Tag: misoginy

[EXPRESSO] Blink Twice (2024) | Ass Wide Shut

An overworked catering waitress, Frida, one day happens to be working at a gala involving the late CEO (and founder) of tech megacorp KingTech, Slater King, whom resigned from the job after an unclear scandal he keeps trying to apologize for. Frida accidentally makes a pratfall, which piques Slater’s curiosity, leading to invite the girl and her friend (alongside many others) to an exclusive party on a remote island he just purchased.

Drugs, alcohol and fun abound in the neverending days of debauchery, but eventually Frida starts noticing she and others can’t quite remember what they did hours before, why they have scars or even what day even is…

A mix of Get Out, Don’t Worry Darling and The Menu, Blink Twice it’s actually none of those because it’s ultimately just an exploitation movie that tries to pass a pedantic overabundance of “style” as substance when in reality it’s incredibly superficial in handling his own themes, it just presents them at complete face value and calls it a day, while leaving too many question unanswered and with the big reveal… that actually dampens interest instead of rejuvenating it.

The good performances by the star laden cast i’d argue make things even worse, wasted on a movie that wants the praise of the auter by imitating other films that tackle similar themes, by feigning a wit that isn’t there, thinking that you just gotta throw ideas into the script and that will fuckin do.

For what it actually is… it not THAT BAD, but Blink Twice constantly pretends to be something else, it’s actually proper pretentious, while unable to make any point about anything.

Zoe Kravitz’s debut feels like M. Night Shyamalan trying to cynically (and badly) ape Jordan Peele, but even lacking M. Night’s earnestness and conviction for his ideas.

[EXPRESSO] MEN (2022) | Manstalking 101

AH, yes, that sequel to The Woman we were waiting for, and by Alex Garland nonetheless, um!

One hell of a title that goes straight to the point, does tell you what it’s actually about, and it’s not ashamed to be beyond blunt in the handling of its themes of misoginy and female abuse.

The movie tells of a woman renting out a house in a small countryside english village for two weeks, in order for her to recover from seeing her husband commit suicide (by jumping off from a balcony in the apartment above theirs) after she decided to finally divorce him.

But instead of some quiet solace to process events, she’s stalked by a naked man from the woods, and confronted by a variety of other men that are either condescending, hostile, weird or abusive, most of which seem to share the same face.

To be honest, considering the director involved, MEN it’s kinda disappointing, and not necessarily because it’s so decisively non-subtle about its themes (after all, social media showed us how subtlety is less and less effective), but more because the script lacks the usual sophistication and quality, so we have this really good cast and direction, some incredible (and incredibly disgusting) scenes in the latter half that in themselves make the movie worth seeing, good atmosphere..

…. but also a very slow moving first act, and the script trying to make up for its excessively straightforward nature by overdosing on the “A24”-isms to the point it’s kinda silly, since it mostly stylistic filler that should have been dialed back, since it doesn’t add any real substance and hammer over the already obvious motifs.

Again, it’s just disappointing, but overall a decent horror thriller still worth watching, as the final act definitely delivers “the goods”.