Vultural

The Last American Hero - 1973 - 6/10

Moonshine runner, Junior Jackson, wants to quit that crooked game and go legit.
He enters NASCAR, with buddies as his pit crew.
Only, it turns out NASCAR is just like dealing illegal hootch, a snake pit.
Sponsors, judges, big money backers, rivals who expect a pecking order to be obeyed.
Biography of an iconoclast, fueled with gasoline and exhaust, and plenty of car action for the drive-in crowd.
Valerie Perrine good as the less than innocent groupie, but Jeff Bridges owns this one.
Based on Junior Johnson.

Testament Of Youth - 2015 - 7/10

Latest adaptation of Vera Brittain’s World War I memoir.
Brittain, presumably part of the rural gentry, dreams of becoming a writer and being admitted to Oxford.
Events go her way at first, though one is reminded of simmering tensions in Europe throughout.
Gradually, however, the conflagration across the Channel empties her world.
Film picks up pace as the conflict grows. First part of the movie is a bit low key.
The romantic leads lack chemistry, as well as intensity.
Second half is altogether sharper and grimmer.
Ending feels rushed. Investigate the 1979 mini series for a fuller aftermath.

I’ll See You In My Dreams - 2015 - 7/10

Unexpected romance at the retirement home.
Woman visiting her girlfriends is persuaded to participate in the next speed-date mingler.
Males are over-earnest, sad-sacks, overdosed on erectile meds, or simply lonely.
Female friends urge her to move into the senior center, share the good times!
The woman (Blythe Danner) has her own home, dog, pool guy, daughter who visits occasionally, and freedom.
Then the handsome stranger from Texas arrives. Sam Elliott.
Narrative is absorbing because the plot veers in unexpected directions frequently.
Just when you conclude, “This is going to --” the story hard turns.
Same thing with characters. Just when you feel reassured - or worried - Fate skips across the surface.
These are people with miles of time behind them, precious little road ahead.
You hope for the best, but -

The Devil In Miss Jones - 1973 - 5/10

Lusty remake of the funny … ha!
Justine Jones commits suicide. Look, she’s bored, OK?
Suicide is a mortal sin, yet Jonesy has led an otherwise pure life.
So the gatekeeper is in a quandary. Solution: send her back to life to chalk up a pile of sins.
From there, we follow her into hardcore territory.
Despite production values and decent actors, the landmark film is hardly a romp.
For all the assorted rutting and moaning, this is a downer with a moralistic Afterlife.

The Devil And Miss Jones - 1941 - 6/10

Union organizers, whether at your local Starbucks, or decades earlier in the department store.
Most bosses just want these headaches quelled. By the quickest means. Usually firing.
Unlike most overlords, Mr. Merrick is a hands on kinda guy, and he goes undercover.
He is now the new shoe salesman, and a poor one at that, but befriended by – gasp! – those union types.
Feel good comedy is a product of its times (the Depression) and gets too schmaltzy.
Best to see for the leads, who are fun.
When everyone has an IRA or 401k, sympathy for the underpaid working class seems diminished.

Match Point - 2005 - 8/10

Tennis star Chris teaches at the upper class club.
He’s young, but the professional days are behind him, and the club is just marking time.
Student Tom takes a shine to him and introduces him to family, where the sister is besotted.
Jackpot! Which the tennis player realizes, and the couple are soon an “item”.
Tom, however, is dating a fetching siren.

Outstanding mystery / thriller is one of Woody’s finest.
Observations on class and aspirations. Desire, financial and sensual.
Letting – not the heart rule the head – but letting the part rule the head.
One wants to yell at the player, how perfect the rich daughter is.
And yet, Scarlett is utterly bewitching.

The Last Seduction - 1994 - 7/10

Bridget, female grifter, swipes her husband’s drug money, skedaddles to the boondocks.
She knows how to push a workcrew, so new employers are delighted.
More than that, she knows how to manipulate dumb n hung.
That husband, though. Yeah, loose end. And she knows he’s searching.
Heady Neo-Noir, laced with black comedy, made Linda Fiorentino a star … briefly.
Juicy dialogue is particularly memorable.

Les Rendez-Vous de Paris - 1995 - 6/10

Three separate stories of romance and fidelity by Éric Rohmer.
A girl is informed her boyfriend is unfaithful. What to do?
Another girl cannot decide to remain with her boyfriend or go with another.
The third story follows an artist who tries to pick up a newlywed.
Narratives are sequential, not interlocking.
Great photography of Parisian backstreets and neighborhood parks.
Talking and walking. Ordinary lives.
Characters mention the word “banal” frequently. It applies.

Remember - 2016 - 8/10

Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau as ninetyish Auschwitz survivors in nursing home.
Plummer suffers dementia, Landau is wheelchair confined.
They discover an Auschwitz officer had escaped under a false name and lives in North America.
Plummer, confused and forgetful, agrees to locate and assassinate the Nazi.
Landau arranges as much as he can: tickets, room reservations, a printed itinerary, but Plummer is on his own.
Story makes rather painful viewing, but the hunt, the unfolding mystery, is thrilling, suspenseful and will keep you glued to the screen.
Plummer is exceptional in this, shading the character, Zev (Hebrew for Wolf) with regret, weariness, yet underlying resolve.

Note - Tiptoe review, this. Unexpected surprises occur during Zev’s journey.
Beware of reviews with thoughtless spoilers. Sadly, that trend worsens each year.

Unsustainable - 2012 - 6/10

A nightmare awaking. In your car, buck naked, no car keys.
Flashback: He lives with liberal idealists. Dumpster diving, save the planet vegans.
Which he doesn’t buy into, him being into consumerism and all that.
Someone has to pay the bills. Enter the mysterious Frédérique.
Sharp satire of the blind and self-absorbed.
Omission on IMBD is an odd oversight.

Thom Pain - 2017 - 6/10

Thom reaches the stage, opens with a story of childhood innocence, crushed by Fate and bad luck.
Join the club, Barney, I think.
An audience member departs – visibly – possibly staged. My suspicion begins.
Next, the female. THE female, the one. Their relationship, like 99.7% of unions, sours. Get over it.
Thom shrugs the “whatever” attitude, barely concealing his pity party.
From time to time he addresses or singles out audience members in the front row.
No one responds (which in most theatre, someone would), of which I suspect they have been instructed.
Also, the ticket buying public appear to be the flip-flop crowd, yet the front row are model specimens.
The editing and cutaways display the artificiality of this outing. And Thom? Thom is yesterday’s raffle loser.

The Secret - 1979 - 6/10
AKA - Fung Gip // 瘋劫

Family asks Li Yuen when she and her steady are getting married.
She keeps putting them off, and seems reluctant to press the issue with Ah Saw.
Next the village is shocked when the pair are found brutally murdered and trussed up.
Police locate a suspect and close the case.
One relative, friend, is troubled by memories and starts investigating.
Unearthing darker secrets.
Baffling mystery with random characters and events had me going, “What’s the point of this?”
That said, the conclusion weaves stray threads and individuals into a neat solution.

New Years Eve - 1924 - 5/10
AKA - Sylvester

Outside, the sidewalks and streets are jammed with merrymaking throngs.
Many venture inside the cafe and continue the party.
The barkeep serves and replenishes canapés and drinks in the back.
His wife assists. Then the man’s mother arrives, a meek, withered, dry piece of toast.
In contrast to the revels without, they share a quiet meal before the man returns to bar duties.
And the quiet mother, no longer capable of controlling her jealousy and resentment, erupts.
No intertitles, by design. The copy I viewed had a pronounced flicker, very fatiguing.

House Of Horrors - 1946 - 6/10

Diverting B-thriller with a solid Noir / Expressionistic look.
Outsider sculptor (failed artist) rescues large man from river.
Inspired by his grotesque features, the artist uses him as model for his Neanderthal piece.
He rants about unappreciative critic, not knowing his new friend is actually a psychotic killer.
Still … no one likes critics, now do they?
At barely an hour, the plot chugs along swiftly. Pleasant 40’s era cheesecake a bonus.

Full Alert - 1997 - 6/10
AKA - Go do Gaai Bei // 高度戒備

“How can I tell you what I don’t know? I’m in prison.
“Yes, you found explosives in my room. Even a map of some vault.
“I don’t know nothing about nothing.”
The police sense something is planned, something huge, only the crook won’t break.
And the small gang needs him bad enough they intend to spring him.
High octane Hong Kong caper (one of the last pre-takeover) from Ringo Lam.
Illegal car chases (literally), shootouts, booby traps.
As with most caper flicks, you start rooting for the baddies.
More so here as the head cop abuses his team and civilians.

Goldilocks - 2016 - 6/10

A series of one-man ships search for a new Earth.
Time extends and the young explorers lose more than youth.
Effective SciFi short captures the loneliness of deep space.
Perhaps the futility that there is a “reset” home for humanity.
Very, very widescreen, perhaps too much so.

Nothing Personal - 2009 - 6/10

Dutch girl sells off entire possessions on the street, pulls off wedding ring in empty flat.
Divorced? Widowed? Abandoned?
Next, she is hitchhiking across rainy Ireland.
Finds an isolated house near rugged coast and agrees to housekeeping duties for meals.
The owner is recently widowed. Both keep each other at arm’s length.
The actual story, slim as it is, watches the growing curiosity each has for the other.
Austere scenery. I did wonder how such a remote dwelling had electric power.
Also, the meals were pretty spectacular. Plus, the wine rack seemed bottomless.
Readers of memoirs by Niall Williams and Cristine Breen will identify much of the labors.

Samuels, Mark - The Face Of Twilight

Shadowy amble from the underbelly to a corrupted borderland.
Ivan, middling writer of poor selling books, is forced to relocate after his dirt cheap digs go up in flames. Typically, the replacement flat is pricier, cramped, and in worse condition.
At least the neighbors seem quiet. Or anti-social. Particularly Mr. Stymm.
Researching for a new book, Ivan prowls internet sites devoted to abandoned London. Ruined buildings, empty warehouses, shuttered subway stations. Now, following Ivan, we descend.
For readers of Samuels’ Glyphtrych, this novel resonates themes found in “Sentinels” and “The Vanishing Point.” The first burrows into the neglected subterranean world, while the second observes self negation and mental entropy caused by the glass teat.
Ivan, almost alone, recognizes a subtle overthrow, although like most horror narrators he seems completely incapable of doing anything aside from fitfully watching.
Midway, the narration downshifts and the tempo dawdles.
The “replacement” undercurrent looms larger, and those who perceive this as a real and ongoing reality will read this as worst dreams come true.

Traitor - 2019 - 7/10
AKA - Reetur

Money problems, too many women (wife, mistress, illegitimate daughter), plus he has been dismissed.
Alfred Vint has hit a bad patch.
Life in Estonia had been much easier when it was a Soviet satellite.
Alfred is ripe for turning. Especially when Russian hard cash comes calling and he enters the Defense Ministry.
Top espionage thriller of a man inching deeper and deeper into the quagmire.
Action is limited. This series is more cat n mouse, mistakes and coverups.

Desperate Living - 1977 - 6/10

One of John Waters’ keenest satires on American suburbia.
A rich housewife murders her husband (with ingenious help from her maid), both flee to Mortville.
The burg has its own queen, and her princess daughter.
Add lesbians Muffy and Mole, wrestler and trans lovers.
This film is an insane explosion of narratives and images.
Like the wresting outfit, or dog with the fresh hotdog.
I saw this when it came out, took friends who were giddy with laughter, even my visiting 18 year old brother.
Waters reaches a weird zenith here, never to return as he became more mainstream.

Ordinary Fascism - 1965 - 6/10
AKA - Triumph Over Violence // Обыкновенный фашизм

Unsurprising Soviet documentary on the rise and activities of the Nazis.
Not so much about World War II but rather the National Socialist Party.
History shown from the Soviet point of view.
No “Allies” mentioned in the Great Patriotic War (how USSR termed WWII for years).
A couple chapters devoted to Communist factions in the Weimar era.
Narrative is overlong, condescending, and opinionated. Reference the '65 date.
Interesting more as a curiosity, less as historic document.
Unseen (to me) Soviet war footage, along with quite graphic concentration camp imagery. Beware.

The Invaders: S01 - 1967 - 7/10

I had not viewed this influential series for a couple decades. Rewatching brought back memories.
The show boasts a gorgeous, “wet color" look, over-saturated, but typical of Quinn Martin productions.
Dominic Frontiere provides an evocative credits theme and numerous music cues.
Architect David Vincent squares off against extra-terrestrial planet grabbers.
Mr Vincent wins stray battles here and there, but the potential outcome seems ominously one-sided.
Roy Thinnes plays lead (at least producers made him an architect, rather than a writer) who gets nowhere trying to convince officials and military brass he’s not some arm waving Sasquatch alarmist.
Special effects were barely more than mattes, models and dissolves, and there is no arc to the story (those were rare in 1967). Dave hurries from point to point, thwarting one alien stratagem after another.

My brother and I were wild about this when it aired, and we thought it almost equal to The Outer Limits.
Almost. Not quite, though.
Midway, we started having problems with both alien intelligence, as well with our red-blooded hero.
The aliens had some damn good tactics: weather disruption, mind control, contagion … except they kept launching attacks one at a time. Giving their pesky architect nemesis just enough time to zoom in and foil them - - again.
C’mon, they mastered interstellar travel. They could have figured out what flight he was on and zapped his airliner.
End of story.

Another plus for Team Alien. Sex appeal. They had hotties. Suzanne Pleshette and BarBara Luna (sic).
Is Vincent interested? Heck, no. (In a rival show airing in ‘67, Kirk would not have hesitated an instant, no sir.)
Another thing, and this is really big, where did ole Dave get his money?
Sure, he was an architect and drummed up business occasionally. Yet enough for flights, car rentals, motel rooms, nice clothes, blue plate dinners, and the infrequent date with a big-haired blonde (strict earthling variety)?
Things cost money - plenty of money. My brother and I had paper routes, so we grasped the concept of budgets.
Anyway, my brother, eight years old, figured it out one episode.

A pair of Alien agents are chasing Dave all over West Virginia in their big Ford.
Dave eventually gets the drop on them and crisps ‘em both. Another victory for architecture. End of Part IV.
Then, during the Epilog, my brother points and hollers, “Hey! He’s driving their car!”
Sure enough. Dave is rolling easy in the aliens’ blue Ford.
“I bet he stole their car,” my brother continued. “I bet he emptied the trunk, searched the glove compartment.”
Oh?
“Yeah, he took all their money! Probably found their motel room and swiped their watches, money stash, custom suits. He stole everything! We won’t see it, but he’s gonna sell that Ford, too. Once he kills them, I bet he drives all their Fords to the Used Car lot. That’s how Vincent does this week after week. He’s a thief! Like a grave robber!”
Pretty hard to argue with his theory, I must say.

The Invaders has not dated too much - depends on one’s tolerance for the sometimes leisurely pace, I guess. I might even get to season two eventually, say in two or three years.

Suzhou River - 2000 - 6/10
AKA - Su Zhou He // 苏州河

Club owner hires a freelance photographer to film his main attraction, the blonde mermaid.
The videographer and female soon form an uneasy relationship.
Meaning, he does not know much about Meimei, and she disappears at random.
Enter Mardar, motorcycle courier, who is convinced Meimei is his old girlfriend, Moudan.
As the sordid backstory unfolds, viewers cannot help but wonder, is Meimie actually Moudan?
The opening ten minutes are cinéma vérité, though the camera settles once the courier’s story occurs.
Personally, I never bought either love story, nor the mystery angle, only the obsession.

Crimes Of Passion - 1984 - 6/10

By any other hand, this might be a steamy erotic thriller, a genre in vogue for a decade.
A Ken Russell film, though, brace for something “different”.
Bobby, hired to investigate industrial espionage, discovers his quarry is designer by day, prostitute by night.
Soon enough, he initiates a … hmm … a connection with her
As if one stalker isn’t bad enough, she also attracts a weird minister.
Anthony Perkins (sadly typecast throughout his later career) memorable as the wacko, obsessed preacher.
The film had / has a scurrilous reputation, reason enough to watch when it came out.
I found it disappointing, then learned the R rating had trimmed naughty bits.
By the time I viewed an unrated version, well, the world and I had moved on.
Don’t watch this for sex, watch to enjoy the repartee between China Blue and Reverend Shayne.
As I tell young colleagues, you want to see hot action, get a mirror and an enthusiastic partner.

Damage - 1992 - 8/10

A prominent Tory MP starts a disastrous affair with his son’s fiancée.
As with most clandestine trysts, the relationship grows squalid, fraught with lies, self-lies, betrayals.
Per the title, one can expect consequences emotional, political, personal.
This is my favorite Malle film, though I realize it is polarizing.
Reckless and detached, the main characters are heedless to the point of stupidity.
I suspect enjoyment (or appreciation) may depend on how deeply the story resonates.
If you are able to identify with one of the characters, or two, or perhaps three.
The consequences of treachery most intimate.