Vultural

A Woman In Danger - 2001 - 6/10
AKA - Une Femme Piégée

Hit n miss French thriller seems like a throwback to the 1980’s.
Florence, after spending the night bouncing the local stud, slinks home by morning.
Before she can concoct a plausible fairy tale for her husband, she scans the headlines.
Hey, isn’t that her lover who was murdered?

Wait a minute! He did not look like that. Hold on, wait! Oh no, the police!
So begins the footrace. Barefoot Florence with the dogged gendarmes in pursuit.
Stylistically, this resembles one of those erotic thrillers from the 1980’s.
Overuse of zooms to frowning closeups, music crescendos to punctuate a point.
Retro angle kept me watching, though this is far-fetched, cinema meatloaf.

Big Eyes - 2014 - 7/10

Based on the true story of Margaret Keane who drew wildly popular “big eyed" children in the 50’s and 60’s.
Her husband claims credit, since womenfolk lack serious artistic talent.
Christopher Waltz steals more than credit, he steals every scene with his cringeworthy portrayal of the oily husband.
This is a Tim Burton film and I was concerned going in that it would be another excursion into repetitive weirdness.
Not to worry, this was a straight ahead drama / female empowerment journey with nice San Francisco locations.
Turns out Burton is an admirer and collector of her work.
Narrative never drags, though it is spare on the aftermath.
Terence Stamp delicious as sarcastic art critic.

Creepy, big eyed children would make perfect zombies.

Dead Mountain - 2020 - 7/10
AKA - Pereval Dyatlova // Перевал Дятлова

Docudrama based on the 1959 Dyatlov Pass Incident, where hikers mysteriously froze to death.
Nine students from Ural Polytechnic head for the Otorten peak in January.
Accompanying them is a helper / observer, we later discover is KGB, mission undisclosed.
The series has two narratives, the hike and subsequent investigation.
In addition, there are numerous WWII flashbacks of the storming of Berlin by two characters.
Finally, local Mansi natives repeatedly warn the group the mountain is dangerous, an evil spirit.
Gripping throughout with superb photography and production values.
Best viewed during the coldest months.

Happier days. Students relaxing, checklisting inventory, eager for adventure.

The Last Of Robin Hood - 2013 - 6/10

Kevin Kline disappears into world weary Errol Flynn in his last years.
Movie spotlights relationship with 15 year old Beverly Aadland and her eagle eyed mother.
From what I have read on and by Flynn, events seemed accurate.
Flynn was still a name star, but the glamour roles had dried up a decade earlier. (Warners dropped him in ‘53)
There were mentions of Oscar nods for The Sun Also Rises and Too Much, Too Soon but nothing came of those.
Fine acting all around in a warts n all portrayal. No one escapes.
Bad reviews seem more from fans who prefer the rollicking swashbuckler, not the worn out wreck.
Kline captures the charm and grace that never failed the man.

Last hurrah - Flynn & Aadland on the Red Skelton Hour (episode aired posthumously).

Berkeley In The Sixties - 1990 - 7/10

Caveat. Documentary is about Berkeley political protest and unrest.
Not the “Summer Of Love” city, San Francisco.
Released in 1990, aging participants recall the rise and demise of campus activity 25 years earlier.
Genesis was in demonstrations against HUAC, police over-response, escalating confrontations.
Well arranged materials deliver an organized history from campus speakers to People’s Park to Panthers.
Enthusiasm for heady, early days is contagious.
Likewise, regrets and brutal honesty about mistakes that led to the collapse.
25 years seems a good time to look back. No telling how many of those interviewees are around or have their mental faculties, now 50 years on.

Change Of Plans - 2009 - 6/10
AKA - Le Code A Change

French dinner party from Hell.
Spousal sniping, family conflicts, old flames, food nazis.
There were almost too many characters, but by the end of the film you knew who was who and what their stories were.
Passable. Some reviewers were too harsh. What did they expect?
Going in, I knew this would be a talky dinner party.
One character, praying inside the church, echoed my own thoughts every time I have a party to attend.

“Lord …
Give me the strength to go to this damn dinner!
Give me the strength to pretend, to laugh.
To ask questions, when I don’t care about the answers.
To pretend that I’m there, when I’m far away.”

Maria’s Paradise - 2019 - 6/10
AKA - Marian Paratiisi

Onset, the young woman, rechristened Salome, boards the train carrying religious cult followers of Maria Åkerblom.
At first, Salome is awestruck, though gradually the veil opens and she sees misdeeds by other followers.
The religious practice of sleeping prophecy is shown, but it is hard to see how it grips others.
Maria, as leader, has presence, but also a taste for “nice things.” Material things.
A pattern mirrored with modern religious shepherds.
Interesting drama will perhaps yield more to those familiar with Åkerblom.

I came onto this rather circuitously.
Hans Ewers’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (Side Real Press) has an appendix on the sleeping prophet phenomenon.
Benjamin Tweddell’s “Sermons In A House Of Grief” points toward another Finnish cult, Kartanoism.

Fortier: S01 - 2001 - 6/10

Canadian police procedural follows “elite” unit given dirty cases, primarily sex crimes.
Dr Fortier is the female psychologist assigned to the team.
Solid ensemble show, though Fortier’s quirks are overdone and distracting.
S01 has ten episodes. Five two-part stories.
OK, but not on par with the best Scandinavian crime shows, though this is a decade earlier.
Note - Set in Quebec, Fortier is a French language production.

Titane - 2021 - 6/10

Look, even when little, Alexia was one messed up kid. Then again, the metal plate in her head did not seem to help.
After one too many murders goes wrong, so she disguises herself as a male.
A fireman provides cover since he regards Alexia as his missing lost son, Adrian.
The first part of this is eye popping. Neon design, sexualized cars, stiletto deaths.
The second half, however, grows dreary. The narrative flits randomly, only the swelling tumescence abides.
Bizarre film may or may not bear any sort of message, yet will lure seekers of weird cinema.
Beware, graphic sex and violence. Mmm … apparently unprotected sex.

I Bury The Living - 1958 - 4/10

Thriller without thrills, Horror without horrors.
Man assigned to run local cemetery finds he might have the power of life and death!
Office has a big map layout of plots and stickpins.
White pins for reservations, black pins for planted residents.
When he mixes up pins on the map, folks start dying!
Hopeful premise ruined by the man’s (Richard Boone) dismal guilt complex.
Plods along, too talky, stagebound. Feels like a rejected “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode.

Coffee Town - 2012 - 6/10

Overlooked comic gem.
Denizens of small coffee shop discover their hangout could be turned into a food bistro.
Instead of deadbeats fixed like barnacles to tables all day, pushy, noisy eaters will arrive.
And lingering, loitering, chilling all day, will be gone with the tape deck.
So they evolve an absurd plan to stop that.
Funny on multiple levels: situation, farce behavior, clever wordplay.

Truth to tell, I never glance twice at laptop types (mostly guys) sitting in coffee shops.
I assume most are safely eyeing porn without mom, wife, girlfriend looming.
This world is already disappearing, as laptops give way to phones for the majority.

I Who Have No One - 2019 - 5/10

Ugly duckling Frances, failing to snuff herself, encounters Jerome, devil worshiper.
Before you can sing Screaming Jay Hawkins, Frances is killing. Mostly trim, pert females.
Horror short lacks budget and scope.
Overused ideas, compensated with a few funny moments.

Paterson - 2016 - 5/10

Paterson, the bus driver, scribbles poetry on the side.
Snatches of conversation, visual snapshots of images, memories recalled through the lens.
Wife Laura is a free spirit artist, obsessed with black n white visuals and cupcakes.
He seems to have no dreams, her wild ambitions are boundless.
Movie strings out for seven days, with very little happening.
Though to Paterson and Laura, the week is quietly momentous.

Jim Jarmusch film sorely tried my patience.
While I don’t particularly care for this director, I do watch every new release of his.

Bikker, Edita - The Night Of Turns

At the beginning, Edita leaves the settlements, civilization, and attaches herself to a caravan. The Caravan Of The Burnt Woman, as we later discover.
As the wagons roll into the empty wilds, Edita meets the assorted members, and she tries to grasp the peculiarities and mysteries of the group. Not so much personal histories, but the activities, the guarded beliefs, as well as the oppressive strangeness that seems to hem in around them.
This is a brilliantly executed journey into superstition and routine. In many ways, what it means to be alive. The story is dripping with images.
“… From a distance the rain-worn wagon looked like a shrunken skull in a museum, eyelids, lips and nostrils stitched together, the ears sewn in the fatal clasp of a Venus fly trap…”
The caravan, and there are seventeen caravans on the path, is less doomed than the Donner Party, the company merrier, less ill-fated than Faulkner’s Bundren family.
From time to time, caravans meet. The Caravan Of The Fool, Of The Green Goose. And then the jovial, yet deadly, Night Of Turns commences.
Throughout, revelations and awareness unfold.
The novel has been tagged with the trendy “folk horror” moniker. It is less horror, more folk.

Broodcomb is a relatively new press, focusing on strange, weird or supernatural fiction.
Not necessarily horror. Readers with a taste for Aickman or Ligotti should check it out.

Ripper Street: S02 - 2013 - 7/10

Very much an extension of Season 01.
Narrative seems to have skipped a year or two.
One character now married, another’s wife has gone AWOL.
If anything, the tone is grimmer and darker than before.
Bucking the usual glossy, warming Victorian fare, the lives of all characters here spiral into misery for which there seems no exit.
Absorbing for viewers, but a dark, hard, brutish series.
Nonetheless, I’m losing interest.

Miskatonic University - 2014 - 6/10

Lovecraft aficionados have already spied the title.
Atmospheric HPL short, touching the Kadath, Cthulhu, and Nyarlathotep settings.
Set in the 1920’s, a young scholar arrives at MU, hoping to get access into famed library.
The Dean vigorously refuses, yet there are unsettling activities across the campus.
Excellent use of Maine locations, period fashions, and the eldritch library.
A couple of erotic angles in this, implied and overt, definitely not Lovecraftian.
Covers a fair degree of territory and maintains disoriented mood throughout.

Once Upon A Time In London - 2019 - 6/10

Scattershot overview of rival “Kings Of The Underworld.”
From the pre-WWII 1930’s to the advent of the Krays in the late 1950’s.
Ostensibly about two top bosses, Billy Hill and Jack Comer, we are early on introduced to a cavalcade of assorted henchmen, underlings, enforcers, specialists. Who are these guys? Confusion only grows as all seem to jump sides.
There are some capers and heists, but most action is retribution and knife fights.
Sex and gore is implied most of the time.
This will be better for viewers who know names and history.
For outside onlookers, this is a shallow sweep of greatest moments.

My Old Lady - 2014 - 6/10

Beware the free lunch. The surprise gift.
Or, in this movie, the inheritance.
Destitute Yank spends his remaining funds to fly to Paris to see the property his father willed him.
Several floors, nice grounds, worth a fortune - with a catch.
A viager. The former owner, the lone resident who receives a monthly payment of €2000 from the new owner.
For Americans, think reverse mortgage.
One might predict all sort of comic implications, but no, this curdles into drama.
The whole film smacks of theatre boards, which is just what it was.
Mostly a two set play with the stone broke American, the elderly British resident, and her daughter.
Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas.
All scratching to clutch tight to the property.

Little Forest: Summer, Autumn - 2014 - 7/10
AKA - Ritoru Foresuto: Natsu/Aki // リトル・フォレスト　夏・秋

Gorgeous film will enthrall or calm you into slumberland.
Know thyself.
Ichiko, after a time in the city, returns to her village of Komori.
There, she works her land, cooks meals, remembers her mother and the quiet lessons.
Quite a bit of cooking in this, a two-part film, as well as pensive reflection.
Ichiko is immersed in nature, and technology is on a back burner.
Tech is shown in cars, phones, electricity, but the rural experience dominates.
Because this is slow, the impatient will be put off.
Quietly unfolding is a disappearance mystery, and perhaps Ichiko’s story.
Based on a manga, followed by Winter, Spring.

I reworked subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/little-forest-summerautumn/english/2691929

Just A Sigh - 2013 - 6/10
AKA - Le Temps de l’aventure

Struggling actress returns to Paris for audition.
Forgets her phone charger, travels with insufficient funds.
The casting director even inquires, ungallantly, how old she is.
Nonetheless, she spies a fellow damaged soul on the train, and crashes a funeral to meet him.
“Missed love” tale of passing ships. The broken hearted and the abandoned lover.
Bittersweet, yet hopeful story of trying to connect with another.

Beyond The Lights - 2014 - 6/10

Musical / drama / love story.
Off duty cop, working security for singing sensation, halts her lame suicide attempt.
Will Fate draw them together? Will they fall in love?
Neither seem to be living their own lives, but instead follow “the plan” of their parents.
Nice quota of tunes. Lip syncing by the star, and MTV montages with chart toppers.
What struck me by the end was that the lead characters had more or less switched roles and destinies.
I don’t think that was deliberate, either.
Had trouble with the love story, too.

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution - 2005 - 8/10

Outstanding six part documentary of infamous camp.
Digging deeper than the usual horror parade, this shows the early role of the camp, before its metamorphosis into a killing machine.
At first it was intended for political prisoners, then Russian POWs, eventually Jews and all enemies.
Actors employed, as well as reenactments, though producers restrained themselves.
One unforgettable sequence is a lengthy photo montage of children heading into annihilation.
Another sequence is of a camp survivor, returning to her village, finding her home and possessions appropriated by neighbors.
Pointed reminder for idealistic birds who declare such things shall never happen again!

Borderland: The Mural Murders - 2021 - 5/10
AKA - Sorjonen: Muraalimurhat

Opening shot, the hooded person stands before the suspended corpse, draining blood.
Next scene, bystanders stare at the crimson mural, painted in bright red blood!
Alas, the hooded artist is not Banksy. Neither does blood dry a lurid red.
The lead inspector, mystified, consults a genius mentor, now in a mental institution.
Yep, the nutty cop trope. Another overused crutch warning me of crapola writing ahead.
Various social miscreants have been kidnapped and online voting determines who gets killed.
Interesting – if that line had been pursued. Instead, the narrative consists of abandoned ideas and cameo characters.
Oh yeah, and a brilliant sociopath, imprisoned, whom the authorities release so he can deliver a college lecture!
The writers ought to be ashamed for scribbling such garbage. Even Hallmark Mysteries are better constructed.

Modern Times: Welcome To Mayfair - 2014 - 7/10

Insidious little documentary about one of London’s poshest neighborhoods.
The village Mayfair.
Rich residents, we only hear from one or two.
Not surprisingly, honest views come from pensioners who live in the old servant’s quarter.
What? Affordable digs in Mayfair? Apparently so.
Most of the chat, and the general drift of the narrative, flows from tradesmen.
Estate agents, shopkeepers, florists, the couple that run the tiny cafe.
Realtors do spectacular business as properties sell for millions of quid without ever getting listed.
Buyers range from nouveau riche to crusty money. Arab princes, footballers, Russian billionaires.
Most are shadows who covet an address, yet rarely abide in the neighborhood.
True casualties are the tiny shops. The fabric that weave and nourish any village.
One by one, they are squeezed out, replaced by Bulgaria, Tiffany, Hermes, Chanel, Prada, Cartier, Armani.
Global chains who peddle expensive bangles, mass produced in faraway factories.
Such is the sweep of life, however. Places alter, evolve, crumble.
The poor get displaced, the middle class cannot keep pace, the cost of living soars out of reach.

Abuse Of Weakness - 2013 - 7/10
AKA - Abus de Faiblesse

One of those films that might impel you to hurl rocks at the screen.
Isabelle Huppert more or less plays Catherine Breillat who directed and wrote the screenplay for this.
Based on her own unfortunate - maddeningly foolish - experiences.
Film director suffers a stroke, spends months regaining her abilities.
During that time she scripts her next film, even sees the man she wants to cast as male lead.
A con man, embezzler, thief, hustler, scam artist.
Despite friends and family repeatedly warning her to eject him from her life, she gets enmeshed deeper with him.
He always has a big deal afoot, and needs investment capital.
As in . . . her cheques.
Most of the lines and excuses he uses a high school girl would roll her eyes at.
There were times during the film, audience members were shouting out loud at her.