Film picks: The X Trilogy, Longlegs, Films At The Fort

MaXXXine: Xperience The Trilogy

Cult horror favourites X (2022, R21, 106 minutes) and its prequel Pearl (2022, R21, 102 minutes) were never shown in Singapore cinemas. So, to mark the The Projector-exclusive release of MaXXXine (R21, 104 minutes, 3 stars) on July 4 – the third in the slasher series written and directed by American film-maker Ti West – The Projector will screen X on July 20 at 2pm and Pearl on the same day at 5pm.

Events held to mark the trilogy screening include a best-dressed and a trivia contest.

X follows aspiring adult film star Maxine (Mia Goth) and a film crew as they set about making a movie in a Texas farmhouse in the 1970s. Events take a dark turn when one of the farm’s elderly owners Pearl (also played by Goth under heavy prosthetics) develops a fixation on members of the team.

The prequel Pearl tells the origin story of the titular character circa 1918, showing the horrific circumstances that laid the groundwork for X.

Set in the mid-1980s, MaXXXine catches up with Maxine after the events of X, as she tries to transition out of pornographic movies and moves to Hollywood to pursue her dreams of stardom. Despite her attempts to bury it, her past continues to resurface and, worse, her path crosses that of a serial killer.

The thriller also features Kevin Bacon, Lily Collins, Halsey, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale and Elizabeth Debicki.

Where: Golden Village x The Projector at Level 5 Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road
MRT: Somerset/Orchard
When: July 20, 2 to 8pm
Admission: Tickets for X, Pearl and MaXXXine are sold separately, starting at $16 (concession: $14). All events are free, with the trivia event requiring advance online registration
Info:

str.sg/b2Fn

Glenfiddich Films At The Fort

Tickets are on sale for the outdoor cinema event that celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2024.

Billed as “social cinema”, filmgoers can arrive early to picnic on the lawn. Deejays and instrumentalists will entertain from 5.30pm until screenings begin at 7.45pm. Food partner The Providore will sell dinner and dessert options each night, with cocktails, wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks available at a bar.

Among the films on the schedule is action comedy The Fall Guy (PG13, 126 minutes, screens on Aug 3 and 10, 7.45pm, 4 stars).

Inspired by the 1980s television series of the same name, the story follows Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a stuntman who has retired from show business following an accident. When former flame and film director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) asks him to work for her, he jumps at the chance, hoping it will lead to a lovers’ reunion.

Producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) tells him there is a hitch. The star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has disappeared. Colt must find the missing actor or Jody’s project will fail.

Director David Leitch, a former stuntman who is now a specialist in stories that are grounded in real stunts and fights (Bullet Train, 2022; Atomic Blonde, 2017), makes sure The Fall Guy puts the talent of his stunt team on full, jaw-dropping display. His concern for stunt quality is obvious, as is his respect for the craft.

Where: Fort Canning Green, Canning Rise
MRT: Fort Canning/Clarke Quay/Dhoby Ghaut
When: Aug 1 to 18, 7.45pm
Admission: $42.80 (each ticket includes a Glenfiddich cocktail worth $14, or two non-alcoholic drinks)
Info:

Longlegs (NC16)

101 minutes, now showing, 5 stars

In this thriller set in the 1990s, fathers across the country have been butchering their families in their homes and then taking their own lives. Federal Bureau of Investigation recruit Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) pursues the idea that a freaky Satanic killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) might be causing the slayings to happen from afar.

Horror is the birthright of American writer-director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, 2015), son of Psycho (1960) star Anthony Perkins. And this supernatural procedural mystery – with its cryptograms, bogeyman and creepy doll – is a compendium of genre tropes.

But Osgood Perkins also cites the era’s notorious Zodiac Killer and the Big Bad Wolf, hence mixing fairy tales and occult imagery into his sombre true crime aesthetic to render the familiar discomfitingly unfamiliar. The movie’s quiet power is that of a waking nightmare.

Dread fills every frame and even the fringes beyond, where Longlegs’ presence is felt before he is seen. – Whang Yee Ling