A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 125

Design For Living - 1933 - 6/10

Titillating Pre-Code ménage à trois
Two men (best friends), one woman, who decide to live together platonically in Paris.
Funny film of manners, dialogue and situations.
Sly and naughty, yet never overt, which is probably why the Production Code passed it.
I suspect censors knew there was “something” about this that offended, but could not identify.
In ’34, the Code tightened and this was banned.
Sophisticated comedy, perhaps a bit starchy now.

Shattered - 1991 - 6/10

Dan emerges from the car crash a physical and mental mess.
Total amnesia.
Luckily, his wife is there to help him rebuild his memories. Or is she?
Ditto his business partner wants to help. Or does he?
Old fashioned thriller about the dangers of the truth.
Or the dangers of not knowing.
Stereotyped premise has been told better, although this is adequate for a Saturday night.

Hell Hole - 2021 - 6/10

Mason is not employee-of-the-month material.
Lazy, goof-off, shirker, lolling in this truck (Tonka?) instead of making his rounds.

Not surprisingly, his clumsiness causes an accident. A calamitous one.
Comic horror short seems to be building toward something (a longer film?).
Ridiculous, creative use of miniatures.

Judas Kiss - 1998 - 6/10

Heist film, yet from the onset, this defies expectations.
Security is distracted.

The heist is the kidnapping a of tech mogul, and runs slick with a small hiccup.
A bystander appears and needs to be liquidated. Only the victim is a politician’s wife.
Feds are involved to the chagrin of the detective in charge, who did not want the case to begin with.

The narrative careens all over kingdom come, with flashbacks, twists, adult situations.
Diverting enough mystery set in New Orleans, although a real mystery is why two Brits play the two coppers.
Rickman, by the way, cannot drawl a Southern accent for the life of him.

The Head: S02 - 2022 - 7/10

Despite the heavy death toll at Polaris VI, research continues.
After all, while humanity parties on, global warming escalates.
Arthur is determined as ever to find a solution and immortalize his name.
Just as Maggie is equally driven to destroy him.
The scene now shifts to a huge research freighter in the South Pacific.
An uneasy crew, more so after the initial death.
More characters this time out who I intensely disliked and kept hoping were next.
Drifting into formula now, yet this remains a taut thriller.

Strange Confession - 1945 - 6/10

Part of Universal’s “Inner Sanctum” series. Viewers expected thrills or supernatural will be disappointed.
Stodgy drama, bordering on corn, finds brilliant chemist exploited by his boss, who soon takes a shine to his wife.
This feels like “product” and in many ways, it is.
The audio commentary, itself quite hit and miss, explains how Hollywood churned out films for the WWII home front.
With the war’s end, there would never be such strong casting for a B-film (Lon Chaney Jr, Lloyd Bridges, Brenda Joyce, J. Carroll Nash …). Sets would be fewer and cheaper. The commentary, when focused, serves the film.
The print itself shows outstanding restoration, far beyond what one might expect for such a small vehicle.
J. Carroll Nash steals the movie.

Miss Barton’s Famous Cakes - 2019 - 6/10

Miss Barton makes prize-winning cakes.
So highly sought after, that two detectives arrive to warn her about two escaped convicts.
Both of whom are desperately hungry for her cake, and both, apparently, are impersonating detectives!
Wry humor predominates in exceptional looking short.

The black and white is pure Noir fused with high Gothic.
Atmospheric Noir score, as well, although the story itself is fluff.

Muse - 2017 - 6/10

The professor’s live-in girlfriend is tired of hiding their relationship.
Post-grad student Beatriz would stir comments, perhaps cost him tenure.
Before he can decide, however, Samuel gets entangled with the “Seven Ladies”.
The mystery of the muses, the ones who inspired and tormented artists over centuries.
Fairly unique storyline, although the bones of this are classic quest. Who? Why?
Sensual and bloody throughout, dashing assumptions, as well.
Fine Gothic supernatural thriller.

Life Is Beautiful - 2022 - 5/10
AKA - Insaeng-eun Areumdaweo // 인생은 아름다워

You wouldn’t guess it, but Se Yeon has cancer. A month, two months, tops.
She makes a checklist of things she wants to do before dying.
Her family, meanwhile, still treats her as a doormat.
The husband is a rude, insensitive boor, the children indifferent. One wishes Mom were gone.
Years before, she made the wrong choice and lost her first love. Her schoolgirl crush.
Is he still somewhere? Could she find him?
While her family continues to treat her like dog scrapings, Se Yeon pushes optimistically ahead.
Comedy / musical (!) makes for an uncomfortable watch, in may ways, morbid.
Vintage K-pop songs + lavish dance numbers = sheer schmaltz. The finale, tasteless.
Being kind, this got lost in translation … or is simply too Korean for me.

Stuck Together - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Huit Rue de l’Humanite

French comedy about apartment renters enduring early Covid restrictions.
Obsessive compulsive, cavalier, greedy opportunists, puppy love.
Add the smug landlord and a quack biologist, looking for a cure (and any stray pets).
Although characters are more caricatures, this is packed with funny situations and witty jousting.
Despite its fuzzy warm heart, there is an edge to this, an undercurrent of the days when Corona was out of control.

Arthurs Gesetz - 2018 - 6/10

Wife Martha convinces Arthur to endure a work accident.
“Think of all the insurance money we will collect! Besides, you have another hand.”
Arthur is a fool. Stupid, perhaps. I mean, he didn’t notice the surveillance camera near the power saw?

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal! Arthur falls in love with a singing prostitute.
I kinda lost track of the death count in this black comedy.
They are numerous and they are fairly inventive.
Short series is laugh out loud funny, yet extremely mean-spirited.
Caveat emptor.

Nothing To Hide - 2018 - 6/10
AKA - Le Jeu

Said it before, dinner parties – the worst.
On the night of a lunar eclipse, three couples and a spare meet up.
A comment about privacy, openness and secrets, leads to a game.
Everyone will leave their phones on the dinner table.
Any calls or texts will be answered, comments read out loud, pictures shown.
Oh yeah, these are middle-aged adults, not twenty year olds.
Who knew phones would be so busy? Callers would post images, express demands.
Uncomfortable laughs mix with squalid exposures.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

The Great Texas Dynamite Chase - 1975 - 6/10

Candy busts outta prison long enough to rob a bank and help Pa save his foreclosed, broke down, tumbleweed overrun homestead.
She soon teams up with the daydreaming Ellie-Jo, and the pair commence to robbing more banks.

Rolling through west Texas (Alpine, Del Rio), they acquire better clothes, trade in their rickety Chevy 210 for a Rolls, latch onto the stud Slim (Johnny Crawford).
Fair amount of nudity, lots of explosions, some gunplay. Template for beloved Andy and Drew Sidaris flicks.
Also – and I ain’t going out on no limb here – the inspiration for Thelma And Louise.
Excepting one was embraced by cinema connoisseurs, while Texas Dynamite Chase is straight up drive-in.

A Bloodthirsty Killer - 1965 - 6/10
AKA - Salinma // 살인마

Ghost story jumps off the rails immediately, yet remains compelling viewing throughout.
Entering an empty art gallery, a man finds a painting of his ex-wife, ten years dead.
Only the painting melts in his hands, and then he is hijacked into the country.
Next comes another painting, an encounter with an apparition, murder.
This is fifteen minutes in. Hold on, for the narrative now shifts into high gear!
Ghosts, revenge, adultery, furtive servants, disappearances.
A tremendous amount of plot in this Gothic Horror, including for you feline fanatics, lethal cats.

Always Be My Maybe - 2019 - 7/10

Despite sporadic lulls, this is a sharp RomCom, throwback to classic, pre-Hallmark romances.
Next door neighbors, childhood best friends, Marcus and Sasha seemed destined for … until they weren’t.
Sasha is a jet-setting restaurateur and chef, Marcus is a blue collar HVAC tech.
After a sixteen year absence, she returns to San Francisco and bumps into, who else?
Mind you, she instantly recognizes a setup, as does he, and neither want to be hurt again.
Not enough San Francisco scenery to boast about, but the film is funny!
Barbed dialogue, great one-liners, weird situations – all almost undercut by the skoffy patches.
Romantics will enjoy and sigh with this. Cynics will note the money and social gap.

After Life - 1998 - 7/10
AKA - Wandafuru Raifu // ワンダフルライフ

Welcome to the afterlife. New arrivals are given one week.
They have one week – one week – to choose one memory to retain.
One memory from a lifetime, before they move on. To where? No one knows.
One moment, and all other memories are wiped clean.
As for the memory, the staff does their best to recreate that, and the recreation is what the deceased hold onto.
This has a documentary feel. Arrivals deal with their new situation, a temporary one.
Worse, the decision is agonizing at times.
Thought provoking, forcing viewers to wonder what event they might select.

After Life - 2021 - 6/10

“Yesterday you passed away, I am very sorry for your loss.”
New guests are given three days to select one memory from their life to carry forth into the unknown.
One or two arrivals are young, their pool of choices limited.
Others worry about what they left behind. Their cat. Who will find it? Feed it?
This theatre adaptation lacks the humor of the original film, focusing on the “staff”, their dramas and conflicts.
Overall strong, although the squabbling seems forced and awkward.
For those self doubting their own worth, remember, “… no life is average.”

The Staircase - 2022 - 7/10

Michael and Kathleen, power couple, before she is found dead on the staircase.
Did she fall? Was she attacked? Was she murdered?
The first to find her, and suspect number one, is husband Michael.
Challenging mystery series shuffles chronology as much as the theories.
Mixing dead earnest point-of-view testimonies with deceptions and outright lies.
Few perfect couples are ever as ideal as they appear and this pair is a sticky pile.
Unbelievable cast include Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey …
Based on true events from North Carolina, though I would advise NOT researching first.

Everyone Says I Love You - 1996 - 7/10

People forget that there actually were musicals between 2016 and the final curtain in the early ‘60’s.
Au contraire, grasshopper. The Woodster released this loving homage in the mid-90’s.
Plotwise, there are couples falling in love, arguing in love, and the running “I’m through with love”.
Musical numbers are Broadway standards. Most of the cast does their own singing, and they are game.
Production numbers range from simple to elaborate. Who expected to see singing ghosts?
Clearly not for all tastes. If you have a fondness for this genre, this movie is a romp.
And hooray for Captain Spaulding!

Amber - 2021 - 7/10

Jamal opens the barbershop. One customer, full treatment.
Then he notices the client is on the newspaper headline.

Exceptionally taut thriller, wordless throughout.
Short suspenser barrels into survival and blood.
Perfect as a featurette before starting the main film.

The Song Of Lunch - 2010 - 7/10

He gazes at her wrist, so elegant and deft, with conjecture and speculation.
Has it truly been ten years? Fifteen? So little has changed.
Well, she is married, with two children.
While he remains a has-been poet, after she had married that successful fraud.
Two old flames meet for lunch. Why, you wonder.
To rekindle? Or to reaffirm?
Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman in pocket drama, although the latter carries most of the soured load.
Adapted from a poem, the dance of language in this is magical.

Bonn: Alte Freunde, Neue Feinde - 2022 - 6/10

Elements for an excellent espionage thriller here.
Two government agencies contest in post-WWII Bonn.
One insists on bringing old Nazis to justice.
The other is concerned about Communism at their doorstep.
Spy-counterspy activities are a chess match of strategies.
Into the narrative, however, is Toni. Idealistic 20 year old.
A Nancy Drew heroine, able to open safes, unearth secrets, even find a hidden sector!
Her amateur / super sleuth powers trivialize a potentially superior series.

Dracula - 1979 - 6/10

The roots are Stoker, yet this is based on the 1924 play, re-adapted for a 70’s Broadway run.
(I distinctly recall a Broadway TV commercial featuring “A Chorus Line” and “Dracula”.)
The count here accents the charm, the courtliness, as well as the sensual enjoyment of the female body.
Think Dracula cast as Bob Guccione.
Kate Nelligan, who I never fancied one way or another, is a fetching dish as Lucy
She and Langella spark terrific chemistry, as does he and Laurence Olivier.
I recall enjoyed this at the theater, especially the cinematography and rich colors.
The current version has been desaturated (much like the Coppola).
Please, give viewers all three: bold color, desaturated, black and white.

Mirror Images II - 1993 - 5/10

The occasional sequel that improves on the original, although this lacks the “star power” of the first.
Steamy starlet Shannon Whirry plays Carrie and Terri, twin sisters. Good girl, bad girl.
Contrary to the normal world, goody-two-shoes marries the money.
Not to worry, sleazy husband advises her to fool around, while he bounces trashy sis.
After awhile the story makes no sense, and the sensual rollicking grows repetitive.
Glossy production values elevate this above most soft-core fodder.
Wildly popular during the erotic thriller heyday of the 90’s.

Tunnel - 2021 - 5/10

The yawning opening beckons.
He takes a photo, prepares to leave, only to yield to curiosity.
Nice photography, uneasy concept of Möbius portal and rural horror.
Acting adequate, cop-out conclusion.