swingbreed Reviews

Tyrel (2018)

Silva repeats one of his earlier films

[4/10 · 15 February 2024]

I've grown to love Sebastian Silva and have eaten up his catalogue. He is one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers at the moment. His rawness, fearlessness, authenticity and realism is unmatched. He's like an unwashed Mike Leigh and then some. However, while going through his catalogue, Tyrel is his weakest that I've seen and is also a repeat of a far better film he made already, which was Magic Magic (2013).

Tyrel has the exact same plot as Magic Magic. A protagonist is put in an unfamiliar setting that they can't escape with people they don't know and who don't seem to care and, in this setting, the protagonist's mental state rapidly deteriorates. This summary is for both films because they have the same plot. There is very little difference between to the two films except for the fact that Tyrel has a (very contrived and forced) racial spin put on it and is also not quite as bleak as Magic Magic. Also Tyrel is filmed in upstate New York while Magic Magic is filmed in South America. So perhaps Silva chose to make the same film twice just to experiment with it in an American setting.

This is the *only* Silva film I've seen that uses stereotypes for characters. One thing I love about his films are how real his characters feel, but the "white people" stereotypes in this film are so phony and unrealistic and unlike anyone you've met. Now I could defend this use of stereotypes by saying it's supposed to show those characters through the protagonist's eyes, since the protagonist is the only "real" feeling character, and his alienation in this setting makes it impossible for him to relate to the "white" people in the film. However I think the film would've benefited much better from making all the characters feel realistic. Sorry, but of the many white friends that I've had and hung out with, not once did a song circle where people are singing REM ever occur.

Oh and to make the film feel even more redundant, Caleb Landry Jones essentially repeats his character from Get Out.

There are definitely some redeeming factors. Jason Mitchell does an outstanding job, is powerfully convincing, and definitely makes you feel extremely tense and worried as his mental state deteriorates. Also the scene near the end with Reg E. Cathey is solid gold. And the delicious cinematography of upstate New York in wintertime is wonderful eye candy.

But that's about it. Magic Magic hit way harder for me and is a better effort from Silva with the exact same premise, so watch that instead.

Zardoz (1974)

apparently people confuse brilliant surrealism with "cheesiness"

[10/10 · 29 January 2024]

This gets touted as a cheesy so-bad-its-good cult film, but i personally had no trouble taking it seriously. Of course I love surreal allegories, uncanny vibes, blatant metaphors taken literally, and fearlessness in flamboyance. This film goes all the way and doesn't hold back. The themes work on many levels, sociological in terms of classism and colonialism, psychological in terms of Freudian concepts of gender and sexuality, and full-on psychedelic in terms of cyclical ego death and encounter with the Logos. Yes the purposely stilted dialog is often very humorous, but I don't think that qualifies it as "cheesy". The film just has a radical sense of humor is all.

This film is a masterpiece in production design, costume design, editing, cinematography, and practical effects. I think people call it "bad" just because it embraces the bizarre, but if you were to analyze its technical components, this film is beyond brilliant and should be studied. The film uses mirrors, multiple screen projections, flowing silks and many other practical tricks to create its trippy effects, all without the help of CGI.

I was taken by the story and the flow of the film, which may seem odd, I could see how it may be alienating for some, but for me it had the immersive effect of a psychedelic experience. I really felt the build-up as Zed gets closer and closer to the "truth" and I found it relatable as someone fascinated by dreams and psychological mysteries. Basically, what I'm saying is, I had no problem taking this film seriously and at face value. I didn't have to watch it "ironically" in order to enjoy it, which you'd normally have to do with films considered "so-bad-it's-good". The truth is the film is actually good. In fact it's masterful. Open your mind to really experience everything wonderful surrealist, psychedelic masterpiece.

The Empty Man (2020)

besides some redeeming qualities, this film failed me

[4/10 · 16 January 2024]

4/10 is very generous of me. I essentially give it extra points because a few very well executed scenes what the film achieved some interesting texture, as well as the great musical score that combines the legends Chistopher Young with Lustmord.

Technical issues were taking me out of this film pretty heavily especially halfway through. It doesn't help that I grew up in St. Louis so their attempt to make South Africa look like St. Louis was pretty laughable. Not to mention one scene where it's clearly summertime with verdant life on the trees and then they turn the corner and it's a wet winter. Oh, but don't worry. I'm sure everything is in the protagonist's head anyway (sometimes I wonder if that's a plot device that's used to explain away continuity errors...)

So this film was advertised to me as something "different" and artsy. It's not. It's a very generic horror film that only pretends to be original by combining several different tropes. It's the urban legend trope followed by the nefarious cult trope followed by the it-was-all-in-his-head trope. The film couldn't be more basic.

There were some very promising moments and ideas. If they had stuck with one approach instead of combining many different approaches, especially when it comes to the philosophy of the cult and of tulpas themselves, the film actually could've been interesting. But every interesting idea that the film had to offer disappeared into the background shortly after being brought up.

The Batman (2022)

Excellent mood and pacing, and best fight choreography of any Batman film

[8/10 · 24 December 2023]

The Batman tells the story of a Batman who is one-track minded in his mission of revenge, and offers an emotional story arc of him learning empathy and the difference between justice and revenge.

Every Batman reboot comes with a new approach to its aesthetic. Burton's phantasmagorical vision to Shumacher's neon amusement park attraction to Nolan's militaristic hyperrealism, now we have a "goth-noir" aesthetic from Matt Reeves echoing The Crow and Blade Runner. It fits and is an engaging world to immerse yourself in.

The technical aspects are strongest suit here -- great color schemes and cinematography, detailed production design full of hidden features, an excellent moody musical score which is the most uncharacteristically minimalist of any Batman score (which are usually rollicking), and, most significantly, the best fight choreography and arguably the best action sequences of any Batman film. They are filmed openly and beautifully, without the headache-inducing quick-cut jackhammer editing of Nolan's fight sequences. Here Batman may take out a dozen enemies without a single edit. I'm so happy for this -- I prefer fight sequences to be filmed in wider angles and without edits, and Reeves films this so artfully. The action overall is so well-grounded too by the film's expertly mapped pacing, which still overall feels more like a smooth detective noir that happens to have moments of great action.

My criticisms are minor. I did have difficulty adjusting to a Batman who doesn't even put in the smallest morsel of effort into his Bruce Wayne persona. There's virtually no "Bruce Wayne" in this film, he's Batman almost the entire time and even out of suit behaves like a moody caped crusader, not disguising himself at all. Pattinson's performance is wooden and his feminine body type is a bit awkward as Batman -- honestly I think Pattinson would've made a better Terry in a Batman Beyond adaptation (he even looks like Terry).

But he's not so awful to bring me out of the movie. And I DO like that they've depicted a far more unhinged Batman. Almost every Batman film hints that, without his money and his virtues, Batman would just be another Arkham Asylum villain -- but this is the only film that seems to SHOW it tangibly. So one when the Riddler says that Batman is just like him -- you actually believe it.

There is great acting from the supporting cast too -- Toturro as Falcone and his people are the most Scorsese-esque we've seen from depictions of Gotham's mafia. Paul Dano is an absolute force of nature in this film and is perfectly over-the-top. Zoe Kravitz is the most grounded Catwoman we've ever had as she is depicted as sane and in control -- and far moreso than this unhinged version of Batman. And while Colin Farrel is underused and a bit underglorified as Cobblepot -- protrayed as just another gangster instead of a true Gotham villain -- he still disappears into the role (i wouldn't expect anything less from that fine performer, of course)

So I was very impressed by this version of Batman. I'm very glad I watched it. At first having a reboot so soon after Nolan's version kept me away from it, but don't let that stop you. This is a fine installment in the Batman legacy.

His House (2020)

Criminally overlooked

[9/10 · 21 November 2023]

Ah yes, capping off the 2010s trend of metaphor-driven horror is this criminally overlooked film that handled the subgenre better than any other.

I love this film and have seen it multiple times. Off the bat, you can tell it's all ready likely going to work because the characters haven't been seen before in the genre, they're new, they're real, and they represent the real horror of refugee displacement and tenement housing.

The imagery is primal and incredible, from dilapated London projects to Sudanese folk traditions and back, very different forms that both effect the psyche.

While this film is similar to "The Babadook" in being that "the monster is grief", this film does a much better job of it than the overrated, one-note Babadook, by making it much more layered and by also footnoting it with one of the greatest twists I've ever seen in a film. The ending catharsis works better in this film too.

The acting is great. You can feel the lead's desperation and denial mounting to madness, increasing the tension the whole way through.

The only slight drawback to this film is that it's a bit short and goes by in a blink, and I think it could've been milked for a little longer.

Magic Magic (2013)

Insistently bleak

[8/10 · 17 November 2023]

I've been going through Sebastián Silva's filmography ever since being blown away by "Rotting in the Sun", like this, also a nihilistic entry. I'm beginning to suspect that anger and disenchantment are major fuels for Silva's art, as he reaffirms again and again that your illusions won't save you.

Magic Magic is an allegory about how there is no quick fix for mental illness. He depicts both common medication and superstition to be equally futile. The real killer here is self-absorbed people who can't pay proper attention to the mental illness in their friends and family, as well as the unyielding self-fulling prophecies of psychosis.

If you're into stubborn bleakness and stories where nothing changes and no one grows, this film was made just for you. Most people don't like that, hence the low rating. But for those doomsters that love to be steeped in an oppressive atmosphere of hopelessness, and i know y'all are out there, i highly recommend this film.

I'm reading a lot of reviews here and I see many people didn't get this film, so under spoilers I will explain.

Alicia, though we're not informed until near the end of the film, has a preexisting history of mental illness. She even hints with, "My mom really thinks I needed to get away for a while." meaning her mom was probably overwhelmed with Alicia's special needs and wanted to get Alicia off her hands (the first off-camera incident of the rejection of the special attention that Alicia needs)

There are four to five instances of the death of something helpless and innocent. The first being the sick puppy left behind (yet the whimpers never stop). The second being the child that Sara stayed behind to abort -- a lot of viewers seemed to miss this and say the reason that Sara stayed behind is never revealed, yet to me it's made very clear that she stayed behind to get an abortion. And like the puppy's whimpers that never stop, the blood from Sara's procedure never stops flowing. Then there is the bird that is shot. Alicia is surrounded by pictures of birds in the cabin, and is even reading Freedom by Jonathon Franzen which is a book about an obsessive bird enthusiast. Alicia's insomnia is perpetuated by the screams of the birds outside her window.

Alicia is afraid that she will be left behind like the sick puppy, or aborted like the unwanted child, or even killed for no good reason like the bird. The reason she's terrified is because those around her reject and abandon the unwanted, and possibly even kill them for sport. Alicia all ready knows she is unwanted and helpless due to her mental illness. She's truly alone which gives her psychosis the latitude to reign over her consciousness.

All the signs are there but those around her are too self-absorbed to give her proper attention. Sara has to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. Brink and Augustín are dealing with pent up sex drives which ignore the consent of others. And Barbara just isn't open to anything that disturbs her peace.

It's this abandonment and lack of proper attention that Alicia is so threatened by that she confabulates that there is even a violent and sadistic intent behind it. This is all delusion and yet it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as this will all end in her being killed by this lack of proper attention.

Her acting out brings about much of the hysteria that leads to her doom. She has a very disturbing act of revenge upon Brink when she is under the influence of barbiturates, where she considers shooting him like he shot the bird, but instead sexually assaults him like she felt sexually assaulted by her. She then represses this memory -- but it also shows that she's not as innocent as she sees herself. Much psychosis is based in the inability to take accountability. And let's face it, what she did to Brink was irredeemably ugly; as awful as Brink was, the revenge was greater than the act she wanted vengeance for. You see that underneath the "helpless, sick innocent" is a true monster that she can't control.

Then there is two more innocent deaths near the end. The sheep being driven off the cliff by the shepherd dog, and ultimately the sheep being sacrificed by the witch doctors. Silva clearly depicts the witch doctors' ritual as being futile and ineffective but so sure of itself that it denies the real clinical emergency they are dealing with. Alicia is killed by a mixture of sleeping pills, barbiturates, hypothermia and ultimately the quiet asphyxiation of the tea leaf -- which occurs as Sara is looking away, distracted by the ritual, the last fatal act of denying her needed attention, from the friend she was counting on the most.

The most heartbreaking moment in the film for me comes slightly before this. As she is carried into the Mapuchos' home, she has a moment of clarity. Brink says, "I'm sorry." and as Alicia sees simultaneously both her delusion of Brink - the sadistic sexual predator - and the reality -- the frightened, repentant Brink faced with something beyond his understanding, Alicia in a moment of clarity says, "No, it's not your fault." Alicia knows that this is all generated by her and not the fault of those around her, and was aware of her own history of mental illness, and is even responsible for not giving herself proper attention. This one moment of clarity is immediately followed by her being force-fed sleeping pills.

It's appropriate that his name is Brink, because he represents her on the "brink" of madness. Hence his tendency to keep "pushing" her. Pushing her until she falls off. Brink was not aware of the madness beyond him.

The ultimate message here is that all of this was needless, the destruction had all ready been decided by her delusion, and the attempts to fix her were based in the ignorance of what they were truly faced with. She was denied access to the hospital -- just medicated instead. When the medication didn't work then they attempt an exorcism which ultimately kills her. Many reviewers have said that the exorcism comes out of nowhere but I entirely disagree. I think it's the core message of the film. You can't exorcise the monster out of someone who *is* that monster. You can't do it by needlessly killing something innocent. You can't depend on superstition and wishful thinking when there's a clinical emergency right in front of you.

I'm not gonna lie -- I kind of love an angry artist. Silva is an angry artist. He hates your denial, he hates your wishful thinking, he hates you for looking the other way. He makes a film like Magic Magic to get revenge on you for not paying attention, and it's a damn good downer of a film.

Inherent Vice (2014)

Unbalanced omissions make this film incoherent (from a fan of the novel)

[5/10 · 28 October 2023]

A disclaimer is that I absolutely love the novel that it is based on, which skews my feelings for the film. This review will specifically examine comparisons between the two.

The first 90 minutes of this film are chronologically, word for word, following the book with nothing omitted. The latter third of the film takes out huge chunks of the novel and severely abbreviates very important scenes. I feel like he could've omitted more from the beginning so he could have kept more of what's important in the end.

The ending is his only real liberty beyond by adding a scene between Bigfoot and Sportello that wasn't in the book. It's an interesting scene, and it does for the most part follow the themes of the book with its examinations of the "limits of total freedom" versus the "limits of total order"

Another slight liberty is the tonal difference with how the sex scene near the end is portrayed. Though it's taken directly from the book, in the film it is portrayed very seriously and with a tense disturbing quality, while the book approaches the scene entirely with humor. For the most part it still has the same effect of examining how hippies who want total sexual liberation still fetishize order and control even if they're philosophically against it.

The theme of Lemuria is entirely omitted from the film. I wish it was still there because it added a mystical atmosphere to the mythos of the story, which I think is necessary to make something truly Pynchonesque. There must be a tall-tale mysticism to really capture his atmosphere and to examine its contrasts with the mundane. Without it, the film's story feels just a little too realist for it to be genuinely Pynchonesque.

The casting is definitely the film's strong suit. Brolin is the perfect Bigfoot, Phoenix the perfect Sportello, Del Toro the perfect Sancho, and I'll add: Short as Blatnoyd is hands down the most entertaining element of this film. I honestly recommend this film to people simply for Short's performance, though overall the film fails for me.

PTA gave a good try for making a Pynchon adaptation, which is no easy feat. But the omissions, necessary for the film's duration understandably, are too unbalanced, creating a juicy and detailed first half that devolves into a confusingly rushed second half that brushes over every significant plot point.

It's an interesting try. But Inherent Vice is one of my favorite books ever, and the film, overall, is a severe dilution of it.

Rotting in the Sun (2023)

Not a Comedy!

[9/10 · 30 September 2023]

This is being advertised as a party comedy. It's definitely not. It's an extremely tense and chaotic film, and when there is humor, it's during uncomfortable moments so you're ambivalent about laughing. But it is very effective, and I think it might be profound (i'm still digesting it)

This film seems to examine the contrasts within the gay community between hedonistic abandon and self-hate. It shows these elements living simultaneously and seems to unite what would seem to be incompatible opposites.

Jordan Firstman plays a boisterous, fun-loving social media influencer that can't take anything seriously. Sebastian Silva plays a nihilistic depressive to does drugs not for fun but to feel numb and dead. When Sebastian goes missing, Jordan is forced inside of Sebastian's world where the misery he left behind begins to infect Jordan.

In a sense, both of these characters are initially unlikable in their extremes. You desperately want Sebastian to get out of his head and see the beauty around him, but you're also begging Jordan to stop treating everything like a game, and yet when Jordan slowly but surely starts absorbing Sebastian's dark persona you feel awful about it. This film is definitely a smorgasbord of mixed feelings.

But the most powerful weapon this film has is Catalina Saavedra's performance as Vera, an employee of Sebastian's landlord, who is living with terrible trauma, guilt and fear. Her acting reaches right into your guts and rips them apart. Powerful stuff.

Yet it's the metaphorical implications of this film that truly eat away at you once the film ends. You can't let go of these very real feeling people, who are all different, who are all chaotic, and all wind up in the same mess. Along with examinations of the gay community, it textures that with other kinds of culture clashes. Cultures within cultures within cultures. All falling into one dark hole of a mystery at once.

I'll say 9/10 for now, but depending how I feel when I wake up tomorrow, it might be a perfect 10.

I'm gonna be chewing on this one for a while. I'm writing this review to help me digest it. It's that kind of film. Heavy.

Whether or not this film is for you I can't say, but I can definitely warn that it is not a comedy. It is a dark and disturbing film that plays with your emotions and leaves you feeling messed up. But if you can appreciate that sort of thing, then this film is excellent.