Category Archives: Movies

Movie Review: The Batman

There have been quite a few feature films of DC’s ‘The World’s Greatest Detective’ Batman, 1 quickly rushed production derived from the campy television series, 4 in the franchise launch in 1989, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, 1 where he shared titular billing with Superman, and another 1 or 2, depending on how you count Justice League, where is a driving force and a major character and now Director and Co-writer Matt Reeves brings us The Batman, another relaunch of the character and continuity, and perhaps my favorite Batman film yet.

The Batman brings us into the story two years into Bruce Wayne’s ‘Batman experiment,’ as Bruce is suffering doubts about the effectiveness of his vigilantism. Despite his nightly patrols crimes seems not only unabated but growing. When the mayor is brutally murdered days before the election by a mysterious madman obsessed with riddles Batman’s investigates pull

Credit: WB Studios

him in a dark web of conspiracy, corruption, and crime entangling Gotham’s political and economic elites. The trail of clues in his hunt for The Riddler leads Batman through the city’s organized crime, its police force, and crossing paths with a dangerous cat burglar on her own path of vengeance. The answers to the Riddler’s horrific murders and his motivation erodes Batman’s sense of self and history leading him to finally understand himself and what his experiment’s actual results.

The Batman delivers on the promise Matt Reeves made when he took over the project to redirect the character back to its detective roots. Tim Burton’s films luxuriated in a brooding Gothic aesthetic, Schumacher’s run were neon and gaudy, Nolan’s trilogy attempted a realism never before seen with Batman, and Snyder’s tone can be best described as brutalism with The Batman Reeves has reached back into Hollywood’s classic era for a film noir interpretation of a superhero movie. Very little of the film takes place in daylight and nearly none of that involves the Batman. As the character narrates himself into the experiment’s logbook, he is not in the shadows, he is the shadows. And unseen by himself, there is a shadow over his heart that is the story’s psychological center. The three characters close the Batman provide the emotional and psychic tension to pulls at him, Alfred with the debt of family and history, Gordon with the drive for justice, and Selina Kyle with a thrust for vengeance. resolving these competing tensions is the real story of The Batman.

Beautifully photographed by cinematographer Greig Fraser and with deliciously detailed production design by James Chinlund The Batman creates a Gotham that feels real, feels lived in, while preserving the epic scope required for our modern mythology that is the superhero movie.

The Batman is still currently playing in a few theaters and is now streaming on HBO Max.

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Streaming Review: All Night Long

The United Kingdom’s All Night Long is a jazz-infused noir-ish retelling of Othello, Shakespeare’s tragedy of a Morish warrior manipulated into a lethal jealous frenzy by the trusted Iago.

Rod Hamilton (Richard Attenborough), a wealthy patron of London’s jazz scene, throws a one-year wedding anniversary celebration for band leader Rx and his retired singer/wife Delia (Paul Harris and Marti Stevens.) Rex’s drummer Johnny Cousin (Patrick McGoohan) wants to found his own band but he can’t do it without backing from Rod and Rec’s talent agent, neither of whom will support him unless Delia comes out of retirement as Johnny’s lead singer. Because Rex doesn’t support the idea of his wife returning to the business Johnny begins a campaign of rumor and innuendo to break the marriage.

All Night Long transpires over a single evening’s party set in a single location. In addition to a find cast of actors the film boasts an impressive number of the UK’s premier jazz musicians along with American Dave Brubeck. In fact, the film’s chief flaw in my opinion are the jazz breaks where the story slams to a halt while the movie lingers on, albeit exquisite, musical performances that for the most part neither advance plot nor illuminate character.

McGoohan’s turn as the Iago-like Johnny is at times charming, sociopathic, and pitiful. Johnny is a man who has plotted and planned big dreams and on the cusp of realizing one of them breaks nearly everyone around him.

Paul Harris, whose physical stature and commanding voice is reminiscent William Marshall, delivers a subtle performance as a man seemingly confident of his place in place but subject to the erosion of self-doubt and jealousy.

The film is captured in black-and-white helping to create a noir sensibility but without the exaggerated stylistic impressions barrowed from German Expressionism. Here the monochrome, though perhaps a budgetary restraint, helps ground the film in a stormy night’s realism.

The soundtrack is naturally jazz but unlike many films that utilized jazz as a cost-cutting tool here some of the greats of the era are on display giving lovely performances, even if they did not always serve the film well.

All Night Long with a brief running time of an hour and a half is an enjoyable drama with noirovertones and worth the time. It is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.

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Movie Review: X

 

Well, it has finally happened A24 has released a film that utterly disappointed me.

X, and man I would have worked for a better title, is the story of five twenty-somethings and one

A24 Studios

forty-something traveling to a secluded rural Texas farm in 1979 to film a pornographic film and the night of terror, violence, and murder that ensues.

The sub-genre that X best fits into is hicksploitation, represented by such diverse films as Deliverance and Gator Bait and of course the movie X is most often compared to, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, X has been overly praised.

The characters of X are sketched in only the barest contours and what is there that passes as characterization does little to endear much sympathy. I do not believe that this is the fault of the performers but rather of the script. There is little to recommend this film beyond Mia Goth’s dual performance as characters separated by more than 60 years in age. (From this point onward, I will be revealing spoilers, though not the ultimate ending, for the movie.)

The movie repeatedly shattered any suspension of disbelief I might have possessed. The character RJ has artistic aspirations of making a ‘good dirty movie,’ referring to avant-garde French Cinema and yet he is making a movie without any lights, reflectors, or even a single tripod. The movie hangs a hat on this incongruity when Wayne, the old man and producer, yells at Maxine for being absent and that RJ is ‘losing the light’ as the sun sets but then everyone rushed into a darkened barn to film, where there is no fricking light.

Later in the movie, after RJ feels betrayed and has attempted to abandon everyone his girlfriend and sound recordist enlists Wayne’s help in searching for him. Wayne wanders out into the Texas brush, at night, wearing one underwear and no shoes. Because apparently not one of the native Texans has ever heard of ‘chiggers’ (bush-mites), snakes, fire-ants, or even just thorns.

In addition to displaying a lack of any concern about insects or plants the film to hampered by situations around the character of Jackson Hole, the sole male performer in their ‘dirty movie.’ As a black man, engaging in interracial sex, and deep in rural Texas, with a shady elderly white man prone to brandishing a shotgun showing little more than antipathy towards these young people, he acts far too cavalier about his own safety to be anything other than a cinematic ‘professional victim.’

X boasts one really nicely crafted scene of dread and suspense amid it jarring editing and reliance on jump scares. When Maxine goes skinny dipping in a pond and is hunted by an alligator the entire sequence plays out beautifully but ultimately only serves to establish the ‘gator so that it can be used later in an attack that possess none of the slow stalking dread exhibited earlier.

X proved to be a waste of my evening but at least with the AMC A List subscription it cost me no extra money. My advice is to wait for streaming or cable and then miss it.

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My Latest Blu-Ray Acquisition

 

Last week I purchased Shout Factory’s 4K Blu-ray release of 1982’s The Sword and the Sorcerer a low budget fantasy movie of warring kingdoms, evil sorcerers, and a muscle-bound hero there to set everything right.

Produced on a budget of just 4 million dollars and grossing nearly 40 at the box office The Sword and the Sorcerer was, despite perhaps cinema’s silliest sword design, a very successful independent feature. Upon its release, I adored the film, not because it is great cinema, no one will ever count it among cinema’s masterpieces, but rather because no film before or since has captured so perfectly the mood and fun of an over-the-top Dungeons and Dragons adventure like this movie did.

Yes, the film is a complete mishmash of culture from medical England to the middle east, yes, it had anachronisms galore, and yes, the characters exist only to move the plot along, but it is also fun. At a spare 99 minutes the movie doesn’t waste it’s time and for such a limited budget, even by 1982 standards, every penny they spent is up there on the screen.

This release, mastered in 4K from a fresh negative, and packed with bonus feature is a joy and I am quite happy to add it to my library.

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The Desperation of the Oscars

 

I am not going to talk about violence at the 94th Academy Awards but rather about the Academy’s pitiful attempts at popularity with its fan voted unofficial categories.

Viewership, interest, and respect for the Oscars has been waning for a number of years. As massively popular films, nearly always genre franchise movies, fail to achieve artistic recognition while smaller quieter films, nearly always dramatic films with a historic or social commentary goal, are showered with accolades. With the collapse of the mid-budget film leaving theaters with small artistic projects and massive franchise spectacles the Academy’s bent toward the dramatic while sidelining the genre opened a chasm between the films it honored and the ones beloved by the viewing audience it desperately wanted.

In 2018 the Academy announced its plans for a new category, Best Popular Film, a brazen attempt to have their cake and eat it too by giving blockbuster franchises a ghettoized Oscar. The backlash to the patronizing proposal proved as predictable as Newton’s laws of motion and the new category never appeared.

Instead, this year that unveiled the brilliant idea for a twitter poll drive for Fan Favorite Film and Fan Favorite Moment. Not actually new categories mind you, but a pat on the head for the comic book fans, a seat at the kiddie table while the real films are recognized elsewhere.

Had the Academy looked to the recent past with Fan driven award, particularly when there is a small but devoted and determined coordinated base of individuals, then they should have seen the outcome of their twitter voting.

Sunday, the Fan Favorite Film went to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and the Fan Favorite Moment went to ‘The Flashe enters the Speed Force.’ (Mind you I go to comic book movies, and I have seen both versions of the Justice League movies and I had absolutely no concept of what scene won this momentary award.)

The Academy’s desperation for acceptance while remaining elite and aloof doomed the entire enterprise to failure. There are already several fan voted awards and it is wrong for the Academy to dilute their brand by trying to be popular.

Either widen you voting audience so the nominated and winning film appeal to a wider population or stay in your elite rarified air, but you cannot win trying to do both.

 

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An Abominable Adaptation: Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers

 

Before the essay gets rolling the subject and point of this piece is not to debate Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers and whether it is or is not fascist. If your comments are about the novel and politics, save them. That’s not the issue at hand.

Verhoeven’s 1997 film is a piece of political satire, a cinematic tradition with a distinguished and proud linage including the likes of Doctor Strangelove” Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb. Satire has a rich history and can be a great tool for arguing a case and it is not always about humor and laughter. Swift’s A Modest Proposal isn’t funny, but it is excellent political satire. So, the fact that the film Starship Troopers isn’t a comedy does not remove it from the category of satire.

What makes this adaptation abominable isn’t that it isn’t faithful to the novel threadbare and nearly non-existent plot or that the film is a satire where the novel is not. The issue is that it targets its satire directly on the novel’s argument while presenting itself as an adaptation of the novel’s argument. This is disingenuous and a perversion.

Consider a hypothetical counter example. Let’s stipulate a satirical adaptation of Orwell’s classic novel 1984. The setting is already very close to satire and Gilliam used it as a jumping off point for his own comedic satire Brazil but importantly created his own work rather than abuse another artist’s. So, in this 1984 adaptation we not only make it satire we make the target Winston Smith and ridicule his character and his outlook, raising Big Brother to a benevolent force concerned with the happiness and safety of its citizens. This would be a perversion of Orwell’s work and in my opinion it would be immoral. I think it is wrong to take another artist’s creation and twist it, mutate it, and abuse it to make it attack itself. We could do the same thought experiment with countless classic works, sch as transforming Fahrenheit 451 into a defense of ignorance and illiteracy but I think the point is made.

Obviously not only can you attack viewpoints itis good to challenge other ideas and themes. My understanding is that Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is in part a direct answer to Heinlein’s Starship Trooper. Verhoeven often returns to the idea of fascism and the dangers it presents. I applaud him and his stand as an anti-fascist but inverting another artist’s work is a dishonest and disrespectful method. It is far better to craft your own piece and argument such as with The Forever War or Brazil than to engage in blatant distortion.

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Streaming Review: Black Crab

 

I’ve been busy the last two weeks looking after my sweetie-wife and her hip replacement but now I am back for regular updates.

Saturday evening, we watched the Swedish film and debut feature from director/writer Adam Berg, Black Crab.

Noomi Rapace stars as Caroline as woman impressed into military service in the near future and on the losing end of a bloody atrocity filled war in the far north of Scandinavia. She joins a small squad and their near suicidal mission to cross frozen seas carrying mysterious cannisters that will determine the fate of the war. However, her motivation isn’t from duty or patriotism but rather to reunite with the daughter she lost at the start of the war and who is now at the location the cargo must be delivered to.

The cinematography and sound design of Black Crab are impeccable. The beauty, stillness, and constant danger of their quest is captured in image and sound that resonate even on the small screen. The squad tactic and firearm utilization look at appear grounded and realistic with Berg avoiding cliche displays of impossible skills but rather turning a more harrowing portrayal of what a firefight must actually be like. Rapace delivers a subtle and nuanced performance that always remind the viewer of his conflicted and troubled character without a need scenery chewing.

Ber and co-writer Pelle Radstrom made some interesting choices that I think were done to keep the piece apolitical. The characters speak in Swedish, but their location is the far northwest coast of Norway, and the ‘enemy’ is never seen clearly or is their nationality identified. The greater political motivations of the war are utterly irrelevant to the Rapace’s character and are therefore absent from her story.

Halfway through the film a mild science-fictional elements is introduced and drives nearly everyone’s motivation from that point onward save for Rapace and her absolute need to reunite with her daughter.

Black Crab’s greatest weakness is the film’s final act. The set-up and action unfolds in a manner that makes the story ultimate resolution both predictable and cliche. The film’s message appears to be that war is a stupid suicidal affair both for individuals and humanity in general. Hardly an original premise. However, I do not regret the less than two spent watching Black Crab, and your mileage may of course vary.

Black Crab is currently streaming on Netflix.

 

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Revisiting The Night House

 

August of 2021, I returned to the theaters for the suspense/horror film The Night Houseproduced by and starring Rebecca Hall. Over the past two weekends I have revisited the movie on Blu-ray. (Amazon had a sale with the disc over half off its retail price.)

I am pleased to report that the film works perfectly well on a second viewing as it did on its first.

Rebecca Hall plays Beth a public-school teacher and skeptic who is dealing with the sudden and inexplicable suicide of her beloved and devoted husband. After events prompt her to investigate his cell phone, she discovers that Owen took hundreds of photos of women, all strangers to Beth, who bear an uncanny resemblance to her. Plagued by nighttime visitations and visions that may be the product of overwhelming and suppressed grief Beth gradually moves from Skeptic to a believer in the supernatural with the possibility that Owen’s spirit has returned from beyond the grave to her.

The Night House is a sterling example of how a horror film can have real tension, real stakes, without requiring a body count or a monstrous example of violence every ten minutes. This is not to slag on those movies that work that way, the beauty of the genre is that it is wide and deep enough to welcome as film such as The Night House where an ambiguous ending leaves open the possibility that everything was the product of a grief shattered mind to the nine films of the Texas Chain Saw franchise that exists on its devotion to blood and violence. Personally, I am more drawn to films like The Night House where slow building dread drives the terror but far be it from me to denigrate what works for others.

 

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Learning to Watch Episodic Television

 

Not me mind you, I grew up watching TV in the 60s and 70s. Episodic TV was normal for most of my life, but it is a relic of a time now past, and some people have trouble engaging with it.

I follow a number of podcasts where younger people watch movies and television and hearing their interaction with an episodic series like the original run of Star Trek is interesting.

Having known pretty much only serialized story telling where the events of earlier episodes influence or even drive the events of later episodes they are sometimes befuddled when the character don’t reach back and use solutions that they have already discovered. Or when the characters act surprised to learn some fantastic historical fact more than once. Such as ancient Greek gods were in fact visiting aliens, such as in original Star Trek episodes Who Mourns for Adonais and Plato’s Stepchildren. It is unnatural to their story consuming habits to treat each and every individual episode as a unique story independent of the others.

This is not a slight on them. Art changes and the art forms of earlier generations are rarely consumed or interpreted the same by following generations.  I have seen people perplexed by Rick in Casablanca waiting so long to shoot Major Strasser unused to a production code that forbade the hero for shooting a man, even a Nazi, who had not yet pulled his weapon. Strasser must try to shoot Rick before Rick is justified in shooting Strasser.

It will be interesting to see what new evolutions in story telling confound and confuse future artistic consumers.

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Nightmare Alley (The Novel) — First Impressions

 

With del Toro’s recent release of Nightmare Alley, which is fantastic, and being a fan of the classic and also great 1947 production starring Tyrone Power, I thought it was time to read the source novel that both films adapted their screenplays from.

I am only a few chapters into William Lindsay Gresham’s novel Nightmare Alley, but I have already seen some fairly interesting and fundamental changes that both productions effected.

By far the most consequential change has been the age of Stanton Carlisle the story protagonist. Tyrone Power when he played the charming but doomed Stan was 33 and Bradley Cooper the star of del Toro’s production was 45 when filming started. However, in the novel, at least at the start of the story with Stan already a member of the 10-in-1 midways show, that character was a mere 21 years old. When Zeena seduces Stan because Pete’s alcoholism has rendered him impotent, it is Stan’s first sexual encounter. Stan’s naïveté in sexual matters and in life is already key elements in the novel’s construction.

That said it is clear that both adaptations paid serious respect to the novel, and I look forward to finishing the book.

 

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