Agony Aunt

The Silence of the Lambs (1991): Okay, so, this an actual masterpiece and I can 100% see why it's on all those "best films of all time" lists. I loved it, but it's so good that saying I loved it feels kind of superfluous; as a work of art it is just so far above the liking or disliking of one barely film-literate nerd with a Dreamwidth blog. But I'm going to review it anyway because there's a good chance it's going to end up being my favourite piece of media I've consumed this year and maybe even one of my favourite pieces of all time. GUYS. THIS FILM.

The heroine is Clarice Starling, a bright and ambitious FBI trainee who becomes involved in the hunt for Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice is sent to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a genius psychiatrist and convicted serial killer whom the FBI believe may be able to help them identify Buffalo Bill. I love that in a film where the whole plot revolves around catching and stopping a guy who is on the loose literally skinning people, the most terrifying character is one who spends most of his screentime locked safely in a prison cell. Lecter had the most chilling presence of any villain I've ever seen. He also had this intense, darkly playful, weirdly chivalrous interest in Clarice that appealed to me in ways I'm not sure I'm willing to examine too closely. (Known villainfucker horny for new villain, news at 11.) The acting was absolutely brilliant all around; the cinematography was beautiful in this grim, grounded way; the score was haunting; the climactic scene almost stopped my heart.

It was also - this is going to sound like very weak praise in comparison to all my gushing, but I'll say it anyway - a lot less transphobic than I thought it might be, given the whole concept of "crazed man denied gender reassignment surgery goes on a murder rampage so that he can wear the skin of his female victims". I know there's been criticism and controversy around this film (and I'm speaking as a cis viewer, so grain of salt and all that) but the filmmakers were very explicit, in the language of their time, that Buffalo Bill was a profoundly disturbed individual whose pathology had nothing to do with an LGBT identity. I also on a more personal level really appreciated the handling of (cis) gender issues, which I know has also been controversial: there was no "teachable" feminist moment, it's true, but the misogyny and pervasive sexual menace Clarice experienced as a female law enforcement officer was vividly present on screen in a way that was impossible to mistake for endorsement, and Clarice herself is an amazingly well-rounded character, competent and fallible and brave and scared and utterly human. I loved how the film demanded we identify with her and forced us to sit with her in those uncomfortable moments, for which, as in real life, there was no clear-cut or simple redress.

Re-Animator (1985): A brilliant but antisocial medical student has developed a serum that can reanimate the dead, and ropes his normie roommate into his batshit experiments, with fatal consequences for their reputations and also, potentially, their actual lives. This one was just straight-up fun! It features a zombie doctor carrying his own severed head around in a surgical tray full of donor blood to keep it alive, and from that one detail I think anyone should be able to make up their minds whether or not the film will be to their taste. I thought it was hilarious, and some really great homoerotic tension between the weird serum inventor and the normie roommate. I had hoped to be able to join snickfic in her fannish enthusiasm for them, but sadly didn't quite get there (neither of them has the overlong hair or angstbucket backstory that my fannish motor primarily runs on). But I really enjoyed the film and can see myself watching it again on a night when I just want to have a good time.