My Review of Multiple Maniacs (1970)

 

Written And Directed by John Waters 

Lady Divine: "And you're still the most beautiful woman in the world! Nothing can change that!"

I had something of a challenge with Mondo Trasho and in a lot of ways, this follow up had some similar issues. Fortunately, it's a talkie, so no intrusive music to be had. That somewhat helped with this one.

Once again, we've got Divine leading proceedings and here, she went by Lady Divine. Divine ran The Cavalcade of Perversion. It's as depraved as you'd expect it to be. There's even a character called the Puke Eater. Oh and Divine's rather murderous in this one when she wasn't stealing from customers too.

She's also got a man named Mr David (David Lochary). Needless to say, he's been cheating on her with another woman named Bonnie (Mary Vivian Pearce) and before she can confront them, she's sexually assaulted by two glue sniffers. Yes, it's a rather grim display here.

Throw in a daughter named Cookie (Cookie Mueller) and the latter's boyfriend, Steve (Paul Swift) and maybe it's no wonder that Divine turned to lesbianism with a woman named Mink (Mink Stole). They met in church and certainly committed unholy acts of love making.

The rest of the movie then just upped the body count. David and Bonnie murdered Cookie and had Ricky (Rick Morrow) tied up and gagged. Ricky was later killed by Mink. Mink was eventually killed by Divine and the latter killed both David and Bonnie. Yes, there's a high body count on display here.

I'm not sure the movie was totally successful in showing how Divine got so crazy but what she did to David was probably the most gruesome act in the film. Divine's own fate on the other hand was a pretty daft but oddly humourous way to give her a comeuppance of sorts.

- I watched the Criterion release of this with commentary from John Waters. That proved to be insightful.

- Other players in this movie included Edith Massey, George Figgs and Michael Renner Jr.

- Standout music: There's a memorable use of America The Beautiful at the end of the movie.

- Chronology: It was filmed in Baltimore and presumably set there too.

I'd say marginally better than the movie that came before it. Multiple Maniacs certainly didn't hold back on the depravity or outright silliness on display.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Supergirl (2026)

 

Written by Ana Nogueira

Directed by Craig Gillespie 

Supergirl: "Here's the thing. My cousin and I have very different ideas about what it means to be a hero. He sees the good in everyone and I see the truth."

Oh, DC - what to do with you? You came out swinging last year with Superman (2025) amid a petulant hate campaign and sadly, it seems that Supergirl (2026) fell victim to an even more mean spirited one. Is this the end of the DCU? Of course it isn't. 

Now I'm not gonna pretend that this isn't a movie without it's flaws and I'll delve into them during the review. In the comic book world, Tom King's a divisive writer but his miniseries Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow was one of the few things that DC fans seem to like. I can see why it was chosen as a potential adaptation.

Having already met Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock) in her cousin's movie, her solo adventure focused on her going from planet to planet getting drunk. It's also Kara's 23rd birthday and aside from Krypto and her well meaning cousin, Superman (David Corenswet), Kara's basically got nobody. Then she's roped into the big story itself.

Let's throw in Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). The poor girl had to witness her parents being murdered by Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) and she naturally wanted revenge. This was something that Kara wanted no part in but then Krypto got poisoned and had three days to live and the antidote was on the Brigands person. Those reasons alone were enough for Kara and Ruthye to team up.

Putting the source material to one side, when watching this movie yesterday I was reminded of Birds Of Prey (2020). In some aspects, the dynamic between Kara and Ruthye wasn't that dissimilar to Harley Quinn and Cassandra Cain. It's a slightly gentler version with Kara opening up about her life on Krypton, her parents and the differences between herself and her famous cousin.

Anyways as Kara and Ruthye ventured through different planets in order to get to Krem and his cohorts, there was also the presence of intergalactic bounty hunter, Lobo (Jason Momoa) himself. He's only in a handful of scenes, was moderately helpful to Kara and Ruthye and Momoa was well within his comfort zone, performance wise. Lobo's inclusion felt like a set up for an inevitable future solo project of his to be announced.

With most comic book movies, the third act was something of a mixed bag. There's a subplot involving human trafficking and changes made to Krem's character to give him more context. Krem wasn't a particularly compelling baddie to watch but at least Ruthye got closure, Krypto got cured (was there ever a doubt?) and Kara did what was necessary to stop Krem and his crew.

As for Superman and the Krypton scenes. I liked how they were spread out throughout the movie and I'd argue they're handled well here. Kara's parents Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham) were written as good people and there's a nice backstory for Krypto. Kara's scenes with Superman were some of the best in the movie, especially the final scene between cousins. I love their rapport so much.

- For the first time in a while, there are no mid or post credit scenes and honestly, they're not missed here.

- Seth Rogan had an uncredited role as a small alien that Kara met on the space bus. There was a lot of different aliens in the movie, including Sklarian Raiders.

- We had to wait until the third act for Kara to don her Supergirl costume. She used a lot of martial arts and got shot with Kryptonite as well.

- There's a few changes made to the source material, some being more noticeable than others. Most were fine tbh.

- Standout music: Claudia Sarne did good with the score and other than that, there's Cheek To Cheek by Ella Fitzgerald and Catch These Fists by Wet Legs.

- Chronology: Kara turned 23 and one of the many planets she visited was named Bilquis, after the artist of the source material. We also saw Krypton, Argos City and Metropolis.

Supergirl (2026) might not hit the same way that her more famous cousin's movie did a year ago but I'll side eye the hell out of anyone who'd claim this to be a bad movie. It's not bad in the slightest. As an adaptation to an acclaimed comic book miniseries, it's mostly faithful to the source material. The colour palette's a bit too drab and Krem isn't an interesting baddie but Milly Alcock has proved to be fantastic casting as Supergirl. 

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Mondo Trasho (1969)

 

Written And Directed by John Waters

Divine: "Oh Mary! Oh Holy Trinity! Oh God! It isn't easy being Divine!"

For the next few weeks, I'll be delving into the filmography of transgressive extraordinaire John Waters. However, for the moment I won't be watching his short films. I will tackle them at a later date.

Going with this movie first, it's his first one that reasonably long form and it's a rather bizarre debut. You've got Waters frequent collaborator, Divine as themselves but also a Greaser in Alley. As themself though, they're mostly carrying another character.

The other character being The Bombshell/Cinderella (Mary Vivian Pearce). She's there to be objectified, assaulted, killed, resurrected, partially transformed, harassed and insulted. All of this happened within the space of this movie.

Cut with some rather strange sequences while The Bombshell was in the throws of pleasure, she then got ran over by Divine. Divine had been distracted by a rather handsome man (Mark Isherwood) that she imagined naked. 

From that point onwards, everything's a chaotic mess. Clothes are stolen, the police are interested in Divine's antics, there's a sequence with the Virgin Mary (Maggie Skidmore) and the utter madness of Dr. Coathanger (David Lochary) and his ill nurse (Berenica Cipcus). It's all so utterly batshit crazy.

By the end of the movie, Coathanger tried to kidnap a school girl, Divine was left in the woods and The Bombshell had bird's feet and was getting flashed at and insulted in a rather unsatisfactory conclusion to the whole thing.

- The opening scene involved chickens being slaughtered. Bombshell was reading Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon.

- Mink Stole had the roles of Homeless Woman, Snob #1 and Asylum Inmate. She's another frequent collaborator of John Waters.

- Standout music: It made up the majority of the movie with some songs repeated and scant dialogue to boot.

- Chronology: 1960s Baltimore for the whole film.

Gotta be honest - the idea being Mondo Trasho was interesting. The execution, not so much. It's a messy movie, the music was a hindrance and whole thing just felt disjointed and unsatisfying to watch. Probably not something I'd ever watch again.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

Horror Updates Again

I swear this isn't going to be an ongoing thing (or maybe it will). Saying that, let's get into, shall we?

Robert Eggers proved back in 2024 that audiences don't mind a bit of Christmas horror, considering that his version of Nosferatu turned out to be such a massive hit. Hoping to repeat that succees again, he's got the upcoming Werwulf, which will be released on Christmas Day for the US and January 1st 2027 for everywhere else. The film was co-written with Sjón (who also co-wrote 2022's The Northman). The film will reunite Eggers with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. A first look trailer is imminent.

Remember a while back there was discussion of Michael Myers going to the land of television? As it's been apparent for a good while, nothing has materialised with that. As a result, there's rumours spreading that a TV show has been scrapped in a favour of a new movie. Assuming this is true, the new movie would undoubtedly be aimed for 2028, marking the 50th anniversary of Michael Myers terrorising the residents of Haddonfield in Halloween (1978). Again, there's no official source for this and personally, it seems more like an educated guess on the matter. I imagine we'll get an actual update before the year's out.

Now let's talk about the two biggest movies of the summer that aren't blockbusters? Yup, at this point unless you've been purposely avoiding them, there's no way you don't have thoughts on both Obsession and Backrooms. As of now the former has clocked in $337.1 million and the latter $301.8 million respectively. This is good news for directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons as well as some of the cast members. There has been some recent talk of award nominations for the former, including Inde Navarrette but we'll see how it goes as the year goes on.

Now as it's still Pride Month for the next few days, I should shout out Australian gay horror Leviticus, which is currently in cinemas. I do plan to see it soon. It also got me thinking about other upcoming LGBT themed horror films. You can expect Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma. The film stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw The TV Glow). It'll be in theatres from August 7th. There's a horror short called Four Itchy Boys starring Nico Greetham and Booboo Stewart, directed by Andrew Herbert. There's also the upcoming LGBT Giallo inspired Until You're Alone, which recently revealed it's first trailer on YouTube.

You know what? This might be a monthly thing. I'll think about it.

My Review of Ammonite (2020)

 

Written And Directed by Francis Lee

Charlotte (to Mary): "You, were the most fascinating person there tonight. And I think, the most beautiful."

I'm a huge fan of Francis Lee's God's Own Country and I've been meaning to catch up with Ammonite for the longest time. As Pride Month heads into its final week of sorts, it was time to finally watch this film. I'm glad that I did.

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are two incredibly talented actresses and here, they're both well cast as two women who form a connection with one another under the most trying of circumstances for both of them.

Mary Anning (Winslet), a paleontologist and small shop owner lived with her mother, Molly (Gemma Jones). Her talent for digging fossils and identifying ammonites have given her quite a reputation. In fact, archaeologist Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) was eager to learn from Mary's unmatched skills.

Roderick was also eager to offload his depressed wife, Charlotte (Ronan) onto Mary while he went on his own adventure. Mary and Charlotte weren't particularly keen on one another to begin with. Then Charlotte got sick and Mary had to play nursemaid under the advice of Charlotte's doctor, Lieberson (Alec Secăreanu).

From that point, there was a bond that was formed between the two women. I think both Molly and Lieberson noticed it a little and Mary's ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Philpot (Fiona Shaw) certainly noticed it. In fact, Elizabeth went out of her way to encourage Mary to act on her feelings towards Charlotte, following Molly's untimely death.

These sort of period based films are never an easy time for gay or lesbian couples. Mary and Charlotte had some form of domestic bliss until the latter had to go home. Charlotte's attempts to recreate that in her home with Mary went awry. Saying that, there's a nice final moment between both women in the British museum.

- Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot of course were real life people as was Charlotte. The movie doesn't cover their deaths.

- Alec Secăreanu, who played Dr. Lieberson previously appeared in God's Own Country as Gheorgie. 

- Standout music: Gesellschafts - Walzer, Op. 5, composed by Johann Strauss Sr.

- Chronology: 1840s, Lyme Regis, Dorset as well as London.

Ammonite (2020) isn't exactly a laugh a minute but it's a breathtakingly somber affair with dynamic performances between Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. Both women are incredible to watch and have very strong chemistry. Francis Lee's writing and directing were on fine form.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

 

Written by David Reynolds And Chris Williams And Mark Dindal

Directed by Mark Dindal

Pacha: "Why did I risk my life for a selfish brat like you? I was always taught that there was some good in everyone, but, oh, you proved me wrong."

Kuzco: "Oh, boo-hoo. Now I feel really bad. Bad llama."

I'll admit that this movie was a recent watch for me. As someone who's a fan of Eartha Kitt, I do slightly regret not watching this one much sooner but what can you do?

In this movie, she's the scheming advisor/alchemist Yzma and she's out to take over the Incan empire. Considering that the emperor in question Kuzco (David Spade) actually sucks at being an emperor and thinks that tearing down a village was the way to celebrate turning eighteen, perhaps Yzma had a point.

Unfortunately for Yzma, she had a rather incompetent henchman in the form of Kronk (Patrick Warburton). Instead of killing off Kuzco, the latter ended up being changed into a llama and let's just say, it took Kuzco a while to prove he was capable of being a decent person.

It somewhat helped that he ended up being paired with villager Pacha (John Goodman). The whole Kuzco and Pacha dynamic made the movie. They're a fun pair who undermined one another as they gradually grew to rely on each other.

As a villain though, there's something delightfully menacing about Yzma. While she's not as iconic as other bigger Disney baddies, I liked how ruthless she got as things went along. Saying that, it took little for Pacha's family to get the better of her and Kronk's last minute heel turn somewhat became her undoing.

- Kuzco was named after Peruvian city, Cuzco. It still exists in the Andes mountains.

- Despite some similarities, it's not based on The Emperor's New Clothes.

- Standout music: My Funny Friend And Me and Perfect World, both courtesy of Sting and Tom Jones.

- Chronology: South American during the Incan empire.

The Emperor's New Groove turned out to be a fine 2000s addition to Disney animated movies. While I don't think it's a classic, there's plenty of fun to be had and Eartha Kitt unsurprisingly steals the show from David Spade and John Goodman, though they're good too.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of House Of The Dragon: "Salt And Sea, Fire And Blood"

 

Written by Ryan Condal

Directed by Loni Peristere

Jacaerys: "If you die."

Rhaenyra: "Then you will at last be king."

Oh, those words didn't age well at all. I knew going into this episode that Jacaerys wasn't long for the world and of course this was going to be the infamous Battle Of The Gullet. It's just that I found his death a little underwhelming.

For an opening episode, it's probably the weakest we've had of the three so far but there was still plenty to mull over nonetheless. Circling back to Jace, he was absolutely right in being sceptical about Alicent wanting to help Rhaenyra reclaim King's Landing. I wouldn't trust Alicent as far as I could throw her but unfortunately for Jace, his mistrust of her was unfounded. Oh boy.

Jace locking Rhaenyra in her chambers might have spared her life but it put him and Vermax in danger as well as Baela and Moondancer. The presence of Rhaena and her newly acquired dragon, Sheepstealer also made the situation even more of a disaster than expected. I'm not as mad at Rhaena as everyone else online seems to be but talk about a terrible first outing for both Rhaena and Sheepstealer.

The Battle of the Gullet definitely felt like it should've been the previous season finale. It's well executed and provided an opportunity for Lohar and Corlys to do battle with one another. I did find it oddly humourous that Lohar was quick to abandon the Greens, her own shipmates just to get some petty revenge. It did not end well for her by the way.

Focusing on Team Green, what a splintered they've become. Both Aegon and Larys ended up being captured by supporters of Team Black. I laughed when Larys ratted out their identities. That man's survival instincts were on point. In that particular scenario, Larys made the right call.

Then there was Aemond. He quickly took over the throne and in a stomach churning scene, kissed his own mother. Alicent had the decency to at least look disgusted, while quietly undermining her psychotic son and keeping her treachery under wraps. Even when Alicent was doing the right thing, she still created more carnage in her wake.

Continuing with the Greens, there was a new player introduced in the form of Ormond Hightower (James Norton). He's like a more tactical and competent version of Ser Criston, leaving Gwayne yet again as the only decent Hightower in the mix. I'm rooting for Gwayne to come out of this mess unscathed. Unfortunately, I very much doubt he will.

Back to the Blacks though, at least Daemon was able to take out some enemies and even gained new allies with the Winter Wolves, who are led by Roderick Dustin (Tommy Flanagan). The Blacks need all the help they can get and the Greens need to start losing some players.

- The title sequence has been updated with new aspects of the tapestry and new cast members of course.

- Alys had little screen time but she managed to make her presence known to the likes of Addam, Hugh and Ulf. We also saw a Green Man very briefly.

- Benjamin Evan Ainsworth appeared but is his playing the real Daeron Targaryan or a fake? His hair is more Hightower though.

- The circumstances behind Jack's death in the book are different from what the episode did. I don't mind the change too much.

- Are both Lannister twins dead now? Good on Gwayne for opposing the knight assaulting women. Typical that Criston didn't care.

- Chronology: Not long from the events of the previous season.

Salt And Sea, Fire And Blood felt like it was absolutely meant to be the finale to the previous season rather than the opening to this one. It plodded a little in the first half before it blew up big time during the actual battle itself. On reflection, I did like it a bit more than when I first watched it.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of My Adventures With Superman: "Mobile Suit Toyman"

 

Written by Angela Entzminger

Directed by Chris Palmer

Whip: "Your low income is real turnoff, Superman!"

Superman: "I am not discussing my personal finances with a super-villain."

Okay, this was an episode that had our Kryptonian duo put through their paces. Superman got the workout from a minor villain and Supergirl had more of an emotional turmoil to work through.

I'll go with Supergirl first. She's got feelings for Jimmy and while he clearly has feelings for her, Jimmy also encouraged Kara to keep her options open. Unfortunately for Jimmy, Kara's not short of admirers whatsoever.

Then there's the Super-Fest panel being moderated by Cat Grant. Cat certainly had a way of making Kara feel like she had no purpose. Fortunately for Kara, a young woman named Jessica Cruz (Auli'l Cravalho) was able to give Kara the much needed pep talk that she needed to hear.

As for Superman, he got to tangle with a low level criminal named Whip. I say low level but she also had access to Kryptonite and had problems using it to cause Superman much distress. Of course she was more annoyed by his financial status and altruism before Superman eventually got the better of her.

Last but not least, there was Lois Lane. She wasn't her best here but she managed to recognise that Toyman hadn't reformed and she pretty much goaded him into using his new suit. Toyman's actions also served as a way for Lex Luthor to get great publicity for Cyborg Superman. Lex certainly took everyone by surprise this week with that stunt of his.

- Jimmy's comic Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen had a villain version of Lois and didn't seem to impress Lex either.

- Jessica Cruz will be headlining her own spin-off, My Adventures With Green Lantern. Supergirl also "kidnapped" the actors from Challengers Of The Unknown for a brief moment.

- Bizarro cosplayed as Superman during Super-Fest. There were cosplayers for Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy as well.

- Chronology: Not long since the previous episode.

Mobile Suit Toyman was a strong second episode for both the Superman and Supergirl plots as well as Lex blind sighting everyone. Lois and Jimmy's scenes were a bit weaker but not by much.

Rating: 7 out of 10