Hellman v. McCarthy - 2014 - USA

Hellman v. McCarthy - 2014 - 7/10

 
“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.”
Oh, how wrong the joke, cute or snide, can backfire.
Mary McCarthy, chatting on the Dick Cavett Show, comments on Lillian Hellman.
And Hellman, who happens to be watching, immediately phones her attorney.
Dishy, bitchy play tracks the feud between two literary heavyweights, both past their prime.
Ugly viewing, acidly funny, desperately sad.
The legal battle, which went on for years, bankrupted McCarthy, damaged Hellman’s legacy.

Asylum - 1972 - UK

Asylum - 1972 - 6/10

 
Young psychiatrist arrives at the mental clinic for an interview.
Whereupon he is informed the director is now a patient.
Our applicant is to interview four patients.  If he discovers who is the real director, he is hired.
An adulteress, a tailor, an heiress, a puppet-maker.

 
Typical of an anthology series, the yarns are a mixed bag.
Camp dominates over fright.  Nervous laughter jousts with laugh out loud giggles.
Script by a thumb-sucking prankster, Robert Bloch.

Ex Machina - 2015 - UK

Ex Machina - 2015 - 6/10

 
Buzzworthy SpecFi (as opposed to SciFi) started irking me from the onset with numerous plotholes and logic leaps.
Hotshot programmer for mega Internet company wins competition for dream date week with the boss.
Turns out, what he really gets to do is test AI (artificial intelligence) on prototype robot with female face.
Dialogue driven tale, as boss - programmer - robot all play word games, maneuver, glean info.
High stakes office politics, ethical and intellectual, with a sexual undercurrent.
Several gorgeous outdoor sequences, notwithstanding, movie feels stagebound.

One is supposed to suspend disbelief, more so with futuristic fare.  Still, this film asks for a lot of suspending.
Issues ( POSSIBLE SPOILERS )
Who can acquire so much acreage nowadays?  Who is selling?
Vast, spotless complex.  Not a roomba in sight, let alone janitor, guard, or most anyone else.
Random holes include: the alcohol crutch, power outages, team members (?), battery life, restraining gizmo.
Alicia Vikander memorable as bewitching Ava.  Male characters - limitations abound.

Desert Nights - 1929 - USA

Desert Nights - 1929 - 6/10

Capetown diamond mining company expects dignitaries.
The visiting lord and his daughter.  “Probably bow-legged and cross-eyed,”  predicts Rand, the manager.
Well, turns out she’s easy on the eyes, and Rand is smitten (by a luminous Mary Nolan).
Romantic sparks light the desert air.

 
Next day, events turn south and characters soon struggle in forsaken sand dunes.
Final Silent from John Gilbert is a good adventure yarn.  His character is a tough guy, and he seems well suited.
Gable would land those roles, however.
I also believe, had Gilbert lived long enough, he would have done well in Noir.
Print I watched was in good shape, though there was a jump @ 54.25 indicating missing footage.

The Dark Past - 1948 - USA

The Dark Past - 1948 - 6/10

 
Bust outta prison, check!  Break roadblocks and get away, check!  Head to the shack on the beach.
Wait, check that.  We’ll hole up at that house owned by the college professor and his friends.
Cops will never suspect where we are.
Only thing, that professor is a doctor of psychology, and he starts digging into gang boss’s neuroses.
Marked as Noir, this is a psychological thriller, with some “moments” here and there.
Mostly, however, this bores.
William Holden makes a smoldering villain, if hammy at times.

Playing The Field: S01 - 1998 - UK

Playing The Field: S01 - 1998 - 6/10

 
First season following the trials and tribulations of woman’s football club.
Limited pitch action, focus more on domestic dramas.
Infidelities, revelations, screaming matches, tears, cursing.
Probably OK if you can tolerate a limited soaper.

Got this for my wife who follows Premier League, particularly, though not exclusively, Man U.
I was glad when this concluded, gladder when she said she was uninterested in S02.

Looker - 1998 - USA

Looker - 1998 - 5/10

 
Two men and a woman share a three-way in a grungy alley.
Soon as the strokin’ and gropin’ climax, she finishes them with a straight razor.
The detective assigned the case tells his partner this happened twenty years earlier.
His father was the investigator, and he was murdered.
So, has the same killer resurfaced?  Is she / he still alive? Hunting?
Bipolar flick.  Hardcore porn sequences, yet the police narrative is full Noir.
Groaning and foaming to derivative synth score.  Noir parts have sharp shadows, bluesy score, black n white flashbacks.
Perhaps inspired by the Neo Noir surge of the 90's.  More likely a rip of Basic Instinct.
Looker still better (and wetter) than most B-grade “erotic thrillers" of the 90's.

Never Give A Sucker An Even Break - 1941 - USA

Never Give A Sucker An Even Break - 1941 - 7/10

 
The Great Man (Fields) attempts to pitch his new film idea to a studio honcho.
Of course, there is no idea, no concept, no wall of post-it notes.
Rather, he improvises as he drones, to the consternation of his exasperated listener.
Utterly original, surreal film, stuffed with daffy antics.
From Squidulum to the rear observation deck on the airplane.
Using the Marx Brothers’ foil Margaret Dumont proves inspired casting, to boot.
Alas, this would be Fields last starring feature, as Paramount dropped him for Abbott & Costello.

Basic Instinct - 1992 - USA

Basic Instinct - 1992 - 7/10

 
Rough sex escalates into blood soaked sheets.  The deceased, a famed rock star.
No witnesses, main suspect is the musician’s crime writer girlfriend.
Our inspector makes up his mind early on, and attempts to play mind games with the suspect.
Trashy Neo-Noir is smutty, sleazy, and a gorgeous homage to the Noir period.
Douglas perfect as the strait laced, simmering detective, Stone unforgettable as the manipulative femme fatale.
Splendid use of San Francisco locations, enhanced with a moody Jerry Goldsmith score.
For whatever reason, anytime I head to the Bay area, I watch this the night before.

The Lair Of The White Worm - 1988 - UK

The Lair Of The White Worm - 1988 - 7/10

 
In rural England, archeologist (Peter Capaldi) unearths a large, mysterious skull.
Afterward, the sleepy village seems to rouse.
Lady Sylvia (a sinuous Amanda Donohoe) returns to Temple House.
Young Lord D'Ampton (Hugh Grant) participates in the village fete and cuts the gigantic snake in two, as did his ancestor.
Disappearances, deaths, and bewitchings.
Ken Russell’s campy horror is massively entertaining, if you are one for wry humor.
Sexy, wicked, blasphemous, laced with innuendo.  Steeped, not so much with Stoker, but rather Oscar Wilde.
Almost as much fun, Russell’s commentary.
Ophidiophobics, slither yourselves away from this one.

Recursion - 2018 - USA

Recursion - 2018 - 6/10

 
Owing to powerful atmospheric disturbance, the Iris cannot land.
Instead, they send down a small beacon ship.
Giving filmmakers the benefit of the doubt, I’d say this SciFi short is an Alien homage.
Right down to the opening fonts.  Professional across the board, but unoriginal save for the ending.
Corrected subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/recursion/english/2846401

The Spook Who Sat By The Door - 1973 - USA

The Spook Who Sat By The Door - 1973 - 7/10

 
Ordered to integrate, the CIA recruits a company of black males and begins training.
All wash out, save one candidate who becomes the token Negro in the Agency.
He learns combat, bomb making, guerrilla tactics, yet after five years he resigns to do social work in Chicago.
Once in the Windy City, he sets out to radicalize the hood, creating a militant commando force.  The Cobras!
Wow, what a neat slice of subversion.  Part Blaxploitation, total righteous anger.
There are stereotypes, to be sure, as well as conversational debates.
Issues of race, class, money, power are voiced throughout, often using humor or satire.
While B-film limitations are evident, this has a lot of heart and the rage resonates today.
Deemed too inflammatory and yanked soon after its release.
Score by Herbie Hancock, directed by Ivan Dixon of Hogan’s Heroes fame.

Tightrope - 1984 - USA

Tightrope - 1984 - 7/10

 
Grim, lesser known Eastwood vehicle, came out just as the Callahan films were getting stale.
Seedy New Orleans locations enhance a rough procedural of detective chasing a serial killer.
Most of the victims work in what is now termed the sex industry.
Eastwood’s detective, a bruised, divorced father, is also drawn to kinky moments in cushioned, satin rooms.

 
Scenery loaded with eye candy, strip clubs, rough trade, oiled female wrestlers, dwarf referee, the half sandwich combo, handcuffs, vibrators, masks.
Cruelty abounds, however, and several of the slayings are distressing.
Much of the photography is at night or inside sporting houses.  VHS viewers used to complain how visually dark this is, but modern resolution screens will handle the blacks easier.

The Age Of Innocence - 1993 - USA

The Age Of Innocence - 1993 - 7/10

 
Scorsese’s opulent adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel of manners in New York high society of the 1880’s.
Newland Archer’s future seems mapped out, enter the Law, maintain his position, wed May Welland  
Enter the Countess Olenska, abused wife, though shunned by the best society.
Archer feels sympathy for her, then a kinship, followed by something more perilous.
This society is one of rules and boundaries, enforced with extraordinary, if quiet, pressure.
Acting is flawless, from leads to secondary players, to the narrator.
Lush visuals, ravishing set design.  Oh, how the upper tier lived in the Gilded Age.

Maigret - 2022 - France

Maigret - 2022 - 6/10

 
After a young girl is found dead, Commissioner Maigret gets involved.
Police procedural all the way.  Who was the girl?  What did she do?  Who were her friends?
Also, rather vague here, was she even murdered?
If so, what was the motive?  Who did it and why?
The whole film, set in the early 1950’s, is photographed in a washed out, grimy haze.
The poorly lit affair resembles a TV movie.
Depardieu, overqualified for this, sleepwalks throughout.

The Informant - 2022 - Hungary

The Informant - 2022 - 7/10
AKA - A Besúgó

 
Of all the luck.
1985.  Geri lands a scholarship to the university in Budapest.
On the train, alas, the secret police interrogate and soon blackmail him.
“You want medicine for your ailing brother?  You will infiltrate and spy on the pro-Democracy student group.”
Getting accepted by a wary group is one obstacle, dealing with a bullying handler is another.
Short Hungarian series mixes politics with mystery, psychological thriller with history.
Of the latter (history), a few Hungarian reviewers have mentioned that facts are a bit finessed.
Skillful blend of character types, most of whom one would encounter in any college.
Likewise student political activity, back then.  Lately, passions and protests have gone to dust.

Xala - 1975 - Senegal

Xala - 1975 - 6/10

 
El Hadji prepares to marry wife number three, which wives number one and two are not thrilled about.
A small time official, as corrupt as any, Hadji steals, embezzles, short-changes.
Wedding night, calamity!  His tool refuses to rise to the occasion.
He decides an impotence curse (xala) is the cause.  But who cursed him.  
Senegal film was problematic for me.
Despite an introduction by the curator (historical background and context), I was still out of my depth, not understanding Senegalese history, the recent independence from France, and rampant official misdeeds.
Also, marked as a comedy, I never got it.  Never laughed once.
And the spitting.

Blind Date - 2015 - France

Blind Date - 2015 - 6/10
AKA - Un Peu Beaucoup Aveuglément

 
Rather old-fashioned French romantic comedy.
Two individuals share an apartment floor, separated by non-insulated, thin wall.
They can easily hear each other, whether in the kitchen or in the shower.
Attraction grows, yet they have established boundaries, such as no physical contact.
Apparently, each has been burned one too many times in real relationships.
Set construction seem stagebound, and the basic plot is gauze thin.
Neither character is a social network slave, and both use their phones sparingly.
That strikes me as old-fashioned.
Second date movie.

Amélie - 2001 - France

Amélie - 2001 - 8/10
AKA - Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

 
The happiness fairy, busy trying to repair others’ sorrows, she neglects her own needs.
Amélie waitresses at a small cafe filled with an assortment of characters.
She is an especially astute observer, drawn to small mysteries and things out of the ordinary.
Elements of mystery, romance, comedy combine in a visual feast.
The color palette is extraordinary.  Lushly stylish, without being overwhelming.
Beginning to end, you feel like you are wandering in a dream.
The filmmaker’s attention never lapses, either, from major events to insignificant details.
Wonderful film, perfect date movie.

Swerve - 2011 - Australia

Swerve - 2011 - 6/10

Man driving through Australian oblivion witnesses a spectacular car smash.
One driver is injured, the other is pieces parts.  There is also a briefcase, crammed with money.

 
Boy scout to the core, our man hands the cash over to authorities in Neverest.
Turns out several parties are interested in those banknotes.  The body count begins to rise.
Neo Noir under blinding sun has double crosses, femme fatale, missing characters, slippery histories.
Oh, and a mini-convention of local police marching bands.  Twists vie with formula.
SPOILER – During one sequence by midnight pool, I predicted,  “Prepare for nude swimming.”
Prediction was correct. - END SPOILER
Acceptable thriller if one does not dwell on a couple unexplained mysteries.

 

The Lord Of The Rings - 1978 - USA

The Lord Of The Rings - 1978 - 6/10

 
Frodo, Gandalf, and company set forth on a pony ride in May.
I first saw this, or tried to see it, at the drive-in.
(My date, hoping this was similar to Fritz The Cat, thought Lord a waste of time.)
I found it disappointing at the time, especially following Bakshi’s previous Wizards (1977).
Rewatching reminds me how Disneyish the animation was, especially compared with Japanese anime.
The roto-scoping, which I had not seen before, was eerie and held my attention completely.
The conclusion is abrupt, terribly abrupt.  It feels like a cliffhanger, but it also feels like funds ran out.
Worth a watch, despite the pisspoor conclusion, and the heavy condensation.