Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

GOZU's great, too. The guy's made so many outstanding films I gave up even trying to see all the potentially great ones several years ago. (Of course he's also made some duds.)

[Rev. Powell]

LAKOTA NATION VS. THE UNITED STATES (2023): Everyone knows the United States government stole Indian land and shamelessly broke their own treaties; the Supreme Court even acknowledged this in a 1980 decision. Recap the depressing details with this two-hour documentary about the Lakota people's brave and determined, but doomed, century-long campaign to get their sacred land, the Black Hills of South Dakota (wherein Mt. Rushmore now sits), returned to them. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

CLOSE TO VERMEER (2023): Follows a curator at the Rijksmuseum as he plans the world's largest of Vermeer paintings, which includes judging whether certain works (e.g. "Girl with Flute") are authentic Vermeers or not. Informative but fairly technical documentary that will have extra appeal to museum habitués. 3/5.

[RCMerchant]

WAGES OF FEAR (1953)

4 down on their luck guys take the insanely risky job of transporting 2 trucks of nitro across 300 miles of bad road. May not sound like much, but ace French director Henri Georges Clouzot makes it nail bitting. Also- maybe the first time the word "f**k" used in film?

[M.10rda]

WAGES OF FEAR! 

[lester1/2jr]

I saw the remake called Sorcerer or something? ^^

Brightwood (2022) - It's not the greatest story ever told but it works. Very low budget "Time Loop" type movie filmed in the woods. A couple jogging and arguing along a trail by a gross looking pond find they can't leave. It kind of mirrors their co dependent but unhappy relationship but obviously it's a more immediate problem.

It starts off with a "The Office" type non laugh track comedy type vibe but gradually gets more horror y. It's good, just not super ambitious and would have needed a little more razzle dazzle / imagination to raise it to higher levels.

somewhat charitable 4/5 a modest success

acting is better than you would expect

[Jim H]

My Fair Lady - Some good performances and memorable numbers, but my gosh is the movie way too long and kind of dry.  Story is just so so, I dunno, I just didn't really care for it.  One of my least favorite Best Picture winners.

Meet Me in St Louis - Been in St. Louis 20 years, finally got around to this one.  Liked this much more than My Fair Lady.  Better songs, a more engaging story, better characters, a lot funnier.  Much better paced.  Quite an enjoyable film.  Judy Garland is terrific.  Had no idea "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" came from this one.  One oddity, they go to an apparently made up park to see the 1904 World's Fair.  Such a strange choice, you'll inevitably STILL hear about the 1904 World's Fair today in St Louis, and everyone here knows it was in Forest Park, one of the true gems of the area.

[indianasmith]

My Fair Lady - Some good performances and memorable numbers, but my gosh is the movie way too long and kind of dry.  Story is just so so, I dunno, I just didn't really care for it.  One of my least favorite Best Picture winners.

Meet Me in St Louis - Been in St. Louis 20 years, finally got around to this one.  Liked this much more than My Fair Lady.  Better songs, a more engaging story, better characters, a lot funnier.  Much better paced.  Quite an enjoyable film.  Judy Garland is terrific.  Had no idea "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" came from this one.  One oddity, they go to an apparently made up park to see the 1904 World's Fair.  Such a strange choice, you'll inevitably STILL hear about the 1904 World's Fair today in St Louis, and everyone here knows it was in Forest Park, one of the true gems of the area.

The story of MY FAIR LADY is George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION, generally considered to be a great classic!  I found it had much more depth than the plotlines of most musicals.  To each his own, I suppose.

[indianasmith]

SALTBURN (2023) - I saw some discussion of this movie on a Horror Film FB page I'd joined, so I decided to give it a spin.  I guess the best way to describe this would be to call it a much darker and more perverse rendering of THE TALENTED MR. RIPLY.  Oliver, a young scholarship student at Oxford, befriends a very wealthy young legacy classmate named Felix.  When Ollie's father dies, Felix, out of sympathy, invites his poor classmate to spend the summer at his family's estate, Saltburn.   Ollie quickly ingratiates himself to the family, seducing Felix's sister and charming his mother and dad.  But when his story of a dead father and alcoholic mother is shown to be false, Felix threatens to expose him - and dies rather suddenly afterward.  But his will not be the first death in the family . . .
Creepy, with a couple of flat-out shocking scenes, this movie will leave you going "WTH did I just watch?"
You'll either love it or hate it, no middle ground.  4.5/5 from me!

[Jim H]

The story of MY FAIR LADY is George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION, generally considered to be a great classic!  I found it had much more depth than the plotlines of most musicals.  To each his own, I suppose.

Honestly, there were some interesting ideas in it I liked, particularly the ending with how the two leads pointedly DO NOT reconcile and get together romantically.  I'd like to see Pygmalion performed someday now that you mention that, I suspect I'd like it more.  It's noteworthy the non-musical versions are half the runtime of My Fair Lady; that'd probably help.  I'll get to the 1930s British version at some point.

Magnificent Warriors - Quite entertaining HK action vehicle for Michelle Yeoh.  The plot and characters are at times stretched so thin it barely makes sense, but the pacing is great (it's never more than probably 30 seconds from a change of scenery, an action gag, a 4th wall breaking line, or a chase) and the action set pieces are top notch and often very impressive.  One stunt fall after a rope yank might be the best I've ever seen.  It also has some legitimately funny comedy.  Transfer on Criterion's channel is excellent. 

Heroic Trio - This was a rewatch, I last saw it maybe 20 years ago.  I remember being kind of disappointed, and on second viewing I still am.  The leads (real stars for HK, Michelle Yeoh, the late Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung) look cool and get some fun moments, but the storyline for this film is incoherent, most of the action is weak, the editing is poor, the wirework is kinda iffy and really obvious sometimes (highlighted by the newer transfer), and it's just kind of blah as a result.  It's still somewhat entertaining, due to the star power on display and a strange turn by Anthony Wong as a silent thug with a flying guillotine, but I don't get why this film has such a good reputation.

[Rev. Powell]

ROBOT DREAMS: Lonely Dog builds a Robot companion in New York City, loses him, and tries to get him back. Elegant and charming dialogue-free cartoon, storybook simple but with an uncommon moral: the fungibility of friendship. This will be released theatrically sometime in 2024, but I don't know the exact date. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: RIDING WITH DEATH: The movie is two episodes of a 70s TV show ("Gemini Man") jammed together nonsensically to make a fake feature film, a fun genre the crew used to take on a lot in the Comedy Central days. This one features a mellow longhair spy who can turn invisible and who takes a turn driving a truck and using a CB radio (because it was the 70s, good buddy). Meanwhile, Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy are in a war (?) One of the few episodes I hadn't seen yet, I'd rank it in the low-average range for the series: the riffing is funny, but I don't see much that stands out here. 3/5.

[Dr. Whom]

Family Switch (2023)

A family with two disaffected teenagers switches bodies (ie the parents become the children, except for the baby, who switched with the dog). I was debating with myself whether to put it in the Bad Movies section, but I decided against it. There is nothing much wrong with it, it is just very very predictable and lacks pace for most of its runtime. Still, Emma Myers and Jennifer Garner seem to be having fun, and the dog/baby switch was an inspired idea.
Watchable if you want a movie that requires no mental effort at all.

[Rev. Powell]

UPON ENTRY (2023): Traveling from Barcelona to Miami on what should be a routine trip, Diego and Elena find themselves singled out by U.S. immigration authorities; a psychological grueling interrogation reveals a secret. A simple premise and setting in this modest drama-thriller that succeeds through a good script, with a mild but quite organic "twist," effectively brought to life by its performers. 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

PROJECT NIGHTMARE (1987):
A late '23 viewing that I initially started writing up for the Bad Movies section, 'cause oh boy, it's one of those for the books for sure. I watched this for the first time some years ago and found it irritating yet apparently completely unmemorable, because (for now the half dozenth or so time in the last few years w/ various obscure badfilms) I forgot I'd watched it and started watching it all over again. Within two shots I realized, "Dammit, I've seen this!" For some reason I hung with it again, occasionally FF-ing through some slower stretches (of which there are many). Yes, PROJECT NIGHTMARE is... a chore at times. However, it was clearly made w/ legitimate intellectual curiosity and sincere good intentions, minus only a sufficient enough level of professionalism and technique to put across the pretentions persuasively. Even so, it accomplishes, uh - something! And there are websites that take it seriously as a Good film, so... let's give it it's day in court!

Two refugees from a 70s male fashion catalogue wander the woods, dazed and often alarmed that something is stalking them. (Disappointingly, it's not Bigfoot.) They enter a cabin and make friends w/ a nice lady named Marci, then wander around the desert, then meet a dying man in a stalled-out car, then they find an airplane, then they find a subterranean laboratory where a pleasant-seeming computer programmer has created an advanced AI w/ a God complex who appears to be affecting reality around them. Eventually things get Heavy. The lead guy looks like DeForrest Kelley and at one point his friend mentions that he's blind, which would explain his propensity for looking everywhere onscreen except at any other character who's speaking. However DFK eventually flies the airplane so... well who knows.

Actually, the profound refusal or inability for any actor in close-up to ever match eyelines with any other actor in cut-away for the entire running time is either testament to the filmmaker's incompetence or is some kind of highly effective attempt to maintain a totally dissociative, dreamlike quality through the film's duration. Some sources claim the film was indeed shot in 1977 and unreleased for a decade, which I can't confirm but which makes perfect sense. It also speaks to the dedication of the two writer/producer/directors that they labored over this thing for years. Even after a second try I can't claim the film makes much sense, while feeling more strongly that most of the actors weren't skilled enough to deliver the metaphysical portentousness of the screenplay. However, the film's (characteristically) inexplicable, elliptical final scene is confident enough to leave no doubt whatsoever that the filmmakers 100% intended PROJECT NIGHTMARE to be entirely the way it ended up. Good for them! 

Somewhat charitably, I'd rank this in the same general neighborhood w/ films like MONSTER-A-GO-GO, RED ZONE CUBA, and GHOSTS THAT STILL WALK... or maybe even closer to the block where GLEN OR GLENDA and HELP WANTED FEMALE live....... movies that are cheap and possibly taxing to the viewer's patience, yet clearly are trying to hit above their weight class for whatever reason....... and thus deserving of some respect and admiration. Maybe just from me, of course! However if you require a second opinion on PROJECT NIGHTMARE, check out this highly dignified play-by-play by Senseless Cinema:
https://www.senselesscinema.com/2023/04/project-nightmare.html

3/5!

Rev, was PROJECT NIGHTMARE ever an MST3K or Rifftrax selection? It seems like an easy target but it's so slow and ponderous that it might confound even the professionals............