It's a catch-up episode for Keith and Ben as they discuss a few movies they saw recently:
Strange Darling: 0:33
The Killer: 3:42
I Saw The TV Glow: 9:37
The Movies & A Meal Podcast
Strange Darling, The Killer (2024) and I Saw The TV Glow
(upbeat music) - Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Movies in the Meal, a podcast where we talk about movies and other things while we eat. I'm your co-host, Ben, and as always, I'm joined by Keith. - Hey. - So we're gonna do a leftovers episode. We're gonna talk about three movies that have been released in the last month or so, or at least in August. And we just haven't got a chance to review or talk about yet. So we've got three movies. Keith's gonna lead it off with Strange Darling, that I'm gonna come back with The Killer, which is a remake of a John Woo classic from the '80s. And then we're gonna close with, I saw the TV glow. Why don't we just get into it right away? And before Keith does his review, I am going to serve as Brad, 'cause Brad is a newly minted fantasy football commissioner and he's taking the week off to prepare for this final draft, so. - And he writes that he takes it very seriously. - Yeah, yeah. So let me do the Brad impression here. Okay, Strange Darling, summary, Kersey IMDB. Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree. - When we picked Strange Darling to see on the trip to DC from our brother's birthday, we really had no idea what we were in for. And that's the best way to watch J.T. Molner's late season stunner, which takes the notion of a twist to new levels in the year in which others have tried but failed. It's been sort of hit it out. J.T. Molner himself describes it as, "One day the romantic twisted love life of a serial killer." Trust me, that doesn't reel too much about what's really going on here, and I won't either. As Strange Darling opens, it's with chapter three of six chapters. If that seems to clever you, Strange Darling might not be your cup of tea. But the clearly marked shifts in time, for me, just added to the depth of the story, that is really about two people and how they interact on this fateful day. And it's an acting showcase of the first order to boot. It's chapter three and movie open, Will It Pits Gerald, but only as The Lady, is blood-soaked and wearing red hospital scrubs on the run from the shotgun wheeled in Kyle Molner, Bill It Is The Demon. This is just the first of many things you'll see in this movie that will divide audiences and isn't quite what you think you're seeing. Both from there in chapter five and later in their pursuit, leaving you on edge before this settles into its own kind of unique groove. When Fitzgerald and Golner's characters are setting the rules for a one night stand with a real edge to it. From there you just need to know that scene set stage for a cat and mouse kind of thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat as hints are dropped before the big twist comes about an hour into this 90 minute movie. It's hard to exaggerate how great they both are here. Fitzgerald, known mostly to fan so far for roles in "Reacher" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" has you hooked into every twisted scene of this. And Golner, a rising horror star, is every bit her equal. He gives his demon all the menace it needs with just enough hints of humanity to keep you guessing throughout this wonder. Without even too much more, look out for Ed Begley, Jr. and Barbara Hershey as the mountain people who offer the lady a chance to hide out from the demon. It's a needed bit of comedic relief that of course still goes way wrong. I further subscribe hyperbolicly as they sort of what would happen if Quentin Tarantino made a horror movie, but that both over undersells what "Director" Mona has done here. The time shifts are indeed all in the interest of telling the story in the mode of pulp fiction, but Mona's work isn't nearly as effectively quotable as Tarantino at his best. Instead, he used them to tell a much tighter story that had me hooked throughout. And all this is a huge step forward for Mona and only the second feature film was director. It's all shot with unsettling appeal by Giovanni Rubisi and his debut as cinematographer. For a movie that, unlike "M Night's Trap," delivers a genuine punch and a gut twist and a tight acting showcase, I'll give straight darling four stars. - Let's do the guessing game. Let's do "Rod Tomatoes." - All right. Well, I know that critics like this pretty much as much as much as I did. I'll go 90. Fans are harder on hard, but also the way this is told, you know, just back in time, a lot of people might get into, I'll go 75. - Ron Tomatoes, critics, 96%, audience, 83%, critics consensus. J.T. Molner delivers a thrillingly unexpected an electric ride with two breakout performances by Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Golner in "Strange Darling." - That sounds it up pretty well. You know, if you can handle a horror movie that's very different, check it out. - And next up, as Ben said, we have a classic being remade by its own director. Here's the summary for "The Killer," courtesy of IMDb. An assassin tries to make amends in an effort to restore the sight of a beautiful young singer. - I came into this movie with a lot of trepidation. If you listen to this podcast, you know I'm the action guy. You know that I adore John Wu's early work, "The Killer" and "Heart Bowl," especially. I've always thought that "The Killer" would make a great remake for American audiences, especially in the 90s when John Wu was really popping off. And I saw in my research that there was one version that was being floated about, but maybe Richard Gere and Denzel Washington is the leads. Remakes are always tough. And the fact that John Wu is remaking his own movie, sometimes you would think, okay, well, at least it's a good hands, but you know, unfortunately he hasn't really done a really great movie in my opinion, in at least like about 25 years now. You know, last year we all pretty much panned the "Silent Night" action movie, which was pretty experimental, but it just didn't capture the essence in the spirit of a John Wu movie. And, you know, as I said in that review before, it's an odd thing that the John Wicks and a lot of the other action movies of today that we consider very good are influenced by John Wu. But when he's come back, it's like he hasn't kind of learned that lessons. He hasn't involved. This movie, it's not a one-for-one remake, which is a good and a bad. Natalie Emmanuel plays the main character now, the one that was, you know, most made famous by Chaoyung Fat as the assassin. And some of the beats are still the same about a guy who's sent to do a job, and then he accidentally blinds a person that's a loud singer that's in there, and the action then kind of has to struggle with the guilt. The gender swap was kind of interesting, and it was able to open the movie up to a new path from the original movie, which is really about like male friendship and honor. And for the good part, you know, it kind of was able to move the movie in a way that gives it a lighter tone of some of the John Wu action movies. I don't know if anyone's ever heard or seen like, you know, once a thief, or, you know, where there's a little flirty, it's kind of just like a throwback to some older movies, like a Thomas Crown affair kind of thing, where there's a cat and mouse between her, the assassin and Omar Sye, who's the French police officer who's kind of on the trail and trying to track everything down. Sam Worlington is also in it, he plays kind of a heavy, and then I mentioned Keith there that, you know, Manchester United legend Eric Cantonoff is French, and this movie is set in Paris instead of, you know, Hong Kong of the original. The original movie just kind of like wall-to-wall action. This one feels more of a little bit more of a standard action movie. There's some big action set pieces, but it doesn't have that kind of same kind of insane, just like tone and craziness of the 1989 John Wu movie. I came in not wanting to like this, I came in wanting to hate this, and we've seen, you know, recently we didn't see the remake, but Keith and I both had a very negative gut reaction to the crow being remade and being released this year. When I watch this movie, I get a little bits of the killer, but I don't feel like they've necessarily like desecrated the original one. But at the same time, it doesn't elevate it either. Again, I thought the action was pretty solid. There's some beats and nods to the original movie that you'll see. I think this effort for John Wu, even though maybe it was even filmed before Silent Night is a little bit better than Silent Night, but it doesn't really, again, capture that kind of craziness that he kind of reached in the apex of this like 1980s and early 90s movies in Hong Kong. To wrap it up, if you're interested and you want two hours to kill, you could do a lot worse, I think. If you're looking for the American version of the killer and to reach the original, the heights of that movie, you're not gonna find it. So having said that all, I'm gonna give it a two and a half. - Well, even with that rating, you know, you have convinced me pretty much to watch it. I was on the fence like, you know, I haven't seen as many John Wu movies as you, but I love killer. I love hard-boiled and those are insane. - Yeah. - You know, what is he, 77, probably? - Yeah. - He's probably not gonna make those again, but it says that you didn't embarrass himself. - No. - So I'll watch it. - There's some solid, like I said, there's some solid action beats and kind of the John Wu-isms that you would see, slow motion, they're dubs flying, you know, dual-wiggling pistols. The bare minimum of that is there for sure. It's streaming on Peacock, so, you know, you can watch it at your leisure as long as you have Peacock, so. - All right, well, let's play the Rotten Tomatoes game. What do you think, critics first? - I think a lot of people are down on John Wu, including me, Mr. Superman, so. And, you know, there's probably a lot of people like me that were questioning, why did we remake this? And why isn't it given the same amount of respect? I mean, again, no disrespect to the actors in the cast, but like, it could have been a bigger budget movie, really. So, let's go 44 for the critics' audiences. You know, it ends up being kind of a standard action movie about a assassin who has a change of heart on what they do, so, I'll just give it a flat 50 for the audience. - All right, well, you're dead on with the audience. 51%. - Okay. - Critics, I'm not too surprised. They were a little warmer than you, because, you know, everyone's not devoted to John Wu, like, you know, you're 56%. - Okay, that's better than expected. - They're probably watching a little more with those. You watch things with a broad perspective, but they're kind of watching without the John Wu devotion. - Oh, yeah, I mean, I'm watching it, like, you know, very tensed up voice to hate it, because I don't want it to, like, ruin how good the killer is. And just, you know, watch the killer. I don't know where you can find it. - I used to be on YouTube. I was angry, I don't appreciate privacy, but it used to be on there in full. - Yeah. - Can't watch anymore. But the critics' consensus for the killer of 2024, John Wu recaptures some of his legendary action bravora in this golic reimagining of his very own killer, although the kinetic set pieces don't quite compensate for the overall lack of personality. - I mean, that's pretty much dead on of how I feel about it, so, yeah, good creation's consensus. So, let's move along. Let's talk about the third movie, and it's "I Saw the TV Glow." I know that it stars, among other people, Justice Smith, who I know from Detective Pokemon, or Detective Pikachu, the Pokemon movie. So, let's go on to the very succinct, summary courtesy IMDB. Two teenagers bond over their love of the supernatural TV show, but is mysteriously canceled. - Yeah, you know, I like that summary because the less you know going into this, the better, but I will do my best to not spoil it for you. It would hard to describe Jane Schonberg's "I Saw the TV Glow." And that's just one of the many intriguing things about this sort of horror movie, and that I've already seen three times this year, and we'll probably watch again when it comes to Max on September 20th. Schonberg's movie is both a yearning search for belonging in a society that can found you, and also a scathing commentary on life in the suburbs that is right up there already with classics like "The Virgin's Suicide," and it follows. But as I did with their debut movie, we're all going to the world's fair. Schonberg is finally attuned to where young people can look for a skate for this often mundane existence, this time out in a seemingly harmless TV show, "The Pinko Peak." That slowly reveals this layers behind a silly exterior as it hooks our two heroes into the story, with differing but equally harrowing results. Before we meet the teen Owen and Maddie, we see young Owen getting permission from his mother to traipse across suburban lawns for a sleepover with Maddie. An older classmate, he has only just met. From there, before it jumps forward, we find out right away the whole that this show has over Owen and Maddie, setting things up perfectly for the dynamic storytelling to come. What we sense immediately, it keeps you hooked, as this often unfolds like a dream until it becomes a nightmare, is Owen's gnawing search for a place to belong, and how a desk release seeks it in the companionship of the in equal parts standoffish and embracing Maddie. And since we jump forward and meet them both as high schoolers and later in life, that the acting and I saw the TV show shines. Owen and Maddie in their older years are played by Justice Smith and Bridget Lundy Payne, and they pull up each other here in great ways as wounded souls. They're never quite good friends, which are also even further as Maddie instead leaves Owen VHS tapes of the Pico Pig to watch in the school's dark room. In their best directing counter in this stretch, suitably set on the bleachers of a prep sports field, Maddie asks Owen if he likes girls, and he sheepishly says, "I think I like TV shows." That hits way harder than I can describe here. Their reactions to the TV show, which plays out like a 1990s hit such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, fuel what comes next. On the show, two telepathically linked girls fight villains dispatched by The Big Bad, a mouth-forward monster in the Shadow of Moon named Mr. Melancholy on a weekly basis. As soon as that all sounds, it sucks you in playfully as you find out what Maddie and Owen get from it. Justice Smith, who also has the dubious honor of starring and perhaps my least favorite movie of 2024, the American Society of Magical Negroes, gives this outcast role, a real role in this era that sustains this movie through its darker and more surreal stretches in the second half. And though Lundy Payne gives Maddie the assured edge of a true rebel, it's in seeing how she really is rooted to mixed her performance equally remarkable. I don't want to reveal too much about what happens when I saw the TV glow, so just know that this also features my favorite soundtrack of the year, filled with new indie tracks to propel the story forward, even as it drops hints for the viewers throughout as Sean Brun does too. This is every bit in a 24 movie, meaning it challenges viewers throughout, but like the best of them, delivers an engrossing story that you can relate to in surprising ways that you get into it. For that, I'll give Sean Brun's sophomore feature directing effort, three and a half stars, in order to seek it out for yourself on max when it arrives on September 20th. It's guessing game time again, so Ron tomato's key. Ooh, I didn't look at all on this one, and God, you know, it's all over the place. I think the critics are gonna be higher. Well, no, actually I don't. I'll go to 60%. And I know the teens who have found it like Sean Brun's work, I will go 70%. - I'm happy to tell you that you're wrong, and I think you're happy too. Critics, 84% and 72% for the audience. Critics consensus with distinctive visual aesthetic that enhances an emotionally resonant narrative. I saw the TV glow further establishes writer-director Jane Sean Brun's as a rising talent. - Okay, you know, with her first movie, we're all going to the world's fair, was kind of all about the dark side of video games, and that's even stranger. But this is a fun movie if you want to take a chance, and I recommend it highly. - Okay, I think that's it. We're not gonna do a box office, because I think most of these movies are either gone or streaming, so, and whatever. - Yeah, it's August, it's the dog days. We're recording this on September 1st, you know, we're, anyway, so, okay, let's wrap it up. So Keith, do the plugs, please. - All right, you can reach us at moviesandmealog@gmail.com, moviesandmeal on X slash Twitter, and give us a listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and we'll be playing your podcast. - All right, so for this episode of Movies and Meal, I'm Ben. - And Keith. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)