June | 2019 | the m0vie blog

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #25!

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Darren

It’s time for the Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Graham Day and Jay Coyle to discuss what we watched, the week in film news, the top ten and the new releases. Graham has rewatched The Shining. Jay has watched Cléo from 5 to 7: Remembrances and Anecdotes, Cabaret and Victor/Victoria. I have watched What We Left Behind. There is also a lively discussion of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

In terms of film news, the Galway Film Fleadh has announced its full line-up. The makers of the documentary Gaza have donated their prize money to the Gaza Red Carpet Festival Appeal. The Gaze LGBT film festival also unveiled its line-up. The SXSW hit Extra Ordinary was purchased by Cranked Up Films. Donal Foreman’s The Image You Missed is now available on Vimeo on Demand. Also, Hollywood is having (another) existential crisis this summer.

The top ten:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Child’s Play
Diego Maradona
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Brightburn
Rocketman
The Secret Lives of Pets II
Men in Black International
Aladdin
Toy Story 4

New releases:

Yesterday
Drive
Support the Girls
Apollo 11
Metal Heart

You can listen to the podcast directly here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: aladdin, Apollo 11, batman vs. superman, brightburn, child's play, Diego Maradona, Drive, godzilla: king of the monsters, men in black international, metal heart, rocketman, Support the Girls, the shining, toy story 4, what we left behind, x-men: dark phoenix, Yesterday | Leave a comment »

136. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation – Independence Day 2019 (-#45)

Posted on June 29, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Jess Dunne and Luke Dunne, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Kim Henkel’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.

Prom should be the best night of Jenny’s life. However, an unexpected detour winds up taking Jenny and three of her friends on an unexpected detour down the back roads of rural Texas. While exploring, the teens stumble upon a horror nestled snugly at the heart of the Lone Star State.

At time of recording, it was ranked 45th on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the worst movies of all-time.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: austin, conspiracy theory, fear, film, Government, horror, illuminati, Matthew McConaughey, mistrust, Movie, new world order, nineties horror, oliver stone, paranoia, renée zellweger, texas, texas chainsaw massacre: the next generation, x-files | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Spider-Man – Far From Home

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Darren

Spider-Man: Far From Home cannot help but exist in the shadow of Avengers: Endgame.

Indeed, one of the problems marketing Far From Home was the manner in which the entire emotional premise of the film served as a spoiler for Endgame, which meant that the film had to wait quite late in the game to release its second trailer. This sets up an interesting tension with Far From Home, which finds itself in the the seemingly contradictory position of being both the last movie in the current “phase” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also a film actually being produced by a company other than Marvel Studios.

Masking his feelings.

This weird push-and-pull runs through Far From Home, which seems caught between existing as a coda and epilogue to Endgame and working as a Spider-Man movie in its own right. To a certain extent, this was always going to be a tension within Far From Home, even before Endgame set its sights on becoming the biggest movie of all time. Endgame was always going to exert a gravity on Far From Home, given its plot mechanics and its character decisions. Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, along with director Jon Watts, were always going to be reacting to narrative and character choices that they never made.

As such, the most interesting thing that Far From Home can do is to literalise that tension.

Night Monkey Moves.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comic books, elementals, Jake Gyllenhaal, jon watts, mysterio, nick fury, peter parker, spider man, spider-man: far from home, spider-man: homecoming, war on terror | 2 Comments »

Star Trek: Voyager – Friendship One (Review)

Posted on June 27, 2019 by Darren

Friendship One finds Star Trek: Voyager trapped between its own past and the future of the larger Star Trek franchise.

Of course, there’s no small irony that that future would take the form of Star Trek: Enterprise, a prequel set almost a century before the original series and (to date) the television series set at the earliest point in the larger continuity. This gets at something very strange about the seventh season of Voyager, where it seems to be looking both back at and forwards to the past. In some ways, it is the ultimately literalisation of the “end of history” ambiance that pervades the series, articulated in stories like Future’s End, Part I and Future’s End, Part II. There is no future. There is just the past.

What ship can cause antimatter annihilation and has room for two people?
A friendship?

So Friendship One seems caught between two different versions of the past. In its most obvious sense, it is trapped in Voyager‘s own idea of the past. It is an atomic-era creature feature about the horrors of radiation, a pulpy fifties schlock-fest that feels of a piece with everything from Jetrel to The 37’s to Cathexis to Macrocosm to In the Flesh to Bride of Chaotica! This is the future as it looked in the fifties, the atomic (rather than “post-atomic”) horror. However, it also gestures very strongly towards Enterprise, even accidentally encapsulating some of the core anxieties of the fourth Star Trek spin-off in an eerily prescient manner.

The result is an episode that feels like it is suffocating in its own past, with no idea of how to chart a course forward.

Does anything really (anti)matter?

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: Bryan Fuller, joe carey, michael taylor, Mutants, retirony, star trek, star trek: enterprise, star trek: voyager, voyager | 13 Comments »

Non-Review Review: What We Left Behind

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Darren

Part of what is so remarkable about What We Left Behind is the way in which it feels more like a testament (and love letter) to how series producer and documentary co-directory Ira Steven Behr saw the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine than an exploration of the show itself.

This is not a surprise. Indeed, the poster for the documentary notably features Behr holding the eponymous space station in the palms of his hand, as much trying to figure it out for himself as offer it to the audience watching. Behr jokes that the documentary began production in 2012, but spent three years trying to figure out its identity and its angle. With its release in 2019, this puts Behr in the paradoxical position of having lived with What We Left Behind for almost as long as he lived with Deep Space Nine itself.

There isn’t too much in What We Left Behind that a dedicated fan won’t already know about the show’s production and history, but that’s not the point. An early sequence in the documentary exists largely in order to caution the viewer against interpreting the accounts offered in the documentary too literally. Repeatedly, actors and writers contradict themselves and each other. At one point, Robert Hewitt Wolfe casually recalls the finer details of Shadows and Symbols better than Hans Beimler, who actually wrote the episode. “I wasn’t even on the show at that point!” Wolfe jokes.

However, the documentary comes back time and again to the second season episode The Wire in order to explain these competing accounts and contradictory stories. They all hint at some greater truth.

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Filed under: Deep Space Nine, Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: deep space nine, documentary, ds9, film, Ira Steven Behr, Movie, non-review review, review, star trek: deep space nine, what we left behind | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Metal Heart

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Darren

Metal Heart is a charming and zesty coming age tale.

Written by Paul Murray and directed by Hugh O’Conor, Metal Heart owes a lot to the subgenre of female-focused teen dramedies like Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. It’s the story of Emma, a teenager awaiting her Leaving Cert results and trying to navigate the path to young adulthood, unaware of the various obstacles that stand in her path – including her own preconceptions. The (metal) heart of the film lies in the dynamic between Emma and her fraternal twin Chantal, but there are a host of other complicated dynamics for the young woman to navigate along the way.

A large part of the charm of Metal Heart comes down to the strong central cast. O’Conor has drawn together an impressive ensemble for his debut theatrical feature. The adult players include Irish film veterans Moe Dunford, Dylan Moran and Jason O’Mara. However, the best performances in Metal Heart often come from its teen performers. Jordanne Jones is remarkable in the central role of Emma. Leah McNamara does good work as Chantal. Aaron Heffernan is surprisingly affecting in the role of obligatory comic relief as Chantal’s sweet-but-dumb-as-a-bag-of-rocks boyfriend Alan.

Metal Heart has a genuine sweetness to it, which infuses and informs the film. It’s a lovely piece of Irish cinema.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, Hugh O'Conor, jordanne jones, leah mcnamara, metal heart, moe dunford, non-review review, review | Leave a comment »

“This Was Supposed to Be a Spiritual Experience”: The Mid-Nineties Ennui of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”…

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Darren

This Saturday, I’ll be discussing Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation on The 250, the weekly podcast that I co-host discussing the IMDb’s Top 250 Movies of All-Time. However, I had some thoughts on the film that I wanted to jot down first.

I’ve never been able to watch it with any kind of perspective. To me it just looks like some crude backyard movie a bunch of kids slapped together. There seems to me to be, on one hand, a group of people who were strictly horror fans who venerated it. Only over time has it come to occupy a very peculiar position, and I still don’t have any concept of what that is. I think we just wanted to hang a bunch of people on meat hooks, chop ’em up, and sell tickets at the theatre.

– Kim Henkel discusses The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation is a very nineties film, speaking to a very unique set of nineties anxieties.

There is something very revealing and candid about certain kinds of bad movies. Of course, many bad movies are just bad, hacky executions of well-worn concepts without any insight or skill to anchor them. However, there are some bad movies that seem driven by a strange source of passion and energy, which makes them bizarre snapshots of a particular time and place. It is almost a sort of candour, an unguarded bluntness, that allows them to articulate their perspective without any of the consideration or care of a better film.

The Next Generation is one of those films. It is, to be entirely clear, a terrible film. It is sloppily constructed. It is terribly framed. It is incoherently plotted. Its characters are drawn in the crudest of terms. Most damningly, it combines two particularly awful subgenres of the “bad movie” archetype. It is both a horror movie that is not scary and a black comedy that is not funny. It is, by all accounts, a disaster. Watching the film, the question isn’t how the release was delayed for three years. Instead, the question becomes how the film was ever released at all.

However, whether in spite of because of all of this, The Next Generation feels like a weird snapshot of a particular mid-nineties mood. Somehow, while groping around in the darkness, it accidentally puts its finger on the pulse.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: anxieties, conspiracy theories, ennui, fears, feminism, gender roles, globalisation, kim henkel, masculinity, nineties, performativity, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, texas chainsaw massacre: the next generation | Leave a comment »

135. Holmes and Watson – This Just In (-#100)

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Etan Cohen’s Holmes and Watson.

In turn-of-the-century London, the fiend James Moriarty prepares to face trial. His conviction rests upon the testimony of heroic detective Sherlock Holmes. However, Holmes makes a startling deduction about the identity of the man in the dock, which sets in motion a whirlwind comedic misadventure.

At time of recording, it was ranked 100th on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the worst movies of all-time.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100, This Just In | Tagged: adam mckay, comedy, etan cohen, films, golden raspberries, guy ritchie, holmes and watson, john c. reilly, Movies, podcast, sherlock holmes, will ferrell | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #24!

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Darren

It’s time for the Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Jay Coyle and Grace Duffy to discuss what we watched, the week in film news, the top ten and the new releases. Grace has watched Thieves, Missing and My Own Private Idaho. Jay has watched A Day in the Country, Without Name, Craig’s Wife, The Loved Ones and One Sings, The Other Doesn’t. I have watched The Dark Knight Rises, Sanjuro and Lone Wolf and Cub in Sword of Vengeance. There is also an extended discussion on the merits (or lack thereof) of Batman Forever.

In terms of film news, the Galway Film Fleadh continues to roll out announcements – including its slate of masterclasses and an unexpected Cagney and Lacey celebration with Tyne Daly. The IFI is hosting a number of seasons in July – one celebrating the work of Robert Bresson and also the annual Family Festival. Meanwhile, the Lighthouse and Palais Galway are hosting a season of coming of age favourites.

The top ten:

Late Night
John Wick: Chapter III – Parabellum
Detective Pikachu
Diego Maradona
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Rocketman
The Secret Lives of Pets II
Men in Black International
Aladdin

New releases:

Brightburn
Child’s Play
Toy Story 4

You can listen to the podcast directly here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: A Day in the Country, aladdin, batman forever, brightburn, child's play, comcis, Craig's Wife, detective pikachu, Diego Maradona, films, galway film fleadh, godzilla: king of the monsters, IFI, John Wick: Chapter III - Parabellum, late night, lighthouse, Lone Wolf and Cub in Sword of Vengeance, men in black international, Missing, Movies, My Own Private Idaho, One Sings The Other Doesn't., sanjuro, The Dark Knight Rises, The Loved Ones, Thieves, tommy lee jones, toy story 4, without name, x-men: dark phoenix | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Brightburn

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Darren

Brightburn is effectively an elevator pitch movie. It’s a heady cocktail combining Man of Steel, The Omen and We Need to Talk About Kevin into a single ninety-minute movie.

Brightburn often feels more like a sketch extended to feature length rather than a movie of itself. Its characterisation is light, its worldbuilding is shallow, its premise is not so much developed as directly stated. With the notable exception of Elizabeth Banks, who largely anchors the film in emotional terms, the performances are largely blank and generic. This is especially true of Jackson A. Dunn, who is cast in the title role. There is something very threadbare about Brightburn, as if the film is operating on nothing more than its fairly simple premise.

Red eyes at night…

Oddly enough, this all serves to make Brightburn more effective than it might otherwise be. Brightburn is a single-minded film, arguably powered entirely by its own high concept. That high concept is ingenious, and enough to sustain the film across the entirety of its ninety-minute runtime. Brightburn feels relatively light, but that is almost by design. There is little ambiguity about what it is doing, and why it is doing it. There is no clutter, no distraction, no wondering attention. Brightburn is little more than its central narrative engine, but that engine is a powerful and compelling force.

Brightburn is not a subtle film. It has all the nuance of its title character, smashing through wood as though it were wet cardboard. Somehow, that lack of subtlety makes it all the more effective.