u/Freddy-Philmore

The Lizzie Borden story is actually a fascinating case to me... very horror territory... bloody murder, oh yes, lots of blood, but also what hits is the legal process and how the same evidence can cut both ways when you're studying an unsolved case. As well as how women were treated back in the 1800s.

The murders happened in August 1892. Nearly 134 years ago to this day. Lizzie and the maid were the only ones in the house. The stepmother was killed first doing chores in an upstairs bedroom, then about 90 minutes later the very frugal dad comes home, takes a nap, and gets hatcheted to death. Lizzie, moments later, had no blood on her. The murder weapon was never found.

The case is interesting not just because she was found not guilty, or because of the similarities to another celebrated murder case... OJ, 100 years later... but because of how much of the evidence truly can go both ways.

There's a moment when the mom is upstairs dead, the maid has trouble opening the door to let dad in... the maid testifies she hears laughing upstairs. Lizzie. But is she laughing at the maid struggling to open the door? Or is she laughing at her dead step mom's corpse not far away?

There's an absolutely great TV movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, starring, of all people, Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) as Lizzie. It plays things right down the middle and stays very fact-based, until the end when it guesses at what could have happened. It's a great performance by Montgomery and a creepy movie.

Based on Murphy's track record, he's going to make stuff up, turn rumors into facts, connect dots, and tell the audience THIS happened when he's making it up. And it's not even a mystery what direction he's going: it's Season 4 of his Monster anthology, the co-creators are calling it "women-driven, feminist, lesbian, dirty, unapologetic," and the official logline says the two women "escape into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge." It bothers me that a case so interesting all by itself is going to made into a pretend soap opera. They might be upfront it's not real but people will think it is.

I totally recommend the '70s TV movie. It's easy to find.

I like all kinds of movies... popcorn blockbusters, indie films, horror, silly, Oscar contenders... but I had never done a broadway show on screen before. And I had never seen Hadestown.

What a great show. It's all music like the whole thing. I guess it's considered a folk/New Orleans-style jazz opera because it's continuous music.

André De Shields as Hermes is a blast to watch. Like you know youre seeing something special. He won the Tony as did the musical and they got a bunch of other.

Hades bass voice is stunningly and hilariously low.

I had to wait to see this because after the first 5 days it extended but to 8am or afternoon showings and I couldn't do those. Finally there was a 1030 showing last night.

I've got the A-List pass, I love it. I just go and take my chances. Great, good, bad... honestly they're usually the top 2 and even if bad I kind of enjoy the experience. But I skip the trailers, I barely know the plot, I know genre and often that's it.

I've got a friend with a pass too, but he can't just go on a whim... no joke he needs days before committing. He has to watch the trailers, read reviews, study the reactions on social media, all to freaking decide if a movie's "worth his time." And I keep telling him: if you just go with popular opinion, you're gonna miss out on stuff you'd love. When something's 50/50, he only looks at the 50 that hated it and ignores the 50 that liked it.

I like a lot of movies the internet tells me I should hate.

I sometimes miss the before times. We just went to movies before we knew we were supposed to hate them.

Do you overthink it sometimes?

I'm not even sure what this was but one thing for sure... this movie is not for everyone. Might be for me though. Or not.

The first 10 minutes I was like wow this is pretentious shit, but the longer it went on I realized (IMO) this wasn't accidental pretentiousness... this was satire. Totally intentional. I was the only one laughing.

Reminded me a bit of the soapy drama of Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2... some people got into the drama while others saw it as the joke it was meant to be.

But then the second half hour goes all violent, bloody, and twisted, like it rebooted itself into a different movie with different characters that will eventually meet up. That's more my brand. Then we go back to self-seriousness. It was fun while it lasted.

And then there's the score. I'm sitting there thinking this is so Brian DePalma... the overwrought romanticized pounding over intimate scenes and bloody action, this HAS to be an homage. End credits roll, I see Pino Donaggio, and I'm like OH SHIT he's still alive. The score might be the best thing in it (Pino scored DePalma's best: Carrie, Blow Out, Body Double, Dressed to Kill).

Summary: Too long, pretentious x100... a great score, beautifully shot. Like a fan boy's wet dream mixing Lynch / DePalma / Argento in an absolutely insane slow twisted attempt at a Giallo/scifi wanna-be nightmare. I think. Maybe.

I can't even rate it but I enjoyed the experience... If you hate it I get it. If you liked it I get it.

When I was a kid the poster freaked me out. Funny thing is I had always thought this was liked by critics and had been a hit. Probably just from seeing ads and not like today how everyone is tuned into every aspect of a release.

But looking into it was shocked to see it was the opposite. Divisive is what I kept reading. I get it.

So last night finally saw it... was the last of 5 Terry Gilliam movies for the month of July from a local theater. And... I see why it was hated by many back then but I freaking LOVED it. Wow... walked out just thinking this was basically an acid trip. No plot. Pure energy. Insane performances.

And the no-plot thing isn't a flaw... it was the point. From what I read, the book is plotless and situational too, just these 2 trips Thompson did to Vegas, and reading afterwards that's exactly what Gilliam was going for.

It took decades to get someone to make this and Gilliam was a good choice... and what blew me away, the other films I saw of his this month that showcased his whole journey... Holy Grail > Brazil > Fisher King > 12 Monkeys... Fear and Loathing felt more GROUNDED than any of them. His baseline is so warped that Vegas on ether is his most realistic setting.

Depp and Del Toro are just top notch great. It's basically the two of them, and everyone else is a small part or a cameo, but it's not filler, every one is a vibrant piece of a mind-warping puzzle. Michael Jeter's paranoid rant, Cameron Diaz, Gary Busey's cop, Tobey Maguire's terrified hitchhiker, Katherine Helmond (from Brazil!), Tim Thomerson, Flea, Harry Dean Stanton, Christina Ricci. Each one flickers in and out like something you'd half remember from a bad trip.

Then there's the Ellen Barkin scene in the diner... I think it is misinterpreted by some... it's horrific and it's SUPPOSED to be. She's so good even just standing there. It's brutal, and that's the point. It's the one moment the movie stops the party and shows the actual cruelty everyone else is seeing, a real person on the receiving end of their behavior.

I read that Gilliam specifically fought to keep it because it showed the real, sober results of their behavior.

Just my take... I'm guessing it's still divisive but probably has gained fans over the years.

I think it's moot for AMC A-listers since I doubt it's playing after tonight but...

I caught the last showing I think out of pure happenstance. Was supposed to go see Hadestown but got delayed.

Believe it or not... I thought it was sort of cute and kinda fun. C+

The plot revolves around 4 old high school friends and a dagger (the maguffin) that they are trying to find. But other than looking for this dagger for like a minute and in the most nonchalant way possible... they forget about it until the last 5 minutes.

Also they don't enter the house until 15 minutes in. The first 15 was spent introducing everyone which I admit was kind of fun.

The budget for this had to be small. This wasn't Haunted Mansion (either of them)... probably didn't have the catering budget of them as well.

And based on the trailer it didn't look funny and I was mostly right. But not unfunny... just not that funny.

Cast is actually very good. Pros who are a lot better than the script.

Limited budget means limited locations so in the house there's no big comedy set pieces in the hallways, basement, dungeon, dining hall, library... that type of thing... but where they did set up looked pretty good.

The set dressing and props were quite nice. Better than I expected.

Needed a bunch more funny in it. It eventually dissolves into some maudlin character relationships. Odd choice.

It's a very short runtime and clearly they cut scenes or never shot them because there's a lot of moments they just shortcut to the next one. It was an 18 day shoot. The fewer days means fewer locations.

The movie does run out of steam by the end and seems like everyone involved was like "lets just end this"

So if you like silly comedy horrors like Haunted Mansion but with 1 percent of the budget and are cool with a handful of funny things and a lot of characters sitting around talking... you might like it.

The suspiciously gay assistant though... geeze... felt like something out of the homophobic 90s. It's a very lazy thing to do. Odd choice.

So if you know you know... and maybe you all know but I didn't know.

I never saw a trailer, heard nothing, I don't do reviews before the movie, I don't like to be influenced...so I didn't know the concept.

So I'm not gonna say what it is but it took a few minutes to clue in.

A- or (B+) for me I just liked it a lot.

Really well done, good job, so well shot, soundtrack awesome, just a fun ride, but I can see why some don't like it or would get frustrated... my answer to that is not every movie needs to be the same and doing something different should be a good thing.

July has been a bust IMO for the amount of new movies released... So strange... but this weekend with no major releases I'm actually excited for these 4 smaller ones. I'm gonna try to see them all.

Hadestown

Haunted Heist

Motor City

Pinocchio Unstrung

• gory af.. though I wish it was a little tad more camp... just a little... like if the same gore happened under Raimi it would have had a more fun vibe as opposed to this more serious one (Raimi produced)
• muted colors... seriously the colors are drained...I don't know why they chose that
• great pacing... enjoyed more than the last one which had a serious middle act lill
• doesn't make complete sense but I dont think any of them are air tight

I'm not a Moana kind of guy. Never saw the OG. Went with a few A-list friends because there has been a drought of new movies and wanted to get out... seeing Evil Dead this weekend. And The Invite next week.

Rock is hilarious. Movie was fun. Singing was great. Very well made as a live action of an animated flick.

I don't look at reviews but I'm guessing the reviews are gonna be the same as all the other remakes... I assume everyone is saying why even make it... but since I never saw the OG it didn't matter.

My other friends did see the OG and they liked it as well. Actually one liked this one better.

Leaving the theater watching this little kid jump around excited and happy... that's why I don't mind. It's just movies.

Oh and audience applauded at the end... so the Moanaites liked it

I'm absolutely not a Madonnaphile... And no one wants to see me dance but I love dance music for the beat to run/cycle/train to. I have a hard time even naming singers or groups. But Danceteria literally stopped me in my tracks, and I don't think people are catching what's actually being said in it.

Everyone's comparing it to "Vogue," but that's not quite right. "Vogue" was a tribute to a scene and a moment in time that Madonna only knew about. "Danceteria" is a true story... a specific, autobiographical account of the exact night that launched her career, and once you know the real history, it's kind of crazy how much she packs into it.

The "best friend, boy toy" she mentions meeting is Martin Burgoyne... and that wasn't a throwaway line. He really was her best friend in early 80s New York, an artist who ended up designing the cover art for her single "Burning Up." He was gay, and in the mid 80s contracted AIDS... a death sentence at that time, before antiretrovirals (take a pill a day) existed. It was an absolutely terrifying time if you were gay or had gay loved ones.

Madonna paid for his care and tried to get him experimental treatment. By her own account, she held his hand when he died. Knowing that, I see this as part of what built the guarded, public facade she's had ever since.

There's even a small detail for the doorman, Haoui Montaug, who really did work the door at Danceteria and would get her in. Seems minor, but it tells you every name in this song is a real person, not scene dressing.

Then there's the second verse which is so wild... Debi Mazar, the elevator, the dance floor, Mark Kamins the DJ, hiding the cocaine. This isn't randomness. This is literally how her career started. Debi worked at Danceteria and became her friend. They met in the elevator. Mark Kamins was the DJ. According to Madonna, she and Debi brought him cocaine in the bathroom, they had a 3way, and afterward he agreed to listen to her demo tape... the tape that got her signed. That's the actual chain of events, condensed into about fifteen seconds of song. lol. It also explains the 90-second bathroom scene in her short film.

The thing that gets me is the combination: a genuinely great dance track, sitting on top of a real, unfiltered account of the night that made her... including the friend she'd lose only a few years later.

I think that's why the song hits some people even harder than just a good dance song.

I really like this movie. Early 70s eco-horror where nature fights back because a rich family's been dumping toxins into the swamp around their island estate. The 70s had a TON of these, nature-fights-back-and-kills-humans movies, but this one's a good one for the holiday specifically.

A warning going in: this is a slow burn for sure. But if you like the idea of watching rich folks on a southern island with an assface grandfather who's spent decades ruining the local environment finally get his comeuppance, give it a shot.

Here's the thing that trips people up though, and I gotta warn you: >!the frogs aren't really the ones killing everyone. The idea is that frogs are the first to react when an environment gets poisoned, so in this movie they're more like the generals sending their soldiers out to battle. It's snakes, gators, spiders, leeches etc doing the actual dirty work while the frogs just sit there croaking like some kind of amphibian war council. !<Most people get annoyed by that, but I think it's a fun little slow horror movie, and one of the few genuinely built around the 4th of July.

Also a very young and very hung Sam Elliott as the wildlife photographer who shows up investigating the family's pollution. I say hung because on the 4k upgrade blu ray you can see a LOT through his tight jeans. Not joking.

Basically an eat-the-rich swamp movie before that was even a genre label, if you're into stuff like Day of the Animals or Prophecy or Kingdom of the Spiders... this might be up your alley.

do they tell you at what point to hit pause on the movie if youre watching from another platform or dvd or something? how do you know when to do the break at the right time?

I used to ride this before the fires... I would ride the beach path then cross at the temescal light then ride PCH into Malibu. but the road is loaded with cones and construction and more dangerous now in some spots.

If I ride into the valley and over topanga to PCH and then head north... does that avoid the worst of it?

No third option. No leaving the theater early. Not even a bathroom break. You're locked in for the whole runtime either way.

If you fail, your loved one will be forced to watch every Minions and Angel Studios movie on a loop for the rest of their lives.

I've been having a fun summer season and it seemed to be going pretty well but July should be peak and instead we are literally just getting 5 studio movies.

If I'm missing something please LMK.

There will be lots of micro releases and small indie ones but as for studio level... 5. (6 if including indie The Invite)

• July 1 - Minions & Monsters (Universal) (I can't)
• July 10 - Moana (Disney) I might have to out of desperation.
• July 10 - Evil Dead Burn (New Line/Warner Bros.)Yes.
• July 10 - Maybe The Invite from A24 though it's already out limited.
• July 17 - The Odyssey (Universal) Yes.
• July 24 - NOTHING
• July 31 - Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony/Marvel) — sure.

I feel like the studios get scared or give up. Why are they hiding from the Oddysey? It's been proven a Nolan movie can have a competitor.

And Because of Spiderman no one wants to go against it for their week 2 so nothing is being released from a studio on the 24th.

I think it's a little sad. This would be a good time for some mid ranged comedies or something different. The only mid range is Evil Dead Burn.