The Devil in the Flesh: Adapting Radiguet

Raymond Radiguet was like France’s John Kennedy Toole. Due to their premature demises, both authors only wrote two novels, but their enduring literary reputations are largely based on the first that were published. In Radiguet’s case, that was The Devil in the Flesh, which is also sort of like Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley. Periodically, filmmakers pretend to adapt either novel because of their literary merit, but they inevitably emphasize the naughty bits. That happens again this time, even though director-screenwriter-cinematographer Oscar Wenman-Hyde also displays a pronounced Terence Malik-esque influence throughout The Devil in the Flesh, which releases today on VOD.

Wenman-Hyde takes some liberties with Radiguet’s source novel, starting with its transfer from France to rural England. However, he keeps the essence of its scandalous romance. Rachel has accepted an ambiguous position helping Flynn manage his family’s farm, while his father and her husband serve in uniform during WWI. Of course, the close proximity of a single young man and a married but husband-less woman inspires judgmental chatter, which they soon live up to.

In this case, Flynn appears to be a naïve man in his very early twenties, while Rachel is maybe twenty years his senior, so their age difference is not as ambiguously eyebrow-raising as some versions have implied. It is also clear Rachel’s marriage was already rocky, even before her husband’s deployment. Nevertheless, her letters confessing her infidelity sound cruel and spiteful, given his circumstances.

Not surprisingly, the traditional community’s open scorn puts stress on their not-so secret love affair. There is also a war underway, which will eventually directly impact their lives. Indeed, it is easy to understand why Radiguet’s novel faced a backlash from French veterans when it first released. However, some of the novel’s psychological complexity might have been lost in translation. It might also have been drowned out by the soundtrack of treacly anachronistic pop songs composed by Wenman-Hyde as well.

Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada

Cornwall is English, but its legends, such as mermaids and maybe even the Lady of the Lake, are closely related to the Welsh, Celtic, and pre-Roman pagan traditions. Mark Jenkin channeled much of that lore in his austere folk horror film, Enys Men. Supposedly, this film is set in the same continuity, but casual viewers (if such a creature exists for Jenkin’s films), might not catch the connective tissue. Nevertheless, Jenkin tells a very modern kind of story that is still inescapably burdened by the weight of the past in Rose of Nevada, which opens today in New York.

Ever since the titular fishing vessel disappeared three decades prior, Nick Dyer’s small harbor town plunged into depression and stagnation. It was like the fish vanished with the Rose of Nevada. It probably should not have gone out shorthanded. Consequently, Luke, the fisherman who shirked his duties, committed suicide out of guilt. Thirtysome years later, Nick Dyer and his wife and daughter live in Luke’s leaky former home.

One fateful day, the missing boat drifts into the harbor. Sensing an opportunity, the owner hires salty Murgee to captain the Rose. He in turn takes on Dyer and Liam, a drifter of questionable moral fiber, to crew. The fish practically leap into the hold, but once they return to port, Dyer discovers the Rose traveled backwards in time thirty years. Everyone now believes they are the original missing crew. Liam decides it is all very well for him, because he quickly takes up with his former girlfriend’s mother.

Of course, it is much less convenient for Dyer. Each time they return to port, the timeline further crisscrosses, causing him even more confusion, angst, and desperation. Perhaps Rose of Nevada could have been the Somewhere in Time for the 2020s, if Jenkin had slightly moderated his Spartan aesthetic approach for the sake of popular tastes. However, Jenkin makes no concessions to anyone or anything. Nevertheless, there are moments of arresting beauty and eeriness, but Jenkin demands the audience must pay attention and work for them.

Like Enys Men, Jenkin (serving as his own cinematographer) shot on Rose of Nevada on deliberately distressed-looking 16mm stock. The film itself looks like an artifact that might have also washed up on shore. Every second of this film was deliberately crafted, in a way that is totally hypnotic and eventually anesthetizing.

Likewise, George MacKay (whose profile should have risen more after 1917) is absolutely haunting as Dyer. As it happens, MacKay rather specializes in dark fantastical realism at sea, having played a similar role in Paul Wright’s underappreciated For Those in Peril. The two films would make a powerful but depressing double feature.

An Enemy Within

This movie wedding could get as bad as Game of Throne’s “Red Wedding,” but viewers don’t have much time to invest in the characters, who generally consist of stereotypical rich jerks. The Foresights might sound like Galsworthy’s literary clan, but they are considerably harder and meaner. Nevertheless, reasonably well-heeled Caleb Wingate expected to continue rising in the Foresight family business, after marrying his boss’s daughter, until a terrorist gives him an ultimatum: kill his new father-in-law by midnight or his newlywed wife dies. It is not exactly a “Sophie’s Choice,” but it is still a super-awkward buzz-kill in director-screenwriter John Michael Kennedy’s An Enemy Within, which releases today on VOD.

Wingate’ father made no secret of his disappointment when his son went to work for the rival Foresights. However, Robert Foresight was more of a shark, especially when it comes to doing natural resources deals in Africa. Unfortunately, he did not live up to his name when he crossed “The Wolf,” a notorious assassin the Foresight company used to employ.

The Wolf delivered the ultimatum, but a mystery client is calling the sniper’s shots. Regardless, Wingate must kill the Foresight patriarch by the mandated deadline and he cannot allow any guests to leave in the meantime. That causes some seemingly erratic behavior, greatly straining his hours-old marriage. However, an old pro like the senior Foresight recognizes trouble. However, as more family members become privy to the standoff, the recriminations really start to fly.

This film definitely exhibits a pronounced degree of class resentment, but there is also a kind of grudging admiration for the elitist characters’ ruthless survival drives. Despite his increasingly dire situation (including a non-fatal gun-shot wound), steely middle-aged Robert Foresight is definitely the sort of fellow you want on your side during a time of crisis.

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters

Its first IP deals were relatively modest, licensing British radio shows like Dick Barton and The Man in Black for extremely B-level movie treatments. However, it most famously relaunched popular franchises with the very same monsters that made Universal the home for horror in the 1930s and 1940s. Despite periods of decline and dormancy, the Hammer name still means something to fans. Director Benjamin Field and an all-star cast of genre filmmakers chronicle the studio’s history and celebrate its eccentricities in Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters (oddly, no Oxford comma), which releases today on BluRay from UK specialty retailers.

Will Hinds (who performed vaudeville under his stage name, Hammer) and Enriques Carreras founded Hammer Film Productions, but they never really got filmmaking the way their sons, Tony Hinds and Michael Carreras, did. For the record, most of the oddball genre detours were Michael’s doing (fault). However, the elder Carreras definitely understood business, negotiating better American deals than were available for more prestigious British productions.

Hammer’s big opportunity came in licensing a film version of The Quatermass Experiment, which had been a surprise hit for the BBC. They were subsequently pitched a Frankenstein screenplay that probably would have prompted a lawsuit from Universal, but they liked the idea enough to commission The Curse of Frankenstein, which was a huge hit, making stars of Peter Cushing and Chriostopher Lee. They followed it up with Horror of Dracula, featuring the same co-stars, garnering the same box office success.

Unlike many cinema history docs, Heroes, Legends and Monsters focuses more on the behind-the-scenes business trends and the contributions of below-the-line contributors, like makeup artist Phil Leakey and art director Bernard Robinson, who had a thrifty knack for reusing and repurposing old props and sets. Thanks to Robinson, Hammer could really stretch their budget, while maintaining their signature lush, gothic look.

Of course, most of the great stars of Hammer, such as Cushing, Lee, Andre Morrell, Shane Briant, and Oliver Reed are no longer with us. However, Martine Beswick (One Million Years B.C.), Caroline Munro (Dracula AD 1972), and Madeline Smith (The Vampire Lovers) discuss their work at Hammer (and the degree of nudity that was expected of them, during the late period of decline).

Indeed, the collected experts convincingly argue the turn towards cultural permissiveness was Hammer’s undoing, because they had developed such a knack for arguing, negotiating, and generally sneaking in suggestive material, which suddenly appeared tame compared to the genuinely explicit releases from their competitors.

The understanding of the economics of Hammer’s decisions helps differentiate Heroes, Legends and Monsters from its many predecessors. It also features many experts with serious genre cred, including John Carpenter, Tim Burton, John Landis, and Joe Dante (the latter two seem to mostly work as documentary talking heads these days, which is sort of a shame, but their enthusiasm for Hammer sounds genuine).

Hamlet: One of the Contemporary Productions

The difference between an “l” and an “n” can be huge. In this case, it is an “l” for Hamlet, so you should be able to watch it without falling asleep. At least, it is sort of Hamlet. Not only has the setting been updated, the cast of characters has been severally abridged. However, his father “the king” is still dead and his mother is still marrying his uncle rather soon afterward in Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, which opens this Friday in New York.

The story follows a similar arc, but in this case, Hamlet is the heir to his father’s real estate, including the enormous luxury the development known as El Sinore. Poor Hamlet is still grieving when Uncle Claudius announces his engagement to Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. Frankly, Hamlet finds it all rather unseemly, even before he encounters the ghost of his father.

So, yes, this is Hamlet. However, Michael Lesslie’ adaptation simplifies Shakespeare’s original play in often strange ways. Horatio is gone. Instead, Ophelia and Laertes stand-in for him in scenes where his presence would be required. However, this greatly muddies the nature of Hamlet’s relationship with the latter, with whom he ordinarily has no love lost, yet now they are sort of friends—at least until Hamlet kills his father, Polonius. Rosencranz and Guildenstern also got the axe, but the Hamlet of Shakespeare’s play would be the first to tell you they were no great loss.

Bizarrely, since there is no Horatio, we never get “a fellow of infinite jest” or “good night sweet prince.” Also, since Laertes frequently covers for him, he never leaves, so there is no “to thine own self be true” speech. Of course, we still have Hamlet’s soliloquy, but Karia’s ill-conceived staging sabotages Riz Ahmed’s big moment, shooting him solely in profile while driving behind the wheel of a car. It is a head-scratchingly uncinematic treatment.

That is a real shame, because other scenes are brilliantly executed. To Karia’s credit, Hamlet’s pivotal confrontation with Gertrude and Polonius has the visceral violence most productions do not have the guts for. Indeed, Timothy Spall and Sheeba Chaddha are both terrific as Polonius and Gertrude, even when Hamlet isn’t slamming them into walls.

The Choral Opens Nationally

Dr. Henry Guthrie is not exactly Mr. Holland. As bandleaders go, he is not the nurturing type. Maybe it was all the time he spent in Germany. Of course, that made his return to England rather awkward after WWI broke out. Still, he knows music, so he is the most qualified candidate to lead a smalltown Yorkshire choir. Yet, even Guthrie’s keen musical mind struggles with the challenges of retention and repertoire, thanks to wartime complications in Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral, which opens nationally this Friday (having already opened in New York).

Much to the frustration of Alderman Bernard Duxbury, the director of the Ramsden Choir just enlisted out of patriotic fervor. Duxbury happens to be the choir’s featured tenor, not coincidentally because he foots the bills. There are not a lot of able-bodied men with any kind of musical knowledge left. Guthrie happens to be one of them. Despite his initial protests, Gutherie reluctantly accepts—and immediately starts trimming the deadwood that had been grandfathered into the choir. That does not yet include Duxbury, because there aren’t any better options.

The community seems rather mixed on Gutherie, judging from the note wrapped around the brick that crashed through the choir’s window. Like it or not, Guthrie is the director, so he and Duxbury hope anglicizing their repertoire will satisfy the malcontents. That means cutting Bach (and also Mozart and Beethoven), in favor of the very British (and very demanding) Sir Edward Elgar.

Maybe The Choral could lead to a fresh wave of popularity for Elgar’s compositions, but this seems unlikely. His progressive sacred music basically has something to put off just about every end of the contemporary listening spectrum. However, the way Gutherie’s working-class choral embraces Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius is quite uplifting. (It sort of brings to mind the manner in which patrons of the Louisville Orchestra rallied around contemporary classical music in the mid-20^th Century.)

Nevertheless, The Choral is quite predictable in many respects. Alan Benett’s screenplay often appears to be repurposing elements scavenged from Brassed Off. Of course, they will stage their concert—no matter what opposition they might face.

What sets the film apart happens outside of the rehearsal hall. Hytner quite poignantly depicts the devastating impact of the war on the naïve Ramsden community. Arguably, if The Choral had been more of a snapshot-like portrait of the village, as their collective optimism turns to grief, much in the Terence Davies tradition, it would have resonated far more deeply.

Manor of Darkness

Time loops are always scary, but the ones in horror movies are always the worst. That is because the people looping usually need to be brutally murdered to restart the cycle. This one is one of those. Unfortunately, lucky Laura is the only one who remembers she and her companions are looping in director-screenwriter Blake Ridder’s Manor of Darkness, which releases today on digital VOD.

Laura is the responsible sibling caring for her ailing mother, while her negligent brother Chris has been shirking his duties. The last time she helped Chris pull off a job, it cratered into disaster, but she needs the money, so here she is. He also recruits his girlfriend Lisa, who everyone else can tell is pregnant and Andy, whose pickpocketing and hustling skills caught his eye in the bar.

According to vague rumors, there is some great treasure hidden in Lucas’s manor house. Supposedly, Chris conned him into thinking they are a documentary crew, so they can search for the loot, but instead it was Lucas who lured them to the manor house. He claimed he intended to warn them of the loop, but Laura had already opened the evil pandora’s box, letting loose whatever the evil entity might be. As a result, only she remembers each time Lucas stabs them to death for a restart. He also tries to give them helpful advice for dealing with the loop—so yes, you could describe their relationship as complicated and stormy.

Despite Ridder’s obvious budget constraints, he managed to serve up a relatively fresh take on the horror movie time loop that does not feel like a transparent rip-off of either Happy Death Day or Until Dawn. The rewinding gamesmanship works pretty well, especially since the 82-minute film does not have time for many go-rounds.

Wildcat, Co-Starring Lewis Tan

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

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

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

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

The Great Escaper: Sir Michael Caine’s Final Role

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time Travel is Dangerous, Narrated by Stephen Fry

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

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

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

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

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

NYICFF ’25: Tiddler (short)

This little fish feels very self-conscious about his supposedly drab grey scales, but instead of taking pride in his delicious taste and healthy omega-3 fatty acids, he builds his confidence by telling tall tales. However, his talent will come in handy in Alex Bain & Andy Martin’s Tiddler, the latest BBC and Magic Light Pictures-produced animated short based on a Julia Donaldson book, which screens as pat of the Shorts for Tots program at the 2025 New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Tiddler thinks he is the plainest fish in his literal school, but the skate teacher obviously looks like a skate fish—so maybe he shouldn’t be so hard on himself. Regardless, Tiddler constantly tries to build himself up by arriving late each morning, breathlessly creating an unlikely adventure to explain his tardiness. Most of his fellow students roll their fish eyes, but his pal Johnny Dory loves his crazy fish stories.

In fact, Dory constantly spreads Tiddler’s stories to other fish, who pass them on in turn to other aquatic creatures. Unbeknownst to Tiddler, his fame has spread quite widely throughout the ocean. That notoriety comes in handy after he narrowly escapes from a commercial fishing boat.

Perhaps you could think of Tiddler as a more compact and economical Finding Nemo. Of course, lost animals are a staple of animated fare. Despite any such similarities, you have to like any film that celebrates both creativity and truancy, right parents?

Alice Lowe’s Timestalker

Maybe what some people call fate is really just chronic, centuries-spanning stupidity. That is basically the whole point of this film. In life after reincarnated life, Agnes keeps falling in love with Alex and it always ends really, really badly—or worse. Yet, she repeatedly makes the same awful decisions in screenwriter-director Alice Lowe’s Timestalker, which releases today in theaters and on-demand.

Frankly, Alex probably peaked during his first meeting with Agnes, in 1680 Scotland. He was quite taken with her, but she still dies throughout an unlikely accident. Still, you can see why she might want a do-over. However, Alex the 1790s English highwayman is a slimy user. So is Alex the fading 1980s New Wave pop star. Unfortunately, these are the two time periods Lowe devotes the most time to.

In each of her lives, Agnes quickly recognizes Alex as her man of destiny. Yet, she never seems to mean anything to him. However, the Iago-like Scipio appears to understand Agnes’ fateful dilemma, at least to a partial extent.

Timestalker is sort of like the Orlando spoof we never knew we needed, because we obviously didn’t. Lowe had much more success translating British “kitchen sink” aesthetics into genre films like Prevenge and Sightseers, which she co-wrote Ben Wheatley. This time around, she leans into cringe, with swiftly declining marginal returns.

At times, Lowe captures a hint of cosmic mystery, but what the film does best is simply reminding viewers how Sally Potter’s Orlando is such a better film. Perhaps, part of the problem is a structural imbalance. The narrative spends too much time in 1790 and the unspecified early 1980s, while the 1940s and futuristic segments are sketchy in a tacked-on afterthought kind of way.

Sunray: Fallen Soldier

Most soldiers hope their service will keep violence and danger away from their homeland and families. Usually, that is why they sign-up in the first place. When tragedy finds their loved ones anyway, they might feel like they failed, but it is more likely that we failed them. Andrew Coleman (Echo 1) was already burdened with guilt stemming from the death of several comrades in Afghanistan. His daughter’s premature demise from poison-laced drugs pushes him over the edge. However, the illicit gang responsible gives Coleman a target and an outlet for his rage. He cannot fight the entire organization by himself, but Echo 2, 3, and 4 loyally rally behind him in James Clarke & Daniel Shepherd’s Sunray: Fallen Soldier, produced by and starring former Royal Marine Commandos, which is now available on VOD.

When Coleman returned home, he carried the unfortunate events of his tour back with him. Inevitably, it affected his relationships with his soon-to-be ex-wife Elaine and their teen daughter Rachel, even though both women recognize and understand he still struggles with unresolved trauma. Even with a troubled father, Elaine is a pretty good kid, but when mean girls successfully peer-pressure her into trying coke, her mistake turns fatal.

Frankly, her boyfriend Cassius is considerably broken-up over it as well, but he left her alone, with a bad element. He should have known better, because that is his world. As the son of Lucian, a long-reigning druglord, he was directly involved in supplying the drugs. Consequently, Coleman wants Cassius dead—and he is willing to work his way up the organizational flow chart to get to him. He starts off wielding nail guns and hammers, but when his vendetta gets messy, his old teammates, Smudge, Sledge, and Harper (Echo 2-4), bail him out and help upgrade his hardware.

Sunray is a throwback to old school vet-turned-vigilante movies, represented by the likes of the Robert Ginty Exterminator films. Frankly, this film is so gritty it sometimes feels like sandpaper on your eyeballs. Yet, the directness of the action scenes is undeniably effective.

The same is true for 29-year Royal Marine veteran Tip Cullen, who broods like a house on fire as Coleman. You would be hard-pressed to find a more grizzled or gristly actor, but that gives him instant credibility in Sunray. Tom Leigh, Luke Solomon, and Steven Blades, fellow veterans all, have equal cred walking the walk and talking the talk, as Echo 2, 3, and 4. With Cullen they nicely create a sense of the fellowship that comes from serving together.

Blitz, on Apple TV+

Most Americans cannot imagine what it was like in London during the Blitz and simply couldn’t handle living under such a constant threat of death. There is one nation that can identify with survivors of the Blitz—Israel, a nation that endured ceaseless suicide bombings well before October 7^th. To a degree, viewers get a taste of the crushing enormity of the National Socialists’ indiscriminate bombardment in director-screenwriter Steve McQueen’s Blitz, which premieres tomorrow on Apple TV+.

After watching the first ten minutes of Blitz, it is easy to understand why Rita Hanway secured a place for her son George aboard one of the last trains evacuating children to the countryside. However, he resents his single mother supposedly unloading him, so his parting words are terrible. Yet, he will probably better understand her reluctant decision after the events he will witness during the film.

Indeed, he feels rather guilty once the train steams away, so he soon hops off, to make his way back to her. Of course, the journey hopping rails hobo-style would be rather unsafe, even under ordinary circumstances. With the Luftwaffe carpet-bombing the East End, it is downright perilous. Even when he makes it back to London, the dangers are not over, especially when Albert’s Dickensian gang of corpse and bombsite looters get their claws into him.

Meanwhile, as Ms. Hanway pines for her son and his Caribbean immigrant father, whose life might have been ironically saved when the authorities deported him, she is drawn to the socialist preachings of the leader of a makeshift alternate bomb-shelter.

There are huge set-pieces in Blitz that are nothing short of brilliant. The opening prologue is truly jaw-dropping and a later sequence, showing Ken “Snakehips” Johnson’s final performance up until and past the point a German bomb falls on the swanky night where he was performing is probably even more devastating.

Weirdly, Blitz probably would have been stronger if McQueen had de-emphasized the narrative and concentrated on the viscerally tactile recreations of the devastation unleashed on London. There are images in this film that are truly unforgettable.

On the other hand, the mother-son melodrama comes across as forced and even rather contrived, in comparison. Plus, McQueen’s attempts at class-conscious social commentary ring with pettiness, given the wider circumstances. Frankly, in both cases, the dialogue sounds rather wooden.

Arguably, Blitz would have been a much better film if it talked less and showed more. Young Elliott Heffernan is very strong throughout the film, but McQueen’s decisions only truly let him shine in a handful of gem-like scenes. One standout example would be his late-night encounter with Ife, a sympathetic air-raid warden of West African descent, played with aching sensitivity by Benjamin Clementine. His relatively small supporting performance is absolutely beautiful and a highlight of Blitz.

Lore, an Anthology “Hosted” by Richard Brake

A truly memorable anthology needs a good host. It is impossible to overstate what Rod Serling and the Crypt Keeper brought to The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt. For this film, Richard Brake is quite inhospitable, but in the right way. It would be a really bad idea to go camping with him, but people do it anyway in James Bushe & Patrick Ryder’s Lore (with an installment from Greig Johnson), which releases today on the Icon Film Channel in the UK.

At the start of the wrap-around segments, “The Campfire” written by Patrick Ryder & Christine Barber-Ryder and directed by Ryder & James Bushe, four not especially bright friends meet-up for Darwin’s immersive horror outing. Everything about that screams “bad idea,” right? There they are regardless, so on the first night, he challenges them to throw a totem in the fire and tell a story that is not merely scary, but profoundly disturbing to them.

The cocky guy starts with “Shadows” written and directed by Bushe. Frankly, it is strange that this yarn, in which gangsters chase a two-bit hood into an empty warehouse, only to find a possibly greater monster inside, would make such impression on the teller. This is the weakest constituent tale, but the execution is still tautly effective.

“The Hidden Woman” written by Ryder & Barber-Ryder, but solely helmed by Ryder is also somewhat familiar in terms of themes and premise, but it is very creepy. A single mother and her young son have inherited a house that is almost certainly haunted. The apparition in question has a strong attachment to an antique phonograph, which is nifty horror prop.

The ringer in the bunch, “Cross Your Heart” comes from screenwriter-director Greig Johnson, but he is probably the most successful evoking ironic Tales from the Crypt vibes (both in the spirit of the comic, but particularly the TV series). Poor long-suffering and sometimes abused Cath has reluctantly agreed to humor her cad husband Steve, by participating in a swinger-swap. However, he is too horny and drug-addled to see the seductive Donna has some much nastier (and largely deserved) in store for him.

Katie Sheridan, Rufus Hound, and Alana Wallace are all terrific in the three featured roles. It is all mordantly funny, but then later disturbing to think you of the potential implication of what viewers most likely cheered on.

A Gangster’s Kiss, Co-Starring John Hannah & Patsy Kensit

Blokey Jack is making a bigger mistake than Shelley Long when he decides to leave his EastEnders-like TV series to make movies. Planning to appear in a gangster film, he starts researching the role by shadowing his old school pal Danny, who works as an enforcer for his crime-boss uncle, Don. What could wrong? Judging from the body they are burying in the in media res prologue, plenty. There is no shortage of mayhem but the comedy is not so funny in Ray Burdis’s A Gangster’s Kiss, which releases today in some markets on VOD.

This will be the worst internship ever. Old Jack was just supposed to keep his head down and his mouth shut. Unfortunately, Mus, one of three sort of Turkish brothers supplying drugs to Don’s operation, recognizes Jack and wants to strike up a friendship with the minor celebrity. The actor tries to decline his advances diplomatically, but fails spectacularly. Suddenly, a gang war threatens to erupt in London—and it will mostly be his fault.

There is no question much of the film was cast in hopes of appealing to late-1980s/early-1990s nostalgia. There is Patsy Kensit (Lethal Weapon 2, Absolute Beginners) appearing as Don’s lawyer, Crassus, whose tough-luck counsel seems more likely to inspire turning state’s evidence than maintaining the code of silence.

John Hannah (Four Weddings and a Funeral) bizarrely plays Mus’s brother Mem, who sports an eye-patch, peg leg, and a hook for a hand. At least Martin Kemp (The Krays and Spandau Ballet videos) understands how to ham it up without overindulging in schtick as cranky Uncle Don.

SIFF ’24: Scala!!!

When John Waters shows up in a documentary about a theater, you know some crazy films must have screened there. They programmed his movies, which definitely qualify. The theater was also known for showing horror, martial arts, art films, and sexploitation bordering on outright raunch. Of course, for regulars, its seediness was part of its charm. Staff, customers, and famous filmmakers remember the good times in Jane Giles &Ali Catterall’s documentary, Scala!!!, which screens again during the 2024 Seattle International Film Festival.

The Beatles filmed one of the concert scenes for A Hard Day’s Night in the old Scala Theater. This is “new” Scala, but it has an apostolic link to the old theater, after the original location was demolished. Changing formats a few times, it eventually became the eccentric repertory cinema fans knew and loved, around the time it finally settled into its beloved sketchy King’s Cross neighborhood. Frankly, many talking heads make enthusiastic comparisons to grindhouse era Times Square, especially after the Scala started its tradition of all-night marathon screenings.

The programming was certainly eclectic, including high-end art-house films and sleazy exploitation fare. Of course, budding auteurs like Christiopher Nolan were regular patrons. Touring punk bands often crashed there, instead of renting hotel rooms. A lot of drugs were consumed on the premises and the restrooms were a veritable petri dishes overflowing with STDs. At least two people died there—that the staff are willing to cop to. So yeah, good times.

Admittedly, the wild anecdotes are often amusing. The Scala also screened some great stuff, including Avengers episodes for the series’ fan society, as well as glorified porn. Just about all the talking heads agree the most representative Scala film would be Thundercrack!, a haunted house spoof with X-rated sex scenes, written by George Kuchar.

One Life: Sir Anthony Hopkins as Sir Nicholas Winton

Sir Nicholas Winton has been called the British Schindler, but his heroic rescue work went almost completely unrecognized until 1988. Of course, hardly anyone knew who Oskar Schindler was before the 1993 film. To this day, few people have heard of Varian Fry and the noble Raoul Wallenberg died in a Soviet prison, most likely sometime in the late 1950s. The modest Winton never sought fame, so he is surprised when it belatedly finds him in James Hawes’s One Life, which opens Friday in theaters.

When the National Socialists invaded the Sudetenland, most of the UK government buried their heads in the sand, but a young stockbroker of Jewish German heritage sprang into action. Hinton arrived in Prague as a representative of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, who believed his expertise in finance and bureaucratic paperwork could come in handy. The local chair Doreen Warriner was focusing on the most at-risk political refugees, because she barely had the bandwidth to handle them.

However, Winton is so struck by the appalling conditions endured by the largely but not exclusively Jewish children in makeshift camps, he launches an ambitious campaign that becomes known as the Kindertransport. British immigration authorities are not quite as obstructionist as the notoriously antisemitic Breckinridge Long in the U.S. State Department, but they require a fifty-pound deposit to insure the children would not burden the state, in addition to visas and pre-arranged foster parents to care for them. Back in England, Winton starts plugging away, with the help of his committee colleagues and his mother Babi, who was hard to say no to.

It is pretty mind-blowing Winton and his colleagues conducted this major fundraising campaign and logistical challenge using type-writers and regular mail service. However, the anti-Jewish hatred they encountered is depressingly commonplace in 2024. What would Winton think about his Labour Party’s persistent scandals involving antisemitism?

Screenwriters Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake go out of their way to point out Winton’s left-leaning politics. Yet, the film takes on a new sense of urgency post 10/7. (In a twist of fate, its UK debut came less than a week after Hamas's savage mass murders, abductions, and weaponized rapes.)

Whether or not you can push outside events out of your mind, Sir Anthony Hopkins is still a marvel as the late-1980s Winton. He portrays the righteous rescuer with deep sincerity and humility that is very moving. You might not pick Hopkins and Johnny Flynn out of a crowd and assume they were related, but he plays 1930s Winton with similarly keen earnestness. We quickly believe they are the same man, seen decades apart.

Forever Young, Co-Starring Bernard Hill & Julian Glover

Every time somebody thinks they have developed a fountain of youth, it always turns out tragic, in a suitably ironic way. Seriously, haven’t they seen The Twilight Zone? Yet, they keep trying. In this case, Robyn Smith’s old ex-flame convinces her to take his new youth serum with him. However, she cannot cajole her faithful husband Oscar to take the plunge with her in Henk Pretorius’s Forever Young, which releases today on VOD.

Smith was once a literary star. Her sales have diminished, but she still outshines loyal old Oscar. Her latest autobiographical book has her pondering all her considerable life regrets, particularly never having a child with Oscar, who was always grade-A fatherhood material. Consequently, she is primed to accept when dodgy old Jim Petrak shows up offering her eternal youth, in the form of his miracle drug Novus.

Seeing Petrak transform himself from an elderly callow reprobate into a young callow reprobate convinces her. However, Petrak has a few fine print details. Smith and all other potential Novus users must pass a battery of health tests. Any form of cancer is disqualifying, because Novus would accelerate the growth of cancerous cells. Unfortunately, Oscar has just been diagnosed, but he hasn’t told his newly youthful wife yet, because he prefers to contemplate his mortality on his own for a while.

If Forever Young had been whittled down to forty-some minutes, it could have been solid Twilight Zone-ish anthology episode, in the lowkey tradition of “Kick the Can.” Pretorius and co-screenwriters Jennifer Nicole Stang and Greg Blyth explore some of the intriguing aspects of immortality, especially asymmetric immortality. However, the big twist we can see coming from twenty blocks away.

Bernard Hill (whom everyone on planet Earth has seen on-screen, since he had smaller supporting roles in Lord of the Rings and Titanic) is terrific as sensitive, soulful Oscar. He also forges consistently poignant chemistry with both Diana Quick, as the senior Smith, and Amy Tyger, as the Novus Smith.

The Canterville Ghost, with the Voice of Stephen Fry

Not all ghosts are scary. Some are rather sad, because they mark the passage of time. Sir Simon de Canterville is definitely like that, but he also shares a kinship with Captain Gregg, Mrs. Muir’s ghost. He was once a holy terror, but he meets his match in a thoroughly modern American family in Kim Burdon’s animated adaptation of The Canterville Ghost, co-directed by Robert Chandler, which opens Friday in theaters.

For three hundred years, Sir Simon scared the willies out of everyone who tried to inhabit Canterville Chase. Unfortunately, Yanks like the Otis family are far too materialistic for ghosts. Virginia’s father Hiram considers himself a man of science, whose electric lights frazzle the ghost’s nerves. Her bratty twin brother torment poor Sir Simon with practical jokes. Of course, she is not scared of him either, but as the late 19^th Century equivalent of a moody goth teen, she is drawn to Sir Simon’s tragic romanticism.

Alas, the ghost would much prefer to be dead, so he can finally be reunited with his beloved wife. Death played a mean trick on him, which made him onery. Otis would like to break his curse, but that will be a complicated and dangerous proposition.

Screenwriters Cory Edwards, Giles New, and Keiron Self collectively did a nice job adapting Oscar Wilde’s novella, retaining his major themes, while punching up some of the dark and stormy bits, for Halloween. Wilde scholars might take issue with Hugh Laurie’s Angel of Death character, but he helps stir the pot and raise the stakes. There is plenty of animated mayhem, but deep down, this film is sadder and wiser than Casper or Topper.

Canterville is indeed a tragic figure, given Shakespearean dimensions (and references) by Stephen Fry’s hammy voice. Emily Carey makes Virginia Otis appealingly smart and sensitive, despite her teen angst. Freddie Highmore sounds appropriately young and befuddled as the Duke of Cheshire, but his voice works surprisingly well in conversation with Carey’s.