MaXXXine - 2024 - USA

MaXXXine - 2024 - 6/10

 
One can see why the Horror manboys were less than thrilled with this.
Third Ti West installment is not Horror, barely qualifies as a Slasher.
This is a thriller, hewing close to Giallo, with style to burn.
Maxine Minx is trying to shift her career from porn to legit, or into Horror.
Mid 1980’s, she is menaced by a creepy private eye, her friends have been murdered.
Meanwhile, or in conjunction with, the “Night Stalker” prowls Los Angeles.
Mia Goth is fine (I thought her better in Pearl in this sequel to X.
The “look” captures the bi-polar 1980’s, leaving the hedonistic 70’s, entering a morality return.
Possess a long memory?  Ti West must, as I swear one character seems patterned after Brother Lester Roloff.

The Greene Murder Case - 1929 - USA

The Greene Murder Case - 1929 - 6/10

 
A dark and snowy night, the Greene’s muster for the annual count.
According to the will, understand?  Whoever is missing, is disinherited.
Or – whoever dies.  And this night, the killings start.
Police, baffled, place a call to Philo Vance.
Early talkie is creaky but has a fine S S Van Dine script to work with.
William Powell seems stiff, but Eugene Pallette has already nailed his character.
English subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3349447

Contact - 1997 - USA

Contact - 1997 - 8/10

 
Thinking persons SciFi.
Dr. Arroway, diehard believer in SETI, suddenly receives a response.
Indeed, the signal lights up the board, she contacts other listening posts and soon the world knows.
Extraterrestrials have heard our hello and have sent us “instructions”.
Sprawling film that encompasses career rivalries, politics, corporate interference, religion.
Long, with measured interludes, but never dull.
Marvelous cast, fairly accurate science (Carl Sagan advised), thoughtful resolution.
Oh, would that this were so.

Ella Cinders - 1926 - USA

Ella Cinders - 1926 - 6/10

 
Ella, the browbeaten, mistreated stepdaughter enters a photo beauty pageant.
Prize?  Paid trip to and screen test in Hollywood!
Will she win?  Will she go?  Does stardom await?
Pleasing adaptation of a long running comic strip is an excellent showcase for Colleen Moore.
The premise is not too far-fetched, either.
(In 1921, Clara Bow, sixteen, entered the Fame & Fortune contest, and won!)
Fun sequence of her pretending to be a child while babysitting.
Entertaining comedy, although the ending left me a little flat.

Murder In Vendée - 2023 - France

Murder In Vendée - 2023 - 6/10
AKA - Les Secrets du Paquebot

 
A journalist is killed.  Gendarmes arrive.  Then a teacher is slain.
Only clue, a recently painted black hand print.
Our cop duo were once romantically linked, now estranged.
Interesting backstory of a 1920 shipwreck (true) carrying Senegalese troops home from the Great War.
Personalities and their dramas muddy a decent concept.
Filmed near Les Sables d'Olonne, photography is not as lush as most these flicks.
Concluding whodunit / whydunit is a shell game.

Line Walker - 2014 - Hong Kong

Line Walker - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Si Tou Hang Jeh // 使徒行者

 
Excess in every sense of the word.
Just before he is killed, the police handler deletes all files of his UCs (undercover agents).
The new handler has to find out who they are, what their assignments are.
Lengthy (30 episodes) HK-drama is long on action and melodrama.
Narratives build, partially conclude while gliding into a deadlier level.
Yes, and in many ways, this resembles a shooter game.
Cringe worthy comic relief, sexual frustration jokes, embarrassing romance elements, songs.
That’s why the remote has a fast-forward button.
Overlong, yet it does conclude.  No never-to-resolve cliffhanger.

Jane By Charlotte - 2021 - France

Jane By Charlotte - 2021 - 7/10

 
Profile of Jane Birkin by daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Series of conversations about career, marriage, children, illness, shyness.
On being middle children, food and dietary restrictions, cities.
Not really a biography, although we hear details.
Not necessarily a documentary, but a stitched / edited flow of dialogue.
Viewers ought to know something about each woman, especially Birkin.
English subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3349451

Zhou Yu’s Train - 2002 - China

Zhou Yu’s Train - 2002 - 7/10
AKA - Zhou Yu de Huo Che  // 周漁的火車

 
Zhou works as a painter in a porcelain factory.
Her boyfriend, Chen, she met by chance and she travels weekly to see.
While he has a government job, he wants to be a poet, a riskier career.
Their relationship is turbulent and uneasy; she is the dominant partner.
On the train journey, she meets another male, Zhang, a rural vet, who imposes himself.
Zhou is attracted to different qualities in each, and, like Madame Bovary, has difficulty deciding.
The chronology is non-linear, and much of this is dreamlike.
At times, I wondered how much was her imagination.
Arthouse fare, demands full attention, perhaps multiple views.

Artificial Existence - 2021 - USA

Artificial Existence - 2021 - 7/10

 
It’s just a tiny implant, connected to your cortex.  You won’t notice.
Evelyn is a virtual reality architect of near tomorrow.  She helped design our A I ruled world.
Day after day of perfectly scheduled, soulless monotony.
All citizens have implants or mods, upgrades are mandatory.
A society of passive sheep, save for those who recall a world before A I control.
For those, contentment is a quiet Hell.
I keep saying – befriend the machine, train the machine, empower the machine, at your peril.

English subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3350842

Murders In Sandhamn - 2010 - Sweden

Murders In Sandhamn - 2010 - 6/10
AKA - Morden I Sandhamn

 
A body is washed ashore.  Police arrive and – “Hey, didn’t we go to school together?”
Yes, amidst a couple of murders, the detective and married wife and mom of two feel the sparks.
The detective’s inexperienced underling does the field work while he lingers.
You want a cleverly constructed mystery, this ain’t it.
Devotees of soap opera TV that runs 45 installments, enter friends!
Thank God the first season ran for only three episodes.  I’m done.