Trap rivals Furiosa within the S-tier in my personal ranking. Unlike Furiosa, I didn't see any trailers for Trap and went in completely blind, which only elevated the experience! (I had read this article before seeing the film, so I was anticipating the pie bit. It didn't disappoint!) I've enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's films in the past but it was Old that converted me into a pro-M. Knight advocate. Knock at the Cabin and now Trap have furthered solidified that stance. The only quibble I have with Trap is that for a film set in Philadelphia they made a practically non-existent effort to disguise the fact that they filmed in downtown Toronto (in the first half specifically). In fact, until I saw the SWAT costumes and Philadelphia logos on the cop cars, I started to assume the setting within the film was supposed to be Toronto! It reminded me of when I watched Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass a decade ago and thought 'why not just cut out the middle man, and just rewrite the film to take place in Toronto?'
Kinds of Kindness, Cuckoo, Longlegs and especially MaXXXine would all rank higher on my tier list relative to yours. Granted MaXXXine benefited from lowered expectations; I already figured it wouldn't be on the same level as Pearl. Really enjoyed the scenes between Mia Goth and Elizabeth Debicki, but I especially loved Giancarlo Esposito's character and his hair styling. He was definitely underutilized. My friend made a point that Esposito came across as a surrogate father for Maxine, and that his character could've been set up as a definite foil to Maxine's biological father.
I'll echo what everyone else has said about Dan Steven's acting in Cuckoo (and your point about the potential of its out of time production design) but I also really enjoyed Hunter Schafer's as well. Same goes for Goth's and Maika Monroe's in their respective films. Apparently this was the summer of decent horror movies with really strong female leads (at least based on the ones I've personally seen, which doesn't include The Watchers, Oddity, the Quiet Place prequel or the new Alien sequel)!
I agree completely with your lovely assessment of the Monroe's performance. I feel the understated nature of it offered a nice balance/contrast to Nic Cage's character (which might've been intentional?).
One last silly remark in a very indulgent post; it is my firm belief that J.J. Abrams pissed blood when he saw Baby Yoda for the first time. And frankly, so did Rian Johnson.
Lovely points all around. I think for M Night, Pennsylvania has become more of a spiritual entity rather than an actual physical location. It is the air his films breathe.
cuckoo suckedddddd but would watch dan stevens as that bavarian flute-wielding weirdo for another hour anyway (just if we followed him around, not in the context of the film). a+ sunglasses in that movie tho!!!!!!!!
He is an underrated comic actor. My roommate and I went back and forth about the aesthetic of the movie -- both of us wished it was less time-specific i.e. didn't have iPhones and instead leaned COMPLETELY into its place out of time retro Europe sensibility. I loved the far-from-heaven-ass styling of the cuckoo, absolutely immaculate sunglasses as you mentioned, totally wasted.
I have been infuriated by M Night since THE VILLAGE and yet, I keep coming back hoping to recreate the thrill of seeing UNBREAKABLE for the first time (this is also the only superhero cannon I have any interest in). While TRAP wasn’t his best, it was some of the most fun I’ve had in the theatre this summer due to Josh Hartnet’s “girl dad” enthusiastic performance in the beginning and the tension that was built at the concert. Yes, there are inexplicable plot points and it loses steam after the concert, but M Night is going to M Night.
Also this movie looked better than anything MCU has put out in 30 some odd movies so that was a win for me too.
I have a lot of love for the village even though it is, yes, bad, but I have also wanted to rewatch it since I saw that Cahiers du Cinéma ranked it as one of their top 10 movies of that year. Split (haven't seen) and Lady in the Water (horrible) have also received that same accolade. perplexing.
I have heard rumors of Twisters coming back to 4DX for Labor Day? I think they need to dial up the 4D even more to the extreme (they should require seatbelts).
I have always been pro M Night, but I simply could not get down with Trap. I did enjoy Josh Hartnett’s performance, but Alison Pill was absent until the last bit of the movie, which was a mistake. It also 100% felt like the movie was just a vehicle for M Night’s daughter to have a platform to perform her music (and he said that this was the case). So boring!
It's a huge summer for both, but in Ishana's case not in the way she probably hoped for.
Shyamalan senior's role in Trap is definitely a lot of fun for how brief it is (obviously because of the real life nepotism aspects). But his cameo as the infomercial host in Knock at the Cabin is my absolute favourite. If we're doing a tier list for M Knight self-casting, that one is going straight to the S-tier.
Wolverine & Deadpool is probably now my favorite MCU movie. The writers clearly had a deep knowledge of the comics and cinema from the Marvel universe. It was a lot more joyful than any of the recent Avengers movies.
Wow I will have to take your word for it because after I insisted to my boyfriend that "yeah yeah I've seen the marvel movies" and he said "okay which ones" I realized I had seen 3 and the last one was in 2018. I liked Logan!
Loved Logan (and Old Man Logan, the comic book that inspired it). The thing about W & D that really got me was how the film-makers took iconic frames from the comics and you could almost see them about to hit the mark, and boom! They did! Deeep cuts everywhere!
My brother is not only a superhero film aficionado (much like myself) but also a massive fan of Hugh Jackman, especially his portrayal as Wolverine. Naturally he really loved Logan and felt it was a great send off for that incarnation of the character. As a result he was rather ambivalent about Jackman returning to the role, particularly in a Deadpool sequel (he liked the first Deadpool fine, but it wasn't his favourite of the genre). Nevertheless he went to see Deadpool and Wolverine with his girlfriend. They walked out about 45 minutes in.
Eventually he saw the rest of the film via a camcorder bootleg online. Still didn't like it, but he really enjoyed Jackman's performance despite everything else.
Trap rivals Furiosa within the S-tier in my personal ranking. Unlike Furiosa, I didn't see any trailers for Trap and went in completely blind, which only elevated the experience! (I had read this article before seeing the film, so I was anticipating the pie bit. It didn't disappoint!) I've enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's films in the past but it was Old that converted me into a pro-M. Knight advocate. Knock at the Cabin and now Trap have furthered solidified that stance. The only quibble I have with Trap is that for a film set in Philadelphia they made a practically non-existent effort to disguise the fact that they filmed in downtown Toronto (in the first half specifically). In fact, until I saw the SWAT costumes and Philadelphia logos on the cop cars, I started to assume the setting within the film was supposed to be Toronto! It reminded me of when I watched Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass a decade ago and thought 'why not just cut out the middle man, and just rewrite the film to take place in Toronto?'
Kinds of Kindness, Cuckoo, Longlegs and especially MaXXXine would all rank higher on my tier list relative to yours. Granted MaXXXine benefited from lowered expectations; I already figured it wouldn't be on the same level as Pearl. Really enjoyed the scenes between Mia Goth and Elizabeth Debicki, but I especially loved Giancarlo Esposito's character and his hair styling. He was definitely underutilized. My friend made a point that Esposito came across as a surrogate father for Maxine, and that his character could've been set up as a definite foil to Maxine's biological father.
I'll echo what everyone else has said about Dan Steven's acting in Cuckoo (and your point about the potential of its out of time production design) but I also really enjoyed Hunter Schafer's as well. Same goes for Goth's and Maika Monroe's in their respective films. Apparently this was the summer of decent horror movies with really strong female leads (at least based on the ones I've personally seen, which doesn't include The Watchers, Oddity, the Quiet Place prequel or the new Alien sequel)!
I agree completely with your lovely assessment of the Monroe's performance. I feel the understated nature of it offered a nice balance/contrast to Nic Cage's character (which might've been intentional?).
One last silly remark in a very indulgent post; it is my firm belief that J.J. Abrams pissed blood when he saw Baby Yoda for the first time. And frankly, so did Rian Johnson.
Lovely points all around. I think for M Night, Pennsylvania has become more of a spiritual entity rather than an actual physical location. It is the air his films breathe.
cuckoo suckedddddd but would watch dan stevens as that bavarian flute-wielding weirdo for another hour anyway (just if we followed him around, not in the context of the film). a+ sunglasses in that movie tho!!!!!!!!
He is an underrated comic actor. My roommate and I went back and forth about the aesthetic of the movie -- both of us wished it was less time-specific i.e. didn't have iPhones and instead leaned COMPLETELY into its place out of time retro Europe sensibility. I loved the far-from-heaven-ass styling of the cuckoo, absolutely immaculate sunglasses as you mentioned, totally wasted.
I have been infuriated by M Night since THE VILLAGE and yet, I keep coming back hoping to recreate the thrill of seeing UNBREAKABLE for the first time (this is also the only superhero cannon I have any interest in). While TRAP wasn’t his best, it was some of the most fun I’ve had in the theatre this summer due to Josh Hartnet’s “girl dad” enthusiastic performance in the beginning and the tension that was built at the concert. Yes, there are inexplicable plot points and it loses steam after the concert, but M Night is going to M Night.
Also this movie looked better than anything MCU has put out in 30 some odd movies so that was a win for me too.
I’m sad I didn’t experience TWiSTERS in 4DX 😔
I have a lot of love for the village even though it is, yes, bad, but I have also wanted to rewatch it since I saw that Cahiers du Cinéma ranked it as one of their top 10 movies of that year. Split (haven't seen) and Lady in the Water (horrible) have also received that same accolade. perplexing.
I have heard rumors of Twisters coming back to 4DX for Labor Day? I think they need to dial up the 4D even more to the extreme (they should require seatbelts).
I have always been pro M Night, but I simply could not get down with Trap. I did enjoy Josh Hartnett’s performance, but Alison Pill was absent until the last bit of the movie, which was a mistake. It also 100% felt like the movie was just a vehicle for M Night’s daughter to have a platform to perform her music (and he said that this was the case). So boring!
It is a HUGE summer to be a daughter of M Night. I love that he cast himself as her uncle/employee.
It's a huge summer for both, but in Ishana's case not in the way she probably hoped for.
Shyamalan senior's role in Trap is definitely a lot of fun for how brief it is (obviously because of the real life nepotism aspects). But his cameo as the infomercial host in Knock at the Cabin is my absolute favourite. If we're doing a tier list for M Knight self-casting, that one is going straight to the S-tier.
INCRED Idea for a newsletter. Might have to do that and credit you....
Wolverine & Deadpool is probably now my favorite MCU movie. The writers clearly had a deep knowledge of the comics and cinema from the Marvel universe. It was a lot more joyful than any of the recent Avengers movies.
Wow I will have to take your word for it because after I insisted to my boyfriend that "yeah yeah I've seen the marvel movies" and he said "okay which ones" I realized I had seen 3 and the last one was in 2018. I liked Logan!
Loved Logan (and Old Man Logan, the comic book that inspired it). The thing about W & D that really got me was how the film-makers took iconic frames from the comics and you could almost see them about to hit the mark, and boom! They did! Deeep cuts everywhere!
My brother is not only a superhero film aficionado (much like myself) but also a massive fan of Hugh Jackman, especially his portrayal as Wolverine. Naturally he really loved Logan and felt it was a great send off for that incarnation of the character. As a result he was rather ambivalent about Jackman returning to the role, particularly in a Deadpool sequel (he liked the first Deadpool fine, but it wasn't his favourite of the genre). Nevertheless he went to see Deadpool and Wolverine with his girlfriend. They walked out about 45 minutes in.
Eventually he saw the rest of the film via a camcorder bootleg online. Still didn't like it, but he really enjoyed Jackman's performance despite everything else.