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Monday, July 22, 2019

Go See Midsommar, Wait For The Art of Self-Defense For Streaming

Midsommar is a wonderful, sunny, bright, horror movie. It's really hard to scare people in the sun, but some how it manages to just do that with maybe a new genre of "monsters" or subgenre of them. It's best to go in knowing very little except some college kids are visiting a village during a festival and all is not right there.

Check out this commercial for a limited edition toy no longer available, based on the movie. It won't make sense unless you see it, but it does give you an idea of something amiss just going on.
Now the commercial above made me want to see The Art of Self-Defense. It's a dark comedy about a dweeb who builds up his confidence via taking karate lessons, but also another layer of something bad going on behind the scenes.

Now, I would have loved it, but director Riley Stearns oddly chose to make all his characters talk in a monotone like The Lobster. Frankly, if I didn't look him up I would say Yorgos Lanthimos who did The Lobster did this one too. That's not praise. That's someone copying another person's style to such a degree that they don't have style.

Riley, who also wrote the film, did some stupid silly jokes that totally fit it. Wearing karate belts at the dojo and work might become easier...wink. I just wish he could have made everyone talk like people.

So, now it's worth a watch on a weekend.