Weekly Round Up 2: Vampire's Kiss, Humanity, The Killer

Weekly Round up 2

Vampire’s Kiss(1988)

The infamous movie about a publishing executive who gets bitten by a woman (and thus thinks he’s a vampire), Vampire’s Kiss boasts an unhinged Nicolas Cage performance. It’s become so iconoc and mesmerizing, it’s become a meme. Normally this would hurt what seems to be an intended character study, but Vampire’s Kiss feels self-aware…maybe. At least Nicolas Cage seems to be. He’s the film’s biggest highlight, which is also the films biggest flaw. The film focuses on Cage so much the rest of the characters and themes of loneliness and toxic relationships feel underdeveloped. Still worth seeing, if only because Cage needs to be seen to be believed.

6/10

Humanity(1999)

I’ve been meaning to watch Humanity for many years and ive finally did for two reasons. The first was the movie Reptile, a procedural which was so bad its getting its own review. The other was ages ago I watched France, director Bruno Dumont’s most recent film and it felt like a talented director not really trying, so I wanted to see one of his better films. And I got something even better than I expected. A excellent film across the board, Humanity has a great performance from Emmanuel Schotte(who won Cannes best actor in 1999) and is backed up by a great supporting cast. The lead character, a police lieutenant trying to solve the rape and murder of a young girl, is a very interesting one. He’s withdrawn(he lost his girlfriend and baby daughter) yet makes many attempts (some very bizarre and innapropriate) to connect with anyone. It’s a police procedural like Reptile, but it’s equally about the lead going about his life. There is very little dialogue, yet everyone says a lot with their body language. Dumont’s direction is awesome, with lingering shots, uncomfortable close-ups and no music(unless it’s diagetic) giving the film a very purposeful feel of being disquieting and withdrawn. Winner of The Grand Prix, Humanity’s unconventional take on a murder mystery and character study will not be for everyone but will resonate with those who it really speaks to. It certainly did for me.

9/10

The Killer(2023)

Unpopular Opinion: David Fincher is overrated. Don’t get me wrong, he’s good at directing and details, but the screenplays are never as good. Even Zodiac, my favorite from him, still feels like it could be better written (see Memories of Murder, its Zodiac on steroids). Despite my criticism, I was looking forward to The Killer because I do respect him, even if it has the same screenwriter as Seven. But oh man I don’t respect The Killer. The screenplay is so silly it’s embarrassing, the characters are bland and the character is a missed opportunity. Despite all the inner monologue, we never know who he is, since he’s narrating events and shouldn’t we hear all about who he is, what his doubts and insecurities are? Nope, instead we get dialogue that insists how cool he is. He also repeats his mantra. A lot. It honestly reminded me of BO from Aggro Dr1ft, a troll of a film where a recurring line was the lead saying, “I am the worlds greatest assassin.” At least that movie was weird in a troll kind of way. The Killer feels like your supposed to take it seriously. Not content with just repeating dialogue a lot, he does a lot of the same things a lot, more specifically throwing things out, which happens so much it’s like a punchline. There is no story, there are no themes. It’s just an over stylized movie that no one would pay attention to if Fincher didn’t direct it. If you want to see movies that do a similar thing but way better and has the exact same title, go see John Woo’s The Killer. The classic film Point Blank is also a good one. Don’t bother with this unless you need to see everything from its director.

4/10

Drib(2017)

The feature film debut from Sick of Myself and Dream Scenario director Kristoffer Borgli, it follows the real life exploit of his friend Amir, whose antics will make anyone happy who likes Andy Kaufman(who he sites as an influence) and Nathan Fielder. The true story(which is reenacted here) about him trolling an energy drink company in America into getting into a commercial, is a funny observational comedy on corporations. It’s good but all the meta touches with Borgli don’t add anything. It also does way too much, not fully developing its ideas. Still worth seeing to see where Borgli started. And Adam Pearson is always charming. The best scene in the movie is when he points out how poorly written his script is.

6/10

Gaslight(1944)

The movie (which is based on a play) is where the term “gaslighting” comes from. As you can guess its about a man who manipulates his wife into thinking she’s insane, a story that is timeless and relatable. The acting is great, especially from Ingrid Bergman(who won an Oscar for it) is excellent and so is Joseph Cotton as the hero police officer. It is all hampered by a mystery story that hurts it all (it would have been better if it was just an abusive husband). That and tales of gaslighting have been done better, like in the Truman show, Rosemary’s Baby, The Lighthouse, and Bernie. If nothing else, Gaslight is worth seeing because its where the term gaslighting came from. The film also still looks great almost 80 years later.

6/10