Vultural

A Christmas Carol (Read) - 2024 - 7/10

From “The Read” series. Anne-Marie Duff narrates the Dickens classic.
Descriptive passages dominate, and she keys in on lesser events that most films overlook
No, she is not reading from a book, she has memorized the script.
Her voice is contemplative, inviting, never over-emotional or strident.
Clearly, this is for those who have patience to listen, and not attempting to multitask.
Very much on a par with the Simon Callow one-man play from 2018.

Outside Man - 1972 - 6/10
AKA - Un Homme est Mort

Lucian arrives in Beverly Hills, saunters into the mansion, then coolly assassinates the mob boss.
Clean hit, professionally done. Only he is soon the target of a rival hitman.
Yes, double-crossed. Seems someone is tying up loose ends, even the professional returning to Paris.
French Noir, set all around LA, is entertaining in numerous unexpected ways.
Jean-Paul Trintignant is fine as the moody killer, adrift in an alien landscape.
Roy Scheider great as the opposition whose accuracy is atrocious.
Angie Dickenson and Ann-Margaret as questionable females.
From the Hilton to strip clubs, powerful folks to biker gangs, this swerves throughout.

Looking At Christmas - 2011 - 6/10

Christmas Eve, two strangers window shopping in Manhattan, looking at displays.
He has just been fired, she is an aspiring actor, thus far unable to land even bit parts.
New to the city, she is still upbeat, while he is burnt out.
Nevertheless, they walk from one department store to another, and share stories.
Meanwhile, after commenting on the displays, the pair leave, and mannequins come to life and comment on them.
Makings of a Rom-Com, this theatre flows like two ships in the night.
Lonely souls, sharing a few hours.

Pusher - 1996 - 7/10

Frank’s day had started well enough. Making deals, drinking, rolling easy.
He is in debt to his supplier, however.
Possible escape arrives with an ex-cellmate, who wants to do a major deal.
All smiles at this stage, before events go to hell.
Hyper kinetic film put Nicolas Winding Refn on the map, and launched Mads Mikkelsen.
Club scenes and street swirl are wonderfully dizzying.
Mostly, it’s the lies, the promises, the pipedreams.

The Ice Tower - 2025 - 6/10

Reasons unknown, 15-year-old Jeanne runs away from the foster home.
She makes her way to the city, where she shelters in an abandoned warehouse.
Only that turns out to be a studio, where a modern version of “The Snow Queen” is filming.

Jeanne, renaming herself Bianca, ingratiates herself and is soon an extra.
Where she falls under the wing – and influence – of Cristina, lead actress.
The girl confuses the fairy tale with the sets, with the performers, with her situation.

Visuals are striking, while the pace is glacial. Sound is atmospheric, then excessive.
Straight-up, European arthouse circa 1975. Know your taste and tolerance.
More mainstream would be Snow Queen (2002).

Talking Bones - 2018 - 6/10
AKA - Gu Yu // 骨语

Forensic examiner Xia Ying is assigned to the Special Crimes Unit.
Acceptance is grudging as she is taking over from an established elder. Her mentor, actually.
Over the course of this C-drama, cases involve a copycat killer (Black Dahlia), mass murder of a family, a promiscuous female, child selling, serial killer, acupuncture assassin …
The team “grows” in this, building expertise, members given more responsibilities.
This was obviously shot without audio, the looping is spotty and there are vast stretches of piano music, even during pursuits and fights.
Subtitles are some of the worst (so bad, they’re good) I’ve seen since the heyday of Hong Kong films.
Example: A character looks up an old girlfriend, before assaulting her.
Explanation to officers. “She had makeup and perfume, and wore a provocative dress. She looked like a leprechaun!”

Boxing Day - 2021 - 6/10

Georgia and Lisa meet and get along famously.
Until Georgia realizes Lisa is engaged to marry the old flame, for whom she still carries a torch.
There is also a boisterous, Jamaican / English family involved.
Everyone in everyone else’s business.
And the boyfriend / ex in question? Hr fled two years ago to escape family.
While tagged with Christmas, this is straight up Rom-Com.
OK, depending on your tolerance for pushy families.

Dangerous To Know - 1938 - 6/10

That would be racketeer, Recka, who controls City Hall, various boards, top politicians.
Still capable of violence, yet now trying to ingratiate himself into “classy society”.
Rather than his usual bribery and intimidation, he woos a penniless aristo, Margaret Van Case.
Who may be charmed, yet won’t be bought.
Crime drama saturated with Fatalism and a touch of Melodrama.
The pedigree is outstanding. Story by Edgar Wallace, costumes by Edith Head.
Cast = Lloyd Nolan, Gail Patrick, Akim Tamiroff, with Anna May Wong in a starring role.

Christmas At The Catnip Café - 2025 - 5/10

Woo, this looks like a Hallmark card. That’s because it’s a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Living with felines and feline staff, I KNEW this one would load in the rotation.
California businesswoman inherits a half-share of a cat café in upstate New York.
She just needs the other owner, a self-effacing vet, to sell out so she can buy the condo of her dreams!
Cats? Schmats! Send ‘em to the pound or the testing labs!
Predictable romance to the point of insulting the audience.
If players would only act like folks do in real life … then we’d have horror narcissism.

Le Paris des Mannequins - 1962 - 6/10

The models depart the building, head for a rooftop photo shoot.
Stilted, frozen poses, akin to high-stepping shoe adverts in Vogue.
Then they hit the streets and alleys for impromptu work.
Reactions of onlookers vary from surprise to hey-look-at-me.
The sly humor caught me off guard and made this memorable.

English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3364480

Nouvelle Vague - 2025 - 7/10

He has been writing critical reviews, but now Jean-Luc Goddard is ready to make his own film.
There is a scenario, written by friend Truffaut, and he has recruited another friend, Jean-Paul Belmondo, to play the petty, nihilistic thug. More, he wants Jean Seberg, a young American, already a star.
What follows is a deep, deep plunge into the making of Breathless (1959).

Script, what script? Goddard seemingly improvises the narrative, then makes extensive jump cuts.
Releasing an influential and audacious masterpiece.
One can view this cold and enjoy the comedy, the process, the fashions, the look.
Cineastes will be ecstatic, however, as the film namechecks Chabrol, Romer, Rossalini, Melville, Bresson, Gréco, Varda …
The more French cinema one has viewed (especially New Wave), the more you may appreciate.

Itim - 1976 - 6/10
AKA - The Rites Of May

The magazine is shuttered for summer, so Jun leaves Manila for small village San Ildefonso.
Jun’s doctor father, incapacitated following an accident, exists in a gloomy manor.
Taking photographs during Lent, Jun soon finds himself attracted to Teresa, who is lost in a fog.
Nor is this mere attraction, but the hand of Teresa’s dead sister, Rosa.
Who begins to manipulate her sister, and the couple, for her own purposes.
Photography is dreamlike and hazy throughout, many scenes maddeningly opaque.
Chances are, you will deduce the plot and twists before the end.
Jungle mix of Catholicism, shamanism, superstition and taboos.

The Sorcerers - 1967 - 5/10

Professor Montserrat just needs a subject. Intelligent, inquisitive, sober.
Once under, he should be able to read the subject’s mind, experience vicariously their day to day.
From there, control the subject.
Alas, wife Estelle has other desires: theft, violence, bloody murder.
The weaker sex? Fool! Estelle is soon up to all manner of diabolical mischief.
Even for a dated film, the pacing is slow, and the director lets scenes run much too long.
A pruning would aid this one, although there is a melancholy vibe.

The Hollow Spirit - 2025 - 6/10

Manos made a deal, a pact, and there had been plenty of time to change course.
Only now his time has expired. Payment is due.
He must fulfill the bargain. Even then, he’ll only lose.
Greek short of death, faith and bitter agreements.

Various (Editor: Gevers, Nick) - Extrasolar

Science / Fantasy set outside our solar system. Stories that implore us to believe in destinies beyond our capacities. One should reach high, I suppose.

“Holdfast” follows two combatants in an ongoing, endless war. It offers hope - possibly forlorn.

Kaslo is a private investigator, working undercover for a secretive client. A valuable assistant has disappeared, along with a pet project, the “Thunderstone”. Kaslo’s task is to find both. His partner / assistant, the integrator, proves an unheralded delight.

Humanity likes to assume we are special. Perhaps we are. Conditions have to be near ideal for life to take a foothold, then flourish. And conditions may be fleeting, as they are on planet “Canoe”.

Few openly acknowledge that climate change leads inexorably to the dying earth. People continue to squander and pollute, instinctively knowing they are murdering their own children, their grandchildren. Why change? Lewis is a specialist, hunting for “Life Signs” beyond our sphere. And he is so very smug.

“The Tale Of The Alcubierre Horse” is the longest tale, mixing Polynesian folklore with futuristic
modifications. No one can breathe eugenics, yet selection and engineering propel the ambitions of impatient youth. A lot to appreciate in this one, and much to roll one’s eyes at, One truism abides: no matter how civilized we become, how sophisticated, we remain murderous.

Hit n miss collection for me. I no longer enjoy SciFi as I did in my teens (this book was part of a Grab Bag sale). I see the genre as pipedreams written by idealists for those who pray we are somehow better than our actions indicate.

Glass Ceiling - 1971 - 6/10
AKA - El Techo de Cristal

“And I’m telling you, I’m hearing footsteps upstairs. I think she killed her husband.”
Marta, like the other women in the dwelling, has too much time on her hands.
The weather is hot, sultry, their husbands or boyfriends absent, and they are mad with desire.
Marta suffers the worst, while both Julia and Rosa roam with abandon.
Steamy Spanish thriller touches on Giallo, but not quite.
Plenty of cake with an undercurrent that never loosens.
Then there is the smell. Everyone comments on the stench.

Death Of A Killer - 1964 - 6/10
AKA - La Mort d’un Tueur

Released after five years in prison, Massa wants revenge.
Someone betrayed him, someone wanted him out of the way.
Luciano did so to steal Massa’s girl, Maria.
Who just happened to be Massa’s sister.
French Noir intercut with flashbacks, Underworld justice, the heist.
French Jazz might be too perky for purists, but it adds local flavor.
Imaginative locations throughout.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/3364481

Meaning, participate. Don’t just ask for links.

Evilside - 2025 - 6/10
AKA - Korvessa Kulkevi

High-schooler Aapo is devising a satanic themed LARP game.
Something goes awry, however, and he is found murdered. Butchered corpse on his father’s sled.
Suspicion falls on Joanna, village outsider, rumored to be an acolyte of the devil.
Goth girl, artist of unsettling cataclysms, and apparently Aapo’s muse.
Mind you, there are suspects everywhere on the island.
The officer sent from Vantaa discovers resentments, accusations, and silence.
Brooding series from Finland wanders for four episodes, then dives down an ugly pit.
In some ways, a Twin Peaks locale, minus the Lodge and timeslips.

La Malédiction du Lys - 2023 - 6/10

Probably because the victim was a mayoral candidate.
Then again, he was found naked, with a muzzle across his face and a recent brand burned into his flesh.
Paris sends an agent to assist the Bordeaux police captain in charge.
Aside from dinner requests, no romance in this outing (hooray).
The plot is rather convoluted, with weird turns.
Inherited wealth, derived from bygone slave trade, fuels motives.

The Naughty Flirt - 1931 - 5/10

Two grifters calculate heiress Kay is worth 5 million.
She is a Jazz baby, party goer, wildly living it up like the Twenties still roared and there was no Depression.
The male gold-diggers are too obvious for her, and she sets her sights on a stuffy lawyer.
Feather-lite comedy for Alice White, who flutters and flounces and sparkles those big eyes.
White often gets compared with Clara Bow, I imagine because of those expressive eyes.
There is nothing to this film, unless you want to gaze at her.

Creditors - 2025 - 7/10

Adolf complains to Gustaf about his vampiric wife, Tekla.
Draining him of his creative talent and energy.
Appropriating his opinions as her own, building a cadre of followers.
Mind you, every story has two sides, as Gustaf (above) listens to Tekla.
Hothouse theatre delivered by a trio to top flight professionals.
Oft times funny, yet being Strindberg, one buckles up.

The Seasoning House - 2012 - 6/10

1996, Balkan Wars, Angel is seized after her family is murdered.
Brought to a wooded brothel, her disfigured face means she will not be appealing.
Viktor, proprietor of the house, uses her as helpmate, drugging captive females, tidying aftermaths.
Most of the clients are extraordinarily violent.
Unflinching narrative of toxic behavior, with excellent use of claustrophobic spaces.
Horrific thriller that gnaws and churns, never bothering with clichéd formula.

Schedule of UK holiday shows.

https://ukchristmastv.weebly.com/confirmed2025.html

This does get updated weekly, with air dates and times.

The Last Voyage Of The Demeter - 2023 - 6/10

July 6, the Demeter sets sail from Varna, Bulgaria, with 50 crates of Transylvanian soil.
Progress is good, and the crew anticipates a bonus.
Except, the opening shipwreck is a bit of a spoiler.
Not to mention that anyone remotely familiar with Dracula knows the outcome.
This is well photographed, however, and the tension is sustained throughout.
The crew assorted nationalities, most with limited common sense.
Really, once they grasp the potency of sunlight, they ought to work with that.