The Company of Wolves

Last year, I bought a while bunch of old werewolf movies… basically because (I think) I wanted to re-watch this one: The Angela Carter movie that I remember being really taken with when I saw it on VHS as a teenager.

Ah, right — this is the movie that made me think Neil Jordan was a good director, and made me watch a whole bunch of his films. All of which are horrible. *gulp*

I did not remember that!!!

“and introducing”? Was this a made-for-TV movie?

This is so weird! I don’t remember anything about this movie except it being all weird and stuff, and it’s certainly not disappointing in that area.

Ah, yeah… it’s Angela Carter, so…

… it’s story within story within story. I remember this being, like, an anthology movie? And it kinda is, but it isn’t — it’s a series of short stories told within the context of the girl dreaming about the grandmother telling stories to her sister.

Or something!

I know! It looks really cheesy, but watching it was totes thrilling.

Word to the wise.

I remember being in London in 1993 (for the Thirteen Year Itch festival) and going to… Blue Moon Books? and buying a stack of Angela Carter books. No! Silver Moon!

That was an awesome bookshop.

Nobody talks about Carter these days, do they? I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve re-read any of her books, too… I’ve read them all, except the collected screenplays book…

I love this movie… but the good doggies they’ve got playing the wolves in some of the scenes don’t really look like big bad wolves now do they?

Eek! Where’s the RSPCA!

Whoa.

You know, sometimes when you watch movies you were really impressed by as a teenager? And I remember watching this with a friend (we used to watch a lot of horror VHSs) and we were both “whoa. dude”.

I’m still “whoa. dude.”

This feels so… uncompromised? It’s so Angela Carter. It’s such a mish-mash of things that shouldn’t make sense but then it does and it totally reverberates through everything: Everything makes sense on a level that’s hard to articulate.

The Company of Wolves. Neil Jordan. 1984.

6 Underground

I watched this movie a couple years ago and I told everybody I knew that THIS IS THE FUCKING BEST MORONIC MOVIE EVER.

But then a friend said “meh” so now I’m rewatching it to check whether I was right.

THIS IS THE BEST FUCKING MORONIC MOVIE EVER!!!1!

I don’t care what anybody says — that’s the best first twenty minutes of any action movie ever.

It exhilarating in its crassness. Michael Bay has obviously had to defer to people who thought he was too much before, but now he’s just giving it all: Balls to the wall, with no filter whatsoever.

It is perfect.

But then there’s half an hour of less amusing stuff that I’d apparently forgotten about… or perhaps I was just too drunk to actually notice…

It really is as good as I remembered! It’s totally unhinged, totally gauche, totally stupid, and totally delightful.

This movie may be the most crass thing I’ve seen in my life. It’s a work of art.

6 Underground. Michael Bay. 2019.

Cold Souls

OH MY GOD! A PHONE BOOK! How old is this movie?

Hm… 2009… did Yellow Pages still exist back then?

This is brilliant! It’s so original and stylish and funny.

I’m having a bit of a problem with the casting, though… I often can’t tell the male actors apart (because the director is casting men that look pretty much like himself (only better looking) in every part)… and here there’s at least three? five? I can’t even tell! female characters that I can’t say whether they’re supposed to be the same person (in different wigs) or not.

This is so good.

Oh… but he’s got a Russian soul now… so why is he wearing his shoes to bed?

Such American.

This is a lovely movie.

Cold Souls. Sophie Barthes. 2009.