Waiting for Superman, at Cinema Daily US, part 1

Fans are hoping for greatness from the new Superman movie, but there have already been over a dozen  thoroughly entertaining Superman movies you might have missed. They happen to be animated. The first part of my animated Superman survey is now up at  CINEMA DAILY US here.

Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze, Manga

In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union was a “land of plenty,” but famine was everywhere—and deliberately so in Ukraine. Likewise, medical care finally available for all, yet the only care available for frail teenager with amputated legs is that of her servant, who is blind in one eye and suffers from a rare blood disease that renders him weaker than her. Since they are known as Bielka (meaning “Squirrel”) Zaytsvena (derived from “hare”) Sneguroya (evoking Snergourchko, or “snow-maiden)) and Shchenok (meaning “puppy”) they are clearly hiding their identity. Presumably, they have a darned good reason for doing so during the Stalinist era of Hiroaki Samura’s award-winning manga, Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze, which just released in a translated edition from Kodansha.

Shchenok is Sneguroya’s servant, but he often refers to her as “older sister,” even though he is obviously her senior. Similarly counter-intuitive, the wheelchair-bound Sneguroya clearly prioritizes Shchenok’s safety above her own, even though he is supposedly her caretaker. For some reason, they have a keen interest in a confiscated dacha in northern Karelia, even though it is not much of a dacha by the majestic standards of the Czarist royal family.

Of course, interest in the nobles’ former real estate is a good way to draw the attention of the OGPU (the forerunner to the KGB). Indeed, sickly Shchenok barely survives the light torture that serves as his interrogator’s typical how-do-you-do. At least their fragility seems to preclude them from serious espionage, so they are remanded into the custody of Victor Stepanovich Mikhalkov, an OGPU agent temporarily taking possession of the same dacha, to execute or employ as servants. He choses the latter, for distinctly unedifying reasons with respects to Sneguroya.

Spring Breeze is a fascinating tale of Stalinist era tragedy and intrigue, featuring compelling real-life characters, like Sneguroya’s future ally, Maria Spiridonova. A former Socialist revolutionary,  Spiridonova turned against her former Communist comrades, becoming a prominent dissident and prisoner-of-conscience from 1918 until her execution in 1941.

Nautilus, on AMC+

Before The Hunt for Red October, he was the best-selling literary submarine captain. In the first two episodes, calling him “Captain” Nemo rather overstates matters. Nevertheless, he has full command of the East India Mercantile Company’s experimental submersible. It starts with Jules Verne, but leans heavily into the kind of anti-colonialist ideology you would hear from a PhD candidate with zero real world experience. The Verne material is the stuff that works in the first two episodes of creator James Dormer’s Nautilus, which premieres tomorrow on AMC+.

Humility Lucas was educated as an engineer, but she won’t be able to live the life of science and industry she aspires to after her impending arranged marriage to a wastrel blueblood. She will not quite admit it yet, but when Nemo takes her as a hostage/survivor on the Nautilus, it represents a golden opportunity. Suddenly, she is turning cranks down in the engineering room with Gustave Benoit, the French inventor who created the sub.

As we see in flashbacks, Nemo was one of the prisoners-turned slave-laborers who constructed the Nautilus under Benoit’s direction. Originally, the East India Company promised him it would be a scientific vessel like the Calypso, but they predictably weaponized his creation, so they conspired together to hijack it.

Obviously, Nemo knows far more than a typical prisoner of the Raj. That is why Benoit relied so heavily on his expertise. However, the steadfastness of his current crew is rather suspect, because they had to leave in a hurry. Similarly, Lucas and governess-minder Loti were “rescued” after Nemo sunk the Company vessel delivering them to her fiancée, so they still harbor notions of escape.

The steampunky Verne-ish designs of the Nautilus interiors and exteriors are very cool. The underwater action scenes are also decently competent. Consider it one or two steps above the Hallmark literary classic adaptations of a few years back. Unfortunately, Dormer (sole credited writer for the first two episodes) shows more interest in exploring Victorian social mores and prejudices than pursuing adventure—at least thus far.

Shazad Latif broods charismatically as Nemo, but there is zero chemistry between him and Georgia Flood, as the nauseatingly entitled Lucas. We know they will get together, because that is the obvious cliché, but they have yet to build the heat to make it believable.

Countdown, in The Epoch Times

Prime's COUNTDOWN is a grabby counter-terror thriller that works on a procedural level becaus of the team comradey and the unusually higgh stakes. It is also quite topical, given the way porous borders and Mexican drug cartels aid and abet the nuclear terrorism afoot. EPOCH TIMES review here.

The G (Don’t Call Her Granny)

Whenever someone tells you they are doing something for your own good, they are really mostly likely doing it to benefit themselves. A cynical grandma like Ann Hunter basically already knew that. Unfortunately, she relearns it the hard way when an exploitative embezzler assumes legal guardianship over her and her ailing husband in Karl R. Hearne’s The G, which opens today in theaters.

Hunter is one of those tough grannies who cuss and drink and prefer to go by “The G,” rather than Grandma. In fact, she is the original tough granny. There is also talk she has money squirreled away somewhere, which is why scummy Rivera petitioned the court to become her guardian. That is all part of his business model, bleeding seniors dry and then disposing of them. There was no reason for it because the G remains sharp as a tack and she received regular visits from her adoring granddaughter Emma.

Maybe the G has money hidden somewhere, but Rivera cannot find it. If she does, some of it probably came from her early life, which he did not do his proper due diligence on. Originally, the G hailed from a crime-family of cowboy gangsters in Texas, who send an enforcer to her unspecified depressed industrial town to help set things right. Emma is not taking matters lying down either, but she maybe stirs the pot a little too much.

The G is gritty as heck and lethally effective. It is also an alarming cautionary tale that anyone over fifty-five years of ages should pay close attention to. Such viewers who ignore Rivera’s abuse of the legal system, do so at their own peril. Nor should they simply dismiss him as a “white collar” criminal. State agencies could commit similar injustices, but with even less legal resistance.

Ice Road: Vengeance, Starring Liam Neeson

Sure, climbing Everest is a struggle, but the twisty mountain roads getting there are no picnic either. Of course, that part is Mike McCann’s specialty. He made a cool $200K delivering rescue supplies for trapped miners in his first movie appearance, but his brother Gurty was murdered in the process. He now has a persistent case of survivor’s guilt, but when he comes to Nepal for closure, he finds action instead in director-screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh’s Ice Road: Vengeance, which opens today in theaters.

Before the events of the first film, Gurty survived his Iraq deployment and so did his “in-the-event-of-my-death” letter, but McCann only just uncovered it amid their old papers. Evidently, he wanted his ashes dispersed on Everest, so off McCann goes.

Fortunately, he hired a dependable sherpa, Dhani Yangchen, who also happens to be a veteran (and a Buddhist, but the film never specifies which kind). That means both spring into action when two assassins try to hijack their bus. They intend to kill Vijay Rai, the son and grandson of activists resisting a sketchy dam project, but, obviously, everyone else on-board will be collateral damage.

In an extremely ironic twist, McCann and Dhani must lead their fellow passengers across the Chinese border, where they will be safe for the corrupt Nepalese cops collaborating with the assassins. To get there, they must traverse some extremely steep mountain roads and maneuver several ridiculously twisty hair-pin turns, but that sort of thing happens to be McCann’s specialty.

The original Ice Road was a Netflix hit, but obviously Chinese sources took over funding the franchise. At least there was an effort to be subtle, but there are still several positive references to China’s Belt-and-Road initiative, which is really a predatory lending scheme designed to enmesh developing nations in CCP debt. There is also a dubious association between the Chinse side of the border and law & order. For the reality, ask India about Chinese cross-border violence.

Smoke, on Apple TV+

If Rober De Niro in Backdraft was the last fire department arson investigator you can remember seeing in movies or TV, you might want to keep it that way. You will definitely remember Taron Egerton in this series, no matter how hard you try to forget him playing arson investigator Dave Gudsen, who never stops talking. During his rare quiet moments, he either grinds out his thinly fictionalized, wish-fulfillment “novel,” or engages in dangerous criminal behavior. Those arson investigations won’t solve themselves—or at least that is what Gudsen hopes in creator Dennis Lehane’s 9-episode Smoke, which premieres tomorrow on Apple TV+.

Gudsen has been investigating not one, but two serial arsonists. One is a nasty serial killer, who uses fire to kill his victims. The other is the D&C, or “Divide & Conquer” arsonist, who takes advantage his competitors’ three-alarm fires to set his own impulsive blazes. So far, Gudsen hasn’t caught either, partly because he happens to be the latter.

Lehane and the battery of co-writers make little secret of Gudsen’s guilt. His new partner, Det. Michell Caderone on loan from the real police, also figures out pretty quickly. Gudsen’s current wife #3, Ashley, does no suspect him of outright criminality, at least not yet, but she is getting pretty tired of his attitude and anger management issues. However, Gudsen’s boss Harvey Englehart remains shockingly cluesless.

As both arsonists grow increasingly reckless, Calderone assembles a task force to catch Gudsen, which includes his former partner Ezra Esposito, whose disgrace Gudsen engineered and her boss, Captain Steven Burk, whom she dumped as her lover as soon as he decided to leave his wife for her. They obviously have a lot of collective baggage, but the two arsonists each have more individually.

Frankly, Smoke probably sounds much more twisty and thrilling than it really is. Unfortunately, it is hamstrung by tonal issues that start with Egerton, who seems to think he is playing the Joker in the latest Batman movie. Seriously, Egerton is so ridiculously over the top, it is impossible to believe anything that comes after the first episode. Yet, it is based on the very real story of John Leonard Orr (an arsonist-arson investigator with literary ambitions), who was the subject of the Firebug podcast Lehane used as source material, as well a true crime book by Joseph Wambaugh.

Egerton was terrific in Lehane’s Black Bird, but he is embarrassingly unintentionally funny as Gudsen. In fact, casting was generally disastrous for Smoke, because Jurnee Smollett is also miscast as Calderone, but not to such a spectacular extent. To give credit where it is due, she even has some poignant moments when processing Calderone’s family trauma and betrayal.

Stealing Pulp Fiction

During the mid-1990s, tons of filmmakers “stole” from Quentin Tarantino. Presumably the mediocre ones were only borrowing. Regardless, he must be used to getting ripped-off by now, but he understandably draws the line at physical theft. Of course, a couple of knuckleheaded movie buffs prefer to consider it a sincere form of flattery when they get the bright idea to rob Tarantino’s personal print of Pulp Fiction from his own movie theater in director-screenwriter Danny Turkiewicz’s Stealing Pulp Fiction, which opens this Friday in theaters.

If Jonathan and Steve saw this film, they would probably slam it for being a pale carbon copy. After watching a special screening of Tarantino’s print at a theater not specifically identified as the New Beverly (presumably for legal reasons) they hatch the brilliant to steal it. The “and do what” part is always a little vague. For such an undertaking, they will need some back-up, so they recruit Jonathan’s caustic frenemy, Elizabeth, whom Steve carries a torch for.

Ill-advisedly, the criminal masterminds also enlist their mutual shrink, Dr. Mendelbaum, who recently moved his practice into the back room of a martial arts dojo. It is there that another patient, Rachel, catches Jonathan’s eye. Their plan is not particularly well-thought-out, but they roll with it, at least until Tarantino’s presence at the second screening gives them cause to pause and reconsider.

There is no question Seager Tennis’s portrayal of Tarantino, or “Quentin F’ing Tarantino,” as the film calls him, is by far the funniest thing going for it. In fact, Tarantino would probably laugh at Tennis’s tough guy persona, which would not be out of place in his films. Unfortunately, Jason Alexander gets a lot more screen time as the ultra shticky Mandelbaum. Basically, his performance is on par with his cheesy mayonnaise commercials.

Frankly, it must be hard for Cazzie David, Larry David’s daughter, to see Alexander sink to such levels. However, she maintains her dignity as the ruthlessly snarky Elizabeth, whose withering commentary often echoes the audience’ sentiments.

Testament, in The Epoch Times

A strong ensemble cast and intriguing alternate history world-building make Angel Studio's TESTAMENT, a modern dystopian retelling of THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES highly watchable, even for viewers who do not identify as Evangelical or Catholic. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

In Vitro, Near-Future Australia

Cloning started with Dolly the Sheep. Apparently, Jack and Layla’s cattle farm brought it full circle. However, the resulting cattle are not resting easy. Strang happenings are afoot in Will Howarth & Tom McKeith’s In Vitro, which releases this Friday in theaters and on-demand.

In Vitro is set in the near-future Australia, but the couple’s ranch looks like the hardscrabble U.S.A., anytime over the last twenty years. Jack made the visionary decision to embrace biotech. Unfortunately, a lot of the resulting cows have been dying lately. Layla suspects a stranger has been stalking the farm. She is also getting weird vibes from Jack.

Maybe you can guess what is going on quicker than Layla, but the reveal is suitably dramatic. This is probably the angstiest speculative fiction you might have seen in quite some time. Yet, it is the dysfunctional central relationship that really drives the action.

Co-screenwriter Talia Zucker shows amazing range and flexibility as Layla, in ways that would be spoilery to explain. Yet, she is also always very grounded and reserved. Ashley Zukerman never overplays his hand either, hitting the right vaguely creepy notes, but not to an overbearingly menacing degree as Jack. They successfully convey the dysfunctional nature of their chemistry, born out of years of difficult shared history, as well as a nagging sense that something is profoundly wrong between them.

It is hard to write about In Vitro without being too revealing. Compounding the trickiness, it also happens to be an unusually quiet film. Both the eerie sound design and lonely setting contribute to a distinctively austere vibe. Yet, it suits Howarth, McKeith, and Zucker’s themes and motifs.

Into the Wonderwoods, from Vincent Paronnaud

It is another environmental fairy tale for kids, but this time, it is like Gru and the Minions are trying to burn down Fern Gully. Obviously, the evil alien calling himself “Ultra” is a lot meaner than Gru—and he originally sounded much more French. He has been razing the forest in search of the fabled springs of immortality. Litle lost Angelo could use some of those waters too, for his beloved ailing grandmother in Vincent Paronnaud & Alexis Ducord’s Into the Wonderwoods, adapted from Paronnaud’s graphic novel (written under his Winshluss pen-name), which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Angelo is also a lot like the Home Alone kid, because his family never notices when they leave him behind at a rest stop. In their defense, they are concerned about Grandma—and his father is also busy quarreling with the GPS AI. (It should be further stipulated, his jazz-listening dad deserves credit for his better taste in music). Angelo always imagines himself a brave explorer, in heroic 2D animated interludes, so this is his chance to prove his resourcefulness. He will simply cut straight through the forest to reach grandmother’s house.

Frankly, he barely survives the ants. Nevertheless, he starts to meet various forest dwellers who are willing to stand up to Ultra’s terror and destruction. Angelo might be the catalyst the “Resistance” needs. That is why Ultra takes an unwelcome interest in him.

Arguably, Into the Wonderwoods represents a cornucopia of borrowed genre elements, even including the character of Goouh, a hulking embodiment of vegetation, who is sort of like “The Green” in Swamp Thing comics, but more anthropomorphic. (In fact, the “Goo” character design work is rather cool). Regardless, the overall fusion is sufficiently weird to keep animation fans tuned in.

Great artists steal, right? And Paronnaud has made several great films, especially Persepolis, in collaboration with Marjane Satrapi. Along with Ducord (who co-helmed Zombillenium), Paronnaud creates an offbeat fantastical world, beneath the forest’s natural surface level. Indeed, zigging in a science fiction direction instead of zagging towards fantasy represents a shrewd strategy.

Missing on the Moon, Graphic Novel

In this alternate history, the Soviets beat the United States to the Moon, yet somehow, we won the Cold War sooner. That sounds like a heck of a story, but it is only the stuff of footnotes and appendices in this hardboiled lunar noir. A cynical detective’s search for a missing girl takes him into the underground community of Soviet descendants in Cory Crater’s graphic novel, Missing on the Moon, illustrated by Damian Couceiro, which is now on-sale.

Rendered obsolete by robot cops, Daniel Schwinn ekes out a living by “mopping up” junkies. However, his old boss Oz has a real case worthy of his old skills. A senior senator’s daughter Penny has been abducted. So far, the only clue is a shoe found abandoned on the moon’s surface, without any footprints or body-parts leading away it.

Schwinn’s investigation soon focuses on the post-Soviet “Darksider” revolutionaries, who presumably kidnapped Penny for leverage. However, the Darksiders have the drop on Schwinn and might even have messed with his head, in ways that might turn him outlaw against his wishes.

The idea of a noir mystery set within a retro world of Chesley Bonestell-esque lunar colonies sounds endlessly intriguing. Unfortunately, Crater neglects the promising alternate history premise, in favor of an overly familiar and highly ideologically-charged sf setting. Disappointingly, the world of Missing on the Moon is nearly indistinguishable from that of Outland, the Alien franchise, Murderbot, and dozens of other polemical near futures built around companies that act the way that governments actually behave in real life. Frankly, the results are boring.

KPop Demon Hunters, in Cinema Daily US

Both the music and the animated martial arts sequences are cleverly executed in Netflix's KPOP DEMON HUNTERS, which clearly reflects a thorough grounding in K-Pop idol culture. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

When Batman criticizes you for being a violently unstable masked vigilante, maybe you should reconsider some of your life choices. Instead, the Phantasm keeps killing gangsters. Ordinarily, that would not break the Dark Knight’s dark heart, but he gets the blame thanks to their vague resemblance in Eric Radomski & Bruce Timm’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which screens tonight at the Mahoning Drive-In.

According to the novelization, Robin was away at college during the events of Phantasm. Regardless, Batman is always comfortable operating as a lone wolf. That is the Phantasm’s style as well. After it kills two mob bosses in the first act (technically the Phantasm merely “drove” one of them to his death), the emphysemic Salvatore “The Wheezer” Valestra reluctantly to turns to an old colleague for protection. Of course, involving the Joker only further destabilizes the chaotic situation.

Unfortunately, sleazy city councilman Arthur Reeves capitalizes on the spurious accusations to turn the Gotham PD (except Commissioner Gordon) against Batman. It turns out Reeves is also his rival for the affections of Andrea Beaumont, Bruce Wayne’s college girlfriend, who recently returned from abroad.

Originally conceived as a special within the world of Batman: The Animated Series, Phantasm was scaled up for theatrical release. Despite sharing similar character designs with the series, it proved DC comics could draw an audience for feature-length animation, paving the way for the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU), which is definitely a thing.

In fact, Phantasm is quite visually striking in a film noir kind of way. There are some incredibly cinematic backdrops like the Joker’s lair amid the abandoned installations of the Gotham World’s Fair, which were clearly modeled on the 1939 New York Exposition.

For many fans, Phantasm is the film that firmly established Kevin Conroy as their favorite Batman voice. Similarly, it also represents Mark Hamill’s peak Joker voice-over performance, arguably surpassing his work on the animated series. Regardless, the Joker arguably represents Hamill’s greatest legacy outside Star Wars.

The Mercy Ships, in The Epoch Times

The stories of service recorded throughout Angel Studios' THE MERCY SHIPS uplift and edify, but the crew and staff tend to come on rather forcefully when discussing their faith. Nevertheless, the intentions are noble on both sides of the camera. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project

Chase Bradner wants to be an indie auteur, but his first movie will be a rip-off of The Blair Witch Project and the “Patterson-Gimlin” footage you might remember seeing on old In Search of… episodes. That is assuming he manages to finish it. The outlook is questionable, because all the usual production issues that plague indies will be compounded by strange demonic forces in Max Tzannes’ Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project, which opens today in theaters.

French documentarian Rochelle Dupont had vastly more experience than Bradner. Neverthelss, she filmed behind-the-scenes on his production of The Patterson Project, for a series on DIY filmmaking. That is how viewers get to see the chaos that unfolds.

Frankly, the whole production is rather iffy from the start. Frank Eikleberry agreed to produce the film, after hiring Bradner to shoot his furniture store commercials. However, it seems Eikleberry intends to generously skim from the investment he solicits from the elderly and addled Betsy Hannigan, whose only condition is the mandatory casting of her favorite actor, Alan Rickman. Sadly, Rickman is obviously dead, so Bradner must get creative.

Somehow, Bradner starts shooting in their primary location, a time-share cabin that his girlfriend (and assistant director) Natalie Sayers’ parents are not currently scheduled to use. Rather ill-advisedly, the crew stows their gear in the satanic shrine in the cellar, which apparently frees a demon to unleash havoc during the shoot. Sayers and the production assistant, Peter Wallsnacky largely accept the supernatural source of their headaches, but Bradner and Eikleberry remain seriously in denial.

It takes a while for this horror-comedy to get to the horror, but when it does, it really starts to click. The backstage demonic shenanigans captured by Dupont’s crew are pleasantly creepy and the film-making chaos grows funnier as the progresses.

Mafia, on Viaplay

Radovan Jakovic was sort of the Swedish Whitey Bulger. Det. Gunn Thorngren rather ill-advisedly facilitated his criminal ascension by arresting the rivals he informed on. At least she realized the extent of her mishandled informant-handling earlier than the FBI. Arguably, Jakovic was also a Serbian government employee, because they supplied the contraband he smuggled into Sweden. Balkan wars complicate Swedish organized crime in lead writer Axel Stjarne’s six-episode Mafia, which premiers today on Viaplay.

Before the fall of Communism, the Yugoslav government offered its criminals a choice, domestic prison or immigration to Sweden (where many Iron Curtain defectors re-settled), to work for the Yugoslav mob. In exchange for carry out assassinations at the request of the UDBA secret police, the state supplied contraband cigarettes, which were very profitable on the Swedish black and gray markets.

Jakovic correctly identified an opportunity to move into this lucrative business. However, Valter Sokol, an ardent Croation nationalist, controls the distribution. “Boris,” the local UDBA station chief, would like to cut him out of the business, but he needs someone with sufficient standing, like Jakovic’s reckless boss Drago. However, if Drago gets caught red-handed, Jakovic’s childhood friend Goran would naturally succeed him.

Unfolding over the course of the 1990s, Mafia compounds the organized crime intrigue with the unfolding power struggle and tragedy in the Balkans. Ironically, it also exposes the folly of the sin taxes passed by Sweden’s failing socialist government, which raised the price of cigarettes exponentially (and passed with behind-the-scenes lobbying support from Jakovic’s organization).

The Yugoslavian UDBA angle definitely differentiates Mafia from other mob dramas. However, the portrayal of Jakovic searching and failing to find family through his mafia ties evokes familiar Godfather-esque themes, but Stjarne and lead actor Peshang Rad execute them with intelligence and conviction.

Eye for an Eye, Co-Starring S. Epatha Merkerson

This Bogeyman follows a long, time-honored tradition in horror. It targets bullies. EC Comics would approve. Bullying has often resulted in macabre comeuppance, but the so-called “Sandman” specifically responds to the bullied to call out their abusers. The guilty receive visits from the Sandman—in their dreams, but the physical scars are always permanent in Colin Tilley’s Eye for an Eye, which releases this Friday in theaters and on demand.

Anna Reeves’ grandmother May Roberts was a popular mean girl in high school, but she never graduated, because of the Sandman. Now, she is a mean old blind woman, but Reeves is sent to live with her anyway after her parents are killed in a traffic accident. Sadly, it was her sister, Reeves’ Aunt Patti who appealed to Sandman for relief from Roberts’ grief.

Out in the swamp, there is a tree where a blind little boy Vincent was reputedly killed by his bullies. According to local lore, if the grossly abused carve the names of their tormentors into the bark, the Sandman starts afflicting them with nightmares. When the sands in his hourglass expire, the Sandman then takes the bullies’ eyes as his punitive prize.

None of this should particularly concern a basically good kid like Reeves. However, she unwisely befriends Julie Cross and her nasty white trash boyfriend Shawn Heard, who thuggishly roughs up a young boy, breaking his leg, while stealing his skates. Much to her shame, Reeve stood by doing nothing to defend him. Her regret increases exponentially when Aunt Patti directs the traumatized boy to Sandman’s tree.

Weirdly, Eye for an Eye shares many common elements with Sidharta Tata’s Soul Reaper, from Indonesia. In both films, the young lead character is menaced by a supernatural stalker in their nightmares, after the accidental deaths of their parents. However, Soul Reaper is by far the more successful and scarier film.

Still, Eye for an Eye notably presents S. Epatha Merkerson, whom most viewers know from several thousand Law & Order and One Chicago episodes in a macabre context, as creepy Grandma Roberts. She is definitely unsettling, chewing the scenery and making the most of a role outside her typical casting zone.

Soul Reaper, Another Strong Horror Film from Indonesia

It is bad enough being in your own nightmare. Finding yourself trapped in someone else’s is even worse. Teenaged Respati discovers he has the power to travel to the dream dimension to witness other people’s nightmares—and their murders, whether he likes it or not. Unfortunately, he does not enjoy it anymore than the Nightmare Detective from the Japanese horror franchise. However, the new girl at school might have some helpful insight for him in Sidharta Tata’s Soul Reaper, which releases today on VOD.

Ever since the accidental death of his parents, Respati has suffered from vivid nightmares. Often, he witnesses their cruel final moments, but lately, he has also dreamed of murders before (or maybe as) they happened. Consequently, his health has suffered from what his guardian grandfather assumes is insomnia. Much to his shock, his recently transferred classmate Wulan seems to understand when he experiences a waking dream. She also has a capacity to consciously explore the dream realm, but it is much more limited compared to his.

Respati’s best bud Tirta makes an alarming connection between the victims he saw killed in his dreams. They all originally hailed from the same village. Ominously, it is the same village that was home to his grandfather for twenty years. According to legend, the villagers had elevated psychic receptivity thanks to the local flora. They also a had a murderous witch, until the villagers turned against her.

Soul Reaper follows in the tradition of Nightmare Detective (and to an extent, Nightmare on Elm Street), because it is the kind of horror movie that derives its terrors from the landscapes of the subconscious and nightmares. In fact, it does so quite successfully. Tata creates an atmosphere of dread that grows steadily heavier as the film progresses.

Hell Motel, on Shudder

The Cold River Motel is more notorious than the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles or the Stanley in Colorado, so, naturally a small group of true crime weirdos want to stay there for its grand re-opening. Years ago, a pair of satanists tried to summon the demon Baphomet with their human sacrifices. Decades later, they have apparently returned for a second attempt, but maybe someone else had the same idea. That means the rest of unhealthily obsessed but harmless guests find themselves in serious trouble throughout creator-writers Aaron Martin & Ian Carpenter’s eight-episode Hell Motel, which premieres tomorrow on Shudder.

Unwisely, the well-heeled Portia indulged her lover Ruby’s enthusiasm for grisly murders by buying the old Cold River Motel and renovating it a theme resort for oddball fans like her. For the exclusive by-invitation-only opening, they invited Paige Harper, a fading actress, who starred in the exploitation franchise inspired by the real-life ritual murders. Joining her are Andy Lecavalier, a true crime academic, Balke Williams, a podcaster who survived a serial killer attack, Crow, a psychic blah-blah-blah, Kawayan, an artist who specializes in crime scene-themed installations, and Adrianna, who sleeps with serial killers. Their disgusting dinner will be catered by Hemingway, an arrogant celebrity chef, who uses his own blood in his cocktails.

Pretty much any of them could be viable suspects, even before Shirley and Floyd Dantree crash the party. They came seeking shelter from the storm, but what were they doing in the middle of nowhere, anyway?

You can usually guess who gets killed at the end of each episode because they typically have their backstories explained in flashbacks. However, Martin and Carpenter take a page out of the playbook used by the under-appreciated 2009 series Harper’s Island for its first choice of victim. Regardless, they build a great deal of suspense by turning the secret satanic killer loose to compete against the returning Cold River Killers (who are revealed quite early), because even when the survivors come close to identifying the originals, viewers know there is still someone else out there, killing victims while wearing a Baphomet mask, just like his or her predecessors.

Indeed, series director Adam MacDonald maintains a high level of tension, but viewers should also prepare for a good deal of brutal gore. Of course, most of the guests are so creepy, they are almost asking for their grisly fates. For instance, Genevieve DeGraves, Eric MacCormack, and Shaun Benson are each flamboyantly nutty as Adrianna, Hemingway, and Crow.

Cazale at Film Forum: I Knew it was You

He only appeared in films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, and Michael Cimino, when he was still the Michael Cimino. His work on stage was more prolific, including a Shakespeare-in-the-Park production opposite his soon-to-be romantic partner, Meryl Streep. Sadly, cancer ended John Cazale’s life two years later. As part of their celebration of Cazale’s 90^th birthday, Film Forum presents free screenings of Richard Shepard’s documentary profile I Knew it was You: Rediscovering John Cazale, through this Thursday.

Cazale was an actor’s actor, who probably did his best work on stage, including ten plays written by Israel Horovitz and four productions co-starring Al Pacino, both of whom discuss their friend at length during Shepard’s doc. So does Coppola, who directed Cazale in the first two Godfather films, as well as The Conversation (which is arguably Coppola’s best), but unfortunately Cimino was not available. However, Gene Hackman, who starred in The Conversation, came out of his unofficial 2004 retirement to discuss his co-star, which adds further significance to the documentary.

Indeed, Shepard assembled an all-star cast of commentators, including Streep, Lumet, John Savage, Carol Kane (Dog Day Afternoon), and Robert De Niro, as well as Cazale’s friend, Richard Dreyfuss. He also interviews three actors directly influenced by Cazale: Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Obviously, this 39-minute film is over ten years old, because Shepard could never reassemble this battery of interview subjects today, because several have sadly passed away, while others, like Dreyfuss and producer Brett Ratner, have faced some degree of cancel culture blacklisting.

N.Y.P.D.: The Peep Freak, Guest-Starring John Cazale

It only ran for two seasons, but N.Y.P.D. helped inspire one of the most successful spoof franchises of all time. The flashing light from The Naked Gun’s opening credit sequences was taken directly from this show. To compound the ironies, the guest stars for this episode arguably became more famous the regular cast. Jack Warden, Robert Hooks, and Frank Converse all had long successful TV careers, but John Cazale, Martin Sheen, and Raul Julia would all go on to highly prestigious movie careers after guest-starring in “The Peep Freak” episode of N.Y.P.D.

Tragically and awkwardly, a woman was murdered in her apartment opposite that of Fred Janney, a known peeper, played by an incredibly squirrely Martin Sheen. During the course of the investigation, Janney goes from prime suspect to assumed reluctant witness, but he insists he never peeped that night. His psychiatrist Dr Radenko backs him up as much as she can, without compromising doctor-patient confidentiality.

As Detectives Jeff Ward and Johnny Corso work the case, they interview Tom Andrews, the oddball building super, played by Cazale, who gets quite a bit of screen time, and Edith Graham, who has grown sick of 1968 New York City’s escalating lawlessness, so imagine what she would think of the Chaotic Dinkins or de Blasio years?

As it happens, this episode nicely showcases the talents of Cazale and Sheen, although the latter might overact a tad, pushing Janney’s agitation into almost comical heights. On the other hand, Julia probably only made scale in his appearance as the patrolman, but at least he has one line. Although not a household name, Miriam Goldina brings further notoriety to this episode, as Dr. Radenko. Born in Russia prior to the revolution, she studied directly under Stanislavsky and later taught his methods.

UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema ’25: A Move (short)

Viewers can tell this short documentary will be serious, because it is dedicated to the memory of Mahsa Amini, whose suspicious death while in the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement. However, the events filmmaker Elahe Esmaili captures might seem important to her family, but not inherently dramatic, until viewers understand her intention to participate in all said functions without the state-mandated hijab head-covering throughout the course of Esmaili’s A Move, which screens today as part of this year’s UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema.

Frankly, Esmaili’s parents can hardly complain, because she is taking time off to help them move from the big city of Mashhad to the countryside. Clearly, Esmaili is hoping for a case of out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new, in several respects. Yet, just as her mother clings to her old junk, the senior family members cling to their old-fashioned social customs and fears.

The clash of generations really comes to a head when Esmaili refuse any head-covering while visiting a supposedly conservative uncle in the mountains. Her mother expects shame and disgrace, but somehow, the grizzled old uncle takes it all in stride.

Indeed, Esmaili questions just how widely the regime’s hardline ideology are really shared among regular folks. Regardless, Esmaili has clearly resolved to stop participating in her own oppression. She is not argumentative, but she is firm—if anyone expects her to cover up, then the men need to lead by example.

House of Abraham: You Have the Right to Die, but not to Change Your Mind

If you ever wondered why some people oppose right-to-die legislation, “Abraham” will help explain it. Nobody would want the state to act like him. Frankly, he is not very Abrahamic. He runs a cult-like retreat for assisted suicide, with the emphasis on his assistance. Supposedly, you can change your mind at any time, but if you do, he and his assistant will change it back in Lisa Belcher’s House of Abraham, which releases today in New York.

Right from the start Dee seems a little different than the rest of the guests at Abraham’s latest final exit weekend workshop. For one thing, she brought a hidden camera. Abraham initially talks a good New Age game, but he can be a bit intrusive. Consequently, Victor, an otherwise sane senior gentleman suffering from a brain tumor, decides to leave. However, Dee suspects he never really left.

In fact, Abraham and his assistant Beatrice give off bad vibes and act conspicuously odd, but most of the guests let it go, because of their reason for coming. Yet, Dee suspects Shannon really wants to live. She only came to be with her suicidal husband, whom she does not think she can live without.

So maybe life is better than death? You think? Yet, House of Abraham will likely be ignored, at best, and perhaps even vilified for making that point. Furthermore, screenwriter Lukas Hassel’s massively creepy performance as Abraham suggests there is something very wrong with someone who takes so much satisfaction from watching death. Again, this hardly seems controversial.

Regardless, Hassel’s portrayal is deeply unsettling, partly because it seems so believable. Think of him as part Peter Stormare and part Lee Pace, with a little Jarod Leto thrown in. It is easy to envision him leading some kind of death cult out of a strip mall yoga salon.

Echo Valley, on Apple TV+

Kate Garretson should have stuck with horses. All the animals at her stables seem nice and calm, but her daughter Claire is a real piece of work. Her father Richard has had enough, but her mother keeps giving her money and shielding her from the consequences of her mistakes. Unfortunately, that indulgence has deadly consequences in Michael Pearce’s Echo Valley, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Garretson has neglected the stables since the untimely death of the wife she left arrogant old blue-blooded Richard for. He has given up on Claire, but he still gives his ex “loans” for barn repairs. We are supposed to dislike him, but he is remarkably generous to his ex-wife, especially given the circumstances—and totally right with respects to Claire’s ungrateful, anti-social behavior.

Yet, again the prodigal daughter returns home, but this time her creepy dealer Jackie Lawson follows her. Garretson is sufficiently country to ward him off the first time. The next time Claire comes home, Lawson soon follows again, but this time he has the upper-hand. Thus begins the cat-and-mouse game, which constitutes the guts of the film.

It is easy to lose patience with this film and its major characters. They are whiny, make horrible decisions, and their potential identity box checking clearly was prioritized over wit or uniqueness. However, Brad Ingelsby’s screenplay shows sudden third act signs of life, when the momentum between the two antagonists starts to shift back and forth.

Admittedly, Julianne Moore puts on a master class projecting Garretson’s still raw bereavement (bordering on depression) and her mama bear protective drive. After the first stilted scene with her ex-husband (another thankless appearance for Kyle MacLachlan), every second she is on screen rings true.

Tatami, in The Epoch Times

TATAMI certainly depicts the hypocrisy and thuggery of the current Iranian regime. Yet, it also dramatically portrays an Iranian athlete's struggle to stay true to herself and her sport. Its one of the year's best. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Day of Reckoning, on Tubi

Kyle Rusk is a stone-cold outlaw. Marshal Butch Hayden and his men also have serious outlaw tendencies. Getting caught between them is a lonely place for an honest cop like Sheriff John Dorsey to find himself, but he always does his duty. The ensuing standoff might just kill him, but Dorsey is running out of things to lose in Shaun Silva’s Day of Reckoning, which premieres this Friday on Tubi.

Rusk just knocked over another bank, but Hayden is waiting for him at his budget motel, for yet another reckless shootout. Somehow, the bank-robber escapes, but the Marshal figures he must be headed to his girlfriend Emily’s farm. That would be smack in the middle of Dorsey’s jurisdiction—at least for the next few weeks. His deputy, Danny Raise, looks poised to unseat him. To compound the insult, Dorsey also suspects Raise is sleeping with his wife.

Dorsey felt under-equipped for a Rio Bravo-style standoff at Rusk’s farmhouse. Much to the Sheriff’s disgust, he walks into a veritable hostage situation, in which Hayden’s deputy marshals, who are more like mercenary bounty hunters, are holding Emily Rusk as bait. They are all mean and untrustworthy, but Dorsey still must most likely fight alongside them when Rusk arrives with his biker-gang reinforcements.

Reckoning, (technically, Scott Adkins’ second such reckoning day, following Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) is a gritty, low-frills B-movie, but Silva has full command of its neo-Western aesthetics. Although Adkins has much less screentime than the antagonistic marshal and sheriff, he has ample opportunity to show off his villainous chops. Indeed, he is entertainingly ferocious as Rusk. (He has moved away from bad guys, into leading action figure roles, but he still has the skill set.)

Detective Kien: The Headless Horror

Miss Moon’s village is like the Sleepy Hollow of Vietnam. The decapitated victims of the sinister “Drowning Ghost” keep washing up on the shore of the river. Supposedly, her niece (whom she raised as a daughter) was the exception. The waters only returned one of poor Nga’s shoes. Since the useless village chief refuses to investigate Miss Moon petitions the Judge’s Detective. That would be Kien, who conscientiously answers the call in Victor Vu’s Detective Kien: The Headless Horror, which is still playing in select theaters.

Kien an analytical but empathetic investigator, who represents the full authority of the [unseen] Judge, so Chief Liem Quan must cooperate. The good detective soon learns Nga was tragically inconvenient. Her father resented Nga, because he suspected she was her mother’s illegitimate daughter, with the lover she later absconded with. Similarly, Liem and Lady Vuong, his Lady Mabeth-ish wife, harbored ill will towards Nga, because their entitled daughter Tuyet’s arranged fiancé, Thac, fell in love with her.

Of course, Kien wants to maintain the integrity of his investigation, but Miss Moon insists on joining him—and she is the sort of person who is hard to say no to. That is especially true as the romantic attraction between them grows. Ominously, the Drowning Ghost also apparently takes an interest Kien, appearing in dreams and visions—and maybe even real life, at inopportune times.

Perhaps by Vietnam’s standards, Detective Kien might be a horror movie. For American audiences, it is more of a mystery with some genre elements, but either way, it is wonderfully atmospheric. There is a lot of sneaky skullduggery and 19^th Century detective business afoot.

Revival, on Syfy

Who misses quarantines and sheltering-at-home? Not the good citizens of Wausau, Wisconsin. They must endure another lockdown-shutdown when the dead rise from their graves. It is a very localized uncanny happening, limited only to Wausau and the newly deceased who passed away with a two-week period. They are not zombies. They seem to be the same as they ever were, with a few notable exceptions to be discovered later. Nevertheless, it all supplies plenty of grounds for fear and panic in creators Aaron B. Koontz & Luke Boyce’s Revival, based Tim Seeley & Mike Norton’s comics, which premieres tomorrow on Syfy.

Wausau Deputy Dana Cypress was about to leave town for a security job in the big city when the not-quite-zombie non-apocalypse occurred. She lost her new job, but at least her boss (and her father), Sheriff Wayne Cypress, saved her old one. He takes a hardline on Revivers, advocating for tight controls. She tends to agree with the more moderate views of Ibrahim Ramin, the CDC guy, who was almost her awkward hook-up.

Even when quarantine lifts, the Cypresses stay super-busy, especially when one Reviver starts exhibiting more traditional zombie-like behavior. So far, the crazy old lady is the only aggressive, animalistic Reviver, but she is quite a handful, especially since Revivers quickly heal back to their original state at their time of death. In addition to holding off complete anarchy, Deputy Cypress worries about her young level-headed son Cooper and her younger, not-so-level-headed sister Martha (a.k.a. “Em”).

Sheriff Cypress and Ramin clearly represent very different approaches to pandemic management, but as of the first six episodes provided for review, that clash of methods is not yet nauseatingly didactic. Wayne Cyress is definitely on the hard side of hardnoses, but he has his merits, particularly as a grandpa.

Regardless, Koontz, Boyce, and their writers’ room capitalize on many of the opportunities for intrigue offered by the Revival, like a murder victim who is suddenly back. In fact, there are four or five further complications that are embargoed for your weekly viewing pleasure, most of which successfully keep the audience hooked.

Bernard-Henri Levy’s Our War

Bernard-Henri Levy has a Ukrainian artillery position named in his honor—and he couldn’t be more proud. Probably no other philosopher has spent as much time in war-zones, thanks to his documentaries covering the Ukrainians struggling to repel Russian invaders and the Kurds’ battle against ISIS. Frankly, Levy has seen more of the Ukrainian front lines than most senior Russian officers, partly because Ukraine keeps inviting him back and partly because Russian officers keep getting killed in action. Yet, the media and politicians insist Ukraine cannot win. Levy examines the boots-on-the-ground realities of Ukrainian morale and battle-worthiness in his Our War, which opens today in New York.

Even wearing a flak jacket, you can immediately recognize Levy as he tours the Ukrainian forces in the field. That why it is so gutsy that he returns so often. At this point, he is on a first-name basis with Zelensky and has long-term relationships with several senior commanders. He also meets many enlisted men and junior officers, like Oksana Rubaniak, who also happens to be a poet, much like her late boyfriend, another fallen soldier. Touched by their stories and their verse, Levy promises to publish them both in France.

Throughout the documentary, Levy and his crew hear plenty of shells landing nearby and sometimes even whizzing past them. He also documents some of the destruction wrought be Putin’s scorched earth tactics. The images are shocking and appalling, but they can’t equal the visceral horrors of Mstslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol, but few films can.

Unfortunately, there is an awkward co-star. That would be our current President, whose bizarre Oval Office meeting with Zelensky happened during filming. It leaves a bitter taste that Macron’s administration is seen as a bigger advocate of freedom. Yet, the truth is Biden talked a better game, but he never really walked the walk either.

Yet, that scene directly into Levy’s titular thesis. He repeatedly argues that Ukraine is fighting the war now, so the rest of Europe (and even the U.S.) won’t have to fight it later. It is not just his interpretation. Russian officials like Dmitry Medvedev say the same thing, but more abrasively, on Russian national television.

Levy also forcefully contradicts conventional wisdom. Interview after interview attests to an undiminished resolve, both among the Ukrainian miliary and civilians. Yes, they could use more and better arms and supplies. At one point, Levy counts twenty Russian mortars for every Ukrainian response. However, the Ukrainians make the most of what they have. Those who nauseatingly use the term “forever war” to advocate abandoning Ukraine need to understand Putin started this “forever” war and it will only end when he withdraws. Until then, Ukrainian patriots will continue to defend their homeland, even if Trump or Lula ask them surrender.

That comes through loud and clear throughout Levy’s latest film. Highly recommended as a timely reality check regarding the state of Putin’s illegal war, Our War opens today (6/11) at the Quad.