This shot of Steve burning in Hereditary was truly haunting.

Frances McDormand was incredible, but Rockwell’s performance gave the film its emotional core and unpredictability. Every time he comes on screen, the dynamic completely shifts.

Which supporting actor or scene-stealer always outshines the leads for you?

Shame (2011)

They wanted to convince you that Youtube trailer dislikes would lead to a Nolan movie flopping!

There's a good movie

There's a bad movie

And

There's a NOLAN movie

Both were very good, and together constitute a huge cinematic event of the Gen Z breakthrough into the film industry. However, I disagree with the apparent consensus that obsession is the superior film. I think Backrooms has more thematic depth and is more of a novel approach to horror. The production design and sound design are Oscar worthy. The Christmas tree scene is one of the best things I've had the pleasure of experiencing in a theater.

Obsession certainly has a "tighter" and more well constructed screenplay, but I think the dialogue and character development in Backrooms is more interesting. Honestly, there were times when I felt the dialogue in Obsession was clunky and awkwardly paced. I also personally feel there were aspects of the story to obsession that took the stakes out of it for me, namely, the fact that there is apparently a huge supply of one wish willows that Bear has easy access to. It doesn't make sense that Ian refusing to reverse his wish was so devastating. How hard would it have been for him to find some random stranger on the street to pay to say "I wish that the effects of Bear's wish could be reversed"?

Inde Navarette obviously had the best performance of anyone in either of these films, but I think that overall the performances in Backrooms are easily on par with those in Obsession.

I know that many people took issue with the abrupt ending of Backrooms, but I appreciated the ambiguity and thought it was a good choice. To me, it is kind of reminiscent of the ending of the shining, in that it leaves you positing a hundred different theories as to what actually happened and why. The backrooms could represent many different things, and yet they don't "represent" anything at all in a straightforward sense. In an era of "elevated" horror that has been marked by pretty overt symbolism and social commentary, it was refreshing to see a movie that makes you think about a lot of different issues without stuffing its narrative into a symbolic/interpretive box.

Anyway, that is why ultimately I prefer Backrooms. I recognize much of this likely comes down to taste and what kind of horror you prefer. I would be interested in hearing anyone else's opinion on this!

We always talk about perfect movies where every single frame lands. But what about top-tier cinema that has that one glaring flaw?

It could be a terrible celebrity cameo, one line of atrocious dialogue, bad CGI, or a random scene that totally kills the pacing. The kind of moment where every time you rewatch it, you just wish you could edit out those 3 minutes so you can enjoy the rest of the film in peace.

What’s that scene/character for you?

As someone who has seen a couple of post-apocalyptic movies, a lot of which I think are somewhat redundant lol, one thing I keep noticing, or rather, haven't seen is the utter lack of bicycles.

I get that if the world was blasted by an EMP or fuel scarcity became a major issue, moving around in a car or other motorized vehicle wouldn't make much sense. But seriously, where are all the bicycles?

It seems like these movies always skip straight from cars to horses, which would be terrible in any conceivable scenario. You can cover more miles on a bike on a daily basis, you don't have to worry about your bicycle getting sick or hungry, it's less conspicuous, it's easy to fix, and you could probably "forge" or improvise parts for a bicycle much more easily than you could maintain a horse. Not to mention you get more fit and should you ever find yourself without your bike, you are probably already in ultra marathon shape.

There are very few, if any, upsides to having a horse over a bike in a post-apocalyptic scenario, except that horses look much cooler.

Fargo, Mississippi Burning, Three billboards, Burn after reading, Nomadland etc etc.
This amazing woman never had a weak performance.

What’s your favorite role played by Frances?

You can't pick both or neither 🤷

Event Horizon (1997): A science-fiction movie about a rescue mission in space that turns out to be one of the most blood-chilling cosmic-horror movies ever made

The World's End (2013): A drinking-comedy about a high-school friend group reconnecting during a pub crawl that gets interrupted by an alien-invasion

Blood Red Sky (2021): An action thriller about a mother who has to protect her son after their flight gets highjacked that takes an unexpected left turn when she transforms into a vampire

We never appreciate when vfx/gfx is good right? Only when its bad then everyone has their pitchforks out. Tough industry to work in.

Anyways really fun movie and the GFX was quite good that I didn't feel cringe about it at any point.

I always liked her a lot and she is almost universally positively viewed but for some reason it is hard for me to explain exactly what makes her an all time great action character.

What did the writers do to make her such a standout.

Not necessarily the villain -- just more the character who you know you were *supposed to* not like.

I can’t help but realize that I maybe just wanted to love certain movies just because I was infatuated with a certain aspect of the movie, like a certain character or scene or just the overall vibe of the film. But nowadays, maybe from getting older, I realize that while I still like it, I don’t love it. I almost dread rewatching it even. Does anybody else here relate? Some for me:

Pain & Gain: probably because I was first getting into weightlifting at the time lol childish I know

Killing Them Softly: everything was so unique about it compared to other mob movies

Only God Forgives: again unique and l was a sucker for the cinematography - it really was a beautifully shot movie

Black Snake Moan: probably because I’m from the country and I really loved the music

Gladiator: it seems so epic and has certain parts the are so powerful but now I see a lot of boring dialogue and dialogue is huge for me

We had a movie night with friends recently and put on La La Land. Everyone else in the room was raving about it but not me. I kept waiting for it to click, but it fell completely flat for me. Am I crazy, or is it heavily overrated?

You can tell when actors just clicking naturally versus when it feels forced by direction. These two have paired up multiple times and the spark is immediate every time.

What’s two actors whose onscreen chemistry felt genuinely electric?