Day: October 9, 2019
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Review: Undone
No doubt, “Undone” will leave you with a lot of questions. Personally speaking, the burning question I had was, when has Kate Purdy been to my house? The main character, Alma, wears her hair like I used to. She dresses like me. She drinks too much and says the wrong thing and worries that she’s crazy like me. She zones out at work and she craves adventure like me. What she does, that I don’t, is travel through time but otherwise, she’s me. Also, she’s indigenous and I’m Indian diaspora but we’re both brown so other than that and the time travel it was like looking in a mirror.
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Nice is the New Summer Scare
The problem can’t be solved if it can’t be found, and this summer, we found some problems lurking in soft-spoken packages. “Midsommar” (2019) takes familial and romantic trauma and moves it outside, into the light of the unceasing Swedish sun; “Ready or Not” (2019) takes a bright new beginning inside, into the cloistered, candle-lit mansion. Over the course of each film, our final girls find the true nemesis is not within themselves, but without: their lives have taken an unexpected turn because of the men who are closest to them. How could these guys ever hurt anyone? They have the best intentions, and they never mean any harm! They’re nice guys!
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31 Days of Horror, Day 9: The Love Witch
“The Love Witch”, Anna Biller’s 2016 comedy horror film, opens with Elaine (Samantha Robinson) driving along America’s west coast, fleeing from the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of her husband. Elaine is the titular love witch, and embarks on a quest of murderous seduction as she searches for her perfect man. The film is a heady combination of sex magic, glamour and feminist critique that also serves as a love letter to Hitchcock, Hammer horror, and the most lurid cinema of the 1960s. Under Biller’s direction and meticulous attention to detail, “The Love Witch” is itself a glamour spell; as well as directing, writing and producing the film, Biller is responsible for its art, set, costume and sound design.
In Their Own League 