Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Young Mahito loses his mother in a fire during WW II. A year later his father moves to the countryside to live with his new wife. Mahito is still grieving about his mother and is stalked by a magical heron which has something to do with a mysterious tower and a family secret.

I liked this one a lot, but then I am a Miyazaki fan. This feels to me like Miyazaki was doing just what he wanted, freed from any external constraint. A lot of stuff seems to have been put in there simply for the fun of it. It is not the most tightly plotted movie and it has a more dream-like an emotional coherence rather than a strictly logical narrative structure. At times it felt like I was watching something by Jodorowski. Fans of Miyazaki will find lots to love.

Oooh am I looking forward to this!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Reform School Girls" (1986)
A new set of inmates at a hellish all-girl reform school/prison rally their fellow prisoners in a revolt against their abusive matron and warden in a campy-on-purpose spoof of 70s "chicks in chains" flicks, with former Plasmatic Wendy O. Williams as the baddest, butchiest lesbo gang leader ever captured on film. Cheap, sleazy fun.

[Rev. Powell]

PIAFFE (2022): A woman grows a horse tail when she accepts a job creating equine foley effects for an antidepressant commercial. Quite strange with some memorable erotic scenes and lots of uncomfortable blurring of sexual boundaries--between male and female, consensual and non-consensual, human and animal--but in the end, it feels like an overstretched premise rather than a story. 2.5/5.

[M.10rda]

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985):
Probably my 5th viewing over roughly 35 years and it really has improved in my estimation every time. This was our "official" grand finale for Halloween (right before the 30th) as Madame was previously uninitiated. She's a tough critic sometimes. She loved it. Following discussion of greatest horror-comedies on this site last month, I felt like I should test my comments on ROTLD. I was warm in my praise but I undershot. Horror, comedy, call it what you will - this is one of the all-time Greats, full-stop.

Dan O'Bannon deserves prolific props for constructing a rather quite complex (certainly eventful!) rollercoaster ride that functions w/ supreme efficiency, never making a false turn. In my youth I wanted MORE from this film ("More brains!", "...More cops!" et al) but in maturity I appreciate its succinctness, its deft discretion. It gets a ton accomplished in exactly 90 minutes.

More than anything, I credit and admire the large ensemble cast. Okay, Beverly Randolph as Tina is essentially vestigial in spite of having a lot of screen time. Every other major player is 100% living their role: Clu Gulager (Burt), Don Calfa (Ernie), Miguel Nunez (Spider), James Karen (Frank), Thom Matthews (Freddy), Jewel Shepherd (Kacey), John Philbin (Chuck), Brian Peck (Scuz), Mark Venturini (Suicide), and of course Linnea Quigley in her inevitable Oscar memorial reel role as Trash. We don't know much about them, yet we know each one of them almost instantly, from a handful of lines of perfectly crafted dialogue and also from the brilliant hair and costume design. The kids aren't a pack of interchangeable victims. They're all distinct and I feel sympathy for all of them. Even poor cranky unappreciated Suicide. Heck, especially Suicide. O'Bannon was ingenious in his casting and his direction. Even Allan Trautman as Tarman and Cherry Davis as the torso lady are iconic, legendary w/ barely 60 seconds of screentime each. Even the paramedics give great performances!

The jokes that are meant to be funny still hit perfectly but a lot of them have more bite and nuance than I could grok as a kid. Trash's classic death wish monologue is great on its own merits but the genius of the scene is that this privileged teenage white girl unloads her fatalistic fetish on Spider, the one non-white character, whose chilly response speaks volumes. That one exchange lays the foundation for the unlikely third act pairing of Spider (who wants to protect and save everyone he can) and older white guy Burt (primarily concerned about his business and his legal liability), who hurl invectives at each other but stop short of racial epithets and actually make a pretty effective zombie-surviving team. At the film's nihilistic punchline, a silhouette of political commentary is cast from the rocket's red glare: should Marxist youth ever manage to form an alliance with the center-right bourgeois - heck, even if those factions could broker a treaty with arch-conservative crypto-fascists (Ernie) - the military industrial complex would still screw 'em all over in the end.

ROTLD is possibly the Punkest Movie Ever.

5/5
In high school I was the guy in the sport coat and tie hanging out w/ the goth/punk kids, just trying to get the cute new wave girl to give me the time of day. Yes, I was Chuck.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dio: Dreamers Never Die" (2022)
Fascinating documentary on the life and career of the mighty Ronnie James Dio, loaded with vintage clips and commentary from Wendy Dio (of course), Tony Iommi, Rob Halford, Lita Ford, and many more.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Escape From New York" (1981)
It's 1997, and Manhattan has been walled off and turned into a maximum security prison. When Air Force One crashes in the middle of it, the Powers That Be turn to former Special Forces badass and current convict Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to rescue the President in exchange for a pardon. Much butt kicking ensues. John Carpenter's dystopian sci-fi action flick has aged pretty well thanks to the cool concept and the strong cast that also includes Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, and Carpenter regulars like Donald Pleasance (as the Prez) and Tom "Halloween III" Atkins.
Kurt Russell has said that this is his favorite of all the movies he's made.

[indianasmith]

CIRCUS OF THE DEAD (2014)

I must say this is one of the most repulsive and unpleasant films I have ever watched.   For sheer sadism, it rivaled some of Rob Zombie's films, like HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES.  The basic plotline is simple enough - a gang of sadistic clowns go murdering their way through a West Texas town, performing in the circus by day and rounding up victims by night.  They choose one family, a couple with two daughters, as the focus of their sick game - informing them they have won a prize, they get the home address and wait till Don, the husband, leaves for work and the daughters go to school.  Then they descend on the home, where Don's wife is entertaining her lover, a black cop, and kill them both. Then they kidnap the girls and force Don to join in their sick murder games in exchange for a promise he will see his daughters again if he does EXACTLY what he is told.  What he is told, of course, is to rob, rape, and kill with the gang.  The only reason I didn't turn this one off was the performance of the lead actor, Bill Oberst Jr, as "Poppa Corn," the leader of the clown gang.  He is pure, unremorseful evil incarnate, a remarkably riveting performance in a low budget torture porn film.  I was impressed despite my disgust at the movie's plot and tone. Mileage may vary on this one; I can recognize some good acting here, but the movie left me feeling like I should go take a long, hot shower.  3/5

[Rev. Powell]

5000 SPACE ALIENS (2021): Experimental film: 5000 animated portraits, each lasting for 1 second, with a minimalist electronic score. An incredible one-man tour-de-force, but exceptionally not-for-everyone and difficult to rate: it probably would work best as video wallpaper at a dance/pot party. 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Blue Thunder" (1983)
An LAPD chopper pilot (Roy Scheider) is chosen to test a high tech, heavily armed new helicopter created by the military. When he learns of a plot to use the craft against civilians, he steals it, leading to action in the air and on the ground.
A cool 80s action flick that's aged pretty well.

[lester1/2jr]

I, Olga Hepnarova (2016) - On the surface, this is a ridiculously artsy movie: Czech location, black and white, lead actress with cute bob haircut (or is it page boy? I don't even know. relatively short), lesbianism, etc. Yet, it has a dark Tarantino-ish edge that makes it more than just a movie to impress a date with.

The titular Olga is a lesbian factory worker who is clearly in a bad place mentally. We don't know the cause, but we can certainly see it in her countenance. Eventually, this isn't a spoiler it's known from the beginning, she loses touch with any sort of empathy and lashes out Columbine style, plowing a company vehicle into a busy sidewalk. The shot itself is haunting.

It's (of course) a little on the long side and took a couple nights to watch, but I liked it and the dark but delicate subject matter was handled well.

4/5

Rev Powell probably has this on Blu Ray

[indianasmith]

THE DARK (2018) - A serial killer is traveling across Germany with a young boy whom he has blinded hidden in the back of his vehicle.  He stops at an abandoned house where he encounters a cursed undead girl, betrayed and murdered by her mother's boyfriend, who feeds on human flesh.  Scratch one serial killer.  But when she finds the boy in the back of the car, who cannot see her decayed features, she spares him and an unlikely friendship develops.  As she devotes her time and strength to keeping him alive, her humanity begins to return.  This was a well-done and interesting movie with some very stark moments and a rather touching conclusion.  4/5

[Alex]

THE DARK (2018) - A serial killer is traveling across Germany with a young boy whom he has blinded hidden in the back of his vehicle.  He stops at an abandoned house where he encounters a cursed undead girl, betrayed and murdered by her mother's boyfriend, who feeds on human flesh.  Scratch one serial killer.  But when she finds the boy in the back of the car, who cannot see her decayed features, she spares him and an unlikely friendship develops.  As she devotes her time and strength to keeping him alive, her humanity begins to return.  This was a well-done and interesting movie with some very stark moments and a rather touching conclusion.  4/5

I enjoyed that one. Glad you liked it too.

[Rev. Powell]

[
I, Olga Hepnarova (2016) -

4/5

Rev Powell probably has this on Blu Ray

I've never seen it, though I've heard of it.

[M.10rda]

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022):
It surprises me that Ruben Ostlund's odd European films have recently become reliable bets for nominations come Oscar season, though better Ostlund and Lanthimos than, like, Alexander Payne and Noah Baumbach or some similar smug pedestrian American s**t. I didn't walk away immediately thinking this was one of the 10 best films of last or any year, but I did think it was an improvement over FORCE MAJEURE, which was clever but sort of uni-dimensional. I laughed out loud a few times during TRIANGLE and often thought of Herzog, Bertolt Brecht, or even Godard. The final act is a great deal more interesting, emotionally engaging, and provocative than the (amusing) first two-thirds; and introducing the film's true protagonist and/or rooting interest more than 90 minutes in (minus a couple of brief walk-ons) is an admirable if eccentric choice to be sure. Ostlund refuses to resolve the conflict at the final moment and instead gives us one of those classic "Is he running towards or is he running away?" closing shots, seemingly off-topic in this case. It's a boss move, easier to respect than love.

Sometimes I've mentioned Madame 10rda's distinct viewing preferences. She's generally more likely to watch rom-coms for fun (as well as other mainstream exploitation) than arthouse stuff. Although I sometimes mansplain willfully obtuse cinema to her, other times I remember she is better educated than I am and I taciturnly defer to her reaction to films about which I am ambivalent. She thought about TRIANGLE OF SADNESS all night and into the following day, kept talking about it, and called it "haunting". There are probably more Academy voters w/ her tastes than mine, so there perhaps is your explanation. Props to you, Ostlund! Work 'nem angles.

4/5

[Rev. Powell]

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022):
It surprises me that Ruben Ostlund's odd European films have recently become reliable bets for nominations come Oscar season,

I saw FORCE MAJEURE in a pile of screeners the year it came out and thought it was extraordinarily boring. I was shocked when it started winning awards (to our credit, my critic's group ignored it). I thought Ostlund 's followup, THE SQUARE, was better, but still not great. I managed to miss TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, but people seemed to think it was the best one. If he keeps improving the next one should be OK.

THE MADS: THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD: A pair of scientists and love interests escape a diving bell and discover a labyrinth of underground caves. Pretty much nothing happens in this Jerry Warren turkey; the foursome walk, walk, walk around the cave set and talk, talk, talk about how they're going to escape. They try their best but Frank and Trace can't really do much with this one. The Q&A guest,  pop culture writer Ken Plume, is OK. 2.5/5.