Opioid exploitation with some biblical overtones that tries hard to pretend it is serious. Emmet is not a good filmmaker and certainly not someone who should dedicate half of his movie to a try to get clean drama, not that he fairs any better in violent vigilante movie mode. The action ia terrible, but I like the nail gun and some of the more overheated details Emmet throws around. Huston sells the thing better than it deserves. DeNiro is around to show up after Huston violent actions looking very tired. By the end it ridiculous enough one has to kind of admire it.
-
-
Babylon 2022
Strained seriousness DeMille. As most of Chazelle's work it is really only interesting when his fear of failure is highlighted. Most of the big scenes are duds and it nosedives bad around the point Maguire shows up. It feels a little too clean for what it is going for, for such sprawling movie, it is a little neat organized as well. I like the ending better than I thought I would because despite its limitations of imagination and execution it…
-
The Lady from Shanghai 1947
"This is going to be murder and this is going to be legal"
The romantic meets the world and don't like what he sees of it or himself. A very bitter farce about surviving the 1940s (and Hollywood). One of the funniest movies, although every joke is told in pain. Welles in his finest wildest form. I get some of the complains, the plot is unreadable, the nasty factor is high and Welles Irish accent is either a thing of…
-
Tudo é Brasil 1997
Sganzerla's gentlest movie. A love story between Welles foreign gaze and Brazil with all the power complications that come with it, but more about the later while using the former. Wonderful put together. A great work of cultural criticism.
-
See No Evil 1971
A perfect use of Fleischer somber formalism and he makes constant creative choices around staging Farrow moving around. The entire scene she arrives home unaware here family was murdered remains one of cinema’s great dread scenes.
-
Tori and Lokita 2022
If there’s diminishing returns on the Dardennes last decade, and I think there is, it is less because their grace through surviving dramas have exhausted themselves as the world they are set in feels increasingly narrow. They remain very interested in how their characters react to the tough situations they are positioning in, and that is still their saving grace even in a punishing movie like there is genuine curiosity at work, but because they don’t seen to quite able…
-
The Stranger 1946
A very good mix of Welles efforts to make a straightforward thriller and his political interests. The nazis hidden on small town setting is particular well deployed. It is inventive on a scene by scene basis, but less given to desestabilize reality as Welles other pulp movies.
-
Badge 373 1973
Downbeat 70s obsessed cop tale that tries to mix its procedural oriented elements, Dirty Harry derivedaction beats and character work. The parts never really fits and 50s vet Koch most play up the more grim moments. Duvall is fine in the lead andcouple of the action scene display solid location work, butthere's better minor French Connection riffs out there.
-
-
And Now the Screaming Starts! 1973
Good cast and genre vet Roy Ward Baker makes sure the horror moments come at regular intervals, but this feels like a very calcified gothic shocker. Like most Amicus movies, the self-awareness adds some small pleasures but takes a lot away as well.
-
Lord of the Ants 2022
Amelio usual strong drama instincts fail him this time, feelsa little shapeless and the subject matter overwhelms the movie more than it should. Good performances and a few solid moments lost in the middle of the well meaning tradition of quality.
-
The Seventh Victim 1943
Touched by evil. Tourneur is obviously a more talented filmmaker than Robson, but this is in many ways my fave Val Lewton horror, the world reduced to just pure bad vibes. The city is full of unknown punishment. A perfect horror movie.