Three Thousand Years of Longing film review

I went and saw this at a Wednesday afternoon matinee with my 89 y/o dad. He knew absolutely nothing about it going in. And he enjoyed it (I did, too, btw), commenting on the walk back to the car after the screening that it was “an adult fairy tale.”

That pretty much sums up the film.

If you go in expecting some Mad Max mayhem, given George Miller's best known cinematic pedigree, well you’re gonna be disappointed; it has more in common with The Princess Bride than Fury Road.

As for me, I dug it. The narrative structure is really cool, the acting from Swinton and Elba is solid, the pacing is even, and the direction is artfully restrained.

While arguments could be made that it succumbs to the “magical negro” trope, one could just as easily say it embraces the “white savior” trope, too. If such is the case, those two tropes pretty much cancel each other out. Personally, I didn’t feel that the film’s story succumbed to either.

Honestly, the film is more of a veiled “chick flick” bathed in neo macho accoutrements.

So, if you enjoy rich romantic fantasies with a dark and mysterious edge, then this will be right up your alley.

P.S.

I have not read the source material, so no clue as to how faithful it is…

RIYL: The Princess Bride; The Fall; 300; The Brothers Grimm

In Motion: Bodies Bodies Bodies film review

Imagine Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None crossed with Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero, yet teeming with blaring electro rap and aimed squarely at Millennials and Gen-Zers weened on social media.

That pretty much sums up B3.

Which isn’t to say an aging Gen-Xer can’t have fun watching it. Just don’t expect it to reinvent the slasher as an uber meta self-referential masterpiece a la Scream.

On the whole this is a fast paced murder mystery that effectively uses music to create moods of tension and unease (props to the score by Disasterpiece, who oh so obviously ripped a few pages out of John Carpenter’s sonic playbook).

The only glitches come in the form of a groan worthy plot device that’s on par with the rusty nail in A Quiet Place and the fact that the satire isn’t mean and nasty enough; the digs at TikTok shackled youth of the world are pretty tame and could have done with a bit more barb (pro tip: watch Annihilation Nation for an example of sharp social commentary and aggressive triggers).

Perhaps not on par with A24’s other horror fare—Hereditary, Midsommar, Men, etc.—but it’s a fun end-of-summer diversion.