This week really hit home hard for me. I had such a great time taking this class and I couldn’t have asked for better classmates. This being my final film class that I’ll be taking at Alfred really makes this so bittersweet. I wish that we weren’t sent home in the middle of the semester because I definitely missed having the class react to everything that happened on screen. It felt like we had our own art house theater there and we got to always hear Dr. Schlegel’s thoughts and stories that he’s got on every single movie. I’m gonna miss it a lot for sure. But that sort of leads into our screening this week. I was lucky enough to have Dr. Schlegel in a few classes before I finally saw “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” so I got to hear his thoughts plenty of times. It really helped actually. This movie was such a love letter to the history of Hollywood I felt like it was made for film lovers. There was so much care put into everything and for a little over two and a half hours, I was transported to 60’s Hollywood. It was so cool. The whole world felt like it kind of melted away while I watched it. That seems to happen every time I watch a Quentin Tarantino movie. I had the same thing happen with the Hateful Eight and Reservoir Dogs. Even though the movie isn’t my favorite movie of the semester, I feel like this was an absolutely perfect way to end the semester. The whole movie dealt with topics that I feel like I’ve spent my whole time at Alfred learning. On top of that, I now totally get how this is a great candidate for a cult movie. It was so cool to see recent history changed by Tarantino. I know he’s done that in the past but something about seeing it so close to modern day is so interesting to me.

I was really curious about the movie after watching it so I looked up some videos on YouTube and the symbolism at the end of the movie was even deeper than I thought. I knew that Rick being invited up to Sharon Tate’s house is clearly Rick being invited into “new” Hollywood finally, an ending that really makes you feel good. Honestly it was nice to see justice delivered to the Manson Family and even thought that’s not how real life was, it was just so satisfying I loved it. What I didn’t really get was that Sharon Tate’s death was sort of the unofficial end of the Hippie Era. It was so cool to see that Quentin was basically not only giving her the ending that she deserved, he was also preserving the 60’s. I thought both Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt seriously killed it in this movie, especially Pitt. I really loved this movie and I’m thinking I should get a physical copy.

Now onto the class itself. I guess it’s time to say goodbye. A lot of the people in this class were people I’ve had multiple classes with, and it’s been so much fun to learn about this stuff with you guys. I’m pretty sure I won’t find another group of people who enjoy movies as much as you guys, so hats off to you. Seriously, you guys made the whole trip way more fun. We watched so many movies throughout the semester, and some have really stood out to me while others not so much. I think the best film we watched this semester is one that anyone who knows me isn’t surprised by at all. It’s The Warriors. I mean, what’s not to love about this movie? It’s just such a jolt of lightning from the late 70’s. It’s the so ridiculous while somehow maintaining a strong (yet simple) story. We’ve got clear heroes and villains, an objective, a chase scene that lasts the whole movie, and a killer soundtrack. What’s not to love? It’s such a simple and pure movie that it’s hard to not like it, especially when it’s set next to some other movies in the class that really make you think a lot or require outside context to understand things like the plot or characters. Not to say that any of that is bad, but sometimes you just want a simple action movie, and The Warriors absolutely delivers. The other movie that I think might be really close to my favorite is Blacula. I thought William Marshall was a serious presence on screen that you don’t see often in movies. I feel like he carried the movie with really powerful and believable acting that is hard to describe but you kind of just know it when you see it I guess? Anyway those were my favorites, now onto my least favorites.

This class had nothing but excellent movies, however there were still a few that I couldn’t fully enjoy. Valerie’s Week of Wonders was just too weird for me. I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I watched it without really expecting much but ended up sort of getting a plot that doesn’t really make sense but that I kept trying to make sense of? It was really annoying that sort of push and pull that was happening with it for me and I couldn’t stand it. Maybe I would enjoy it more on a second viewing, but I’m not exactly in a hurry to do that. The other movie I wasn’t crazy about was Maniac. Look, I know and understand why we had to watch it, but I want you guys to understand; I watched it TWICE. Dr. Schlegel mentioned it in another class and I thought he was recommending it so I watched it only to be like what the hell did I just watch? Imagine being forced to watch it a second time! Yeah, it was not fun. At least there was some context this time and I learned from it. But yeah, those are the movies I didn’t enjoy. But on some level, I guess I learned to appreciate them even though they weren’t my favorite. And I think that’s why I loved taking this class. Thanks for an awesome semester and I hope everyone continues to take film courses!

This week was a week that is really close to my heart and I was not really prepared for it. My dad was a huge Sex Pistols fan so this weeks movie hit me at a time when I was already feeling pretty down about everything that’s going on in the world. I at least knew what was going to happen ahead of time (what kind of Sex Pistols fan would I be if I didn’t know the tragic fates of Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy?) but it didn’t make it any less heart breaking to watch. I think that the film was at least a nice escape from everything that’s going on right now so that was a plus and I actually truly think the Sex Pistols are awesome. Without them, the independent music scene in both the UK and America would never have happened. Even though they were just a bunch of punk kids with little to no talent (seriously, Sid Vicious actually didn’t know how to play the bass past the bare bones basics that’s actually true) they still rose in popularity and were incredibly influential. I think this is what makes the story of Sid and Nancy even more tragic. While Sid may have been kind of an asshole and incredibly destructive, he definitely was Sex Pistols band material. He was someone who didn’t even care what the media said and told them to “piss off” frequently and it totally fit them. Gary Oldman did an awesome job portraying him. Chloe Webb also was fantastic as Nancy Spungen and she really managed to portray a drugged out destructive force in this movie.

The movie was also really pretty and visually the definition of a punk rock movie. There was a grainy look to the whole film and most things were grimy and everything just felt a little dirty. I really felt pulled into the late 70’s UK and it was awesome. Also the soundtrack was great, and even had some new songs by The Pogues which is kick ass. The movie definitely qualifies as a cult movie too, much like the actual band. I told my brother this earlier, but I feel like Joe Exotic has nothing on Johnny Rotten and the rest of the band. There’s a great documentary that’s only an hour long called “Never Mind the Bollocks” about the band as a whole and Johnny Rotten is actually insane. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the band as a whole. Back to Sid and Nancy though. I felt pretty torn up by the end because of how raw the drug use was in the movie. Very little of it was held back on, if at all, and it really shows. Trainspotting is about the only other movie that really goes into drug abuse as deep as this one does (shout out to one of my favorite actors Ewan McGregor!). But that definitely elevates the film to it’s cult status. I just wish I could have been a little happier before watching it, because it really was depressing.

This week is kind of the week I’ve been dreading. As soon as I saw Suspiria on the syllabus, I was not excited. I saw the new one with a friend because he told me it was an art house film about ballet. What he didn’t tell me was that it was also a horror movie. I don’t blame him, I never would have gone with him if I knew that it was horror. I simply can’t do horror. And I really don’t know why. Horror elements or scenes from in a dark movie that could be classified as horror don’t really bother me. Nor does horror in the Lovecraftian sense. I can do all of that and actually tend to like it a lot. But as soon as the movie has gruesome deaths in a horror movie I kind of find it hard to watch. It’s not even the gore that gets me, I’m fine with that. It’s like a primal fear of being killed horribly and one of my biggest fears; dying too young. Horror movie directors know this and always without fail manage to trick me every time I think I can steel myself to not be scared. The worst part is when I know exactly what will happen and sometimes even when it will happen and I still get terrified when it happens. Suspiria is no different for me. I’ll talk positives first before I get into the negatives for me. First of all, the soundtrack. I mean woahhhh. I definitely have listened to it several times before I watched the movie because my buddy has it on vinyl and sometimes it’s just what he puts on. But it’s awesome. I love it so much and it’s probably the best part of the movie for me.

I also loved how the whole film looked. It took really awesome liberties with lighting and made the whole movie feel a little like a fairy tale, which was definitely the vibe I got from it anyway so it fit really well. The set design was on point too and really drew me into the world that was created. The whole film was a feast for the eyes and I loved it. But I have to talk about the things that got me. First of all, the practical effects are amazingly terrifying. The way the camera would zoom in and do closeups while someone was being murdered really made you feel like the whole thing was real. But I have to be honest, I was not a fan of any of the stabbings. It wasn’t that they felt too real to me; it was easy to tell they were fake. It had something to do with how strange and up close we as an audience were to a lot of these deaths. I definitely didn’t like that. Other than that though, the movie was pretty interesting and I loved the story. I’m probably not going to be watching it again anytime soon though.

I’m gonna firmly say nothing going on in the world right now is as weird and confusing as Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. I mean seriously what did I just watch? I think the part that is really hard for me is that I get it. Like, with the readings and some online research I understand what the movie was about. But I think what really gets to me is that I expected a movie with a totally nonsensical plot so I would just be able to focus on the visual beauty. Instead I found myself scratching my head to decipher metaphors and symbolism the whole time because there definitely IS a plot. But even then, the events don’t really make sense still. I’m trying to put into words what I mean. I think the best way to put it is that this movie had just enough of a coherent plot that I wanted to follow it but it didn’t make enough sense in the end to reward someone who tried to follow it. That isn’t to say that I didn’t get the plot, it just wasn’t a satisfying way of getting there. I’ll be honest (and I might catch some flak for this) I think Valerie was an incredibly boring character. Every time she started to get interesting she would revert back to some scene to convey her innocence and it was infuriating. I felt like she would start to grow only to revert back to the way she was before. I’m not even entirely convinced that she didn’t revert back at the end of the movie. For a movie that was about growth and puberty, I felt like every step she made forward was followed by two steps back. On the other hand, I absolutely loved the visuals and the costume work. That was all fantastic. I guess I really don’t have an opinion past indifferent towards the movie. If I had to pick an incredibly pretentious art house movie it would be this I guess? I don’t really know.

This week we had some really good presentations from the readers and also a presentation about Scream. Without the readings I definitely wouldn’t have known where to even start with my post about the movie so that was invaluable. Scream actually is one of the few horror movies I like because it almost feels like a movie you have to watch. I don’t like horror at all so it’s really weird that I like Scream, but I remember watching it at a sleep over with friends when I was young and having a great time watching it. It was an awesome presentation! I also presented this week and I want to apologize for how long mine went. I know mine started pretty late too so it was gonna go over anyway but still. I just had so much I wanted to talk about. My original presentation when I practiced it was closer to around 45 minutes so I definitely cut a lot out but I really hope I convinced some people to give Blade Runner and its sequel 2049 a watch!