Sara Watches Stuff

It's hard to talk about movies that you end up just sort of watching to kill some time, but this one is a favourite of a close friend so it felt like something I really needed to get to. It's a pretty great exercise in watching pre-"political correctness gone mad" world (if I ever use that phrase in earnest, it's an invasion of the body snatchers situation) movies because you don't have to constant excuse it - "It was a different time", "It was okay to say that then". The First Wives Club stands pretty strong in 2017 as a story of the ins and outs of female bonding and empowerment and finding balance. It's not without flaw, but I didn't feel grimy watching it in the way I do when I watch a lot of 90s movies casually fling around slurs. The cast of the movie is naturally its biggest drawcard: even the minor rolls are recognisable faces, with the whole plot kicking off as Stockard Channing - the erstwhile Rizzo - commits suicide, t...

Every instinct I have is telling me to call this a "fun movie about teenage witches", but it is absolutely not . There is very little about this movie that is fun, unless you really enjoy teenage girls tormenting each other relentlessly. In fact, this has all of the things that worry me in a movie: active racism, rape and vivid self harm imagery. I'm torn, because it genuinely is a pretty interesting movie and I love teenage witches. The Craft:  it's complicated. The cast of this movie is amazing. It's a veritable who's who of people-who-were-in-90s-high-school-movies! From Skeet Ulrich to Neve Campbell and Robin Tunney and Breckin Meyer who apparently spent a solid twenty years playing high school boys, there's no denying that everyone in this was having fun and almost solidly kicking it out of the park. There are definitely some stunted performances, and most of the time I chalked that up to the high school setting, but everyone is either playing it...