One Good Point (Movie) - The Shining, and "What is a horror movie?"

The Shining is another of those "classic" movies that I had never seen, but we finally got around to it this year. I watched it while I was in Halloween mode, further tilting the door open for me when it comes to scary movies. But in talking about this movie with some friends, I encountered people who said The Shining wasn't a true horror movie, but was more of a "thriller." And we spent a bit of time investigating what the actual difference was.

Thrillers are defined by "thrilling," unsurprisingly haha, with lots of twists and turns, and often an antagonist's elaborate scheme or intricate network of danger. Spy movies are a good example of conventional thriller movies.

Horrors, meanwhile, are intended to frighten or disgust, with shocking imagery, and often with a supernatural antagonistic presence: a monster, a ghost, a possessed doll, etc. The Bourne Identity is not a horror movie, but is a thriller. And, by these definitions, The Shining is definitely a horror.

So how was it? It was alright. It was good to finally see the context of some of those classic scenes: the hedge maze, the elevators, the creepy hallway girls, and Jack Nicholson peeking through the door and shouting, "Here's Johnny!" And it was stark but probably frustratingly realistic to watch a man's wife put up with a lot of bullshit from him. I spend a lot of time on /r/AmIOverreacting, and it's wild to see some of these stories.

Overall it was not the most compelling horror I've seen, but it was rewarding to watch. And my cousin says Dr. Sleep answers a lot of the questions you have coming out of this film, so, add it to the list!

Looking to kick it old school and watch The Shining? Click here to find out where you can stream it today on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Show) - Agatha All Along

Agatha All Along was a show I really didn't think I needed. I liked Kathryn Hahn in WandaVision, but didn't necessarily feel like her character needed her own standalone story. And the preview trailers looked fine, but I don't usually pursue a lot of witchy content. But I watch pretty much all Marvel content, so I was always gonna give it a shot.

The first episode was fantastic. It set the tone right away as a mystery, urging you to look for clues right away, a prompt that pays off in absolute spades by the end of the season. By the end of the second episode, you've got an eclectic coven of witches starting on a supernatural path, each with their own secrets, their own questions to answer, their own mysteries to unravel. And the main characters, Agatha and "Teen," have even more to reveal.

The show kind of reminds me of Loki, with a lot of really strong dialogue and meaningful character progression, characters who are absolutely on an arc. And it's got enough of a tie to compelling previous content that you care about what happens in it. 

And I cannot stress enough how well-crafted the payoffs are. There are like four different big reveals over the course of the season, with the earliest one happening in episode 5, and each of them is very rewarding. I'm doing my best not to spoil any of them, because they're really, really good.

One tiny ding is that the show does very occasionally suffer from "modern TV syndrome," where characters say explicitly what's in their minds, or they offer a somewhat unnatural line of dialogue to work some exposition or narrative information into the show. And they go a little slow-mo heavy in episode 8, which isn't the end of the world, but it just made me antsy for the show to get to the next beat.

Altogether though, the show was a rousing return to form for me. I'm eagerly anticipating the continuation (culmination?) of this story, and between this and Deadpool & Wolverine, I think Marvel is headed in the right direction. There's a TON of content dropping next year that has my interest piqued, like Daredevil: Born Again, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four. If it picks up with the same strength that Agatha All Along sported, we just might be back in business, folks.

Feeling witchy? Click here to visit JustWatch and find out where you can feed that urge and watch Agatha All Along today!

One Good Point (Movie) - A Nightmare on Elm Street

Finally!

For something like thirty years I've been interested in watching this movie, despite my general resistance to horror films. The first time my interest was piqued was way back when I saw the associated Nintendo game mentioned in an issue of Nintendo Power. But that pre-dated my ventures into R-rated movies, and vastly pre-dated my ventures into horror movies. Now that I've finally opened myself up to the occasional fright night, it was well past time to check out A Nightmare on Elm Street.

And I liked it!

The premise is fairly cheesy, but that didn't bother me really. I think actually when it comes to horror movies, a cheesy premise is a bit of a comfort. The more realistic a horror film is, the more worried I get that it could possibly happen for real. Saw, for example, was a really discomforting experience.

But I also liked that the movie wasn't solely in the "scary realm" so to speak. I find that when an entire movie is portrayed as dangerous, it dampens the impact of the experience for me. It becomes just an anxiety-inducing movie, and not an interesting journey. This movie spent enough time in the daytime, at school, and interacting with people "outside" the danger to create a compelling balance for me.

The ending... well I'm not entirely sure what happened at the end. But I'm kind of okay with that. It's a horror movie with six million sequels; maybe there are more answers in future films. For now, I'm calling this a rousing success.

Feeling like a classic fright night yourself? Click here to go to JustWatch and find out where you can stream this nightmare today!

One Good Point (Movie) - Get Out

IT'S HORROR WEEK!

Historically I haven't been much of a horror movie kind of guy. It's a little bit of an oddity, because Jurassic Park and Jaws definitely draw on horror elements, and they're two of my all-time favorite movies. But then I watched The Ring at some point, and I was like, why on earth would someone choose to do this to themselves?

For a while it was just monster movies, like Cloverfield (good) or Deep Blue Sea (decent). And then earlier this year I gave a shot to Anaconda (so, so bad). But Get Out has been a movie that seemed to cross into the mainstream to such an extent that it demanded being watched. Granted, some might say the same about the movie IT, but I'm in no rush to see that film. "Underground ghost clown" isn't the basis for anything fun I want to see.

My cousin Nick has been recommending it for years, and I finally caved in and watched it. And it's just fantastic. The main character feels so incredibly realistic, especially his relationship with his friend, fleshed out almost exclusively via phone calls. And look, I'm by no means an expert on the topic. But this feels genuinely like a movie written by Black writers, with Black characters in mind. So often you find Black characters in movies or shows that feel aggressively neutral, or painted as downright caricatures. By contrast, this movie felt so purely human and realistic.

The reveal is great, the characters are great, and the culmination is great. There's one cheesy line towards the end, which I won't spoil, in case you haven't seen the movie. But the rest of it is just an absolute treasure, and has got me ready to watch more Jordan Peele films ASAP.

If you haven't watched Get Out, you've got to click here ASAP and find out where you can stream it, and watch it. Now.

One Good Point (Movie) - Unbreakable

No, not Kimmy Schmidt. This is the M. Night Shyamalan film from 2000 starring Bruce Willis (hey, like I promised!) and Samuel L. Jackson. It's the first of a three-part "trilogy" that includes two more movies on my horizon: Split and Glass.

So how was the first entry in this saga? Well, let's just say that if I hadn't received such inspirational reviews of the second and third films, this might have been where my journey stopped.

The beginning of the movie is actually really well done. It introduces us to Willis' character, David Dunn, showing us that he's got some charm, that he's having marital trouble, and then sets off the story by putting him in a catastrophic train wreck as the sole survivor. But after that, Dunn becomes almost completely uninteresting and uncharismatic. Willis plays the role very similar to his role in The Sixth Sense, but that character was supposed to be a man literally haunted by the events of his life. This character should have some kind of personality. And I say that as someone who loves Captain America, admittedly one of the less flamboyant heroes. You gotta give me something.

Jackson's portrayal of Elijah Price is much more interesting, but that's how it goes with antagonists, right? That's how you knew he was the bad guy: he was eminently more watchable and compelling than Willis.

I think ultimately this movie suffered from the success of The Sixth Sense. It seems like Shyamalan "learned" too much from that movie, and employed character work and cinematography that wasn't quite right for this movie. But I trust the recommendations I've received enough that I'll give Split and Glass a shot.

One last thing. Just before the end credits, the movie does a freeze-frame and text-based post-script. "David Dunn led authorities to... Elijah Price is now..." etc. In a fictional, serious movie, this feels completely out of place. It makes sense in Remember The Titans, because you want to know the real world "whatever happened to..." about a number of characters. And it makes sense in like Animal House, because Animal House is an unserious movie. In this film, a serious dramatic but fictional story, it just feels strange. One more oddity in a movie full of less-than-exceptional quirks.

Wondering if I'm way off base? You can check out Unbreakable on your own! Click here to check out where you can stream it today on JustWatch.

One Good Point (Movie) - Looper

I'm generally a Bruce Willis fan. Die Hard was one of the first R-rated action movies I ever saw, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance was the first R-rated movie I ever saw in theaters. And there'll be another Bruce Willis movie in this feed shortly, so stay tuned!

Willis isn't quite the protagonist in this movie, though; that distinction goes to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the younger version of Willis' character. The two characters are dealing with the consequences of a life of crime and time travel, and naturally are both cooperative and combative at different points in the movie. They both do a great job of acting, while some of the supporting roles (Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels specifically) are a bit less impressive.

The story is fairly straightforward, which is a positive in a time-travel movie; that shit can get weird in a hurry. That said, the story just didn't grab me the way I hoped that it would. It's a fine little suspense film, with a rewarding enough ending, but lacking in any of the big dramatic moments that makes a movie really sing for me. It kind of feels like the movie had a premise they liked, and they sort of tried to jam a full-sized story on top of it, and the fit is a little imperfect. Not bad, just not great... which feels like the story behind many of the films I've watched this year, but hey, that's how it goes, right? Most stuff is okay, some stuff is great, some stuff is terrible.

You're welcome, I just explained life.

If you'd like to watch Looper yourself but aren't sure what timeline you're in, I can't help you. But if you just need to know where it's streaming, click here to check out its entry on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Movie) - Sleepy Hollow

So for those of you who know me, you know I don't have a big horror background. I'm not into jump-scares at all; that's a sensation I'm perfectly happy to leave behind. But there are thrilling movies that appeal to me; Jurassic Park and Jaws are two of my all-time favorite films, and thrill and danger are core to both of those movies.

Sleepy Hollow offers some of the same sorts of vibes, albeit with a supernatural bend. You've got a strong cast of skilled actors playing lots of interesting characters, almost all of whom have secrets to hide. Johnny Depp is very entertaining, as always, and he plays the role of a skittish-yet-overconfident investigator to perfection. And though I'm generally not into supernatural horror, I enjoyed how they stretched it as long as they could to keep you unsure if it was truly a ghost story.

Overall it was a fun watch, one I'll definitely be happy to revisit from time to time, when I'm in a spooky mood but don't want to watch something new. Sleepy Hollow gets my Halloween seal of approval!

If you'd like to watch Sleepy Hollow but you don't know where you can stream it, have I got a deal for you! Click here to check out JustWatch, and they'll tell you what streaming/rental services have this movie!