A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 157

Murder In Nancy - 2022 - 6/10
AKA - Meurtres à Nancy

The first corpse was found inside a vintage wardrobe during the auction.
With a bloody “witch” sign around her neck.
The whodunit grows less important than the whydunit.
Two senior investigators and a new recruit – sheesh, everyone is perky and happy.
This angle is unusual for a mystery, and the trio become more unrealistic and annoying.
Meanwhile, their boss, the prosecutor, is a boss from hell and a welcome distraction.
Aside from stray moments, local scenery is underutilized.
Not one of the better installments of these French murder shows.

True Colors - 2022 - 7/10

The driver died, although everything about the death is mysterious.
Following a car accident on community lands, police assign the case to a detective who long left the community.
Even though she was born there, she is immediately stonewalled.
Relatives, local police, artists, along with well-meaning exploiters.
Excellent “outside looking in” series, lifting a curtain off a culture unknown to most.
Men and women, separate art, separate rules and taboos.
Inhabitants want the murder solved, without meddling outsiders.
Cultural side is compelling, while the police stuff is pretty slipshod.

Girl From Tobacco Road - 1966 - 6/10

The chain gang guard turns his back, next thing his head is whacked and the men scatter.
“Snake” arrives in a rural Tennessee backwater and is befriended by a widowed pastor with children.
Eager young boy and two older sisters, one frisky, the other reserved.
Add a courting sheriff, add three city hoods, add a missing stash of bank loot.
More? Friends, the Tobacco Festival is underway, glorious celebration to burley and nicotine.
Square dancing, bluegrass, rockabilly, old timey country, an unbelievable harmonica number.
Eerie thing, this is a remarkable time capsule of a time and place where I grew up.
Nicolas Winding Refn has restored the surviving elements as best as possible.

Gold Dust Gertie - 1931 - 5/10

Attempted screwball comedy is unbearable.
Did audiences really laugh at this in the 1930’s?
Gertie tries to shake down two ex-husbands, now married to dragon queens.
Actually, did she even divorce either? Is she a bigamist?
No matter, she’s angling for a 50 year old sugar daddy.
One forced situation stacked upon another.
Farce, schtick, low-brow, etc … Was there a script? The whole thing feels improvised.
Some enjoyed the final speedboat chase. Too long, and I wished they crashed into each other.

Swedish Nympho Slaves - 1977 - 5/10
AKA - Die Sklavinnen

Ignore the opening scene, set in a “police station” / gentlemen’s club,
The subsequent prison break frees the notorious Princess Arminda, just to snare her.
Under torture, she confesses to numerous misdeeds.
Seducing a multimillionaire’s daughter, drugging her, kidnapping, then turning her into a prostitute.
Being a Jess Franco film, there is gratuitous sex and nudity.
The story flirts with Noir, there is decent camerawork, exotic Portugal locations.
Nevertheless, this is a patched-together affair (check Lina’s hairstyles) cobbled from numerous shoots.

The Viral Factor - 2012 - 6/10
AKA - Jik Zin // 逆戰

A strain of smallpox has been stolen, then the scientist who stole it is snatched by a business cartel.
Why? Release a new variant globally, then charge ka-zillions for the vaccine.
Wait a minute! What year was this? OK, OK, just a coincidence.
Film swiftly shifts into a high octane button, button, who’s got what?
Thieves, cops, crooked cops, scientists, an off-duty, out of his jurisdiction detective.
Action? Holy moly, Moses, this is wall to wall gunfights, street chases, martial arts.
How many bullets can a body take and keep plugging along? Think more.
Much was shot in Kuala Lumpur, nice change from Hong Kong.
Otherwise, mindless hoopla.

The Life Of Reilly - 2006 - 7/10

As in Charles Nelson Reilly, comedian, Tony award winner, omnipresent TV guest.
One man play showcasing his careening life.
An overbearing mother, a miraculous survival from a historic circus fire.
Being theatre coached under the legendary Uta Hagen.
There is a moment when Reilly reads the list of his fellow classmates. Staggering.
This came from his show he gave across campuses for five years, this from the final two.
Perhaps less well known today, save for his Jose Chung (X-Files and Millennium).

Kleo: S02 - 2024 - 7/10

The second season picks up with everyone’s favorite ex-Stasi assassin chasing the red suitcase.
As before, Kleo must navigate between police, KGB, CIA, treacherous colleagues and the worst – relatives.
And she is still saddled with space cadet Thilo, and incompetent lawman Sven.
This series is shorter and moves very fast, possibly because there is such a body count!
The spark of joy that informed the killings in S01 is replaced by blasé efficiency.
Kleo also learns how utilize Thilo and Sven, despite their deficiencies, since they seem the only two she can trust.
Characters come and go, yet there are enough of a core for viewers to stay oriented.
This DOES conclude, with a small side door at the end for a potential third season.

Remembrance - 1982 - 6/10

Shore leave! Plymouth. And the crew hit the pubs.
Get boozed, get wasted, brawl, impress girls, disgust girls.
Night after night, ship after ship.
Narrative follows several seamen, wives, girlfriends, mates, rivals.
Everyone knows the men will ship out for six months.
For two nights, however, they splash or fizzle.
Film has the look and feel of a Ken Loach or Mike Leigh work.

Murders In Sandhamn - 2010 - 6/10
AKA - Morden I Sandhamn

A body is washed ashore. Police arrive and – “Hey, didn’t we go to school together?”
Yes, amidst a couple of murders, the detective and married wife and mom of two feel the sparks.
The detective’s inexperienced underling does the field work while he lingers.
You want a cleverly constructed mystery, this ain’t it.
Devotees of soap opera TV that runs 45 installments, enter friends!
Thank God the first season ran for only three episodes. I’m done.

Artificial Existence - 2021 - 7/10

It’s just a tiny implant, connected to your cortex. You won’t notice.
Evelyn is a virtual reality architect of near tomorrow. She helped design our A I ruled world.
Day after day of perfectly scheduled, soulless monotony.
All citizens have implants or mods, upgrades are mandatory.
A society of passive sheep, save for those who recall a world before A I control.
For those, contentment is a quiet Hell.
I keep saying – befriend the machine, train the machine, empower the machine, at your peril.

Zhou Yu’s Train - 2002 - 7/10
AKA - Zhou Yu de Huo Che // 周漁的火車

Zhou works as a painter in a porcelain factory.
Her boyfriend, Chen, she met by chance and she travels weekly to see.
While he has a government job, he wants to be a poet, a riskier career.
Their relationship is turbulent and uneasy; she is the dominant partner.
On the train journey, she meets another male, Zhang, a rural vet, who imposes himself.
Zhou is attracted to different qualities in each, and, like Madame Bovary, has difficulty deciding.
The chronology is non-linear, and much of this is dreamlike.
At times, I wondered how much was her imagination.
Arthouse fare, demands full attention, perhaps multiple views.

Jane By Charlotte - 2021 - 7/10

Profile of Jane Birkin by daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Series of conversations about career, marriage, children, illness, shyness.
On being middle children, food and dietary restrictions, cities.
Not really a biography, although we hear details.
Not necessarily a documentary, but a stitched / edited flow of dialogue.
Viewers ought to know something about each woman, especially Birkin.
English subs = https://subscene.best/subtitle/3349451

Line Walker - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Si Tou Hang Jeh // 使徒行者

Excess in every sense of the word.
Just before he is killed, the police handler deletes all files of his UCs (undercover agents).
The new handler has to find out who they are, what their assignments are.
Lengthy (30 episodes) HK-drama is long on action and melodrama.
Narratives build, partially conclude while gliding into a deadlier level.
Yes, and in many ways, this resembles a shooter game.
Cringe worthy comic relief, sexual frustration jokes, embarrassing romance elements, songs.
That’s why the remote has a fast-forward button.
Overlong, yet it does conclude. No never-to-resolve cliffhanger.

Murder In Vendée - 2023 - 6/10
AKA - Les Secrets du Paquebot

A journalist is killed. Gendarmes arrive. Then a teacher is slain.
Only clue, a recently painted black hand print.
Our cop duo were once romantically linked, now estranged.
Interesting backstory of a 1920 shipwreck (true) carrying Senegalese troops home from the Great War.
Personalities and their dramas muddy a decent concept.
Filmed near Les Sables d’Olonne, photography is not as lush as most these flicks.
Concluding whodunit / whydunit is a shell game.

Ella Cinders - 1926 - 6/10

Ella, the browbeaten, mistreated stepdaughter enters a photo beauty pageant.
Prize? Paid trip to and screen test in Hollywood!
Will she win? Will she go? Does stardom await?
Pleasing adaptation of a long running comic strip is an excellent showcase for Colleen Moore.
The premise is not too far-fetched, either.
(In 1921, Clara Bow, sixteen, entered the Fame & Fortune contest, and won!)
Fun sequence of her pretending to be a child while babysitting.
Entertaining comedy, although the ending left me a little flat.

Contact - 1997 - 8/10

Thinking persons SciFi.
Dr. Arroway, diehard believer in SETI, suddenly receives a response.
Indeed, the signal lights up the board, she contacts other listening posts and soon the world knows.
Extraterrestrials have heard our hello and have sent us “instructions”.
Sprawling film that encompasses career rivalries, politics, corporate interference, religion.
Long, with measured interludes, but never dull.
Marvelous cast, fairly accurate science (Carl Sagan advised), thoughtful resolution.
Oh, would that this were so.

The Greene Murder Case - 1929 - 6/10

A dark and snowy night, the Greene’s muster for the annual count.
According to the will, understand? Whoever is missing, is disinherited.
Or – whoever dies. And this night, the killings start.
Police, baffled, place a call to Philo Vance.
Early talkie is creaky but has a fine S S Van Dine script to work with.
William Powell seems stiff, but Eugene Pallette has already nailed his character.
English subs = https://subscene.best/subtitle/3349447

MaXXXine - 2024 - 6/10

One can see why the Horror manboys were less than thrilled with this.
Third Ti West installment is not Horror, barely qualifies as a Slasher.
This is a thriller, hewing close to Giallo, with style to burn.
Maxine Minx is trying to shift her career from porn to legit, or into Horror.
Mid 1980’s, she is menaced by a creepy private eye, her friends have been murdered.
Meanwhile, or in conjunction with, the “Night Stalker” prowls Los Angeles.
Mia Goth is fine (I thought her better in Pearl in this sequel to X.
The “look” captures the bi-polar 1980’s, leaving the hedonistic 70’s, entering a morality return.
Possess a long memory? Ti West must, as I swear one character seems patterned after Brother Lester Roloff.

Shopgirls: True Stories Behind The Counter - 2024 - 6/10

From the Edwardian era to today’s “virtual shopgirl”.
Three-part series of the entry of females into the workplace.
Life in the company store / dormitory, pittance wages, breaking social taboos.

Interesting as a curio, except when one realizes there are still places where females are restricted.
Just as there are groups today, who would enforce new restrictions on females.

Vortex - 2021 - 7/10

Just before married partners Lui and Elle awake, the film shifts to split screen.
It will stay separate for the duration, observing husband and wife go about their day.
Lui is a writer / philosopher working on a book about films and dreams.
He writes, types, reads, watches old cinema.
Elle clearly suffers cognition decline, lost in her own home. Outdoors, even more muddled.
She had been a psychiatrist, still has a cabinet of prescriptions, and she is self-medicating.
A son makes suggestions, to which they are resistant.
Leave their home? All their (many) books? The neighborhood?
Lui is 80, Elle 76, and they are sleepwalking their own dream.
Powerful film, if very slow, with extremely long takes.

Karen Dalton: In My Own Time - 2020 - 7/10

Of all the Folkies, Karen had the worst luck, in line with her antagonism to showbiz.
Stellar documentary of her hard-scrabble Oklahoma childhood, marriage at 15, abandoning marriage #2, heading to Greenwich Village during the Bohemian Folk boom of the early 1960’s.
Her voice, depressing, distressing, mournful, laments from one song after another in this.
In spite of her obstinacy, and later substance abuse, she miraculously recorded two albums.
Two live albums were released following her early, and not surprising, death.
Dalton is essential for late, late night listening.

The Pleasure Garden - 1925 - 6/10

Having lost her letter of introduction, Jill pleads with the stage manager to give her a chance.
Chorus line girl Patsy takes her home, then gets her onstage.
Grateful, Jill? She’s now a star! Being courted by a Russian prince.
Morality tale set amidst theatrical boards.
Choices and dubious menfolk, along with a South Seas siren.
Very early Hitchcock borders on Melodrama, but the tempo perks up midway.
Plenty of tossed off sight gags that fans of this director will appreciate.

Van Halen: 1984 Documentary - 2024 - 6/10

Lengthy, five-part fan documentary on Van Halen’s “1984” album.
The lead ups, the internal divisions, concerts, substance abuse, massive egos.
Five parts, the entirety runs about two and a half hours.
A I has been used to emulate Roth’s voice based on his writings.
I missed the earliest version of this.
Afterward, Rhino (a label that had NOTHING to do with the original incarnation of the band) put out an injunction of all music video clips and songs. Perhaps, they intend to release their own doc. It will not be this comprehensive, and it may be more sanitized. This is warts and all.
Owing to Rhino meddling, this is a frustrating watch.
Still a labor of love by Alan Berry and a must for Van Halen 1 fans.
Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtaIh3GIdQM

People, Places & Things - 2024 - 7/10

Emma enters rehab for alcohol and substance abuse.
In order to return to work, she needs an all-clear note.
Just a note, she does not need to bother with Group, or fill forms, or even give her real name.
“Just give me the note, OK?”
Emma, an actress, knows how to adopt personas, evade the truth.
She is, in short, a compulsive liar.
Confrontational theatre of a failed human, trying to regain equilibrium, distrusting any system.
English subs = https://subscene.cam/subscene/157581