Vultural

300: Rise Of An Empire - 2013 - 5/10

Not quite as good as 300, but good enough, I suppose.
Narrative runs parallel to the Spartans, finally shifting to the big battle at Salamis.
Beware, if you are watching this for Greek history class.
Hordes of attractive, bare chested males (mostly the CG breed) scream and slash in a bluish world.
Other than some female warriors, nothing new for this sequel.
Not a bad film, merely the over reliance on action.
Enjoyed it for what it was - midnight popcorn.

All The Devils Are Here - 2021 - 7/10

Sly villains come and huddle round. Thou blackest voices art here granted sound.
Patrick Page gives an absorbing one-man play, check listing the scoundrels of Shakespeare.
From the early, smiling treachery of Richard III to the conflicted, emotionally fraught Macbeth.
Part acting masterclass, part history lesson.
Page enacts and explains how Shakespeare progressively gave his fiends more complexity, sympathy, humanity.
All the players fade with time. Statesman, soldier, peasant, meek or sublime. Bombast and prattle fade into naught.
Theatre junkies, forgather!

The Color Of Lies - 1999 - 7/10
AKA - Au Coeur du Mensonge (The Heart of the Lie)

Ten year old Eloise finishes her art lesson and walks home.
Next scene, two other children find her dead in the woods,
Police subsequently discover she had been molested.
The last person to see her had been her art teacher, a respected painter suffering a career impasse.
Marital problems are suggested and a celebrity writer pursues the wife.
Parallel with the murder investigation, the police tackle a string of robberies.

While locals never voice inflamed accusations, the new inspector clearly eyes the artist.
Claude Chabrol film is a clinical study of lies, secrets, and the confined village.
Not a nail biter thriller, but a psychological mystery, filled with clues and deceptive individuals.

Doll House - 2014 - 5/10
AKA - Inhyeong-ui Jib // 인형의 집

Jeez Louise, did it really take me eighteen months to watch this 12 episode K-drama?
Shows how involved I was.
Young 20ish girl answers ad for light duty job at residence.
She has to wear schoolgirl uniform, pigtail her hair, and pretend to be a daughter.
What happened to the daughter in question?
Then she discovers there have been impersonators before her! What happened to them?
Mystery with enough suspense to unsettle teenage viewers. Maybe.

For the curious, you could easily watch the whole series in barely over an hour…
Each installment runs 6-8 minutes, including opening & closing credits and a preview of next week.

Bastards - 2013 - 7/10
AKA - Les Salauds

Existential French Noir, grim and fatalistic.
Seaman summoned home after brother-in-law commits suicide.
Niece has been raped to the point of requiring repair surgery.
Sister shoves him toward vengeance.
Filmed mostly in gloomy interiors or at night.
Minimal dialogue, unusual for a French flick.
Physical similarity between sister and “villain’s” wife add to confusion.
Limited exposition, viewer on his/her own to grasp roles and backstory.
Typical of Noir, the deeper the seaman digs, the filthier and uglier the truth.

Cowards Bend The Knee - 2003 - 6/10

Hold tight, pilgrim.
After Guy leads the hockey team to a win, his girlfriends informs him she is pregnant.
He immediately takes her to the beauty salon.
Well, it’s a beauty shop by day. By night, it is a brothel. And in the rear is an abortion room.
While the girlfriend suffers a hideous procedure, Guy catches the eye of the brothel madam’s daughter, Meta.

And Meta, man, she is something else. This becomes her tale of obsession, as Guy is a classic fool.
Silent film, in and out of focus, repeated sequences, fragmented music score.
There is a narrative, though this leans heavily toward experimental cinema.
Challenging Guy Maddin film, aimed at hardcore arthouse cineastes.

American Hustle - 2013 - 6/10

Man, I was looking forward to this. Thinking it would be like Boogie Nights.
Nope.
Odd interpretation of the AbScam sting, where politicos took bribes for influence.
FBI coerces low level hustlers to run the scam.
Main FBI handler displays less intelligence than my cat, other agents little more than career chasers.

Fashion seemed right. There weren’t enough drugs, music was incorrect.
Noticing crap like that kept yanking me out of the flow.
Plus, having heard and read so much ballyhoo, my expectations were unreasonable.

Music For Misfits: The Story Of Indie - 2015 - 7/10

Exhilarating three part series tracks the rise of UK indie music from the 70’s into mainstream acceptance by 2000.
Tiny labels, obscure groups with new sounds, naive yet enthusiastic entrepreneurs.
And fans. Fans who were tired of Corporate Rock and glossy, talentless pretenders foisted upon them.
Interviews with band members, label reps, journalists, shop owners, all older and wiser.
The whole, do-it-yourself, seat of your pants struggles. Stories are funny and often telling.
Most try to avoid rosy eyed nostalgia, the trap of only recalling the sunshine.
Terrific soundtrack, to be sure, with dozens of concert clips.
Essential for music fanatics.

Hunting The Gauleiter - 2012 - 6/10
AKA - Okhota na Gaulyaytera // Охота Hа Rауляйтера

Nazi occupied Minsk during the early days of WWII.
The Wehrmacht overwhelms the territory causing the populace to flee to the wilderness (where they are never found!) or stay in the city to work as labor.

The plot is cynical and wise.
The regional commander, the gauleiter, is at odds with the SS commander.
The latter wants to kill as much of the population as he can, the former wants them alive as forced labor.
Likewise with the Soviet resistance, under orders to assassinate the gauleiter.
They would prefer to destroy a supply train (more damage, less reprisals), but one does not disobey Moscow.
Nice production values in this ten parter offset by hammy, melodramatic acting.
Specifically from the women, who were apparently directed this way, which I cannot fathom.
They gush, swoon, over-emote.
Or they can-can to entertain German officers.

In Russian and German, though the German is hideously overdubbed in monotone Russian.
Generally useful to view another take on history.

The Lineup - 1958 - 6/10

Lean film spinoff from old (lost?) 50’s TV show called San Francisco Beat.
Don Siegel directs retrieval caper of twin hoods fetching merchandise smuggled in by innocent tourists.
Eli Wallach terrific as barely restrained, borderline psychotic killer.
Narrative sorta ho-hum, with cops a step behind bad guys. Good use of Bay locations.

Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes

Necklace being the one originally possessed by Cleopatra.
Holmes is involved because Professor Moriarty has extended his murderous hands.
Christopher Lee is a stolid, forceful Holmes, but this tale is far from canon.
No, this is a Krimi, a German production similar to the films based on Edgar Wallace novels.
There is less action than viewers might have anticipated, and Moriarty seems to bear as much screen time as Holmes.
Though well-staged, the plot stumbles and there is little tension.
This is a misfire. Lee would have another crack at Sherlock in 1991.

Love, Life And Goldfish - 2021 - 7/10
AKA - Sukutte Goran // すくってごら

Losing his cool at work, Kashiba is exiled to a branch office, in a tiny village.
This is career ending.
Entering the village in early evening, he is bewitched by the girl in front of him.
Walking amidst a sea of fans, dancers, and lanterns.
And he realizes there is something highly unusual about this village.

Barely a romance, themes of regret, rejection and loneliness predominate.
There are also goldfish throughout, which I will not elaborate on. And triangles.
Much as Kashiba is smitten, another female is love struck by him.

This is also a musical, with a dozen songs. Catchy, hook laden J-pop.
Hollywood or Broadway would likely apply a formula and have a hit with this.
This is Japanese, however. This is quirky and will be should delight fans of such.

Faces Places - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - Visages Villages

Interesting, fascinating, annoying, irritating documentary of two disparate French photographers.
Director (and photo buff) Agnès Varda teams with photographer JR who pastes large photo murals in public spaces.
They travel to remote, often dying villages, and paste up huge photographs of bygone laborers, aging survivors, or interesting faces from the community.
The sense of unearthing history, and preservation is totally absorbing.
Capturing the moment, even the forgotten moment, and showcasing for time indefinite.
On the other hand, Ms Varda instructs subjects - female subjects - to remove their glasses.
For capturing a slice of truth, this struck me as a bit of artistic dishonesty, though I will be the first to admit creative souls often adopt a laissez-faire attitude towards the real.
The final bit, hunting for Godard turns into a very sour finish.

Devil - 2007 - 7/10
AKA - Ma-wang // 마 왕

K-drama about revenge.
Not the implacable, unstoppable, self-righteous vengeance of 99% of plots.
No, this factors the wages of revenge, the toll it takes on conscience, karma, and those around you.
Matching tarot cards are sent to police and victim, and the police hustle to identify and protect victim.
Luckily, a girl who works in a fortune parlor can explain what each card means - may not mean - plus, she is psychic!
Meandering puzzle plot that widens considerably midway, then tightens with little room for escape, as well as justifications for murders.
Exteriors appeared shot during spring as colors were often breathtaking.
Interiors more hit and miss, about the third of interiors rivaled cheap soap opera sets.
Romance elements, not too terrible.

Raw - 2016 - 6/10
AKA - Grave

Strict vegetarian Justine enrolls in premier veterinarian college.
During freshman hazing, she is forced to eat raw liver.
She acquires a taste for meat, and unsatisfied craving alters her personality.
Shocker from France and Belgium boasts visual style and successfully captures the disorientation experienced by many college arrivals.
Justine’s embrace of darker extra-curricular opportunities may upset the squeamish.
Plot holes are often forgotten as carnivore and more primitive appetites swing to the fore.
Moody excursion may leave an unsavory taste.
Animal lovers - consider the vet college setting.

Behind Green Lights - 1946 - 6/10

B-film quickie from 20th Fox.
Body is dumped outside police station setting off more reactions than a pinball machine.
Three murder suspects, body switcheroo, fistfights, escapee, romance, conspiracy, political chicanery.
All that, in barely an hour flick. Breathless nonsense.
Carole Landis as lead actress was near end of her career here.
A once major star, now relegated to B pictures, she would be a suicide statistic in two years, age 29.
John Ireland made the most of his small part, in this his second film, and he would stay busy for five more decades.

Child Eater - 2012 - 6/10

“I’m telling you, there’s a man in my closet!”
Ever was it so, the babysitter ignores the frightened child.
This brief shocker piles it on.
Dark fairy tales, childhood trauma, the horny, dismissive boyfriend.
Dialogue muffled at times, good camerawork, inventive use of meager budget.
Unsettling horror, especially for parents of young children.
Writer / director Erlingur Thoroddsen is now moving into features.

Yakuza Deka: Assassin - 1970 - 5/10
AKA - やくざ刑事

Undercover cop (Sonny Chiba) infiltrates drug gangs.
Main thread has something to do with smuggling marijuana from faraway Mexico.
Guess the Yakuza never heard of Thai sticks.
Despite all the explosions, shootings, stabbings, etc … film felt like a spoof.
There must have been thirty-seven plots going on, the narrative was incoherent at times.
No matter. Wild 70’s costumes, garish sets (nude marijuana orgy room a standout), amped out action sequences.
Lots of energy, lots of fun, but daffy.

Audrey - 2020 - 6/10

I half expected this biography of Audrey Hepburn to disappoint.
Her childhood moves quickly. Parents, Nazi supporters, her struggles in WWII Netherlands.
Glimpses of her early theatre work, minor English film roles, are rare gems.
Hollywood years involve 5-6 films, and some major films omitted.
Outside of marriages, her personal life is sketchy.
Her role as Unicef ambassador is well covered.
There are ballet sequences with no purpose.
Talking heads include Swiss neighbors, Richard Avedon’s grandson (?), biographers, people who barely knew her.
Many come across as distant souls trying to touch Hepburn’s stardust.
She deserves a better doc than this.

Wonder Wheel - 2017 - 6/10

Woody Allen recalls Coney Island of the 50’s.
Married couple struggle with the park’s decline. Young son is a pyro, older daughter has fled her Mafia husband.
Lifeguard, an aspiring writer, narrates, and attracts the wife, who once was an “actress.”
Various storylines are solid, if a little threadbare.
Acting is also first rate, and yet, this is highly theatrical. Meaning, smells stagebound.
Dialogue often turns into soliloquy, conversation is like delivering lines.
Wonderful camera work! Saturated colors, sweeping shadows, great eye from Vittorio Storaro.
Unfortunately, the plot is a retread and the whole thing is much too talky.
Extremely disappointing, nonetheless, as this has elements for one of Allen’s “good ones.”

The Witnesses - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - 8 Zeugen

A 10 year old child is kidnapped in a busy museum, in front of eight witnesses.
Trouble is, each remembers events, and more importantly, descriptions, differently.
A “memory specialist” is brought in. Whereupon, conflicting versions unspool.
Blend in individuals who conceal, data important or damning to themselves.
Promising concept relies on the crutch of the flawed investigator.
A manic depressive, one with Tourette syndrome, or Alzheimers, or divorcing, or dead!
The list goes to infinity, and I wish writers could discard this overused cliché.
Eight, half-hour episodes trot along, each layering a new clue or revelation.
The finale telegraphed the ending, at least for me, and I am not good at guessing.

The Sins Of Madame Bovary - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - I Peccati di Madame Bovary

Florid adaptation dispenses with Charles’ first marriage, courtship and marriage to Emma, and opens as Emma is already bored to tears with her unassuming provincial doctor husband.
And with poor country patients who pay with vegetable and chickens.
Those will not buy the gorgeous gowns and jewelry she eagerly desires.
Narrative is fairly faithful to Flaubert’s masterpiece, and the film boasts stunning costumes, lavish interiors, lush outdoors. In fact, I wondered if this was Technicolor (it was Eastmancolor).
Then there is Edwige Fenech, who plays Emma.

No dewy eyed ingenue here, the voluptuous Fenech exudes sensuality and experience.
Her wardrobe is sheer, or cascades to the floor easily, or is designed to highlight her twins.
To be honest, much as I enjoyed this version, she is a potent distraction.
And yet … I can imagine many males asking, “And your point?”

It’s Slade - 1999 - 6/10

Roaring documentary of the premier Glam rockers of the 70’s.
All band members appear (manager Chas Chandler, sadly RIP), along with guest heads Ozzy Osbourne, Suzi Quatro, Noel Gallagher.
Most of the story follows the rise of the group and one powerhouse hit after another.
Like Mr. Plant (another key singer from the 70’s), Noddy has been the one resisting reunions.
Glory days for Brit fans. For Yanks, maybe not so much, as Slade never caught on in the States.
Echo of the mindless, hedonistic decade fading into the graveyard.

Almost a year since the last post.
Still interested in this one.

The Uninvited - 1944 - 6/10

Cozy, old dark house mystery.
Look is part Gothic, part Noir.
House perches on cliff’s edge over pounding Cornish coast.
Critic and his sister buy on impulse, delighted the price was so reasonable!
First the dog, then cat, refuse to go upstairs.
Next, odd things occur after midnight.
Finally, and too late, the siblings ask the previous owner why the low price.
Enjoyable, if predictable, rainy night movie.
(For you fixer-upper types, the house had no phone, no electricity.)