The Stranger - 2025 - France

The Stranger - 2025 - 7/10
AKA - L'Étranger

 
Meursault is roused early.  Telegram informs him his mother has died in the retirement home.
His employer gives him two days.  He sits through the vigil, attends the planting, returns to work.
Also reconnects with Marie, with whom he has an affair, then agrees to marry.
Is he in love?  No.  Did he grieve for mom?  No.  Is he ambitious at work?  No.
Not that Meursault is bored.  He is simply disinterested, disconnected.  Lifeless.
Even facing criminal charges, he couldn’t care less.
Ozon’s adaptation of the Camus novel is detached, forcing viewers to watch abstractly.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3371179

What Lurks Beneath - 2024 - Canada

What Lurks Beneath - 2024 - 4/10

 
World War III breaks out … again.
Undersea denizens are fed up with humanity annihilating the planet so an emissary is sent.
Via the torpedo hatch arrives the attractive nude blonde.
Not to nitpick, how did she open that hatch door from underwater?
How come the submarine only has a crew of 7 with 2 Brit advisors?
How does the “stowaway” wander the vessel?
Terrible script comes off as watery Alien copy-clone.

Edgar Allan Poe's The Oval Portrait - 2025 - Canada

Edgar Allan Poe's The Oval Portrait - 2025 - 6/10

 
The antique shop is by appointment only, Whitlock is fussy.
Nevertheless, thieves try and fail to steal an oval portrait.
Then there is the downsized art student, painter, Ava, who Whitlock befriends.
Three threads, but each have additional sideplots.

 
For a low-budget affair, the photography is excellent.
The musical score is old-fashioned, grandiose, sweeping, perhsps too loud at points.
The side narratives seem tacked on, while the main line glides between mystery, thriller and melodrama.
Aside from the two leads, others are “re-actors”, waiting for their lines, then speaking awkwardly.
Ava is nicely turned, riding bad luck.  Whitlock is straitlaced, mannered, a throwback.
Poe’s story is incorporated, and Edgar resonates, along with a dash of Bierce, perhaps Fitz-James O’Brien.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3370957

Deep Water - 2026 - Spain

Deep Water - 2026 - 6/10

 
Lithium batteries, dude.  Unpredictable and flammable.
Fire in the cargo hold, and passenger airliner must ditch in the Pacific.
Survivors soon discover they are shark bait.
A whole mess of sharks, attracted by the kicking, flailing, bleeding, squealing meals.
Summer popcorn flick, although batteries go off in aircraft every week.

Manhandled - 1924 - USA

Manhandled - 1924 - 6/10

 
Tessie toils against a tide of customers in a large department store.
The struggle in the subway is just as onerous.  New York is not for the faint.
Boyfriend Jim is a mechanic, at night a cabbie.
He is trying to save enough for marriage, and perfect an invention.
Tessie wants to go out;  if Jim is too busy, she goes with the rich swells.
Comedy, the genre I would not associate with Swanson, but she is funny here.
Mind you, she has to impersonate a countess, so out comes the wardrobe.

Powaqqatsi - 1988 - USA

Powaqqatsi - 1988 - 6/10

 
“Life In Transformation”
Followup film to Koyaaniqatsi (1982) is not a sequel, is more a view of changing cultures.
This implies the simplistic life is superior to our modern one.
Better to be a farmer or fisherman than toil in an industrial, urban world.
The message was repeated ad nauseam, until it felt preachy and ham-fisted.
Did not care for the Glass music this outing.
Exceptional photography, although not assembled / edited as well as before.

Seam - 2017 - USA

Seam - 2017 - 6/10

 
The Seam is the borderzone between humanity and cognizant machines.
An agreed “reservation” after a global war between the two.
Machines also include lifelike cyborgs, living with humans.  Partners.
Forbidden partners, punishable by extermination.
SciFi leans on BSG themes.  Superb Jordan locations, OK CGI, slick editing.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3370958

Deep Cover - 2025 - UK

Deep Cover - 2025 - 6/10

 
Police try a new angle to infiltrate some of the savvier gangs.
Hire actors, improv actors, capable of thinking and talking on their feet.
Yes, the concept is pretty darned silly.  Just buy it, and trot along.
Fast comedy relying on situations, characters and clever dialogue.
Most of the cast seem to be having a full tilt blast.
Extra credit to Orlando Bloom as the crazy Marlon, as the outta control Roach.

Uzumaki - 2000 - Japan

Uzumaki - 2000 - 7/10
AKA - Spiral  // うずまき

 
Her boyfriend is the first to succumb to the lure of the spiral, vortex, swirl.
Such is the initial infection, accelerating after his death (by washing machine).
The town is rapidly afflicted, and the obsession with spirals leads to physical alterations, deformities.
Steeped in rain soaked atmosphere, this runs between HPL and Lynch, more so the latter.
Meaning, with Lovecraft there “might” be an explanation.  Here, naught.
Worth watching for weirdness alone, adapted from a manga which I have not read.

The Gaucho - 1927 - USA

The Gaucho - 1927 - 6/10

 
Fairbanks had been making a string of towering blockbusters when he wrote and starred in this.
A girl receives a miracle and the power to heal, and a village grows around her.
The village becomes wealthy, drawing the attention of a powerful bandit.
Enter El Gaucho, leader of a rival gang.
A moody, dark film, with too much religious babble (yes, audiences differed in 1927).
Different from Doug’s manic comedies, thrilling actioners.  From what I’ve read, he was feeling old.
Would that the film was primarily Doug and the steamy Lupe Vélez (above).

The Horror From Beyond - 1965 - Philippines

The Horror From Beyond - 1965 - 5/10

 
Beyond what?  Lo, a wooden coffin, floating, retrieved by a fisherman.
Inside, an intact skeleton, perfectly connected, even when manhandled.
Following a death (#1), police consult local scientists, leading to death #2.
No one notices the skull turn this way and that, listening or watching.
Soon enough, Skelly dons some clothes (modesty, please!) and toddles to a barbeque.
More killings ensue as ole bag-o-bones shambles along.
Despite bullets and science and law enforcement and our lonesome killer, this is Dullsville.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3370956

Pretty Baby - 1978 - USA

Pretty Baby - 1978 - 6/10

 
Jollies in a New Orleans sporting house, 1917, prostitution still legal.
A photographer arrives, wanting to take photos of the ladies – and he will pay.
Rambling goings-on include the auctioning of a 12-year-old virgin (very good Brooke Shields).
More costume drama than one might expect, with stray quiet moralizing that many audiences miss.
Antonio Fargas memorable as a Scott Joplinish character.
I recall the marketing campaign splashed titillation rather than historical drama.
Unpleasant aftertaste.

Shock Waves - 1977 - USA

Shock Waves - 1977 - 5/10

 
The boat carrying tourists starts having trouble.  Engine, navigation.
Matters worsen when they encounter an orange mist, and a derelict ship.
Captain goes missing (RIP Skipper) so they row towards a small island.
Lone inhabitant, a weathered SS officer, who realizes the derelict is a dangerous vessel.
Carrying unstoppable, unkillable Nazi zombies!
Cheap Horror outing suffers from budget constraints, poor plot, repetitive sequences, and it is dull.

Elaine Stritch: Live At The Liberty - 2002 - UK

Elaine Stritch: Live At The Liberty - 2002 - 7/10

 
Stritch delivers her one-man show before a full house.
Some Broadway songs, light footwork (she is bumping 80), stories.
Stories are packed with names, shows, incidents, sweet triumphs, crashing disappointments.
Then there is her drinking.  Completely out of control, she admits.
How she had “rules” for drinking, which she broke.  Plus, she made huge mistakes.
She is bitterly funny, caustic, troubled, perhaps, by memories.