Aside from those short films, I also jam-packed my weekend with some full-length ones to try and make up for all the slacking I’ve done the rest of the month! A truly strange mix of choices.
The Royal Hotel – I gotta say, the Aussie’s do it right! This is another chilling drama about the most remote places on the Australian outback (think The Dry). This time around, it’s two young American girls in the midst of an extended period of travel but find themselves out of cash. To remedy this, they take up a bartending gig out in the middle of nowhere at a rundown “hotel” that gets its fair share of hardworking locals. They’re a rowdy bunch who don’t seem to operate by the same rules as the rest of the world. Even the people that are on their side aren’t quite what they appear. Again, a delightfully chilling drama that is totally worth the watch!
Ready or Not – This is one of a handful of films that I own that almost demand an annual re-watch and that’s just what happened this weekend! Why not celebrate a Friday the 13th in October with forcing one of your friends to watch this greatness?! Her apprehension turned into enjoyment pretty quickly because this film does an excellent job of mixing thrills with moments of comedy, all while giving you the blood content you’d expect from a true horror film. This movie, regardless of how many times I’ve seen it now, absolutely never disappoints.
Down Low – Really, all I saw was Zachary Quinto and Lukas Gage on the cover, then saw Simon Rex’s name on the cast list and I was in with no questions asked. I will say though, this was the second time this year where I’m ten to fifteen minutes in thinking I’ve picked an absolute bomb. Even the best actors out there produce a few in their life! Luckily, this movie turned it around pretty quickly. Quinto plays Gary, a gay man who came out very late in life and knows that he doesn’t have much time left thanks to a brain tumor. His life is thrown into chaos when his “happy endings” masseuse tries to get him to experience all the things in just one day. Rex plays an absolutely ridiculous character that I won’t spoil here, but the story that unfolds here is a wild one. Certainly not for everyone, but it was good fun.
Flora and Son – I was all in for this film that was released during Sundance, and I waited patiently for its release since it wasn’t included in the virtual program. Then, the time came and I see “musical” in the description of the film and I pumped the brakes pretty hard. How much of a musical will a film be with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a known crooner) and Eve Hewson (freaking Bono’s daughter!)? Thankfully, not as much as I was expecting. There were a handful of moments that I fast-forwarded through without missing anything key, but the story surrounding the music was a good one. Hewson plays Flora, a not so good young mother of a pretty troublesome teen, who ends up taking guitar lessons from a man based in LA. At first she’s doing it for all the wrong reasons, but things come together in a really satisfying way that don’t get trapped in cheese-ball territory. I’d call it the CODA of 2023, I think.