Summer is finally here and the theatre is bustling with some good movies! I made the conscious effort of avoiding Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda (I believe that’s the official name of the film) and went to watch these three instead.
Obsession
To get to the point immediately, this is my favourite movie of the year so far. There’s something to be said about just executing a high concept film to a T, and this is exactly what that is. Obsession is about Bear who cannot bring himself to express his feelings for Nikki and instead resorts to using an item called a One Wish Willow to have her love him more than anything in the world. What follows is, as the title suggests, Nikki becoming obsessed with Bear to an extreme degree as she loses her individuality and autonomy in service of Bear’s wish.
First thing to praise is of course Inde Navarrette’s breakthrough performance as Nikki. Her work here was reminiscent of Toni Collette’s in Hereditary. At the beginning of the movie, she very convincingly portrays the perfect girl next door type while later in the film, she unflinchingly nails the psychotically obsessed version of herself through screaming fits and one particularly chilling monologue scene. This horror performance will be hard to beat.
The other main reason I loved this film over others that can be categorized in the same bucket is that the writing continually maintains the dichotomy of Nikki being the victim and that Bear is actively perpetuating the situation despite how things are going even if it may have started more innocently. A less well written film could have easily fudged this dynamic and gotten lost in its concept, but Curry Barker ensures there are multiple instances that reinforce each person’s situation to avoid any ambiguity. That said, based on my perusing of the internet, media literacy is not everyone’s strong suit, so don’t be surprised if you see some bad interpretations.
Finally, I think the movie was strong enough throughout that a subpar ending would have still left me really liking the film, but Barker once again chose the right direction to go for what I think is the best ending. This is an unequivocal must watch.
I Love Boosters
This one is going to be a hard one to talk about, as any Boots Riley film is. I absolutely loved Sorry to Bother You and this one is right up that same alley. I Love Boosters is a film about 3 best friends who shoplift from high fashion stores and then sell them for cheap to their community. Kind of. It’s also about capitalism and creativity and art and friendship and the power of collective action and figuring out what matters to you as a person. And probably a million other things I’m missing too. And all of it is wrapped up in the most creative and colourful film you are likely to see this year.
Keke Palmer brings her signature energy in a different package here, but as always, she does a great job. The costume department better get recognized at awards shows for the work that was put in and the sheer creativity of all the outfits in this movie. I really hope people don’t sleep on the score either because it may pass under the radar in scenes due to the visual eclecticness, but it is doing a lot of work to bring together the whole package.
At the end of the day though, to me, the star of the show is Boots Riley. There’s just no one else who’s making movies like this where it’s mixing genres and crafts all together to still land a strong and coherent message. There are times where you feel like you are watching a live action Looney Tunes bit while others evoke body horror, but somehow all the pieces just fit together and that in itself is a gargantuan task.
If you thought you had to go watch Obsession ASAP, well you definitely need to go watch this in theaters too. Otherwise, Boots Riley might come find you.
Mortal Kombat 2
Okay, admittedly we’re kind of shifting gears here. I didn’t actually plan to go see Mortal Kombat 2 in theaters, but I got there a bit too late for the Obsession showing and decided to go watch this instead. Whereas the previous two films are tour de forces in filmmaking, this one is more of an exercise in making the most B movies of B movies, but with a ridiculous budget.
Is there anything to particularly gush about here? No, not really. But I do think it achieves what it set out to do. It fixes many of the issues of the first film – namely having an actual Mortal Kombat tournament happen – while also doubling down on the things that worked. If anything, I think they didn’t double down enough on the goofy fun stuff and still insisted on having some semblance of a serious story to anchor the movie around.
At least Kitana’s story was more based in Mortal Kombat lore rather than whatever they were doing with the made up protagonist in the first movie. Even they realized that was a big misstep and killed him off unceremoniously early in the film.
If you’ve watched the first movie, you know what you wanted in this one – more Kano. I don’t think they used him enough honestly, but Josh Lawson cracked me up every time he was on screen. I don’t know if his lines are written or all improvised but I could watch him play Kano all day and not get bored of it.
Listen, if you watch this, you know what you’re getting, and for a movie like this, that’s a compliment. It’s fun, it’s goofy and you will probably enjoy it most while on substances.
