Category Archives: Movies

Streaming Review: Psycho Goreman

 

Psycho Goreman is horror comedy with the emphasis on comedy.

After a mercifully brief voice over narration informing the audience of an ancient evil that threatened all of existence now entombed on a distant planet Psycho Goreman transitions to Earth the aforementioned ‘distant planet,’ and two children Luke and his younger sister Mimi playing a game of their own invention, Crazy Ball. (Think Calvin Ball but with a more stable rule set.) Luke is unsure of himself and easily bossed around while Mimi is assertive, commanding, and may very well be fully psychopathic. While digging a grave for Luke’s penalty for losing Crazy Ball, the winner can dictate any terms they please for the loser to fulfil, they discover the Gem of that will eventually give Mimi full command and control over the now unearthed evil which the children name Psycho Goreman or PG for short. In a far distant location, the entities that entombed PG become aware of his release and hurry to recapture him setting the stage for the final conflict between this pair of ancient foes that will be dictated by the capricious commands of child.

With a limited budget and merely adequate digital effects director Steven Kostanski who also wrote and produced Psycho Goreman manages to create an entertaining, bloody, and disturbingly funny film centered on a terribly dysfunctional family caught at the center of a crisis of universal proportions. This movie will not be for everyone if the comedic tone is too strange for your tastes, then it is very likely that you will be unable to suspend disbelief for anything that occurs on the screen. This is not a film that strives for any sense of reality rather it swings for the fences and if that results in a homerun or a strike out will vary entirely upon your tastes. Myself, I enjoyed the bonkers approach and felt the film exactly hit its intended mark.

Psycho Goreman is currently streaming on Shudder.

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Movie Review: Dragonwyck

 

Despite the title the film Dragonwyck is not a fantasy but rather a period drama set in the area around New York and Connecticut during the years of 1844 to 1846.

Gene Tierney plays Miranda Wells a devout Connecticut farmgirl who is asked by distant cousin Nicholas Van Ryn, (Vincent Price) to come live with he and his wife for a while as a companion to

Title: DRAGONWYCK ¥ Pers: TIERNEY, GENE / PRICE, VINCENT ¥ Year: 1946 ¥ Dir: MANKIEWICZ, JOSEPH L. ¥ Ref: DRA005AB ¥ Credit: [ 20TH CENTURY FOX / THE KOBAL COLLECTION ]

their eight-year-old daughter. Miranda convinces her religiously strict father to consent, and she leaves the family farm with dreams of see a larger and more exciting world.

Nicholas is estranged from his wife and daughter and rules over his vast estate, Dragonwyck, as a patroon, a Dutch title nearly invalidated by the Revolutionary War and Independence, but Nicholas retains ownership of the land and extracts rents from the farmers living there.

Miranda also meets the handsome young Doctor for the farming community Jeff Turner who is also involved in the Anti-Rent movement seeking to abolish the last vestiges of patroon system. Torn between these two men and their opposing political views Miranda is mired in ancient superstitious familial curses, the growing threat of political violence, and possible murder.

Dragonwyck is an enjoyable melodrama and few actors performed haughty patrician as well as Vincent Price. Though popularly known for his work in the horror genre Price’s gifts as a thespian granted him great range with his stature and demeanor perfectly suited for the doomed nobles.

While not the best example of his work, Dragonwyck is thoroughly serviceable for anyone wanting to experience Price beyond ghosts, ghouls, and ghastly revenge.

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Noir Review: Kiss of Death

Noir Review: Kiss of Death

It was difficult to find a copy of Kiss of Death to watch but I eventually managed the task. The film, starring Victor Mature, is particularly notable for as the first screen appearance of one
Richard Widmark as the vicious and psychopathic Tommy Udo a screen debut that scored
Widmark an Oscar nomination.

Mature plays Nick Bianco a thief nabbed in an armed robbery that goes wrong and rather than cooperate with the district attorney’s office takes his hard time sentence rather than squeal. However, when events intervene Nick has a change of heart and begin working for the state which brings him into conflict with Udo who has an intense hatred of those who turn on their criminal brothers. There is a romantic sub-plot between Mature and a younger woman, Coleen Gray, but the film’s real focus is Bianco and Udo.

This is one of Mature’s best performances and the conflict Nick suffers as his world crumbles if evident on his feature but without a doubt the standout performance is Widmark’s Udo. If you have watched any documentaries about the film noir movement, you have undoubtedly seen the clip of Udo sending a helpless woman tumbling down a long flight of stairs. While this capture the cruelty of his character the performance is much more than acts of wonton violence. Widmark manipulates every muscle in his face, creates a perverse curl to his upper lip, and give a joker-like grin as Udo that radiates that this person has no empathy for anyone.

Kiss of Death plot wise is fairly standard and the voiceover narration could have been dropped to improve the movie, but it should not be missed for the performances.

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Movie Review: Cruella

 

Confession: I have no memory of every having watched in its 101 Dalmatians making a feature film about the origin story of its chief villain an unlikely movie to interest me. But then repeatedly people whose taste I trust reported the film fun and worthwhile and so after re-instating membership in AMC’s A-List subscription service for up to 3 movies per week I ventured for a late-night screening.

Cruella, starring Emma Stone as the titular character, is an origin story for the Disney villainess, a period London centric crime comedy, and plants a feminist flag for taking command of your life with verve and individuality. The film boasts a voice-over track as Cruella narrates her life for the audience and it is one of the examples of how to do a good voice over as it is always in the tone and viewpoint of the character and not simply a voice describing what is one the screen or hastily created world building.

Orphaned at a young age Cruella, whose actual name is Estella with the more recognizable name an identifier of her more aggressive traits, struggles at first as a petty criminal on the streets of London as she dreams of becoming a fashion icon and designer. When finally, life presents her with this opportunity she finds herself engaged in a battle of fame and fashion dominance with ‘The Baroness’ and no it’s not the villain from G.I. Joe but rather a domineering designer played perfectly by Emma Thompson. The remained of the film’s two hours plus running time is the war between the two women. Elaborate displays are engineered, and secrets revealed before the story resolution all done to period and anachronistic needles drops of a truly great songs featuring styles as diverse as The Clash to standards such as Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

Screenwriter and novelists C. Robert Cargill may have found the perfect description for Cruella, “CRUELLA is like Guy Richie re-imagined THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA … “

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Streaming Review: A Song Called Hate

 

My sweetie-wife is a fan of an Icelandic BDSM inspired metal band called Hatari. This weekend a documentary about the band’s entry into the 2019 Eurovision contest dropping on the streaming service Vimeo but region locked against the US and the UK. Luckily, I had just upgraded my Norton anti-virus subscription to include their VPN (Virtual Private Network) capability and after resetting out location to Finland managed to unlock and rent the documentary.

First time documentary director Anna Hildur follows the controversial band noted for their outspoken style as they prepare to play in Tel Aviv Israel with a clear intention to violate Eurovision’s prohibition on making any political statement as part of the contest.

As anyone who really knows me understands Metal is not one of my preferred musical genres. However, that doesn’t impede my ability to enjoy a good documentary and have respect for artists willing to risk standing and cash in order to make a stand for what they believe is right. Art, on some level, is always political. Even if an artist makes even conscious choice to avoid political statements or stands that itself is a political stand. I am not here to comment on the correctness or fallacy of Hatari’s position concerning the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but I will respect that they did not take their position lightly or without forethought.

A Song Called Hate does a very admirable job of revealing the member of Hatari as people and moves beyond the surface level of their costumes and performance. Without having been told there was nothing about the production that would have informed me that this was a first-time feature documentary director. At 90 minutes the run time perfectly balances the need to probe deep into its subjects but without overstaying in any particular scene.

All in all, thought the music is not to my taste and I am far from equipped to judge its quality A Song Called Hate is an illuminating and well-crafted piece of documentary cinema.

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Streaming Review: The Last Drive-In; Ginger Snaps

 

This weekend I decided to give Shudder’s original series The Last Drive In a test spin. Hosted by Joe Bob Briggs the series is a throwback to local television stations hosting horror themed fare. Briggs dismisses using an overtly horror inspired host gimmick instead going for a ‘regular’ country guy on his porch approach while provide production details and commentary during breaks in the presentation. Overall, I am not sold on this approach except for possibly campy and over-the-top titles which Ginger Snaps is not.

Ginger Snaps is a Canadian werewolf movie from 2000 starring Emily Perkins and Katherine Isabelle as sisters Brigitte and Ginger respectfully. Ginger is the older sister at sixteen while Brigette is just a year younger. Both are outcast, fascinated by the dark and morbid and thoroughly devoted to each other. When the film opens the suburban development where they live Bailey Downs is already in turmoil as some unknown beast has been killing the dogs of the area. While out on a nocturnal mission of revenge for Brigette’s abuse at the hand of a local bully the girls are attacked by the beast and Ginger bitten starting a chain of events that drives a wedge between the sister as Ginger embraces her new condition.

This film, while a very entertaining horror movie with a fresh take on the werewolf myth, blatantly discarding most of the tropes introduced in 1941’s The Wolf-Man is at its heart a coming-of-age story and deals with the tragic and traumatizing transformation from adolescence to adulthood by way of blood, gore, and horror. Written by Karen Walton the film has a distinctive female perspective and never losses focus on the sisters and their relationship. While modestly budgets at just 4.5 million dollars Ginger Snaps retains a high level of production value with lovely cinematography that provides an atmospheric mood of dread in a dull suburban setting.

The film found its following on home video and repeat broadcasts on HBO mainly because it never got distribution in the United States. It had an offer, but the distributer wanted a PG-13 rating and the direct was unwilling to censor the films prodigious use of ‘fuck’ in the script. (Good for him.) Still, it found enough success to develop a cult following and spawn a few sequels of questionable quality.

Ginger Snaps is a fun, thrilling, and thoughtful film that uses the lycanthrope trope to talk about identity and growing up. It is well worth watching.

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Reading TENET

 

Using the application ‘Weekend Read’ developed by scriptwriter John August’s company, I am reading Christopher Nolan’s script for last year’s film Tenet.

Tenet was Nolan’s venture in the globe-trotting super spy genre starring John David Washington as the story’s protagonist battling a world threatening conspiracy implemented by a Russian arms dealer played by Kenneth Branagh.

This wouldn’t be a Christopher Nolan movie if time didn’t play a critical aspect in how the story unfolded, in Memento to simulate Leonard’s inability to make new memories Nolan sequenced events backwards and in in The Prestige extensive use of flashback reordered the tale in Tenet time itself is a critical element of the plot. Deploying hand waving science-fiction about ‘reversing entropy’ objects and people are ‘inverted’ and experience time backwards leading to visually stunning and mind-bending sequences of action throughout the film.

But how does this read?

First off Nolan’s decision to leave the character unnamed is much more ‘in your face’ in the script. In a prose story, particularly one recounted in the first person, it’s fairly easy to hide the fact that the viewpoint character is unnamed, script format doesn’t allow for such subtleties hence often and glaringly Washington’s character is ‘The Protagonist.’ And when he refers to himself as the protagonist of the operation this is only heightens the effect that breaks the spell between document and reader.

Secondly the mixing of forward time and reverse time events in the script are no clearer than when first viewed in the film. Text is dreadfully limiting in recounting simultaneous events and doubly so for such events running in opposite directions through time. Where a piece of prose can slow down and provided critical and essential exposition a script just as a film cannot and must delivery that information vis visuals and character dialog.

Tenet’s script perfectly captures the experience of watching Tenet and in that manner is an exceptionally well written scrip and just as with the film it requires repeated readings to fully see all of the intent.

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Back From my Time Off

 

Friday was my birthday and after a year of pandemic restricted travel and not yet ready to travel again I decided to take both Friday and Monday off to celebrate and simply luxuriate in a long weekend. So here are some quick thoughts and reports to bring everyone back up to speed.

Birthday Haul: My lovely sweetie-wife presented me 3 Blu-rays as gifts, The Fog, John Carpenter 1980 horror classic on a Shout Factory special edition, The Invasion the 2007 remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this time starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, and The Night of the Big Heat which sounds like a film noir title but is a Hammer-ish Sci-Fi film starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee about a far north island on the UK in the dead of winter suffering an extreme heat wave due to an alien invasion.

I had originally planned to have friends over for movies and gaming, but our guest bathroom is currently disassembled due to water damage from the unit above and so the weekend was just me and my sweetie-wife.

However, on Friday I did for the first time in over a year go out to theater. I watched Nobody an action film starring Bob Odenkirk. It was a lot of fun. What could have been tedious was made fun because the film makers understood that humor and a light touch can carry an audience through over-the-top action.

Writing: The Work in Progress novel has been copy-edited and proofed and my SF murder mystery clocks in at 102,000 words, making it longer than my noir Vulcan’s Forge but still trim compared to so many genre novels these days. Now I just need to wait for the feedback from the beta readers to see if it requires any serious surgery.

My mind continues to work on the next book though I am not yet to the outlining stage so writing-wise things are not too bad.

Ta Ta For Now

 

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And Now for a Good Movie: The Courier

 

In addition to watching the wretched The Creeping Flesh my sweetie-wife and I also rented The Courier a Cold War espionage thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Set in the early 60s and lead up to the Cuban Missile CrisisThe Courier is based upon historical events and characters and from my Wikipedia level of research seems to have gotten the broad strokes of events correct but as always one should never attempt to learn history from cinema.

Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch) is a British businessman and salesman who frequently travels behind the Iron Curtain. When Penkovsky, a high-ranking member of the Soviet GRU (military intelligence), messages the Americans that he is willing to delivery secrets to them Wynne is recruited by MI6 and the CIA to act as a courier between the agent and the west. Wynne and Penkovsky become close friends and when their operation starts to become exposed Wynn is forced to decide what is the true nature of loyalty.

The Courier is an excellent film that keeps itself ground in the realism of the day. This is no James Bond adventure but more of a John le Carre style story though without the deep and all-encompassing cynicism Le Carre was so fond of. Directed by Dominic Cooke and written by Tim O’Connor The Courier rarely puts a foot wrong, principally keeping us in Wynne’s point of view and conveying the risks and consequences of the characters’ action. Sean Bobbit’s cinematography captures the sense of alien coldness permeating the scenes set in the Soviet Union as Wynne finds himself lost the labyrinth of modern spying.

The Courier is currently in some theaters and available for the ‘Theater at home’ rentals.

 

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Do Not Watch This Movie: The Creeping Flesh

 

Due to water damage reasons our weekly board and card games we’re canceled pitting movies front and center for me and my sweetie-wife’s entertainment. Surfing through Amazon Prime available films we discovered this Peter Cushing/Christer Lee movie from 1973 that I had never seen and she couldn’t recall watching, The Creeping Flesh.

Professor Hildern (Cushing) returns from New Guinea with a skeleton of an advanced man much older than the current fossil record for human evolution. His household is run by his sheltered adult daughter Penelope as his wife ‘died’ many years earlier. Hildern plans to used his discovery to win the ‘Richter’ prize returning his household to solvency but his half-brother James (Lee) also plans to wins the prize for his work with the insane, Both become fixated on the skeleton when it is discovered that is exposed to water it instantly regrows flesh that is the course of all evil in the world because evil is cause by a bacteria. Betrayal and theft result in the creature being reborn in a rainstorm, losing evil upon the Victorian Age.

Believe it or not that brief synopsis makes much more sense than the actual film. The Creeping Flesh, though mercifully short at 94 minutes attempts to stuff its scrip with an absurd number of sub-plots.

  • Hildern’s wife was not killed but committed to James’ asylum for apparently enjoying her sexual life too much.
  • James is also dealing with an escaped mad murderer that serves no story purpose.
  • Penelope is infected by the evil bacteria which makes her drink and dance and attack rapists. She is judged to be mad.

It turns out my sweetie-wife has seen this film before but had managed to repress it from her memory. Nothing saves this film, not Cushing, not Lee, not even the barest hints of sex and violence. It is a slog to view and should be avoided.

 

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