RRR - Randall's Review Room

"The Wonder" "The Wonder" is an extremely slow film about the power of belief. The story follows a young Irish girl who her family claims hasn't eaten in 4 months. The town brings in a nurse and a nun to get a science vs faith diagnosis of what's going on with this young lady. Lots of people stand around. Or sometimes they sit. Occasionally they'll say something. I was struggling to keep my attention on this movie but it was really challenging me to do so. I don't think this is a bad movie by any means, the story is curious enough and the subtext is thought provoking but holy shit is it ever long, slow and boring. Florence Pugh is great as always and the acting in general is pretty solid. I think this might have worked better as an episode of Cabinet of Curiosities. An hour long, maybe upping the creepy factor a bit. 5/10

"Prey" I'm sure this goes without saying but "Prey" is the latest film in the "Predator" series. It's as far back as the predator lore goes (if you discount the Mayan pyramid shit in AvP) and follows a Comanche woman who wants to prove her abilities as a hunter to her tribe and herself. I'm not going to build suspense here, I loved this movie. It's a fantastic tale of overcoming challenges, misogyny, societal expectations and it ultimately demonstrates that cunning will always overpower bravado. From a horror perspective, there's not too much going on... unless you equate violence and gore to horror... because it's definitely not lacking in that department. But suspense building and genuine terror of the Predator isn't there like it was in the first film. Speaking of which, there are a lot of nods to the original Predator movie and a clever connecting element to the second Predator movie, none of which feel forced or shoehorned ...

"The Cursed" Random pick from Amazon Prime, this actually turned out to be a pretty amazing film. "The Cursed" is a gothic horror set in the late 1800s. After slaughtering and stealing land from a Roma clan, a curse is unleashed on the family and village responsible for the aforementioned atrocities. This film is another one that I'd recommend knowing as little about as possible. It's no secret that this film taps into the werewolf lore that most are familiar with, however it takes some completely new approaches and pushes some serious boundaries in terms of violence and gore. Outside of Boyd Holbrook's awful British accent there wasn't much to not like about this film. It's shot gorgeously and the pacing is somewhere between slow and medium at first but ramps up quite a bit in the last third. 8/10

"The Northman" Where I watched it: Blu-ray (saw it in cinemas when it came out too but only getting around to reviewing it now.) Robert Eggers is a master filmmaker. Don't care if you like his movies or not, it's 100 percent a fact that he's a master filmmaker. I knew this movie was going to be good but dear lord this is a work of epic proportions. The shots alone in this are enough to be awe-struck. The performances are some of the best I've seen of this all star cast. Even someone like Ethan Hawke who I generally just see as meh did a fantastic job. As are all of Eggers' films, this one is a period piece and is very historically informed. It blends reality with the profound and puts characters through trials of morality and mortality. It's a shame that this was a commercial flop as the studios are going to be less likely to give Eggers this big a budget moving forward. But whatever, A24 will welcome him back with open arms and I'm sure he'll ...

"X" Where I watched it: I bought a DVD like a caveman. Ok so, this film has been on my radar since the trailer dropped. I've seen a number of Ti West films and I've generally left with favorable impressions each time. Seeing that Ti West's latest production was backed by the now-synonymous-with-slow-burn-horror-dramafilms-that-have-metaphorical-and-allegorical-content-designed-to-highlight-real-horrors-of-the-human-condition-company A24 made me very curious about how his filmmaking style and theirs would align. Of course... it's doesn't. Ti West is a goofball. His movies have a lot of him in them especially when it comes to silly, sassy dialogue. This film might be his least cringey when it comes to the words that come out of characters mouths but where it gets a pass in that department, it severely fails in others. If you've seen this movie you know that it gets pretty weird. If you haven't, I'm not going to spoil it for you but rest assured t...