Vultural

Friends - 1912 - 6/10

On surface, a lightweight love triangle.
Dora has two admirers. Dandy Jack and Grizzly Fallon.
While she prefers Dandy, he is breezy, and uninterested in a serious relationship.
When Grizzly asks for her hand, she must decide.
Griffith Biograph short boasts stellar cast (Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Walthall, even a young Harry Carey).
These early Silent Westerns always stand out for costumes, a wild mix of hats and outfits, probably closer to what the West had been 20 years earlier. By the 1940’s, all cowboys appeared to have shopped at Miller’s Outpost.
This print comes from the Mary Pickford Foundation, and is clean, but has a modernist score of piano and repetitive synthesizer. It grew on me, yet it is essentially incongruous.

Queen Victoria’s Letters - 2014 - 7/10

Unexpectedly entertaining two part series on the Widow Of Windsor.
Victoria wrote an astounding 50 million words in journals and letters.
Many myths debunked here.
Until widowhood, she was used and abused by strong men.
She had a strong sense of humor, as well as a strong sex drive (9 children).
The memoirs published in her life were considered scandalous, and after her death her daughter Beatrice did serious redaction.
With so many, many journals, however, much abides.
Fine documentary for Anglophiles.

Marlowe - 1969 - 6/10

Once (If) you get past the idea of James Garner as Philip Marlowe, this will be a solid mystery.
Marlowe is hired by a corn fed, Kansas farm girl, looking for her wayward brother.
$55.00. It ain’t worth it. He refunds her money, tells her the brother should return in a month.
Just as well, as he is soon engulfed in a Hollywood scandal, gangsters, an icepick murderer.
Not to mention drugs, buxom women, and explosive cops.
Glossy, California Noir boasts piercing dialogue, as well as a neatly tangled script.
Wait around to watch Rita Moreno do a striptease number.
And midway in the film, holy moly, Bruce Lee is a study in controlled annihilation.

L’Étudiante - 1988 - 6/10

Breezy French romance.
Ambitious student, bracing for exhausting finals, enters steamy affair with musician.
Each barely has time for the other, even making time is possibly career destroying.
Yet they recognize they share a spark and recklessly hold onto the relationship.
They chase across the region trying to carve time for themselves, then hurry back to the classroom or concert appearance, exhausted.
A young Sophie Marceau is pouty and luscious.
Quite an 80’s experience, from music, to clothes, to the photography, to makeup, to the romantic attitudes.
One can’t help but wonder how much physical desperation has been lost in our era of love via digital.

The Big Steal - 1949 - 6/10

Confusing Noir set in sunny Mexico.
A military detective hounds Robert Mitchum, thinking he stole a military payroll.
Mitchum teams with Jane Greer, and the pair pursue con-man / ex-boyfriend who actually did the theft.
Film roars across the desert with high speed chases, fistfights, and treacherous alliances.
Logic disappears at times, but Mitchum’s easy nonchalance makes this enjoyable.

Audio commentary, by historian Richard Jewell, is dry with frequent lulls.
Most of it details the troubled production, such as —

• Howard Hughes had taken over RKO (which he would run into the ground).
• Robert Mitchum was busted for reefer and served 60 days during filming.
• Actresses declined to work with him, fearing their careers would be tainted.

These reviews are for fanedits. Some are Star Wars related, most are not.

Nyrkki: S02 - 2021 - 7/10
AKA - Shadow Lines S02

Season 02 picks up soon following events of S01.
Team Fist remains, and early on, a lethal adversary is eliminated.
Not so much a different series, but the tone is changed.
The “look” (fashions, sets, music) is diminished, and the narrative delves deeper into espionage.
1950’s Finland is still trying keep out of the Russian bear’s paw.
(At one point, Khrushchev even invites them to become a satellite.)
Much of the narrative circles into the Night Frost era, although this is highly dramatized.
Terrific series. I suspect this concludes it.

Star Trek: Renegades - 2015 - 6/10

Eagerly awaited fanfilm exploring the underbelly of the Trekverse.
Plot involves embittered souls erasing worlds rich in dilithium crystals.
Walter Koenig plays Admiral Chekov, though his character seems more aligned to Bester of Babylon 5.
Along with Tuvok (Tim Russ - who also directs) they “authorize” a ship of outlaws and misfits to investigate.
Battered cliché, true, but that’s the imaginative hook the writers devised.
Unlike most Trekverse tales, this is quite heavy on action and seldom dull.
After the opening (yawn inducing sitting and scribbling) the narrative barrels along for 45 minutes, pauses, races to the finish.
The story is so brisk, one cannot dwell on plot holes.
This ain’t your father’s Trek. Darker and more violent.
Starfleet Captain Alvarez shoots first, lies in ambush, ignores boundary lines.
Good costumes, top notch models and special effects, lame CGI.

(Released before the Axanar controversy.)
Entertaining. Better than most fanfilms I have watched.
A tighter, more thought out script would have improved this.

One of my issues with Trekverse is how privileged species travel about in magical spaceships, yet half of the lesser members live in dirt. Caves, tunnels, dirty prisons.
Unless you belong to Starfleet, you are - what? - swine?

Satan’s Triangle - 1975 - 6/10

Good title for erotic witchcraft exploitation, except this a Bermuda Triangle yarn.
Coast Guard helicopter responds to S-O-S distress from schooner out in the Sargasso.
Soon as the copilot drops onto deck, a freak storm appears and the chopper flies off.
Passengers and crew are dead, save for a companion B-girl (Kim Novak).
While she and copilot drink and drink, she relates how everyone aboard was slaughtered.
And reminds the copilot, “We’re going to die, too.”
May prove scary for the timid or easily frightened, otherwise fair at best.

Diplomat Kuroda Kosaku - 2011 - 7/10
AKA - Gaikôkan Kuroda Kôsaku // 外交官・黒田康作

Well done spy thriller / sequel to Amalfi: Rewards of the Goddess.
Ten episode J-dorama follows diplomat (ha!) as he attempts to solve a series of increasingly high profile murders.
The police are involved, as is the Foreign Department, finally whatever they call National Security.
He enlists an unappreciated police detective, and also a few unlikely allies (including a couple of cameos from Byung-hun Lee).
Kuroda is mostly a one man show, however.
Cooperation and sharing details are not strong points, viewers have to work out mysteries on their own.
That will be fine for some, too difficult for others.
Closing credits of chess play symbolize the moves, counter-moves and calculated alliances.
The final two episodes forget the basic film rule of “Show, don’t tell” and are extremely talky and explanatory.
Excellent adult drama, nevertheless.

Night Bus - 2020 - 6/10

Birthday girl Natasha waits for the late bus.
Across the street waits another passenger, more of a silhouette, actually.
Before she can fix her gaze, her bus arrives and Natasha begins her shift as driver.
As for the wraith across the way, where did it go?
Horror short makes good use of tension and jump scares.
I will cut the ending some slack and hope it works better on large screen, say at a festival.

Sex And The Swastika - 1999 - 5/10

Tenuous documentary lacks hard facts to be compelling.
British set up radio station airing music, German news, and scurrilous rumors.
Propaganda of sexual peculiarities or appetites of leaders.
Objective - ridicule command and undermine Wehrmacht morale.
Unfortunately, no tapes exist, only scripts.
Millions of slanderous, pornographic leaflets were created and distributed.
After the war - evidence was ordered destroyed.
Second thread - Americans assign a psychiatrist to profile Hitler.
He interviews ex-party officials with axes to grind, his conclusions are wide spectrum and outrageous.
Do Allies utilize his analysis? No.
Titillating title, little else.

An Evening With Groucho - 2022 - 8/10

Frank Ferrante’s one man play about the one, the only, Groucho!
Growing up with a stage mother who pushed the sons into showbiz.
Lengthy recollections of Chico, less of Harpo and Zeppo, a bit of Gummo.
Other reminisces include Margaret Dumont, Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, T.S. Eliot (that relationship would make a play in and of itself).
I believe he performs every song. The energy is electrical.
He climbs into a good-natured Baltimore audience and engages members into the madness.
Ferrante has been enacting Groucho for 30+ years, 3000 shows.
If you cannot make his show, this is well photographed and miked.
Marx Brothers fans, essential!

About Elly - 2009 - 7/10
AKA - Darbareye Elly

Exasperating thriller from Iran might have you hurling items at your screen.
Some ten years after their college days, friends decide to weekend together at the Caspian Sea.
One of the guys is recently divorced, so a single woman is invited as marriage bait.
Pressure on her is immediate and uncomfortable.
Twenty minutes in, Elly (marriage bait), who has turned reluctant, disappears.
Kidnapped? Walked away on her own? Murdered? Eaten by a bear? Who knows.
Authorities arrive - questions - turns out none of the friends even know Elly’s last name.
The focus pinpoints on Sepideh, the wife who invited her.
Sepideh is a nest of white lies, deception, manipulation.
Because of the constant lying, where even explanations are untrustworthy, you want to scream.

Note to onlookers: Opening credits show money going into an alms box, supposedly to grant safe travel.
Someone’s money gets stuck, foreshadowing later events.

Topsy-Turvy - 1999 - 7/10

Overlong, excessive, but enthralling story of the genesis of “The Mikado”.
Gilbert & Sullivan are experiencing a dry patch, when Gilbert, touring a Japanese section of the Great Exhibition, is suddenly inspired.
So much of this is a how-to: rehearsals, fittings, problems. All intriguing to watch.
Not to mention the usual crises and insecurities of players.
There is the new Savoy, and the coming age (telephones!).
Dazzling sets, vibrant costumes, a sly sense of humor.
Memorable music, which is still being performed today.
Labor of love from Mike Leigh is a delicious tribute.

Sea Fever - 2019 - 6/10

“Get out of your comfort zone,” her professor advises Siobhán.
So she does her field research on the fishing boat, Niamh Cinn Oir.
Meanwhile, the coastal authorities warn Skipper Gerard to avoid one section.
So he steers the ship right in … until, too late … he encounters the reason.

Now the “thing” is in the hold, and the crew is succumbing.
Nice horror outing mixes terrors with science. Caution with human greed.
Claustrophobic, messy splatter across a rusty trawler.

Bron Broen: S01 - 2011 - 7/10
AKA - The Bridge

Corpse is found on Øresund Bridge, midway between Denmark and Sweden.
Police from both countries arrive and they will decide jurisdiction when the identity is discovered.
Wait a minute – The body is actually cut in half – No, it’s two separate bodies put together.
The murders are the beginning of a series of well planned events and symbolic deaths.
Brief series starts slow, but accelerates to red-line quickly.
Not to be missed is the female Swedish detective, Saga.
She has virtually no social skills, and no check switch - and is painfully funny - but her counterparts recognize her crack investigative skills.

One Stormy Night - 1943 - 6/10
AKA - O Noapte Furtunoasa

Rumanian comedy, filmed in the middle of World War II, which aroused my curiosity.
Set in the 1860’s, a jealous husband suspects his wife of infidelity.
The chief culprit seems to be a sissified dandy, who always turns away from the man’s glare.
The only one he trusts is his live-in assistant, and from the opening scene we know how very wrong he is.
Narrative moves quick and plunges into farce numerous times.
Several of my favorite sequences occur in the music hall - which, alas, were not translated.
In fact, the few subtitles available are only “fair” at best.
A cursory glance online suggests this is a classic, as there is a recent theatrical version on YouTube, as well as a TV production from the 80’s.
Comical proceedings fairly amusing, though poor subs (again, few available) are tedious.

Turtle Diary - 1985 - 7/10

Quiet story, marketed as a romantic comedy, though it does not fit into that category.
Two souls, not necessarily lonely yet they are alone, chat at the London aquarium.
They decide to kidnap two sea turtles, and release them into the sea.
This could easily succumb to farce, or become a strident “message” film.
It never does, however. Pinter adapted the script, and it is an understated gem.
Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley give lessons on how to use gestures and glances, instead of wordy dialogue.
Still not on DVD, streaming copies have poor video resolution.

Black Sands - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Svörtu Sandar

Police thriller set in remote Iceland town.
The dead body, a survivor, and a young officer who has been charting a series of accidental deaths in the region.
The main protagonist is not that cop, but Anita, returning from Reykjavik.
Apparently she left because of her abusive mother, a chain smoking, passive-aggressive type.
Anita, like most TV crime solvers, is screwed up. She never even bothers to wear a uniform, she wears the same sweater day after day after day.
Episode after episode, more characters reveal their script-written weirdness.
Plot and pacing are pretty good. Characters and motivations, cliché city.

Not Waving, But Drowning - 2012 - 6/10

Almost tempted to bump an extra point for style and music alone.
Story of two friends heading off to New York, entering glamorous territory.
At the last minute, the father of one girl refuses to let her go.
Dual narratives from then on.
One girl struggles in New York, meeting dirt types, as well as better souls.
Left behind, the other girl finds work in an assisted living home for seniors.
Both try to stay in contact, but everyone knows how hard it is to stay connected with texts or phone.
Even as they miss each other, you realize they are on different currents, drifting apart.
After awhile*, this held my interest. The movie is very much female oriented, though, and the two I sat next to responded and related more strongly than I did.

*awhile = An unrelated short film precedes the movie.
Apologists are defending it, but it does not fit, is slow and stagnant.
It only runs 15 minutes. Fast forward if you start nodding off.

Sherpa - 2015 - 7/10

Revealing documentary on the Everest pack mules, the sherpas.
Unstated, but clearly evident, is the disparity between the privileged and the impoverished.
A staggering amount of tourists now insist on “conquering” Everest.
Most carry nothing. Sherpas shoulder massive packs and set up ladders for them.
Tourists need WiFi, hot meals, and an ease unimaginable a generation earlier.
Of course, fees start at $100,000.
Good companion to 2015‘s Everest.
For those who have Everest on their bucket list, global warming is on the rise, as are climbing deaths.

Souvenir: Part II - 2021 - 6/10

Story continues immediately after events from the first film.
Grieving, emotionally numb, Julie finds solace in her parent’s home.
Gradually, however, she starts drifting back to film school.
There, she begins to resurrect her graduation effort.
The “creativity process” is the most compelling aspect of this movie
As with the first installment, I cannot decide if the main actor is talented or a vacuous sponge.
I am starting to blame the writer / director for a muddled script, choppily edited.

Everest - 2015 - 7/10

Based on the 1996 summit expedition where eight lost their lives.
Film excels at revealing the preparation, support staff, and Wild Westish camps.
Also showing how crowded and competitive Everest tourism has become.
Affluent tourists, to be sure, yet many, many of them. Too many.
Tour guides know as many as possible must reach the top. Otherwise, future bookings will suffer.
Breathtaking photography, mostly in the Himalayas, though not 100%.
Interesting Making-Of doc reveals backdrops (eg: lift chairs).
Admirable, and a good companion to 2010‘s The Wildest Dream.

The World Of Kanoka - 2014 - 7/10
AKA - Kawaki // 渇き。

After her daughter goes missing, she contacts her ex.
Ex-husband, ex-detective, ex-father. Repellent failure on every front.
He ought to take his meds, which don’t stop him from violent outbursts.
Or from raping his wife, beating up schoolgirls, fighting with police or yakuza.
Meanwhile, there is the absent daughter, whose life echoes that of Alice.
“… who fell into a hole so deep. that she kept falling …”
Volatile (understatement) Neo Noir drenched in sex, violence, gore, torture, fatality.
Seijun Suzuki on acid. Caveat emptor.