Vultural

Winter Walks - 2020 - 7/10

Quiet outdoor series proves a refreshing alternative to similar programs hosted by noisy blabbermouths.
A different host each week rambles along a favorite route.
This is winter, and one feels the cold simply watching.
Plus side, there are no turistas.
Hosts vary between perceptive and insightful and those who may be slyly self-serving.
Those sensitive to their surroundings resonate best.
“What was once this kind of powerhouse of industry and prayer and culture
and civilisation, became a memory, an echo. Just an outline of what it had been before.”
Rev Richard Coles (S01E05)

I Remember It Well: Conversation Judi Dench & Giles Brandreth - 2022 - 7/10

The pair sit onstage, converse, reminisce.
First half may appeal more to Brits. Theatrical career, fellow stage actors, experiences.
Better, perhaps, for those who might have attended those plays.
Nevertheless, this is priceless history.
Second half, films. Playing “M”. Mentioning leading men.
Dench is extremely careful here and does not dish.
The first ten minutes are somewhat awkward, her memory appears foggy as Giles asks about her childhood.
She is in her 80’s. Who recalls 70 years previous?

Seven Years Of Night - 2018 - 6/10
AKA - 7 Nyeonui Bam // 7年의 밤

Early on, he is reminded, the lake is cursed, haunted.
It had been flooded before the village was evacuated. People died.
Late at night, diving gear on, he plunges in anyway.
Caustic thriller of obsession, family violence, death, guilt.
A sunless realm, wallowing in gloom and reprisals.
Characters vary from outright unlikeable to unexplored ciphers.
Overlong.

See How They Run - 2022 - 6/10

1954. London, Theatre district. “The Mousetrap” celebrates its 100th performance.
      During the after-party, someone is murdered.
      Scotland Yard, occupied with the Rillington murders, can only send two members.
      Inspector Stoppard and Constable Stalker arrive and start to filter conflicting versions of events.
      Wry, quiet comedy best suited to those familiar with cozy mysteries and Agatha Christie.
      Having attended a performance of “The Mousetrap” will help, too.
      Packed with in-jokes, references, homages that may elude the casual.
      Inspector Stoppard, indeed.

Phillips, Thomas - Interiors (with Alcebiades Diniz)

Small volume of troubled souls.
In the oddly narrated “Pagan Dread”, driver and passenger head into the woods as far as their car will take them. Next, on foot, to a rendezvous with transfiguration.
This reads like a sketch, a pitch, and I wish Phillips had fleshed the narrative more fully.
“Living With Literature” is hardly that. Instead, this is the misery of the teacher or professor, evaluating yet another pretentious, insipid student paper. His voice oozes sarcasm in a tale funny yet barbed.
“Abattoir” explores boundaries. One’s home, and the implied, perhaps wistful assumption, of the safety within one’s home.
Finishing, Diniz offers an overview of the Utopia of Infra-Noir, useful for readers who come across similar publishers who reference this movement, but seldom provide historical details.

Death Whistles The Blues - 1964 - 6/10
AKA - La Muerte Silba un Blues

At the border, two trick drivers are stopped. One is killed, the other sent to prison.
Turns out the shipment of fruit was actually guns. They were framed.
Fifteen years later, the convict is released and seeking revenge.
Early Jess Franco film boasts a compelling Noir look and vibrant Latin Jazz score.
While the plot is over-busy and empty headed.
Supposedly set in Jamaica (filmed in Spain) the support cast of barflys are a gallery of great faces.
No great shakes, yet a zesty romp and OK for those wary of Franco’s skin flicks.

The Keyhole - 1933 - 6/10

Maurice puts the touch on wife Anne yet again.
After their divorce, Anne married a wealthy sugar-daddy.
Except Maurice never actually filed the divorce papers, making Anne a bigamist.
Meanwhile, the older husband, concerned about his wife’s erratic behavior hires a detective.
Whose specialty is catching adulterous wives.

Titillating Pre-Code film lacks steam and is as juicy as burnt toast.
Despite the shipboard cruise to Cuba, then Havana strolls, very little happens.
Kay Francis fans, yes you’ll have to watch this anyway.

Clay Pigeons - 1998 - 6/10

“You should take a shower. I can still smell her on you.”
Don’t cheat on a cheater.

Clay, already having an affair with married Amanda, has a quick fling with Gloria.
Very quick, as Amanda is not only adulterous, but also murderous.
Women, eh?
Thank God, Clay has just made a new friend. Loopy grin, concrete heart.
Steamy thriller fueled with black comedy. Vince Vaughn unforgettable (what happened to him?).
Rocking fun the first time out, less with repeated views.

Irina Palm - 2007 - 6/10

The grandson needs expensive medical treatment. Parents seem hopeless.
Only Grandma pushes down all avenues to earn money despite her complete lack of modern skill sets.
Nonetheless, a few professions are timeless. The oldest profession, for example.
In which she proves surprisingly adept and successful.
Marianne Faithful marvelous as the grandma whose desperation is stronger than her moral qualms.

The Last Of The Haussmans - 2012 - 6/10

Mother abandoned her two children early to live in an ashram.
Grandma took care of the youngsters and promised them her home when she died.
After she died, however, Mother appeared and took possession of the home, cutting the children out.
She could not afford to maintain the property and allowed it to descend into shambles.
So the play opens. Mom, half-senile, one tumor removed, living amidst her sixties hippie delusions. The adult children, failures each, watch any sort of security ebb away.
The hippie stereotype wears thin, and no one seems capable of becoming “adult”.
Not particularly funny, nor tragic. Talking, not conversation.

Hot Thrills And Warm Chills - 1967 - 5/10

Toni regroups with her old gang, Dody and Kitten, and plan a high stakes heist.
Mardi Gras. The bejeweled crown of the King Of Sex! The plan to lift it.
Beforehand, they hit the club and see hard-rocking Glory Rhodes, admire a topless dancer, then slick the sheets with aroused males.
Yeah, one of those kinda of films. The kinda films men used to like.
Once talking stops and the “plot” kicks in, this becomes a shambles.
Completely incoherent. Get in the mood, drink two bottles of Thunderbird first.
Subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/hot-thrills-and-warm-chills/english/2998025

The Hillside Strangler: Devil In Disguise - 2022 - 6/10

The first murder occurred in October 1977, the final pair in January 1979.
Main suspect Kenneth Bianchi confessed and recanted countless times.
He implicated his cousin, he exonerated him, then changed his mind. Again and again.
Bianchi persuaded a deluded female to commit a copycat murder to muddle the case against him.
The trial lasted four years and was one of the most expensive in California history.
He remains a habitual, chronic liar and the truth will never be truly known.
Four part series. Talking heads, repeated use of numerous photos and clips.
Victims lightly mentioned. Their dreams, plans, given short shrift.

The Menu - 2022 - 7/10

The Hawthorne, exclusive restaurant. How exclusive? On its own island.
Expensive? Prices run into four figures.
Yet tonight, as in every night, tables for twelve are sold out.
And the meal, a multi course cavalcade, is a building presentation of art.
The guest list is composed of critics, “foodies”, loud-mouthed wannabees, entitled, and snobs.
Vicious satire on cork sniffers and swooning nibblers who rhapsodize over their consumption.
Acid laced meal of Bitter Feast (2010), Boiling Point (2021), seasoned with the bitter bile of Flux Gourmet (2022).
Eat, drink and be merry.

La Cérémonie - 1995 - 7/10

Disturbing psychological thriller based on Ruth Rendell novel.
Distracted wife interviews maid applicant, explains duties, gives a tour of the house.
Does or does not run background check.
The maid, it is revealed, has one glaring shortcoming, which gnaws at her more than anything.
Maid falls under the influence of busybody mail clerk,
and two females bond over resentments, secrets, worries, and grudges.
Tension is tightened throughout until the last reel.
One of Claude Chabrol’s more accessible films.
Huppert and Bonnaire pitch perfect as amoral pair.

The Wayward Cloud - 2005 - 6/10
AKA - Tian bian yi duo yun // 天邊一朵雲

Half sibling to 1999’s The Hole. In the earlier film, torrential rain, in this one drought.
Water flows briefly each day, residents rely on melons to slack thirst.
A seemingly abandoned apartment building houses a film crew making porn videos.
Tenants wander listlessly, engage in bored sex, browse the empty video shop.
This is mostly wordless. While there may be meaning, I did not think too hard.

As with The Hole, the favorite parts for me were the weird-beyond-belief musical numbers.
Prudes, beware numerous mid-core pornographic sequences. γνῶθι σεαυτόν
Subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/the-wayward-cloud-tian-bian-yi-duo-yun/english/2997328

The Glass Tomb - 1955 - 5/10

Step right up! Look at Sapolio, the starving man!
Pel promotes sideshow artists, carnival acts, etc …
Newest gig, the man who won’t eat for the next seventy days.
Meantime, while all the carnies are partying, a murder is committed in the upstairs flat.
Dull story, lacks mystery, lacks tension, and the carnival world is not explored.
Lackadaisical commentary by Richard Roberts wanders and is misinformed, saying this was Ireland’s lone Noir.
(Check out Behind Green Lights and Railroaded (1946), along with Open Secret and Raw Deal.)

Malfi, Ronald - Cradle Lake

A deceased father ignores his own offspring and bequeaths his rural North Carolina home to nephew Alan. City dweller.
Except the city hasn’t been going so well. After two miscarriages, his wife is despondent. Both blame stressful NYC. Free home in a new state might mean a new start!
Soon, soon, soon, events eddy and Alan realizes the new community conceals secrets. The biggest being … what’s the name of this novel again?
Time and again, Malfi reveals an angle or plot turn and I think, “too early for this.” Only the disclosure is OK because he has a sackful of narrative twists in reserve.
A Cherokee journey took me unawares and was an original detour, much appreciated.
Unfortunately, entering the final act, professor Alan seems to lose his common sense along with his bearings. Levels go over the top. “Things” besieging the home, within and without, disappear in the rearview mirror, unexplained. I found the conclusion dissatisfying.

Under Milk Wood - 2014 - 8/10

“Oh, isn’t life a terrible thing, thank God?”
Dylan Thomas’ radio drama receives a magnificent interpretation via a luminous cast.
A dizzying rush of images, character sketches, plots, lies, treachery, regrets.
Language flows forth like a gushing spill.
One seizes upon an instant, before being propelled onward into another.
Crossing of memory and dreams, recollections true and misremembered.
“Remember me. I have forgotten you. I am going into the darkness, of the darkness forever. I have forgotten that I was ever born.”
Subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/under-milk-wood-2014/english/2995796

Hanzo The Razor: The Snare - 1973 - 6/10
AKA - Goyôkiba: Kamisori Hanzô jigoku zeme

Hanzo, the sheriff with the big blade, prepares to interrogate.
One does not want to be interrogated by this man, trust me.
Treasury officials have devalued the currency, forcing desperate citizens into crime.
Hanzo, venting his disdain at officials stumbles across an illegal abortion site.
This is merely the beginning of slave traffic, government criminality, murder attempts.
Storylines churn at a furious pace. Speaking of churning, so does our big blade officer.
Middle outing of an extremely sleazy trilogy. Only Japan offers nuggets like this.

The Amityville Horror - 1979 - 6/10

The previous homeowner murdered his whole family.
A year on, the house is available – cheap!
So the new family snaps it up, moves in … and Pa starts weirding out.
What to do? Stay and get slaughtered? Or keep asking, “What’s going on?”
The house upsets a nun, a priest, a paranormal sensitive.
Any family with a lick of sense would flee.
Based on a huge bestselling book, which was based on “true events”.
Haunted house clichéd to the max in enjoyable if predictable, outing.

Cry Wolf - 1947 - 6/10

Sandra arrives at her late husband’s family home.
Wife? Widow? “Why, we never knew he was married!”
The narrative soon goes into one of mutual suspicion.
Is this woman a gold digger? Did her husband’s brother have something to do with his death?
One watches this to see Errol Flynn and Barbara Stanwyck together – their only pairing.
Noirish looking, although this is more mystery / thriller.
Not enough tension in an underwritten script.
Watchable if you run across it while surfing late night.

Brossard, Chandler - The Wolf Leaps

His pale face looks out of place in the Harlem bar. A tourist, slumming? Or a prospect? One of the hookers sizes him up, approaches. After a few comments, he follows her to a grimy room. Money is exchanged and the bed soon squeals. And at that point, the priest develops a taste for dark meat.
Back at the parish house, the wife of our Episcopalian priest contemplates her miserable existence. Awful neighborhood, disgusting residents, not to mention her husband, a male with “needs”. How happy she had been in the days of her all-girls school, with soft female companions. Sappho beckons.
Then there is the pimp, sweet talking charm to the friendly waitress. She’s wasting her life on her feet all day when she could earn so much more on her knees or on her back. He’d pocket half, and promise her it’s for them, their future. Just have to coax her away from her family, her boyfriend. Easy.
Chandler’s style is lean, not a sentence wasted. Not surprisingly, after this novel of adultery, lesbianism and prostitution was written in 1962, publishers shunned it. When it was finally published in 1973, few in white bread America bought it.
Headlong rush down grubby Harlem backstreets.

Savage Nights - 1992 - 7/10
AKA - Les Nuits Fauves

Jean prefers men, although something about Laura fascinates him.
Their mutual attraction is such that they become sexually intimate.
Afterward, and not straight away, he confesses that he is, and has been, HIV positive.
At times maddening film of lust, obsession, and disinterest.
Jean is selfish, in denial, perhaps empty emotionally and spiritually.
Directed and starring Cyril Collard, based on his own novel.
At times insightful look at gay cultures, some underground, others known.

Bedroom Farce - 2022 - 6/10

Small house parties, perhaps the worst.
Especially when one invited couple is on the brink of divorce.
And two ex-flames have been invited, as well.
Laughs? Well, depends on the audience, I suppose.
Each couple is immature and come across as dumb.
In the theatre, with a roaring crowd – maybe. At home – pass.

Rolling Stones: Live L’Olympia Theatre - 2003 - 7/10

Professional capture of the band in a smaller venue.
Fans who want a show of greatest hits may pause, however.
One of the lures for this is the inclusion of many lesser performed numbers.
“Live With Me”, “Hand of Fate”, “No Expectations”, “Stray Cat Blues”, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, “That’s How Strong My Love Is”, “Going to à Go-Go”, “Love Train”, “Respectable” …
Charlie is effortless and concise, Mick poster child for dynamism, Keith and Ron walking cadavers.
Although there is a horn section, keyboards, background singers, the mix leans towards the guitarists.
The cutting is much to rapid to study the musicianship.
Mere quibbles. Stones’ fans, you know this.