1126. Joker

Joker
2019
Directed by Todd Phillips 

Our final Halloween movie is one that I knew I was doomed to watch, because the List never misses the opportunity to showcase a white man performing his little heart out. So this was about as inevitable an entry as My Left Foot. I had the preconceived notion that I was about to watch Incel: The Movie and I wasn't that far off.

Arthur Fleck is a failed clown and comedian, who lives with his ailing mother in Gotham City. His mental deterioration is charted throughout the movie and inspires other unhappy citizens to rise up. 

Much like Martin Scorsese, I don't like superhero movies (I am sure Mr. Scorsese would appreciate it if the comparison ended there). Of course, this is barely a superhero movie, but certain tropes crop up anyway. Among those tropes is the lack of moral ambiguity. I know some will argue that the movie is all about moral ambiguity. But I think they simply flipped the script. They made the Joker into the hero and the whole of society the enemy, without picking up any subtleties along the way. 

To me, considering the perspective of the disenfranchised white man doesn't feel all that revolutionary. Authors like Chuck Palahniuk explore this theme often, and even movies like Taxi Driver or King of New York do a better job tackling it. I don't think there is a shortage of artistic works that take on this type of character. 

I keep arguing with my male friends about this movie and honestly, I don't even know what the argument is. I didn't enjoy it, but I don't think I was supposed to enjoy it. I think it wanted me to feel unsettled and complicit in all of Arthur's humiliations. So in that way, it was very effective, and I think I had the desired response.

I guess a mention should be made of the performance. Actors have decided they have to lose their mind and critical body mass to play this role. Joaquin Phoenix does fine here, and laughs, dances, and runs like a psycho.

So in the end, a dark superhero movie. What a fresh take!

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Joaquin Phoenix lost 52 pounds to play Arthur. 

Phoenix improvised the bathroom dance scene. You don't say.

1125. Parasite

Parasite

2019
Directed by Bong Joon-ho

This was pretty much a shoo-in for the updated edition and it's easy to see why. This movie is so damn good that it even persuades Americans to watch a movie with subtitles, which is no mean feat.

The Kim family lives in a crowded basement apartment and fold pizza boxes to make ends meet. The son, Ki-woo poses as a university student in order to get a job tutoring Da-hye, the daughter of the wealthy Park family. The Kim family slowly and insidiously recommend each other as highly qualified servants until they are all employed by the Parks. I'll stop there, as I like to remain a spoiler free zone and this movie makes it difficult not to give too much away.

Perhaps Parasite doesn't qualify as a horror movie in the strictest sense, but it does what great horror movies do: tell an unsettling story while providing social commentary in an unobtrusive way. Korean movies in general are very occupied by class, and it was interesting to see this given a horror movie context.

It might be more accurate to label this a black comedy, and the humor of the story makes it hard not to root for the Kims. The movie really builds to a satisfying and unexpected (to me at least) ending. Definitely deserving of its Best Picture win.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

12th film to be nominated for Best Picture without being nominated for any acting categories.

The Parks' house was built from scratch for the movie.

1124. The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse
2019
Directed by Robert Eggers

The 2020 edition of the List has been officially released (RIP "only 100 left" milestone), and we can all praise Xenu that The Irishman was not included. My boyfriend and I actually watched The Lighthouse a couple weeks ago (his idea, not mine), and it just so happens to fall under the category of Spooktober watches.

In the late 19th century, two lighthouse keepers serve on an isolated island off the coast of New England. Thomas Wake is a cranky old salt who is weirdly protective of the beacon and likes his lobster cooked a certain way, dammit. His underling Ephraim Winslow is former tinderman who begins to see things even stranger than Willem Defoe.

My boyfriend expressed surprise that I didn't like this, which is a real wake up call about how I present myself. Personally, I didn't enjoy watching these two try to win their Oscars with their random outbursts and carefully constructed accents. I am sure there will be many college essays penned that unpack all the symbolism in this movie, and I am just glad I don't have to write one.

It might have been fairly interesting to read if it were a play, but as a film I wasn't particularly engaged. And as a horror movie, it's dismal.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

The design of the mermaid's genitals was based on shark labias. 

For dialogue inspiration, the Egger brothers read Herman Melville and Robert Louis Stevenson.

1123. Elephant

Elephant
2003
Directed by Gus Van Sant

Since I have exhausted all the horror movies on the List, we must content ourselves with uber disturbing films for the remainder of Spooktober. Elephant, which is about a school shooting, certainly falls into that category. Should make for a really fun month.

So like I said, this film chronicles the events surrounding a school shooting in Portland, Oregon, that is heavily based on the Columbine shooting. It has the disconcerting feel of being a documentary. 

Americans have to live with the fear of school shootings everyday, or at least we did until COVID-19 (hurray for progress!).  It's not a subject you want to live in for a movie's runtime. I also think there is something to what Sue Klebold, Dylan Klebold's mother, says. These kind of movies perpetuate the myth of Columbine. I was deeply uncomfortable with some of the specific details they chose to include that were clearly in reference to Columbine. It almost felt like an homage.

I get that the point of the movie was to make you feel unsettled, and possibly complicit in whatever violence you witnessed.  They effectively built up to a brutal climax very slowly. I mean really slowly. That piano scene went on forever. But I could have done without watching this one.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Much of the movie was improvised.

Based on a short story by Harmony Korine and a friend of Gus Van Sant. I'm surprised the List hasn't forced Korine on us more. My film professors loved him. 

1122. Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut
1999
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

This entry marks a milestone for me, as there are currently 1222 movies on the List across all editions. Of course, the new edition is apparently coming out soon (the rumor is October 22) so that number will be getting bumped up shortly. But for now, only 100 to go!

This is one of three movies Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise did together where we have to pretend they're roughly the same height. We actually had to watch Far and Away in my high school history class, because I guess teenagers need to be exposed to bad movie accents as early as possible. I definitely agree with the Listmakers that this is the only noteworthy film of the bunch, which is a shame, because they do have good chemistry.

Dr. Bill Harford and his wife Alice attend a Christmas party together in New York City. Two women attempt to seduce Bill, and an old Hungarian tries to seduce Alice. Some time after the party, they discuss fidelity in their marriage. In short, Bill thinks it's in a woman's nature to be faithful and not think about sex very much. Alice corrects him ("if you men only knew...") and explains she contemplated leaving him and their daughter for a naval officer she spotted on vacation, even if he only wanted her for one night. This prompts Bill to explore his own sexuality more, by visiting a prostitute and attending orgies (give a man an inch...).

I chose this one as a Halloween watch because it is a deeply unsettling movie, and not just because Tom Cruise is a member of a dangerous cult. It's almost like Kubrick was elaborating on that one bizarre scene in The Shining, where the man in the dog costume is pleasuring a guy in a tuxedo. 

Visually, it was a very striking movie that never quite delivered on what the growing tension promised. Maybe that was the point, to transfer the frustration of unfulfilled temptation from its characters to its audience. In this way, it succeeded.

Perhaps not the masterpiece of his career, but still a worthy finale. Don't know if it was worth Cruise giving himself an ulcer over, but good nonetheless.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Stanley Kubrick died just four days after presenting the final cut to Warner Bros.

Due to Kubrick's fear of flying, the entire film was shot in England.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise spent such a long time in England filming this that their children developed British accents.

1121. Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula
1992
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

There are some people that absolutely love camp in their horror movies. I am not one of those people. If it were up to me, Jordan Peele and James Wan would direct every scary film from now on. But Francis Ford Coppola always has to go big (in a bankrupt-the-studio kind of way) so camp wins.

The story of Dracula has been told many times...by me, who has recounted it twice for the movie blog, and once for the book blog. So I'll shake things up by just pointing out where this movie diverges from other retellings. In this version, Dracula's wife Juliet-ed herself when she received an erroneous report that Dracula died in battle. After he is told by a priest his wife will go to hell for committing suicide, he renounces God and vows to get revenge (on whom?) with all the powers of darkness. He becomes obsessed with Mina because she reminds him of his lost love.

So I suppose enough has been made of the accents in this movie, but man, that's a tough thing to gloss over. I can only imagine what British people thought when they heard Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves attempting the accent. Reeves was clearly out of his element here, which you think would translate well into a character that is famously out of his element...but it didn't.

The dialogue is also ridiculous at times ("I never drink...wine"). But gothic horror is always over the top and melodramatic. So they nailed that well enough. But I still cringed my way through it.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Gary Oldman had a singing coach teach him how to lower his voice an octave. 

Coppola wanted Johnny Depp to play the role of Jonathan Harker, but the studio wanted someone who was more of a heartthrob.  Um.

Coppola made the entire cast do a table read of the novel in order to get the feel of thing. 

1120. The Devils

The Devils
1971
Directed by Ken Russell

In honor of the spookiest month of the year, I will be reviewing horror movies for all of October. But because I am nearing the end of the List, my choices are somewhat limited. I'm not going to lie to you, some of these might be a stretch. But I think The Devils is a solid choice. Anything that has nuns fits the bill in my opinion.

The Devils is based on an Aldous Huxley novel, which recounts the events of the "Loudun Possessions." These "possessions" took place in 1634 France. A convent of nuns went batshit crazy and accused a priest of summoning evil spirits. The film is a, um, loose adaptation of those events.

I began this film thinking it was going to be some sort of John Waters-esque nightmare. One of those movies that desires nothing more than to shock and disgust its audience. I get no pleasure out of those kind of movies, because there is enough to shock and disgust me in the real world. But the story of the Loudun Possessions can't be told in a straightforward way. It's just too bizarre.

Of course, that didn't make it easy to watch. Actually, it was pretty brutal, and it's not something I ever want to see again. Still, it had style as well as substance.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Banned in Italy.

A scene of naked nuns sexually defiling a statue of Christ were removed by Warner Bros.