joshkaplan-52934

An interesting exploration of some fairly heavy themes (which I won't spoil) on a tiny budget, The Paragon does well to switch between quirky character moments, trippy 70s-style visuals, and a great synthwave soundtrack (which doesn't feel as pretentious as it does in other recent films parroting 80s culture).

I'm not sure that the comparisons people have drawn between it and things like Flight of the Concords and What We Do in the Shadows is particularly fair, since this one has a heavier, more melancholic tone (likely partially due to the cool color palette) and does have funny moments but at nowhere near the frequency of the aforementioned works (which is fine; it's just different).

Basically, if you go into it as a quirky indie dramedy, you'll have a decent time. It didn't quite hit the mark for me, but it was worth seeing nevertheless, particularly for those who like time travel stories, and I like seeing weird little auteur works like this still getting made.

Cosmic horror is my favorite genre. I'm fascinated by stories about cults. I love slow-burn horror stories about people succumbing to madness like The Witch, Hereditary, The Lighthouse, and Jacob's Ladder. And yet somehow, they managed to make a slow-burn "cosmic horror" movie about a descent into madness (and, theoretically, cults) that I found extremely boring.

The characters behave in nonsensical ways for no reason. The dialogue is nearly Shyamalan-levels of clunky. The story is almost non-existent. And as an advocate for "elevated horror", I hate that people will suck up to anything with nice cinematography and a pretentious atmosphere, as it really gives high-quality arthouse horror movies a bad name. And the audacity to tack a Lovecraft quote onto the beginning as if it were going to have any sort of deep thematic relevance. For shame.

Okay. Sorry in advance for the rant.

Great buildup. Eerie atmosphere. An unusual isolated location. A compelling mystery. Imagery that's creepy in an uncanny way. Some interesting ideas. A visual style (and a couple other elements) that reminded me (positively) of A Cure for Wellness.

However, while something like the slasher genre can afford to have a number of unlikable characters due to their large casts and the fact that the majority of them are meant to be unsympathetic in order to grant a sense of catharsis when they're killed horribly, focused thrillers with one lead that you're supposed to be rooting for don't benefit from the same allowance. In Cuckoo, Gretchen has literally nothing to recommend her. Until a point halfway through the movie (which isn't hidden but she treats like any other so you kind of forget about it despite it completely changing her motivations), she's unfailingly moody, rude, incompetent, stupid, ungrateful, selfish, reckless, arrogant, lazy, awkward, aggressive, dishonest, entitled, and insincere, and despite all that, she's indescribably boring, ensuring that one couldn't care less what happens to her because she fails to display even a single positive personality trait. I actually had to triple-check to make sure it wasn't the same writer as Dark, the paragon of creating uninteresting, unlikable characters. Though Schafer's acting doesn't do her any favors either.

Besides that, there's sloppy, repetitive exposition and some glaring scientific/logical problems if you think about the plentiful explanations they provide for more than 5 seconds. I only finished it because Dan Stevens' charm, combined with the aforementioned elements, made it watchable, but jeez it was a slog.

Would not recommend.