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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

The Year of the Everlasting Storm (7 Directors, 2021)
6/10
Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity Ken Dixon, 1987)
4/10
V/H/S/94 (6 Directors, 2021)
6/10
Old Henry (Potsy Ponciroli, 2021)
- 6.5/10

Reclusive farmer Tim Blake Nelson lives with his unimpressed son (Gavin Lewis) but when need be, dad shows signs of brilliance at gunplay and tracking..
Coming Home in the Dark (James Ashcroft, 2021)
6/10
Bucking Broadway (John Ford, 1917)
+ 5/10
Moving On (Yoon Danbi, 2019)
5.5/10
Muppets Haunted Mansion (Kirk R. Thatcher, 2021)
- 6.5/10

Disney's Haunted Mansion is recreated amazingly well - only this time with the Great Gonzo and Pepe, among other Muppets.
Bluebeard AKA Landru (Claude Chabrol, 1963)
6/10
Blood on the Crown AKA Just Noise (Davide Ferrario, 2021)
+ 5/10
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon, 2021)
6/10
The Third Lover (Claude Chabrol, 1962)
- 6.5/10

Insecure writer Jacques Charrier examines the photos he took which may prove to have dire consequences.
Dave Chappelle: The Closer (Stan Lathan, 2021)
6.5/10
Death Goes to School (Stephen Clarkson, 1953)
5.5/10
Slaves in Bondage (Elmer Cliftoni, 1937)
+ 4.5/10
Small Engine Repair (John Pollono, 2021)
+ 6/10

Three Boston friends all love the daughter of one, and that's what sets the thriller plot off.
The Case of the Black Cat (William C. McGann, 1936)
6/10
Mayday (Karen Cinorre, 2021)
+ 5/10
My True Fairytale (D. Mitry, 2021)
5.5/10
Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944)
7+/10

Hilarious, if a tad overlong, filming of the Broadway smash.
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Old Henry (2021)

A nice little western. The IMDb summary calls it an action western, but it's actually quite slow-paced. The unavoidable shootout is good, too. And while the general nature of the twist (or the "twist") is obvious, the specifics are sort of nice and not what I was expecting beforehand. Outdoor shots look good, but the indoor ones are poorly lit and really flat.
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Shocked to see the smatterings of Old Henry, then I realized it must be VOD.

Titane? Anyone?



Love that film. They announced a sequel last week....that will be in the form of a TV Miniseries.
Huh? Really? Intriguing, but I don't know how they can make that premise work for a bunch of episodes.
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Not impressed. Supes goes bad, Batsy tries to stop him, yatta yatta yatta
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Best Sellers (2021)

This is a good old-fashioned comedy/drama starring Michael Caine as crusty old novelist Harris Shaw, and Aubrey Plaza as a young woman, Lucy Stanbridge, who has inherited her father’s book publishing company, and is looking to save it from bankruptcy by getting a long owed book out of Shaw.

Lucy finally succeeds in extracting the book from Shaw, and announces that he must participate in a book tour where he’ll have to present the book to the public. Despite Shaw’s maddening obstinance and cynicism, the story is charming, and sets up many humorous scenes where Lucy tries to somewhat adhere to modern publicity methods, and to try to keep Shaw on track to promote the book. The story is both vaguely familiar and somewhat predictable, but it’s fun along the way.

One could imagine Lionel Barrymore and Carole Lombard starring in similar roles, had the film been made in the 1940s.

Caine provides a typical near perfect performance, while Plaza shines in a comedic role. They work well together as a team. Still, even though Plaza is 37 she seemed almost too immature for the part. The rest of the cast provided good support, but the direction seemed a little hit or miss.

Best Sellers doesn’t break any new ground, but is a fun and watchable picture.

Doc’s rating: 6/10



THE DESCENT
(2005, Marshall)



"Sarah, the worst thing that can happen to you has already happened. It’s over, and you’re here. You didn’t give up. This is just a poxy little cave. You’ve got nothing left to be afraid of."

The Descent follows Sarah, who is trying to recover from a tragic and traumatic accident. To help her with that, her friends organize a spelunking expedition into a remote cave. Led by the adventurous Juno (Natalie Mendoza), the group of five women go deeper and deeper not knowing that what awaits them might be worse than anything they've faced outside; or is it?

I saw this film in theaters with my wife back in the day, and I credit it with having one of the best jumpscares I've ever experienced from a film. But beyond the excellent scares and thrills of the film, which are many, the film's biggest strength is in putting excellent characters that we care for up front. Even though the film really doesn't spend much time with the characters before they go in the cave, the way Marshall builds them up paired with the performances is great.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



The Mother (2003)

Neat film about a mother of grown up children finding herself again. Bit Mike Leigh-ish. It has a tender touch in her sexual re-awakening and the characters caring manner although admitting she was not a caring mother to her kids.




COHERENCE
(2013, Byrkit)

Coherence follows a group of friends meeting for a dinner party the night of the passing of a comet. As the night progresses, a series of weird and unexplainable events start to unfold that make them all question the decisions of their past, as well as the nature of themselves and who they are. But the events of the night might also put them or others in danger.

This film was recommended to me by a couple of people, so I was looking forward to it. I was happy to see it delivered as far as "mind****ery" goes. Director and co-writer Byrkit makes the most of his extremely low budget ($50K) by relying in a solid script, weird occurrences, and solid performances to build this dread about what's happening.

I'm trying to avoid too much details here cause it's definitely a film worth seeing without spoiling, and maybe even with as little knowledge as possible, but reading about the production and filming details, and how Byrkit and co-writer Alex Manugian would only give the actors some pointers about the characters and the beats of the story, while allowing them to improvise, and then see the end result, it's impressive.

Grade:

Full review on my Movie Loot
A fascinating and wonderful little film on a micro budget. I'd forgotten that this film is 8 years old. Seems like it came out a year or so ago!

Writers Byrkit and Manugian came up with a unique story and outline, and the actors came through wonderfully with their improvisations and talent.

This type of very complex sci-fi thriller can hide a lot of mistakes within its complications. I've seen it twice, and have more or less understood everything-- but not completely. However it has withstood serious dissection, and has come out with everything tied up...... I think.

It just shows what great writing can do in the absence of a big budget.



[Coherence] Love that film. They announced a sequel last week....that will be in the form of a TV Miniseries.
Wow, that is VERY interesting. Do happen to have a link for that, SL?



A fascinating and wonderful little film on a micro budget. I'd forgotten that this film is 8 years old. Seems like it came out a year or so ago!

Writers Byrkit and Manugian came up with a unique story and outline, and the actors came through wonderfully with their improvisations and talent.

This type of very complex sci-fi thriller can hide a lot of mistakes within its complications. I've seen it twice, and have more or less understood everything-- but not completely. However it has withstood serious dissection, and has come out with everything tied up...... I think.

It just shows what great writing can do in the absence of a big budget.
Definitely. I can see myself rewatching it sooner than later.



I forgot the opening line.

https://i.postimg.cc/t4Kj2R7W/ran.jpg

Ran - (1985)

That was huge. Epic. Shakespeare mixed with John Ford mixed with Japanese mythical legend. Visually stunning and emotionally engaging. I've seen Kagemusha, so I knew a little bit what to expect, Kurosawa being in his towering epic phase - help from high-powered Hollywood entities who loved Kurosawa helping him to start making the big budget films he wanted to. How on Earth he managed to compose all of the battle scenes, all of the soldiers and horses and banners (and arrows and fire,) I'll never know. Beautiful in sight, sound and story - and probably the best adaptation of King Lear ever put to film. The machinations of greed, the prophetic opening, the tragedy of sons betraying their father, the ever-present lust for revenge all combine to create quite a film. I really enjoyed watching Ran last night.

10/10

Foreign language countdown films seen : 47/101
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Latest Review : Le Circle Rouge (1970)





Excellent movie based on a true story. All the “actors” are indigenous people.
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AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
(1962, Ozu)
Freebie



"In the end, we spend our lives alone... all alone."

An Autumn Afternoon follows Shūhei Hirayama (Chishū Ryū), an aging widower torn between his parental duty of arranging a marriage for her daughter, Michiko (Shima Iwash!ta) and her desire to remain with him and take care of him and her younger brother. If it sounds similar to other film, that's because there are several parallelisms between this film and Ozu's own Late Spring, which I saw in December last year.

I won't deny that there is a certain element of "been there, done that" to the film, since it pretty much follows the same beats as Late Spring, but coming 13 years after that film, it's interesting to see tinges of "evolution" and "growth" in how men and women, fathers and children interact. Just like with Late Spring, I have some very minor issues with the notion of an "arranged marriage", but that's not on Ozu, but the culture itself. Still, I like how Hirayama doesn't force things on his daughter as he's setting things up ("I'm not insisting on this other man. If you don't like him, you can say so") which, again, shows some degree of growth in the country's overall culture and Ozu himself.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot and the PR HOF4.