September Movie Reviews (Talk to Me, The Two Towers, Cassandro)

This month, we’ll take possession of an embalmed hand to talk to the dead, journey towards Mordor with Frodo and Sam, and step into the ring with Cassandro. Are any of these undertakings worthwhile? It’s time to find out as we go over the movies Jeff’s watched this September.

Talk to Me (2023)

Causeway Films, 95 minutes

Talk to Me is an effectively-done Australian horror film, and the directorial debut of brothers, Danny and Michael Philippou. The movie reminded me of another recent and well put together horror movie, 2022’s Smile. Both movies feel like a new type of horror movie – one that stands on its own as a story (and isn’t part of an existing franchise), that’s creative by bringing new horror ideas to the table, and also that doesn’t feel low-budget or poorly put together like a lot of more cheaply made horror movies do.

Another movie that has this “new horror” feel is last year’s Bodies Bodies Bodies, which, like Talk to Me, was also distributed by A24. I’m glad that companies are taking a chance with these types of horror films, because they’re usually pretty solid.

The premise of Talk to Me centers on a little bit of a twist on the idea of using a Ouija board to communicate with spirits. Here, a group of teens communicate with the dead and become momentarily possessed by taking hold of a (very creepy) embalmed hand and saying, “Talk to me.” Of course, things don’t go completely as they expect. As a whole, Talk to Me is a quality movie that’s actually pretty scary. I’d recommend it for anyone in the mood for a good fright.

Grade: 7.5/10

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

New Line Cinema, 179 minutes 

The Two Towers is a worthwhile sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring, though it does suffer a little bit from “middle-movie syndrome.” Middle-movie syndrome is a (made-up by Jeff) syndrome where the second movie in a trilogy just isn’t quite as strong as the first film, a fantastic introduction to the story, or the series’ final entry, the grand conclusion.

For what it’s worth, The Two Towers is still a very good movie, though I don’t think it’s truly a great one. In The Fellowship of the Ring (which I reviewed here) we follow a very linear story with Frodo where he gets possession of the ring, and then meets and journeys with the fellowship. All of our important characters are together in that movie as viewers watch one story progress.

In The Two Towers, that’s not at all the case. In this film, there are three different stories, each totally separate from one another, that we track. There’s Frodo and Sam traveling with Gollum, Aragorn, Gimili, and Legolas’ story, and the (lesser focused on) parts of the film focusing on Merry and Pippen with the Ents. Having three separate stories makes for a less strong movie overall. In a lot of ways, The Two Towers feels more like an episode of a TV series where we’re following multiple characters and storylines.

Another issue, though it isn’t a huge one, is the film’s special effects when it comes to Gollum. For the time The Two Towers was produced, the effects are fantastic, but now, there are some instances where Gollum doesn’t look great. It holds up okay, but it’s far from perfect.

Overall, despite being the weakest film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers is still a fantasy film that merits many rewatches. It’s the “very good” middle portion of what’s likely the best fantasy adventure trilogy ever made.

Grade: 8/10

Cassandro (2023)

Amazon Studios, 107 minutes 

Cassandro is the true story of a gay wrestler named Saúl living in El Paso who participates in lucha libre wrestling matches. While at first Saúl wrestles in a traditional lucha libre mask, he eventually decides to embrace more of who he is and become an exotico, a type of lucha libre wrestler who fights in drag. These exotico wrestlers are loudly booed and always lose matches to their more masculine counterparts, and this is something that Saúl wants to change with his character, Cassandro.

Cassandro is a pretty standard, yet well-done biographical drama. The lead performance, from Gael Garcia Bernal is effective, and he plays Saúl/Cassandro with a likeable believability that never feels too over the top.

The movie’s main weakness is that at times the story feels more informational than cinematic. It’s like you’re watching a performance of an informative news piece about a topic you likely don’t know much about more than just an exciting movie. Whether or not you’ll enjoy Cassandro really depends on how appealing its subject matter is to you personally. To me, the movie was totally fine and a little bit interesting, but not noteworthy for any other particular reason.

Grade: 6.5/10