What I Was Digging 9/4/24 - 9/9/24
Football season has commenced!!!
Film
Speak No Evil (2022)
Directed by: Christian Tafdrup
Cinematography by: Erik Molberg Hansen
Country: Denmark/Netherlands
Bjørn, Louise, and their daughter Agnes - a Danish family - become fast friends with a Dutch family they meet on vacation in Italy, but when the Danes go to visit their newfound Dutch buddies for a weekend, unsettling tensions give rise to horrifying revelations.
Thoughts:
I'm not sold on where it ends up, but it's a tense, tightly constructed work of anxiety horror that seems to play on the Danish fear of being an overly polite pushover. The suspense and performances are great in this feel-bad piece of filmmaking. An effective psychological thriller potent enough to earn a Hollywood remake two years later.
Stopmotion (2023)
Directed by: Robert Morgan
Cinematography by: Léo Hinstin
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Horror
Amateur stop-motion animator Ella Blake exists under the thumb of her overbearing mother, a famed artist within the field. After Ella's mother falls ill, the young artist is freed to explore her inner world, though her psyche proves a perilous chasm to dredge.
Thoughts:
A very disturbing story about creativity and a very creative story about being disturbed - and the link between the two. It's artistry run amok. Loss of control. Ceding your sanity to your own gifts. Living your art in a state of psychosis as if it's method storytelling. Destroying yourself for your art. Destroying those around you. No one's blood is safe. It all goes into the pot, boiling, surging, taking on a life of its own. Giving life on two fronts. Sacrificing your own to birth something new. Creation and destruction. The infinite cycle of life and death in art.
The story itself isn't virginal ground, but it's told in a novel and memorable way, with an unexpected amount of carnage unfurling as the line between Ella's inner and outer world smears into an inescapable void. Aisling Franciosi is great as Ella, but Caoilinn Springall displays a magnetic screen presence as the young girl who acts as a manifestation of Ella's repressed id and the uninhibited childlike expression Ella seeks to unloose, doing away with the fear of what others might think of her and her dark work. With that type of charisma and comfort in front of the camera, I expect to see Springall develop a solid career should she continue to perform. I'm also looking forward to seeing what writer/director Robert Morgan does in the future as well after this compelling feature debut that I haven't been able to get out of my head.
Shows I'm Watching
Survivor: Micronesia (Fans vs. Favorites) [Season 16]
-Episode: 14-15
What's going on: The black widows faced off against each other as the final four became the final two - two who then faced the wrath of a jury stocked with contestants who the finalists gleefully bit the heads off of and freight train blindsided. The contestant I was most rooting for ended up in third, but the winner was definitely deserving for her many flawlessly executed devious schemes.
Currently reading
Thoughts: I'm just glad to be done with it. There were a few decent stories, but the author is over-admired in my opinion, though I did enjoy the documentary on him, which was why I read this in the first place. The writing is too wordy and simply not fun to read for my taste. I also don't find his overall ideas outside of the title story to be all the original or interesting.
Music Theory: From Beginner to Expert
-Current section: Music Theory Fundamentals: Notes in Music
What I Learned: 'Tone' has like five different meanings, and there are a few notes that do not have flats or sharps for reasons that are not explained to me outside of "that's just how it is."
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