Movie Peek: Come to Daddy

Need a good flick to take your mind off of what a hot mess the world has become? Me too!

As you will know if you are returning reader, we stan Elijah Wood in this house. Recently-ish I was on a plane flying back from a long overdue trip visiting my family in another province (travel during covid isn’t fun, kids, avoid it if you can!) and Elijah’s new film Come to Daddy was available on the in-flight entertainment, so I gave it a go. It looks like it’s also available to stream on Amazon Prime. I had no idea what it was about aside from the movie poster, which features Elijah standing in front of a strange hillside dwelling, sporting what google would refer to as a “hipster haircut”, and gripping a bloody carving fork.

Not to be confused with the disturbing music video by Aphex Twin…

I settled in as the dude seated next to me also seemed to settle in, leaning ever closer to my side, encroaching on the sacred armrest space, with his eyes lingering on my screen more than his own. Elijah has that power.

It was fun seeing our humble and kind-eyed muse playing Norval, a spoiled and self satisfied city kid that prizes his limited-edition gold phone designed by Lorde and makes dubious claims about his music career and impressive industry ties. He heads out to meet his estranged father and soon wishes he’d never left his cushy life behind. The supporting cast were also very well chosen; I particularly enjoyed Wood’s scenes with Stephen McHattie in the beginning of the movie.

After about 15 minutes in I thought I knew where the movie was going and was a slight bit disappointed, thinking it would follow a predictable and somewhat familiar thriller arc, but then the movie took that notion and chewed it up, spitting it back into my face like HAH! YOU THOUGHT! A sudden and revelatory twist makes things very interesting indeed.

It’s some form of Elvish, I can’t… sorry, wrong movie.

While much of the film relies on slow and steady tension building and thoughtful, amusing dialogue, this is a jaw-clenchingly brutal movie at times. There was one violent episode in particular where my mind was racing “oh god, is Mr. Seatmate still looking at my screen, yikes, this is fucking brutal, oh god, it just keeps going, hahahaa, jesus, sorry you had to see that sir, HAHAhaha”.

He’s just trying one of those new-age face masks… to, uh… open up his pores or whatever

Overall, this is a movie I would easily recommend to anyone who likes bloody misadventures and dark humour. I got some genuine surprises, a couple of good laughs, and was assured that Elijah’s still got it— he carried this movie along through the quiet and poignant moments as well as the fight-for-your-life ones.

Ant Timpson’s Come to Daddy gets 5 big blue eyes out of 5 from me!

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Mini Review: Maquia- When the Promised Flower Blooms

If you fall in love, you will become truly alone.

This is the sentiment that forms the undercurrent of Maquia, a standalone high-fantasy story centered around the lorph- also known by humans as the “clan of the separated” because their near-immortality has caused them to live isolated lives and become the stuff of legends.

Maquia is a woman of the lorph. When a power-hungry kingdom raids her village, she is torn away from her kind and finds herself rescuing a human infant despite her deep knowledge of the heartbreak that will inevitably ensue.

Maquia is a rollicking story of adventure, with heaps of drama, spoonfuls of humour, and touches of romance. It’s also quite emotional- if you are a crier, be prepared to cry. By the end of it my husband looked at me and said “I feel like they’re trying their damnedest to make me cry”.

One aspect of the story that I really like is the Hibiol- the lorph are weavers and have a unique language of the cloth which they use to record history and share messages amongst themselves.

The film carries along at a good pace. It is interesting to see Maquia’s adopted son Ariel and the other humans in the story growing up steadily around the ever-youthful lorph characters. The way the characters developed and the decisions they made surprised me in some instances.

Another engaging aspect is the existence of the Renato- huge dragon creatures capable of flight that the kingdom of Mezarte have enslaved to do their bidding, but which are slowly but surely dying off from a mysterious “Red Eye disease”.

A word of caution- if, like me, you prefer sub over dub, stick with the Blu-Ray for this one. Sub and dub options are usually included on both the DVD release and Blu-Ray for most anime nowadays, but this is an exception- I borrowed the DVD from the library and then realized that it only had an English dub, so we had to watch it with English voice acting. The BluRay, I found out, does have both a sub or dub option.

Overall I really enjoyed this film and would totally watch it again someday. I think that, since it’s an engaging standalone film with a PG rating, it would be a good movie to introduce someone to anime, to share with your family, or to enjoy on a date. Or, just cosy up and enjoy it on your own!

Spoiler-Free Review: Train to Busan

I picked this movie up at the library as it’s been a while since I watched a zombie movie. My hubby Dustin said he’s over zombie movies, but I convinced him to watch it with me tonight, and it didn’t take long before we were invested in the plot and characters.

A workaholic father, recently separated from his wife, heads out with his young daughter to take her to see her mother in Busan. Someone odd has managed to limp onto the train among the many passengers.  The train has barely left the station before an attendant is attacked, leading to a chain of events that causes infection and panic to spread rapidly throughout the carriages.

Dong-seok Ma as Sang-hwa, who is definitely my favorite character in the film- the dude is a total badass!

This is a really solid, tightly plotted film with a good balance of action, emotion, and lots of YESSSSS and NOOOO!!!! moments. You see early on that the zombies are fast, ruthless, and dumb. They swarm and crowd, scrambling over each-other in waves and crashing onto screaming victims.

Sohee as Jin-hee

Yoo Gong as Seok-woo

As the movie progressed, we were rooting for certain characters, pleaing with them to do or not do certain things. Contrastingly, there’s at least one character that we grew to hate (you’ll know who if you watch the movie!) and we were urging him toward a slow and painful demise…

While a few common tropes are used, and occasionally a zombie’s facial expression or movement feels a bit campy, overall the film is gripping and gives you a believable taste of what might surmisedly happen if a train full of people suddenly found themselves cast into infectious chaos. The infection doesn’t stop at the train- there’s an entire messed up world to face. There are also some surprising plot twists that I really appreciated.

Su-an Kim as Soo-an- this girl is a seriously impressive actress!

I definitely recommend Train to Busan. It had me tensing up in my seat a lot, anxious for the main cast of characters. It engages you from beginning to end and leaves you sated with lots of feels. I can’t help myself from ending on a cheesy line- this train is an entertaining ride!

 

 

Spoiler-Free Review: Tokyo Ghoul (Live-Action Film)

Tokyo Ghoul is one of my favorite manga & anime series. I came across the live-action film when I was shelf-reading a section at the library the other day, so of course I had to check it out (I didn’t even know it was already made into a live-action!)

Dustin had watched the anime with me previously, so he and I hunkered down tonight on the couch with our dog Tegan to watch this new live-action film together.

While I am quite willing to suspend disbelief and ignore trivial inconsistencies for the enjoyment of a movie, there were a few scenes where I could tell my husband was thinking “Really? Realllyyy?”- such as when Kaneki was attacked in the shoulder but then started limping and flailing like his legs had turned to jelly. However, these moments didn’t detract from the film. When I sometimes feel that acting is over-the-top, I then remember that anime and manga are also often over-the-top.

Kaneki’s awkwardness and vulnerability is played up so much in the beginning as to be almost cringe-worthy, but as with the manga and anime, the payoff is worth it. It’s fun to see his growth. I love how they played with the design of his mask, particularly the teeth:

The actors chosen were generally spot on with their characters. The scenes where ghouls are made to eat human food almost made me gag along with them- that is some solid acting. There were a couple of scenes where I actually gasped out loud in surprise or delight at the action or depravity on the screen.

Fumika Shimizu as Touka. I really enjoyed her as Touka, but I just found out that soon after filming she announced that she is retiring from her entertainment career and devoting herself to the controversial religious organization/cult “Happy Science.”

The visual effects were fairly believable and definitely cool- lots of quinique and kagune action shots.

Yô Ôizumi as Kureo Mado

Masataka Kubota as Kaneki Ken

I hope a second film will come out of this, as some of my favorite characters weren’t included in the movie since their plots emerge a bit later in the series.

Juzo

Shuu

Yeah, Juzo and Shuu, i’m talking to you.

I’m really glad Uta had a couple of scenes, at least.

Bando Minosuke as Uta- the dude reeks cool.

Overall, this film is a fun and action packed adaptation of the anime and manga. While the comparatively short length of the movie doesn’t give as much time to explore Kaneki’s inner turmoil and the complexities of the ghoul & human worlds, hopefully this isn’t the end of Tokyo Ghoul’s live-action career. I’ll be waiting for vol. 2!

The Shape of Water: A Spoiler-Free Review/Doug Jones Squee Fest

Just the other night I watched The Shape of Water. I got it from the library and began watching it having almost no idea what it was about, who directed it, anything- just that it (maybe?) was a romance between some kind of amphibious man and a beautiful dark-haired woman(?).

I know, it had lots of Academy Awards buzz and whatnot, but I don’t have cable, I rarely go to the shoddily-maintained movie theatre in my small town, and apparently I live under a rock. I’ve been really busy ok! T-T

After just the first couple of scenes, I knew it would be my kind of movie. It was immediately apparent that I was in for a journey that would be a bit whimsical, artfully directed (those colour palettes, tho!), and not afraid to go places that were a little transgressive.

I won’t go deeply into the plot, as this is a spoiler-free review, but I will say that when I learned that it was directed by Guillermo del Toro I was not surprised. I greatly admire del Toro’s work- I appreciate how he doesn’t underestimate his audience’s capacity for comprehension, doesn’t pander to the widest audience possible, and balances quiet, charming scenes with short but arrestingly graphic ones.

Sometimes to enjoy del Toro’s vision, the viewer must permit herself to suspend disbelief and question where (or whether) a scene blurs from reality to something more poetic and conceptual.

When I discovered that the film was directed by del Toro, I wondered if Doug Jones was the actor who portrayed The Assett/The Creature, and sure enough, he was. I mean, to be fair, the creature in this movie does resemble Hellboy’s Abe Sapien (also played by Jones) more than a little bit- not that that’s a problem at all!

Doug Jones is a talented actor with a long and impressive filmography to his name, yet many people don’t know his face because his roles often involve full-body prosthetic. To any person who thinks that donning heavy prosthetics equals lazy acting, guess again. Doug brings characters brilliantly to life with his subtle, carefully executed physicality.

^he also undoubtedly sat patiently for countless hours while experts carefully pieced together all of these looks onto his body!

The Shape of Water tickled my fancy quite a bit, and so I drew a little picture with ink and dip pen.

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#shapeofwater #art #ink #dippen #creature #guillermodeltoro #darkfantasy #sallyhawkins #dougjones #vanessataylor #theshapeofwater #deltoro @actordougjones @realgdt

A post shared by Shauna (@hidengoshauna) on May 18, 2018 at 6:53pm PDT

And then this happened and it kinda blew my mind

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😮 #dougjones #actordougjones @actordougjones

A post shared by Shauna (@hidengoshauna) on May 18, 2018 at 8:56pm PDT

FJKRNGKJQAMKFAMDKLM!!! Whoops, I fangirled a little there.

So, if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch The Shape of Water! I’m certainly planning to add it to my personal film collection in the future.