MUTTPLEX MOVIE REVIEWS

Unfortunately, Westley Piddle doesn’t have a cinema, cineplex, or multiplex…only a Muttplex. But it’s showing some great movies…

🐾🐾🐾🐾= as good as it gets on the subject.  Drop everything, sniff out, scramble to catch up and ‘watch NOWS’!

🐾🐾🐾= entertaining or informative.  Worth putting on your short-watch list.

🐾🐾= Average entertainment, will pass casual viewing time but does not exceed expectations – even modest ones. Ultimately forgettable.

🐾= Seriously! There are many far better movies out there on this subject. Don’t bother unless it’s a rainy afternoon with absolutely nothing better to do.

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This week at the Muttplex we on a voyage into darkest, dystopian East Europe, fleeing forest fires with Hollywood royalty, and distorting our imaginations through a small fuzz box beneath our crocodile-skinned cowboy right boot.  Royt then, let’s get stuck in…

Undergods (2021) – directed by Chino Moya, Hulu and Netflix

Undergods: An otherworldly journey through a Europe in decline – a collection of darkly humorous, fantasy tales about ill-fated characters and doomed fortune. (courtesy IMDb)

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My take: the most extraordinary film I have watch this year – but not necessarily the best!  Undergods is a mishmash of genre, style and influence from great works of art and literature from European culture.  If it were a book: Vanity Fair, if were a painting Jackson Pollock, if it were a piece of music Terry Reilly. In short, a crazy acid trip through the monolithic landscapes of 70s East European housing projects, absolutely borderline incoherent in story structure; and, featuring a teeth-grating rendition of I Did It My Way that make’s the Trump parting shot totally forgettable by comparison.  Chino Moya is a new kid on the block, but, hoo doggy, does he know his auteur film culture – and batters us over the intellect with it to the max.  Unmissable!

And another great reason streaming services make these types of art-house films available to the great unwashed heard (yes, us, the public) that we might not otherwise get to know of and enjoy.

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Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) – directed by Taylor Sheridan, HBOMAX 

Those Who Wish Me Dead: A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert tasked with protecting him — and a forest fire threatening to consume them all. (courtesy IMDb)

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My take:  Anyone who follows Views from Westley Piddle will be aware of my [Jools] fawning, butt-licking and sycophantic appreciation of writer/director Taylor Sheridan.  Embarrassingly enough, I watched this not knowing that he was the brains behind it until the credits rolled.  Yep, wot a complete muttwit!

Yet…yet, this is nowhere near in the same (4xpaws) league as Hell and High Water or Wind River, Taylor’s previous two films.  It is a plain old chase in the forest movie with everything a forgone conclusion – it even seems to be missing a third act or dénouement, offering nothing new to the thriller genre.  The only interesting element to this by-the-numbers nonsense is the presence of one Angelina Jolie who fits into the story with all the natural realism of a brain surgeon in a butcher’s shop.  All I can say about her is:  she is still insanely beautiful…and, erh, gives the impression of being beautifully insane!

If you’ve got nothing better to do, or want some handy tips on starting forest fires.  Taylor…get your act together, mayt…your III Act, wotz pitifully missing from this right dogs dinner.

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The Pedal Movie (2021) –  directed by Michael Lux and Daniel, on iTunes, Google Play and Vudu

The Pedal Movie:  A Documentary about the history, culture, and sound of guitar effects pedals, told by the builders who build them and the artists who use them. (courtesy IMDb)

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My take: Corss, we in West Pid love films about music…as opposed to musicals on films.  Wot we loath and consider all purply-sniffy.  Wot makes The Pedal Movie so brilliant is it’s total lack of compromise for the vast majority of people who got no clue that all guitarists since the mid-century (1950s) use these little boxes to make their electric guitars sound fuzzy, echoey, and, well just plain musical.  In short, it feels like a round circle muttwit fest for a small group of friends who live only to make new sounds from small boxes that sit under the feet of guitar heroes – young and old, legendary and forgotten.  But we loved it!

Primarily we loved it coz The Pedal Movie inadvertently showcases an intricately detailed and time lined history of modern music, featuring many musical greats over the decades as milestones in the development of sound-effects pedals.  Yes, the film is bonkers nerdy, as deeply niche as the Mariana Trench, and totally expects viewers to understand soundboards and electrical diagrams.  Absolutely mental! One paw discounted – coz I can’t twang a geetar.

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Snifz yuz next week!