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Bio:mpowell dropped percentiles on me two weeks after i changed to a scale that makes no use of percentiles, so now i'm changing back again. thanks for nothing mpowell.
"an old fairy tale made mumblecore: a mermaid lusts after the hot, mute, virginal missionary on the shore, avoiding the grief-stricken scrutiny of another man whose husband she may have lured to his doom. if script is blackshear's weakness (re: THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE), a mute protagonist allows his direction centre stage, and the low-budget lakeside location-shooting is creatively dreamlike and inclusively empathetic, stirring up this time-worn blend of unearthly threat and erotic desire anew."
"at the Q&A senese mentioned that he was inspired by '70s paranoid thrillers like ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, THE PARALLAX VIEW and THE CONVERSATION, but aside from some aerial surveillance shots and the general fatalism of its story arc this is more derivative of THE EXORCIST III than anything from that era, unfortunately adopting only a smidgen of the personality (as embodied by carruth, who should stick to directing) and too many of modern horror's bad habits."
"a trendy but enjoyable YA riff on THE HANDMAID'S TALE with nods to NEVER LET ME GO and GET OUT. the tired, hackneyed feminist allegory (teenage girls, each named after a film star, are groomed by a sterile, insulated "school" to adopt the "feminine virtues" and maximise their value as an aesthetic commodity) is surprisingly organic and assured in execution, but it's hard to get excited about a new, talented filmmaker when she seems as brainwashed by the zeitgeist as her characters."
"this is guilty of the "poseurdom" it heavyhandedly lampoons (the ugly commercial sheen of the visuals may accidentally be its best ironic joke), eschewing any coherent perspective or genuine insight in its pandering to normies and gorehounds alike. i'm unsurprised and glad they didn't get the rights to any 2nd wave stuff (mayhem aside), although it's only the presence of sarcofago, tormentor, holy terror, a-ha, grotesque (m)et al that keeps it watchable. man, i wish sono stayed on board."
"growing up is to be dragged from our special little bubble into the big mediocre world and hating how They embrace it and thrive, 'til we realize our notions of the Other—sex, class, rival suitors--are colored by misplaced idealisation, paranoia & resentment, and our art, idealism & snark were defence mechanisms more than badges of personhood (and we prefer ‘the story of babar’ to ‘war & peace’ anyway), and maybe casting off bunuelian pretensions is the path to GREEN RAY transcendence."
"i'm a simple guy: place an ensemble of underappreciated character actors in a confined space, let them go at it, and i'm good. it's even sillier than i remembered, of course--apparently even the tom clancy novel is a paragon of political complexity by comparison, which isn't exactly a good look."
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