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2024 featured a lot of movies about women's pain, from The Substance to Anora to Woman of the Hour to Immaculate. Popular music reflected female anguish. The political landscape had a persistent "battle of the sexes" vibe. To top it all off, there's a greater cultural discussion around the wealthy and powerful elite's penchant for sexual deviancy. Blink Twice may be remembered as a quintessential film from this era.

I was struck by how tastefully Kravitz approaches this quite dark subject matter. She manages to get across the brutal reality of what's happening without feeling exploitative. It makes it all the more impactful and disturbing.

This is one of those movies where it's probably more enjoyable on a re-watch, as the pieces come together. It's a movie (much like Anora) that draws you into a wonderful life of luxury and hedonism, that you can't help but get sucked into. Yet, when the film reveals its inevitable switch up, it feels both natural and jarring. I can't help but feel some of this derives from personal experience or observation, and it's um...a strange feeling.

The performances are overall fantastic; Naomi Ackie is a wonderful lead, Adria Arjona gives another great turn, it's always fun to see Alia Shawkat. But Channing Tatum steals the show here, let's be real, there's a reason he's so prominent in the marketing and poster. It's a performance that reminds me that often, bad performances are the result of poor direction, not talent.

(This movie also has Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, and Simon Rex . Truly great casting.)

I do think the movie, particularly on a first watch, takes a BIT too long to really "get going." It's a bit of a slog. It does become significantly better though by the end.

There are some glaring plot holes here and there and some questions I have about how certain things worked that didn't quite add up to me. (It's not quite as bad as Cuckoo, but I feel with a lot of these movies, having to slowly reveal what's happening jams up the first bit of the film)

The only other thing i actively disliked was the ending. Like the last shot I mean. It didn't gel with the rest of the movie didn't make much sense either. Like the actual logistics of what happened and how just don't add up.

Overall though, this is a strong directorial debut from Kravitz. I think it's one of those movies that people will discuss as very reflective of the zeitgeist that produced it.

It's taken me a while to watch Kinds of Kindness, despite being a huge Yorgos Lanthimos fan. I see this film as such a flex, considering it came out less than a year after Poor Things, undeniably his most critically and commercially acclaimed film.

To that end, Kinds of Kindness feels like a return to form; an odd, deeply dark and disturbing film that uses absurdity to explore and highlight the absurdity of the human condition. I think the biggest problem wth this film is that success is often the enemy of the "good." This is a good movie, but it isn't quite as sharp or focused as say, The Lobster, in its exploration of how society views relationships or Poor Things, in how strange and arbitrary a lot sexual and gender norms really are.

I get what this film is trying to explore and I applaud Lanthimos for really GOING there, in regards to sex and violence. This is a movie for adults and doesn't really pull punches, which I loved (and expect from him). It's just not as cohesive and profound as his past work. I felt there were elements that could've and should've been explored better (especially in R. M. F. Eats a Sandwich).

That's not to say Kinds of Kindness isn't enjoyable (although, I wouldn't disagree if people found this film very UNENJOYABLE and difficult to watch). It's a polarizing film for sure, almost at times daring the audience to keep with it, as it slogs on and at times, becomes ever stranger. This sounds like a complaint, but as someone who enjoys challenging cinema, I actually really liked that about it.

I also REALLY loved the cast here: Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau, Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Mamadou Athie, Willem Dafoe - gave Lanthimos a lot to work with.

Using the same actors over and over again was not only a great way to showcase their acting chops, but associated certain people with certain essences. Jesse Plemons, for example, in all three stories is a man desperate for connection and validation, regardless of who he is literally playing. I've seen people complain about "wooden acting" and it's hilarious because the direction was so obviously deliberate. I'd imagine if this story played out with naturalistic or conventional performances, people would find it VERY difficult to get the hint that what you're seeing isn't meant to be literal.

Overall, I liked Kinds of Kindness, but I didn't love it. It does feel a bit too long and some of the stories needed more payoff, but like all of Lanthimos's work, it's audacious, daring, and very funny. Just pack your pitch black humor.

I am so happy with how bad Kraven the Hunter turned out. This really could've been mediocre and boring like Morbius, but thankfully, it is a train wreck on the same level as Madame Web. These two films are a perfect double feature to enjoy with friends, preferably whilst drunk or high. Any other way and you're wasting your time.

This movie isn't just BAD, but incompetent. It's obvious from the first 10-15 minutes or so that the film was chopped up and reshot time and time again. Characters don't ever really seem to be in the same room as one another. Despite being touted as "filmed on location" (I guess you need to have physical green/blue screens SOMEWHERE) the entire movie looks like it takes place inside a computer. Ironic, because this movie has no sense of place; no one's accent matches up with where they're supposed to be from, characters go from the UK to Ghana to Russia in what seems to take a few hours. It's a movie that mostly takes place in London, but there is LITERALLY no one has a British accent.

The script feels like it was written by AI. The performances are next level bad; Aaron Taylor Johnson's "American" accent slips into British and then...like Israeli or something every other scene. Ariana DeBose is...god awful here, complete with an actual scene where a still image of her is used with a moving mouth effect, because reshoots were needed. Seriously. Russell Crowe is in the movie for like 5 minutes but manages to leave an impression as the least convincing Russian ever.

But the cherry on top is Alessandro Nivola, who is so hammy, so over-the-top, and so confusing as Rhino, it's a performance that needs to be seen to be believed.

At the crux of it, Kraven the Hunter was never going to work out. He's a character inherently linked to Spider-man and isn't particularly interesting without him (just like every other villain Sony has tried to strike gold on). Yet, of course the studio shoves AS MUCH Spider-man trivia and cameos as possible in a truly hilarious attempt to dangle nostalgia in our faces. This movie is a reminder that references for the sake of them don't work.

I could go on and on with how almost every choice made in this movie is absolutely baffling and yet, still kind of fun. I'm a big fan of bad movies, because they always remind me how great movies CAN BE. So, if you're like me, I implore you, check this absolute mess of a movie out. Preferably when it's free.