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Enys Men (2022)
Haunting ambiguous Folk Horror
Writer-Director Mark Jenkins' compellingly odd metaphysical tale set on a foreboding isle (the title translates as Stone Island). It's 1973. A lone Woman (Mary Woodvine) gets up every day, closely examines a half dozen flowers, takes the temperature of the soil they are planted in and drops a rock down a well to measure its water depth. She dutifully writes it all down in a diary. Her only contact with the outside world is through a ham radio which works sporadically due to an unsteady power source. She also receives some music and bits of news from a standard desktop radio.
As time goes on, the Woman (unnamed) wanders around the island. Fragments and pieces of the place's history are strewn about or in a state of disrepair: a church, a mine and the remains of ship wreckage. There's a large standing stone looming over her small home that has taken on an almost human appearance. A few times, The Woman passes behind the rock and disappears from view, as if she were absorbed into it. The isle has seen boats and seamen come and go - and sometimes never pass by intact. The Woman also sees phantoms - a young girl, a Priest, male workers, a baby, a group of maidens etc.. Are they real? Is the Woman one or more of them? Jenkins isn't interested in answers, as much as evoking mysteries.
Soon the flowers begin to show symptoms of lichen - a combination of fungus and algae that is consuming much of the habitat. ENYS MEN has its roots in folklore and there are even bits of body horror.
Jenkins and his very small team create their own world. The physical movie itself is like an artifact from the 70s. It's shot on purposely grainy 16mm in the old school 1:33 aspect ratio. Jenkins also did the Cinematography, Editing and Score. Further, it's as if the whole film itself is an heirloom - a physical print with scratches, splices and even hairs in the gate. Is the print actually a movie or does it represent the woman's consciousness? Has it preserved actual events or just her memories and those of the villagers and seamen who have passed?
ENYS MEN is a film to be experienced and contemplated. It won't satisfy those who want clear explanations, but, it's the kind of film that haunts the soul.
MaXXXine (2024)
Very watchable if somewhat disappointing end to the Trilogy
Ti West's wrap up to the Maxine/Pearl trilogy is an eminently watchable, if disappointing thriller, set in the mid-80s. Mia Goth again plays the main character, now a Porn Star who wants to go 'legit' by doing a horror film with the hopes that it will make her a real star.
West (who also wrote) does a decent job evoking the era. He ups the stakes by setting it against the back drop of the Night Stalker case and the decade's Satanic Panic. The Los Angeles locations are authentic including scenes at Universal and Warner Brothers studios. The supporting cast includes Kevin Bacon as a sort of Southern fried Jake Gittes, Elizabeth Debicki as an up and coming film director who aspires to being an artist with a capital "A", Giancarlo Esposito as a very hands on Agent, and Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale as detectives. They all are good, with Bacon and Cannavale having the juiciest roles. A couple of the lines about Hollywood are amusing throwaways. Still, without Goth, none of it works. She's clearly channeled this character, and you sense it on screen.
On the downside, West insists on including incredibly graphic violence in close-up that once would have earned it an NC-17 (or, at least a trip back to the MPAA). Sure, it's a "horror film", but it feels over the top even in that context. West's experiments in this trilogy over three distinct time periods is more interesting in concept and design than results. MAXXXINE intentionally looks like some modern update on 80s revenge pictures from the likes of Cannon and New World. West seems to think that aping those films but with a "smart" 21st century perspective is enough; But, for all of Goth's fine work (and, to be fair, West's technical skill) it can't help but feel like an empty exercise. For all its attitude it still ends up being just a grindhouse exploitation movie itself. There aren't any true insights nor commentary, just a juiced up modern version of the same old. West has talent (and, for now, Goth), but, his retro obsession is becoming a dead end.
The Amusement Park (1975)
A remarkable creative document from Romero
THE AMUSEMENT PARK (1975/2019) Shot in 1973 and shelved after a couple of showings in 1975, this George Romero public service film about elder abuse has been rediscovered and remastered.
In many ways, this is a pretty remarkable document. It's a one hour semi-surrealist nightmare about an elderly man (Lincoln Manzel, who also does the introduction) who goes to an Amusement Park. There, he experiences the nightmare rides of his life: Driving, health care, indifferent and even hostile youth, poverty and just general neglect. Not having to adhere to a set 'plot', frees Romero to create some of his most striking scenarios. One bit about the man being shooed away while he's eating crackers and peanut butter and then having rats descend upon his food is as horrifying as anything in his Living Dead pictures. Romero understood that 'reality' is as frightening as anything one could conjure. It's clear why the film was just too odd, too real, for its intended purpose of being a PSA (it was financed by the Lutheran Service Society).
It's not perfect, but THE AMUSEMENT PARK is a glimpse at what Romero could have achieved if he hadn't been pigeonholed. He often played with other styles when making his commercials and industrial films (a Calgon commercial done as a parody of FANTASTIC VOYAGE etc.). This film was shot just before THE CRAZIES and one will notice several of Romero's past and future collaborators in the credits such as Richard R. Rubenstein, the Hinzmans and Michael Gornick. It's a fascinating film that is worthy of reappraisal.
Trivia: Manzel (who was also ion Romero's MARTIN) was 70 when he shot the film. He lived another 36 years! The location, West View Park in Pennsylvania, closed just four years after this movie was made.
The Monster Club (1981)
Fun to see Price & Carradine together; It has its moments
MONSTER CLUB (1981) - Always wanted to see this anthology film which matched up Vincent Price and John Carradine*. The pair are the linking device to three tales. Carradine is a horror writer, Price a vampire who introduces the scribe to real monsters at an underground club. The joint looks like a cheap knockoff of the Cantina scene in Star Wars with extras in dime store Halloween masks cavorting to mediocre BritPop performed on the tiny stage (the one notable group is The Pretty Things). The stripper routine where she takes it ALL off is amusing (of course, a remake would be completed by CGI).
"Shadmock" is about the title creature, Raven (James Laurelson), who has cloistered himself in a mansion. He hires a young woman, Angela (Barbara Kellerman), to inventory his collection of valuable antiques. As a Shadmock, Raven has the power to destroy a living being with his demonic whistle. It's a decent segment propelled by Laurelson's sympathetic performance.
"Vampires" is fully tongue in...er...cheek, with the nocturnal Count (Richard Johnson) and his family (his wife is played by Britt Eklund) being hunted down by a latter-day Van Helsing, Pickering (Donald Pleasance). It's fitfully amusing. Beware musical instrument cases!
"The Ghouls" should have been the big full scale horror finale, but simply doesn't work. Stuart Whitman plays a horror film director who, on a location scout, stumbles into a hidden village full of grave robbing ghouls. It plays out as a kind of a precursor to M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE with a clan living in a secluded area in plain sight as it were - but, this is even less convincing than that film (the fog machine works overtime, but is defeated by shooting in bright daylight). Lesley Dunlop is good as a half-human, but Whitman is very hammy when he's not just plain flat.
Amicus had a lot of the same issues as Hammer Films in adapting their horror formula to the then modern world (Price's character quips about how it's "cheaper" to shoot present day, not period). Real locations such as the Shadmock's estate are a lot better than the bargain budgeted sets. THE MONSTER CLUB is worth wading through once to see Price and Carradine - and for a few moments here and there. It was to be Roy Ward Baker's (QUATERMASS AND THE PIT) final film.
*Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were also given offers. A couple of years later, all four would appear in HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS.
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Well made Horror mystery with an uncanny Caroll Borland
MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) Tod Browning's thriller is still an enjoyable mystery, even despite allegedly being shorn of some 20 minutes of footage. You get both Lionels - Barrymore and Atwill - plus, Bela Lugosi as Count Mora and Caroll Borland as Luna. The ending remains controversial among horror fans, but this is a well mounted film beautifully shot by the master of light, James Wong Howe. MGM could afford production values that Universal could only aspire to back in the 30s. It's amazing that Borland has remained a horror icon for decades despite this being only one of a handful of screen appearances.
Octaman (1971)
Goofy fun Creature From The Black Lagoon knockoff by the same writer
Writer-Director Harry Essex tried to recreate the basic template from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON which he wrote the screenplay. A mutant half-man sea creature (this time an Octopus hybrid) wrecks havoc on a scientific expedition, grabbing the lone female, attacks their boat, baits and traps them, gets caught in a net etc. Etc.. No underwater ballet between Pier Angeli and stuntman Read Morgan as the title beast (Morgan was no Ricou Browning!). Actor Jeff Morrow has a small role (he was in a BLACK LAGOON sequel) to extend the connections.
Future seven time Oscar winner Rick Baker got his first credit as a monster designer working with effects veteran Doug Beswick. The creature design is good (particularly in the closeups of the head), unfortunately, Essex insists on shooting the beast in broad daylight and on all kinds of terrain which does the costume no favors.
Essex' script is middling at best. Sure, it teases out some of the elements which made BLACK LAGOON such a memorable production (he also wrote the screenplay for IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE), but it mostly falls flat here. In particular, the middle act gets extremely slow. Kerwin Matthews (7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) is decent, as is Angeli, but the acting doesn't rise about the material. It's decent enough matinee material with a tad more gore than expected, and, for once in a low budget film, they show the monster early and often!
La bête (2023)
Henry James meets A.I.
THE BEAST (2024) - Henry James meets AI. Bertrand Bonello's very loose adaptation of James' novella "Beast In The Jungle" takes the kernel of the author's 80 page work and expands it into an 145 minute epic spanning three time frames some 130 years apart (Guillaume Bread and Benjamin Charbit co-wrote).
Lea Seydoux plays Gabrielle across all three periods of the story. Her suitor is Louis (George McKay). For the first half of the movie, the screenplay mainly focuses on two time eras: 1910, in which Gabrielle is a married pianist who is drawn to Louis. 2044, which posits Gabrielle in a future where she recognizes him, but not vice-versa. Later, a third epoch, 2014, takes center stage. In this era, Louis is a misogynist and Gabrielle a model-actress who becomes the target of his target of attention (this portion is said to based on a true crime case).
Bonello cuts back and forth freely between the years, using aspect ratios and media (film and digital) to signal the shifts in time. It's an adventurous concept which, occasionally, evokes Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD as much as James. The notion of a relationship spanning across time is an inherently fascinating one even if it doesn't all quite work.
Seydoux is on camera for virtually the entire film. She brilliantly evokes her Gabrielle at all three phases/versions of her life. She makes each of them distinct, while also capturing the characters' enduring essence. McKay is also quite good, even if his Louis isn't as singular (by design). There are other characters, but none are all too significant.
In addition to the themes of love and commitment, Bonello also uses dolls as a common symbol, with the most significant being a very human android named Poupee Kelly (Guslagie Malanga) in the future. The lead character being apprehensive about their future which is a theme in James's book is magnified exponentially by Bonello.
Unfortunately, the modern (2014) story is so divergent in tone from the others, that it seriously harms the flow of the film. Thematically, one could stretch and pull in order to force it into the carefully laid out past and future sections to make it "fit", but it never comes together. Further, it's the longest (and largely unbroken) segment to boot - not to mention distasteful. The James roots were already tenuous, but this portion renders any connection almost moot.
THE BEAST is a sharp looking film. The Beatles-like Nehru Jacket is a nice touch in the disco. The central ideas are powerful, and Seydoux is superb. It's a movie worth exploring as much for noting it's flaws as admiring its moxie.
The Shout (1978)
Arthouse horror with stellar cast
An arty psychological horror film adapted from Robert Graves' short story by Polish Director Jerzy Skolimowsksi (DEEP END, EO) and writer Michael Austin. It begins at a mental hospital and is told largely in a deliberate flashback by Charles Crossley (Alan Bates), who relates a tale of how one of the patients, Anthony Fielding (John Hurt), was institutionalized after losing his wife, Rachel (Susannah York).
It's a wild story of Crossley returning to Devon, England after years spent in Australia. He invites himself into Anthony and Rachel's lives. Crossley claims to have acquired magical powers from the Aborigines he lived with, including having the ability to kill all living beings within earshot when he produces: "The Shout".
Sound plays a crucial role throughout, not only by the title emitence, but, with all the pastoral sounds in the countryside - wind, animals and seascape. Anthony is an avant-garde composer who manipulates audio into music. The score, by Genesis members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, is also experimental (the electronics are by Robert Hine). The film was notable for being released in Dolby Stereo, which was rare for an arthouse release at the time.
The acting of the lead trio is exemplary. Bates is quite commanding and York pulls off the trickiest of the roles here. Tim Curry has an important supporting role, and future Oscar winner Jim Broadbent appears as one of the patients in his first credited role. As with many films dealing with mental illness going back to CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, the question becomes: "Who is really sane?". Skolimowski pulls it off fairly well, even if parts of the storyline may disappoint in retrospect. There are some genuinely chilling moments along the way, and the film does have a certain haunting quality.
Aku wa sonzai shinai (2023)
devastating tale of the clashing of values
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's followup to his masterful DRIVE MY CAR confronts the audience with its title but eases the viewer in with a long pastoral credit sequence. Then, an abrupt cut. Hamacuchi and cinematographer Yoshio Kitagawa do this a few times during the movie, as if jarring the viewer to pay attention.
Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) is a local jack of all trades in a small secluded Japanese mountain village. He lives his daughter, Hana (Ryo Nishikawa). Takumi and his circle of friends are happy with their quiet life, but their tranquility is threatened when a large firm decides to build a glamping (glamour camping) development in the area. The company is so large that when they hold a town meeting, they outsource the task to a pair of publicists (Ryuji Kosaka and Ayaka Shibutani) - further alienating the residents.
Writer-Director Hamaguchi isn't so much interested in the nuts and bolts aspects (although that meeting amusingly delves deeply into such details as sewerage), as setting up a parable about man and nature. Hamaguchi meticulously reveals how even one small change to the Eco system can upset the natural order and balance of life.
This isn't to say that Hamaguchi completely abandons the fine tuned dialogue that made DRIVE MY CAR so indelible. There's an extended sequence when the two corporate flacks have a lengthy and fascinating personal discussion as they drive out to try and offer Takumi a role in the glamping scheme. The one significant critique here is that the movie does strain a bit in trying to make its argument. Hamaguchi has said that he began the project as a half hour dialogue free short subject. The seams do show. Still, the filmmaking is top notch and the mostly amateur cast gives it a grounded reality no matter how high-minded the themes get. The finale is devastating and will stay with you long after the fade-out.
The Mask (1961)
Inventive nightmare sequences
THE MASK (1961) - Julian Roffman's THE MASK is a true oddity. A semi-experimental Canadian horror film that alternates between audio-visual inventiveness and routine. After an intro about Masks from an "authority", Roffman's film jumps right into the action, as a madman, Michael (Martin Lavut), chases down and attacks a woman. Louis Applebaum's "scary music" blares loudly (his score is much more creative in the dream scenes). Turns out that poor Michael is suffering under the spell of.... The Mask!- an Aztec artifact that looks like an ornate Skull with mosaic decor. He gives his psychiatrist, Dr. Barnes (Paul Stevens), The Mask - Tag! You're it!
The Mask commands: PUT THE MASK ON, NOW! The curious Doctor does - letting loose a psychedelic display of horrific visions full of dancing skeletons, hissing serpents, shooting flames, bulging eyeballs and lots and lots of skulls - all scored by electronic music. These sequences were shot in 3D a la William Castle's 13 GHOSTS where viewers put on their glasses when prompted (PUT THE MASK ON, NOW!). These scenes are so good that they only make the rest look even more mundane. Claudette Nevins is the Doc's sympathetic girlfriend, while Bill Walker and WB Brydon play particularly inept cops investigating the mayhem.
THE MASK is no classic, but, the shock scenes are genuinely thrilling and make this a fun film for Halloween -- or any time.
Saint Maud (2019)
A calling card for Rose Glass
Rose Glass' first feature is a dark psychological British horror film about an ex-nurse, Maud (Morfydd Clark). She's taken on a job as a live-in caretaker for a sickly woman, Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). Maud has turned to religion after her forced departure as a nurse. She gets on well with her patient until her religious devotion becomes too burdensome (at one point, Amanda inscribes a gift to Maud as "my saviour").
Set in Scarborough, Glass' screenplay contrasts Maud's sullen life with the bright lights and bustle of an amusement park called 'Coney Island'. After she loses her client, Maud's faith becomes ever more fanatical, to the point where she is hearing voices and seeing apparitions. Clark is very earnest and Ehle, is excellent as always.
It's a nightmarish picture that give hints of the style of Glass' recent LOVE LIES BLEEDING displayed more fully, but this one is very insular. It's effective to a point, but it's more illustrative of Clark* and Glass' potential than a fully realized picture.
* Clark is currently in the Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power series.
Speak No Evil (2022)
A nasty piece of business in the Nightmare Tourism subgenre
A nasty bit of business in the oddly burgeoning 'Travel nightmare' subgenre.
A Danish couple, Bjorn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), meet an overly friendly Dutch pair Patrick (Fedja van Huet) and Karin (Karina Smulders), in Tuscany. Each family has a young child. Some time later the Danes are invited to stay over for a weekend at Patrick's remote home in the Netherlands.
Right from the start, Sune Kolster's ominous score tips the viewer off that they are up to no good. Within hours, it becomes clear that these aren't the most matched set of families. Boundaries are crossed. Simple etiquette isn't followed. The children are mistreated. It isn't long before Louise wants to leave and go home.
Of course, if that happened, there would be no movie. Director Christian Tafdup (who also co-wrote with his brother Mads) amps up the tension in mostly subtle ways early on with moody lighting, camera angles and eerie natural sounds. As things progress, it gets uncomfortably darker and grim. The battle of wills between the two couples is interesting, with the kids being caught in the ever more dire crossfire.
The acting is fine with van Huet's faux cordgialness being particularly sinister. Still, this is one of those pictures where credibility is strained numerous times. One simply can't believe that no matter how "weak-willed" the Danes are, they wouldn't simply leave when they have the opportunity. For this kind of set-up to truly, believably, tick, Patrick and Karin have to display more carrots and not just stick, stick, stick.
By the time SPEAK NO EVIL reaches its brutally efficient climax, you may feel just like Bjorn and Karin do a couple of times- you'll want to take a shower afterward.
The Bikeriders (2023)
Good performances, particularly Comer
Jeff Nichols' fictionalized story about a North Chicago biker club is based loosely on interviews and book of photographs by Danny Lyon (here portrayed by Mike Faist). The group, The Vandals, is headed by Johnny (Tom Hardy) who is a bit older than most the members, and is portrayed as having a steady job and family life. The true focus of Nichols' screenplay are a young couple, Benny (Austin Butler) and Kathy (Jodie Comer). Interviews by Lyon of Kathy are filtered through the film, first in 1965, then in 1969 and finally in 1973. Her statements function as a de facto narration.
THE BIKERIDERS plays out in roughly chronological order and the events are staged a bit too neatly. There's a certain flatness to the production despite some good acting and handsome 35mm cinematography by Adam Stone. Lyon interviews Kathy - and, then we see the events unfold without many true surprises. Some of this is fitting in keeping with the source material's documentary approach, but Nichols never quite brings enough insight to make up for the dramatic shortcomings. There is violence and mayhem, but, it never quite rings true. By focusing on so so few characters, there is never a true sense of a unified group. They hang, but only intermittently does one feel that their bonds are deep. Sections are, to be frank, routine.
Where the film works is in the performances. Along with aforementioned cast, Nichols regular Michael Shannon is particularly good as a biker named Zipco. Hardy is convincing as the elder leader of the band bringing a sense of authority (and a touch of Brando's THE WILD ONE character). Butler is fine, but the character is underwritten. Their relationship is carried by Comer. Her mid-western accent may take a bit to get accustomed to, but, it's a truly fine portrayal of an everyday woman brought into this circle of macho camaraderie. She makes the viewer believe that what she is saying is credible and true - at least for Kathy.
Nichols mentions the violence to come when these groups became more known as criminal gangs. THE BIKERIDERS is most interesting as a portrait of a more innocuous time when biker clubs were just a way for neighborhood motorcyclists to hang together, even if it never quite achieves anything deeper.
Dìdi (2024)
Winning auto-biographical coming of age tale
Director Sean Wang's semi-autobiographical tale of 13 year Didi (Izaac Wang) takes a simple approach to documenting the few months before he hits high school. Set in Fremont, California in 2008, Didi does what most young teens do - hangs with his friends, experiments with drugs and takes his first few awkward steps in dating. His mom, Chungsing (Joan Chen; very good) takes care of Didi and his older sister, Vivian (Shirley Chen), while their absentee father is overseas on a job. Their paternal grandmother Nai Nai (Zhang Li Hua) is more than a bit domineering, always correcting Chungsing and sticking her nose in everyone's business.
Wang, who also wrote the screenplay doesn't add any dramatic events to juice the storytelling. Like Didi's hobby (videotaping), the filmmaker simply sets out to document a brief time in a boy's childhood. Adolescence is tough enough, but Didi can't help but to seemingly make things worse at every turn saying and doing the exact wrong thing at the most inappropriate moments. It's what makes DIDI both uncomfortable to watch at times, but also bracingly poignant.
There are no great revelations made here, but DIDI is a sweet (if at times, appropriately crude) slice of life. The storytelling slips into being prosaic from time to time, but, it's mostly a winning effort with a touchingly modest ending that hits just the right note.
The Trollenberg Terror (1958)
Fun British sci-fi with creepy SFX
THE CRAWLING EYE (1958 aka The Trollenberg Terror). Years before he had to put up with Agarn and the fearsome Hewakis, Forrest Tucker went to England to be the "American star" in this sci-fi thriller based on a British mini-series. A series of mysterious disappearances in the Swiss Alps has brought United Nations investigator Alan Brooks (Tucker) into the case. It's determined that whatever creature is behind the mayhem also has telepathic powers which leads to sibling psychics, Anne and Sarah Pilgrim (Janet Munro, Jennifer Jayne), helping out. Whatever "It" is, it's hidden by a mysterious radioactive cloud in the mountains.
Directed by Quentin Lawrence and adapted to the screen by Hammer regular Jimmy Sangster, THE CRAWLING EYE isn't a bad matinee movie. The Special Effects are by Les Bowie who would go on to work on a variety of projects including THE QUATERMAS XPERIMENT, DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, FAHRENHEIT 451 and winning an Oscar for SUPERMAN THE MOVIE. They may not be up to "current standards", but they are fun - with that looming giant eyeball is a particular highlight.
P. S. Originally released in the U. S on a double bill with THE COSMIC MONSTERS.
Il demonio (1963)
Remarkable Folk Horror
Brunello Rondi's remarkable drama takes a very naturalistic approach to its tale of Witchcraft and Possession in Southern Italy. An attractive young woman, Puri (Daliah Lavi) seems to be in the throes of Amour Fou with a young man, Antonio (Frank Wolff). When he tells her he's getting married, Puri's rage turns into casting an evil spell on Antonio, his marriage and future offspring. Puri's rantings give way to bouts of apparent possession, speaking in tongues and contortions of her body*. She is condemned as a witch and presented to the local priest for exorcism.
Rondi, a long-time screenwriting collaborator with Federico Fellini (including two Oscar nominations) fashions his film as a folk horror tale in the vein of a WICKER MAN, KWAIDAN or THE WITCH. What is real and what isn't is far less important than an exploration of an unfortunate soul and the locals who cast her out. Rondi's script is replete with specific local Italian traditions and rituals which provide added layers into his examination of the intersection of superstition and religion and how they seemingly over-ride any compassion for the woman's mental health and stability. Cinematographer Carlo Bellero's stunning Black & White camerawork pits Puri against the forboding barren landscape capturing her feeling of isolation from her people and home. Piero Piccioni's score is quite good. None of this would truly work without a superb performance by Lavi (who is best known in the U. S. for the original CASINO ROYALE and TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN). She brings an earthy intensity and her background in dance allowed her to perform her seemingly superhuman stunts.
IL DEMONIO is a dark but uniquely fascinating example of tragic folklore on film.
* This 'Spiderwalk' has drawn comparison the William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST released a decade later.
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
A unique and fascinating mood piece
Jane Shoenbrun's evocative drama shares a fascination with pre-streaming television alongside such recent films as SKINAMARINK and LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL - in particular, how the luminous lighting, the Glow, emits from a tiny box and shines brightly upon those who gaze upon it. Further, the films emphasize that you had to watch programming at a fixed place and not some portable device you could carry anywhere. Here, even the scenes not involving a TV set seem to cast a certain radiance.
Shoenbrun's vision is uniquely its own. A cult TV show called The Pink Opaque bonds two awkward high school students, Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine). The program, sort of a cross between BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, X-FILES and ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, centers on two young girls who have a mysterious connection that helps them fight supernatural monsters. There may not be any physical monsters for Owen and Maddy, but they face grappling with adolescence, sexual identity and, even, mortality.
Weighty and ambitious, Schoenbrun (who is non-binary) doesn't shrink from the challenge. The movie also takes place over an extended period of time which highlights the sub-theme of how memory warps and distorts one's perception over the years. The writer-director fully embraces it. What sets it apart from other coming of age films is how it embraces its own enigmas. Audiences are expected to fill in the gaps and explore its themes just as its characters do. Eric Yue's photography (on 35mm film), Brandon Tonner-Conolly's Production Design and Alex G's music all help create the rich, enveloping mood. There are nods to David Lynch and, in particular, David Cronenberg. The high school's acronym is VCR, which is an appropriate touch.
Such a work comes almost inherently with flaws. The last act drags on too long underlining things that are already apparent. The young actors are very good, but when Lundy-Paine's Maddy disappears for long stretches the absence is felt - their dynamic drives the tension. These are minor points that shouldn't detract from the whole.
I SAW THE TV GLOW is a daunting original vision. One worth exploring, not to mention bookmarking Shoenbrun as a Director to watch.
Inside Out 2 (2024)
More of the same sequel
Truth be told, I wasn't the biggest fan of the original. The 'mechanics' of how the emotions worked overwhelmed the human story of Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman). INSIDE OUT 2 not only doesn't alter that, it seems to double down on it.
The one potentially major shift is Riley's puberty kicking in. Unfortunately, by setting the entire movie in 3 or 4 days, there is little time to explore or expand on it. Instead, a few new Emotions get introduced including a frenzied Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and goofy Pouchy (James Austen Johnson). The overall effects is that parts of INSIDE OUT 2 play as even more juvenile than the first.
The animation is good, as is most of the voice work, but, it's a missed opportunity. It's merely a direct sequel set two years after the initial movie. That it became the biggest animated feature in box office history (not inflation adjusted) says more about how current audiences crave the familiar comforts of sequels than anything else.
Once all the chatter and clutter is set aside and Riley and her two closest friends, Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green), actually get a chance to have a scene together, it's a touching and heart-warming one. It's too bad, that the Emotions get the bulk of the screen time. Maybe, Part III will correct that imbalance.
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Harryhausen's swan song is a fine fantasy
Ray Harryhausen's swan song as one of the great special effects artists. It was Harryhausen and long-time producing partner Charles Schneer's biggest budgeted film and attracting such major talent as Laurence Olivier, Burgess Meredith, Claire Bloom, Ursula Andress and Maggie Smith as the goddess Thetis.
Mythology expert Beverly Cross wrote the screenplay and freely adapting the Perseus tale with Harry Hamlin essaying the role. Judi Bowker is the lovely Andromeda. Perseus encounters Pegasus the flying horse, Medusa, Dioskilos the two-headed wolf, large Scorpions and, most famously, the Kraken! As a sop to Star Wars, there's the mechanical owl, Bubo - "for the kids" (Harryhausen claims Bubo was conceived before the Lucas film). Harryhausen's work is very good, but a number of the effects were farmed out to other animators including an uncredited Jim Danforth. Unfortunately, as was the case throughout his career, the other optical work wasn't up to Harryhausen's standard. Laurence Rosenthal's score it suitably rousing and Desmond Davis' direction is capable.
Overall, CLASH OF THE TITANS is a fun ride. It was successful at the box office being one of that year's top grossers. Sequels were planned (I never bothered with the 2010 remake - good call?) as were further Harryhausen proposed films, but they never came to be Harryhausen did get to live long enough to have a multi decade 'farewell tour' and I was more than fortunate to have been able to meet him multiple times including at a screening of CLASH at the Hollywood Egyptian Theatre and a private tea at his L. A. home.
RIP to Ray and to Maggie Smith.
American Masters: Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll (2023)
Very good portrait of one of the early Rock masters
When Little Richard passed on in 2020 most of the news stories followed the familiar tale of the man as one of the founders of rock in the 50s who found religion, dropped out and then came back to the "devil's music". This episode does a good job fleshing out Richard's story and delve deep into his background and the full arc of his life and career.
This PBS film delves into both his artistry and paints a pretty detailed picture of Richards' complicated life. It highlights the central tension of his sexuality and 'evils' of rock n roll versus his religious upbringing. He had at least two major breaks from pop music which damaged his career commercially (he never again had a Top 40 single after first leaving rock in the late 50s). Richards' homosexuality was never truly hidden, but he himself was a contradiction by marrying a woman and renouncing his own lifestyle at times. It haunted him until the very end.
Despite his up and down career as a musician, his influence was phenomenal and both docs have testimonials from everyone like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to David Bowie. John Waters states that his pencil mustache is his decades long tribute to Richards' trademark 'stache. One of the "villains" of both pieces is Pat Boone, who did toned down covers of Richards' songs to greater commercial success with white audiences (Boone appears in the doc in brand new interviews).
Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023)
Very good bio on the Rock Pioneer
When Little Richard passed on in 2020 most of the news stories followed the familiar tale of the man as one of the founders of rock in the 50s who found religion, dropped out and then came back to the "devil's music". This film does a good job fleshing out Richard's story and delve deep into his background and the full arc of his life and career.
The CNN film paints a pretty detailed picture of Richards' complicated life. The doc highlights the central tension of his sexuality and 'evils' of rock n roll versus his religious upbringing. He had at least two major breaks from pop music which damaged his career commercially (he never again had a Top 40 single after first leaving rock in the late 50s). Richards' homosexuality was never truly hidden, but he himself was a contradiction by marrying a woman and renouncing his own lifestyle at times. It haunted him until the very end.
Despite his up and down career as a musician, his influence was phenomenal and both docs have testimonials from everyone like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to David Bowie. John Waters states that his pencil mustache is his decades long tribute to Richards' trademark 'stache. One of the "villains" of the piece is Pat Boone, who did toned down covers of Richards' songs to greater commercial success with white audiences.
Zielona granica (2023)
A stunning, and relevant, work of art
Polish director Agnieszka Holland's impassioned examination of the European refugee crisis from her nation's perspective. Holland's film, which she also co-wrote, is a sprawling work which begins by following a family of Syrians who are trying to the EU through Russian dominated Belarus. From there, the movie weaves it way to the Border Guards and, eventually, ia small band of mostly female Aid workers who give medical and legal assistance to the immigrants.
The structure is a bit daunting even though there are loose connections binding it all together. Cinematographer Tomasz Naumiuk shoots in an austere Black and White with Frédéric Vercheval's brooding score as accompaniment. The large cast is quite good with Maja Ostarszewska a standout as the, perhaps a bit naive Julia, one of the Polish volunteers. Behi Djanati Atai is memorable as a defiant Afghan woman who crosses the border with the Syrians. What knits it together is Holland's vision, which becomes clearer and clearer as the various strands are brought together - while simulataneously being torn assunder.
Holland never flinches from the painful and graphic details of the refugees' plight. They are literal political footballs booted from one side of the border to the other. There are times when the structure doesn't completely work and the filmmaker does dwell a bit on some seemingly extraneous details, but, there is no questioning Holland's fervor - much of it directed at Poland's leadership. It's been a highly controversial film within the nation and its government, and throughout much of Europe.
Unsurprisingly, it was NOT Poland's official submission to this past year's Academy Awards.
At 75, Holland (an Oscar nominee for EUROPA EUROPA) has made a daring - some would say angry - film. A stunning work of art that demands to be seen.
The Deadly Mantis (1957)
Decent special effects from Universal's 50s B Unit
THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957) One of a string of sci-fi films made in the 1950s by Universal Studios' B unit. Like TARANTULA, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE etc. Much of it is set in an isolated area, here not the desert, but an Arctic Outpost. Unlike most of the other genre films of the era, the gigantic monster isn't attributed to nuclear radiation, but to having been a prehistoric creature locked in ice.
Once the Praying Mantis is on the loose, it's up to paleontologist Prof. Ned Jackson (William Hopper) to come up with a battle plan. The film came out the same year that Hopper began his decade long run on Perry Mason as Raymond Burr's sleuthing partner. If it's the 50s, there has to be an attractive woman to assist, and she comes in the form of Alix Talton as a newspaper reporter as they track the insect's travels to the USA. The film co-stars Craig Stevens (Peter Gunn) as a Colonel and is narrated by Marvin Miller.
The film was directed by journeyman Nathan Juran (FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN) and produced by producer William Alland (THIS ISLAND EARTH, THE SPACE CHILDREN) who also contributed to the screenplay. Universal effects man Clifford Stine designed the 'Special Photography' and the stock music cues were by William Lava and Irving Gertz. Yes, it was very much a Studio B picture.
THE DEADLY MANTIS isn't one of the genre's greats, but it's a fun Saturday matinee flick with a few decent effects.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
The start of a new trilogy with nods to the original 1968 film
When this was released, I was assured that it was well made and pretty decent. Yet, I couldn't well up enthusiasm to see it in a theater even though the original is one of my all-time faves and I thought the recent trilogy was quite good. I was just aped out after Nine simian films. It's now streaming for "free", so.........
The first human doesn't appear in Wes Ball's KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES until some forty-five minutes in. It dares the viewer to accept a world in which the Apes aren't simply equals - but, In Charge. After a brief prologue, the movie plunges forward hundreds of years after Caesar's passing at the end of WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017). The main protagonist is Noa (Owen Teague) who's village is assaulted by a rival clan lead by Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) separating him from his family including his girlfriend Soona (Lydia Peckham). A wise elderly Orangutan, Raka (Peter Macon), guides the young Noa and instills in him knowledge of the true Caesar. Noa's travels bring him in contact with a pair of exceptional humans - Mae (Freya Allan) and Trevathan (William H. Macy). They stand out from the vast majority of homo sapiens who have descended into essentially a caveman level of existence. Mae and Trevathan are smart and literate and aid Noa in getting even with Proximus.
Josh Friedman's screenplay sets up parallels to the original 1968 film and there are easter eggs for long-time fans: Noa/Nova, scarecrows, hunting nets, and bits of the score echoing Jerry Goldsmith's in particular. In many ways, it's an ersatz alternate timeline remake of the Franklin Schaffner classic - with a dash of BENEATH and perhaps a pinch of ESCAPE dropped in for good measure. Disappointingly, the film doesn't even mention Rod Serling among those credited with the story (Goldsmith is).
It's a very well done movie, with strong production values. It has a genuine scope. The CGI is superbly rendered. The screenplay doesn't hold too many surprises once the general themes are laid out, but, it's all quite competent. It's being billed as a "standalone" even though it's clearly the opening volley for yet another trilogy. Even so, it does go on for perhaps one too many epilogues.
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is, as I expected, decent. Necessary? That's up to the individual viewer.
Civil War (2024)
A true Rorschach Test of a movie
CIVIL WAR (2024) - Alex Garland's CIVIL WAR is a true Rorschach Test of a movie. Set in the near present, it posits a credible situation where the U. S. is plunged into a battle pitting half the country versus the other half.
Garland plunges the viewer into the action with no background as to how the conflict began. A trio of experienced journalists, Lee (Kristen Dunst), Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), are in New York planning to head to Washington to get an interview with the President (Nick Offerman), who hasn't granted one for years. Heading straight to D. C. isn't possible because of the combat situation, so the trio take a circuitous route through West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. A precocious young journalist, Jessie (Cailee Spaney) talks her way into the caravan, much to Lee's objection.
The group's journey takes them through a gauntlet representing what is going on throughout the nation as a whole. Chaos runs supreme and no strong governmental agency seems to be in charge. Garland's screenplay reveals bits and pieces of info along the way - but in an intentionally haphazard and often confusing manner. The road trip acts as a microcosm of the greater war, including glimpses of those who naively try to live a normal life acting as if the turmoil isn't really happening.
The four journalists are more fleshed out. It's a good portrayal of the profession and emphasizes the personal sacrifices reporters make - particularly those in a war zone. Dunst is very good as is Cailey (who's diminutive 5'1 frame adds to the impression of how young and inexperienced her character is). Their relationship is more maternal than as equals. Henderson is one of our finest character actors and he gets a strong platform here to display those skills. Jesse Plemmons has a forceful cameo as a brutal local militia soldier (uncredited).
The production is compelling with an excellent use of sound, and the VFX are exemplary for the budget. Geoff Burrow and Ben Salisbury's score is augmented well by some well chosen songs including a pair from the cult 70s band Suicide. Rob Hardy's cinematography and Jake Roberts' editing keep the audience in the movie's grip.
CIVIL WAR is a provocative film, if not always satisfying as drama. The writing comes off a trite at times, relying on the performances to give it authenticity. By avoiding political specifics, Garland mostly succeeds. The sum total certainly invites many to love or hate it. Some will see it as a big cop-out - and not without some justification. The most extreme views often reveal more about the viewer's beliefs than those of the movie itself. Garland trusts that the savvy viewer will understand that CIVIL WAR isn't really about Red or Blue America, but rather, what kind of country citizens would live in should those fissures explode into full scale armed conflict. It wouldn't be just state versus state - but neighbor against neighbor and even family members opposing family members.
It's a movie which is better at asking questions than it is providing easy answers or deep insight, but it's a drama worth experiencing for one's own self. Preferably, with an open mind.