Submitted by Mongolia: Silent City Driver

This is about as gritty and noir as Buddhist cinema gets. There is plenty of bad karma, but little enlightenment in Ulaanbaatar, at least as far as ex-con Myagmar sees. He is not exactly a people person, so his work as a hearse driver isn’t such a bad fit. However, the rest of society is still a problem for him in Janchivdorj Sengedorj’s Silent City Driver, which Mongolia officially submitted for best international feature Oscar consideration.

The circumstances are never entirely explained, but Myagmar served several years in prison for murder. His release might be related to health issues often requiring transfusions. Unfortunately, his emotional condition is far worse. Until the funeral home hires him, Myagmar only interacts with the stay dogs he adopted. However, thanks to his work, he starts to almost befriend Sodoo, a young Buddhist monk (recently returned from Tibet), who often rides shotgun in Myagmar’s hearse.

Myagmar also develops a fascination with Saruul, the wild and worldly daughter of the funeral home’s blind coffin carver. She initially assumes it is a case of sexual obsession, but the audience will doubt whether Myagmar can still relate to women in such a way. Regardless, through his asexual stalking, Myagmar figures out Saruul has fallen victim to underworld elements that target young women like her.

In some ways, Sengedorj’s narrative (co-written with Nomuunzul Turmunkh) could play out in any major world city. However, the Buddhists themes that emerge through Myagmar’s conversations with Sodoo give the bracing conclusion even more bite. Calling the film a “slow builder” might overstate Sengedorj’s pacing, but the payoff is brutally powerful. Everything aspect of the film is very deliberately intentional.

Indeed, this is not a film you can just shake off and forget. Consequently, if Academy members take the bother of screening it, Silent City Driver could emerge as a surprise contender, even though it really isn’t currently on the awards radar. Frankly, this is also a good year for dark horses, because there are not as many heavy favorites, like (hopefully) Jafar Panahi’s It was Just an Accident (which deserves not just a nomination, but an Oscar victory).

Five Nights at Freddy's 2, in Cinema Daily US

The Henson Shop's gleefully nutty practical animatronics and the richly detailed design work are still the stars of FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S 2, but the execution and editing arenot as snappy as they were in the original FNAF. CINEMA DAILY US reviiew up here.

Come Closer: Israel’s International Submission to Last Year’s Oscars

This film’s emotional dynamics are similar to that of Just Between Friends (1986), in which Mary Tyler Moore befriends Christine Lahti, even though she was having an affair with her late husband, Ted Danson. However, one of the big, glaring differences in this case is Eden happened to be the late Nati’s sister. Technically, there was nothing shocking or scandalous about their relationship. Yet, they shared such an intimate trust, Eden’s discovery of his romance with Maya leads to feelings of jealousy, betrayal, and obsession in director-screenwriter Tom Nesher’s Come Closer, which opens today in New York.

Nati was supposed to meet Maya for a date, but instead, Eden and their hard-partying friends kidnapped him, to celebrate his birthday on the beach. He tried to sneak back to Maya once everyone else crashed, but he was fatally struck down crossing the highway. Consequently, both women will have justification for blaming the other during the heated moments to come.

When Maya and her mother attend the funeral, nobody knows who they are. Driven by unhealthy curiosity, Eden figures out who she is and what she was to her brother. Soon, Eden reluctantly accepts that their relationship was real, so she tries to befriend Maya, to better understand the secret side of Nati.

Even under ordinary circumstances, it is probably difficult befriending Eden, because she is more than a little crazy. As a result, their friendship spawns very different forms of co-dependency, while ambiguously veering into lesbian attraction. Some of the obsessive behavior rings uncomfortably true, while the sexual overtones often feel forced and exploitative.

Tom Nesher is indeed the daughter of acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher (who helmed Image of Victory, The Matchmaker, and The Secrets), but she has extensive experience working as a journalist for Israeli network television, so it is unfair to dismiss her as a “nepo baby.” It would also be downright mean-spirited, considering Nesher’s screenplay was inspired by her own experiences after the untimely death of her brother.

The Wailing: Spanish and Argentine Horror

You could call Andrea the child of globalization. Her French birth mother was a French expat in Argentina, who gave Andrea up for adaption, stipulating a new home for her in Spain. However, the style and atmosphere of her resulting story is very much like what expect and appreciate from Spanish horror movies. Unfortunately, a mysterious evil force show no respect for borders in director-co-screenwriter Pedro Martin-Calero’s The Wailing, which releases today on VOD.

Like most teenagers, Andrea resents her parents. She also resents Marie Montand, the woman who gave birth to her, mostly for dying before she could find her. Awkwardly, her parents only revealed her origin recently, which turned out to be way too late. Yet, rather ominously, Montand did not just surrender her daughter. She also committed suicide, after doing time for murdering a teenaged girl roughly her age. That is a lot for Andrea to unpack.

Her exchange student boyfriend Pau suggests she take time off, so she can visit him in Australia. By the way, he also asks, who is the person standing behind you in the video she sent? What person? Yes, indeed, there is a strange old man standing behind her, off to the side and in the shadows, hidden in just about all her recent videos and selfies. Slowly, Andrea starts to suspect the mystery involves an eerie old building in Madrid that looks exactly like the one Montand once inhabited in Buenos Aires.

Rewinding twenty years, Martin-Calero switches his focus to Camile, a film student, who develops a borderline obsession with Montand, an expat party girl. Briefly, she manages to bridge the gap between stalker and potential lover (don’t try this in real-life kids). However, in the process, she generates a lot of film and photos, all of which reveal a sinister figure observing Montand in the background.

By horror standards, there is very little blood and gore in The Wailing. However, it is rich in foreboding and dread. Martin-Calero builds the tension slowly but steadily. While the bifurcated structure is initially jarring, it is ultimately quite effective.

Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius, on BritBox

Watching this 3-part series, you might assume Jane Austen either committed murder or escaped from a serial killer. That is because it utilizes many techniques associated with true crime documentaries, especially the dialogue-free “dramatic” re-enactments, accompanied by breathless voice-overs. For Gen-Z’ers out there, Austen was actually a novelist. Academics, writers, and thesps associated with her work analyze her life and legacy in director-co-writer Ali Naushahi’s Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius, which premieres Friday on BritBox.

Like all great writers, Austen wrote about what she knew. Like many of her heroines, her family was upper-class, but just barely—and very definitely cash-poor. She should have been married off, but somehow it never quite worked out.

From a young age, Austen’s rector father encouraged her talent for writing, which was quite progressive of him, particularly for the time. Eventually, Austen’s fiction came to represent the family’s best hope for financial survival, especially for the unmarried or widowed women.

Naushahi and company do a great job covering the particulars of Austen’s dealings with her publishers, especially her shrewd power moves that ultimately made Emma a blockbuster. They also make a strong case for Austen as one of the first great innovators of the novel as a means of literary expression. However, they arguably inflate her status as a trailblazing woman writer. The truth is she had considerable predecessors, like Anne Radcliffe, Sarah Fielding, and Mary Wollstone. Plus, she was a contemporary of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, whose work might even be more influential than Austen’s.

There is a concerted effort throughout Rise of a Genius to use its subject to score as many identity politics points as it possibly can. Yet, it hardly seems worth the effort. If you cannot pick up on Austen’s social criticism from her novels, there is nothing any academic can say that would convince you. Indeed, the  quality of the assembled talking heads’ commentary varies widely. Ironically, some of the most insightful observations come from actors like Greg Wise (Sense & Sensibility), Samuel West (Persuasion), and Greta Scacchi (Emma).

Emoke Zsigmond certainly looks Austenian when portraying the author in the dramatic recreations, but since she never speaks, Naushashi largely just uses her as a prop—in much the same way Jane Austen criticized Georgian society for its objectification of women.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution, in Cinema Daily US

JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION's spectacular action scenes,driving score, and archetypal themes show why the anime franchise inspirs intense fan loyalty. However, newcomers will prohably be confused by the first 40 minutes or so, which are an outright barrage of magical melee. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Reflection in a Dead Diamond, on Shudder

Maybe all those martinis are not so good for a secret agent, even if they are stirred and not shaken. Retired spy John Dimon had more than his share of debauched indulgence—and it now shows. Unfortunately, he suspects bad karma and old enemies from his former life have come back to settle the score in Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s Reflection in a Dead Diamond, which premieres this Friday on Shudder.

Explaining the storyline of a Cattet & Forzani film is always a tricky proposition. They mainly care about imagery, rather than the stuff that preoccupies middlebrow squares, such as plot. Their first two films, Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears were tributes to Italian Gialos, while Let the Corpses Tan riffed on hardboiled Poliziotteschi movies. With Dead Diamond they take on the spy genre. While there are a few Bond references here and there (as well as more liberal indulgences in bondage), their reference point is really Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik and its source graphic novels, with maybe a little bit of Irma Vep and Les Vampires thrown in for good measure.

So yes, that means there will be a lot of leather cat suits. Apparently, Dimon’s old nemesis Serpentik is up to her old tricks—or maybe he is just having flashbacks to his groovy glory years. Honestly, viewers can hardly better tell when anything happens than he can.

Like the filmmaking duo’s previous film, Dead Diamond is more of a series stylized set pieces rather than a linear (or even fractured) storyline. So far, their approach worked best in Corpses Tan, which makes their latest feel like a step backward.

The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere, in The Epoch Times

On the Las Vegas Sphere's massive 160,000 square foot screen (20-30 times larger than the average IMAX) watching THE WIZARD OF OZ is once again "an event." The Sphere's AI-enhance "4D" presentatinon and re-recorded orchestral score are reviewed in THE EPOCH TIMES here.

The First Snow of Fraggle Rock, on Apple TV+

It never released on home video, but for 80s kids, the TV special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together was a Christmas tradition, thanks to the classic companion album. It is way overdue for a restoration and re-release. Maybe next year. Regardless, Jim Henson’s creations and the holiday season go together like mistletoe and holly. The Fraggles do not exactly celebrate Christmas, but they have their own seasonal festivities. Unfortunately, Gobo Fraggle is supposed to perform a new song for their annual winter frolic, but he has a persistent case of writer’s block in the new special, The First Snow of Fraggle Rock, which premieres Friday on Apple TV+.

Some might try to blame “climate change,” but the new Doc’s experiments are probably more at fault. Her lovable dog Sprocket isn’t too thrilled about them either. Regardless, the lack of snow at Fraggle Rock is a blessing for Gobo, because he has nothing to perform. Eventually, the snow must come, so he ventures into Doc’s house, in search of his Uncle Traveling Matt’s latest postcard, hoping it will provide inspiration.

Instead, Uncle Traveling Matt (that is his full name, you know) sends magical instructions that allow Gobo to join him in the Human World. Frankly, Gobo might be better suited to our world, because he eventually crashes a recording session for vocalist Lele Pons, who improvises a duet with the Fraggle.

Frankly, Apple has been out to lunch when it comes to promoting the original songs commissioned for their programs at the Emmy’s. Honestly, Ben Folds’ “It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown” and Mick Jagger’s “Strange Game” for Slow Horses are both award-worthy tracks. First Snow features two quality originals that maybe aren’t quite as impressive, but they are highly catchy and thematically appropriate: “Can You Feel It” by Harvey Mason Jr., Andrew Hey, and Sam Ramirez, along with “Our Melody” by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee.

Man Finds Tape: Found Footage in Texas

In Larkin, Texas, social life largely revolves around the church and the barbecue roadhouse. It is about as red as the meat proprietor Winston Boon serves up, but this film still invites sympathy for the community. Something sinister has been secretly preying on the town for years. A brother and sister struggle to expose the bizarre truth in Paul Gandersman & Peter S. Hall’s Man Finds Tape, which releases this Friday in theaters and on-demand.

Believe it or not, the director-screenwriters breathe new life into the found footage subgenre, precisely by embracing its limitations. Lucas Page is a notorious paranormal influencer, who built a massive following with the mysterious videos of his childhood an unknown someone reportedly delivered to him. The first allegedly depicts a shadowy figure standing over him while he innocently slept. Ominously, it clearly was not his parents.

Page would later admit he faked the subsequent tapes in hopes of drawing out the mysterious party. Consequently, his sister Lynn is skeptical when Lucas video-calls, asking her to watch more of his dubious footage. However, when he passes out mid-call, she reluctantly returns to Larkin, out of concern.

Having left town as a teenager, after the untimely deaths of their parents, Ms. Page seems immune to whatever plagues the locals. Clearly, it is not just her brother. Her former bestie (and Lucas’s on-again-off-again girlfriend) Wendy Parker willing goes on-the-record and on-camera to discusses her experiences. Boon also sits for a few interviews, but he is far less willing to face the creepy phenomenon. However, a strange outsider (conveniently referred to as “The Stranger”) obviously understands what is happening, but he clearly has not come to Larkin with altruistic motives.

Man Finds Tape works so well because it uses our disbelief against us, jujitsu-like. As the primary narrating voice, Lynn Page constantly expresses skepticism. Essentially, she even invites the audience to compare her ostensive film to presumed hoaxes, like the Patterson-Gimlin Big Foot tape. The horror itself is also initially hard to define. While it inspires fear and paranoia, it also takes on subtly Lovecraftian overtones.

Gandersman and Hall create a potent atmosphere of dread, which steadily escalates. Even though Rev. Endicott Carr is unambiguously implicated in the uncanny skullduggery afoot, Man Finds Tape still feels highly sympathetic to its small Texas setting.

Haunted Season: The Occupant of the Room, on Shudder

You would think Algernon Blackwood would be the BBC’s favorite ghost story writer, since he worked for the broadcaster in the late 1930s. Instead, M.R. James has been their go-to for their annual A Ghost Story for Christmas seasonal series. However, this is Shudder’s yearly holiday horror anthology, Haunted Season. Blackwood finally gets a well-deserved adaptation that isn’t “The Wendigo” when Kier-La Janesse’s “The Occupant of the Room” premieres tomorrow on Shudder.

Who would want to vacation in a remote Swiss Alpine resort at the height of winter? Evidently, many folks do, because when Minturn arrives at the dead of night, he finds the inn is entirely booked. Technically, there is maybe one room, since the strange “English Woman” occupant hasn’t been seen since she left on a hike. Of course, he takes it. Its cold outside.

However, as Minturn settles in, the room seems to exert an unsettling influence over his state of mind. Something is wrong there, in some way related to the rightful occupant.

“Occupant” is an understated and elegant ghost story, very much in the structural and tonal tradition of The Yellow Wallpaper, or Repulsion, while maintaining its refined British sensibilities. It is a slow-builder that makes good use of its full half-hour running time. This is definitely Janesse’s best work as a director so far (especially since her folk horror documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched largely repeated the same commentary, repeated over and over).

Scooby-Doo: Mask of the Blue Falcon, on Adult Swim

Owen Garrison sounds like Adam West, but his career has taken a worse trajectory. Like Clayton Moore and his Lone Ranger character, Garrison faces studio litigation targeting his in-character public appearances. The fact that Scooby and Shaggy are fans is sort of meta, considering there were Scooby and Blue Falcon crossover episodes in the late 1970s. Regardless, the constantly hungry Great Dane suspects his formerly favorite actor has been framed in Michael Goguen’s animated feature, Scooby-Doo: Mask of the Blue Falcon, which airs tomorrow morning on Adult Swim.

Frankly, Moore is the reason you usually see former cast-members making cameos in big budget remakes of old properties, like the ailing Jonathan Frid briefly appearing in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows. It is a way of signaling to fans that the old guard was respected by the new production, unlike The Legend of the Lone Ranger, which flopped hard, partly because the fanbase sided with Moore. Producer Jennifer Severin never got that memo. Instead, she wants to ban Garrison from all things Blue Falcon at the Mega Mondo Pop Comic ConApalooza, where her new, darker Blue Falcon movie will premiere.

Naturally, when a giant robot modeled on the Blue Falcon’s super-villain nemesis, Mr. Hyde, starts terrorizing the ComicCon analogue, suspicion immediately falls on Garrison. Disappointingly. Velma is reluctant to explore other possibilities, because of her ironic resentment of geek comic culture. Scooby and Shaggy will be the washed-up thesp’s best hope, but his self-destructive behavior won’t make it easy for them to clear his name.

If you know your Hanna-Barbera, Mask is quite clever, because it features many H-B characters the Scooby gang previously met in crossover adventures, as fictional subjects for cos play and collectibles at the con. Garrison’s career-threatening indignities also parallel those of Moore and West (who turned down offers from Burton’s Batman productions and was subsequently frozen out of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy). It is also sufficiently hip to portray the mayor of San De Pedro as grotesquely corrupt. Plus, for extra added irony, James Becker, the chief of Con security, was transparently inspired by Paul Lynde.

Twilight Zone Mini Golf in Las Vegas

If ever there was a city that laid “between science and superstition” and “between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge,” it would be Las Vegas. In this town, the surreal is the everyday. So, what better place for Twilight Zone-themed miniature golf? Fans will enjoy the nostalgia and the course design of the 18-hole Twilight Zone Mini Golf in the lower level of Las Vegas’s Horseshoe.

Naturally, you start the course by walking through the famous doorway. The first hole is largely dedicated to the imagery of the opening credits, but most subsequent holes are devoted specific episodes. Hardcore mini golf enthusiasts might be disappointed there are not a lot of contraptions built into the holes. Instead, most of the challenges involve carom shots. However, they often cleverly employ stacks of books as obstacles, in reference to “Time Enough at Last.” The classic Burgess Meredith episode also inspired one of the most elaborate holes, built to resemble the post-apocalyptic wreckage of the public library.

Other highlights include the hole dedicated to “The Invaders,” featuring models of the “aliens” that torment Agnes Moorehead. A number of the show’s creatures have been placed amid the course, such as the eyeball giant from “The Fear,” for your selfie pleasure. The walls also feature dozens of cool murals depicting scenes from iconic episodes, like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and “The Hitch-Hiker.” Plus, the black-light glow-in-the-dark balls further set the right mood.

Fans should try to challenge players who are less familiar with the classic series, because they will surely appreciate it if you obsessively explain the cultural significance of each hole’s episode while they are trying to putt. We’re just trying to help them enjoy the full experience, right?

Regardless, the Mini Golf course should remind us all just how remarkable The Twilight Zone remains as a series. Other successful shows premiered in 1959, but it is hard to imagine a mini golf course devoted to Rawhide or Bonanza. Yet, what might be most incredible is how little most Twilight Zone episodes have been impacted by the intervening advances in technology. Most of them hold up just as well today as when they were first broadcast.

Wildcat, Co-Starring Lewis Tan

London has practically fallen. It is largely run by two criminal organizations, who are both in danger of being overrun by a psychotic new street gang. Ada has only two friends, her former Special Forces comrades, Roman and Curtis. Together, they only number three, but a little training and discipline make them more than a match for dozens of cheap thugs. Ada also has a brother, but ne’er do well Edward is more of a hindrance than a help in James Nunn’s Wildcat, which is now playing in select theaters and on VOD.

After their service, Ada and Roman gigged as partners in rather grey areas, until they split up. Unbeknownst to him, she went completely straight to care for her daughter, Charlotte. Unfortunately, that was how crime boss Frasier Mahoney got to Ada. He kidnapped Charlotte, holding her hostage until Ada pays off Edward’s 500,000 Pound debt. To make the 24-hour deadline, Ada plots a heist to rob the jewels Mahoney’s rival, Christine Vine, will be temporarily storing at a high security depository.

Basically, the plan is to steal the jewels, fence them for cash, and lay a trail pointing back to Mahoney, all before successfully making the trade for Charlotte. The timing will be tight, especially when the feral street gang starts pursuing Ada and her friends.

Wildcat probably sounds like typical B-movie material, probably because it largely is. However, it is elevated by Nunn’s snappy execution and a first-rate supporting cast. Previously, Nunn helmed the vastly superior Scott Adkins One Shot/One More Shot duology. Although Wildcat is a much more modest film, he finds a worthy action “leading man” in Lewis Tan. Most of the action is dominated by gunplay, but there are several nifty sequences that show off Tan’s martial arts skills.

The Great Escaper: Sir Michael Caine’s Final Role

One of the most incredible things about “The Greatest Generation” is that they never really knew how great they were. Yet, with every passing year, it becomes increasingly apparent to the rest of us (especially Gen X’ers, who have seen who came after). Indeed, at the advanced age of 90, the late Bernard Jordan realized he probably would not live to see the 75^th anniversary of the Normandy landing, so he was determined to attend the 70^th, even if he had to “escape” from his nursing home, which is essentially what he did. Give thanks to the Allied veterans like Jordan who truly saved civilization by watching Oliver Parker’s The Great Escaper, now available on the PBS app.

If this sounds familiar, maybe you already watched Terry Loane’s The Last Rifleman, starring Pierce Brosnan. It also happens to be a worthy film. Both follow similar story arcs, but Parker and screenwriter William Ivory specifically identify their protag as Jordan, a Royal Navy vet, while Brosnan’s Artie Crawford served with the Royal Ulster Rifles.

At 90, Jordan is understandably feeling his age, but not as much as his beloved but ailing wife Irene. She needs the care-giver staff close at hand, but he is sufficiently ambulatory to consider traveling to France. Unfortunately, the home director wasn’t adequately organized to book him into a tour package, if she even tried, so he simply ambles off on his own.

Of course, his service opens many doors and forges an immediate rapport with Arthur Howard-Johnson, a veteran of the RAF. In fact, both Jordan and Howard-Johnson unjustly carry guilt over wartime tragedies beyond their control. Hopefully, their pilgrimage will help them come to terms with their lingering ghosts.

Frankly, both Michael Caine and Brosnan did Jordan equal justice with their performances. It would be hard to favor one over the other. Nevertheless, thematically, Jordan seems like a fitting role for Caine to end his career on (having announced his retirement at an early screening of this film). However, Parker and the special effects team to a vastly superior job of recreating the war during flashback sequences than Loane and his colleagues.

John Standing (who served in WWII and whose ancestor built Bletchley Park) is also truly outstanding as Howard-Johnson. Arguably, his portrayal is even more conflicted and vulnerable than Caine’s work. (Yet, The Last Rifleman similarly boasts John Amos’s moving final screen appearance, as a somewhat analogous character).

The Age of Disclosure, in The Epoch Times

They're now called UAPs instead of UFOs, but whatever term you prefer, the documentary THE AGE OF DISCLOSURE will convince a lot of viewers a lot of serious people are taking the phenomenon very seriously. While limited by its participants' legal constraints, it is quite measured and sobering. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Time Travel is Dangerous, Narrated by Stephen Fry

To be fair, anything can be dangerous when idiots are doing it. Unfortunately, Ruth and Megan are incredibly darned dumb and they found a time machine. They eventually fray the space-time continuum to a dangerous extent, but at least they bring back some nice inventory for their vintage store in Chris Reading’s Time Travel is Dangerous, which is now playing in Los Angeles.

After a horrifying experiment, Dr. Ralph Shedrake binned his time machine, along with VHS tapes of his old popular science TV show, The Future, Today. You know who dives through dumpsters? Vintage store owners. Despite Sheldrake’s unfortunate detour, his invention truly works. Soon Ruth and Megan regularly dash back in time for collectibles, or to grab takeout from their favorite Chinese restaurant that closed three years ago.

Before long, freak storms start erupting in the skies and both women experience mysterious maladies. They seek help from the local (very unfortunately named) inventors’ society, where Sheldrake happens to be a member. Obviously, they have damaged the fabric of time. Reluctantly, they agree to stop, but neither have large reserves of will power or good judgment.

Time Travel is Dangerous represents a genre comedy that is legitimately funny, so hey, how about that? It is not side-splittingly hilarious, but it is consistently amusing. It helps tremendously that Reading and co-screenwriters Anne-Elizabeth and Hillary Shakespeare are not afraid of skewering the clueless co-leads, or of casting them in an unflattering light. Plus, Stephen Fry’s martini-dry narration also sets the right note.

Wisely, the film never wastes time on pseudo-scientific explanations. However, Sheldrake and his colleagues from the show are oddly engaging characters. While their concept of time travel breaks no new ground, the [mis]applications are somewhat fresh (somewhat following in the tradition of Harry Harrison’s novel, The Technicolor Time Machine). The comedy is still somewhat hit or miss, particularly the time spent in a liminal time-zone, but Brian Blessed supplying the voice of Gavin, the Lovecraftian octopus is certainly noteworthy.

Handsome Guys, on Delta

They might not look like it, but Kang Jae-pil and Park Sang-goo have cousins in West Virginia. Their names are Tucker and Dale, who once fought evil. Kang and Park are in for a similar bout of misunderstandings, but they must also battle a genuine demonic force in Nam Dong-hyup’s Handsome Guys, a Korean remake of Eli Craig’s Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, which is currently available on Delta’s in-flight entertainment system.

Kang and Park are shy, luckless losers, who have bought a remote cabin to enjoy the “rustic life.” Unfortunately, their new home was the scene of a half-successful exorcism sixty-six years and six months ago—so, obviously it is getting to be about that time again.

Unbeknownst to hard-working Kim Mi-na, her not-really-friend Bo-ra invited her on a weekend getaway just so her pro-golfer pal Lee Jung-bin could take advantage of her. Naturally, Lee and his entitled friends look upon Kang and Park like the backwoods boys in Deliverance. Consequently, when the “Handsome Guys” save Kim from drowning, they assume she was kidnapped. Ordinarily, Lee wouldn’t care, but Kim accidentally walked off with his phone, which is loaded with highly incriminating photos and video.

As Bo-ra and the cads try to “rescue” Kim, they meet a series of unlikely but fatal Final Destination-style mishaps. However, in Nam’s remake, death isn’t the end for them. As sacrifices to Baphomet, they become his demonic vessels.

The supernatural elements are entirely new to Handsome Guys. Even though they add a dumpster truckload of additional lunacy, the new material really makes the concept work better. Having a hidden hand behind all the fatal misadventures gives a greater degree of “logic,” to use that word extremely loosely. Arguably, there it also invests the film with a greater sense of morality.

The Shuffle, on HBO

Forget the Cowboys. In 1985, the Chicago Bears were “America’s Team.” They still are, if you remember the 1980s nostalgically (and who doesn’t?). Their music video was a major reason why. They didn’t just dominate on the gridiron. They also had fun off the field. At least that was how it looked to fans. Yet, many of the Bears had great misgivings about their participation in the fondly remembered rap single and accompanying music video, “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” Several of the former Super Bowl champions remember the production and subsequent craze for their theme song in Jeff Cameron’s short documentary The Shuffle, which premieres tomorrow on HBO.

1985 looked like it would be the Bears year, especially to their hungry fans in Chicago. Observing the national attention many players were generating, especially the larger-than-life William “The Refrigerator” Perry, Chicago-based record label entrepreneur Richard E. “Dick” Meyer hatched an idea to recruit the team for a novelty rap song that would benefit the Chicago Community Trust. He even had an “in” with wide receiver Willie Gault, who sang back-up vocals on a track for one of his R&B artists.

Gault recruited most of the team, starting with the leaders, Pro Bowl running back Walter Payton and linebacker Mike Singletary. With them on-board, the rest of the team fell in line. However, they were scheduled to record the video on the Tuesday morning following their first loss of the season. Suddenly, singing about the Super Bowl felt awfully jinxy to many of the players.

Although just shy of 40 minutes, The Shuffle is a wildly fun trip down memory lane. Yet, it also offers some insight into how the Bears became such a unified team. As Singletary explains, the shoot offered an opportunity for the team to bond outside of a football context. It was also presented a chance for the more rhythmically talented back-ups to teach the starters a thing or two.

Sisu: Road to Revenge, in Cinema Daily US

SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE keeps cleverly inventing new ways for its hardnosed Finnish hero to blow-up, immolate, decapitate, crush, and aerate Communist bad guys. The super-charged energy is infectious, but the film always clearly maintains an awareness of the historical tragedies of the Winter Wars and post-War Stalinist oppression. That is quite a balancing act, but it pulls it off. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Alex vs. ARod, in The Epoch Times

ALEX VS. AROD probably will not win over the slugger’s fiercest critics. However, it humanizes the controversial athlete to a considerable degree for those who keep a reasonably open mind. Whether they love him or hate him, viewers will never be bored by the deep dive into his tumultuous career. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Celluloid Underground, OVID.tv

After the revolution, Iranian women couldn’t leave the house with their heads uncovered. Freedom of religion disappeared. Even dog owners had to keep their beloved pets secretly hidden. Yet, too many pseudo-intellectuals maintain a see-no-evil policy towards Iran. Okay, try this one on for size hipsters. The Revolutionary government made film ownership illegal. The prohibition even included home movies. Ehsan Khoshbakht knew it only too well. He managed an underground student screening society and befriended the owner of the largest private film collections in Iran at the time. Khoshbakht explains why he and Ahmad Jorghahnian risked arrest and possibly far worse for the sake of film in his autobiographical documentary Celluloid Underground, which premieres today on OVID.tv.

Frankly, Khoshbakht never really thought of himself as a rebel, until an audience member at a screening accused him of anti-social behavior. It was a chilling moment, inspiring greater caution going forward. Yet, he couldn’t help wondering about of Jorghahnian’s rumored archive. By the time they met, the collector was even warier, but eventually he started loaning prints for Khoshbakht’s screenings.

Rental Family, in Cinema Daily US

The gentle humor is pleasant, but the humanist themes offriendship and family arewhat viewers will really embrace in RENTAL FAMILY. The bittersweet material also well suits the cast, including "Sad American" Brandan Fraser. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

The Mighty Nein, on Prime Video

If you were an acholic goblin, you’d probably cuss a lot too. Swearing is big for the Critical Role franchise, almost as important as the epic fantasy elements. Arguably, they maybe overdid the former and somewhat neglected the latter with their first animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. Their second stand-alone series returns to the land of Exandria, but the tonal mix is better in the 8-episode first season of showrunner Tasha Huo’s The Mighty Nein, which premieres today on Prime Video.

War was already brewing between the Kryn Dynasty of Xhorhas and the Dwendalian Empire, but it fully erupts when thieves steal “The Beacon,” a precious relic that holds the Xhorhas’s eternal souls. It is rather murky as to just who was behind the theft, but the Beacon soon falls into the hands of Trent Ikithon, the Machiavellian leader of the Empire’s Archmages. However, he has a secret accomplice from Xhorhas, whose motives are much more emotional.

Warrior-monastic Beauregard Lionnett is supposed to investigate the strange events surrounding the theft for Cobalt Soul, her scholarly order with decidedly Shaolin tendencies. However, she discovers her superior has been compromised by Ikithon’s Volstrucker warrior-wizards, who nearly kill her. Saved by the high-ranking Expositor, Lionetti is quietly reassigned to investigate corruption within Cobalt Soul and amongst the Kryn court.

Whether she likes it or not—and she most definitely does not like it—Lionett teams up with a motley band of fellow adventurers. She immediately clashes with Caleb Widogast, a formerly down-and-out, but still stinky wizard. However, Widogast is closely aligned with Nott the brave, a foul-mouthed drunkard goblin thief, who sees herself as his protector.

Weirdly, tiefling (a slightly devilish-looking race of D&D characters) healer Jester Lavorre feels similarly towards Fjord Stone, a half-orc sailor tormented by his captain’s death and the sudden source of his mysterious new powers. Frankly, they are all eccentric and annoying in their own ways, but tiefling fortune-teller Mollymauk Tealeaf might irritate his new companions the least. They bicker and fight amongst themselves, but, somehow, they come together as a team to pull off a series of fantastical capers.

Too often, the Vox Machina writers hoped the frequent use of the “F” word by traditional-looking fantasy characters would be sufficiently funny to keep viewers entertained. However, the first shared-world series often came across as too hip and too ironic for its own good. Nott drops plenty of F-bombs, but the fantasy premise is much more intriguing. Arguably, this time around, the use of profanity for comic effect feels much more earned.

There are also wizards all over the place, which is something the first six episodes of Vox Machina lacked. In fact, the characterization in general is much stronger. The relationship dynamics shared by both Widogast and Nott, as well as Lavorre and Strong, provide an intriguing foundation and payoff throughout the season. There is still plenty of kvetching, but it lands better.

Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg

This film would be awesome to see converted to “4D” for the Las Vegas Sphere. It would probably also be horrifying. Anime master Mamoru Oshii and artist Yoshitaka Amano created a stunning nightmare-landscape that remains as jaw-dropping as the skeletal narrative is head-scratching. Still an anime feature with few comparisons, Oshii’s Angel’s Egg, produced by the Studio Deen animation house, re-releases theatrically tomorrow in a spiffy new 4K restoration, courtesy of GKIDS.

It would be an oversimplification to call this world post-apocalyptic. It is more like T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland, by way of Edward Gorey. The architecture recalls Old World Europe, while the destruction is almost Biblical. In fact, maybe it was, because the Flood and the Arc will be recurring motifs.

Within this surreal environment, a young girl compulsively guards an egg that she fervently believes will hatch an angel. However, the young martial-looking man who regularly crosses her path expresses skepticism. Yet, he also exhibits protective impulses towards the girl. Nevertheless, he gives off serious fallen angel vibes, possibly thanks to his twisted-cross rifle.

Over the years, Angel’s Egg has been one of the films that shocks non-fans out of their preconceived notions regarding anime. In terms of visual style, it shares a kinship with Eiichi Yamamoto’s Belladonna of Sadness, but the vibe and pacing are not unlike The Seventh Sign.

Last Samurai Standing, in Cinema Daily US

You can't miss the spectacular martial arts action in Netflix's LAST SAMURAI STANDING, but it also delivers clever historical intrigue and contempporary-feeling "deep state" paranoia, in a Meiji Restroation setting. CINMMA DAILY US review up here.

Cutting Through Rocks: An Iranian Woman Runs for Office

Iran has neither the equivalent of Emily’s List or the Susan B. Anthony List. Women candidates are not merely rare. They are unheard of. That meant Sara Shahverdi’s election to her local council was a really big deal. However, if you think that was the end of the story, then you must be dangerously naïve. Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni document Shahverdi’s campaign and the campaign after the campaign in Cutting Through Rocks, which opens this Friday in New York.

Shahverdi is tough, because her beloved father deliberately raised her to be a tomboy. Nevertheless, she obediently married—and then rebelliously divorced. That was a scandal, but she still earned much of her village’s trust as a notary, who regularly helped her customers navigate red tape. Thanks to her clients, many of whom were women voting for the first time, Shaverdi was elected, along with her younger brother.

She was true to her promises, spearheading a major project connecting the village houses to the natural gas grid. However, to qualify for the program, home-owners needed to present a legal title. Most households lacked such paperwork. Shahverdi could help in this respect, but only if the men granted their wives partial ownership.

This ignited a war of a ferocity that caught Shahverdi by surprise. To make matters worse, her own brother did not necessarily have her back. Shockingly, Shahverdi finds herself defending her identity as a woman, facing an involuntary re-assignment, pending review by state doctors.

Cutting Through Rocks is the kind of film that completely undermines a lot of “progressive” illusions regarding the Islamist world. If believe you can declare your own gender, don’t travel to Iran, because the regime considers that their job. Likewise, Shaverdi’s struggle to advance women’s rights takes one step forward and then one step backward. She successfully arranges ownership stakes for many vulnerable older women, but her efforts to discourage arranged child marriages literally ends in tears.

Montana Mavericks, on CW

Arguably, no publishing imprint more successfully branded itself than Harlequin. Their romances are literally written according to a formula, so fans know exactly what they are going to get. Despite this standardized approach to plotting, some of the biggest romance authors got their start writing for the publishing house. Seeing all those sales, networks have periodically commissioned TV-movie adaptations of Harlequin romances (that are quickly forgotten). CW is the latest. However, their first production sort of counts as a real movie, since it had special Fathom Events screenings this Summer. Regardless, it is a sure bet the veterinarian wearing the cowboy hat will get the girl in Annie Bradley’s Montana Mavericks, which premieres tonight on CW.

Technically, is not based on a single novel. It is “inspired” by the Western-themed “Montana Mavericks” line. Of course, it is very much like a typical Hallmark original movie, in which a city slicker finds true love with a paragon of country virtue. In this case, the city slicker is Heather, a Candace Bushnell-like author, who had a bestseller writing amusing anecdotes about her big city life.

Unfortunately, she is blocked on her second book, with her deadline looming. At this point, she would do anything to avoid the blank page, so she and her two negroni-chugging pals head off to the Montana ranch she just inherited from her estranged mother.

Considering these films carry the Harlequin imprimatur, you would expect them to be smarter about the publishing industry. The truth is authors miss deadlines all the time. It is annoying for editors, but it is just a fact of life. It is much rarer (but not unheard of) for publishers to take legal steps to reclaim advances on undelivered manuscripts, so Heather need not feel such stress.  On the other hand, she would have sold her book with a detailed proposal, rather than figuring out what it would be about after her editor bought it.

Not that the target market cares. Presumably, they just want to see Heather fall into the arms of her new next-door neighbor, Cliff Beatty, which she does, often. There is also a lot more humor in Montana Mavericks than the average Harlequin novel, much of it involving Beatty’s patient, a renegade pig. The pig is fine, but Jess’s bantering attempts to hit on bartender Olivia are painful to hear.

Tatsumi: Dirty Gangster Jobs

Nobody would confuse Tatsumi for Leon the Professional. Despite his underworld ties, he usually only handles bodies after they have been murdered. As a corpse cleaner, it is his dirty job to render the whacked unidentifiable. Yet, for reasons even he cannot explain, he tries to prevent a difficult young woman from becoming his next gig in director-screenwriter Hiroshi Shoji’s Tatsumi, which just released on VOD.

Ostensibly a fisherman, Tatsumi works for two local Yakuza factions, covering up their lethal dirty work. They constantly pressure him fully commit to the “family,” but that probably isn’t the best rhetoric to convince him, since we see in flashbacks how he kicked his self-destructive hoodlum brother to the curb, for the sake of his own self-preservation. Considering Tatsumi’s cynicism and world-wariness, no one would expect him to stick his neck out for an obnoxious troublemaking Gen-Z’er like Aoi, but he will anyway.

Apparently, a shipment of drugs was misappropriated and the trail runs through the garage run by mobbed-up Yamaoka and his wife, Kyoko, who happens to be Tatsumi’s ex. However, it soon becomes clear Kyoko’s little sister Aoi is also highly compromised. Nevertheless, Tatsumi reluctantly takes steps to protect her from the deranged Ryuji Sawamura and his scumbag brother Takeshi, who have unleashed a scorched earth campaign against anyone and everyone they might suspect.

This film is so gritty, you should brush your teeth after watching it. Tatsumi definitely puts the “anti” in antihero. His job is literally to mutilate corpses. Yet, there is a profoundly moral aspect to Shoji’s screenplay. Apparently, there are some lines the title character just won’t cross.

Regardless, Tatsumi still functions as a brutally potent gangster thriller. It is the kind of film wherein things constantly go from bad to worse. Yet, there is also something almost poetic in its extreme grunginess. Seriously, why would you want to be a gangster if it meant living in this environment?

Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl, in Cinema Daily US

VIRGIN PUNK: CLOCKWORK GIRL, a totally original new anime franchise, launched with a 35-minute “film” or “episode,” supplemented with special behind-the-scenes footage for Fathom Events. The “extras” were just okay, but the action and animation are impressive. Yet, the dysfunctional central relationship between protagonist and antagonist really sets it apart. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Playdate, in The Epoch Times

A lot of stunt performers and fight choreographers did good work in PLAYDATE, but it also comes with a lot of dumb physical comedy. Still, the positiv portrayal of step-fatherhood is refreshing. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

King Ivory: Fentanyl On-Screen

This film tries to be for fentanyl what Scarface was for cocaine and New Jack City was for crack. It might not capture a comparable cult following, but nobody can accuse it of glamorizing the trade or abuse of narcotics. Fentanyl corrupts and kills, but not just in big bad New York or Miami. Oklahoma becomes the site of a deadly turf battle throughout director-screenwriter John Swab’s King Ivory, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Thanks to the economics of fentanyl manufacture, numerous mini-cartels have driven most of the large traditional cartels out of business. Only two of the two traditional giants remain in business, largely due to their superior ruthlessness. One of those notorious behemoths intends to move into the Oklahoma market, but that territory has always been controlled an indigenous criminal organization IBH.

Holt Lightfeather remains their leader, even though he is serving a life sentence for murder. It is there that he recruits George “Smiley” Greene to be his new fix-it man. Greene did not apply for the position, nor can he decline the appointment, At least he gets an early release to launch countermeasures against the cartels encroaching from Mexico and California.

Oklahoma drug cop Layne West is also focused on the Mexican cartel, especially Ramon Garza, whom he tied to a deadly human trafficking operation that negligently killed dozens of illegal migrants. Despite such horrors, West’s own drug-addicted son Jack helps to underwrite the cartels’ violence with his compulsive usage. Frankly, West and his wife Tess know they are losing him, but they are unable to breakthrough his Gen-Z petulance. Even West’s partner, Ty Grady, whom Jack regards as a beloved uncle-figure, cannot reach him.

Fentanyl is having a cinematic moment with two films addressing it illicit trade hitting theaters this week (the other being Muzzle: City of  Wolves). Even though Swab ignores the CCP regime’s complicity in the international fentanyl supply chain, King Ivory (referring to the drug’s street name) rings with authenticity. It is not set in Oklahoma by accident. The state aptly represents the kind of working-class “red state” communities that have been devastated by opiates. It also happens to be the site of some uniquely Balkanesque turf  battles, which Swab and company explore in fascinating detail.

Even though Swab never aspires for a docu-drama tone, King Ivory often feels uncomfortably real. It is the sort of film that grabs you by the lapels and slaps you across he chops. Admittedly, that does not sound like a lot of fun, but it certainly is eye-opening.

King Ivory also boasts at least a half dozen shockingly good performances. Notably, the late great Graham Greene is frighteningly intense as the ruthless Lightfeather. Instead of the middling Icefall, King Ivory should be considered his final film, because it serves as a brilliant capstone to a culturally significant career.

Likewise, Ben Foster equals his most idiosyncratic career highlights with his portrayal of emphysemic Greene, who somehow credibly strangles prison inmates, while wheezing through his tracheal hole. Foster’s quiet brooding is perfectly complimented by Ritchie Coster’s loudmouth bluster as Greene’s uncle and mentor in the Irish mob, Mickey Greene.