Movie Review Afraid

Afraid 

Directed by Chris Weitz 

Written by Chris Weitz 

Starring John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine, Havana Rose Liu

Release Date August 30th, 2024 

Published August 30th, 2024 

I was dreading seeing the horror-thriller Afraid. We’ve seen this concept about a killer Smart Home before. The idea dates back to the 1970s, no joke, look up the 1977 movie Demon Seed. Also, to borrow from South Parkfor a moment, ‘Simpsons’ did it.’ There is an epic Treehouse of Horrorssegment called Ultrahouse 3000 that debuted in 2001. That was more of a 2001: A Space Odyssey riff but it covered many of the same ideas and did so while incorporating horror and comedy. 

So, yeah, Afraid didn’t feel fresh to me and the trailer did nothing to make me think it would be anything special. I felt as if I could have reviewed the movie without seeing it. Wow, was I mistaken. Afraid is terrific. The opening moments of Afraid are a grabber. The film takes images we’ve been seeing in our worst A.I nightmares and uses them as nightmare fuel. And that’s really at the heart of the movie, extrapolating a suspenseful horror scenario from what we currently know that A.I is capable of before expanding into the realm of A.I thought experiment, especially the kinds of things that real tech start-ups hope A.I will be capable of.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Bottoms

Bottoms (2023) 

Directed by Emma Seligmann

Written by Emma Seligmann, Rachel Sennott

Starring Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edibiri, Havana Rose Liu, Ruby Cruz, Marshawn Lynch

Release Date September 1st, 2023 

Published September 1st, 2023 

Queer kids are horny too. This should not surprise anyone but our popular culture, our culture in general has tried to hide from this fact for, perhaps, the entire history of film. Queer kids in movies may have longings, they may have desires and even a love interest, but they are, more often then not, saintly, sexless representations of their community, sanitized for the protection of mainstream moviegoers, even the so-called allies who like the idea of supporting LGBTQ but aren't comfortable actually seeing that representation in its infinite variety on the big screen. 

This makes Emma Seligmann and Rachel Sennott's Bottoms a rather revolutionary new movie. Bottoms portrays a pair of queer, female lead characters whose libidinous desires drive the plot. If that's a problem for you, I suggest you skip movies like the American Pie franchise or Superbad because Bottoms, at least in terms of the frank depiction of horniness, is no different from those teenage, straight, male presentations of sexually active and desirous teens. 

But where those outrageous comedies play everything straight, pun intended, Bottoms starts from a recognizable reality and spins out to a broad story that satirizes the tropes of High School comedies while getting at the heart of the anxieties that drive teenagers, gay or straight. Much like the equally spiky 80s comedy of Heathers, Bottoms presents High School life as violent dystopic, minefield of social expectations while reveling in the catharsis that can come from stepping around the expected into a place that disrupts the norms with gleeful intent. 

Bottoms stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edibiri as best friends, P.J and Josie. Outcasts since kindergarten, the queer teens are hopeful that the start of a new school year can be a restart to their High School lives and personas. Both have crushes on cheerleaders that are destined to be unrequited but where P.J is willing to press the issue, Josie prefers a depressing long game that she lays out in one of the funniest monologues of 2023, punctuated by a perfect quip from Sennott's P.J for one of my favorite laughs of the year. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media