Post by Ian J. BallPost by UbiquitousWhat did you watch?
Finally full workday of the year. So when I got home, I was tired. All I
soaps: DOOL - Thur's ep. OK, so they don't actually kill Clyde off - but
they put him in an "indefinite coma", so the character is on ice until
if/when they decide to bring him back. This also puts the Abby storyline
on ice - she can stay "dead" forever, or later on they can reveal that
she really is still alive. Meanwhile, Cat's mom gets hauled off to
Canadian! jail for shooting Clyde! Nothing else important happened - it
was just lovey-dovey stuff with Steve and Kayla [blech!], and with
NuTate and the now-brunette Holly the Brat.
If I Go Missing (Tubi) - A 2024 Tubi Original flick!!
I actually quite liked this... until the ending.
This seems to be a recurring issue with Tubi films - whether good or
bad, the endings almost always seem to disappoint. It definitely seems
like they're trying too hard - like they want their endings to have a
"mega-twist!" or to have a real (if undeserved) "impact".
Well, in the case of this film, the incredibly downbeat ending
seemed tonally completely disconnected from the tone of the rest of the
film, which really put me off.
But up to that point, this was good, and in some places actually
The flick stars Emma Elle Paterson, an actress I've apparently never
seen before (it seems like she might be based out of Montreal), though
she did appear in Tubi's previous "Terror Train" series that I've never
gotten around to watching.
Anyway, Paterson stars as Sloane, the cutest, perkiest, most
determined, and most damaged "true crime" Tik-Tok-type you've ever seen!
Since her best friend was brutally murdered 2 years prior, she's thrown
herself into her "If I Go Missing" media stream, which is premised
around everyone needing to create a "If I Go Missing" scrapbook/logbook
to help the police find you if you go missing. (Of course, at that
point, it's too late!...)
Sloane's obvious PTSD and inability to properly process her grief
and guilt over her friend's murder drive her live-in cousin (Hannah
Vandenbygaart) and aunt (Krista Bridges) nuts, and frustrate her mom
(Christy Bruce) but the mom just kind tries to roll with it.
In general, Sloane is a mess - suspicious of all men around her
(anyone could be a serial killer!!), and bossing around her poor
hapless, scattered barista co-worker (Kelly J Seo) after having dropped
out of college.
Sloane immediately becomes suspicious of her slick new neighbor
(Robert Bazzocchi), despite the fact that the neighbor lad (Damon
McLean) she keeps defending from everybody is creepy and awkward.
But Sloane starts going batty when her cousin (Vandenbygaart) begins
showing romantic interested in the slick neighbor dude.
Can Sloane save her cousin from serial killer doom?! Or is Sloane
just nuts?!
This movie appears to have some fun with this premise, esp. with
Sloane's obsessions. And it does a good job at throwing two legitimate
red herrings our way.
But then the ending takes an incredibly dark turn that I don't think
the rest of the movie justified, and I felt this ruined the whole thing.
Which is too bad, as I actually quite liked the first 80-85% of this
flick, and found it to be among the best Tubi Originals. But the ending
kind of torpedoed the good feelings built up before that. :(
What did you watch?
I watched:
The Voice - finally finished making my way through the finale.
Survivor - Finally finished making my way through the penultimate episode.
The End (theatrical) New movie, in what I'm assuming is a new genre,
"apocalyptic musical." The movie stars Tilda Swinton as "Mother" and
Michael Shannon as "Father" who along with their son, "son" (George
MacKay) and a few other people live in a massive underground shelter
following some unspecific global apocalypse. One day their world is
shattered when a young woman, "Girl" (Moses Ingram) makes her way into
their shelter, and then selfishly doesn't want to be thrown out to die.
Instead she insists she be allowed to stay in their shelter which has an
abundance of food and resources. Mother just can't have this sort of
nonsense, but Son realizing Girl may be the only other female left on
Earth, or at least that he will ever have access too, wants her to stay.
This movie takes a page out of another Tilda Swinton apocalyptic movie,
"Snowpiercer" and serves as an allegory for the class system. Mother
and Husband are portrayed as wealthy and out of touch with reality.
They are clinging on to a way of life that is long gone, and are trying
to maintain a class system with the other people in the shelter treated
more like employees than fellow survivors. And for whatever reason
everyone just accepts this way of life. Also the movie focuses on how
Father and mother are both desperate to literally rewrite history in the
eyes of Son.
That being said, I don't want to make this movie sound better than it
actually is. "Snowpiercer" is a great movie. "The End," not so much.
There is no reason for it to be a musical, and the songs, while OK, are
not memorable. I don't recall a single song from this movie, I watched
it last night! The overall movie just screams pretentious arthouse
film. Which *is* what it is. It's worth watching maybe once, perhaps
paired with Snowpiercer, but beyond that I don't see much replay value
in it.
If I ever did watch it again, it would *have* to be paired with
Snowpiercer, so I could at least see Swinton essentially playing the
same character in two different apocalyptic movies.