Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
Director: Jeff Burr
Starring: Kate Hodge, Ken Foree
My Rating: Didn't like it

TCM3 is one very basic horror movie. It never manages to establish an identity, which is one thing the first two had no problem doing, and it borrows heavily from the original TCM. In the beginning, the two main characters kill an armadillo, and in the original there is a shot showing a dead armadillo. Directly after this when they get to the gas station, the crazy worker there takes a polaroid picture and asks how much money they'll pay for it, exactly like the hitchhiker in the first movie did. I mean, come on, be unique. And then directly after that the gas station attendant peeps on the girl in the bathroom like he's Norman Bates.

This movie completely ignores TCM2 as if it didn't exist, which is fine, I suppose, but this makes everything even more unbelievable than it already is. So you're telling me that Leatherface's father and brother died prior to this, and Leatherface went about his killing business for a whole other family? Or maybe these people are his extended family? Either way, this befuddles the story for me. The whole reason why Leatherface is such an interesting villain in the first movie is directly because of his relationship with his father, brother, and grandfather. TCM3 throws that directly out the window and adds more "family members" who simply act weird for the fuck of it.

I'm pretty lenient when it comes to films, but this one is just bad. TCM3 has no personality of its own. The story isn't interesting, the characters are dull, the dialogue is goofy, and Leatherface's mask is a noticeable downgrade from the first two. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is a big bore. Watch the first two and pump the brakes there.

Daily Awesome #114

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Director: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow
My Rating: Loved It!!

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 might as well be the original Scary Movie. It's a complete and utter spoof of everything that the first movie was; which is at once perplexing and highly unique to me. It's perplexing obviously because the first one is one of the most highly regarded horror films of all time, and it's just a strange choice to openly mock it in its very own sequel. But it's so unique because what other sequel in the history of cinema has ever done this? TCM2 is the polar opposite of everything the original movie is. The original is a tautly made, horrifying portrayal of a serial killer and his family hunting down a group of teenagers, with an absolutely airtight script. TCM2, on the other hand, is a downright goofy parody that throws any kind of logic right out the window. The craziest thing about it is: it may be a crazy, off kilter freak show of a movie, but what it's trying to do, it does exceptionally well. The Scary Movie series has nothing on this; not that they're spoof masterpieces or anything, but I do quite like the first two.

Instead of bringing a lot of guns and police back-up to the Sawyers' (leatherface's family's last name) underground circus lair, the cop, played by Dennis Hopper, rolls in solo, armed with three chainsaws. Also, Leatherface discovers that he has a thing for Stretch (the main girl), and he proceeds to make humping motions with his chain saw in the place of his penis. Yeah, I'm not making this stuff up. There are several hilarious moments, maybe one or two genuinely frightening moments, and loads of 'what the fuck?!' moments in this movie.

For what it is, I think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a highly entertaining, weird, psychopathic, blacker than night spoof-horror-comedy that a lot of people just didn't quite understand when it came out, and rightfully so. It's truly a conundrum why Tobe Hooper and everyone involved decided to openly mock the first one, but I think it makes for one of the most interesting one-two, original-sequel punches in the history of cinema.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Director: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger
My Rating: Loved It!!!

After another viewing of the original Tobe Hooper classic, I think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be the perfect slasher movie. It's effective and frightening without showing hardly any gore. A note that modern day horror movies should take into consideration. Sometimes gore is awesome and fun, but a ton of movies these days overdue it and also manage to not scare even the jumpiest of teenagers. For instance, when the girl is put on leatherface's meathook, no blood or wound is shown in this scene. All that's shown is the girl being lifted up and then a shot of a bucket underneath her, no blood at all. But on recollection of the film, it seems like it's a very bloody movie; and that is the power of good film making.

I say that it may be the perfect slasher movie because it doesn't waste one minute of its lean 83 minute run time. The opening may drag a tiny bit, but once leatherface shows up, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a damn perfect chunk of cinema. It never lets up until the eerily, bewilderingly beautiful final shot of leatherface swinging his chainsaw like a madman in an adrenaline fueled moment. Jason Zinoman wrote a book entitled Shock Value and he puts it better than I ever could: "The ambiguous and oddly poetic final moments - and it's notable that the movie ends with the killer - offer the possibility of a very bizarre happy ending. His twirl in the sunset looks a little like a rock star vamping in front of a crowd. Instead of a guitar, he's swinging a chain saw, but the brutal, triumphant dance could be a celebration."

The most horrifying scene in the whole movie is the one towards the end when all of leatherface's family is having dinner with Sally tied up. It's horrifying because it almost makes the viewer feel bad for leatherface; almost. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, along with The Exorcist from the year prior, showed America that Horror could also be well made, entertaining cinema.

Daily Awesome #113

Daily Awesome #112

Daily Awesome #111

Selma (2015)

Selma
Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth
My Rating: Loved It!

Selma is a powerful and painful reminder of how far America has come and how far America still has to go. Selma tells the horrifying and victorious true story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leading the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama.

All around Selma is a masterfully made movie, from the sobering opening scene of the infamous church bombing to the uplifting final scene of Dr. King giving his speech in Montgomery, Alabama following the successful march. The performances are spot on, but what really stood out to me was how well done the moments of brutality were realized. During some of the more intense and brutal moments, there are some beautifully devastating shots, including interesting facial close ups and heart wrenching slow motion sequences. These were some of the most powerful and visceral moments of any movie I've seen in the past year.

The movie captures this particular incident's complexity very well, showing the (very bigoted) politics at a local, state, and national level throughout. Another refreshing part of Selma is that it doesn't shy away from painting a full picture of Martin Luther King Jr. He's a flawed man in this movie, just like every single human being who has ever lived. Selma may be U.S. history 101, but everyone should see this regardless of prior knowledge of the historical event or not.

Daily Awesome #110

Daily Awesome #109

Daily Awesome #108

Into the Woods (2014)

Into the Woods
Director: Rob Marshall
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine
My Rating: Liked It

Into the Woods is an interesting mix of classic Disney fairy tales, with great musical numbers and fantastical performances. The story intertwines the classic stories of Jack and The Beanstalk, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel. It tells an original story about a baker and his wife who need to collect certain objects from each story (a cape as red as blood, a cow as white as milk, hair as golden as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold) to give to a wicked witch in order to remove a curse on them. Instead of it ending "happily ever after," the story goes further, and goes to some darker places than expected.

Since the film involves so many characters and stories, the just over two hour run time moves at a very swift pace, with no lulls what-so-ever. I like movies that take advantage of every second of its run time, and Into the Woods definitely does that. Into the Woods is a modern take on the stories, meaning that it not only does justice to the source material but also kind of pokes fun at how ridiculous some of the story points are.

I thought the whole cast did great, but specifically Meryl Streep (what's new?) and Emily Blunt. Blunt was quite funny as the pretty grounded "peon" baker's wife who gets swept off her feet whenever she sees the royal princes. Even if you aren't a fan of Disney tales or musicals, I think Into the Woods will surprise you by how entertaining it is. I've read bad reviews from people saying it doesn't match up to the superior broadway play which it's based on, but I've never seen the play, so I can't compare. As a stand alone movie, I think Into the Woods is a success.

Daily Awesome #107

Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

Magic in the Moonlight
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Colin Firth, Emma Stone
My Rating: Liked It

While Magic in the Moonlight is definitely a minor Woody Allen work, I still really enjoyed it. What can I say, I'm a fan of his films.

It's about a famous magician (Firth) who hears from a friend that there is a young medium (Stone) who is the real deal. He goes to debunk her powers but finds that maybe there is some magic in the world.

I think the best part of the movie is the filming and cinematography. The whole thing looks like a beautiful pastel painting, and Allen, as always, films simply yet beautifully, with help from the gorgeous coast of France. If you know Woody Allen movies you know that the content usually involves playing out his neuroses, and Magic in the Moonlight is certainly no different. The main character (Firth) is a skeptic who thinks that we live in a miserably cruel world, just like many of Allen's other main characters and obviously just like Allen himself.

Moonlight is labeled a romantic comedy, but I wouldn't label it a comedy. It's certainly not as funny as some of his other films, but I don't think it was trying to be laugh out loud hilarious. I enjoy the message: even the biggest skeptics can be swept off their feet and believe there is happiness in the world, even if it means believing a lie.

Daily Awesome #106

Big Eyes (2014)

Big Eyes
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Krysten Ritter
My Rating: Loved It!

It's easy to see why Burton gravitated towards this story. For one, it's absurd and absolutely ridiculous, but also the strangeness and sadness in all of the paintings eyes is in line with Burton's crazy works of art.

The true story starts off following a recently divorced woman in the late 1950's, which is a time when women rarely divorced and weren't seen anywhere near as equal to men. She had a young daughter that she brought with her to San Franscisco, who was her inspiration for her big eyed paintings. As soon as she got to San Fran she was swept off her feet by a fellow painter who seemed too good to be true. It turns out that was just the case. After she married him, she signed all of her paintings with his last name: Keane. This was a huge mistake because once the paintings started to sell, her husband started selling them as his; and then the paintings turned into a national phenomenon but everyone thought he was the artist.

I think this is a great change of pace and style for Burton, who, as you probably know, has made some of the better, darker movies of the past several decades. This is certainly his brightest, color wise, movie to date. And Big Eyes and Ed Wood are the only two movies from his 17 film catalogue that are grounded in reality; actually, they're both biographies.

Big Eyes starts out a tad slow and even a little sappy, but progressively builds up to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. I found the story a bit frustrating because Mrs. Keane kept the secret for so long, but half a century ago there was a much different dynamic between men and women. That plus the seriously introverted nature of Mrs. Keane thoroughly explains why she let it happen the way it did. I'm very glad, for her sake and for the movie's, that she left him and eventually challenged him in court. The courtroom scene was a very rewarding payoff.

Amy Adams does a fantastic job embodying the quiet yet strong-willed protagonist. As Burton and Adams explain in the videos below, it's especially hard to portray a woman so quiet like Mrs. Keane, but Amy Adams definitely served her justice, and she should get yet another Oscar nomination for her performance. Not that I thought Christoph Waltz did poorly, quite the opposite in fact, but I thought he was a weird choice for the role.

Big Eyes is, above all, one hell of a true story, but it's also one of Tim Burton's most grounded films and another showcase for Amy Adams talent.

Daily Awesome #105

Daily Awesome #104

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Birdman
Director: Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
Starring: Micheal Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
My Rating: Loved It!!!

Birdman is a gift to movie lovers like myself. Not only does it have a lot of things to say about the current state of the movie business and the current state of stardom in the internet age, but it's constantly hilarious throughout; which, honestly, I did not expect, knowing Alejandro's previous works.

It's about a washed-up old actor (Keaton) who is struggling with becoming relevant again. A few decades earlier he was in the famed Birdman trilogy, and that is still what he is known for. So he adapts a book into a play and is starring in it and directing it. All the while struggling with the voice in his head that constantly berates him.

There is so much to love about this film. The real-time, one camera method makes everything so urgent and absorbing. I can't even begin to understand the intense preparation that this method must've warranted from the cast and crew. And speaking of the cast, they are phenomenal in Birdman. Edward Norton and Michael Keaton specifically steal this film.

Birdman, most likely, will win best picture, and damn sure will win best cinematography. Edward Norton probably will win best supporting actor and the only person standing in Keaton's way for best actor would be Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game. It's really hard to compare those two roles, though. They are both fantastic, but they are two very different roles; It's like apples and oranges.

Birdman reminds me a lot of Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky. They are very different films in tone, story, and stylistically, but a very important note is played on in both films: the main character is driven mad, thus being absorbed by their respective roles and creating a great performance. The motives are vastly different, but that one comparison was hard for me to ignore. This is neither good nor bad, just an observation between two fantastic movies!

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a hilarious, thought-provoking spectacle on being a self critical artist on the back nine of life. See this movie.