Señorita is a film about a confident and assertive woman who takes the weight of the world on her shoulders and ends up straining under the pressure. Her attempts to strike a moral balance between her job as a sex worker and her aspirations as a local, anti-corruption political operator (and not to mention surrogate mother to a sexually inquisitive teenage boy) coalesce into a sneaky game of playing both sides against the middle. We enter into the seedy, soft-focus…
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Four Nights of a Dreamer 1971
If you wanted to make the case that Bresson had a really dry and withering sense of humour I suspect this would be the first port of call (a thesis compounded later by the opening of Lancelot). It’s quite a funny story to start with (the slowburn inevitability of his eventual cucking), and the film does appear to gently mock our effete hero with all his benignly longing stares at all the hot chicks in the street, psychologically self-authorised by the fact that he’s a sensitive artist.
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A Summer's Tale 1996
Hilarious. Intros a guy who’s like “music is my passion”. Shows him to be a dire musician. Has him use this misplaced self-belief as a way to wheedle out of all his romantic responsibilities. This film only works because you see him doing all that atonal plinking on his guitar in his room under the shadow of Oasis’s Definitely Maybe. Also a fun exercise in developing a character you end up not liking, even though he technically never lies to or manipulates any of his potential beaus. Sadboi turned badboi.
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The Brood 1979
I'm fascinated by the landscapes of Cronenberg's early movies. Even when telling stories that are very grotty and violent, there's such a heady and intoxicating sense of place (1970s suburban Toronto mostly?) that roots his wildly fantastical ideas in a bedrock of curiously banal but always aesthetically interesting location shooting and (what appears to be) "found" production design. The sequence in the classroom where the two monster kids turn up and [redacted redacted redacted] to death with play hammers, I…
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Vampire's Kiss 1988
A good, funny, credible film about extreme workplace harassment that unfortunately has a dull and incoherent vampire movie bolted to it. Cage famously giving it nitro-powered 110%, but when you do that in every single scene, there are no dynamics and the drama flames out… Was frankly very excited at the prospect of him being tenderised with a tyre iron, but some you win…
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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 2022
We surely – surely – aren't giving this lightweight garbage a pass? Based on Nic Cage's Wiki profile rather than the actual person. Noticeably absent: reference to any of his great non-action movie roles. The weakest of weak sauce. Incompetently directed with a few okay jokes.
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