The Cat And The Canary

The Cat and the Canary (1939)

Runtime: 74 minutes

Directed by: Elliott Nugent

Starring: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Gale Sondergaard

From: Paramount

“Don’t big empty houses scare you?
Not me; I used to be in vaudeville.”

A wide variety of films will be watched for my Halloween season list, as has always been the case. One may not even be horror related and instead relates in some way to the holiday. Assuredly this won’t be the only horror-comedy that will be discussed, although truth be told this is more a comedy-mystery that has some horror elements present. After all, the movie is a more comedic take on a play that now is 100 years old & has been made into a motion picture several times, including the lost film The Cat Creeps, from ’30.

A lot happens with this plot: various cousins get together in a decrepit mansion deep in the Louisiana bayou; that house has a Creole lady as a caretaker, who was the lover of the house’s owner-he passed away 10 years ago. The will is read and of course only one person receives the entire fortune. Besides a spooky mansion where Ms. Creole says is “inhabited by spirits” there is gaslighting done to the one lucky heir, secret passageways, a missing necklace, and even an “escaped maniac from an asylum” who of course looks like a mutant. All this in only 74 minutes.

While not as funny as the other Hope movies I’ve checked out, enough laughs were present where I can’t complain. This was mostly light entertainment which never becomes too scary. At least there is some atmosphere w/ the swampy setting, along with the creepy house & dark basements. Instead of closing this out w/ my puzzlement at how there’s a romantic angle here (as all these people are cousins to each other!) I’ll mention that Hope’s character is an actor who does radio plays. Thus, the plots of mystery stories are familiar to him and henceforth, he actually made meta comments about the proceedings and what he expected next. How common that trope was in entertainment over 80 years ago is unknown to me; regardless, that did provide me amusement.

Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: An ensemble cast including Allen, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Max von Sydow, Barbara Hersey & Dianne Wiest

From: Orion

The movie starts and ends at Thanksgiving although this would be a tremendously awkward watch if you saw it that day with your family.

This usually isn't in my wheelhouse, but it was recorded off of TCM early in the month and while my DVR has more than 4/5ths room left before yesterday, I still wanted to clear a movie off of it so this was selected. Not that long ago I talked about watching Woody Allen movies and how that's not an endorsement of him as a human being, and that still stands. The plot follows the titular Hannah-Mia Farrow-and her two sisters, played by Barbara Hershey & Dianne Wiest. All three sisters have various problems; it also follows a few men connected to the sisters. This includes a pretentious A-hole played by Max von Sydow and Hannah's husband Michael Caine... who ends up falling for one of Hannah's sisters.

There are two moments which needs to be mentioned and it involves the character that Allen plays in this film. He's a hypochondriac-not a surprise-who is a television writer and Hannah's ex-husband. The introduction to this character involves him freaking out over everything. That includes the rejection of a sketch he wants presented; that is because the topic of that sketch is... CHILD MOLESTATION. If that didn't sell chills up your spine, the sketch was going to mention THE POPE; no comment. That was a genuine jaw-dropper, something that floored me. The second thing involves someone attempting to take their own life, although the end result was darkly funny and not tasteless like it probably sounds; this needed to be said so that no others are blind-sided like I was.

The movie is a comedy/drama; while there are occasional laughs, there is also serious drama concerning characters having an existential crises, family arguments, relationship strife, and other issues. It's not entirely miserable; one person realizes that life is worth living and you should enjoy it while you're alive instead of worrying about the afterlife. What a murderer's row of talent present. Besides the names already mentioned, there's Carrie Fisher, Lloyd Nolan in his final film role, Maureen O'Sullivan as the mom in the family-Farrow's real-life mom, for those that don't know-Daniel Stern and plenty of others that have small to real small roles: Lewis Black, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sam Waterston, J.T. Walsh, John Tuturro, and Richard Jenkins.

Caine and Wiest won Oscars for their performances although the rest of the main cast were almost as good. It was more engrossing than expected so unlike what happens at times, this blind watch was a successful one. The fact that the characters felt real and it was inspired by the likes of Bergman & Visconti... mature, this was.

Nightbeast

Nightbeast (1982)

Runtime: 82 minutes

Directed by: Don Dohler

Starring: Tom Griffin, Jamie Zemarel, Karin Kardian, George Stover, Don Leifert

From: Amazing Film Productions

This isn’t Birdemic bad, yet it’s still charmingly lo-fi bad. Besides this being my first Don Dohler movie, the main reason I checked this out is to be amused that this was the first credit for J.J. ABRAMS, who not only contributed to the score but also did some sound effects. As he loves Phantasm to the point that his company helped restore the film and it was the source of the name Captain Phasma-a shame that character did not do much of anything in the new trilogy-without an iota of research I’ll still presume he is not ashamed about the start of his career. As for the score, it’s of the synth variety-sometimes dark & brooding.

From what little I know, Dohler was all about the aliens crashing on Earth then killing many SOB’s. In this case, an ugly-looking MF’er-a bipedal creature-murders so many fools, either via his laser blaster which disintegrates humans/vehicles on impact or via its own brute strength. For reasons unknown to me, the brown nightbeast wears what can be best described as a silver disco jumpsuit! For those that like gore, this has a few rather visceral scenes that don’t look terrible considering the budget. 

The real-life town of Perry Hall, Maryland gets wrecked as the town sheriff and his underlings (including a lady. Even though it was played by the hairdresser of the director’s aunt, she had to be asked to do a nude scene, which she did. Awkward… although not as much as the “sex scene” itself!) attempt to stop it. Of course, there’s a mayor who is a buffoon and doesn’t listen to the sheriff’s demands. Of course, there’s a heel biker who is an abusive A-hole that complicates things.

Dohler at least does try; the majority of the night footage features fog and there’s even some attempt at bright lights to silhouette the titular beast. That said, this technically isn’t a good movie; the story and acting (as shown already, there are amateurs in key roles) certainly can be nitpicked if you desire. At least the plot itself isn’t an incomprehensible mess-it can be followed even if it takes inspiration from the likes of Jaws… why not rip off plot points from the best? There’s gore, T&A, (unintentional) laughs, a fight involving the biker-of course known as Drago!-and a ditzy blonde assistant to the mayor; in other words, there is enough present where many will think this has campy charms & thus will have a good time w/ this schlock.

Satan's Slaves

Satan’s Slaves (Pengabdi Setan) (2017)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Joko Anwar

Starring: Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Dimas Aditya, Endy Arfian, Nasar Annuz

From: Rapi Films

September of last year I saw the original Satan’s Slave, the Indonesian film from the early 80’s which was apparently a huge hit in the country and was a wacky yet good time where a family was haunted after the death of their matriarch and it proved to be a tale about the dangers of not practicing the Islam religion, while filtered through the lens of Phantasm; yes, that was a big inspiration. This was more serious (no disco music nor posters of Linda Ronstadt; yes, the original had both) and only the original skeleton of the plot-along with some scenes being echoed-remained. That said, Satan's Slaves-also from Indonesia-had some rather effective scares even if a lot is going on w/ the plot.

Basically, this also involves the mother of a family passing away after an illness. Sure, seeing that character bedridden did make me feel melancholy due to what happened two years ago but that otherwise didn’t affect me that much. Thankfully my mom wasn’t sick for several years… not to mention, she didn’t haunt the entire family either after her passing! All I’ll say is that there are several siblings leaving with dad and his mom under the roof of a large house and he has to go away to try and avoid foreclosure-don’t worry, the oldest sibling is of adult age. The hearing-impaired affliction of the youngest sibling is mentioned as it’s an uncommon device you see in this genre. Spooky events happen, some of which admittedly will remind you of famous genre efforts, whether or not from the Pacific Rim region of Asia. It’s not just mom haunting them from the afterlife which is the family’s bugaboo.

As previously mentioned, even with a measured pace that never is too quick, there are still enough scares and the plot intrigued enough where my interest never wavered. Nice cinematography/shot selection and an effective score are also assets. Naturally, characters I cared about are always a huge deal for me; in this case it was a likable family so they were easy to root for. So was the priest character and his son, which were also present in the original. A sequel-known as Communion-has already been made and in fact released in some locations but at least legally has not made it to the United States quite yet. That will eventually be viewed w/ my own eyes once Shudder or someone else acquires it.

Fangs

Fangs (1974)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Art Names

Starring: Les Tremayne, Janet Wood, Bebe Kelly, Marvin Kaplan, Alice Nunn

From: World Wide Films

Featuring Large Marge, marching band music, Dad’s Black Cow Root Beer, a love of Wednesday & Snakey Bender.

I was not expecting to start Spooky Season already, but as I saw on Twitter from a Letterboxd mutual that the annual “Hooptober” challenge was starting tonight at 8:26 PM ET-random, I know-my unofficial list might as well start now also. My involvement has never been official—instead, whatever strikes my fancy is watched and even now, there’s only a few movies I’m sure will be on the list this year. Heck, what the list will even be called is unknown… which is not a big deal as that won’t be posted until November 1st. I always enjoy discovering what the official participants view and the same will surely be true in ’22.

Most likely, this won’t be the only man vs. animal picture seen in the next two months. What appealed to me about this recent addition to Shudder: the revenge plot-which ends up being “inspired” by Willard-and the presence of Alice Nunn, best known as Large Marge from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Turns out, it was a flawed wacky tale which still greatly entertained me.

Right away, I laughed that the lead was an old guy (Les Tremayne, the biggest name in this) dressed as a hobo who loves snakes so much, he is known as “SNAKEY” BENDER-a hilarious name. The setting is a tiny bucolic town in rural Texas filled w/ trashy people where Snakey knows a variety of people. He is on the grumpy side yet takes his animals to show a classroom of 4th grade students-he knows the teacher… oh yes he does!-children find animals to serve as food for the serpents, and always goes into town once a week, on Wednesday… otherwise he hangs out in the boondocks.

I don’t want to say “like David Lynch” but I was greatly entertained seeing how odd/sleazy this was. A brother/sister combo who run the town market both go after the 4th grade teacher (yes, the sister was played by Nunn, so apparently the character’s a lesbian! Insert your own comments if you wish), but the teacher herself loves serpents… as in, really loves. What a tableaux that’s presented here, a rich tapestry of a town that is full of undercover scummy people. Anyhow, some bad things happen to Snakey so admittedly Mr. Bender overreacts in getting revenge but unlike what the Shudder description implies, he brings the people to the snakes instead of bringing the snakes to the people.

It's a weird movie where the long setup interested me not only for learning how Bender knows everyone, it has moments such as he and one of his pals spending each Wednesday night blasting music from his stereo… and it’s marching band music! That’s why there’s the amazing credit of John Philip Sousa being listed among the composers; the other two managed to create an odd score that sometimes had the 70’s version of synth music but it worked. The elaborate deaths at least tickled me pink; then again, I was bemused that there was a reverend character who was a young hairy man w/ huge glasses and even more huge mustache, or how the town’s constable had an “official vehicle” that was a first-generation Ford Mustang painted School Bus Yellow!

Of course something this wacky won’t appeal to everyone but it worked for me. As for Dad’s Root Beer once having a Black Cow variant… that’s what root beer floats were originally called, no kidding. In the store run by the creepy old siblings, a sign for that was displayed. Hopefully one day Dad's brings that back as it sounds tasty as F.

 

I See Another Laurel & Hardy Short

This time it was 1932's The Music Box, watched on YouTube. Before I say a few words about that half hour short, I talk about... baseball. That's because this is what I did yesterday, which explains why no review was posted on that day: 

Or: I talk baseball for the first paragraph. If you’re wondering why, I actually saw this half hour short on Tuesday night but waited to post it until two nights later as last night was spent at a Tampa Bay Rays game where they faced off against the Los Angeles Angels; Tampa won 4-3 in 11 innings. It was nice seeing both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani play for the Angels—the former hit a home run. Given that LA has been lousy despite having two of the best players in the game for a few years, thank goodness their meddlesome owner just broached the idea of selling the team. The last time I mentioned baseball-a few months ago-I dunked on the Baltimore Orioles as people far more knowledgeable than me thought they would once again be poor this year; speaking of meddlesome owners, they also have one. They made us all look like dumbasses as the Orioles still have a shot at making the playoffs this year. I should have predicted doom & gloom for the Washington Nationals instead.

Anyhow, the premise of his half hour Laurel & Hardy short is deceptively simple: they have to transport a piano-in a giant wooden box-up a long flight of stairs to someone’s house; from what I understand this device has been used to comedic effect in relatively recent media. Of course, they run into some jerk characters which only exacerbates the task. This does mean that they have to muscle it up those stairs several times. It is great physical humor of the duo faking that a light empty box actually weighs a few hundred pounds; even if at times you do see the wire, that is charming to me instead of a detriment.

I enjoy physical comedy and this brand of silliness (heck, even wacky character names like Schwarzenhoffen) so naturally this would… hit the right note.

Troy

Troy (2004)

Runtime: I saw the theatrical 163 minute version

Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen (RIP)

Starring: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brian Cox, Diane Kruger

From: Warner Bros.

RIP Wolfgang Petersen. He's a director whose films I mostly haven't seen at all or since before I joined Letterboxd. Yet for not having directed that many movies from '81 through '06, it was a quality quarter-century run where in Germany and the United States-no matter the budget-he was the director of financial, audience and/or critical successes; everything from Das Boot to this film. The reason why this was selected: recently on a messageboard several people discussed Troy and noted that they preferred the theatrical cut (available on Netflix) to the Director's Cut-I'll explain why later-I happen to have on Blu as part of a 3-pack; I heeded their advice and off to Netflix I went.

This is rather loosely based on Homer's epic Iliad poem-how unfaithful it was to that plays little part in my opinion although I am sympathetic to those that were highly irritated over all the deviations to the Iliad. In short: Helen of Sparta becomes Helen of Troy so the Greeks attempt to invade Troy to get her back to her Greek husband. We see this conflict from both sides and the key figure is Achilles, a great warrior who despises the Greek king so he is wary to help him out. Things happen and eventually, Achilles does battle w/ Hector, a prince of Troy. I'm not sure we're supposed to like Achilles or not, despite Brad Pitt playing the part; he's a real cocky SOB who is great and all but he's also a dick who at times does some unpleasant things. In fact, I'll say his arrogance was... his Achilles' heel.

The story was cliché and had various flaws-there aren't too many sympathetic characters which may be a problem for some-yet thankfully the cast was talented enough and the action exciting enough where my final judgment is: pretty good overall. By this time in August I hoped to have seen more sword & sandal films (along with other things) but alas... maybe later in the year. As for why I recently learned some don't like the Director's Cut-the only way to see this in HD on disc unless you have the HD DVD, and lol to that-because for some reason they changed at least parts of the James Horner score, to the point that the key battle instead borrows the music to... Danny Elfman's score for the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes?! As the music was another strong asset, it's a mystery to me why someone F'ed with that but I'm glad I did not see the Director's Cut.

From A Whisper To A Scream

From a Whisper to a Scream (1987)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Jeff Burr

Starring: Vincent Price, Susan Tyrrell, Clu Gulager (RIP), Terry Kiser, Rosalind Cash

From: Conquest Pictures

Note that I posted two reviews tonight within a few minutes of each other. With that noted, here is me tipping my cap to the late Clu Gulager.

Perhaps I could have waited to see this until the spooky season coming up in a week and a half; as I have many ideas in mind for what to watch September and October (although little is set in stone yet) it is alright for me to pay tribute to the late actor now. Some of his best-known work in the horror field (the second Nightmare on Elm Street, and arguably his most memorable role, in The Return of the Living Dead) I’ve already reviewed here so I went with something that has a decent amount of views on Letterboxd. Plus, watching at least one anthology AND a film featuring Vincent Price will actually be done for spooky season this year.

The framing story: Price-in his last horror role; I’ve heard different accounts on if he liked the role or even wanted to do it-talking to newspaper reporter Susan Tyrrell about his niece Martine Beswick, who was just executed for being a serial killer. As she first killed as a 7 year old (!) she is naturally someone of interest to the media. Instead, he tells her how their town of Oldfield, Tennessee was apparently built on cursed ground as many bad things have happened, which is done with a recounting of several stories

Old Clu is the star of the first story; he’s a socially awkward dude named Stanley who is a caregiver to his sister and tries to date his much younger lady boss. Lest you want to root for the chain-smoking Schaefer Beer drinking character trying to hook up with her, things go badly and Stanley does some rather gross things so no, he’s in fact a villain. Still, Clu is swell in the part, as expected. The other tales are set in decades past and they are brought to life in a satisfactory manner, even with an apparent small budget.

As with all anthologies, they vary in quality and as w/ most, there’s a variety present. Here, there are carnivals (named after Lovecraft, who is an author you should only like for his stories and NOT his personal beliefs… but let me not even get started on that controversy), voodoo, and the American Civil War. Of course, there are multiple dream sequences-and even a dream within a dream at one point-but those are easy fake-outs, I suppose… the movie is rather mean-spirited so there’s that. The score was also interesting; at first it sounded like something from Carpenter then it did manage to fit each segment. In addition, it was nice to see some other familiar faces, such as Terry Kiser, Rosalind Cash, Lawrence Tierney for a minute, and Cameron Mitchell.

It's not a must-see among even 80’s horror anthologies, yet was still a fun time for me despite some flaws. The Deep South setting (it was actually filmed in Dalton, Georgia) does add some nice flavor. The director and one of the writers both went on to bigger projects… the former-Jeff Burr-directed a few Puppet Master films and also Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (a movie I like more than most) while writer Darin Scott did the same for Tales from the Hood while producing that, To Sleep with Anger, the first Stepfather sequel and even Menace II Society.

 

Before Sunrise

Before Sunset (2004)

Runtime: 80 magical minutes

Directed by: Richard Linklater

Starring: Mainly it’s Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy but you probably knew that already

From: Warner Independent Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment

Or: Can you believe I now have 2,000 followers on Letterboxd?! This just happened so I would like to thank every one of those followers; in the past I’ve criticized my own writing (too often I’ve looked back and noticed things I would have stated differently now or flat-out mistakes) but this should not be the time for negativity. It honestly is a milestone which would have seemed absolutely inexplicable to me several years ago; it is flattering that mistakes and all there are enough people who give a damn enough to read reviews that are longer than what seems typical on Letterboxd.

I did want to check out something special for this occasion; as this film is leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of the month and discovered Before Sunrise was excellent when viewed for the first time six months ago, I was hoping for another magical experience… thankfully it was. By the way, I do feel this highly about the movie and it’s not that I was hoping for a 5 star rating to celebrate two thousand followers. The characters of Jesse and Celine meet again-I’ll say nothing of Sunrise’s ending-this time in Paris and like the first time there is plenty of conversation. As both are wiser and more mature, not only are there different topics discussed, but it takes a turn… instead of going into details, I will mention that the stunning ending includes a tribute to a musical legend who had passed away shortly before filming.

Thankfully the patter was always intriguing and the chemistry between the two actors/characters was still excellent. The two catching up with each other was great; I was just as excited to learn what happened to them since ’95, what has changed and what is the same. There were some differences compared to the first: more of it was the two rather than brief interactions w/ others, and most interestingly it was shot as if we are witnessing the characters hanging out in real-time. The movie just flew by and wished there would have been much more time spent w/ Jesse & Celine; there isn’t a higher compliment for me to give.

Only afterwards did I see a review from a mutual which mentioned that there are some Letterboxd users who believe it best that a viewer waits at least awhile to watch each entry in the trilogy rather than all in the span of a few days. Personally it did not seem like a mistake to wait half a year so I should do the same for Before Midnight, even though I’d love to see the next chapter. One last detail: as it was the early 2000’s there was allusions to the United States & the second war in Iraq; Jesse & Celine mentioned how miserable the world seemed at the time… oh Lord, if only their characters knew what the world would be like since about 2015 or 2016!

Orphan: First Kill

Orphan: First Kill (2022)

68% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 72 reviews)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: William Brent Bell

Starring: Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland (yes, Donald’s son), Matthew Finlan, Hiro Kanagawa

From: Paramount Players

Orphan: First Kill… imagine if 1980’s Italians had made Orphan!

I realize the movie is also streaming on Paramount Plus but I’ve never used that service (hopefully its owners are treating it with more respect than what the dumb bastards have done with HBO MAX… oof), I can use the AMC A-List app and from what little I had heard beforehand, it seemed best if you’re around a crowd-and the last part was true. I am a big fan of Orphan-as I wrote about late in 2016-so it was a no-brainer to check out the sequel… even if the very idea of this sequel and its premise is rather absurd if you have viewed the 2009 movie.

Turns out, they went with the camp route, deciding to became absurd as if the Italians of the past had done either a sequel to an American movie or a ripoff of same. That may sound implausible given the startling twist in the original but it’s true. Orphan is steely in nature, set in a wintry snow-covered Connecticut as it’s a psychological tale where the lead girl tears apart a family and the mother in particular—she goes through a lot. The sequel at least isn’t a rehash of the original and instead does different things, no matter how improbable.

The setting is also snowy but otherwise it tells quite the tale, one which is not as good or as interesting; does it mean that it’s bad? IMO, no; thankfully the crowd did help. While not rowdy or overtly vocal, at least there were gasps, laughs and other appropriate reactions. Is it as bonkers-or as fun-as Malignant? No, although that’s an awfully tough task for many genre pictures; First Kill was still schlocky entertainment which gave me enough thrills, bloody moments and camp to entertain me.

It was nice to see Julia Stiles again after all this time although Isabelle Fuhrman was the highlight performance-wise. Her performance rocked-nevermind how absurd the entire concept was. The film did attempt to make it work via practical effects and that aspect will receive little criticism from me-what little CG there was… whoo boy did that not look good theatrically! I’m not sure if the hazy cinematography was done to try and make the central conceit work but overall the movie managed to work in a bizarre 80’s Italian horror picture sort of way.

Fury (The One From The 1930's)

Fury (1936)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis

From: MGM

I should have this movie on disc; that’d be a nice mementum… excuse me, memento.

It’s always nice for film fans like us that each August, Turner Classic Movies has its Summer Under the Stars series where each day is spent entirely w/ films of a particular actor. This year the names range from Eastwood, Mifune, and Loy to Constance Bennett, Brando and two days ago, Spencer Tracy. I’ve viewed a few movies of Fritz Lang-so it was time I saw his American debut-and the same goes for co-lead Sylvia Sidney but Tracy movies are sort of a blind spot for me. In hindsight perhaps I should have DVR’ed more than this on Wednesday…

The plot: mob rule starts after what is tantamount to the old game of Telephone and rumors start flying about Tracy’s character, who is about to move out West (with his dog Rainbow, played by the same mutt that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz) to his love Sidney after months of saving his cash in the blue collar job of auto mechanic. He’s being held-not even arrested-due to circumstantial evidence tying him to a big kidnapping case. The mob is riled up and they literally want to lynch the poor guy, who of course is innocent. A huge moment happens and I won’t spoil the rest. I’ll just say that thank goodness the events of this movie (people enraged by conjecture and rumor storming a government building, tear gas being used, items being tossed, and the throng of insane people making their way inside to cause more havoc) could never happen now, especially in the past few years…

Yeah, the movie sadly feels prescient at times although otherwise I will avoid any potentially controversial comparisons. The movie has lost little of its potency today-people are indeed full of fury at certain points-despite the handicaps of the Hays Code and what was obviously a studio-mandated ending. Even if it’s not strong impressionistic like M there are some similar flourishes and the movie is incredibly gripping after the first few minutes--which were sweet as it showed how nice the lead couple are. 

The plot has a few surprises and it be wildin’ out at times. Besides the direction being so strong, the performances also stand out, filled with characters that thankfully weren’t stereotypical-for example, there’s a gruff sheriff who turns out to just be serious about his job AND is the honest type who won’t railroad an innocent man. This successfully presented the characters dealing with various emotions: grief, revenge, blind hatred, and indeed fury. Not surprisingly, it is Tracy and Sidney (in a weepy role; from someone I follow here, she made many movies where she cried often) whose stars shone the brightest here; for certain I should delve deeper into the filmography of them and Lang. 

I had high hopes and this exceeded those expectations.

Fall

Fall (2022)

72% on Rotten Tomatoes (albeit out of 86 reviews)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Scott Mann

Starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding

From: This was released by Lionsgate-more on that later-but many companies made this, including... BuzzFeed News?!

Boy, did this drop the ball. Randomly, I decided to see this last night at an AMC Theatres; I might as well use their A-List app more often and this did not make much money at the box office. I never saw any advertising for Bodies Bodies Bodies yet at least I saw one teaser trailer for this earlier in the summer.
 

BBB, BTW, gives me great pause due to it coming from A24 and plus, NOT having to look at Pete Davidson-admittedly my appearance is rather poor when compared to Jason Momoa but Davidson always looks as if he's a corpse who's been floating in a river for a few days!-is usually the right choice. It was originally rated R before Lionsgate bought the rights to the film and they wanted it PG-13 (I thought the days of Lionsgate being dumb asshats was over-I was mistaken) so AI technology was needed to remove all but one F-bomb. That detail wasn't known until afterwards yet while at the cinema the usage of "frickin'" was rather blatant along with quite a few S-bombs. Examining the lack of box office success, It might as well have been rated R that's what I'm saying... and I am someone who thinks the F-bomb is used too often in society, let alone in motion pictures.

As many might not have a clue as to what the plot is: the opening scene is a trio rock climbing, and one was doing the free solo thing as if they were Alex Honnold. Tragedy happens and one person doesn't take it well. Finally, the other tries to help them out and attempt to make them move in rather than wallow in misery-a worthy idea-by... illegally climbing a 2,000 foot (609.6 meters) TV tower that's to be torn down soon?! Well, that other person is a social media sensation due to their death-defying risk-taking so why not? Hopefully the audience was to laugh at how foolish they were. Incidentally, in the United States there actually are some TV towers that are 2,000 feet or a little higher; those are located all over but two are in North Dakota. The setting of this movie is somewhere in the American Southwest as to be honest, that provides more interesting scenery than North Dakota, no offense. Then again, all TV/radio towers that high have many guide wires that hold them in place and this tower had exactly zero of those...

That aside, this is a movie I gave every chance to. The concept was rather unique, the extreme height/isolation was presented well and there definitely were some scenes full of suspense/tension. Unfortunately, I disagreed with some decisions made concerning the plot. A few moments were groaners-after all, they illegally climbed a tower about to be torn down and told no one beforehand their location-& it's regrettable they felt those moments were necessary for the story. But there was one key decision the filmmakers made which I totally rejected and no way could the movie recover from that... even if it resulted in an LOL WTF detail. A few obvious plot holes were one thing but a particular story beat I really didn't care for.

What a shame, as otherwise I would have rated this higher. For certain, none of the blame for the film's faults goes to the two leads, Grace Caroline Currey & Virginia Gardner. As expected, much of the movie is only those two actresses & they both tried their hardest to make this believable; multiple emotions were presented by them rather well. If only there wouldn't have been so many dopey/implausible moments... that ruins the main plot point which is a woman dealing with then confronting her grief after a horrible tragedy. Before anyone asks, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was swell in his role-it's just a small one.

One last thing: as previously mentioned, Lionsgate was the one who released the film but many other companies actually made it; imagine my shock when one of them was... BuzzFeed! Yes, now they apparently make movies. Personally, BuzzFeed is a lowest common denominator website-I realize that will be an unpopular opinion. Yet it is one I'll stick with; I just saw that they're trying to manufacture a feud between Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde based off of... social media points. It's incredibly lame as the “points” made were extremely weak.

Roustabout

Roustabout (1964)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: John Rich

Starring: Elvis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Freeman, Leif Erickson, Sue Ann Langdon

From: Paramount

As yesterday was the 45th anniversary of Elvis Presley passing away, there was an exigency to check out one of his movies last night I hadn’t checked out before & this was one of the pictures that HDNet Movies played all day/night in tribute to The King. A cast that had other names I recognized (Joan Freeman, Leif Erickson, Pat Buttram, Sue Ann Langdon, Steve Brodie, Jack Albertson, Marianna Hill), two rather big names in small roles-Raquel Welch and Teri Garr-a very big man in a small role (Richard Kiel), and a very small man in same-Billy Barty-but the highlight was a star from the Golden Age of Hollywood in an important part, Barbara Stanwyck. How couldn’t I watch that?

Elvis is-get this-a singer who is fired from his gig for a barroom brawl; much to my delight, he uses his KING-FU skills. Via further circumstances (that involve his Honda motorcycle along with his horniness; as expected some are xenophobic about a Japanese bike) he has to work in a run-down carnival that’s not as successful as the one in Nightmare Alley. Elvis becomes popular due to his singing and the rest of the plot is largely what you’d expect: romance, drama with the father of the main love interest, the carnival possibly going broke, etc.

Of course it’s rather silly and slight yet the carnival setting will always tickle my fancy and the songs are fine as least by the standards of Presley movie soundtracks. The King ends up driving around in a circle around a sphere a la Ryan Gosling’s character in The Place Beyond the Pines… except that his character wasn’t as scuzzy as Gosling’s. Sure, he was a jerk at times but still not as sleazy.

Via IMAX I Saw E.T. Theatrically Yesterday

and I was very happy to have had this experience as the movie is still great today.

A Man Escaped

A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut) (1956)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: My “favorite” director Robert Bresson

Starring: Francois Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod, Jacques Ertaud

From: Gaumont/Nouvelles Editions de Films

I never thought I’d see a Robert Bresson movie, but here you go. If you’re flabbergasted by such a comment, let me explain. Long ago, when I heard that Bresson was the type who “hated actors” and thought it be a great idea to do multiple takes until they act monotone and robotic… that was a gigantic “nope” for me as to be blunt, he sounded like a real horse’s ass and a pretentious clown who is the antithesis of a director whose work I need to watch. Lord knows there are many jackass directors but it’s more about the style of film. In a totally unrelated note, recently I discovered that David O. Russell has a movie coming out later in the year; I’m happy to proclaim that I’m not related to him! Anyhow, there’s also the unforgivable sin of a few modern directors thinking the monotone style of acting is the way to go for their films, so I won’t even give the courtesy of a chance with those people.

For those that I haven’t run off with the controversial comments I just made, the reason to see this film on the Criterion Channel was not just for me to bury a director or reveal more of my cinema tastes. My dismissal of a director loved by cinephiles at least carries a little more weight if I’ve watched one of his works and the plot description did intrigue. A movie entirely focused on a French Resistance member during World War II attempting to escape a Nazi prison captured my attention, along with hearing some of the details. Prison movies aren’t my favorite genre… escaping from one is another story altogether.
From my high rating, it was a movie I don’t regret watching. Mind you,

I don’t know if any of the director’s other films are for me but I can’t deny the filmmaking craft here. It is minimalist & stripped down, focusing on Fontaine as in his position he doesn’t know who to trust and if (when?) his time of execution is coming up. Constant narration explains his thoughts along with the camera showing how he meticulously tries to escape, or how confining the prison is. Sound design is also a key component; Fontaine doesn’t know who is coming when he hears footsteps, and as he tries to escape it is critical for no noise to be heard by the guards, whether it is by being as quiet as possible or an external noise masking any racket being made.

Sure, at times it did feel monotonous but otherwise I can’t really complain. The fact that it’s based on the true story of Andre Devigny and Bresson strived for authenticity to the point that Devigny was on set & some items from his time in prison were used… I can respect that. There are times for a minimalist approach in film and this was a time where it worked. At least there won’t be complete outrage like there’d be if I had knocked Bresson’s most highly-regarded movie-on Letterboxd, anyhow-and hopefully there won’t be when I say that I’d rather watch more from legendary directors whose movies I have rated even higher (Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, Truffaut, etc.) or even the rare occasions of giving people a second chance… I really hope that the rest of Antonioni’s filmography isn’t as pointless, stupid, filled w/ A-hole characters (and mimes) & is horrendously smug like Blow-Up.