Suspiria (2018)

Suspiria is not really a remake of the 1977 giallo classic by Dario Argento. It merely starts from the same point. But it veers way far off. The new movie lacks all the hallmarks of the original: the eroticism, color and music. It does have the gore. Act six has a hell of a lot of blood. It's really gratuitous. I don't feel like the movie really earned the twist in the sixth act. Or maybe that's just me saying that I didn't like the twist.The film is in a mix of German and English. Recall that the original was in comically dubbed Italian. The mix of languages comes off as kind of frenetic. The best part of the movie is Tilda Swinton, who plays 3 parts, probably one too many. And the movie runs two and a half hours, which is way too long for a horror movie.

High Life (2018)

Claire Denis's first foray into sci-fi is titled High Life, probably because she was high on something when she wrote this incoherent mess. She just hopes that you don't ask any questions, especially why and how. How did he raise Willow in this spaceship? How did she learn to speak English? How does she know what a dog is? What is the point of Dr. Dibs's experiment? What if she succeeds...then what, they're on a one-way mission anyways. And who cares? It's not like she's breaking new ground, she's just being creepy. She truly does look like a witch; one whose English sounds weird for some reason, which is strange because Juliette Binoche speaks perfectly good English. And what if they succeed in the larger mission? Then what...how are they supposed to harness the energy of a black hole? What good does that do anyone on Earth? The premise just makes no sense. And the design is not your typical futuristic space ship. This is no Starship Enterprise. It is a bleak shoebox, dark, low tech, uninviting. Robert Pattinson has really proven himself to be quite the actor though. They're going to start casting him in daddy roles soon enough.