KWIF is Kent's Week in Film where each week (umm...) I have a spotlight movie (or two) which I write a longer, thinkier piece (or two) about, and then whatever else I watched that week (or three weeks ago) I do a quick little summary of my thoughts.
This Week:
Haunter (2013, d. Vincenzo Natali - Netflix)
Bottoms (2023, d. Emma Seligman - In Theatre)
Warlock (1989, d. Steve Miner - tubi)
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When we were constructing our list of time loop movies and programs, there were more than a few surprises, things we'd never heard of...surprisingly. Like Haunter, a film by Canadian horror mainstay Vincenzo Natali (Cube, In The Tall Grass, Hannibal, Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities). The surprise was, really, how had Toasty not covered this on one of his annual 31 Days of Hallowe'en fests?
Haunter was definitely the "take note" film in the Loopty Loo list for me, largely because it was Natali. I'm not about to say that Natali is one of those directors worth doggedly following, because his repertoire is shaky, but he has a particular visual acuity that does make his work stand out. Even on his work for hire TV work, like Westworld or Locke & Key, he employs shadows and light in a different way that stands out just enough to differentiate himself.
Finally arriving on a streaming service after years of keeping an eye out (I've only recently discovered video rental stores still exist in Toronto), I prioritized watching Haunter the day after it arrived on Netflix.
If I was disappointed it's only because I was expecting a time loop movie first, horror movie second, and the time loop is a nominal part of the film. It's actually a red herring.
The film begins in the 1980s with angsty teen Lisa (Abigail Breslin) waking up and already experiencing the day over again. There's a crippling fog keeping everyone indoors. Dad's working on the car, mom's fixing meals, brother's playing video games, and Lisa has chores to do. It's a pretty boring day for a time loop. But little flashes invade Lisa's mind's eye. Sounds emanate. Shadows move. Things are the same, day-to-day, but different. Dad has a smoke. Mom's reading a book instead of watching Murder She Wrote. Lisa's bedroom door creaks open at 1am. The loop only really plays out about three times, enough to get the gist of what's the same so that the aberrations are tangible.
Then, Lisa realizes that she and her family are dead, and that the aberrations are maybe ghosts from the past...or possibly the future.
It's a pretty abrupt realization, and there's no real sense of how Lisa came to this awareness. There are a few points in this film where characters suddenly know things or know how to do things without really explaining how they came to know it. It doesn't cripple the film, but it does feel like scenes are missing that would fill in those blanks.
Ultimately Lisa finds herself in the center of a time-spanning murder mystery that only her particularly unique situation affords enough insight into solving it. I imagine Last Night in Soho is an improved-upon version of this conceit (though I still need to watch it).
My nerd senses tingled with this film, as it introduces a lot of fun concepts, such as summoning ghosts through totems, moving between worlds, and possessing other bodies, but the concepts remain conceptual, and never satisfactorily explored. This isn't some sort of hero origin story, it's just a ghost story.
I enjoyed the film to a point. It didn't deliver what I wanted, and while I was intrigued throughout, I don't think I was ever satisfied with how it pulled its story together. Often the film would pivot in a in a surprising way, but less of a "Ooh!" surprise and more of an "oh, that's what you're doing?" surprise. It's like the more alluring aspects of the premise were always just out of reach.
But is it horror? Yeah, it is. It's total ghost story horror.
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Bottoms is a comedy I watched in theatres. That's not something that's said much anymore.
I've been resisting the critical commentary on the current state of cinema for a while, but the statement that studios don't really invest in comedies anymore is quite true. I think more than any genre, comedy in film has suffered because of the explosion of streaming and other media. There's so many more avenues to find one's chuckles, from improv podcasts to youtube sketch comedy to cat videos on instagram, not to mention the multitude of top notch comedy TV programming. Why would a studio gamble on theatrical anymore? Comedies are no longer tentpole films, especially now that studios don't really promote movie stars but rather I.P., so the draw becomes less and less if you can't sell the comedy. (The biggest comedy of the year [and maybe ever?] is also a massive pink I.P.). TV shows can at least build an audience over time. Films these days get about one week to make an impression or be lost to time.
The only way to break out is by breaking the mold, and/or building a brand. Bottoms does both, multiple times over.
In breaking the mold, Bottoms reinterprets the tried-and-true "gotta get laid" high school sex romp for a modern era, by establishing two queer female lead characters who are outcasts not because they're gay, but because they're gay and untalented. Sticking to formulae, PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edibiri) each pine for the hottest cheerleaders in school, but the formulae falls completely to the wayside as they start a fight club for girls to get their attention. Bottoms constantly flirts with filmmaking, storytelling, and genre tropes, and continually steps aside, refusing to play into them, occasionally sweeping the leg and dropping the tropes flat on their ass. It's constantly surprising, often charming, but also chaotic and a little difficult to fully embrace (at least on first viewing). These types of high school comedies always have "the lesson" and it's almost like Bottoms refuses to adhere to that. When you think it's about female empowerment, they punch it in the face. When you think it's about solidarity, it gets kicked in the crotch. When you think it's about any sort of message, you're tapped on the shoulder and it runs the other way. It wants you to think that you're going to think, then it tells you to fuck off for thinking it would even dare try.
In building a brand, this is the second film from director Emma Seligman partnering with Sennott as co-writer and star. The first was Shiva Baby, which was a real buzz film during the pandemic amidst the cinephiliae, and I flirted with watching a couple times but never fully pulled the trigger. I'm definitely going back to it though. This pairing of Seligman and Sennott is certainly building a brand after two critically successful outings. Sennott on her own is building a very specific niche of the likeably unlikeable comedic persona that recalls early Bill Murray.
And then there Ayo Edibiri, who is just coming out on top in 2023. Edibiri had put in time on stage and as a TV writer (Dickinson, What We Do In The Shadows) before getting her first high-profile break taking over, and emboldening, the role of Missy on Big Mouth a few seasons back. Shortly thereafter she exploded as Sydney on The Bear, and quickly proved herself a formidable co-lead. This year, along with the impeccable season two of The Bear, and season seven of Big Mouth, she's just kind of popping up everywhere on TV from Clone High's revival to Black Mirror to Abbott Elementary, and in moviesas the voice of April O'Neal in the latest edition of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, plus Theatre Camp and Bottoms. She is a literal force. In bottoms, where it seems like Sennott is the lead and Edibiri is the sidekick, by the third act of the film, the roles seem decidedly reversed. It's no surprise then that Edibiri and Sennott also have a history of working together and their comedic chemistry is palpable on screen.
Bottoms plays fast and loose with reality. The teens (played by 20-somethings) of this film live in a world without any consequences except social ones. I don't know if the point is to say that, when you're a teenager, the only thing you care about is status and how people perceive you, but if I've learned anything it's to assume everything is intentional, especially when the filmmakers are so in control of their narrative. So, violence, arson, all of it is tolerated. Quite literally the only thing that matters in this weird town of Bottoms is some years-in-the-making homecoming football game against their bitter rivals, and the most grievous offence that can be committed is to in any way harm or foul star quarterback, human golden lab, Jeff.
Sometimes it takes me writing about a film before I can truly admire it. With Bottoms, I enjoyed myself but I wasn't entirely certain about the story as a whole. But as I'm parsing through what's there, it's absurd internal logic and its defiance of any real sort of messaging, I really can't wait to watch it again. It's a comedy that's working on its own terms and not waiting for you to catch up. Its these kinds of comedies that last and grow over time, ones that do something so unique it's maybe even a little off-putting at first, but the more you invest the more it reveals its unique self. Breaking molds and building brands.
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Warlock, for people my age, was one of those infamous films that met in the middle of the venn diagram of interests shared by horror loving bangers and the comic book nerds. Young high school kids would talk about specific scenes in Warlock like the time when the sorcerer gouges the guys' eyes out and uses them as a compass. It set up the film as this totally edgy, dark and upsetting work that all the cool kids must see.
I was a complete wuss going into my teen years, and avoided seeing anything gross, so that description of the eyeballs would have been a real no-go for me. Yet, I'm certain I've seen Warlock before, but watching it recently, it felt both familiar and foreign. I know Warlock had sequels, so perhaps it was one of them that I had watched.
Warlock is a blast. It's the exact kind of classic 80's genre adventure I love, bad guy vs. good guy with love interest in tow, with some form of maguffin that requires going from one location to the next, encountering a few different eclectic people along the way.
In this case, it's the 1600s Massachusetts and the Warlock (Julian Sands) is being tried for his crimes, but a portal opens up providing his escape. Witch hunter Giles Redferne (Richard E. Grant) dives in after him. The Warlock crashes into the rented L.A. house of Kassandra (Lori Singer), an uneducated but savvy, no-nonsense waitress. The Warlock murders her roommate and curses her with rapid aging. She's given hope for salvation from a premature death by Redferne who enlists her help in tracking the Warlock. Along the way they learn he is reassembling a lost tome that contains God's real name, which, when uttered, can undo creation. So the stakes are pretty high.
It's adventurous, comedic, and only the slightest bit horrific. It's really a fun, pulpy romp that plays like Highlander but without all the self-seriousness and brooding. Singer is a unique lead, in that she's not really asked to play the romantic leading lady, and she wavers between selfish and selfless with conviction. Grant plays the conservative moralistic very well, and through both scripting and performance Redferne avoids so many fish-out-of-water tropes.
The titular character is the Warlock, but it's Singer and Grant who are decidedly the film's leads. If anything Sands doesn't get enough horrific things to do, or enough scenery chewing. He's clearly a menace but the threat isn't as high as it should be. Much of Sands' scenes involve special effects or practical gags, all of varying quality. The Warlock levels up and starts flying, but it never really looks great. Budget limitations do creep through.
Given where it ends, I'm not sure the necessity of the sequels, and my interest in them is surprisingly naught. This one, though, might have to hit the shelf with physical media.
But is it horror? No. There's an eye gouged out in Marvel's The Avengers. Just 'cause there's eyes gouged out doesn't a horror make. This is also fun-time comic-booky stuff.
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