Pearl (Ti West, 2022)

Before swine

(Warning: plot twists discussed in explicit detail)

Ti West's Pearl (2022) is several things at once: 1) a horror film; 2) a prequel; 3) a claustrophobic character sketch of two women percolating in a pressure-cooker setting. 

Halloween Ends (David Gordon Green, 2022

So long and thanks for all the flesh

(Warning: plot twists and story discussed in explicit detail)

Heard the feedback: Worse Halloween ever. Slow and boring. Where's Michael? Who's the new guy?-- and I agree. Worse Halloween ever, not much of a slasher film. 

But what it is as it turns out is a pretty interesting David Gordon Green film. 

Batang West Side (West Side Avenue, Lav Diaz, 2001)

Street child

Lav Diaz's Batang West Side (West Side Avenue, 2001), about the killing of a young Filipino-American and the murder investigation that follows, was at five hours the longest Filipino or Southeast Asian film ever made at the time. 

Blonde (Andrew Dominick, 2022)

Bombshell

Andrew Dominik's Blonde is a horror film that fails not because it's so sadistic but because it's not sadistic enough.