce any sort of rules in your theatres, it’s increasingly difficult to justify going to the movies or convincing others to join me.  I bet that most people that have gone to the movies lately might not even realise they paid extra fees or higher prices. If they buy a ticket online or through the Cineplex app, they are charged an extra $1.50 per ticket. That new fee alone has gouged an additional $40 million for Cineplex from the moviegoers that still support your business. Cineplex is currently being sued over this in a class action lawsuit and by the Competition Bureau of Canada, by the way. Also, you know all those people that went to see Barbie or Oppenheimer last year? Or the ones that have seen Dune: Part Two recently? Well they might not be aware that they also spent an extra $1 per ticket because you jacked the prices up for popular movies. That’s right! The Globe and Mail’s Film Editor and Chief Film Writer, Barry Hertz, brought attention to this recently with the premier of Dune: Part Two. For the record, Canada’s second largest theatre chain, Landmark Cinemas, is also guilty of this one.  But for the sake of argument, let’s say we still make it to the movie theatre despite all of that. What do we get when we’re there? Well, if the experience is anything like mine, then it means hearing lots of conversations and seeing plenty of light coming from phones or Apple watches during the movie. It used to be that if someone pulled out their phone, they’d at least have the brightness low and would try and tuck or hide it while they took a quick look. Today, though, I regularly see people scrolling through their Instagram feeds during a movie with their brightness on full blast, holding their phone up as if they want me to see them doing it. Hell, I’ve even had someone right beside me answer a call in the middle of a movie! I have people in my life that outright refuse to go because of the constant disturbances during movies. For the times I have convinced them it was worth it, they’ve been reminded why they don’t go almost every single time. Not once in my entire life have I been to a movie at a Cineplex theatre where I’ve seen an employee reprimand someone for causing a disturbance in the theatre. Not one time! Now sure, the problem here is first and foremost the people, but we don’t even shame them anymore! What happened to the PSAs before every movie about Sally Soundtrack and Tommy Texter? At the very least, if you’re not going to enforce any rules at Cineplex you can at least remind people that they’re not alone at the theatre and that they should be mindful of the people around them.  Since I moved to Montreal, I take every chance I can to see movies in local independent theatres like Cinéma du Parc. I absolutely love it there,

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Dune: Part Two – Shea’s Review

Reviews /

Before I saw Dune: Part Two, I considered Denis Villeneuve one of the best working directors today. During my friends’ wedding week in Mexico last year (shoutout to Mr. and Mrs. Linhares) a group of us talked about movies and one of the questions we asked ourselves was “If you could only keep one director alive today, who would it be?” My answer wasn’t Tarantino or Scorsese, like some expected me to say. It was Denis Villeneuve. You might be more familiar with movies like Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, & Blade Runner 2049 but movies like Enemy, Incendies, and Polytechnique are also great and came early in Villeneuve’s career. After seeing what Denis could do with something like Blade Runner 2049 I was incredibly excited when I heard he was going to adapt Dune for the big screen.  At the time, I knew two things about Dune having not read the books: Much of the things I loved growing up (like Star Wars) were inspired heavily by Dune and it was considered impossible to adapt to film. When Dune: Part One came out in 2021 I assembled a group of friends together, we travelled to London, Ontario for the weekend, and we watched it in IMAX. It blew everyone away and immediately made Dune: Part Two my most anticipated movie. Now, more than two years later and after a delay in 2023 due to the strikes, Dune: Part Two is here.  Was Denis Villeneuve able to do the impossible? My Thoughts This movie blew me away. Despite having sky high expectations, this movie somehow exceeded them. Every single aspect of this film, from the direction, performances, cinematography, music, sound, and visual effects come together to make what I feel will prove to be a generation-defining film.  I really do try to not be too hyperbolic when I talk about how much I like or dislike something, but I really believe this will have the same kind of legacy that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has. I spent a lot of time thinking about a movie that has felt this epic and nothing since then comes close.  There was a scene in this movie that was so powerful and overwhelming that it brought a tear to my eye both times that I’ve seen it. It’s not a sad scene or anything like that either, but while watching it, I shed tears at the sheer might of what cinema is capable of and how it can make you feel.  I also need to take the time to talk about Timothee Chalamet. During the Dune: Part One press tour, Villeneuve spoke about how if Chalamet didn’t agree to play the lead of Paul Atreides then he might not have made Dune at all. I’ll admit, even as a big fan of Chalamet, I didn’t understand exactly what he meant until I saw this movie. For this whole thing to work you have to believe in Paul Atreides as a commanding, powerful, and compelling figure. When a big change happens for Paul in this movie, Chalamet went somewhere I’ve never seen him go before and it blew me away. I felt exactly how the characters felt in those moments and it has solidified Chalamet as a truly generational talent who will be compelling for years to come.  But it’s not just Chalamet that stands out in this cast. Almost every single character has moments to shine and everyone takes the most of the opportunities they are given. Whether it’s Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Zendaya as Chani, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, or Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, everyone is just so damn good in this movie.  All of the other technical elements of this movie enhance the performances and writing too. I saw this movie twice in IMAX and the sound design is spectacular. You don’t just watch or hear the movie, you can feel it in your chest. Musically, Hans Zimmer builds off of his iconic score from Part One to enhance every feeling the movie gives you.  Visually, this movie is breathtaking. Nearly every shot is something I want to print and hang up on my walls. The cinematography and the visual effects combine for some jaw dropping shots that come at you one after the other. For a movie that reportedly cost $60 million less to make than most modern blockbusters, there really is no valid excuse to see some of the crap that we’ve been subjected to over the past few years. Some standout scenes in particular were filmed with infrared cameras and they work so well to establish this particular world and characters in a way that feels so unique.  This movie definitely benefits tremendously too from the ground covered in Part One. Part Two doesn’t need to spend lots of time establishing the world and characters and it can focus more on developing the world and characters for a richer experience. It’s precisely because of this that I think Part Two is such a clearly better movie to experience. Like Lord of the Rings though, I don’t ever anticipate myself watching one without the other after this theatrical run concludes. In the same way that Tarantino considers Kill Bill to be one movie, I think it’s best to consider Dune as one movie too.  My only issue with Part One was that it very much feels like a “part one” as it ends in the middle of a story. Dune: Part Two doesn’t face the same issues and ends a note that feels satisfying while also leaving you hungry for more.  I will also just say that Oppenheimer will be grateful this awards season that Dune: Part Two was delayed because I think this is poised for some massive awards recognition next year.  Verdict Dune: Part Two is one of the most essential films I have seen in my lifetime. I’ve seen it with two different groups of friends now and after my first viewing with

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The Zone of Interest – Shea’s Review

Reviews /

God bless my friend Adriana. First, she is an amazing writer that has finished two AMAZING reviews so far. Secondly though, she will ALWAYS come with me to the movies, even if that is for a Zone of Interest and All of Us Strangers double feature. It was a heavy four hours for both of us, but definitely time well spent. Make sure to check out Adriana’s review of All of Us Strangers and read on to see my thoughts on The Zone of Interest! My Thoughts We will start off with a super basic overview of the movie. I think the description provided is really helpful so here it is: “The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.” Ya, so the content of this one is heavy, but maybe not in the ways you’d expect. Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Christian Friedel as the real life Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as his wife Hedwig. You might recognize Hüller from another great 2023 movie that we also reviewed called Anatomy of a Fall. Anyway, this movie was an interesting one. When the credits rolled, I was left to ponder what exactly I just watched. Similar to my experience with Killers of the Flower Moon, this isn’t a movie you “enjoy” watching in the traditional sense simply because of how serious the subject matter is. The filmmaking on display is definitely impressive but I had to overcome the bleak feeling I had when the movie was done to really realise just how good this was.  The most interesting thing this movie did that really added to its uniqueness was what they chose to show and what not to show. Much of the horror of this movie occurs exclusively in our heads as we’re helped along by some slight visuals and faint audio of some of the horrors taking place in Auschwitz.  This more subtle approach though is in essence what this movie is truly about which is how banal that true evil can manifest itself. On the surface, this movie plays almost like a simple family drama. It has all the hallmarks of family life from children, parties, gardening, husband/wife drama, difficulties at work, you name it. But what makes this different is that this family lives next to a concentration camp that the father is running.  To be clear, it’s not done in a bad or disrespectful way. It actually serves to make things feel even more disturbing by showing how casual evil can really be. Simple scenes of sitting in the garden are haunted by the faint sounds of screams and gunshots in the distance or by the smoke emanating from the camp. Even scenes where Rudolf Höss is talking about his “work” as casually as you might talk at your corporate gig going over the quarterly planning. But while you might be talking about the new marketing plan, he’s trying to find ways to optimize the extermination of the Jews in the camp. The cast is brilliant here, especially Hüller. She plays a truly evil woman that doesn’t need giant evil villain monologues for you to understand just how evil she truly is. It’s because of all of these things that I believe this is an important movie that gives more to you the longer you think about it.  Verdict Like I said earlier, this isn’t a movie you’ll enjoy watching or that you’ll really feel compelled to watch again. It’s so calculated and effective that you’ll feel unsettled throughout the runtime as the horrors of the holocaust and the banality of evil are on full display.  It’s because of this bleakness though that I feel this is such a worthwhile movie to see at least once. The craft on display here is impressive and it’s a movie that will stick with you long after you’ve finished it.

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