purrlgurrl Reviews

Earthquake Bird (2019)

Way too slow . . .

[3/10 · 16 November 2019]

Honestly, I fell asleep. The narrative's pace is too slow to be suspenseful. Vikander's character is underwritten and opaque. Teiji, the photographer at the apex of the love triangle, is so uncharismatic her obsession with him is baffling. So is the fact that two young women are drawn to him. I guess his being a photographer is supposed to be enough to make him a darkly romantic, irresistible figure. Whatever.

The mystery of what happened to the other young woman isn't compelling. It sure couldn't keep me awake

I think the film's underlying theme is about guilt over things undone that resulted in harm to someone - the sins of omission rather than commission. But since I nodded off halfway through I'm probably wrong.

If you're a fan of long, pregnant pauses where the main character stares soulfully into the middle distance while nothing happens and nothing much is said, you might enjoy this.

If you do watch it, I suggest doing so with a big cup of strong, black coffee because without one, you could fall asleep, too.

Echo in the Canyon (2018)

Awash in nostalgia and lacking objectivity

[5/10 · 31 October 2019]

Let me acknowledge right off that I'm a Boomer and this was the music of my generation - the soundtrack of my formative years that I listened to unceasingly. That said, this is a look back at that music through the rose-colored glasses of pure nostalgia, devoid of any objectivity. This music was hardly as influential as it's painted to be here. You can hear none of its influence in today's popular music, which is the child of hip hop and rap. Popular music hasn't been this "white" since the 1980s, except for country.

A little of this 60s influence lives on in adult alt-rock, but that's hardly today's mass market music. No, this was a music of its time and place, and that time has passed while the place seems to be filled now with geriatric former rock gods. Rock and roll wasn't forever, even though we Boomers were devoutly sure it would be. It's all but gone today except for aging tribute bands and the Rolling Stones, who seem to be planning to expire on-stage.

Nope, the Beach Boys don't stand up to comparisons with Bach. It wasn't art that was being created in the late 60s, it was top 40 singles and platinum selling albums. You can cut through the pretentiousness here with a knife. I kept thinking of a quote from the late Bill Graham about the Jefferson Airplane's artistic pretensions. To paraphrase Graham , he said something like every time they cross the street they think it's ballet. These used-to-bes still think it was all ballet.

Double Indemnity (1944)

Noir at its very best

[10/10 · 13 October 2019]

The best film adaptation of a James M. Cain novel ever made (neither version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" even comes close). The script, by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, is flawless. Wilder's direction is masterful. The cast is phenomenal, with Fred McMurray as a smart-talking but naive chump, Edward G. Robinson as a shrewd and relentless insurance investigator, and Barbara Stanwyck (her very best performance ever, IMO) as a scheming wife who wants her inconvenient husband out of the way.

The smartly-written dialogue still snaps and crackles and the suspense has lost none of its edge in the 70-plus years since the film was made. This is as fine a thriller as you'll ever see and a film that truly deserves being called a classic.

Emergence (2019–2020)

So far, not impressed . . .

[4/10 · 5 October 2019]

Despite the presence of Tolman, an actress I always enjoy watching, the show's just a so-so rehash of many others that have gone before - a mysterious kid with super powers.

Comparing this to Stranger Things just doesn't cut it because so far it exhibits none of the humor, charm or 80s satire that makes Stranger Things work. Emergence is (gulp) dead serious.

Emergence's premise appears to be an ongoing mystery that the creators hope will run on for years unsolved, ala Lost. It's even telegraphed that intention by putting Terry O'Quinn in the third episode (oh God, noooo).

Sigh. Why has nobody in broadcast TV yet figured out that Lost was a one-off fluke and not a groundbreaking TV genre. Every show that's tried Lost's format has failed. I'm afraid that Emergence is probably going to succumb as quickly as the others did.

Hoping for the sake of cast and crew, I'm wrong. But I'll be surprised if this gets a run of more than a season or two.

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann (2019)

Rehash of of old news

[3/10 · 18 March 2019]

For anyone who never followed the Maddie McCann abduction story (a three year-old girl abducted from her vacationing British parents' Portugal hotel room), this is an excruciatingly in-depth retelling of the story in the wake of the 2017 tenth anniversary of her disappearance.

Since the story was never covered as extensively in the US as it was in Britain, likely much of what it presents will be new to US viewers as it goes over what happened immediately following her disappearance and the investigations that ensued.

The series never goes anywhere but a dead end, though, since the case has never been solved and Maddie is still missing. All it does to wrap up is speculate on why she was taken - speculation that seems heavily influenced by the recent Washington, DC Comet Tavern conspiracy hoax rather than actual evidence from the McCann case.

This all could have been done in a two-hour documentary, not a multiple episode series. As a result, it gets tiresome and repetitive as the filmmakers try to fill all that time.

It raises some issues that deserve in-depth examination, but just skims right past them. One, why is the abduction of a pale blonde white child more important, tragic, and newsworthy than the abduction of a child of color (any color, even olive-skinned)? And two, why are there no repercussions for the media, especially the tabloids, for their reprehensible behavior?

As for the McCann parents, if they're guilty of anything, it's gross (criminal in some jurisdictions) negligence for leaving a three year-old and two 18-months old asleep and unattended in a hotel room in a foreign country while they went to the other side of the hotel compound to dine and socialize with friends. No matter how they try to justify what they did, it was simply wrong. They share in the responsibility for whatever happened to their daughter. My sympathy for them is very limited.

The Passage (2019)

Ratings make a second season iffy . . .

[8/10 · 13 March 2019]

If this show doesn't come back for another season, Saniyya Sidney (who played a throw-away orphaned child intentionally turned into a vampire by a medical research project) deserves to get a show of her own. Her tough, yet vulnerable, performance was the heart and soul of the show. She's a terrific young actress I hope we see a lot more of in the future. She stole every scene she was in by virtue of her talent and screen presence.

As for a second season, episode 10 seemed to do double duty as a season and series finale. As final episodes go, it made a good series ending and if the show doesn't come back, I'm good with it after watching the episode.

Unfortunately, The Passage was aired at a really lousy time and its ratings weren't good. It's chances for renewal are iffy. Fox must not have had much faith in the show to schedule it when it did. In my time zone, it went head to head with The Voice and The Bachelor. Talk about a no-win time slot.

If it's indeed gone after one season, it's bound to come around again on Netflix, Hulu, or Prime. If you missed it when it aired, check it out there. It's a better show than its ratings indicated. IndieWire called it bleak and beautiful. I have to agree with that description.

I Am the Night (2019)

Stuff it and roast it for Thanksgiving

[2/10 · 11 March 2019]

Hammy performance by Chris Pine or maybe his character was far too broadly written. Anyway, his scenery chewing got old fast. He's been a lot better elsewhere.

I didn't find the series suspenseful at all. It needed a better script (a way better script) for that. I wasn't buying any of these characters, and was surprised to find out afterward George, Fauna, and Tamar Hodel were real people. Here they seem invented in the writers' room.

This would have made a passable 90-minute film. Instead the story (such as it was) was stretched out over six boring episodes of a mini-series. Seriously, I dozed off during every one and had to keep rewinding. I stuck with it because I kept waiting for it to get better, or at least, deliver a big payoff at the end. Instead it just trudged on and then sputtered out in episode six. What a waste of time.

If they were to bring this back for another season, it definitely would not be on my watch list.

Bird Box (2018)

Meh.

[5/10 · 24 December 2018]

Highly derivative. In other words, M. Night Shyamalan and John Krasinski should sue for plagiarism. It's a mashup of "The Happening" and "A Quiet Place".

A high profile cast wasted on a so-so story and a script full of holes. It wasn't all that suspenseful and you can see the major plot turns coming from a mile away.

If you've got nothing better to do, go ahead and watch it. Just don't expect a lot.

The OA (2016–2019)

Pretentious and moves at a glacial pace

[3/10 · 19 September 2018]

The first time I watched it I found it intriguing. I simply couldn't guess where it was going to end. But after the final episode, I felt as though I'd been conned all along.

As a mini-series (which I thought it was supposed to be), it failed its viewers with a climax that came out of nowhere. It simply didn't flow from anything that unfolded in the previous episodes. It seemed as if, having developed a block over creating a finale, the writers desperately grasped at a "hot button" issue in the news as a way out.

Learning that a second season will be released, I went back to re-watch the first season to see what I missed that made it worth filming more. Second time through, it's not even mildly interesting. In fact, it's self-congratulatory tone is evident and it's deadly dull. The creators aren't as intellectually hip and out-of-the box as they think they are.

I'm done with Brit Marling films. Even in her rare commercial work, she projects an air of being too rarefied for Planet Earth. All of her performances are totally opaque. There's never any depth of emotion displayed or even hinted at. As an actress, she runs the gamut from fey to fragile (and not in a good "Audrey Hepburn" kind of way). Unlike Hepburn, she's incapable of projecting any passion, or even warmth.

Having slogged through a second viewing of The OA season one, I'm highly dubious season two is going to be any better.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll just skip it.

The Innocents (2018)

YA fantasy that adults can enjoy

[7/10 · 29 August 2018]

This is not to be confused with with the 1961 film of the same name that was based on the Henry James novella, The Turn of the Screw.

This is technically a YA teen fantasy series, but many adults will enjoy it as well. Young June, who has run away with her first boyfriend to escape an over-controlling stepfather, traumatically discovers while on the run that she's a shape shifter (something over which she has no control). This ability (or curse) comes to her from her maternal line. Her mother, who mysteriously disappeared and left her with the stepfather, was a shape shifter as well (with tragic results for five lives).

Not nearly as silly as my brief description might make it seem, the series is headed by a very talented team of young actors portraying June and her first love, Harry (Sorcha Groundsell and Percelle Ascott). They and the entire entire cast and production team treat the material with a respect that elevates it from just another teen fantasy (ala Twilight) to a very watchable drama series many post-teens will enjoy.

Ignore the negative reviews. Since this is a British production, the narrative moves at a more leisurely pace than Americans are accustomed to, and there are no explosions, gunfire, or drooling monsters that fans of horror seem to think are required for anything labeled "horror". The horror here is existential.

In fact, this isn't a horror story, but rather one of star crossed lives, and not just those of the young lovers.

The Beyond (2017)

A scrambled mess of mixed themes and messages

[1/10 · 27 August 2018]

Wow. Where to start. I don't know if the film was about an alien invasion, how to build a successful android, or the human race is worth saving from the destruction of the universe.

There actually isn't much of a plot. The whole film is a series of vignettes, some mildly interesting, others boring, such as most of the vignettes in the building an android to explore a space anomaly section of the film.

And the final nail in the film's coffin is that it's filmed as though it was cobbled together from found footage and filmed interviews.

Sheesh! What film maker today actually still believes this is revolutionary? It's become an old, tired, and used-up formula that long ago lost its impact and is now just another dull low-budget cliche.

Really. Don't waste your time on this turkey.

The Open House (2018)

Idiot Plot

[2/10 · 7 August 2018]

The late, great film reviewer Roger Ebert often used the phrase "idiot plot" in negative reviews. He was referring to film plots that depended on the main characters behaving like idiots in order to move the story along (for example, a young, scantily clad coed goes to check out a pitch black corridor all alone because she heard strange noises coming from it). In short, nobody in real life would ever behave the way the movie's characters do.

So it is in The Open House. A recently widowed mother and her seemingly none too bright teenage son move into her sister's palatial mountain mansion because she can't afford the rent on her own house after her husband dies. The catch is the house is for sale so she and her son must leave for the realtor open houses every Sunday.

During the first open house, a sinister figure seen only from the knees down comes to the showing. After it's over and they've returned home, son says to Mom that open houses are weird because you give people keys to your house so they can look at it when you're not home. But how do you know they ever leave the house?

Therein lies the entire plot. Given the massive house and the number of rooms in it, of course the ominous stranger who possesses those legs we saw earlier is still there stalking them. These two are so ignorant of what's going on around them that the homicidal stranger climbs into bed with Mom and she doesn't even notice. How idiotic can a movie character get?

Pass this turkey right on by. I don't even know why I watched it to the end. I guess I was just curious to see how bad the movie could get.

Arrival (II) (2016)

Not really science fiction . . .

[9/10 · 20 July 2018]

But rather, a meditation on communication - how language divides as well as unites us, and how it can shape our perception of time and reality. The film also leaves us with a question for ourselves, would we choose to forego the joy of an experience if we knew for certain ahead of time that it would end in great pain.

Early in the film, a linguist played by Amy Adams, writes on a white board the sentence, "What is your purpose for coming here?" And then proceeds to explain why even such a simple question can't be can't be posed to newly arrived heptapod aliens, who's verbal language sounds a bit like whale song.

Unlike any other film I can remember that deals with humans first encountering intelligent extraterrestrials, it presents what would likely be the most realistic scenario for such an event - that is, being aliens to each other the gap between us that we'd need to bridge to establish any communication would be enormous. First, we would need to teach each other how to "speak".

Throughout the film, Adams' character experiences what we at first believe are flashbacks about a daughter she lost at a young age to a genetic disease. However, we eventually learn they are flash forwards, since as she begins to learn the alien language (which is based on a non-linear concept of time) she begins to think as they do, becoming a cognitive time traveler who can see the future and the past. The child we at first think she remembers losing, she will choose to have in the future.

The film unfolds like a dream and its visuals have a dreamlike quality with very little nuts and bolts technology to be seen. These aliens seem almost beyond technology, except they they're housed in vessels (are they really space ships?) that provide a livable environment for them on Earth. When they leave, their vessels simply dissolve into mist.

Little Boxes (2016)

Meh

[2/10 · 6 July 2018]

If you live in Washington State, you'll immediately recognize that this isn't the Washington State you live in . . . it seems more like a New Yorker's fantasy of what it must be like to live in small town Washington State (where I actually do live in small town).

Our town is racially and culturally diverse, not the White suburbia depicted here. That big departure from reality (as well as the fact that the film appears to be filmed in and commenting on life in all white New York suburb) just undercut the movie for me.

Twentynine Palms (2003)

I wish I new how to say "utter waste of time" in French

[1/10 · 4 July 2018]

If only we could give a negative number of stars! Only a French director could make a film this pretentious and excruciatingly dull. You could turn down the sound, avoid looking at the opening credits, and still know it's a French film because the couple who are its "stars" are gaunt, pale, rumpled, Boho, and her sleeves are too long. Oh, and they perpetually look sullen.

We watch them do nothing more than drive around in the desert and sit around at a motel. These long stretches of nothing happening and almost no dialogue are punctuated by scenes of mechanical, graphic sex performed at a high decibel level. The film then ends in an orgy of violence that comes out of nowhere.

The only point this movie has is the one on the filmmaker's head.

Secret in Their Eyes (2015)

For most US viewers, never mind it's a remake of an Argentinian film.

[8/10 · 3 April 2018]

I'm not a Spanish speaker, but was lucky enough to have been able to see the original (with English subtitles). Yes, I agree the original is a terrific film. However, it wasn't widely distributed outside of a handful of big cities in the US, so it went unseen by and unknown to most American moviegoers.

Ignore the condescension about this film from the big city art house film goers who wrote reviews dismissing it. Its plot will seem new and refreshing to many who never got the opportunity to see the Argentinian film. This remake brings the story to US audiences with some changes to make it more relatable.

I'm not one who wants to give away spoilers, but I will say you've never seen Julia Roberts in a role quite like this one. It will make you wish she had taken more chances in the roles she chose during the peak of her career. Here she's the mother of a young girl who was brutally murdered, and the film is about the 13-year quest to find and charge the killer.

I'll just leave it at that.

Seven Seconds (2018)

About four episodes too long.

[7/10 · 22 March 2018]

This story arc would have been better served if it transpired over a tighter six episodes. In so many episodes, the story is allowed to wander. The side roads are interesting (and contain some of the very best acting, especially from Regina King and Russell Hornsby), but they distract from the main story line.

I found that I could not draw a parallel between a real life white police officer shooting an unarmed young black man in the back with a fictional white police officer driving in a bad snowstorm, while taking a frantic call his wife is going into early labor, accidentally hitting and killing a black teen on a bike. The real-life event, murder; the fictional event that drives the series, an unfortunate accident. This was the wrong plot device if the show meant to make a really strong statement about police killings of young black males.

I like Veena Sud's flawed heroines, both in The Killing and here. Personally, I'm all done with the male antiheros littering TV. I now find them boring and unwatchable. I only wish the KJ character here didn't clean up so good between her bouts of binge drinking. She seemed too clean and healthy when she was sober. I've known a couple of alcoholic women and they never could quite pull themselves together when sober. Even at their best, you could see them desperately trying to hold on. But not KJ. She seems at times like two different characters. I don't know if the flaw is in the writing or the acting. But honestly, I think a stronger actress could have been cast in the role.

For what it's worth, I never watched The Killing when it was broadcast (had no TV at the time), so I later stream binged it. I had no problems with the end of the first season, probably because I immediately went from watching the last show of the first season to watching the first show of the second. It likely played much better that way. So animosity about that show was absent from my viewing of this one.

Christine (2016)

Hall hits it out of the park.

[8/10 · 1 June 2017]

Rebecca Hall is mesmerizing in her portrayal of Sarasota, Florida TV news personality, Christine Chubbuck, who shot and killed herself on air in 1974.

Since the release of this film, there have been think pieces written using Chubbuck's suicide as a touchstone for musings on the nature of journalism, then and now, and its impact on her actions. But what we see in this film, and which likely cuts closer to the truth, is that Chubbuck was a young woman with crippling emotional problems who was finally overwhelmed by them.

Unmarried and a virgin at 29 going on 30, yet desperately wanting a husband and children; needing a cystic ovary removed reducing her chances of ever getting pregnant; feeling thwarted in her ambition to move forward in her on-air career (for which she seemed hopelessly unsuited in an era when happy talk newscasts with young, perky blonde newsreaders was becoming THE format du jour); still living with her mother (in what looked like her childhood bedroom), an aging woman trying to live the hippie lifestyle; having a hopeless crush on a co-worker already involved with another - one doesn't need to look any further to understand the sense of utter hopelessness that drove her to put a gun to her head.

The strength of the film is in Hall's characterization. We see Chubbuck's extreme awkwardness and abrasiveness in almost all her social interactions; her desperate need for close relationships yet pushing people away when they reach out to her. Her pain is almost palpable. Chubbuck believed at 29 she was a failure at life. There doesn't seem to be anything more to her suicide than that.

The film perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the times. In fact, it looks and feels as though it was shot in 1974, rather than 2016 (the array of polyester clothing is amazing, and the soundtrack is 1974 top 40 hits and Watergate).

Warning: this is not an uplifting film. It's the sad story of a sad woman that has transmuted into Internet urban legend because of the myths surrounding what happened to the videotape of her death.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Not just a film, but a piece of America's socio-cultural history

[10/10 · 7 April 2017]

For a truly insightful look at America's pervasive "Red Scare" culture of the 1950s, one need look no further than Don Siegel's (original) 1956 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", wherein the pod people are metaphors for the near universal fear of a "Godless, soulless" Communist takeover coming from within via sleeper agents born, raised, and trained to seamlessly blend in with American society (they look, talk, and seem just like us, but are alien and out to destroy us). Everything one needs to know about America's fear of Communism in the 1950s is contained in this film. This is Scifi at its very best, as social commentary as well as a potent art form and a valuable historical source.

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)

Not at all what was expected.

[7/10 · 10 February 2017]

This is more of a historical psychological thriller than a Hollywood blood and guts horror film.

The film is a loving and accurate recreation of Puritan New England in the 1600s with everything from the language to the sets being authentic to the period. That in and of itself makes it fascinating to watch. Having lived in Virginia, where the Jamestown Settlement and the 1600s sometimes can seem like they happened the day before yesterday, I especially enjoyed the film. The location, in Ontario, reminded me of rural Virginia in winter, which made me quite homesick. So the film might have affected me more than some other audience members.

The Witch is a fascinating glimpse into Christianity as practiced by 17th century Puritans. Satan and Evil are almost tangible presences in the woods and wilderness of the New World, while God is a distant, cold, and demanding being who must be constantly begged for forgiveness and mercy, since all human thoughts, words, and deeds seem to be gravely sinful and offensive to his eyes.

A family of seven (parents, four children, and an infant) are exiled from their plantation community for not adhering to the accepted interpretation of scripture. They build a farm at a distance from the plantation near a frightening wood. The farm is failing (the family won't have food to last the winter). Meanwhile, the infant has been snatched from the oldest daughter while in her care at the edge of the wood. From this point on the family either descends into madness or is destroyed by Satan in the form of a witch who lives nearby in the woods. How the family's disintegration is interpreted will depend on which century's point of view you choose to use.

Hostage to the Devil (2016)

Warning. Don't attempt to view this without your skeptic's glasses.

[3/10 · 21 January 2017]

I'm a former Catholic who left the Church not long after reaching my teens. Watching this reminded me why I left, although the film is not really about Catholicism per se but seems to have been meant to capitalize on the current craze for the paranormal – ghosts, time travelers, ESP, demonology, etc.

The film features Catholic clergy and paranormal investigators as well as a couple of people who profited from its subject, the late, former Jesuit priest and well-known exorcist, Malachi Martin. It also contains some old video clips and audio recordings of Martin as well as of some purported exorcisms (but nothing at all juicy or substantive is offered up in these).

With every word uttered by Martin in the film (surely, he kissed the Blarney Stone), I became more convinced he was just a charming, eloquent con man who preyed on gullible Catholics uncomfortable with changes in the Church and having difficulty aligning their Catholic world view with the rapid advances in science and technology in the last half of the 20th century.

Besides, there's always been a large measure of show business in Catholic rites and rituals. After all it was the only entertainment available for the impoverished masses throughout most of European history. As its ultimate carnival act, exorcism had it all -- the terror of the pit, the horrors of possession, and the thrill and exaltation of salvation. Hollywood didn't invent but merely regurgitated a tried and true horror formula that was around for centuries.

Anyway, Malachi Martin surely was no saint, as some in the film seem to believe, but only a carny barker who was good at getting people into his tent.

Midnight Special (2016)

Disappointing and not up to the critics' hype

[4/10 · 13 January 2017]

Good actors gave terrific performances in a disappointing film. There really isn't much of a story. The film is just an extended chase scene and the little mysteries it presents along the way aren't very compelling. The weak ending reminded me just a bit of Netflix "Stranger Things", except in this case the Upside Down could be called the On Top.

Some critics described the film as thoughtful scifi (I guess if it's not based on a Marvel Comic, they think it's deep and meaningful), but it was pretty thin - all atmosphere with no underlying theme or substance. It's not up to the level of a really thoughtful scifi film such as Arrival, which leaves its audience contemplating how language can not only be a barrier to communication, but also shape and limit our perceptions of reality.

I had great hopes for this film because Nichols' earlier, "Take Shelter", was an insightful exploration of the onset of schizophrenia and its impending disastrous impact on an individual and his family.

But with "Midnight Special, it seems as though Nichols is devolving rather than evolving as a filmmaker.

Vintage Tomorrows (2015)

Not very interesting people in interesting costumes . . .

[4/10 · 3 October 2016]

It seems mostly filmed in Seattle, where people make highly inflated salaries working in Big Tech. Listening to most of the interviewees trying to defend a very anachronistic, backward looking movement as somehow being "pro-tech" was just a hoot. It's amazing the twisted logic some used to explain or justify Steampunk. I guess they wanted to keep those high-paying tech jobs so they were being very careful to not offend the hands that feed them so well.

Steampunk looks really, really cool (the art, the artifacts, the costumes). Steampunk fiction is, well, just science fiction set in the past rather than the present or the future. It doesn't break any new ground; there's nothing revolutionary about it.

Judging by this, Steampunk's primary appeal is limited to over- educated, upper middle class tech nerds. I wish I could say the film is a look at an interesting subculture and it's values. But really after watching it the only thing I see as interesting about the Steampunk movement are the handicrafts and costumes.

Not a very well done documentary. If there's something compelling about the movement or the people in it, you'd never know it from watching this film.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

What are people throwing shade on this movie?

[8/10 · 28 July 2016]

Pluses: 1. Great cast. Really good chemistry among them. Terrific performances from all. Mary Elizabeth Winstead gets better with every film she makes. 2. Story keeps you guessing until the end. 3. There are references in it to some popular films in the genre (that are likely film maker favorites) from the past 30 years or so. 4. Director shows great promise while still early in his career. 4. Story more important than special effects or pointless action sequences (always a plus for me). 5. Sound effects, usually unappreciated in non-action films, well used to add to the intensity of the drama.

Minuses: 1. We've probably all seen John Goodman play a similar character before. 2. There's a possible murder that took place prior to the film, a plot device never resolved.

Since the film has the word "Cloverfield" in the title, a lot of dim light bulbs thought this was a prequel or sequel to the other film and bad mouthed it because it isn't. Using Cloverfield in the title was likely just another reference to a favorite film.

Some people didn't understand the ending. Huh? They must have fallen asleep during the rest of the movie (when they realized it wasn't Cloverfield 2) or this generation is dumber than I fear it might be. The actions of Winstead's character at the end of the film make perfect sense in light of a monologue she delivered earlier, which apparently was ignored by those whining about the ending.

Don't listen to the naysayers. It isn't high art, but it's an entertaining film that will hold your attention to the end.

Let's Get Lost (1988)

A junkie who just happened to be talented . . .

[8/10 · 27 May 2016]

Beautifully filmed by a fashion photographer, Bruce Weber, nevertheless the ugliness of Chet Baker's life overtakes the beautiful images on screen. In Western culture, we equate physical beauty and/or exceptional talent with a depth of soul and substance that are often lacking if we look closely with cool objectivity at those we idolize for those traits. Great beauty or great talent aren't always bestowed on the good or the worthy, and Baker is evidence of that. He was a manipulative drug addict who likely would have wound up a petty criminal if he didn't incidentally have much more than a passing musical talent. It didn't hurt that when he was very young he also had the chiseled good looks of a movie star, looks later ravaged by decades of heroin use. Interviews with the women in his life reveal a strung out moocher who knew how to use their obsessions with him to support his drug habit, taking advantage of their romantic projections of a tortured soul onto a loser with some musical talent. One of them, jazz singer Ruth Young, states flatly that for Baker music was just a way to get drugs. In an interview with Baker at the end of the film, Weber asks about his current state of constant pain due to being cut off from drugs until he gets to Amsterdam. Baker refuses to rise to the bait and open up about the destruction addiction has wrought in his life. Ironically, Baker subsequently jumped, fell or was pushed to his death from his hotel window in Amsterdam. The film appears to have been meant as an homage to Baker, but instead reveals the ugly little drug addict he was. There is another myth in Western culture, the myth that in order to create the mind must be unfettered through use of drugs. After watching this, one can't help but wonder how much of Baker's creativity and talent were stunted rather than enhanced by heroin.