Vultural

Arbitrage - 2012 - 7/10

Another of those heavily nominated Academy films that …
Wait a minute. Arbitrage didn’t get nominated for jack!
Not even Richard Gere, who gave another performance of a lifetime as a wheeler dealer, money hustler navigating a series of business negotiations, moral crises, police investigations, etc …
This is right up there with Margin Call in the financial chicanery films.
Intelligent alternative when you need a break from all those teen slasher and TnA romps.

Hatchet For The Honeymoon - 1970 - 6/10
AKA - Il Rosso Segno Della Follia

Beautiful girls are killed on the eve of their honeymoon, or on their honeymoon!
No mystery about the culprit, as we watch fashion designer John do the deeds.
The mystery is why he does the deeds.
Typical of Giallo, the sets and costumes are gorgeous, as are most of the players.
The pace is sluggish, though the narrative is coherent.
John’s home is stupendous! Vast rooms, grand staircases, huge entryways.
My favorite room was packed with mannikins, all dressed in bridal attire.
Not a first choice for Giallo, but should satisfy fans of the genre.

Flames Of Love - 1967 - 7/10
AKA - Jôen // The Affair // 情炎

Moody drama of young woman chastising her widowed mother’s scandalous behavior.
Her mother led affairs with lower class men, took to drink, and was run over by a truck.
Now the daughter, unhappily married, sees a similar path, darkly beckoning, in comparison with her faithless, businessman husband and meaningless home life.
A slow film, with compositions immaculate and imaginative.
Fascinating to watch her question those around her, and in so doing, question herself.
Her choices are extremely limited, and no matter how open minded men declare themselves, few are.
Arresting sound mix, as well. A perky instrumental balanced with stark silence or musique concrète.

The Ax - 2005 - 7/10
AKA - Le Couperet

Nifty French thriller.
Chemist loses his job to downsizing and outsourcing.
After two years, he remains unemployed.
He determines who his likely competitors are and decides to winnow the field.
Very black comedy grows grimmer and darker.
Based on Donald Westlake’s “The Ax.”
Themes, far ahead of their time, still resonate today.
Especially if your job search isn’t going so well.

Amulet - 2020 - 5/10

Border guard commits misdeeds during Balkans conflict.
Jump forward, and he works build sites as (possibly) illegal worker.
Until he is offered room and board at a fixer-upper house, occupied by dying mother and her daughter.
Soon, he has concerns about the locked attic and dangerous incidents. Does he flee?
Artsy horror film is portentous and ponderous. And slow.
Rather than thoughtful, the pacing felt like padding.
The “amulet” itself was a shoehorned element, as it had scant bearing on the plot.
Too bad. There are decent concepts here, yet the result is muddled.

A Wedding - 2016 - 7/10
AKA - Noces

Uncomfortable story of relocated Pakistani family living in France.
The 18 year old daughter ponders an abortion. Waffles and procrastinates.
After she makes a decision, the family concludes she needs to marry.
Living in France, she is becoming too Western.
She is given three photos of Pakistani males and told to choose.
Again, she procrastinates, only this time the screws bear down.
You root for her because she has spirit and joie de vivre, but family pressure is agonizing.
Though opening credits state, “Inspired by true events,”
much of the story seemed to evoke Madame Bovary.

Labyrinth - 2012 - 5/10

Treating this two part series as a movie.
Produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, which is what drew my interest.
Dual narratives of present day and 13th century France, where the Crusaders tackle a Cathar sect.
Nice production values for the earlier era, poor casting for the modern.
Based on a best-selling novel (book received wildly mixed reviews) about the Holy Grail, intolerance, church intrigue. Violent, bloody, sexy.
First part held my interest throughout. Second half, I blame the author.
Stories stretched to the point of silliness, and seemed targeted for YA readers.
Possibly 13 year old female readers. Based on female leads consistent reactions, very gullible female readers.
Scoring the parts: Pt 1 = 6, Part 2 = 4.

Impetigore - 2019 - 6/10
AKA - Perempuan Tanah Jahanam

Maya is stalked, then while working at the toll booth, she is assaulted.
Wielding a machete, the man apologizes, “I’m sorry, but you curse our village. I must kill you.”
“I don’t know you!” she screams. “I never heard of your village!”
Fortunately, police arrive and the would-be assassin is shot dead.
So what would you do? Go to a remote, isolated village where everyone wants your life?
That’s what Maya does, seeking answers.

Another fine Joko Anwar film. This is shot during late afternoon and night.
The mood stays grim and foreboding throughout. The cinematography in this, as in other Anwar films I have viewed, is well thought out and imaginative.
The plot is somewhat rehashed, but the style is mesmerizing.
For those who adored Hong Kong cinema (before Chinese censors and mainstream audiences diluted it), check out this director.

American Pastoral - 2016 - 4/10

Overwrought, over-acted, out of date yarn of girl who turns radical in the 60’s, then goes underground.
Wait, no, the story is really about the father (Ewan McGregor) who spends his time (life) hunting for his daughter.
He is below amateur in this, by the way, committing mistakes, making terrible judgment errors.
Then again, there is the crumbling of his middle class, white bread marriage (to Jennifer Connelly).
Some of the scenes that might have been provocative in 1975 are laughable today.
Heavy handed downer of Roth’s critique of the social veneer.

84 Charing Cross Road - 1987 - 7/10

Love letter to readers and book collectors.
Based on the correspondence between New Yorker Helene Hanff and the staff of Marks & Co (especially Frank Doel) in London.
Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins well cast.
Film has nice feel for the post war rationing and hardships in England.
The era of acquiring fine, leatherbound classics (albeit secondhand) for £1 4s 6d is gone, gone, gone.
Meanwhile. the current era indicates actual, physical books are fading as well.
Quiet film, worth viewing if you have not seen it.

In the early 80’s, bookshops were still plentiful along Charing Cross.
Sadly, there are fewer now.

Gadjo Dilo - 1998 - 6/10
AKA - The Crazy Stranger

Young French man wanders the Romanian countryside, cassette Walkman in his pack.
He seeks Nora Luca, gypsy folk singer, all but unknown in the west.
Colorful story throws him into the Romany world, where he is perceived as a curio.
The fact that he knows only a few Romany phrases and NO Romanian, cast him as the rube.
Fortunately (and fortune bears two faces), one girl speaks French.
To term their relationship highly charged would be understating it.
Film does not gloss over the tensions between normal Romanians, and the gypsies.

Note: I have been to Romania a few times.
I watched a pack work a set of hustles in Timișoara (in McDonalds) one evening. (Similar scenes had played out where I worked, when Traveler kids “shopped.”)
Mock fights, girls removing tops to adjust their bras – if they are wearing one to begin with, while a quiet mule drifts from table to table, taking cellphones, lighters, any item not nailed down.
I never saw any of the girls wearing traditional garb, as in this film.

My Name Ain’t Suzie - 1985 - 6/10
AKA - Fa Gai si Doi // 花街時代

Purported rebuttal to 1960‘s The World Of Suzie Wong is too little, too late.
Barely adolescent, village girls follow free-spending madam back to the Hong Kong brothel.
There, they are educated in the ways of male satisfaction, and emptying males of their folding money.
Colorful Shaw Brothers production is PG, with no nudity, let alone suggestive moaning.
Just giggling, happy hookers servicing the US Navy from the Korean conflict to Vietnam era, after which traffic ebbs.
Expect the ubiquitous bar fight. Triad involvement hinted at, drugs and pregnancies skirt by.
Most surprising (to me) was seeing the abandoned boy the madam had raised as her own, and was turning into her private boy toy, a young Anthony Wong in his first role.

Vanquisher - 2009 - 4/10
AKA - Suay Samurai // สวย…ซามูไร

I started watching this with others, finished watching alone.
Heard muttering about, " … another one of his winners … "
Absurd Thai actioner begins as CIA sends hottie Thai op to kidnap a Muslim insurgent for the Russians.
Within five minutes, the time frame is two years later, and hottie is sent to eliminate another radical.
From there, confusion reigns.
A pair of Japanese hitmen get involved, as do an army of sword swinging ninjas.
There are a couple of lush female Thai cops (on either side of the conflicts), three Muslim chicks with scimitars, a dozen Thai black op agents on underpowered, put-put motorscooters, a samurai master, and absolutely no plot whatsoever.
Everyone was fighting … for … I’m not sure what.
This got awful reviews, I still watched it.
Loser.

Romulus - 2020 - 6/10

Boldly imaginative take on the founders of Rome.
Note. This is pre-Rome. No coliseums, no columns. Straw huts and animal skins.

Straight off, I was baffled. Who were these characters? Plus, there were so many!
Not to worry, characters are drawn in broad strokes, and a fair percentage are killed early on.
After awhile, I was glad I stayed with this, as I perceived what the producers were doing.
Big points there. The final episode, however, proved deeply unsatisfying to most.
Latin majors, rejoice! Ten episodes, spoken in the Classical language!

Howl - 2015 - 6/10

Midnight train to Eastborough slams to a stop in the Thornton forest.
Bickering, querulous passengers soon realize they are stranded and become prey.
Predictable (I guessed early meals, and called the survivor). Limitations disguised with rain, fog and low light.
Unlike Dog Soldiers, no humor, and characters are weak, annoying or simply undeveloped.
Much as I hoped, Allen Ginsberg never appears.
Wolf pack, queue up.

London: Modern Babylon - 2012 - 6/10

Flashy arthouse film / documentary / 100 year history of London.
More or less chronological beginning from 1900.
Edits newsreel footage, silent films, movies, interviews, converts, dancing like a skipping stone on events of the last 100 years.
WWI, the Blitz, Swinging London, 2011 riots, are covered, as well as the changing face of the city.
London, the quintessential “English” city at the beginning, emerges as a multi cultural megapolis by the end.
Very well done, but a bit wearying, like viewing a two hour music video.
Sensory overload to be sure.

Laurel Canyon - 2020 - 7/10

Rosy tinted nostalgia of Los Angeles neighborhood, circa 1965-1971, when musicians roamed.
This is more free-wheeling and more substantive than 2018’s “vanity doc” by Dylan’s kid.
Straight off, Joni Mitchell is included, as are Love, the Doors, even Alice Cooper (early Zappa signee).
Youthful photos and images are shown while current voices recollect.
One sees the artists during their creative peak, not after the progression of decades.

The second part opens with the demise of the 60’s: Manson family, Kent State, Altamont.
Narrative cruises into the 70’s, with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles.
Some have voiced the second half is a downer. Not really. Tastes and fashions change.
Chronology of the doc is somewhat massaged, but not overly so.

Let’s Get Lost - 1988 - 7/10

After watching Ethan Hawke’s well meaning, but sweetened portrayal of Chet Baker, I dug out this blunt alternative.
The face and soul of chronic addiction.

Difficult, at times abrasive, portrayal of the performer, something of a cult figure.
Flashbacks, old photos, recent performances.
Candid answers and ruminations from Mr. Baker are contrasted with corrections from fellow sidemen and the women in his life.
Mother, one of his wives, his daughter, two girlfriends.
This is a beautiful film, gorgeous in black and white, but it is something of an art project.
Director Bruce Weber sticks to his conceit of withered beauty, focusing on time and heroin’s ravage of the Prince of Cool
A haunting viewing experience, though it is not a documentary, and certainly not a biography.
Let’s Get Lost is more Bruce Weber, and less Chet Baker.

Confession, I’m a huge fan of Chet Baker. I have close to sixty recordings and I’m still buying titles of his.
A poignant artist of despair and regret, especially in his mature years.

Searching For Sugarman - 2012 - 7/10

If you are a music fan, like a hardcore collector, you are always searching for new.
Or forgotten, or overlooked. You don’t want mainstream, that’s for the herd.
Documentary about the obscure Detroit musician, Rodriguez.
He released two albums in the early 70’s. Both sank like stones.
One night, so the story went, angry, despondent, Rodriguez killed himself onstage in front of a bored crowd. No one knew him, no one missed him.
Except in South Africa where he had been massively popular. And he had never known.
Film follows the trail. Who was Rodriguez? What happened to him?
This one really pulls you in, partly for the mystery, partly because his music is surprisingly good.

Born To Be Blue - 2015 - 6/10

Iffy musing on Chet Baker’s “missing years.”
Between the glamorous, youthful heyday and the stubborn comeback.
The years when his teeth were knocked out and he had to rebuild his embouchure.
This is not a biopic proper. The girlfriend is a composite of Halema, Diane and Ruth.
Bit careless on chronology, too. And the ending – no.
Credit to filmmakers for trying to show the unpleasant side of Baker to balance the talent.
They did not go far enough, though, and this is too feel goody for my understanding of Mr Baker.

The Whales Of August - 1987 - 7/10

Two frail, elderly sisters rest in their seaside cottage, and reflect on the passage of time.
To paraphrase, how could we ever grow so old?
One (Bette Davis) is sharp tongued, somewhat bitter, and resigned to the Reaper.
The other (Lillian Gish) still makes plans, intends to enjoy what time remains.
Casual remarks and observations of those who have dropped from the Parade, those who have withered.
Vincent Price plays an impoverished aristocrat from Czarist Russia (the film occurs @ 1950‘s).
The language and manners reflect the earlier, more gracious period.
Perhaps better for old viewers. My wife and I, both in our 30’s at that time, blew this off when it first screened. Decades on, we may not be ready to shuffle off, but we can sense the Reaper’s shadow.

ZerØ Days - 2016 - 7/10

Excellent documentary of the Stuxnet computer worm, discovered by Kaspersky iin 2010.
Without spoiling too much, evidence is fairly clear this was a government operation.
This was an early salvo in cyber warfare. Target, nuclear centrifuges.
Aftermath - the global proliferation of national cyber divisions.
Dozens of security folk interviewed, security firms and spymasters.
Do not hope for confession or clarity.
Coding jargon is basic 101, not overly technical (though I paused twice to answer questions).
For those who shrug, “This does not affect me,” au contraire. Targets include electrical grids, nuclear plants, dams, banking systems, hospitals, damn near anything with power and a micro processor.

Anna Karenina - 2012 - 4/10

Opulent, gaudy, stilted, mannered adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel undone by profound miscasting.
This is a very theatrical interpretation, as in much occurs on a theatre stage.
Characters often move as if performing ballet.
Knightley, once again, attempts a role she is too young for.
She is incapable of gravitas, but her trademarked pursed lips, squinty grin appears over and over.
Received well deserved accolades for sets and costumes.
Taylor-Johnson, playing Vronsky as a sissified fop, resembles Gene Wilder’s Doctor Frankensteen.

Hagy, Jessica - One Morning

“Did you enjoy that book?” asked Zelda.
“Yes, quite a bit. The book has twelve chapters, one for each hour of that day, for each woman. “Midnight: Helena,” “One in the morning: Ruth,” “Two in the morning: Agnes” …
We read what happens with each during that particular hour, a bit of back story, interior monologue, possible trajectory. By chapter three, you start to see how the women, their stories, weave and intersect.”
“I love books like that!”
“And this is masterfully constructed,” I said. “Better, it occurs in a part of the world you know.”
“Oh?”
“An area outside Pittsburgh.”
“I’ve never been there,” she said.
“A pocket community in Appalachia, where coal has been dug out to where the land is unstable, the water is toxic, and the mining jobs have dried up.”
“The same mountain range where you grew up. Where I’ve visited dozens of times. Yes, I know the area. And I love the size of the book. It is perfect for reading. Set it aside, I want to read it.”

Burroughs (Arena) - 1983 - 7/10

Penetrating, if difficult biography of William Burroughs.
Childhood, the Burroughs name, the William Tell incident, drug use, travels, sex, all check listed.
Being 1983, many interviewees were still alive (including Burroughs’ son) and they were blunt.
One memorable scene has him showing his defensive weapons in his bunker. Knives, blackjacks, and of course, guns.
College readings (*) were problematic for me, as listening to his prose seemed harder to decipher compared with reading.
Burroughs’ growling snarl might be an acquired taste. Nonetheless, this is an excellent overview of the man a good decade before he died.

(*) Seeing some of the readings, I began wondering who current students listen to.
Not the corporate shills, media celebrities, or pop culture scribes. The poets, the literary masters, the underground.
Do junior and senior year intelligentsia value any literary elders enough to listen to?
Salman Rushdie? Joan Didion? Thomas Ligotti?