October was a great month for film/tv:
Twilight of the Gods — new Netflix adult anime by Zac Snyder, the opening sequence was awesome, and I liked the deeper exploration of Viking lore, the violence and dark themes; rarely see a female lead in Viking stories; even though the finale set up s2, I felt it was a bit confusing and weird; favorite character is easily dark Thor with the accent, and a sympathetic Loki w/ family is interesting too
Longlegs — moody and tense film, good performances from Nic Cage and Maika; I don’t really believe in the occult so the mechanism / logic was harder to accept; some True Detective s1 vibes
Priest — rewatched on a whim for Paul Bettany battling vampire monsters; stylistically I tend to group Priest with Equilibrium (Christian Bale) — OP warrior class in dystopian society battling internal corruption; but unfortunately the story was cornier and the vfx worse than I remembered; forgot Maggie Q was in it
The Substance — watched in theaters; very visceral body horror; solid performances from Demi and Margaret Qualley (though Demi’s role was much harder); great concept, but it got a bit trite and sometimes glib after act 1 — wish there was more backstory about the science and delving into the clinic side (like who are the other clients? how who was crazy enough to invent the product? how did they test it and what are the future improvements?)
Possessor — another body horror (Brandon Cronenberg) but this one had more action and better story imo; the whole composition felt like an evolving art piece with the music, cinematography, mood; awesome performance from female lead (Andrea Riseborough)
Culinary Class Wars — Koreans are just chefs kiss with the reality shows — so good with editing and heightening drama and production value, like Physical 100 and Singles Inferno; the restaurant challenge was particularly interesting to see everything from menu creation to pricing strategy to operations; wish the final round was 3 or even 4 contestants instead of just 2; Ed Lee really impressed me
Dragged Across Concrete — forgot I watched it a long time ago; S Craig Zahler’s unique style of dialogue; extended commentary on race and woke; realistic seeming depictions of sociopathy and evil
Shadow Strays — Asian Kill Bill, believable female action & fights, gritty & visceral, solid soundtrack, has the energy and gore of violent Japanese movies
What we do in the shadows season 1 — read pilot script and started rewatching, lot of the humor holds up, acting is great, forgot Jemaine Clement is involved; the werewolf storyline is a bit camp; but Laszlo and Guillermo have great character development; makes me want to watch Flight of the Conchords
Here was the last update.