september '24 roundup!
- 3shotcine
- Oct 7, 2024
- 8 min read
This month, we welcomed a handful of new staff writers onto the 3shotcine team - and we're thrilled to be sharing some of their reviews! Milaine and Atlanta join old-timeys Danis and Komal to wrap up September with a few movies they caught.
To meet all our new writers, hop over here, and scroll past the familiar faces.
Disclaimer!
These monthly roundups tend to include more mainstream titles than our usual lists, as our goal here is to document anything we watched in the past month.
It can be hard to keep up with regular movie-watching when so many other things are happening in the world, so we do this to remember first, share second, and uplift third.
That being said, we hope you enjoy this roundup! Feel free to leave a comment with your September watches, or tell us what you think about ours.
This list is available on our Letterboxd here.
milaine’s picks
Industry (2020 - present)
Series
The same people who refuse to watch Industry now are the same fools that only watched Succession after it finished airing and tried to talk to me about how good Matthew Macfadyen is at acting even though I have been launching a covert campaign to get him an acting award since I touched his face on the plastic cover of the Pride and Prejudice (2005, dir. Joe Wright) DVD my mom bought for me from Speedy Video when I was twelve years old. Industry is one of the best shows on TV at the moment, featuring traumatised people in finance who work very hard in jobs that don’t actually matter that much because they’ve been so deluded by the false promises of capitalism. Watch this if you want to know why you should always avoid men who list “investment banker” as their job on dating apps. Also watch this if you want great acting, insane drama, and to see Oxford graduates flop in a big way.
TW: substance abuse / assault / language / sex
Available on: HBO
The Fall Guy (2024)
directed by David Leitch
To my great disappointment as a lifelong Ryan Gosling hater… This movie made me realize that okay! Maybe he can do the damn thing! Maybe he’s kind of a fun guy! Maybe he’s an actor! Maybe he makes my heart go ba-dump ba-dump! Just a little! This still doesn’t mean that I will support his presence in La La Land, or that I will allow his character Ken to live in the little-known indie movie Barbie, but The Fall Guy was enjoyable in a way I haven’t experienced since Guardians of the Galaxy came out back in 2014. As a homage to stunting as a profession, this movie treads that perfect, narrow line between not taking its story and content too seriously, while also replicating how our emotions and experiences feel so extremely monumental - dare I say cinematic? Watching this reminded me of how much work actually goes into making even the silliest and most hee-hee-ha-ha-est of movies, how many people’s lives depend on this industry, and how much less visual language we would have to express our feelings without movies. Watched it in the cinema with my father who said: “Ok la, starting a bit slow so I fell asleep, but then it got to the boom-boom part, so I woke up and it was exciting again. Not bad.”
Available on: Peacock
A Guilty Conscience (2023)
directed by Ng Wai-Lun
I always think that Hong Kong dramas are like Shakespeare for Chinese people because there’s something about how dramatic tension is compressed and released, compressed and expressed. At the end of it there is always a resolution, always an arbiter of justice, always a scene that reveals the truth, in which all becomes clear. Storytelling is often about emotional resolution, which A Guilty Conscience provided in spades, along with beautiful cinematography, classic witty Cantonese dialogue, and Dayo Wong being a legend. A Hong Kong legal drama about the collapse of justice under capitalism does not sound like a very fun time but it was, and so there! At the heart of this movie is an unscrupulous lawyer who sends an innocent woman to jail for the little monies, but decides to change his ways. It’s a bit cliché at times, but I think that adds to the kind of earnestness that it tries to impart to its audience. I believe setting the story in the early 2000s was an intentional choice given the current state of Hong Kong politics. Post-2020, it is more difficult than ever to believe that idealism is possible, so it becomes necessary to subject the portrayal of it to a kind of temporal displacement. Perhaps more cynically, in a world where Facebook has ruined democracy, it has become impossible to believe in truth. I think what this movie did for me was bring back the feeling of being hopeful that we can achieve justice within our lifetime.
Available on: Apple TV+
atlanta’s picks
The Beast (2023)
written and directed by Bertrand Bonello
My initial impulse on watching The Beast was to attribute it to the Christopher Nolan school of big-budget theatrics, temporal shifting, and nebulous identity crises. However, whilst I intuitively dislike Nolan's back catalogue, I can see myself getting particularly fond of The Beast. Perhaps, to continue the comparison, it is because the attention to detail feels effortlessly pointed; perhaps, because the science fictional conceit doesn't feel like a puzzle that will simply be resolved by a local film bro. Instead, Bonello offered a well-paced cryptic narrative, never giving us too many or too few hints to work with. Complex world-building is complemented by moments of very real pathos, provided primarily by Lea Seydoux, and The Beast feels like an apt film for this cultural moment in time. I strongly recommend a watch, even if it's just to hear your theory of what the film was about.
Available on: Mubi
Over The Garden Wall (2014)
created by Patrick McHale
Over The Garden Wall is ten years old this November, and, as is my yearly ritual, the leaves in England have rusted, so I am watching Wirt and Greg under several worn-out blankets. The series encompasses such a range of unsettling and creepy to soft and comforting that it becomes a more spiritual experience than any other animated series that aired on kids' television. Its autumnal Americana motifs have, for better or for worse, become my blueprint for the season, and its luxuriously artisanal aesthetic leaves nothing more to be desired.
Available on: Amazon
Vampirisme (1967)
directed by Bernard Chaouat & Patrice Duvic
In a Letterboxd blackhole, I found Vampirisme, and, in the process, discovered the precursor to What We Do In the Shadows, though I need to dig deeper to find out if Taika Waititi used this short film as a reference point. For just over ten minutes, French vampires go about their day as a voiceover provides an authoritative tone to their actions, suggestive of some long-forgotten news report. As the 'reporter' narrates, the vampires engage in hijinx - protesting their treatment, sipping blood from women's necks via straws, and turning off the midnight alarm for a few extra winks. This short film is certainly one of the earliest I've seen that, for lack of better words, humanises the vampire, from monstrous villain to an ordinary person getting by, engaging in ordinary person behaviour. For any cinematic vampire fan, this is worth a watch, if just to see what vamps were up to in the 1960s.
Available on: YouTube
Cuckoo (2024)
written and directed by Tilman Singer
Conceptually, Cuckoo is a brilliantly fascinating film, and Singer’s cast of characters is effective and functional. The film delivers exactly what it needs to - strangeness, stakes and teenage angst - and the tension is built consistently and effectively. Where it trips up is in the logic of its own worldbuilding as it sidesteps its most interesting feature, the cuckoos themselves. There is simply not enough screen time for these alien creatures to make sense of the stakes regarding their existence and this, to some extent, dulls the film's resolution. Having effectively amped up the pressure of the cuckoos for much of the film, they are dismally let down, and Cuckoo therefore ends up being a film with much lost potential.
Available: at your local cinema, or Apple TV in the near future
danis’ picks
Siksa Kubur (2024)
written & directed by Joko Anwar
This movie reminds me of why it is so difficult to get religious horror to be done right. The first half of the film is probably one of the best first acts in an Asian psychological horror film, it is actually that good. The shocking introduction of the story to the journey that the young protagonist in the stories take, it was all tailored brilliantly. Disappointingly, in the second half of the film, it just turns into a chaotic fest. Even though it was done right, the message that the film was trying to deliver gets muddled in the second half of the film. Honestly, I was expecting Joko Anwar to deliver an amazing message by the end of the film, but sadly I was left disappointed. Nonetheless, it is still a good horror film - the direction, performances, and technical prowess are all here to witness. Reza Rahadian and Faradina Mufti Rachmawati deserve immense praise for the care and attention that they have given their characters through their performances.
Available on: Netflix
Beautiful Boy (2018)
written and directed by Felix van Groeningen
A film that holds the hearts of both addicts and the people who are related to them. Delivers a caring, tender and vulnerable look into every person who is involved in the life of an addict. Painful, Hopeful, Empathetic, and Beautiful.
Available on: Prime Video
komal’s picks
Potong Saga (2009)
by Ho Yuhang
from 15Malaysia
The perfect short to start the 15Malaysia collection with - has you on the edge of your seat, wondering where the film’s going, and where it will take the protagonist. Full of old Malaysian charm and comedy.
Available on: YouTube and 15Malaysia site
Chocolate (2009)
by Yasmin Ahmad
from 15Malaysia
A perfect execution of a short film - saying a lot without ever showing too much. Everything is understood by the audiences in the gaps. I wish I made this movie.
Available on: YouTube and 15Malaysia site
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
directed by Jason Reitman
I’m not the most qualified to talk about this, seeing as the only other Ghostbusters film I’ve ever seen was the 2016 one (which I recall liking?), but I found this rather enjoyable! Oddly, it was actually a bit scarier than I expected it to be - I thought these movies were supposed to be silly? Happy to see someone finally clocked in to cast Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace as siblings. Overall, a deeply fun movie, especially if you're a Paul Rudd truther.
Available on: Netflix
Final Destination 2 (2003) & Final Destination 3 (2006)
directed by David R. Ellis (FD2), and James Wong (FD3)
Sophia is famously known for making everyone she meets watch the FD movies, in a loving effort to traumatize them. I think I surprised her by actually loving them - they’ve got a simple formula that works every single time, no matter how many times they apply it. It’s fun and thrilling and just so, so good every single time. I may or may not be addicted.
Available on: Netflix
That's the end of this monthly roundup!
Tell us what you think of our picks, and then tell us yours! You can find this list on our Letterboxd here.
Like the work we do? Oh, we're flattered. Well, keep the love coming:
Follow us on Instagram here.
Send us a little tip here.
Find our Letterboxd here.
Find out what's in the box here.
Have a collection, review, poem, or essay you'd like to publish with us? Read how you can do that here.
Want to join the 3shotcine staff team? We really need designers right now. Read how you can join us here.
Until next time!
Comments