Martin (John Amplas), a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she wont feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterwards, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep.
In the morning, the train stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Martin disembarks. He is met by Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) an elderly and hostile old man who claims to be his cousin from the Old World. Together, they travel by another train to the town of Braddock, a dying industrial suburb. They walk to Cuda's large house where he shows Martin his living quarters. Cuda then accuses Martin of being an 84-year-old vampire from his old country. He has taken in Martin because he is family, but tells him, "First I will save your soul. Then I shall destroy you." Martin denies being a vampire and implies that Cuda is merely his uncle rather than his cousin. Cuda then puts up strings of garlic on the doors to his and his granddaughter's room, and then holds up a small cross when Martin approaches him. Martin takes away the cross, and even takes a bite of the garlic mocking these attempts by saying bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever". Cuda tells Martin that he can come and go as he pleases. But he also warns Martin that he will kill him if he kills anyone in Braddock. He also tells Martin to stay away from his granddaughter Christine (Christine Forrest), whom arrives home from her job that evening.
Cuda introduces Christine to Martin, but also warns her to stay away from him. But Christine instead strikes up a friendship with Martin who confides in her about his vampire heritage. When Cuda later confirms Martin's claims to be a vampire, Christine, not surprisingly, refuses to believe either one. She thinks that Cuda and the other members of her family have driven Martin to insanity by making him think that he is a vampire. It is never revealed if Martin really is a vampire, or just a shy and lonely youth with troubled issues. Christine is the only person that Martin gets the courage to talk to. When Christine's boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini) arrives at the house for dinner, Martin stops talking and backs away despite Arthur's attempt at a conversation. Christine later confides in Martin that she hopes to leave Braddock someday with Arthur, even though Martin points out that Arthur treats her badly and is both verbally and physically abusive towards her.
When Christine sees that Martin won't talk to anyone else, she buys him a phone which he installs in his room. Martin begins to repeatingly call a radio talk show where he describes what it's like to be a vampire. He becomes known on the radio as "the Count" to all the listeners. But the patronizing host (Michael Gornick) thinks he's just crazy.
Martin gets a job at Cuda's grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini (Elyane Nadeau), who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin travels by train to outside Braddock to look for victims. At a supermarket, he follows a young woman (Sarah Venable) home to her posh suburban house. He sees the woman's husband (Richard Rubenstein) leave for a long business trip, and Martin decides this would be the right time for more feeding. Martin returns to the house after dark and breaks in through the garage door. But it is Martin who gets the surprise when he bursts into her bedroom to find her in bed with her adulterous lover Lewis (Al Levitsky). After a vicious struggle, Martin jabs both of them with hyprodermic needles with narcotics, and waits for the drugs to take affect. He drags the unconscious body of Lewis from the house to a clump of trees across the street where he kills him by shoving a broken tree branch into his neck and drinks his blood. Martin returns to the house where he has sex with the unconscious woman. But out of compassion and pity, he decides to let her live.
Martin begins to have romantic monochrome visions of his vampire past (real or imagined), where he drained blood from a young woman and was chased through the streets of a nameless European town by a torch-lit mob.
During one Sunday at church, Cuda brings home Father Howard (George A. Romero) who asks him about the possibility of exorcism and demon possession. Father Howard calls upon the elderly Father Zulemans (Clifford Forrest, Jr.) over at Cuda's request. Together, Cuda and Zulemans confront Martin his bedroom and attempt to perform an exorcism on him. At this point, Martin remembers (another real or imaginary flashback), in the Old Country of people trying to perform an exorcism on him, and he flees them. Martin then flees from Cuda and Zuelmas as well. A little later that night, Martin terrorizes Cuda in a children's playground when he puts on a Dracula cape and puts false fangs into his mouth to pretend that he really is a vampire.
One day, Martin finally musters the courage to talk with Mrs. Santini during a routine delivery to her house where he tells her that he's aware of her attempts to seduce him and wants now to have sex with her. After having sex for the first time, Mrs. Santini becomes more depressed for she tells Martin that her husband just left her because she discovered that she cannot bear children, and that her desires towards him are based on sex and nothing else. But Martin wants to stay with her and help her move on with her life. Martin tells the radio show host about his affair with the housewife and that he no longer has the urge to attack other women.
Meanwhile, Arthur meets with Cuda and tells him that he wants Christine to leave town with him so they can get married and start a family. But Christine becomes angry at Cuda when he tells Arthur that insanity runs in their family and he shouldn't consider having children with her. Shortly afterwards, Christine packs up and leaves Braddock for New York with Arthur despite Martin telling her that Arthur is abusive towards her. But her mind is made up. Before leaving, Christine tells Martin that she really has no ill feelings towards him and just wants to make a fresh start with her life. She says goodbye to him and promises to write. But Martin knows that with an abusive and possessive man in Christine's life, she probably won't.
Depressed over losing his one true friend, Martin phones the radio show host and tells him that he's getting "shaky" and wants to go out looking for more victims. That night, Martin travels to a rough crime-ridden area of Pittsburgh and attacks two derelicts in a alley, injecting them with narcotics. He kills one of them by silting the bum's wrist and drinking his blood. Martin is about to kill the second one when a police car shows up and gives chase. Martin narrowly escapes during a long chase on foot which leads from the garbage strew streets and through a local store. Martin runs into an old warehouse where a drug deal is going down. A shootout between the two cops and the three thugs begins where all of them are killed, leaving Martin as the sole survivor who casually walks away from the carnage.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn't need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini's suicide, is mistakenly thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he's done before. Cuda walks into Martin's room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin's heart.
Cuda buries Martin's body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of "the Count".
做哪吒不好吗？杀不了妈我杀自己还不行吗？和你妈解啊= =
感觉是上上个世纪的华裔叙事。还不如红熊猫。
和《小僵尸》一样，在尽可能的炫酷中，表达新时代元宇宙的眷恋和多次元大爱。万花筒效果做得可谓稳准狠，一次次的跳跃，丝毫没印象主线剧情和角色一以贯之的行为目的。然而，我却不属于这样的万花筒观看者，在只幻不科的跳跃中，被催眠的昏昏欲睡。只能遗憾地说，这样的可贵瞬息、这样包容的全宇宙不属于我。
太累了，为什么做亚裔女性哪怕已经是宇宙里独一无二的超人还要听从软弱老公那一套love heals all的狗屁人生哲学，还要强行绑架下一代重复再重复这些bullshit mess；为什么荧幕上的挪威女性寻找人生就是去恋爱，为什么荧幕上的亚裔女性寻找人生比取经还难，还得拍成科幻片，到底是谁在恶性循环谁。Such a bullshit, fucking bullshit. Bullshit is all.
这两天看到分数瞬降还有点担心。看完以后只想说导演太有才了！有个评论说得好，“这是想象力的胜利”。个人感觉喜剧效果非常美国化，不认为这是一代移民会欣赏的片子，中国元素就像是这里面中英夹杂的对话，非常表面化，内核还是美国文化。这个片子和《沙丘》应该是这几年看过的电影里的top two吧！有点感慨，我们忙着抗疫，人家不戴口罩“冒着生命危险”拍出了这么优秀的作品！
6.7/10 前半部分观感其实还挺好，打戏也还不错，一场关继威复刻成龙办公室的打戏，一场女儿出现的花式首秀。但后面越来越飞，随着眼花缭乱的多重宇宙蒙太奇、重复的打戏、聒噪的说教，再难以让人进入。这片在后面走入极端，放弃故事A，大写故事B。对于普通观众，那些虚无主义和存在主义的哲思，在没有一个A故事的共情，是很难得到的。不过本片有很多迷影致敬，这倒给了影迷的一些满足，也仅于此。
华人刻板印象+港式无厘头+亲情俗套，噱头太多，着实一般。
脑洞很大，内核很传统，但不妨碍被平行宇宙里不变的爱戳中。
前半部一直在想什么玩意儿，然后开始逐渐看懂，一边想什么玩意儿一边想卧槽，到结尾忘记了什么玩意儿只有卧槽了。
中式家庭伦理混搭千奇百怪类型元素，想象力超凡卓绝。场景调度/变幻、蒙太奇剪切、叙事技法炫到飞起，高概念体验式模拟人生游戏不断冲击视觉感官，包括那些插科打诨的笑料与荒腔走板的迷影致敬，最后再以极其温暖的方式回归原始母题，即家的核心是爱。见证过多元宇宙的每一种命运还义无反顾坚定当初的选择，相信所有东亚母亲都应该深有共鸣。
是电影是戏剧是卧虎藏龙是菊花超市是space odyssey是无厘头是拉丝冯提尔是rick n morty是沙丘是everything。Bagel是大雄试卷上的零是receipt上的重点是瞳孔是不满足的食欲是妈妈对女儿人生的insecurity。变成石头，变成圆形的石头，去接近填满bagel。
影片可以看做是在中年危机、家庭矛盾、攻苦食淡但味同嚼蜡的生活状态+平行宇宙（宇宙跳跃）概念加持之下的《盗梦空间》+《黑客帝国》。剧中的动作桥段则是成龙style《自杀小队》及各种致敬周星驰电影。不肯妥协的、渺小、愚蠢、坚硬、自大的石头现身的桥段与平行空间频繁快速切换的桥段简直《2001太空漫游》神降附体。多情自古空余恨，好梦由来最易醒。不是有了爱就能解决一切问题，但若没有了爱，这个世界何止是太过乏善可陈......影片的主题是爱、坚持、理解与接受。“我见过了每一个宇宙的自己，之所以仍然选择这个最糟糕的宇宙，是因为我要和你在一起。我们就算是两块石头，我也会跟你跳下悬崖。”最后，死亡和缴税真真是人生中不可避免的两件大事。
不知道该怎么去表达我对这部电影的敬意和喜爱，用表面看似如此错综复杂的结构去表现生活它痛苦而现实的一面。其实我们都明白，所谓多重宇宙，时间线错乱，任何一个节点的决策都会导致不同的结果，这般让人抓狂的设定的本质，其实就是我们日常所经历着的生活本身。成年人的生活，大抵就是这般琐碎繁杂无趣痛苦而让人抓狂的同时，仍旧偷偷留给大家去和它和解的机会。又想到最近看到的一句略微相关的鸡汤，说人生其实有两次，第一次是你我原本的生活，第二次是当你知道人生只有一次之后你开始拥有的人生。
这片子是搞出来精准打击某类东亚女儿泪腺的吗？？很难说前一个多小时大乱炖有多吸引我，但女主问爸爸你怎能如此轻易放弃我＋女儿支离破碎的告白太让人心碎了🥲 我所在的这类东亚女儿人生最大困惑之一不就是「我活成了我妈这辈子最大的报应我妈却觉得我是她这辈子最大的福报」「这福气给她她还真要」妈的，我们太有毒了真的。还好电影不是人生指南，所以电影可以有和解好结局。然后严谨一点，这里头爹不够东亚，所以流派也就东亚北美分支吧。ps 杨紫琼坚持让女主拥有自己的名字（而非直接用她的英文名）是片里片外最温柔的一点。以及这个爹让我想到李翊云Must I Go里的Gilbert.
啊，这剧本百分之百吸麻吸多了写出来的。想要体验瞬息全宇宙不需要成为杨紫琼，多吸几个麻就有了。for real。
是今年到目前为止，看过的对剧本，台词和镜头以及三者之间相互配合的打磨最下功夫最用心的一部电影。看完的第一反应：剪辑的工作量可能是天文数字。节奏够快，创意够独，亮点够多，效果够好，这些都在其次。最难能可贵的导演是真的在用心做一部电影，用心设计每一分钟的叙事，并且站在观众的角度去考虑这个片段会产生什么样的效果。这一点与瑞士军刀男一脉相承。后者也是我觉得成片本身差强人意，但用心程度远胜其他的电影典范。
在天马行空的想象和炫目的剪辑包装下，东亚家庭内核把握得很精准，为杨紫琼开心。爸爸那句“如果有来生，我还是会选择跟你一起，报税、开洗衣店”很戳泪点，早期华人赴美做的也就是洗衣工这些劳力工种，涵盖华裔三代人（父亲、夫妻、女儿）面貌的全宇宙。
What the fuck did I just watch
今年看的第二部A24出品的影片，第一部是《X》。能将一个概念翻来覆去变着花样地玩够辛苦，构建多重宇宙不过是在营造与自我背离的空间，并尽可能具象化这种描述，时髦的说法叫隔阂或差异。有一阵看得挺恶心，呕吐自慰器吃办公桌下面的口香糖肛门捅硬物等。还有一层迷影视角，成龙李小龙王家卫李安库布里克料理鼠王穿条纹睡衣的男孩星球大战、礼堂楼梯场景明显是《闪灵》的布局。一度挺闹腾，到两颗石头对话总算安静了。之后便是大段落的重复点题，密集的煽情和刻意的渲染。一部在视觉风格上对中国观众不太友好却闪烁着东方哲学意味的平庸商业片，中国元素不过是挂件一样的存在，被消费，被评价。
我欣賞它讓中年亞裔主婦成為主角和對東亞家庭關係做出了探討的努力（略）等等等等⋯⋯但，電，影，本，身，實，在，太，老，土，了。從多元宇宙要素到無厘頭到致敬薈萃到畫面形式，沒有半點新東西，除了前面說的立意讓人敬佩，其他真的很難吹。
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