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Due occhi diabolici (1990)
Romero and Argento go the Poe way
The George Romero-Dario Argento collaboration "Due occhi diabolici" ("Two Evil Eyes" in English) looks especially fun nowadays thanks to last year's Netflix miniseries "The Fall of the House of Usher", about a pharmaceutical industry family that experiences some grisly fates.
This movie reminded me of Roger Corman's 1962 movie "Tales of Terror", featuring adaptations of Poe stories: it included "The Black Cat" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". So, here we have Adrienne Barbeau as a woman plotting to make off with her dying husband's money, and then Harvey Keitel as a misanthropic photographer. There are some shocking scenes, with each director putting his own spin on the adapted story.
It's not any sort of great movie - not even by horror standards - but it's neat seeing how the directors come up with ways to tell the story. The rest of the cast includes Tom Atkins (of "Creepshow", "Halloween III" and "Night of the Creeps") and Martin Balsam (of "Psycho").
Con el amor no se juega (1991)
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea adapts Gabriel García Márquez
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was probably Cuba's most renowned director for decades. Over the years he turned out movies that looked at Cuban history, and the results of the revolution (sometimes looking critically at this). One of his most famous movies was 1994's "Strawberry and Chocolate", about a gay man having to hide his sexual orientation in 1979 Havana.
One of Gutiérrez Alea's lesser known movies was a segment of "Con el amor no se juega" ("Don't Fool with Love" in English), an adaptation of a Gabriel García Márquez novel. It's such an obscure movie that it doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry. Nonetheless, it's a perceptive look at relationships, whether focusing on a woman who falls for a soldier in a mirror, or on a relationship between a radio host an a listener. Not a great movie, but still clever.
Elvis (2022)
So what was Elvis like as a person?
If you've grown up in the United States, then you almost certainly know about Elvis Presley. Whether you know him as the king of rock 'n' roll or a burnout Vegas singer, you know that he remains one of the supreme musical icons.
Baz Luhrmann's Academy Award-nominated biopic takes an unusual approach by telling Presley's life story from a different point of view. "Elvis" is narrated by Col. Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks in what is probably his most grotesque role to date. Like many biopics focusing on musicians, the movie depicts his meteoric rise, and then his career's downfall. The scenes where the 1950s adults got all up in arms about Elvis's performances remind me of every instance where modern adults complain about the latest trends in pop culture; I wonder what the '50s equivalent of "okay, boomer" was.
A lot of people apparently found Hanks's performance gross. A counterargument is that it shows his versatility as an actor. As to the movie's accuracy, I can't comment on that. Overall, I thought that it was an impressive production. Not a great movie, but worth seeing.
Raising Cain (1992)
Frances Sternhagen, RIP
Frances Sternhagen died recently, so I decided to watch one of her movies, although she only plays a supporting role in Brian DePalma's "Raising Cain". DePalma has spent much of his career doing homages to Hitchcock, and this has a definite Hitchcockian feel to it. Part of what's interesting about the movie is that I couldn't always tell what was real and what was in John Lithgow's character's head. It's not often that a movie makes you question your own sanity.
Basically, it's what DePalma does best. Watching this movie - or "Phantom of the Paradise", "Carrie", "Dressed to Kill", "Scarface", "Bonfire of the Vanities" or "Carlito's Way" - one realizes just how much cleverer his movies were before he turned to garbage like "Mission Impossible" (although his 2012 movie "Passion" was worth seeing).
The rest of the cast includes Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer and Gregg Henry.
Immaculate (2024)
Sydney Sweeney is sure to anger the religious institutions
It seems as though every horror flick centering on religion focuses on Catholicism: "The Exorcist", "The Omen", "Prince of Darkness", "Stigmata", and the like. And then of course, there's an entire genre called nunsploitation, depicting sexually repressed sisters. Probably the most famous is Ken Russell's intense 1971 movie "The Devils" (set amid the French inquisition), but there's also Jess Franco's "Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun".
So now we have Michael Mohan's "Immaculate", which star Sydney Sweeney has spent years trying to bring to the screen. This is one movie that's sure to anger the Catholic Church. But if you enjoy shocking scenes - particularly the ending - then you'll like this one.
The rest of the cast includes Álvaro Morte (of "Money Heist") and Simona Tabasco (of "The White Lotus" season 2).
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
the rap of old
Rap was probably the most important music genre of the '90s. At the time, I knew about rap and specifically Ice Cube, but didn't know the name of any rap groups, least of all that NWA had led the charge in the late '80s.
F. Gary Gray's Academy Award-nominated "Straight Outta Compton" tells the story of the group. It sets the stage by showing how they came of age in a world of police brutality, turning to music to alert the world to what African-Americans were getting subjected to. Inevitably, NWA repeatedly got in trouble with the law.
There's apparently been controversy over the depiction of the members themselves, since apparently Dr. Dre physically abused his girlfriend. Always bound to happen with these sorts of movies. Either way, the movie has since proved relevant: it shows the footage of the police beating Rodney King, and how the acquittal resulted in massive riots (you may recall what we saw happen in 2020 after George Floyd's murder).
Anyway, I recommend the movie.
La pianiste (2001)
Haneke, Huppert and Schubert force us to ask who counts as "good"
Michael Haneke has made a career out of releasing shocking movies. They often test the limits of what we're willing to see. An example was 2007's "Funny Games" (a remake of a movie that he'd made ten years earlier), wherein some sociopaths torture a family...but the audience feels eager to keep watching it.
An earlier movie of Haneke was an adaptation of an Elfriede Jelinek novel. "La pianiste" ("The Piano Teacher" in English) focuses on an affair between the title character and one of her students. In addition to showing a morally questionable thing, we see her harshness towards her students, which itself is nothing compared to her brutality towards herself.
Basically, there are no truly "good" people in this movie. Everyone does something nasty. If your response is that the movie has no redeeming characters, I would ask whether or not a movie needs one. After all, art doesn't have to be "pleasant". This is the sort of movie that you should see just to ask yourself who really counts as a "moral" person.
I noticed that the Schubert music was the same music that we heard in Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon".
Jefferson in Paris (1995)
Are we ever going to fully deal with Jefferson's legacy?
After years of adopting highbrow novels for the big screen, Merchant and Ivory made a movie about Thomas Jefferson's years as an ambassador for the fledgling United States. "Jefferson in Paris" casts Nick Nolte as the future president, faced with the dilemma of promoting freedom while owning people as property, and having a fling with a British-Italian socialite (Greta Scacchi).
Since there was no doubt a lot to focus on, I think that this probably would've worked better as a miniseries. Even so, we still learn a fair amount - although I don't know exactly how accurate it is - and the cast members play their roles well. In addition to Nolte and Scacchi, it has James Earl Jones, Gwyneth Paltrow, Thandiwe Newton, Seth Gilliam (Gabriel on "The Walking Dead"), Simon Callow, Vincent Cassel and Nancy Marchand (Tony's mom on "The Sopranos").
Not a masterpiece, but passable.
Only You (1994)
Norman Jewison, RIP
Norman Jewison died recently, so I decided to watch one of his movies in his memory. Had I not known that he was the one behind "Only You", I would've never guessed it. The man who directed "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming", "In the Heat of the Night", "Rollerball", "A Soldier's Story", "Other People's Money" and "The Hurricane" hardly seems like the one to make a romantic comedy. But he did.
The movie itself is pretty much what you'd expect. I will say that we get some great shots of various places in Italy. Having been there, I can say that the Amalfi Coast is not to be missed. For the most part, the movie isn't anything that I'd go out of my way to see.
The Oscars are never going to live down how they did the In Memoriam segment (which included Norman Jewison) earlier this month.
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)
Is there any way to talk about this in a straightforward manner?
Full disclosure: I've never read Tom Robbins's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", and almost certainly never will, since it takes me a long time to get through a book.
Well, had I heard the plot and cast of Gus Van Sant's 1993 movie knowing nothing else about it, I would've guessed that it was based on Mad Libs. If it's intended as a feminist manifesto, then they succeeded in that respect. Otherwise, literally everything about it comes across as a joke. Not just for one shocking scene in particular - you'll know it when you see it - but also for a cast that includes Mia Wallace, Jennifer Melfi, Neo, Police Woman, Kimmy Schmidt's landlady, Mr. Miyagi, and the man who birthed the Xenomorph (I often like to define cast members by their most famous roles).
Anyway, this will be of interest to Van Sant's fans, just for the effort that he put in. Otherwise, you'll watch it and wonder if you accidentally got high.
Reality (2012)
it'll be a great day when there are no reality shows
I learned of Matteo Garrone from his 2015 movie "Tale of Tales", an unusual spin on fairy tales. It turned out that he had earlier directed 2012's "Reality". The movie is part focus on Italy's working-class population, part indictment of reality TV's exploitation of "real people". The plot involves a fishmonger who gets chosen for a role on a reality show.
I should note that if you're only used to stereotypical Hollywood movies, then you'll want to avoid this one like the coronavirus. Much of the movie consists of long takes, focusing very much on the dialog. A good thing, if you ask me. I would like to see more movies about people and the modern world's impact on them.
I don't know if I would go so far as to call the movie a masterpiece, but it shows the Italy that exists beyond the fashion shows, bike races, etc. Worth seeing.
May December (2023)
good story and acting, but the music dominates too much
Over the past thirty years, Todd Haynes has been one of the leaders of New Queer Cinema. His movies have focused on housewives whose worlds have collapsed (Safe, Far from Heaven, Carol), Bob Dylan (I'm Not There) and forever chemicals (Dark Waters). Now he brings us a fictionalized account of Mary Kay LeTourneau, who infamously raped one of her students and started a family with him.
Haynes regular Julianne Moore plays the LeTourneau character, now getting interviewed by an actress (Natalie Portman) about to play her. The movie deserves credit for Haynes's direction, Moore's and Portman's performances, and the Academy Award-nominated script and cinematography (which deliberately gives the movie a fuzzy look). The downside is the music. It gets played loudly throughout much of the movie, and ends up dominating. This doesn't add anything to the movie, and it distracts from a lot of the action. They really could've done without that.
If you're looking for a good story, then this will be the movie for you, just as long as you remember that it has some of the most obnoxious music ever.
PS: LeTourneau was the daughter of John Schmitz, a congressman from Orange County and member of the John Birch Society.
A Dangerous Method (2011)
David Cronenberg goes for a different kind of story
For over forty years, David Cronenberg has been the king of movies that have a grotesque element. His movies often feature murders (A History of Violence) or brutal deaths (Crash), but are best known for body horror (Videodrome, The Fly).
That makes "A Dangerous Method" a real surprise. This period piece has a few violent scenes, but nothing grotesque. The focus is how both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung sought to cure a woman diagnosed with hysteria. Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) was a Russian emigre in Switzerland in the early 20th century who caught the attention of both Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Jung (Michael Fassbender). Basically, some shocking stuff contributed to the fields of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis.
The movie is a little slow at times, but the strong performances by the three leads - as well as Cronenberg's masterful direction - make up for that. It's not any sort of masterpiece, but it's still a perceptive look at the origins of fields that we now take for granted. Even if you don't know much about these fields, the movie's still worth seeing.
Faat Kiné (2001)
Ousmane Sembène looks at Senegalese womanhood
From the 1960s onward, Ousmane Sembène was a leading figure in Senegalese cinema, and in African cinema in general. His movies frequently addressed the problems facing Senegalese society, which could reflect the problems facing the rest of the continent. His second-to-last movie was 2001's "Faat Kiné".
The protagonist is a woman raped by a professor while she was in college, leading to her father labeling her a disgrace to the family. Years later, she has become a gas station clerk and hopes that her children will have a better future. But there's something around the corner.
If you're used to typical Hollywood cinema, then you'll want to avoid this at all costs. No superheros, aliens, high action or any of that here. The focus is on Kiné, her family, and her friends as windows into modern Senegal. While Dakar is a fairly developed city, poverty abounds, although the people still try to stay upbeat.
All in all, it's a perceptive look at contradictions. Kiné is strong woman in a patriarchal society. I'd say that this would be a good introduction to African cinema. At the very least, it's a look at a culture that we don't often get to see. I recommend it.
Lovers (1999)
France joins the Dogme 95 movement
The fifth entry in the Dogme 95 movement - and the first not to come from Denmark - is about a relationship between a French woman and a refugee from the former Yugoslavia. Jean-Marc Barr's "Lovers" isn't the most impressive movie, although I guess that it gives a good look at the status of immigrants in France. If nothing else, the movie has good acting, directing and cinematography. Élodie Bouchez and Sergej Trifunovic do a good job with their roles.
Since Gaga is short for Dragan, what do the Serbs and/or Croats think of Lady Gaga's name? On that subject, Gaaga sounds like the Russian name for The Hague, so how did the movie translate Dragan's nickname in Russian?
American Me (1992)
when you become part of this world, the bill comes in the form of blood
Edward James Olmos was well established onscreen, usually for playing upstanding individuals, so it probably came as a shock that he made his directorial debut with a movie about gangs. Loosely based on a true story, "American Me" casts Olmos as a man dragged into the criminal underworld of LA from an early age.
This is probably the closest that a movie can come to being like a Martin Scorsese movie without actually being one. The violence leaves little to the imagination. Obviously, the main difference is that the focus is on California's Latino population (and partly on the racism that they've suffered over the years).
All in all, it's one of the grittiest movies that I've ever seen. I'm sure that there's a lot more to learn about the Mexican Mafia, but this is a good - if harsh - introduction. Definitely check it out.
96th Academy Awards (2024)
Jonathan Glazer said what needed to get said
First of all, the only nominated movies that I'd seen from all categories were "The After", "American Symphony", "Barbie", "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny", "Killers of the Flower Moon", "Maestro", "Nai Nai & Wai Po", "Napoleon", "Oppenheimer", "Rustin" and "The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar".
Jimmy Kimmel referenced Katie Britt's cringey response to Biden's State of the Union address, and later made fun of a negative comment from Donald Trump.
There had been the question of whether or not it was acceptable to hold the ceremony with terrible things going on in Ukraine and Gaza, but I guess that they felt like they had to anyway. I understand that protesters outside had caused the ceremony to delay a few minutes. However, when Jonathan Glazer won for "The Zone of Interest", he denounced the hijacking of the Holocaust as an excuse for a war against Gaza. Inevitably, some people tried to claim that he refuted his Jewishness, conveniently ignoring what he said.
Also important was when Cillian Murphy noted that, for better or worse, we live in Robert Oppenheimer's world, and he dedicated his win to the peacemakers.
As for the rest of the show, I liked it when Sean Lennon came up to the stage when a short based on a song by his parents won. John Cena's gag was a surprise, but he pulled it off. I hope that there's eventually an award for stunts.
The obviously cringey part was the In Memoriam segment; I could barely see the tributes to the deceased people over the dancers. I hope that they get that right next year.
Overall, I liked it. And remember, watch "Oppenheimer" before "Barbie"; after all, the physicist brought about the modern world, and the doll lives in it.
12 Angry Men (1997)
a jury of cinema's peers
If you heard only loosely about this movie, you might think that it's the result of Mad Libs: the director of "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist" (William Friedkin) adapted a play previously filmed by the director of "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network" (Sidney Lumet), casting Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon), George Patton (George C. Scott), Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), and an actor who eulogized at Malcolm X's funeral (Ossie Davis).
Admittedly, it's hard to watch this Emmy-nominated version of "12 Angry Men" without comparing it to the original version. The original felt very much like a play, while this one feels more like an original screenplay. I already knew the ending, but it was still interesting to see it play out. I will say that it had sort of an oddball cast: it was strange to see Tony Danza alongside the likes of Hume Cronyn and Armin Mueller-Stahl.
So, while it's not any sort of great movie, it's worth seeing. The rest of the cast includes Mykelti Williamson (Bubba in "Forrest Gump") and Edward James Olmos.
The After (2023)
how to focus on grief
I learned of Misan Harriman's short film "The After" when it received an Academy Award nomination. I've finally seen it. One of the frankest looks at grief that I've ever seen, with David Oyelowo playing a driver who suffers a major tragedy. While treating the subject matter seriously, the movie doesn't pound the viewer over the head with it. The focus is how we deal with grief, and how it affects us moving forward.
All in all, I hope that more people get to see this short. It's too bad that the nominated shorts aren't widely seen, since they often deal with subjects just as important as those seen in the major nominees.
City Girl (1930)
Murnau looks at the rural life
A few years after making "Nosferatu", F. W. Murnau moved to the US to try his luck in Hollywood. One of his works stateside was 1930's "City Girl". Released just in time for the Great Depression, it shows the plight of farmers in addition to its main plot (a waitress marries a farm boy who's come to town to sell wheat).
The romance part of the story is kind of mushy, but the focus on the struggles endured by farmers makes it worthwhile. It's got some impressive cinematography, showing the eastern Oregon landscape (where it got filmed). Sadly, it was Murnau's second-to-last movie, as he got killed in a car wreck the following year.
Not a masterpiece but worth seeing.
Troll (2022)
merrily we troll along
Back in 2011, I saw a Norwegian movie called "Troll Hunter" (incidentally, I saw it just a day or two after a series of terrorist attacks carried out in Norway by a white supremacist). I didn't assume that I'd ever see another movie featuring a giant one of those mythological beings, but now we have Roar Uthaug's "Troll".
This one incorporates environmental issues, and Christianity's destruction of cultures. But mostly, it's an homage to the likes of "King Kong" and "Godzilla", with the title monster stomping across the country and wreaking havoc (and of course there's a scientist having to deal with incredulous politicians).
More than anything, this movie is a fun romp, and we get some fine shots of rural Norway. Good times.
9 (2009)
appropriate that the movie stars an Oppenheimer, since the most famous one brought about the potential for this
The release of Christopher Nolan's Robert Oppenheimer biopic (currently nominated for Best Picture) has renewed interest in nuclear weapons and their destructive power. How appropriate then, that Shane Acker's "9" includes in its cast an Oppenheimer. This is one of the few animated features with no cute or funny elements. It depicts a future Earth ravaged by nuclear war and inhabited only by rag dolls and evil machines.
This probably won't be the sort of movie that the little ones can handle. It has some of the most intense scenes of any animated feature. Probably the only comparable animated feature, even though it has a different plot, is 1978's "Watership Down". The movie itself doesn't have the most original plot, but the willingness to go where most cartoons won't go makes up for that. The voice cast inclues Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly and Christopher Plummer.
And remember, watch "Oppenheimer" before you watch "Barbie" (released the same day as the former). He created the modern world, and she lives in it.
Milh Hadha al-Bahr (2008)
Talk about newly relevant!
The current situation with Gaza makes Annemarie Jacir's "Milh Hadha al-Bahr" ("Salt of This Sea" in English) all the more relevant. The protagonist is a Brooklyn woman of Palestinian descent who goes to her ancestral land for the first time. Subjected to a humiliating search in the Israeli airport, she eventually makes her way to Ramallah.
Jacir's movie - which was Palestine's submission to the 81st Academy Awards as nominee for Best Foreign Language Film- isn't about political arguments. It's about what everyone in the area feels like they've gone through. Basically, it seeks to find everyone's humanity while still making clear the humiliation that the Palestinians suffer on a daily basis (and how plenty of Israelis refuse to acknowledge this).
This isn't the sort of movie that you'd watch to understand the situation there in detail, but it still gives a good feeling of things. It could be a double bill with Julian Schnabel's "Miral". I recommend it.
Gentleman's Fate (1931)
my introduction to John Gilbert (or at least my understanding of his career)
From what I understand, John Gilbert was one of the 1920s stars whose career faded with the advent of sound. Not because he had a bad voice, but because of interference by the Hollywood execs. Whatever the case, Mervyn LeRoy's "Gentleman's Fate" is one of his talkies. He plays a high society man who discovers that he comes from a family of gangsters, and they want him to participate in their business. Inevitably, some unpleasant things are going to arise.
The movie's okay, not great. I suppose that the casting of the homely Louis Wolheim (who died right before the release) as Gilbert's character's brother emphasizes the different worlds that they inhabit, even living only a few miles apart. Leila Hyams is mostly there as an ornament; it sounds as though she mostly got cast in movies to look pretty (she certainly succeeded at that).
Anyway, nothing special, but will probably be of interest to film buffs.
Trapped Ashes (2006)
if nothing else, film buffs will enjoy the third segment
One of the many anthology horror flicks has a bunch of tourists getting trapped in an apparently haunted house on a Hollywood back lot and having to tell stories. For the most part, "Trapped Ashes" (I don't understand the title) was typical anthology horror stuff, but the third segment will please film buffs, as it tells a fictionalized story of an aspiring director named Stanley who eventually moves to Europe.
Joe Dante directs the wraparound story, with Ken Russell and Monte Hellman directing other segments. The cast includes Henry Gibson, John Saxon and Dick Miller (whom Joe Dante cast in almost every movie).