Vultural

Kronos - 1957 - 6/10

Rather imaginative SciFi, a variation on the invasion theme.
An alien machine (robot or manned, we never know) begins marching across the desert.
It seeks out and absorbs energy: nuclear, electrical, power lines, power grids, explosions.
Nothing the military (US and Mexico) hurls against it seems to slow the machine down.
Special effects are pretty good for the 1950’s, but the “science” is gobbledygook.
Not that kids would catch errors, or teens in the drive-in would notice.
I wish Wade Williams (film & rights owner) would restore this.

I I I: Das Ritual - 2015 - 6/10

Russian film set in remote village beset with plague like wasting illness.
When one sister comes down with the sickness, the healthy sister consults a rogue priest.
Most illness is mental, he declares, if one enters the other’s psyche the cure can be found.
Being marketed as Horror, yet this is not genre true. By any standard, though, a beautiful film to watch.
Scene after scene of marvelously composed images.
For cinematography and atmosphere, I’d boost this to 8/10.

Thus noted, for narrative, I’d kick this down to 4/10.
Damn little happens, and the pace is numbing.
Actors seem little better than somnambulists, serious and plodding.
Scenes and characters are introduced, then abandoned.
The nudging suspicion - “was it all a dream” - whispers after a bit.

Grant, Charles L - The Long Night Of The Grave

Finale to Grant’s homage to golden age, Hollywood monsters.
We are now entering a more modern era. Motorcars are in evidence, and homes are being wired for electricity.
Less welcome, a mummy arrives in Oxrun Station, along with a faithful, handy priest.
A mounting corpse count doesn’t seem to disturb local police.
Character development is all but nonexistent here, which is fine since this echoes Universal characters, who were also one-note.
Of the trilogy, this outing worked best for me, though I will admit I found the mummy dull.
C’mon, best defense, a can of hairspray and a Zippo lighter.

The Masseuse - 2018 - 7/10

Loong is the new temp tech at the Pink Dolphin, brothel in Kuala Lumpur.
He is there to service the TX-59 therapist, an older model android.
Conversations include what it is to be real, genuine, dreams, and a sense of friendship grows.
SciFi short is seen through a humid haze, heightening the theme of what is “real”.
Again, TX-59 is an older model, soon to be retired, but because of the friendship, Loong gives her updates.
Well crafted, thoughtful short, with an ending that packs a punch.

Insurance Investigator - 1951 - 6/10

When a business man accidentally dies, his partner stands to make a windfall.
Double indemnity clause strikes again.
Suspicious, especially since there have been a string of such deaths, an undercover investigator is dispatched.
B-film quickie rolls breathlessly. We know who did it, why they done it, and who the weak links are.
Richard Denning and Audrey Long have the chemistry of high school flirts.
Watchable, Noirish programmer provides an acceptable way to kill an hour.

Leaving - 2009 - 5/10
AKA - Partir

Implausible French melodrama.
Married woman develops the hots for the handyman hired to clear out the barn.
All well and good, but then … love? Really?
She is the wife of a doctor, she is also a physical therapist of sorts, and mother to two teens.
Handyman is illegal worker from Spain, with a prison record.
Say again, love?
Give up the posh life to pick veggies or work as grocery check-out girl because of true love?
Balls.
Characters are in their 40’s and 50’s. Females are hard nosed about money at that age.
The leads have negative chemistry.
Farfetched nonsense.

Best Sellers - 2021 - 6/10

The legendary publishing house has fizzled with its last three releases.
Rumors spread that the daughter, new editor, is unable to carry on her father’s legacy.
Then her assistant an outstanding obligation, forty years overdue.
A famous author, assumed dead, owes the firm a book.
And the female sets out to visit the difficult curmudgeon.
Feel-good dramedy that one watches to see Michael Caine.
His Harris Shaw, burned out, alcoholic, reclusive, mixes Bukowski - Salinger - Hemingway
Enjoyable if you in the mood, and can buy into the fantasy that masses still read in 2021.

Invaders From Mars - 1953 - 6/10

Only young David sees the flying saucer land in nearby sand dunes.
Later, no one believes him when he tries to warn adults that people going to the site, come back strange.
Altered – or possessed. Even his own parents!
I watched this as a child (the perfect audience) and it gave me nightmares.
Kids are never believed, we knew that. And angered parents are sheer menace.
15 years later, I rewatched as part of a 1950’s SciFi marathon. The movie theater was packed, amidst a fog of marijuana smoke. We watched in rapt anxiety.
Even last night, while analyzing and dissecting techniques and effects, the childhood unease was there.

End Of The Tour - 2015 - 7/10

Compelling, if historically suspicious, road trip of two writers.
Rolling Stone columnist takes assignment to interview David Foster Wallace, author of “Infinite Jest.”
Jesse Eisenberg takes the rather sour role of reporter Lipsky, resentful, envious, awe-struck ,and he is terrific.
Jason Segel memorable as the author, uncomfortable under the sun of fame.
He’s incredibly layered as an individual who, on one hand, exposes himself and his flaws, and yet, on the other hand, keeps supportive friends at arm’s length.
Film gracefully contrasts the loneliness and isolation most writers struggle with, alongside the near-delusional self confidence they must maintain to sustain themselves.

The Nazis: A Warning From History - 1997 - 8/10

Superior eight part series, focusing less on WWII, more on internal party politics.
Early on, the party benefited from luck, and being in the right time, while opponents underestimated them.
Successes (economic and political) fed indoctrination.
Numerous interviewees, many still-proud party members, talk fairly directly.
Of course, viewers ought to be skeptical when individuals - any individuals - recount history.
Footage is uniformly crisp, with subtitles throughout - not always a given with WWII documentaries.
Most of the interviewees were in their 60’s or older, and most are likely gone now.
Timely of BBC to capture living memory before the voices slipped away.

Fatale Station - 2016 - 6/10

Sarah arrives in Fatale Station, pop 1404, after a botched murder attempt.
The town is small, although this series follows the more colorful citizens.
Butcher, bartender, hooker, nutjobs and protesters from Indian Nation.
Ruling the town is Mrs. O’Gallagher, who senses Sarah brings trouble and wants her evicted.

And, eventually, the blight does find Sarah and approaches.
The secondary characters are the main import here.
We pick up stories midstream, then shuffle away.
Forbidding atmosphere throughout, fine acting, inadequate script.

Twenty-One - 1991 - 5/10

Wild child Katie shares her world with us, in a series of “face time” monologues.
Relationships, men, mostly unsuitable.
Katie is self-centered, promiscuous, and young.
She makes poor choices (join the club), and she over-shares.
The narrative and its turns probably read well on the script, but falls flat onscreen.
What is meant to shock, instead bores, in this unfunny stumble.
Patsy Kensit is sexy, the film is not. Not remotely.
Seven years later, Sex And The City would mine the formula.

Richard III - 1995 - 8/10

Thrilling adaptation of Shakespeare’s play.
Here, England is transformed into a fascist monarchy.
As if Oswald Mosley had led a successful coup.
Richard is low on the ladder to claim the throne.
One by one, those ahead of him began departing this world.
Ian McKellen spellbinding as the smiling, gracious, treacherous usurper.
For those who think they are allergic to the bard, give this blood soaked film a look.

Midnight - 1939 - 7/10

Crackling screwball comedy finds showgirl being used by a rich man.
The older man’s wife is cheating, so he decides “what’s good for the goose …”
Meanwhile, there is a cabbie who had befriended the showgirl, who starts searching.
Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, lead a large casts of names.
The plot I gave is bare bones, as it is packed with comic twists and turns.
Pacing in this is terrific, along with the jokes, visual gags, one-liners.
One of the best screwball comedies, and sadly, pretty much overlooked.

The Shallows - 2016 - 7/10

Darned good shark chomper. (I live with shark fans so I get force-fed shark films a lot.)
Surfer girl makes her way to very obscure beach in Mexico. Friends bailed, so she is alone.
Even though she meets a pair of other surfers, she watches them depart as she desires one last ride.
Then the shark arrives, and hers becomes a battle for survival.
And don’t assume ole sharky will let her catch a wave to shore. No way.
Slow buildup leads to a nail biter the rest of the way.
The ending seems to have one scene too many.
Atmospheric, lingering photography.

The Women Of Weird Tales - (Intro: Melanie Anderson)

Elsewhere, there is a thread regarding the challenge of reading the aesthetically dubious book. As a purely physical object, this particular title is lower rung.
First impressions, the pages are thin and crease easily. The gutters are tight.
Introductions and biographies are minimal, yet to the point. The exterior has that peculiar feel that I associate with items hailing from that P.O.D. factory, ICGtesting.
Finally, the cover art, designed by M S Corley, a decent cartoonist, is more suited to Highlights For Children, found in dentist’s waiting rooms for decades.

I was interested in this for the five Greye La Spina entries. In 2011, Arkham House, then being helmed by Robert Weinberg and George Vanderburgh as editors, issued the “last” physical flyer, announcing an upcoming Greye La Spina collection, The Gargoyle And Others. Arkham’s troubles were only worsening at this time, and the book never came out. So I hoped these five had been part of that anthology. In any event, they are among the best in this collection.
Pan, abandoning a war torn Old World for the New, finds a garden, with nymph, which he approves. In ”Great Pan Is Here,” the god warns to stuffy young owner not to challenge him, and to also hold tight to his lady love.
A matter of stitching is involved in “The Antimacassar.” Lucy travels into the countryside, searching for her mentor. Something is definitely amiss in the small house, where the widow keeps secrets and her daughter is kept locked up.
Everil Worrell is also allotted five entries, but these are lighter in tone, tinged with romance and the stray touch of SciFi. Eccentric inventor and visionary, Count Zolani, prepares to sent voyagers into the cosmos. He needs financial backing, of course, to rebuild the derelict mansion on the cliff know as “Vulture Crag.”
“The Rays Of The Moon” lingers on the grave robber, the young medical intern, who requires fresh corpses. Under the moonlight, he encounters the otherworldly.
Top name, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, is granted two stories, the more obscure being “The Web Of Silence,” a tongue in cheek satire of blackmail and epidemic.
Eli Colter, less know perhaps, has one yarn, “The Curse Of A Song,” which, stylistically, seems to hark back to the gaslit Victorian era.

The stories are hit and miss, though mostly enjoyable. The book itself … it is what it is.

Roosevelt Game - 2014 - 8/10
AKA - Ruzuveruto Gemu // ルーズヴェルト・ゲーム

Nine innings J-dorama, set in the corporate boardroom, in the research lab, and on the diamond.
Small manufacturing firm finds itself under serious attack by king sized competitor.
The larger outfit has deep pockets, and they launch every trick in the book to destroy the smaller group.
To add insult to injury, the big guys even poach three top players and coach from the small firm’s baseball team.
(Footnote - Corporations in Japan sponsor their own teams, have a season, and a tournament.)
To save money, the small firm initiates layoffs and decides to shutter the baseball club.
They compromise, however, and the team will be disbanded only after they lose in the playoffs.

Bet you can see where this is heading? Well, not exactly.
In the best tradition of J-doramas, the villains are wicked, sinister types.
But they are not stupid. In the ballpark, or in the boardroom, they are crafty and intelligent.
They countermove every tack the smaller electronics firm attempts to stay alive.
An addicting, nine episode series, with the battles played across multiple fronts.
Of course, the ball teams will square off eventually.

Enjoyed this greatly, and I truly despise baseball, specifically overpaid, MLB players who give the impression they don’t even like playing the game, disdain fans who root them on.
The games in this are old-fashioned, and the players earn next to nothing, so they play for love of the game.
Baseball fans, track this down!

The Making Of A Man - 1911 - 5/10

The acting troupe makes a whistle-stop in a small town.
And the lead actor makes an impression on a star struck girl.
So much so, that before you know it, they are hitched.

“Yes, I have the license here, so … what … she’s how old?”
True love is crushed again. Only then, nine months later, whoops!
Decent Biograph melodrama has little to do with “the man” and more with the girl (15 year old Blanche Sweet).
An early silent, I suspect most of actors had toured theatrically for years and knew this tale too well.

Look Back In Anger - 1989 - 6/10

Jimmy, educated working class, runs a sweets shop and lives in a cheap attic flat with his wife.
His wife, Helena, middle class, with better family, friends and connections, endures his tirades.
And my God, what tirades they are!
The self-satisfied middle class (of which he is not a member), Helena’s family, the newspaper, church bells.
On and on, though increasingly, he unleashes his fury onto his wife, a passive, stoical doormat.
This is a one set play, and Kenneth Branagh’s Jimmy is a resentful, hate spewing force.
While well acted, Jimmy’s wallowing pity party grows tedious at times.

Flux Gourmet - 2022 - 7/10

Stop! Many movie sites list this under the Horror genre. It is not.
This is a stinging, often hilarious satire on performance artists and culinary shows, with gory elements.
It is also a Peter Strickland film, arthouse territory with mannered dialogue that skitters across the dining table.
In short, Elle is the frontman, the food performer, with her two “Sonic Caterers”.
They are in residence at the (unnamed) Institute for a month, honing their art, despite administrative interference.
Many cast members from In Fabric (2019) are here again, and that film approximates Aickman or Ligotti, meaning strange. Not visceral gore.
With this director, I would suggest viewing Berberian Sound Studio (2012) first, which hews closer to horror.
Strickland is an auteur whose films are cult now, but will gain in stature over time.

Shakespeare On Stage, Screen And Elsewhere - 2016 - 7/10

Part of 2016‘s Shakespeare Lives celebration across Britain.
I thought this would be a film survey, but it is actually a lecture by Ian McKellen.
Personal memoir, anecdotes of productions, bios of bygone actors.
As well as the conspiracy theory of questionable authorship - which McKellen does not subscribe to.
Knowledgeable audience had apparently seen many of the lesser known works.
McKellen, a cheerful raconteur, frequently pauses to find his thought.
Impatient or multi-tasked souls may glance at the exits.

Last And First Men - 2020 - 7/10

Text by Olaf Stapledon, images from Yugoslav memorials.
From the far future, 2000 million years from now, surviving humanity tries to contact us.
As the sun expanded, the populace relocated to Neptune.
Dwellings are twenty or more miles at the base, and tower into and above the atmosphere.

Humans evolve beyond recognition.
Some exist in a group mind, others, far-flung, are navigators.
Others pass through diverse time frames, akin to what, non-Euclidean time?
Their collected voice reaches out because they want to help, and because they need help.

Stimulating and challenging fare, the first (and last) by Jóhann Jóhannsson.
Arthouse SciFi, those familiar with Lovecraft’s cosmic scale will appreciate.

Tokyo Fiancée - 2014 - 6/10

20 year old Belgium girl moves to Tokyo and offers to teach French lessons.
She gets one client, a male her own age, who seems to speak French passably well.
Nonetheless, money is money and they meet weekly.
Sparks don’t exactly fly as both seem to suffer cultural misperceptions of each other.
He introduces her to friends as his fiancée, she is convinced he is Yakuza.
Story winds in unpredictable directions and often dead-ends.
Several scenes were, perhaps, symbolic, except I was unable to comprehend their meaning.

Hall, Oakley - So Many Doors

From the Hard Case Crime press, this is not crime, not hardboiled, not even a mystery.
Jack Ward sits in his prison cell, ignoring the lawyer assigned to defend him.
“Yes, I killed her,” he confesses. “I’m not fighting, either. Just get it over with.”
The “her” in question is Vasilia Baird, who goes simply by V.
Their story, told from multiple points of view, is of a toxic relationship.
Jack and V push each other’s buttons, torment each other, flee, and then are drawn back.
This has the makings of a Noir, but underneath the dark trappings this is a melodrama.
Two adults who, for all their experiences, are little more than pouting teenagers.
What most of us grew out of by our early 20’s.
About midway, I began envisioning Douglas Sirk adapting this for Hollywood.
Possibly better than this disappointment.

Straight Outta Compton - 2016 - 7/10

Rousing biopic of badboy rappers, N.W.A.
Standard tale of friends forming a band, hitting the big time, then the money fights.
Focus is on Eazy, Cube and Dre, and the latter seems to have been smoothed a shade.
Not too many liberties taken, though my knowledge is basic at best.
I checked for inaccuracies later and found minor, aside from Heller’s litany.
Should appeal to the mainstream despite expletives, weed use, nudity, coochie poppin …
By a quirk of casting, Paul Giamatti plays NWA’s shifty manager. Soon as I saw him I hollered, “Look out guys! That’s Dr Landy. He fleeced Brian Wilson (“Love And Mercy”). Look out!”
Oddly enough, I found myself giving footnotes to innocents around me. “What does OG mean?” “Who is Suge Knight?”
I watched the extended cut, almost three hours, and it never dragged.