I'm not really sure what to post here but I've been trying to get into movies so I thought maybe I could do like a monthly/weekly "review" of some of the movies I've watched in that time period (even tho I've never reviewed anything..)? That seems blog-y to me?? idk ;-;

August Movie Dairy

*spoiler warning*

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
[1988 - Horror/Comedy]

Horror movie hostess Elvira arrives in a conservative small town 
in Massachusetts to collect her inheritance and discovers her uncle is an evil warlock.

Elvira, a persona that Cassandra Peterson created in 1981 for an audition to host what would become Elvira's Movie Macabre, is an absolute icon. Although the character already existed before this, this is her first movie. Elvira has just quit her job as a horror movie hostess and has dreams to star in a Las Vegas show, but she needs to cough up a shit ton of money before she can. Luckily, her great-aunt dies, and she's in the will, hooray! When Elvira first arrives in Farewell, Massachusetts, she is immediately hated because she's a sexy goth who all the men in town want; :( eventually their hate cumulates in trying to burn her alive for witchcraft. In her inheritance, Elvira receives a dog/familiar, Algonquin, who is perfect + he gets a punk makeover. There isn't much for me to say about Elvira: Mistress of the Dark apart from it being a mindless, fun movie.

Like I said, mindless fun it's very enjoyable, but although of how much I adore the Diva that is Elvira and Gonq I wouldn't call it a favourite.

Pink Narcissus
[1971 - Erotic/Fantasy]

An American arthouse film that follows a young gay male prostitute
 through a series of narcissistic sexual fantasies while alone in his apartment.

I've been seeing discussions of Pink Narcissus in my little gay online communities for a while and thought I should see why they wouldn't shut up about it. There is no dialogue in this film at all; instead, it relies on imagery and music to communicate with the audience, but being an arthouse film, it uses a lot of symbolic/ambiguous imagery, which at times can make it difficult to derive much plot. Being Erotica, you'd have to expect (at least alluding to) some sexual content but with that being said, some scenes in this are just straight gay porn which I wasn't quite expecting.. but that's okay!. Aesthetically speaking, this is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen: bright saturated colours, lots of lights, and extravagant handmade sets crafted inside a small New York City apartment with glitter and sequins and paper-mache; purples, pinks, and golds create a dreamlike, almost hallucinatory atmosphere. Like most queer campy films Pink Narcissus had a quiet release but throughout the years has without a doubt become a cult classic and cornerstone of gay cinema/art.

Overall I really liked Pink Narcissus. I hadn't seen a movie without dialogue before, and maybe that's why it's stuck with me, but despite how experimental it is, it works very well, especially with the aesthetics of the film. Pink Narcissus was filmed (aside from one scene that was shot in a Manhattan loft) entirely in the director's New York City apartment over seven years (1963-1970), it had a small cast/crew of around four people, and almost all the extras were found on the streets, so there's this kind of realness/authenticity to it that bigger studios often forget about when purposely making movies for a queer audience.

Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby
[1999 - Crime Thriller/Comedy]

A standalone sequel to Freeway I, which follows two teenage girls,
White Girl, a thief/prostitute, and Cyclona, a 16-year-old Mexican serial killer,
as they break out of jail and travel to Tijuana to stay with Cyclona's
childhood protector, a man disguised as a nun.

I watched this purely to fill my insatiable obsession with Natasha Lyonne, who plays White Girl. Like the first Freeway movie (which I have not seen), which was inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, Freeway II is a dark lesbian retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Just like Hansel and Gretel, which has a witch luring children into her house so she can eat them, in Freeway II, instead of a witch we have a man who cross-dresses as a female nun to lure children into his house, locks them in his basement and feeds them until he's ready to eat them ALSO he's a pedophile! (he does get thrown in an oven and dies at the end tho, yay?) I found the whole cross-dressing perverted psychopath trope quite disappointing, but I suppose it was '99, so I could cut them a bit of slack. Although I wouldn't say the acting in this is terrible, I certainly wouldn't say it's good. There are a few intended to be emotional scenes where one of the girls (Cyclona specifically) is meant to be crying but is doing such a poor job of it that it overrides the sad tone and just ends up being near funny. But I did find myself rooting for the girls to get together and genuinely almost crying when White Girl kills Cyclona, so I was obviously at least a little invested in the movie.

I typically very much enjoy "dark" media that feels gross/uncomfortable and serious, but unfortunately I didn't like this, which I think may be mainly because of the pedophilia. I've often found myself quite disappointed when watching Natasha's filmography, and this definitely isn't an exception.

Donkey Skin
[1970 - Musical/Fantasy]

After the death of his wife, a king attempts to marry his 
daughter who relies on the assistance of her fairy godmother
to escape the marriage.

This is the first French New Wave film I've watched, although I have a list to get through, and I quite enjoyed it. Donkey Skin is based on a 1697 French fairytale about a fortunate king who gained his riches from a donkey that drops gold and who lives with his wife and daughter. Before the queen dies, she makes her husband promise to only remarry a woman as beautiful as her. Soon the king finds that only his daughter fits the promise, and after seeking advice, the girl's fairy godmother tells her to agree to the marriage under the condition he can provide a series of abstract dresses: a dress the colour of good weather, the moon, and the sun. After he manages to obtain each dress, she finally requests the hide of his donkey. The dresses in this are so, so gorgeous omg!! not just the dresses but also the colourful set, especially in the first castle. Obviously this is a French film, and I couldn't find an English dub for it, so I had to use subtitles, but despite that it was very easy to follow.

I had no idea that this was a musical, so I was surprised when they started singing, but I like musicals, so I didn't mind. It's a classic fairytale where everybody gets their happy ending: the princess ends up with a prince, and the king gets engaged to the Lilac Fairy (the godmother, who I quite liked). I think Donkey Skin is quite likeable, and I don't really have any complaints.

Blue Velvet
[1986 - Mystery/Crime]

A young man finds a severed human ear in a field near his house;
this discovery leads him on an investigation involving a mysterious
nightclub singer and a group of criminals that have
kidnapped her husband and child.

This is the second David Lynch film I've watched. I really liked Mulholland Drive, but I found Blue Velvet somewhat confusing/strange. I don't know if maybe it's one of those things where I'm just not smart enough to understand it? I didn't necessarily dislike it; I just didn't get it. I found the relationship between Dorothy and Jeffery interesting but Sandy and Jeffery kind of boring. The way that the characters kept saying it's a strange world made me feel as if they were trying to force the movie to seem deeper than it was. Blue Velvet is about the transition from adolescence to adulthood and the dichotomy of good vs evil, which is communicated very clearly through intense violence and psychosexuality. Despite my confusion it made really uncomfortable and I think being able to cause such strong emotion is a sign of a good film. I know Blue Velvet is quite widely love and I would love other opinions.

I'm not really sure what to think or how to speak about this movie yet, but like I said, I didn't understand this one :(.

Daughters of Darkness
[1971 - Horror/Erotica]

In a seaside hotel during the off-season, a newlywed couple are seduced 
by the gorgeous, mystifying Countess of Bathory and her aide.

I initially found the pacing of this quite slow, especially in the beginning, but by the end I quite liked it. Daughters of Darkness is a lesbian vampire classic, and although at times it can be slow, Delphine Seyrig's (The Countess) performance makes it worth it. Unlike a lot of other lesbian, especially vampire, media that is based on the book Carmilla (The best classic), this is instead inspired by the real Countess of Bathory, who was said to have bathed in the blood of virgins and was accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls with the help of her servants. Daughters of Darkness has such a different atmosphere than other vampire films in the way that it isn't dark, churchy, and gothic, but you can really feel the cold and isolation of the hotel. There's one scene where the Countess is standing on this hill next to Valerie (The wife) and she opens her bat-winged cape, which I really liked and thought represented Bathory's grasp on Valerie. This is classified as horror, but sense it lacks a lot of traditional horror themes or bloodshed/gore I didn't find it scary. I think it's more like a thriller.

Like I said, the pacing was quite slow, but by the end I loved Daughters of Darkness.

I've never reviewed anything before so this felt quite starnge tbh and I realize that I have yapped a lot in this sorryyy. I'll have to try 2 say less if I do another entry like this lol.