#Jaygann Ayeh

[lazbotronence]

The Ten Signs of Gentrification

Tracey Ullman's Show, 2017 - Series 2 Episode 2

[local-blog-for-local-people]

Inside No. 9

Series 4, Episode 1 - Zanzibar

[genevieveetguy]

The Souvenir: Part II, Joanna Hogg (2021)

[letterboxd-loggd]

The Souvenir: Part II (2021) Joanna Hogg

February 20th 2022

[filmswithoutfaces]

The Souvenir (2019) dir. Joanna Hogg

[brand-upon-the-brain]

In Fabric (Peter Strickland, 2018)

[dakotadanger]

In Fabric (2018) is about a killer dress.

I wanted this film to be weird and elegant, funny and scary. It was all of those things and more. I crave films that are strange enough to challenge and excite me. The dialogue in this film is so distinct it’s almost like each character speaks their own language.

There are themes about the powers of retail, capitalism, and beauty that dominate our lives. The film has a clear first and second half, much like Death Proof. I think I liked the characters in the first half more. The editing is really incredible, alternating between wildly different characters and scenes in a way that feels almost like television.

I’m sorry this is such a short review, I’m just awed by the fantastic weirdness of this film. I want you to watch it without knowing anything. Maybe if I watch it again I’ll have more to say.

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/24/2019: IN FABRIC

I often like to say that an interestingly bad movie can be more valuable than an easily-grasped good movie. We don’t really get anywhere by just being placated by art, but we have a chance to expand our minds through the useful exercise of analyzing why things don’t exactly work. I’d love to be able to say this about Peter Strickland’s latest mindbender IN FABRIC, which is one of the most frustrating new movies I have seen in a very long time, but I’m honestly not even sure how to describe it.

What’s it about, at least? IN FABRIC is composed of two slightly overlapping stories about a cursed dress. In the first, a middle aged single mother (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) tries to reenter the dating pool, but is thwarted first by her asshole son (Jaygann Ayeh) and his dominatrix-like girlfriend (the invariably wonderful Gwendoline Christie), and then by the mysteriously corrosive effects of a sexy red dress that she purchased from a WESTWORLD-like department store. Once the dress has had its way with her, it is used to humiliate a nebbishy washing machine repairman (Leo Bill) on the brink of an unhappy marriage. Having made contact with the dress, he too will meet an unfortunate end.

IN FABRIC is filled with weird little ideas that are not arranged neatly enough to form a satisfying pattern. Themes like sexual repression, corporate oppression, and domestic frustration never quite come together into an actual statement. The movie seems to contain a STEPFORD WIVES-like commentary on gender and consumerism, but it’s far too concerned with its carefully constructed appearance to squeak out a completely coherent thought. Scenes of a gynoid salesperson (Fatma Mohamed, who is really doing her damnedest here) babbling in fashion-speak brush up against being funny, but when things at the store disintegrate into an embarrassingly protracted threesome between two employees and a mannequin, it’s hard to hold a smile. As one might expect from having seen other Strickland efforts like the gialloesque BERBERIAN SOUND SYSTEM and THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, one finds the mark of the likes of Mario Bava, Jean Rollin, and Walerian Borowczyk on IN FABRIC (and Barry Adamson plays a small role, for bonus hepness), but I’m not sure to what end. The movie’s underpinnings are too unclear for it to be really engrossing, and its shades of black comedy are overwhelmed by its arresting beauty, leaving the audience with something too confusing to be scary, and too pretentious to be really funny.

In spite of my dismissive remarks, when I first saw this film, I was extremely annoyed by the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I resented being suckered by its repetitive bait-and-switch tactics, drawing me in with gorgeous imagery, repulsing me with half-baked humor, then pulling me back with something really funny like the hypno-erotic effects of Leo Bill’s washing machine instructions, then sending me packing again with its repulsively overblown scenes of sensuality. Even its diptych structure is awkward and ill-advised, with the connections between the two segments--washing machines, carbon monoxide poisoning, the term “bananas”--being too tenuous to be convincing. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is so charismatic that she nearly carries the cumbersome weight of the first section, but once she’s gone, so is my reason to really care. And yet, lodged in the middle of this ponderous nonsense is one of my favorite single scenes in any recent film, in which Jean-Baptiste’s washing machine goes completely berserk (sorry, “bananas”) and nearly kills her before shaking itself apart, practically to its very atoms. The idea of malevolent anthropomorphic furniture and utilities is excitingly ridiculous AND speaks potently to the fear of being unsafe in one’s own home, of losing control in one’s life. If only everything in the movie were this harrowing and hilarious at the same time. 

[infinitamente-azul]

In Fabric (2018) dir. Peter Strickland

[watchingalotofmovies]

In Fabric

In Fabric    [trailer]

A haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person.

Strickland has created another interesting mixture of the sensual and the creepy, filmed in a visually stimulating way. Because I thought this is also his so far most darkly funny one, I like it best.

So many amusing characters, the salespeople at Dentley & Soper's, the superiors at Waingel's. And rarely has someone talked so dirty in washing machine terms.

A meaningful handshake, sure.

[mrfahrenheit92]

[grande-caps]

Sceencaps || Inside No. 9 - Season 4 GALLERY LINK : [x] Quality : HD Screencaptures Amount : 3494 files Resolution : 1280x720px

-Please like/reblog if taking! -Please credit grande_caps/kissthemgoodbye!

[kitmarlowe]

top 10 inside no 9 episodes: ↳ 5. Zanzibar

[genevieveetguy]

- We don't know what the inner machinations of their mind are, or their heart. We don't know. But that's what we want to know when we go and see a film. We don't wanna just see life played out as is. We wanna see life as it is experienced, within this soft machine, within this... - But the life of Tony and his mother, they're the lives of real people. I'm not- I'm not making that up. - Why are they more real than me? - They're not more real than you. - Am I more real than you? - No. I think we're all equal in that. I think we're all as real as each other. There's no competition. It doesn't matter that they're not real people. i mean, I'm not trying to make a documentary. I'm just- you know, I'm making a feature film. - Now, are you sure? - Yes, I am. I'm making a feature film.

The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg (2019)

[letterboxd-loggd]

In Fabric (2018) Peter Strickland

January 3rd 2020

[awesomefridayca]

Review: 'The Souvenir, Part II' explores loss through art

Review: '@TheSouvenir, Part II' explores loss through art @A24

Grief is a complex emotion and one that requires time and energy to process properly. Yet, for many, there needs to be an outlet, some creative space or activity that allows one to examine their feelings in a removed but still direct manner. This is the premise of The Souvenir Part II. In a landscape of blockbuster franchises and a dwindling market for low and mid-budget dramas, this film already…