#nicktrunks

[nicktrunks]

I’ve been sitting on this drafted post for a few years now. It’s never felt right to publish it. But, like all good things - Adventure Time ended this week. It is a show that I’ve held very near and dear to my heart for so long that I can’t imagine a world where it doesn’t exist.

Without further adieu, here are some pictures of my hand made Adventure Time plushies!

After a couple of coworkers saw my Peppermint Butler, I had requests to do Hot Dog Princess, Jake, Finn and BMO, The Ice King, Lemongrab, and Lumpy Space Princess! Hot Dog Princess was strange to co-ordinate but I'm happy with how it's turned out!

I’ll miss you Adventure Time, but you’ll live on forever.

[nicktrunks]

I think I underestimated just how scary Hereditary could be. When it was first announced, I saw the teaser poster with the family standing next to one another and thought: “huh, weird”. Then the next thing I saw was A24 and knew that I had to see it. Hereditary is one of the most terrifying films I’ve seen in a long time. It rivaled any horror films I’ve watched as part of the 13 Days of Halloween in the past, and certainly sticks out in my head as one of the more successful artistic horror films (in line with The Witch or It Comes At Night in terms of pacing and execution).

Hereditary burns slowly, but in doing so, ramps up on the tension and devastating dread that is around every turn. There is so much of the film that lies in wait, building on your expectations of how you feel it will unwind. So much of the film ripped right through my expectations and I was left having no idea where the story was going to go next, which only further worried me about how terrified I would be. Obviously I don’t want to give too much away, but I made it out alive. There were moments in the film where I found myself holding my breath or making a look of shock and terror that stayed on my face for too long, but I never once closed my eyes. Instead of relying as heavily on jump scares, Hereditary makes you sit in the fear you feel.

Honestly, probably one of my favourite horror films of all time. I appreciate the departure from the slasher film with horror icons that cannot be killed and know how difficult it must be to come up with something that feels so grounded and yet so disturbed. Huge recommendation from me.

[nicktrunks]

There’s a “twenty-minute mark” in the new Star Wars films where I have a sudden epiphany. For Rogue One it was “Oh no, this is trouble”, for The Last Jedi it was: “I think I hate this movie”, and like clockwork, twenty minutes into Solo: A Star Wars Story I had another epiphany: “Star Wars is just different now”. I always thought I’d say that through gritted teeth, or that I would feel numb and sad, but I don’t. I don’t feel upset at what Star Wars has become because it is a fascinating problem to have in terms of over-saturation. Years ago when I found out that Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars and was going to start pumping them out at an alarming rate, my only hope was that the films would do a good job putting balance back into The Force and for the most part, it has and I should be grateful.

Solo, like Rogue One and the new Episodes, has a lot going for it. Fleshing out the Star Wars universe and giving us more to look at and new individuals to root for is a novel concept, but where all of these Star Wars Stories fail is the fact that they take place before the current continuity. It means that nothing matters and everyone is expendable unless you recognize their name. Take Solo for example: we know Lando, Chewie and Han are in this film. They make it out fine because we know we see them in Episodes 4-6, but who are all these other people? Like Rogue One, we know they’re not making it out because we never see these characters again. Another problem with “filling in the blanks” is that it causes throwaway lines to gain too much importance. It’s like in the Star Trek remakes when we see the Kobayashi Maru: we don’t need to see it happen, we just need to hear that it happened. The general rule of thumb of “show don’t tell” only works if it’s the first time you’re seeing it. Retroactively going back and making me watch how Han Solo managed to make the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs isn’t necessary. Seeing the exact hand of Sabacc that Solo played that lost Lando his Millennium Falcon in the first place, or seeing Chewbacca play Dejarik for the first time no longer feels like a bridge from old to new like in The Force Awakens, it just feels sloppy.

All of this aside, “Star Wars is different now”. The film felt very much for the whole family. The violence was toned down to an extent I didn’t expect to see from a story of the rise of a smuggler. There are a lot of allusions to death and the action picks up sparingly, but never in a way that gives a lot of stakes. 

Who knows what Chris and Phil had planned for Solo that turned the film upside down and forced the directors to be removed, but I have a feeling it probably would’ve been tonally different enough to make Solo stand out a bit more from the crowd. If nothing else, the humour that L3 brought to the film was refreshing, and although tonally different and out of place, was acceptable being a “Star Wars Story” and not an episodic title. I want to explore different tones in the Star Wars universe and not everything needs to be a serious drag, but not knowing when to play one note or the other can be the downfall for a lot of these films, and consistently relying on retreading the stories of old characters is the fasted way for me to lose interest in Star Wars altogether.

[nicktrunks]

I remember hearing about Ready Player One years ago when the novel first came out. It was supposed to be the ultimate geek fantasy novel. It took everything about pop culture and nerd interests and commodified it to the nth degree. Many of my concerns and complaints of the film are going to be reflections of the source material as I’ve never read the novel before (and most likely won’t after seeing this film). I wanted to make sure to point this out in lieu of it reflecting poorly on the film itself...which I’ll get into later.

Nostalgia is a heavy theme in the film, taking the passion and dedication of an inventor who was raised on our popular culture of the 1980′s through 2000′s and gamifying his meticulous devotion to references of the source materials. Instead of vilifying the “couch potato” who spends their time devoting effort into memorizing specific pop culture scenes and quoting exact lines of dialogue from specific instances of the inventor’s life, the film rewards and applauds those whose identity is erased and replaced. There is something so inherently upsetting and depressing about this message. The film is unable to stand on its own without these references; if you took out any of the references to outside sources, the story would be non-existent. Every scene exists only as reference to something else: whether that’s a nod to a character or place or any other number of references from popular culture. The only enjoyment from those scenes comes from recognizing something that is unearned within the context of this film. Your attention may pique seeing Beetlejuice walk past in a scene or hearing a roar from a dinosaur from Jurassic Park. Don’t even get me started on the film’s advertising campaign, which spent much of it’s effort digitally replacing the main characters from various movie posters and filling them in with characters from this film. It just feels so empty and almost malicious trying to capitalize on nostalgia in a way that I think would be seen as “wrong” if pointed out in the film’s universe itself.

So what is there to like in Ready Player One? There was a car chase scene at the beginning that was pretty cool in 3D, and as I mentioned above - there is something interesting about being able to point out and say “Oh neat, there’s Goro from Mortal Kombat” or “Huh, they actually managed to have a fight between Mechagodzilla and a Gundam”, but the second you start to notice those things in the film, the effect wears off immediately. It’s like knowing how a magic trick is performed: once you know the secret, it isn’t special anymore. What really stuck out to me was a scene where the characters in the film go into the film The Shining. No spoilers, but the way that this is handled is actually extraordinary in comparison to the rest of the film. In the end, what I was impressed with was the seamless nature of the integration. It handled the content well while also recreating the world of the film accurately (until the end of the scene - but up until that point it was very impressive).

So should you ever see Ready Player One? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a good film. I think the last 25 minutes feel like some of the most ridiculous schlock I’ve seen in a long time and I found myself rolling my eyes, completely shocked that they thought they could get away with an ending like that - despite the rest of the film that preceded the scene. Ready Player One only exists as self-masturbation for someone who wrote the book in their late 30′s who grew up in the 80′s and wanted to take a trip down memory lane. There is absolutely nothing believable in the film that would lead me to believe that twenty years from now under any circumstance would anyone care that much about the 80′s. I think the idea that more people were escaping into a virtual world is far closer to the truth and I wish the film and source material explored that much more in depth. Finally, Ernest Cline is a creep and you shouldn’t support him.

[nicktrunks]

Cutting it pretty close with the 13 Days of Halloween I settled on Little Evil due largely to the fact that Adam Scott was in it. How could Adam Scott lead me astray? The problem with the film is that you can see the set-up and execution from a mile away: a comedy about an evil child and his innocent and naive step father. There is something so matter of fact about the film that doesn’t seem to bring anything new to the table but plays it up like its the first time something like this has been done. Adam Scott plays the film entirely straight, but the film also feeds you exposition like it is supposed to be shocking or groundbreaking. It’s entirely clear what the film is trying to do from the get-go but it isn’t leaning hard enough into the comedy that it seems like a tier just above a Scary Movie. 

In direct comparison, Hell Baby was a much better attempt to produce an in-touch comedy/horror. It was much more aware of what it was doing and didn’t play into the tropes in a way that seemed heavy-handed while still also trying to do something new. Instead, the idea of an Omen-esque parody ends up selling itself as though it hadn’t heard of The Omen. There’s an actual moment in the film where the reveal of a character they are looking for is punctuated by the fact that he was a dwarf and not a “regular-sized” person.

The more I think about it, the more confused I am about who Little Evil is for? It’s not overtly crude by any means and there is some unnecessary heart in the film that muddles the genre…is it a family film? I feel like it would be too lame for me if I was younger and there’s nothing about the film that appeals to me as someone who is older. What a confusing film. Thank God October is over.

[nicktrunks]

The Love Witch is the first film in a long time that effectively captures the spirit and style of late 60′s/early 70′s horror cinema. The sets, costumes, make-up, acting, editing, and even cinematography make the film feel like it was only recently discovered: as though the film was sitting in a canister in an old attic and remastered for release forty years later. It’s the style that initially spoke to Meg and I - it’s something we didn’t expect to sit down and watch for our 13 Days of Halloween...but it felt like it fit. The film has some murders in it, but it’s difficult to say it’s a horror film. It just feels like an “October” film.

I didn’t expect The Love Witch to be as slow as it was but I shouldn’t be surprised; when putting it up against other horror films of the 70′s it feels like the pacing is about right. I think the slow nature of the film is a hindrance though as it points out just how shallow the story is. There’s not much there to work with, and the campy nature of some of the line deliveries makes the film feel less polished, like it could’ve been edited down to a grindhouse trailer instead -- in fact, the trailer for the film is a perfect grindhouse trailer. I could see it playing between Planet Terror and Death Proof.

The film is advertised as a “horror/comedy” but it’s difficult to say that it is one. The only humour in the film seems unintentional and the film builds through drama almost exclusively. I don’t think it was an awful film by any means; I think there was a lot of potential to embrace the style, but the director states the style wasn’t intentional - which means she’s a crazy person because clearly it was. I think the film is worth watching once, maybe if you had it on in the background of a cool party with film nerds it would be a fun thing to project on the side of a garage (not that I know anyone who has ever done that before...).

[nicktrunks]

Very few films have disclaimers before the rest of my review, but this one is warranted: I enjoyed this film for just how bad it is. Valerian was a special kind of bad. I think it is fun and inventive, but not a good film. The story is weak and the characters are underdeveloped and severely lacking in chemistry and connectivity. Nothing “fits” yet everything works and there are a few elements at play that help the film along - namely the fact that it accepts what it is.

Or maybe it doesn’t. I’m still trying to work that out. Valerian *feels* fun. It feels like it knows when it is being silly and over the top. It doesn’t feel like the stakes are out of control, and the pacing of the film keeps moving you along from set piece to set piece. It felt like Luc Besson’s pitch for the film was 5-6 hours long and when he was given two hours to work with, he had to cram in every idea he had as quickly as he could. The slower moments in their film are intentional but not long-lasting. They move the story forward quickly into one scene of insanity after another: so much so that I found myself laughing at how crazy the film was getting minute by minute. Having gone to a showing of the film never having seen a trailer for the film or knowing anything about the film at all - I was flabbergasted by what was happening in front of me.

There is something so unique and fascinating about Valerian where the world feels realized. It doesn’t have the comic book’s aesthetic, but is able to generate a world around the characters that feel believable and I think a lot of that had to do with the CG - which never feels cheap inappropriately used in this film. Don’t get me wrong, the film uses CG at every turn and often times you feel like you’re watching a Star Wars prequel -- but it feels “right” for the film. It makes sense that in the way its used because the film feels so otherworldly. In most cases when its used it doesn’t seem unnecessary and the use of live action puppets that are further articulated with CG seemed like they fit.

Should you see Valerian? Absolutely. You won’t believe me unless you see it yourself. It is the natural evolution of Besson’s “The Fifth Element” in a world where CG is more prolific and capable of extending the filmmakers desires. Will you hate most of the actors in the film? Absolutely - but you have to dive in to really appreciate what a train wreck of absurdity this is.

[nicktrunks]

I don’t mean to gloat, but my review for Furious 7 rang true - it truly was the pinnacle of the franchise; an apex that crescendoed with the death of Paul Walker. The opportunity for fresh faces and a soft reboot of the series was within reach and yet we get The Fate of the Furious: a film that feels like a rehash of everything we’ve seen thus far - not moving anything forward (and in many cases moving back altogether). After all, where do you go after the events of Fast Five through Seven? You go to the arctic where you drive a remote controlled sub carrying a nuke, I guess.

The Fast films usually do a good job of boosting my endorphins. I used to feel pumped when I watched these dumb action movies...but F8 felt limp, as though it was just going through the motions page by page. The addition of Charlize Theron felt underused and unnecessary. At no point did I feel as though she was a worthy villain for the team. To make matters even worse, any time technological jargon is introduced in the film there are embarrassing lines of dialogue to point out *just how smart* Ludacris is and it drives me insane. In fact, unless the humour was coming from The Rock or Jason Statham (who, quite frankly, are the stars of this film) I wasn’t interested in any dialogue, story, or humour. I’ve heard rumours that they’re planning a spin off with Statham and The Rock and frankly, that’s all I’m looking forward to with this franchise.

The series has almost become a parody of itself - with callbacks and nods to earlier installments that feel as though they are intentionally drawing attention to how different it is now. I don’t feel any nostalgia for the earlier films and think that the series is heading into a direction that doesn’t have legs. I’m not disappointed that the film wasn’t better; I don’t expect it to be good. I just have hopes that it can once again transform itself into something “else”. Unfortunately its box office shows no sign of slowing (with over 1 billion dollars grossed) so why would they fix something we’re not telling them is broken?