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.

Friday, October 18, 2024

Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance, in Cinema Daily US


GUNDAM: REQUIEM FOR VENGEANCE vividly immerses viewers in a gritty vision  of futuristic mecha warfare. It also notably presents the franchise war from the viewpoint of the other side (sort of like a GUNDAM ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT). CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Hysteria!, on Peacock

The 1980s were easily the best decade to be in high school. The economy was booming and there was no social media, but we had the freedom to hang with our friends at the mall without any adult supervision. Not surprisingly, all the other generations are jealous, so they keep trying to tear the Eighties down. This time, they want you to believe our super-conservative parents (the ones who dropped us off at the arcade with a fistful of quarters), were paranoid alarmists caught up in groundless “Satanic panics.”  Nevertheless, a student winds up very dead, under really macabre circumstances, in creator Matthew Scott Kane’s eight-episode Hysteria!, which premieres today on Peacock.

Dylan Campbell only has two real friends, Jordy and Spud, but that is just enough to form a terrible heavy metal garage band. Nobody cares about their group, because there is so much cool music in the 80’s. Then, the body of Ryan Hudson, the varsity quarterback, is discovered, apparently mutilated in a ritualistic manner, so Campbell hatches an opportunistic plan to capitalize on the sudden interest in Satanism.

His bandmates think he is crazy, but when Campbell’s popular crush, Judith, agrees to be the first member of his phony “cult,” they quickly recruit new members. They also become suspects, when busybody Church-Lady Tracy Whitehead starts whipping up Satanic panic mania. However, she clearly knows more about the secret dealings in Happy Hollow than she lets on, starting with the fact her daughter Faith was abducted with Hudson. Somehow, she was released and returned home. Faith’s memory is a little fuzzy on the details, but it is just as well, since Whitehead is not eager for her to talk to the police.

Bearing the stress of the town’s suspicions takes a toll on Campbell’s family, especially his mother Linda, who starts having terrifying possession-like experiences. Yet, it is initially worth the hassle for him, because he gets to finally date Judith. Campbell is also fortunate Chief of Police Dandridge remains skeptical of all the Satanism hokum. He even runs interference for the heavy metal trio, but it would still probably be better for Campbell if the Chief did not learn he is dating his granddaughter.

Hysteria!
probably sounds like a lot of fun—and sometimes it is—but too often, it undermines its good vibes. Weirdly, it never really embraces 1980s nostalgia, aside from the hair band soundtrack (including blasts from the past, like Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly”). Yet, what really smothers viewer enthusiasm like a wet blanket is the unsurprising revelation of the “real villain,” who is a predictable and divisive cliché.

Still,
Hysteria! boasts the great Bruce Campbell chewing the scenery and jutting out his chin as down-to-Earth Chief Dandridge. Campbell plays it straight instead of falling back on his snarky larger-than-life persona, but he still lands all the funniest lines. Genre fans will also be delighted to see Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs appearing briefly in the fifth episode flashback.

Once again, Julie Bowen plays a convincing mom, but she also has some impressive freakouts as Linda Campbell. Nolan North (whose voiceover work includes Green Lantern for DC animation and the Green Goblin for Marvel gaming projects) has some nice rapport with her as Campbell’s dad.

Superman ’78: The Metal Curtain

In 1978, Superman still proudly proclaimed himself a defender of “truth, justice, and the American way.” Naturally, the Soviet Union would not be too thrilled about that. Finally, they have an evil plan to defeat the Man of Steel and expand the oppressive Iron Curtain in Robert Venditi’s six-issue bind-up of Superman ’78: The Metal Curtain, illustrated by Gavin Guidry, which is now on-sale.

Obviously, Christopher Reeve is everyone’s favorite Superman, especially based on the reception for the recent
Super/Man documentary. That is why Venditi’s Superman limited series set in the continuity of the Ilya & Alexander Salkind-produced Reeve films is such a cool idea. In fact, it is a blast of nostalgic pleasure to see Reeve’s Superman saving the world, even in comic form.

Cleverly, Venditi expands the Salkindverse to include other DC characters, like Brainiac (unseen, but referred to), who trapped the Kryptonian city of Kandor (along with Superman’s parents) in a
 bell-jar. Fortunately, Superman rescued them in a previous adventure, but he has not yet figured out how to restore them. However, he can still take Lois Lane to the Fortress of Solitude, to meet the parents—and yes, his dad looks like Brando.

Unfortunately, Superman must leave in a hurry, as he often does, because he hears an SOS from an American military pilot under attack from a Kryptonite-powered mecha-suit. In the Salkindverse, longstanding DC super-villain Metallo is now the Soviets’ latest and most powerful super-weapon. Of course, the socialist system persistently lagged behind the innovations of the capitalistic West, so they stole the tech from Lex Luthor, which rather pushes his nose out of joint.

By far, the best part of
Metal Curtain is the flamboyantly roguish Gene Hackman-looking Lex Luthor. He might have his flaws, but at least he is a capitalist rather than a Communist. So, maybe Luthor is not completely evil, unlike Communist propaganda, which has unhinged Melallo, a.k.a. Captain Nikolaev. Naturally, to maximize the propaganda value, his masters want the world to witness his victory over Superman.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Coddling of the American Mind, in The Epoch Times


Is extremist caampus activism harmful to students' mental health. Campus free speech advocate Greg Lukianoff & Dr. Jonathan Haidt make a compelling case, for compassionate reasons in THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Passenger, on BritBox

Everyone in Chadder Vale knows Jim Bracknell remains traumatized by a vicious physical assault, but extremist environmental demonstrators still form a daily mob outside his fracking facility, obviously hoping to intimidate the emotionally-damaged man. That is so like them, isn’t it? Former Met cop Riya Ajunwa claims to be his friend, but she never arrests his tormentors, presumably because there are so many. However, when his assailant gets an early release, Ajunwa immediately gets in his face. The surprise homecoming stirs up big trouble in creator-writer Andrew Buchan’s six-episode Passenger, which premieres today on BritBox.

People seem to end up in Chadder Vale. Ajunwa relocated with her husband, but stayed to look after her now ex’s slightly addled mother. Yet, you just cannot take the big city instincts out of the copper. Indeed, Ajunwa rightly suspects the recent rash of strange happenings in the woods must mean something. However, her boss, Chief Constable Linda Markel, only cares about stolen trash “bins” (as they annoyingly call them in the UK). It sounds trivial to Ajunwa, but the thing is, there really have been quite a few stolen.

Presumably, the missing persons are somehow related to the unseen thing that apparently escaped into the woods during the prologue. At least Katie Wells did not stay missing long. She reappeared a day later, just in time to enjoy her disgraced father’s release from prison. She would be worried about Eddie Wells potentially threatening her Turkish boyfriend, but Mehmet Shah turns up dead, having fallen from the roof of Bracknell’s plant—suspiciously if you ask Ajunwa, but not so, according to Markel. It turns out there might be some answers on the darkweb, they really just lead to more questions.

If the dark web had been around during the time of
Twin Peak’s first season, Laura Palmer’s profile would have been all over it. That is clearly the vibe Buchan was going for, but he spends much more time and energy setting up a prospective second season than delivering any degree of payoff in the here and now. While Passenger liberally borrows elements from many shows that came before it, Buchan’s six episodes ultimately amount to less than meets the eye. It almost feels like the product of a small-town mystery Mad Libs.

That cobbled-together-feeling narrative is a shame, because the ensemble cast is quite strong. Wunmi Mosaku convincingly portrays Ajunwa as both a sympathetically neurotic mess and a forceful cop not to be trifled with. She also has terrific chemistry with Hubert Hanowicz playing her schlubby almost-but-not-quite-boyfriend, Jakub Makowski, an immigrant Polish mechanic.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Smile 2: What’s the Use of Crying

Next time your absolute favorite pop star of all time, as of this week, has a public meltdown, maybe you shouldn’t blame their history of drug abuse. Maybe they just have a case of the Smile. Where was this franchise when Lindsay Lohan could have used it as an excuse? Of course, horror fans know such is the case for Skye Riley. Newly clean and sober, Riley is on the verge of launching a comeback tour, when she suddenly witnesses something very disturbing. She must grin and bear it in director-screenwriter Parker Finn’s Smile 2, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Even though he (barely) survived to see the sequel, Joel, the cop and ex-boyfriend of last film’s main character, still has no surname. However, he fully understands the nature of what attached itself to him, so he heads to lair of a brutal drug lord to pass it onto someone deserving. This is a tense and gritty scene that justifies Kyle Gallner’s return.

Through a chaotic chain of events, the “Smile,” or whatever, latches onto a smalltime dealer, Lewis Fregoli, who happens to supply Vicodin to the on-the-wagon, but over-worked Riley (his name is also an in-joke). Inevitably, when she comes over for some Dr. House pills, she finds Fregoli in the midst of his final grinning freakout.

To follow-up to his original breakout hit film, it makes sense for Finn to focus on a celebrity like Riley, because the tabloid press will predictably magnify all her tantrums and breakdowns. Whenever the invisible entity torments her, it is embarrassingly public.

However, Finn goes too big and too crazy. Unlike the grounded visceral violence of Gallner’s prologue, Riley’s descent into madness features one conspicuous hallucination after another. Frankly, so many scenes are so clearly unreal, a good deal of viewers will likely check-out. That said, there is one nightmarish set-piece built around Riley’s Vogue-like choreography that is genuinely inspired.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Cameron Crowe’s Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party

There was a time once when MTV was a vital network with original music-oriented programming that people actually watched. Yet, somehow, back in their early 1980’s-prime, they did not appreciate Cameron Crowe’s first film, a documentary profile of Tom Petty and his Heartbreaker bandmates, as they began promoting their Long After Dark album. If it had premiered five years later, it might have been a mainstay on MTV, but instead it disappeared after one late-night 1983 broadcast. Long sought after by fans, Crowe’s Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, co-directed by Doug Dowdle and Phil Savenick, screens nationwide this Thursday and Sunday, followed by a special twenty-minute package of bonus footage.

Reportedly,
Heartbreakers Beach Party helped inspire This is Spinal Tap, but MTV just did not get it. Stylistically, it shares an eccentric kinship with Les Blank’s long-unreleased Leon Russell documentary, A Poem is a Naked Person. Instead of conventional talking heads, each looks for offbeat but telling moments and neither feared the occasional distraction. Crowe even indulges in periodic sight gags, which probably would have endeared it to the MTV audience had they had more time to acclimate to the humor of Late Night with David Letterman, and the like.

Crowe also injects himself into the film as the host and on-camera interviewer, who is so nebbish, he even mocks himself. Yet, in retrospect, his presence hardly feels unusual after several decades of Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, Louis Theroux, and other idiosyncratic documentarians who appear in their own films. Regardless, viewers are more likely apt to remember Petty hailed from Gainesville, Florida after watching the band giggling as the town’s mayor tried to praise Petty’s upstanding moral character, at the ceremony awarding him the key to the city, than they would from a series of drily conventional interviews with his high school music teacher.

Unlike Russell, Petty seemed to appreciate and cooperate with the film’s off-kilter sensibility, by suggesting Crowe conduct their interviews in the backseat of a rented limo. Regardless, the Petty family certainly embraces the film now, since his daughter, music video director Adria Petty, co-hosts the bonus featurette with Crowe.

Monday, October 14, 2024

The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned, on Sundance Now


Most people still sufficiently value their individuality enough to be terrified by the notion of a hive-mind, or at least we can so hope. Weirdly, the town of Midwich gave birth to a hive-mind, when more than a dozen women fell pregnant under highly unusual circumstances. The kids are not alright and the adults are nervous (at least they should be) in creator-writer David Farr’s The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned, which premieres Thursday on Sundance Now.

John Wyndham’s novel
The Midwich Cuckoos was twice adapted as Village of the Damned, so for American audiences they combined both titles, presumably to avoid confusion. Arguably, this might be helpful, because unlike previous adaptations, this Midwich Cuckoos does not look so much like Village of the Damned.

While family counselor Dr. Susannah Zellaby was in London, an uncanny blackout hit the small town of Midwich. Everyone inside the city limits passed out unconscious, even investigating authorities who entered wearing gasmasks. A few months later, every woman of child-bearing age finds themselves unexpectedly pregnant. Not surprisingly, this causes great distress in many households, until the authorities reveal the big picture.

The national government sweeps in to manage the situation, but Home Office rep Bryony Cummings is surprised every mother decides to keep their bundles of joy. The Midwich mothers grow close to each other, not that they have much choice. The government essentially confines them to Midwich, in exchange for footing all their bills. They also sponsor Dr. Zellaby’s group therapy sessions, which usually also include her own grown but not yet mature daughter, Cassie Stone.

The quickly developing children are intense, but most of the Midwich parents try to kid themselves into thinking they are still healthy and loving youngsters. However, Zoe Moran sours on her Midwich daughter, Hannah, after she uses her Midwichy mind-control to force her Midwich mom to injure herself. Unfortunately, neither Dr. Zellaby nor her domestic partner, Sam Clyde are ready to listen to her yet—but presumably he will soon, judging from the in media res prologue.

The trio of directors, Alice Troughton, Jennifer Perrott, and Borkur Sigborsson, do a nice job building tension, but they were undermined Farr’s terrible aesthetic decisions. Both the classic 1960 film and John Carpenter’s remake of
Village of the Damned, get tremendous visual mileage from the eerily similar look of the Midwich children. However, they no longer have the same creepy blond pageboy cut, boys and girls alike. They still share the same cold, distant demeanor, but they now check all the required diversity boxes.

Somehow, Farr completely missed the point that the uniformity of the Midwich children makes them unsettling. They actually illustrate the notion that a lack of diversity is profoundly unhealthy, both in terms of physical characteristics and diversity of thought. In both films, the mere sight of the nearly identical children is enough to jangle viewers’ nerves. Farr denied the series directors that visual shortcut, forcing them to start fresh with each scene.

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Martin’s Close, on PBS

Judge George Jeffreys was the Roy Bean of the Stuart Era. The hanging judge probably made his share of ghosts if you believe in that sort of thing. However, a haunting allegedly plays a role in a case the old witch-finder presides over in Mark Gatiss’s Martin’s Close, based on another M.R. James short story, which airs this month on participating PBS stations.

Frankly, an elitist squire like John Martin never really believed the law applied to him, but it most definitely does when Judge Jeffreys presides. He might be over-zealous, but the ancient jurist is incorruptible. Nevertheless, this case will be unconventional.

Martin stands accused of murdering Ann Clark, a “simple” village girl, whom the squire “trifled” with, for his own ironic amusement. Tragically, when her clinginess grew inconvenient, he somehow disposed of her, permanently. However, according to witnesses called by Dolben, the King’s Counsel, Clark’s ghost returned to implicate her murderer.

In terms of fairness, this might be one of Judge Jeffreys’ best trials. However, from a modern legal perspective, much of the proceedings with be highly questionable. It also rather prompts an odd question. If the accused did indeed murder someone, but they return as a ghost, should the resulting sentence be reduced, since the victim is not completely gone?

One thing is certain, nobody would want to be prosecuted by anyone who resembles Peter Capaldi. In this adaptation, four or five characters receive roughly equal screen-time, but Capaldi is just as magnetically watchable as ever portraying crafty Dolben. Elliot Levey is rather pompous, in an aptly judgy kind of way as sour old Jeffreys.

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Bad Genius, an Unnecessary Remake

In the movies, the have’s are always stupid and lazy, whereas the have-not’s are always smart and virtuous. In real life, there are plenty of intelligent wealthy people and creepy working-class morons, but they make poor fodder for class warfare propaganda.  You will not find any such inconvenient characters in this unnecessary remake of a vastly superior Thai film. Two scholarship kids still have one advantage—a knack for taking standardized tests—that they do their best to fraudulently monetize in Bad Genius, directed by J.C. Lee, which is now in theaters and on digital.

Lynn Kang has a real shot at getting into either MIT or Julliard, but she and her father Meng disagree regarding which she should apply to. Regardless, her upper-crust classmate Grace Simon quickly realizes Kang’s brain could help her too. Despite some reservations, Kang develops a method of signaling test answers to Simon’s clique, for a fee, of course. She makes good money until the dumb old adults notice suspicious patterns.

Unfortunately, Kang loses her scholarship, but not her ambition. Needing money for Julliard auditions, Kang agrees to a grand scheme in which she takes the SAT in a crummy, poorly maintained Philly high school, where she will secretly text her memorized answers back to her exploitive “friends” in suburban Seattle—but she can’t do it alone. Of course, the only classmate smart enough to help her is the painfully sensitive Bank Adedamola, the son of African immigrants (so much for all those bogus complaints about standardized tests being culturally biased).

The emphasis on Adedamola’s immigrant identity is an example of how Lee’s adaptation of Nattawut Poonpiriya’s like-titled
Bad Genius, a briskly-paced teen caper, evolved into such a downbeat, politicized buzzkill. The original Thai film has a smart and entertainingly conspiratorial vibe. In contrast, Lee and co-screenwriter Julius Onah constantly lecture viewers on inequality, which is a lot less fun.

Friday, October 11, 2024

Disclaimer, on Apple TV+

Ironically, Stephen Brigstocke’s debut sells quite well for a self-published literary novel, especially considering he really never cared about sales. He was writing for a very exclusive audience: Catherine Ravenscroft, her husband Robert, and their anti-social son Nicholas. Unfortunately, for the Ravenscrofts, the book is transparently based on her, revealing the darkest time of her life. Yet, publication was only the first step in Brigstocke’s campaign of vengeance in creator-director Alfonso Cuaron’s 7-part Disclaimer, based on Renee Knight’s novel, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

The series opens on a high note for Ravencroft, but a fall is coming. She is about to accept a prestigious award for documentary producing and she finally convinced her awkward, under-achieving son to move out of the house. After the awards ceremony, she returns home, where she starts reading a book mailed to her,
The Perfect Stranger. It is not the prose the causes her to start violently retching, but the content, because she easily recognizes herself in those pages.

To be honest, Brigstocke did not even write the book himself. His late wife Nancy did. Sadly, she slowly imploded after their college-aged son Jonathan died while on an Italian holiday, under murky circumstances that somehow involve Ravenscroft. His grieving mother wrote the book based on police reports and the revealing undeveloped photos he left behind. Many of them were sexually explicit pictures of Ravencroft. Those same pictures will eventually find their way to Robert Ravencroft, along with his own copy of
The Perfect Stranger. However, Brigstocke fully understands his target’s weakest point: her son Nicholas.

In terms of style and tone,
Disclaimer is closely akin to the “unreliable narrator” genre exemplified by Gone Girl, except in this case, the narrator, the omniscient voice of Indira Varma, is quite credible. Instead, the author and readers are unreliable.

To be perfectly clear, this series is only intended for mature adults. The early episodes are highly charged sexually, whereas the final two are extremely difficult to watch. However, there is a point to the horrifying acts they depict. In some ways,
Disclaimer could be a companion piece to Tar, which also starred Cate Blanchett. Both directly address the excesses of cancel culture, which Brigstocke shrewdly weaponizes against Ravenscroft.

Indeed, Cuaron viscerally reminds us how much context is missing from supposedly damning photos and cell phone videos. Frankly,
Disclaimer shames us all for being at least complacent and more likely complicit in this toxic practice of personal destruction via cancellation and online dehumanization—and shame is indeed the only fitting word for it.

Blanchett is perfectly cast as Ravenscroft, showing how her elegant reserve slowly cracks into a million pieces. She perfectly executes the dramatic jiu jitsu the eventually lays the audience out flat. However, Leila George’s performance as the young Catherine Ravenscroft is arguably even braver, given the demanding physical nature of her work.

For those accustomed to seeing Kevin Kline in light middle-aged rom-coms, it will be shocking to see him decrepitly aged-up to play the sort of role we might expect of Tom Wilkinson or Jim Broadbent. Yet, he deftly lures viewers in, openly inviting us to identify with Brigstocke’s righteous fury.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Teacup, in Cinema Daily US


Peacock's TEACUP (based on a Robert McCammon novel) employs several science fiction devices to tell a tale of apocalyptic horror, but it is also a compelling (and extreme) family drama. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Death Without Mercy

The damage and death toll of the 2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake was very much like the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The magnitudes are not so important. The severity of the destruction resulted from shoddy construction, abetted by high-level government corruption and exacerbated by a slow and incompetent official relief response. The public was outraged by Erdogan’s handling of the crisis. Yet, he came back to win re-election anyway—almost miraculously. Some might call it a curse instead. That probably includes some of the grieving survivors who share their bitter experiences in Waad Al-Kateab’s Death Without Mercy, which opens tomorrow in New York.

Probably 70% of Al-Kateab’s film consists of found primary sources, such as security cam footage, handheld device videos, and news reports. As members of the documentary community, who both previously worked with Al-Kateab, Fuad and Fadi instinctively started recording themselves. The dramatic footage they captured was devastatingly tragic and often absurdly Kafkaesque, but what it never shows is any kind of coordinated government rescue operation, even though off-the-street volunteers could hear buried people screaming under the rubble for several days.

Death Without Mercy
truly never pulls its punches, especially when it incorporates the “goodbye” messages recorded by victims fatally trapped beneath debris. Yet, probably the most damning segment is a government PSA message recorded months earlier, promising a clean slate to any applicants with open zoning complaints. Suddenly, ten-story buildings that were only zoned for four became legal, as a gift to the people, offered by their loving government.

Frankly, the Syrian government’s response was probably even worse, but there is less documentation, because the Assad regime has turned the country into a closed pariah state. In fact, the Syrian government largely relied on relief aid from the United Nations (which we paid for), that was hopelessly slow in reaching victims, because of gross bureaucratic incompetence.