David Tatlow

I found this to be a good read – I haven’t seen several of these, so I’ll be checking them out. You were never going to please anybody with this list as it’s such a broad category, but I’m glad you gave plenty of explanation and justification for your choices, and as a result it’s a list that I won’t argue with. Now that I think about it, I doubt that I’d be able to choose just ten. Nice work!

Those attributes you’ve mentioned are some of the film’s strengths for sure, and for some that would be enough to call this a good film. I thought that there was a lot more to it, as I’ve said in my review, but I’m glad you’ve pointed to the positives. Thanks for reading.

Really enjoyed this one Taylor, thanks for writing it. It bothers me to think that some movies I love were almost lost forever. If you think of the disdain Woody Allen has for Manhattan…he could have destroyed that. I couldn’t go on with life if I didn’t have Manhattan to delude me into thinking that when I’m 42 young women will find me attractive because of my brain (*note* – sarcasm. Young women already find me attractive. *Note 2* – also sarcasm). I kind of have the fear that in, say, 50 years time, my favourite films will have disappeared for whatever inexplicable reason, and I’ll never see them again. That kind of paranoia is the reason I own two copies of Synecdoche New York, and why I didn’t get rid of my DVD copies of Lost in Translation, Annie Hall, Eternal Sunshine and countless other when I updated to blu ray.

I think that “feel” is something that I really embraced. It felt to me like Wingard was working with no one looking over his shoulder telling him what he can and can’t do. That kind of dogged enthusiasm is something that I found to be infectious, and I really bought in to the no-holds-barred, anything-goes style. I do enjoy that handheld camera aesthetic too – it makes a film seem that much more involving, especially when it comes to the terror on show here. I believe Wingard directed the “Tape 56” section of the film, which was mostly used to tie the theme together. Again, with V/H/S, I got the feeling that the guys working on it were off-the-leash and were given total freedom to have fun with their ideas. I liked seeing that as those “shorts” could have been 5 longer, and potentially less effective, films. It’s the same opinion I have of Love Actually. Those rom-com stories, when distilled down to their core elements, have significantly more impact than the 8 or so terrible rom-coms they could have been separately.
I thought Sinister was hit-and-miss. Totally agree that the soundtrack and sound in general were top-notch, and it lends a lot of credibility to a film like that when you have someone like Ethan Hawke involved. However I found that the videos he found were much scarier than the rest of the film. Plus you’ve got that totally unnecessary jump scare at the end of the film that felt cheap and unearned. It also kind of copped-out with the “monster” – to me he just looked like a WWE wrestler. I’m a firm believer in something that my grandfather used to say to me whenever I got scared of ghosts and other things when I was a kid, and I’m not sure where he got it from, but he used to say “it’s the living, not the dead, you should be afraid of”. Even though it was ZERO comfort to an already terrified eight year old, it sticks with me today when I look at horror. The fact that there are people out there who would do me harm in a place I thought was safe is much more unsettling than something that may or may not exist, depending on your opinion of the supernatural. Thanks very much for contributing – it’s great to get discussion going.

Funnily enough, the UK was flooded with ads that were headlined: “From the team that brought you Drive” or something along those lines. Whilst I understand that you want to get arses in seats, it didn’t seem to help that this film was quite strongly associated with Drive. The highlighted section in trailers was Gosling’s confrontational “Wanna fight?” and I thought that it was misleading to have that as the focal point. In fact, Gosling’s Julian fights only once in the film, and one time attacks a couple of guys. It’s not exactly a slug-fest.
There was a definite Marmite effect for critics, and I think I’ve only seen one review that is in line with your opinion Kevin. With this kind of film, I get the feeling that people who like it will heighten their opinion of it because of the negative backlash, and vice-versa. For me, it had a lot of elements that I truly found intoxicating. Thanks for reading.

I did find the “mum-speak” sections pretty funny. When she wished God to watch over “even the Jews” was the funniest facet of that. I think it’s far too easy for a comedy film to lean on easy targets now. In fact, it’s rife in mainstream comedy from stand-up right through to studio pictures.

Definitely great to see Will again. I’m hoping this film will open more doors for him. Thanks for reading.

I did mean to suggest that there were some jerky/flashing scenes in my review. It certainly made me feel a little queasy. I definitely enjoyed the overall effect that the sound had on the film.

I think that the writing was a lot better than many other bigger budget horror/thriller movies, and the acting had some real strong points. There wasn’t a lot for many of the characters to do, but the leads were solid and sometimes impressive. As I said, many have done much worse, and I think that “senseless” is not the right word to use to criticise the writing. The film sometimes revels in teetering on the edge of senseless, and it has a lot of aspects that you wouldn’t normally expect in a home invasion movie, which work in its favour for me, but won’t necessarily be another person’s cup of tea. Thanks for reading.