Sara Watches Stuff

Now, I've seen my fair share of Stephen King adaptations. As far as they go, this isn't quite Kubrick's The Shining in terms of cinematography, and it isn't half as terrifying as 1408 (that movie is sincerely underrated in the scare stakes). It does what the most successful of King's short story adaptations do, which is emphasizing the small scale and focusing on the psychological rather than trying to create spooky specters - a matter of preference, of course.  Gerald's Game is all about a woman torturing herself. Well: it's about a couple whose misguided foray into bondage is derailed by the man's heart attack, leaving his wife handcuffed to the bed with no escape route in sight. Jessie, the woman in question, is played by Carla Gugino, and her portrayal of the character's withdrawal from reality is easily what makes this movie worth watching. You get hooked in with the "this could really happen" 127 Hours type premise, but you stay f...

Sometimes I watch a movie and a joke is made in the first few minutes that lets me know that there's going to be a sense of humour present that will just not gel with me. In this particular Netflix original, it was probably the excess of jokes about "taking it out the butt" and calling the main character a pussy. For all of the times when we might not agree about what "funny" is, there are flashes of something special in The Babysitter . It makes the other stuff even worse. Oh, horror comedy, you tricky little nut of a genre. The Babysitter  follows a kid as he learns that his super hot babysitter is also a super devout devil worshipper who might be sacrificing people after he's gone to bed. Fun plot, generally well executed. Samara Weaving is great as the titular babysitter, and the teenage actors are remarkably un-painful. In fact, once the movie gets over how great it thinks it is, it ends up being pretty good.  I've mentioned that I like my horro...

Sometimes it’s enough for a movie to be quiet, funny in bits, and nicely made. That sounds like a low bar for praise, but honestly I’ve been watching a lot of Nic Cage movies and this was exactly what I needed as a remedy.  The movie follows Ruth (Melany Lynskey), a nurse whose house is robbed, causing her to take stock and redirect her life and find a literal partner in crime (Elijah Wood). There are so many times when this movie had the potential to be great. It got so close - there were times when it was really, really good - but then it would just slightly miss, leaving that little bit of wasted potential and me feeling frustrated. Melanie Lynskey is excellent in the main role. After seeing her in  XX , I’m keen to see more of her work in darker films. She and Elijah Wood play really well off of each other, and their strange chemistry really works in a movie with such a distinctively odd atmosphere. It does very much reek of “netflix original” - the cinematograp...