Red Letter Media

[Flexo]

View attachment 6356744

https://www.twitter.com/KyleGallner/status/1828467573127782688

I hope Kyle sits down with Jay to do a Re:View of Space Cop.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

I think it was Greg Owen that made a video that goes into why negative videos get more views than positive ones.

Makes sense, really. When you have the media telling you that you have to like what they like, you're going to seek out differing opinions to help you understand why what you think isn't total lunacy. And a lot of times, the loudest voices are the loudest because they're the most frustrated.

That's how I found RLM, actually. Into Darkness had a pretty aggressive marketing campaign in gaslighting people into liking Benedict Cumberbatch (it happens to be his worst role) and started looking for actual critical reviews.

 

[King Dead]

I saw the trailer for Strange Darling before a couple movies this summer (the only one I remember for sure is Longlegs), and thanks to RLM's multiple videos I was like "it's Kyle Gallner!" and mentally filed it as something to check out. Went to see it today, and it was fantastic. It helped that I was the only one in the theater, so there was no chance of my experience getting ruined. I won't go into detail, but I will repeat the advice to go in blind. I will say that the trailer does not spoil the movie, surprisingly.

I agree with all the points made in their review, it's an expertly crafted movie that really plays with your expectations in a good way, unlike that hack fraud Rian Johnson. It's a shame that it doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot of buzz, but hopefully good word of mouth will help more people see it. Highly recommend.

 

[I'm a Silly]

I saw the trailer for Strange Darling before a couple movies this summer (the only one I remember for sure is Longlegs), and thanks to RLM's multiple videos I was like "it's Kyle Gallner!" and mentally filed it as something to check out. Went to see it today, and it was fantastic. It helped that I was the only one in the theater, so there was no chance of my experience getting ruined. I won't go into detail, but I will repeat the advice to go in blind. I will say that the trailer does not spoil the movie, surprisingly.

I agree with all the points made in their review, it's an expertly crafted movie that really plays with your expectations in a good way, unlike that hack fraud Rian Johnson. It's a shame that it doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot of buzz, but hopefully good word of mouth will help more people see it. Highly recommend.

Ironically, a study about spoiling surprise endings had a surprise ending.

This is my favorite retort on the subject of spoilers -- if you refuse to be spoiled, you must refrain from watching any movie or reading any story more than once. Otherwise, you are endorsing spoilers.

 

[King Dead]

View attachment 6362854

View attachment 6362832
This is my favorite retort on the subject of spoilers -- if you refuse to be spoiled, you must refrain from watching any movie or reading any story more than once. Otherwise, you are endorsing spoilers.

I've heard of that study before, and I don't really care about spoilers personally, but I'll elaborate why I think you should avoid them for this movie while basically spoiling the whole thing below:

Spoiler: talking plot of Kyle Gallner movie

So they talk about it in the video, but the movie is a non-linear narrative. This structure is actually key to the overall conceit of the movie, and I think that knowing about the twists it takes ahead of time lessens the impact of how it's playing with your expectations a bit. I'm guessing if you clicked on this tag you're fine with spoilers, but just in case, I'll drop an extra spoiler tag. Fair warning, I'm going over the entire plot here.

Spoiler: really spoiling it this time

After a couple of shots of the Lady asking the Demon if he's a serial killer and the Demon choking someone, Chapter 3 starts with showing the Lady at her most vulnerable, where your assumption as a viewer is that she's the victim of the Demon, bloodied and panicking on the run from a guy trying to run her off the road and shoot her. Just as she reaches a farmhouse and begs for help, we jump forward to Chapter 5, where the Lady is hiding from the Demon as he stalks through the house looking for her. The old man is dead in the kitchen, and just as he finds her hiding in the freezer and shoots her...

...we then flash back to Chapter 1 when the two of them hook up and engage in some BDSM play (which shows the aforementioned choking scene in context), but it doesn't seem like either of them are into it. Then you think it's taking a more serious turn with the Demon getting more violent with her like he's pissed off at her refusing his advances...only for her to use her safeword and he stops. But she hasn't actually been injured yet, so what happened?

Skip forward again to Chapter 4, where the Lady is getting help from the old couple. They bandage her up and feed her, but when the old man tries to call the police, she's very insistent about not getting the cops involved. By the time his wife comes back in, he's been beaten with the phone and stabbed in the gut by none other than the Lady, and thus we've hit the twist: she was the killer all along, a prolific serial killer going by "the Electric Lady."

Then we go back to Chapter 2, revealing the end of their date and how their encounter turned so violent. The Lady is some kind of crazy, and when she looks at the Demon, she gets the urge to kill him. She drugs him with ketamine, drags him back into the hotel room when he tries to leave, cuts "EL" into his chest, finds out he's a cop when she goes through his wallet, and is about to stab him when he gets the drop on her despite being in a drug haze, shooting off her ear thanks to a pistol he kept strapped to his ankle that she didn't find, making her panic and flee. She steals a woman's clothes and car and escapes, and thus we know how we got to the start of the movie.

Chapter 6 has the Demon handcuffing her to the freezer but unwilling to kill her. He calls for backup, but before they can arrive, she gets the drop on him, spraying him with bear mace and tearing out his jugular when he stumbles close. By the time the cops get there, she makes it look like she's a rape victim, and although the more experienced male cop wants to go by the book and wait for more backup to arrive, the dumbass woman cop falls for the act and frees her. They take her away, but the old woman stops them on the road to report the murder of her husband, only to get shot in the head for her troubles by the Lady. She lets the dumbass woman cop go for helping her, then has the male cop keep driving her away.

Then the epilogue wraps everything up, where they stop while she collects her thoughts. The cop asks her why she kills, and she explains that sometimes she doesn't see people, she sees demons, explaining the brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it demon head that flashed over the Demon's face when she looked at him just before deciding to kill him. And then she sees the same over the cop, so he gets killed. She stumbles away, and as another truck pulls up, she pretends to be a victim yet again, with the Indian woman driver helping her into the truck. As she looks at the side mirror, she sees a demon in the reflection of herself, and she pulls out her gun, maybe to kill herself, maybe to shoot the other woman. But she doesn't get a chance to do either, because based Indian ain't taking any chances and fucking shoots her. It's not an instant death, it's a slow bleed out for several minutes as the film desaturates and goes black and white before cutting to black as she dies.

So basically, the whole movie is playing with your expectations about the different sexes, where not just characters but you the viewer all assume that the Lady is the innocent victim pursued by the evil Demon (note their character names? it's how they were introduced in the opening credits). It's only after building up all that sympathy for her that they finally reveal that she's not so innocent after all halfway through the film, and suddenly the entire rest of the movie is put into context. It only makes it all the more tragic when you know this and see characters continue to believe her, only to suffer her wrath in the end (except that dumb woman cop who should have been killed, fucking retard). It's very well done.

Now, I won't say that the movie will be ruined for you if you know some or all of what I wrote above, because that's impossible to determine; you can only watch a movie once, after all. I will say that it's probably best to err on the side of caution this time, even if you don't really care about spoilers. The payoff is worth it, in my opinion.

 

[I'm a Silly]

Now, I won't say that the movie will be ruined for you if you know some or all of what I wrote above, because that's impossible to determine; you can only watch a movie once, after all. I will say that it's probably best to err on the side of caution this time, even if you don't really care about spoilers. The payoff is worth it, in my opinion.

Of course, you can watch a movie more than once; I was saying that people who claim to hate spoilers make no sense when they watch a movie more than once since they have spoiled the movies ∴ they have little right to complain.

 

[Mr. Racewar1488]

Of course, you can watch a movie more than once; I was saying that people who claim to hate spoilers make no sense when they watch a movie more than once since they have spoiled the movies ∴ they have little right to complain.

Simple solution: Get black out drunk every time you watch a movie.

 

[mlanguishi]

I saw Strange Darling again at the theater and was worried that the impact would be lost, but not really. It's one you can watch a few times over, when it comes out I'll be getting the 4K disc set for sure.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

Simple solution: Get black out drunk every time you watch a movie.

I watched that Conan re-boot with Jason Momoa and spent several years thinking it was pretty good. Then I watched it again, and I was surprised I didn't die from alcohol poisoning the first time I saw it. I didn't remember a single specific part of it, and holy shit was it terrible.

I'm exceedingly lucky I never talked to anyone about it.

 

[King Dead]

Of course, you can watch a movie more than once; I was saying that people who claim to hate spoilers make no sense when they watch a movie more than once since they have spoiled the movies ∴ they have little right to complain.

I misspoke; I meant to say you can only watch a movie for the first time once, and thus you can't say for sure how you would have experienced it that first time without spoilers if you did get spoiled, or vice versa. While my personal preference is to try and avoid them to preserve an experience I can't get a second time, I do think some people get way too worked up over them and should calm down. My bad.

That said, knowing the plot does help you appreciate the story more when you revisit it, I think. Classic example: I saw Fight Club when I was a teenager, and I didn't know the twist at the time (I wasn't really online a lot, or at least not discussing movies much). Revisiting it later and already knowing about how the narrator and Tyler Durden are the same person (whoops spoilers), it was fun to recontextualize the entire movie and see all the clues that led up to the big reveal, as well as constantly thinking about how the scenes with Tyler in them were actually playing out. I'll probably do the same with Strange Darling.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

it was fun to recontextualize the entire movie and see all the clues that led up to the big reveal, as well as constantly thinking about how the scenes with Tyler in them were actually playing out

Yeah, good media does this. Bad media is completely disposable after one watch.

 

[I'm a Silly]

I do think some people get way too worked up over them and should calm down.

I staunchly agree with this. My angle on the subject is biased by exposure to nearly histrionic pop-culture posters online; think r/fuckcars for cinephiles. I don't interact with these folks any longer, but whenever a carveout is made for them in a movie review, I'm reminded that they exist. It's like beholding a sea of unused ADA parking slots in front of a tiny mom'n'pop hardware store. Irksome.

 

[Introvertigo]

Patreon Update:

Our Next Video…

There's like a 99.9999999% chance this next Best of the Worst episode will get demonetized on youtube, so we just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you that support us here on Patreon!

Best of the Worst: The Donald Farmer's Market coming soon! Oh no!

 

[TerminalTryHard]

I Don't think I've been excited for a BOTW in a while. Hopefully the wait isn't too long.

 

[PyrrhicRustle]

BOTW Donald Farmer Market

They’re apparently watching all of them, for at least 10 minutes. Jays outfit is doing something for someone, I’m sure.

 

[Akerman]

BOTW Donald Farmer Market

Nice. I feel like some of the energy has returned to their videos lately, here they are trying out a new format with set dressing and they've done a lot of Half in the Bags too. We just need a new multivid storyline ala Jay turning gay to scam Plinkett again and we'll be golden.

 

[Vibralldo]

BOTW Donald Farmer Market
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OelPQj4mjBo
They’re apparently watching all of them, for at least 10 minutes. Jays outfit is doing something for someone, I’m sure.

The format is them watching a video for 10 minutes

If one of them thinks the movie is worth finishing, they ring a bell and they keep watching to the end

If 10 minutes pass and no one rings the bell, they give up on the movie and toss it

I think that'd be a solid format for future wheel episodes.

 

[Mola Ram]

The format is them watching a video for 10 minutes

If one of them thinks the movie is worth finishing, they ring a bell and they keep watching to the end

If 10 minutes pass and no one rings the bell, they give up on the movie and toss it

I think that'd be a solid format for future wheel episodes.

Interesting idea, but it also seems like the sort of format a drunken Mike could easily abuse to force the others to suffer through garbage.

 

[Vibralldo]

Interesting idea, but it also seems like the sort of format a drunken Mike could easily abuse to force the others to suffer through garbage.

The bell can only be rung once per person, so Mike has to make sure the video is extra bad and extra long

 

[Mola Ram]

The bell can only be rung once per person, so Mike has to make sure the video is extra bad and extra long

Ah, I wondered if there was a limit to it. Can't wait to watch it.