Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Alex]

"Wolfen" (1981)
A New York police detective (Albert Finney) assigned to a string of murders eventually learns that the suspects are a clan of shape shifters who can transform into wolves.
This stylish mix of police procedural and werewolf thriller makes the most of its New York locations (that early 80s South Bronx urban decay really shines through!) and it was also one of the first movies to use thermal imaging to show things from the wolf's eye view.

Always thought that was a very under appreciated movie.

[M.10rda]

EBBINGTON (2025) - OK, one of my students who has generally good taste in films recommended this, so I went in with high hopes. They were slowly, remorselessly crushed for the next two hours.   This was one of those movies whose internal logic was so vague and the plot so meandering that I rarely had any clue what was going on.  Set at the height of the COVID pandemic, a sheriff who is angry at mask mandates decided to run against the mayor who is enforcing them.  Then he gets mad and shoots the mayor, and tries to pin it on BLM protestors. Then someone is chasing and shooting at the sheriff. COVID conspiracy theories are spouted by a different character every few minutes.  The conclusion is . . . well, so bizarre I'm still scratching my head as to exactly what this movie was about.  Either it was so subtly brilliant it's just beyond my grasp, or else it's an incomprehensible train wreck that stole two hours of my life. Either way, I think I would rather have watched NUREMBURG again.  2/5

John Waters hates you. He named EDDINGTON best movie of 2025: "My favorite movie of the year is a disagreeable but highly entertaining tale as exhausting as today's politics with characters nobody could possibly root for. Yet it's so terrifyingly funny, so confusingly chaste and kinky that you'll feel coo-coo crazy and oh-so-cultural after watching. If you don't like this film, I hate you." Personally, I liked EDDINGTON, but not nearly as much as Waters (whose year-end top 10 list sometimes reads like a put-on).

I don't hate anyone for not liking EDDINGTON, but otherwise I really vibe with Waters' take on it. Maybe we should start a "Waters Best Of" thread since we have one for Tarantino.

[M.10rda]

Also WOLFEN is really interesting. Beautiful photography and great use of locations, good acting, lots of ideas... the rough cut was 4 hours long, which defies explanation (but man I wish a copy would surface).

[FatFreddysCat]

"M3GAN 2.0" (2025)
The creator of the original "Megan" builds a new and improved version to combat "Amelia," a next-level killer droid that wants to kick off an A.I. apocalypse.
Overlong, chaotic sequel to the surprise horror hit leans more towards sci-fi action - less "Child's Play," more "Terminator," filtered through Anime and K-Pop. The first "M3GAN" was dumb fun; this sequel is mostly just dumb. Skip it.

"Violent Night" (2022)
David "Stranger Things" Harbour plays a burned out St. Nick, who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time when mercenaries invade the lavish home of a wealthy family. Yes, it's "Die Hard" in a Santa suit. A dark, cynical and gloriously ultra violent Holiday action comedy directed by Tommy Wirkola of "Dead Snow" fame.

[M.10rda]

DOS MONJES aka TWO MONKS (1934):
Here's a film that has developed a little cult following in recent times and exemplifies much of what I find alluring about early talkies and a ton of what I despise about many films of the era. It could have been a masterpiece, but manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Early on, two young-ish monks have a face-to-face reunion after a long parting. Almost nothing is said - instead they enter a fraught embrace that initially looks like they might make out, violently! But quickly real violence occurs, and it's legitimately shocking for a 1934 film.

Why the heck did this happen?! The film then enters a lengthy flashback to their younger adulthood. The murderous monk was a sensitive musician, his would-be victim was his globe-trotting playboy best friend. There are women involved in their relationship. Very little is ever said (or at least very little of concrete substance) while we watch this very off-kilter dynamic develop and eventually devolve. All of this action and post facto exposition happens against gloriously expressionist backgrounds, with deep contrast lighting, like from CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI or Ulmer's BLACK CAT. Because the screenplay provides so little clear evidence for interpretation, the viewer's mind fills in the blanks: it's confusing to be a sensitive young musician in Mexico in the early 1900s and to unravel your ambivalent feelings about girls and your powerful attachment to your very handsome and charismatic buddy. It makes perfect sense that the lead would compress all those unprocessed emotions into a highly pressurized explosive package somewhere deep in his gut and then go join a monastery. Heck, you could turn the volume down altogether on this one and still Get The Picture perfectly from the visual compositions and performances. For a long while, the film appears brilliant.

Unfortunately, the director of DOS MONJES is Juan Bustillo Oro, who also made the early 50s THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE. That later visually evocative thriller helplessly blows its "twist" ending by allowing a psychoanalyst to spend two-thirds of the film setting it up for the presumably moronic viewer. DOS MONJES fatally suffers the same affliction, though (for better or maybe worse) in its final act. Oro doubles back and assures us (for a good twenty minutes of dense dialogue scenes) that the schism was entirely about a girl!    So #nohomo, everybody! 

Maybe the producers or Mexico's own Hayes Code or something forced Oro's hand? Obviously I don't buy the denouement's heteronormative protestations. In fact the (mostly wordless) final scene is a full-scale symbolic freak-out that entirely reinforces the prominent themes of repression and gay panic. But the damage has been done - by insisting on talking too much, Oro ruins what could have been one of the greatest films of the 30s.

It's still worth watching with the sound off, I guess!
3.5/5
Like R.S. Fred said: Don't Talk, Just Kiss.