CineVibez Fanzine #12
Thriller Vibez
Welcome to CineVibez Fanzine, where every movie has a vibe - even movies where senile old men lick the same doll’s ass. Anyone else see The Rule of Jenny Pen? I’d call it a horror-thriller; but its also well-acted, original, and weird enough for the CineVibez treatment. I’d rather not give too much away other than this exciting news: I got to see it with fellow film substacker
! Be sure to subscribe to his newsletter. It’s like mine, but good and well-written.
Anyway, back to Jenny Pen. John Lithgow plays Dave Crealy, a nursing home patient who amuses himself by bullying his fellow residents. He gets away with it by channeling Eddie Haskell around the doctors and staff. Crealy’s grip of power loosens when a hard-assed, curmudgeonly old judge (played by Geoffrey Rush) moves to the floor to recover from a stroke. The ensuing battle between the two, which can only be described as a battle between civility and anarchy, reaches a surreal, nightmarish level made for the big screen. I highly recommend you see it at the movie theater, but it should be on VOD soon if that’s not feasible. I’ll post the VOD release date on Substack Notes and Bluesky once I find out. Watching Lithgow and Rush fully commit in such a bizarre, psychotic movie is a rare treat I hope you see.
Borderline is another recent release you’ll probably find in the thriller section. This one has a great premise but a terrible execution. A sociopath escapes a mental institution to visit Sofia, a famous pop star played by Samara Weaving, who he stalked prior to his recent institutionalization. Sofia’s bodyguard finds the sociopath at her front door, starting a tense stand-off between the two. The next act deals with the repercussions of that standoff by attempting an ill-advised Inferno-like protagonist change from the empathetic bodyguard to the rude pop star. The movie suffers pretty badly from it, and I usually love Samara Weaving movies.
So much potential. At times, Borderline dared to be a reverse-The Bodyguard sprinkled with Argento-inspired plot devices. But by the third act, the true film revealed itself: a shitty home invasion movie. Thank you, next.
I’m saving the best for last. Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is a well-paced, exciting spy-thriller clocking in at 94 minutes. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchette play a loving married couple who treat each other with mutual admiration and respect. But that’s typically not the case when you’re both movie spies. Their relationship is put to the test when Fassbender’s boss asks him to find out if Blanchette, among other colleagues, is a mole. Tension builds after Fassbender invites the suspects (including Blanchette) to dinner in an effort to find the mole.
Black Bag feels like a classic spy thriller where the tension lies in the conversations and choices of the characters as opposed to big action set-pieces. On top of that, the chemistry between Fassbender and Blanchette elevates every scene they share. Black Bag is simply great filmmaking with an exciting script. Can’t ask for more than that, right?
All three of these movies are still in theaters, so just go there and something will start a few minutes after you arrive. Just do it, its fine.
Happy Watching!
Murray
Thanks for the shoutout! And I still gotta watch Black Bag. Your review made me excited for it.