Vultural

My Little Princess - 2011 - 6/10

Well done, if exceedingly disturbing mother / daughter story.
Isabel Huppert plays dysfunctional mom with artistic pretensions. Self delusions far outweigh actual talent.
She takes up photography and starts taking shots of her 10 year old daughter.
Clothes start getting removed, heavy lipstick applied, and poses become sexually provocative.

Ma believes success has arrived as last and pushes boundaries even further.
The young girl, starting to grasp the concept of exploitation, tries to resist.
Unsettling and inappropriate in countless ways, also metaphor for parents as agents or pimps.
Huppert throws herself into this and is utterly convincing, though she is clearly too old for the role.
Newcomer Anamaria Vartolomei acquits herself well.

The Daughter - 2015 - 7/10

Family pater prepares to marry half his age, trophy wife, as he closes the mill which his family has run for generations.
Invited is his damaged, alcoholic son who reconnects with old school friends.
His mother had committed suicide, and the new wedding rankles him.
He uncovers skeletons and must weigh what damage revealing the truth may cause against stoking his pity party.
The small town, likewise breaking apart with the mill closure, seems a metaphor for the family crisis.
Or vice versa.
Acting uniformly fine. Paul Schneider memorable as self-righteous son.

Silent Night - 2021 - 6/10

Straight off, this is being marketed as horror. It is not. An apocalypse film, it is closer to Drama / SciFi.
Friends and family gather for the Christmas feast.
Apparently, the final feast.
Expect bad behavior, old injuries revisited, and the airing of dirty laundry
Humor is pithy and biting, although there is not enough.
Dramatic elements are a muddling non-event.
On The Beach (1959) may be the grandfather of these films, but this is weak water.
Another recent holiday apocalypse = Anna And The Apocalypse (2017).

Cover Up - 1949 - 6/10

More mystery than Noir.
During Christmas revels, an insurance investigator hits the small town where the most hated man has killed himself.
“Where’s the gun he shot himself with?” – No idea.
‘What caliber of bullets were found?” – Bullets, what bullets?
“Were there powder buns on his hands or clothes?” – No, sir.
Smiling faces stonewall him the whole time.
Meanwhile, a fetching young miss catches his eye. So, add a dash of romance.
OTR buffs will recognize the template for Johnny Dollar.

The Hundred-Foot Journey - 2014 - 6/10

Young Indian chef sets up establishment across from haute cuisine in rural France.
Rivalry turns into alliance when starchy matriarch realizes his culinary gifts can get her restaurant a second Michelin star.
Story has the depth of a soufflé and is longish, with nary a Frenchman in sight.
Produced by Oprah Winfrey and Stephan Spielberg (both US). Directed by Lasse Hallström (Sweden) from an American novel. Helen Mirren (UK) plays the Gallic proprietress.
Popular with the arthouse crowd, be they foodies, gourmets or gluttons.

Love And Crime - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - Meiji · Taishô · Shôwa: Ryôki Onna Hanzai-Shi

Japanese anthology compilation, heavy on sex and violence.
Predatory females work their assets for gain or revenge, based on actual individuals.
Sada Abe would be the most famous, or infamous, for the marathon bout of coitus climaxing in strangulation and castration.
Oden was the last female beheaded in Japan, and Toyokaku was a woman who murdered her way to her own inn.
Fast paced little film with ample nudity, killings, and corpses.
Knowing that these were real people may increase appreciation.
Male viewers might wish to avert their gaze when scissors appear.

Haunted - 1995 - 6/10

Professor, author, spiritualist debunker, is asked to solve a slight haunting at the rural manor.
At the station he is met by the lovely sister of the home.
Home are her two brothers, and the frail, elderly, perhaps dotty, Nanny.
The stage is set, and unexplained occurrences start mounting.
Fairly predictable ghost story, based on a James Herbert novel.
Glossy looking, but terribly old-fashioned.

Born To Be Bad - 1934 - 5/10

Cynical Pre-Code film about 22 year old unwed mother and her 7 year old son.
Mom earns money as an escort (figure it out) while junior runs with gangs and drinks mugs of beer at the house.
When he runs under a delivery truck, they exaggerate the injury and try to hustle the company.
Ought to be more fun, but mother and son play unpleasant to perfection.
One of the films the Legion Of Decency likely pointed at when wanting to tighten the Production Code.
Very young Cary Grant as naive company president, Loretta Young (before she became Miss Wholesome) as call girl.
Short - bitter tasting - with preposterous finale.

Lidice - 2011 - 7/10

Suitable companion film to 2016‘s Anthropoid shows the Czech village of Lidice before - and after - the assassination of SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
There is a mirror narrative of one of the villagers, in prison for murder.
Two murders, different punishments: incarceration versus liquidation.
The massacre of Lidice became infamous.
Staging and cinematography is excellent, and enough time is allotted to many characters so one gets a feel for them as individuals.

Anthropoid - 2016 - 7/10

Overlooked World War II thriller about Operation Anthropoid.
The plot to assassinate SS Obergruppenführer of Czechoslovakia, Reinhard Heydrich.
Told entirely from the Czech resistance point of view.
The “based on” elements are easy to identify and ignore (such as any love interests).
Measured pace spotlights planning, internal arguing, and constant fear of betrayal.
Unlike other films, this offers the buildup, the event, the aftermath.
Breathtaking cinematography, by the way.

Swastika - 2007 - 7/10

The premise: If we only demonize Hitler and associates, we fail to recognize they are also humans.
Thus we assume the next mass murderer will be easy to spot, being a monster.
This mixes rallies, parades, speeches with parties, cocktails, frolics.
Weird, watching Goering and Goebbels hand out Christmas gifts to children.

Footage from Leni Riefenstahl and Eva Braun’s home movies, with actual overheard comments.
Timeline runs from 1933-1938. World War II and atrocities compressed in final five minutes.
A lot of footage I have never seen, and I have watched a fair amount over the years.
Nonetheless, this is not recommended for casual viewers, looking for a primer on Nazism.
I was initially unimpressed, yet this has a cumulative power. Well done.

Orwell, George - Down And Out In Paris And London

The first section of Richard Marsh’s The Beetle detailed the unfortunate adventures of Robert Holt.
Once a respectable clerk, reduced to tramping, then house entering.
Reading this recalled Orwell’s book, which I last read twenty years earlier.
I pulled it from the shelves and began rereading. This is a lightning read.
The Paris section may prove more relevant to many. Those who ever worked in a kitchen or restaurant. Those who suffered abysmal lodgings. Those forced to choose between food or rent.
The London section will interest social historians, with the futility of ordering the unemployed to march a perpetual circuit from one meal ticket to the next.
By turns entertaining and harrowing. And don’t you believe this could never happen again.
Even now, humanity is ever on the move.
As the middle class shrinks and grows imperiled, street vagabonds become more normal.

Pride - 2014 - 7/10

Feel good movie of LGSM (Gays Lesbians Support the Miners), circa 1984, when Thatcher tories struggled to break the coal miner union.
The government had seized the assets of the Mining Union and were literally starving miners into compliance.
Unlikely support came from gays and lesbians who raised money through bucket drives, later benefit concerts.
An awkward pairing, especially for blue collar males, and film goes into that.
Community is reluctant, unsure, uneasy. Homophobia contagion, or fear thereof.
Still, LGSM were the only group that gave generous and consistent support.
Film features a slew of top actors, including Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, as well as a fabulous 80’s soundtrack.
Dominic West has show stopping moment when he teaches non-dancing miners that one of the quickest ways to catch the feminine eye is to kill on the dancefloor.

Waffle - 2020 - 5/10

Mislabeled “horror” short is more a dramedy. The comedy grates.
Gig employee Kerry hires out hourly as Best Friend for a rich girl’s slumber party.
Party of two, and the lonely richling Katie has the temperament of a Chihuahua.
Plot offers one or two possibilities, but goes nowhere. Inferior audio miking.

The Founder - 2016 - 7/10

Aging, over-the-hill salesman investigates one of his few “good” clients.
Pair of brothers doing gangbuster business with their hamburger stand.
Salesman offers to help them launch franchises and expand nationwide.
Against their instincts, the McDonald brothers agree.
Story of how Roy Kroc built an empire and took it away from the founders.

Mixed feelings watching this, much as I have mixed feelings about the McDonald’s chain.
Kroc is a predatory, unscrupulous wolf, but I think the brothers never could have rivaled his achievements.
Loved McDonald’s when they arrived in my town when I was 10. Outgrew them by 18, but still visit when options are limited. City to city, country to country, fare is predictable. And those fries …

Rakka - 2017 - 7/10

Terrific short, something between a pitch and a pilot.
Alien bipeds enslave humanity, torture and experiment, and start major terra-forming.
Resistance is small, and tiny victories result in harsh reprisals.
At barely 20 minutes, this alien invasion genre packs in a lot of images, action, storylines and proto-characters.
One element I did not care for smacked of tinfoil, that is a quibble.
Sigourney Weaver leads a solid cast, directed by Neil Blomkamp for new studio.
If there is interest ($$), they will craft more, and I would watch.
For what it is, Rakka is outstanding, though it is quite brief.

Gunman In The Streets - 1950 - 6/10
AKA - La Traqué (French language version)

Interesting pursuit Noir set in post WWII France.
Dane Clark plays an ex-GI who remained behind the war and set up a nice little black market operation.
When the film opens, he’s being transferred from jail to jury when he is sprung via armed attack.
From then on this is a cat n mouse police chase.
Clark’s colleagues are interrogated, hideouts smashed, ex-girlfriend followed.
As this was shot in France, the look and feel differs from American Noir.
The streets, the shops, the clothes, the faces, most notably a young Simone Signoret.
Aside from the location, the plot offers nothing fresh.
Clark slips catlike through police nets and his character is cold and unsympathetic.
Director Frank Tuttle was an early casualty of the HUAC blacklist which might have explained the European location.

Murder At Land’s End - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Meurtres à La Pointe du Raz

Local gendarme investigate the death of a village “character.”
Hers resembles suicide, and it occurs in the Bay Of The Dead, where the drowned meet Ankow.
Suspicions soon lead to another body.

The male / female cops do not flirt or trade innuendos.
Plot twists are few, though narrative jags add to unpredictability.
Gorgeous Brittany coastal scenery used to the full.

xxxHOLiC - 2013 - 7/10
AKA - ドラマ　ホリック

Inventive fantasy J-dorama based on anime based on manga.
Enroute from school, young student spies and is quickly whisked into the shop run by a dimensional witch.
What she runs is, plain and simple, a barter shop. She can grant wishes - but - there is a price to pay.
In any exchange, there is always a price.

He can see ghosts. On the street, in school, everywhere. He is miserable.
The series has eight episodes, thirty minutes each.
One story involves a variation on the monkey’s paw.
Aside from the dimensional witch, there are ghosts (not the friendly sort, either), tainted blood, and a fetchingly cruel wasp spider.
The set design is spare yet elegant. Costumes range from school uniforms to beautiful gowns to downright kinky.
This seems aimed for the young adult crowd, but anyone interested in Japanese folklore should appreciate.

Brontës Britain With Gyles Brndreth - 2021 - 6/10

The lives of three Brontë sisters, with attention to their Yorkshire upbringing
The landscape, as well as key dwellings, still surviving.
One work per sister is referenced, along with film representations.
Mr. Brndreth, as presenter, is akin to an infomercial questioner.
“I didn’t know that!” “So here we are!” “Oh, now I see!”
His enthusiasm, infectious, can prove a bit much at times.
Usual talking heads. One I recognized from an episode of “The Secret Life Of Books”, where she all but called Charlotte Brontë a racist.

Beyond The Black Rainbow - 2010 - 5/10

Futuristic tale of company that helps you create “a better you.”
Except experimentation now seems their locus.
Camera work reeks of student film class: slow dissolves, step printing, colorization.
Acting is ponderous and stilted to the nth degree.
The opening corporate mission statement indicates 1983 and the music remains 80’s throughout.
Synthesizers and musique concrète.
A lot of visually impressive work undermined by exhausting, dreary, glacial pace.

Bodyguard - 1948 - 6/10

Lawrence Tierney plays detective who ignores the rules and book one too many times and gets suspended.
Not to worry, he is approached to work as bodyguard for wealthy old lady.
She protests she does not need a bodyguard, then a bullet smashes though the window of her study.
Detective stays the night, follows her when she slips out at 4:00 AM, gets whacked on the head, wakes up in a car with a dead cop beside him, the car is on train tracks with an express train howling …
That’s like the first ten minutes of this rapid fire B-movie.
Pace is terrific, from constant tracking shots to enough situations to fill six movies.
Breathless thrust of the narrative keeps one from wondering, “What’s the point?”
Tierney also plays a “good guy.” He’s no Boston Blackie, but it’s nice to view him in a role other than a caged tiger.
He has good chemistry with Priscilla Lane (her last role).
Script by a very young Robert Altman, of all people.

Silent Britain - 2006 - 6/10

Film historian Matthew Sweet deep within the BBC vaults.
British silent films are often overlooked, especially compared with Hollywood or German cinema.
England had its own pioneers, stars, studios, and hits.
At an hour, this is not an in-depth survey, merely showcasing key films.
More films, including rarities, would have been better.

Ouija: Origin of Evil - 2016 - 6/10

Old school style yarn of family messing with Ouija board, getting more than they bargained for.
Recently widowed mother earns pocket money by holding seances.
Revenue is meager, though, and PAST DUE bills stack up.
Mom really doesn’t have the gift, either, but the youngest daughter does. (The child who plays Doris is well directed.)
Thing about the open-ended Ouija board. When you make contact, it works both ways.
And to reference Rocky TF Squirrel, are they friendly spirits? Not in this movie.
Set in 1967, though cars, clothes, soda fountain, echo the 50’s.
OK scares, no gore, no nudity. “Child in danger,” a trope I generally dislike.

Liar Game: S01 - 2007 - 7/10
AKA - うそつきゲーム

Great little series about con-men, game playing, greed.
Young girl receives a case full of money and an invitation to participate in the Liar Game.
There are numerous players. The object is to swindle other players out of their case of money.
The winner keeps all the money, losers must pay what they lost. They will be financially ruined.
Straight away, the girl, a trusting, gullible innocent, seeks help from a cunning genius of schemes.
Temporary allegiances, snares, and of course, lies, more lies, and damned lies.
Honorable, upright souls, be warned to avoid this one.