This month offered some out-of-the-ordinary moviegoing experiences. The TIFF Bell Lightbox ran a series of Canadian horror films hosted by famed director Guillermo del Toro. Plus, lengthy flights to and from China forced me into the “iPhone cinema,” where I watched quite a few movies that were good enough to ignore how tiny the screen was. Better than that, however, I even watched a couple of American movies in a Chinese movie theater. I also dipped my toes into the French New Wave at the start of the month, giving me a newfound confidence to say things like, “Truffaut is way better than Godard.” I build my cinephile credentials with each passing month!
Kwaidan
Japan | 1964 | 183m | Japanese
Look, I really want to give this movie five stars because visually it’s spectacular and unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. I love the sparse soundtrack as well. It’s all the more impressive considering that this came out all the way back in 1964. But man the pacing is slow. Maybe was just the position I was in as I watched this (lying on my bed lol) but I must admit that I dozed off more than once – and I for one think that disqualifies a movie from five stars, no matter how pretty it may be.
It also doesn’t help that, as an anthology film, the long 3-hour runtime doesn’t culminate in any amazing, hard-earned story moments. Rather, every 40 minutes or so, the movie starts over from square one. Given the consistency of the visual quality and directing of each segment, it makes enough sense to bundle them all together into one long feature (as opposed to splitting them into multiple short films, which they very well could have done). I guess one side effect of this structure means that it’s easy to find break points if one wants to split the viewing of this film into multiple sittings. I’m glad I watched Kwaidan and I’m pretty sure I will want to revisit it one day, but I might allow myself to hit the 1.25x speed setting next time.
Ginger Snaps
Canada | 2000 | 108m | English
I finally saw this cult Canadian horror film, not on effedupmovies.com, where I know it’s available, but on the big screen with a post-screening Q&A with director John Fawcett and Guillermo del Toro, of all people.
The opening montage of staged suicide scenes was lurid and disturbing; the tryhard edginess of the script didn’t always resonate with me. But I think it does an admirable job of mixing high school humor and body horror gore—not an easy feat.
The Big Chill
United States of America | 1983 | 105m | English
I feel like I’m 10-15 years too young for this movie. I can appreciate the idea of getting back together with a group of college friends, but I’ve yet to have such a reunion myself, so without that to relate to, I kept waiting for some kind of mystery or thrust to the plot which just never came.
(The Michigan connection was neat—I liked that I could recognize the offhandedly mentioned cities like Saginaw and Ypsilanti, which I assume went over the heads of many of the audience members in my Toronto theater. But as an MSU grad, I was rooting for the opposite football team as the characters in the movie.)
Ultimately, though, The Big Chill is a “hangout movie” with your boomer parents. If that sounds fun, then here’s your film. For me, at least the soundtrack is good. Also Meg Tilly.
Primate
United States of America | 1974 | 105m | English
Clever title, Primate is. It could just as easily be referring to the banally evil humans as the poor monkeys. This is my first Wiseman documentary but I’m ready to watch more of what he has to offer. This isn’t one of those movies that you recommend to others because they’ll enjoy it but more because they need to see it.
Pontypool
Canada | 2008 | 97m | English, Armenian, French
Compelling, superbly scripted Canadian horror that makes the most of its low budget by taking perfect advantage of its singular setting and layered audio design. The director, present for an Q&A, mentioned taking inspiration from Sidney Lumet (though he highlighted Dog Day Afternoon and not the more closely analogous—at least in my opinion—12 Angry Men).
Pontypool gets pretty surreal at points but I think that gives it a depth that will benefit from rewatches. Guillermo del Toro was there (via video) to tell the director that it was among his favorite horror movies.
Skinamarink
Canada | 2022 | 100m | English
Love that I got to see this for the first time in a theater with not a cell phone in sight.
This movie holds you in suspense for the entire time. The swirling film grain always makes it seem like some kind of sinister figure is lurking somewhere beyond the edge of your perception. Great job of evoking what it feels like to be a young child facing the dark. The “look under the bed” scene was pure, visceral dread.
Superman
United States of America | 2025 | 130m | English
I think I’ll forget most of this movie within a couple of days, except for all of the interesting political subtext. Despite the movie’s attempts to obfuscate the details—what with its Eastern European villains under a vaguely Palestinian-looking flag—I, for one, saw the fictional Baravia-Jarhanpur conflict as alluding to the Israel-Palestine war. (Come on now, those Jarhanpur scenes didn’t exactly resemble Ukraine.)
Superman, a character that has long been widely interpreted as a Jewish-American power fantasy, gets to have his cake and eat it, too. He rejects the paternalistic, ethno-supremacist thinking of his birth parents (I wonder what ideology that might be alluding to…), sealing the deal by signalling his support for Palestine—I mean, Jarhanpur. But he still gets to be, you know, Superman—the superior being living in exile from his alien homeland among the decidedly un-super, salt-of-the-earth Americans.
All that aside, the pacing was good, readymade for the Cocomelonated attention spans of the unwashed masses. The plot was a bunch of goofy sci-fi nonsense with every contrivance waved away by repeated use of the phrase “pocket dimension,” but at least there were enough cute doggo scenes that I almost forgot about the time James Gunn tweeted about a three-year-old peeing on his head.
Side note—this was the first movie I saw in a movie theater in China. (English with Mandarin subtitles.) We were in a “VIP” theater with a waiting room lounge, private bathroom, and fully reclining leather seats. Everything was super clean. Also, the movie started right on time with no previews (or maybe I missed them all while I was in the lounge drinking the free Coke that the ushers brought in). Anyway, I was impressed!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
United States of America | 2025 | 115m | English
Me, sitting down to write this review: “It’s clobberin’ time.”
The 1960s retro-futuristic production design and visuals, dare I say, are “fantastic.” Everything else is dull and forgettable comic book slop. The idea that the entire Cold War-era globe would immediately cooperate on severe energy rationing to save one American baby was even less believable to me than all the space travel and superhero ass-pulls. Every line of dialogue may as well have been delivered with a yawn. I noticed that during the stationary shots of exposition dumps, the camera would slowly zoom in, a technique from the TikTok school of filmmaking.
Maybe the fourth time will be the charm. Fifth time? How many of these movies have been made? Too many, I think. Not enough, say the post-credits (“The Fantastic Four will return in Avengers: Doomsday”). Spoilers? Who cares.
Other Movies I Saw This Month
- Breathless (1960) [3/5]
- Vivre Sa Vie (1962) [2.5/5]
- The 400 Blows (1959) [4.5/5]
- Rabid (1977) [1.5/5]
- House (1977) [5/5]
- Constructing a House (2010) [4/5]
- All That Jazz (1979) [4.5/5]
- Scanners (1981) [2/5]
- The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) [2.5/5]
- Police Story (1985) [5/5]
- The Hills Have Eyes (1977) [3/5]
Best Movies I Saw This Month
- Police Story
- All That Jazz
- The 400 Blows
Worst Movies I Saw This Month
- Rabid
- Scanners
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Josh Anderson 