Movie Review: JUG FACE

Jug Face

I totally avoided Jug Face when it was streaming on Netflix – neither the title, nor the poster appealed, and I read a bad review – but I took a chance with it tonight on the strength of a great performance by Lauren Ashley Carter in Darling, and I wasn’t let down this time either.  Indie horror is definitely hit or miss, but unlike Big Studio horror that’s only concerned with how many teens they can open with on Friday night, the indie scene is more concerned with telling stories, and often some real talents emerge.

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Movie Review: ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

only lovers

You might know from reading my review of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (if you haven’t, go!  Now!) that I appreciate a good vampire movie, so, enthusiastic about said movie, I fast-tracked Only Lovers Left Alive written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, a movie-maker whose body of work I actually have very little experience of.  I know the name, of course, and I know he’s made a lot of movies, but any previews I’ve seen have never interested me too much.  I came to this movie because of the subject matter, expecting it to be arty and somewhat pretentious, and that’s exactly what I got.

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Movie Review: WHEN ANIMALS DREAM

when animals

I’m quite fond of foreign language horror movies.  Mostly, they haven’t succumbed to the slick move toward PG-13 irrelevance, which isn’t to say an R (or 18) rated movie is full of blood and guts and everything that’s superficial about the genre.  No, I’m mostly talking about the fact that character-driven stories are the keys to good horror.  I know, I know, many people are all about the serial murders of a youthful cast within 120 minutes.  Whatever floats your boat, I won’t judge.  Especially because my own character-driven snobbery doesn’t necessarily produce great movies either.

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Movie Review: THE HALLOW

the-hallow

I went into The Hallow (directed by Corin Hardy, written by Hardy and Felipe Marino) with no prior knowledge of the movie: like most people who want to form their own opinions, I generally avoid advance reviews, features, or cast and crew interviews.  All I had for this one was the movie poster and the fact that it won some kind of horror movie competition, beating out the likes of It Follows, a movie with a premise I loved, but felt was otherwise mediocre.  I’d never heard of Hardy before, and had no idea who was in it, so I was definitely flying blind.

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