The Business - 2004 - UK

The Business - 2004 - 6/10

 
Frankie is handed a courier assignment, carrying a package to Spain.
Deliver to “wanted by British authorities” Charlie, owner of a trendy nightclub.
Charlie takes a shine to the lad, hires him as a driver, and soon enough he meets the gang.
Including the ferocious, murderous Sammy, the planner of the crew.
For Frankie, it’s sex, drugs and plenty of sunshine.
Fast moving spree revels in the heady 1980’s, the brash era of cocaine.
Propulsive soundtrack lays down hit after hit.

Satanic Hispanics - 2022 - Mexico

Satanic Hispanics - 2022 - 6/10

After a blazing entry, El Paso police find a nest of trafficked dead.
Along with a lone survivor, who repeatedly warns, “You are running out of time.”
And he shares a series of tales.  Misplaced magic, even vampires.

 
Consider, Halloween night, and the old geezer you ridicule, until the fangs are bared.
He has been around for centuries, but Daylight Savings Time still befuddles him.
Funny, bloody, barbed dialogue.

 
Or folk horror, atavistic rituals, scoffed at.
Leave home at your peril, however.

 
Then there are those annoying turistas, forever spying on forbidden rites.
Perhaps even video taping those, launching gruesome consequences.
Anthology series hits more than misses.  Nothing more than B-movies, but funny and good with brews.

Soft Shoes - 1925 - USA

Soft Shoes - 1925 - 6/10

 
Sheriff Pat, rancher out in west Texas, inherits and has to mosey to sin-city, San Francisco.
There, he encounters a cat burglar, Faith, and is soon embroiled in all sorts of mischief.
Action moves fairly well, the comedy is broad, with sly innuendo.
Writer / star Harry Carey is crowding 50 (he ain’t no Tom Mix).  He shows a flair for humor, yet his is still too old for the role, especially in any romantic scenes.
Current print has been wonderfully restored and tinted.  Old time Bay residents might view with nostalgia.

From Beyond - 2023 - Norway

From Beyond - 2023 - 7/10

 
Extraterrestrials arrive on Earth.  Accident, scouting, invasion?
Perspectives move from human observers to alien point of view.
Of course, know-it-all humans begin laboratory experiments.
While others, perhaps emulating Captain Kirk, share intimate relations with the newcomers.
Then, almost overnight, these new things seem to be overrunning the planet.
SciFi short from Norway blends found footage, newsreels, interviews, and is a mix of unexpected and bizarre.

The Reckoning - 2023 - UK

The Reckoning - 2023 - 7/10

 
The rise of Jimmy Saville from local DJ to national icon.
Along the way, “Top Of The Pops” and “Jim’ll Fix It”.
Relentless charity work leads to knighthood, meeting royals, meeting the Pope.
Yet behind the crowd pleasing funster lurks a darker soul.
One with an appetite for young girls, for children.
Cloaked behind fame.
Steve Coogan charismatic and frightening, superb job.

Zontar: The Thing from Venus - 1967 - USA

Zontar: The Thing from Venus - 1967 - 3/10

 
Our alien offers to come to Earth and help solve humanity’s problems.
(Just like politicians, tyrants, megalomaniacs, martinets, from Biblical times onward.)
Fortunately, for Zoltar, it reaches out to the one “scientist” gullible enough to believe a Venusian telemarketer.
In no time flat, our three-eyed, bat-winged, Cthulhu wannabe holes up in a cave and begins global domination.
Bad film, bad acting, ripoff script, and the characters are beyond stupid!
Connoisseurs of trash cinema, this is one dingy brown pile.

To Have And Have Not - 1944 - USA

To Have And Have Not - 1944 - 7/10

 
Ex-pat fisherman rents his boat out to US swells who could only land a fish in a grocery.
Set in WWII Martinique, France has fallen and the Caribbean colony comes under Nazi control.
Fishing gives way to smuggling, trafficking souls barely one step ahead of the Gestapo.
Then there’s a penniless female, stranded, as it were, on an island paradise.
Fast paced Noir boats electric chemistry between Bogart and Bacall, and bristling dialogue.
Bacall sings, Hoagy Carmichael plays piano.

If you desire further adventures (similar), check out the OTR “Bold Venture”.
https://archive.org/details/BoldVenture57Episodes

Alex Edelman: Just For Us - 2024 - USA

Alex Edelman: Just For Us - 2024 - 7/10

 
“I don't know if any of you grew up in a home like this.  We were never allowed in our living room.
Never. The living room is for guests and tragedies. And every piece of furniture is covered in plastic…”
Standup comedian shares painful wisdom, and a long story of going to a White Nationalist party in Queens.
Edelman is consistently funny.  The jokes, the punchlines, land and land and land.
This is NOT hit n miss.  This is a terrific performance.
Captured during a sold out run.
As one would say, can you believe it?
English subtitles = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3331455

Fiend Without A Face - 1958 - UK

Fiend Without A Face - 1958 - 6/10

 
US military base (in Canada?) experiments with radar and telekinesis.
Before you can wonder what could go wrong, an invisible “entity” starts killing.
Victims have their gray cells sucked out, brains and spinal cords.
Soldiers are hapless, the base is overrun!
Once exposed, the creatures are laughable and creepy, a weakness of the film.
Especially for young viewers who imagined them to be under the bed or in the closet.
Or teenagers at the drive-in, aware death is everywhere so they better get busy now.
Not one of those so-bad-it’s-good films, but creative yet underwhelming.

Klara’s Box - 2024 - USA

Klara’s Box - 2024 - 5/10

 
Workday dawn, Klara wakes in her car after another night in her car.
At the cafe, she asks for coffee.  Instead, she is offered job.
“Just deliver a package.  Quick, simple.”
Until, midway through her “assignment”, a helpful soul appears to render free advice.
Toxic short of lies, half-truths, deceptions, in talky thriller.
Resolution = punt.

Annie Hall - 1977 - USA

Annie Hall - 1977 - 8/10

 
Through a series of flashbacks, Alvy tries to grasp how his romance with Annie collapsed.
City boy, small town girl new to the city, there is a Pygmalion element.
Childhoods differ vastly, as do outlooks and expectations.
Even the way they view each other, and worry how they are perceived.
Marvelous sequences break the fourth wall, especially with surprise cameos.
Gordon Willis cinematography elevates this from all preceding Allen works.
This is where Allen lost many old fans, expecting more silly farces.
A romantic comedy, wise and bittersweet, for adults.

Skylight - 2014 - UK

Skylight - 2014 - 7/10  

 
Three years after she walked out of her second family, Kyra receives two visitors.
Wayward son Edward, starting his gap year, asking why she left those years before.
“Think,”  Kyra says.  “Just think.”
Then, after Edward departs, the father, Tom, attempting, awkwardly, a pained reconciliation.
Searing performances from Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan of a broken relationship.
Funny, excruciating, contrasting spiraling greed and self-reformation.
Restaurateur Tom made his pile when Kyra was his right hand.
Now, both older, wisdom is a bitter tonic.
Main quibble for me, in an otherwise exceptional play, is the age discrepancy.
Supposedly 15 years apart, they look 30, perhaps 40, years apart.
English subtitles = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3331454

Western Front - 1999 - UK

Western Front - 1999 - 7/10

 
Excellent, if limited documentary on the Western Front of the Great War.
This really focuses on strategies, key battles, and blunders.
High command, English and French, is shown as especially incompetent.
Millions of lives squandered while officers sipped tea in chateaus.
A couple of lingering survivors, each in their 90’s, shared memories.
Richard Holmes, military historian for Cranfield University, walks old battlefields, while presenting a digest of the war.