Friday 31 December 2021
Thursday 30 December 2021
Daguerreotypes (1975)
Portraits of the people that occupy the small shops of the Rue Daguerre, Paris, where the filmmaker lived.
Agnes Varda presents a loving view at the shop-owners of her street with much care for their everyday lives, their biographies and a keen eye for detail.
Sunday 26 December 2021
Abismos de pasión (1954)
A partial retelling of Wuthering Heights in 19th century Mexico.
Wonderfully photographed and directed, this adaptation of the classic novel goes straight to the overheated passions and never lets loose; generally, a mainstream production with occasional Buñuel touches sprinkled in.
Maltin**1/2: "Strikingly directed but talky, overbaked, ultimately unsuccessful version..."
Saturday 25 December 2021
Phenomena (1985)
A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.
A Dario Argento joint: wildly stylish, incoherent plot with a dreamlike atmosphere and lots of imaginative shock moments, and once again another incongruous soundtrack.
Halliwell (no star): "Daft and gruesome horror that lacks style and sense; it has a plethora of murderers, it is never fully explained who did what to whom, its intentions is to disgust rather than shock, and its heavy-metal soundtrack is a frequent distraction."
Maltin***: "Typically stylish, bizarre Argento horror opus whose premise...serves as a framework for some cleverly weird goings-on...Don't say you weren't warned!"
The Underground Railroad (2021)
A young woman named Cora makes an amazing discovery during her attempt to break free from slavery in the deep south.
A harrowing and heart-wrenching epic is a masterfully adapted TV series of the award-winning novel, captured in beautiful imagery with great period detail and with an extraordinarily superb cast; a complex,often brutal, but also magical exploration of black suppression with clear pointers to present-day USA.
Wednesday 22 December 2021
Hardware (1990)
The head of a cyborg reactivates, rebuilds itself, and goes on a violent rampage in a space marine's girlfriend's apartment.
Good-looking sci-fi thriller despite its low budget is a noteworthy achievement, although there are many derivative elements in its plot and effects.
Halliwell*: "A low-budget science-fiction horror story, filmed in the style of a rock music video."
Maltin**: "Surprisingly well made, but recalls many earlier (and better) films. Heavy violence nearly earned this an X rating, before it was trimmed."
Saturday 18 December 2021
Planet Outlaws (1953)
A 20th Century pilot named Buck Rogers and his young friend Buddy Wade awake from 500 years in suspended animation to find that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane.
A feature film made as a compilation out of portions from the Buck Rogers sci-fi serial loses much of the original's dramatic structure and makes the ramshackle special effects appear even sillier.
Friday 17 December 2021
The Garden of Allah (1936)
The star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.
Star-cast melodrama in an Oriental setting is slow-going, and the romance is quite absurd, but it's all photographed in glorious color and beautiful settings.
Halliwell**: "Arty old-fashioned romantic star vehicle; great to look at, and marking a genuine advance in colour photography, but dramatically a bit of a drag."
Maltin**: "Flagrantly silly romance...full of ripe dialogue, beauty shots of Marlene...and some wonderful Technicolor scenery...It just isn't very good."
Wednesday 15 December 2021
Medium Cool (1969)
A TV news reporter finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Expertly made mixture of fiction and documentary is intended as portrayal and political comment of its time, successfully so; its plot, however, is not particularly relevant or memorable.
Halliwell**: "Stimulating if overlong comment on the quality of life in the sixties, immaculately made and with a rather effective though obvious twist ending."
Maltin****: "Arresting, unique film..."
Sunday 12 December 2021
The Great Wall (2016)
In ancient China, a group of European mercenaries encounters a secret army that maintains and defends the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.
Big-budget Chinese monster movie in a historic setting is basically action-filled entertainment, but has lots of visual delight, imaginative fight scenes and some good special effects.
Friday 10 December 2021
Stranger Things, Season 3 (2019)
Summer brings new jobs and budding romance.
But the mood shifts when Dustin's radio picks up a Russian broadcast,
and Will senses something is wrong
The third season ups the ante with a Russian threat and a more complex narrative with parallel subplots plus some good new members of the ensemble (Robin and Erica);as before, highly entertaining.
Wednesday 8 December 2021
Day of the Woman (1978)
An aspiring writer is repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated, and left for dead by four men whom she systematically hunts down to seek revenge.
Tuesday 7 December 2021
What Dreams May Come (1998)
Chris Neilson finds himself in Heaven after his death. However, when his inconsolable wife commits suicide and goes to Hell, he decides to risk his eternal soul to search for her spirit.
Basically a big sobby tearjerker, this movie presents some fascinating and spectacular, and at times cheesy, depictions of heaven and hell, albeit with a lot of half-baked theology.
Halliwell (no star): "Hollywood's brand of warm, huggy theology gets ever stranger: heaven here is a gooey oil painting, psychobabble is the angelic language, there's no deity in view, and the occupants can't wait to leave the place and get back to Earth. The mind boggles."
Maltin BOMB: "Off-putting gobbledygook...Despite its pedigree (a novel by Richard Matheson, a good director and cast), this film fails to evoke any tangible emotions. It just doesn't work. Its elaborate (in fact, overelaborate) special effects won an Oscar."
Sunday 5 December 2021
The Lady and the Monster (1944)
A millionaire's brain is preserved after his death, and telepathically begins to take control of those around him.
Little dark sci-fi nonsense is fairly entertaining; Erich von Stroheim does an excellent job as the mad scientist.
Halliwell (no star): "Fair, over-padded version of a much filmed thriller..."
Maltin**: "Gloomy, minor entry in the "brain swap" school of sci-fi..."
Friday 3 December 2021
Day of the Animals (1977)
A battle for survival ensues after a group of hikers encounters a chemically imbalanced forest.
Saturday 27 November 2021
No Sex Last Night (1996)
French Artist Sophie Calle and American Photographer Greg Shephard's autobiographical account of their road trip across America.
Up close and personal dissection of a relationship, told from both sides, is more experiment than a documentary, and although thoroughly sincere with all its adversities, it creates a strong notion that most of the story has remained untold.
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