Movies I Watched - Monstrous-Feminine June 2026
Aside from Sleeping Beauty, all of these were part of the Super Saturday Movie Club, whose monthly theme this time was "Monstrous-Feminine".
June 6 - In My Skin (2002)
A good, if understated movie. Not shot very memorably but this sober, almost workmanlike style added up to be greater than the sum of its parts. It deals with femininity in such a relatable fashion that I was quite touched at moments. It deals heavily in self-repression and not showing emotions, though I wasn't very taken in emotionally for the connective tissue. Nevertheless, the ending is great. 8/10.
June 13 - Ginger Snaps (2000)
A surprise hit for me. I knew I was either going to love this movie or find it very boring, and I'm glad it was the former. It's having so much fun with itself, so many quotable bits, an amazing sisterly dynamic that would have etched itself in my brain had I watched it as a child. It unfortunately loses steam around the last 40 minutes, but I don't think it is enough to unravel the rest of the movie, especially considering it goes into a direction I much appreciate: that of unmitigated tragedy. This is perhaps a spoiler, but if you go into it expecting it to be goofy fun times, you have been SORELY misled. 9/10.
June 15 - Sleeping Beauty (1959)
A while back I was watching the Disney catalogue in the background, while I worked. The older ones are beautiful, but they can sometimes repeat cells, and my job involves a lot of waiting for government systems to finish loading, so they're perfect for it. I skipped over most of the 50's to get directly to Sleeping Beauty because I was reminded it existed and that I didn't remember ever watching it - we were a Cinderella household, alas. So I put on Sleeping Beauty and got ready to only pay 75% attention to it. I then sobbed through the first 5 to 10 minutes of the movie and was unable to finish my job for the entire duration of the picture.
That was a very sensitive week for me, as June in its entirety was, but that was the week before I came out as agender, and thus I was thinking a lot about beauty and tenderness, about my place in it and things like that. It's strange to explain but watching Sleeping Beauty, I truly felt like myself in a way I don't typically do in my regular life. Yes there is no real plot and very few real characters, but that's why it works so much: you already know this story, you knew it coming in, there are no surprises here, and thus you can focus entirely on the beauty and incredible craftsmanship on display.
I cannot think of a more beautiful animated movie, and very few live action movies compare. The backgrounds are breath-taking, the songs are simple yet arresting, the movement is careful yet constant. It's a measured movie, polished to perfection in a way that just wasn't possible before it, and that hardly has been replicated since. This is an achievement in art history, and deeply affecting to me. 10/10.
June 20 - Bones and All (2022)
I had previously watched this movie on Saturday, February 4, 2023, and thus I had some trepidation with recommending it for the movie club as I didn't recall that much about it. In hindsight, I understand why: this is a young adult novel type of a movie, and I don't mean this as a demerit. It follows the life and times of a young lady who meets a young lad, and they fall in love, it's all very by-the-book. Nevertheless, I think it possesses a very delicate, tender, and melancholic feeling that is hard to capture, much of it due to its use of natural lighting - one of my favourite scenes is when they're driving somewhere and the camera focuses on the face of one of characters sleeping in the car, bathed by sunlight. Such a prosaic yet poetic moment of life that almost feels Malikian. 8/10.
June 27 - Possession (1981)
This was another one I had originally watched before, on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. I only started watching movies seriously in 2020, so I was quite wowed by Possession at the time. It is shot in a Protean way, with new compositions being birthed in front of your eyes as the camera moves and whips around, really highlighting the madness and rage that seethes at the core of the movie, but also heightening the absurdity in much of it.
I don't think I can even say anything about the acting either. Sam Neill delivers a man consumed by jealousy, twisted by the situation, and Isabelle Adjani manages an inhuman dance, playing both Whore and Madonna equally well. There is so much pain in both of them, yet the movie resists the easy road which would be to frame either of them as complete monsters. Mark is pathetic and conciliatory just as much as he is possessive, Anna is uncooperative and ignorant just as much as she is beleaguered. It's a movie about the ugliness in people and relationships, and I don't think I am as enamoured as I was with it five years ago only because of how opaque it can be. It bursts at the seams with so much, and so erratic, that I just don't understand what it's trying to say sometimes. Regardless, it's a Pollock painting of a movie. 9/10.
