Markus Pulls a Barbenheimer

Heya! So if you’ve been on the internet for the past however many months (I’ve personally lost count), then you’ve been aware of this dichotomous phenomenon. Two films, diametrically opposed in tone, style, and color scheme to a lesser extent, releasing on the same day. It’s become both a huge meme and a genuinely exciting time for film fans. From those who dress up for the occasion, to those who see both movies in the same day, it’s been wild and fun. No animosity, no rudeness (mostly)… just good vibes about a cute coincidence. And I recently took part in it as well… for the most part at least, I didn’t dress up in the style of ol’ Babs as pink ain’t my color, and I didn’t catch them in the same day because I don’t have the energy for that. But I did see them both this weekend and I wanted to talk about them. And in honor of the meme, I thought I’d bring back the multi film post, like I used for The Fable and Along With the Gods.

So without further ado, ladies, gents, and non-binaries… Barbenheimer.

Oppenheimer (Watched Saturday)

The story of this film follows the tumultuous life of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), showing his many trials and tribulations before, during, and after the development of the atomic bomb. From his rocky love life, to the tension around getting the weapon done before the nazis, to him being suspected to be a communist, it covers a lot of ground and does it well. And for a three hour runtime, it moves quite well, weaving through its threads marvelously to create a layered and sometimes quite tense narrative surrounding this fascinating individual, and the people around him.
What helps bring it to life further is Christopher Nolan’s direction, which is as reliably skillful as we’ve come to expect from him. But there’s also a different kind of energy to his ways here, as he blends reality with abstract, borderline hypnotic scientific visuals, which gives us a look at both the process going on within the science people’s experiments, as well as working as a little bit of a look into Oppenheimer’s brain in itself, kind of lining up with his emotional state at the time.
The movie also has a killer cast, from Cillian Murphy (one of his best roles), Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Benny Safdie, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr,  Josh Hartnett, and an absolute shitload of other TV/character actors rounding out the cast, with everyone delivering tremendous work. The score by composer Ludwig Göransson (SWEDEN REPRESENT!) is absolutely spectacular as well, creating an eerie, often dreamlike state within the soundscape, making each scene considerably more haunting. It’s just a film where everything comes together well, making for one hell of an intense and engaging watch. I absolutely loved it, one of my favorites of the year so far.

Barbie (Watched Sunday)

Barbie (Margot Robbie) is living the dream in Barbieland, loving her mimed milk, beach sessions, and nightly parties with all the other Barbies and Kens. But this life in plastic stops being fantastic when Barbie begins suffering from a mysterious and sudden existential crisis. So her and Ken (Ryan Gosling) set out on a quest to figure out what the hell is going on, and hopefully see if there’s some kind of solution to the situation. I thoroughly dug this movie, the story blends broad, silly, borderline absurdist comedy with well written messages about gender roles and people’s places in the world to make for a really enjoyable story about finding oneself. It’s kind of a coming of age story, but with dolls instead of people… though that makes me question if dolls ARE people, if they’re able to have these kinds of existential crises *slapping sound* right, back on track. But I thought it was fun and warm and decently engaging in tis writing. I laughed, I found its discussions on its themes to be interesting, and I even had this fuzzy feeling in my heart at a point. Greta Gerwig (along with co-writer Noah Baumbach) did a great job with the script, and her directing was really great too.
And much like “Oppenheimer” before it, the cast here is stacked and stellar. I’ve already touched upon Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the leads, both of which who kill it. Especially Gosling in my opinion, who just goes so all out on Ken’s shenanigans, which makes for one of the most fascinating and amusing figures in the movie. But you also have people like Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kate McKinnon, and so many more, all delivering flawless work in this. So yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed “Barbie”, it’s a really solid, clever comedy about finding oneself.

So not only did this coincidence lead to some fun, surprisingly wholesome memes on the ol’ internet, we also got two good movies out of it, which I think is just awesome. A fascinating phenomenon and a pair of good flicks… what more could you ask for?

Have a good one.

Movie Review: Scream VI (2023)

So last year I watched and reviewed the entirety of this franchise leading up to the fifth installment. I had fun going through the series and was intrigued when a sixth one got announced. It then came out in cinemas and I missed it because my local cinema has really given horror movies the short end of the proverbial stick when it comes to showtimes this year. Anyhow, I finally saw it on Netflix last night and am ready to talk about it. So let’s go.

Ladies, gents, and non-binaries… “Scream VI”.

Following the traumatic events in Woodsboro one year ago, Sam (Melissa Barrera), Tara (Jenna Ortega), and the other surviving youngsters have moved to New York City to try and get a fresh start. This peace doesn’t last however as a new Ghostface seems to emerge, stalking and creating another gruesome nightmare for our heroes. Cue murder, mayhem, whodunnit, and further commentary on the state on not just horror, but film franchises as a whole. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of “Scream VI”, it manages to evolve the familiar beats of the franchise in interesting ways, increasing the scale of set pieces and its approach to its legacy, all without straying too far from what people generally enjoys about these movies. I don’t necessarily think it’s as strong or packs the same punch as last year’s “Scream 5” (which I’ll keep calling it), and the longer runtime does make the pacing feel a tiny bit sluggish at points, but it’s not so bad that I’d call it a drag. It’s still an engaging, decently clever, intense, and solidly enjoyable slasher story that thrills, chills, and brings some very good laughs in equal measure.

The characters in this are as colorful and interesting as ever, with most of them getting some decent development throughout. From Sam dealing with the fallout of what happened last year, to Tara trying to come into her own with an overprotective sister around, to the twins getting some time to shine as well. Everyone has their moments and not one member of the cast is weak. Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Roger Jackson, Dermot Mulroney, Samara Weaving, Tony Revolori, Liana Liberato, Hayden Panettiere, Courteney Cox, Josh Segarra, and more all kill it.

The score for the movie was composed by Sven Faulconer and Brian Tyler, and I think this score is great. It takes a lot of the traditions of earlier movies, along with the bolder orchestrations that Brian Tyler brought with “Scream 5”, and develops it further to creative this really fun, surprisingly varied score that I think marvelously sets the mood whenever needed, be it for intense chases or for some of the more quiet character moments we get throughout. It’s possibly my favorite score in the series, or at least it’s around the level of the original. There are also a bunch of licensed tracks used throughout (including the returning “Red Right Hand”) and they work quite well for their respective scenes too. So yeah, the music here is really good.

Following on from their success with the fifth movie, “Scream VI” was directed by the returning Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (AKA Radio Silence), with script duties once again falling on James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. And I think this movie is really well directed. They just have this flair and energy to their style that makes them perfect for this series. Whether it’s two characters talking, or Ghostface stalking someone in a convenience store, they absolutely brought their A-game. Their direction brings a really riveting intensity to the action scenes, and when the more intimate character moments show up they do a beautiful job in bringing us into those as well. And holy moly, the violence in this is something else. With “Scream 5”, they brought a new level of savagery to the violence of the series and its spooky-mugged killer, and they didn’t skimp on that here. In a lot of ways it’s even nastier, gorier, and very much made me squirm once or twice… so good on them for that.

This movie has been decently well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 76% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 61/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6.6/10.

So while I wouldn’t put it at the top of my franchise ranking, I still thoroughly enjoyed “Scream VI”. It has a good story, really good characters, great performances, great music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Ahem*.. My final score for “Scream VI” is an 8.43/10. So I’d say it’s worth buying.

My review of “Scream VI” is now completed.

New York, New Rules. Even the tagline’s really fucking good.