Oct 16 - Oct 22
Advantageous, Blaze, The Sadness, Oblivion, Saw X
- Advantageous [2015] - 35
Advantageous is a scifi/ drama concerned with the rampant “advancement” of society and how, despite moving forwards, nothing really changes. Gwen has lost her job, is “too old” to be considered for something new in her field, and has concerns for her daughter’s future so she pushes her to a near breaking point. There’s a lot of great topics in this film — particularly about being a woman in “modern” society — but none of them are communicated very well. Advantageous is only 90-minutes long, but it feels like 120 at the very least; somehow stretching a plot that should be dense and interesting into something flimsy and excruciating. Writer/ director Jennifer Phang has gone on to do smatterings of various shows since making this film, and I think that format suits her style much more. If looked at as a TV series smushed down into one abridged narrative, the episodic lines become pretty clear.
- Blaze [2022] - 88
Blaze is a film, on the other hand, with a lot to say and the right words to say it. When a 12-year old girl witnesses a brutal rape turned murder, she and her dragon friend have to struggle to make sense of what they saw and how the world wants to handle it. This is a staggeringly beautiful and brutal film made all the more visceral by Julia Savage’s performance as the titular character. The artistry and intelligence behind the onscreen metaphors is worthy of both recognition and praise and the only thing keeping this film from scoring higher is its unnecessarily graphic depiction of the incident. For anyone who wants to experience this story without feeling the need to experience the trauma themselves: Watch to ~5-minutes, then skip to 10:30ish — you’ll see the windup, and you’ll understand the aftermath. Blaze is no When a Monster Calls, but it is a fantastic film in its own right.
- The Sadness [2021] - 58
“The Sadness is the most violent and depraved zombie movie ever made,” the poster proclaims. It’s not far off, there’s a lot of really well done and really graphic violence in this film. However, once that’s stripped away, there’s basically nothing left. It feels like someone watched 28 Days Later and 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, then smashed up all the parts with blood and guts without creating any sort of meaningful narrative to back it all up. This is well and good if you’re just in the mood for a violent, action, zombie movie, but The Sadness loses further marks by being unnecessarily sexually violent as well. Like my complaints for Blaze, there’s just no reason for that kind of exploitative content [a theme we’ll tangentially revisit with Saw X below]. Further, Sadness can’t seem to pick a lane in its tone, vacillating between Tarantino comic-violence and Eli Roth torture porn. Most of it is plenty of fun and extremely well made, but too many parts are uneven, uninteresting, or unnecessary.
- Oblivion [2013] - 64
The best single word to describe 2013’s Oblivion is, “eh”. Great effects, cool production design, and a really great story are marred by lame execution, stupid plot contrivances, and narrative conveniences that make you say “what!?” more than “wow!”. This movie is definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it just for the spectacle alone but, at 2-hours and 4-minutes long, it could have been trimmed a little to be snappier… or smarter. As I mentioned, the overall plot of the film is really interesting and very cool, the writers just seem to have forgotten that things have to be justified and try to cover them up with some truly exceptional visual effects. This really could have been something to remember and revisit, but it’s script is so lacking that I’ll probably just steal its plot for a DnD game somewhere down the road instead.
- Saw X [2023] - 10
A 10 for Saw X [pronounced “Socks”] because my website won’t let me highlight just a single digit. This movie is absolutely terrible. It looks cheap, it’s performances are boring and wooden, it’s plot is morally confounding at best and entirely idiotic the rest of the time, and it seems entirely aware of this because it’s score is constantly insisting that you’re scared. The film is so desperate for your buy-in that it even incorporates a child into one of Jigsaws famous [and, in this case, extremely silly] traps. Using children in most film situations, but especially horror, to extract a reaction from your audience is exploitative and pathetic. If you can’t scare or otherwise engage your audience in your film and its emotions without capitalizing on the innocence of children… you need a new career. Anyway, that’s only one part of this that was awful. Another part… is that it’s getting really good reviews? I haven’t seen a Saw film since the 3rd or 4th and only watched this because it somehow has a 70 on IMDB, a 60 Metacritic [they hate everything so 60 is pretty decent], and a 79/ 89 on Rotten Tomatoes. HOW????????
