September in Film

Margaret Qualley in The Substance (Source: IMDb)

September and I saw quite an assortment of films. There was body horror in The Substance, Vampire motorbike riders from Psychomania, and children shooting up weight loss drugs in South Park: The End of Obesity.

3rd September- 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007)

For a zombie apocalypse film that is aiming to be “realistic”, this definitely wasn’t. I didn’t believe the characters made their way miles across London in minutes, or that Imogen Poots always had perfect eyeliner. The editing screwed with my eyes; it was pure chaos. However, I did think this was actually quite well written and is definitely a victim of overcompensating style over substance.

5/10.

10th September- Green Book (Peter Farrelly, 2018)

I revisited this after having not seen it since its release. I forgot how great this tale of friendship was. It is a perfect road movie, and both Mortensen and Ali portray their roles excellently. Definitely an underrated Christmas movie if you fancy a change this year.

9/10.

15th September- Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006)

I always come back to Marie Antoinette, it is a comforting film to me, possibly because I saw it quite young. The teenage girl in the Queen’s body. I love the innocence Dunst brings to the character, which later fails her. The subtle references and anachronistic soundtrack make it for me, particularly the ballroom scene, in which Marie and her pals frolic around in grand gowns to Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

8/10.

16th September- Kingsman: The Secret Service (Matthew Vaughn, 2014)

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. It reminded me of a Guy Ritchie film if it was slightly less in your face. The spy organisation- Kingsmen, were executed in such English gentlemanly fashion, but it is quite refreshing to see them not live up to the standard British culture has often given them in this.

7/10.

19th September- Girl Walk // All Day (Jacob Krupnick, 2011)

I thought this was really fun. I saw it as a double bill with Hairspray (see below). It follows a girl prancing around New York to a pop soundtrack; mixed all the way through. Anne Marsen brought so much joy, energy, and superficiality to the screen. Unfortunately, my attention span isn’t that long, and I struggled to focus on it after a while and felt it could have been a short film, but maybe that’s the point. So you actually do just focus on the joy of dancing.

6/10.

Hairspray- (John Waters, 1988)

This is the first film I’ve seen Divine in and most definitely won’t be the last. Hairspray (1988) feels underrepresented, it’s beyond its years. I loved the way Waters exaggerated uncomfortable sounds that usually would be small details, like kissing just to make you feel awkward, in a hilarious way.

7/10.

23rd September- The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024)

The Substance examines the concept of age, and wanting to return to a younger, more nubile version of yourself. That is as much as I can describe without giving away this tumultuous terror of a film. I adored the many references it allowed, particularly the one where Demi Moore studies herself in her mirror, putting on a necklace, wanting to turn herself into someone else, accompanied by Bernard Herrmann’s score, much like Judy from Vertigo.

8/10.

24th September- Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

This is one of those films that you kind of have to watch even if you really don’t want to. That being said, I enjoyed this more than I remembered. The effects are still imaginative fifteen years on. However, the topic of colonisation seems somewhat out of place when it was the third most expensive film to be made of its time, made in the USA, a country that exists on the basis of such an idea.

6/10.

26th September- Psychomania (Don Sharp, 1973)

This was a lot camper than I was expecting, and also unusually a lot less entertaining. It is a ninety-minute long film that spends 60 of those minutes just setting up the idea of a gang of bikers being immortal. The rest of the film poorly acts and rushes the build-up, climax, and ending. Nonetheless, the surrey countryside did have a sense of nostalgia.

4/10.

29th September- Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (Allan Arkush, 1979)

A film that does what the title suggests. It feels somewhat like a marketing attempt for the Ramones (given that they star in the film, as well as their repetitive music) but contains all of the High School film tropes you might expect. For its time, I’m sure it was quite exciting.

5/10.

Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

I have seen Get Out countless times and there are still new elements I am discovering, such as how the Black characters refreshingly don’t adhere to a stereotype, or the amount of foreshadowing of events that will happen to our protagonist Chris, as he visits his girlfriend’s waspy, covertly racist family.

9/10.

30th September- South Park: The End of Obesity (Trey Parker, 2024)

What a way to finish the month off. Parker is like a joke powerhouse and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight of these hilarious South Park movies. The End of Obesity follows Eric Cartman on a determined weight loss journey, by utilising the many available substances the US has to offer. The mature humour of these child characters is hilarious, such as lines Cartman comes out with lines like “rich people get Ozempic, poor people get body positivity”.  

7/10.