I'm not doing reviews but I want to keep track of and rate what I watch and I hate the idea of using mubi or letterboxed and seeing everyone elses low ratings of genre films. I'm not feeling particularly combative when it comes to film anymore, just kinda resigned to everyone's weird, barely closeted conventional taste (whether they accept it or not...even people who entertain genre appreciation and whose tastes overlap with mine still often adhere to a code of consistent conventions and value markers rather than engage in a holistic consumption of those films) and like...imo just idiocy. I mean if Hereditary is seen as a revolutionary film but by and far Mother! was panned as pretentious by these same people when it was actually uhhhh great, idk what to even say...... I think a film by a conventionally artistic/well-esteemed wide release director that is actually far more bombastic and rigorously committed to its unspooling vision and lack of regard for its "wide release" audience than I would have ever expected from him is much more engaging than a film with obvious haute pretensions and self-regard, from a director who is clearly aiming for an elevated approach toward his vision rather than a total layout of it. I respect and value the "tasteless" authenticity of Mother! (a presumed commercial "art film" with all its conventions and middlebrow appeal, downgraded to exploitation and derided; or, alternatively, a presumed commercial horror film from a Middle Class Fancy director that doesn't adhere to the instant gratification, easily followed, narrative formula expected of it and thus derided) than the artificial aspirations of Hereditary and other A24 output which is largely targeting an audience that already sees genre films and tropes as inherently bad or "lower" with few exceptions and looking for someone to "elevate" it by applying a more conventionally art house/readily estimable sheen in a contrived, clearly (to me at least) inorganic and self satisfied "I went to film school" way.
Anywayz, for a movie that is one hundred times better and more genuinely artful than Hereditary (even though I liked a lot of Hereditary and thought it was fun...as a narratively average cult worship movie, which is what it is.......)....please watch Antichrist (1974). Also known at The Tempter which is...such a bad title but great poster. Click to enlarge so you can read the amazing text.
