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Microwave Massacre (1979)
Sometimes funny, always slow
Some jokes in this black comedy really work. Many fall flat, and for only 75 minutes long, it felt more like a few hours. Condensed into a half hour on something like Tales from the Crypt, this could have been amazing but there just isn't enough there there.
First Reformed (2017)
A different take on the ending in particular...
First of all, a fantastic film, deliberate in its pacing, its performances, its visuals and even in its quite sparse sound design.
Other reviews speak in greater detail about the themes and the 'plot' than I will here. What I want to talk about is the ending.
So, SPOILERS:
No, he doesn't go forward with the suicide bombing, which would have been a wonderfully dark, and explosive, finale for the slow burn of the rest of the film preceding it. But, also, I don't think he 'makes out with his girlfriend' as another reviewer put it. He wraps himself in barbed wire, an update on Christ's crown of thorns, and a well done visual, both graphic and slightly understated at the same time. And he pours that drano and then we get the 'Last Temptaion of Christ' moment. He DOES drink that drano and then in that moment of sacrificing himself-which will indeed be enough of a spectacle to draw public attention to the cause-he imagines (or is rewarded with the vision of) her coming to him. He imagines a happy ending and then he film cuts to black mid-scene because the drano has done its job. He has died. People will ask questions. The church's association with polluters will come to light.
Hereditary (2018)
Slow burn family grief drama turned horror... fizzles in the end
This film will be too slow for many. But the slower, quieter moments ground the film brilliantly. Family drama and grief, mental illness, and bizarre visuals involving miniatures (that should have a better thematic payoff later but end up as nice visuals more befitting a different film.
It's well put together visually, with some great acting, even in some (emotionally) extreme moments. (Gabriel Byrne is a little understated but works as a sort of 'straight man' amidst the insane.
Which brings me to SPOILERS:
The film is visually impressive and almost painfully (in a good way) deliberate in its pacing until, eventually the supernatural bits overtake the much deeper family melodrama. The ending feels too conventional and also strangely tracked on; a final explanation even comes in voiceover that may very well have been ADR-ed after test audiences were confused.
It's strange-I loved this film until somewhere in the third act when it turned too far away from the grounded place it has built for itself. Had the outlandish ending been in Toni Colette's character's head, I think it would have been an easy 10/10 for me.