Double Review Spectacular - First Man and Halloween (2018)

That's right boys and girls, Halloween time is here and what's spookier than me putting in twice the work for yet another bullshit post barely anyone will read? Nothing, apart from maybe a masked killer with a knife and being alone in space. Fortunately two films came out recently that deal exactly with those things so let's review the hell out of them!


Halloween (2018) is a misleading title right out of the gate because it's actually the 11th Halloween film and is positing itself directly as a sequel to the 1978 film, also called Halloween. That all sounds quite confusing so let me boil it down a bit. Forty years ago, Michael Myers was first let free (both on screens and in the narrative) and was put away after a murder spree in which Laurie Strode escaped free. This event changed her life and she spent the next forty years both scared Michael would escape and preparing herself to kill him if he ever did. In the mean time, she had a daughter who in turn had a daughter (who is now about the same age Laurie was in the first film) and they're living a happy, normal life. Obviously, this is all a set up for Michael Myers to escape from the mental hospital he's stuck in and start killing some folks and from there, the story does a solid mix of going between where you're expecting and where you aren't. I wouldn't say that the unexpected places always work, with some twists being far too ridiculous but otherwise, it's a solid story that was fun to watch play out, even if it didn't change the game.

The cast are hit and miss if I'm going to be completely honest because it is a slasher film and a good chunk of the cast are here to be killed. Many of the teenagers are okay but suffer hugely from poor writing which does smack somewhat of "modern teen talk written by men in their thirties". Weirdly though, there's a kid who one of the teens is babysitting who is fairly funny but maybe poorly utilised, but I'll get into that. The one exception to this rule (perhaps unsurprisngly) is Andi Matichak who plays Allyson, the granddaughter of franchise protagonist Laurie Strode. Don't get me wrong, she's not exceptional but she's an actress I'd never heard of before and she left enough of an impression on me. Falling into the fairly bad camp is Haluk Bilginer as Dr. Sartain who, as a character in the film points out, is the new Dr. Loomis. He is given weird stuff to do and doesn't quite make it work. Equally odd is the father character to Allyson who gets given some goofy comedy and and then a character arc that is non-existent. The best work here is done by the leading women though. Judy Greer, known to me and maybe five others as Kitty from Arrested Development, plays Laurie Strode's daughter. She spends most of the film being worried but gets to flip that switch at the end and I'm always pro her getting more work. Best of all though is Jamie Lee Curtis, recapturing Laurie Strode, the character that made her famous forty years ago. She is just fantastic, getting to reinvent her character as a PTSD stricken victim who has spent the time since the last attack preparing herself for this exact occasion. She doesn't get to be in the film as much as maybe she should but when she's on screen, no one does it like her.

At this point, we get to the meat of the film. After all, Halloween is a horror film so what you're really thinking about is "Is it scary?" and the answer is... Complicated. For plenty of the film, it is fairly creepy, with plenty of long takes and an amazing score from original director John Carpenter adding to the tone. Carpenter is famed for the synth music he personally makes for his films and he uses riffs from the original to great effect here but the long takes are maybe what struck me the most. The original Halloween opens on one of the most iconic long takes in history and while I don't think this film has that level of quality, there's a lengthy take in which Michael Myers goes on a killing spree and it's so well planned out. At one point, we see his face in a reflection and it's very clear that this take has been meticulously planned out, which makes it feel impressive. Unfortunately, a lot of the tension gets shut down by awkward comedy. As I was alluding to earlier, there's a kill scene in which Michael Myers lurches out of the closet at a character but all the tension that's about to be released is undercut by the little kid in the room shouting "Oh shit!". It's not just that moment though, there's plenty of moments where sustained tension is undercut for a cheap and often unfunny joke. This is such a shame because early on there's a real cool tension throughout that feels somewhat akin to the original film but eventually, it dissipates instead of building to a crescendo like the original. Still, the 1978 one didn't have a head stomp so suck on that Carpenter you fraud.

2018's Halloween definitely isn't a bad film. In fact, for a lot of the time, it's a really good film. Unfortunately though, it came to me in the position of having only seen the original, near perfect film and none of the middling sequels that tarnished the franchises legacy. Some jokes may ruin some moments of tension but there's still a solid enough slasher flick in here, just one that didn't thrill me as much as I was hoping. That's why I'm giving Halloween (the 2018 one, not the 1978 or 2007 ones) a




Now onto what was one of my most anticipated films of the year, a thriller biopic where the whole through line and tension is whether Neil Armstrong will make it to the moon. From that description, it sounds like absolute shit and I did have some worries but all those worries were quickly washed away as the film began and captured my heart like all Damien Chazelle films seem to. As you could have worked out, it's tricky to talk about the plot because this is a true story and one that everyone knows the ending of. What I will give Chazelle credit for is that he tells a story whose intricate details are less well known. Sure, certain aspects of the story have been somewhat embellished but with the true life events, I knew few of them and they're portrayed breathtakingly. I'll dive a little more into it later but what is perhaps most impressive is that you aren't entirely sure if Armstrong is going to make it to the moon. Turning reality into film isn't easy but Chazelle has proved that he can tell all kinds of stories.

With his last two films, Damien Chazelle has directed actors who won Oscars so great performances are to be expected with First Man and hot damn, that's certainly the case. Around the central two characters (or really the single lead, sorry Claire Foy) is a great ensemble of character actors, most of whom will make you go "Oh hey, I know that guy". There's Corey Stoll (that guy from House of Cards), Jason Clarke (that guy from Everest) and Kyle Chandler (that guy from Wolf of Wall Street) all giving great performances that help elevate the film. Getting to the one main woman in the film though, Clare Foy is great. Like most of Chazelle's films, it is essentially a story about the loneliness of one man so she has a lot working against her but her eyes are able to say powerful things to the audience, even when she hasn't got actual lines in that scene. The film is called First Man though and the First Man himself is Ryan Gosling who gives yet another stellar performance. Maybe it's because I love his artier fare but I've never seen him give a bad performance and when it comes to silent introspection about what it means to be alive in the world, I don't think anyone does it better than Gosling. Here, he's much closer to K from Blade Runner 2049 than his Blue Valentine character, doing a lot of staring but goddamn, his eyes say so much. Foy is brilliant at it but for me, Gosling is another level and if he doesn't get nominated for Best Actor, I'll be very let down. There may yet be better performances this year but he's currently up there for me.

As I was saying, I adore Damien Chazelle's work. He wrote the screenplay for 10 Cloverfield Lane which is one of my favourite thrillers of recent years but was also the writer/director of Whiplash (my favourite thriller ever) and La La Land (my favourite musical ever). So yeah, a lot to live up to but also some very different films. With First Man, Chazelle veers closer to Whiplash, offering these intense thriller moments as men are strapped into what are essentially explosion powered tin cans and placing the audience so firmly within them we feel trapped. However, where he changes it up a bit and does something different to what he's done before (unless he does it in Guy and Madeline Sit on a Park Bench but it's near impossible to watch that in the UK) is when he spends the first half of the film just examining the character of Armstrong. He's an iconic figure but one who many people don't know much about. Watching him deal with personal tragedy and contemplate his place in the world builds him up to the point where we really care about him and by the second half, we're terrified for his safety. Even with the events so clearly in our minds, Chazelle is able to make us forget that and put pure fear in our hearts for this deeply human character who is hurting so much. Also worth noting before I close this out is that even though not a music film, regular Chazelle collaborator Justin Hurwitz is back creating an incredible score. It is at both intense and thoughtful, the perfect accompaniment to this film. Equally, it has a theremin in it which is always a huge win.

In the pantheon of Chazelle directed films, this might be my least favourite of the bunch but that barely means anything with a filmography like his. Whiplash and La La Land are all time favourites for me so to say First Man isn't quite at that level isn't a criticism. I plan on watching it at least once more in cinemas and I'll almost certainly be buying it upon blu-ray release and who knows, maybe it'll eventually join those all time greats. For now though, I feel happy giving First Man a measly score of a


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