Do you like My Hero Academia? Does your kid or young relative like it? If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then congrats, you are the target audience of this film. My Hero Academia: The Two Heroes feels like your standard franchise anime movie: a feature length-sized episode about our intrepid heroes going on a fun side adventure during their vacation or downtime. It won't have any real significance to the main plot (such anime movies rarely do) but you (or your young relative) won't care. It's formulaic to a fault, but it's really entertaining, especially if you're a fan to the series. Add to that some decent moments for a number of relatively ignored side characters and we have a film that's worth watching, at least for fans of the series.
Who chooses Andi Eigenmann's projects? I'd seriously like to know, because that person isn't doing a decent actress any favors. All Souls Night could have been an interesting film that makes a statement about domestic violence and how the victims and abused are made to stay silent in the face of their torment. However, that really doesn't translate well in the final product. As a horror film, it isn't really that scary. There is no atmosphere of dread, only stupor. There are no scary creatures, only Allan Paule with a rat tail and a face that looks like it's been buried in ink toner. It's boring and tedious, especially in the last act of the film, where a five minute chase is turned into a twenty minute long slow-motion clusterfuck of boredom. There are two nameless men whose only real purpose is to get killed. There are sound effects here that sound like they've been downloaded from a comic sans-laden geocities site for royalty free sound effects.
The end of this film literally ends with someone spitting at the camera. Well, I wish I could do that too, to this film.
(NOTE: Some spoilers for Suspiria.)
The fact that all of the main cast of Luca Guadagnino's remake of Suspiria are female only reinforces its strong feminist message: this is a film about women, mothers both real and supernatural, and the bonds that tie them together.
However, at the same time, Guadagnino gives the Argento classic a solid foundation, veering away from its predecessor's esoteric nature. In some ways, it is Guadagnino's most political film, perhaps a response to the dreamy idealism of his earlier film Call Me By Your Name. It sets the story in Cold War-era Germany, where people still struggle with the specter of the Nazi era. Yet this is a film that resonates strongly with the events of the present day.
There is a witches' coven in this film, a social structure that is traditionally feminine, lead by and for women. But this social structure has been corrupted: the leaders keep the younger generation subservient and ignorant. There is a false image of democracy. Voting takes place, but the ballot is rigged, with the wrong people maintaining their power because of a perceived sense of righteousness or entitlement. There is repression of both truth and free expression. These are the creeping hallmarks of authoritarianism and fascism, instruments made by men, corrupting this society of women from the inside. Only when, through bloody revolution, these corrupting elements are removed, only when true freedom is given, only when the masculine is removed and feminine, yonic power is restored, does everything fall back into place.
Dance then becomes an instrument both of control and subservience, and of freedom and revolt. Dance becomes a weapon for both change and homeostasis - hands and limbs become conduits of their power. After all, dance utilizes the form of the human body for expression, and this film explores the extremes of that form in the guise of body horror. There are scenes where these conduits are defiled for exploring freedoms repressed by religion or authority. There is a subliminal urge in this film to revolt against oppressive systems and reject rigid systems of authority, systems that still cast their shadow on society to this day, like a fading attestation of love etched on a summer home.
However one decides to appreciate this film - either as straightforward arthouse horror or as something else entirely - the 2018 Suspiria manages to do something amazing with its source material. It's one of my favorite films of the year.
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