Last movie you saw?

I subscribed to The Daily Wire for a month just to watch their movies out of curiosity of what sort of alternative they might provide to the trash Hollywood has been churning out in recent years.

The Hyperions 7/10
This was a peculiar dark superhero comedy of sorts that felt a lot like a poor man's Wes Anderson movie featuring Cary Elwes. The cinematography was better than expected, and the writing was pretty solid as well. It had a very stylized look with 60s and 70s vibes, which I really enjoyed. I'm not sure how well this will land with the DW crowd, but fans of Wes Anderson will get it. I'm glad I set aside time to watch it yesterday before the month's subscription ran out.

Terror on the Prairie 5/10
This was a Western that tried a few interesting things such as a very limited use of a soundtrack, but otherwise it didn't do much for me. This was probably the DW movie I liked least. One aspect that was interesting is that they're clearly not going to be catering their movies to a narrow hyper-religious and ultraconservative crowd. The villain is a sadistic torturer who frequently quotes various Bible versus from memory as he's torturing and murdering in various gruesome ways, which is probably going to irritate many of their subscribers. The scenery was nice. The supporting characters tended to be rather corny and unimpressive, and the writing and direction need work.

Shut In 6.5/10
This was sort of a thriller but with a very small scope, much of which took place in a small pantry room. Its stars one of Andie McDowell's hot daughters Rainey Qualley, the one that wasn't in Death Stranding:

Rainey Qualley actually does a pretty impressive job with the role in terms of acting with a solid accent and believable vernacular, but it was a little tough to buy into someone who looks like this as a reformed junkie mom. I've encountered many such folk in the type of work I do, and none have looked anything like her and certainly did not share the same immaculate dental history. Vincent Gallo known from many indie movies like Buffalo 66 and others played the villain. No overt political messages were present. Very mild Christian themes were present but not overbearing at all. The ending fizzled a bit, but overall it was worth a watch.

Run Hide Fight 7.5/10
This was a movie shown 3 years ago at the Venice Film Festival. DW only bought the distribution rights after it was shown there and did not make it. However, they certainly didn't censor anything about it with lots of "goddamns" and other spicy language (they called a misfit's vehicle something along the lines of a "rape van" or "rapemobile") the religious crowd might find distasteful. The lead actress, Isabel May, was quite good despite only being a teenager at the time and in some ways carried the movie a decent amount. Thomas Jane, who played Detective Miller in The Expanse, played her father. The setting is a school shooting and hostage situation crossed with some elements of Die Hard and other thrillers. It was amusing to see the confirmation bias in many comments online talking about how it had some extreme far right agenda when it was overflowing with the diversity elements activists always pretend to care about. Non-traditional gender roles from the very beginning with the lead being a tomboy and her best friend a milquetoasty and nerdy black guy, and there is some mutual romantic interest between them. Every race, ethnicity, sexuality, and high school clique you could come up with is in here. And again, DW didn't make this; they only bought distribution rights after it was being shown at film festivals. Regardless, it was enjoyable enough that I watched it twice. Isabel May had a pretty memorable line while confronting the villain and crushing his dream of becoming famous through mass violence, too.

What is a Woman? 8/10
The only movie of the five I watched that was overtly political, which was appropriate given the nature of the topic. Matt Walsh is surprisingly fair and disciplined (typically the opposite of the extremely obnoxious rapid fire Charlie Kirk type of "own the libs" attacks) in most of the basic questions asked. Most of the topics covered were very legitimate lines of inquiry, particularly frequently avoided questions such as the absence of long-term studies of hormonal treatments for children and deeply flawed practices in medical and mental health care regarding these topics, most notably the immense pressure for blanket affirmation regardless of circumstances. The most glaring criticism I'd have is they didn't include anyone who had been satisfied with various transgender procedures, which I think would have given the film more credibility, not less. Most of the emphasis was on treatment and indoctrination of children specifically, and I don't recall any religious stuff some might anticipate being in there. Pretty solid technically. Well shot and edited for the most part. Film Threat provided a pretty decent review and discussion of the movie (

). Most reviewers refused to even watch it, and some who reviewed it or made claims have not watched it at all (DW's screener links track viewing stats per individual). There are also some decent chunks of the interviews in the movie out there you an watch for free if you want to watch those, probably the most important component of the movie, but you don't want Shapiro and company getting a cent of your money.

I came away impressed with some early efforts to challenge Hollywood. They're much better than I initially expected for the most part and kept the forced political crap to a minimum in their dramas and comedies and did not replace the woke crap with fundamentalist religious bullshit. This is far removed from the Left Behind type of Christian movie trash. They are making a concerted effort to stay as apolitical as possible in their comedies and dramas. But they're probably going to need to extend distribution to other methods besides DW subscriptions, such as for a fee through Amazon Video or AppleTV+ or something for their movies to really take off, as many would not consider watching them under the current distribution model directly through DW. Some activist loons were freaking out that Cary Elwes was even in one of these movies and were probably considering trying to cancel him until they learned he wasn't originally signed up to do anything with DW:
https://www.themarysue.com/cary-elwes-ben-shapiro-daily-wire-movie-why/
I have been wondering if this will get some actors like Thomas Jane blacklisted with Hollywood's cancel culture zealotry.

 

The Gray Man

It was pretty bad and way too long. Chris Evans looks ridiculous with his trash stache and casual menswear.

 

A couple of movie reviews, I need to post here more often.

Amer (2009) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1426352/ - A very strange movie that likely only serious cinephiles will find enjoyment in. I'd call this an experimental/arthouse horror movie. There's a lot of color and a lot of strange sensory parts and a lot of story telling through "show, don't tell". Amer also has some very disturbing parts, so you've been warned. I personally enjoyed this movie a lot due to its unusual and experimental nature so if you've made it this far and your interest is still piqued, perhaps you may Amer interesting as well. The closest movies I can compare it to are Suspiria or Jodorowsky movies (El Topo, Holy Mountain). Bonus points: movie is in French.




Vampires (1998) - When I was much younger, I must have seen the intro/first 5 minutes to this movie about a dozen times when it was on late night HBO, but then either chickened out from seeing it or was told by my parents it wasn't appropriate for me, so finally seeing this movie was an important moment for me. The movie delivered on all counts for me, lots of dark humour and outrageous action scenes, I was thrilled from start to end. Bonus points for good soundtrack as is usual for John Carpenter movies.




Mulholland Drive (2001) - I finally worked up the courage to watch this in its entirety from start to end. Honestly it's very hard to review this movie, it follows a very strange format that reminds me of Twin Peaks where you're constantly unsure of what is really happening or what part a certain character plays. I feel like I need to see it again to really grasp a better meaning of this movie. I can sum up Mulholland Dr by repeating what I said when the movie was over "WTF just happened". Other notes, at times extremely disturbing and strange. (edited)




The Sting (1973) - I had seen this before about 20 years ago, and seeing it again only increased my liking for it. Genuinely one of the best movies of that era, the story in this movie is very clever and the acting from Robert Redford and Paul Newman is on point. I was fully entertained for the entire duration. This movie is primarily a comedy about a con artist, but that's underselling just how clever the whole story is. This gets a 9.5/10 from me.




Thief (1981) - I've had this movie on my list to see for over a year now after reading it has a synthwave soundtrack. It starts off slow and initially doesn't seem all that interesting, but gradually it kicks up many notches until it hits a very satisfying peak. My edible brownies kicked in just in time for the second half of this movie, and boy that was a wild ride. If you're a fan of Michael Mann movies (Collateral, Heat, Manhunter), this movie is right up there. Extra bonus points for fantastic soundtrack and some properly good action scenes. If you're looking for what I'd call a hidden gem, this is a great action movie with a killer synthwave soundtrack (Tangerine Dream).
Extra Note: rest in piece James Caan
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Turbo Kid (2015) - This movie is like Mad Max plus BMX meets TRON if I had to describe it. Full of stylish outrun aesthetic and at times ultra violent, I had a great time from start to end. The story and some of the sequences are completely outrageous which just added to the fun for me. Honestly I had a grin on my face nearly the whole length of the movie. It blew my mind to learn that this movie was made on a budget of $60,000 because it's far more original than many flicks. Bonus points for fantastic soundtrack, and extra bonus points for being filmed in Quebec and also features directors/actors from Quebec.

 

Mulholland Drive is an incredible movie, but it's one that takes a lot of thought to figure out what is real and what is not. It had to watch it a couple of times to really start to understand it. It was by far my favorite movie of 2001. Naomi Watts was robbed of a Best Actress Oscar.

 

Thief is fantastic. Probably my favorite Michael Mann movie other than Heat.

 

X (2022) - A horror flick from A24 that hit high notes for me. This movie was simultaneously intriguing, sensual and disturbing all at the same time. I was on edge for the whole time I watched this and I really enjoyed the chemistry between the actors/actresses. If I had to define this movie, I'd label it as a "sexy slasher". Can't wait to get around to seeing Pearl once it comes to Blu-Ray (it's a sequel/prequel that's in theaters right now).