Mikey and Nicky. Platform: Criterion Year: 1976 Summary: Two childhood friends are involved in organized crime. One of them has done something and calls an old friend for help. 8/10 I love the chemistry between Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. Always have from what I've seen. They were great in Columbo together but it's fun to see Falk play a criminal. I will say that this is a gangster film but a rather depressing gangster film. Considering that it involves two childhood friends especially. I'm probably going to take a break from anything Cassavetes does because so much of it is heavy.
Spotting split diopter shots in films and TV is a pet pleasure of mine, always cheers me up when I see one.
Heat Lightning (1934) Dir. Mervyn LeRoy Olga runs a gas station and diner on a desolate stretch of the California highway. She shares the business and the life with her younger sister Myra, who dreams of a better life. For Olga, who has seen and lived a different kind of life already, the simple quiet routine of servicing cars and serving drinks and sandwiches suits her just fine. Among their customers that day is a blast from Olga's Oklahoma past: George, a slick operator with criminal tendencies who once was Olga's lover. Olga suspects he is still up to no good, and she is right: George and his associate Jeff are on the run from a failed bank heist in Salt Lake City, in which two bank employees got shot: a teller and a guard. Jeff is anxious to get to Mexico, whilst George is happy to get reacquainted with his ex. Especially after a chauffeur arrives at the gas station, his passengers two women with a fortune in jewels on their neck and ears. For George, a fortuitous opportunity at a quick score before they flee. For Olga, seeing George again causes complicated feelings she had believed she was over years ago. Pre-coded noirish crime drama. Very nice lead performance by Aline MacMahon, who infuses her Olga with a sad kind of world-weariness. Ann Dvorak, of Scarface fame, plays her sister Myra. Reminded me a lot of the Bette Davis/Bogey noir The Petrified Forest in that it also involves criminals descending on an isolated desert locale (though in that film the action takes place in Arizona). Which itself was based on a 1934 play of the same name. The dialogue is snappy and smart.
Scream 7 - 2026 I'm not going to say too much here other than it was arguably the most gory Scream film, there were some leftovers from 5 & 6 appearing, and they teased the thing everyone wanted for about 10 minutes and then teased whether or not it was real. Not the strongest in the series, but a solid return to the roots of the franchise. Really good turn from Joel McHale in this one and most of the new kids were good enough for their screen time. Anna Camp understood the assignment as the neighbor. This is the first thing I've seen Celeste O'Connor in outside of one of the new Ghostbusters movies, and she seems to have a future as a solid character actor. Asa Germann has a bit more to him in this than he did in Gen V and he does well with it. Ethan Embry is always fun. Again, not the greatest but my initial reaction slots it in right in the middle of the franchise: 1 4 5 7 2 6 3 It could move ahead of 5 after a rewatch or two, but it's not on par with 1 or 4.
Zero interest in seeing another Scream movie after the studio bullshit involving the production of this one. It's also the kind of thing Wes Craven would have been disgusted by.
Violent Saturday (1955) Dir. Richard Fleischer A man named Harper arrives in the town of Bradenville. He presents himself as a traveling salesman, his second visit through this area. In reality, he is a criminal and bank robber, returned to carry out a job, having selected the quiet little town as an easy target. His two associates soon arrive by train themselves: the calculating planner Chapman and his opposite, the nervous, prone to anger and violence Dill. We follow the trio of gangsters as they plan, observe, make their strategy to rob the local bank foolproof. At the same time, we also get to meet some of the locals: Shelley Martin, assistant manager to the local copper mine which employs many of the men in the area, a man professionally successful and a happily married family man in his personal life. There is another member of management of Fairchild Copper, failson to the company patriarch: Boyd Fairchild, an alcoholic who tries to drink away the knowledge of his wife's frequent infidelity. There is bank manager Harry Reeves, a married man who has nevertheless gotten so obsessed with pretty nurse Linda Sherman that his behavior has devolved to that of an ordinary peeping tom. Mrs. Fairchild, a woman caught in between her frequent infidelity and deep self-loathing. In between the ever nearing bank heist, we follow small moments in the quotidian life of these townfolks, none of whom know what kind of dramatic event awaits them on noon Saturday. Liked this a lot. Perfectly paced little crime noir. All shot in beautiful Cinemascope. Some of those shots of the copper quarry are absolutely gorgeous. Mature and Egan are good, but it's honestly some of the supporting players that leave the strongest impression. Lee Marvin plays one of the bank robbers, unsurprisingly perhaps the most clearly sociopathic of the trio, Ernest Borgnine shows up as a Amish farmer with a fantastic beard, Tommy Noonan is great as the smarmy bank manager, Virginia Leight (of The Brain That Wouldn't Die fame) delights as nurse Linda. Watching this made me reflect upon how Richard Fleischer had a rather interesting and eclectic career. Few directors can boast films as varied as The Fantastic Voyage, Conan the Destroyer and 10 Rillington Place within a single oeuvre. Several scenes, especially early on, reminded me of the early Don Siegel flick Edge of Eternity. Coincidentally, both of those films' cinematographers Charles G. Clarke and Burnett Guffey were president of the ASC (American Association of Cinematographers) at one time.
Murder By Contract Year: 1958 Platform: Tubi Summary: A professional hitman starts having doubts when his target is not what he thought. Rating: 7/10 I enjoyed this. The main character, Claude is this cool and professional hitman who starts having doubts. The music in this added to it and it's enjoyable in a Sunday and it's rainy kind of way. Vince Edwards who plays Claude does a godo job of portraying a cold person.
Young Sherlock [2026] A Guy Ritchie take on the Sherlock before he became who we know him to be. A pretty fun 8 episodes and easy on the eye. The relationship between Sherlock and Moriarty was an interesting angle, so let's see where Season 2 (assuming it will renew) will take us.
I don't know how many movies in the modern era of the Last Movie Watched threads have three or more reviews (excepting Marvel blockbusters), but it isn't that many and this is one of them.
I used to review stuff for my college paper and was told I'd be good at it by colleagues. It's also just letting people know if it's worth watching.
Send Help (2026) Dir. Sam Raimi Linda Liddle is a hard-working corporate strategist who believes she is on the executive track, even though in reality she is frequently taken advantage of by less hard-working, intelligent and morally forth-right individuals. Around the time the nepo baby son of the company founder takes over as CEO, Linda believes she will finally get that promotion to VP she had been promised. Instead the new boss, Bradley Preston, gives the vacant slot to a college buddy of his who has been with the company for just six months, and is one of the people regularly mooching off Linda's work. In fact, unbeknownst to Linda, Bradley intends to fire her once she has helped secure a key business merger deal for which she gets to accompany Bradley and his inner circle to Bangkok for. On the plane ride over, bad weather damages the private jet they are on and causes a crash. Only Linda and Bradley survive, and end up on a deserted island together. Whilst silver spoon fed Bradley is not equipped at all in terms of surviving in the wild, Linda, who has long been wanting to appear on Survivor, has trained most of her adult life for this. Thus the dynamic is shifted, where Bradley is forced to depend on Linda, an employee he felt nothing but contempt for and was going to fire, for his very survival. Whilst Linda grows increasingly embittered at what she perceives as her terrible new boss' lack of appreciation for her work and general disrespect. Until this all boils over into violence. I like Sam Raimi, I like Rachel McAdams, so I was always going to check this out. I am happy to report I found it all very enjoyable. McAdams is an interesting case, in that you can argue that after she had her break-out role as Regina George in Mark Waters/Tina Fey's Mean Girls, no other director has used her very obvious comedic talents quite as well. There are a few exceptions, we see glimmers of that talent in films such as Game Night and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Raimi is arguably the first person since Walters and Fey who allow McAdams to dial in on those specific qualities to eleven. Dylan O'Brien is a good foil, his primary role here is playing an entitled little shit and he does so with gusto. Ultimate feels like a mixture between Lord of the Flies and Danny DeVito's The War of the Roses. Especially the dark comedic qualities of the latter.
Liz and the Blue Bird ~ Yamada N. (Japan - Asia) Outgoing Nozumi and introverted Mizore prepare a duet as part of their concert band's free performance. As they begin to look beyond their final year of high school, their friendship is strained reflecting the story of the piece they're working on, Liz and the Blue Bird. A beautifully animated film that blends in the themes from the music and the score itself wonderfully. It has some high school drama attached, but the awkward conversations and heightened emotions feel natural.
The Killer Year: 1989 Platform: Criterion Summary: A jaded hitman takes more assignments to atone for an error of his. Rating: 7/10 Hong Kong movies from the 80s and awesome action scenes, what's not to like? The gun play as usual is a lot of fun and is what makes Hong Kong action movies iconic. Story is easily followable but also shows how the two main characters develop a friendship. This was before Hard Boiled and it was a sign of what's to come.
Sliding Doors Year: 1998 Platform: Criterion Summary: A fleeting moment for a woman shows two different scenarios. Rating: 6/10 The Sopranos was what piqued my interest in this. For context, Tony Soprano is at his therapist talking about a movie he saw with Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt. His therapist's first guess was Sliding Doors. Tony says no, and mentions Seven. I looked the former and it didn't seem like the kind of movie I'd purposely seek out. I see it on Criterion and thought why not. Honestly, an ok movie. Nothing memorable for good or for bad. It's the type of movie that if I imagine I was old enough to see in theaters, my partner would insist on it. And I'd have no problem with it. Paltrow is solid in this. It's biggest con though is aside from the standard story, it's a 90s movie. And I mean that in a dated kind of way. I will say the soundtrack was also 90s, but it was nice to hear Dido's Thank You. That song has always been wonderful.
I hear references to "a Sliding Doors moment" a lot, which I find kind of fascinating since this was a pretty middling 90's movie and I wonder how the title took on a cultural relevance that must now be completely divorced from the original film, since I'm imagining multiple generations now who have no knowledge of the film when they hear this phrase. Maybe it's like the "Rashomon effect," which is probably much more widely understood than the film has been seen.
Well, "Rashomon effect" is an oft-repeated narrative device made by a master of film. I've never seen Sliding Doors. Likely won't ever. I've never heard/seen the phrase used, or at least it didn't register.
Sometimes you find gems amongst everyday things. There's a line known amongst pilots and such that goes, “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” It's attributed to Da Vinci. Nope. It was written by a TV writer in the 1960s. A big part of the movie is because of a tiny moment in life. Paltrow's character either missing or catching that train shows the path life can go on just due to that one insignificant moment. It's a common thing in life. Same concept if she got stuck in traffic on the way home or had a smooth commute home. Or her flight gets home early or she misses it.
Had it not been for the Sopranos I wouldn't have even been aware of it. Criterion is doing a Gwyneth Paltrow collection and it was on there. Overall it's not a movie I'd make a point of rewatching. Maybe checking out if I wanted to get out of the house and my gf was with me kind of thing.
My memory is that the movie was constructed around the phrase, not the other way. Pretty sure the phrase was in use before the movie in circles I frequented-- a sliding door can go either way, and a sliding door moment is one where a future could go either way. I suspect the butterfly effect kind of took over the concept somewhere in there, and drove the phrase out of limited usage- people "stopped trying to make 'fetch' happen."
Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" is the one that really popularized the concept, right? I absolutely love reading that short story, along with "All in a Summer Day" and "Frost and Fire (or The Creatures That Time Forgot").
Rashomon is definitely underseen. I remember that an actual film critic referred to Ridley Scott's The Last Duel as a "rape Rashomon". Which makes about as much sense as referring to a film as, "It's kind of like Jaws, only it has a big shark".
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) ~ C. Sciamma (France - Europe) Marieme is a teenager stuck in a Parisian project in an abusive household and decreasing opportunities to escape. She joins a gang of girls and leans into reckless rebellion. Sciamma is so masterful in her shots and use of color and lighting. I found this film a struggle to get into, though, as there's a certain dread watching the struggling protagonist make decisions that seem like they're going to end terribly. Credit to Sciamma, though, because there isn't an external guiding morality to the story. The films more matter-of-fact-ness highlights Marieme's agency. The choices she's making are hers and aren't there to satisfy the audience's desires.
5 Steps to Danger (1956) Dir. Henry S. Kesler John Emmett is going to spend some of his month of vacation fishing in New Mexico. Unfortunately his car breaks down when he is still in California. After getting it towed to the nearest auto shop, he decides to sell his car instead of having it repaired, as repairs would take a week. Another woman who pulls into the same auto shop hears his intention of taking the bus instead. She approaches him with an offer of her own: she is going east herself, her destination Santa Fe, and she needs to get there as quickly as possible. If she had a second driver, they could drive night and day. John accepts the woman's offer, partially because he is instantly attracted to her. She introduces herself as Ann Nicholson. John senses something is slightly off about her vagueness in terms of her hurry to get to Santa Fe. During the first night of his driving, during a pit stop to get gas and food, John finds himself approached by a woman who claims to be a nurse, having followed Ann because she was a patient of a Dr. Simmons, a psychiatrist. Simmons is worried about Ann leaving Los Angeles and her treatment behind, though does want to give her her freedom, hence why the nurse is following them to make sure Ann does not engage in harmful behavior, to herself or others. John considers that there is something equally fishy about this new story and proceeds with his road trip to Santa Fe, though the closer they get to their destination, the more strangeness finds its way to them. Cold war era noirish thriller. Sterling Hayden and Ruth Roman are good in the lead roles and I quite liked the first half of this. Once they get mostly off the road though, it gets a bit too convoluted for its own good, with C.I.A. agents, feds, Russian spies, Eastern German assassins and a nefarious psychiatrist. Requiring expository dialogue at the end to tie a bow on things. Still, the first half of it is not a bed entry in the road noir sub genre.
Starstruck ~ G. Armstrong (Australia - Oceania) Jackie wants to be a rock singer and her 14 year old cousin Angus wants to be her manager. Angus eyes a best of the bands contest at the Sydney Opera House to get Jackie fame. But their initial attempt to fails and the family bar is about to go out of business. Can a last minute plan to infiltrate the contest and win the big prize help them save the bar and launch Jackie's career? An early 80's musical comedy that's pretty ridiculous but just wacky enough to be a bit charming. The sound mixing and lack of subtitles on the streaming platform made it a bit challenging, but the plot was cliche enough to follow.