For it being a long weekend, I didn’t watch nearly as many movies as I would have liked to. Anyway, here’s what made the cut!
Strange Darling – I had literally never heard of this film prior to checking my local theater to see what was coming for the week. I knew the two leads and Rotten Tomatoes already had it at 96 percent fresh. Plus it was a psychological horror-thriller, so I was in! It was truly a unique little independent film. The opening scene was quite extravagant and then let us know that this was a story in six chapters, all of which were presented expertly out of order. It had to be done this way in order for the surprise to really hit. Based on the opening verbiage, it seems like this guy is a serial killer and this girl who is running for her life manages to get away. That’s all I’ll leave you with, but I guarantee this is worth the watch!
The Passenger – After seeing Kyle Gallner excel in yet another horror film, I found it necessary to revisit this awesome surprise of a film from last year. Randy and Benson are two employees at a sad diner in the middle of nowhere when Randy’s world is turned upside-down after Benson takes out everyone with his shotgun. Then he makes it his mission to have Randy confront all of the people who have prevented him from living to his fullest potential. I still have no clue if there is any type of romance involved in this relationship, at least on Benson’s end, but by the end even Randy seems to have developed some sort of Stockholm devotion. Still highly recommend this one.
Thelma – Can you believe that my mom said “eh” to this gem of a film?! She did! So to prove her wrong, I watched it again and it is still brilliant. My mother described it as “not that funny” (wrong) and “kind of dark.” That is actually a fair assessment, I suppose. Thelma is a 94 year old woman who’s getting talked about as if she’s not in the room. She’s the unfortunate mark of a scam which puts her out ten thousand dollars and she wants it back! She recruits an old friend and sets out to prove something to her family. I personally thought this film was cute, funny, thrilling, and feel-good. I cannot recommend this enough.
Treasure – I know what you’re thinking, if the last three were so good then surely this one must be, too. That, is where you’re wrong. In theory, this is a moving film, and there are plenty of scenes to prove that point, but given that I’d seen A Real Pain at Sundance at the beginning of the year, this one kind of misses the mark. Back in the early 90s, Ruth travels to Poland with her father intent on learning more about his past, which happens to involve the Holocaust in a big, big way. She’s awfully tone deaf to how a trip like this would impact her father. And she’s mad that he even tagged along, but he’s only thinking of the bad things with this place, so can you really blame him? There are some truly moving scenes towards the end, but overall this is a bit long-winded.