The Gorge (2025)

Derrickson's romantic apocalyptic horror film The Gorge suffers from a few problems. It's not very romantic and it's not very horrifying for example. The film's premise is extremely high concept and for me they never convinced me of any of it. The amount of times you'll ask yourself why didn't they think of X as your making your way through the plot will be frequent. The Gorge never quite comes together as much of anything it's trying to accomplish. 

Teller and Taylor-Joy have 0 chemistry and the The Gorge never believably makes us feel there is any connection. It plays like traditional romance with the absurd "meet cute" and then witty banter. But it's all surface. You never believe they love each other. At one point I wondered if the film was trying to make a point about two people falling for each other because... well there are no other options, about how they are entrapped into a relationship. But the film never consciously explores this. That's too bad cause that might have been more interesting. The Gorge instead builds their loves story earnestly and fails in its attempt to do so. 

Then the film jumps, often quite radically, into Annihilation style existential horror, perhaps with an Alien franchise bent (not a reference to Weaver's phone it in appearance). But here again it never feels like it gets it. The mystery isn't very complicated or nuanced and it just becomes a fairly standard "monster movie". I never felt scared, and the stakes didn't particularly feel intense. The more you thought about the premise, the less the film felt realistic. It feels like the idea wasn't thought through well before it was put to paper. 

The Gorge is released on streaming where it is the sort of film you'll likely look away from to scroll through your phone and not miss much of anything. 

The Gorge

Starring: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver 

Director: Scott Derrickson

Writer: Zach Dean

Universal Monsters - The Mummy (1932)

The Mummy, made soon after the hits Dracula and Frankenstein, pulls from both these in different ways. We get the popular Karloff again, although in a very different role, and we get an exotic evil from another culture pursuing a young woman like the famous vampire story. For today's audiences, we can see the plot is actually remarkably similar to the 1990s remake Bram Stoker's Dracula, about a monster from the past seeking his reincarnated love in the "present". Capitalizing on the western hysteria of the time for all things ancient Egypt, The Mummy was another hit for Universal Studios although watching it now it is one of the duller of their classic horrors.

The film tells the story of a villain who, in his attempt to resurrect his love through sorcery, was condemned to death for the act and brought back to life by a curse seeking the reincarnation of his love. His monstrousness comes in his attempt to force her against her will. Modern audiences may find it interesting how much this film focuses on her right to autonomy, to decide who she is and who she should love. It is a love story about an abusive sort of love, one of possession and ownership, not of mutual respect and care. It is about adoration or idolization. Not what loving someone is truly about.

Also interesting to modern audiences, The Mummy barely references contemporaneous Egyptian culture so there are surprisingly little issues with anti-arab racism. The sole exception to this may be Karloff's depiction as "oriental" which is played to be frightening. If anything the film has a more benign style of racism in how its mixed heroine is seen as exotic, a positive feature in the film's eyes. Instead the film focuses on a rather caricature of popular culture understanding of ancient Egypt (pharos, hieroglyphics, etc.) which was all the rage at the time. 

For me the story drags a lot. There just isn't enough here to flesh out the rather short runtime. Some of the film's most interesting parts are flashbacks to the past and not so much the current story we are being told. Watching it right after rewatching some of the other classic Universal Monster films one might be a bit disappointed. Having said that it still remains impressive with its iconic nature and just how much it shaped our modern conceptualization of the horror trope of a "mummy." 

The film's legacy in this way is impressive and also how it inspired the most successful of Universal's remakes with the 1999 film The Mummy and it's sequels. The story follows the same basic premise, Imhotep resurrected from the dead by tomb raiders and his quest to bring back his ancient love through killing a modern woman. In this version the mummy is super powered and the adventure has been Indiana-Jones-ified. It's a fun if rather silly take on the story and rewatching it I was surprised at just how hammy it is. But it remains a classic in its own right with a big following. Certainly more so than the Tom Cruise reboot from 2017 which flopped critically and commercially. 

The Mummy is still one of the classic horror monsters and its influence on film culture is undeniable. While I found it a bit plodding it is still holds its place in the pantheon of Universal Monsters and as part of the legendary Karloff's career. 

The Mummy

Starring: Boris Karloff, Zita Johann

Director: Karl Freund

Writer: John L. Balderston

 

The People's Joker (2022)

Writer/director Vera Drew's neon fever dream is both a love letter to all cinematic batmen and deconstruction of those mythos at the same time. Embedded in all that fan fiction is a touching and revelatory exploration of trans identify that is unapologetically genderqueer while being accessible for cis audiences, somehow translating her experience into something understood without ever compromising or dumbing it down. The People's Joker is a bit of a miracle. 

Drew has made something truly unique by playing on common tropes in often very brilliant ways. The People's Joker is hard to take your eyes off of, visually, while its kinetic story barrels forward. Also Drew's screen presence is so engaging it all comes together to make a truly fascinating and watchable film.  

The People's Joker is the sort of film that makes it exciting to think about what can be done by a talented film maker with something to say and the vision to pull it off. I hope Drew continues to bring us new stories. 

The People's Joker

Starring: Vera Drew, Kane Distler, Nathan Faustyn, David Liebe Hart, Scott Aukerman, Tim Heidecker, Maria Bamford, Bob Odenkirk 

Director: Vera Drew

Writers: Bri LeRose, Vera Drew

I'm Still Here/Ainda Estou Aqui (2024)

Salles' straightforward yet powerful story of the strength of those left behind when someone goes missing during an illiberal regime is a beautiful film. He focuses on  diving deep into the personal interworkings of the family to show both how the loss of their father, and the lack of information of what happened to him, drives them, but also the strength and power of the mother who holds it all together and never gives up. One of the iconic moments is her posing for a family photo for a paper and refusing to not smile. She is defiant throughout. She will not become despondent, nor give up. 

Torres is remarkable in the role without being showy. It is no wonder she has garnered so much award love for this role. I loved how she balanced so many aspects of her performance keeping it complicated and internally quite strong. The sheer power of the woman she is playing is impressive and she does her justice. 

The film itself is not complicated. Salles just allows his subjects to go forward with their lives. It does suffer a bit from one of my biggest pet peeves about biopics about real people, especially those still alive or recently passed. I'm Still Here paints an overly rosey picture of the Paiva family. They are all angels and they are all amazing in their moral character. This is a picture perfect family, like the picture in that iconic moment. I am sure that while these people are likely very good people for sure, I'm Still Here's refusal to give them any blemishes takes away from the realness. This is a fault of many of these sorts of films and nothing specific to I'm Still Here. 

Regardless I'm Still Here is compelling drama and an important portrait of this kind of horror which continues to occur around the world. 

I'm Still Here/Ainda Estou Aqui 

Starring: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro 

Director: Walter Salles

Writers: Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega

Maria (2024)

Larrain has made a number of very beautiful, but often very taciturn films about divas. His latest, about quite literally a diva, felt similar for me. It is lush and quite gorgeous to watch. But I felt so removed from its subject I found it hard to get swept up in its story. Jolie's performance is aloof and somewhat sparse as well although there are moments in it which touched me. I came out of Maria a bit unmoved despite how lovely a film it was. 

Larrain focuses his story on the last week of the singer's life as she interacts with doctors, staff, and a film crew. She flashes back to the moments that brought her here. She is living an almost Howard Husian life alone in her palace, barking at fans and servers who dare speak to her. She is sad and alone. It is meant to be a tragic tale of a woman who lived on her own terms. Some of this comes through but a lot of it, through Larrain's story telling and Jolie's performance just feels like we're watching someone be not very pleasant. 

There are moments that broke through for me. Jolie does wonderful things with small moments when she's doing less of an impression and more inhabiting the character. Her reaction to her doctor's dire diagnosis is a beautiful piece of acting for example. The film takes a loving approach, filling each scene with exquisite beauty and a bit of fantasy. She begins to wonder what is real and what is hallucination and this is handled quite well by Lorrain. Maria the film is something to see even if it doesn't evoke much emotionally.

Maria

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Director: Pablo Larrain

Writer: Stephen Knight

 

The Girl With the Needle/Pigen Med Nålen (2024)

I'm not normally a fan of the Lars Van Trier school of miserable films where everything is bleak and terrible, yet I can sometimes appreciate the sentiment. von Horn's The Girl With the Needle is a beautifully shot film that explores a woman forced to confront something truly horrible even after being pushed to desperation. She, and us as the audience, are given somewhat of a hopeful ending despite wrestling with the question of whether this world is redeemable or not. I'm just not sure the film makes a successful case for this final bit of optimism. 

The Girl With the Needle asks us how we can justify the lives of innocents when we create a world that is so patently unjust. When we know humans will suffer how do we justify allowing life to exist in suffering. But it doesn't quite get to asking us to have a responsiblity to alleviate the conditions of suffering, instead asking us whether we should allow life at all. It sets this up through what is essentially a thought experiment along the lines of the trolley question. It creates a villain who does horrible things but then it allows her to argue for her position and perhaps even makes us sympathetic to her argument. Despite this very heavy handed premise, The Girl With the Needle ends with an ambiguous answer. Is it responding by saying the suffering is worth it, or that the answer presented by its villain is unfair. It will give us much to wonder about as we attempt to scrub what we have seen from our memories. 

As a movie it mostly works. von Horn uses a stark black and white cinematography that evokes the horror of a different age, and combines this with the photographic style of that age such as characters looking into the camera as they did in the silent era, and lit menacingly as they often were. This creates an uncomfortable aura which matches the story's tone and chills us as the audience, an audience confronted with our own complicity. It is brilliant to watch but the plot is a bit plodding. There are multiple powerful moments even from the get go, which make Karoline's painful reality feel strikingly real, yet there are also stretches that feel drawn out. In all of this I'm not sure the ending is earned. The hope almost feels a bit outside of what has happened before it and isn't connected to how characters acted in the first act. 

Still, The Girl With the Needle with haunt you, truly asking you to deal with something terrible, humanity's real cruelty. I'm not sure the ending gives enough hope to make the rest of the film's bleak assessment of human beings forgivable. 

The Girl With the Needle/Pigen Med Nålen

Starring: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm

Director:  Magnus von Horn

Writers: Line Langebek, Magnus von Horn 

Companion (2025)

Smart, funny, well acted and executed, Companion is a fun cautionary tale which taps into very real world issues with its high concept premise and is exactly the sort of thought provoking film that hits all the sweet spots. Hancock has crafted a well balanced comedy/thriller which doesn't get too dark while also not pulling punches. There are a few twists and turns, nothing too shocking, but nothing insultingly dumb. He gives us a fun time while also giving us much to chew on. 

Best to go into Companion with as a little knowledge of the plot as possible and just let it play out. Yes there is a part of me that wishes I could get into all the smart ways the film's plot explores [redacted] but I can't without spoiling the story and much of the experience. There is a little Ex Machina here, a little The Invisible Man (2020), a little Fargo, hell even a little Blade Runner and Barbie even. Just experience it and then find others who have seen it to talk it through. 

Make no mistake, this is a fun movie, even if it is working with some heavy issues. The cast is excellent with Gage and Guillén adding a delightful queer twist to a film that is exploring specific themes of heterosexuality. This.isn't a film that's going to hurt you head but instead inspire great discussion while also being wildly entertaining. 

Companion

Starring: Jack Quaid, Sophie Thatcher, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend, Jaboukie Young-White

GuillénWriter/Director: Drew Hancock