MaXXXine (2024)

I was confused how this third movie fitted with the previous two, confused who was who, and confused how exactly the message here fits with what came before - something like: since Hitchcock's 'Psycho' Hollywood stardom for women has required them to have sex or be murdered - but as this Hitchcock homage set in the 80s kicked into its 'Body Double' denouement with 80s electric guitar slides accompanying an outrageous shoot-out under the Hollywood sign, the one thing I did know was how much of a good time I was having!

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

X (2022)

What makes this slasher unique is also, unfortunately, what makes it so tedious: it isn't until the last thirty minutes when grisly death starts being meted out in tried-and-true slasher style that the energy picks up and the heavy-handed exposition (that really only serves to longwindedly establish the lore of all slashers always) finally lets up; it hardly seems to matter (and in fact I didn't even realise until later when I read it) that actress Mia Goth plays both the villain and the heroine.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Pearl (2022)

A monologue at the two-thirds mark finally gives this slasher (prequel to the underwhelming 'X') the depth that sets it apart - up to this point, Pearl, the eponymous crazy, was a mere sicko not much set apart from a Michael or Freddy or Jason except for her gender and age, but suddenly she has a more detailed than expected backstory and a tragicness that juxtaposes sensibly with the cheeky The Wizard of Oz stylings, the technicolour of a 50s melodrama,, and the cartoonish flourishes like irises-out and -in.

★★★☆☆

CINECAP: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

A Cure For Wellness (2016)

** SPOILER ALERT **

Not since Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island has an actor looked so much like a playacting high schooler in a gumshoe's trenchcoat as Dane DeHaan playing Wall Street stockbroker Lockhart, a man tricked into admitting himself into a sinister sanatorium in this cumbersomely titled fantasy mystery, and that and a good number of other clues peppered liberally throughout this overlong Shutter Island-Soylent Green B-movie hint at the film's big reveal: that it is actually a floundering, ponderous, distasteful mess of other films' ideas including, towards the end, sadly, Spiderman.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS