X

Year:  2022

Director:  Ti West

Screenplay:  Ti West

Starring:  Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, Scott Mescudi

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Texas, 1979:  A group of aspiring filmmakers: actors Maxine Minx (Goth), Bobby Lynne (Snow) and Jackson Hole (Mescudi), producer Wayne Gilroy (Henderson), director RJ Nichols (Campbell) and boom operator Lorraine (Ortega), head to a remote farm where they plan to shoot a pornographic film called The Farmer's Daughter.  They rent a house on the property from the elderly couple who own the farm, but when the couple find out what kind of film they are making, the filmmakers find themselves fighting to survive.

Writer, producer and director Ti West made his name with horror films such as House of the Devil (2009), The Innkeepers (2011) and The Sacrament (2014) and this is his first film since 2016's In a Valley of Violence.  X starts slowly, building up it's characters and their various relationships, but when the gruesome horror starts it doesn't let up.  It works as a homage to the old slasher films of the 1970s such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Eaten Alive (1976), as well as Psycho (1960).  The '70s ambience works well. maintained by the soundtrack of classic rock songs.  While the film is pretty much tongue in cheek for the most part, it does have something to say about the miseries of getting older and the idea that "youth is wasted on the young".  It's strongly hinted that the couple's attacks are motivated by jealousy at these good-looking young people doing all the things that they would do, if only they could.  Pearl, one half of the elderly couple fixates on Maxine, telling her "I'm what you will become!" Incidentally Pearl is also played by Mia Goth, under very heavy makeup.  It's very well made, with strong performances.  It's worth noting that the film may be too sleazy and gory for some viewers, although the violence is too over the top to be really disturbing.  For fans of the old school slasher films, however, it is a real treat.  It follows the traditional route of these kinds of movies, but throws out enough modern twists on the formula to make it feel fresh and surprising.  It's almost certain to become a mainstay of late-night horror shows in the future.

Mia Goth in X
   

A Cure for Wellness

Year of Release:  2016

Director:  Gore Verbinski

Screenplay:  Justin Haythe, from a story by Gore Verbinski and Justin Haythe

Starring:  Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth

Running Time:  146 minutes

Genre:  Horror, drama

Lockhart (DeHaan), an ambitious young executive at a New York financial services institution, is assigned to retrieve the company's CEO from a remote "wellness centre" somewhere in the Swiss Alps.  When Lockhart arrives he soon discovers that the centre's grotesque treatments hide a disturbing secret.

Loosely inspired by the Thomas Mann novel The Magic Mountain, this is an impressively mounted, handsome film, stylishly made, with an intriguing mystery.  There are also some impressive performances such as Jason Isaacs as the sinister head of the institution and Mia Goth as the strange, otherworldly girl who lives in the institute.  However the film is overly long with a running time of almost two and half hours, and there are some gaping plot holes.  Also the lead character, as played by Dane DeHaan, is so obnoxious it's really hard to care what happens to him.  It starts out as an elegant "elevated horror" film (basically horror for people who look down on horror films), but moves into full on gothic horror by the end.  Despite the sedate pace, the film boasts some genuinely horrific moments of body horror, including a genuinely nightmarish dental scene.  There are very obvious parallels to Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), and Phantom of the Opera and even to bizarre sixties TV series The Prisoner (1967-1968).  It won't be too everyone's tastes, but if you have the patience and stomach for it, it is intriguing and beautiful enough not to feel like a waste of time.

    Dane DeHaan in A Cure for Wellness

Emma.

 Year of Release:  2020

Director:  Autumn de Wilde

Screenplay:  Eleanor Catton, based on the novel Emma by Jane Austen

Starring:  Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Josh O'Connor, Callum Turner, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy, Gemma Whelan

Running Time:  124 minutes

Genre:  Period, comedy-drama

In Regency-era England, the wealthy young Emma Woodhouse (Taylor-Joy) enjoys meddling in the love lives of her friends, while having no intention of getting married herself.  Emma soon learns, however, that despite her best efforts, her matchmaking plans often make things far worse.

This film is based on the 1815 novel by Jane Austen.  I have never read the book and so can't comment on how faithful this adaptation is.  The film opens with Emma being described as "handsome, clever and rich", which is a perfect description of the film.  Visually it is sumptuous with every frame practically looking like something you could clip out and put on the wall, while the stories direction and the ultimate end is never really in doubt, it is a witty script, and the whole thing feels like a gorgeous cinematic confection.  Anya Taylor-Joy is perfect in the lead, giving a captivating, spirited performance.  Johnny Flynn as Emma's foil Mr. Knightley, the only one who challenges her on her schemes.  Mia Goth gives depth and heart to her role as Emma's friend, and accidental victim of her schemes.  There s also good support form established British comic actors such as Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy and Gemma Whelan.  I'm not sure how Jane Austen fans will feel about the film, but I found it a hugely enjoyable diversion.

Mia Goth and Anya Taylor-Joy in Emma.

High Life

Year of Release: 2018
Director:  Claire Denis
Screenplay:  Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau, story by Claire Denis
Starring:  Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, Mia Goth
Running Time:  110 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, horror, drama

A group of death-row inmates are sent on an expedition into deep space to attempt to extract energy from a Black Hole.  The expedition has been sold to them as an alternative to the death penalty, but in reality they have no way of ever returning to Earth.  On the long voyage the prisoners are subjected to a series of medical experiments by the sinister Doctor Dibs (Binoche).  As time goes on the tensions between the prisoners, in the close quarters of the increasingly run-down spaceship lead to madness and violence.

This is the first English-language film, and the first science-fiction film from critically acclaimed French director Claire Denis.  It has to be said that for anyone looking for sci-fi action-adventure, you will not find it in High Life.  Told in a fragmented, non-linear style, this is a slow, meditative film, punctuated by brief bursts of graphic violence, and explicit sex and nudity.  The prisoners are kept drugged throughout most of their voyage and speak to each other in slow, hushed tones.  The film opens with Robert Pattinson's Monte, who has been condemned for killing his friend over a dog as a child, alone on the spaceship with his baby daughter.  The rest of the crew and prisoners are all dead, and the bulk of the film is taken up with flashbacks to how the prisoners met their fates and how Monte came to have a child in outer space, and flashforwards.  Pattinson gives an icy performance as Monte, usually calm and introverted, but given to bouts of violence.  Juliette Binoche is also memorable as the disturbed and frustrated Doctor Dibs, who uses the other prisoners for sex and experimentation.  The film is frequently aching slow and deathly dull, punctuated by genuinely shocking scenes (including scenes of sexual assault), and hauntingly beautiful images.  The film is at it's best in the later scenes with Monte and his teenage daughter (played by Jessie Ross), which provide the only touches of warmth and humanity in the film.  I did not enjoy this film, I probably won't see it again, and yet there are moments that I think will stay with me for a long time.

Jessie Ross and Robert Pattinson blast off in High Life