But first, a couple great movies are out this weekend:

• You, Me & Tuscany, a delightful slice-of-Italy romantic-comedy starring Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page, satiated my fill for a hearty comfort watch. Read my review.

• Mother Mary is a relationship drama, gothic ghost story, pop musical, horror, or a genre all its own. It may be undefinable, but it’s definitely is clear-eyed in its search for raw intimacy in creative collaboration (with a side of pop divadom). Read my review.

Streaming on Paramount+

“Strange Darling”

What it’s about: A woman—only credited as “The Lady”—is relentlessly chased by a determined pursuant—credited as “The Devil”. But reader I assure you, nothing is as it seems.

Why you should watch it: The title card for Strange Darling splashes onto the screen paired with the subtitle “a thriller in six chapters” before cheekily jumping to chapter three. From that moment, director J.T. Toller keeps you guessing as he grabs you by your collar and takes you on a frenetic maximalist romp. When you think it is going to zig, it zags. When you think it’s going to jump, it soars. The opening chapters of the movie, shot in glorious 35mm by Giovanni Rabisi, are an assault on the senses. With saturated cinematography bringing a mad technicolor world to life and crisp near-deafening sound underlined by Craig DeLeon‘s discordant bass guitar score thrumming it feels like you’re on the fury road—and you might as well be. Read my full review here.

Recommended if you like: cheeky plot twists, simple suspense, heavy metal thrills

97 mins. Watch the trailer.

Streaming on HBO Max

“Kimi”

What it’s about: Tech worker Angela (Zoë Kravitz) thinks she uncovers a crime while reviewing audio recordings for her job. Suffering from agoraphobia and with the pandemic raging outside, Angela has to face her fears when a deeper conspiracy unveils itself.

Why you should watch it: Few movies have been able to capture the anxiety of the pandemic age quite as viscerally as Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi. While it’s mainly a techno-thriller that’s Rear Window—that is, if the window was actually a smart speaker—by way of The Conversation, the most interesting part of the movie is the subtle flourishes that immerse you. The claustrophobia of lockdown with the eerie omniscience of technology pervades throughout the entire movie. So when it turns into a more classic crime thriller, you’re able to sink yourself deep into the intrigue.

RIYL: classic crime thrillers, surveillance paranoia, corporate intrigue

89 mins. Watch the trailer.

Streaming on Netflix

“Shiva Baby”

What it’s about: Danielle (Rachel Sennott), a college student and seemingly never-good-enough daughter, attends a family shiva where her relatives constantly accost her with questions about her life, her ex-girlfriend looms large, and, oh yeah, her sugar daddy is there with his family. It turns out just as well as you think.

Why you should watch it: Okay, maybe Shiva Baby isn’t quite a thriller, but what is more suspenseful than a family gathering where anything can happen. Still, Shiva Baby takes the same approach as a thriller. The camera creeps around corners and Ariel Marx’s terrific score amplifies the suspense-filled mood with discordant strings where the horrors of family—that aunt that can’t just help but comment on your weight—lurks in the shadows. But director Emma Seligman doesn’t go full-tilt horror. She toes a precarious line between comedy, drama, horror, and tragedy. Let’s be honest. We all know what it feels like to come home for a family gathering. Shiva Baby captures that feeling with a witty sense of humor that will make you laugh through your trauma.

RIYL: melodramas, familial dry humor, cringe thrills

78 mins. Watch the trailer.

That’s all for today. Have a thrilling weekend!
Karl

📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.
🔗 Find me on Letterboxd and Twitter.

Happy Friday and for those reading from the northeast, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m of course talking about the gorgeous 78 degree weather that has been so unceremoniously taken from us and replaced with the cold and dreary rain.

However, that fleeting bit of summer has me thinking of the freedom of warmer weather. So, for today I’m continuing my best movies of the decade series with some recommendations about the intoxicating feeling of freedom. You can see my volume one recs here.

I wrote this newsletter listening to Snail Mail’s terrific and limitless new album “Ricochet”. Have a listen here.

Streaming on Prime Video

“Lovers Rock”

What it’s about: It’s the 80s. West London. A group of teens and twentysomethings scurry about a house making preparations for a party that night. Once the sun goes down and the records come on, they leave the world at the door and give themselves up to the irresistible feeling and emotion of music. Watch the trailer.

Why you should watch it: For most of his career, Steve McQueen has dealt heavily with trauma (“12 Years A Slave, “Blitz”). But with “Lovers Rock”, the standout entry in his “Small Axe” anthology series, he focuses on the visceral weight of joy. Set over the course of a single night at a 1980s house party in West London, the film trades a traditional plot for a sustained, rhythmic mood. It is an all-out sensory immersion: the smell of goat curry wafting through a cramped kitchen, the sight of condensation dripping down wallpaper, and the tactile friction of bodies swaying in a blue-lit room.

In one scene, the party’s DJ is playing Janet Kay’s “Silly Games.” He slowly fades the song out, but like they’re in a trance the people on the dance floor continue to move. With closed eyes they dance, they hold each other, and they sing. It’s a moment you want to live in forever. “Lovers Rock” surrounds and consumes you as you watch the partiers dance, fall in love, and feel unbridled joy. Just bodies in a room moving together making you want to join in.

68 mins.

Streaming on HBO Max

“Flow”

What it’s about: In a near future (or alternate present), a solitary black cat living in the ruins of what seems to be human civilization is faced with a catastrophic flood. Seeking refuge on a drifting sailboat alongside a capybara, a lemur, a dog, and a secretarybird, the unlikely band of misfits have to find a way to survive. Watch the trailer.

Why you should watch it: Not a single word is spoken in Gints Zilbalodis’ extraordinary second feature, and honestly? It doesn’t need any. Built entirely in open-source software by a Latvian director still in his twenties (like show-off much), “Flow” starts, well, flowing and doesn’t stop. The nonstop plot is reminiscent of “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Just trade the post-apocalyptic desert for a post-apocalyptic great ocean and the last survivors of human civilization for a ragtag group of animals.

It has the visual grammar of a dream and the emotional pull of something deeply human. Watching that cat inch toward its fellow survivors, sharing fish, learning to steer, you feel something loosen in your chest. Cinema doesn’t always need language. Sometimes it just needs a cat and its friends on a boat at the end of the world.

85 mins.

Streaming on Hulu

“Thelma”

What’s it about: When 93-year-old grandmother Thelma Post (June Squibb) is conned out of $10,000, she takes matters into her own hands to get her money back. With help from her retirement home friend Ben (Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree) and his motorized scooter, she treks across Los Angeles to reclaim her money and prove she can do it all on her own. Watch the trailer.

Why you should watch it: “Thelma” is one part delightful comedy of manners that only gets wilder and funnier as it goes on. June Squibb’s performance as the headstrong (but sometimes technologically-challenged) Thelma is hilarious as she tries to navigate a dangerous world (and yes, a set of stairs are the danger). Josh Margolin treats Thelma’s journey like an entry in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, except instead of skydiving from the Burj Kalifa she’s trying to get a box from a high shelf.

However, what makes “Thelma” great is the other part of the story. One about resilience, the dignity of getting older and how our family’s underestimation can cut deep at any age. Delightfully mad, surprisingly moving, and constantly entertaining, it’s one of the best movies of the decade.

98 mins.

In Movie News

There were a slew of new trailers this week:

• “Mother Mary”: David Lowery (“A Ghost Story”, “Pete’s Dragon”) returns to with a psychological drama-thriller-horror-musical (forgive me if I left off a genre). Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel with music by Jack Antonoff, Charli xcx, and FKA Twigs. Trailer here.

• “Backrooms”: I guess they’re making 4chan threads into movies now! The infamous “backrooms” internet meme is coming in the form of a horror-thriller starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Mark Duplass. Trailer here.

• “Masters of the Universe”: You know that twink from “Red, White, and Royal Blue”? He’s buff now… and playing He-Man. The comic book superhero turned queer TV icon finally has his own movie. And yes, the blonde bob is bobbing. Trailer here.

That’s it for this week. Love you. See you next week!

Karl

📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.
🔗 Find me on Letterboxd and Twitter.

In addition, we’ve excitingly migrated the entire Smash Cut site to Substack. You can now access all of my (and a few guest writers) reviews, analyses, lists and more at smashcutreviews.com (bear with me while we get the site up-to-date).

To kick off this new era, I’m going to spend the next few weeks recommending some of my favorite movies of the decade available to stream.

You can let me know what you think of the newsletter, any movie recommendations or just to say hello by replying to this email or karl@smashcutreviews.com. Enough yapping, without further ado today’s first recommendation is…

Streaming on HBO Max

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”

What it’s about: While driving home from a party, Shula (Susan Chardy) comes across the body of her uncle Fred lying in the middle of the road. There’s no hysterics, she simply calls her dad to let him know as casually as telling him she’s going to be late for dinner. Did I mention she’s dressed like Missy Elliot in the “Supa Dupa Fly” music video? In this surrealistic and darkly comedic family drama, Shula navigates her complicated family dynamics as secrets threaten to interrupt the funeral services. Watch the trailer.

Why you should watch it: Every person from or born to someone from the “worldwide Latina belt” knows the mysterious and mystical force of “aunties” in the family — in my Filipino family they were known as “the titas.” These woman hold the matriarchal power of the family in their tightly knit circles and protect their people with steely (and hilariously sassy) authority. But what happens when the protection of one family member harms another? In Rungano Nyoni’s sophomore feature, she explores that dynamic through a would-be family drama that has a tone closer to offbeat comedy than the movie’s themes would suggest. And while it’s a surprisingly entertaining watch, it digs into the thorny dark truths of Zambian society without holding back.

95 mins.

Streaming on Hulu

“Twinless”

What it’s about: Dennis (James Sweeney) and Rocky (Dylan O’Brien) become fast friends after meeting (perhaps meet-cute-ing?) at a twin grief support group after losing their respective twin brothers. They quickly fall into an intimate friendship, but a secret from Dennis’s past threatens to tear them apart. Watch the trailer.

Why you should watch it: The male loneliness epidemic has manifested itself in media in many ways, but none quite as delightful (and profound) as James Sweeney’s odd couple platonic rom-com. While we delight in the pair’s shenanigans ranging from Hockey games (the players aren’t the only people getting in brawls…) to house parties (featuring a cheeky cameo by “Heated Rivalry” star Francois Arnaud), an early-movie twist that I’ll keep hush hush casts a pall over the pair’s budding friendship. Through all the wry laughs and silly gags, “Twinless” is about finding connection in a world where it seems harder to be yourself, and in that you’ll find yourself falling for both of these characters (especially O’Brien who gives one of the finest performances of the decade).

100 mins.

Streaming on HBO Max

“Godzilla Minus One”

What it’s about: It’s post-World War II Japan and the country is picking up the pieces from the destruction. Sure hope a giant mutant sea creature that breathes fire doesn’t complicate matters. Well… it does. In an origin story for this iconic movie monster, a ragtag group of heroes have to save the country from destruction (again). Watch the trailer.

Why you should watch it: You know him. You love him. You’ve seen hundreds of thousands people (including Matthew Broderick) running from him. It’s Godzilla! With these long-running franchises you come to expect each reinvention to be more epic than the last. But, staying true to its name, “Godzilla Minus One” is one of the finest movies of the decade because it scales things back. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of city-wide destruction rendered in stunning (and Oscar-winning!) CGI. But director Takashi Yamazaki scales things back and presents the movie from human perspective. It feels more akin to “Jaws” than it does the classic black-and-white originals from the 50s. It hits every beat you want a major blockbuster to hit. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cheer. And at the end you’ll be hoping that the big guy finds a way to rise again.

125 mins.

Watch: The VFX artists behind the movie breakdown the stunning CGI.

In Movie News

“Forgotten Island” brings Filipino culture to Hollywood

There have been plenty of Hollywood animated movies about and featuring Asian culture — “Mulan”, “Turning Red” and, most recently, “Hoppers” — but Southeast Asia hasn’t gotten the treatment… until now. DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind “Shrek” and those annoying yellow things with the overalls, are bringing us to the islands of the Philippines in a colorful and mystical journey through memory. The movie is slated for this fall. Here’s the first trailer:

That’s it for this week. Love you. See you next week!

Karl

📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.
🔗 Find me on Letterboxd and Twitter.

Today I’m recommending a couple of AI-themed movies ranging from thriller to comedy to something in between.

New trailer: The trailer for psychological horror HIM, produced by Jordan Peele, just dropped. Watch it here.

With love,
Karl

Streaming on Max

Companion

Iris (Sophie Thatcher), who is head over heels for her boyfriend Josh (Jack McQuaid), is anxious to spend a weekend in a mountain chalet with his friends who don’t seem to like her very much. However, things take a nefarious turn when it’s revealed one of the guests is a robot which throws things for a deadly loop. Watch the trailer.

Read more

Today I’m recommending three short dramedies for a quick 90 minute movie night (or double feature).

In theaters: The Monkey, the newest movie from Longlegs director Oz Perkins, is in theaters this weekend. I’ll let you know if you should watch it below.

With love,
Karl

Streaming on Max

Tangerine

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Now more than ever we don’t only need escape, but something to reflect and project our reality onto. In that way, movies are therapy.

This week, a couple uplifting movies to keep you going. Plus, a review of Wicked.

Love, Karl.

Streaming on Hulu

Thelma

Today’s first recommendation is one of my favorite hidden gems of the year, Josh Margolin’s comedy caper Thelma.

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To celebrate, I’m recommending an unsung romantic-comedy and a couple other articles to get you through this chilly evening.

With love, Karl.

What to Watch: Plus One

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by our gorgeous friends at Paramount+. Try Paramount+ free for one week and stream some of my faves like Babylon, Black Bear, Top Gun: Maverick, Scream, and much more.

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Like every other 90s kid, I grew up watching Kenny Ortega’s 1993 fantasy comedy Hocus Pocus every Halloween season. My sister and I would buy the Pillsbury precut spooky-themed sugar cookies (the lil ghost was my favorite), light up a fire, and settle in on the couch every year well into adulthood. I’d hazard a guess that we’ve seen the Sanderson Sisters resurrected in modern-day Salem more than I’ve seen any other movie. There’s real magic (pun intended) captured in the movie. It’s like capturing lightning in a bottle. A perfect spooky-not-scary tone, both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious lines, outlandish running gags, and three iconic performances from Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker came together to make the perfect H…

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2022 has been the first movie year since the pandemic began that we’ve seen some semblance of normalcy. However, many the movies on this list feel like they were born out of the societal, political, and ~*vibe*~ shifts we’ve experienced in the pandemic era resulting in an eclectic mix of faves.

Over the next three weeks, in no particular order, I’m going to share my 15 favorite movies of the year so far. Let me know your favorites by responding to this email! Maybe I’ll include it in a future edition (or maybe not, it is my newsletter after all). Have a great weekend. ❤️ Karl

Fire Island

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