#42: Stoker

Things happen because fuck you.

In retrospect, maybe movie 42 of the year should have been ... 42.

I feel the same way about this movie that I did about Lady Bird and The Killing of A Sacred Deer - they exist. This is a bit less creepy than the latter but I didn't feel that any of this was horrifying.

With the exception of Lion, I believe every Nicole Kidman film I've seen that I can recall has had some kind of unsettling undertone to it.

 I bet you an acorn to an oak that Destroyer is not going to stop that trend. I am so, so excited for that movie!

I've not seen Mia Wasikowska in anything to my knowledge (I tried several times to watch Crimson Peak but that wasn't happening), and for as...simple as the rest of the movie is, she really does carry it though non-verbal acting.

Do they live in a dream world?


I ask because - the time period seems very off. There are cellphones...but they're not necessarily modern, maybe from around 2003 - 2004, not 2013 when the film came out, or even 2012. There are even headphones!

Look at this!

There's a modern navigation system!

Most things look more antiquated, the house understandably, even the clothing (from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't know about historical fashions).

Probably a aesthetic choice. I found it strange. Anyway, a young woman (Mia Wasikowska) falls in love with her psychotic uncle who killed both of his siblings, once as a child, and the young woman's father in the present day.

And her mother loves him too.  This would be shocking if we didn't live in a world where certain directors marry their stepdaughters.

As serviceable as Stoker is, this doesn't have a single, solitary thing on The Handmaiden.

I should have revisited Snowpiercer this month as well. Make it a totally Park Chan Wook month.