May 2017

1. Alien: Covenant ★★★☆☆

   2017 film

   Watched 20 May 2017

   If you thought characters did stupid shit in Prometheus, wait ‘til you see this one. Ridley Scott is more concerned with establishing capricious moments than he is with putting out a coherent film, it seems.

   This is a hopelessly misguided doubling-down on everything Prometheus got wrong, but with that film’s amazing production design and worldbuilding completely removed. Future humans on an interstellar colonization mission are literally still using GoPros.

   The classic Alien title sequence is reused, but it’s no longer the opening shot, and it’s sped-up. Instead of yielding an atmosphere of slow-burn creepiness, we get low-attention-span throwback. And that sadly matches up pretty well with what Alien: Covenant feels like.

   The creatures are as cool as ever, though.

2. Get Out ★★★★☆

   2017 film

   Watched 9 May 2017

   This strikes a brilliant balance between creepy and fun — it manages to be both things at once, without either detracting from the other. It’s built entirely with this duality as a central mechanic, and does a great job of exploring its limits.

   I saw one of the big twists coming miles away (avoiding spoilers, let’s call it “the box of photos”), so I wondered if this could have worked even better as a Touch of Evil-esque “the audience knows what’s coming” kind of deal. But then I realized that having a nagging feeling that that is what’s going on is really well aligned with the film’s themes and so now I’m thinking I want to watch this again.