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HAYRIDE TO HELL is about Farmer Sam (Bill Moseley). As is the case with most farmers, he's happiest living a simple life: growing crops, selling candy apples, making dad jokes so heinous you'd rather pull your own dad's finger after Sunday lunch. But the most exciting time of Sam's life arrives when he hosts the haunted hayride. This schlocky attraction brings together costumed community members under the holy vow of doing their damnedest to give everyone one good scare.If only mayor Betsy Butte (Allyson Malandra) and Sheriff Jubell (Kane FUCKING Hodder) felt the same way. They're all like "It's a nui-sance," "It invites vandalism," "Think of the property valu-" blah blah blah, bite me.
In a last-ditch attempt to save the hayride (and the family farm that's been there since before the actual town), Sam makes a bet with Mayor Butte: if he
can make a hayride so scary (while still being safe) that if converts the mayor, cops, and other esteemed members of the community, they'll have to leave his operation be. If he loses, both he and the farm go.But Sam, ever the plotter, has something a tad darker up his sleeve...
Give my silly horror movie a little bit of teeth and I'll be a happy man. I consider HAYRIDE TO HELL an appetizer for what spooky season & October have to offer me. It gets me into the holiday spirit and for that, I'll happily recommend it. The movie releases on VOD platforms on Sept. 24!
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Credit Song: "Darwinism" - Kublai Khan TX -
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Patricio Valladares' INVOKING YELL is a frustrating movie. Three main elements make for a promising horror flick: black metal, found footage in the woods a la BLAIR WITCH and psychophony, the practice of recording sounds of spirits.
So when I'm introduced to Invoking Yell, Chile's first all-female "depressive suicidal black metal" band, in the summer of 1997 when they trek into the woods to record their demo tape, hopefully featuring the spirits from the site of a bus accident, I perk up, expecting an opportunity for hollow-eyed spectral children or the shrieking of ghosts.
Instead, I got an hour of annoying jokes, unwillingly learning what it feels like to watch grass grow. It's a short trapped in a feature's body. Without substantial character development nor tension to keep a bare bones plot afloat, it simply sinks.
INVOKING YELL is available on VOD on September 20th.---
Follow The Movies on Twitter: @TheMovies_Pod and Facebook: The MoviesCredit Song: "Floods of Triton" - Mastodon, Lamb of God
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Manglende episoder?
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---LOOK INTO MY EYES, directed by Lana Wilson (MISS AMERICANA, PRETTY BABY: BROOKE SHIELDS), centers on a group of seven New York psychics and the intimate readings they undergo with their clients.
Some search for answers regarding their future. Others try to make sense of the past. People ask about their lost loved ones, both young and old. In these psychics, they look for comfort, but even more so, the simple, affirming joy of being heard and understood.
The movie then flips the camera around on the psychics, learning who they are, what brought them to the field, their own struggles and trauma. It peeks into their lives and in a way, heals the healer?
And I wouldn't say this focuses on what you think when you hear the word "psychic." No Ouija boards, seances, nor Mewtwo here. It's less about clairvoyance and more about psychotherapy. It doesn't matter if the spirit is tangible. The comforting hugs and the happy tears are. And they are enough.
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Credit Song: "Sunlight" - From Indian Lakes -
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TRANSFORMERS ONE is a breath of fresh air for this (admittedly casual) Transformers fan. I lived through the decade of Michael Bay's destruction porn lens and to see a Transformers movie that's a thrilling and fun sci-fi adventure while also emotionally resonant and honest?
AND establishes lore that helps me appreciate the cartoon even more so?
It's a stellar feat, a glorious return for the franchise that brings to mind other seminal films from my youth - X-MEN, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT and ANTZ.
High praise right there.
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Credit Song: "The Touch" - Stan Bush
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Today marks a first on the podcast. Last year, I reviewed Gerard Johnstone's horror movie M3GAN (see Season 2, Episode 4) but after a recent rewatch with my wife, I found I have more to say about the PG-13 killer doll flick.
I'm surprised by how much of the movie works as a cautionary tale for parents, highlighting certain anxieties of parenthood and the absolute wrong ways of handling them.
So to my fellow tiny-human-wranglers, pull up a chair! Grab your sippy cup of apple juice with a handful of day-old Goldfish and let's hash out some deep-ridden insecurities!
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Closing Song: "What Was I Made For?" Billie Eilish
Cinema Therapy YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CinemaTherapyShow
"Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Art": https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/why-ai-isnt-going-to-make-art
Kids Trust Robot More Than Humans: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563224000979
Raising the A.I. Generation: https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/talking-to-kids-and-parents-about-a-i-digital-parenting-raising-the-a-i-generation-212279365515
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Fantastic Fest brings together the year's best offerings of genre film, crash landing in Austin, TX from Sept. 19-26. With more than 80 films to choose from, how can you whittle down the selection?
Never fear, Daniel from The Movies is here! I'm covering the festival from home (lodging and tickets are expensive, yo) and have compiled a list of 23 selections that excite me to no end. We're talking folk horror, women seeking vengeance, pandemic tales, singing sperm, killer clowns and so. much. more.
From A to Z, this is my guide of what you should watch at Fantastic Fest 2024!
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Closing Song: "Paid in Brains" - Direct Hit -
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Today's episode is an interview with Amy Nicholson, director of the documentary HAPPY CAMPERS. The movie chronicles the last summer for working-class denizens of Inlet View, an RV park in coastal Virginia, to enjoy their undisturbed slice of paradise before a developer tears the place down to build waterfront condos.
Nicholson shares her love of capturing impromptu moments (which leads to, as her editor cheekily describes it, a movie solely made up of B-roll), the joy she discovered staying amongst a community of helpful, generous, fun-loving folx, and the mental duo of wolves fighting it out to either capture footage during evening's magic hours...or scramble inside to escape swarms of hungry mosquitoes.
If you're craving one last beautiful vestige of summer, go watch HAPPY CAMPERS on Apple TV+ & VOD September 10th. Then, come hang with Amy Nicholson and The Movies!
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Credit Music: "Bodysnatchers" - Radiohead
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I love the hell out of this movie. Amy Nicholson's HAPPY CAMPERS (available on VOD September 10th) sees the denizens of a waterfront Virginia RV park through the last days of their working-class summertime paradise: "The Armpit of America," as lovingly described by a couple in the film.
These folks, of different races, walks of life, even statehoods, congregate every summer under the simple banner of a good hang. They adorn their homemade RVs with homemade knick-knacks, years of accumulated junk memorializing each wondrous summer.
But it's all come to its end as the RV park is to be closed and razed for the benefit of some developers building luxury condos. And it's easy to assume this movie's a middle finger to the man and it would end with every grandpa, kid and crab holding hands (and claws) in a human chain to block bulldozers.
But Nicholson's not that kind of filmmaker nor documentarian. The mere existence of a place separate from corporate shackles, where people can let their guards down to moon a camera, where geezers try their best to floss like their Fortnite-loving grandkids, where the fireworks on the 4th of July sizzle and explode with the joy that comes with genuine freedom? That's the best kind of "fuck you" there is.
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End Music: "Tuesday's Gone" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
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ALIEN: ROMULUS feels like a self-proclaimed victory lap for the almost-50-year-old franchise, blending elements from each movie (the greatest hits, some might say) to make an installment to please every ALIEN fan.
From the COVENANT cultists to the ALIEN 3 truthers, there's a piece here for you. However, I'm not sure this movie is built to withstand so many ideas and callbacks. I find it works better as a low-scope, character-driven haunted house set in space. Keep it simple, stupid.
At least David Jonsson (RYE LANE) gets another chance to show us all his range and capabilities. It's a true gift of a shifty performance that, if we're not careful, could start sneaking him into dark horse Supporting Actor territory...
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Two years ago, I fulfilled a listener request from my friend Resa to review Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR (Season 1, Episode 37). It only makes sense, then, her next request was for me to talk about the trailer for GLADIATOR II!I love Ridley Scott flicks and this trailer hints towards another notch in the belt of successes for one of our greatest living directors.It's messy; it's violent; it's chockful of character actors entrenched in soapy political drama and fisticuffs (swordicuffs? stabisodes? I digress.)So in order to fulfill this request, I break down the trailer and also discuss the original bonkers idea Scott, star Russell Crowe and legendary musician/screenwriter? Nick Cave had to bring Maximus back from the dead!---Follow The Movies on:Twitter - @themovies_podInstagram - @themoviespodEnd Music: "No Church in the Wild" Jay-Z & Kanye West
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Luke Gilford's debut feature NATIONAL ANTHEM sees Charlie Plummer (LEAN ON PETE, ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD) as Dylan, a 21-year-old ranch hand who starts his journey of self-discovery through the age-old catalyst of meeting a girl.
In this case, the girl is Sky (Eve Lindley), a rodeo performer who's part of a wider community of queer rodeo lovers who've crafted their own family and live off of the land, no corporations necessary.
Dylan not only begins to fall for Sky but also takes his first steps into the drag world, discovering the importance and freedom that comes with finding one's own people.
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Credit Music: "It Is What It Is" - Kacey Musgraves
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Academy Award-nominated Nanette Burstein's latest film ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE LOST TAPES sees the director sifting through 40 hours of previously unheard interviews to build a portrait of actress and philanthropist Elizabeth Taylor using her own words.
Taylor presents as a woman who suffers no fools, whether they be paparazzi demonizing her affair (and eventual marriage) to Eddie Fisher, journalists nagging her with questions about "sex symbol" status or critics quick to write her off as just a movie star and pretty face rather than an actress.
I interviewed Burstein about the process of sifting through a day-and-a-half's worth of material, the unique serendipity of Taylor's presence at the film's visit to this year's Cannes Film Festival and how Taylor's legacy as an artist and philanthropist can impact others today.
You can stream ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE LOST TAPES on Max starting August 3rd.
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End Music: "Super Ultra Graphic Modern Girl" - Chappell Roan
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Last episode, I interviewed the director of A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, Michael Sarnoski. In preparation, I watched all the movies in the trilogy and figured it was a good time, six years removed from the first film, to talk about the franchise as a whole - pregnancy, an Irishman's Southern accent and the mighty skill of one Lupita N'yongo.
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Closing Music: "Featuring Mark Hoppus" - Hot Mulligan
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Today, I interview Michael Sarnoski, the director of the new horror movie A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE. This is the prequel to the A QUIET PLACE franchise where humanity has adapted to live as silently as possible to survive an alien invasion. You make a noise, you get eaten.
But what if you don't know that? What if it's the first day the aliens land on Earth? What if they happen to land in New York, one of the loudest cities on the planet?
That's the approach DAY ONE takes, following hospice patient Samira (Lupita Nyong'o) as she navigates a city under rapid ruin, accompanied by idealist businessman Eric (Joseph Quinn) and her loyal cat Frodo.
This is the first installment of the franchise not to be directed by John Krasinski, instead helmed by director Michael Sarnoski, whose 2021 debut PIG (a fucking stellar justice-not-revenge drama) earned him the National Board of Review's award for Best Directorial Debut.
Speaking with Sarnoski, I got the feeling that he needs to not only have control of his creative sandbox but also undertake projects in a manner that sometimes completely defies what genre conventions would prefer. He marches to the beat of his own drum and dances to the swing of his own horns and the swells of his own orchestr-You get my drift.
We talk about the screenplay's importance as a foundational text, directorial approaches, writing what you halfway know and how fucking cool Jeff Nichols is. I hope you enjoy.
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Closing Song: "But I'm Alright"- Can't Hardly Wait
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Mike Cheslik's HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS feels like a small miracle: an homage to Looney Tunes silliness shot in black & white without dialogue. The beavers hunted by bumbling drunken applejack-turned-fur trapper Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) are all represented by Disney World-style costumes (yep, big heads and cartoon faces). Hell, every animal is portrayed in cartoonish costume or felt puppetry. The absurdity leans into noir, sci-fi, romance. It's the best kind of throwback: an amalgam of its influences crafted to, simply, emerge as something you've just quite never seen before.
Mandatory watch if you want to break out in the dumbest grin.
*Thank you to @trivialtheater, @JMartinAuthor1 and @beaversfilm for your Twitter comments!*
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Julian Martin, Author of the Juni-Q series: https://julianmartinwriter.com/
End Song: "Femininomenon" - Chappell Roan
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My favorite movie theater, the Angelika Film Center in Plano, TX, closed its doors this week after 20 years of operations. I feel like a piece of me closed along with it. Let's discuss.
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End Song: "Hero" - Family of the Year
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As an addendum to last episode, I interviewed Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom, the directors of LOST ANGEL: THE GENIUS OF JUDEE SILL, about the decade-long process of bringing their music documentary to life.
They chat about the x-factor moment that brought the movie's structure to light, the responsibilities felt from telling the underrated & undervalued Judee's story and what it's like to make a movie about a musician with a less-than-musical background.
I'm grateful to Andy and Brian for a wonderful conversation, one which I hope you'll learn from and enjoy!
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Intro Music: "Cold Open" - Marlowe
Outro Music: "The Lamb Ran Away With the Crown" - Judee Sill
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LOST ANGEL: THE GENIUS OF JUDEE SILL is a documentary detailing the life and music of '70s singer-songwriter Judee Sill using as much of her own voice as possible.
This could devolve into another talking-heads affair but having Judee's voice narrate and her art take animated flight on screen gives the movie an authenticity and more intimate connection to its subject.
Judee was never the type of person to cruise behind her producers, anyway. She always had to have a hand in every affair. Makes sense she'd end up doing so almost 50 years after her death.
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Intro Music: "Cold Open" - Marlowe
Outro Music: "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" - Judee Sill
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MONKEY MAN is the directorial debut of Dev Patel.
My best friend asked 'Wasn't that the guy who played Zuko in that bad Avatar movie?"
Yes. Yes, he was.
He's also built a strong genre-spanning body of work since then, starring in THE GREEN KNIGHT, HOTEL MUMBAI, THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD and LION, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2017.
And yet, I find myself completely willing to throw all that away for MONKEY MAN. This is the kind of debut that lasts: a kinetic, achingly sincere action epic that genuinely feels like the effort posed by someone who knows they'll never get the chance to direct again.
I know Patel's supported by producer Jordan Peele (director of GET OUT, US & NOPE) but $10 million isn't supposed to look THIS good. Seductive neon-splashed hotel rooms, martial arts photographed by camera operators with the stamina of Navy Seals, surreal deep dives into Hindu mythologies: it's a wholly original, excellent time at the movies.---
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Intro Music: "Cold Open" - Marlowe
Outro Music "M.A.A.D. City" - Kendrick Lamar
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IMMACULATE was rescued by producer and star Sydney Sweeney from development hell, 10 years after she originally auditioned for the project.
A horror movie about a nun who immaculately conceives a child the rest of the church believes to be the second coming of Christ? I can say why Sweeney would wanna hang onto that idea.
However, as cool as that idea is and as much as I admire Sweeney's producing prowess, I still left this movie underwhelmed. Maybe what hit hard in 2014 just doesn't in a post-Eggers, Aster and Peele world...? Maybe the Catholic critique is undercooked (more like raw). Maybe the jump scares just don't carry enough weight. Maybe it's all of the above.
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Let me know there what you think of IMMACULATE!
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Intro Music: "Cold Open" - Marlowe
Outro Music: "Saint Cecilia" - Foo Fighters
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