Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PHANTOM IN THE RAIN (2024) [AKA MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PAPER UMBRELLA]: Two women enter service as handmaidens in an all-female service to the Emperor; a ceremony honoring the new heir has been mysteriously delayed, and a mystic medicine man bursts into the compound revealing the presence of an evil spirit (the Mononoke). You probably won't be able to follow the plot too well---it involves lots of petty intrigues and jealousies, in a setting full of unfamiliar customs and mythologies---but sit back and enjoy the astounding psychedelic visuals, which look like watercolors projected on rice paper, with the Mononoke itself materializing as some kind of eternally morphing lava-lamp hallucination. Part one of a trilogy, so nothing is resolved here. On Netflix. 3.5/5

[M.10rda]

KING OF COMEDY (1999):
Not the Scorsese/DeNiro classic but the Stephen Chow/Stephen Chow, uh - classic? ...Which is reputed in some quarters as his best film, one of the funniest comedies in the HK pantheon, etc. Well, I loved me some SHAOLIN SOCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE, so I figured I'd give this a shot. And...

...I don't get it! Could a Stephen Chow megafan on here explain to me what was lost in translation? You can start from the basic premise, which appears to be Stephen Chow aspiring to be a serious actor (an action film star, in fact) and not a comedian of any kind. Of course he screws up at (almost) every turn, which I presume is supposed to be funny (and sometimes I do acknowledge the humor in it). Some of the humor seems to be at the expense of John Woo and/pr John Woo-style action films, but as action-packed pastiche goes, both of the (excellent) Chow films I mentioned above communicate the laughs much more successfully, plus offer legitimately outstanding action, which KING OF COMEDY does not (and doesn't seem really interested in doing). In fact I'd argue that big-screen superhero action in some of the biggest hits of the last 18 years (the DEADPOOLs, INFINITY WAR, etc) would've looked different and possibly/probably inferior if not for the master class that was Chow's KFH... but this isn't a review of KFH... though occasionally it occurred to me I should've just watched KFH for the fifth or sixth time instead of continuing w/ KOC!

Anyway, I digress. Rather than action or comedy, a lot of KoC is dedicated to romance. I gotta' admit that not all of the romance A- and B-plots make complete sense, either, but fortunately Chow's main love interest is the amiable Cecelia Cheung (also from SHAOLIN SOCCER) who is convincing and compelling as the enemy-to-lover bar girl "Piu Piu". Chow and Cheung have a lot of goofy meet-cute beats but also some serious moments that manage to translate well across the language barrier and over the pitched wackiness. A ton of bonus value arrives from romantic foil Karen Mok (unforgettable in FALLEN ANGELS and many more big films) as a female action star who is maybe supposed to be Michelle Yeoh? Again, the details are fuzzy here, but Jackie Chan appears briefly w/ Mok as... himself? I think? So... anyway.

Also there are gags that I suspect don't work in any language. A completely nude two- or three-year old male toddler wanders through a couple of scenes, and Chow clowns around with him, even poking at his exposed genitals.            It ain't the weirdest or most distasteful thing I've ever seen in a Chinese or Hong Kong film, but I almost defy anyone to explain this bit to me!

Still, Chow has made a couple decent films, a great one, and a bona fide classic, so - ehhh - I'm-a  giving Chow the benefit of the doubt and postin' this one here instead of the other Recent Viewings thread...!

3/5

[Dr. Whom]

Prince of Space (1959)

This is a bunch of episodes from a Japanese kid show frankensteined together into a movie, with all that implies for coherence and storytelling. They didn't want to scare the kids too much either, as you have a completely ineffectual (if incredibly persistent) villain and an invulnerable hero. The good guys are never in serious danger, although a number of human redshirts get vaporised.

It is easy to make fun of this, but it is full of incident and production values are quite high. Shows like this tend to have about a dozen people and three sets all told. Here you have lots of secondary characters and extras, special effects, different settings... If I had seen this at the appropriate age and period in time, I would have been blown away.

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: A NIGHT OF TOONS: The Mads riff a bunch of very odd cartoons, from a crappy superhero kiddie pilot to a stop-motion animated commercial for Camel cigarettes to a fairly surreal (and cool) Terrytoon about a jungle woman that actually had mild cartoon nudity! The Q&A guest was an animation expert/historian/curator, who also picked all the night's toons and had a lot of knowledge. The Mads are always better at shorts than features and this crop was really strange; this would be one of the better episodes to start with if you're interested in seeing Frank and Trace in action. 3.5/5.

[Jim H]

Snack Shack - Pretty good coming of age film about a couple of teen friends with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit running a shack at a local pool.  There's a girl, of course.  Well acted, funny, entertaining, with a couple of hard turns.  I saw this as it's the next film from Dinner in America writer/director Adam Carter Rehmeier, and it can't can't meet that one, but it was worth a watch.  On that note, if you haven't seen it and are reading this, check out Dinner in America.  It's probably my favorite film of the 2020s, great stuff.

[Rev. Powell]

ADULT SWIM YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN' OUT (2024): The killer yule log is back and looking for final girl Zoe, who flees to the Christmasy town of Mistletoe, which is planning their first annual Yule Log festival: can Zoe overcome her fear of being bashed in the head by an evil flaming yule log and embrace the spirit of Christmas, finding love with one of town's clumsy hunks? Casper Kelly couldn't top the weirdness of the series' first entry, so he wisely pivots to pure comedy, mixing together a standard horror comedy with a funny spoof of Hallmark Christmas movies, with just enough absurdism to keep the mix on brand. Not the surprise the first one was, but an entertaining stocking stiffer. It's streaming free on Adult Swim's channel (with commercials) until January 8. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

ABRUPTIO (2023): A misfit man-child and recovering alcoholic is directed to commit atrocities through text messages; if he refuses, the bomb implanted in his neck will go off. Or will it? The fact that every character in this horror/black comedy/weirdo whatsit is played by an actor in a full size puppet suit makes it extra uncanny and disturbing. 3.5/5. 

[lester1/2jr]

Lying Eyes (1996) - Made for tv movies weren't as much of a thing anymore in the 90's, but this is still a classic of the genre. Cassidy Rae is a blonde cheerleader who falls for a super sleazy older guy lawyer, much to the chagrin of his current wife, who turns the tables by stalking her around their quaint, upscale California town.

If you've seen this, you know that the big selling point is Rae herself, who is beautiful and charming. The silliest aspect is the guy, who is just so comically slimy and beyond redemption that you wonder where they even found him. Wondering around town in a trench coat, probably.

I'll take off half a point for it being made for tv so you don't get the full meltdown skinemax effect, but it has an 85% imdb rating for a reason. Adrian Lynne lite

4.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

THE UNRAVELING (2023): After a car accident, a woman suffers a brain injury and believes her husband has been replaced by an imposter; she receives phone calls from another man claiming to be her real husband, suggesting that she's trapped in a parallel universe. Technically well-made and acted, but the script is slow-moving and the eventual revelations are obvious. You should guess everything that's going on if you've seen a psychological thriller or two before. 2/5.

[Rev. Powell]

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (2024): Explores the romantic lives of two nurse roommates in Mumbai, slowly. Sincere, but solemn. I am baffled by the universal acclaim, but then I dread realist dramas. 2/5.

[M.10rda]

BABY DOLL (1956):
Following their success w/ the screen adaptation of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Tennessee Williams wrote this, one of his rare original screenplays, for Elia Kazan to direct. The posters and all historical representation I can recall from my childhood etc makes BABY DOLL look like an early proof-of-concept for LOLITA, which (though BABY DOLL has plenty of simmering/unrequited lust) is entirely misleading, as Carroll Baker's titular sex object is 19 going on 20 thus beyond legal in every State...... which is, in fact, a plot point. Also, I watched a trailer for BABY DOLL not so long ago and it made the film look like utter dreck - so much for honest or effective advertising. I had it sitting around unwatched for many years and so took a chance on it anyway, and glad I did - it's a gem.

Baker lives in a crumbling old Southern estate (of course) and is married to the much older, paunchy, balding, extremely horny Karl Malden, who seems like an okay guy for a while... until you get to know him in the first half hour and realize he's as big a piece of racist, misogynistic $3!t as Williams ever wrought. A struggling cotton gin proprietor, Malden makes a bold business move and burns down the big new local "Syndicate" cotton factory, which is run by an extremely slick if dignified visiting entrepreneur named Silva Vaccaro. Automatically one expects Malden to show up hanging by his genitals from a tree on his property, but because this is the South in the 1950s, Vaccaro has to get a little more creative in getting revenge on Malden's character. So he drops by the Malden household one afternoon and makes the acquaintance of young Mrs. Baby Doll.......

BABY DOLL takes a long time to heat up, kinda' like the title character, who has kept her marriage unconsummated for goin' on 2 years (!!!). The film does start to sizzle about halfway through and by the final third, it's entirely gripping. Much of the credit belongs to Eli Wallach in his first major motion picture, following a lot of theatre and some TV. His Silva Vaccaro makes almost as big of an impression as Brando's great roles for Kazan. You don't have to squint too hard to look at Wallach and see Robert DeNiro as young Don Vito in GFII or, for that matter, DeNiro as lots of other ethnic tough guys and/or Southern tough guys. It's fair to acknowledge that Wallach and DeNiro studied under some of the same teachers but why get that granular? Wallach's performance here seems like the seminal 20th century big screen Italian expat mover/shaker/tuff guy. Until someone shows me an earlier Hollywood performance that bears as close or closer resemblance to all the Hollywood mob guys of my entire lifetime, I'm granting primacy to Wallach.

Warner Bros hired Williams to write a Williams script, and indeed he leans into all the trappings one would expect. The (two) female characters seem unidimensional and inert for a while, until they become enlightened to the myriad possibilities of the world and show some spirit and agency. The male characters end up behaving less nobly than you'd hoped or worse than you'd feared. The promise of some kind of happy ending is snatched away from almost everyone. As long as you know what you're getting (a well-lubricated Williams tragedy) and are prone to like that sort of thing, the interpreters really deliver.

4.5/5
Wallach's riveting performance bumps this up from a 4. He wouldn't have another lead in a major movie until THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN four years later. Baker is also impressive in her breakthrough lead role and brings depth and complexity to what could've been a cipher. (WB originally wanted Marilyn Monroe - what?!) I'll write more about her in another appropriate thread.

[Rev. Powell]

BABY DOLL is great. I need to see it again. Should've made Carroll Baker a bigger star, but she went on to exploitation movies, so who's complaining?

[RCMerchant]

GAIA (2021)
A couple forest rangers (male and female) go trekking threw the woods and encounter a wild man and his son. The male ranger dies fighting odd fungui monsters and  the others have to ingest some kind of mushroom to keep them from becoming monsters themselves (and also takes them on some wild trips). The woman wants to take the young man back to civilization with her, but Dad wants no part of the outside world and...things get weird. Some interesting body horror, but kinda slow and muddled. Beautiful camara work, though, and nice F/X. I enjoyed it...not the usual teens fighting monsters or madmen junk. I think it's trying to send some kinda message about how death is just a part of the natural world, but-ahh, f**k, I dunno.

[lester1/2jr]

The Babysitter's Seduction (1996) - Similar but a little more downbeat than Lying Eyes. Kerri Russell is at her full long hair powers in this trashy...trash fest. The script needed a little more honeymoon period where her and the guy are actually enjoying themselves in the affair. It's a little too morose and her friends are the most crabby friends who ever existed. Granted, it takes place in the wake of his wife's suicide but you don't need to make a sad movie out of a sad thing. It's still supposed to be entertainment.

That said, it scores well in the important area of Keri Russell looking good. The husband is much less overtly sleazy than the one in Lying Eyes, which was too over the top in this regard. The movies are so similar that I can't remember which one or both had the mother showing up at the guys office then returning home and then proceeding as if nothing was going on.

I'll say 4.25/5 because I liked how Cassidy Rae was more assertive in Lying Eyes, but Seduction has a crazier finale. What are some other good Fatal Attraction rip off type things?

Phylicia Rashad of all people does a good job as the detective

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: DARKSTAR: This requires some background. In 2010, this guy made an interactive video game with 13 hours of live-action cut-scenes. A lot of the cast of MST3K (at that time, they were working with Cinematic Titanic) signed on for roles of various prominence (some major, some just cameo appearances). Last year the guy cut the game into a 1:45 feature film, and for the debut the Mads (plus Beez McKeever, Mary Jo Pehl, and J. Elvis Weinstein, who were all in the movie) recorded a "live commentary" (i.e. riff). The alleged movie features a lot of scenes of the Han Solo-type star walking around his spaceship investigating the craft's features, which would have been something you'd do in an interactive game, but not so much something you'd show in a feature film. There is some kind of a plot but it's hard to follow, especially with five people cracking jokes. I think there is really no reason to watch this without the commentary (unless you were really a fan of the game). Fortunately, it's damn funny, with the major running joke being the fact that Mary Jo has more lines than anyone else, but wasn't listed in the opening credits. The director is very apologetic and embarrassed in the post show Q&A. For fans of MST3K this is a gold mine of nostalgia, but probably not a very good entry point for non-fans. 3/5.