Recommend a movie

[anissaka]

Thanks @taytoy  and Vultural.

I realise I haven't read anything from James Baldwin - or else it was so long ago that I've forgotten about it - but I do remember his name from somewhere (?). This omission is going to be rectified straight away ! (I'm spending quite some time reading these days). I hope the film won't be too hard to get.

I have loved Moonlight, although I found it too bad that Barry Jenkings gave such a small part to Mahershala Ali.

Edited July 18, 2017 by anissaka

[Vultural]

10 Rillington Place - 1970 - 7/10

Richard Attenborough plays the mild mannered, soft spoken John Christie.
Strangler, rapist, serial killer, trophy collector, check all the boxes on this one.
Film opens during Blitz era London, shifts to 1949, his proclivities do not lessen.
Rather, we meet new neighbors (Judy Geeson and John Hurt).
Slow pacing serves to ratchet the tension.
Historical accuracy seems to be fairly spot-on, though motives are minimal.
Attenborough outstanding as quiet milquetoast with haunted eyes and demonic compulsions.
Murder fanatics?  Visit Christie at Madame Tussaud’s.

[Vultural]

Spring - 2014 - 7/10

The casual affair that could turn into love.
American male, fleeing trouble in the States, goes to Italy and meets mysterious girl.
She carries a few secrets of her own including rebirth and transfiguration.
While carrying the Horror tag, romance and communication predominate.
The two leads have evident chemistry and this could be a warm date film.
Except there is a horror component, there is almost casual violence, and there is disintegration.
Narrative of love, however brief, colliding with the longer path.
This is a well thought out film, splashed with beautiful coastal scenery.

[Vultural]

Swing Girls - 2004 - 7/10

Charming, feel good story of summer school underachievers wandering into a swing group.
When the school band gets ill, a group of girls agree to learn instruments to encourage the baseball team.
Terrible are the results.
A stubborn handful persevere and practice outside stores, in karaoke clubs, along the river.
For those of you who were ever in high school band, you will recall the scales, the warmup, the endless rehearsals.
And just like your own experience, within six months they are in a groove.
Innocent film that ends with a rousing flourish.  Play loud.

[Vultural]

Life - 2017 - 3/10

I watch a lot of bad SciFi.  This pile is godawful.
Special effects are fine, though the plot is beneath any eight year old.
Orbiting scientists snag a one-celled organism from Mars.
They stimulate it and encourage it.  Even name it - Calvin.
(Consider if the Nostromo crew had named the xenomorph - Daisy.)
Not only does the creature get a lot bigger, it quickly becomes smarter than anyone else onboard.
Also the hungriest.  Lucky for Calvin there are a half dozen, box o rocks, totally stupid crew members.
Too bad the Life script writer was not among them.
Fifield and Millburn resemble wise, thoughtful scientists in comparison.

[Vultural]

Saint Amour - 2016 - 5/10

Viewers with a soft spot for “dumb” (dumb friends, coworkers, neighbors) might score higher.
Aging father and son hit the Agricultural Fair.
Dad hopes his prize bull will win a prize, Junior intends to get sloshed.
During a prolonged interval, they hire a taxi and drive through various wine regions.
Three males, including the driver, encounter a variety of altogether willing females.
Yes, male fantasy time.  Our studs are bumpkin stumble-bums, yet ladies tumble.
Over talky, touchy feelie, angst laden, baggage packed, pointless, sexist ...
Oh, sensitive souls, Depardieu exposes a v-a-s-t swath of stomach in a romantic interlude.

[Vultural]

The Green Man - 1956 - 6/10

Seemingly agreeable Hawkins (Alistair Sim) found his calling at an early age.  Assassin.
While he is a free agent and will liquidate any on his list, his preference is for pompous windbags.
During World War II, he finds competition from the Luftwaffe and retires.
Afterward - well - there is never a shortage of blowhards waiting to be snuffed.
Unexpected opposition arrives in a busybody vacuum salesman.
Fast paced, black comedy of murder, misunderstandings and mistaken identities.
Dialogue is rapid fire (based on a play), this is lightweight fun.

[Vultural]

Nelly - 2016 - 5/10

Canadian novelist Nelly Arcan burst out of the gate with her first book, a best seller in her home country and France.
Succeeding books sold less and less until her suicide ten years later.
Film mixes her writer self, along with when she was an escort, along with her characters.
Those unfamiliar with Nelly Arcan (such as me) will have trouble keeping up unless you realize this.
Her novels were lurid and her characters were thinly disguised autobiographies.
Movie is filled with sex, rough sex, girl talk, and the insecure writer.
Generally an unpleasant ride.

[Vultural]

Trio Of Fanedits

Darkman Lives! by MusicEd921

MusicEd921 trims director Raimi’s silly interludes, as well as goofy nonsense.
Also renders this to black n white, creating a 1930s Universal Studios look.

Trims were minimal, yet the overall tone differs greatly.
By design, this edit brings to the fore the pulpy elements.  Violence is toned down.
This is a PG, popcorn experience.  While violent, it should be OK for older children.
A fun film, though not as dark as before.  I think I would have preferred a rougher ride.
Still, if you want action, yet want to avoid obscenities and gore, this is a great choice.

*  *  *

Diabolique: Alternative Cut by Dr Sapirstein

The editor tackles the flawed 1996 remake which was overlong and overloud (aimed at the blind deaf).

Black n white conversion brings the look closer to 50s Noir, but there are few hard shadows or low angles associated with that style.
Dr Sapirstein’s substantial removal (23 minutes) results in a quicker film, though not necessarily a better film.  
I have tried over the years to like this film - or even appreciate it.  This is simply a bad film, and not a “fun bad” film.  Lead actors do their darnedest, but in the end this is turgid dreck.  The edit, however, is superior to the 1996 version.
Do yourself a favor and seek out the 1955 original, directed by H G Clouzot.

*  *  *

Mr. Wick by Maniac

Two John Wick vehicles.  No canines, no love interest.
As with most of Maniac’s edits, this is pedal to the floor action.
The two films do not join together well, however.  More like two, high voltage television episodes paired back to back.
To be more specific, by excising Wick’s “personal life,” this becomes a shooter game, with infrequent lulls to realign the plot.
There is no character development, and the backstory is limited.  Wick is barely more than a pair of hands, holding guns or clenched into fists.
Go into this expecting an fury blazer and you will not be disappointed.
For what it is, an efficient distillation of the two Wick films, this is a relentless edit.

[Vultural]

Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors - 2017 - 6/10

Historian Lucy Worsley guides viewers on a tour of Miss Austen’s many homes.
Along the way, she shares influences and incidents at each.
Reenactment is minimal, an actress reading Jane’s letters, from time to time, in different settings.

This is one of the better docs by Worsley.  No blaring pop tunes in this, for instance.
Essential for Janeites.

[Vultural]

Come And See  - 1985 - 8/10
AKA - Idi i Smotri  // Иди и Cмотри

“ ... Adventures are not all pony rides in May sunshine.”  Tolkien
Harrowing film of the Nazi invasion of Belorussia in 1943.
A young village boy joins partisan fighters and journeys from wide-eyed idealism to experience.
Opening chapters register uncertainty and anxiety, fears about what German invaders want.
Film proceeds to display, with brutal detail, the Master Race dealing with lower orders.
The audio mix on this is noteworthy, music and sound editing.
After a shelling, the boy suffers hearing loss and viewers share his disability.
Tone shifts from confusion, indifference, barbarity, and rare beauty.

[Vultural]

Cass - 2008 - 6/10

West Ham supporters, the Inter City Firm, led by boss Cass, strive to be #1 firm during the Thatcher years.
Violence, knifings, shootings, slashings, and the rumble of rival tribes.
Cass differs from other football/hooligan films in that the protagonist is a middle class black youth with a warm home background and loving parents.
Rude language throughout, yet little drug use and no nudity.
Based on Cass Pennant’s memoir, I wonder how much of those elements had been massaged out.

[Vultural]

Mary Ryan, Detective - 1949 - 6/10

Quickie B-film of female cop who infiltrates gang of shoplifters and fences.
Curious to watch a woman handle what would normally be a “man’s” role.
How-to procedural.  Mary is trained how to boost, lift, learn the jargon.
Then into prison and sidle up to gang members on ice.
A nice plot curve here and there, otherwise predictable.

[Vultural]

Zygote - 2017 - 6/10

Firebase - 2017 - 6/10

Regrettably, I have cooled on these “episodes” from Oats Studios.
In the first slice, an experiment has gone terribly wrong in a polar laboratory.
Two wounded survivors flee from the murderous mutation.
In the second slice, a grieving Vietnam war father unleashes the water god.
Carnage ensues.
Neither short, like the earlier Rakka, resolves, both trail off as cliffhangers.
While production values and casting are excellent, the overall impression is a glorified movie pitch.
I will watch further releases, although my expectations have dropped.

[Vultural]

Things To Come - 2016 - 6/10
AKA - L'avenir

Isabelle Huppert as philosophy professor whose well-ordered routine unravels.
Campus demonstrations, older favored students who embrace new ideologies, a difficult mother.
Trifling annoyances, to be sure, yet the cascade quietly grows.
The professor navigates course shifts and endings.
She tries to repair or adapt as once-dependable threads unspool.
On the upside, more freedom opens up for her, and she is not a blind soul.

[Vultural]

T2 Trainspotting - 2017 - 6/10

Twenty year follow-up to the groundbreaking original.
Sick Boy, Spud, Rent Boy, Begbie, and a few others.
Renton returns to the betrayals he left behind, and plans a shizzle with Simon.
Begbie thirsts for vengeance, Spud writes redemption.
Flashbacks remind one of relevant points in the original.
I enjoyed this more than I thought, possibly because my expectations were low.

[Vultural]

The Big Switch - 1968 - 4/10

Swinger John Carter enters a hectic period.
He swipes another guy’s smoldering blonde at the disco, drives her to her pad.
There, she gets iced there and he gets framed.
Goes home, where thugs drink his booze, play strip poker, and slap him around.
At work, he’s fired.  Lone job prospect is with a conniving gangster.
Despite enough material for five cheap paperbacks, this movie is slower than a tortoise finding love.
Producers must have realized this because every seven minutes there is nudity.

Strippers, go-go girls, pinup models, working girls, female wrestlers, dopeheads.
Just when you start to nod off, girls disrobe and bounce the rack.
The plot is crap.  The music - dude - the composer uses a thinly disguised Bond theme!
Not only that, in the last twenty minutes an Aston Martin appears.
Wanted to like this trashy sleaze, but it’s too pokey.

[Vultural]

London Town - 2016 - 6/10

80s coming of age story in Thatcher England.
15 year old Shay watches over his young sister, Alice, while Dad works two jobs.
Mom, pursuing her own dreams, sends him mix-tapes and writes about glamorous London.
Shay meets the more worldly Vivian and she opens him to the popular culture.
Fairytale elements surface at times.  Encounters with fame, unlikely plot turns.
Clash singer Joe Strummer glides in and about the boy’s life as a benevolent wise man and mentor.
Warm hearted, hopeful fantasy, with very minor edginess.

[Vultural]

Berlin Syndrome - 2017 - 5/10

Wide-eyed Australian turista arrives in Berlin.
Instead of seeing sights, she makes easy friends and chats.
Talks a bit too much, to be blunt, which tailspins into her ordeal.
Lazy script, based on a predictable novel, of a truly ignorant soul.
Has this girl never viewed Horror flicks or stalker films?
Has she never dated?  Learned to deflect probing questions?
How about, letting people know where she is?
Later on, how come she waits until late in the afternoon?
I could go on and on.  Producers may well assume their audience is gullible, too.

[Vultural]

The Flesh And Blood Show - 1972 - 5/10

Too early to fall into the Slasher genre, this is the timeless concept of knocking off characters one by one.
Cat And The Canary (1927) and And The There Were None (1945) are examples.
Assorted actors answer the audition call at a long shuttered Brighten playhouse.
Soon enough, they realize something is amiss.
Almost a decent thriller this.  The location is underutilized, however, and the characters are sketches.
As with the earlier The Big Switch (1968) producers load up the skin to spark lulls.

This is a better film than that one.  Acting, photography, script invention.
As with the earlier film, the tempo drags, though flashback and whodunit angle were slick.