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Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil

Much better and more honest than the previous two documentaries. Daddy Issues, Games, Concentrate, Lonely, Sorry and Tell Me You Love Me are all amazing songs that kept me company on many night shifts of 2017 and 2018. I still remember when Demi left rehab for the first time back in 2011, and that her team conveniently only revealed her struggles with eating disorders, self harm and bipolar disorder, and failed to mention drug or alcohol addiction. Fast forward a decade and Demi’s finally revealed everything. Her family and friends seem worried, but also have accepted her decision to drink and smoke weed in moderation. Elton John is the only person in the doc who expresses his disapproval of using in moderation. I think for many viewers the most shocking moment of this documentary is not Demi revealing she has been raped twice, but her admission that she has had sex with her rapists since, in order to take the power back from her abusers. In the first three episodes, Demi lists a few serious mistakes she’s made, ones that could easily be classed as bipolar episodes, only to reveal in the last ten minutes of the documentary, that she has been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, and never suffered from it, and that the mistakes she’s made were just a part of growing up.

8/10

Umberto D.

How predictable of me to watch another example of my favourite, Italian neorealism. A beautiful film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The train scene at the very end is nerve wrecking.

9/10

Mommy

They seriously failed by not calling this film MILF. My favourite part is when Oasis’ song plays and the screen streches from the obnoxious 1:1 aspect ratio to the cinema screen ratio for a few seconds. The montage is also pretty, but too much of it is blurry, and gives me a headache. I love the last ten seconds and that the film ends with a Lana Del Rey song. I rewatched this on Mubi, while watching today’s football matches with my dad. Also, I cannot figure out whether I like this or We Need to Talk About Kevin more.

9/10

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High Life

How many utterly weird films has Juliette Binoche been in? I can name quite a few. The person who wrote this was definitely high, alright. I actually loved how messed up this was, but I have a few questions, starting with, why were some of the women tied to their beds, but others and all men weren’t? Even though this film was in my Mubi watchlist, I watched it by accidentally mistaking it for Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life.

7/10

Ambush at Cimarron Pass

What can I say, my dad and I are big Clint Eastwood fans, so here we are. We have watched this among five other Clint Eastwood films over one weekend.

5/10

Big Sky

My dad and I watched this because we loved the first season of Big Sky, so we wanted to see if this is also based on the Highway book series, and it is not. This is abysmal and we laughed a lot. Middle-of-nowhere horror is my favourite kind, so I can’t say this is unwatchable. It is laughable, but watchable.

3/10

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Dark Angel

Whoever at Lifetime decided to adapt all of V. C. Andrews’ novels into films, deserves a raise. I remember when Sweet Audrina came out and transfered me back to my childhood. I loved those gothic novels growing up. Lifetime also adapted the Flowers in the Attic series, then Heaven and as I’ve learned yesterday, they’ve now adapted the Ruby Landry series, which was written after Virginia’s death by her ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman. I haven’t read the Landry series, so I’m looking forward to it. I watched Heaven, the first part of the Casteel series when it came out, but gave it up and never watched the other four films, until now. While I thought Sweet Audrina was a good adaptation, especially for a TV movie, the Casteel films aren’t.

5/10

Fallen Hearts

I didn’t remember there being a lion attack in the book, but then again I read it 15 years ago. Just as all V. C. Andrews’ books, this film is full of incest, rape and family drama. Heaven’s sister is so annoying she makes this film almost unwatchable.

3/10

Gates of Paradise

So Hallmark and Lifetime share Johannah Newmarch any time they need to cast a 40 year old redhead? How many productions has she been in? There is also a Melrose Place reunion in this one.

3/10