Siddon's reviews

I liked this one too. Not five stars, but it was better than I thought it would be.

The Bogeyman (2023)

RT has Bogeyman near positive frankly if a horror film is near 40% I'll watch it. This film is far and away the worst film I've see this year. Going into the plot a family loses it's mom (off screen) and a monster is haunting another family (before the film). When the two families intersect with a therapy session between the father(s) the monster is I guess let in.

I mean this movie is terrible and frankly an insult to the genre. The story is told through the eyes of Sadie Harper (I had to look up her name). She's just one of these typical modern characters that dresses like a grunge artist from the 90's, has no personality other than slightly sad but strong girl and surrounded herself with interesting characters that are only given one note.

Every single concept and character in this film is underwritten and poorly delivered. For me I couldn't see what was happening during the scary parts, so it was just a screen sound and shadows slightly moving around. This is a film about jump scares where you have zero tension build up and poor cinematography. The film also has some fairly obtuse racial politics in this film minorities exist merely to slightly help the lead(but not really because she's strong and stoic). The only real bad person in the film is the also the only white person in a multi-ethnic friend group that pads out the run time.

The other problem with the film getting into spoilers.... This is a horror film...that's afraid of doing anything with horror

The Blackening (2023)

A group of black friends come together for a Juneteenth reunion to drink and play games. They are then stalked by a crazed killer who has a board game called "The Blackening". Now if this was a film made in the 80's or mid 90's it would be an instant classic...it actually feels like it was written in 1999. The basic thesis of the film that black people die first in horror films and never survive...that was true pre-Candyman since then...not so much. But the issue is can a film with a flawed PC premise actually deliver a solid horror film.

And the truth is...yeah it kinda does. The film has one big miss but mostly it hits it's notes. I think the big trick here is that by having a film with majority black cast those characters have to actually be different. Ypu have the bi-racial girl, the fat girl, the thug, the african, the blerd, the gay black, the girl in a relationship. Now would all of these people actually be friends in real life...probably not but it works for the film.

What the film really has going for it is it's humor. This is a movie that is funnier than Scary Movie. A number of the bits hit hard and work well that you can almost forgive the stuff that the film misses on. The look of the killer, the set design and production values, and the performances all work really well. The film does make a couple wrong turns. Like most modern films it seems like sexuality has been stripped from modern films. This is an 80's slasher homage and the women in the film are dressed absurdly. The men can be sexually objectified in the film (slightly) but the women not so much. But the big issue that keeps this from being a top film of the year....

The Holdovers (2023)
Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne has never made a bad film, however his last film did took a big swing and only managed a double. I blame Matt Damon well it's been eight years and Payne is back with a film he didn't write starring Paul Giamatti as a grumpy teacher in a 1970[s boarding school. This might be the best picture of the year, it's certainly going to have a lot of people singing it's praises.

So the film is sold as a story of three damaged people, a cook dealing with trauma, a misanthropic teacher who is stuck watching the kids that can't come home for Christmas and a student who is dealing with his own issues. Much like Paynes work the film has a cynical sense of humor however this is perhaps his most subtle work. The humor and emotional punches hit harder here than in other films because we get restraint.

This film is shot like a film from the 1970's, it's a period piece which the special effects are putting us in this 1970's world. And I do mean "world" it's not one of those films where you feel like if you turn the camera on an angle you'll see the modern world, or these people only exist in this singular location. The world is fully realized, shot beautifully made to feel like you are watching a technicolor masterpiece.

Paul Gamatti gives the performance of his career, He disappears into the role his character of Hunham. You don't really know what to make of him at first but the film slowly pulls away the layers and a man that starts off as pretentious and condescending exposes himself as something very different. We've seen so many teachers as mentors and antagonists and victims over the years but this is something different. Hunham is a man of nuance and because of that nuance the jokes hit so much harder.

My only complaint with the film...is as with most modern films from Hollywood we're not allowed to just have this type of film told. Da Vine Richardson plays the cafeteria worker stuck with these kids and she's given a lot of screen time. Frankly if he role was cut in half the film would come in under 2 hours and her scenes would have a much greater impact as a supporting figure in the story. All films nowadays have to walk this woke PC dance and fortunately the film and filmmakers demonstrate a tremendous amount of restraint. This is the world of polite society and her struggles hit better when they weren't trying to shoehorn into more of the story than she needed to be in. I expect her and Giamatii to get an Oscar nominations.

But this is really just a quibble, this movie is a five star film and borderline masterpiece.