Aguirre, the Wrath of God, 6/10
This is one of Werner Herzog's collaborations with Klaus Kinski, from 1972. It follows a small band of conquistadors searching for Eldorado in the South American jungle, and their slow downfall as the harsh jungle takes its toll. It's a chaotic, very loosely structured narrative, which works both in its favor and against it. The seeming instability and incoherence of the narrative flow does a good job of getting the viewer into the mindset of the characters, where little makes sense, and things seem to happen without much rhyme or reason. But on the other hand it does just that: its flow is a bit clunky and uneven. It makes up for it with its feel of grit and authenticity though. Despite being made on a very small budget, it was filmed 100% on location, and you feel every bit of it. There's zero trickery or visual effects at play. It adds so much to the sense of peril and unease when you know that the people are actually on rafts in the middle of a flooded river for example.
Despite it being a pretty interesting film on paper, unfortunately the story behind it is much more interesting. The script was more of an outline at less than 3 pages, and the film was shot semi-improvisationally. Real life events, like the river flooding, were implemented into the story on the spot. At one point Herzog literally threatened to shoot Kinski because of his unstable behavior. Knowing trivia about it definitely adds to it, because without that knowledge it's kind of clunkily paced and meandering. But at the same time it is nonetheless a captivating, gritty film that could never ever be made today in the way it was originally.
Heathers, 7/10
This is a macabre 80s cult comedy classic about a clique of popular girls, out of whom 3 of 4 are named Heather. The non-Heather, played by Winona Ryder has had enough of them, and when Christian Slater's sinister bad boy J.D. rolls into town, they start killing them one by one.
This is very much in the vein of more subversive high school comedies like Mean Girls or Jennifer's Body. It eschews a lot of the tropes of its time, and depicts high school life with a raw, almost uncomfortable edge. Teenage love isn't depicted as pure and innocent, but confused, horny and messy. The most meaningless squabbles get blown completely out of proportion to disastrous results. J.D. isn't some misunderstood wounded puppy, but a straight up psychopath. It's quite funny and snappy, and well paced. It's not gonna rock your world, but given how easily comedies can age poorly, this one holds up damn well.
letterboxd.com
