Glorious 39 - 2009 - UK

Glorious 39 - 2009 - 7/10

 
Christopher Lee bookends a pre-WWII thriller of treachery and betrayal.
Young man visits two elderly uncles and asks what happened to a great aunt.
She disappeared, you see, on the eve of World War II, and Lee who was a young witness, tells her story.
Time falls midway between Chamberlain’s “peace in our time,” and Churchill’s “we shall never surrender.”

 
The three oldest children, young adults, discover an oily patch of shrouded history on their estate.
Contrary to popular myth, not everyone was keen to fight Hitler’s Wehrmacht.
There was an powerful underbelly of appeasers, entrenched nobles, industrialists, royalty, eager to cut a deal.
Good show for history buffs, even if this jumps in mad directions.
For conspiracy types:  Joe Kennedy is mentioned, the Duke of Windsor is not.

The Grand Inquisitor - 2008 - USA

The Grand Inquisitor - 2008 - 6/10

 
Young woman, Lulu (in a Brooksie bob), arrives at Mrs. Reedy’s home, unannounced.
She holds books, notes and theories, which the police ridicule.
The elderly woman is frail, yet typical of her generation, is hospitable.  Even to intruders.
Essentially a chamber play, this was one of Marsha Hunt’s final screen performances.
Mystery short.  Praise Eddie Muller for giving a sunset role to an old star.

Subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/the-grand-inquisitor/english/2891353

Auto Focus - 2002 - USA

Auto Focus - 2002 - 6/10

 
Who knew?  Colonel Hogan was a porn addict?
Uncomfortable retelling of Bob Crane, minor actor, whose TV hit, “Hogan’s Heroes “ rocketed him into TV stardom.
Aside from Superdad, he was unable to transit to movies, although he remained a familiar face on television.
Greg Kinnear very good as the troubled Crane, in this seedy look at the 70’s.
Another Paul Schrader film of damaged males leading stunted, perhaps empty, lives.
If you remain a fan of Crane’s sitcom, it might be wiser pass this by, as it leaves a sour residue.

Loving Highsmith - 2022 - Switzerland

Loving Highsmith - 2022 - 6/10

 
Documentary on novelist Patricia Highsmith.
Childhood, impossible relationship with her mother (who rejected her), romantic dalliances.
Talking heads include relatives (nieces?) and partners, along with experts.
Scenes from four film adaptations:  Strangers On A Train (1951), The American Friend (1977) from “Ripley’s Game”, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Carol (2015).
The doc is enlightening, and maddeningly opaque.
Dialogue is in English, French and German.  The version I saw had no subtitles.
One gleans the gist of conversations, but unless you are multi-lingual I suggest you hold off until this comes with subtitles.
For now, stick with her listing on Wikipedia.

Mongo’s Back In Town - 1971 - USA

Mongo’s Back In Town - 1971 - 6/10

 
Gritty crime story of a hitman returning home for the holidays.
Not exactly a family reunion, however.
Mongo’s brother owns a cheap club and is acting as middleman for counterfeit plates.
Except the plates have gone missing and brother is being setup as the patsy.
Bare bones overview of this Noirish film, shot to look like rainswept, wintry New York.
Sally Field plays a waif Mongo picks up along the way, Martin Sheen a young cop.
Telly Savalas’s Lieutenant Tolstad seems a dress rehearsal for Kojak, two years away.
Joe Don Baker well cast as tight-lipped, brooding Mongo.

The Gleiwitz Case - 1961 - Germany

The Gleiwitz Case - 1961 - 7/10
AKA - Der Fall Gleiwitz

 
Stylized docu-drama with more than a passing nod to 1928‘s Berlin: Symphonie der Großstadt.
A German commando type group, impersonating Poles, cross the frontier border, assault a radio station, and urge Poland to rise up and attack Germany.
The provocation was false, but the blitzkrieg launched the next day.  Britain and France declared war two days later.
Theatrical looking production.  Closeups, high contrast black n white, angular film compositions.
Several sequences are slow, yet the visuals are always imaginative.
“Travel” scenes faithfully recreate the montage and pan effects from aforementioned Symphony Of A Great City.

The Pervert’s Guide To Cinema - 2006 - UK

The Pervert’s Guide To Cinema - 2006 - 7/10

 
Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek gives three lectures which orbit Film Appreciation 101.
Freudian analysis, obsessions, death, desire, phallus / vagina (fear - envy - worship), all probed.
Scenes from a diverse array of films are shown, followed by comments.
Žižek frequently inserts himself into scenes, exaggerating or undercutting concepts of reality or suspension of disbelief.
Mainstream studio fare as well as European arthouse used as examples:
Hitchcock - Lynch - Chaplin - Wachowski - Kubrick - Coppola
Tarkovsky - Haneke - Von Trier - Kieślowski - Eisenstein - Bergman
Observations and conclusions are, by turn, insightful, provocative, wrong-headed.
Those with a healthy resume of arthouse titles in their “seen that” list may be better able to agree with some of his theories, or hurl a sock at the screen.
For novices or aficionados, Žižek is entertaining and enthusiastic throughout.

Iskander: Shadow of the River - 2018 - France

Iskander: Shadow of the River - 2018 - 6/10
AKA - Maroni

 
A grisly murder in French Guiana is assigned to a new arrival and a grizzled veteran.
Slain were a husband wife pair of missionaries.  Do-gooders.
They had journeyed deep into the jungle, going to remote villages, refusing to get permission from chiefs or elders.
The dead couple had a child.  Missing.
In fact, the area suffers a long history of missing or kidnapped children.
From the beginning, you realize this heads straight into voodoo territory.
If you can accept supernatural and superstitious elements you may enjoy this four-parter.

How To Get Ahead In Advertising - 1989 - UK

How To Get Ahead In Advertising - 1989 - 6/10

Ha ha, how about grow one, Boil?
Advertising exec, ruthless, callow, suffers the equivalent of writer’s block.
He cannot devise a slogan for … wait for it … pimple cream.
Frustration spills onto his wife, colleagues, then infects his own body.
A stress boil forms on his shoulder.  Which grows eyes and a mouth, and starts talking back.

 
Pungent comedy, hideous black humor that seems to worsen moment by moment.
An overlooked comic gem with Richard Grant giving a bravura performance.

Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story - 2012 - USA

Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story - 2012 - 7/10

 
Booker Wright, owner of his own cafe, also waiter in an upscale Whites Only restaurant.
Greenwood, Mississippi 1965.
Freedom Riders had been coming into the South since 1961, challenging racism and Jim Crow laws.
After the KKK murdered three, the Federal Government intervened.
In 1965, NBC aired a documentary, “Mississippi: A Self Portrait” and Booker was among those interviewed.
Dressed in his waiter whites uniform, he was funny and he was candid.
At odds with all other speakers who declare how improved and nice Mississippi is.
This 2012 doc is a “follow-up” documentary, filmed by the original documentarian’s son.
Solid job comparing 1965 Mississippi with 50 years on.  What’s changed, what ain’t.
The doc suggests a connection between Mr. Wright’s comments in 1965 and his last chapter, of which I wanted more proof, less theory.

Nothing Sacred - 1937 - USA

Nothing Sacred - 1937 - 5/10

 
A young woman learns she has work related radium poisoning.
Following a financial settlement, she goes to Manhattan to live her last days in style.
A grubby reporter then starts a deathwatch column on her final days.
Except, mistakes had been made.
Acclaimed as a great screwball comedy, this is anything but.
Carole Lombard overacts with her usual weepy, ditzy shtick.
Frederic March is an insufferable cad.  The pair have no chemistry, no comic timing.

Candlestick - 2014 - UK

Candlestick - 2014 - 5/10

"Friends" gather at Jack's for a dinner date.
In homage to the game Clue, the ominous candlestick arrives on the coffee table.
Loaded conversation, drinking, and gamesmanship progress.
Action occurs on one set, or, for one scene, outside on the street.
Lines are mannered, direct from drama school.
Seriously, this is like watching an Off-Broadway or fringe London theatrical production.
Note - I might have foolishly paid $30.00 or £20.00 to sit through this.
Characters are 99% predictable to the point of being talky cartoons, minus any satire.

 
Oddities include - three principals wear the same shade of maroon (shirt - dress - tie).
Music, what scant amount there is, apes Bernard Hermann.
Unless Jack spins a record, in which case he plays a 78 (yes, a 78 rpm vinyl and few turntables do 78).
Jack’s phones (two of ‘em for one flat) are both landline, rotary dial.
Hipster wannabe.
Attend community theatre or college boards, instead of this.

Squid Game - 2021 - S Korea

Squid Game - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Ojing-eo Geim  // 오징어 게임

 
Sat on this over a year before watching.  Chief concern?  Global hype.
And yes, this has been overhyped, primarily by Western viewers who have never seen Asian TV.
Nonetheless, it does make an easy entry into K-dramas (the violent ones), although I doubt most newcomers are reading subtitles (as many declare) but are viewing dubbed episodes.
Watch the subbed if you can, if spite of inferior translators (oppa, for example, is NOT “old man”).
Anyway, a huge assortment of financial losers are recruited to compete is a slate of deadly games.
None know how lethal these are until after the carnage of the first match.
Although there are hundreds of competitors (bodies), the series follows about ten.
Ensuing rounds continue gruesome eliminations.
The J-dorama Alice In Borderland aired before this, as did movies Escape Room, Running Man, shoot, “Fun And Games” from the old Outer Limits.
Hardly original, Squid Game is lavishly made, though not as fiendishly plotted as the finest K-dramas.
A Netflix series, this does not suffer the usual “Netflix ending”, meaning this has a passing conclusion.

Maybe I’ll Come Home In The Spring - 1971 - USA

Maybe I’ll Come Home In The Spring - 1971 - 6/10

 
After living with her hippie boyfriend, Dennie returns to home in suburbia.
Parents, though delighted she is back, have no idea why she left in the first place.
Their middle class life is wonderful!  Barbeque, cocktails, conformity.
Dennie is trying, really trying to readjust (the hippie lot was harder than she thought).
Yet, watching her parents, their friends, we observe the stifling home she fled.
Plus, her younger sister, desperate to escape, repeatedly voices the negative.
A perfectly cast Sally Field, Flying Nun in her rearview mirror, is the beating heart of this.
People idealize the Sixties, forgetting the rotten ending for so many, for so much.

Sing Street - 2016 - Ireland

Sing Street - 2016 - 8/10

 
Joyous, “let’s put a band together” story set in mid 80's Dublin.
Chocked with tunes from the era, as well as the band’s own compositions.
The early numbers are dreadfully funny, though the band improves quickly.
Typical of the time, they also make videos, with like a 5p budget.
The female star of the videos is the unreadable girl across the street, who transfixes the lead singer.
No great revelations plotwise in quite likeable film.
Cast is almost perfect.  Don’t just watch the videos, watch it whole.
Wonderful movie and great pairing with God Help The Girl.

Run Lola Run - 1998 - Germany

Run Lola Run - 1998 - 7/10
AKA - Lola Rennt

 
Manni phones Lola, begging her to find cash to repay a gangster.
If she cannot find the money in twenty minutes, he will rob a bank.
And Lola runs.
Three times, each time running moments ahead or behind (note the overhead train).
Manni and Lola are only lightly sketched, their relationship even less so.
The film itself is breathless action, the run against time, against destinies.
Brilliantly conceived and executed alternate timeslips.

Soylent Green - 1973 - USA

Soylent Green - 1973 - 6/10

 
Yesterday’s future today!
New York in 2022, where Earth is massively overpopulated.
A tiny sliver of humanity live like royalty, blue bloods of wealth and power.
For the teeming unwashed, jobs are nonexistent, utilities are gone, and food dwindling.
Humanity is a barely controlled planet of beggars.
Plotwise, when one of the captains of the food supply is murdered, a detective investigates.
Unsettling Charlton Heston led SciFi grows more relevant each year.
Swelling populations, by the way, are rarely mentioned – in 1973 or today.
Give this film another generation or two, see how accurate predictions were.

Sound It Out - 2012 - UK

Sound It Out - 2012 - 7/10

 
Documentary about the last surviving record shop in Teeside.
The owner is a music expert, his loyal assistant has his own expertise, the backroom girl runs the computer and ensures they make money.
Obsessive collectors are profiled, 99% of whom are guys.
They share their stories, display their treasures, warble on and on about the glories of vinyl.
One man - owner, I think - commented that vinyl holds memories.
Fair enough.  I used a similar phrase when reviewing All Things Must Pass, doc about the demise of Tower Records.
This would make a fine companion to that, and in many ways is more satisfying.
Watching the tiny survivor after the monster chain failed to crush it.

I have friends from my record shop days.  A few still dream about setting up a record store, mostly vinyl.
Anytime they float the idea, I shake my head.
This shop is exactly how they envision it, and exactly why I always tell ‘em no way.

The Pleasure Girls - 1965 - UK

The Pleasure Girls - 1965 - 6/10

 
Country girl arrives in Swinging London and moves into flat with several other girls.
Boys, money problems, parties, clothes shopping, moral decisions.
Considerably fresher and more realistic than 1969's Take A Girl Like You.
This has a grittier edge and seems a good period piece showing that time.  
Ian McShane and Francesca Annis lead, with Klaus Kinski as well dressed slumlord.
The parties and gambling are reminiscent of those in A Hard Days Night only more middle class.
Obscure music track, too.  I couldn’t tag a song.
The European cut features nudity, sexual situations, and graphic violence.

Iris - 2001 - UK

Iris - 2001 - 7/10

 
Inventive biopic of author Iris Murdoch with husband, John Bayley.
Shown young and giddy with life. Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville.
And far older, beset with Alzheimer’s and decline, Judy Dench and Jim Broadbent.
A memorable film of love and devotion, ecstasy and loss.
Their lives are shown in flashbacks and “moments”.
One of those trajectories that grow more worrisome with each passing year.

Plenty - 1985 - UK

Plenty - 1985 - 6/10

 
During World War II, Susan fought with the French Resistance.
Little did she suspect, that would be a personal and emotional high point.
She cannot, or will not, readjust to a less stressful life.
With friends, associates, lovers, Susan vents, or abuses, or allows herself to be corralled.
Her character is a maddening study in frustration and disappointment.
A film I appreciated more than enjoyed.
Likewise Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Susan, though not Susan herself.