Sara Watches Stuff

A lot of people have loved, and will continue to love,  Paul Feig's adaptation of the Darcey Bell suburban thriller novel A Simple Favour . It's been marketed aggressively - Blake Lively will simply not  stop wearing suits - and it's aiming to capitalise off the success of pulpy book-to-screen conversions like the exemplary Gone Girl  (largely thanks to David Fincher's eye for detail) or the legion of close copies it inspired. With slick, female led advertising and polarising early reviews, I wanted to enjoy this movie. I wanted it to be over the top and dramatic and twisty and lack too much self-seriousness. I wanted beautiful women, hopefully fluid in their sexuality, embroiled in mysteries. I wanted to look at Henry Golding some more . While I got one of those wishes, with a lot of my desires I was left...wanting. We're asked to follow Stephanie, played by Anna Kendrick, as she tries to get to the bottom of the disappearance of her new friend Em...

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...

Disclaimer:  It's going to be a long one. This review will not contain explicit spoilers but will be discussing broader thematic elements that may veer into spoiler territory for movie purists. I'm also going to be discussing the treatment of women in the film, because it was  salient to me as a woman watching the movie and I imagine it is something that a lot of people might be impacted by.  And to contrast pretty much every other review of this movie, I'm not going to talk about any of the Rosemary's Baby influence here. There's nothing important enough about it to the movie to get me to talk about Actual Rapist Roman Polanski. A lot of people will tell you that Darren Aronofsky's latest film, mother! , is psychologically stimulating and exhilarating and will keep you guessing. You can definitely read this surreal thriller in a few different ways, but here's the way I read it: as an interesting but ultimately self aggrandizing and heavy handed clusterf...

With that whole niche subgenre that has evolved from Dinner Party Thrillers having often been to my tastes - think  Coherence ,  The Gift ,  The Invitation  as modern iterations -  I’d had this David Hyde Pierce vehicle recommended to me a bunch. This is definitely a more charismatic take with a home invasion set up - our dinner party guest is a career criminal taking refuge in Niles-From-Frasier’s house, but of course the night does not go as intended.  It’s largely a piece that just lets the character interactions speak for themselves, which I really appreciated. It does become a little unhinged as it races to the finish line, and I could have done without the overreliance on flashbacks, which I didn’t feel clarified the story. You’ve also got to accept that it’s going to try to get twisty on you, and if you’ve watched enough of these kinds of movies, you’re not going to be surprised by anything that happens. The supporting cast do well and Hyde Pierce...