Dear friend,
As I’m leaving any kind of creativity behind, caught in a storm of things to do and things to plan, I must say I really admire anyone who manages to have any sort of creative output. Keep up the good work!
Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson, co-written with Owen Wilson, US, 1998 - ⭐⭐½
Alright, everyone’s crazy about Anderson’s second film. I didn’t love it the first time I watched it, I still didn’t love it this second time. Jason Schwartzman’s character is very annoying (on purpose, I would say) and I don’t buy his last-minute arc, Bill Murray’s role is more interesting (was this the beginning of Murray’s phase two?), really the whole movie hangs onto Olivia Williams as the only sensible person in the room (at least until the infuriating last scene).
But still, it made me nostalgic for a period where (some of) Anderson’s characters felt like people with lives and feelings instead of puppets symmetrically arranged on a set.
Tomb Watcher/สุสานคนเป็น, directed by Vathanyu Ingkawiwat, written by Nut Nualpang, Nattamol Peanthanom, Nattapot Potchumnean, Weerasu Worrapot, based on Pradit Kaljaruek’s novel, Thailand, 2025 - ⭐⭐
The box office winner in Thailand for a week in April (between Sinners and The Thunderbolts), this film about a young woman having the bad idea of falling in love with her boss’ husband - and then being forced to live in the same house as her dead rival - is much more melodrama than horror, although there are a couple of chilling scenes. I was cheering for both women, because the man in this story is a horrible person.
Black Phone 2, directed by Scott Derrickson, co-written with C. Robert Cargill, US, 2025 - ⭐⭐⭐½
I love all the films this creative duo made, including the first Black Phone. So I’m inclined to turn a blind eye to a misstep like this movie, which has no real reason to exist and, to be generous, can be seen as a love letter to the eighties’ classic horrors, as it borrows elements from several of them, getting uncomfortably close to an unofficial Nightmare on Elm Street reboot.
So, one could accuse it of being a bit lazy (with a side of ret-conning), but I was entertained throughout the film (and really scared by a halfway-through set piece), and I share the authors’ affection for these characters and their interest in giving prominence to Madeleine McGraw’s Gwen.
The Blackwell Ghost, written and directed by Turner Clay, US, 2017 - ⭐⭐½
I watched this found-footage, home-made little film based on a recommendation from a couple of YouTubers, and it was a mixed experience: the lead characters (the director himself and especially Terri Czapleski, his sceptical wife) are charming, but their interaction is the only thing that kept me awake during the less-than-an-hour running time. The horror part is really non-existent, except for a sort-of-something you almost glimpse at some point.
As usual, maximum respect for anybody who completes a film with very little money, but, as a viewer, this is the poor man’s Paranormal Activity, and it knows.
Hatching/Pahanhautoja, directed by Hanna Bergholm, co-written with Ilja Rautsi, Finland, 2022 - ⭐⭐⭐
I don’t want to get into spoilers: the main picture on the streaming platform from which I rented this film subtly gave everything away, and I think my enjoyment was a bit diminished because of it. There’s an over-controlling mother and a teenage daughter, and a weird egg the girl finds after she starts seeing a side of her parents that she didn’t know.
It’s an allegory for growing up and choosing your own path, although I believe the theme becomes a bit muddled when horror has to ensue for narrative reasons.
The two main actresses are great, and it’s quite incredible that young Siiri Solalinna hasn’t appeared in any movie since this one was released.
The Woman in Cabin 10, directed by Simon Stone, co-written with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, based on the novel by Ruth Ware, US, 2025 - ⭐⭐
A Netflix variation on The Lady Vanishes that somehow manages to squander a cast led by Keira Knightley and Guy Pearce: the - anyway intriguing - premise of a person disappearing from a ‘closed space’ without anybody but the lead character remembering her is undermined midway through by a revelation that’s very very difficult to accept, and a ‘motive’ that’s exposed in such an explicit way that you’ll know exactly who’s behind the facts much earlier in the film.