#people on letterboxd are funnier than I will ever be | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

letterboxd · 5 years

Photo

Ready.

“We get that the general thesis of the movie is wildly ridiculous, but the characters don’t think it’s ridiculous.”

Letterboxd talks to the trio behind the gnarly new survival horror Ready or Not about balancing the extreme with the grounded, how far to take on-screen gore when you’re trying to have fun, and the joy of old-fashioned board game aesthetics.

Radio Silence is a filmmaking collective comprised of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who direct, and Chad Villella, who produces. They were behind 2014 horror breakout Devil’s Due and contributed segments to the indie horror anthologies V/H/S (2012) and Southbound (2016).

If they were flying a bit under the radar before, they most certainly won’t be after everyone sees their new film Ready or Not, a delightfully demented black comedy/horror anchored by a rip-snorting, sure-to-be-star-making performance from rising Aussie actor Samara Weaving (The Babysitter and the upcoming Bill & Ted Face the Music). She plays Grace, the new bride of Alex (Mark O’Brien), scion of the rich and eccentric Le Domas family, headed by Tony (Henry Czerny) and Becky (Andie MacDowell).

Following the couple’s wedding at the sprawling, secret passage-filled Le Domas mansion, Grace is asked to indulge a family tradition tied to the fact that their fortune derives from a board game company funded by a peculiar deal made by the first Le Domas to arrive in America.

The “game” ends up a much more sinister affair than Grace anticipated, and she is soon fighting for her life against the extended Le Domas brood, which includes an alcoholic brother played by a possibly never-better Adam Brody.

Ready or Not has a great premise, and the execution to match, with fans on Letterboxd enjoying the horror-humor mix. “Think You’re Next sautéed with a dash of Clue, topped with an early Sam Raimi-esque humorous gore red sauce,” writes Andy Levy. “An utterly preposterous concept that works in execution on the way to the most hilariously bonkers finale of the summer,” says Mark.

Letterboxd recently spoke to the Radio Silence trio about their new film.

How did you guys get involved in this film—did it come to you as screenplay? Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (co-director): We got sent the screenplay five or six years ago, by Tripp Vinson and James Vanderbilt, the producers. They went another direction, which is a kind way of saying they hired somebody else for like a year or so, then it came back around and we chased it really hard.

I just remember the first time we sat with Tripp and Jamie and Guy [Busick] and Ryan [Christopher Murphy], the writers, it felt like a group of people who should’ve been working together for a long time. We all had the same sensibilities, we were all aiming at the same target, we all wanted to make the same movie. And it’s one of the few scripts we’ve ever read and were like “Oh man, I wish we wrote this”. This was the voice that we wanna be speaking in. So it really just spoke to us and it was a great process. They were still doing drafts for us up until production.

From left: Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Chad Villella and DOP Brett Jutkiewicz.

Was there anything specific that you felt helped elevate it beyond other survival horrors? Tyler Gillett (co-director): I think the thing that really grabbed us from the start that felt like it was so specific to the identity of Ready or Not, was this really crazy ensemble of characters and how well drawn each of them [is]. It’s so common in the genre space to just play everyone really arch and not give the characters a really specific point of view and to not ground the film and the crazy fantasy elements of it in real emotional drama and a real emotional point-of-view, and this script was just full of that for us. We loved that. The villains are so clearly the villains and our heroine is so clearly that character, but there is something fun and relatable and interesting about the interactions between all of them that isn’t just: “Oh hey, I have a gun or I have a bow and arrow and I’m gonna chase you and I’m gonna try to kill you”. There’s a lot more going on under the surface.

Obviously the superficial thrill of it is it’s a woman on the run, but at its heart, it’s a movie that’s about family and it’s about faith and it’s about trying to figure out who you are as an outsider entering this crazy realm. We could draw on that every single day on the shoot and it certainly helped us attach this great cast. There was so much about the depth of those characters that we just felt: wow, this is an undeniably great genre movie, but it’s also an undeniably great family drama, it’s an undeniably great satire.

That’s at the heart of it for us. Whether you’re spending time with the family or you’re on the run with Grace, it feels believable even though it’s heightened and insane. We get that the general thesis of the movie is wildly ridiculous, but the characters don’t think it’s ridiculous.

What do you think this film gains from having a female protagonist? Chad Villella (executive producer): I think the entire movie revolves around Grace. We were extremely fortunate to have Samara Weaving, somebody who can carry the weight of the film the entire way through. From our very first meeting with Samara, she brought this punk-rock vibe to the role. It was always something we talked about but weren’t quite sure how we were going to execute. And Samara just brought it with her performance, and by just bringing that rebellious nature after the family turns on her. She wasn’t gonna just sit around and be a victim, she was gonna fight back, and she was gonna fight the whole way through it. She said she didn’t wanna be screaming the entire way through this movie. She was gonna have moments where she could just dig in and let the family have it, and I think she did that in spades.

There’s an interesting use of violence in this film. Do you have a philosophy around how far to take that sort of thing? MB-O: The short answer is we just follow our tastes, you know? The movie is in line with our personal tastes, and we enjoy a good kill and a good shock, but we don’t like revelling in the gore really, it’s never really been our thing. But we like the effect of it on both sides. One of the things that we think is most effective and we’ve always enjoyed, is focusing more on the reaction than the actual violence.

It’s always scarier or funnier to see people reacting to something, than it is to be watching the actual thing. That really helped us because we were able to then kind of stay within the guardrails we’d set up for ourselves, because from the script stage and pre-production, let alone production, we were always aware that if we go too far in one direction it’s going to derail everything around it. You can’t exactly laugh after you’ve seen something that makes you literally wanna throw up. So we had to find that [line], and to be honest we found some of that in the edit, too. We had a lot of stuff on both sides of that, the gore and the violence, and also on the humor, where we were like, “Okay, we have to make sure that it stays grounded, as ridiculous and over the top as it is”.

Ready or Not makes great use of the aesthetics of arcane magic and board games—was it fun to revel in that space? TG: We all are huge fans of that stuff. Not only did we all grow up playing board games with our families, we loved that analogue gaming language that exists in this movie. It feels really old and it feels like it’s really steeped in tradition. That was really important to us, to make us feel like these games, the games that the family has created and built their empire on, that it’s a continuation of a deal with this benefactor that’s existed for many generations. So the choice to make all of those games analogue, it felt really tactile and it felt really interesting. We could put board games up in the house as part of the production design. Even the choosing box [from which Grace selects her fate, glimpsed in the header image for this article] itself has this very board-game quality to it.

When we were pitching on the movie, some of the very first images that we created from a directorial point of view were about the juxtaposition between these moments of terror, against this board-game backdrop. We actually created this Monopoly board that essentially represented all the members of the family in the property squares that we are all familiar with and the weapons and all of that. That was a really defining moment for us, just in terms of figuring out the tone; it all came from the thrill of a board game and then the very real stakes of what this night means for Grace and for her survival.

So the games were always this guiding light, and a reminder to keep things fun. As much as the movie is certainly about specific themes and as much as it’s certainly about the terror and nightmare that this woman goes through on what’s supposed to be the best day of her life, we just always wanted to make sure that it was an entertaining ride first and foremost. The gaming backdrop did us a lot of favors in achieving that.

‘Ready Or Not’ is in US cinemas now. Comments have been edited for clarity and length.

#ready or not #horror #thriller #radio silence #letterboxd

4 notes · View notes

fibula-rasa · 6 years

Text

August 2018 in Review

I have a weird memory. It’s highly pattern-driven and very visual. This means that my memory of films I’ve watched is based on images and series of images that made an impression instead of plot points. It’s why I rewatch movies so often. Even though I’ve been tracking my movie viewing habits for two and a half years, that doesn’t mean I’ve created strong memories for all those movies. That’s why I’m gonna start doing monthly roundups of the new-to-me films that struck me, one way or the other.

[If you wanna know all the films I’m watching, I keep full lists on letterboxd and imdb.]

The reviews below are essentially transcriptions of the notes I took right after watching the films. Because of Summer Under the Stars and my cosplay challenge, this month was pretty TCM heavy for me.

Full Roundup BELOW THE JUMP!

Teen Titans Go to the Movies (2018)

27 July 2018 | 84 min. | Color

Directed and Written by Aaron Horvath and Peter Rida Michail

Starring Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong, and Hynden Walch

I’m already a fan of the show and the movie kicks it up a notch with its humor and style. [If you liked the original series, give TTG a chance already.] TTG to the Movies is a great superhero movie for anyone who’s down for superhero stories but is fatigued by the current spate of offerings. Grain-of-Salt warning here because I think Superman III (1983) is great.

Fun that they included some gags here and there for the parents out there who’ve had to hear the Waffles song a few too many times. Also, one of the best ending gags for a kid’s movie ever.

Where to Watch: Still in theaters, but I’d imagine Cartoon Network will be playing it soon.

Doctor X (1932)

27 August 1932 | 76 min. | 2-strip Technicolor

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Written by Earl Baldwin and Robert Tasker

Starring Lionel Atwill, Lee Tracy, and Fay Wray

I made the statement that Darkman (1990) is the most comic-book movie that isn’t adapted from a comic book. I hadn’t seen Doctor X yet though.

The set pieces are phenomenal. Each shot is artfully constructed and the way the shots are strung together makes the most of the production design. If one were to do a comic adaptation, it would take some imaginative work to not just mimic the film. The 2-strip technicolor is particularly effective in the laboratory scenes in creating an eerie aura. Sensational.

Lee Tracy is playing, as usual, a press man and he’s doing so perfectly. Tracy is so underrated.

Where to Watch: Looks like the DVD is out of print, so maybe check your local library or video store. TCM plays it every once and a while and, since Warner Bros has a deal with Filmstruck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up there eventually.

The Half-Naked Truth (1932)

16 December 1932 | 77 min. | B&W

Directed by Gregory La Cava

Written by Corey Ford and Gregory La Cava

Starring Frank Morgan, Eugene Pallette, Lee Tracy, and Lupe Velez

You might very well think Lee Tracy was a featured TCM star this month. (Maybe next SUTS? Pretty please.)

Lupe Velez is so talented and natural it was nice to see her in a film where her wits were matched. I’ll be honest, I’m a big Lupe fan but, for most of her films, she’s the only good reason to watch them. This wasn’t the case here! There are a lot of wonderful moments with small movements and gestures that make Velez and Tracy’s relationship feel very real, as if they’re actually that caught up in one another. Eugene Pallette, Franklin Pangborn, and Frank Morgan round out the ensemble. The running eunuch joke might not be all that funny, but it’s a masterclass in not saying what you mean. Also, very cute chihuahua.

Where to Watch: The DVD is available from the Warner Archive. (So, once again, local library or video store might have a copy.)

The Cuban Love Song (1931)

5 December 1931 | 86 min. | B&W

Directed by W.S. Van Dyke

Written by John Lynch, Bess Meredith, and C. Gardener Sullivan

Starring Jimmy Durante, Lawrence Tibbett, Ernest Torrance, and Lupe Velez

Lupe is wonderful in this. She plays a Cuban woman who sounds an awful lot like a Mexican woman--which might be something you have to overlook to enjoy the film FYI. Lawrence Tibbett has a shocking dearth of charisma in the lead, but Jimmy Durante, Ernest Torrence, and Louise Fazenda take the heat off him well. It’s a little hard to root for Tibbett’s character and the ending is disappointing. (Spoiler: privileging of the affluent “white” couple.)

The songs are great. I love the habit of placing people in musicals so that they are singing full force directly into each other’s faces. I don’t know why I find it so funny, but it’s not a mood ruiner for Cuban Love Song. The editing is fun and energetic. Until the war breaks out, there’s a lot of solid humor.

After watching so many Lupe films this month, I’d love to sit down with people who do and don’t know Spanish to talk about her films. There seem to be some divisions on social media and across blogs about Lupe’s films that might be attributable to whether or not one understands Spanish. I myself understand Spanish reasonably well and I think knowing what Lupe and others are saying makes almost all of her films funnier. And boy, does Lupe like calling men stupid animals.

Where to Watch: This one seems kinda rare. Looks like there may have been a VHS release, but you may just have to wait for TCM to play it again!

The Night Stalker (1972)

11 January 1972 | 74 min. | Color

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey

Written by Jeffrey Grant Rice and Richard Matheson

Starring Carol Lynley, Darren McGavin, and Simon Oakland

and

The Night Strangler (1973)

16 January 1973 | 74 min. | Color

Directed by Dan Curtis

Written by Jeffrey Grant Rice and Richard Matheson

Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, and Jo Ann Pflug

I loved that these films are exactly like the Kolchak TV series. My SO and I have been watching the show weekly as it airs on MeTV and so he surprised me by renting the movies that kicked off the series. Honestly, watching backwards may have made the movies even more entertaining. How is Kolchak still working for Vincenzo in Las Vegas?? The answer is in Seattle.

The TV movies were intended as a trilogy, but after the success of the first two films, it was developed into a series instead. It’s cool to see how every piece of the Kolchak formula was in place immediately and how firmly Darren McGavin had a hold on the character. His chemistry with Simon Oakland (Vincenzo) is spectacular--a great comedy duo TBH. If you like their shouting matches on the show, Night Strangler has a humdinger to offer you.

Night Stalker is a pretty straight-forward vampire story, written by Richard Matheson, one of the great spec-fic writers of the 1960s and 1970s. Matheson also wrote one of the best undead novels of all time, I am Legend. What elevates the film over the basic mythology, aside from the great performances, pacing, and editing, is that the story’s really about how suppression actually goes down--how mundane and frustrating it can be even in the face of the supernatural.

Night Strangler is a little more creative with its monster. They integrate the nature and landmarks of Seattle in fun ways. The stripper characters are delightful. Jo Ann Pflug gives a truly funny performance and feels like a natural contender for Kolchak. Even his romantic relationships should be affectionately combative. The ditzy lesbian, Charisma Beauty (Nina Wayne) is hilarious and Wayne’s timing is impeccable. (BTW: they don’t explicitly call her a lesbian but it’s still made very overt.) There’s also a wonderful cameo by Margaret Hamilton.

As far as I can tell, it’s easier to get access to these films than the series. They’re worth seeing even if you haven’t seen the Kolchak TV show. They’re also a good pick if you’re a fan of X-Files, as Kolchak is the mother of that show. Even though I’m an X-Files fan and grew up watching it, Kolchak is edging it out for me lately. Maybe because if you’re telling a story about fighting for truth against the suppression of information, you undercut yourself by making the protagonist a fed.

Where to Watch: Kino Lorber is releasing restored editions of the films on Blu-ray and DVD in October!

The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)

1 July 1944 | 95 min. | B&W

Directed by Jean Negulesco

Written by Frank Gruber

Starring Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Zachary Scott

This was great! I loved Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet together. If you’re looking for a mystery story that flows and escalates well and presents a parade of interesting characters and locales, Dimitrios is for you. It’s also always nice to see Lorre in the lead.

Where to Watch: The DVD is available from the Warner Archive. (So, once again, local library or video store might have copy.)

Strait-Jacket (1964)

19 January 1964 | 93 min. | B&W

Directed by William Castle

Written by Robert Bloch

Starring Diane Baker and Joan Crawford

I mentioned in my Joan Crawford CUTS post that I’d been meaning to see this for years. My enjoyment of the film didn’t suffer a bit from that length of anticipation.

I like William Castle’s movies a lot. I like the campy humor and quirky stories. This one is campy still, but not as heavy on the humor--unless you have a real weird sense of humor. That’s not a strike against Strait-Jacket though. Castle builds so much tension that by the end of the film, you feel like anyone could be axe-murdered at any moment, which becomes absurdly fun. The ending might be a little predictable, but it’s fun to go along for the ride. I didn’t particularly like the tacked on ending but I guess every JC movie needs to end on JC?

Largely unrelated, but if you’re a Castle fan, have you checked out his TV show Ghost Story/Circle of Fear? The first episode, The New House, in particular is top notch.

Where to Watch: It’s on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony (your local library or video store might have a copy) and it’s for rent on Amazon Prime. It’s also still on-demand via TCM for another few days.

One I didn’t write up: Cairo (1942). I brought up in my Jeanette MacDonald post that I was hoping to find a MacDonald film I enjoyed watching on her Summer Under the Stars day and I did!

6 notes · View notes

giallo-jello · 2 years

Text

What I Watched And Loved In January 2022

From here on,I will post some of my letterboxd logs on movies I had watched and enjoyed for each month. Starting it off with the first month of the new year.

Chronicle(2012,directed by Josh Trank)

Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery underground. Soon they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

I could not stop thinking about this movie after watching it.

It was so different from other found footage movies I had previously seen. It had such good CGI effects that still surprised me knowing that this movie came out 10 years ago. I loved how the unconventional directing styles became part of the movie’s story as well.

The main trio consisting of Dane DeHaan as Andrew,Alex Russell as Matt,and Michael B. Jordan as Steve were also the biggest highlight of this movie as well. They are all charismatic in their own way as well as being very talented actors. They were able to act like normal and sometimes awkward teenagers.

Its themes and characters reminds me so much of the anime Akira but without it being a complete rip off of it. Its a unique movie that I would love rewatching years to come.

Spider-Man: Far From Home(2019,directed by John Watts)

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever.

So December was when I was hyping myself up to get ready for Spider-Man: No Way Home to be released.(I have yet to see it due to the obvious setbacks so I’m waiting for a digital release of it.) And I almost forgot that I hadn’t seen the previous movie before it!

I don’t know if it’s an unpopular opinion or not but I really loved this one. The villain was really fun,the action scenes were great,I loved that they took their time to develop the characters more in this,and the comedy was way more funnier than Homecoming’s. I loved it.

Josie and The Pussycats(2001,directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont)

A girl group find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy to deliver subliminal messages through popular music.

This was such a nostalgic trip. I was obsessed with this movie as a kid and i’m happy to rewatch it as an adult and see how much it holds up today.

While the fads in it is a bit outdated,with CDs,TRL,and 2000s fashion in all,the whole idea of corporations brainwashing ads to people through music is such a funny concept and entertaining commentary on it.

Speaking of music,the soundtrack is filled with pop punk songs that are amazing and catchy as hell.

Parker Posey is a camp icon.

And yeah...Josie and The Pussycats is the best movie ever!(Join the army!) wait,what just happened there?...

Plan B(2021,directed by Natalie Morales)

Follows a straight-laced high school student and her slacker best friend who, after a regrettable first sexual encounter, have 24 hours to hunt down a Plan B pill in America's heartland.

This deserves the same level attention as Booksmart,if not more. Sunny and Lupe(played by Kuhoo Verma and Victoria Moroles) have such good chemistry as believable friends.

The jokes had me dying.(Especially at the cashier talking about her late husband.)

There are also amazing drama and emotional moments in between too.

I think this will be remembered as a Gen Z classic as the years to come when we look back on coming of age movies depicting this generation.(Well I hope so at least. I really hope this movie won’t get lost into obscurity.)

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988,directed by Tony Randel)

Kirsty is brought to an institution after the horrible events of Hellraiser (1987), where the occult-obsessive head doctor resurrects Julia and unleashes the Cenobites and their demonic underworld.

I had put off watching this for some time because I had heard the Hellraiser sequels aren’t good. The only exception from the general horror fans though,was that Hellraiser II was just as great as the original,and to my surprise it was.

This sequel is a great companion piece to the first movie. There’s more world building in this one,as well as more impressive special effects too.

The antagonists are even more menacing in this one also.

It’s a rare good horror sequel.

Pig(2021,directed by Michael Sarnoski)

A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregon wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.

It’s so much more than the vague plot advertised,This movie is great at telling the human condition through its artsy cinematic lens.

Nicholas Cage gives a rare great dramatic performance. This movie proves he can do a subdued quiet role when a movie calls for it. I love how he and Alex Wolff interact with each other too.

The cinematography is gorgeous. I love how immersive the Portland scenery is,like its also a character of its own.

Well that’s all the films I think that stood out to me in January that I enjoyed watching. Hopefully,whoever reads this found it nice to read through and maybe helped find a couple of movies you would want to watch as well.

I will try doing this monthly when I can.(Hopefully.)

0 notes