I do see what accusations of plagiarism were thrown at Squid Games because of this movie, but I also believe the creator of Squid Games that it was written before this movie came out.
Anyway, this is about a group of high school students forced to play a series of games(including Red Light, Green Light) in order to survive. It’s very well made, very strange, and I actually found myself rather confused how some of the games could be won legitimately.
Anyway, it is very strange and if you enjoyed Squid Games(or Alice in Borderland) you will enjoy this.
It is apparently a Manga series and it ends with a cliffhanger, leading to a part two that has not been made. Shame. I’d watch it.
Empire of Light (2022), a terrific drama with Olivia Colman, Toby Jones, Colin Firth and Micheal Ward. Colman’s character has mental issues and all of them work at a movie theater. Colman, as always, nails her role. Highly recommended.
Other People’s Children (2022), a simple story of a schoolteacher falling in love with a divorced father of a 4 year old, but without villains or heroes. It reminded me a lot of One Fine Morning, primarily because of the central performance by Virginie Efira. If you don’t mind subtitles and watching people’s lives unfold through incidents that are monumental to them and incidental to the rest of the world, this one is highly recommended.
One odd thing (or maybe heartening); it wasn’t until the film was almost over that I realized the central romance is between a Jew and an Arab (which is extraordinary, because their ethnicity is not hidden in the story, it’s up front).
Documentary. I’d give it a solid B. I’m a fan of Blume’s books; In elementary school I even wrote an essay about her battle with censorship. I’ve always thought she was a bit of a revelation as a writer of no-holds barred youth fiction, tackling every subject from anti-Semitism to masturbation, but this documentary humanizes her in some ways, talks about her failed marriages and how out of step she felt with other mothers of the era. A nice delve into the Reagan years and what that was like for her. I liked the interviews with people who wrote to her for years and years and some famous personalities who appreciated her work.
In some ways she reminds me of my grandmother. She doesn’t seem to realize how old she is.
I saw Knock at the Cabin (2023) the other day. I really enjoyed it. I’ve been a bit wary of M. Night’s movies ever since Signs but this one was really good. Unexplained creepiness affecting innocent bystanders whose reactions I found to be pretty spot-on to how I think I’d handle things if it were me. The only thing I would have done different than any of the characters is at the end, I would have let humanity die and chosen to walk the earth, but then, cynics never get the endings they want.
Ghosted (2023) on Apple TV+. A comedy-action-spy movie starring Ana de Armas as a superspy and Chris Evans as a gormless civilian who gets caught up in the “don’t let the bad guys get the superweapon” plot. If you give anything in this movie one second’s worth of thought, you will realize how stupid the plot is and what a ridiculous film this is. So don’t do that. Just sit back, turn your brain off, eat popcorn, and enjoy the very attractive leads bicker-flirting and killing bad guys in creative ways. (Even with that in mind, there are still a lot of problems with the movie, but they are not really worth listing out).
The movie also features some enjoyable cameos from other action movie franchises (which I will not elaborate on here so as not to spoil the fun).
The absolute worst movie I’ve ever watched all the way through, at least that I can remember. Just terrible. When I think of the worst movies I’ve watched, Puppet Master Legacy* almost always gets chosen by me. No, it has been replaced. Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl was atrocious. I would have walked out in the theater.
It was just honestly the worst thing. I think I finished it just to finish it.
I am very generous with movie ratings, but this was a ZERO STARS movie if I’ve ever seen one.
*Puppet Master Legacy was sold as real movie and entry in the series, but was a clip show movie. Total fraud.
This poster reminds me of a movie I recently caught on a transcontinental flight. I’m not even going to try to categorize it, I’ll just say that if you roll with it it grows on you.
Next up on the Tom Hanks Movie of the Week, Tom plays a clueless middle aged man preoccupied with his busy life who realizes, almost too late, what the real value of love is. Co-starring Helen Hunt, because she needs the work. Insert dialog here.__________.
Precocious children or alienated family are optional. Same hair cut whether it is World War II or middle American suburbian high school.
Wait, how about Tom Hanks as a clueless middle aged high school teacher with an alienated teen-ager who doesn’t get along with either Tom or his ex-wife, (played by Helen Hunt because whe needs the work). Same hair cut. It is golden, it pratically writes itself.
I saw Tokyo Gore Police years ago and I did not like it a ton, but it was memorable and stuck with me. The Vampire Girl movie I saw was outright racist.
Some of the Japanese girls do full-body Blackface, wear Afro wigs(one has a plate in her lip) and they go full “African club”. It’s terrible, just terrible.
Well, I did say it was only the poster that evoked the memory. From your description, Kamikaze Girls is nothing like Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. Of course, it’s nothing like anything else I’ve seen in quite a while as well…