Vultural

Hangmen - 2016 - 7/10

Gallows humor, quite literally.
Another morning, another gutless “innocent” wailing he didn’t do it!
Grow some stones, man.
Harry slips the noose around his neck, springs the trap door, and snap! Blessed silence.
Life is sweet for the hangman. Until, a few months later, hanging is abolished.
What can an unemployed executioner do? Become a publican, that’s what.
A vain, preening, bullying troll (cribbed from Basil Fawlty?), who berates his patrons, mocks his daughter, and belittles a rival, if absent, hangman. One who scored a higher tally.
Depending on ones tolerance for black comedy, this is laugh out loud funny.
Theatre junkies, take aim, ready …
English subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/national-theatre-live-hangmen/english/2720154

It! - 1966 - 5/10

Museum warehouse burns down and only surviving artifact is tall, black, ugly looking statue.
And … whenever folks are alone with said statue, they keep dying.
Because, the dark stone is actually a golem!
Cheap looking film with a minimum of actors plays like bad television.
Better - or worse - Roddy McDowell seems to channel Norman Bates and Seymour Krelboyne in portraying the nutso, dotty assistant curator.
Not awful enough to enter the rarefied echelon of Bad Cinema, yet there are enough dreadful proceedings to satisfy aficionados of dreck.

Night Tide - 1961 - 6/10

Locals try to warn Johnny, seaman Johnny, on shore leave.
His girlfriend, Mora, her previous two boyfriends … well … both died.
Nevertheless, Johnny finds himself falling in love with the exotic Mora.
Who works the beach sideshow as a mermaid.
Rumors aside, mermaids are simply creatures of myth. Right?
Strange, independent film has many offbeat characters and odd settings that capture interest.
The story is a blend of horror, mystery and fantasy.
Lovingly restored by Nicolas Winding Refn.
English subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/night-tide/english/2712780

Elle - 2016 - 7/10

Challenging French fare that defies expectations.
Early on - say first scene - there is a rape (for the sensitive, there are a pair of flashbacks later on, too).
The victim does not phone the police, but simply goes to the clinic the next day and requests an STD panel.
She does not tell friends, family, coworkers.
Partly, she does not know the assailant’s identity (he wore a mask) and she is trying to determine who it is.
Party … well, there are elements within her, call it the past, that are outside the normal.
Isabelle Huppert captures this rogue soul. Brittle, icy, razor smart, and possessed with an offhand cunning.
Elle seems to wander aimlessly. Don’t be fooled. Investigation and retribution are at the core.

Nikita: S01 - 2010 - 6/10

Watched this on and off for over a year.
I got this after doing a search for “most violent TV series,” scanning the usual entries, reading at the top of the list, “… and then there’s Nikita.”
The opening is sexy and has a nice body count. Also lays the groundwork for what the arc will be.
Nikita used to be a top assassin for a clandestine government agency known as Division, now gone rogue.
Nikita herself turned rogue against Division, and each episode sees her trying to thwart one of their ops.
By turns interesting and predictable.
Worst fudge is Nikita’s mole, Alex, who crawls through air ducts searching for secrets.
Yes - air ducts. Not the ones in your home or office. Think 4 feet by 4 feet. You know, the ducts that are piped in submarines and spaceships.
Body count sags midway, though the deaths and conspiracies rally at the end.
Decent twists. Better for bingers, which I am not. Also - a big plus - the draw of Maggie Q.
There are only four seasons, and from what I read, Nikita does reach a conclusion.

Censor - 2021 - 7/10

Enid works as a film censor, watching hours upon hours of video nasties.
Predominantly slasher films.
At her core, she wants to make the world safer, society better.
Because she carries guilt and trauma over her sister.
When they were young, something happened, which she cannot remember.
Slow burn mystery is saturated in regret and fear.
At times, the narrative loses sense, owing to Enid’s faulty memories and false memories.
Viewers expecting the genre horror outing may be disappointed.
Unless they can wait. Enid has all manner of snakes and thorns bottled up.

The Red Queen - 2015 - 6/10
AKA - Krasnaya Koroleva

Splashy, lavish drama of Soviet fashion models through the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras.
Focus is on the striking Regina Kolesnikova, premier model of the Soviet house.
Haunted by her past, she drinks, abuses drugs, falls into bleak despair, bordering on madness.
Most of the other models around her are equally messed up. Soap opera territory.
Heavy handed melodrama boasts wildly over the top acting.

Real life glamour queen Regina Zbarska, the quintessential Soviet runway model of the 50’s and 60’s, was internationally famous. Whispers persist she was also a secret KGB operative. If so, she had access to Western designers, politicians, ambassadors. Everyone. KGB officials have neither confirmed, nor denied those rumors.

Difficult to assess this production, which I enjoyed beginning to finish (I am a long Vogue subscriber).
As noted, the acting is broad to the point of histrionics.
Since I had seen many of the actors in other Russian movies, I wanted to blame inept directing.
On the other hand, this could well be camp homage to Douglas Sirk’s florid excesses.
Set designs are saturated Technicolor, evocative of overripe MGM musicals (there are musical numbers in Red Queen, as well). After so many grayish looking US and Euro shows, this dazzles by comparison.
The studio press release also promised an exaggerated telling of Regina Zbarska which this certainly is.

Taxi - 1998 - 6/10

French action comedy (“Taxi” pulls multiple hits in IMDB).
The speediest (“stop sign? what stop sign?”) pizza delivery guy in Marseilles ditches his motorcycle after he gets his taxi license. Naturally, he becomes the fastest in the taxi world as well.
Marseilles police are aware of him, since he blows down speed meters while clocking 130 MPH, but they have other worries.
A bank heist team, known as the Mercedes Gang, has throttled into town.
Daylight robberies, screeching rubber, brilliant escapes from the frustrated, if imbecilic, police.
Who can catch the gang?
Yes, predictable as a child’s sing song.
The male leads are given the most character development, the baddies are more sneering than deadly.
Broad based comedy with several car chases, slalom style.
Empty headed fun, primed for anyone who ever asked a cabbie to “step on it.”

Blonde In A White Car - 1958 - 6/10
AKA - Toi… le venin

Glossy French sleaze.
Man walks down deserted beach road, late night.
A huge, white Cadillac creampuff slows down and a silhouetted blonde asks if he wants a ride.
“No thanks,” he declines
“Hop in anyway,” she insists.
He climbs in and she drives to secluded woods.
Kills the engine, opens her robe - revealing no clothes, and she gives him a ride that makes seat springs squeal.

When she’s finished she kicks him out at gunpoint, then tries to run him down in the car.
Boy scout that our hero is, he gets the license number and tracks the car to the home of two blonde half sisters.
Both are jealous, manipulative, game players. And both are lonely.

One of them is a crazy psycho - maybe both of them.
Ever the fool, the man wants to know which one is wacko, so when they offer him the guest room, he stays.
They purr into his stupid male brain and wrap spider silk around him tighter and tighter.
Shallow - slow - unsavory, with a jazz score that wails like a deranged stripper joint.

The Color Out Of Space - 2010 - 7/10
AKA - Die Farbe

“It began with the meteorite.”
Armin starts to retell events that befell his village, and its inhabitants.
His audience, a young American, whose father recently traveled to Germany.
Where the older man, ex GI, disappeared.
Blight seeps across Armin’s tale, then lingers, perhaps dormant.
German adaptation of the Lovecraft story is subtle, not gonzo.
Readers of HPL’s works may prefer this over Cage’s pureed version.
English subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/die-farbe-hp-lovecrafts-the-colour-out-of-space/english/2712782

Lion - 2016 - 7/10

Deep in his twenties, the young man goes in search of himself.
Rather, his past, who he had been before his adoption by an Australian couple.
As a young boy, he wandered from his small village, ending up hundreds of miles away in Calcutta.
There, he is another runaway, one of tens of thousands, existing on the streets, smiling predators on every corner.
Engrossing story, based on real life.
Harrowing for any parent who ever lost sight of their child for a moment, let alone an hour, or twenty years.

Oates, Joyce Carol - Ruins Of Contracoeur And Others

Six stories that seem to progress in strength. Editor Lisa Tuttle has sequenced these wisely.
Beginning with “Mr. Stickum,” a poisoned honey-pot of preliminary revenge. Nipping malicious evil in the bud. As the saying goes, boys will be boys. Girls are catching up, however, especially if they are motivated and high principled.
“Monstersister” essays the newest member, the surprise addition to the family. Part cuckoo, part assemblage, with a narrator who grows ever more unreliable as she eases herself away from (or is pushed away from) the family circle.
Another questionable narrator, even more so, is Vanbrugh in “The Redwoods.”
In his case, well, he is recently deceased! Lingering, as one probably should not do, near his family, home, the ordinary day to day. Memories bubble up and ripple out, muddying outcomes, diluting perception and recollection. A meandering decay.
“The Ruins Of Contracoeur” finds the family in disgrace. Meaning the head, the father, has been brought down by political enemies. Forced to retreat to the dilapidated mansion of their forebears. The wife and children, entitled and spoiled, adapt or deny.
Haunting the estate, as well as the rural county, is a murderous, faceless predator. This is the longest, perhaps most traditional, of the stories, although none of Oates tales are typical hauntings.
Typical of Swan River Press, this is a handsome edition, and perfectly sized for reading.
As of this date (2022 03) copies are still available, signed!

Hot Stuff - 1976 - 6/10
AKA - Paura in Città // Fear In The City

A dozen convicts bust out of the slammer, and crime in Roma escalates.
When the local force is insufficient, who do they recall from probation / suspension?
Yeah, Murri. The unorthodox detective, the violent one, dishing out knuckles and lead.
Rapid paced Euro Crime thriller boasts a frenzied car chase, lengthy gun battles (including a great one in a cemetery), a slice of skin, and a meddling legal do-gooder.
Maurizio Merli dominates every scene as ruthless, take no prisoners cop.
James Mason as commissioner looks out of place, never at ease until near the end.

Great Canal Journeys: S02 - 2014 - 6/10

Once again, Timothy West and wife Prunella Scales helm the narrow boat on four canal trips.
Four part documentary offers canal history, beautiful scenery, and a leisurely pace.
Prunella’s cognitive decline more pronounced in this series, especially the latter episodes.
This may distress Fawlty Towers buffs.
The couple are in their 80’s and deal with her condition as best they can, but you feel for them.
Credit the filmmakers and stars for unflinching honesty.
She often drifts into a fog - he can get irritable.
Worth a watch, even if you have not viewed S01.
Robert Aickman fans, restoring the canals was his passion.

Faulks On Fiction - 2011 - 6/10

Author Sebastian Faulks strolls through memorable character roles in novels.

1. The Hero = Tom Jones - Robinson Crusoe - Sherlock
2. The Lover = Darcy - Heathcliff - Tess - Chatterley
3. The Snob = Emma - Pip - Jeeves - Bond
4. The Villain = Fagin - Fosco - Dracula - Steerpike.
   Passages are read aloud. Critics and writers discuss the novel, focusing on the topic character.
   For non-reading souls, there are movie and BBC adaptation clips for every example.
   Bookworms, yes, worth your time. Non-readers, not essential viewing.

Das Spielzeug von Paris - 1925 - 6/10
AKA - Célimène, la Poupée de Montmartre // Red Heels

Miles, British diplomat in Paris, is engaged to Dorothy.
That is, until he catches sight of Célimène, the hottest dancer in the theatre.
Amused, she soon bewitches and seduces Miles, who, intoxicated, proposes marriage.
Marriage? How bourgeois.
Like her, Miles is young, has vigor, stamina and recovery, but Célimène also favors an elderly viscount who gives her diamonds and furs. Plus, there is the adulation of her wild theatre attendees.
Decadent Michael Curtiz film has glamourous sets, risqué costumes, and a ripe Lily Damita (Errol Flynn’s thorn).
Nonetheless, high melodrama of a pair of ménage à trois.

While We’re Young - 2014 - 7/10

Middle aged couple meet younger versions of themselves.
They start to hang out together, bounce ideas, share.
Both men are documentary filmmakers.
Middle aged Stiller has been toiling on his film for 10 years.
The younger man is hungry, and driven, and perhaps not all he seems.

There is a palpable undercurrent of the middle age glance in the mirror.
The older couple want to stay relevant, but they don’t quite grasp the “sharing” mentality of the coming generation.
Marked as a comedy, it is droll and subversive.

Death In Paradise: S01 - 2011 - 6/10

Fish out of water detective series.
Tight ass London inspector transferred to Caribbean Honoré.
Apparently that is a murder destination as there is killing every episode.
Always plenty of suspects, but our hero hones in on insignificant details - and - voilà!
Throughout, he misses cold, rain sodden London and gripes about sunshine and warmth.
Easy to take - easy to forget. Multiple seasons followed.

SiREN - 2016 - 5/10

B-Horror flick with imaginative touches.
Quartet of fratboy males out celebrating stag party for soon-to-wed mate.
They find a Gothic sporting house nestled in remote backwoods.
Skimpy hotties, rooms catering to perversion, occult entertainment.
Running the brothel is necromancer Nyx (homage to Lord Of Illusions?) who peddles a special girl.
Picture her as a lesser demon, if you will, the ravenous kind.

Despite low expectations early on, my hopes rallied, only to wither in disappointment.
Budget restrictions aside, filmmakers are adroit in imbuing this with atmospheric quality.
The whole Nyx and outré environment is more than one typically sees in fratboy horror.
Naw, the film is sunk by the four friends, terrible actors all, given puerile dialogue.

Coffy - 1973 - 7/10

Not necessarily Oscar quality film, but a highly enjoyable one.
Coffy cemented Pam Grier’s rep as one badass broad.
This is a full bore, revenge ride, as nurse by day (vigilante by night) takes on drug pushers and the mob.
Funky soundtrack - not great, not bad.
Most of the story is set in the milieu of pimps and whores.
The king pimps flash exuberant 70’s over the top style, the hookers flash breasts. Lots of them.
Overdoses, beatings, stabbings, shootings, car chases.
All the while, Nurse Coffin kills and kills.
This put Pam Grier on the map and remains hugely entertaining.
Kick-ass introduction to Blaxploitation.

Murder By Decree - 1979 - 6/10

Holmes and Watson take on Jack the Ripper!
Gothic sets, period costumes, keen eye for detail, as well as historical underpinnings.
As ever, there are a raftload of Ripper theories, and this touches one of them.
Popular when this played, since dismissed as implausible.
This is as much a horror film, as it is a mystery.
James Mason underplays Watson; his is more of the gentleman than we usually see.
Christopher Plummer is a forceful Holmes, and perhaps too emotional.
He is the strength and weakness of this.
Solid effort by Bob Clark between Black Christmas and A Christmas Story.

Alice In Acidland - 1969 - 5/10

Dreary warning of moral turpitude.
High school graduate Alice goes to pool party with friend.
Poolside, Alice smokes her first cigarette.
Menfolk, ignore her and surround the curvy blonde, who, we discover later, is an outta control sex addict.
Alice and her friend go from tobacco to alcohol to climbing naked into the bathtub, groping and kissing.
Tobacco, booze, what’s next? You got it! Marijuana, swinging nympho sex, moccasins and Indian beads.
Sleazy, black n white sexploitation quickie offers a steady flow of female nudity.
Black n white until Alice hits LSD! Then it’s color female nudity, often double or triple exposed!
Dull film has a better thought-out soundtrack than it deserves.
Going from cocktail jazz (think pianist Paul Smith) to percussion to hippie lite to porno grindhouse to trippin’ psychedelia.

Heartbeat - 1968 - 7/10
AKA - La Chamade

Classic French arthouse from the late 60’s.
Young “girlfriend” of older, affluent man lives in a glittering strata of parties, concerts and dress dinners.
During a croquet match she meets magazine editor her own age.
Sparks ignite and she leaves her very posh life to embrace in seedier digs.
To soon, she needs to find a job.
And she has to start looking at price tags.
Quiet rebuke against dazzled souls who declare love conquers all.
Of course, one of the main reasons for watching this is a young Catherine Deneuve who is radiant.

Miner’s Mountain - 2019 - 6/10

Following a deadly incident, the local sheriff is investigated by the Feds.
Civil cop – bad cop routine.
Narrative deliberately jumbled, mixing horror, mystery, and local history.
Production and acting in this short are first rate.
Closing credits ought to be studied by all aspiring movie makers.

Various (Editor: Goodstone, Tony) - The Pulps

Published in 1970, this was one of the earlier overviews of the pulps.
Goodstone gives a brief history from the 1890’s Munsey magazines to the collapse in the 1950’s.
The “Golden Era” of the 30’s-40’s makes up the bulk of this thick, coffee table book.
Fifty color plates showcase a wide variety of genres.
In my copy, the third book of signatures used cheaper paper and that section has turned brown.
Very appropriate.
Stores categorized by genre: Western, Aviation, Horror, SciFi, Detective, Girls In Peril, Bad Girls, etc.
Which meant I read some I never would have, particularly the westerns, or aviation adventures.
I was surprised by how many names I had more than passing familiarity with.