Films That I Saw: October 2018

Well, this has been a pretty fucked up month here and around the world as the shit that is happening in Saudi Arabia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul at the Saudi Arabian embassy. A journalist who had been rightly criticizing the country was there to get a marriage license only to be killed and cut into pieces and our dictator doesn’t do a fucking thing which is so typical. Meanwhile in the world of sports entertainment, WWE decides they will do their stupid show in Saudi Arabia. Why do you ask?




That is right, the almighty dollar. WWE signed a 10-year deal with the Saudi Arabian government to hold shows and get paid while displaying Saudi propaganda. Given what happened to Khashoggi, not everyone is on board with the deal as two of their top wrestlers in John Cena and Daniel Bryan chose not to go while others are either forced to go or just go on their own terms because of money. The fact that they even coaxed Shawn Michaels out of retirement for this stupid show happening on Friday is proof that Meekmahan will do anything for the almighty dollar. I’m fortunate to not have watched any WWE programming in years as I only watch clips, read, or listen to podcasts about it and many wrestling fans are disgusted with what WWE is doing and I’m glad there’s some that are telling Meekmahan to fuck off. Besides, there’s other stuff to watch including New Japan and anything relating to the Bullet Club.

It’s hard to ignore what is happening in the world with crazed right-wingers trying to kill anyone who says anything bad about our dictator while a madman tried to kill a bunch of Jewish people at a synagogue. At the same time, there’s a caravan of thousands of Hondurans trying to go to America as it’s just a shitload of trouble happening. So much is happening as I’ve been thinking more about the fact that I’m going to become an uncle next year as I’m starting to think about what this child is going to be surrounded by as the 21st Century right now is a scary place to live in.

In the month of October 2018, I saw a total of 38 films in 21 first-timers and 17 re-watches as one of the first-timers was directed by a woman as part of the 52 Films by Women pledge. Definitely a bit of an increase from last month yet October is often where I have the most fun watching films as one of the highlights this month has been my Blind Spot choice in Don't Look Now. Here are my top 10 first-timers that I saw for October 2018:

1. The Cabin in the Woods

2. Funny Games

3. First Man

4. Annihilation

5. Bitter Moon

6. Green Room

7. The Voices

8. It

9. Split

10. The Invisible Man

Monthly Mini-Reviews

From Prada to Nada

This is a film I’ve been wanting to avoid as it looked like something vapid and full of overt sentimentality. Well, it wasn’t exactly that but it still wasn’t great as this adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility is an OK film. The story isn’t original but it still had moments as well as some solid performances from Camilla Belle, Adrianna Barraza, and Nicholas D’Agosto. Yet, it’s an uneven film where it wants to be a riches-to-rags story with one of the sisters wanting to go back to the posh world but it never succeeds in that. Plus, the casting of Wilmer Valderrama as a version of Colonel Brandon is just terrible casting.

Cooties

This is a silly yet fun horror film set at an elementary school which involve a zombie epidemic of sorts except it is kids that are the zombies and the targets are those who have reached puberty as well as teachers and other staff members at the school. It’s got a hilarious cast in Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson, Nasim Perdad, and Jack McBrayer as members of the school staff having to kill these kids while Jorge Garcia is the stoner school crossing guard who hides in his van. It’s a film that never takes itself seriously and that’s what a good horror comedy should be.

The Book of Henry

Here’s a film that should’ve worked with the amount of talent that it has in director Colin Trevorrow and its cast in the likes of Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Jacob Tremblay, Maddie Ziegler, Lee Pace, Dean Norris, Sarah Silverman, and Bobby Moynihan. Yet, it ends up being one of the worst films I had ever seen in my life and if anyone wonders why Trevorrow lost his job to direct Star Wars: Episode IX should see this film. It is all over the place where it wants to be this kind of film and then it wants to be that kind of film. The tonal changes, the overt melodrama, the need to take itself so seriously, and the way it crashes towards the end is proof that not even a cast with that amount of talent could save it.

Top 10 Re-Watches:

1. Goodfellas

2. Under the Skin

3. Kill Bill

4. The Lost Boys

5. Maverick

6. Starter for 10

7. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

8. Classic Albums-Screamadelica

9. Classic Albums-A Night at the Opera

10. Murder at 1600

That is it for October 2018. I was supposed to have my Auteurs piece on Orson Welles finished but I was distracted by the other films I was watching while realizing that the complexities and numerous amount of incomplete and unreleased films that Welles made in his lifetime has made the essay difficult to write. Even as the upcoming release of The Other Side of the Wind has forced me to push it to November in which I hope to complete it despite the fact that going through Welles’ filmography is a near impossible task to endure. Once I finish that, I start work on the next Auteurs piece on David Lean which won’t be as difficult.

For November, I hope to do new releases such as Widows and The Favourite and maybe a few more films. Other than that, I plan on focusing on films by Wim Wenders including the Road Trilogy as my Blind Spot for month as well as films by David Lean, Peter Weir, Eric Rohmer, Martin Scorsese, and Michael Haneke based on the never-ending DVR list along with some recent releases. Even as I plan to get films from the local library to see to catch up on 2017/2018 releases and make an official announcement for the 2019 Blind Spot Series. On a final note, I’m saddened over the passing of what I think could’ve been one of the best streaming services in Filmstruck as it’s a shame that it got eaten up by the awful corporate monsters that is AT&T. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off and hoping that AT&T can go fuck themselves.

© thevoid99 2018