THE DANMAN CAN

I’m kind of amazed that I haven’t seen any other reviews mention this, but Everything Everywhere All At Once   (2022) is basically a "quirkier" film version of Legion (2017–2019) (down to Stephanie Hsu being the equivalent of the  Aubrey Plaza character). That television show—like this film—was consistently visually arresting and never boring, but also eventually fell apart up its own ass. EEAAO  is a good film but definitely a hyperbole machine—a frustrating watch for anyone who doesn’t think it’s a masterpiece (there aren't many of us), since its whole raison d'être shields itself from any criticism.

Violent Night  (2022) treads a lot of familiar ground—it’s basically Die Hard 2  (1990) meets Home Alone meets Bad Santa  (2003)—but it’s a lot of ridiculously gory fun. It strikes a nice blend of hilarious vulgar cynicism (via some pretty good one-liners) and genuinely heartwarming holiday cheer.  Tommy Wirkola apparently loves winter-set action movies, as displayed in his more overtly over the top horror comedies  Dead Snow  (2009) ( review ) and  Dead Snow: Red Vs. Dead  (2014) ( review ). VN  is a step up from those earlier efforts but still not quite a home-run. David Harbour is however perfectly suited to the material. While it's far from a new Christmas classic, VN  washes down like a nice plate of cookies with a glass of milk—a solidly entertaining good time.

After loving  Excision  (my recent rewatch review here ) when I first saw it towards the end of 2012, I next saw  Richard Bates Jr. 's third film, Trash Fire (2016), at the Boston Underground Film Festival  the year it was released. At that point, somehow I had missed RBJ's second film from 2014,  Suburban Gothic   (my recent rewatch review here ), so I watched it the day after I saw TF , back in 2016. When I revisited RBJ's first two films recently, I decided to finally get around to seeing his 2019 film  Tone-Deaf  (my review here ), and his fifth film, King Knight   (2021), is set to be released on streaming in two weeks, so naturally I had to watch Trash Fire  again. I think I liked this one even a bit more on "Take 2". Excision is a fucked up film, but TF  is perhaps even more fucked up (albeit in a less gory and graphic way). It does a great job of taking very unsympathetic characters ( Adrien Grenier 's, in particular) ...