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Otherkin 2022 ★★
Unremarkable short about a woman returning to her family, only to find a bit more than she bargained for.
The main horror here is the fear of the inevitable. The atmos does not get all too creepy, but the actors try their damndest.
Fun watch for people looking for atmost horror.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe 2016 ★★★★
We start at a crime scene where the body of a young woman is taken away. She ends up in a morgue where a young coroner (Emile Hirsch from Into the the wild and The girl next door) and his father (Brian Cox) have to find the COD. However, as the night progresses, they will find out that this is anything but an open and shut case.
It starts with more and more oddities popping up. Hang on, this is actually more interesting than I thought it would be. We then build up more and more atmopshere as the two coroners start gathering evidence, trying to find out what had happened to this Jane Doe. This is where the actors do a good job. Cox as the father, jocular with the girlfriend and concerned over the wellbeing of his son. Hirsch as the son, torn between his relationship, his personal ambitions and being the dutiful son doing his job. Of course, there has been a tragedy in the family and the two protagonists suffer a great loss. Not going to spoil the ending, but suffice it to say that it's not very sunny and cheerfull.
This one was pretty damn good. I liked how they set up the atmosphere or used the radio to their advantage. How all these small, daily life appliances can be turned against you and drive you crazy. The actors do a good job and one horror cliché I like seeing confirmed is how the fans look at human death – oh yeah! – and animal death – oh no :'-(
Four stars. Underrated gem and well worth checking out.
Luckiest Girl Alive 2022 ★★★½
From what I can tell and from what I have seen of Mila Kunis, this is probably (one of) the most emotionally complex role(s) in her career and she pulls it off very well. In a way, Ani challenges the tendency of (a part of) the audience to overfocus on wether or not and how much a protagonist is likable.
Ani is ambitious and wants to do what it takes to get to the top (even change her name), yet she is not blind not to the backstage nonsense. That makes for an interesting duality between desperately wanting to fit in and at the same time loathing the less nice things that come with it. You can hear her the whole time saying to herself: ugh, I hate this shit, I feel like a fraud. Now now, you got this chance, your mama is expecting stuff from you, don't let her (and yourself) down. Leaves you as a viewer wondering how much of this is nature and how much is nurture, which is a lot more interesting than finding a character you can just blindly like and agree with.
It's a bit, for lack a better word, rich to hear somebody clearly on her way to better things complain about things other people would give an arm and a leg for. And at the same time, it's a nice change of pace from The devil wears Prada-ish characters, the small town girl making it big and who's just so gosh darn happy to be there. As if reality is that simple.
And of course, there are the demons from the past lurking underneath the surface, causing her to lash out at not necessarily the best possible moments. All adding up to an interesting character arc, told in an entertaining way and at a good pace.
Also makes a nice duality between what we know of someone and the full picture. Like the character of Dean. Somebody who was a jerk at first and then, for lack of a better term, stumbled upon something that somehow gave him the chance to morph into a hero/nation sweetheart, yet not wiping out what is/was underneath that surface. Sure, the reveal with the tape recorder was predictable and the montage of the reactions came with some cheesy music. But why base judgment on one part when the bigger picture has a lot more to it?
All this together makes for an interesting drama/thriller that you can enjoy on more than one level. Well worth checking out.
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