Critical Mess

This is a big-girl conversation about a big-girl film! We watched artistic powerhouse Tracy Moffatt's beDevil (1993), which is comprised of three vignettes about hauntings. There was no time for digressions because there was so much to dig into in the film -- it resists easy interpretation but doesn't come across as pretentious due to the cheeky tone and incredibly stylised set. Bootleg the Dog makes a brief cameo and we chat about colonisation, storytelling and the myriad of nods to other filmmakers and artists within the film.  

We're off to the forests and fjords of Norway this week, with André Øvredal's comic-horror Trollhunter (2010). Never a fan of found footage films, Aimee slept through a lot of this week, while Annie cackled through most of it. We talk about The BFG, Tolkien and Theodor Severin Kittelsen, a Norwegian troll illustrator, who influenced The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth. Themes of mythology, belief, environmental destruction and industrial expansion come up too, but it's mostly diversions about beans and nuts and goats this week honestly. Maybe we were the real trolls all along.

In Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000), teenage sisters Brigitte and Ginger are bored in suburban Canada and death-obsessed. Their codependent relationship intensifies after Ginger gets bitten by a werewolf on the day of her first period and Brigitte tries to find a cure. This teen horror film is funny and graphic in equal measure, and Annie and Aimee find highbrow themes to talk about, like the body monstrous, the abject and sexual consent. They also lose it over the word haberdashery and the extreme Buffy vibes this film gives off. 

The Little Mermaid is all grown up in Agnieszka Smoczyńska's pop-goth mermaid musical The Lure (2015): the result is "confusing, unwieldy and aimless" according to Aimee. Two sisters come out of the sea and flip straight into a burlesque club in 1980s Warsaw. We've got huge slimy mermaid tails, vampiric teeth and bizarrely dreamlike musical interludes, all set in an incredibly sex-positive, neon dive bar. Annie and Aimee talk about mermaid lore, musical scores, capitalism, beauty and gender (as always). Turns out there aren't always more fish in the sea, folks!

We were expecting a children's film this week, but family friendly flicks don't usually come with a scrotum quota. The tanuki in Pom Poko (1994, Isao Takahata) have big balls and they aren't afraid to use them ... as balloons, as rugs, as weapons. With as many big ideas thrown around as different illustration styles used, Annie and Aimee discuss assimilation, leadership, consumerism, animal welfare, chimpanzees, urban sprawl, Pokemon and the right way to protest. Aimee wept so much that she became dehydrated and we agreed never to trust a theme park owner (or magician).

Aimee is up past her bedtime to watch A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour). This black and white vampire flick merges into an atmospheric film about vigilante justice, male/female power dynamics and the pitfalls of capitalism. We spin the old archetype wheel to dissect the somewhat stock characters, talk about working within budgetary constraints and encounter a lot of symbolism. Also, we rename one character Sex Neck. Sink your teeth into it!

In our next creature feature, we stomp all over Seoul in Nacho Vigalondo's Colossal (2016) as Anne Hathaway manifests a kaiju from small town America. Our generosity is stretched to the limits as we try to believe that this film can tackle the meaty issues it brings up (addiction, trauma, toxic masculinity, imperialism), but ultimately, it is severely undercooked. Aimee is incensed that she doesn't recognise a 90s monster toy ("it didn't exist in real life!!") and Annie goes deep on the scientific intricacies of kaiju physics. DING DONG.

We take a deep dive into Seoul's Han River with Bong Joon-ho's The Host 괴물 (2006) this week: we talk sea monkeys, trumpet etiquette and fake weather. This film really resonates with a mid-COVID19 world: there's empty streets, a militarised response to disaster and little thought given to the ecological consequences of human actions. Plus, Bong works in themes of racism, family, imperialism, class and food, making The Host perennially relevant. 

In the first episode of our new season packed with creature features, Aimee and Annie head to Gillman's Island in Jack Arnold's The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). Although we didn't get to watch it in 3D as originally intended, the jumps were still solid and it holds up surprisingly well for a film that's almost 70 years old. The fashion is on point, gorgeous 50s people are swanning about in swimsuits and the Gillman is HERE FOR IT.

Critical Mess is back for a second season with a crisp new logo (courtesy of graphic wizard Ashley Ronning) and a sick new theme. This go around Aimee and Annie will be watching CrEaTuRe FeAtUrEs (BYO spoopy voice) and they'd love for you to watch along.