Mostly, SML talked about how his film was about his reaction to corporate work, and it's not exactly single once you've heard him talk but I must admit that I was getting a different vibe while watching the movie, because the movie was kind of hitting Mormon and evangelical tones with me, because the song didn't match (and maybe wasn't as discordant as intended with the basement not matching the house upstairs).
Also, I do kind of find myself scratching my head at folks who do movies like these and talk about how working in an office was so soul-sucking that they'd rather be back in the job where they occasionally had to dispose of dead animals. Maybe it doesn't speak well of me that in twenty years into a job that has of late evolved into being more abstract and the start-up I was hired by being absorbed by a huge company that I truly believe changed its name because Google auto completes to something involving a major scandal. It's not that horrifying! I'd actually like to be in the office rather than remote again!
Don't get me wrong, I benefit from the people who can't do it and make art instead, but always feel weird when I'm in an auditorium and everyone nods along with the filmmaker saying this.
Very different vibe for The Ugly Stepsister, which may be gross but has a more mainstream sensibility, and where you can hear different people being grossed out by different things!
Head Like a Hole
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 21 March 2025 in the Brattle Theatre (Boston Underground Film Festival, laser DCP)
This is probably just me, but as the grandchild of a carpenter and someone who carefully checks the meniscus when using a measuring cup, I've got to say, the measuring that is a guy's entire job in this movie is garbage. It drove me batty every time he just put the ruler next to the hole at an angle or measured from the very end. Just, like, run a chalk line vertically through the center of the hole and measure from the 1cm mark!
This is an insane rant, but it's also a good chunk of the movie, where unemployed Asher (Steve Kasan), living out of his car, takes a job (with included lodging) that involves measuring "the anomaly" - a hole in the basement wall of a bungalow whose family seems to have abandoned it - every hour from nine to five. The boss, Emerson (Jeff McDonald) is mercurial and a stickler for punctuality and specific work attire, although facility manager Sam (Eric B. Hansen) is friendly enough. It's 15mm every hour, though, and eventually, something's got to happen, right?
Is the poor measurement technique a silly thing to care about? Yes, but there's not a lot of distraction from it. The film has one of those neat high concepts that nevertheless requires a lot of effort to stretch out to 90 minutes, and the characters surrounding the protagonist Asher are by and large quirky in a way that's one-note rather than intriguing - Jeff McDonald's Emerson, in particular, is all weird affectation from the start and seems to appear and disappear entirely as it becomes necessary. The weirdness and repetition is meant to be numbing to Asher, obviously, but it's seldom able to overcome the "only location we can afford" setting to feel real, or at least satirically connected to anything that needs attacking. When it comes time for something to happen, you can feel the filmmakers giving it a big, obtrusive push.
I like Steve Kasan as Asher, though; he's grounded and awkward without being an exaggerated geek, and reacts to the weirdness around him without breaking it. The B&W coloring looks good, too, flattening things that could be distracting without ever looking self-conscious. And when it's finally time to go all-in on being a horror movie, the filmmakers get a lot out of a little; the finale is weird and underplayed in just the right way.
It's a truly underground film at the underground film festival, far from fancy and often more dull even than it means to be, but the vibe is right and it starts and ends well.
Den stygge stesøsteren (The Ugly Stepsister)
* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 21 March 2025 in the Brattle Theatre (Boston Underground Film Festival, laser DCP)
Where to stream it (when available)
It's no dis on the rest of the cast or what's going on around her to say that this film's other stepsister, Alma (Flo Fagerli), has the inside track on being my favorite supporting character of the year. Aside from being a good counterpoint to the rest of the characters, she's someone we can all relate to in these times, as she seldom has actual lines but always looks to be on the verge of shouting "Jesus Fucking Christ, what the hell is wrong with you people?"
It opens with the title character, Elvira (Lea Myren), a young lady whose round face, constant reading from Prince Julian's book of poetry, and curls that seem to shout "so last year" make her seem the ugly duckling, in a carriage with younger sister Alma and mother Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), to live with new stepfather Otto (Ralph Carlsson) and stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) in the capital of their fairy-tale kingdom. Agnes is tall, worldly, and pretty, and seems initially friendly if aloof, until Otto drops dead during their first meal as a family, and all four of the ladies are appalled to discover that the other family has no money. When a ball where Julian (Isac Calmroth) will choose a bride is announced for four months hence, Rebekka sees and opportunity, sending Elvira to "Dr. Esthétique" (Adam Lundgren) and a fancy finishing school to make sure she catches the prince's eye - and if not his, that some other wealthy noble or merchant. Seeing Elvira as a rival while Rebekka spends all her time and money on this plan rather than her father's funeral makes Agnes icier, while Elvria's initial teasing by the other girls isn't exactly bringing out the best in her.
As a whole, the movie is a delightfully nasty inversion of the Cinderella story because it doesn't so much do the simple "what if the heroines were really the villains and the villains were really the heroines?" shtick but instead acknowledges that they're all teenagers, for the most part, innocent and selfish in equal measure, and with plenty of bile for those who would treat these girls as commodities. The filmmakers have a real knack for not Shrek-ifying the fairy tale setting to make it seem basically like the present but with medieval accoutrements too much but highlighting where you can see the same forces at play. It's particularly notable that Elvira gets a look at who Julian is behind the pretty poetry but seems no less determined even after being scorned; it's a sadly human reaction that requires little explanation.
What makes this inversion particularly enjoyable is the performances of the two young actresses at the center. Lea Myren never loses touch with the naive girl who is excited about new and fancy things, always letting the audience see who she was under who she's become. Thea Sofie Loch Næss does the same in a different way; Agnes is cool from the start but hardens, but she's usually just short of a villain, showing enough grief for sympathy even when bitterness overwhelms it. Ane Dahl Torp and Flo Fagerli make the devil and angel on Elvira's shoulders believable purple, with Torp's Rebekka all pragmatic ambition and Fagerli's Alma developing a questioning intelligence as she tries to see a different way.
The filmmakers are not subtle; some of the parody is very direct and writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt is going to extend a gross-out bit for as long as she possibly can, though seldom past the point where the audience is less reacting to the weirdness of the gag than being subjected her sadism. I noped out of the eye stuff pretty quick, for example, but just to put my hand in front of my eyes and peek out a bit, because it was working to make a point, whereas some in the audience clearly had not heard the whole bit with the slippers, and others seemed to murmur uncomfortably at the constant tapeworm-assisted stomach growling on the soundtrack. The film is very good at pushing pitch-black comedy right up to the point where it would be no fun anymore.
That's the film's whole deal, really. The audience knows from about five minutes in that it's going to be about using Cinderella to talk about the unhealthy pressures put on teenage girls, and the filmmakers keep finding ways to pound it home without going too far astray or beating a dead horse, right up until it's time to say they're done with this nonsense. It's mean and gross, but also funny and surprisingly sympathetic to all the girls stuck in its vicious circle.
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