I just came from watching it. I think it did tension well, and while annoyed with how dark it was, understand that as a result of budget when doing practical effects.
But yes, the themes were so on the nose (don’t forget masculinities) and the sort of tropes that made me and my pal giggle. Also, the entire opening premise (to get them to the remote location) was so full of holes that we started coming up with fixes.
Nevertheless, it was enjoyable.
I need to see this.
I rewatched Gorky Park recently, which I had seen in a rep theater when I was 9, over 40 years ago.
…
On the topic of 1980s movies, We watched Crimes of the Heart this week, on Canadian Prime, starring Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange. It’s a dark comedy.
We started watching Carry-On before Christmas, stopped in the middle, forgot all about it, and finally decided to finish it last night. It’s a fun, mindless thriller along the lines of Die Hard (lives at stake! Christmas time!), pretty formulaic and predictable, but not a bad way to spend two hours.
We started The Breakthrough on Netflix tonight. So far, so good. It’s a Swedish series.
I know you didn’t ask me, but I have seen it. I think it does some good things:
That said, it was also a bit obvious whilst being underdeveloped. I would have like something a bit sharper in the end, but it was enjoyable (save for gruesome bits that involve harm to animals).
Thx for the heads up, will take this off the list, then. I can watch human heads explode & love a good slasher movie, but I cannot deal with animals being hurt. Nope.
We watched it yesterday and thought it was well-done. Not earth-shattering by any means, but… very well-done.
Oh, and we also started watching Laid on Peacock.
First two episodes were alright, but I’m not sure how they can fill an entire season with dudes dying 
Wonder if the OG Australian show is any better…
Thanks for this post. I stumbled across that show’s description while scrolling through one of my Free channels on Roku. I thought maybe I’ll come back to it, but it doesn’t sound all that great.
I had a similar experience with a show called “Go On” with the late Matthew Perry. The first 2-3 episodes were pretty good, then it went downhill and I bailed.
That’s about where I landed with it as well.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) - dir. Radu Jude
Remember how excited and enthusiastic my review of The Substance was last year? This is going to be one of those. It’s not often I am rendered nearly speechless, but when I got to the end of this 2 HOUR AND 43 MINUTE opus I had to sit and collect myself for a couple minutes.
The film is structured in two parts. An opening card announces “A) Angela - A conversation with a 1981 film”. We then meet, in grainy black and white, Angela, a 20-something production assistant for a local Romanian film production company in present day (as in VERY present. Queen Elizabeth’s death and Charles’ coronation are mentioned) Bucharest. She is interviewing a number of injured workers for a safety video commissioned by a large multinational company. She’s also driving for Uber. She is horrifically overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. To keep her frustrations at bay, she posts TikToks with a filter that crudely transforms her to a unibrowed, bearded “manosphere”, Andrew-Tate-like douchebro, going on deliberately obscene, profane rants as a form of extreme parody. During all of this, we occasionally cut to a 1981 Hungarian film “Angela Moves On”, a day-in-the-life light drama about a cab driver also named Angela. Our Angela visits many of the same locations as the 1981 Angela.
The 2nd, shorter part (essentially the last 35-40 minutes of the film) is a single, unbroken shot of the actual filming of the safety video outside the company’s plant.
This is a radical, intense, VERY political, pitch black, absurdist satiric comedy. That’s a LOT of descriptors. It needs them. This is a LOT to take in. It earns every single second of that lengthy runtime. It is NEVER boring. It makes long, unbroken shots of Angela driving into absolutely riveting, character and world building passages. By the end, it feels like you’ve been given a crash course in “How It Feels To Be Alive in the World Today with all THIS (gestures weakly around at everything…)”
It made the festival circuit a couple years back, and was eventually picked up by MUBI, the same company that runs the MUBI streaming service and is also the distributor of The Substance.
At nearly 3 hours, this is a film that asks a lot of its audience. I am here to tell you it is 1000% worth it. The Substance is a really great film, but no matter how good it is, there are some people who it simply won’t appeal to. This film is nothing like The Substance stylistically, but it is similar, in that it’s using its very different but equally radical style to level sharp and effective criticisms at the a number of institutions. It might be more difficult in general to appreciate, but it’s also much more complex.
And I can’t finish without making a special note of Ilinca Manolache, the actress who plays the present-day Angela. A lot of times you’ll see an actor’s portrayal of a very intense or flashy character described as “a force of nature.” I’m thinking in particular of, say, Keiran Culkin in A Real Pain, or Florence Pugh in Midsommar. They need to retire that phrase, because Manolache has raised the bar for it to impossibly high levels. Apart from the snippets of Angela Moves On included in this film, she is on screen for nearly every frame of the film, and is never less than completely enthralling.
I’m gushing. It sounds like I’m overpraising. I don’t think I am. I think this film is hysterically funny, and also profound and a little upsetting and will make you angry for all the right reasons. It’s, dare I say, an important film.
Seek this out. It’s available on the MUBI streaming service, which, if you poke around, you can find numerous codes for a free 30 day trial. Even if you have no desire to check out another streamer, the chance to see this is worth the hassle of signing up and remembering to cancel.
5 out of 5. No notes. Go see this.
Watched the first episode of this last night. Very entertaining.
Agreed. One of the best films I watched last year. And in general. I think Radu Jude is a really interesting director.
Watched the fabulously fun Get Away with Nick Frost last night. Very enjoyable.
I noticed a few of his films are available on kanopy. I may have to look them up.
Culkin was culking hard in this one.
I was lucky enough to see him in a production of This Is Our Youth, with Michael Cera and Tavi Gevinson. It was the first time any of them had appeared on Broadway, and it was excellent.
For any Rebus fans, or not. There is a new series on The Roku Channel that is very good.
Great cast.
I think this might need a rewatch.
