Vultural

Darkman - 1990 - 6/10

My introduction to Liam Neeson, thirty years ago.
He had been in other films (eg: Excalibur), but this was his first starring actioner.
Neeson harrowing as vengeance driven scientist squared off against the murderous Larry Drake and his trusty cigar cutter.
Sam Raimi’s comic tendencies now come off as silly and distracting.
Darkman came between Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness.
Those two were horror comedies, Darkman was more violent and should have thrust straight for the jugular.
Definitely a series that could use a reboot.
Neeson could also replay the role, much harder, more diabolical.

Anonymous - 2011 - 4/10

Shakespeare never wrote all those plays. Nor poems.
All were penned by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Very handsome looking production that methinks doth protest too much. Or persuades too much.
Typical nonsense from director Roland Emmerich.
His highlights feature: Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, 2012, 10000 BC.
He can make em glossy, he can make em gassy, he can make em loud, he can make em preposterous.
With Anonymous, he succeeds on all fronts.
Given extra star because it really does look terrific.

A Fantastic Woman - 2017 - 7/10
AKA - Una Mujer Fantástica

On the eve of a vacation together, Marina’s much older boyfriend suffers what appears to be a stroke.
Complications follow, as she must deal with the hospital, police, finally the man’s family.
Marina’s trans status informs everyone she comes into contact with.
Remarkable study of an individual walking a tightrope without a net.
Bystanders ignorant, indifferent, hostile. try to be tolerant, open-minded, yet the sooner they see the backside of Marisa, the better.
Her reaction is poignant throughout. Resigned, stoical, barely suppressing a desperate grief.
Memorable scene when one of the relatives describe her as chimera.
Of course, he does not “see” her, he only sees the surface, and her reaction resembles a wound.
Real tour de force. At first, I thought this was from Spain, but no, Chile.

Urban Explorer - 2011 - 4/10

A mixed quartet of global tourists opt for the €300 (each!) illegal tour of the Berlin sewers.
Destination, a recently discovered, now sealed Nazi room.
Obviously, those 20ish gimbots have never watched a dead teenager flick in their lives.
What else would explain, “Oh, sewer walk, fun!” ?
Avoids clichés initially, then succumbs to predictability and formula.
Docked several points for lazy writing (eg: helpless, whiny female characters), and one stupid decision after another made by players so they could be easy targets.
Caveat emptor.

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary - 2016 - 7/10

Probably not enough here to lure seasoned Jazz buffs, but plenty for the curious or those who dip in and out.
Bit of background into Coltrane’s childhood and upbringing, work as a journeyman, achievements as a leader.
Family life and personal matters less so (consider the endless road for musicians).
Interviewees include friends, family, artists who actually played with him, later musicians who were influenced by him.
Bolstered with music throughout, as well as countless period photos and inspired illustrations.

In 2001, Ken Burns delivered a ten part, highly praised (over-praised?) series on Jazz.
The Trane doc would have fit well, especially since Burns seemed to treat the post 40’s as an afterthought.

Mado - 1976 - 6/10

The recession has hit Mado and her young friends particularly hard.
The men are “between jobs,” and Mado earns a living through casual hooking.
She is selective or lucky, as her clients are affluent developers, speculators.
Businessmen, but not as disreputable as their sinister rivals.
Or are they? Mado is young, but slowly sees through masks.
Film is overlong, and some of the detours (the mud run) are excessive and pointless.

Rolling Stones: Live In Fort Worth, Texas - 1978 - 7/10

By late 70’s, Punk exploded, dismissing the old guard as irrelevant, pompous, out of step, tired.
Old. Especially those British Invasion relics.
In '78, the Stones discarded the bloated sets, Jagger’s preening nonsense, and hurled themselves into a tight, no-nonsense tour.
Didn’t hurt that Jagger plugged in the guitar again.
In Cowtown’s Will Rogers Auditorium, “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” fully lived up to the title.
The performance was pedal to the metal, with a full bore, dialed to 11, sound mix.
Killer.

Shinya Shokudô - 2009 - 7/10
AKA - Midnight Diner

Melancholy series of nightowls and insomniacs, gathered at the cafe, open between midnight and 8:00 AM.
Half hour episodes of lives lonely, broken or dead-ended.
Individuals who missed opportunities, compromised their dreams, outlived their time.
While the cafe has a small, fixed menu, the owner seems able to fulfill all requests.
Mostly simple fare, but each evokes memories or underscores a personal story.
At each conclusion, tips or techniques for that night’s recipe are shared.
This is one of the very best late night J-dorama, and fairly easy to find.
Watching between midnight and 2:00 AM, which was when I viewed, may enhance the mood.

Two Evil Eyes - 1990 - 5/10
AKA - Due Occhi Diabolici

Two story anthology, based loosely on Edgar Allan Poe.
The first directed by George A. Romero, the second by Dario Argento.
As the wealthy husband dies, his adulterous wife and her lover (the doctor, really?) drain his bank accounts.
Romero’s resembles a TV episode, the narrative waddles like a penguin in the Sahara.
Effects, what effects? Even the makeup is rubbish.
The second story, Argento’s half, is superior technically and storywise.

A crime photographer (modern version of Weegee) disapproves of his girlfriend’s new black cat.
That does not stop him from using the feline as a prop (cat lovers, beware).
The plot includes a witches coven, dismemberments, gallows humor.

The Eye Of The Storm - 2011 - 7/10

Piss and vinegar matriarch (Charlotte Rampling) summons her two children (Geoffrey Rush & Judy Davis) to her deathbed.
The Norman Rockwell warm and fuzzy sendoff will probably bypass this family.
Bad blood, rotten memories and stunted adults.
Nevertheless, these characters are clear-eyed and have no false belief in redemption.

Agatha And The Midnight Murders - 2020 - 6/10

Agatha Christie, financially strapped, opts to sell an unpublished manuscript to a Hong Kong editor.
Dateline 1940. During the height of the Blitz, she and her driver venture into a darkened nightclub.
Inside are a dozen assorted guests, gamblers, and unknowns. And then the sirens begin to wail.
Locked room mystery has good cast and acceptable location.
Nonetheless, this is, essentially, a one room play. The lighting is dim, the sound is murky.
Fifteen minutes in, I bark, “The villain better not be so-and-so because that would be so obvious.”
End of the show, my prediction proved accurate, which means the writing is neither clever nor creative.
(I am not exactly the brightest Mystery sleuth.)
Wasted potential.

Shame - 2011 - 5/10

From all the hype I was expecting fare truly disgusting.
Train wreck sister moves in temporarily with her highly successful brother in Manhattan
She cramps his routine of meaningless sex, Internet porn, hookers, skin magazines, dirty videos, etc …
Both leads (Fassbender and Mulligan) could be termed easy on the eyes.
Bleak and depressing.
You would think someone could create characters who had a lusty appreciation of magazines and videos.

Ein Krimi aus Passau - 2020 - 5/10
AKA - A Thriller From Passau

Mother and daughter, Frederike and Mia, live incognito under a witness protection program.
Ex-police officer mom risks exposure because she cannot suppress her police reactions.
Matters are not helped by the daughter’s self destructive impulses, and her hating the small town where they hide.
And yes, the bad guys are hunting for them.
A small time private detective realizes who they are, though he has an agenda.
There is really no one else in the cast of importance.
The writing is inept, the plotting embarrassingly bad. One asinine coincidence after another.
This was instantly forgettable.

Burning Man - 2011 - 6/10

Hotshot Australian chef comes to terms with grief via alcohol and hookers.
His son needs attention, the restaurant is struggling, and his driving proves a menace to pedestrians.
Lots of flashbacks of his happy marriage, and the golden moment he had.
Viewer Beware: Burning Man, was deliberately chopped, edited and rearranged in random sequence. Especially at the beginning, the narrative can be challenging.
An abundance of nudity may distract you.
Not without rewards, but the total experience can be a messy one.

White Of The Eye - 1987 - 6/10

In Phoenix and Tucson, a serial killer targets beautiful, classy women.

He wrecks their homes, yet artfully arranges objects into … what? Message or madness?
So why are homicide detectives in small town Globe? Chasing tire tracks, friend.
While far from a masterpiece, this is an arresting film.
There are touches of Giallo throughout, but the desert predominates.
This appears to be high desert in winter, which might explain the jackets and coats.
The story wanders around, capturing the boredom of cozy communities, where the main outlets are drinking and screwing around.
Odd directorial choices, narrative turns, and several flashbacks kept me watching, though the finale stumbles.

Last Night - 2010 - 7/10

At the New York office shindig, a young wife’s (Keira Knightley) radar is triggered by her husband’s new coworker.
Her husband has been working late with the woman, and going on several out-of-town trips.
Nevertheless, he swears he has zero interest in his steamy colleague (Eva Mendes).
That’s just before he takes off for another trip to Los Angeles … with his coworker.
Just after he departs, an old flame of the wife knocks at her door.
From there on, the narrative weaves between the spouses.
Temptations, infidelity, and possible regret fill the storylines, and dialogue is peppered with innuendo.
A very adult, and cityscape drama.
As a long time urbanite, I could identify all the characters, though I could not identify with them. Difference.

The Woman In The Fifth - 2011 - 5/10
AKA - La Femme du Vème

A throwback to the incomprehensible arthouse fare of the 70’s.
Writer Ethan Hawke moves to Paris to be closer to his daughter.
Had he been in prison? A mental institute?
He is penniless, yet lands a job watching monitors for a gangster? Drug peddler? Accountant?
Meets a potential literary muse in Kristin Scott Thomas. Is she … or maybe … but then … say wha … ?
The old phrase, “That’s why they call 'em furreign films,” definitely applies here.
A confused jumble.

Holocaust Concentration Camp - 2006 - 5/10

Middling four part documentary series suffers from subpar production values.
Episodes have no music, relying on photos, film clips, testimonies, and narration.
Auschwitz has been better covered in Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution.
I had been looking forward to Majdanek as this camp was still functioning when the Soviets liberated it.
Mostly testimony, dry as dust.
Dachau and Sachsenhausen had color footage and offered background - but - parts were lazy.
Example: The narrator describes the SS starting the camp, yet newsreels are of the SA.
Himmler is referenced and shown, then in the next frame, still mentioning Himmler, Ernst Röhm is shown.
For the curious, I would recommend the chapter on Ravensbruck And Buchenwald.
The latter was a woman’s camp, and this episode translates what various badges meant, hierarchies, and reasons for incarceration.

So-called democracies would be well advised to study history.
Marginalization generally leads to persecution. Walls can easily become camps.

“Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people” - Heinrich Heine (1821)

The Woman In Black - 2012 - 5/10

Hammer film starring Daniel Radcliffe, based on the West End shocker that has been playing since … when … the Gladstone administration?
Twisted tale set in haunted house where our young clerk must shift several lots of papers.
He gets distracted constantly. Noises overhead, creaking down the hall, movement outside. So he stops working to start chasing. I hate working with people like that.
Every five minutes, the film had a gotcha surprise punctuated with REALLY LOUD music.
Film-makers have opened up the play considerably with brooding exteriors and wonderfully appointed interiors.
Fellow members of the room audience thought the sets too perfect.
Good for some jolts, but an overall disappointment for me.

The Reeds - 2010 - 5/10

Three girls, three guys, rent a boat to celebrate an engagement and go drinking at an obscure pub somewhere in a reedy marsh.
Sounds like a plan.
Maybe next time they will head to the moors where the RAF practices strafing runs and bombing.
Points given for crafting a professional looking film on a rat’s lunch allowance.
Still, even though our crew hands were all in their late 20’s, this was another variant on the dead teenager plot.
Don’t expect originality with this one.

Danger Pays - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Yabai Koto Nara Zeni ni Naru // 危いことなら銭になる

Mobsters hijack the truck carrying special paper for banknotes.
Next, they plan to kidnap the nation’s finest counterfeiter, returning from Hong Kong.
They are not alone, however, as three small time hustlers anticipate and interfere.
Violent crime drama quickly pivots into spoof territory, satirizing heists, Yakuza, master planners.
The kidnapped engraver, an elderly man, sets his workplace under the glass floor of a strip parlor, for example.
Much of this resembles guerilla cinema, filmed inside clubs, on busy streets, or empty industrial sites.
Comedy is more silly than smart, most of the characters border on stupid.
Jô Shishido fans will still feel compelled to watch this rather obscure and hard to find film.

Fleabag - 2019 - 7/10

Theatre junkies, queue up!
During the Covid lockdown, the National Theatre began limited airing of stage classics.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s acclaimed one-woman show of acerbic, self-punishing Fleabag.
By turns laugh out loud funny and stomach curdling.
A toxic soul, Fleabag leaves collateral damage everywhere.
Family, friends, neighbors, animals.
That last category was a breaking point for those I watched this with.
Malice, buffered with half hearted self recrimination. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Hysteria - 2011 - 6/10

Victorian costumer and inventor tale.
Some names are synonymous with their inventions.
The Earl Of Sandwich, Sir Thomas Crapper, Hans Geiger, Candido Jacuzzi, …
Not Mortimer Granville, however, who invented a device for treating female hysteria.
An electrical, vibrating device that relieved tension, and remains a wildly popular gadget to this day.
The gift that keeps on giving, and when given, will make you a whispered topic of discussion.
Not as over-the-top funny as it could have been, featuring secondary stories about suffragette rights, and the plight of the poor.

The House Of Shame - 1928 - 6/10

Over breakfast, the husband starts going over his wife’s clothing bills.
She pouts, he storms off to work.
At the office, hubby cooks the ledgers, pockets the cash. Embezzler!
Gets on the phone to sweet stuff and sets up a rendezvous. Only she’s not his wife. Cheater!
That night at the party, menfolk start shooting billiards to see who slips off with whose wife. Wife swapping!
When a uniformed cop appeared, hubster thinks he’s been caught, confesses his light fingered office antics to wifey, begs her to fix things with the boss.
“How dear?” - - “I know! How about, you let him lube your chassis?” Now, daddy is hosting pimp my ride!
At the office, the lecherous boss states, “I’m sure we can come to an arrangement, Mrs Baremore.”
Baremore! Really? Ha ha ha. I kid you not. Awesome!
End of Part 1.

El cheapo, trashy Silent boasts 6 Parts of melodrama, comedy, moralizing and sleaze.
Dirt track studio aspires with decent sets and lurid story that chugs along.
Later, one of my favorite scenes occurs where a gentleman hands his ladyfriend a bouquet.
She pulls out a rosebud, brushes it next to her cheek, then on her lips where she proceeds to kiss it, lick it, nibble it, then wrap her lips lightly around it. All the while, smiling innocently at her date.
Is she offering what I think she’s offering? How’d this get past the censor? Maybe they were clueless.
Tempted to score this 87/10 for sheer outrageousness, and being PreCode before the Code existed.
Nevertheless, this is an overcooked turkey, with no sound (no music) and the print is battered.

Dreams Of A Life - 2011 - 7/10

Documentary about a woman’s corpse, found in her London bedsit.
She had died three years earlier, Christmas presents around her, telly still running.
Three years. How could anyone be so forgotten?
Interviews with old friends and coworkers served to remind us by what slender threads we hang onto each other.
^

I had written dozens of stories about a previous workplace.
Almost everyone gave me permission to continue using their first names. Many were now successful, a few famous.
I couldn’t find one person, though. None of us could. It was as if she had vanished.
At a recent party, R said, “Some people don’t want to be found.”
While watching Dreams Of A Life, I remembered my old colleague, the one who slipped away.
^