Castration Movie Anthology ii. The Best of Both Worlds

Vera Drew5.0

my review for this one won’t be as long as my review for the first. caught this movie (and some increased feels for a friend) while visiting NYC for a few days to work on prep for my next movie so i’ve gotten 12 hours of sleep in three days and words are pointless for art this good. louise is building a masterpiece and i am just so in awe of her.i was so nervous about what this one would be. from what louise described to me in the lead up to watching it, i worried this installment would lack the heart, relatability, and heart of the first, and this worry was quickly assuaged about 30 minutes into the five hour epic. cuz it’s core, this is a movie about how hard it is to get housing and emotional security as a trans woman, that feeling of “what now” when you reach a certain point in your transition, and how much ketamine and a lack of empathy are killing our fucking community. and yet with every inch of its heavy tone and more challenging pace, this one was funnier than part 1. it was also scarier. it’s a horror movie. you really feel the tagline of “a trans woman in trouble” during every frame of this film. the dread you feel is the knowing that we’re watching a very real story about how queer “community” is useless in a town polluted by patriarchy, white supremacy, and sex trafficking. about how sometimes in order to get closer to authenticity we need to strip away the identity that’s there. about how often we eat our own…it’s no mistake (nor small miracle) that in a movie also about our hyper online/quick-to-moralize-and-ostracize community…that the most humanized characters in this are played by Actors stars Betsey Brown and Peter Vack…that one of the most cruel and downright frightening trans characters in this (played by the brilliant Alex McVicker) is the one i felt the most for when the psychotic cult finally combusted…that the MOST “trans movie™️” arc this film has is basically “what if it After Hours was about a detransitioner convincing a tgirl that she’s a boy.”it’d be a sin not to bring this up: Lex Walton is and her performance in this a fucking work of art. the journey in this is soul wrenching. the gift she gave us (and herself) when she made this film with Louise is holy. watching Circle go through what they go through was absolutely what i needed right now. the release of those tears during the haircut scene…ugh i got chills just typing that. just the gorgeous heart of this movie.it’s okay for us to want more. it’s okay if you know there’s a better way to live. every human deserves secure housing and love and support. it’s okay to know that you deserve more. you probably do. we all do. but without empathy and surrender to giving-before-receiving you’ll probably never get it. and if you do, it won’t last and you’ll end up in a case filled with cum and hotdogs

lex walton5.0

second night at the roxy decided to actually watch it this time. debilitating, haunting, i am so glad that louise has the wherewithal, the spiteful psychopathic drive to make this movie that is completely irresponsible in the current cultural moment but is so necessary for us, a pitch black comedy about the horrible things that we specifically do to each other, about stagnation, about wanting to belong but not really wanting it that much. makes part 1 look pastoral and quaint in comparison, takes everything wonderful about that movie (and the trust earned by viewers from it) and weaponizes it into this excruciating gonzo exercise in audience antagonism that somehow still is so goddamn beautiful and funny and touching. everyone in this is so exceptional but i want to call attention to ivy, who is beautiful and hilarious and creates this incredibly multivalent character, abrasive and callous but also so evidently assuming a pose of cruelty that does not stand up by itself, is not truly believable, a flawed but warm and genuinely well meaning heart laying just beneath. alex mcvicker too, gives this performance that is just so astonishing, conveying this real tragic belief in something that never meant anything, forfeiting rationality in desperation for meaning and a place to not be alone. isobel's psychopathic desire to conform to systems and rules, to enforce them. hazel is so beyond words in this, so real and tired and full of compassion and misery, the true backbone of this movie.i hope i can be excused for talking like this about a movie that im in, but you know, the last 10 minutes of this one have very specific circumstances and everything. im crying right now in bed hungover writing this. how do you think about anything after this? how do you go about your daily life, and not have it changed remarkably? how do i do that? will the circle be unbroken?

Will Menaker5.0

The longest movie I've ever seen! A nightmarish, Dante-esque odyssey that brings to mind Inland Empire and Mike Leigh's Naked. Hellish, evil, and socially irresponsible, but conflict is NOT abuse and also I'm literally a cat. Honored to be a part of this film!