Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have Sydney Sweeney‘s horror vehicle Immaculate going up against the documentary Remembering Gene Wilder. This week also has a new Criterion release. Which film wound up emerging on top here? Read on to find out…
Immaculate
Sydney Sweeney does strong scream queen work in Immaculate, a horror flick that doesn’t particularly reinvent the wheel, but mostly satisfies. Her screen presence goes a long way here, though there’s some solid gore on display. It’s gnarly in a way that you want your scary movies to be. My review of the film (here) began as such:
Religious themed horror is generally not my favorite sub-genre. Of course, believing or not believing doesn’t fully impact if the scary movie works on you, but having some degree of faith does add to the potential terror. Lacking that, I see these fright flicks as just being set in interesting locations, to half-jokingly break this down to the bones. So, when something like Immaculate chooses not to focus too heavily on the religion of it all, I see it as a positive. Combined with a strong central performance and some surprising carnage, genre fans should be pretty pleased.
Immaculate has some ideas it’s toying with, but at its core it’s mostly gore, jump scares, and a showcase for a scream queen. The horror wheel is decidedly not being reinvented, though the convent setting is used slightly differently than usual. More than anything else, it’s a star vehicle, and in that regard, it’s largely successful.
Remembering Gene Wilder
This documentary is a lovely tribute to Gene Wilder. Fans of his would do well to give this one a shot. There are clips galore and spends far more time on the joys of his talents than the tragedy of his passing. Wilder was a singular talent and the doc makes sure you’re aware of that fact. I had the following to say here in my review:
Who doesn’t love Gene Wilder? Whether it’s a Mel Brooks movie like Blazing Saddles, The Producers, or Young Frankenstein, or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, there was a work that made you fall for the actor. Now, we have the documentary Remembering Gene Wilder to pay tribute not just to his career, but his life as well.
Remembering Gene Wilder is incredibly respectful and downright reverent, but it never comes off as fan service. The doc legitimately plays like a filmmaker, as well as his colleagues/friends over the years, wanting to talk about their love for Gene. That intimate feeling from the talking heads, as well as plenty of clips, gives any fan of Wilder’s a fitting tribute to the man. If you somehow have no clue who he is, well, you need to fix that, but this is also a solid entry point.
DogMan
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
La Femme Nikita (4K)
Shrek: 4-Movie Collection (4K)
Superman & Lois: The Complete Third Season (TV)
Criterion Corner
From The Criterion Collection: “Conjured from the unholy meeting of two iconoclastic queer artists, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film audaciously raises Jean Genet’s controversial novel to the level of myth. In an expressionistic soundstage vision of a French seaport town—bathed in fiery hues and complete with phallic spires—a strapping sailor and unrepentant criminal (Brad Davis) comes ashore to arouse passion, rivalry, and violence among the libidinal denizens drawn into his orbit. Enacted with dreamlike stylization by a cast of international stars, including Jeanne Moreau and Franco Nero, Querelle finds Fassbinder pushing his taboo-shattering depiction of gay desire to delirious extremes.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
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