edenbearshaw

[edenbearshaw]

Under-appreciated Gems

So I mentioned in my opening blog post about my desire to finally begin watching the films that many people believe shaped cinema to be what it is. The big hitters. And I will get around to that at some point, but for this post I want to highlight a few films I’ve seen in recent years that I feel have fallen WAY too far under the radar, and would love some suggestions of your own. If possible, please state the streaming service your film is available on…or just tell us if we’re shit out of luck and won’t be able to find it outside of a physical copy.

Titane (2021)

Anyone that knows me and knows how much I love this film won’t be surprised at all to see it mentioned in this post. I’ve only seen Titane once, and it very nearly never happened. It was mid-January 2022 and myself and my girlfriend were looking for something to watch in the cinema one Monday afternoon, and if my memory isn’t failing, we were torn between Spiral (the god awful Chris Rock Saw film) and Venom 2 (which we’ve still never seen). Then I spotted Titane, and remembered seeing a really interesting write up about it. All I had to do then was convince Siân we should spend our Monday afternoon instead watching this French body horror. A very easy task.

I’ll still never understand how this film was overlooked in the Oscar nominations, and also can’t believe it STILL isn’t available to watch here in the UK, unless of course you’re happy to rent/buy via Amazon Prime. It’s a beautiful film that shields itself with a pretty baffling premise (a woman that is impregnated by a car), and for me it’s Julia Ducournau’s best work.

A Wounded Fawn (2022)

Now this is a niche pick, and probably one I’m alone with. This film exclusively streams through Shudder, and I went in totally blind. I was doing my usual thing of scrolling for what feels like hours to find a film, and finally just got annoyed at myself and stuck on anything I could find.

Without spoiling the story at all, this film takes inspiration from Greek and Roman mythology, but does it in a way that makes a pretty simple ‘cat and mouse’ home-horror into something stunning. I wish I could watch this with fresh eyes again.

Wolfwalkers (2020)

I know people will argue that this film isn’t under-appreciated at all, but I’m putting it in here anyway because WHY DID NOBODY EVER TELL ME ABOUT THIS?!

Like so many animated films before it, this is utterly heartbreaking. And I love it for it. There’s something about animation that just taps right into my feels, and this probably did it more than most. It can simply be seen as a magical little tale about two unlikely friends, or something much deeper about colonialism and the patriarchy. Doesn’t matter which way you interpret the film to be honest, it’s on Apple TV and you should absolutely give it your time.

Hellraiser (2022)

Now this one feels personal. I love the original Hellraiser films (the second one being one of my favourite horror films ever), and I was so desperate for them to not mess things up. What I didn’t expect was for them to absolutely nail it.

It perfectly follows the basic blueprint for an entry in the franchise; it HAS to be gory, it HAS to be sexy, and it absolutely HAS to do justice to The Priest (better known as Pinhead). Jamie Clayton knocks it out of the park with the latter point, and I’ll never feel so frustrated that I hadn’t seen a film in the cinema. It didn’t get a UK cinematic release unfortunately, and streaming it still requires you to rent/buy on Amazon Prime, but do seek it out if you can. We have such sights to show you…

Meander (2020)

And finally, we have a French film where a woman mysteriously wakes up stuck in a pipe. Have I sold it to you?

Out of all the films I’ve listed in this post, this one surprised me the most. It isn’t my favourite film here, but it has absolutely no right to be as good as it is. A cool thing I’ve noticed over the past two years or so is the amount of friends that have told me they watched The Platform on Netflix, the Spanish film about a vertical prison with a pretty grim hierarchy system. If you’re one of those people that enjoyed that film, please give Meander a try. The film isn’t all that similar really apart from the fact you’re engaged in it from the first minute. It’s a perfect 90mins long, and it’s available on NOW TV in the UK.

So what would you suggest is an under-appreciated gem of a film?

#cinema #films #movies

[edenbearshaw]

If you’re reading this, thanks. You’ve decided to see if I can succinctly talk about cinema in posts that are longer than three sentences. Truthfully, I doubt I can. Yet.

This isn’t because I’m afraid to share my feelings on film and my experiences within it, but more because I’m REALLY out of my depth here. I’m 32 years old, and I’ve never seen Schindler’s List. Never seen Saving Private Ryan, or The Godfather Part 2 (but yes, I did love the first one). Scarface, Avengers Endgame, Citizen Kane…you name it, there’s a good chance I haven’t seen it.

But over the past three years, I’ve been making a serious effort to work on this. In 2020, I set myself the task of seeing one film every week in the cinema, and it was all going so well. I saw Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Onward, and a number of others that I’ve now somehow forgotten. I could feel myself getting fully invested into a new hobby, something I hadn’t done for years. Then COVID came, and it was back to the small screen to continue my journey. I wasn’t deterred.

Fast forward to now (July 2023) and I’m continuing to explore the different films that have meant so much to so many people, and the films that have perhaps not had the same acclaim. Through this blog I will look at different individual films, and the experiences I’ve had in finding them. I would love any feedback any of you may have, and would absolutely encourage any recommendations for what I should be watching next.

So, that’s the intro sorted. See you all in the next blog.

Eden.

#movies #films #cinema