the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Profile

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Darren

Profile is the latest entry in the so-called “Screen Life” series, produced by Timur Bekmambetov. It is also notable as the first entry in the series to be directed by Bekmambetov himself.

The “Screen Life” series is effectively a set of heightened genre movies that unfold through the screen of a laptop, narratives that unfold through chat boxes, Skype chats, playlists and file transfers. It’s an innovative and experimental approach to storytelling. While the results – Unfriended, Searching… and Unfriended: Dark Web – have varied in quality, the hook has always been fascinating. So much of modern life is navigated through screens that it is fascinating to see movies try to reflect that. Indeed, there’s an argument that movies like Unfriended play better on computer screens than they do in theatres or on televisions.

Translating the story to screen.

Profile adheres to the cinematic conventions of these sorts of stories, but it feels unnecessarily constrained in other ways. Each of the three previous films has been a genre exercise told through a computer screen. Unfriended and Dark Web are teenage horror movies, while Searching… is a delightfully schlocky nineties thriller reimagined through a web camera. In contrast, the subject matter of Profile is decidedly weighter. The film is based on the non-fiction book In the Skin of a Jihadist by Anna Ereklle, looking at online recruitment of young British girls by Islamic extremists.

This is an appreciably more grounded and more serious piece of subject matter than something like Unfriended or Searching…, and it’s interesting to see this cinematic language applied to this subject matter. After all, this is a digitally native story and a tale about the process of mediating the world through computer screens. However, Profiles suffers slightly from the need to frame this subject matter not through the lens of a web camera, but through the prism of genre, to transform something very real and very threatening into a heightened cartoonish thriller.

A new Skype of thriller…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: daesh, extremism, facebook, film, grooming, internet, isis, Movie, non-review review, Online, profile, recruitment, review, screen life, skype, thriller | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On Hollywood’s Next Franchising Trend, the “Requel”…

Posted on August 1, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist today. The success of David Gordon Green’s Halloween and the announcement of his upcoming Exorcist trilogy seemed like a good time to discuss one of the more interesting modern trends in studio franchising: the rebooted sequel, or the “requel.” The idea is that if an original movie is iconic, but subsequent sequels have devalued the brand, the studio can just roll the franchise back to the earlier beloved film and effectively start franchising again from that point onwards.

It is a frustrating and unsettling trend that illustrates the cannibalistic feeding frenzy that is modern franchising. Hollywood has already franchised every viable property, but this approach allows studios a second (or third) bite of the apple by effectively erasing perceived mistakes and rolling the clock back to earlier and more nostalgia-friendly points in the shared continuity. It’s interesting to see this approach becoming increasingly mainstream.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: canon, continuity, david gordon green, Franchising, halloween, intellectual property, prequel, reboot, requel, requels, sequels, terminator, the escapist, the exorcist | 2 Comments »

New Escapist Column! On How the Thirteenth Doctor is Already Awaiting Rehabilitation…

Posted on August 1, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist yesterday. With the announcement that both Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker would be leaving Doctor Who after this season and a string of specials, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at their time on the show.

In particular, how this three-season stretch marks the first time since the revival that an actor’s interpretation of the Doctor has been left awaiting rehabilitation. Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor was a striking opportunity for the show, a talented actor in a bold reinvention. However, despite the combination of the actor’s enthusiasm and the audience’s goodwill, the show itself failed to deliver on her potential. This essentially places Whittaker in the same position as Colin Baker. The Thirteenth Doctor will have to look outside the show to find stories and characterisation worthy of the actor involved.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Chris Chibnall, doctor who, escapist, jodie whittaker, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 7, Episode 4 (“Millennium”)

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Darren

With The X-Cast moving on to coverage of the seventh season of The X-Files, and the episode Millennium fast approaching, it seemed like a good time to resurrect the Time is Now podcast. So I joined Kurt North to talk about the controversial episode.

Millennium is a very strange episode of television. It is designed to serve as a de facto series finale for Chris Carter’s Millennium while folding it into the mythology of The X-Files. However, it is an episode where two of the three credited writers have never worked on Millennium, and which builds to a climax of the mythology of Millennium which doesn’t really fit with anything that appeared on screen. However, it is also the episode that builds to the first on-screen kiss between Mulder and Scully, which creates an interesting tension in terms of the episode’s priorities.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: frank black, kiss, kurt north, Lance Henriksen, millennium, the x-cast, the x-files, zombies | Leave a comment »

245. Tumbbad – This Just In (#250)

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with special guest Joey Keogh, 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, Anand Gandhi, Rahi Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad’s Tumbbad.

In a remote Indian village, something ancient and evil is lurking beneath the surface. As the country moves towards independence, Vinayak Rao finds a way to exploit the mysteries of Tumbbad to his own advantage. However, nothing comes without a price.

At time of recording, it was ranked 250th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: Ambrose Bierce, bollywood, capitalism, colonialism, greed, H. P. Lovecraft, hastur, horror, imdb, india, indian horror, indian independence, jeoy keogh, lovecraft, stephen king, the king in yellow, True Detective, tumbbad | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the “Jungle Cruise” and the Journey Into the Uncanny Valley…

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Jungle Cruise this week, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt vehicle.

It isn’t particularly surprising that Jungle Cruise takes place in an unreal environment. After all, this is a feature film based on a theme park ride. However, it is striking how completely and how eagerly it rejects anything resembling reality. Jungle Cruise draws openly from films like The Mummy, The African Queen, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Romancing the Stone and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, globe-trotting adventures that blend special effects with beautiful location work. In contrast, Jungle Cruise unfolds entirely within the hard drive of a computer.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: cgi, Computer-generated imagery, fake, jungle cruise, realism, reality, simulacra, the escapist, uncanny vallye | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “The Suicide Squad – Review”

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of The Suicide Squad, which is releasing theatrically in Europe this week and in cinemas and on HBO Max in the United States next weekend.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 3 minute review, 3mr, escapist, escapist magazine, review, the escapist, the suicide squad, three minute review | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Jungle Cruise – Review”

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of Jungle Cruise, which is releasing theatrically and on Disney+ Premiere Access this weekend.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 3 minute review, 3mr, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, film, jungle cruise, Movie, raiders of the lost ark, romancing the stone, the escapist, the rock | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Suicide Squad

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Darren

The Suicide Squad is a stunning piece of blockbuster cinema.

There’s an understandable urge to treat The Suicide Squad as something of an outlier, particularly in the modern wave of big superhero blockbusters. After all, this is an R-rated blockbuster about a bunch of super-villains populated largely be characters that few people will recognise, let alone care about, and which exists in something of a strange continuity limbo away from the rest of the shared continuity. It is darkly funny, bitterly bleak, and decidedly uninterested in things like brand synergy. It is a sequel to a maligned film from a director now best known for his work with a rival studio and a rival property.

Squad goals.

Looked at from a certain angle, The Suicide Squad must seem as alien as the monster that rampages through the film’s third act – a space oddity that fell to Earth. However, this just makes it all the more remarkable that writer and director James Gunn has managed to fashion all of this into a thrilling and spectacular piece of blockbuster cinema that understands the appeal and the potential of the superhero genre without forsaking its own distinct perspective and while delivering on everything that a well-made populist blockbuster should.

There are very few superhero movies that are put together like The Suicide Squad. That’s their problem.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bloodsport, dc comcis, film, Harley Quinn, Movie, non-review review, Peacemaker, power, review, rick flag, starro, starro the conquerer, suicide squad, superheroes, the suicide squad | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” and the Paradox of Spoiler Culture…

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist today. The release of Masters of the Universe: Revelation generated some controversy last week, owing to a major twist at the end of the first episode that caught some fans entirely off-guard.

This is interesting, because it gets at one of the central tensions of modern fan culture, particularly the obsession with spoilers. Many fans are obsessively worried about having the film and television that they enjoy spoiled for them ahead of time, of having secrets revealed before release. However, that narrative doesn’t really fit with the outrage over Revelation, where it seems like many of those fans most vocally protesting the big twist at the end of the first episode seem frustrated that something like that development was preserved as a surprise for them and that it did catch them off-guard. So do fans really want to be surprised?

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.