Friday, November 08, 2024

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom, in Cinema Daily US


OVERLORD: THE SACRED KINGDOM, the anime franchise's first feature, tells an accessiblestand-alone story, but the intricately detailed world-building will still mostly appeal to fantasy fans. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Youth (Hard Times) & Youth (Homecoming), in The Epoch Times




Wang Bing's YOUTH (HARD TIMES) vividly illustrates the systemic exploitation of provincial migrant textile workers in China. YOUTH (HOMECOMING), the conclusion of the documentary trilogy, provides firther context, explaining why the cycle continues. EPOCH TIMES joint-review up here.

Bangkok Dog: Prachya Pinkaew “Presents” D.Y. Sao

LS-75 is such a super-secret law enforcement agency, it apparently operates out of a Chatsworth office park. Somehow, they scrape enough money to send agent Andrew Kang to Thailand, where he assumes the identity of a drug ring’s American point-man. Despite the constant brawling, Kang’s handler fears he might be succeeding a little too well in Chaya Supannarat’s Bangkok Dog, executive-produced by Ong-Bak action auteur Prachya Pinkaew, which releases Tuesday on VOD.

After Kang and his partner Kaitlyn Liu bust Benz Wu for his shipping container full of dead trafficked people, with stomachs stuffed with illegal narcotics, they are highly motivated to take down the rest of the operation. The top man is Dominic Mesias—and he is one bad apple.

However, in his new role in the Bangkok agency, Kang masquerading in the guise of Wu, works closely under jaded Charn Chai Yoodee, who quickly becomes a fast-friend. Kang even harbors illusions of flipping Yoodee, which worries Liu, who now serves as his in-country LS-75 handler. Regardless, Kang has no such affection for Mesias, especially after a particularly brutal debt-collection. Obviously, the worst thing that could happen for Kang would be Wu escaping from LS-75 to blow his cover, so that is exactly what will happen.

Everything about
Bangkok Dog looks cheap, except the considerable blood and sweat equity co-stars and co-fight choreographers D.Y. Sao and Brian Le put into the bone-crushing marital arts beatdowns, which are priceless. They bleed for this movie.

Clearly,
Bangkok Dog was conceived as a no-frills showcase to determine whether Sao and/or Le leave a sufficient impression on viewers to warrant a comparatively bigger budgeted follow-up. They both should pass the test, provided the film attracts enough eyeballs.

Sao plays Kang with impressive intensity and his physicality is off the charts. However, the breakout discovery could turn out to be Le, who struts through the picture with the flamboyance of a pro wrestler. Yet, he matches Sao, step for step. As a considerable bonus, martial arts fan favorite and journeyman stuntman Ron Smoorenberg also appears as Vega, tangling with Sao in what might be the film’s most brutal fight scene.

Thursday, November 07, 2024

Citadel: Honey Bunny, on Prime

India had 24: India, so it makes sense they would also get their own spinoff from Prime’s Citadel franchise. In this case, it is a prequel that tells the way-backstory of a major character of the anchor series. Going forward, spinoffs will probably be divided into two categories: pre-fall of Citadel and post. So far, post offers greater dramatic stakes, because survivors are so greatly outnumbered. Regardless, in this case, viewers do not even hear the name “Citadel” until about the fourth installment of creator Sita R. Menon’s six-episode Citadel: Honey Bunny, which starts streaming today on Prime Video.

In 1992, “Honey” was a struggling Bollywood starlet developing a romantic relationship Rahi “Bunny” Gambhir. Like Colt Seavers, he did not get paid much to help his stars look good on-screen, but he always has money, because he moonlights as a secret agent. For one fateful assignment, Bunny recruits Honey to act in a sting operation, but complications reveal Honey’s identity. Instead of accepting some kind of witness relocation, she joins Bunny’s super-secret agency, despite the misogynistic skepticism of his boss, “Guru.”

Of course, they work well together, but something goes awry during a mission in Serbia. Flashforward to the year 2000, at which point Honey vigilantly raises her daughter Nadia, hoping Guru still assumes she is dead. Apparently, he does not, judging from the hit squad he sends after her and Nadia. Now estranged from Guru, Bunny sets out to save her, despite his injured feelings. For backup, he recruits his former comrade Chacko and their old pal Ludo, who still works in Guru’s evil IT department.

Much like
Citadel: Diana, Honey Bunny follows the pursuit of a vaguely defined “black box” item that would jeopardize the world order if it fell into the wrong hands. Throughout the early episodes, Menon and co-writers Raj & DK (the filmmaking team that also helmed all six episodes) try to be cagey about which hands would be the wrong ones. Of course, we can also expect a mole in Citadel, right?

Diana
was the ultra-chic Citadel spinoff. Honey Bunny is its gritty counterpart. In fact, the Macguffins might be too similar, even though they take place during different time frames. However, Honey Bunny has some of the best action sequences, especially the climactic shootout. Instead of big set-piece spectacles, its fight scenes are down and dirty, executed on the mean streets.

Samantha [Ruth Prabhu] somehow finds the right balance between Honey’s vulnerability and butt-kicking action cred. She also has decent, but not extraordinary chemistry with Varun Dhawan’s Bunny. Kay Kay Menon is entertainingly ruthless as Guru, while Simran Bagga is intriguingly mysterious as his mastermind rival, Zooni.

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

Day of the Jackal, on Peacock

Author Frederick Forsyth wanted his name removed from the not-so hot 1997 Bruce Willis adaptation of his famous novel, because it was so drastically unfaithful. It is hard to imagine he will be too crazy about this one either. There is no question, Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 film towers above the competition. At least the early episodes have a little zip when creator-writer Ronan Bennett’s ten-episode Day of the Jackal, which premieres tomorrow on Peacock.

The Jackal is still an elite British assassin, but instead of a shadowy man of mystery, viewers learn his entire backstory over the course of the series. It kicks off with his complex assassination of a German anti-immigration political leader. Of course, the hit goes off smoothly, but things turn messy when the client refuses to pay the balance. The whole scandal attracts MI6’s attention, where Bianca Pullman, an intelligence officer out of synch with the interim director, believes she can track down the elite gunsmith who crafted the Jackal’s special rifle.

Not surprising to anyone, Norman Stoke came up through the ranks of the IRA. Tracking him down will be almost as tricky as finding the Jackal, but Pullman once handled his sister-in-law as a reluctant informer in Northern Ireland. The clock really starts ticking when MI6 determines the Jackal’s next target will be Ulle Dag Charles (UDC), a leftist tech titan, whose soon to launch “River” application will bring “transparency to financial markets,” which will somehow redistribute wealth to the needy. Nobody bothers explaining how that might work, because they just expect viewers to treasure the dream. If you don’t, you must be a villainous capitalist, who looks like Charles Dance.

That is about where one could expect Forsyth, and probably most everyone else, to check out. It is a shame, because the early episodes represent an entertainingly brisk ride. Unfortunately, it veers southward when the focus turns towards ruthless captains of finance. The unflattering depiction of the British military’s conduct in Afghanistan during the Jackal’s service as a sniper also casts unpleasant shade the service. It also makes no commercial sense. Most potential viewers for a thriller following the hunt for a globe-trotting assassin, ostensibly based on a Forsyth novel, will have positive associations with the British military.

Regardless, thriller fans of any strip will be disappointed by the final two episodes, which string along a parade of contrived accidents, as Bennett searches for an exit strategy. Still, the
Thommas Crown-ish opening titles are stylish, in an appealingly retro way.

It is a shame, because the first five episodes or so serve up solid procedural business and several nicely produced action sequences. Although not an obvious casting choice, Eddie Redmayne has the right cerebral Edward Fox vibes as the Jackal. He also has an appropriately pliable face for all the Jackal’s disguises.

Lashana Lynch is convincingly driven, perhaps to a fault, as Pullman. She also has decent action chemistry with Nick Blood, playing her protection agent, Vincent Pyne. Lynch also spars nicely with Chukwudi Iwuji and Lia Williams, in the roles of her escalating chain of command. However, the UDC subplot is utterly silly and Khalid Abdalla portrayal is just as much a caricature as Dance chewing the boardroom scenery as Timothy Winthrop, the chairman of the cabal.

Tuesday, November 05, 2024

A Greyhound of a Girl, in Cinema Daily US


A GREYHOUND OF A GIRL is a lovely, mildly fantastical, and maybe even therapeutic animated film about multi-generational reconciliation and possibly cross-species reconciliation. It deserves to become a Mother's Day staple. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Heretic: Hugh Grant Terrorizes Mormons

It is hard enough serving as a Mormon missionary in liberal Boulder, Colorado. Trey Parker and Matt Stone did not do them any favors with Book of Mormon either. However, they are in for a truly harrowing ordeal when they are invited into the home of a cultural relativist with a nefarious interest in comparative religions. Prepare yourself to root for the Mormons in director-screenwriters Scott Beck & Bryan Woods’ Heretic, which opens Friday in theaters.

Supposedly, Mr. Reed’s wife is in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie. That is why they allow him to lure them into his house. Otherwise, being alone with a man would have been against the LDS rules for missionaries. It turns out the Church has good reason for these rules. It is snowing outside, but the girls are smart enough to recognize when it is time to retreat. Unfortunately, Reed keeps his home inescapably secured with Rube Goldbergian time locks.

Against their will and better judgment, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton sit through Reed’s Michel Foucault-ish lectures regarding the commonalities present in most monotheistic religions. Their lives are clearly in physical peril, but Reed also hopes to endanger their faith. However, Sister Paxton, the more assertive and worldly of the two girls, realizes the more they challenge Reed’s arguments, the more their odds for survival improve. He will show them some shocking sights designed to shake their faith, but they are more resilient than he assumes.

Fans of the A24 brand of horror might be taken aback by many aspects of
Heretic. For starters, the nonbelieving not-so-humanist is an absolute, undeniable monster. As screenwriters, Beck & Woods have their criticisms of Mormonism, but they are keenly sympathetic towards the two Sisters. In fact, they show that many of the lazy cheap shots lobbed at Mormons are exactly that: lazy cheap shots.

Although co-stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are no longer practicing Mormons, they both grew up in the LDS Church and still maintain personal ties, so they keenly understood the missionary experience. They were also not inclined to trash the Church. That kind of sympathy and authenticity really comes through in their gripping performances as Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton. There is nothing cartoonish about their portrayals. Right from the start, we believe they are young women already somewhat stepping out of their previously sheltered existences, facing someone sinister and manipulative, well beyond their experiences.

Monday, November 04, 2024

Inspector Ellis, on Acorn TV

If DCI Ellis shows up at your police station, you probably work in a zoo—and maybe you should call your solicitor. After taking personal time for yet to be disclosed reasons, DCI Ellis reluctantly agrees to serve as her boss’s troubleshooter, taking over high-profile cases from provincial constabularies that are too corrupt and too incompetent to handle them. Naturally, nobody is happy to see her, but she gets results in creator-writers Paul Logue & Sian Ejwunmi-Le Barre’s Inspector Ellis, which premieres today on Acorn TV.

In “Hanmore,” the first of three feature-length installments, the late Rowan Edwards’ mother is a former member of parliament with a reputation for criticizing the police, so ACC Leighton needs someone competent running the investigation. At least Louise Edwards recognizes Ellis is a considerable trade-up from lazy local DCI Jim Belmont. However, Ellis is more concerned about the second victim, Maggie Bradley, the victim’s working-class girlfriend, who disappeared on the night of his murder.

Of course, Belmont latched onto Bradley’s step-father as the easiest suspect. He therefore resents it when Ellis uses logic and forensic science to poke holes in his flimsy narrative. Poor DS Chet Harper is stuck in the middle, tasked with supporting Ellis, while Belmont still demands his loyalty.

“Hanmore” is a decent case, but “Callorwell” turns into a nasty can of worms. Ellis and Harper (who is now assigned to the trouble-shooting Inspector, which should give you an idea how things went with Belmont) are dispatched to investigate the disappearance of DC Jenny Rawler, a junior detective who just filed a harassment complaint against the local DCI, Hain. Soon, Ellis and Harper discover she had received a series of death threats that “magically” disappeared from evidence.

Frankly, this is a notably strong episode, because it reveals plot twists American television would not have the guts to touch. In an American procedural, Rawler would be the victim—period, end of discussion. In
Ellis, it gets messy—really, really messy. This episode also features a terrific supporting cast, starting with Sam Marks as the conspicuously slimy local DI Jamie Morrison. Tim Dutton is even sleazier as Hain, while William Travis nicely humanizes honest but intimidated Sgt. Frank Landry.

Sunday, November 03, 2024

1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever

Technically, there was a superhero movie this year, but it takes a while to get to it. As it happens, Clint Eastwood, whose most likely final film was just unceremoniously dumped into theaters, had two films release this year. Genre fans were truly spoiled this year, but we didn’t know how good we had it growing up in the 1980s. Looking back, most viewers will agree with the general enthusiasm of the commentators in Roger Lay Jr.’s 1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever, which releases Tuesday on DVD in a feature-documentary cut.

It will not take long to convince readers of 1982’s cinematic merits. Just look at the highlights:
E.T., Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Rocky III, Creepshow, Poltergeist, and Conan the Barbarian. Amongst the “flops” were universally beloved classics like John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Plus, there were “minor” hits like The Swamp Thing (the lone “superhero” movie) and Tron, which scratched out its profitability for Disney through video game tie-ins.

There were several historic firsts, like
Friday the 13th, Part III, which was the first film in which Jason wore the iconic hockey mask. Sadly, Halloween III: The Season of the Witch became the first and last installment of the Halloween franchise not featuring Michael Myers, but in retrospect, it was one of the best. Filmmakers took risks, which sometimes paid off, as with Jim Henson’s brilliant The Dark Crystal.

All of the above films are covered in considerable detail during
Greatest Geek Year Ever—and rightfully so. However, some of the omissions will leave you scratching your head, like Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire and Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd: The Wall, which were shoot-for-the-moon movies if ever there was one. Weirdly, nobody mentions this was the first year Disney faced serious competition for theatrical animation, from Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH, and Rankin-Bass’s The Last Unicorn.

They cover some of the “prestige” films as well, while lamenting the Best Picture Oscar for
Ghandi over so many other films that have become a part of our lives (yet, it is not as egregious as Kramer vs. Kramer winning in 1979, which stands as another incredibly deep year for movies). Appropriately, Lay and company spend a good deal of time on Eastwood’s Firefox, which arguably represents the very first “techno-thriller,” whereas Eastwood’s much more personal Honkytonk Man is ignored. Perhaps one of the most glaring oversights is An Officer and a Gentleman, which is only mentioned it passing, but still holds up and its military cred ought to buy it more screen discussion.

Frankly, some of the most entertaining segments focus on more idiosyncratic selections, like
The Beastmaster, which became a hit on video, and the Roger Corman-produced Forbidden World, mostly because it is always fun to hear the low-budget mogul reminisce. Yet, nobody is more tongue-in-cheek than Barry Bostwick looking back on the goofiness of Hal Needham’s Megaforce.

Saturday, November 02, 2024

You Would Do It Too, on Apple TV+

Experts say eye-witness testimony is the least reliable form of criminal evidence. The Barcelona cops would concur. They have six witnesses who are perversely uncooperative. They assumed the six agreed to a “code of silence” to protect a vigilante out of gratitude. Little by little, their collective story keeps changing, in increasingly sinister ways in creator-writers David Victori & Jordi Vallejo’s eight episode You Would Do It Too, which is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Nine passengers and a driver were on an express bus leaving the airport. Three hijackers took over assumed control, forcing the other passengers and drivers to transfer their bank balances to an untraceable offshore account (after taking out quick high-interest online payday loans) and then threatened to hunt down everyone in their contact lists if they ever told the police. However, a hooded man in the back disarmed one hijacker, fatally shooting all three, before running off into the woods. That is the initial story, but it will change.

At first, the six witnesses steadfastly refuse to identify the hooded vigilante, stonewalling Det. Fran Garza. His boss, Chief Victoria Jordan, makes his task even more awkward by temporarily elevating his ex, uniformed officer Rebeca Quiro, to act as his partner. However, a pair of hunters eventually ID Dante Bazan from his old mugshot. The suspect has a violet criminal history. Yet, according to his former lawyer, Bazan was more of a victim of the legal system rather than a hardened criminal.

Her words only further enflame social media, which had already embraced the “vigilante” as a folk hero. Consequently, Jordan needs Bazan caught and convicted as quickly as possible. As far as she is concerned. he is the killing and that’s the end of it. However, Garza always had his doubts, which are confirmed by a new witness: the getaway driver, who abandoned his accomplices once shots were fired.

You Would Do It Too
is a terrible, but the writing of Victori & Vallejo is wickedly clever. This is definitely a thriller in the tradition of The Usual Suspects, in which a web of lies is untangled as the characters’ secrets are patiently revealed. Viewers might guess the nature of the big twists, but they are unlikely to anticipate all the particulars. Every time Victori (who also directed all eight episodes) takes viewers back to that fateful bus, the stakes rise and the plot thickens quite palpably.

All six witnesses and/or suspects do terrific work keeping viewers off balance. Michelle Jenner is especially intense as Elisa Pena, an Antifa-like cam model with anger management issues. Conversely, Pilar Berges is a woeful mess as the basket-case pothead, Miren Lujan. Elena Irureta is so genuinely sympathetic as the grandmother, Marga Sarabia, it really seems profoundly unfair she was caught up in this mess. However, Xavi Saez inspires that exact opposite feelings as bitter, obnoxious Jandro Pineda, who is so angry at life, he constantly stirs up trouble.

Paulo Molinero is also terrific seething and brooding as Garza. On the other hand, Ana Polvorosa (from
La Fortuna) seems inconsistent, even erratic, portraying Quiros, who frequently over-reacts with excess outrage, but also makes some extremely cold and calculated decisions. It seems like her only productive purpose is giving Garza a hard time. However, both Ana Wagener and Mirela Balic are unswervingly and entertainingly Machiavellian as Chief Jordan and click-bait “journalist” Leyre Palacios.

Friday, November 01, 2024

Absolution, Starring Liam Neeson

Why do young thugs keep underestimating and disrespecting old bad*sses? Don’t they know the old guys have more experience and greater likelihood of saying “to heck with it,” or something like that? Haven’t they seen any Clint Eastwood or Liam Neeson movies? This one is a Liam Neeson film. He plays a man simply called “Thug” in the credits who is losing his faculties, but he steely as ever in Hans Petter Moland’s Absolution, which opens today in theaters.

This might not be the first time Leeson played a tough guy losing his memory. I can’t remember, can you? Regardless, he is in familiar territory playing the “Thug,” who has many regrets, starting with the realization he is his violent father’s son. Lately, his undiagnosed CTE has progressed to the point he must resort to jotting down key details of his life, including the name of his gangster boss, Charlie Conner.

Awkwardly, Conner assigned the Thug to his idiot son, Kyle, who wants to take over the family business. Of course, Junior lacks both the brains and the guts, but the Thug often covers for him, which makes the entitled junior gangster resent him even more.

By the time the former boxer gets himself checked out, the prognosis is grim. He waited way too late, but there really isn’t any treatment anyway. He still might have time to patch things up with his daughter Daisy, but it will take repeated efforts to wear down her calcified resentments. However, Dre, the grandson he never knew he had, shows some curious interest in the steely old man. Weirdly, the “Woman” he picked up in a bar also shows some interest. Yet, ironically, when the Thug can hardly remember the most important aspects of his personal life, he cannot forget the desperate woman he unknowingly helped traffic, as part of a sketchy deal the younger Conner negotiated [poorly].

Frankly, critics do not give Neeson’s recent action films enough credit for maturing with their star. The better ones, like
In the Land of Saints and Sinners and The Marksman are character studies of men facing their mortality and meditations on the psychological and social costs of violence. Frankly, all three are pretty strong movies. Arguably, the less distribution Neeson’s films get, the more apt they are to be good (that could very well apply to plenty of other thesps, as well).

Regardless, Neeson is rock-solid as the Thug, including the legit dramatic parts, when the enforcer is forced to face the implications of his diagnosis. Actors have won nominations for worse performances involving similar material, but critics will automatically dismiss Neeson because he also kicks a lot of butt.

DC Showcase: Jonah Hex

Nobody cowboys harder than Jonah Hex. The scarred bounty-hunter is so hardnosed, it is practically a super-power. The live-action movie did not do him justice, but this animated short did. Once again, it is an example of how DC straight-to-DVD animated films are vastly superior to both Marvel and DC live-action tent-poles. On the day of what is sometimes listed as his in-world birthday (11/1), get a taste of his cool steeliness and hot lead in Joaquim Dos Santos’s 12-minute short, DC Showcase: Jonah Hex.

In the 1980s,
Jonah Hex was just about the last western comic book title that still cranked out new issues. However, there was a non-fantastical macabre vibe to Hex’s world that was far from traditional. Joe R. Lansdale’s screenplay captures that sensibility perfectly.

Hex soon blows into town hot on the heels of Red Doc, an outlaw wanted dead or alive. Unfortunately for Doc, he will soon be stone cold, thanks to the seductive treachery of Madame Lorraine, the proprietress of the salon and upstairs areas, where, you know. She is no Miss Kitty, that’s for sure. Madame Lorraine makes a practice of killing and looting horny drifters like Red Doc. She assumes she can do the same with Hex. Right, good luck with that.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Across the River and Into the Trees

From the perspective of great literature, Venice is the city to go when death is near. In fact, Hemingway’s Venetian novel is often compared to the classic Thomas Mann novella. Both focus on dying men who spend their final days pondering a younger beauty. In Hemingway’s novel, Col. Richard Cantwell is more directly involved with the young and noble-born Renata Contari. In this adaptation, their relationship is less romantic and therefore arguably healthier. Unfortunately, his heart is just as weak in Paula Ortiz’s adaptation of Hemingway’s Across the River and Into the Trees, which releases this Friday on VOD.

Col. Cantwell must be a difficult patient, considering he refuses to follow the advice of Danny Huston (playing his doctor, Captain Wes O’Neil). He insists on taking a duck-hunting trip outside Venice, so the best O’Neil can do is assign him a driver, Sgt. Jackson. Despite the grief he takes, the NCO still appreciates a veteran battlefield officer like Cantwell.

For his part, Cantwell most certainly appreciates a woman like Contari, despite his grim state of mind. Their paths just keep crossing, maybe not so accidentally. It was coincidence that Cantwell had hoped to buy a set of vintage hunting rifles from her cash-poor, but too proud to be cooperative mother. After that, it is largely sympathetic attraction, and perhaps Contari’s passive-aggressive hope to undermine her arranged marriage. She is betrothed to an old family friend, but he is not half the man battle-scarred Cantwell is.

It is pretty easy to guess Cantwell’s real business in Venice, especially if you have any familiarity with Hemingway’s life and work. Nonetheless, the world-weary officer also hopes to conclude another piece of unfinished business, by uncovering the mass burial site of a group of partisans executed by the SS, for distinctly personal reasons.

Ortiz and screenwriter Peter Flannery definitely scrubbed Hemingway’s novel for contemporary viewers. They water down Cantwell’s romance with Contari to essentially a platonic friendship, with close dancing and maybe one or two kisses. They also completely expurgate all references to Stonewall Jackson, from whom the title came.

However, Hemingway readers will appreciate the way Flannery reliably recreates the cadences of his dialogue. This is also an appropriately boozy and smoky film. Ortiz seems to take inspiration from
The Third Man, nearly transmuting Hemingway into film noir, in much the same tradition as Robert Siodmak and Don Siegel’s adaptations of “The Killers.”

It works pretty well, especially considering how fully Ortiz and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe capitalize on the Venice locations. Of course, it greatly helps that we can only see and not smell the dank Italian cultural capitol.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Memoir of a Snail, in Cinema Daily US


Oscar-wnning animator Adam Elliot creates kennly expressive clay figures and richly detailed sets to tell a heartfelt,deeply personal story. Just bewarned, it takes a while to get to the hopefully part in MEMOIR OF A SNAIL. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Cellar Door, Co-Starring Laurence Fishburne

If this manor house was in Kansas, John and Sera Winter might need access to the cellar, but since they live outside Portland, the wrought iron fence and the vintage firearm collection that comes with the estate look much more attractive. The terms and conditions of their tenancy are strange, but it is a desperate real estate market. However, their deal takes on Faustian dimensions in Vaughn Stein’s Cellar Door, which opens this Friday in theaters and on VOD.

After losing their unborn baby, the Winters need a change of scenery, but most of the properties in the tony suburb they settle on are beyond the means of riff-raff like them. As a last resort, their realtor refers them to wealthy ascot-wearing Emmett Claymore, who offers them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They can live rent-free in his McMansion as long as they agree to never look inside the padlocked cellar. He also requests they keep the display of artifacts unearthed on the property, including some revolvers, which look like they might still work—but the cellar is the biggie. One peak and their next address will be in eviction-city.

Of course they agree, but as soon as they move in, bad luck starts plaguing the Winters. Awkwardly, his co-worker and former ex, Alyssa Hayes, accuses him of sexual harassment. Too ashamed to explain to his wife, especially since he was having a final fling with Hayes while his wife miscarried, Winter pretends to go to work each day.

The house just seems to have bad mojo, like when a former tenant shows up with a gas can, urging them to burn it down. Pretty soon, old John is practically clawing at the cellar door, whereas newly pregnant Sera is determined to safeguard their luxurious and economical living arrangements.

The truth is
Cellar Door really is not much of a horror movie. However, screenwriter Sam Scott tries to build towards an intriguing revelation of what it all means. His concept is surprisingly thoughtful. It would just be better suited as a shorter instalment of an anthology series in the tradition of Tales of the Unexpected. That is not a slight—far from it. Nevertheless, the fact remains the film is conspicuously padded, especially on the front half.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

After: Poetry Destroys Silence

Before the film Schindler’s List or the miniseries Holocaust, Nelly Sachs used poetry to bear witness to the Holocaust. Sachs was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, so literate viewers might expect to hear readings of her verse in a documentary exploring poetry that addresses the Holocaust. Yet, in this case, they do not. Filmmaker Richard Kroehling takes a much more personal and subjective approach to the subject. Sometimes that leads to powerful moments, but other times it clouds the film’s focus. Without question, Kroehling incorporates some haunting verse that illuminates the incomprehensible in After: Poetry Destroys Silence, which opens Friday in New York.

To its credit,
After has one standout moment that will truly make your hair stand on end. It comes when poet and actor Geza Rohrig (best known for Son of Saul) reads his poem “Aushwitz,” which includes a line recalling German tourists speaking the words “never,” but also “again.” Its resonance for this time of skyrocketing hatred directed at Jews is absolutely off the charts.

On the other hand,
After includes rather confusing hybrid dramatic vignettes starring Melissa Leo and Bo Corre, who seem to also be exploring their tragic family history. These add confusion rather than clarity. Indeed, Kroehling periodically widens the film field of reference to discuss poetic responses to other forms of trauma. Arguably, a subject with the weighty significance of the Holocaust can carry the film on its own, without more “contemporary” reference points.

Still, there are memorable passages, like an archival recording of Paul Celan reading “Todesfuge,” in a dry ghostly voice that sounds reminiscent of T.S. Eliot’s appropriately deathly tones on his classic reading of “The Waste Land.”

Monday, October 28, 2024

Count Magnus, on PBS

Like Barnabas Collins’s coffin in Dark Shadows, the ancient sarcophagus holding this notorious Swedish land-owner is chained and padlocked. That ought to tell you to keep the heck away. Nevertheless, the Count’s story piques the interest of a traveling English scholar. Once again, curiosity does what it often does in Mark Gatiss’s Count Magnus (part of the A Ghost Story for Christmas annual series in the UK), which airs on participating PBS stations.

Mr. Wraxhall is not a bad fellow, but he can be a bit much. However, he is such an earnest semi-professional scholar, Froken de la Gardie happily allows him to catalogue her disordered family library. Initially, Wraxhall is quite struck by a glaring portrait of her notorious ancestor, Count Magnus. Then, when he discovers papers referencing the Count’s “black pilgrimage,” his curiosity gallops out of control.

At some point, the family took the precaution of chaining up the Count’s grand coffin and locking the crypt’s wrought iron door. Only the local Deacon holds key, to maintain its sanctity. Unfortunately, Wraxhall might sound like a pretentious twit, but his fingers are surprisingly stealthy. However, he could very well open a Pandora’s box.

In fact, Jason Watkins might overdue Wraxhall’s annoying naivete. On the other hand, Allan Corduner plays the Deacon with a slyly suspicious attitude that perfectly suits the genre. Having portrayed a lot of working-class horror characters, fans will be interested to see MyAnna Buring shifting gears as the appropriately regal as Wraxhall’s hostess.

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Twittering Soul, in Stereoscopic 3D

The science of both photography and medicine have advanced enormously since the 1880s. This film will make you grateful on both scores. It might feature the most striking use of 3D ever, yet it also incorporates Nineteenth Century stereoscopic photographic techniques. If you want to watch it, see it now, because it is only intended for theaters. However, viewers should understand Deimantas Narkevicius’s Twittering Soul is a very different kind of film, which is now showing at Anthology Film Archives.

Narkevicius very literally transports viewers back to the 1880s in Southern Lithuanian. It is an era defined by folklore, before the rise of mass media. Consequently, characters discuss witches and fairies as if they are obviously real, even though the viewers never see them.

Frankly, it is hard to embrace any of the figures as characters, per se. Due to his stereoscopic techniques, Narkevicius was technical unable to film close-up shots. However, his masterfully composed frames often look like museum dioramas. You truly feel like you could reach in and pick up a cast-member, as if they were figurines.

Arguably, the closest comp film would be Lech Majewski’s
The Mill and the Cross, which translates the canvases of Pieter Bruegel into a film. Yet, Majewski still offered his cast greater opportunities for characterization (in fact, many viewers might have overlooked the excellent work of Michael York and Rutger Hauer in Majewski’s masterwork). Conversely, Twittering Soul is even more immersive—in the truest sense of the word. The 3D visions of hidden valleys and grottos vividly create a sense of depth that rivals full-fledged VR films.

Narkevicius also recreates the tactile sensations of nature, as if you were truly there. It is debatable how much drama viewers could take in, under such circumstance. In fact, there were even physical concerns for Narkevicius, who explained during the opening night Q&A, he deliberately kept the film relatively short (70-some minutes), because the stereoscopic process activates twice as many optical receptors, or something like that.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Classified, Starring Aaron Eckhart

This is why its not a bad idea to go into the office at least a few days a week. Evan Shaw thought he was doing jobs for an ultra-double-secret division of the CIA. He was recruited by an old trusted colleague, but it turns out he has been under new management for several years. Upon learning the truth, Shaw decides to file a grievance in Roel Reine’s Classified, which is now available on VOD.

Shaw almost left the assassination business, but his old friend Kevin Angler lured him back. He was ready to walk away and spend the rest of his life with Monica Walker, but after her accidental death (which are usually suspicious in his secretive world), Shaw doubled down on the lone wolf lifestyle. Now, Shaw travels from one port-of-call to another, picking up his coded instructions from newspaper classified ads. However, in recent years, his targets changed from cartel bosses and warlords to corporate tycoons and scientists. Yet, he needed a maverick MI6 agent like Kacey to put the pieces together for him.

Of course, he initially refuses to believe, until he starts verifying much of her intel, including Angler’s obituary. Soon, they are off to Malta, where the Shaw was originally recruited. Unfortunately, the super-stealthy assassin never realized his duplicitous employers GPS-chipped him, so they know he is coming.

Frankly, Malta is the perfect setting for
Classified, given it was recently governed by PM Jospeh Muscat, whose government was found “collectively responsible” for the political assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Carauna Galizia. If there is a capitol of corruption, it would be Malta.

The tiny EU nation also apparently hands out production tax-credits like candy, while allowing films crews to stage all kinds of pyrotechnics around the islands most picturesque tourist attractions. One thing
Classified has going for it is scenic locales—and it is pretty much the only thing.

To be fair, Aaron Eckhart is reliably grizzled as Shaw. However, it is glaringly obvious Abigail Breslin had zero firearms training. Her one-handed grips with absolutely no recoil would even raise the eyebrows of Amish pacifists. Breslin’s rapport with Eckhart isn’t great, but it is horrible either, but it hardly matters in a film like this.

Friday, October 25, 2024

Before, on Apple TV+

Dr. Eli Adler’s new patient will be such a tricky case, he might benefit from consulting with the child psychologist in The Sixth Sense, if he were available (but obviously he’s not, as we all remember). Young, disturbed Noah Sawyer does not see “dead people,” at least not exactly. However, he has plenty of horrifying visions. Inconveniently, his doctor also starts exhibiting symptoms of instability in creator Sarah Thorp’s ten-episode Before, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

If he were a patient, Adler would tell himself he needs to talk about the suicide of his wife Lynn. On some level, he understands how badly he is coping, but he has no intention of changing. Consequently, he is seriously considering closing his practice until his next patient crawls through his doggy-door (frankly, it is hard to believe any lower Manhattan brownstone would have one in this day and age, but so be it).

Frankly, Adler has no thoughts of treating Sawyer when he returns the incommunicative boy to his latest foster mother, Denise. Yet, fatefully, it is the same Sawyer a social worker colleague hoped to refer to him. Sawyer is a difficult patient, who periodically erupts in fits of violence brought on by visions of parasitic worms borrowing under his skin and black spectral forms billowing around him. He also cries out for help in Old Dutch.

Of course, Adler could hardly judge Sawyer to harshly. He is regularly plagued by hallucinations of his late wife. As a result, he maybe understands Sawyer better than any other shrink could, especially when he starts seeing some of the visions tormenting his patient.

It is hard to judge from the trailer whether Apple is positioning
Before as horror (they are premiering it on 10/25, after all) or serious psychological drama. There are indeed darkly uncanny dynamics in play. Yet, the episodes themselves are much more ambiguous when it comes to tone and genre elements. It shares a thematic kinship with films like Branagh’s’ Dead Again and Hitchcock’s Spellbound, but it is envisioned through a much more sinister lens. In fact, The Sixth Sense is not a terrible comp, in terms of vibe.

Yet, it works to a surprising extent thanks to Billy Crystal’s surprisingly earnest and restrained portrayal of Dr. Adler. His performance is scrupulously (even rigidly) straight, without the slightest hint of comedy. Frankly, it is hard to find precedent for this serious star-turn amongst his previous releases.

In fact, restraint serves
Before well, as in the case of Hope Davis, as Adler’s crisply professional (but not completely detached) pediatric colleague, Dr. Jane Wilkinson. Rosie Perez also dials it down, but she is still probably the show’s most expressive adult as Denise, who refuses to give up on Sawyer, because of her own troubled history in the foster system.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Like a Dragon: Yakuza, in Cinema Daily US


LIKE A DRAGON: YAKUZA delivers all duplitious intrigue and brutal street fighting yakuza genre fans appreciate. It fact, it is one of the more successful (and violent) streaming series adaptations of a video game yet released. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Venom: The Last Dance

He is an alien body-snatcher who decided to become a good guy—sort of. Sure, he still bites off heads, but only those of bad people. Granted, in most films, Venom would be the monster, as indeed he was during most of his first film. Nevertheless, Eddie Brock learned to share his life and his headspace with his parasitic companion. Currently, they are fugitives from justice, but no arrangement is ever perfect. Unfortunately, something from the symbiote’s world starts hunting Venom and Brock, with no regard for human collateral damage, in director-screenwriter Kelly Marcel’s Venom: The Last Dance, which opens tomorrow only in theaters.

Currently, Brock and Venom are laying low (but not low enough) in Mexico, where Venom’s margarita mixing techniques draw unwanted notice. Brock wants to return to America, where he can work to clear his name, so he figures New York City will be the one place where they will not stand out. Getting there will be the trick.

They also need to put some distance between themselves and the large assassin kaiju that tracked Venom from his original space-time-dimension-continuum. As Venom explains to the alarmed Brock, they carry an alien artifact that would free the creature’s master, a malevolent titan intent on destroying all organic life, in all the various universes. That would be a bad thing. Fortunately, the codex-thingy is only visible to the hunter-creature when Venom takes his full black spiderman-looking form—but it is hard to keep the symbiote bottled up.

Eventually, Brock and Venom encounter more symbiotes in a secret government facility cleverly located below Area 51. Unfortunately, that location prompts discussion of the worst aspect of
Last Dance: its pronounced and persistent hostility to the American military. There is not one single military character presented in a positive light. That definitely includes the judgmental, shoot-first-ask-questions-later Gen. Rex Strickland, despite his third act heroics. Most are just faceless grist for the mill, so viewers are expected to feel nothing when Venom kills several of them.

Let’s be honest, there is no way any film would portray multiple school teachers or public defenders as soulless villains. Why does Marvel consider it acceptable to uniformly demonize American military personnel, especially when they sacrifice so much more than teachers to serve our nation? In the case of Marcel’s screenplay, this bias is distractingly noticeable.

It is a shame because the symbiotic rapport between Brock and Venom still works. You can say Tom Hardy has good chemistry with himself. His Venom-psycho voice still gets big laughs. It is also cool to see some of the best Venom CGI effects are reserved for comedic bits, like the symbiote’s titular last dance with fan favorite character Mrs. Chen, again played by the returning Peggy Lu, who can hold her own opposite the big serpentine guy.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Mark Cousins’ My Name is Alfred Hitchcock

Perhaps fittingly, few have so regularly defied death and straddled the “uncanny valley” as has Alfred Hitchcock. For instance, his original introductions for Alfred Hitchcock Presents were “resurrected” and colorized for the 1985 reboot of the classic anthology series. Now, he narrates his own documentary from beyond the grave. Of course, it really isn’t Hitchcock. It is narrator Alistair McGowan emulating his voice and persona. One can imagine the questions Hitch might have asked about these projects, like how much was his estate paid and did the checks clear? Regardless, Hitchcock is still quite entertaining in Mark Cousins’ My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, which opens this Friday in New York.

At times, McGowan’s Hitchcock sounds somewhat like Howard Suber in
The Power of Film, especially during discussion of his first theme—his characters’ pursuit of “escape”—which echoes Suber’s emphasis on metaphorically and physically “trapped” central characters. However, in the case of Hitchcock, it feels considerably more valid.

Cousins’ other themes should strike Hitchcock fans as equally sound: “desire,” “loneliness,” “time” (which should be speeded up or slow-down, to the protagonist’s discomfort), fulfillment, and a truncated discussion of “height.”
 Indeed, considering Hitch’s use of Rushmore in North by Northwest, the bell tower in Vertigo, and the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur, Hitchcock was arguably the king of commanding heights.

Naturally, Cousins incorporates extensive film clips, including shrewd and liberal use of
Psycho and The Birds. Although often unfairly overlooked, Torn Curtain and The Trouble with Harry also get substantial screentime, but poor Topaz remains a red-headed stepchild amid his filmography. Still, Cousins serves up a reasonable survey that might prompt viewers to revisit films they maybe have not seen in years, like I Confess, starring Montgomery Cliff, a refreshingly sympathetic portrait of a Catholic priest, “trapped” in a Hitchcockian situation.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Miss Merkel, on MHz Choice


Angela Merkel has blood on her hands. By making Germany energy-dependent on Russia, she enriched and empowered Putin—even after he annexed Crimea and invaded the Donetsk region. Her perverse insistence on including Huawei in Germany’s telecom network, despite her own security services’ contrary advice, did more to weaken the NATO alliance than anything Trump would ever dare. If the 21st Century is dominated by Xi and Putin, Merkel will deserve a good portion of the credit, but she would probably argue it was all worth it to sell a few thousand more Volkswagens in China. It will take a lot to level her karma (just ask the citizens of Mariupol), but maybe solving a handful of murders will be a start in the first two TV-movie length installments of Miss Merkel, which premieres today on MHz Choice.

Merkel has retired to the Uckermark countryside, without any visible guilt or shame. She just wants to walk her pub, Helmut, and bask in the gratitude of the world’s dictators. However, dead bodies start to turn up around her, which is why her husband Joachim Sauer and her “Guarding Tess” protection agent, Mike start calling her “Miss Merkel,” in honor of Miss Marple.

In “Murder in the Castle,” Merkel is just starting to adjust to retirement and life as a local celebrity. As such, she reluctantly agrees to attend the local lord’s restaging of his ancestor’s murder—and wouldn’t you know it, history repeats itself. Somehow, he was poisoned in the wine cellar, which was locked from the inside, lazy Inspector Hannemann writes it off as a suicide. Of course, Merkel knows better.

The surviving family, an ex, the sort of ex-step-daughter, and the resentful current trophy wife are all suspects, as is Marie Hortsmann, who carries the victim’s unborn baby and his ironclad non-disclosure agreement.
  At least Stefan Cantz’s adaptation of David Safier’s novel winnows down to a full two suspects, which is one more than you usually get from detective shows.

Katharina Thalberg definitely strives for Jessica Fletcher vibes, but her Merkel carries a lot of baggage. Her chemistry never quite clicks with Thorsten Merten as “Achim” Sauer, either. His performance is the wrong kind of sour, depicting the former camera-shy spouse-of-state as rather pompous and socially awkward. Frankly, Thalberg develops better rapport with Tim Kalkhof as her constantly stressed-out bodyguard.

Frankly, the second mystery, “Murder in the Graveyard,” features better supporting work, especially including Sven Martinek, playing mortician Kurt Kunkel, who is called to collect a murder victim from the cemetery, which obviously seems somewhat ironic. Naturally, Hannemann decides the victim just got drunk and accidentally buried himself, after smacking the back of his head with a shovel.

Merkel and Mike quickly discover the deceased had been blackmailing Charu Borscht, the unfaithful wife of Kunkel’s rival undertaker. Her secret lover happens to be Peter Kunkel, the mortician’s son, who also happens to lead the local Satanic cult.

Monday, October 21, 2024

Superman & Lois: A Perfectly Good Wedding

Since "The American Way” is now off the table, if there is one thing Superman still represents, it would be hope. There is a lot of hope in this episode, including a wedding—maybe. The thing is nothing has gone to plan in Smallville lately. Yet, things are looking up at the start of “A Perfectly Good Wedding,” this week’s episode of Superman & Lois, which premieres tonight on CW.

As viewers know from the final minutes of “Always My Hero,” the Kents have some very good news in store for them. Wisely, director Gregory Smith and writers Greg Kitson & Max Kronick eschew dialogue for the happy celebration that opens this week’s installment. However, they are keenly aware they are not yet out of the woods. In fact, Luthor still has the upper hand, unless Lane convinces his longtime accomplice Gretchen Kelly to flip on her boss.

While they bide their time, Lane volunteers to host her colleague Chrissy Beppo’s wedding to the reformed Kyle Cushing, believing it is time Smallville had something to celebrate. That does not mean the Kent household is drama free. In fact, for the time being, only Jonathan, the newest “Super” Kent, will be super-hero-ing, and only sparingly so, like a Metropolis mall fire—that predictably turns into something more.

Considering the heavy emotional toll of the first three episodes of the season, “A Perfectly Good Wedding” offers viewers a chance to catch their breath and regroup, while still advancing the storyline. That said, the first five minutes might choke-up die-hard fans.

Sunday, October 20, 2024

The Mezzotint, on PBS

The mezzotint print-making process might seem old-fashioned, but one of its leading practitioners was M.C. Esher, whom M.R. James might have appreciated, at least for his use of initials. Typically, mezzotints never change, but not the one in this M.R. James short story. Understandably, that rather bedevils its new custodian in Mark Gatiss’s The Mezzotint (part of the A Ghost Story for Christmas annual series in the UK), which airs on participating PBS stations.

Edward Williams definitely stays true to his school. He curates the traditional Ox-bridge-ish university’s decorative arts museum and spends most of personal time at the U club with his old college mates. Each day is largely the same, but that is how he likes it, until a mysterious mezzotint arrives for his appraisal.

Williams had not thought much of it, but his golfing friend Binks sees more in it. In fact, he describes a rather different picture, with a moon rising above the country house and a shadowy figure just starting to enter the frame. Weirdly, those elements had not been in the picture before, because, as Williams soon deduces, it changes slightly every time he looks at it. That sounds crazy, but Williams’s old school chums Garwood and Nisbet confirm it, much to their own surprise. It confuses all the three alumni, but Williams also feels an uneasy suspicion that the dark figure will do something horrible when he finally enters the house.

Of course, the mezzotint surely must represent events that occurred when it was printed in the 1800s, right? Yet, to Williams, it feels like a tragedy slowly unfolding before his eyes, especially when he learns he might have a personal connection to its town of origin. That last bit is all Gatiss, but it is a nice macabre little wrinkle. Regardless, it is strange no previous anthology series has taken a shot adapting it, especially considering it requires no special effects—just a quality print-maker.

In fact, this is one of Gatiss’s best “Ghost Stories for Christmas,” or just plain “Ghost Stories,” if you are watching on PBS. The mezzotint is a clever gimmick and Gatiss maximizes its full
Twilight Zone-ish potential.

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Green Night, Starring Fan Bingbing

Fan Bingbing got off easy compared to some celebrities that have been canceled in China, but her films were still effectively blacklisted. This one could get her canceled all over again. That doesn’t mean it is bad. To the contrary, good movies are more likely to be censored than derivative mediocrity. However, frank lesbian content is absolutely a no-no in Xi’s China (it is also frowned upon by most of his allies, including Putin’s Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah). Regardless, Fan has her best role in years (even before her blacklisting) in Han Shuai’s Green Night, which is now available on VOD.

Jin Xia works as a security-screener at the airport, but it is decidedly unsafe for the naturalized Chinese immigrant at home with her Korean husband, Lee Seung-hun. (Although their marriage is never explicitly explained, it seems likely his pastor helped “arrange” it.) Consequently, she has been trying to live a separate life—one that the unnamed “Green-Haired Girl” barges into.

Jin Xia rightly sensed something was amiss with her, because she is a full-time drug mule. Nevertheless, her supervisor insists on letting the green-coifed woman go. Perversely, Ms. Green invites herself “home” to Jin Xia’s not-secret-enough bolt-hole, to get replacement shoes for the ones she sacrificed to her diligence. From there, they embark on a series of nocturnal misadventures, somewhat in the tradition of John Landis’s
Into the Night, but much darker. In a further departure, after surviving nerve-wracking encounters with Jin Xia’s husband and the angry dealer employing the Green Hair, both women start developing a mutual sexual attraction.

So, good luck watching this anywhere in Mainland China. It is a shame, because this is easily Fan’s best work since
I Am Not Madame Bovary. She is both gritty and alluring as Jin Xia. Frankly, she looks appropriately exhausted from enduring a constant state of peril.

Lee Joo Young is also seductive, but in a disruptive and de-stabilizing way, like a darker (and more sexually ambiguous) Melanie Griffith in
Something Wild. She is trouble right from the start and steadily more so.