The Fractured Mirror entry: Creep 2 (2017) FM
26 days ago
– Sat, Oct 05, 2024 at 06:23:13 AM
Mask voice (Somebody stop me from cranking out new entries!)
Creep 2 (2017) FM
When horror movie series progress, they tend to get wackier and more self-referential. That proves true of Patrick Bice and Mark Duplass’s Creep franchise. Creep 2 is markedly different in tone and substance from its predecessor. Where Creep was a scary and effective horror movie with elements of dark comedy, Creep 2 is a dark comedy with elements of horror.
Desiree Akhavan, an acclaimed writer-director in her own right, plays Sarah, a desperate aspiring filmmaker who answers an ad offering to pay one thousand dollars for a day of filming. Duplass’ creep makes Sara an offer she definitely should refuse: he won’t kill her for twenty-four hours so she can make the most realistic documentary about serial killing of all time. He’s offering her artistic mortality while still asserting his intention to murder her.
Duplass’ prolific serial killer thinks of himself as an auteur. He has strong ideas about framing and direction and is annoyed when Sara does not seem interested in them.
Creep 2 is a fascinating departure from the first film that’s not as tense as the original because it’s not a horror film but rather a post-modern dark comedy about a mass murderer who thinks of himself as an artiste of lethal cinema and a gutsy broad who isn’t going to take any of his shit.
The Fractured Mirror entry: Hollywood 90028 FM
about 2 months ago
– Sun, Sep 15, 2024 at 11:05:37 AM
I know, I know. I have finished the book. But I discovered a weird, obscure movie that fit the criteria, so I had to include it.
I'm a little obsessive that way. And by "a little" I mean "a lot"
Hollywood 90028 (1973) FM
For Hollywood, the 1970s were more than a decade. They were also a state of mind and a style of film. When people refer to 1970s movies, they’re referring to fascinating obscurities about outsiders living on the fringes of society searching for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world like Hollywood 90028.
In his only major film appearance, moonlighting musician Christopher Augustine delivers an unforgettable performance as Mark, an intense aspiring filmmaker reduced to shooting pornography. The aimless young man, a lady killer in myriad ways, takes out his frustrations on beautiful young women he strangles in a fit of rage. Jeanette Dilger is equally memorable as Michelle, a sad adult film actress attracted to the shutterbug with the thousand-yard stare.
These solitary souls find a temporary escape from life’s unrelenting ugliness but are ultimately beyond redemption. The powerfully minimalist, artfully shot, and scored Hollywood 90028 is a film of quiet, hushed intensity, a dual character study about troubled souls seeking connection. Hollywood 90028 is never more powerful than when it follows its villainous protagonist as he goes about his everyday life in a depressive funk.
Hollywood 90028 is a quintessential 1970s movie that couldn’t be less commercial or conventional. It’s a horror movie with little violence and no gore as well as a thorny, complicated love story between people who are incapable of loving and being loved that doubles as a fascinating sociological document of Los Angeles in the early 1970s.
