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Reviews
Alice, Darling (2022)
Slow Film - Not Bad but Not Great
The movie starts with Alice having tension with her best friends and exhibiting coping mechanisms especially pulling out her hair. It is soon clear that this tension comes from her toxic boyfriend disapproving of her relationships and her friends being suspicious of her relationship with Simon.
She attempts to please everyone but ends of falling short on all fronts. It is clearly a representation of the struggles emotionally abused women feel when being controlled, shamed, and verbally humiliated. I felt as if the film was meant to show how it slowly eats away at a person and destroys their relationships. I also felt that it showed how needing the approval of the significant other can echo in one's head preventing you from making your own decisions or having your own thoughts.
I feel like this wasn't a revelation to the audience, however. From my perspective, this appears to be a typical, emotionally abusive and controlling relationship with a narcissist so this doesn't feel shocking or as if we're being exposed to something we have no knowledge of.
I felt like a some points in the film it was trying to make parallels between being lost in body and being lost in spirit. I was bewildered at her using the chapstick that she believes to be from a lost woman the town is looking for, but then I realized it may be used to show that Alice feels she is one in the same, or just as lost, as the missing woman; both have names that start with 'A'.
When she used the chapstick in the bathtub, I think she made a connection that she is just as lost as the missing woman. She has friends trying to find her, calling out to her, reaching out to her just as the community is. They are trying to bring her back to her original self. The only difference is she has control over whether or not she helps them find herself or if she let's herself be lost completely, or worse dies internally.
At some point, she makes a decision to open up and recover, and let her friends remind her of what it is like to live her life her way. Simon interrupts her freedom from his reign by confirming that the missing woman's body was found which was a confirmation that continuing down his path, following his lead, she will have the same fate.
I honestly thought the movie would end with a parallel of her leaving with him. That months later a flyer with Alice being missing would be the ending shot of the film meaning she failed to escape the abuse. I liked that it ended on what I interpreted as a positive note with her allowing the others to help her and not letting Simon shame her into his commands.
The last show with her emerging from the water was symbolic of her finally being able to breathe after being underwater and isolated by his abuse.
This is a reality for many women and I think it did a good job of showcasing the emotional pain but I feel that some of the messages were not as strong and some behaviors and parts of the script seemed very unnatural in an attempt to make a point; almost too obvious in a way.
That's just my opinion. I wasn't terribly moved or shocked or even happy when the movie ended. I think it brings awareness but could have captured emotionality in a better way.
Halloween Jack 3D (2022)
I Made Better Movies in Middle School
I originally put this movie on as background while doing homework but I was often distracted by the sheer lack of quality. The acting was atrocious except for the gentleman plunging the toilet and the groundskeeper. I understand this was pretty much made to be campy and purposely awful but it missed the mark on humor and any jump scare factors. The execution on everything was below amateur. I can't imagine anyone who wasn't involved in this misguided ode to horror enjoying it.
It went past so-bad-it's-funny to so-bad-it's-just-bad.
Glad they had fun and all but it just missed every mark. Whatever they tried to achieve with the audience, I'm sure they didn't accomplish it.