The Foxy Film Fan

The following review of Host  is spoiler free! As the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, filmmakers have found themselves struggling to find innovative ways to continue on in their craft. While movies like Searching  (which is fantastic, by the way) and Unfriended  attempted to provide stories via webcam footage and glimpses of a laptop interface, Host  does it out of necessity rather than due to a stylistic choice. Director Rob Savage uses the pandemic as a realistic backdrop for a relatively simple movie. Due to the technological limitations from actors being restrained to working from their webcams and Host's  devotion to realism, the movie is very brief. It's only 57 minutes long - the length of a free group Zoom call. However, the short length of the movie doesn't hold it back. In fact, it makes Host  a fast and fun horror movie for a season where we can't expect many new films. There's no unnecessary exposition, nor are there lengthy scenes to show us...

Discussing The Lodge  without spoilers is incredibly difficult, but this review will be completely spoiler free. The basic premise of the horror movie is simple, but admittedly a little strange: two children are forced to spend the holidays with their father's girlfriend in the titular lodge during a terrible blizzard. All three of them are unhappy with an arrangement which sounds disastrous from the start, yet the girlfriend and father decide it's simply what they should do. So, we join Riley Keough in her babysitting adventure isolated in a cabin. My biggest critique is that the writers should have decided on stronger reasoning for Keough to wind up stuck with the two children in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps it could have been a situation more like  The Shining  and less along the lines of "your dad said this is a good idea, so it's clearly a good idea." Silly set-up aside, The Lodge  is decent. The film longs to discuss complex subjects like religious abuse, ...

(The following review is spoiler-free!) "Enola is alone backwards," our protagonist tells us in one of her many monologues. She tells us many things - how she's feeling, what she's thinking, where she thinks she should go next. Her wide gaze is disconcerting and her sunny disposition grating. This isn't Sherlock Holmes, this is Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill playing dress-up. Everything about Netflix's newest release is grating. Its mystery begs us to care for cartoonish characters who speak to us as if we're watching an episode of Dora the Explorer. Showing rather than telling is thrown to the wayside in favor of constant fourth wall breaks to beat your sense of immersion into a bloody pulp. Enola Holmes  wants you to know that you're watching a movie, and that it's the funniest, wittiest, and most important movie you're ever going to see (unfortunately, in light of recent events that very well may be true). From its fast-paced editing to...

The following review is spoiler-free! The new sci-fi horror film Possessor  is unlike anything I've ever seen. Borrowing elements from popular science fiction releases like Inception , Brandon Cronenberg's new movie twists the assassin/heist sci-fi plot into something revolting. Like a car crash, once you start watching you can't look away from every bit of gore and terror on screen.  IndieWire called Possessor  a "gory techno-thriller" and I couldn't agree more.  Possessor operates within strict rules and logic which establish an unwavering sense of realism. Its slow pacing and meticulous depiction of the daily grind of the average worker makes its universe feel lived in and real. The future Cronenberg shows us isn't sleek and chrome, its either pastel apartment complexes through a muddy gray lens or horrifically bright red. Despite its promotional imagery the horror of the movie is rarely visual. Instead Possessor  grabs hold of Stephen King's defini...

Spree  is a horror comedy with a simple premise: a driver for Spree (a fictional ride-share service similar to Uber or Lyft) is plagued with the desire for internet fame. He spends his free time streaming video games, making mediocre electronic music, and attempting to leech off of the fame of a friend. His entire life revolves around the unobtainable allure of going viral. One day he decides he's going to do whatever it takes to force the world to pay attention to him. Joe Keery from Stranger Things  is the driving force of the film. His greasy disheveled look and overeager neediness make for a fascinating watch from start to finish, and he's remarkably believable as a socially inept young man scrambling for the limelight. If anyone else was cast as Kurt the movie simply wouldn't be any good, because in the slower dull moments of the movie it's truly Keery's performance that kept me watching. Most of the fun in Spree  comes from the found footage style which it rew...

     When Todd Phillips'  Joker (2019) was announced there was almost an immediate wave of backlash. Media outlets prepared everyone for potential shootings and the internet anticipated a movie which told the story of an angry cishet white man fighting back against a society he believed owed him something. I recently rewatched Joker  since my first time seeing it in theaters last year and disagree with this theory. Joker , at its core, is a deeply empathetic movie which demonstrates the plight of the mentally ill, the endless cycle of poverty, and why gun control is crucial.     Protagonist Arthur Fleck is suffers from a cocktail of mental illnesses, including one which drives him to painful gag-inducing bouts of laughter when faced with stressful situations. He receives dirty looks from strangers and fumbles for an explanation for his condition, a situation which many disabled people can relate to. Often times the burden of explaining the right to exi...

In yet another painful 2020 betrayal the Mulan remake tricked me into watching a Star Wars movie. The trailer promised fun highly stylized fight scenes and unfortunately that's all Disney's newest live-action remake has to offer.   Mulan is no longer a clumsy-yet-brave heroine who takes the place of her father in the military despite being unremarkable. Now she's essentially a Jedi who has been hiding the forbidden fighting abilities which flow through her veins since she was a child. Instead of watching Mulan grow into a warrior, the audience watches her grapple with whether or not she should reveal that she basically has superpowers. It's difficult to discuss Mulan  without at least making note of lead actress Liu Yifei's controversial political opinions. The actress voiced support for Hong Kong police, who were beating Chinese citizens as they peacefully protested to bring democracy to their country.  Bearing this in mind, it makes it difficult to take Yifei...

Like so many before me, I've been a longstanding fan of the work of director and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,   Adaptation , Being John Malkovich , and Synecdoche, New York  are profound pieces of cinema which have shaped the way people look at film and recognize movies (particularly dark comedies) as an artform which can communicate existential ideas. Sure, he's usually dismissed as pretentious, but I'm at a point in my life where I'm alright with most of the things I love being cast aside as such. That being said  I'm Thinking of Ending Things , Kaufman's newest film which released on Netflix today, is an exhausting two and a half hour trek through nothingness. The thin and wavering plot is stretched as thin as our protagonist's sanity as she and her terrible boyfriend venture out to a farm to visit his parents. Our protagonist (played by Jessie Buckley) is uncertain of who she is, and unfortunately that makes it dif...

Despite the abundance of superhero movies, it's been a long time since we've had something as violent and fun as Birds of Prey . It feels as though Marvel and DC movies are so wrapped up in maintaining their own lore and reaching the next beat in the plot that they've forgotten the most important part about superhero movies - fun. Admittedly, I've never really been a superhero movie person. I had fun with Guardians of the Galaxy , I liked Watchmen  in all its sad introspective existential dread, Joker  made me cry a lot about the plight of those of us who struggle with mental illness, and I'm excited to see Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell, and Paul Dano all in the new Batman movie. Outside of that, I have the tendency to get bored during most superhero movies. I either hit a wall where the action is mind-numbing or I feel like I already know what's going to happen next and I'm just waiting to be proven right. Birds of Prey  is different. A...

Director Rupert Goold is perhaps most notable for his phenomenal Macbeth  film, which is singlehandedly responsible for sparking my interest in the play (and Patrick Stewart played no small role in swaying my heart, of course). Unfortunately his 2019 biopic, Judy,  is bland and tasteless. As one critic states, Judy  shows the lows, but it carefully avoids navigating the highs of Judy Garland's life. As many know, Judy Garland's life was one full of abuse, addiction, and terrible trauma. She acted and sang under prying eyes for most of her life, was sexually abused by disgusting men in the film industry who were too big to worry about consequences for their actions, and struggled to have the relationship with her children she yearned for. Goold's film, Judy, observes these tragedies within her life through a cold and callous lens. We watch her perform, indulge in her addiction, and get some incredibly painful flashbacks to some of her childhood abuse. There's never ...

          2019 was an interesting and contradictory year for film. On one hand we had more of the Hollywood Disney/Marvel sameness, and on the other hand we had some unique new releases by some of my favorite directors of all time. This list took a great deal of contemplation, because 2019 had some wonderful releases, and I hope 2020s list is even more challenging. Unfortunately, 2019 had a lot of great movies I didn't get around to watching in time for writing this list ( Uncut Gems and Knives Out , to be specific), but you can expect full reviews for both of those movies in the future.           Also, Cats  gets a shoutout for making me physically ill with its grotesque imagery. Congratulations on feeling three hours longer than you really are.  10. The Lighthouse horror, directed by Robert Eggers           Robert Eggers is singlehandedly responsible for absolutely horrifying me with his ...

Marriage Story  is a phenomenal and depressing movie. 2019 seems to be, for whatever reason, the year film felt like tackling agonizing and realistic depictions of breakups. From Midsommar 's fantastical take on a relationship's unraveling during cult rituals, to Marriage Story  (which I feel should have been called Divorce Story, since it's a little misleading), film has began agonizing over the details of romantic relationship's downfalls with no hope in sight of any sort of reconciliation.  I would like to begin this review with confessing my adoration for Adam Driver, and admitting that it took Jojo Rabbit for me to realize Scarlett Johansson can act in roles other than playing the silent tough lady. Marriage Story , however, really shows more depth and levels to her acting. It's unfortunate that the infamous fight scene has been circulating the internet as a bit of a meme, since within the context of the film it's heartbreaking and has some of the ...

Ready Or Not  is your traditional wedding story. A woman marries a rich man, and she has to survive until daylight while her new in-laws hunt her down with guns and crossbows. You know, it's just like every other wedding you've been to. There's a lot to say about this movie and it's commentary made on the wealthy privileged elites of society, and there's also a lot to say about Samara Weaving's performance as the bride who just can't seem to catch a break. Class warfare is the most blatant theme throughout Ready Or Not , and it's sort of a play on those stories of the wealthy hunting humans for fun. The family's dysfunction leads to her new husband, Alex, having complicated feelings about the role he's forced to play. Like the wealthy who contemplate whether the role they play in society is truly beneficial or actually actively harms the poor, he sways back and forth from longing to protect his wife and feeling certain that he has a duty to...

The Art of Self Defense  features Jesse Eisenberg as Casey, an awkward and anxious man who signs up for classes at his local karate dojo led by a chauvinistic and eccentric sensei. After years of being mocked for being himself and a particularly traumatic event, Casey decides he wants to become what he's afraid of. So, he sets forth in doing just that, and slowly works on transforming himself into the same type of men who have belittled him and tormented him for his entire life. It's a strange combination of Napoleon Dynamite and John Wick, but with more of a message to deliver than either of them. The Art of Self Defense  aims to help its audiences understand what toxic masculinity is, and that it's not some inherent trait every masculine man has. When masculinity turns toxic it takes the form of men picking fights with one another over a glance or bad parking job, it turns into men who harm and harass women just because they can. I, like many other women, have endur...

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty and starring John Cho, Searching  is a 2018 thriller which was tragically overlooked. It's the first mainstream Hollywood thriller staring an Asian-American actor, and Cho proves himself as a phenomenal actor who is capable of carrying the film entirely on his own shoulders. The directing, acting, and story are all absolutely phenomenal, and I really must urge everyone who reads this to seek this movie out (currently it's available on Vudu and Amazon Prime for purchase, unfortunately I don't think you can rent it anywhere right now). The film has one gimmick similar to that of Unfriended . You know, that awful 2015 horror movie where you watch some rude teenagers get killed off by the ghost of the girl they bullied to the point of suicide? Yeah. Searching  is told entirely through computer screens, webcams, emails, phone calls, and various other types of modern technology. However, the gimmick works in the case of this film. It feels natur...

This review contains spoilers for the movie Midsommar. Midsommar is a film which I have complicated feelings toward. In some aspects it's perfect. Visually, it's stunning, and the bright flower specked landscapes linger through the horror. I love the concept of a horror movie where daylight is not safer than the darkness, and I love the strange visual effects which make the plants and flowers breathe and pulse slowly. In other ways it feels restrained. The run-time was cut drastically, and it leaves certain aspects feeling underdeveloped (such as the "unclouded" who frantically scribble the community's holy texts). The film was intended to be a full half-hour longer, and I imagine losing that footage is the reason the movie feels rather incomplete. Don't get me wrong, Midsommar is good, but it doesn't feel fully realized. Our protagonist Dani is desperately clinging to a failing relationship after the loss of her family. Her uninterested boyfriend ...

Directed by Alexandre Aja and produced by the legendary Sam Raimi, Crawl  is the first movie to nearly give me a physical panic attack. Kaya Scodelario plays Haley, a swimmer who visits her estranged father (Barry Pepper) during a Category 5 hurricane to make sure he evacuates safely. Her rescue mission turns into the pair swimming, crawling, and climbing for their lives as they dodge the gaping maws of alligators which have made their way into the home's basement. Horror movies which spend the majority of their run-time in a single setting tend to grow old quickly, but Crawl chooses not to waste time (or scares). The CGI alligators have a real presence throughout the film, and with the movie's minimal soundtrack their every splash and snarl reverberates throughout the cavernous basement. I'm not claustrophobic, nor am I particularly scared of alligators (or at least I wasn't prior to seeing Crawl ), but Aja's sparing use of the camera flowing seamlessly unde...

Like many others, I was introduced to Taika Waititi through his satirical vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows  (written and directed alongside costar Jemaine Clement). It was funny enough for me to seek out and watch his heartfelt Hunt for the Wilderpeople starring Sam Neill. I even enjoyed and rewatched Thor: Ragnarok . So, I like Waititi's work, I like his style which emulates Wes Anderson but aspires to much more than settling for the wit and charm of Anderson's work. Waititi's Jojo Rabbit  doesn't just aim to tell a story, it aims to communicate the way a horrific ideology can spread like a wildfire through children. In some instances Jojo Rabbit  gives you emotional whiplash. One moment you're accompanying our clever child protagonist on his adventures around Berlin, and the next you're faced with the horrors of war as a civilian in Nazi Germany. However, this whiplash is crucial to truly understanding how the joy of the privileged in Berlin could...

Disney's vault of animated films are widely renowned classics of a bygone era where children's movies were thought provoking and fun for the whole family. Live action remakes of these classics are shambling hollow shells of what they once were, and Disney's live action remake of Lady and the Tramp  is no different. The real-life dogs used in the film are instantly transformed into horrific monsters dwelling in the depths of the uncanny valley the moment they open their bizarre CGI mouths and begin to speak, and the cats who frame poor Lady for demolishing her family's home are a hideous pair. The original music is left unscathed, save for the controversial Siamese cat song from the 1955 animated version which is replaced with a terrible jazz song that fails to blend in alongside the rest of the film's musical number. In every way imaginable, Lady and the Tramp  (2019) lacks subtlety. From the way the pair of cats demolish every inch and corner of Lady's ...

Directed by Robert Eggers of The VVitch fame, The Lighthouse  stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as a pair of lighthouse keepers whose isolation drives them to madness. Both actors put forth incredible performances, and Robert Pattinson continues to show his phenomenal skills as an actor who is still unfairly connected to a movie series he starred in a decade ago. Pattinson takes on the role of a silent man who wants to just do his job and leave, whereas Dafoe is the old eccentric who switches from antagonizing his young assistant one moment to demanding he speak up and swap a few stories (maybe even enjoy a few drinks). Visually, the film is hypnotic. The black and white shots of ocean waves crashing against the shore and storms rolling through in the distance left me in absolute awe. Its accompanying score is comprised of slow droning horns and strings which gradually get louder and fade into long gaps of silence, not unlike the bellows of the lighthouse itself. The s...