Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Good documentary about one of my all time favorite musical groups. When it comes to harmonies the brothers Gibb have few if any peers. The Everly Brothers are the only ones I can think of offhand.

Hanna (2011)

Memories of Underdevelopment follows Sergio (Sergio Corrieri), an affluent writer that's trying to make sense of the changes around him in the early 1960s in Cuba. But the changes aren't all political, but personal. His wife and friends are fleeing to Miami, while he tries to cope with his new surroundings and the isolation that comes from it.

The Cuban situation is always one that tends to be polarizing whenever discussed. However, this film manages to be an interesting inside look into the more societal aspects of the country and its people, in the midst of impending change. Like most changes, it might not be perfect, but then again, what is?

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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The Narrow Margin (1952)

The Tale of Zatoichi

First film of its 26 movie universe.

I really liked this one. Caught me totally off-guard.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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The Black Cat, 1934

Newlyweds Peter (David Manners) and Joan (Julie Bishop) meet a doctor named Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) on a train ride. Werdegast is returning home from a brutal experience in WW1, hoping to reunite with his wife and daughter whom he hasn't seen in over 15 years, and en route to visit an old friend named Poelzig (Boris Karloff). When the bus crashes, injuring Joan, all three end up seeking shelter at Poelzig's home, where a dangerous game ensures between Poelzig and Werdegast.

There was a short while where I thought that this film might be truly great, though unfortunately an unerring thread of sexism and some plotting/writing issues keep it from achieving greatness.

At its very best, this film achieves a kind of other-worldliness in both content and the way it is filmed. Werdegast learns that his wife, Karen, died. What he (and I as the audience!) is not prepared for is the fact that Poelzig has somehow meticulously embalmed her and she now floats, ethereally, in a glass box in Poelzig's basement, her hair streaming and her feet delicately pointed. After the shock of this scene (and a walk around the basement that shows that she is not the only woman in Poelzig's "collection"), the camera becomes almost disembodied. It roams through a door, up a staircase. Is this Werdegast's point of view? Poelzig's? The effect is startlingly modern, as the roving camera is underscored with Poelzig's narration.

The lighting here is also really great. While the scenes shot in the upstairs part of the house look relatively bright and normal, scenes in the basement have stark shadows that fall at strange angles. One place in the upstairs that darkness intrudes is in Poelzig's bedroom, where, seen at first through a sheer curtain, Poelzig is seen to have taken Werdegast's daughter (who he has also called Karen) as his wife.

Having mainly seen Lugosi in Dracula mode, it was really fun to see him playing a sympathetic (mostly) protagonist. Werdegast is a man who has been hurt many times over, and yet he still retains his humanity and does not want Peter or Joan to be hurt on his quest for vengeance. Likewise, this was a different type of character than the ones I have seen from Karloff before. The two have very strong chemistry as different sides of an unhinged coin--in both men there is the potential for unexpected violence, but for very different reasons.

I also really liked the portrayal of the evil cult that Poelzig leads. There were very much vibes of The Seventh Victim for me in the idea of evil looking very mundane. These are everyday, normal looking people who are totally cool with watching a human sacrifice.

What kept this movie from greatness for me were two different factors.

The first is simply the constant, borderline oppressive sexism. It starts out innocently enough when Peter introduces himself and his wife to Werdegast, "I'm Peter Allison. And this is Mrs. Allison." This is emblematic of the way that women in the film are regarded more as possessions or trophies than actual human beings. To be sure, there is something of condemnation when we see that Poelzig has embalmed, preserved, and displayed Karen like a scientific specimen. But all three of the main male characters treat the women in the film with condescension. This may seem like a small detail, but there is one scene in which three different men just walk into Joan's bedroom without knocking. And instead of focusing on Joan's discomfort, the point of the scene is to reinforce the growing rivalry and tension between Poelzig and Werdegast. The fact that every woman in the last act seems only capable of screaming, fainting, or screaming then fainting doesn't really help matters. There is a short, kind of sexy and fun scene between Peter and Joan--the way that he holds the front of her robe as they lay together and their obvious comfort and attraction makes them feel much more like real people. I wish the film had contained more sequences like this.

The other thing that bothered me was simply a sense of the story having been written a bit carelessly. The movie is called The Black Cat. There's a disturbing sequence early on where Werdegast kills a black housecat and we learn that he has a deep phobia of cats. Later, a cat appears at a critical moment to distract Werdegast. But in the final act, the whole theme of cats just seemed to fall by the wayside. Peter, who was never all that well written in the first place, seems to become even more blundering and more like an instrument of the script. Profound revelations and plot moments are raised and resolved way, way too quickly. Werdegast's story/tragedy has been building the whole film, and then really key parts of it just come and go in like 10 minutes. There isn't time to absorb as a viewer, much less to watch Werdegast absorb these things as a character. I think that it's possible to build tension and generate momentum while still allowing a narrative time to breathe. But The Black Cat barrels full steam ahead to its climax as if its life depends on it. And with such a short runtime, barely clocking in at 70ish minutes, it's not like there wasn't time to spare. I also thought that the film's epilogue was super cheesy and undercut the macabre, dark tone of the rest of the movie. There is also the matter of the use of yellowface in the character of Werdegast, but as the character himself is not too much of a caricature and the makeup is only mildly appalling, it doesn't do the film too much of a disservice.

For all these complaints, however, I really enjoyed this film. The imagery and lead performances were great.

Hard Times (1975) -

I'm not the biggest fan of sports films (or, at least, it's not a genre I find myself drawn to). However, I really like/love a handful of sports films out there and am always open to checking out more of them. Even though I didn't know about this film beforehand, I was pretty impressed by it. It would definitely land somewhere in my 10 favorite sports films.

I appreciated the way this film handled street fighting, with how winning appeared to be everything for that sport. For instance, Speed was initially treated as an outcast in the film since the wrestlers he worked with usually lost all their fights. It wasn't until he started working with Chaney when his reputation began to grow. Normally, if you were to lose a boxing match, it wouldn't be a big deal. Just learn from your mistakes and practice to get better. With this film though, being undefeatable came with a price as, once you lost your first match, your reputation would be destroyed.

Chaney had a lot in common with Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy for a number of reasons. Both Chaney and Eastwood were mysterious characters who would wander from town to town and only stay if necessary or if there was something significant for them to do (the final scene lingered with me as it helped to enhance the mysterious aura around Chaney). This also extended to the alienation and his difficulties with getting along with the various people he met, like Speed, who he occasionally got into arguments with, or Lucy, who he was emotionally distant with during their affair. Also, like Eastwood's character, both characters excelled at what they did (street fighting v. Western gunfights), carrying out these acts with an immense precision that none of their opponents could match. Chaney's skill in the fighting matches made for a pleasing style, yet didn't rob the film of tension or narrative momentum since the direction and editing of the various boxing matches were top notch (the fight with Jim Henry was my favorite from the film). This film had a unique feel which I don't recall seeing in any other boxing film.

Overall, I enjoyed this film quite a lot. I can understand someone feeling distant from the characters, but I wasn't bothered by that. The film had quite a lot to offer, like the "winning is everything" feel to street fighting or Chaney's characterization. I can see myself watching this film again.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

This is a low budget flick with bad acting and bad costumes that I still enjoyed watching. I went into Blood Moon (2014) expecting a B-flick and that's what I got so, there's really nothing to complain about.

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The Spirit of the Beehive, 1973

Ana (Ana Torrent) is a little girl living in rural Spain in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Ana lives with her older sister Isabel (Isabel Telleria), her beekeeping-obsessed father (Fernando Gomez), and her mother (Teresa Gimpera). After a traveling show screens Frankenstein, Ana finds her world transformed into a mix of reality and superstition.

I just loved this.

From the get go, Ana, with her brown, wide calf's eyes, seems like a character who was always meant to see things differently. When Isabel introduces her to the idea of invisible spirits, Ana's imagination takes flight and you can practically see her synthesizing the events and ideas around her into her own personal mythology.

I think that this film does an excellent job of capturing that potent mix of fear, excitement, and fantasy that can capture a child's imagination. The wisest thing that the movie does it keep the events subdued. A lesson in basic anatomy in Ana's elementary school classroom goes from whimsical to horrifying when the teacher stands next to the eyeless anatomical model and asks Ana what is missing.

There was something really neat to me about the way that, from the start, Ana empathizes with Frankenstein's monster. You would think that the critical scene where the creature throws the little girl in the water would instill fear in Ana. But instead Ana retains her sympathy. After viewing the film, she wants to know why the creature killed the little girl and why the villagers killed the creature. Later when Ana stumbles on a wounded and hiding soldier, her instinct is to help protect him. I really loved this scene, and especially that the film takes the time to show the soldier's reaction of gratitude to her kindness. A lesser film would put all the emphasis on the sense of danger: is this man going to do something to Ana? But the film isn't about that. It's about how Ana processes what happens in the world around her.

The visuals alone are worth mentioning. Beautiful stretches of land, but all in a muted yellow and brown palate. And the family's house is layered with the father's love of bees, including gorgeous windows with a pattern that evokes honeycomb.

This was a really beautiful film on all levels. I did feel that the subplot about the mother writing letters to her lover was a little underdeveloped, and it didn't quite cohere with Ana's story as well as the subplot about the father's interest in the bees.

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Captain's Log
My Collection

I just watched this because of your review, and it was really good. I don't really need to write anything as I almost completely agree with you. I'm just a little stingier by nature, so I'll only give it . This was the second great film straight of nowhere I found here during the last week (the other being Sundays and Cybele) - such a great forum to be.

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There are so many movies whose titles exist in my head and I think I know what they are about and then I am 100% wrong. I think I perpetually mix up titles and synopses. In this case, I was sure that there was some real animal violence, and when I read more about the film and realized I was totally wrong about the plot, I checked it out.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

The Third Man - I hadn't watched this in years and years and if I would have had a fresher memory of it I wouldn't have placed it so low in my Top 25. This is so close to perfection and such a precise and tidily constructed undertaking that I could easily move it all the way up to #2 and would even give it serious consideration as my #1 overall. Joseph Cotten plays Holly Martins, a hard drinking, down on his luck writer of pulp westerns. He shows up in postwar Vienna at the behest of his longtime friend Harry Lime only to find out that his friend has been killed in a mysterious hit and run accident. At Lime's funeral he takes notice of Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), an attractive and enigmatic young woman who turns out to have been Harry's lover. He makes the acquaintance of two British Royal Military Police, Sgt. Paine (Bernard Lee) and Major Calloway (Trevor Howard).

He also runs across Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch) who tells Holly that he and a Romanian national named Popescu (Siegfried Breuer) were with Harry when he died and that he lived long enough to tell them to look after Holly and Anna. He then goes and sees the porter at Harry's apartment building who tells Holly that Harry died instantaneously and that were not two but three men who helped carry his body out of the street. These glaring discrepancies in Kurtz's version along with Major Calloway's implications that Harry was involved in criminal activities convince Holly to stay in Vienna and investigate who this mysterious "third man" may have been.

Director Carol Reed employs disparate techniques to set the proper tone including night time shooting and a wealth of Dutch angles. He also uses shadows, and not just the contrast between light and dark of which there are plenty of effective examples. Literal silhouettes. Thrown against the sides of buildings and tunnels and characters faces. There's also the iconic scene where someone stands in a darkened doorway on a nightime street. And the abrupt revelation prompted by someone in the room above turning on a light. It get's so many things right that it's hard to keep up with all of them. The character of Anna is what writers must have in mind when they attempt to create a femme fatale or an object of desire. She's mysterious without seeming impenetrable and for Holly remains maddeningly elusive. That last protracted shot of a lone figure slowly coming closer and bracketed between two rows of bare trees is the perfect ending to a perfect movie. 100/100

There was nothing quite like George Sanders. That blase but intimidating "ever so" accent and deep voice always got a viewer's attention, and usually cause him to be the focus in any scene. His presence alone could make a movie worthwhile.

The Lusty Men

That's a film I need to revisit. I remember liking it quite a bit, but was very surprised by how little the wounded soldier was in it. Maybe it's the fault of the synopses I read which which made it seem like that would be the main premise of the film, but I was a bit baffled by that. I'll have to give it another shot someday though.

Checkpoint (1956)
D: Ralph Thomas
Starring: Anthony Steel, Odile Versois, Stanley Baker, James Robertson Justice

Okay British crime drama about industrial espionage in the world of sports car racing. A somewhat mediocre script and cast of characters, but made up for by pleasant location filming in Italy, and nice footage of competing 1950's British and European sports cars.

6/10

Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master, 1988

Kristen (Tuesday Knight), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), and Joey (Rodney Eastman) are all that survive of the Dream Warriors from the third film. But Freddy isn't as dead as they'd hoped and he comes raring back. Falling in his sights are Kristen's friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and her brother Rick (Andras Jones), along with Alice's crush, Dan (Danny Hassel).

I mean, the picture above says it all. I was hoping to watch the third film tonight, but it is the only one not available on any of my streaming services. What I got was the fourth film, a movie that has fun ideas here and there but struggles to find any kind of coherent tone and shortchanges its most interesting characters.

The most frustrating thing about this film was that I actually cared about most of the characters. This is maybe the most likable group of teenage protagonists I've seen in a slasher film in a good while. I genuinely liked Deb (Brooke Theiss), the weight-lifting tough chick who would rather watch [i]Dynasty[i] than do her trig homework. I liked her easy friendship with Sheila (Toy Newkirk), the brilliant nerd (SIDENOTE: Brilliant Black nerd girl, a character whose presence actually made me check the date the film was made). Rick and Alice, who both deal with their father's alcoholism following their mother's death, are likable as well.

Unfortunately, in its haste to move from one one-liner cracking death to another, the film almost never gives the characters a chance to breathe.

The film's strength and weakness, as is typical with many a slasher, lies in the creativity of the kills. And it's a mixed bag, to be honest. There are a lot of incredibly obvious set-ups (like Sheila's asthma or Deb finding a cockroach in her food. And the payoffs are a mixed bag. A few of them show visual or thematic creativity, but Kruger is so jokey-jokey that it adds an element of disinterest to the proceedings. These likable characters are mostly just there to be the victims of set-pieces.

I didn't hate this film, but I wish that with such a good lineup of characters the tone had been a little more serious and there had been a more cohesive narrative arc. A few bold choices here and there just don't quite cut it.