Movie Tab II

Tools    





Seen in May

Labyrinth:
: DANCE MAGIC, DANCE MAGIC! JUMP MAGIC, JUMP MAGIC!

Fyre:
: While this is an extremely interesting ‘stranger than fiction’ tale, I gotta deduct some points because after doing a bit of research I found out they left out information. Despite them saying the tickets were 250K, they didn’t mention how some people payed only as little as 1.5K. I hate when documentaries lie/misinterpret information.

The Fugitive:
: Even with a slightly dry third act, it’s a fun 90’s adventure film.

The Adventures of Robin Hood:
-; I have a soft spot for these swashbuckling films where all of the characters are laughing their heads off the whole time.

Aliens: [RE-WATCH]:
: The original Alien left some big shoes to fill, but changing the genre was a clever move that made this movie feel fresh. Seeing all of the soldiers screwing about with each other was so much fun, you can really feel the comradery.

The Butterfly Effect:
: Incredibly cheesy and uses the most cartoonish stock sound effects ever, but that’s what makes it so fun!

Cops (1922):
: A fun short with some cool stunts and one or two good laughs.

The Crying Game:
: Oh boy, this film hasn’t aged well! Despite that it’s a fairly solid ‘Troubles’ film. Really hoped the whole film would be about the main character interacting with Forest Whitaker. Probably going to watch the director’s newest film ‘Greta’ at some point.

Adaptation:
: Charlie Kaufman is this generation’s Shakespeare I swear. I mean I don’t think many people thought of this concept of a film, and the ones who did thought it was too stupid to work. Not Charlie though. Nic Cage’s dual performance of the twins was so good. The ideas it presents about the struggles of being a writer are super interesting.

Metropolis:
: Despite being quite slow, it is a film I can certainly appreciate the craft of.

Stagecoach:
-: Can we get George Miller to do a remake of this before he dies? Please?



The Last Warning (1928)

Stage professionals find themselves threatened by a possible ghost in a ramshackle old theatre. There are a few creepy timeworn images, heightened by the great setting. Strong histrionics play towards a largely comic tone as well, with a plot that mirrors Phantom of the Opera a little too much in the 2nd half.

The Great White Silence (1924)

A doc of Englishmen venturing to find the South Pole in 1910. There’s also emphasis on wildlife, gorgeous landscape shots, and one brief but difficult to overlook racist bit. Not knowing the history behind this, I wasn’t ready for such a tough ending. A fascinating & powerful document.

Asphalt (1929)

A young traffic guard gets involved with a seductive jewel thief. It has a beautiful harshly lit glow, and a simple character driven plot. A slow pace for the most part, with the overtly melodramatic instances spread apart by underlying tensions.

Battling Butler (1926)

Buster Keaton accidentally gets inserted into high level boxing. Keaton is always charming and easy to like, but this relies more on story than… Keaton-isms, and the story is mostly uninteresting (despite such a fun premise) with one of the biggest anticlimaxes I’ve seen.
WARNING: "BB" spoilers below
He never even has the hyped-up final showdown in the end! He instead gets into a relatively non-comical fight backstage.


One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Half gritty, silly, OTT zombie splatter flick, half deconstruction of said zombie flick. I didn’t quite grasp the plot description going in, which was for the better. The way the 2nd half unfolds is very impressive, original, and consistently funny with a lot of character.





First time viewings June 2019:

The Mustang 2019

+ Match Point 2005
+ The Mule 2019
+ Birds of Passage ‘Pájaros de verano’ 2019
+ Shadow ‘影’ 2019

The Wolf’s Call ‘Le chant du loup’ 2019

- Kagemusha ‘影武者’ 1980
- Deadwood The Movie 2019

+ Suburra 2015
+ King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2017

+ The Beach Bum 2019

Stockholm 2019

+ Shazam! 2019

Re-watch June 2019:

+ Tombstone 1993

Blue Velvet 1986
Full Contact ‘俠盜高飛’ 1992
Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan 2007



Total June viewings: 17
Total 2019 viewings: 133



June, 2019 movies watched-

Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)
Blaxploitation to the extreme.

The Perfection (2018)
Ok Netflix horror/thriller.

Souls for Sale (1923)
- From the Ebert list and well worth watching.

Destroyer (2018)
+ Enjoyed the slow paced crime story.

Marianne (1929)
+ Early talkie is a nice musical comedy with just the right touch of seriousness.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
Deserving of it's Cannes award.

Faust (1926) Repeat viewing
+ Love Emil Jennings as the devil.

A Dog's Way Home (2019)
For dog lovers only.

The Kid (1921)
+ Not as funny as expected but the drama made up for it.

Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
+ Not as good as Heat but it's that kind of crime thriller.

Lucky Star (1929)
Loses a half a popcorn for the score.

The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Definitely a good movie to watch for the next countdown.

Cold Pursuit (2019)
- Dumb but entertaining.

Sadie Thompson (1928)
Hated the score and not a Gloria Swanson fan.

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (2018)
+ A very good watch but nothing that'll stay with me.

The Unknown (1927)
At only 50 minutes it's a must watch for anyone looking to fill out their pre-30's ballot with something on the sinister side.

Sherlock Jr. (1924) Repeat Viewing
Certainly enjoyable even if it doesn't leave a big mark on me.

Pandora's Box (1929)
Very risqué and dark for it's time.

Angel Face (1953)
+ A noir that's worth watching.

Total June viewings-19
Total 2019 viewings-83





Boundaries (2016) Feste
A daughter takes three days off work to deliver her colorful father (he has gotten kicked out of his retirement home) to a second daughter in Los Angeles. This film didn’t quite jell. When you think Vera Farmiga … no great knee slappers come to mind (comedy is not her forte) but clearly more of the fault lies with the director. Drama can happen, for comedy to work: all the gags need to be set up. For instance, the film opens during a therapy session where our heroine thinks she is doing so well she suggests cutting back on the therapy sessions. Her therapist then begins a serious run down all her emotional tangles. A much better opening would have been her heading to the therapy session and her stumbling across an adorable stray dog and after a great internal struggle; she finally wrenches herself away from it and walks into the building proud of herself. Then when the therapist asks: how many stray dogs and cats (all you have to do is feed them and they will give you unconditional love) have you adopted this week? When the little dog pops its head out from her hand bag this would have gotten a big laugh plus oodles of insight into her character.

½

Blade Runner * (1982) Scott
After a while, all the artsy fartsy design got tiring; a probing search light outside of every window; Venetian blind shafts cut across every room; the fog, mist, and shadow machines going full blast. Deckard is basically a repellant, cold blooded killer; the film hides this by having him shuffle around some papers and do some minor detective work. The focus is wrong in this film; this is actually a story about a hidden slave revolt. Our sympathies should be with the synthetic immigrants; amazingly life-like, sub-humans (wow, what a dead giveaway!) Two of the synthetic workers are military grade drones, so if you gave them an elastic band or a pea shooter they would have had no trouble dispatching Deckard. It’s kind of laughable they let Deckard do them in.

Annie Oakley
(1932) Stevens
There is a kind of rudimentary romance between two snipers in a traveling Wild West show. This was dated: it was clearly racist in certain areas, although Chief Sitting Bull is given some nice gags. On the other hand, it’s nicely dated in other areas; when a peroxide blonde strolls into a saloon the men all keel over from shock, they never thought they would live to see the day.

L. 627
(1992) Tavernier
This French police story has the distinctive anti-Hollywood feel. These are not heroic superman battling evil, but normal guys fighting a losing battle and losing their humanity in the process. The narcotics section is a trailer parked in the vacant lot outside the run-down police station. Our hero is outraged when the big boss simply pulls the plug on a stake-out detail because it’s late (he uses the surveillance van as his personal vehicle) and he wants to go home. Our hero is less outraged when he exploits his snitches or when he borrows a surveillance camera from work to make some extra money on the week-ends shooting marriage videos. The L627 is a form in the paperwork referring to the letter of the law in the war against drugs.

★★★

After the Wedding *
(2009) Blier
There is a great set-up where humanitarian worker travels from India back to his home country in order to secure funding for his orphanage and accidently (?) gets invited to a wedding where his own sketchy past returns with a vengeance. I loved the intimate, gestural close-ups of the character's eyes. The English remake of this will be showing up a few months from now … Julianne Moore impregnates someone? I’m officially intrigued as to how they are going to re-tell this story.

Me and Earl and the dying Girl *
(2015) Gomez-Rejon
I liked how the title matches our zero’s non-confrontational way of hiding in plain sight. Before the girl outed him, he was successfully Zeligging his way through high school. He refers to her in the past tense at least once and she drops the stage-four bomb, so the whole unreliable narrator becomes moot this time around, it’s more of a question of the inattentive movie watcher.

Black Butterfly
(2017) Goodman
The writer’s block film usually has the writer meeting a stranger, having an adventure then writing about it. The blocked-up writer in a remote cabin also suggested Misery. The writer angrily flips off a trucker during a road rage moment then speeds away from him. With nowhere to go in the middle of the forest (and this being a movie) the trucker is simply going to pull into the parking lot down the road of the village’s one gas station/restaurant and continue the conversation. The writer becomes so weak and pathetic during the confrontation, I couldn’t stop watching because of this weird emotional hook to the story.

Tin Man
(2007) Stevens
This wasn’t a remake of The Wizard of Oz or re-imagining of it since they took only took certain pieces of it to make a new story. There is not a lot of budget here but they really wrench every single penny out of the CGI and costuming; putting the henchmen into long black leather coats always works in a film. This is wonderfully cheesy. The flying monkeys are embedded in the wicked witch’s tramp stamp. Zooey “Blue Sky” ’Deschanel is costumed in a pair of flair pants and she runs like a girl during the numerous chase scenes. Alan Cummings plays the Tin Man with a just the tiniest suggestion of Michael Jackson.

* = rewatch






Licence To Kill (1989)

Wildly underrated, over time that seems to be what I go for. Phenomenal villain played by Robert Davi, a fitting Timothy Dalton 007, and dazzling Bond girls makes this possibly my favorite film of them over GoldenEye (1995).

Rating:
8.0 / 10

Licence To Kill



The Three Musketeers (1993)

They're Scoundrels, Playboys, Outlaws. Charlie Sheen plays a priest, Aramis, spectacular casting choice, joined by Kiefer Sutherland as Athos, Oliver Platt as Porthos The Pirate, as well as Chris O'Donnell. The movie wins my summer. It's better than everything.

Rating:
+ 9.5 / 10

The Three Musketeers

Attachments
Click image for larger version

Name:	Licence1.jpg
Views:	156
Size:	205.7 KB
ID:	56008   Click image for larger version

Name:	Licence2.jpg
Views:	147
Size:	244.0 KB
ID:	56009   Click image for larger version

Name:	ThreeMusketeers93.jpg
Views:	154
Size:	328.3 KB
ID:	56010  



First-Viewings Over The Last Two Years

1. The Three Musketeers (1993)
+ 9.5 / 10
2. Nightmare Sisters (1988)
9.0 / 10
3. The Breakfast Club (1985)
9.0 / 10
4. Urban Legend (1998)
9.0 / 10
5. Lionheart (1990)
9.0 / 10
6. The Three Musketeers (1973)
8.0 / 10
7. Carny (1980)
8.0 / 10
8. Licence To Kill (1989)
8.0 / 10
9. Halloween (2007)
8.0 / 10
10. Christine (1983)
8.0 / 10



Tri Eta Pi House party with sorority sisters Marci, Mickey, and Melody in Nightmare Sisters (1988).

11. Grease 2 (1982)
8.0 / 10
12. Kickboxer (1989)
8.0 / 10
13. Soldier Of Orange (1977)
8.0 / 10
14. Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988)
+ 7.5 / 10
15. Bloodsport (1988)
+ 7.5 / 10
16. Final Destination (2000)
+ 7.5 / 10
17. Cocktail (1988)
+ 7.5 / 10
18. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
+ 7.5 / 10
19. Deep Red (1975)
+ 7.5 / 10
20. Twins Of Evil (1971)
+ 7.5 / 10



Elisabeth Shue and Tom Cruise meet at a Jamaican beach in Cocktail (1988).

21. Graduation Day (1981)
7.0 / 10
22. Night Of The Demons (1988)
7.0 / 10
23. The Initiation (1984)
7.0 / 10
24. Intruder (1989)
7.0 / 10
25. House Of 1000 Corpses (2003)
7.0 / 10
26. You're Next (2011)
7.0 / 10
27. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
7.0 / 10
28. Battle Of Britain (1969)
7.0 / 10
29. The Vampire Lovers (1970)
7.0 / 10
30. Sunset Strip (2012)
7.0 / 10



Daphne Zuniga gets ready for prank night in The Initiation (1984).

31. Student Bodies (1981)
+ 6.5 / 10
32. Night Of The Demons 2 (1994)
+ 6.5 / 10
33. The Prowler (1981)
+ 6.5 / 10
34. Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
+ 6.5 / 10
35. Candyman (1992)
+ 6.5 / 10
36. Psycho (1998)
+ 6.5 / 10
37. Terrifier (2017)
+ 6.5 / 10
38. Tourist Trap (1979)
+ 6.5 / 10
39. Halloween... The Happy Haunting Of America (1997)
+ 6.5 / 10
40. The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974)
+ 6.5 / 10



Porthos carries Raquel Welch (Constance) in The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974).

41. Halloween H2O (1998)
6.0 / 10
42. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
6.0 / 10
43. Hellraiser (1987)
+ 5.5 / 10
44. Tenebrae (1982)
+ 5.5 / 10

Attachments
Click image for larger version

Name:	NightmareSisters1988.jpg
Views:	147
Size:	328.7 KB
ID:	56051   Click image for larger version

Name:	Cocktail1988.jpg
Views:	151
Size:	63.7 KB
ID:	56052   Click image for larger version

Name:	TheInitiation1984.jpg
Views:	152
Size:	398.4 KB
ID:	56053   Click image for larger version

Name:	TheFourMusketeers1974.jpg
Views:	149
Size:	333.6 KB
ID:	56054  



Chasing Sleep (2000)

When a man’s wife goes missing, he’s kept awake by incessant anxiety and ‘possible’ hallucinations. A very psychological thriller/horror confined to the protagonist’s sporadically filthy house. It’s not full of clichés, and it’s unpredictable enough to stay engrossing for someone who has seen more psych thrillers than you can shake a stick at. Highly recommended if you like modern psych thrillers.

El Patrullero / Highway Patrolman (1991)

Tumultuous events in the early months/years of a young patrolman’s ethically tested career in Mexico. A more measured & mature crime movie from Alex Cox, though it still highlights the locale’s seediness and has a couple of odd flourishes. Not as offbeat engaging as Walker or Repo Man, but still such a well put together movie.

The Nose (1963)

Surreal animated short about a man and his missing nose, based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story. Dialogue-free, odd plucky soundtrack, and charmingly imperfect and unique artwork.

I saw a short video detailing the animation too. It was done using a pinboard wherein the animators would meticulously push out tiny pins at certain distances until the shadows formed a desired image. A lot of work for little yield, but respect nonetheless. Both videos are on youtube.

Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)

Tragic events in the life of a young lady that’s taken advantage of by the scummiest of people. F*cking brutal and painful to watch, with very little attempt to lift the mood at all. The acting is much less histrionic than its contemporaries, and the plot is harsher than most of today’s dark dramas. It’s hard to enjoy per se, but it’s riveting and heartbreaking.

The Student of Prague (1913)

A poor student unwittingly sells his likeness to a sorcerer. Not too remarkable, but still a pretty eerie plot with a simple morale in the vein of Faust.

Underworld (1927)

Early gangster movie involving a love triangle and a hot-headed rival mobster. George Bancroft’s proto-new wave hair is about 50 years ahead of its time.

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

A scientist resorts to getting a job as circus clown after being deceived and embarrassed. The plot details seem simple enough to have been devised in less than an hour, but tragic emotion is at the movie’s core, and that lends itself nicely to the era. Lon Chaney is an especially sympathetic underdog, even while the movie carries a dark undertone in waiting for his gasket to blow.




The Docks of New York (1928)

Some of the coolest cinematography I’ve seen from the time, aided by cracked walls with crooked windows, pervasive haze, and cramped docks. Unfortunately, it also carries a very chauvinistic tone, with a forced romance that just makes both leads more unlikable. The over the top 20s slang intertitles are amusing though.





Revolution #9 (2001)

An indie film that makes a serious attempt at portraying a man’s descent into paranoia, as well as the consequences it has on those close to him. It seems that it was made with a lot of care and attention to detail, and it’s another (like DOALG) that aims to discomfort more than entertain.



July, 2019 movies watched-

Us (2019)
+ Decent but too slow.

The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Ugly but great.

Go West (1925)
Briskly entertaining and funny.

Cabiria (1914)
Impressive and influential epic.

Nosferatu (1922) Repeat viewing
I strongly prefer Herzog's version.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Recommended for anyone looking for a surreal short.

The Last Laugh (1924)
A different ending would've made a huge difference.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)
A great movie for people who love movies.

Megan Leavey (2017)
+ A little better than the average dog movie.

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913)
- Entertaining Western short.

The Iron Horse (1924)
Early John Ford classic.

Incident in a Ghostland (2018)
- Too many horror elements squeezed into one movie makes this a mess.

The Circus (1928)
Loved the first half, liked the second half.

Serenity (2019)
It has to be down there with the worst of the year.

Pet Sematary (2019)
+ Above average horror remake.

Lonesome (1928)
Meh.

Battleship Potemkin (1925)
- Not a personal favorite but extremely impressive.

Total July viewings-17
Total 2019 viewings-100



I've seen three movies since April, coincidentally all very good horror films




Hereditary (Aster, 2018)-
-
Us (Peele, 2019)-
+
Fright Night (Gillespie, 2011)- -
-
__________________
Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it



½

Adult Life Skills
— (2016) —Tunnard
The director has a strange idea that every scene becomes more dramatic if everyone starts yelling; but once the volume is cranked up to eleven, everyone immediately storms off leaving everything unfinished until the next shouting match. The director seems to understand she has a thoroughbred at her disposal because there are a lot of scenes where Jodie Whittaker simply inks smiley faces on her fingertips disappears beneath a cardboard stage and waggles her fingers. So it’s a bit of head scratcher why did they make her twin, a male in the story? With an identical twin sister you would have dialled up the conflict and doubled the face time of your lead actress. This is quirky drama about a grieving woman on the eve of her thirtieth birthday; unfortunately, all the twists and turns in the story are painfully telegraphed.

½

Café — (2011) — Erbaum
Everything seems to be allegorical here; the devil may be the drug dealer who sits in the back of the café, and God is not only a woman but 11-years old to boot. With a heavenly skype she informs a guy that he is merely an avatar in the simulation she has created and she can prove it. The film is hampered by the product placement, everyone one is either buying caffeine or drinking it and this is more of an office for the regulars. There are several writers tearing their hair out at the tables, and one woman conducts all her job interviews here, not to mention the evil dude dealing in plain sight of the cops who stop by for free coffee.

★★½

Late Night — (2019) — Ganatra
This is kind of a wonky re-make of The Devil Wears Prada with Mindy Kaling bravely battling the isms (sexism, nepotism, racism) and showing how super talented and adorable she is, all the while doing it in high heels and a dress. There is a difficult moment of disbelief when an Executive producer for a major late night talk show hires a factory worker (with absolutely no writing credits) for a coveted, six-figure staff job.

The Book of Love — (2016) — Purple
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea popped up as an alternate title when I looked this thing up. A rebranded film is always a warning sign. This is the rare movie that scores a bullseye with two tiny opposing demographics. This is overloaded with cuteness and if it’s been a while between tear-jerkers the Kleenex crowd should get a decent blubber out of this. This is also a perfect candidate for the Friday night drubbing; i.e., where you gather a group of your friends together to mercilessly mock a hopelessly inept attempt at film making (the strange case of disappearing and wandering accents and the non sequiturs in the film are guaranteed to keep the laughter rolling.) I noticed also for the first time that Mary Steenburgen uses her hairdo (tightly framing her face at the eyes and cheeks) like other women use Botox. During a jogging scene where the lady obviously hasn’t been for a trot in years, I finally made a mental note to look up her age … she is four years shy of 70.

Galveston — (2018) — Laurent
This oddball couple are like metaphorical vampires who only live at night (she’s a hard luck woman with a limited shelf life, although she is still a little girl at heart; her body begins to innocently sway when she hears music. The film opens with the low rent killer for the local crime boss getting a cancer diagnosis for his persistent cough, and unable to process this revelation, he simply storms out of the doctor’s office and refuses all treatment, perhaps deciding in that instant to go out in a blaze of glory. The two main characters are both kind of damaged and desperate, and it takes the whole movie to warm up to them.

Lagerfeld Confidential — (2007) — Marconi
Early on, Karl is caught reading without his trademark sunglasses and he makes a mental note there is a camera stalking his every move and he needs to be now “on” at all times. The actual tidbits are few and far-between in this tell-all documentary. The ponytail is a stylish fix for his bad hair. He tips the staff not when he exits but as he enters a private jet. He needs a security pillow (his grandmother made it for him when he was a boy) on his tummy when he travels; otherwise he would be sick as a dog. He was sexually abused as a small child and when he told his mother she replied, “Well what do you expectgoing to the beach dressed like that.” He shoots from the lip and can tell you what he loves and hates at any given moment day or night, but is that a personal revelation? He admits if he popped a button on a 1,000 dollar shirt, he’d have to throw it away because he doesn’t know how to sew. He is an armchair general who relies on the small, talented army gathered round him to make the magic happen. This is a man with a death-grip on his media brand and the mask never slips.

Cimarron — (1931) — Ruggles
A portrait of an unrepentant rolling stone who puts down stakes then heads off for another adventure every five years or so, abandoning whatever he has achieved there, however great. Yancey Cravat is a jack of all trades who collects job skills like some people collect baseball cards. This film works a little better as a series of vignettes about the founding of Osage, Oklahoma; which sprung up after the Oklahoma land lottery of 1889. The townspeople reflect its changing demographic where specific skill sets are needed during specific times in order to thrive. The first newspaper in the boom town folded at the first editorial where the editorialist mentioned the cowboy scum roaming the streets, he was simply shot in the back before the ink was dry. The second stab at a town newspaper comes from Yancey and when outlaws come clamoring for the author, he sends the lot of them (the quick draw being only one of his many skills) to boot hill. As a newspaper editor (and a man) he defends the weak and defenseless against the moral thugs and bullies. He writes a scandalous editorial urging that the Indians should be granted American citizenship; which is a staggering admission that they were simply seen as sub-humans during that period without the right to even exist. In this story, the government simply gave two million acres of their national heritage free of charge to any immigrant who wanted it.

Bunny Lake is missing — (1965) — Preminger
I liked the gorgeous black and white photography and the opening credit sequence where a hand is tearing back strips of black paper to reveal the various names. Some of the locations were nice; the doll hospital with all the broken dolls; the basement lab room with the caged lab rats and animals, and the lecherous landlord’s apartment decorated in early Marquis de Sade. Unfortunately, there is an editing mistake in the third act. The mother of the missing child knows only two places in London. So when the cops check the apartment she moved into earlier that morning then race to where she stayed the previous week; the film times out during the extended final sequence once the audience realizes the cops are not going to show up and save the day, but they are merely going to announce the end of the movie.

★★★

Cake eaters * — (2007) — Masterson
This is a quiet, small town drama with characters, outwardly calm but the emotional turmoil brews just below the surface. It’s like each of the characters stands outside a bakery with their nose pressed to the window, seeing the heaven of their dreams, yet unable to go inside grab it. This is particularly noticeable in the prodigal son who left to become a rock star and returns with nothing but heartache to show for it three years later and the life he left behind has irrevocably vanished. His mother has passed away and his childhood sweetheart has moved on and married (there is a suggestion her blond haired daughter may be his.) The clock ticks loudest for the teen-aged girl who is slowly dying. Watts, when are you going to direct a second film?

King of Hearts * — (1966) — De Boca
As a welcoming gift for the other side in World War 1, a retreating army rigs a strategic hamlet for demolition. The résistance gets wind of it and empties the village of everyone and also warns the advancing army of the death trap. The commanding Officer mistakenly sends the company’s ornithologist (in charge of the homing pigeons) to demine the village instead of an actual munitions expert. When our hero accidently releases the residents of an insane asylum into in the real world (there is a nice metaphor of songbirds leaving and returning to their cages in the film.) They all immediately choose to do astonishing: they all choose a job and an identity that will make them the happiest. 53 years after its original release, this is less an anti-war fable than a sweet story about mindless conformity and following your heart even when the world around you is going completely insane.

The Driftless Area — (2015) — Sluser
Early on Zooey Deschanel walks past some firemen heading to a house fire who don’t even bat an eye, even though she walks past them completely naked. The biggest hurdle in this tale about a ghost that needs to talk someone into avenging her murder is decoding when and where the magic realism actually kicks in. At times she is invisible and at other times people interact with her as if she was flesh and blood. One could advance the theory that there are multiple ghosts in the story; our hero may have also died already.

Executive Action — (1973) — Miller
One of the first of the JFK assassination films; they hammer out the inconsistencies in the cover story with dry workmanlike craftsmanship. It’s slightly funny during the hairpin turn onto Elm Street; all conspirators are glued to their television sets, as if it a routine motorcade was happening live on national TV. This was originally set up by Donald Sutherland, but he couldn’t get the financing and had to abandon it.

The witches — (1967) — Anthology
The title is misleading because there is not a bat wing or broomstick in sight; all the female characters in these short films (all featuring Silvana Mangano) depict a distinctive lack of any agency in their lives. In the first story, a frail super model turned actress (now trapped by her screen image) becomes the sacrificial witch the adoring public symbolically burns at the stake when she shows up an exclusive ski resort. In the candy colored third story, a clownish widower (an Italian comedy legend at the time) tells his son he will only remarry if he approves of his choice and they go on a relentless search together to find wife number two. There is a wicked punchline after the second wife also dies, her ghost shows up at the house ready to cook and clean again, and they simply go on as before because there is no notable difference (Ha Ha) from when she was alive. In the fifth story, a frustrated housewife has increasingly elaborate, revenge fantasies when her bank executive husband comes home and falls asleep every night in front of the TV. One funny scene: Clint Eastwood (he seems to enjoy skewering his macho image) runs across the room in flesh colored trunks (in her fantasies their bedroom is about the size of car dealership) and does a perfect swan dive into their bed to illustrate the passion at the start of their marriage. The attraction here is the set design and the different approaches by directors. There’s a nice comic book opening credit sequence

The Last Black Man in San Francisco — (2019) — Talbot
Although he spent most of his childhood in secret reading room hidden behind a bookcase because of the bickering between his parents; this is a young man is still in love with the house he grew up in and is obsessed with reclaiming the family heritage. He still drops by the house regularly to do upkeep on the exterior of the house and yard work even though the current owners are clearly antsy about this: but they haven’t got the heart to get the police involved. The understated theme of the film is the actual housing crisis going on in the city. Gentrification (a code word for “financial euthanasia”) is driving everyone except the super-rich out of the city; San Francisco has the highest concentration of resident billionaires in any city anywhere on the planet. This is interesting because of the depiction of the despair of the precariat is never shown in American films. Hollywood films are filled with part-time baristas who live in million dollar condos.

Wild Rose — (2018) — Harper
A honky-tonk woman from in Glasgow Scotland dreams of becoming a star at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Her motto in life is tattooed brazenly on her forearm and the audience is waiting for the moment is when she applies this not to her fantasy but to her real life; she has two adorable young children she doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with. Long story short, she makes it to the rhinestone capital of the world only to discover you can throw a rock and hit someone with a demo CD plus her exact same dream. There is nice moment where she makes it on stage and belts out a show stopper to an empty auditorium, one of the security guards tells her after they’ve escorted her out of the building that this is a recurring event he has seen a hundred times. 30 years ago, Julie Waters would have starred in this feisty role, now she plays her dour, disapproving mother.

A Perfect Day —(2015) — Aranoa
A team of humanitarian workers are given tasks each day that would take 15 minutes in any other part of world. They have to navigate the various mine fields of politics (the group of sullen civilians standing before you could be local militia hiding in plain sight) add in personal agendas, revenge fever, booby traps, and bureaucratic red tape and these simple tasks become Sisyphean ordeals. I liked the unnoticed moments of triumph when disaster is averted and that their gallows humour becomes an essential coping mechanism against the madness of war.

Raw — (2016) — Ducournau
There is a nice institutionally grey teaching hospital set beneath perennially bleak and overcast skies. This first year student at the national Belgian veterinary school is going through a difficult period. The forced partying and the constant hazing are beginning to take its toll on her. For instance, she wakes up the first night with a strange man in her dorm room, she had requested a female roommate. He says that he’s gay so in the eyes of the administration that’s about the same thing. After a while, in close proximity, she begins to get ideas about him. This is a slightly grisly coming of age story with a nice mix of black humour and horror—one should abstain from eating snacks during this film.

Maiden —(2018) — Holmes
This is a documentary about the 1989
Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. Immediately falling in love with this great adventure and wanting to participate; a scrappy young woman has to butt her head against the wall of sexism surrounding the race. She has to fight tooth and nail merely to get onboard a yacht in the only position she was deemed to be remotely qualified for … the below deck cook. As the only woman during the race, she becomes a funny, human interest story for the press. Since every position is forbidden and rather than knocking down the prejudices one by one over decades, she simply assembles an all-female crew for the next race. The film gains from the present day interviews, everyone’s hair has turned white. One journalist (a classic male chauvinist pig) during his race column at the time; unapologetically referred to them as a tub full of tarts; 30 years later the other sports journalists still giggle about it like schoolboys. This is a classic underdog story.

The Letter — (1940) — Wyler
The film begins with a slow pan from rubber trees bleeding into buckets to the orchestra of planation workers providing the diegetic score for the scene. The camera moves past the open air barracks of the workers sleeping in hammocks to the veranda of the big house where a man staggers out and a dame follows on his heels, and empties her gun in his back. She turns around and strolls back inside. Thus ends the film noir portion of the story and this becomes a delightfully over the top, court room melodrama where the outcome is never in doubt. Informed at work that there has been some sort of gun play back home, the killer’s husband has the presence of mind to have his criminal lawyer meet him at the house at the same time. He has a nice sub-plot where being loyal to his friends and doing the right thing, he discovers he is slowly going to hell in a hand basket because of it. This film was really well lit; a few exterior scenes happen during cloudy nights where the characters are obscured by darkness then are bathed in crystal clear moonlight.

* = rewatch



Nice Post Please Keep Posting Like This. I am really happy that you guys are writing content like this. Please Keep Posting on Regular Basis.



A Warning to the Curious (1972)

A ghost story about an archaeologist in search of a possibly cursed artifact. A good example of less being more. A few actors, a nice setting, a minimal score, and a cheap prop. It’s almost forced to stay subtle till the end. No flying chairs or violent indoor gusts of wind; just eerie anticipation.



The Unholy Three (1925)

A sillier than intended crime movie about a gang of circus criminals trying to pull off a con involving grown men disguising themselves as an old woman & cigar-smoking baby. There’s also a laughably gratuitous giant chimp. The plot is actually engaging though, and it’s fun seeing Lon Chaney mean mug his fellow goons while in old lady garb.




Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)

A WWII soldier gets stranded on a Pacific island inhabited solely by a nun. Beautiful island, some action, some jungle crafting, some tension between dissimilar leads; like a more polite precursor to Hell in the Pacific.

Canned Laughter (1979)

Young Rowan Atkinson in a proto-Mr. Bean with clever dialogue and even more bizarre mannerisms. Only 30 mins, and on Youtube.

Brimstone (2016)

A long, non-linear story about a mute woman threatened by a mysterious preacher. Exploitation levels of brutality. The plot is presented out of order to carry some big surprises, but I liked that.

Death on the Nile (1978)

Evil Under the Sun (1982)

Appointment with Death (1988)

Entertaining though perfunctory Agatha Christie murder mysteries with Peter Ustinov in the lead. Death on the Nile gets bonus points for a beautiful escapist setting and much stronger characters. EUTS feels like more of the same, but with a less appealing ‘getaway’ setting and a less intriguing mystery. AWD has a horrid forced romance, rough acting, and some ill-fitting campy 80s music, but I still liked it for the first hour.



August, 2019 movies watched-

7th Heaven (1927)
+ Loved it until the ending.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Typical Buster fun.

Beast (2017)
Nice British thriller.

3 Bad Men (1926)
It seems like there's a never ending supply of good movies from John Ford.

The Phantom Carriage (1921)
One of the most haunting movies I've ever seen.

Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
I liked the story but it left no impact.

It (1927)
A rare romantic comedy that I loved, especially as an older one.

Grandma's Boy (2006)
For fans of juvenile comedy.

The Freshman (1925)
I enjoyed it but didn't think it was very funny.

The Killer (1989)
- Probably a top 10 action film for me.

The Doll (1919)
Would like to see an exploitation remake.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Powerful film, but just to an extent for this viewer.

The Fighter (2010)
+ Great job capturing the time and the characters.

The Sheik (1921)
- A good watch but nothing I'd watch again.

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
A certainty to make my list for the Pre-30's countdown.

Total August viewings-15
Total 2019 viewings-115



Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Typical Buster fun.
3 Bad Men (1926)
It seems like there's a never ending supply of good movies from John Ford.
Two of my favourite films. Nice to see some more love for 3 Bad Men, even though its a silent film, because of the way Ford uses imagery, cinematography and editing it plays out just like a normal Western we have come to expect of him. I've seen the bulk of his work but there are still a few more I want to explore, especially early ones.
__________________



Seen in June

You Were Never Really Here:
: Still love Lynne Ramsay. Shot incredibly well with great scenes of not much happening that focus on the characters. The use of violence was very creative. The only thing I didn’t like was the character Nina. She felt like a silent, creepy girl you’d see in an average horror film.

The Guilty:
-: Another addition to the ‘People talking on a phone for 90 minutes’ genre. It’s an engaging police thriller with a great main lead. I just don’t understand why this was a movie though. It could of just been a play, hell, a radio play. A blind person would get the same experience out of this film as a seeing person. Maybe I’m not seeing the bigger picture and filmmaking was very necessary.

Marnie:
-: A good Hitckcock. The writing for Connery’s character was pretty weird though. Despite wanting to help the main character he acts incredibly villainous.

400 Blows:
: Kes for French people. A typical but effective coming of age film. The improv interview scene was definitely the best just for how human it felt.

Striking Vipers:
: I didn’t know about you guys, but the romantic episodes of Black Mirror are my least favourite. Also this is the third time they’ve made an episode about being sucked into a video game. Ugg.

Smithereens:
: A solid thriller with a brilliant performance by Andrew Scott.The ‘PHONES BAD’ message is pretty lame though and kinda brings it down.

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too:
: Probably the worst episode of Black Mirror. I was expecting it to be a dark tale of a girl having her mind broken by being emotionally invested by an emotionless ‘Yes man’ doll, but it turns into a goofy Nickelodeon movie at the end. Goofy movies are fun, just not for Black Mirror.

I hope they take a hiatus so they can REALLY quality control the next three scripts. If we get another ‘Shut Up and Dance’ or ‘Entire History of You’ I’ll be satisfied.

The Longest Day:
: A epic scale retelling of D-Day. One of those movies you can have on in the background.

Midori:
: Watched this purely for it’s controversy. Alot of the shocking scenes seemed to be there just to get a rise out of the audience rather than having a meaning (Like cmon dude, I didn’t need to see a dog getting brutalized today). The voice acting is hammy and the animation is so lazy; So many scenes have the characters not moving at all. The ending was very abrupt and out of place also. If there’s good things to say about it is that there is some cool scenes that I liked (Like the scene where the magician punishes the audience)

Climax:
+: One of the best films I’ve seen 2019. The colours are wonderful. The long takes are shockingly impressive. The improv is fantastic. The second half of the film is genuinely disturbing, scary and messes with your head.

Also that opening dance scene might be one of the best opening to a film I’ve ever seen.

A Silent Voice:
-: Quite long, but it’s a very emotional tale of two people with a horrible past trying to make things work. Good story, wonderful characters, cute romance, hilarious comedic relief, the Greek playwrights would give this a thumbs up.

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons:
: There’s a character decision at the end that doesn’t make sense at all, but apart from that it’s an incredibly disgusting and interesting tale that kicked off the career of one of my favourite horror directors.

1408:
: An enjoyable supernatural thriller that takes full advantage with the limited location.

Boogie Nights:
+: Once again I find it very difficult to get invested in films told over decades, I still went into this film with an open mind. The story was good, the performances were great, the last act is intense and the direction is astounding considering Paul Thomas was in his mid-20’s.

Toy Story 4:
-: It was fine, but it added nothing of value to the series in my opinion. Only four characters get any serious fleshing out and everyone else (Yup, even Buzz) is just a comedic relief. I did love that scene of Woody walking with Forky through the woods at night, very human and atmospheric.
WARNING: spoilers below
Woody’s choice at the end of the film makes sense I guess? But it feels like a slap in the face to the themes discussed in Toy Story 2


Last Year at Marienbad:
: Not exactly my thing, but I can appreciate it for what it tries to be. That one shot of the garden area in the dead of night was so beautiful and still stays with me today.

The End of Evangelion:
: I always find one masterpiece during each year of watching film. I was afraid I wouldn’t find one this year, but here we are! I mean where do I start? The animation is f*cking amazing; pure museum stuff. The performances were above and beyond; The scenes crying and screaming actually hurt me like nothing I’ve ever seen. The English song used feels iconic. The story, the script, the fight scenes, characters, use of classical music, all perfect. Minor note but anyone who’s watched Bojack Horseman knows they have a rule of one f-Word a season for dramatic effect. Well they kinda do it here and it’s brilliant. The film genuinely frightened me from a philosophical and psychological view, and it’s not even a horror film! The placement of end credits in the middle as an intermission is a really good idea.

Also that final scene, I can’t describe it.

A Man Escaped:
-: My first Bresson, and I liked it. The presentation of a prison break presented in a matter of fact and non-glorified way is a cool approach to storytelling and makes the suspenseful scenes that more effective. I didn’t like the emotionless acting though. I know that was Bresson’s style, doesn’t make it good. ;/

If you want to watch a French prison escape film, I’d suggest Le Trou.

The Devils:
: Had this lying around for a while and watched it to get it out of the way. I can see why Mark Kermode loves it so much; The acting is good, the dissection of religion is interesting, and not to mention the wonderful sets. The sets look very surreal and draw in your eye.

The Shape of Water:
: A love letter to a bygone era (and possibly an allegory for interracial couples in the 60’s?!). It’s a weird but plausible beautiful love story elevated by the clothes, music and exaggerated visuals that give a nostalgic, sentimental feel to it. Might be my favourite Del Toro.

The Hidden Fortress:
: I liked it, the comedy and action were entertaining. I guess we can thank this film for inspiring C-3P0 and R2, even though they’re very different films.

Commando: [RE-WATCH]
: Yup, still awesome.

One Week:
: A very creative short that got a few laughs outta me.

The Most Dangerous Game:
: It may have taken 30 minutes to get to the plot, but I still found it a very entertaining ‘Survival of the Fittest’ tale.

Matilda: [RE-WATCH]:
: Childhood favourite. One of the best Roald Dahl adaptions. Very dark but with enough whimsy to leave you with a warm feeling at the end.

Moon:
-: A great, slightly philosophical sci-fi that makes incredible use of it’s small budget; The lackluster cgi is kept to a minimum and there’s only about two actors in the film. I absolutely loved the sets.

Bad Taste:
: Another low-budget film, except more like no budget! It’s incredibly silly and certainly feels like Jackson made it fjust for fun with his pals. If it weren’t for this we may not have gotten the adaption of Lord of the Rings that lots of people love.



First time viewings + Re-Watches July + August





To Catch a Thief 1955 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Raging Bull 1980 Directed by Martin Scorsese (Re-watch)
Akira 1988 Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (Re-watch)
Spirited Away 2001 Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Parasite 2019 Directed by Bong Joon Ho

+ Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 Directed by F.W. Murnau
+ Un Flic 1972 Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
+ John Wick: Chapter 3 2019 Directed by Chad Stahelski
+ Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019 Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Forbidden Planet 1956 Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
The Mercenary ‘Il mercenario’ 1968 Directed by Sergio Corbucci
A Bridge Too Far 1977 Directed by Richard Attenborough (Re-watch)
The Incredibles 2004 Directed by Brad Bird
Dragged Across Concrete 2019 Directed by S. Craig Zahler

+ Gaslight 1944 Directed by George Cukor
+ The Dirty Dozen 1967 Directed by Robert Aldrich
+ Three Days of the Condor 1975 Directed by Sydney Pollack
+ Straight Time 1978 Directed by Ulu Grosbard
+ Clear And Present Danger 1994 Directed by Phillip Noyce (Re-watch)
+ K-19: The Widowmaker 2002 Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Re-watch)
+ U-571 2000 Directed by Jonathan Mostow
+ The Lost City of Z 2016 Directed by James Gray

Angel Face 1953 Directed by Otto Preminger
Charade 1963 Directed by Stanley Donen

Robinson Crusoe on Mars 1964 Directed by Byron Haskin



I'm not old, you're just 12.
Ouija - A "by the numbers" horror flick for easily scared teens. Jump scares galore but no sense of dread. The sequel proves it could have been so much more.


Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Trippy and fantastic animated film, has fun with, reveres, and subverts it's source material, with enough hidden jokes to merit a billion re-watches. This is how you make cartoons, people!
__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/





Mara (2016) Tunnard
The psychologist in this horror film discovers that an unpunished mass murderer hiding in the community can summon the sleep demon to take up residence in town (one symptom the beast is lurking is sleep paralysis) then it feeds off the pools of guilt within each of her victims. The cover art has the heroine soaking in the bathtub, so one would naturally assume there would be at least one scene with a little gratuitous nudity, right? . . . Wrong.

½

To Please A Lady (1950) Brown
There is zero chemistry and zero romance between a star reporter (with her own nation-wide franchise operation) and a race car driver. The sticking point in their relationship is that driver has been involved in a few fatal racetrack crashes and she suspects he may enjoy secretly causing them; she says as much in her feature article that gets him banned from racing. The gripping drama in the film consists of a few hyperbolic race announcers dramatizing the vehicular dog fights (midget cars going in circles) to the audience.



Jeopardy (1953) Sturges
This is the story of a family fishing vacation (mom, dad and junior) on a deserted Mexican beach. Hubby gets his leg trapped beneath a condemned pier just as the tide begins to come in and mommy has to rush off to get help. An escaped convict heading north commandeers her and the car and couldn’t care less if her husband drowns. She gives him a twirl with the added promise of a lam romance and soon he’s back at the beach grunting and sweating to get the girder off her husband’s leg. Police sirens scream in the distance; the convict hot foots it down the beach; and the family sits down to roast some marshmallows over the camp fire, the end.

½

A Private War (2018) Heineman
You are here for the acting; Rosamund Pike crafts a great a swaggering pirate/journalist in this film. Even as a detached objective observer, one can’t help being emotionally scarred by the atrocities one sees; PTSD is an occupational hazard for the War correspondent. This was a questionable chew because of the hidden Geo-political bias within the film. (Real world example: as I write these lines, there is a classic textbook “fake news” event playing out in the media; Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi Arabian oil refinery a couple days ago, but the media doesn’t ask the question: why on earth would they do that? They don’t link up this event (duh) with Saudi Arabia invading and attacking the country next door [something impossible without access to American spy satellites and logistical support]. It makes your skin crawl that attacking an oil refinery is considered a war crime and newsworthy, while dropping bombs on the Yemenese people for the last four and a half years doesn’t rate a mention in the official pressand back to our film blurb currently in progress.) The West dismembered and lobotomized the Libyan state in the name of freedom and democracy (the film ghoulishly feasts on Gaddafi’s downfall) but now it’s a country where one can buy and sell human beings at open air slave markets. Notice no one points a moral finger at our depraved indifference to mass suffering.

Turn me on, Dammit! (2011) Jacobsen
At a party in this tiny Norwegian hamlet (they have to bus in all the 15 year olds in the region in order to make up technically a single Social Studies class of them in school) our heroine discovers the boy she secretly likes may secretly want to return her affection. She mistakenly confides to girl #2 who also secretly carries a secret torch for the same guy. (Damn, why are Norwegians so secretive?) Girl #2 immediately goes into bitch mode and orchestrates a campaign against her, soon our heroine finds herself branded as a super slut and ostracized at school. Which is the least of her preoccupations; she is a bit overwhelmed by her newly discovered libido which seems to have a one track mind all of its own. Unfortunately, the first-time director doesn’t quite know to best exploit the elements in this story. I liked that her best friend religiously avoids dating because that would be the beginning of end, a romance would lead to a marriage which would lead to a cradle and her tombstone and she would never escape this dead-end town and a dreary life.

News from Home (1977) Akerman
The director slowly acclimates to life in New York City in this experimental film exploring urban wallpaper. It begins with static shots of empty industrial streets, then musters up a little confidence to move the camera in a 90 degree angle pans and include a few of the urban denizens, before heading down into the bowels of the city. You can see her hit her stride when she does a 356 degree twirl in a crowded subway platform (not a 360 degree one, because returning to the original visual marker would have shown she now totally unfazed by the New York hustle and bustle.) There is one long continuous shot out an open car window moving down a street which wonderfully echoes the stops and starts in the subway scenes. All those antique trucks and cars were a blast, particularly all those old VW beetles. The dialogue in the film is the director reading a year’s worth of letters from her mother trying to guilt her into returning home.

Dawn Rider (2012) Miles
This cliché riddled western gains by the twisty plot and anachronisms. Given the time period, would a bank be foreclosing on a ranch someone built by themselves out in the sticks? Our hero has no back story; he returns home (on the run from the law) only to have his father die in his arms (for some reason dear old dad only speaks Spanish) but he never bothers to translate his father’s dying words, So each time he visits his childhood friend’s ranch, he always passes under the gateway to the “diamond” ranch and never the lair of the double cross gang. I loved that the letter of the law is just a line in the dirt that depends on where one is standing at that particular moment in time. It turns out, he is not a wanted man; a wealthy family back east out of revenge (mistakenly) has simply hired a posse of lawmen to bring him back dead or alive.

Louisiana Story (1948) Flaherty
This is clearly an industry film (commissioned by ESSO) to promote the benefits of the Petroleum Industry to a gullible public. After signing away the drilling rights to their land for a song; a drilling rig is installed a stone’s throw from their shack. The company representatives are honest dealers and the oil rig workers are always happy and smiling; the young boy is allowed to play on the platform (!) with huge slamming pipes and heavy steel chains continuously whipping around, When the well comes in (it remains dry until the boy blesses it with a Cajun prayer) the noisy drilling rig is then replaced with an underwater pipeline system (say what?) that magically allows the land to remain unscarred from massive industrial exploitation. The film gains from the subversive subtext where the director clearly shows the exact opposite is happening: Oil Companies usually fleece backwater rubes (and the city slickers for that matter) quicker than the local population can say “Hee haw”.

★★★

The Impasse of Desir* (2010) Roode
A psychiatrist discovers his wife is having an affair. When a new patient sees her in the street (she looks somewhat like the woman he is obsessed about) he thinks he is merely imagining her. It would be great therapy to symbolically kill this hallucination and the doctor manipulates the patient into knocking off his wife for him. His patient slowly recovers his wits (early on, there is a wonderful shot of him riding the bus and his head swivels around as if its disconnected from the rest of his body) and the shrink becomes progressively more deranged. Although the third act drops a lot of hints he may have been unhinged at the beginning; we overhear his office phone message where the psychiatrist refers to himself in the third person. Another patient mentions his second marriage is generally thought of as a bad match because his second wife is way too young and too pretty for him. Unfortunately, the psychological drama part of the film hides the black comedy of transference. This would make a great second feature with Lovesick (1983) because that film would tease out all the understated comedy.

In My Skin* (2002) de Van
This psychological horror film about alienation is definitely not for the squeamish. I think this works because the director set up just enough of the outer world which could be best described as lacerating. Her job in an advertising agency is highly competitive with the non-performers being quickly thinned from the herd and the go-getters seize all the promotions and lucre. This could also be described as a kind of sensual affliction because the heroine does everything with such warmth and passion; zeroing in tenderly on the object of her desire and openly declaring her love.

Harakiri*(1962) Kobayashi
During an economic downturn, an older samurai wanders into a shogun estate and asks to use their ceremonial courtyard to end his life in dignity. A few days earlier another samurai had asked the same thing and fearing if they gave one unemployed samurai a free hand-out, soon they would be inundated with thousands of other beggars so they quickly turned his request it into a cold blooded public relations stunt in order to save a few pennies. The spiritual emptiness of the so-called “noble” clan is immediately revealed by their complete bewilderment that another beggar would so quickly show up after the first. Didn’t he get the memo? The film is rich in irony. The older man has an air of desperation about him, he longs for the silence of the grave; he has no future, everyone he cared about and loved is now dead. His profession of heroic self- sacrifice and honor has been replaced with cowardly thugs and swaggering braggarts. This is another classic anti-authoritarian screed from Kobayashi pointing out the great grubbing men leading society are usually unfit to even work as dog park attendants.

Ombline (2012) Cazes
There is a nice opening scene where a mother quietly reads a book to her small child directly in front of the camera then returns to a scene when she entered prison after being sentenced to three years for a violent crime; she’s angry and surly, her face is stitched up from a recent fight, it’s almost as she was trying to calm herself down and not the baby. A fellow inmate in the bunk behind her says: “I’ve seen this before . . . I think you’re pregnant.” Unable to process big emotions, she flies off the handle at a moment’s notice, but they simply take her child away after these episodes and place her in isolation. Gradually the idea or perhaps the spritz of maternal hormones induces her to rebuild her life from scratch with her child at the center of her life.

La Capture (2007) Laure
This is a drama about a young actress and dancer overcoming a horrible childhood by stumbling upon the healing qualities of the art. There is a nice video piece of hers where she is followed by a small platoon of waiters on a forest path and each time she turns and looks back at them, they all swoon and fall to the ground at her glance. She has evolved to a place where she is happy enough and well-adjusted enough in her life to risk returning home to rescue her mother and brother and confront her violent father; a gregarious pillar in the community, but a jealous man with a hair trigger temper at home. I loved the late September/early October look that even suggested the early morning chill. The father’s (hunting?) jacket is color coordinated to go with the falling leaves.

On the Trail of Igor Rizzi (2006) Mitrani
Two criminal under-achievers struggle to find easy money in the city; their opening caper is a primer on how not to rob a house. One of the guys was once a famous European soccer star (his business agent stole his millions) now living an emotional Apocalypse of his own making; he thinks he’s made a home town pilgrimage. There is a strong Omega Man vibe to all this, he dribbles a soccer ball (during winter) through abandoned playgrounds and deserted streets which is a great in-joke, a simple reverse from these austere downtown locations would reveal streets bustling with cars and people.

Blue Ruin (2014) Saulnier
A typical “Man on Fire” revenge story made atypical by moving up the act of final bloody revenge into the first reel, so the story mutates into a wonderful meditation on the endless ripple effects of violence. The eponymous title is the abandoned car he lives in at the beginning of the story that has to be retooled for the road to get the job done.

Burning Palms (2010) Landon
Five vignettes in sunny Los Angeles about sketchy life partners, absent parents, stoned au pairs and relationships that are completely messed up. These stories will be icky and extremely offensive for most the audience but wicked black comedies for the twisted few. Spoiler alert: stop reading. I mean it. Okay, you’ve been warned. In one of the stories, two guys purchase a black market child. They get a great deal on the kid because she is stuck in a single setting, the mute mode. They immediately bundle her up in her Sunday best and leave her on a hiking path for the mountain lions after she drops the F-bomb.

Onibi: The fire Within (1997) Mochizuki
This is a character study of a killer released after two decades in prison. In his younger days, he was feared as the “Ball of fire” in the Yakuza underworld. He has out grown the violence of his youth and is now bored stiff with anything connected to it. He actually turns over a new leaf and goes straight; he is both saved and undone by the love of a woman. When she finds out about his past, she immediately enlists his expertise in getting revenge on a sexual sadist who destroyed her sister’s life. He unemotionally coaches her through the steps of a successful hit, but thankfully she can’t go through with the murder. However he discovers she has no sister and the tragic tale of abuse is hers. This slowly begins to percolate and bubble up inside him, slowly eating away at his peace of mind.

★★★½

The Squid and the Whale*(2005) Baumbach
Two warring intellectuals enter the final act of their dramedy as couple and as a family. The audience is placed in a superior position of looking down this hapless couple because the presence of the other one seems to induce bad behavior; they are helpless against venting their rage, which fills the film with inappropriate parental choices and cringe moments. Almost immediately they enlist their children as pawns in the struggle. As a literature professor (and soon to be unpublishable novelist) Dad tends to pontificate on anything large and small; he can do a quick top five list on anything at the drop of a hat. He also has the tendency to loudly point out the woofers that surround him are not exactly smoldering, Italian screen Goddesses. The older boy pleads: “For the love of all that is decent and sacred! Please stop sharing! I don’t want to know the grisly details about your last bout of sex with your newest boy toy . . . mom.” On the cusp of releasing her best-selling novel, she tends to overwrite.

All That Jazz*(1979) Fosse
Despite gearing up for a long running Broadway show, the entire run time of this entire film could be less than a couple of fading heartbeats. This appears to be the proverbial life flashing before one’s eyes as one dies: he is almost immediately negotiating for extra time with the angel of death. Inside the theater, he’s a genius; outside of it, he burns the candle at both ends as a Dexedrine popping, chain smoking home wrecker. There is a completely insane moment when the director imagines his moment of death as a show tune; well at least he went out kicking.

Z*(1969) Costa-Gravas
If I had to encapsulate the film in a single word, it would be exuberant. There is a lively mise-en-scene with lots of energetic camera-work. There is a nice counterpoint between the stylized beauty of an evening of Russian ballet and the raw courage of people out in the streets risking their lives for a crumb of social justice and truth. Despite this being is a grisly tale of an outbreak of “the falling disease’” where progressive people and eye witnesses simply pass out (usually after they’ve taken a lead pipe to the head) the film is filled with black humour. There is a priceless moment when the prosecutor tells the General his testimony doesn’t jive with the facts, the victim couldn’t have possibly tripped and fallen to his death while crossing a street; an autopsy has revealed the victim died from a crushed skull. From his startled reaction the audience can almost read the thought balloon appearing beside his face: Why on earth would you go and do an autopsy? I gave you the official cover story. I’m trying to run a country here. Good God, I’m surrounded by idiots!


The film ends the military seizing power in a right wing coup where they simply prune all the subversive elements from society and make all the boo-boos go away. In addition to chucking great swaths of judicial law, culture, and learning; they also ban the last letter of the alphabet because as everyone sane person knows, it is clearly a large, blinking neon sign meaning radical socialism.

Tiresia(2003) Bonello
An amateur gardener snatches a delicate flower from the wilds (one of the prostitutes from the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris) to see if she can thrive in a basement cell without sunlight. I loved that you had to stop at certain points in the film and completely revise everything you thought was occurring in the story. If one film could be destroyed by spoilers; this meditation about the desperate search for spiritualty and a deeper understanding of life, would be it. Worry and despair is the lot of the ordinary people, and they will flock to anyone who will give them a glimmer hope or even the comfort of a deliberate lie which contrasts with the lack of turmoil in the spiritual caregivers, they all seem a rather untroubled bunch. The two main characters are both strangely thoughtful; she is particularly forgiving given the circumstances.

The Harder They Come (1972) Henzell
This is a vibrant tale shot on a shoe string budget in the Jamaican favelas about a country boy coming to the big city and discovering it is completely rotten to the core. The system is rigged at every turn against the little guy. No amount of inherent talent, drive or dumb luck will suffice. The crooks and the crooked always win out in the end. They start by taking your possessions and happiness then they start chipping away at your dignity. And if you refuse to kneel before them, they will nail your hide to the wall as a warning to others. There is an energetic soundtrack to the film.

*= rewatch



A few first time viewings and re-watches September






Mud 2012 Directed by Jeff Nichols

Notorious 1946 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Re-watch)
Glory 1989 Directed by Edward Zwick (Re-watch)

+ The Seven-Ups 1973 Directed by Philip D’Antoni
+ Body Heat 1981 Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
+ The Great Beauty 2013 Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
+ Arctic 2019 Directed by Joe Penna

American Graffiti 1973 Directed by George Lucas (Re-watch)
The China Syndrome 1979 Directed by James Bridges
The Long Good Friday 1980 Directed by John Mackenzie
Ad Astra 2019 Directed by James Gray

- Rope 1948 Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

+ Wait Until Dark 1967 Directed by Terence Young
+ Licence to Kill 1989 Directed by John Glen (Re-watch)
+ White Sands 1992 Directed by Roger Donaldson
+ Let the Right One In 2008 Directed by Tomas Alfredson
+ All the Money in the World 2017 Directed by Ridley Scott

The Friends of Eddie Coyle 1973 Directed by Peter Yates
The Yakuza 1974 Directed by Sydney Pollack
Year of the Dragon 1985 Directed by Michael Cimino
Take Shelter 2011 Directed by Jeff Nichols
Outlaw King 2018 Directed by David Mackenzie

- Black Rain 1989 Directed by Ridley Scott (Re-watch)
- State of Grace 1990 Directed by Phil Joanou