August has kept me quite busy on the weekends, so I haven’t managed to watch much. But I have made to the theaters when I can!
One Night Only – It’s like The Purge, but for sex. Truly. If you want a more elaborate plot, I’d be wasting your time. With that in mind, I went in with pretty low expectations. One night a year, unmarried people can have sex for 12 hours. Allie has been single as a Pringle for a while, but the thought of going out again to just have sex and not make any real, lasting connections kind of drags her mood down. Meanwhile, Owen is ready to propose to his longtime girlfriend when she drops the bomb that she wants to sleep with other people this year. Both Allie and Owen are out on the town trying to make connections, and when they both have a promising lead, they end up fighting over a display box condom. The evening is wild for both of them in many ways, but they keep managing to run into each other over the course of the evening. This was honestly way funnier than I would have ever thought, so for that, I had fun!
Spa Weekend – Did I think this rip on Girls Trip was going to be really good? Heck no. But, I liked the cast and was prepared for some cheap laughs. And this movie delivered! Four childhood friends get together at a luxurious California spa for a long weekend to celebrate Jane’s birthday. Only, they really weren’t looking for their friend Mel to come along. She’s a hot, loud, mess with a capital “M.” What’s meant to be a relaxing weekend is made chaotic and detrimental in many ways. But for all of her wrongs, she does manifest some unintentional rights. Most of these women have been stuck in their ways or neglecting themselves for so long, that Mel just might be the force they need to start putting themselves first sometimes. There were definitely jokes that didn’t land and Mel’s character was too over the top, but they all made it work well enough for me to enjoy.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma – Man, the premise of this film was so arthouse and creepy that I just had to watch it. Did I keep it in the back of my head that this was made by the same person who gave us I Saw the TV Glow? Yes, which means I was also prepared to not like it, which did kind of end up being the case. Kris is a filmmaker that wants to revive a horror series, Camp Miasma, after too many failed sequels. While it was pitched to the studio as more of a prequel, she insists on meeting the original film’s final girl, Billy Presley, who still lives at the abandoned sleep-away camp that the first film was shot at. Billy has been a recluse for a long time, and she is weird, and the camp in the dead of winter is creepy as hell, so from an atmosphere perspective, it lands. But then the story just gets real muddy for me. I truly have no clue if the events in the last twenty minutes of the film were real or fantasy, and that kind of ruined it. I did think it was interesting to learn that the film is meant to explore trans people experiencing sex after transitioning. I do think that theme was achieved! But ultimately, I didn’t like this one.