Darren
Celluloid Junkie
Member Since: 06 Nov 2010
Location: Canada
Bio: watch good movies or die
https://boringculture.substack.com/
Pop culture thoughts here if you feel so inclined :)
https://boringculture.substack.com/
Pop culture thoughts here if you feel so inclined :)
Recent Ratings
Check out Darren's...
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"One of the most egregious examples of if you have a high enough follower count there’s no way we can kill you off which leaves any story in just such a weird position but I don’t think the director cares as long as they can have their weird nonsensical moment at the end. An interesting idea here or there about gentrification(gentriSLAYcation) and how the rich ignore so much history and violence"
Working Class (1985) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"A beautiful colour palate and the way the camera dances in the factory makes you believe a better world is possible. Where acts of revolutionary sabotage are as chaotically choreographed as a Berkeley musical number. These places seem like the world of dreams. Where workers control the destiny of themselves even if this isn’t true(a splitting of the factory between worker and boss is a great end joke) it’s a delightful piece of agitprop that makes cops and bosses out to be the dullards they are"
Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin (2016) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"Loved the look of this one. The change in colours between urban and suburban. How grimy and ugly the suburbs look with its greens and yellows. A man looking for answers and order and a wife looking for communication for a husband. The fucked up nature of modern society has neither. Everyone is watching but no one is believing in community. Nishino lingering around with the cadence of a Peter Lorre type sells the concept of cruel psycho perfectly. Truly a sinister villain. A suburban Manson"
Oh, Hi! (2025) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"Not exactly laugh out loud funny front to end but Gordon has an energy that’s just so addicting and the side characters paired nicely but the movie just treats the audience like we are all the stupidest people who have ever lived. Too many zooms to make you realize THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING and too much dialogue that’s purely explaining what the themes are (the entire what’s a soft boy convo among others) that makes it impossible not to feel condescended to."
Angel (1937) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"War lurks in every frame but here A type of bourgeoisie boredom that all can relate to if we had the time. But also about how timing just plays more into love than any other aspect really. In a million other lives would Dietrich have ended up with her husband? I would say no but the one we see is the one she has. An ending that dulls passions and the unknown into a reliable reasoned commitment. Growth for both sides. Dietrich holds the world’s emotions in her star made face."
Freejack (1992) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"Not my thing"
Blonde Venus (1932) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"You understand the pain Dietrich puts Marshall in because of the weights of capitalism and the pressures that puts on relationships and society. Of course that doesn’t make her decisions right but in the world created here every character feels real and even after the pain she inflicts on him they both come to realize the power of domesticity. Maybe it’s a doomed domesticity but there’s nothing like the pull of a child’s memory. The one thing capital can’t destroy or can’t buy"
I Used to Go Here (2020) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"Like most modern movies it’s not laugh out loud funny but it has some charm to it. For such a bummer story I like how brisk it all was. Obviously you don’t need there to be any real chemistry but Jacobs has literally none with the young college guy she’s enamoured with. It doesn’t really make any sense why he would like her other than she used to go to the school which okay I guess. Messy but a fun kind of mess to me."
The Scalphunters (1968) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"This type of revisionist western is just not my thing at all. Reasonably funny in the way movies from this era could be. But it just grates on me after a while. There’s an attempt to subvert western tropes and take potshots but when you end up with politics that are just as much a flaw as actual westerns it comes up flat. Great cast tho"
The Sheriff (1971) - Rated 03 Aug 2025
"Ossie Davis is great in this and saves this from being a complete dud. There’s some actual nuanced takes about the intersection of race and gender especially when the white bourgeois is at risk of losing their freedom. Has a lot of post 60’s politicking tho about battle between the courts and radicalism that I don’t agree with because it treats a radical bend as immature but this does have some riveting court sequences. So clearly made for TV in a way I find annoying"
