gortx Reviews

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

A masterpiece in miniature

[18 May 2024]

Pretty much a perfect bit of low budget cult movie gold. Infamously shot in 2 1/2 days Roger Corman takes its delicious one-joke premise to absurd heights. Full of throwaway bits, fun cameos (Dick Miller! Jack Nicholson!) and inspired lunacy. Charles B. Griffith's (he also voiced the killer plant) wacky screenplay is essentially a riff on his own BUCKET OF BLOOD, with enough U-Turns and Film Noir touches to stand on its own. Fred Katz' rollicking score is a good touch.

Jonathan Haze plays the ultimate schlub who works for boisterous flower shop owner Mel Welles with Jackie Joseph as his very patient girl. Wally Campo and Jack Warford play the noirish detectives on the beat. I got to work with Welles, and he boasted to me that he 'rehearsed the actors" while Corman took care of the camera and technical specifics. Another Hollywood boast? Sadly, they are both now gone.

Is it a great film? Perhaps not, but, who would have thought that this miniature masterwork would become known not only as possibly Corman's best film as a Director - but, the inspiration for a hugely successful musical play and a big budget Hollywood remake?

Piranha (1978)

Cheeky Jaws knockoff with a fun cast

[11 May 2024]

Joe Dante's cheeky JAWS knock-off (even Spielberg was impressed) is cheezy Roger Corman B-Movie fun. Scripted by a young John Sayles (his debut) has the benefit of not taking itself too seriously.

For a drive-in flick, it has a decent cast including Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Barbara Steele, Keenan Wynn and, of course, Corman/Dante regular Dick Miller. The behind the scenes crew has Rob Bottin on makeup, future composer Joel Goldsmith mixing the sound, and Phil Tippett who did some stop-motion work. Pino Donaggio provides the score.

P. S. Not only did these little cannibal fish give Dante and Sayles early starts to their careers, a certain James Cameron got his first Directing credit with the sequel: PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING.

The Brother from Another Planet (1984)

Soulful sci-fi

[27 April 2024]

Have to admit, when I first say John Sayles' BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, it didn't fully hit me. It was ok, but didn't really pop. Seeing it again a good number of years later, I was astonished that I had missed the boat on this soulful sci-fi film.

The always good Joe Morton stars as the title character who lands in New York City and is treated as very much an 'alien'. The outline coincidentally has parallels to THE TERMINATOR in that The Brother is being chased by a pair of 'terminators' (the two films were released within a month of each other*). Sayles himself plays one of the Men In Black, the other portrayed by the fine David Strathairn.

Sayles' script sets up a parallel between the immigrant experience and that of an extraterrestrial. In a nice touch, Sayles doesn't give the lead character speech, relying instead on Morton's moving performance. The VFX and makeup are minimal, but Ernest Dickerson's (with whom I've had good fortune to work with) cinematography and the sensitive yet witty writing, direction and acting carry the day.

BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET is a low key gem worth seeking out.

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Well produced 'found footage' film plays fair with the viewer

[24 April 2024]

Of all the competitors to Johnny Carson's talk show throne, none flamed out quite so ignominiously as Jack Delroy, who, on Halloween 1977, saw his career end. Delroy is, of course, a fictional character created by the Cairnes brothers, Colin and Cameron, who wrote and directed LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL. The Cairnes are Australian, but they have done their research and the movie feels authentic through and through.

Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is more based on Australian talk show host Don Lane than the likes of the actual Carson rivals such as Dick Cavett, David Frost, Alan Thicke, Pat Sajak etc. (Lane was, like Dastmalchian, an American). The Screenplay references many of the cultural aspects of the U. S. in the 70s such as cults, political corruption, secret societies, conspiracies, changing lifestyles and, here specifically - a growing interest in the occult. The gimmick is that the viewer is watching a long suppressed tape of the actual TV broadcast from 1977 (the commercial breaks are cleverly covered by a documentary film crew filming it all take place).

The "guests" on the episode include a psychic named Christou (Fayassal Bazi; a definite nod to Uri Geller) and a debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss; clearly patterned on the famed skeptic Amazing Randi). The main guests are June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) - a paranormal researcher and her supposedly possessed patient. The conceit of presenting the program in 'real time' (after a short pseudo-documentary intro narrated by Michael Ironside) does risk boring some of the audience - as watching any random episode of a second rate talk show from nearly 50 years ago naturally would. Still, the writing is pretty strong exhibiting a dark wit, and the performances keep it moving well enough.

For the most part, the Cairnes brothers play fair with the viewer, adhering to proper aspect ratios and allowing the viewer to only see what one would have watching it on a 19" television back in the day (the behind the scenes doc is a, mostly acceptable, cheat). One has to accept that as things go so haywire that the network wouldn't have just cut away and stopped filming. As good as Dastmalchian's performance is, it doesn't quite ring true that of all of Carson's competitors, Delroy would be his most serious rival. He just doesn't have that kind of general appeal. The movie does go a bit off the rails towards the end, not so much from a story standpoint, but as too extreme a departure from the standard the brothers themselves have set as keeping it all from one POV (also, the big reveal isn't much of one, nor is it properly set up).

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL is a solid feature. It ingeniously weaves in such reference points as ROSEMARY'S BABY, THE OMEN, THE EXORCIST (it's prime inspiration) and even a dash of Chayefsky's NETWORK. It makes for suitable late night horror film viewing itself.

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)

Charming fantasy from John Sayles

[13 April 2024]

John Sayles' charming film adaptation of a 50s novel by Rosalie K. Fry about an out of the way isle where the mythical Selkies are said to wander. Haskell Wexler's cinematography is lovely as is Mason Daring's music.

The film received glowing reviews but never quite got the audience it deserves. It's a bit of a departure for Sayles, best known for dramas like LONE STAR, MATEWAN and EIGHT MEN OUT, but his writing and direction handle the material with a sure hand and a delicate lyrical touch.

This is the kind of under the radar film for folks wanting to check out something they've never should seek out.

It Came from Outer Space (1953)

Seminal sci-fi from Ray Bradbury

[6 April 2024]

Jack Arnold's seminal film, based on a Ray Bradbury story really set a standard for a lot of 50s sci-fi cinema. The isolated location. A mysterious object in the sky. Alien takeovers. The man of science who nobody believes. And, of course, the damsel in distress.

Harry Essex adapted Bradbury's tale. It's fairly straightforward and, because it helped set the template, may seem a bit cliched now. Richard Carlson plays the amateur astronomer who discovers the spaceship and Barbara Rush is his girlfriend. Along the way, mysterious events occur and people start acting mysteriously (Richard Johnson among them). Arnold plays up the creepiness of the desolate Mojave desert setting. Clifford Stine does a good job with the cinematography and the Universal stock music (by Henry Mancini, Herman Stein and others) is suitably eerie.

The movie was originally released in 3D and the exploding fireball opening is a stunner. Filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter have waxed rhapasodic about how that scene changed the course of their lives seeing it as kids. IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE was re-released in 3D in the 80s to cash in on the format's craze then happening.

Carlson is his solid dependable self, and Rush is a charming leading lady. She won a Golden Globe for Best Newcommer - help set up her six decade career. She passed away last week at 97. RIP.

Skinamarink (2022)

Minimalist arthouse horror

[26 March 2024]

SKINAMARINK (2023) Full marks to Writer-Director Kyle Edward Ball. He came up with a concept and doggedly keeps to it, with virtually no concessions to his viewers. SKINAMARINK (named after a similarly titled old nursery rhyme) is an experimental arthouse horror project. Two little kids, Kevin (Lucas Paul) and his sister Haylee (Dali R. Tetrault) wander around their family home in 1995. Their parents (Ross Paul and Jaime Hill) are in their bedroom. They see a few visions, and, possibly, some violence. And, that's it as far as any real 'plot' is concerned.

From the outset, Ball and his Cinematographer Jamie McRae plunge the viewer in what looks like a battered old 70s grindhouse 35mm film print transfered to VHS tape (the viewer sees a few discarded cassettes strewn around for good measure). Almost all of the movie's credits are at the opening as well. The camera is intentionally almost never aimed at anything in particular - walls, ceilings, stairs, doors, feet and hands. Occassionally, one of the kids or parents is seen full body -- as if by accident. Much of the source lighting is either from a very low wattage night lite, flashlight or the glow from a TV. For minutes on end, the viewer can't make out anything but videotape noise. The dialogue is all hushed and whispered, with some it subtitled (its often so unintelligibe that many will want to turn on the closed captions). The movie must have been high near impossible to watch in a dingy theater with bad projection (Hint: turn off all the lights when watching it at home).

So, what is SKINAMARINK? It's proabably best to take it as a conceptual piece to simply experience. Boredom is part of the viewer's journey. If you get on its bead, one can find themselves mesmerized in an almost hypnotic state as you stare into the abyss. It's like a 60s Andy Warhol art film - almost daring one to turn away or off completely. It makes other minimalism movies like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY look like the latest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise by comparison.

There are tiny hints at a possible "plotline". A nod here or there to POLTERGEIST and THE SHINING. Maybe a murder. Potentially, a portal to another dimenstion. Most likely, it's a representation of some form of 'Dream Logic', but the more concrete one wants to make of it, the less enjoyable it becomes. Why would a widescreen film be captured on old VHS? Why are there a couple of jump scares? If it's someone's dream, why would they be staring at the floorboards or a piece of empty carpet? Why does the POV shift from objective to subjective (not to mention from one entity to another)? Why are some edits smooth and others seemingly random?

In many ways, SKINAMARINK might have been more effective as a short rather than at 100 minutes (of course, as noted, the tedium is part of the message). It will be interesting to see what Ball does with a more narrative feature. For now, SKINAMARINK stands as both a fascinating and an enervating exercise -- often concurrently.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Villenueve successfully completes his two-parter

[21 March 2024]

When DUNE Part One debuted, I gave it a grade of 'Incomplete'. It was decent, well-mounted, but there wasn't enough that was definitive to give it final marks. With Part Two, Director Denis Villenueve earns a solid passing grade.

After a brief prologue, which introduces Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan (this also functions as a tidy recap), the new entry picks up with Paul Atreidies (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) who have joined forces with Chani (Zendaya), Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and the Freman.

Villenueve and Jon Spaiht's script improves on the pacing of the original, managing to weave in new plot developments and important new characters such as the Emperor (Christopher Walker) and the menacing nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) of Baron Harkonnen (a returning Stellan Skarsgard) . The screenplay is still burdened with much exposition and some of the dialogue rings flat. The cast does their best with Butler and Pugh making the strongest impressions of the newcommers. Ferguson is excellent once again. Chalamet is better than in the first half, and grows into the role. Unfortunately, Bardem and Walken are saddled with lesser material.

As a combined film, DUNE is an impressive achievement on a grand scale. Some of the Greig Fraser's cinematography is a bit too murky at times, but otherwise quite solid. The production design, sound, costumes, VFX, Zimmer's score - all set a high standard.

For hard SF fans, the fantasy elements may create a certain distance with their amorphous and seemingly flexible rules. Unless one is truly steeped in Frank Herbert's mythos, the details often create more confusion than cohesion; Not to mention that the 'ending' truly isn't -- as there are five more original books to go. For all the criticism the 1984 David Lynch version gets, he did manage to distill it into a coherent enough film that runs less than two and a half hours. The collective Dune here runs over five. Obviously, there are many more details explored, but there are times where it hinders the overall dramatic rhythm.

All that noted, Villeneuve can hold his head up high. His two-parter is a good attempt at adapting a dense series of novels which have gained their own mythic status. If there are to be more Dune filmed adaptations, Villenueve can walk away proud of his accomplishment.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Well made, but need to see Pt.2 to see how it all plays out

[20 March 2024]

The Mission Impossible series is a bit of an anomaly in that it didn't really hit its stride until the fourth entry (GHOST PROTOCOL). Unfortunately, DEAD RECKONING is a step back to the bad old days of the franchise with its haphazard plotting and uneven pacing.

Writer-Director Christopher McQuarrie, who has shepherded the previous pair of films is again at the helm (he co-writes here with Erik Jendersen). The Production is top level with strong stunt-work, FX and location photography (it was Oscar nominated for Sound and VFX). What's missing (along with a tight script) is the staging and editing. Everything takes too long to develop and play out. No matter how eye-popping the action scenes are, they are no substitute for a story where one really cares about the consequences; Doubly so, because this is only "Part One". Is this truly a tale that will take upwards of six hours to tell? It's quite ironic that will all the car chases, parachute drops, shoot-outs and mano-a- mano combat, the biggest tool in our heroes' bag of tricks is simple pick-pocketing!

Cruise is his movie star self, Pegg and Rhames do their MI buddy thing, Pom Klementieff is a decent villainess and Hayley Atwell is a pretty good new addition as Ethan Hunt's new sidekick (if reluctantly). Rebecca Ferguson, is utterly wasted and quite clearly shunted aside for the fresher, newer model in Atwell. Esai Morales makes for a bland villain who seemingly only shows up when the script needs him to - and even then, mostly just to be certain that his coif looks marvelous.

DEAD RECKONING PART ONE has enough thrills to still be passable, a final grade really can't be rendered until Part Deux is released in 2025.

20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

Vital, necessary first draft of history

[17 March 2024]

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (2023). Academy Award Winner for Documentary Feature.

Mstyslav Chernov and his team of Ukrainian journalists embedded themselves in Mariupol for some of the earliest days of the Russian invasion and documented it for the Associated Press. It's a brutal bracing first person look at the war (Chernov narrates).

It's not an easy watch and Chernov never shies away from bringing the viewer up close to the events. It's the citizens of Mariupol who are it focus, although the Documentary makes a good case that the city itself is a 'person'. Once vibrant and alive, and now under constant siege.

In Chernov's stirring Oscar acceptance speech, he wishes that he never had to make 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL, and as a viewer one may wish to have never seen it. But, watch it we must. It's vital for the story to be told.

Napoleon (2023)

Epic scope, muddled delivery with an excellent Vanessa Kirby

[15 March 2024]

When the pre-release buzz is about how a 149 minute theatrical release is just the teaser for a four-hour streaming cut, one can't help but be wary going in. Unfortunately, that wariness is mostly warranted in this "shortened" version of Ridley Scott's take on the life of the famed French emperor. (to be honest, flags are raised whenever a filmmaker pre-defends his movie by saying: Wait for the director's cut)

Regardless of what was left on the cutting room floor, Scott's movie does have a genuine epic feel. Production Designer Arthur Max (GLADIATOR, SE7EN) has done some splendid work here and Dariusz Wolki's camerawork ably captures it all in its big screen splendor (the movie was nominated for three tech Oscars). Scott stages the battle scenes quite impressively, including the Waterloo sequence.

Unfortunately, Scott never quite gets a handle on the movie's tone nor focus. Vanessa Kirby brings an insouciant liveliness to her Josephine. She immediately captures not only Napolean's (Joaquin Phoenix) eye, but, when the film allows her to, the attention of the audience. The big issue here is to what to make of Phoenix' performance. When he isn't glowering, he tries to inject humor into the fairly staid period piece. There are fragments of comedy that land, but it's never consistent. Virtually none of the other characters show much wit outside of Josephine (before she's shunted aside). Phoenix' acting exists in its own plane too much of the time. It's as if Scott allowed him to do "one more take, but funny this time" - and then left them all in this edit. David Scarpa's screenplay isn't consistently witty and Scott has a leaden comedy touch. Further, there is nothing in the overall design of the story that leads one to believe that was the intended approach - Phoenix is on his own island as it were. More damning is that Phoenix' Napoleon never shows the kind of magnetism nor leadership that leads one to believe he would rise to the top of the French government.

When the movie is about Josephine and Napoleon's relationship, it has a certain dramatic pull, largely guided by Kirby's fine characterization. Napoleon's other affairs lack any sense of intimacy by comparison. Sadly, this edit keeps Josephine off-camera for much of the last act. For the record, Scarpa says he prefers the theatrical cut to the longer version that will be streaming later.

NAPOLEON is a mixed bag. It's thrilling to see a true big screen saga with a generous budget about a subject of importance (as Scott achieved with GLADIATOR). Kirby and much of the cast is solid, but there's a void in the story-telling that is unlikely to be filled by just adding more minutes to the run-time.

The Death Wheelers (1973)

Bizarro, black comedy

[2 March 2024]

Bizarre black comedy horror film about a biker gang who commit to Satan in order to become the undead. It has a certain cool detached mood. Making it more effective is that it doesn't try too hard to either amuse or frighten. It just lets the story play out and the actors mainly kept their tongues in cheek. Although unique in own right, PSYCHOMANIA is very much of the THEATER OF BLOOD / DR. PHIBES branch of British horror.

The cast includes Beryl Reid and George Sanders in his final film. John Cameron's wild music sparks the action and the warped screenplay by Arnauld d'Usseau and Julien Zimet has it's dark tongue firmly in cheek (the pair also collaborated on the equally gonzo HORROR EXPRESS). Director Don Sharp manages the tonal shifts well (he also directed three episodes of The Avengers TV series along with such horror films as KISS OF THE VAMPIRE and TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER).

I got to see a rare 35mm IB Technicolor print years ago with an appreciative crowd. PSYCHOMANIA is in the public domain so its quite readily available to stream and on physical media.

The Apple (1980)

Only Menahem Golan could concoct this entertaining EuroCheez

[10 February 2024]

Menahem Golan's THE APPLE is a sci-fi/musical mash-up that succeeded only in being forgotten for over 30 years. It began as more serious vision of a 1984 society intended for the stage; But, once it got into Cannon Films' hands, it morphed into the inexplicable mess that it is. Catherine Mary Stuart got her first lead, but, hardly a memorable one. The budget for the Munich shot film also ballooned from $4M to $10M (about $35M today). Hardly huge by studio standards, but, quite large for Golan and Globus at the time.

Golan wanted it to be a mainstream musical like THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY, CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC and, in his dreams! -- SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. It was also made and released concurrently with the sci-fi ish XANADU. As anybody who knows the history of Golan and Cannon Films understands, they were infamous for jumping on a trend, including making a lookalike low budget version of a studio picture. THE APPLE got a big splashy premiere where crowd hooted and hollered AT it - much to Golan's disappointment. He though he'd have a mainstream hit -- not a cult film (which it became years and years later). Soundtrack albums were handed out, which the crowd tossed about like frisbees! Having worked with Menahem Golan, I can assure folks he had gloriously bad taste - thankfully, with THE APPLE! It's what makes it so deliriously entertaining.

You Hurt My Feelings (2023)

Mildly engaging Holofcener entry

[7 February 2024]

Write about what you know. That's the advice Beth (Julie Louis-Dreyfuss) dispenses to her writing students. It's also pretty much the path Writer-Director Nicole Holofcener has followed in her six feature films. Her stories center on urban upper middle class professionals.

Beth is an author who's latest novel hasn't sold yet and it's causing her some stress. Her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies), is a therapist who is also having some career doubts. They have a son (Owen Teague) who wants to be a playwright. Beth's sister, Sarah (Michaela Watkins), is an interior decorator who is becoming disenchanted with her work. Her husband Mark (Arian Moayed) is struggling actor. Plenty of first world angst to go around.

Holofcener and her cast are good enough to overcome some of the familiar tropes here and the theme of how to tread the line between honesty and (hurting one's) feelings is decently explored. David Cross and Amber Tamblyn as a passive aggressive couple in Don's care are terrific scene stealers. What's missing here is true bite. There's never a sense of either urgency or sharp insights. One never feels that any of the interlocking relationships are truly in peril. A hug, a kiss, or a hit of edible marijuana and all will be fine.

YOU HURT MY FEELINGS is a pleasant enough little movie, but, it's the epitome of a 'dramedy'- it falls just short of either of it's components.

Afire (2023)

Petzold's latest in a Rohmer mood

[20 January 2024]

Director Christian Petzold (PHOENIX, TRANSIT) appears to be in a slightly different mode at first with his latest, AFIRE. Four people gather at a seemingly idyllic summer retreat in the Baltics.

The home is owned by the family of Felix (Langston Uibel). He and his friend Leon (Thomas Schubert) discover that a young woman has sublet a bedroom as well, Nadja (played by Petzhold regular, Paula Beer). A local lifeguard Deved (Enno Trebs) completes the quartet. Leon is there to work on a rewrite of his novel, while Felix is completing a portfolio of photographs.

Petzold has said that he found inspiration in the work of Eric Rohmer and one can certainly see the influence as the characters go through their paces and engage in barbed conversations and behaviors. The original German title translates roughly as 'Red Skies' and refers to the crimson glow from nearby forest fires in the region.

Petzold's script takes a bit to come into focus and is impeded by the character of Leon, a petulant sort who is neither sympathetic nor particular interesting for much of the action. Schubert's performance similarly is off-putting at first and never quite makes him worthy of much investment. Fortunately, Beer is her dependable self and keeps the film moving along, all the while revealing layers of her character. Uibel and Trebs are fine as is Matthias Brandt as Leon's literary editor.

AFIRE has an appropriate denouement (if a bit on the nose) and Petzhold delivers one last mischievous wink to the viewer.

Nyad (2023)

Bening and Foster buoy this bio-pic

[17 January 2024]

In 2013, Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Florida. She was 64 at the time. Julia Cox' screenplay (based on Nyad's book) essentially begins as Nyad (Annette Bening) turns 60, feeling as if her life is in the rear view mirror. Encouraged to action by her long time friend and training partner Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), Nyad begins to harbor the crazy notion of re-trying that Cuba-Florida swim - something she first attempted at the age of 28.

Filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are Oscar Winning documentarians (FREE SOLO, MERU) making their first narrative feature. They use their background in filming sports and action scenes well here, and they take ample opportunity to use existing news footage of the real Nyad's exploits (Bening does her own share of genuine swimming, even is she doesn't quite convince as an athlete herself). What doesn't work are the flashbacks that are inter-cut constantly. They provide background on Nyad's life, but never truly flow with the main narrative. Further, the movie never addresses the controversies over Nyad's claims over the years including the fact that this famed swim achievement hasn't been documented as an unassisted swimming record (there's even a fact check website in Nyad's "honor").

The movie simply wouldn't work without Bening and Foster. One believes that they really have been friends for decades with all the little unspoken nuances that go with that. Rhys Ifans is very good in support as the Navigator for Nyad's swims. The most exceptional aspect is how well the movie depicts how the feat is as much mental as physical. The will to be in frigid water and fight not only the elements but also the abundant predatory ocean beast is presented vividly, not to mention how just being awake for some 60 hours straight causes out of body hallucinations.

Filmmaking deficits and all, NYAD can't help but be a feel good sports movie with a strong central cast.

American Fiction (2023)

Good setup but not quite enough fire in the satire

[17 January 2024]

As Cord Jefferson's movie opens a provacative word is written on a blackboard. The teacher, Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), is immediadely called out for his provocation - his penance is being sent home to Boston until things blow over. Monk primarily wants to be known as a novelist, but his work is more admired than purchased.

In Boston, Monk is forced to confront his dysfunctional family. His sister, Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), is all about tough love, especially when it concerns their ailing mother, Agnes (Leslie Uggams). Their ne'er do well brother, Clifford (Sterling K. Brown), only adds his own issues to the table. Monk's agent, Arthur (a scene stealing Jon Ortiz) backhandedly goads Monk into an idea for a new book that might actually sell. Urged to be "more black", Monk comes up with a grossly stereotypical tome about a hardened criminal told in first person. Entitled 'My Pafology', it's Monk's slam at how easy it is to pander to white mainstream readers. Of course, it becomes a publishing sensation but not before some major back and forth, including the use of a pseudonym (Stagg R. Leigh) and a whole back story of how Stagg is on the run from the law (there's also a profane title change). Issa Rae plays another author who has had much more financial success than Monk by pandering to her readership.

The book scenes are the strongest in Writer-Director Jefferson's movie (it's an adaptation of a novel by Percival Everett). There's a wit to the satire that delivers some well-earned blows at the culture. Unfortunately, the screenplay divides its time in favor of the family drama. Those scenes are well played and include a potential new girlfriend for Monk, Coraline (sprightly played by Erika Alexander) and an extended member of the Ellisons, Lorraine (Myra Lucretia), who is given a sweet subplot of her own. Still, as decently told as that part of the movie is, plays out as a standard issue dramedy. The bite of the satire is invariably lessened by its soft center. The two halves of the screenplay seem to be at odds with itself at times. The result is a film stuck in neutral. Wright is a fine actor, but the screenplay never lets him go full force. He, and the movie, holds back its fire.

As the movie progresses, the blades get duller and duller until the edges are all but missing. There isn't much of a payoff. Instead of a surgically delivered scalpel, Jefferson brings a well appointed butter knife to the table. It needed more of the sharp teeth and and fire of the opening sequences.

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Fun Star Wars knockoff via Seven Samurai

[13 January 2024]

Roger Corman's Star Wars cash-in was his most expensive production. It's elevated by John Sayles' script which is essentially: Seven Samurai In Space. The cast has some interesting names including John Saxon, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, Richard Thomas, Sam Jaffe, Jeff Corey, Marta Kristen, Julia Duffy and Sybil Danning as a warrior queen (her ample bustline caused nervous network execs to crop the frame when it first aired on TV!).

Jim Murakami Directs and James Cameron was one of the Art Directors with Bill Paxton assisting him! James Horner contributes one of his earliest scores. The film didn't do a lot at the box office and Corman went back to lower budget quickies, but he got his "money's worth" by recycling some of the sets, special effects and music on later films. It has become something of a cult favorite, too.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Ambitious, multi-part telling works in sections

[12 January 2024]

Martin Scorsese's ambitious adaptation of the non-fiction book of the same name went through many changes. The main one being a shift in focus from the FBI's investigation to more of an emphasis on the characters involved in the plot in a small Oklahoma town.

After a prologue, Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives in Fairfax in the 1919. He is back from WWI and has come to stay with his uncle William Hale (Robert DeNiro) a powerful local baron who asks Ernest to call him "King". Ernest woos and marries a local Osage native American woman, Mollie (Lily Gladstone) - with Hale's strong prodding. In quick order, it becomes apparent that Hale and much of the Caucasian community is in cahoots to steal the oil rights from the Osage, with Ernest, more or less, going along.

Scorsese himself co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth. The structure is fractured with Hale's intentions telegraphed quite early on, in particular in the scenes with Ernest. The machinations of the evil plot play out without much rhythm with the marriage of Mollie and Ernest given little room for development. The characters have little dimension or room to breathe until much later on.

The story doesn't truly pick up until well past the halfway point when the FBI arrive in the form of Tom White (Jesse Plemmons) and his men. Scorsese's filmmaking also gets a boost with the law's arrival, no doubt in part due to the fact that it was the FBI story that formed the original basis of the film. This section of the movie is its strongest. The crimes visited upon the Osage and the utter depravity of those involved, come crashing down, no more so than with the hapless Ernest. Scorsese is in his wheelhouse in this section. The last act is more problematic with a couple of name actors popping up (John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser) and a number of cameos. The scenes with the Osage often feel more pertinent to the plot's dynamics than to the real people that are being portrayed.

The performances are similarly variable. DeNiro is technically fine, but, isn't able to add layers to what could have been a more subtle character. DeCaprio (who occasionally seems to be imitating him) is let down by the muddled characterization in the script. Gladstone is good, but again, left without much screenplay support. Mollie has a couple of mournful voice-overs at random points in the story, but, they are never consistently utilized (it's as if more extensive ones were recorded, but deleted in the edit). Mollie is unquestionably the heart and soul of the film, but never its actual center.

The production is impressive with Rodrigo Prieto's excellent cinematography (a hybrid of 35mm film and digital) superbly capturing Jack Fisk's accomplished production design. Robbie Robertson's 'distant drums' score is effective. Thelma Shoonmaker's editing is hard to gauge since Scorsese's direction (and writing) clearly dictated much of it. The story is spread over several characters and movements. Scorsese, to his credit, clearly wanted to also add a humanizing element to the Osage. Unfortunately, it never all fits together leaving the filmmaker to add in newsreels, narration and montages in order to try and glue it all together into a cohesive whole. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON tells an important story and sections of it work quite well, but the sum never quite equals its parts.

The Zone of Interest (2023)

Jonathan Glazer's haunting vision

[9 January 2024]

Director Jonathan Glazer isn't very prolific with only three prior films over the past 23 years, but each is marked by a distinctive vision (SEXY BEAST, BIRTH and UNDER THE SKIN). ZONE OF INTEREST is no different with an even more controlled conception.

Loosely adapting Martin Amis' novel, Glazer creates a setting, a tableu, and never lets go. Opening with a long ominous musical overture by Mica Levi the viewer is plunged into a seemingly tranquil German family home. Uniformed Nazi officers are about, served by compliant women. A commandant, Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel) returns home to his family including his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller, superb as she also was in this year's ANATOMY OF A FALL) and five children. Hedwig's mother, Linna (Imogen Kogge) comes to stay with them. Their yard is idyllic save for a high concrete fence that partially masks an industrial looking building just behind it. Auschwitz.

Lukasz Zal's (IDA, COLD WAR) camera never moves. The set-ups are often at quite a distance, as if it were all a set-piece on a stage. As officers come and go, the viewer overhears snatches of conversation about how to more efficiently run the camps, Rudolf attententively leads the discussions. Hedwig runs the home, with a determined, yet outwardly calm demeanor. The banality of evil has rarely been depicted with such domesticality. The children play outside as most kids would do, only with a faint everpresent chimny smoke wafting into the sky. There are a couple of departures from the regimented compositions when dark children's fairy tales are depicted as if a camera negative. Levi contributes additional chilling music cues.

As placidly chilling as the visuals are Sound Designer Johnnie Burn creates a malevolent maelstrom of audio effects mixing in gunshots, dog barks, mayhem and human voices. Glazer never shows the insides of the camp, yet the sound and visions more than carry his intent. Even more so, since they burrow into the audience's subconscious.

Glazer has crafted a movie with a precise, if a bit self-limiting, goal. There are some moments that don't work (particularly late in the film), but one never doubts that it is uniquely his own. For those willing to take the bleak journey, Levi's exit music will haunt one long after it fades out.

Society of the Snow (2023)

Powerful well made account of survival

[6 January 2024]

Spanish Director J. A. Bayona's first film in Spanish since his debut THE ORPHANAGE puts to good use his experience with large scale spectacle (THE IMPOSSIBLE, JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM) in telling this incredible true story. The 1972 South American sports team crash in Chile has been filmed before, but Bayona, his co-writers and a talented cast and crew give it an authenticity and believability that the others have lacked (including the 1993 studio picture, ALIVE). For one thing, SOCIETY OF THE SNOW focuses solely on the passengers and flight crew. It is told, literally, from their point of view (it's narrated by one of the initial crash survivors).

Tragically, the public's perception of what happened boils down to: "That Chilean soccer team that ate each other to survive". The fact that they were actually rugby players and from Uruguay has gotten lost in the sensationalist cannibalism angle. Bayona, to his credit, neither exploits that part of the story, nor tries to hide it. It's presented naturally - as what was necessary to live (it's also sensitively depicted). The large cast is very good, and the production is exemplary with strong makeup, VFX, sound, music (Michael Giacchino) and cinematography. The actors genuinely look as though they have been through an ordeal with genuine location filming putting the entire production in the elements.

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW is too unbelievable a tale to have been made up. The movie respects both those who made it out, as well as the memories of those that perished in the Andes.

All of Us Strangers (2023)

Poignant and ethereal exploration of a writer's subconscious

[5 January 2024]

Andrew Haigh's ethereal new film ALL OF US STRANGERS plunges us deeply into the subconscious of its main character, Adam (an excellent Andrew Scott), a writer living in a huge desolate apartment complex.

A chance encounter with another tenant (the only other one?) Harry (the equally fine Paul Mescal), sets his mind racing. Adam finds himself traveling back to his childhood home where he visits his parents seemingly locked in time. While full grown himself, his parents are as they were thirty years prior. Sensitively played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, his mum and dad greet him warmly yet are a bit wary about Adam's lifestyle. That is being gay and single.

Haigh, who adapted Taichi Yamada's novel for the screenplay, takes a metaphysical approach to the story, but never loses track of his quartet of main characters. The 'Twilight Zone' aspects never intrude on the personal tales - they gently amplify them. The performances are all exceptional with a delicate scene between Foy and Scott being one of the most astonishingly touching in some time. The scenes between Mescal and Scott are palpable, and Bell has a glow about his persona here that hits just the right notes.

Jamie Ramsay's exquisite 35mm cinematography works in unison with Jonathan Alberts' editing rhythms and backed by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's gentle score. Haigh orchestrates ALL OF US STRANGERS with empathetic grace. It's a paean to loneliness and wanting, and a lovely one at that.

Godland (2022)

The true meaning of religion and the soul

[3 January 2024]

The first thing that strikes the viewer at the outset of Hlynur Pálmason's GODLAND is the 1:33 aspect ratio framing. The edges are curved like that of a photographic plate. It's the first of many indelible images that Cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff captures in 35mm. The visuals are key here in Pálmason's screenplay as he weaves a story around photographs taken by his protagonist, Lucas (Elliot Crosset Hove), a vain Danish Priest tasked with traversing the rugged Scandanavian landscape in order to build a church in Iceland in the late 19th Century.

Lucas hires a brawny Icelandic guide, Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurdsson), to lead the journey. After many travails, they reach their destination - a remote village. Lucas finds a room in a shack owned by Carl (Jacob Lohmann) and his two daughters, Anna (Vic Carmen Sonne) and Ida (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir - the Director Pálmason's actual child).

The plot is merely a device for Pálmason to create the setting for his film. The term "Godland" could be more accurately translated as "Godforsaken". The terrain is at once beautiful and foreboding. The innate impatience of Lucas is exacerbated by the physical and mental toll the surroundings take on his body and mind. He doesn't lose faith as much as he fails its challenges. Von Hausswolff's camerawork brilliantly creates a world of its own - a character. Pálmason uses a number of long single takes to place the viewer in the environment.

The villagers aren't a particularly religious group yet they seem to embody what is known as faith, more than the preacher sent to enlighten them. Pálmason seems to be initiating a conversation with the viewer where one ponders whether the notion of organized religion truly has meaning in such a remote habitat. Is the earth god or goddess (Gaia) the rightful ruler here? Lucas is such an imperfect vessell that Pálmason does stack the deck a bit (and a few of the plot permutations come off as unneccessarily specific), but he has a well wrought vision. GODLAND is something to behold.

Poor Things (2023)

Superb upside down and sideways take on Frankenstein

[3 January 2024]

Based on the novel by Alasdair Gray and adapted by Tony McNamara, Yorgos Lanthimos' POOR THINGS is like a backwards and upside down take on the Frankenstein myth. As to be expected, Lanthimos was never going to do a straightforward adaptation (even of the novel), and his penchant for the bizarre and outrageousness is at the fore from the very beginning.

Bella Baxter (a fearless Emma Stone) is the latest creation of Dr. Godwin Baxter (the always reliable Willem Dafoe) - "God" to his few confidants. She's the 'monster' with a young woman's body but the mind of a mere child. When one of God's students, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef - solid), arrives to observe Bella, he's as smitten as he is horrified at the Doctor's not quite human-being. The abode is also a veritable menagerie of various mutants and failed experiments.

God's castle-like home and laboratory is the first of many elaborate fantastical settings for Production Designers Shona Heath and James Price to play with. Robbie Ryan's expressive cinematography shifts between B&W and Color - and always on actual 35mm film (it's framed in a throwback 1:66 aspect ratio). Jerskin Fendrix' musical score is his feature debut and it's iconoclastic.

As striking as the early scenes are, the film truly takes flight when Bella is let loose upon the world by a rakish solicitor played by Mark Ruffalo. Bella is whirled across Europe and on a cruise ship ravishly sampling all of the sensory and physical delights of the world, especially those of a carnal nature. Lanthimos doesn't shy away from Bella's wanton newfound sexuality and revels in displaying its many varieties(perhaps a bit too relishly). It's certainly the randiest Frankenstein film since Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol's X-Rated 1974 version (thankfully, we are spared the 3D details!). Stone embraces the erotic sequences with abandon - but, approaches them with a keen purpose.

This long section of the movie also serves to show Bella's maturation on an intellectual level. Her mind is genuinely expanded along with her corpus. Her transformation could be read as feminist (and on many levels, it is), but, in a genuinely clever way; Many of the film's themes link up with Mary Shelley's 19th Century source novel. The notion of a person created against their will and desiring to be free to choose one's life path is successfully distilled here. The creation must grow and challenge their maker. Bella's drive is to seek to become articulate and experienced - to become their own creator. To have a true soul. To be their own 'God'.

When Bella returns to Dr. Baxter, the film becomes almost its own sequel. Another significant chapter or two, if a bit curtailed in length. There is also one last adroit twist which is a direct homage to a certain classic horror film of similar vintage to that of James Whale's 1931 masterpiece FRANKENSTEIN.

Lanthimos' POOR THINGS is a brilliantly designed film in both style and substance. The thematics are in tune with the design elements and vice-versa. Some of the musical selections and over-use of distorted lenses do distract, but it wouldn't be a Lanthimos film if everything was proper and pleasing. Stone is a wonder here and the large supporting cast is mostly spot on (Ruffalo is a bit miscast) with a nice turn by Kathryn Hunter as the brothel madam (Hunter was also superb in Joel Coen's TRAGEDY OF MACBETH).

Rustin (2023)

Colman Domingo is electrifying as the title character

[3 January 2024]

Bayard Rustin is one of the most overlooked figures in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, even though he was a key organizer of the Martin Luther King's March On Washington in 1963. George C. Wolfe's movie goes the pretty standard bio-pic route focused on the months leading up to the march, buoyed by a galvanizing performance by Colman Domingo in the title role.

Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black's script hits the main points along the way and fills in some of the details of Rustin's personal life, including his sexuality and his outspokeness - even to fellow civil rights leaders. Domingo keeps the movie going even when the storytelling doesn't project much momentum. His gregarious acting is infectious and uplifts his fellow cast members - there are times when even MLK Jr. (Aml Ameen) seems like a dullard by comparison! RUSTIN fictionalizes some aspects of the true story, unfortunately. And, Chris Rock is mis-cast as the NAACP's Roy Wilkins (probably for marquee value).

Fortunately, when Domingo is on screen, the movie breathes. He brings the character to life. The March itself is deftly told on a budget, and still brings the emotion from the rally all these decades later.