Vultural

Life Is Sweet - 1990 - 6/10

Lo, the pipedreams of the common lot.
Andy, restaurant cook, buys a beat up caravan, hoping to turn it into a gourmet wagon on wheels.
Meanwhile, best mate Aubrey opens a cafe tribute to Edith Piaf, Regret Rien.
Add two dysfunctional teenage daughters, and a chuckling Fate.
Understated comedy (British) scores in one amusing or inept situation after another.
Because this is a Mike Leigh film, I was bracing for a message theme.
Marvelous gem of hope amidst Life’s weeds.

A Gorgeous Girl Like Me - 1972 - 6/10
AKA - Une Belle Fille Comme Moi

Sociologist decides to write his thesis about jailbird, Camille, convicted of murdering at least two men.
She demands her banjo (to polish her nonexistent singing prowess) and she wants fresh nuts since the prison does not provide.
Sociologist is soon in over his depth as Camille’s lies, eyes, thighs and absurd stories befuddle him.
Frothy Truffaut comedy studded with nonsensical situations, foolish males who follow their wands, and a fast talking sorceress who offers petals freely yet takes and takes.

At one point Camille is handling four different men, putting the squeeze on each of them.
Funny, sexy, beguiling satire of the femme fatale.
The same actress played a bitter, vengeful vixen in 1969s La Fiancée du Pirate, but this is much more fun.

Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers - 2016 - 6/10

Three part doc (of which I only watched E01, and am uninterested in the others) hosted by Andrew Marr
“Sleuths” charts the rise of detective fiction. Poe mentioned, but Sherlock seems the starting point.
From there, Marr details cozy, targeting Christie (though Sayers and Marsh referenced).
After WWII, hardboiled Americans Chandler and Hammett, then to modern masters Pym and Rendell and current Scandinavian dominance.
Show is about the works themselves, as well as trends - less about author’s personal lives.
Current writers discuss bygone scribes and their own processes.
Breezy, slight, though enjoyable. Marr a craggy host.

Frenzy - 1972 - 7/10

One of Hitchcock’s final films flirts with slasher territory.
London is menaced by the Necktie Killer, a vicious serial murderer.
The slayings are gruesome in this, as are some of the disposals.
Nonetheless, black humor runs like a giggling corpse throughout.
Scenes are an expertly arranged flow of suspense, uneasy laughter, deception.
If you know your Hitchcock chronology, this really makes up for several previous outings.

Nine Lives - 2016 - 5/10

Say you are a massively successful businessman, with titanic ego.
For her birthday, your small daughter asks for - again - a cat.
Instead of delegating your secretary, you yourself go to an obscure pet shop to get the feline.
And who’s running the cat shop? Mr Perkins, or as he would say, Purrkins.

Only wait! Before he can say, “I hate cats," the tycoon lies in a coma, his soul in the cat!
What to do, what to do?
I suspect because we are in an era of edgy television, family friendly movies tend to get overlooked.
Jennifer Garner, Kevin Spacey, Christopher Walken headline a comedy of a man who almost loses family and soul.
Warning - Cat haters, there are cat antics aplenty. Caveat emptor.

Sharktopus Vs Whalewolf - 2015 - 3/10

Yeah, I know, I asked for it.
Witless stupid sequel to an already awful movie.
This installment aims for a more comic approach (think Sharknado franchise), only the humor is on a three year old level.
Sharky is same old guy, whalewolf has expressive eyes and resembles Wile E Coyote.
Human actors are uniformly crappy across the board.
Lots of meals, aquatic tussles, blood splatters.
Still, I was bored.

The Heavy Water Wars - 2016 - 7/10
AKA - Kampen Om Tungtvannet

Norway gets occupied by Germany during World War II.
One of the factories the Reich is keenly interested in is Norsk Hydro, where they make fertilizer, ammonia.
Especially the by-product, heavy water.

Story relayed from four points of view:
The Nazis, British Intelligence, Norwegian Resistance, and Norsk Hydro management. The latter understood the huge profits to be made, plus they were keeping employees working.
Lavish production values, sumptuous sets (early on, worse as war prolongs).
Main threads follow the experiments race and the sabotage.
While this series boasts strong ratings, sabotage is not necessarily action.
Sabotage involves stealth, subterfuge, and invariably silence.
That may be challenging to the viewer demanding gun battles, fistfights, explosions, superheroes.
There are also several languages, meaning subtitles. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Outstanding historical war drama for adults.
Note: For action diehards, Michael Bay has announced intent to film his version of this.
Tentative title - “Sabotage: A Genius Scientist, His Band of Young Commandos, and the Mission to Kill Hitler’s Super Bomb”
Expect stylistic differences, explosive action, superheroics, loud Bay trademarks.

Sundown - 2021 - 7/10

Probably one of those films best gone into cold.
British family of four vacations in Acapulco.
Money appears to be no object, and I try to decide between idle rich and criminals.
Then an emergency, the family must race back to England, except one has to remain.

Then the slow boil mystery kicks in. Why does he stay? Tell lies?
What is his relationship with the family?
For the patient, the story unfolds like a multi-petaled flower, new details adding answers and questions.
Tim Roth quietly effective as the subdued enigma.

The Real Jane Austen - 2002 - 7/10

Charming one hour documentary “written” by Jane Austen and hosted by one of her nieces.
Actors portray various friends and relatives as well as Jane. Their lines come from actual letters.
Host Anna Chancellor played Miss Bingley (the Colin Firth version) and is also a great - great … niece of Austen.
For hardcore Janeites, nothing is new, though hearing her juvenile works is a rare treat.
For newcomers, this will be informative without being heavy handed.
Breezy throughout with glowing photography and clips from numerous film adaptations.

Convoy Busters - 1978 - 6/10
AKA - Un Poliziotto Scomodo

Inspector Olmi shoots first, beats out confessions, doesn’t know his place.
In that he takes on high-status crooks with judicial friends.
Tired of the corruption, he leaves Rome for a small coastal precinct.
Where, wouldn’t you know it, illegal smuggling is ongoing.
High action Euro-Crime entry is an excessive gem.
Ugly murders, violent shootouts, great chases (including a gunfight between helicopter and getaway car).
Maurizio Merli, as always, makes a brooding anti-hero.

Tonite Lets All Make Love In London - 1967 - 6/10

Cinematic time capsule during the height of Swinging London.
Concert footage spliced with interviews (famous, forgotten or obscure).
Julie Christie, Lee Marvin, Michael Caine reflect on the times.
Mick Jagger muses upon a future where more people have less to do, and possible discontent.
Nightclub sequences, protest rallies, fashion, nudity, artists, with nonstop music.
Musical groups include “The” Pink Floyd, Eric Burdon and the Animals, The Rolling Stones.
For Pink Floyd fans, Syd Barrett leads “Interstellar Overdrive."
Fast moving, rapid cut film relies on knowledge of faces, history and mores of the era.
Experimental work, part high concept, part pretentious meandering.

Maps To The Stars - 2014 - 6/10

What begins as a dish-the-dirt, Hollywood insider yarn veers into the realm of the preposterous.
Wayward daughter - onetime firebug - returns home after living in a “controlled environment” for a decade owing to a trifling incident with matches.
Brother is a successful actor, supposedly drug free, although he is insecure and suffers testosterone overload.
Dad writes crap books and coaches a fading actress whose mom perished in a fire.
Wait a minute! Could it be?
No, you’re only getting halfway in this over-the-top nonsense.
Talented cast (Julianne Moore, John Cusak, Mia Wasikowska … ) backstabs, whines, begs, lies, and much worse in dreary puzzle spiral. Animal lovers - beware.
Creators ought to have let Robert Crumb write the draft. He would have gone full bore bonkers and this would have been entertainment sleaze, rather than seamy titillation.
Gives the feeling David Cronenberg still has ideas, but is running out of vocabulary to express them.

The Mortuary Collection - 2019 - 7/10

Horror anthology, well written, ghoulishly delivered.
Twisted morality plays, one subversive pastiche.
Oh, and not to forget the opener that functions as an appetizer.
There is the misadventure of a manicured fratboy and his safe (unsafe) sexual activities.
Followed by the marriage (death do us part) gone wrong.
Concluding with “The Babysitter Murderer” which is what the sitter is watching on the tube, unknowing that a child murdering psycho killer has escaped!
This makes for laugh out loud juxtapositions of screen action vs in-house mayhem.
Clancy Brown fans, this one!

Witness In The Dark - 1959 - 6/10

Decent British B-movie, Noirish quickie.
Elderly woman murdered in her flat. Lone witness passed the assassin on staircase.
Only problem, she is blind.
Police question repeatedly for even the slightest detail she can recall.
Time clocks less than an hour and the mystery (or lack of) breezes along.
Curious side glance at post war, gray market economy.

Elegance And Decadence: The Age Of The Regency - 2011 - 6/10

Entertaining, sometimes enlightening three part documentary hosted by Dr. Lucy Worsley.
Nice companion if you read or watch Jane Austen and an good overview of formal Regency, meaning the ten year period while George III was unfit and son George ruled as Regent.
Architecture, fashion trends, art, rebellion, poets and revolutionaries.
The era begins during the Napoleonic wars, ends as smoke belching factories transform England.
Worsley can be an acquired taste, but she is always enthusiastic and easy to understand.
Producers opted for a modern soundtrack - a growing trend - which is often distracting.
Pink Floyd - The Beatles - The Who - too many others to mention.
In a similar period, I also watched another three parter, Rude Britannia and the first episode also covers this time with salacious and naughty illustrations.

Satan In High Heels - 1962 - 6/10

Stacey, working the cooch show at the carnival, robs her hop-head husband and flies to New York.
A “talent scout” sizes her up right quick, and Stacey is brought in to audition at Pepe’s.
While higher class than the burlesque, Pepe’s is an upscale gin joint.
Stacey is repackaged into a glossier object of desire, although her impulses remain doggedly primal.
Flirting, affairs (with the owner, his son, and Pepe), drinking, homicidal urges.
The narrative perks along, in a tawdry, sleazy route, and would have been taboo in ’62 – for any who saw it.
For a cheap indie film, this looks terrific!
Songs vary from smokey (Stacey’s moan is something between Nina Simone and Julie London), to funny.
I enjoyed the mixed audience of aging debauchees and Greenwich Village bohos.
Study the lower cast names, most are the production crew.
Recent restoration by Nicholas Winding Refn is the one to watch.
Subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/satan-in-high-heels

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?) - 2010 - 7/10

Who indeed?
Insightful biography of Nilsson, songwriting shooting star of the 70’s.
He penned a string of monster hits (“One,” “Without Her,” “Coconut,” “Jump Into The Fire,” “My And My Arrow”) though he also punched the charts with huge cover versions (“Everybody’s Talkin’ “ and “Without You”).
Beloved by numerous musicians, including The Beatles, he reveled in success and excess.
A drinking problem and public bad behavior landed him in tabloid headlines and an early grave.
Old footage, interspersed with reminisces by wives, relatives, peers (eg: Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Richard Perry, Brian Wilson …).
As with similar tales, rousing to watch an artist succeed with their talents, sad to view self-destruction.

Lords Of Salem - 2012 - 6/10

Radio DJ Heidi receives a wooden box with a vinyl recording inside.
She plays it on the air and it profoundly affects her as well as many female listeners.
Record player? People who actually listen to radio at night?
Go with it, OK?
Heidi lives in an old brick apartment. Her neighbors include aging, nosy biddies.
Plus, a disquieting shadow who lives in the “empty” apartment.
Extremely slow going, but moody and downright nervy at times.
For the unwary, this is a Rob Zombie film. A director one loves or hates.
I found his previous outings to be stupid, unfunny, poorly filmed, amateurish.
As mentioned, Lords Of Salem creeps along, if possible, each act gets slower.
It is a “haunted” story and probably falls into sub-category of Chick Horror.
Expect a lot of nudity. Mostly female, though most appear to be of the clutch who clean buildings at night or work fast food joints.
Those expecting supermodels or firm fleshed ingenues, consider this a warning.

Cafe Society - 2016 - 6/10

Waste of superb cinematography and plum cast.
Woody Allen re-explores the past again, this time 1930’s Hollywood and Gotham.
Young man tries and fails to make his mark in Tinsel Town - career and romance.
Parallel story of his mobster brother building a more lucrative, if dubiously successful, criminal path.
There was an excellent film in here, I’m convinced, but this ended up a muddled mess.
The two storylines do not connect well, and characters are undeveloped.
Final half of film ran out of steam.
OK Allen film. Not his best, not his worst. Disappointing for me.

Emma - 2016 - 6/10

What was this? A busted pilot?
Well done, two-part French cop show.
Veteran officer Vitulo is assigned a new partner, Emma, with the runway model looks.
Knowledgeable, quick, yet utterly ignorant in many aspects.
Why? Because she is a test. A prototype android officer.
This concept has been done too many times to reference.
Emma, however is surprisingly, endearingly funny.
Completely clueless about the nuances of law and order.
“Stop! There is a lawbreaker, jaywalking.” Or “Doctor cannot disclose patient information, even dead ones. Criminal.”
Writing is deft and ingenious. Too bad there were only two episodes, or perhaps that is for the best.

Iris - 2014 - 5/10

Final movie of legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles proves a shallow disappointment.
The cameras trail after unlikely fashion icon, Iris Apfel, without getting at the essence of her, or how she achieved her position.
She and her husband have a home on Park Avenue, another in Palm Beach.
These are plainly ultra-rich. How did they accumulate such wealth?
(Note: Wiki indicates they ran a textile firm for 40 years. Commerce barely touched on in film.)
Her so-called taste, which favored clunky and garish beads is praised by all with not a single dissent.

When the husband casually mentions how difficult Jackie Kennedy was, Iris quickly closes the topic saying they are not allowed to discuss any of their work dealing with the White House.
(Wiki indicates the couple did White House restorations for Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton.)
Nonetheless, Maysles let that slide. Indeed, much passed unquestioned.
Feel-good, surface skipper, of a 80 minute soufflé.
I ended up with a cynical suspicion that so many designer and curators praised and gushed over her because she was in her 90’s and they lusted after her collection.
Those of you who have a wacky grandma or auntie - - there but for fortune …

Äkta Människor: S01 - 2012 - 7/10

Uneven parallel reality series where hubots (robots - cyborgs - cylons) are ubiquitous in society.
They are tireless, work without complaint, and are programmed to be maddeningly cheerful.
Employers love ‘em, human coworkers - who are being displaced - are less thrilled.

A subset of hubots is programmed differently, or simply lacks programming.
They have free will and are on the run, led by the sinister Niska.

Several themes are explored over ten episodes: Hubot rights, cloning, government control, black market modifications, human - hubot relationships (and all that implies), discrimination, age ism.
There is also the uneasy reality of humanity being supplanted by our creations - as if we have done such a spectacular job of our stewardship.
Good SciFi / Speculative show, though the creators bit off more than they could chew.
This is the original Swedish series, with subtitles.

The World Over - 2018 - 6/10

Messing about in the basement, Cass finds a strange key.
Like Pandora, her curiosity is aroused, and she soon scrapes off plaster to reveal a keyhole.
At this point, she grows leery. Nonetheless, her husband, like Adam, yields to temptation.
And into the doorway he disappears.
Effective short mixes the supernatural with the parallel.
Restrained, provocative, creepy, and a warning.

Too Much (Little) Love - 1998 - 6/10
AKA - Trop (peu) d 'amour

Patience and stamina draining French drama.
Also quite talky, no surprise there.
40 year old movie writer / director invites young author to his country estate.
She is a green 18, but he finds elements of her draft screenplay intriguing.
At the manor is wife #2 (25ish) and his daughter (16).
Insecurities, jealousies, game playing, bickering launch almost immediately.
The 18 year old is exceptionally irritating and adept at pushing emotional buttons.
Acting is great in that viewers wind up hating all characters.
Females around me winced and said, “Welcome to our world.”

5 Flights Up - 2014 - 6/10

Arthouse / indie film set in Brooklyn of two seniors considering selling their flat.
There is a hefty financial inducement to sell (estimate - $1 mil), but mostly those five flights, no elevator.
Diane Keaton plays an ex-schoolteacher, Morgan Freeman an artist whose work is currently passe.
Leisurely paced slice of life, low on action, though huge events are happening.
For the couple, this could be the last move / last major decision they get to make.
They brace for the blitz of prospective buyers, as well as idlers who look because they are bored.
Ratings on this seemed segregated by age demographics.
Younger viewers bored - older viewers spellbound.
Those who have all the time in the world, those whose days are numbered.
Numerous flashbacks of the couple, forty years younger, when they dated then married in the 70’s.
Possibly better appreciated by those 45 and older.