Cheeseburger

- What happens when you let your movie breathe, when you really take the time to explore every facet of the issue you're trying to examine. Masterpiece of social commentary with great aesthetics and style to accompany it. - A deep and philosophically dense exploration of hikikomori culture, internet voyeurism and post 9/11 nihilism; but primarily, isolation. - There's just so many parts of isolation that the film explores; of course physical isolation in the form of all the lonely viewers watching peeptvshow, all trapped in tiny apartments or rooms, but also so many consequences of isolation on the psyche. - The cat scene is a really great example of this, we see how those who are so isolated as to experience life and gain information purely through a hidden webcam site are pushed to call for extreme violence and depravity unprovoked. - Another big part of isolation explored is how it affects self-image. I think this is where the inclusion of gothic Lolita really justifies itself, it acts as a metaphor for shielding your hatred for your own appearance with something flashy or distracting so you hate yourself less. Nagomi's monologues about feeling disgusting for sleeping with Moe's boyfriend and her own self-loathing are some of the best in the film and really explore this theme to it's full potential. - Voyeurism is the main focus of the story and it's presented through the filmmaking excellently, all the camerawork, faux-talking-heads and the transitions in and out of the peeptvshow broadcast really make the viewer feel disgusting and voyeuristic just like the characters on screen. - Speaking of the characters, the blurring between which of these people are real or fake and how their lives really are add to this voyeurism, we can't help but wonder what lies in their real lives, we naturally want to see their lives broadcast like on peeptvshow. - The way the internet has desensitized many to extreme tragedy is also examined, through the frequent 9/11 imagery as well as the aforementioned cat scene and the domestic abuse scene. In these segments, I feel the film can lean a little bit edgy but ultimately I think it's necessary to showcase how nihilistic the characters are and what their viewpoints on the world and it's future are. - Music is used excellently throughout the whole film, the industrial techno used really conveys the hopelessness that the characters all exhibit. - Overall, a deep exploration of everything with amazing filmmaking to boot.

- If nothing else, it's a great popcorn flick. I suppose I'll touch on the spectacle and visual elements of the film first. - The gore is pretty average for a horror in my opinion, not too amazing but also not bad at all, really comes into effect in the 3rd Act where everyone gets covered in it and it looks cool #ashell. Sidney also has crazy aura and is overall awesome. - Performances are all decent to great, Sidney's great, Dewey is pretty good, Gale is alright and everybody else is just decent I suppose. I think the best performances after Sidney are probably the 2 murder boys, they're pretty one-note characters but they pull off that psychotic note pretty well, as well as both giving good physical acting performances as Ghostface. - Unfortunately, I don't find this film very scary, maybe I'm too desensitized to gore but I don't find it particularly scary or disturbing in this film it just comes off as goofy a lot of the time. Maybe it's because Ghostface is so engrained in pop culture as the Scary Movie guy but I can't take it seriously. - Of course, the final scenes in the house party are best but I'm a big fan of the school as a set piece, acts as a microcosm of how society (mainly the media) treats people like Sidney along with making this movie definitively a teen movie. - I'm pretty happy with the thriller and mystery portions of this film, the mystery is executed extremely well and it's relatively sound logically. - There's still some horror movie trope-y nonsense though, like Ghostface waiting for cameraman to fall over and die before attacking Gale but it's mostly forgivable stuff. - Thematically, I see Scream as an exploration of how the media treats victims of extreme violence and general oversensationalism. This is the most prominent and obvious theme throughout the film mostly explored through Gale's relationship with Sidney. In my opinion it's not a very deep exploration past "the media exploits people and sensationalism pushes more people towards violence and psychopathy than fiction", but it's explored nonetheless. - I think the more interesting theme in Scream is that of hypermasculinity and the dehumanization of women. Being a film produced in 1996, every conversation about women has some form of misogyny, through objectification, overt sexualization or anything of the like. There's also a bit of fridging (done by the characters, not the story), where they pretend that the trauma women have gone through can justify their psychopathic tendencies. Finally, Shaggy's ultimate motivation of peer pressure plays into a very homoerotic trope, committing extreme acts of depravity or terror solely for validation from male peers. Interesting stuff. - Ultimately, I think I should've seen more classics before this. While I can get the references they point out (turning around, running upstairs etc), I think I should've watched the classics which include the tropes Scream deconstructs.

- Halloween Part 3! - It's pretty brilliant but I think it's mostly excellent based off the many Kubrickism's rather than the story being told. - Obviously, the cinematography is pretty incredible throughout. Of course, there's super intense scenes like Jack in the freezer, Jack breaking the door down and the chase sequence through the maze, but I think the stronger parts of the cinematography are more subtle. Generally, the film isn't as flashy and stylish as something like A Clockwork Orange or Full Metal Jacket, but it just has this uneasy and claustrophobic aura throughout the whole film. The shots which glide through all the massive chambers of the hotel that introduce you to the space so it can break it down, the slow dragging shots across the hotel which build this masterful tension which makes you just as paranoid as Jack and Wendy. - Still, despite all the Kubrickism's that are great, the best part of the film is 1000% the performances. The child is alright but the two adults give two true masterpiece performances. Jack Nicholson gives a perfect performance, so manic and so expressive, got some weird Jim Carrey vibes from the way he contorts his face in such a cartoonish and exaggerated way. Shelley Duvall is also terrific, from the very beginning of the film you just get this vibe of tiredness(?) and kind-heartedness from her that really makes you feel such a deep sympathy for her. - in other words; Shelley Duvall is so pretty I didn't like it when they were mean to Wendy :( - I suppose my biggest gripe with the film isn't the pacing but rather the lack of consistency in the pacing. Like I'm fine if you want to make a film exploring the isolation and torture that you undergo with cabin fever and take your time exploring the environment and showing us the character dynamics, but I dislike it when you do that for half the film then quickly change into a horror genre movie. Just feels like a bit of tonal mismatch to go from bleak and glacial to a fast-paced slasher pretty much. - Thematically, I see it as an exploration of how the world warps around victims of domestic abuse. I think this because I believe that the maliciousness of the Hotel is intrinsically linked to Jack's own morality. Until Jack heads to the Gold Room to break his sobriety, the Hotel may be supernatural but I don't think it acts particularly hostile towards the Torrance's. Of course, Danny gets his neck bruise but I'm more of the opinion that that was Jack's doing. - So as Jack (the perpetrator of abuse) fully realizes his turn of morality, the house follows him as he's the caretaker, the host, in the same way it followed Grady. From there, the Hotel turns hostile to Wendy and Danny, beginning to pervert their lives with visions and impossible, haunted architecture. This occurs in the same way that the world bends and tortures victim of abuse. - The movie does feel remarkably modern in it's colours and it's lighting though, really slick film. - Maybe I've been poisoned by the jumpscare-slop of today but I don't really find this movie scary at all, not even in like a atmospherically disturbing way, it's just all right I suppose.

- Halloween Part 2! - A very competently directed film that explores some deep facets regarding the nature of evil and it's relation with spirituality. - Really fun to just have a disgusting hypocrite of a character just to start with, then watch him devolve and devolve. - Cause even from the beginning Karel is a "family man" who frequents brothels, and "abstains" while drinking alcohol for celebrations, who believes all ash is the same but blood is a deeply segregated component of the body. All of these little quirks really add up to form a character that would realistically be pliable to the ideals of fascism. - I think one of the issues I have with this film lies there, from what I gather, the point the film is making is that fascism takes advantage of good family men with eccentric sensibilities and that not all fascists look like screaming psychopaths. In this regard, I don't think the film makes us like Karel enough from the beginning, at least personally, I saw a lot of his little quirks and sensibilities as more malicious than eccentric so I think the films message misses a little for me. - Still, it's a powerful message accentuated with incredibly horrifying camerawork. - The way Karel is filmed throughout the story is excellent, there's these fish eye lens zooms that make him appear just as disgusting and pathetic as he really is, empty space surrounding him to emphasize how small of a man he is. - The framing of a lot of shots are excellent too, specifically in the more domestic scenes, the use of doorways and arches to frame domestic life is great. - The chase sequences are the best filmed portions of this film, the look of uncomfortableness and unease on Lakme's face as she's chased through the house in one continuous take is really great and further adds to the mood of nausea and disgust this movie inspires. Karel chasing Zina around the preparation room is also one of the scarier parts of the film and is also very well filmed. - Obviously, the film is very New Wave with a fun jump cut segment early on, experimental sound design when it comes to dialogue and all the other French-y sensibilities, not too many notes, executed pretty well. - The 2nd Act is a bit of a bore though compared to the gripping 1st and 3rd Acts. - Finally, the match cuts in this film are phenomenal, there are about 5(?) and each one is as impressive as the last, so seamless and they work so well to make the film feel more cohesive, which is necessary as a lot of the film is slightly disjointed (non-negative) or disconnected events.