babylon sherm

2y

Okay but now that you’ve seen it you can tell me what song Cage is quoting when he starts screaming about “YOU KNOW I NEED YOU TO GIVE IT UP NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE, BUT EVERY TIME I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE 😫”

babylon sherm

2y

Okay but now that you’ve seen it you can tell me what song Cage is quoting when he starts screaming about “YOU KNOW I NEED YOU TO GIVE IT UP NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE, BUT EVERY TIME I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE 😫”

Culprit

2y

"im not the problem
they, they are the problem"

Block Muteson

2y

The movie has to be a satanic panic joke. I don't know any reason it should exist otherwise.

babylon sherm

2y

· edited

I’ve got good news!

Idk that’s kinda what I took from it, to various degrees. It’s clearly intentionally funny throughout so that doesn’t seem out of the question

You can’t deny it’s extremely funny to write this movie and then say “I based these characters on my Mom and Dad. This movie is about how moms will lie to protect someone, like hiding my father’s sexuality from the world” then the character you based on your closeted dad is the most shrill, mincing, loathsome, obnoxious creep imaginable

babylon sherm

2y

· edited

I’ve got good news!

Idk that’s kinda what I took from it, to various degrees. It’s clearly intentionally funny throughout so that doesn’t seem out of the question

You can’t deny it’s extremely funny to write this movie and then say “I based these characters on my Mom and Dad. This movie is about how moms will lie to protect someone, like hiding my father’s sexuality from the world” then the character you based on your closeted dad is the most shrill, mincing, loathsome, obnoxious creep imaginable

Block Muteson

2y

Wtf lol. I mean they edit around Cage so you can't laugh at him. All of his shrill solos taper into the score and hard cuts.

Like if there's a theme to be mined, I guess "your attention makes things real, so be careful what you notice and how deep you go". But the film sells out on that interpretation with black magic CGI so idk. Also, this protag is clearly deeply autistic. The genius codebreaker autism super power trope.

babylon sherm

2y

I wish they literally cropped him out of more of the movie tbh, it made Cage come off like a Ren & Stimpy style grandmother that was never fully in frame. When you’re only seeing him from the philtrum down it’s super effective for that reason

He’s often straight-up bad, but it almost fits because he’s playing a such a huge loser

And yeah she’s just like me and I can fix her because I understand

Block Muteson

2y

So bad

Jonboi

2y

None of the people I follow on Letterboxd have this below 3 stars lol

I can’t recall a time when I’ve been more baffled by a reception

Block Muteson

2y

Honestly double down and show me more stuff like him going to the store. Lot of this movie is naptown

proper

2y

what’s ur letterboxd? i can change that for you

Block Muteson

2y

Wtf lol. I mean they edit around Cage so you can't laugh at him. All of his shrill solos taper into the score and hard cuts.

Like if there's a theme to be mined, I guess "your attention makes things real, so be careful what you notice and how deep you go". But the film sells out on that interpretation with black magic CGI so idk. Also, this protag is clearly deeply autistic. The genius codebreaker autism super power trope.

Jonboi

2y

I'm not sure how that interpretation functions, but you're probably on to something

Block Muteson

2y

A film about "looking too long" as noticing leads to internalizing. Be careful what you chase after as your obsessions can quickly become your reality. As such, this film is of two minds: Satanic Panic is ridiculous- and it's also real.

The antagonist embodies a dissonance, that anodyne rock music actually is the devil. The protagonist gets caught up in an achingly slow burn procedural. She's an autistic code breaker whose perceptive gifts play right into Charlie Manson's hands. If only he'd made it as a rockstar.

Maika Monroe does her best to flesh out this trope of a role. They put the social ineptitude to good use for a while, but everything just boils down to repressed trauma. The unspeakable evil she's chasing down is a branch in her family tree. This isn't just a string of violent acts, it's a legacy of violence and she is its heir. Repressing that drove her insane. Acknowledging it lifted the curse.

You thought those were just pictures of presidents? Nah, this is about the state of America, baby! Sounds cool, right, but it amounts to a James Wan third act. The way that Malignant played with hypnosis, this plays with repression. Both are about the sociopolitical but fizzle into metaphysics and the fragility of memory.

This blows right by everything it has going for it after inching along for an hour and change. A total misfire. Brutal to sit through. I'd much rather just follow Cage around. Let's see this guy go get groceries and make babies cry.

Jonboi

2y

· edited

You give the most brilliant a***ysis, only to dismiss it anyways
I definitely did not understand this film on the level you did, and I do have to admit that with this added context it seems to have more ambition than I gave it credit for, but I've really only seen people engage with this on an instinctual level
At the end of the day, you have to f*** with the text, or else the subtext goes to waste

Block Muteson

2y

I was bored to tears man

Block Muteson

2y

A film about "looking too long" as noticing leads to internalizing. Be careful what you chase after as your obsessions can quickly become your reality. As such, this film is of two minds: Satanic Panic is ridiculous- and it's also real.

The antagonist embodies a dissonance, that anodyne rock music actually is the devil. The protagonist gets caught up in an achingly slow burn procedural. She's an autistic code breaker whose perceptive gifts play right into Charlie Manson's hands. If only he'd made it as a rockstar.

Maika Monroe does her best to flesh out this trope of a role. They put the social ineptitude to good use for a while, but everything just boils down to repressed trauma. The unspeakable evil she's chasing down is a branch in her family tree. This isn't just a string of violent acts, it's a legacy of violence and she is its heir. Repressing that drove her insane. Acknowledging it lifted the curse.

You thought those were just pictures of presidents? Nah, this is about the state of America, baby! Sounds cool, right, but it amounts to a James Wan third act. The way that Malignant played with hypnosis, this plays with repression. Both are about the sociopolitical but fizzle into metaphysics and the fragility of memory.

This blows right by everything it has going for it after inching along for an hour and change. A total misfire. Brutal to sit through. I'd much rather just follow Cage around. Let's see this guy go get groceries and make babies cry.

Block Muteson

2y

I was bored to tears man

_jesse

2y

Can you elaborate re: malignant and hypnosis? And what “metaphysics” means in the context of the two films? Genuinely curious