Skinamarink

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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).

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Skinamarink                                                                EH/OK

I didn’t watch any trailers beforehand; just saw images and what others (particularly horror fans) have said and those alone made me want to see it.  Turned out images are all you need to see anyhow to get a gist of what to expect.  All it primarily entails is lowly-lit interior shots of a house at night and what’s contained within.  It takes place in 1995 and there are two young kids, a boy and a girl (their parents appear, disappear, and reappear randomly like other items).  You catch glimpses of them, see their legs walking and such, and you hear them talking, but never get to know them on an intimate level.  A traditional narrative this is not.  It is as arty as arty gets.  Put it this way, if you don’t like the style within the first five minutes, I don’t think you’ll want to continue since it doesn’t change during the entire 100-minutes; it does get more and more bizarre though.  This is a classic example of a film that’s “not for everyone.”  Someone labeled it as akin to “Home Alone in Hell,”  which makes it sound cooler than it is, but I could sort of see the description---there are two kids seemingly home alone, there being no burglars, but there is some type of presence in this abode with them.  Someone else described it as if David Lynch directed Poltergeist, and I get that too, but this is even more experimental than the average Lynch project (at least we get to know the characters more intimately in his works).  I ultimately had a like-hate relationship with it.  It did have a strange way of making me want to continue (as any “innovative” feature likely would) and there are some eerie moments, and it didn’t really seem like 100-minutes when finished, but style obviously trumps substance and experimentation can only go so far.  There is substance buried within though.  I’d be curious to see the same movie presented in a typical narrative form, one, to see how much different it would be, and, two, to see which version is more effective.  2/5/2023

Bonus review:

Goodnight Mommy                                                     EH/OK

The original Austrian film was released just 8 years ago.  I rated it OK, according to my archives, and I probably would’ve given it the same rating after I re-watched it before checking out this remake released last year on Amazon Prime.  In the original, young twin boys have a strange suspicion their mother, whom they are staying with at an isolated house in the country, isn’t their real mother due to her behavior and bandages she’s wearing over her face after surgery.  The twist isn’t hard to figure out from the get-go, at least for me since I’ve seen too many movies.  It’s still an okay film (as I mentioned), albeit a bit of a slow burn, with an ending that may be ambiguous to some (the very ending, not the aforementioned twist).  This remake is not much different save for one or two scenes that are part of a dream (I don’t count that).  Even if I never saw the original, I think I would’ve still figured out the twist (it may have been even more obvious here).  Can I add this to the list of unnecessary remakes?  Sure.  I don’t see why you would watch this if you saw the original, especially not long beforehand, unless you want to see different performers, don’t want to read subtitles (if English is your primary language), or are just curious to see if anything will be altered (yours truly fell into the latter camp, in addition to OCD).  Everything happens exactly how you expect, right up to the ending that may be ambiguous for some.  I think I’m being a bit nice by giving it half an OK rating (I definitely lean more towards EH), but I actually didn’t completely dislike it even though no curveballs were thrown.  If you haven’t seen many movies in your lifetime, or never saw the original, you might like it better and possibly be shocked by the twist.  2/3/2023

Other movies and TV show(s) I’ve seen and their ratings (see above):

The Banshees of Inisherin  >>>OK/G

The Menu  >>>OK

Shady Grove  >>>OK

Strays (1991)  >>>EH/OK

Tár  >>>B

Three Pines (Season One)  >>>OK

   (Amazon Prime; 8 episodes)

The Uncanny (1977)  >>>OK

---Sean O.

2/6/2023