radiodormouse

[radiodormouse]

Friendship Review.

I really enjoyed the first half of Friendship, but I think I was watching a different movie than the rest of the audience. They laughed hysterically, while I found it to be more of a thriller with comedic elements. It felt like the inverse of The Cable Guy with Jim Carrey—a thriller-comedy that puts the thriller elements first, rather than a comedy with the story structure of a thriller, like The Cable Guy. I didn’t laugh, but I found myself engaged with the story.

Without delving too deep into the plot, I thought the sudden disappearance of a certain character should have been a turning point—something that motivated Craig to go after Austin for revenge, now having a flimsy justification for his fixation on him. Instead, the film treads water with scene after unrelated scene of Craig being weird, goofy, and awful, in the mold of a generic studio comedy, but doing nothing to advance the storyline. The most egregious example comes in the form of an acid trip that could be cut from the film without affecting anything, and seems to exist for no reason other than to make some easy product placement coin from Subway. At least when David Lynch promoted Heineken and Pabst Blue Ribbon in Blue Velvet, it was done in a way that revealed something about the characters’ psychology based on their taste in beer.

Finally, the film abruptly decides to be a thriller again during a climax that comes out of nowhere and then just ends, leaving me unsatisfied.

So this is a straight two-and-a-half stars for me. Half the film is a compelling thriller; the other half is an unfunny comedy. The Cable Guy, ironically, satisfies more as a straight thriller than Friendship does, by paying attention to genre conventions and a three-act structure that serve to advance the plot—even if the content is more openly comedic. It would be the superior option if you're looking for something in what one might call the “bromance gone bad” category.

[radiodormouse]

Patricia Morrison

[radiodormouse]

[radiodormouse]

Dread.jpg

[radiodormouse]

[radiodormouse]

snoopy of the day

[radiodormouse]

Made the lighting stronger.

[radiodormouse]

Some doodles, one of Spidey to see if I could do it from memory quick, one of some kid while I was in line at a Harvey's.

[radiodormouse]

This movie is a masterclass in everything not to do in a screenplay—and yet, weirdly, I kind of loved that.

Let’s be clear: Skill House is a mess. The pacing is off, throwing us into what feels like the second act from the very first frame, without bothering to establish any of its paper-thin characters. After a jarring opening scene that plays like it’s from a movie already halfway through—and begins without so much as a studio logo to signal the trailers are over—we’re hit with an equally baffling credit sequence, showing us footage of people we haven’t even met yet, as though we’re supposed to know who the fuck they are. These aren’t characters so much as a collection of offensive stereotypes—about gay people, women, and minorities—that would’ve felt dated even in the ’90s.

The “plot” is less a narrative and more a chaotic jumble of twists that are somehow both predictable and completely out of nowhere. The main conceit—that whichever influencer has the fewest likes before the round ends dies—is mashed together with Saw-style “live or die, make your choice” death sequences. But since the movie’s already told us they’re doomed for losing, the idea that they have a “choice” is pointless. These scenes feel like they’re thrown in just to rip off Saw, despite being made by people who actually worked on that franchise, which somehow makes it worse.

There’s also a religious motive for the killer, lifted wholesale from Se7en, and then promptly abandoned—like the film got bored of its own premise halfway through. This is even more embarrassing when you consider the fact that the original Saw is itself very much a Se7en rip-off, so in a way, the writer is ripping off his own sequels to a rip-off.

But here’s the thing: there’s a certain chaotic charm to how wrong it all goes. It’s like watching someone try to bake a cake using glue instead of icing—they’re failing spectacularly, but you can’t look away. It teeters on the same level of divine anti-art as bad movie staples like The Room or Troll 2. Every time it makes the wrong choice, it commits to it so hard you almost have to respect the confidence.

Is it good? God, no. But there’s something endearing—and genuinely entertaining—about a movie that thinks it’s being smart, even when it clearly isn’t. You might just find yourself enjoying it in spite of itself. I know I did.

[radiodormouse]

snoopy of the day

[radiodormouse]

[radiodormouse]

And now the painting part begins . . .

[radiodormouse]

[radiodormouse]

[radiodormouse]

[radiodormouse]

Just bein' a cutie.

[radiodormouse]