Vultural

Effie Gray - 2014 - 6/10

Period biography of Euphemia Chalmers Ruskin (and later, Millais)
Follows her marriage to critic/writer John Ruskin, their marital “problems,” Venice sojourn, Scottish trip.
An understanding of the Victorian era, perhaps the Pre-Raphaelite movement, or Ruskin’s works may be necessary.
The film highlights Ruskin’s oppressive home - rather his parents’ home (first cousins, not mentioned) and how over-protective parents still were of their 29 year old little boy.
Film looks quite good for what was a modest budget, and boasts a fine cast.
color palette less restrained here, as opposed to many Victorian period films.
Pacing is a problem, though, as the story paddles sluggishly. Characters are unsympathetic and humorless, which also hurts.
Essentially a “woman’s film,” and Ruskin here remains somewhat of a cipher, especially his “actions.”
Script, as with real story, does not speculate, titillate, cast blame, or toss theories for the final arc.
I suspect casual viewers unfamiliar with PRB or Ruskin might fall asleep or switch off.

I am midway through S04. Been watching from S01, on and off, for about ten years.
Only plan to go to S05, then bail.
My take is when songs are dropped, it is a rights thing.
This happened with Lost In Austen when US versions of the DVD missed the “Downtown” sequence, as well as the ringtone in-joke.

Gracious, the detail on Doctor Loveless!

Vodník - 2019 - 7/10

The infant cries, and cries, and cries. Morning, afternoon, night. It will not shut up.
Family, relatives, neighbors, workmen, everyone has simply endured enough.
After the baby is murdered, grandma keels over with a heart attack, the accused baby’s mother is arrested and she hangs herself in jail that night. Case closed.
Until, 30 years later, an inspector reopens the case, saying, “A mother, any woman, would never kill an infant by cutting its head off with a circular saw. Only a man would do this.”
Three part Czech series delves into petty village squabbles, resentments, adulteries, lies, cover-ups.
Much is shot in a washed out, sultry summer haze. Handheld camera work adds to disorientation.
Horrid story, not for all tastes, though it will sink its hooks into you.

Murder In Biot - 2021 - 5/10
AKA - Crime à Biot

Pre-Christmas dinner at the popular bistro, friends gather and listen to Marie’s plans.
That is before one of her “friends” poisons her meal.
Afterward, the deputy prosecutor and inspector begin the rounds.
Adultery, indebtedness, rivalry, treachery. Behind smiling faces.
Covid mentioned once, then forgotten.
Scattered gender Woke speech muddles an already murky plot.
During one exchange with “they said” and “they disagreed” and “not them but they” I was completely lost and I imagine the actors were, as well.
Below par, close to Hallmark level.

S.V.D.: Soyuz Velikogo Dela - 1927 - 6/10
AKA - The Club Of The Big Deed / СВД: Союз Bеликого Дела

The Decembrist Revolt of 1825, occurred in Russia after the Napoleonic Wars.
After Czar Alexander I died, eldest son Constantine declined the crown and his brother Nicholas accepted it.
There was brief fighting between regiments, the revolution was crushed, most survivors shipped to Siberia.
Oversimplified background.

This movie is a miniaturized version of the rebellion in one regiment.
The main character, however, is a cardsharp, seller of information and betrayer.
Rebels plan in back rooms, but the cad hears enough valuable information to sell.
One sequence takes place in a circus, which has little bearing, though it is interesting to see the strong-woman hoist an artillery cannon.
As Soviet films go, this is mild on the propaganda.
S V D is also a marvelous example of “flicker” as light dances throughout.
Howling midnight gales, hard shadows, cigarette smoke are expertly used for atmosphere.

Third Reich: Rise & Fall - 2010 - 4/10

Embarrassing, amateurish, so-called World War II documentary. Two parts: “Rise" - “Fall"
Purported to be told from the German point of view using letters, journals, and never before seen film footage.
The letters were from footsoldiers, citizens, ordinary souls. After almost every passage, however, the omniscient, voice of doom narrator rebukes or reinterprets. Editorializes.
Half of the found footage is compelling, though one grows suspicious of its authenticity.
The other half is of picnics, birthday parties, beach outings. Nothing related to the Third Reich or WWII.

There is a memorable howler in “Fall” at the onset of Operation Barbarossa.
(Barbarossa was not mentioned, by the way. Nor were any battles, operations, generals, politicians, Krupps, the SA, Gestapo … Next to zero pesky historical details are in this program).
Anyway, the Wehrmacht prepares to invade.
Footage cross-cuts between cannon fire, growling Panzers, dive-bombing Stukas … and …
an adorable kitten playing on a ladder. That’s correct, a genuine WWII kitty.
What the F?

Throughout, the video work of this “documentary” is inept.
The editor could not resist inserting old timey and damaged effects.
Sprocket holes, scratches, surface debris. Transitions are jam-packed with those.
Editor seems like a 6th grade kid with an effects kit.
Makes one wonder how much of the actual footage was tampered with.
Like colorized? Or using stock from another era and aging it?
Once tampering begins, doubts about authenticity, accuracy and integrity creep in.
Very disappointing. Think “Third Reich For Dummies” only shallower and less focused.

Ae Fond Kiss - 2004 - 6/10

Picking up his 17 year old sister at school, Casim catches sight of Roisin.
Casim is a Glasgow DJ, hoping to launch his own club. Roisin is the school music teacher.
He is Muslim, with an arranged fiancé in Pakistan. She is a divorced Catholic.
The relationship sparks, heats up, leading to family and “official” interference.
A fair amount of loopholes in this. Age gap, Casim’s naiveté, the school makeup.
Ken Loach film, sunnier than most of his work, though I found the ending forced.

Hounded - 2022 - 5/10
AKA - Hunted

Four thieves target country manor estates.
Security alarms, guard dogs, no problem. Sure.
One manor has better security. The thieves are caught, lectured …
“…I’m sure you are aware our criminal justice system is at best ineffective,
and at worst a total embarrassment …”
The crooks are freed in open country, given a head start, and then “release the hounds!”

Well worn plot, from The Most Dangerous Game to Naked Prey to Hard Target.
Filmmakers misstep fatally by castigating the gentry as villains and the criminals as innocents.
Both sides are unsavory predators and ought to have been shown as such.
A coward’s effort.

Agatha - 2022 - 6/10

While this bears the look and feel of a short, the hour run time indicates a nominal feature.
An unnamed man (we find out in the credits, he is The Professor) wanders a junkyard.
A bum warns him to get out now. Now! Before it –– it’s too late.
The junkyard is a borderland between a city, or memory of a city, and a ruined landscape.
Our character attempts to bargain for his health.
That’s about as far as I’m willing to guess.
This mixes live action with animation with image jiggering, leaving the narrative vague.
For a three-person creative team, this is impressive and worth a watch if you have an hour.
English subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/agatha-2022/english/2920259

Emergency Squad - 1974 - 6/10
AKA - Squadra Volante

The heist goes off. Disguising themselves as a film crew fools pedestrians and onlookers into assuming they are watching a crime movie.
Unfortunately, there was one death, reminding one detective of a similar robbery five years earlier, where another innocent was similarly slain. The detective’s wife.
Acting on his own, Interpol agent Ravelli goes unorthodox to track the crew.
Meanwhile, the crew, holed up, excitable, volatile, begin to feud.
Acceptable Euro-Crime outing hurtles along, without giving viewers a chance to second guess or consider the unlikely probabilities.
Fans of this sub-genre should enjoy.

Sex In Strange Places - 2015 - 5/10

Misleading title. Sorry, no sex on the trampoline, hanging from the trapeze, or in hamster wheel.
Instead, our travelog takes us to Turkey, Brazil, and Russia.
Sex is the paid sort (prostitution), and we get the low end (refugees), transgenders, and the upper tier.
Presenter is over-eager, bright young thing. By turns vacuous and idealistic.

Part of me wonders if Miss Stacey’s clueless behavior is a facade, a role she plays.
She whines throughout, and feels really, really bad for the way prostitutes are treated.
And yet, would she be so sympathetic if they set up shop in her same apartment?
(As someone who lived next to a drug dealer for two years, I would predict she would tire of midnight visitors pounding doors, gunfire, police raids, screaming, etc …)
Many of her questions are refreshingly direct: How much do you charge? Do you pitch? Receive?
Other times, ignores the obvious - such as clients who choose transgenders yet still declare they are 100% hetero.
E01 - Turkey, is a downer with refugees having to resort to sex to live.
E02 - Brazil, is Carnival and mostly trannies, broad jokes and more fun.
E03 - Russia, the high end. Paradoxically, she is less sympathetic to successful call girls.

This hardly is a documentary in the usual sense of the word. More like home travel movies.
Just like the presenter is not exactly a professional.
There is a great exchange where she confronts a club owner, telling, “You know, some of your girls are unhappy."
“Are all your fellow journalists happy?” he retorts. “Is every doctor happy? Every mailman?”

The Green Archer - 1940 - 6/10

Fairly early Columbia serial. Younger brother is convicted of crime and sent to the slammer.
Meanwhile, the older brother, the cunning, sly one, inherits large manor home from where he spins his web of crime.
The huge estate has subterranean tunnels, trap doors, secret rooms, intercom, giant killer dogs (Great Danes), a car elevator (with full time elevator operator), even an underground garage!
The villainous brother masterminds a platoon of thugs and robbers. Local police are hapless.
Squared off against evil doers is the masked ghost of the house - the Green Archer!
And an insurance agent named Spike!
Much of this serial is ridiculous and awful in a delightful way.
The crime lord is a preening fool. He struts, gloats, brags about his big ole brain, then wails like Baby Huey when he loses a round. Fortunately, his feeble brained flunkies more often than not bail him out.

Female characters squeak when startled and stand still during fistfights, watching or wringing their hands. One memorable scene, she keeps straightening her hair while Spike gets his ass kicked. Guess the day was windy.
The Green Archer communicates by shooting arrows with notes into stuffed furniture. I started wondering if he did re-upholstery work during his day job.
Quality of chapter cliffhangers? This serial has more cheats than a trailer park.
Caution - Children in 1940 were less shielded than those of today, as this serial is filled with killings.

Inspector Koo - 2021 - 5/10
AKA - Kookyungyi // 구경이

Ex police officer Koo is unofficially part of an insurance company’s risk management.
Our detective is a self confessed “alcoholic who displays antisocial tendencies with anxiety disorder.”
This annoyed me - until I began to view Ms Koo as a spoof, a parody, of that endless stream of defective detectives.
Operatives with limited social skills. Blind lame stutterers. Ones with Tourette syndrome, Alzheimer’s, leprosy.

Aside from Koo’s confessed limitations, she also does not bath, her body odor is pungent.
She scratches her scalp frequently, head lice or flea infestation.
Chances are she fails to use the toilet so her clothes are a stench of urine and feces.
Anyhoo, Koo chases a couple of fraudulent claims, sniffs out a string of accidents that prove neither random nor accidental.
Nope. There is a diabolical serial killer (aren’t they all?).
And the prime suspect, a sweet faced drama student, seriously bent, but capable of meticulous staging and execution.

From the inspector to her boss to the big boss to the villain, forceful women rule.
Each have emasculated male sidekicks, neutered and cowardly.
Narrative arc descends from tightly plotted to padded to frivolous.

Every Day’s A Holiday - 1937 - 6/10

Peaches O’Day is a flim flam artist, routinely selling the Brooklyn Bridge to rubes.
Or using the dim-witted to appropriate the latest fashions for her wardrobe.
Set during New Years Ever 1899, starring Mae West, also script by West.
Peaches is adored by the citizens (West’s public), though she is hounded by the police (Production Code).
Not at the level of I’m No Angel or She Done Him Wrong, this is still a zesty romp, with quick repartee and barbed jokes.
“… a politician talks so much but says nothing …”
Subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/every-days-a-holiday/english/2920180

Mock The Week: S21 Final - 2022 - 7/10

No! Really? Canceled? Over and done?
Long running panel show hosted by Dara Ó Briain.
Brood chamber for dozens of young comedians, many of whom went on to greatness, or mass popularity.
I have watched and laughed for over a decade.
Where, oh where, will I get the warped take on British news, as well as the rest of the world?
Say it ain’t so.

Berlin - 2021 - 7/10

The tourist bungled his accommodation reservation, so he’s in Berlin without a place.
Luckily, or as the playwright would have it, an attractive female bartender offers a couch for the night.
Inside her spacious, well-appointed digs, the couple banter, flirt, try to get a read on each other.
When he casually jokes about being a spy, I make a mental note.
And when she confesses she comes from money, a lot of money, I no longer trust the guy.
Nothing is accidental. The meeting was premeditated.
An uncomfortable past quietly surfaces. Behavior, almost a century gone, justifies retribution.
The myth of forgiveness, etched in excuses and betrayals, sparks this thriller.

Suffragette - 2015 - 7/10

Working class laundress gradually gets drawn into the Suffragette movement during pre-WWI England.
She goes from passing rallies, to listening, to becoming an activist.
Radicalized, if you will, because of heavy handed government (male) crackdowns and retribution.
Politicians who speak from both sides of their mouth are another root.
Drab set design and costumes illustrate the drab existence.
Although rather like History 102, the film does its best not to preach nor get strident.
Fairly successful, too, though if you don’t believe in your heart of hearts that women are not truly equal to men, then you will not like this one.
Once the “Ascot” phrase is mentioned, most will know where this is going.

The Maidens Of Fetish Street - 1966 - 5/10
AKA - The Girls On F Street

Odd grindhouse gem examines Nick and the “maidens” in his life.
He has a thing for burlesque dancers, strippers, prostitutes.
Buxom, voluptuous women. Those who prefer hefty females with curves and hard expressions, sign in please.
At one point they are referred to as “animals of the bedroom jungle”.
The dialogue, mostly from an omniscient narrator, is stilted to the point of mannered theatre.
Great use of the now-gone Bunker Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles and the Angel’s Flight.
For Eric Stanton fans, keep an eye out when Nick prowls the LA literary establishments.
Beautifully restored by Nicolas Winding Refn.
Subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/the-girls-on-f-street/english/2915718

On The Run - 1988 - 6/10
AKA - Mong ming yuen yeung // 亡命鸳鸯

Heung meets with his ex at the restaurant. She is a police inspector emigrating to Canada.
After he asks her to take him with her, her reply is evasive.
He leaves and soon after she is assassinated.
Homicide quickly hunts for the hitman, though Heung searches for who hired the hitman.
The plot, if you can call it that, rapidly goes into cat n mouse chases and shootouts.
Although Yuen Biao is the lead, he is overshadowed by a coldly menacing Pat Ha.
Sufficient action sequences, along with a dark tone, weakened by too much comic relief.

Two For The Seesaw - 1962 - 6/10

Unusual pairing of Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine in film version of then-popular Broadway play.
Nebraska lawyer, going through mid-life crisis, relocates to New York City (where old chum now lives).
He arrives in the middle of a boisterous Greenwich Village apartment party.
Intellectuals, artists, beatniks, big-talkers and hangers-on.
Shirley is ditzy dancer (getting old at 29).
Despite age difference, they give the relationship thing a whirl.
Talky, rather dated, almost completely shot on a handful of interior sets. Screams stagebound.
Interesting curio, nonetheless. Glimpse of topical Broadway, circa 1960.

The Big Short - 2015 - 7/10

Fun times for those who want to relive the financial meltdown of 2008.
Where tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, lost their homes, their jobs.
Film follows a disparate, unconnected group of traders and brokers who realized the US housing market was built upon crappy loans. If the loans are shoddy, so are the bonds. And the banks who hold those bonds?
At times, the structure is a bit too cute for its own good, with oddball cameos explaining happenings.
Clever, extremely well executed from start to finish - if a shade overlong.
Might be stomach churning for those who suffered through this time - probably most of us.

Last Days At The Fillmore - 1972 - 6/10

Documentary about the final five days at Fillmore West is, in many ways, more Bill Graham than the musicians.
Bill on the phone, walking the hall, reminiscing, etc …
Split screen is overused and is not well done. Meaning this is not an immersive experience.
Performances, what there are of them, are mostly crowd favorites.
Apparently the DVD differs from the theatrical run and subsequent VHS, trimming some music, as well as volatile confrontations between Graham and musicians.
The vinyl and CD souvenir albums have an additional 40” of music.
Many of the concerts from this week can be found at Archive in toto.
This is not essential viewing, and I always recommend Monterey Pop first.

Cruise - 2022 - 7/10

Essentially a one-man play, as Jack mans the LGBTQ suicide lines.
Most callers aren’t offing themselves. They are in a funk, depressed, lonely, or straight jerks.
Then he receives a call from Michael, who prefers to talk with an older person.
Too bad, Jack is all there is that day. In fact, he is annoyed at the implied reverse agism.
Spurred, Michael begins to unwind his youthful, larger than life days.
The 80’s. Underground clubs in Soho, freewheeling partners, reveling in the hedonistic life.
The absolute best of times, until HIV begins sweeping like a passionless scythe.
Riveting show that will have you panting to keep pace.

The Collapse - 2019 - 7/10
AKA - L’Effondrement

Apocalypse fans!
The power grid has failed, the supply chain has fizzled.
Gasoline is precious, food stocks dwindling, civilization reverting.
Each episode is a 20” one-off. The grocers, gas station, farmer’s enclave.
Charting the worsening situation, and the depths to which people will go to survive.
The whole gas-auto-travel concept had me wondering, “Where do folks think they can go?”
Exceptional series, and prescient, airing before events in 2020, and still ongoing consequences.