Jack Attack the Weekend Like What

All week I have been qualifying every single post with the caveat that Nobody Should Expect Much From Me Right Now, and I think y'all got it by now -- I mean, clearly. Why would anyone? Ever? But there are actually four movies out today, all via online platforms I do believe, that I do feel the need to call your attention to, even if I don't have it in me to review them right now. So I will try to do that right now. As simply as possible. Ha, ha. 

First up! There is a horror movie called Kindred out today thanks to IFC Films -- I shared the trailer with you a few weeks back. It stars Tamara Lawrance as a young woman who has understandably gotten herself impregnated by and engaged to the gorgeous Edward Holcroft. They go to visit his estranged mum (played by living legend Fiona Shaw), who is fussed over by a personal assistant (played by a deliciously creepy Jack Lowden), and... shit goes shitty. I saw this a few weeks back and it's actually terrific, totally terrific, carried by a genuinely attained sense of paranoia and claustrophobia, and some very very fine acting from Lawrance, Shaw and Lowden. Shaw in particular has this one monologue that's riveting. Seek this out! 

Next! Our benevolent brunette queen Eva Green plays an astronaut (and a mom!) in Proxima, for Disorder directress Alice Winocour. I reviewed this movie months and months ago right here. Eva Green is great. The movie is great. Seek this out!

Next next! One of my favorite horror films of 2019 was the Swedish monstrosity Koko-di Koko-da, which I reviewed right here thanks to last year's Brooklyn Horror Fest. It's a deeply unsettling and aggressively unkind film so, you know, be forewarned going in. And I actually re-watched it on Halloween night -- a right and proper honor, that -- and it totally held up. This movie messes hard with my brain in the best of ways. Seek it out!

And finally there's the movie Morta, which I just shared the trailer with you a couple of weeks ago as well. This is the new one from Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal, who's already gifted us with the great Trollhunter, the great Autopsy of Jane Doe, and the great Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It feels like sort of a return to Trollhunter territory in that its actively engaged with the myths of André's homeland -- in this case (semi spoiler alert) the same Norse thunder-god shit that a certain Chris Hemsworth has been coasting on for a decade now. Mortal stars Nat Wolff as an American hitchhiker in Norway whose unexplained fire-powers start terrorizing the locals. And I hate to end this recommendation heap on a sour note but... I will. I watched this last night and didn't love it. Øvredal directs the hell out of his action sequences, it's a beautiful looking movie, but I just never fell for the leads and without you caring about their romance it's just a big empty light show. Oh well! Onto the next, André!