A few reviews

[Zaharoff]

In Darkness

In Darkness - 2018 - 5/10

Muddled thriller of blind concert pianist overhearing death of upstairs neighbor.
Thugs come calling, "What did you see!" - "I'm blind."
Cops have questions. "Sorry, I was wearing headphones."
Her secrecy masks a personal agenda, and overshadows the mystery of who killed the upstairs neighbor and why.
Therein lies a major problem with the narrative structure.
Focus often swings to side plots at the expense of other side plots.
Deliberate confusion is to be anticipated in a mystery, yet one expects a degree of logic.
The script (co-written by the director and the lead, hmmm) suffers too many threads that need pruning.
Decent, if well worn, premise, marred by excessive busyness.

 

[Zaharoff]

Son Of Saul

Son Of Saul - 2015 - 8/10

Hungarian film set inside camp Auschwitz during its gruesome height.
Told from the point of view of the Sonderkommandos, Jewish prisoners forced to assist the Nazis with “shepherding,” cleaning, and coverup.
One of the prisoners, when confronted with the death of a small boy, either has a breakdown or decides to act like a Mensch and give the child a proper Kaddish burial.
All manner of ugly things are ongoing in the background, out of focus or one only sees fragments.
One late night sequence is a harrowing view of living in Hell on borrowed time.
Interesting is the unseen order among prisoners, how they assist and blackmail each other.
Imaginative and fresh, dense with visuals. Arresting sound design.

 

[Zaharoff]

No Man’s Woman

No Man’s Woman - 1955 - 6/10

Fatale Marie Windsor, of purring voice and voracious eyes, dominates in so-so Noir.
Her husband demands a divorce so he can marry sweet young thing.
“Offer me a huge alimony plus half your business," says she.
When the company founder offers $30,000 she ejects him, saying, “I said an offer, not a tip.”
She forces her female assistant to work on her day off, then she makes a play for her fiance.
When the fiance tries to evade her, she blackmails him.
Bad girl Marie is a piece of work, even tells folks she’s still 29.
Sadly - am I’m not divulging too much here - she gets murdered early and the story falters.
The other characters are weak and uninteresting in comparison.
OK time waster. Like watching Perry Mason minus Perry and Paul.

 

[Zaharoff]

Love In Memory

Love In Memory - 2013 - 6/10
AKA - 러브 인 메모리

Bittersweet K-drama of the lingering ghost.
Female has been in steady relationship with her dependable, analytical consort for seven years.
At times, however, she recalls the other boyfriend, her first love, whom she abandoned.
They were too different, she reminds herself.
She was ambitious, career driven, while he was an artist, head in the clouds.
Then she catches sight of him, and memories, accurate or nostalgic, gnaw her heart.
Refreshing to see how emotions of regret, hope and fondness are elaborated.
At one point I imagined a Hollywood remake - - and cringed.

 

[Zaharoff]

Truman

Truman - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Una Sonrisa Ala Vida

Tomás flies from Canada to visit his friend Julián in Madrid.
Julián, actor, ex-leading man, heartthrob, is winding up his affairs; Tomás acts as our observer.
Wry observations about preparing for ones final departure.
The film captures how friends and family deal with, or ignore, Julián's situation.
Despite the subject matter, this is neither maudlin nor depressing.
Nor is it chuckles and giggles, the buffoonish bucket-list preferred by shallow studio moguls.
A soft spoken film, with emotions barely suppressed under the skin.

 

[Zaharoff]

Canals: The Making Of A Nation

Canals: The Making Of A Nation - 2015 - 6/10

Another canal documentary.
Usually, these focus on the traveler, be they an experienced boat person or some pseudo celebrity who exclaims and gushes in feigned astonishment.
Other docs follow the hiker, traipsing the tow paths.
Those are more picture postcards.

This one is more in depth. Six 30' episodes follow the engineers who dreamed and designed them, geologists who learned to read the earth, financiers who floated stock shares, navvies (navigators) who provided the sheer muscle, and the boat people who worked the narrow boats.

Recently restored canals are now flooded with daytrippers and the genteel.
The doc flashes a lens at a more troubling possibility - tenants who cannot afford a home.
Always uncertain is the future, though.

 

[Zaharoff]

Herb & Dorothy: 50 X 50

Herb & Dorothy: 50 X 50 - 2013 - 6/10

Followup documentary to 2008's acclaimed Herb & Dorothy.
The first doc caught the Vogel's, minimalist art collectors of modest means, as they were preparing to bequeath their rather priceless collection to the nation.
50 X 50 charts the flowering of the gift, as fifty museums, one in each state, receives fifty pieces of art.
The film travels, with and without the Vogels, to the various museums.
Interviewees include curators, docents, artists. Some enlighten, some pander.
Minimalist art is difficult to appreciate and value, so the doc mentions the importance of art and how everyone is deserving. This is illustrated during a couple of childrens tours.
I can admire and esteem Herb and Dorothy Vogel, and while I shrug off their collection, I'm glad they built it and then shared it.

 

[Zaharoff]

An Outlaw

An Outlaw - 1964 - 6/10
AKA - Narazumono / な ら ず 者

Japanese hitman offs mob boss in Hong Kong streets.
Returns to hotel room for payment, finds dead, nude girl in his bed.
The mob boss turns out to be a government official, the dead girl the official’s daughter.
The hitman sees police arrive out his window and realize he’s been set up.
He escapes, but gets mistaken for a player in a drug smuggling operation.
He hides, in what turns out to be a brothel, and gets embroiled with sex traffickers.
This is the first five - ten minutes of a frantic, often confusing, movie.
Vintage postcard as scenes shift from Hong Kong to Yokohama to Macao. Cool bluesy jazz score.
Violent yarn of betrayal and honor, though motives and participants baffling.
Bond fans, look for Tetsurô Tanba as cardsharp.

 

[Zaharoff]

3 Bellezas

3 Bellezas - 2014 - 5/10
AKA - 3 Beauties

Forced, unfunny “comedy” from Venezuela.
Beauty contestant failure, now single mother, drums the path to runway on her small daughters.
The son is nothing. “Forget him. He’ll only grow into a hairy, smelly man.”
She also constantly reminds the girls, “You are not sisters - you are rivals.”
Resentments and grudges build, from childhood to the national competition.
If you can reference Jon Benet, you ought to cringe at this.
Females I viewed this with totally recognized the mother character.

Beware DVD subtitles. Most ungrammatical, though entertaining.

 

[Zaharoff]

The Descent

The Descent - 2005 - 7/10

White knuckle horror thriller, unsuitable for the claustrophobia types!
Six females who share wilderness, survivalist trips head to the Appalachia caverns (OK, North Carolina).
After a stiff forest hike, they reach the gaping hole in the earth and rappel down.
Personalities run from the reckless one, a controller, a grieving one, and the narrative rolls easy.
As the women descend deeper, and see evidence of previous cavers, the unease tightens.
Again, the friends take awhile until they realize things do go bump in the night.
By then, well, this is a horror ride. Expect misfortune.

High intensity smash from Neil Marshall makes this viewer wonder how his cinema career stalled.
After four films, and no I didn't care much for Doomsday and Centurion lacked budget, Marshall now seems relegated to television.

 

[cannibal cop]

Re: Truman

Truman - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Una Sonrisa Ala Vida

This guy on the right was in another movie I enjoyed recently:

Wild Tales​

Entertaining anthology of short black comedies that feel like a collaboration between Hitchcock and Roald Dahl, at times.
Clever suspense with a dash of bitter misanthropy and fortified with cruel irony.

 

[Zaharoff]

Inherent Vice

Inherent Vice - 2014 - 6/10

I disliked the book, my bride dislikes Joaquin Phoenix, so what was I thinking?
I was hoping-hoping-hoping for an echo of Boogie Nights.
Paul Thomas Anderson directs, and location setting marks a return to the Los Angeles of the 70s.
Not to be. Boogie Nights was almost epic in its structure and grandeur.
Inherent Vice is the incoherent ramble of a blitzed stoner. That is fully in keeping with the novel, though.
Seemingly important characters surface, only to disappear. Many story threads wither unresolved.
Overlong, and not especially funny, though it had its moments.
Think shaggy dog yarn. Almost like Big Lebowski - only straight and grim faced.
Good Noirish acting from Phoenix and Brolin not enough.

 

[Zaharoff]

The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys - 2016 - 6/10

Better than Inherent Vice, not as good as Boogie Nights, this detective mystery does a nice job evoking the shallow, at times over the top, 70s.
Gosling and Crowe laugh out loud funny as bickering duo who stagger into hitmen, cover ups, porn stars, and great parties.
Plot completely derivative of TV of the era - Starsky & Hutch, Columbo, Streets Of San Francisco, many more - take your pick.
Song choices were wrong, clothes and cars acceptable.
Angourie Rice, as Gosling’s daughter, is a gem, though her admittance to adult parties - never, ever, ever.
Lightweight. Keep expectations down and you’ll enjoy more.

 

[miguel1984]

Re: Truman

Truman - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Una Sonrisa Ala Vida

This guy on the right was in another movie I enjoyed recently:

Wild Tales​

Entertaining anthology of short black comedies that feel like a collaboration between Hitchcock and Roald Dahl, at times.
Clever suspense with a dash of bitter misanthropy and fortified with cruel irony.

His name is Ricardo Darín, one of the greatest Argentinian actors ever.

You should check El Aura (2005); it is an awesome film.

 

[miguel1984]

Here is a trailer for The Aura:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=biGaXaKqWG8

 

[Zaharoff]

Sapphire

Sapphire - 1959 - 6/10

Scotland Yard investigates murder of young girl, dumped on Hampstead Heath.
Soon enough, they realize she was not white, but was high yellow, and passing.
While digging for suspects and motives, detectives encounter racism, implied, overt or smiling.
That twist seems mild now, but was probably controversial in its day.
Well cast, well acted procedural - and yet - we never know who Sapphire was, as an individual.

 

[Zaharoff]

The Pleasure Girls

The Pleasure Girls - 1965 - 6/10

Country girl arrives in Swinging London and moves into flat with several other girls.
Boys, money problems, parties, clothes shopping, moral decisions.
Considerably fresher and more realistic than 1969's Take A Girl Like You.
This has a grittier edge and seems a good period piece showing that time.
Ian McShane and Francesca Annis lead, with Klaus Kinski as well dressed slumlord.
The parties and gambling are reminiscent of those in A Hard Days Night only more middle class.
Obscure music track, too. I couldn’t tag a song.
The European cut features nudity, sexual situations, and graphic violence.

 

[Zaharoff]

Belleville-Tokyo

Belleville-Tokyo - 2010 - 5/10

Ostensibly a marriage in crisis story, do not let the side tale of revival movie house distract you.
The young wife works for two codgers who run the theater, while her marriage crumbles.
Yo yo husband leaves, returns, feeds her excuses a four year old could see through.
The phrase "love is blind" applies, and it is hard to work up sympathy.
The tale wanders around in circles. Husband is immature, wife is needy.
72 minutes of French piffle.
If, however, one perceives the couple and their marriage as artificial, the lopsided reflection of the arthouse cinema, then the story may hold more interest.

 

[Zaharoff]

House Of The Dead

House Of The Dead - 1978 - 3/10

Insomnia sufferers, a possible cure beckons!
Grade-D omnibus “horror” anthology.
Not truly terrible, just cheap, awful, and mind-thudding dull most of the time.
Man is in town for the annual plumbers convention, also for a chance to cheat on his wife.
During a torrential downpour, his cabbie does not drop him in front of his hotel, but instead the mortuary.
Inside, the attendant gives him a casket viewing tour, and slowly delivers the story behind the deaths.
First two tales “best,” though they are still crap. A school teacher who hates kids, and a homicidal swinger.
Both display more energy, and both are unintentionally funny.
Steep downhill after those.
Actors are almost recognizable TV character bit players.
Big hook for some of you - Filmed entirely in Oklahoma!

 

[cannibal cop]

Re: Truman

His name is Ricardo Darín, one of the greatest Argentinian actors ever.

You should check El Aura (2005); it is an awesome film.

Yeah, I've seen him in a couple of other things, The Secret in Their Eyes, Nine Queens, Carancho.

I might have seen Aura, too. It sounds a little familar, but I can't quite bring it to mind. I'll have to give it a look and see.