The Estate plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics

And You Think Your Family’s Dysfunctional?

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

😱 HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 😱

(Yes, today's just the eve of All Hallows' Eve, but post I must.  Although the real horror show comes next week with the U.S. Presidential election—and associated control of Congress—as roughly half the country will be in mourning, no matter who wins.  I’ll see then if I feel like saying anything more.)

      The Estate (Dean Craig, 2022)   rated R   96 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

 It’s normally my policy to only review releases from the current year (unless I’m dipping into the past for something truly special), so it’s time once again for an attempted justification of using something in this posting that was shot and sent to limited theaters in 2022, then released on DVD in 2023.  My flimsy rationale is that The Estate has just now come to streaming—free to Netflix subscribers, $3.99 rental on Apple TV+—so that marginally makes it a sort-of-2024 release, especially because it was the one chosen by my viewing companions last Friday over a couple of other less-intriguing choices, even though the OCCU has little good to say about it, with the  Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at a miserable 32% even as the usually-lower Metacritic reviewers are a bit (but not impressively) better with a 37% average score.  Nevertheless, we all enjoyed it quite a bit, certainly much better than these “noted” critics, so I don’t hesitate in recommending it to you as long as you’re OK with a small cluster of cousins trying to kiss up to their grouchy Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner—not that you’d recognize her if you haven’t seen much of her since her seductive turn in the magnificent Body Heat [Lawrence Kasdan, 1981]) who’s dying of cancer.  Plus, I might as well get this out (so to speak) with another possible turn-off, which I decided not to bury in the Spoiler alert, the sight of an old man’s actual penis poking out of his pants (in a flaccid condition, as he’s almost passed out from too much booze, certainly one of the reasons for the R rating, although had it been erect surely we’d find this movie as an NC-17, to “protect the children” of course).  Want to continue?

 So, if you’re still with me, here’s a brief rundown on what you’d see in The Estate.  Close-to-destitute sisters in New Orleans, Macey (Toni Collette) and Savannah (Anna Faris), are about to lose the rundown bar left to them by their late father (who’s buried across the street) due to an eminent-domain move by the city (further, twice-divorced Macey has a boyfriend, Geoff [Gichi Gamba], but he’s about to be sent by his job to Alaska, a move he can’t afford to reject given his obligations of alimony and a daughter in college) when they decide to try to make nice with dying Aunt Hilda who doesn’t care for them or their mother, Diane (Patricia French).  However, when they get to her grand home they find their cousins, Beatrice (Rosemarie DeWitt), with husband James (Ron Livingston), and Richard (David Duchovny)—“Call me Dick”—are already there with the same intentions, although these others are not only already more in Hilda’s good graces but they also have given her some presents she appreciates so Macey and Savannah fear they’re to be left out of the will entirely.

 As Hilda’s looking through a photo scrapbook that (seemingly-devoted-but-truly-smarmy—she’s not really much appreciative of James either) Beatrice put together, Hilda reminisces about a guy she drooled over in high school, Bill (Danny Vinson), so Macey and Savannah use the Internet to find Bill’s actually close by, leading them to visit him in hopes of connecting him with Hilda for some senior shenanigans, upping their status in the will.  The only snag is that he’s living in a halfway-house for sex offenders as he’s had a tendency to expose himself when he’s drunk so he’s sworn off both behaviors in his old age.  The sisters bring him to meet with Hilda (she’s delighted), so Beatrice schemes to find some way to make him disgusting (he’s been honest with Hilda about his past, but she’s forgiving as long as he maintains his vows).  Beatrice and Dick (James leaves, finally disgusted with his wife’s actions) agree to trick Hilda into signing a new will that will share her wealth equally as long as the sisters help in setting Bill up for a fall, getting him drunk, then put in the company of their other sister, Ellen (Keyla Monterroso Mejia), so he’ll unzip, which Ellen agrees to as long as her siblings will finally play a round of her passionate Dungeons and Dragons game with her.

 ⇒It all goes as planned except Bill gets too drunk, can’t respond much to Ellen so Macey gets the task of pulling out his penis, is about to help stiffen it up when Hilda comes out on her balcony, screams at Bill, sends him away.  Hilda soon goes away as well, with the probate reading of her holdings showing $17 million; however, debts reduce it to a mere $38.17 so all of the cousins’ efforts have been in vain.  Macey does get possession of a dog painting, though, which, in the final scene, is about to be trashed until a paper falls out of the back showing it’s been appraised at $4 million, leaving the sisters (and Mom) in comfort after all.⇐  No, none of these folks are likable (although Macey does have her decent moments while James comes off as a stooge for Beatrice but finally stirs up some gumption; Bill’s actually trying to better himself until he sees the financial windfall he’ll get if he goes along with Hilda’s impetuous desire to immediately marry him), so you’re easily excused if you find the humor only in their competing wickedness—or am I just trying another rationalization, that of experiencing pleasure while dismissing the motives of these scoundrels.  If nothing else, I can honestly say the acting’s marvelous, especially by Collette, Faris, Duchovny, and Turner with the rest of the cast meshing nicely.  Yet, what’s so damn bad in the eyes of the OCCU?

 One answer to that comes from Katie Walsh in the Los Angeles Times (admittedly, written in 2022): “Watching ‘The Estate’ feels like being gaslit as we attempt to understand the purpose of anyone’s actions, or find any humor in these morbidly bleak antics, when there is simply nothing there. It’s not funny, it’s not satirical, and it’s not worth your time, or Toni Collette’s. Hopefully it was a nice trip to New Orleans.”  But I’m not totally alone here, as evidenced by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian (his 3 of 5 stars parallels my rating), who responded in 2023: “This is a very silly and fantastically crass film, and there is something magnificent and horrible in the scene when the old flame’s penis does indeed make an appearance outside his trousers; despite or because of these things it is often funny. Added to which, the very impressive cast give it everything they’ve got; nothing with Collette in it can be bad.”  See it or not, a choice I'll leave for you.  I'll move on to my standard trope of closing out a review with a Musical Metaphor: I’m going a bit sideways again with the song “Me and My Uncle”—which has nothing directly to do with the events of The Estate, but I think the closing sentiment of these lyrics does speak directly to the nature of the family being explored in this movie, although I’ll have to leave that sentiment to be discovered directly by you when listening to it because I wouldn’t want to spoil that ending.  The song was written in 1963 by John Phillips (of the soon-to-be-famous group, the Mamas & the Papas) was recorded by many, became a standard concert tune of the Grateful Dead so I’ll use their 1981 performance at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Rt-vdU781as in tribute to their recently-deceased former bassist Phil Lesh; however, the lyrics are a bit muffled in this video so, for clarity, here’s Phillips' version, and, if you want to find it on an album seemingly the earliest appearance was here, on The Judy Collins Concert (1964).*

*In the 1960s I wasn’t aware of any recording of this song, yet I did hear it as an undergrad at the U. of Texas at Austin in my role as one of the managers (and occasional performer) of The Basement coffee house (located, naturally, in the basement of the U.T. Catholic Student Center) where one of our regular singers was a fellow undergrad, Jim Ritchie.  I don’t know who he got it from, but it was impactful when he sang it, the ending coming as a surprise to new audience members, an irony to those of us who’d hear it before.  I don’t directly know much of Jim after roughly 1970 (although this site is about him in 2020, but you have to subscribe, as I did, if you want to read it), except I know his song, “Tennessee Bottle,” was recorded by Kenny Rogers (1978 album The Gambler, which went 5x platinum), though through a legal complication Jim got his scant songwriter royalties from it.

         

SHORT TAKES

              

 Here’s another of my non-cinematic inclusions in the SHORT TAKES section, this one about my marginal connection to a couple of major athletes.  Considering I’ve never been athletic at all (my best “accomplishments” have been to barely break 100 in golf, barely get over 100 in bowling), my tie-ins to these guys would have to do with similar injuries, where I can truly relate.  Last Saturday in the second 2024 World Series game (LA Dodgers went up 2-0 games over the NY Yankees that night [won the Series tonight, 4 games to 1]) superstar Shohei Ohtani—the likely National League 2024 MVP—partially dislocated his left shoulder attempting to steal second base (he stole 59 of them during the regular season) when he did the same thing I did some years ago, slammed his left wrist on the ground pushing his arm bones up a bit out of the socket (I had a complete dislocation, requiring the painful pulling of the arm back into place, but my injury came as an accident as I was gawking at some architecture, didn’t see a bump in the sidewalk I banged into, fell down; big ouch!!).

 A difference between us, though, is that 2 days later he’s back in the lineup for game 3 (did nothing spectacular, though) while I had to wear a sling for awhile, take pain killers, go through extensive physical therapy.  Somewhat similarly, I can also empathize with basketball’s Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry (2-time NBA MVP, 2024 Olympics gold medalist) who sprained his ankle in a game on Sunday night, just as I did years ago (prior to my shoulder splat), although mine was from over-imbibing at a party, taking a tumble while walking outside; I’m a bit more like Curry than Ohtani, nevertheless, in that he’s going to miss a few games while I also limped around for awhile, had to wear a sneaker on that foot rather than my usual boot, did a lot of Epson Salts soakings, but when I was back to normal I probably still couldn’t have run the length of a basketball court while keeping up a dribble even if I were the only one there.  Still, it’s nice to know I’ve been able to share something with these 2 monumental men; now, if I could only get even a fraction of their multi-millions salaries!

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting: 

Some options: (1) Recent theatrical releases you can stream or rent (I'll pass on most of these, seen a few); (2) 5 body horror movies; (3) Directors with the most Oscar wins; (4) IMDb's 5 Things to Watch on the week of 10/28/2024 (see any of them if you like; I’ll pass on all 5).

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

             

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

            

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 3,779—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Woman of the Hour, Short Takes on other cinematic topics

Not a Pretty Picture

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

                          Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick)

                                            rated R   95 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

 (No Spoiler warning today because this film’s based on real events, easily available for exploration in various Internet sources, although the filmmakers—including screenwriter Ian McDonald—admit some license has been taken as various plot points are portrayed on screen.)  Actor Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut also stars her as Sheryl Bradshaw (a somewhat-fictionalized version of the real Cheryl), an aspiring actor in L.A. whose career was going nowhere when her agent got her on national TV as a bachelorette choosing 1 of 3 men for a possible romance on The Dating Game (ABC TV 1965-1973, then in syndication 1973-1974, 1978-1980, 1986-1989, 1996-1999 under slightly different titles, with a brief return to ABC in 2021); however, the guy she chose was serial killer Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto)—unknown to the producers of the show as such, despite being on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 1971, jailed twice in the early 1970s for child molestation and assault, but by 1978 he was working at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter (shown in the film as a photographer based on the reality that he amassed a trove of photos of young men and women, many of whom are thought to be additional victims beyond the ones he was convicted of murdering).

 We see them talking for awhile in a bar after the show, but Sheryl begins to sense him as creepy, driving away in a rush, never going on the arranged date.  In addition to the extended Dating Game scenes the film focuses on Alcala killing 2 women (although seen from a distance or through an apartment skylight so while the acts are horrid they’re not presented in a lurid manner) and, in 1979, raping a teenage runaway, Amy (Autumn Best)—based on Monique Hoyt—but then keeping her around, leading to his demise when he stops as a gas station-diner to wash blood off his hands in the restroom while she goes into the diner to call the cops who immediately show up to arrest him.

 You can read about his extended crime spree at this site and get a visualized account of his life from this video (9:55), although this one (4:12) seems more bothered by aspects of the true story not consistent with what’s shown in the film.  Graphics prior to the final credits note how Alcala was convicted of killing 7 women and girls, although speculation implies there might have been as many as 130 from the late 1960s to 1979; he eventually died in prison in 2021.  Another notation in this final summary is how many victims who escaped or people with suspicions of Alcala’s actions were not taken seriously by law enforcement (nor did many charges stick against him), allowing him to continue his savage trek through the lives of numerous women, as illustrated in the film when Laura (Nicolette Robinson) is in the Dating Game audience but rushes out when she sees him because she’s convinced he killed a friend of hers, yet when she tries to get the studio security guy to let her speak with the show’s producer he has her wait in a room where he smugly set her up to meet the janitor, so no action was taken against Alcala that night even though Sheryl gave him a phony phone number, immediately moved away from L.A.  Kendrick makes a fine impression here, both as director and actor, although at times we’re not really sure where we are in the 1970s as the TV show is constantly interspersed with episodes of Alcala’s crimes; further, the set-up for this film implies ongoing danger for Bradshaw from Alcala even though they’re never together again after the show.

Despite those limitations, I liked Woman ..., not for its content—difficult to watch as Alcala toys with his victims—but for the effective manner Kendrick employs in creating an aura of horror about this degenerate, contrasting it well with the initial sense of professional failure by Sheryl that evaporates as she takes command of her questions to her potential dates, frustrating the TV host who previously told her to not present herself as being too much in charge of the situation.  (I have my own sense of discomfort with this character, based on actual Dating Game host, Jim Lange, because here he’s called Ed Burke [Tony Hale], which was my father’s name, a good man totally unlike this sexist jerk.)

 The CCAL joins me in encouraging you to look into this one—Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 91%, the Metacritic average score at a predictably lower number of 75%. If you’re interested go to Netflix streaming, or, if you’re not a subscriber you can buy in for a month for $6.99 (with ads) or $15.49 (without).  I leave that decision to you, just as I’ll leave you with my usual closure tactic of a Musical Metaphor, this time an easy choice of The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” (on the 1971 [appropriately named for this film] L.A. Woman album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a ZT_OxPRmSw (despite this being the 8^th time I’ve used it; I must have watched some pretty sick films over the years; sadly, it was the last song Jim Morrison recorded, shortly before he died) featuring lyrics about “There’s a killer on the road, his brain is squirmin’ like a toad” with Sheryl, fortunately, not taking the advice of “[…] girl, you gotta love your man / Take him by the hand, make him understand,” because, instead, she got as far away from him as possible.  It’s a grim story that may give serious photographers a bad name if their sincere portrait intentions are misinterpreted, but Alcala never had any sincere intentions except to trick women into being alone with him in isolated locales (often out in the desert countryside) so his madness could manifest itself.  A gruesome tale, yet well-told nevertheless, which proved quite a big challenge for director Kendrick as she explains.

             

SHORT TAKES

           

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for your consideration: (1) Just in time for Halloween, the true stories behind

some famous horror movies; (2) The Apprentice will not be shown in the 

United Arab Emirates and Kuwait just to please Donald Trump.

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

            

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

         

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 3,779—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Hold Your Breath, Short Takes on other cinematic topics

“Remember, man, that you are dust

and to dust you will return.”

(Incantation spoken by a Roman Catholic priest on Palm Sunday [week before Easter Sunday] 

taken from Jewish/Christian Torah/Old Testament Book of Genesis 3:19 when applying ashes 

[from blessed and burned palm fronds] in the form of a cross on the forehead of on a parishioner,

in reference to Adam’s Original Sin, decreeing a life of suffering and death for him and Eve

as God banished them [and descendants] from the Garden of Eden for disobeying a command.)

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

9/25/2024—As the Northern Hemisphere’s transitioned into autumn I’ll need to note to all present and future readers of Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark that my wife, Nina, and I have transitioned into our mid-70s which puts us in the autumn of our years too (winter’s a long way off we’re convinced), which means it’s now taking us longer to get do our daily tasks so some changes are now necessary; for me that means putting more time into meals—shopping/preparation—as time management requires me to cut down on the weekly hours I’ve been devoting to this blog.  There will still be postings on a weekly basis (most of the time), but the reviews will need to be considerably shorter, maybe with fewer Musical Metaphors if trying to figure out what to use becomes too much of a challenge.  I’ll focus on successfully getting to the point in what I write, but extra details and tangents will have to be curtailed.  (Damn!)  Comments on this revised format are always welcomed.

           Hold Your Breath (Karrie Crouse, Will Joines)

                                         rated R   94 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

 As I explored streaming possibilities for this week’s review I was intrigued by what I read about … Breath; after seeing it, I was not only impressed by what I found but was also fascinated by aspects of this story alluding to others I have high regard for.  There may be other connections besides the ones I’ll note, yet, for me, the most important ones include The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940) where another Oklahoma Dust Bowl family is made miserable by the horrid conditions of the 1930s due to draught and the constant overwhelming flow of dust from farms gone barren (although in Ford’s classic, based on John Steinbeck’s powerful novel, the Joad family [primarily played by Jane Darwell—Oscars for her as Best Supporting Actress, Ford as Best Director—and Henry Fonda] escapes to different challenges in California whereas in this story Margaret Bellum [Sarah Paulson] won’t leave because she’s staying on the family land with what support her husband, Henry, can send from his construction job back East in order to remain with the grave of her lost daughter, Ava).

 We also find allusions to A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018; review in our April 19, 2018 posting) where 2 parents must work diligently to protect their 2 young children from vicious aliens that have invaded our planet, blind beasts with exceptional hearing so the family must constantly avoid making sounds so as to not reveal themselves to the monsters, just as Margaret must try to cover every crack in her dilapidated wooden shack along with her and her girls wearing face masks to prevent what she understands to be a killer ghost from entering their breathing cavities to keep them from being captured by this evil spirit (I can’t help thinking about COVID-19 in our time, the need for masks to help keep it under control, yet the resistance of so many who just want to wish this horror away), and The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton,1955) where an older woman (Lillian Gish) keeps watch, with a shotgun in her lap, over 2 children on the run being stalked by a mad “preacher” (Robert Mitchum) who covets a valuable item the kids have, just as Margaret uses her own shotgun to keep at bay a drifter, Wallace Grady (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)—also claims to be a preacher—who says he worked with Henry but seems to Margaret to be a physical manifestation of The Grey Man, the ghost this family knows about from a book belonging to pre-teen-daughter Rose (Amiah Miller).

 However, despite my fascination with ... Breath, I'm like light years away from the OCCU where the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are a paltry 44% while the Metacritic average score is, surprisingly, a bit higher at 47%.  In an effort to see why my reaction is so drastically different from these critics I looked through some reviews, this one from Brian Tellerico of RogerEbert.com as an example of those who found little to appreciate here: “[…] a frustrating work, a sequence of powerful scenes that aren’t tied together with enough tension to make us care. It’s a film filled with moments but no momentum.”  Of course, as Sir Isaac Newton theorized so very long ago, “for every action (force), in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction,” so there must be at least a few reviewers out there who, like me, find some value in this film, as for example Hope Madden: ”Paulson’s performance aches with a pain that is particular to a mother, and it’s this broken heartbeat that keeps Hold Your Breath compelling to its conclusion. Its horror is touched with a melancholy suited to the genre. The tension comes and goes, leaving you with less than promised, but the film has enough going for it to make it worth your time.”  Ultimately, I’ll have to leave it up to your sensibilities as to whether this story would be intriguing for you or not (if so, it’s on Hulu where you can watch it during their 30 days-free option, then maybe stick around for $7.99 monthly [with ads] or $17.99 [no ads]).

 You can get considerably more plot details here, but, briefly building on the foundation I’ve noted above, you’ll find Margaret also has a younger daughter, Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), deaf and mute after a bout of scarlet fever; Mom’s concerned upon hearing about a drifter who killed a local family, fearful Wallace might be that man, yet finds hope in him when he provides some healing to Rose and the family cow (there’s even some rain after he arrives); then a letter arrives from Henry telling them to be fearful of Wallace, who says he’s The Grey Man even as Margaret uses the shotgun to send him away; ⇒later, she seems to shoot him, but in her sleep-deprived hallucinations she instead kills her sister, Esther Smith (Annaleigh Ashford); with a knife she kills local Sheriff Bell (Arron Shiver) who’d come to take the girls away from her; Rose tricks Mom to go out into a dust storm, then cuts the rope tied to their house as the means to get back to shelter during such a blinding natural attack, leaving Margaret to die, after which the girls take a train to Philadelphia to finally be with their Dad.⇐

 In my review last week of It’s What’s Inside I discussed that film as being a sort of mad-scientist story which pushed it firmly into the aspects of the horror genre that deals with humanity defying the domain of the divine, rather than as some have called it, sci-fi; Hold Your Breath would seem to take us even farther, into the dreaded realm of demonic horror (where demons, vampires, werewolves, evil spirits, etc. dwell), yet it turns out to be psychological horror where the real danger is Margaret as she’s progressively losing her mind, in an environment where death easily awaits as “to dust you will return” is made terrifyingly-manifest as the land turns hostile to its inhabitants, so for my usual review-ending Musical Metaphor I see the clear choice of “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas (1977 Point of Know Return album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ which also takes Biblical inspirations from Genesis 3:19, along with Ecclesiastes 3:20 and Psalms 18:42 (look ‘em up yourself if you like; I don’t need any more links at this point) as Margaret and her neighbors must confront that “All we do / Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see / Dust in the wind / All we are is dust in the wind.”  Hold Your Breath isn’t fun to watch, but I find it to be mesmerizing; maybe you will too (if not, at least be aware of the reality of COVID in your life and please take precautions).

             

SHORT TAKES

            

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for your consideration: (1) San Quentin Prison to host a film festival; (2) IMDb's October 2024 TV and streaming calendar (341[!] options for you to skim through); (3) Variety's 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time (I’d put their #2 as my #1, move their #100 to much higher on my list, but I admit I haven't seen a lot of what they cite); (4) IMDb's 5 Things to Watch This Week.

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