Movie Reviews
Mediterraneo
There’s a movie titled What Did You Do in the War, Daddy” that I like a lot. A group of G.I.s enter a small town in Italy, with instructions to take it. But the villagers are glad to see them. The Germans left town a few days ago, and they are happy to be liberated. It all turns into a drunken festival. It’s very funny.
This is sort of like that. A small ... Read more »
It follows
A horror movie that breaks new ground is always a welcome treat to me, standing out from the cookie-cutter gore-fests that are so popular. Recently there was Get Out, a truly frightening film. This is another. And though it opens with a pretty gruesome corpse, the rest of it is remarkably bloodless.
The idea is that there is this entity (never explained, ... Read more »
House of Games
As I’ve said before, I am a huge fan of caper movies, and movies about con games. This one ranks right up there with The Sting. It has a terrific script by David Mamet, terrific performances by Lindsay Crouse and Joe Mantegna, terrific support from J.T. Walsh and Ricky Jay (the world’s deadliest card thrower!), and it’s just all-around … well, Read more »
Pelle the Conqueror
The novel this is taken from is apparently the Danish equivalent of the French Les Miserables or the American Huckleberry Finn, sort of required reading, the novel that is most about Denmark. Which is a little ironic, since it is about a Swedish father and his son immigrating to Denmark to find work. But it was a four-volume work, ... Read more »
Belle Époque
The title does not refer to the French period from 1871 to 1914, as it is commonly used. This is Spain in 1933, a period I don’t know much about. What is important is that it is just a few years before the horrible Spanish Civil War, when Generalissimo Francisco Franco (who is still dead, by the way) began his authoritarian, fascist rule. But the early ‘30s were a time of hope, as the ... Read more »
Cat People
Forty years previous, Val Lewton made the original Cat People, which is a classic of horror. It relies on the principle, which I totally endorse, that what you don’t see is a lot scarier then what you do see. The two prime examples of this, to me, are Jaws and Alien. The tension builds incredibly before you ... Read more »
Strange Weather
I don’t know if Holly Hunter chooses to act in small films like this because she simply loves the more intimate feel of them or because she can’t land roles in the big movies that certainly pay a lot more. I prefer to think it’s the former. She has shined in a whole lot of “festival” films that she has to have known would never get a big release and a big audience. I really respect her for ... Read more »
The Wave
How about that? A Norwegian catastrophe film! It’s not just Jerry Bruckheimer anymore. And though it does not have the epic, world-destroying scope of most American catastrophes, I think it is all the better for that. And it’s based on reality! What a concept. It not only could really happen, it will really happen. It’s just a matter of time.
In a Norwegian county called Møre og ...
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Jupiter’s Darling
Esther Williams was a phenomenon that it’s probably impossible to explain to the current generation. Hell, she’s a tough one for even my generation. Her chief talent was the ability to hold her breath for a long time. She could swim pretty well, too, and might have won gold at the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo or the 1944 games in London, except for the fact that both cities had the shit bombed ... Read more »
Dangerous Moves
This is a movie about a world’s championship Chess match. First, I will tell you that I am the world’s worst Chess player. I once was suckered into a fool’s mate, which I understand is the shortest possible chess game: F3, E5, G4??, Qh4#. If you understand the notation, try it yourself, and see what a total fool I was. I decided right then that I would never ... Read more »