Cory Dransfeldt · Standard Reader

Pretty Lethal

Jun 9, 2026

C4? I mean, I see at least 16. If you know anything about Pretty Lethal going in, you know that it's bound to be an absurd film. It knows that and is gleeful in its execution. A ballerina troupe is set to perform at an event in Budapest. Their flight is diverted, their bus breaks down and they trek to a hotel in — as far as they can tell — the middle of nowhere. Innocent, if irritating, protagonists meet a stereotype of eastern Europe. Pretty Lethal has the visual tone and palette of the John Wick franchise with none of the franchise's seriousness. What kind of ballerina doesn’t know how to make themselves throw up? Everyone's got a first name, a pair of ballet flats and the chemistry one might expect in an ensemble. Bones is the fearless leader, Princess is as spoiled as her name implies, Grace is preachy and high, while Zoe and Chloe are a pair of sisters with irritatingly similar names. The employees at the hotel seem hospitable until the son of a local crime boss shoots their teacher in the head. Why? She was there, mostly. Iris Apatow (as Zoe) has some expressions that are eerily like those of her mother, Leslie Mann. Chaos ensues. Fight scenes incorporate ballet; Bones ends up with a razor blade embedded in the toe of her flats (novel and effective) and numerous unnamed goons die. Because films like this are never, ever, in any way subtle, the hotel owner (played by Uma Thurman) was, in a past life, a ballerina. She lost her leg to the local crime boss and prepares for one last dance. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and this friend handles your enemy in a single, massive explosion. The best part? The girls make it to Budapest on mopeds conveniently left outside the hotel and nail their performance — toe blades, gore and all. First position!

thrillerhorror

Pretty Lethal

Jun 9, 2026

C4? I mean, I see at least 16. If you know anything about Pretty Lethal going in, you know that it's bound to be an absurd film. It knows that and is gleeful in its execution. A ballerina troupe is set to perform at an event in Budapest. Their flight is diverted, their bus breaks down and they trek to a hotel in — as far as they can tell — the middle of nowhere. Innocent, if irritating, protagonists meet a stereotype of eastern Europe. Pretty Lethal has the visual tone and palette of the John Wick franchise with none of the franchise's seriousness. What kind of ballerina doesn’t know how to make themselves throw up? Everyone's got a first name, a pair of ballet flats and the chemistry one might expect in an ensemble. Bones is the fearless leader, Princess is as spoiled as her name implies, Grace is preachy and high, while Zoe and Chloe are a pair of sisters with irritatingly similar names. The employees at the hotel seem hospitable until the son of a local crime boss shoots their teacher in the head. Why? She was there, mostly. Iris Apatow (as Zoe) has some expressions that are eerily like those of her mother, Leslie Mann. Chaos ensues. Fight scenes incorporate ballet; Bones ends up with a razor blade embedded in the toe of her flats (novel and effective) and numerous unnamed goons die. Because films like this are never, ever, in any way subtle, the hotel owner (played by Uma Thurman) was, in a past life, a ballerina. She lost her leg to the local crime boss and prepares for one last dance. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and this friend handles your enemy in a single, massive explosion. The best part? The girls make it to Budapest on mopeds conveniently left outside the hotel and nail their performance — toe blades, gore and all. First position!

thrillerhorror

They Will Kill You

Jun 8, 2026

When the poor give to the rich, the devil laughs. — Benvenuto Cellini Movies like They Will Kill You are funny in that they're clearly about class warfare and position themselves, narratively, on the side of the downtrodden protagonist. Which is fair. Income inequality is an ever-widening chasm and there's a catharsis and appeal in that. I welcome it. But it's worth knowing how much money goes into making any given film and the motivations and constraints associated with the interests providing it. What happened in there? Rich people. Anyways, fuck rich people. Billionaires suck. Clearly, as you see here, they're a cavalcade of Satan-animated pig on a stick worshipping weirdos. They Will Kill You is rife with over the top violence. Not the horrifying realism of a Cronenberg film. This is more of the everyone is a highly pressurized balloon full of pink water and every severed limb hides a sprinkler variety. Good? Bad? Artistic choice. Zazie Beetz is a badass lead (she was a badass in Atlanta too) and Myha'la is excellent as her sister, Maria. Heather Graham is present to be repeatedly beheaded and Patricia Arquette is a fittingly absurd villain who ends the bloody mess wearing the demonic pig head as a helmet. The score matches this perfectly. Sparse synth music as needed, victorious tunes where appropriate. The camera work is excellent and bottling this up in a building makes it feel a bit like The Raid (though this has a lone eyeball navigating the ducts). Is this similar to Kill Bill ? Maybe. I don't know. I haven't watched it and don't you dare tell me what to do. The working class Asia butchers the rich, devil worshipping weirdos. She gets her sister back and makes the world better, one severed limb at a time.

horroraction

A Flower Traveled in My Blood

Jun 7, 2026

Historical nonfiction like A Flower Traveled in My Blood can feel uncomfortably voyeuristic. I wasn't aware of the military dictatorship in Argentina — Chile under Pinochet, yes, but Argentina no. For as much human kindness and empathy as there is, humanity can demonstrate a near limitless appetite for violence and cruelty. Both cruelty and violence were in ample supply in Argentina during the late 70s and early 80s. The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo were formed in 1977 to locate missing children kidnapped during the reign of the military junta running from approximately 1976 to 1983. The reign of the junta was, of course, tacitly approved and materially supported by the government of the United States. This was a pattern of behavior on the part of the United States that was claimed to target the expansion of communism and left wing ideology. The practical impact was pain, suffering and trauma on a massive scale across South America. Up to 30,000 people were disappeared during the reign of the Argentine military dictatorship. The abuelas, with the help of American geneticist Mary-Claire King, have located about 140 children kidnapped or born in detention centers during this period. They also helped establish genetic and investigative infrastructure in Argentina, leaving this and those they located as an enduring legacy. A Flower Traveled in My Blood is a deeply personal, traumatic and, often, hopeful tale. The drive and focus necessary to pursue the truth under threat, as the abuelas did, is nothing short of incredible. They shared their struggle, their blood, their disappointments and their joys. That their struggle coincided with advancements in technology to enable the identification of victims both living and dead is serendipitous. The entire country had been plunged into darkness and the abuelas methodically put lives back together for themselves and everyone else that suffered through it.

politicshistory

The Way of the Gun

Jun 4, 2026

Karma? Karma's only justice without the satisfaction. I don't believe in justice. A weaving, vicious film, The Way of the Gun kicks off with a drawn-out, wildly offensive screed by Sarah Silverman (who is credited as "Raving Bitch"). Its toxic start gives way to a pair of drifters, Mr. Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Mr. Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro) failing their way into a kidnap-for-ransom plot. The entire cast of characters ranges from the deeply flawed to the repugnant with only Juliette Lewis' Robin being worthy of redemption. There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap. Though the action in the film is entertaining and the closing shootout is excellent, The Way of the Gun shines in its slower, mid-paced development of all characters involved. There's a constant tension around Robin and her child as the kidnappers fight to get paid, hired bagmen and security chase them down to effect a messy rescue and the real father, her gynecologist (of course), drifts in and out of reach until the baby is delivered via impromptu c-section. It's a movie as violent as it is profane, one with no sense of decorum. A bloody close sees one set of bad guys walk away, cash and child in hand. The powerful couple that kicked off the whole mess learn that they're expecting a child without the aid of Robin's surrogacy. The husband shows no reaction at all and the scene cuts to black.

thrillercrime

Cobweb

Jun 4, 2026

Cobweb is a middling autumnal horror movie rooted in family secrets and childhood trauma. Lizzy Caplan excels at the crazy-lady role and is perennially trapped in it. Antony Starr is hard to mentally separate from his role as Homelander in The Boys . Starr is a capable actor but Homelander is such a perverse character and the shadow cast by a role like that is hard to escape. Peter is a quiet, reserved kid who hears tapping inside his bedroom wall until, one day, a voice calls out to him. His mother Carol (Caplan) and father Mark (Starr) are simultaneously dismissive, controlling and outwardly overprotective. They are, in reality, protecting the dark secret that lurks in their walls. The creature in the walls is, in fact, Peter's sister. A monstrous creature who alludes to having learned to climb while kept in the basement. She dismembers some bullies who break into Peter's house and Peter is rescued by the only person who actually cares about him, his teacher. They lock his sister in the basement and she promises to haunt him for the rest of his life. There's nothing to take away from this and no resolution. It's a dreary and only vaguely entertaining film.

mysteryhorror

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Jun 3, 2026

The Autopsy of Jane Doe is standard horror fare. The leads are both extremely capable and it's all bottled up in a single location. The slow unwinding of events is effective at building tension, from the mysterious finding of Jane Doe's body at a gruesome murder scene to the layered discovery of who and what she is over the course of the autopsy. Austin Tilden is open minded about the nature of Jane Doe as the autopsy progresses and things get stranger and stranger. His father, Tommy Tilden, is implacable and roots his understanding of events solely in what their inspection of the body reveals to them. It's an effective balance and Tommy comes around as things become irrefutably supernatural. Jane, it turns out, is very much alive in some form or another. Trapped in her body, unmoving and unspeaking, but very much in agony and aware of events as they transpire. She lashes out, subverting the Tildens' reality into a horrifying nightmare that ends in the death of Austin's girlfriend, Emma, Tommy and Austin himself. Jane Doe was responsible for events where she was found, for events at the Tildens' mortuary and will continue to destroy whoever she's around as she's passed off again and again as some sort of cursed object.

mysteryhorror

Hokum

Jun 2, 2026

Hokum is a bleak film. It's slow, it's atmospheric and it is dark and, in that way, is not at all unlike Damian McCarthy's Oddity . Ohm Bauman is a writer haunted by a tragic childhood. It's in his writing and in the casual cruelty with which he interacts with others. The epilogue he starts the film working on feels like something he's trying to work through — is the conquistador his father and the boy him? Is he traversing the desert trying to prove himself only to have the adventure end in an act of brazen violence? His father's anger at him over what happened to his mother manifested in fiction. Bauman is on a retreat to scatter his parents' ashes in Ireland, staying at the inn where they spent their honeymoon. The goats eat mushrooms and climb on the cars while the owner scares the children. Ohm puts his parents to rest, drinks with a local and spirals into a drug-fueled suicide attempt. He wakes up, alone, in the hospital. He survives, but his rescuer, Fiona, is dead. Ohm searches for answers with the aid of Jerry, his forest-dwelling drinking companion, and they press for access to the suite where his parents spent their honeymoon and which the owner, Cob, insists is haunted. It's here that things turn. Is it in fact haunted? Perhaps — certainly by recent events as Ohm discovers Fiona's body there and a tape recorder containing her final moments. An event so dark will always hang over a space. That her death was spurred by something as mundane as an affair makes it no less haunting. You see events split and fray while Ohm is trapped in the suite. He sees flashes of his childhood, a monstrous bunny he watched on TV, the accident with a gun that killed his mother and destroyed his father. Her memory is there and her ashes are a walk into the woods away. Mal, the front desk clerk, is haunted and desperate. Fiona, the victim of his crime, is in the suite with Ohm, tethering them together. One accident, one murder, two acts of violence. In search of an escape, Ohm tries and fails to attract Jerry's attention. He takes the dumbwaiter to the basement as Fiona had, improvising an admittedly clever escape mechanism and finds no escape. The basement is sealed off and had served as a temporary tomb for Fiona. She's uncovered, Mal's secret is revealed and Ohm descends. He sees flashes of the witch that haunts the place and hastily enshrines himself in a chalk circle. Mal descends. Ohm's mother appears. Mal is dragged into the darkness. Ohm is forgiven and emerges into an inn on fire. He finds himself in the hospital, again. Alby, a victim of Ohm's casual cruelty, visits and offers yet another drink as a gift. The gift is rejected and Alby promises to return with a revised manuscript — Ohm met the initial mention with a hot spoon to Alby's skin and an admonishment to grow thicker skin. Perhaps his small part in this all allowed him to do that. Ohm returns to his epilogue. The conquistador and the boy discard their map, sealed in a glass bottle with nothing solid in the endless desert to shatter it against. They embrace, knowing that, though they're doomed, they still have each other.

horrordrama

Hum at Hollywood Palladium

May 31, 2026

Slide Away Los Angeles Hum are legends. They've released classic albums , they've surprise released incredible new music and hadn't toured in 7 years following the passing of drummer Bryan St. Pere. They don't have any other shows scheduled and this was my chance to see them. They didn't disappoint. They were unreal and it's baffling to me that a band can be so loud and sound so crisp in a venue as hit and miss as The Palladium . I was not, by any means, the youngest person in a crowd singing along to the classics. It was nice to see a band like Hum shown so much love by a crowd. The kids are alright. Setlist Escape From New York (John Carpenter song) The Summoning The Pod Little Dipper Iron Clad Lou Green to Me Folding Afternoon With the Axolotls Why I Like the Robins Step Into You Cloud City (First time since 2017) I Hate It Too (Extended outro) Encore Stars In the Den

Nothing at Hollywood Palladium

May 31, 2026

Slide Away Los Angeles We saw Nothing several months back at a different venue and they were fantastic then and remained so. This set was comprised entirely of their now 10 year old album Tired of Tomorrow (a modern classic). They brought out a slightly different band to support frontman Nicky Palermo, featured a guest vocalist, an acoustic guitar and piano to faithfully present a few of the tunes and remained as impressive as ever. Setlist Tired of Tomorrow Devil Town (Daniel Johnston song) Fever Queen The Dead Are Dumb (with Estrella del Sol) Vertigo Flowers A.C.D. (Abscessive Compulsive Disorder) Nineteen Ninety Heaven Curse of the Sun Eaten by Worms

Chapterhouse at Hollywood Palladium

May 31, 2026

Slide Away Los Angeles Chapterhouse are an iconic shoegaze band and Whirlpool is a genre touchstone up there with other classics. They hadn't played the US in 16 years up until this festival run and put on a lovely performance. They were loud, they were charming and they were flawless. Setlist Treasure Breather Autosleeper Falling Down Come Heaven In My Arms Mesmerise Guilt Greater Power Pearl (with Rachel Staggs) Love Forever (with Rachel Staggs)

ovlov at Hollywood Palladium

May 31, 2026

Slide Away Los Angeles ovlov was on when we arrived at the venue and was more soundtrack to the Hum merch line than a set we paid proper attention to. But, but , they sounded really good. I should've paid more attention and I will if they're on at a future show. Setlist Blue Baby Baby Alligator Where's My Dini? Baby Shea The Valley Deep Fried Head Eat More Land of Steve-O The Wishing Well Strokes Short Morgan Chicken Coop Nü Pünk