Weekly visions - week 40, 2024

Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter, co-written with Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, US, 2015 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (up from ⭐⭐⭐½)

I’ve postponed re-watching this film for so long: one reason was not being in the mood for colourful funny characters, another one, being afraid I would like it less the second time. Finally, on a particularly stressful day, the time came to try and relax a bit, and I’m happy to report that I appreciated it more instead; I feel I was a bit strict in my previous assessment; I remember liking the same ideas I enjoyed on rewatch, especially the ‘islands of personality’, which make a lot of sense to me. Also, I think it has a great ending, (spoiler alert) where emotions can co-operate to create more nuanced feelings.

Inside Out 2, directed by Kelsey Mann, written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐

… but, unfortunately, the sequel throws it all away, going back to the ‘one emotion takes the lead’ idea, stranding Joy out of control tower again, and going all in in puns (the stream of consciousness; the brainstorm; the back of the mind; the sar-chasm, which is clever but makes little sense in the context). I can’t say I actively disliked it, but it doesn’t offer much either.

Insidious, directed by James Wan, written by Leigh Whannell, US, 2010 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (up from ⭐⭐⭐½)

For some reason, my own Fear and Anxiety need to be appeased by horror demons.
Insidious (which for the sake of continuity this week I would pronounce Inside-Yous - and I’m surprised I never thought of that because it makes a lot of sense for the film) was one of the first scary films I watched when I started exploring the genre a couple of years ago, so I turned to the familiar Darth Maul demon to comfort me.
It did, and for this reason, I raise its rating to four stars; it’s still a rehash of Poltergeist, and I wish there the Further was much more surrealist than it’s depicted, but I feel it’s become a guilty pleasure for me.

Night Call/La nuit se traîne, directed by Michiel Blanchart, co-written with Gilles Marchand, Belgium, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐½

Even living in the capital city of this country, I’m not in London/Paris/Rome, so it doesn’t happen every day that I go to the cinema and see scenes set in the very same streets I’ve just walked through to get there. Usually, Brussels is either shown as Hollywood’s idea of it - bearing no resemblance to reality (I’m looking at you, Lift) -, or tries to stand in for Paris (I’m looking at you, The Danish Girl).
Anyway, La nuit se traîne is a good debut film by a young Belgian director, that is helped but not overwhelmed by the familiar face of Romain Duris in villainous mode. I was a bit disappointed by the ending, which is inevitable from a ’this is a film so it has to end a certain way’ point of view, but not very believable in the ‘how normal people behave’ sense.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum/곤지암, directed by Jung Bum-shik, co-written with Park Sang-min, South Korea, 2018 - ⭐⭐⭐½

When reading about last week’s Grave Encounters, I found it often compared to this (later) South Korean film, so I got curious and watched it. Indeed, the premise is the same: found footage, web horror show crew, haunted building, creepy backstory, horrible outcome.
I think this one is the better film because it tries to get us acquainted with the characters before things go bad (even though their characterisation is just Scooby-Doo deep) and provides the classic Eastern point of view on horror (I love the fact that there’s always a ‘forbidden ritual’ to spice things up). I’m wondering, what protection does holy water provide against non-Christian demons?
It takes literally half the film for something to happen, and it focuses a bit too much on character’s reaction shots (their mini-cameras film both what’s in front of them and behind them, giving a lot of screen time to people’s faces - think Heather Donahue’s signature Blair Witch shot, all the time: if someone is really fond of looking into people’s nostrils, this is the film for them). But this results in a chilling and memorable shot, which Grave Encounter doesn’t have.

eXistenZ, written and directed by David Cronenberg, Canada, 1999 - ⭐⭐⭐½ (down from ⭐⭐⭐⭐½)

I’ve been postponing buying this Blu-Ray from my usual shop because I was afraid that, after revisiting the film, I’d end up not liking it as much as I did the first time (and the first time I watched it, I was still living with my parents… looong ago).
And that’s exactly what happened. eXistenZ is still quite solid, and the body horror (if we can call it that) of organic joypads is still effective, as are the disgusting crustaceans.
There is a reflection on reality and ‘virtual’ reality that is not out of place today, and pairs interestingly with the one from The Matrix (which came out only a few weeks earlier). Here, too - among other points - humans are a source of energy.
So, I don’t regret purchasing the physical disc.
But these ideas are drowned in a confusing story, that, especially near the end, takes twists that are not necessary and justified (well, it was also the same year as The Sixth Sense, wasn’t it?)
So I’m sorry eXistenZ, I still love you but you’re out of my cinema Pantheon.