The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Dir. Amy Jones The members of a girls high school varsity basketball team take advantage of the fact that one of them is home alone to have a slumber party together. At the same time, an escaped serial killer is on the loose who latches onto the group as his new victim pool. Over the course of an evening, he first observes them from a distance and then closes in to satisfy his bloodlust. A 1980s slasher that is more interesting in its unusual conception than in its execution. Rita Mae Brown, a feminist and lesbian activist wrote this screenplay, initially meant to be a send-up of the slasher genre, if the unofficial history behind this film is to be believed. Only what we get on the screen is very much played straight - for the most part - and perhaps surprisingly, it's a rather exploitative horror film. So it doesn't really stand out all that much, it reminded me most of "The House on Sorority Row", which was released a year later. Robin Stille isn't a bad final girl.
The Birth of a Nation - 2016 I had heard of the Nat Turner rebellion thanks to school but that is about all I knew. After watching the movie I went and read some more about him. As is normally the case the movie is a decent launching point on a subject which has way more to tell.
I feel uncomfortable watching this knowing the directors' background (specifically the crime he was accused of in college and what subsequently happened to his victim) but I concede this is hypocritical considering I have watched several of Woody Allen's output in the past decade or so.
Whoa. Just read a bit about that, I had no idea. Reading the victims sisters reaction to the movie definitely puts it in a different light.
Red Light (1949) Dir. Roy Del Ruth The owner of a successful freight company is ecstatic when his younger brother, a priest who served as an army chaplain, returns from the war. His joy is short-lived when his brother is killed in his hotel room soon after his return, on the eve of his departure to his new parish. With his dying breath, he tells his older brother that the clue to solving his murder can be found in the bible. At first his brother believes this is meant to refer to the priests own bible, but later on he realizes that his brother actually meant the hotel bible, which is now missing. On the assumption that one of the hotel guests who used the room after his brother stole it, he bribes a bell hop at the hotel to get him the list of hotel guests who used the room and then starts tracking them down, eventually employing the help of an out of work showgirl to assist him. I really liked this. George Raft is good in the lead role, Virginia Mayo does the most with her somewhat underwritten part. A morally interesting film, even though the way the climax wraps things up a bit too neatly will probably annoy some viewers.
Not Safe for Work (2014) Dir. Joe Johnston The day before the law firm he works for is going to trial in a class action suit against a big pharma giant, a paralegal is fired for his over-eagerness almost ruining another case. After he clears out his desk and leaves after his final day of work, he notices a suspicious man riding up the elevator to the floor of his former employer and decides on a hunch to follow the man. He then discovers that the man is there with a rather violent purpose after he sees him kill one of the handful of his former co-workers still in the office. What follows is an hour long cat and mouse game with a few plot twists along the way. I have a lot of time for Joe Johnston. More capable craftsman than auteur, he still has several movies I truly love: "The Rocketeer", "Captain America: The First Avenger". I even have a lot of time for "Honey, I shrunk the Kids" (a childhood favorite) and "Jurassic Park III" (a somewhat underrated sequel imho). This low budget action thriller isn't up to par with any of those, but it is well made and it has a crisp 70 minute runtime, which means that it's over before it can get dull or overstay its welcome. Decent entertainment, but nothing more.
Marc Maron has devoted his podcast to actresses from the show on at least three times (podcast 821 features Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin, 823 has Jenji Cohen, and 825 has Chavo Geurraro and Kia Stevens)
I totally missed this one when it came out - never even heard of it - but it was on, the title sounded like it was a classic WW2 movie, and so I tuned in. It is the last year of World War II, and MacArthur has returned to the Philippines after three years. As he and the Allied troops advanced, the Japanese began killing whole camps worth of POWs to prevent them being liberated, so it was determined to liberate camps before the Allies got too close. Cue a team of 120 Rangers and a few hundred Filipino guerrillas sneaking ~30 miles, then setting up to attack more than 1000 Japanese in the camp and a nearby installation. It's a hell of a story, and true. No idea why I never heard of it before or missed it when it came out in 2005.
Desperate (1947) Dir. Anthony Mann A newly wed truck driver accepts a nighttime job that pays very well. When he arrives at the pre-arranged location, he finds out that the job actually entails hauling the loot that a group of criminals are stealing from a warehouse. After he successfully attracts the attention of a patrolling policeman, a firefight breaks out in which the cop is shot and one of the criminals is captured by police reinforcements. The criminal in question was the younger brother of the ring leader, who blames the truck driver for what happened. At the same time, the police believe the truck driver was a willing accomplice. This forces the man and his pregnant wife to go on the run from both the vengeful criminals and the authorities. Enjoyable Anthony Mann film noir. The two leads are pretty good, but it's really Raymond Burr as the sociopathic antagonist that makes this movie. Features an early version of the comical insurance salesman trope (a trope which was perfected by Stephen Tobolowsky in Groundhog Day).
guardians of the galaxy 2 Peter Quill and his fellow Guardians are hired by a powerful alien race, the Sovereign, to protect their precious batteries from invaders. When it is discovered that Rocket has stolen the items they were sent to guard, the Sovereign dispatch their armada to search for vengeance. As the Guardians try to escape, the mystery of Peter's parentage is revealed.
Free Fire (2016) Dir. Ben Wheatley In late 1970s Boston, two groups meet at a deserted factory to conduct an illicit weapons deal. One group consists of Irishmen who are there to buy assault rifles, the other group consists of the South-African gun dealer and his associates. When the deal is near completion, in spite of some minor tension between the two groups, it escalates into a Mexican stand-off when two of the goons present, one on each side, are revealed to have some private, unresolved beef. Eventually a shoot-out erupts in which loyalties are unclear and new alliances emerge and falter throughout the carnage. This action comedy is right up my alley. It shares a tone - to a certain extent - with the movies of Martin McDonagh. The cast is great all around, but I especially liked Sharlto Copley as the faux tough guy South-African gun dealer, a near constant source of comedy.
Fist Fight (2017) Dir. Richie Keen A mild-mannered English teacher finds himself challenged to a fist fight by a colleague on the last day of school because he snitched on said colleague's violent behavior, which he personally witnessed. He spends the rest of the day going out of his way trying to avoid having to go through with the fisticuffs, which will take place after class it out. A bit of a hit and miss comedy that has a few scenes that truly work and a lot of forgettable stuff in between. Also a bit of an underused supporting cast, considering it features, among others Tracy Morgan, Christina Hendricks and Kumail Nanjiani.
Get the Girl (2017) Dir. Eric England A young man falls in love with a bartender at a nightclub he frequents. His timid attempts at making contact with the woman all fail, but his infatuation reaches the point of obsession. He believes that a grand gesture will win her favor, so he approaches a local douchebag pick-up artist/low-level criminal to ask him for his help. The guy proposes an insane plan that involves him and his misfit friends kidnapping the woman and then the infatuated sap coming in to save her life and earn her love in the process. After they agree upon a fee for him to carry out this crazy idea, they go ahead with it. It subsequently unfolds about as well as you can expect from such a harebrained scheme. I think a dark comedy that uses the bare bones of this screenplay can certainly work, but there are aspects of the writing as it is that are problematic. First and foremost, the moral judgment that the writer-director makes of the protagonist's behavior, both in his creepy stalker routine prior to agreeing to the kidnapping scenario and then the kidnapping scenario itself suggests that he approves of it and even deems it romantic on some level. In reality, such a scenario would be a puerile male fantasy that has gone toxic to a ludicrous degree. Since the writing does not acknowledge this fact, this movie is almost a weird MRA/PUA fantasy, especially with the totally crazy decision made by the woman at the end.
Baby Driver - dir. Edgar Wright This movie is very enjoyable. Visually and sonically, it's extremely impressive because there is not a single wasted shot or wasted sound cue. It is a great exercise in taking maximum advantage of film as a medium - which is something most films don't even attempt. On the other hand, I think it's perhaps getting a LITTLE too much praise, because I found some of the story elements disappointing. Mostly the fact that the two female characters seem to have been written by a Men's Rights Activist - especially the romantic female lead, who is little more than a damsel in distress who just thinks that our hero is THE COOLEST GUY OMG. Also, the English actress who plays her, Lily James, bless her heart but her attempt at an Atlanta accent was all over the map and kind of distracting. (Even the male lead, Ansel Elgort, couldn't decide if he was going to be using a southern accent or not). Great supporting performances by Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx, though.
Thanks for that review, @fischerw. I have to say that I initially thought, upon hearing about this film, 'Why do we need another clone of "The Driver"?' But the reviews suggest that it's worth seeing if for nothing more than the fact that it is supposedly a spectacle from a purely audiovisual point of view. Your assessment seems to confirm that.
Intruder (1989) Dir. Scott Spiegel The night shift at a supermarket is startled by the unannounced visit of one of their cashiers' ex-boyfriends. The guy in question is a creep who is newly released from an involuntary manslaughter charge. After the man manages to intimidate his former girlfriend, the rest of the staff successfully come to her aid and kick the man out of the store, before calling the police on him. Assuming that the issue is dealt with, they go about their business, only for an unseen killer to sneak into the store and start murdering store clerks. This is a Scott Spiegel feature, produced by Lawrence Bender and Sam Raimi. It features Sam Raimi and his brother Ted Raimi in supporting roles and even has a Bruce Campbell cameo. So I was sort of going into this thing expecting something akin to "Evil Dead II" in tone. But it's a weird film that doesn't go silly enough to work as a comedy and doesn't go serious enough to work as a proper horror film. I honestly don't quite understand why it is so well regarded, other than the fact that the people involved in its production having done good or great work on other projects.
The Dorm that Dripped Blood (1982) Dir. Stephen Carpenter & Jeffrey Obrow A small group of college students agree to stay over the Winter break to make an inventory of all the remaining furniture inside of a dormitory that is going to be torn down soon. The idea is to sell off whatever they can prior to the building's demolition, some of the profits going to themselves to make some extra money. From the very first night inside of the deserted building, all of them have the feeling someone else is out there spying on them, but they only become convinced that their instincts are right when the prowler goes beyond just watching them. Fairly run of the mill slasher that sticks pretty close to genre tropes and has a plot twist that everyone will see coming a mile away. Otherwise noteworthy for being Daphne Zuniga's first ever screen credit.
Possession (1981) Dir. Andrzej Zulawski A freelance intelligence asset returns to his French wife and son in Berlin after having completed an assignment. He refuses a follow-up assignment in the hope of working through the marital crisis he is confronted with upon his return. In spite of his hopes of rekindling the romance, his wife soon informs him that she is leaving him for another lover. This sends the husband into a three week tailspin. When he reemerges from his personal breakdown, he finds out that his wife has neglected their young son in the interim and that she is generally displaying increasingly more erratic and strange behavior. He also finds out that her lover has seen almost as little of her as he has since his return to Berlin. So where is she disappearing off to all the time? To my shame, I had not watched this before, which is rather remarkable considering I love both horror films and Isabelle Adjani. It's a terrific bit of psychological horror, original yet also borrowing some aspects from films such as "Vertigo" and "Rosemary's Baby". Its setting in Cold War era Berlin is no coincidence (two of the key locations in the film even have a view of the Berlin Wall). The city is very much a character of its own. What really makes this movie worthwhile for me is Isabelle Adjani's performance (which was rewarded with the best actress award at the Cannes film festival). Though I will add the caveat that her style of acting (naturalistic with the dial turned to 11) will not be everyone's cup of tea. This culminates in the scene at the train station, which displays both bravery and a total lack of vanity on her part. On the topic of that scene, her screams rather randomly reminded me of a movie anecdote about Lillian Gish: how her screams whilst shooting the scene in which her character is about to be murdered in "Broken Blossoms" were so horrifying that they sent nearby extras and crew members storm into the studio assuming someone was actually being hurt and how even director D.W. Griffith was pale after yelling 'cut'. I sort of imagine that those screams must have sounded not unlike Adjani's in that scene. This will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea. I fear it's one of those films people either love or hate. But if you have time for weird psychological horror, then this is definitely worth checking out.
Didn't she play Rose on Downton Abbey? If so, that show was a clinic for how not to do an American accent. I even found Paul Giammati's to be rather unconvincing.
Yes, she played Lady Rose on Downton Abbey, but didn't have an American accent.. Who on the show had a bad American accent?
Second Chance (1953) Dir. Rudolph Maté Three individuals are united by chance in Mexico: a prize fighter whose reputation got a knock after the accidental death of an opponent and who is doing a barnstorming tour of Mexico to regain some of his self-respect and confidence by facing off against local fighters, an American woman on the run from her gangster ex-boyfriend and a hitman who has been sent by the aforementioned gangster to kill the woman because he fears she might testify against him. The boxer gets mixed up in said nasty business after he and the woman fall in love. Decent little noirish drama. Mitchum is excellent in the lead role, Jack Palance is always reliable in these shady roles and Linda Darnell makes for a good femme fatale. One slightly disturbing segment is a small subplot of a man guilty of killing his wife being presented as sympathetic, a reminder that audience sensibilities have shifted somewhat in the past 64 years.
The African-American singer that Rose dated. The occasional soldier during the war. Of course, some think the show would be better in American English.
La Mort en ce Jardin (1956) Dir. Luis Buñuel In a small South-American village, the local authorities announce to the international cadre of chancers and adventurers who make up the majority of the local diamond miners that this lucrative trade will now come under direct governmental control and that all of them have to cease their activities within 24 hours. The aggrieved miners are incensed and plan an open, armed revolt against the small local force of soldiers. In the midst of this powder keg, a stranger arrives who gets himself onto the radar of the local captain of the guard when a prostitute he spends a night with reveals that he is carrying large sums of cash on him. The man is promptly accused of having taken part in a bank hold-up that happened in a nearby city. After the planned miners' revolt does take place and it leaves the local garrison decimated, the reinforcements that arrive the next morning attempt to round up the supposed ring leaders of the rebellion. Among them, two innocent men: the adventurer and an older miner who had planned to leave the small community to return to his native Marseille, France with his deaf-mute daughter. In the end, a small group of people (the aforementioned three individuals as well as the prostitute and a priest) have no chance to but flee for the Brazilian border, which means a long and dangerous trek through the jungle, with soldiers pursuing them. A typical Buñuel feature, rife with symbolism (down to the make-up of the small group of fleeing individuals). The character of Shark most reminded me of the type of antiheroes you find in movies like "Hombre" or "The Last Wagon", but Georges Marshall's character is several shades darker from a moral point of view than either Paul Newman's or Richard Widmark in my examples. Features the first ever movie role by Michèle Girardon (another French movie star whose short life was rife with tragedy). Simone Signoret made a career out of playing the kind of morally ambiguous characters she plays here, so she fits right in.
The Stone Killer (1973) Dir. Michael Winner Lou Torrey, a Dirty Harry style police detective hits the end of the line of his Big Apple policing career when he is guilty of killing one too many suspects during an attempted arrest. He is allowed a transfer to the West Coast, where he accepts a job for the LAPD. After two years working in California, he makes a short return to NYC, escorting a prisoner he picked up on a drug charge because the man was wanted for murder back East. The man claims that he is privy to important information, big enough to earn him a reduced sentence. Torrey is dubious about his claims, until the man is shot within minutes of landing in NYC. Returning to Los Angeles to investigate the man's background, he slowly pieces together a conspiracy that includes old Sicilian crime families and newly returned Vietnam war veterans. A bit of a Dirty Harry clone that fits right into Charles Bronson's career of gritty 1970s crime films. 90+ minutes of good entertainment. The supporting cast includes - among others - Ralph Waite (of "The Waltons" fame) as a racist police detective and John Ritter in an early role as a young uniformed police officer. The movie touches upon subjects of institutionalized racism and PTSD with returning Vietnam war vets without truly exploring either theme in depth.