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The black magick community is a hidden group of individuals who practice a dark form of witchcraft. This type of witchcraft is based on the belief that one can harness the power of Kabbalah and Jamaican Obeah spirits called Duppies to achieve their goals.
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Ghostwatch, 1992
In this pseudo-live broadcast event, British TV host Michael Parkinson presides over a special televised event in which the idea of hauntings is explored with the help of an in-studio specialist (Gillian Bevan) and in-the-field interviews with a single mother and her two daughters who claim that their house is haunted by a mysterious figure known as Pipes. But as the broadcast goes on, strange events begin to affect the family and the TV crew covering their story.
Found footage is one of my least favorite horror subgenres, but this film shows how to do it right.
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Poison for the Fairies, 1986
Flavia (Elsa Maria Gutierrez) is an only child of an upper class family. At school, she befriends Veronica (Ana Patricia Rojo), who is obsessed with witches and convinces Flavia that she has witchy powers. While the girls start out more like co-conspirators, Veronica soon uses Flavia’s anxiety and guilt as leverage to force her friend into increasingly dire situations.
Mining tension from childhood fears and poisonous friendship dynamics, this is a fantastic intersection of horror and drama.
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I have no plans to watch this, but your comment is a tad harsh.
'Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.' (2023)
Directed by Kelly Fremon-Craig
Directed by Kelly Fremon-Craig
Sweet coming of age film (based on the novel of the same name) about 11 year old Margaret, who is baffled at events in her life in 1970s America, is desperate to start her period and wants to start wearing a bra.
Margaret prays to God for things and religious identity is a key theme director Kelly Fremon-Craig uses to dissect how it can affect family life. The little prayers to god Margaret narrates have echoes of the 'Dear Diary' entries Winona Ryder gives us in' Heathers'.
The film is good at making the viewer reminisce how it felt to be 11 - anger, embarrassment and confusion everywhere. It's a little saccharine at times, although Benny Safdie and Rachel McAdams are pretty good as Margaret's parents. McAdams' character is well written in terms of telling us that coming of age doesn't really ever stop. We still try and fit in where we can as adults and even learn new things about us as we waddle on on through life.
7.2/10
I don't know how to link to my review, so here is my commentary:
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
This is a cute, witty, delightful and touching picture that will likely make a star out of the actress who played the title character Margaret, 15-year-old Abby Ryder Forston. Margaret is a young lass who, along with a few of her school friends, is facing the start of the transition to puberty, with all of its angst, excitement, and physical changes that occur with these 11 or 12 year-old girls.
Margaret is crushed when her family decides to move from Manhattan to a New Jersey suburb because she’ll lose all of her friends at that critical age. But at the new suburban high school she soon falls in with a trio of female classmates, all of whom are full of wonderment and anxiety about the physical transformation that they are about to undergo, along with their attraction to, but shyness around boys.
At one point Margaret criticizes Laura (Isol Young) --an unusually taller and physically more developed classmate-- for reportedly letting boys “feel her up”. This shames the girl, who later tells Margaret that Margaret couldn’t possibly understand how awkward and embarrassing it is for Laura to be shunned because she’s so different physically than most of the other girls. Margaret later realizes how wrong she was to criticize Laura, and that she can relate to Laura’s isolation. Margaret searches her out and pulls her into Margaret’s group.
The important subtext is Margaret’s tendency to pray to God for relief and guidance despite her confusion about what God is, all the while trying to decide to which if any religion she wants to adhere. Her father is Jewish and her mother is lightly Christian, but from strong and determined Christian parents. Margaret tries them all, even though she’s seriously pressed by her father’s (Benny Safdie) mother (Kathy Bates) to become Jewish.
Her mother (Rachel McAdams) does not encourage Margaret towards any religion at all, and she and her husband are still miffed that her mother’s folks more or less cut off relations with her because she married a Jewish man. That circumstance later comes to a head when they all squabble over which religion Margaret should follow. In the end, Margaret goes her own way.
The standout performance of course is Abby Ryder Forston’s portrayal of Margaret. Her friend Nancy (Elle Graham) is likewise enjoyable. Rachel McAdams as the mother is almost too strong a presence, both in beauty and allure. One not quite so beautiful would have been a little more fitting. Benny Safdie is almost a tack-on as the father. Possibly selected because they needed someone who looks stereotypically Jewish (Salfdie is Jewish). There isn’t a lot of chemistry between McAdams and Safdie, but their relationship is only an incidental part of the story. Kathy Bates turns in another perfect performance as Margaret’s attractive and fun grandmother.
It’s refreshing to see a successful and well done picture made like they used to be. Despite the subject matter, they avoid low humor along with sexual displays and foul language. The screenplay by director/writer Kelly Craig perfectly relates all the travails, excitement and wonderment typically experienced by 11 or 12 year-old girls as they start the journey into sexual maturity.
Doc’s rating: 9/10
Doc’s rating: 9/10
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A Simple Plan (1998)
A midwestern drama that has some really intense scenes. You might forget how different it is in the country and then you see how these characters choose to deal with each other when there's millions of dollars on their heads. Eventually though the story resolves like it would anywhere else, it only took longer to get there. A reality check.
8/10
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By A24 - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73340553
You Hurt My Feelings - (2023)
You Hurt My Feelings is a quirky little film - almost like an elongated episode from some nonexistent sitcom, with the film's focus on the way we tell little white lies to loved ones (and, well, just about everyone we have to deal with in life) for everyone's benefit being a big part of nearly every scene in the film. It's really funny - it puts it's best foot forward with that aspect, and has these little understated moments that squeak out and make you laugh out loud. Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a writer, and has a husband, Don (Tobias Menzies) who's a therapist and gives her loving support. However, when Beth accidentally overhears the fact that he thinks the book she's spent the last two years of her life writing is awful, her world falls apart. In orbit around the couple's world are their son, Elliott (Owen Teague) who sells weed (legally) and is trying to write a play himself, her sister Sarah (Arian Moayed), Sarah's husband Mark (Arian Moayed) who is an actor and Beth and Sarah's mother, Georgia (Jeannie Berlin). Every time characters interact there will be some compliment payed or judgement rendered that's flattering - whether it's out of politeness, love, encouragement or just keeping the peace. At one stage Elliott's bristles over the fact that his parents have always been on his side to a fault - telling him he's great at things he really wasn't all that good at, and not giving him a true reflection of himself. At the same time, when his girlfriend leaves him, he's angry if they try to explore what her reasons might have been with "Are you on my side or hers?" Nobody likes the truth, but when people are caught out they find it's hard to win either way. A playful score makes this feel all the more as a comedy first and foremost, but it explores it's issue with grace and sure-footedness. I liked the performance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as well.
6/10
By the production company - http://www.impawards.com/2019/motherless_brooklyn.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61617143
Motherless Brooklyn - (2019)
Motherless Brooklyn is a very cinematic accomplishment - broadly beautiful in the way period films can sometimes be, this time with the concrete and iron world of it's 50s New York setting. While not Edward Norton's directorial debut, the fact that he only has one other film to his credit (2000's Keeping the Faith) shows that he's out on a limb with this neo-noir crime story, based on a Jonathan Lethem (although apparently radically changed in every regard) novel. It's got style, and in spades, and that helps make it one that's going to stick in my memory, despite confusing me just a little - mostly by making it's overall #1 villain almost incidental and invisible amongst the various characters in the film (he gets 12th billing). The bad guy who really sticks out is Alec Baldwin's Moses Randolph (cut from the same cloth as his Glengarry Glen Ross character.) Norton himself plays Lionel Essrog (I'm sure an anagram solver will spit something out if you try) - a gumshoe who happens to be afflicted with both Tourette syndrome and OCD, with the Tourette side of things causing him no end of problems. Also lending this film great watchability is Willem Dafoe and Bruce Willis, who gets through quite well. It's already in the queue for a rewatch for me - it's just such a good looking film with such interesting characters and performances. Housing and city planning corruption take center stage, and that's something that means something personally to the director/star - but there's a great feel for noir here as well.
7/10
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Latest Review : Aftersun (2022)
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I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I'm not generally a fan of coming-of-age films.
I don't know how to link to my review, so here is my commentary:
At one point Margaret criticizes Laura (Isol Young) --an unusually taller and physically more developed classmate-- for reportedly letting boys “feel her up”. This shames the girl, who later tells Margaret that Margaret couldn’t possibly understand how awkward and embarrassing it is for Laura to be shunned because she’s so different physically than most of the other girls. Margaret later realizes how wrong she was to criticize Laura, and that she can relate to Laura’s isolation. Margaret searches her out and pulls her into Margaret’s group.
I don't know how to link to my review, so here is my commentary:
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
This is a cute, witty, delightful and touching picture that will likely make a star out of the actress who played the title character Margaret, 15-year-old Abby Ryder Forston. Margaret is a young lass who, along with a few of her school friends, is facing the start of the transition to puberty, with all of its angst, excitement, and physical changes that occur with these 11 or 12 year-old girls.
Margaret is crushed when her family decides to move from Manhattan to a New Jersey suburb because she’ll lose all of her friends at that critical age. But at the new suburban high school she soon falls in with a trio of female classmates, all of whom are full of wonderment and anxiety about the physical transformation that they are about to undergo, along with their attraction to, but shyness around boys.
At one point Margaret criticizes Laura (Isol Young) --an unusually taller and physically more developed classmate-- for reportedly letting boys “feel her up”. This shames the girl, who later tells Margaret that Margaret couldn’t possibly understand how awkward and embarrassing it is for Laura to be shunned because she’s so different physically than most of the other girls. Margaret later realizes how wrong she was to criticize Laura, and that she can relate to Laura’s isolation. Margaret searches her out and pulls her into Margaret’s group.
The important subtext is Margaret’s tendency to pray to God for relief and guidance despite her confusion about what God is, all the while trying to decide to which if any religion she wants to adhere. Her father is Jewish and her mother is lightly Christian, but from strong and determined Christian parents. Margaret tries them all, even though she’s seriously pressed by her father’s (Benny Safdie) mother (Kathy Bates) to become Jewish.
Her mother (Rachel McAdams) does not encourage Margaret towards any religion at all, and she and her husband are still miffed that her mother’s folks more or less cut off relations with her because she married a Jewish man. That circumstance later comes to a head when they all squabble over which religion Margaret should follow. In the end, Margaret goes her own way.
The standout performance of course is Abby Ryder Forston’s portrayal of Margaret. Her friend Nancy (Elle Graham) is likewise enjoyable. Rachel McAdams as the mother is almost too strong a presence, both in beauty and allure. One not quite so beautiful would have been a little more fitting. Benny Safdie is almost a tack-on as the father. Possibly selected because they needed someone who looks stereotypically Jewish (Salfdie is Jewish). There isn’t a lot of chemistry between McAdams and Safdie, but their relationship is only an incidental part of the story. Kathy Bates turns in another perfect performance as Margaret’s attractive and fun grandmother.
It’s refreshing to see a successful and well done picture made like they used to be. Despite the subject matter, they avoid low humor along with sexual displays and foul language. The screenplay by director/writer Kelly Craig perfectly relates all the travails, excitement and wonderment typically experienced by 11 or 12 year-old girls as they start the journey into sexual maturity.
Doc’s rating: 9/10
Doc’s rating: 9/10
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'Desert Hearts' (1985)
Directed by Donna Deitch
Directed by Donna Deitch
Vivian, a repressed professor travels to Reno, to divorce her husband. While there, Cay - a beautiful young casino worker stokes her lust and Vivian questions her sexuality as a result. This is a really beautiful film. I’d not heard of it before I saw it in the Criterion collection and had to buy it. Criterion have done an amazing job at the picture restoration which has resulted in one of the finest looking criterion discs I’ve seen. Robert Elswit’s photography is really striking – the film was shot on location in Reno and set in 1959, so the barren desert and old cars make for a superb backdrop.
The film was shot on a budget but director Donna Deitch got the best out of everything. Cay lives on the ranch where her overbearing stepmother resides. She does not approve of Cay's lesbian relationships and the strained family dynamic is a theme throughout. When Vivian arrives on the scene, Cay must make some choices that may alter her life forever.
Desert Hearts received a luke warm response from critics at the time, with most saying there wasn’t enough emotion or tension. Perhaps it was just an outlier in the year that gave us Back to the Future and The Goonies. The love scene towards the end is so sensitively directed, and the ending is really tender and perfectly ambiguous.
8.5/10
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Ghostwatch, 1992
In this pseudo-live broadcast event, British TV host Michael Parkinson presides over a special televised event in which the idea of hauntings is explored with the help of an in-studio specialist (Gillian Bevan) and in-the-field interviews with a single mother and her two daughters who claim that their house is haunted by a mysterious figure known as Pipes. But as the broadcast goes on, strange events begin to affect the family and the TV crew covering their story.
Found footage is one of my least favorite horror subgenres, but this film shows how to do it right.
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Yep, that Book Club movie does look like someone's reanimated the dead.
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Arena (2011)
Sex, female nudity, violence, blood, light gore, not much else. You could put this on your shelf next to Mortal Kombat the movie as the concept is the same without the costumes. This wasn't released in theaters and with a big budget I guess you could call it a vanity project not meant to knock down box office doors. I dont think they were worried about the money. The dialog is wonderful.
5/10
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Terrified me to my bones watching this live as a 13 year old.
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Three Ages, 1923
A caveman, a Roman, and a modern man (all played by Buster Keaton) all pursue a woman (all played by Margaret Leahy). But in each era, the protagonist faces opposition to claiming his lady love.
Some creative stunt work and sight gags on display, but it doesn’t quite feel like it justifies its runtime.
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Alice in Wonderland, 1915
This silent film is an adaptation of the book Alice in Wonderland.
Kind of an interesting historical curiosity, but not all that engaging.
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The Lost World, 1925
An expedition sets out to find a lost explorer who supposedly has found a place where prehistoric creatures still live.
The dinosaurs are an A+, the rest is whatever.
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By the production company - http://www.impawards.com/2019/motherless_brooklyn.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61617143
Motherless Brooklyn - (2019)
Motherless Brooklyn is a very cinematic accomplishment - broadly beautiful in the way period films can sometimes be, this time with the concrete and iron world of it's 50s New York setting. While not Edward Norton's directorial debut, the fact that he only has one other film to his credit (2000's Keeping the Faith) shows that he's out on a limb with this neo-noir crime story, based on a Jonathan Lethem (although apparently radically changed in every regard) novel. It's got style, and in spades, and that helps make it one that's going to stick in my memory, despite confusing me just a little - mostly by making it's overall #1 villain almost incidental and invisible amongst the various characters in the film (he gets 12th billing). The bad guy who really sticks out is Alec Baldwin's Moses Randolph (cut from the same cloth as his Glengarry Glen Ross character.) Norton himself plays Lionel Essrog (I'm sure an anagram solver will spit something out if you try) - a gumshoe who happens to be afflicted with both Tourette syndrome and OCD, with the Tourette side of things causing him no end of problems. Also lending this film great watchability is Willem Dafoe and Bruce Willis, who gets through quite well. It's already in the queue for a rewatch for me - it's just such a good looking film with such interesting characters and performances. Housing and city planning corruption take center stage, and that's something that means something personally to the director/star - but there's a great feel for noir here as well.
7/10
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
This is a well done, well thought out production by Edward Norton, based on the book by Jonathan Lethem of the same name. Norton produced, directed, wrote the screen play, and acted in the film along with a
stellar cast including Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Alec Baldwin. Reportedly Norton had been trying to bring this book to the screen since 1999, so it was obviously a labor of love.
Set in 1957's NYC, a private eye (Norton) working in a detective firm headed by Frank Minna (Willis), begins an investigation of Minna's puzzling death at the hand of people in league with the city. Norton's character eventually solves the murder, and uncovers several dark secrets both of important people and the city itself.
Norton's detective has Tourette Syndrome along with a photographic memory, which makes for some interesting drama. I'm a sucker for any noir, and this one is absorbing. It's vaguely reminiscent of Polanski's Chinatown, and at 144 minutes it has plenty of time to set the feel and the mood for a late '50s detective story.
A special note is deserved for the excellent jazz score by Daniel Pemberton, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for 2019. He was tasked by Norton to come up with jazz trumpet music reminiscent of Miles Davis' "cool sound", which was just getting started in the late '50s. The music was a very integral part of the film.
Initially it took some effort to accept Norton's character's Tourette's, but once accomplished it became a novel quirk. My guess is that as an actor who likes a challenge, Norton was particularly attracted to this role. The Tourette's affliction was not necessary, but it was a definite part of the book's character.
One puzzling set circumstance: There were several '57 automobiles (especially Chevys) in use during the film. But yet whenever an important high level character (mayor, mobster, city official) was seen getting in or out of a car, it was invariably a late '40s vintage. The error was pretty glaring, but perhaps they felt that the late '40s cars went better with the noir feel.
A gratifying film that held one's interest throughout its run time. A picture which warrants another watching.
Doc's rating: 7/10
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