MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! I would urge you all to gather at my feet to hear the tales of all the glorious and wonderful movies I had seen to start 2025.
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Unfortunately, as many movie buffs know, January has poultry offerings in terms of movies. Leaving me to engage with some of 2024’s leftovers. With slim pickings on offer, I gave the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, a try.
I must confess, my followers, I walked out completely mixed on the film. The first half of the film operates on the same tired biopic formula you have seen a dozen times. Dylan slowly makes a name for himself by playing in dive bars and getting people to stare at him like he is lisan al gaib or something. Record deals are offered, fame ensues, and your movie loving doomsayer contemplates if he should have stayed home and played video games instead of watching this film go through the same tired motions. The film only gets interesting in the second half, when Dylan, bored with his folk blue career, begins experimenting in rock n roll. Questions begin to arise on whether an artist is allowed to grow, or they should grovel to the fans who only like the old stuff. If I go see Metallica in concert, do I have a right to be annoyed if they don’t play Master of Puppets or Enter Sandman? Songs that I expect the band is tired of playing. This artist conundrum highlighted a thought-provoking moment in Dylan’s life, and I quite frankly wanted more of this than the stock, standard biopic affair.
If you do watch this film, skip to the halfway point. I am sure those of you who don’t heed my advice will soon understand what I am saying.
The Damned
Screenwriters, directors, producers, I plead to you, NAY I BEG OF YOU, PLEASE STOP GIVING YOUR MOVIE SUCH GENERIC NAMES. I heard brief rumblings within the movie circles of a movie called The Damned. The Damned. YOU FOOLS!!! How do you expect word to spread of your movie, when there are two films named The Damned coming out this year? One of them is a historical drama and the second is a historical horror film. You can imagine this film was really hard to research outside of horror film circles. Good news is, I don’t think the word of mouth would have helped.
The film centers around an Icelandic fishing community witnessing a ship crash off their shore. They go to scavenge what they can and discover some people are still alive. They unfortunately can’t support the survivors and end up accidentally killing one of them. Soon they believe they are being haunted by a draugr, a vengeful spirit, slowly picking them off one by one. The film is a bit of a slow burn, which I don’t mind as long as the pay-off is worth it. Now, I generally try to avoid spoilers, but I am starting to see this style of ending more and more, and I must put my foot down. BE WARNED, MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS, WE VENTURE INTO SPOILER TERRITORY FROM HERE.
The draugr is not an evil spirit, but is revealed to be one of the survivors in such a weak and petty way. In a final standoff with the draugr, our heroine is able to trap them in their house and burn it down. She meets up with the other two survivors, and they ask what happens. The event replays in her mind, but the twisted, distorted face of the draugr is revealed to be one of the survivors of the other ship. Between this film and Out of the Darkness, I am growing so infuriated with these films that seem to want to depict the innocent outsider as something that seems monstrous. IT IS SO PAINFULLY GENERIC AND DULL. I understand that we live in a world where neighbors report each other to ICE, but this metaphor is so surface level and void of any subtlety. Don’t bother with The Damned if you can find it; it’s not even worth giving much additional thought to it’s milk-toast analogy.
Se7en (1995)
Even as I am standing here in the blistering sun, I can feel the rain falling around me as if I was in that nameless city. Se7en is peak noir, to the point I feel the need to trade in my soapbox and rags for a trench coat, fedora and glass of whiskey. Every crime scene Somerset and Mills visits is a constant reminder that there is evil in the world, constantly consuming us. Yes, art should comfort the disturbed, but it should also disturb the comfortable. John Doe’s murders shine a clear spotlight that the seven deadly sins are alive and thriving.
I do have some nitpicks with the film. Some of the later murders don’t quite hit as hard as some of the initial ones. Lust feels a little toothless since they never show the body, like the murders with gluttony, greed and sloth. Pride is completely rushed through as well. Finally, in an era of Saw, I can’t help but wish we got to physically see what is inside the box. I know Fincher had to fight tooth and nail to be allowed to have this dark ending, so I can picture a cowardly 1995 studio executive refusing to allow a more gruesome scene to take place. Ultimately, my criticism stems from obvious executive hands trying to rain in the raw and gritty nature of this film. To that, I will say, Se7en is great in spite of the corporate meddling trying to make this film into a more box office friendly film. Fincher, Freeman and Pitt will be remembered for this film; the New Line Cinema executives will not.
One of Them Days
Despite my loathing for the barren wasteland known as the film industry in the months of January, it provided me an opportunity to watch films I would have reflexively passed on. One of Them Days is a prime example. The film is a buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA as two roommates who have until the end of the day to come up with the rent money after one of their boyfriends wastes it on a failed entrepreneurial scheme. I felt there was nothing wrong with the film; just my horror and action obsessed mind wasn’t the target audience. Yet, much like A Complete Unknown, I gave the film a chance and walked out enjoying the time with it, unlike the Bob Dylan biopic. The two leads have distinct yet fun characters that play off each other really well. Despite the inevitable second act falling out, I was still heartbroken when these characters walked away from each other. The icing on the cake is Katt Williams, playing a doomsayer-like character, perched outside a predatory lender, urging everyone to not sign a loan. If you are feeling the buddy comedy itch, One of Them Days will certainly be the cure that ails you.
Presence
As the year of 2025 peers over the horizon, I have a vow of a new resolution for my movie going experience: I will no longer be watching movie trailers. My sympathy for the marketing department has reached its limits. Too many trailers show you the whole movie. I have seen too many twists given away in a throwaway twenty-second trailer. The marketing teams have done many a film dirty by making the movie appear to be a specific genre or style, only for the rug to be pulled out and reveal the movie is completely different. No other film represents this disservice more than Presence.
Those who bore witness to the films’ trailer most -likely assumed the movie would be a supernatural thriller, leaning into ghost stories like The Haunting of Hill House. While I will concede that the film revolves around a “presence,” the film is more a family drama from the perspective of a ghost living in their home. The camera floats from room to room as if Casper the friendly ghost was the cinematographer. Thankfully, with the help of some YouTube reviewers, my expectations were realigned going into the film and I came out enjoying Presence. The characters have some real depth, and I was invested in their struggles. However, I could understand if you were someone who didn’t read reviews and only watched the trailers, how you could have felt burned by this movie.
Yet I say to you, my Loyal Followers, do not cast your ire at the humble filmmakers. Cast it at the bloated marketing teams, who dare not share in the artist’s vision, but are simply there to make the studio’s money. NAY, I SAY TO THEM. Arrive at the theater twenty minutes late. Watch Presence if you are in the mood for a family drama. FINALLY, DON’T LAY YOUR EYES ON A SINGLE TRAILER, ANYMORE!!!