Steph:
Movies about women friendships always delight me, and this film is no exception because it’s such a campy little horror movie with the biting dialogue that Diablo Cody is known for, and there’s so much high school angst it’s hard to take it too seriously, so I guess I think the film works best when it’s less about the occult and more about female friendships and how difficult it is to nurture a relationship when it feels like the other person is changing or pulling away, and there’s some pretty cool feminist stuff to unpack in this, particularly how it deals with sex and women’s sexuality. ⏰⏰⏰⏰
Josh:
Well, wow, I’d sort of passively watched this many years ago, having absorbed the critical consensus that it was a total disaster, whereas taking a more thoughtful look at it now, despite not being a huge fan of Diablo Cody, this is the best thing she’s ever done, and it’s laughable to think that people who loved her script for fucking Juno were disappointed in this one, and it’s sad that Cody was stuck writing for Jason Reitman, and Kusama’s budding career floundered, and Fox was never taken seriously as an actress (she’s startlingly good), it’s also understandable, as this film takes everything we want cut and dried about horror movie convention—the narrative pace, the unambiguous characterization, and even the palette (this reminds me more of something like The Company of Wolves than the indie horror movies of its time), the clear cut hetero/homosexuality—and gives it a good, sharp twist: “My tit.” ⏰⏰⏰⏰
The Bare Minimum 