Begotten - 1989 - USA

Begotten - 1989 - 5/10

 
This opens with a grisly self-inflicted disembowelment.
After which an unsettling rebirth / transfiguration occurs.
Scene shift to a vast pit focusing on the ritualized torture of a sacrificial victim.
Hell, I thought.  Or the purgatory of damnation.
Stylized, experimental, avant-garde film.
Until the credits rolled, sporting a different story.
Which was beyond pretentious.  Docked a point.

Darby And Joan - 2022 - Australia

Darby And Joan - 2022 - 6/10

 
After a calamitous off-road accident, Joan gives Darby a lift.
Which sorta grows into an extended road trip.
Ex-nurse Joan has arrived from England to find out why her husband died in Australia.
What was he even doing down under?  After all, he told her he was in Spain.
Fortunately, Darby is an ex-copper.
Sundry adventures and mysteries each week, with new clues about Joan’s dead husband.
Who, apparently, kept a lot of secrets.  Big ones.
Enjoyable series.  Stars Greta Scacchi and Bryan Brown click.
Last episode introduced John Jarrett for a S02.

Metroland - 1997 - UK

Metroland - 1997 - 6/10

Chris and Marion have a solid, if dull, marriage.
They live in suburbia, he is a 9 to 5 banker.  A drudge.
Same ole, same ole.  Until Chris’s buddy from back when appears.  
Toni has been living the vagabond life both men aspired to during their wild Paris years.
Before Chris settled down with a mouselike English rose.

 
The story lost me during flashbacks of the ex-girlfriend, Annick.
“What!  He dumped the exotic hottie and married safe and predictable?”
My bride, who is anything but predictable, just laughed.
Good film for mid-life crisis sorts who second-guess their choices.

The Silent - 2015 - Finland

The Silent - 2015 - 6/10

 
Young girl, perhaps 4 or 5, tries to make sense of an increasingly creepy world.
Wordless film has an elegiac tone, while the story quietly resolves.
Those who linger, those who “see”, what they see.
Worth a rewatch to catch all the clues.

Bubba Ho-Tep - 2002 - USA

Bubba Ho-Tep - 2002 - 6/10

 
Retirement home denizens, Elvis and JFK, grow wary of a new arrival.
Despite boots and the felt Stetson, it might could be an abandoned mummy.
And it is killin’ folks in the home dead.
They’re old, they’re weak, and nurses would just reckon they done died natural like.
Our two heroes, one in a wheelchair, the other with a walker, devise a plan and stand tall.
Ridiculous, absurd, hairbrained.  Yeah, so what?
Cheap Horror comedy has a lot of heart and is boosted immensely by Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis.

Defence Of The Realm - 1986 - UK

Defence Of The Realm - 1986 - 7/10

 
British reporters get wind of a scandal involving a member of Parliament.
Is the MP having an affair?  Is he a KGB operative?
Not that it matters, it’s too good a story and run it.
Only later, do they realize the man may have been framed – and they were manipulated.
Clandestine agencies, stonewalling, and mounting threats to cease investigating.
Tight thriller encompasses all, along with a message that is still relevant.

Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy - 1982 - USA

A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy - 1982 - 6/10

 
Aged professor and young wife celebrate solstice in the country.
Also there is the professor‘s cousin and her nutty husband (Allen).
Add a lecherous physician and his free-spirit girlfriend.
Blame the summer heat, blame the moon.  Everyone is soon in and out of each other’s pants.
Another Bergman inspired Woody Allen effort, mixing drama and comedy.
The comedy seems a throwback to his earlier, juvenile period, and doesn’t quite work.