The Big Lebowski - 1998 - USA

The Big Lebowski - 1998 - 8/10

 
After being disappointed by Inherent Vice, I dug this perennial from the shelves.
Mister Lebowski, AKA “The Dude” returns home from shopping the friendly Ralph’s aisles.
He is assaulted, face plunged into the toilet, while one of the vandals pisses on his carpet.
Later, at the bowling alley, The Dude laments to friends, and, egged on, begins to investigate the mystery.
Hilarious, shaggy dog tale.  Cult classic for stoners, bowlers, mystery fans, damn near everyone save souls who hate Southern California, which this film reeks of.
Most people I know either have personal acquaintance with a classic slacker such as The Dude, or they have been him at one point or another.
Bridges unforgettable as The Dude, yet everyone involved is in top form.

 
Nihilists, come forth!

The Love Witch - 2016 - USA

The Love Witch - 2016 - 6/10

Wish I could say I viewed this by accident or this was airing in rehab.
No.  Reviews mentioned bygone Technicolor productions, and I foolishly hoped for Douglas Sirk excesses.
Admittedly, I do have a taste for over-the-top folly.  This is not “so bad it’s good,” but it veers close.

 
Artist witch moves to Eureka, into posh Victorian manor, to get over issues with her ex.
Like glamour girls everywhere, our attractive witch has trouble pulling guys, so she casts sex magick for bait n mate.
After sessions of heightened debauchery, spent males collapse and die.
Oh, well.  There’s more guys with organic wands where those came from.
And she gets busy.

 
Lush and saturated colors throughout.
Females, wearing gowns and hats, congregate in a fantasy fern bar, nibble cakes and tea, while a harpist plucks.
Our witch sports a hairdo Bobbie Gentry would envy, as well as retro blue eyeshadow which I have not seen since the 70's.  (Car buffs - a 60's Mustang and a big ass 70's Impala stand out amidst boxy modern rides.)
Fair amount of frontal nudity, male and female, mostly during wicca ceremonies.  Chanting, not panting.
More graphic are her sketches and paintings.
Romping and rutting is freaky psychedelic time, drowned with overloaded grind music.
Acting is stilted and wooden across the board.  Characters read lines, never react.
My theory:  There was only one camera, so the director shot actors one at a time, then spliced.
At two hours, this movie is also too long.
I enjoyed, but, I have fondness for cheesy flicks.

Havana Widows - 1933 - USA

Havana Widows - 1933 - 6/10

 
Misleading title aside, chorus girls Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell realize their funds are low and time dwindling.
What to do?
Head to Cuba!  Play the badger game on a rich codger and sue for damages.
“There's a man in our bedroom!”  “Didn't I tell you our luck would change?”
One-liners and zingers are the best part of this mild, risqué-free comedy.
“I'll try anything once. That's my undoing.”
Cast of Warners 30’s stock players try hard, but script lacks spice.
Blondell bounces a fair amount in this … if you notice that sort of thing.

A Murderous Affair In Horizon Tower - 2020 - China

A Murderous Affair In Horizon Tower - 2020 - 7/10
AKA - Mo Tian da Lou  //  摩天大楼

 
Locked room mystery finds attractive coffee shop owner dead in her luxury apartment.
Straight off, how can a mere barista afford to live in the opulent Horizon Tower?
Yes, the investigating detectives wonder at that, as well.
Suspects?  Ha!  The building teems with them.
Smitten building employees, jealous women, alpha males.
Episode 1 - 2 is of one suspect, 3 - 4 another.  That is the structure.
Each episode is a little over 30”.  I dislike binging, yet I watched two at a time.
Two things stick out in this Chinese drama.  Police are honest; rules & evidence types.  Yeah, propaganda.
The other is the undercurrent of oppressed or second status females.
I would not have pictured China admitting such occurs – though it is global wide.

Abwege - 1928 - Germany

Abwege - 1928 - 7/10
AKA - The Devious Path

 
German silent, directed by Pabst.
Very much a precursor to Pandora’s Box and Diary Of A Lost Girl, this also explores moral shortcomings and the lifeless underbelly of the decadent Weimar.
Wife (Brigitte Helm), married to strait-laced fuss-bucket banker, deserts him one night to party with “more liberated” friends in hedonistic club.
Banker sits at home, window wide open, letting in blasts of freezing air, thinking of divorce options.
The club sequence, meanwhile, is a showstopper, and goes on for perhaps twenty minutes.

 
Pabst revels in the excitement, the loose morality, the sheer boredom, the drunken excesses, the hazy confusion.
Far better than most films I’ve watched, this gives a real feel to the jittery edge of Berlin before the street riots between Communists and Nazis.
Ending displayed the censor’s hand, unlike the bleak pit of Pabst’s next two films.

20th Century Women - 2016 - USA

20th Century Women - 2016 - 7/10

 
Coming of age story, time/location specific to 1979 Santa Barbara.
Ma (Annette Benning) asks two other females to help raise (watch over) fatherless son.
What really occurs, however, is the three females work out bad stretches using the son as listener, witness, Greek chorus.
The teenage boy is fine because, unlike a man, he simply listens instead of trying to “fix” problems.
Talky, yet this does not drag.  Should girlfriends load this, guys ought to be able to tolerate.
I caught a few minor errors, probably because I was in Southern California in the mid-late 70's.

Kissed - 2020 - USA

Kissed - 2020 - 6/10

Norman is coroner or morgue attendant.
Tidying up the female body before … well, before the final enclosure.

 
Any seasoned guy would tell him.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.  Girls remember.  Forever.”
Still, some people never listen to anyone.

The Great Beauty - 2013 - Italy

The Great Beauty - 2013 - 8/10
AKA - La Grande Bellezza

 
Visually striking film of the compromised soul.
Forty years previous, Jep wrote a well received book.
That was his entry to the high life, free pass to the In-Crowd.
He never wrote again, becoming a dilettante and coasting on his laurels.
Dizzying array of sybaritic pleasures, contrast with the sheer futility of living.
Point, all shall die.  So why struggle to be heard, seen, appreciated?
Jep, the gracious, ever-smiling wastrel, is repeatedly paired against creative stragglers, or humans falling into despair, or the frail and elderly, coming face to face with the summation.
Tour de force, though overlong and not always enjoyable.

Foxcatcher - 2014 - USA

Foxcatcher - 2014 - 6/10

 
Based on the true life murder committed by wealthy DuPont scion.
Whereas most of his family is involved with horses, he is passionate about wrestling.
Not professional, but Olympic.
He ingratiates himself with gold medal brothers with his estate and wealth, and envisions himself as coach premier.
His training methods are non-existent, his obligation schedule heavy, and his need to control massive.
Any perceived slights or disloyalty yield consequences.
A moody film, shot on dreary outdoor days or inside washed out rooms, displaying lives.
Superb acting all around.  Atmospheric, if noticeable, score.

Death In The Soul - 2018 - France

Death In The Soul - 2018 - 6/10
AKA - La Mort dans l'âme

 
The first lawyer walked off.  The second now faces the same blank wall.
“I confessed to the police.  I killed my son.  We’re done.”  Silence.
Yes, the son was killed.  Did the father actually kill him?  Was it suicide?  Or an outsider?
One of the more interesting French mystery thrillers, this told from the attorney’s point of view.
Throughout, this weaves Noir elements into the ugly village secrets.
Not classic, by a long shot, yet a cut above the usual.

Summer Of Love - 2007 - USA

Summer Of Love - 2007 - 6/10

 
Indifferent use of period sights and sounds from San Francisco, circa 1967.
Interviews with still-surviving, oldish spokesmen from the era.
Music soundtrack a mix of San Francisco and Los Angeles groups.  In some cases, cover groups.
Some clips from the Human Be-In, next to nothing from Monterey Pop.
At the end, speakers confessed how very sour it all became, as tens of thousands flooded in.
PBS aired a couple superior docs of that period with Coyote - worth seeking out.
The “summer of love” turned 50 awhile ago.  This balances rosy memories with the mess.

Laggies - 2014 - USA

Laggies - 2014 - 6/10

 
A rare Keira Knightley vehicle that I actually enjoyed.
She relies less and less on her squints, pouts, head shakes, her bag of “cute” crutches.
Acting, instead of coasting.

Ten years after prom night, college degree in hand, Megan is back in her parents’ home, waving a cardboard sign outside dad’s accounting agency.
Her friends, meanwhile, are gliding into adulthood - getting married, making babies.
By chance, she starts hanging with high school seniors, seeing mistakes they are making, by extension mistakes she has made.
One of the girls has a divorced father.
Lightweight romance is a bit predictable, but Knightley underplays her role and dumps the glamour thing,
Good date flick.

The Girl Before - 2021 - UK

The Girl Before - 2021 - 7/10

 
Tight four-part thriller, based on hit novel (that apparently received negative blowback).
After passing a peculiar series of examinations, a single woman moves into an austere dwelling.
The house, which resembles a modern museum interior, possesses a clinical personality.
The architect who designed it seems an emotionless, tightly wound obsessive.
Oh yeah, the previous tenant had died there.
Oh, so had a woman before that.
Our tenant, Jane, does not find that out until later.
Well constructed burner will absorb some, alienate others.

Gun Crazy - 1949 - USA

Gun Crazy - 1949 - 8/10

 
After a stint in reform school, then a hitch in the Army, the local man returns home.
Bit aimless, only talent he possesses is marksmanship.  His love, guns.
Until the Brit cowgirl arrives with the carnival.  And man, can she shoot.
Their eyes lock, and from there on they ride the Noir highway into darkness.

There is the belief that a good person can redeem a borderline soul. (I could be an example there.)
By extension, a bad individual can corrupt the wayward one.
In Gun Crazy, the smoldering Peggy Cummins is not pure evil, but she is bad.
She truly loves her man, but she has a big empty inside, as well as a murderous streak.
Guns and sex propel this offbeat Noir, one of the absolute best.

Jupiter Ascending - 2014 - USA

Jupiter Ascending - 2014 - 3/10

 
After-hours at the zoo, there will be a shift switch.
Lions and chimps stroll concrete pathways, twirling cage keys, cigarettes dangling from lips.
Inside cages will be humans.  On one cage will be a sign reading NON COMPOS MENTIS.
The grinning lunatic within will likely be watching Jupiter Ascending.

Despite atrocious reviews, I told myself it couldn’t be that bad.
Even so, I could go stupid.  Apparently not stupid enough.
OK - one day our heroine is scrubbing toilets for a living.  Then she finds out she is galactic royalty.
She actually owns planet earth!
Yay!  No more taxes, no more waiting in line at the taco drive through, no more living with white trash relatives who want to sell her eggs for drug money.
Does she go that route?  Aaaacccckkkk !!
She gets a teenage crush on wolf guy who flies about on magic shoes, she gullibly believes all sorts of lies from supposed relatives who do nothing all day - as they have for thousands of years.  TV?  Dining?  Bathroom?  Nope, they just sit around.
Expect lots of overwhelming CGI that adds zilch.  Expect endless, overlong fights that are actually quite petty (wolf guy in combat with squads here and there).  Expect a script geared for autistic cockroaches.  Expect to see name actors sleepwalking their way through this vat of hogfat.
Further evidence of the sad creative decline of the Wachowski siblings.
Jupiter Ascending ain’t Fifth Element, let alone Interstellar or Gravity.
This makes Matrix Revolutions, the Zion crap, appear intelligent.
Yes - I watched it.  Idiot.
Hopefully the inevitable porn spoof (Jupiter Ass-Ending) will prove superior.

Angel Dust - 1994 - Japan

Angel Dust - 1994 - 5/10
AKA - Enjeru Dasuto  //  エンジェル　ダスト

 
Japanese thriller about a serial killer who strikes on crowded subways the first Monday every month.
He targets young women, using a hypodermic to inject poison into them.
Nice ratings, notwithstanding, this proved a frustrating mystery.
The female police analyst / profiler is a rather weak soul who has unresolved feelings for an old flame, a psychiatrist who now deprograms “cult victims.”
Director Ishii seems to have been profoundly influenced by David Lynch (Twin Peaks aired a couple years earlier).
A cave, and murder within, recur frequently.  
Revelations and subsequent mysteries pop up from time to time.  None have any bearing on the murder.
It was like the writing room said,  “Oh, here’s a weird idea!” and tossed it into the plot.  Repeat.  Repeat.
Half the room fell asleep during this one.
I stayed awake - wish I hadn’t.

A View From The Bridge - 2015 - UK

A View From The Bridge - 2015 - 7/10

 
Theatre junkies, fill yer boots, man!
Eddie Carbone, longshoreman, arguably at his masculine peak,
Lives with his wife and niece, who has been his ward since her infancy.
Then the family takes in two cousins from Italy.
Overnight, the girl grows from awkward adolescence into young womanhood.
And Eddie, who still views her as something between daughter and playmate has trouble.
Miller’s play is a potent play of repressed sexuality and manly dick swinging.
Mark Strong absolutely searing as the conflicted Eddie.

English subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/national-theatre-live-a-view-from-the-bridge/english/2692000

The Windmill Massacre - 2016 - Netherlands

The Windmill Massacre - 2016 - 5/10

 
Visitors hop the tour bus to see Holland countryside and picturesque windmills.
Save for a father/son, all are solo passengers.
Deeper into wildwood they go, not noticing the darkening sky until their phones don’t work.
Acceptable Slasher,  well photographed and the cast has a couple recognizable faces
Predictable storylines, with a moral underbelly and limited invention.
Nice use of Dutch folklore and an injection of Japanese superstition.
Not top shelf, but good late night watch.

Amateur - 1994 - USA

Amateur - 1994 - 6/10

 
Strange, almost surreal mystery with Isabel Huppert as ex-convent nun now making a living writing pornography.
Oh yes, she is also a self proclaimed nymphomaniac and a virgin.
Who does she tell all this to?
A guy with amnesia whose wife (an infamous porn actress) possibly tried to kill him.

 
Forgetting anything?  Mmm, two hitmen.  Cop who over-empathizes.
In other hands Amateur could have been a fun, even funny, film.
It did hold my interest throughout, as I wondered what the next turn would be.
Offbeat to be sure, entertaining if you are in the proper mood, but forgettable.

The Ledge - 2021 - UK

The Ledge - 2021 - 6/10

 
Two young women, vacationing in the Dolomites, prepare for sheer face ascent.
Then the van pulls in, four guys hollering, breaking out the booze.
999 females out of 1000 would sniff “vacation rape” and quickly leave.
1 in 1000 would go “free booze” and stay.
3 of the guys realize one has psychopathic tendencies, “but he’s our friend.”
Fabulous photography during the ascent, before stalling out.
Beware trailer, unless you need a one minute, highlight reel synopsis.

Rats - 2016 - USA

Rats - 2016 - 6/10

 
Rodentmentary by fluff documentarian Morgan Spurlock.
Rat infestations in New York, New Orleans, Cambodia, the English countryside ...
There’s more and more and more.  How come?
More Humans + More Garbage = Billions More Rats!
Couple of nice tidbits when the biologist extracts tapeworms and botfly larvae from rodents.
Oodles more pathogens that easily jump from rat to human.
Speaking of jumping, wait for the peaceful white toilet moment.
Squeamish alert!  Spurlock borrows a page from Michael Moore when he travels to an Asian bistro.

Note - I’m a city kinda guy.  Our neighborhood has all sorts of midnight varmints.
I have cats.  Usually between 2-4.  Squealers in this show oughta befriend felines.