About Fred

I watched 9 movies last week:

• Killers From Space is the sort of movie that cries out for an MST3K treatment, which is why it’s no surprise to learn that it’s been done twice by the Rifftrax guys. (If I saw their first go-around, as the Film Crew, I don’t remember, but it’s possible.) It’s a pretty bad, no-budget ’50s B-movie, interesting more as a trivia question—directed by Billy Wilder’s brother, an early role for Peter Graves, etc.—than as a film itself.
• My Bloody Valentine has been described as being “like a gory Footloose,” which I suppose approximates the overall vibe of this ’80s slasher. It’s not exactly to my tastes—the kills are gory, yes, but not clever or interesting, and the ending feels a little arbitrary—but I see what some people like about it.
• Let Them All Talk feels a little slight and forgettable as a comedy, but it’s enjoyable enough, largely thanks to a very talented cast.

• He Walked by Night is maybe one of the best and worst film-noirs you’re likely to see. Most everything with Richard Basehart’s killer is tense and visually interesting, while the semi-documentary style of the manhunt is such a tedious (and dated) bore.
• My Wife’s Lodger “runs through a repertoire of farcical situations of the most ancient variety”—and that’s a review from the year the movie came out, so you can only imagine how much more dated it’s become since then. There’s mild amusement to be had, but not a lot of real laughs.
• Berlin Syndrome is a taut thriller with strong direction and performances.

• Sand away some of the plot details and World Without End could easily be any of a dozen other ’50s of ’60s sci-fi movies. It still has its own charms as such, even if is more than a little dated and generic in its storytelling.
• The Woman King is thrilling and gorgeous, rich with engaging characters and fantastic performances, not least by Viola Davis.
• More than just an important cultural touchstone for black filmmakers and filmgoers, Cooley High feels like a rich and honest portrait of a time and a neighborhood. Gene Siskel rightly called it “a beguiling story that’s affecting, lasting, and worth seeing more than once.”

I also re-watched It Follows, since I have a friend who’s been watching it recently but, but who’s been too scared to do so in anything but small segments. I found the movie maybe more disturbing than frightening the second time around, when I was less focused on the supernatural plot and more how it affects the characters, focused on it less as jump scares than metaphor. I really enjoyed it again, though.

Here are all the songs I posted as #nowplaying last week:

I watched another 7 movies last week.

• It’s been a while since I’ve read Le Guin’s original novel, but The Lathe of Heaven feels true to both its plot and ideas, no doubt because of her own heavy involvement in the production. It can’t quite escape the feel of what it is—a cheap TV movie made by PBS in 1980—but it does a lot with its minimal cast and sets. Had I seen this as a child of the ’80s, I can see how it might still haunt my dreams.
• BASEketball feels lazy even by David Zucker standards: toothless as a satire, not even funny as a spoof, and going for gross-out instead of jokes almost every time. “Too much of this film,” wrote Roger Ebert (in a generous star-and-a-half review), “is pitched at the level of guys in the back row of homeroom, sticking their hands under their armpits and making farting noises.”
• Die Wand (The Wall) is a quiet meditation on loneliness, isolation, the loss of civilization. It’s very slow-paced and sad, but it’s also strangely beautiful and rewarding as a film.

• The Limehouse Golem is rich in historical detail and some good performances, though does feel a little cheaply made at times.
• Brian and Charles is a modest little gem, delightfully quirky, if a bit forgettable afterwards.
• The Wild, Wild Planet feels a little like Moonraker on acid. It’s a little dull, but its bizarre Italian schlock has its appeal.

• Originally part of a larger anthology film, Eros, which I’ve never seen—but of which this was reportedly the best part—Wong Kar-wai’s The Hand is by turns both erotic and claustrophobic. It feels a litlte like his earlier and better-known In the Mood for Love, with a little more griminess to it.

I also re-watched Jordan Peele’s Us, and I was reminded why it’s almost certainly my favorite of his three films.

Here’s all the songs I posted as #nowplaying this past week:

I watched another 7 movies last week.

• They had to know it was time to hang up the series when the jokes started to become how uncool Nick and Nora Charles were, right? (They’re real squaresville, daddy-o.) Still, Song of the Thin Man is a more than decent enough send-off for the pair.
• This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is filled with indelible joy and sadness and an incredible final performance by Mary Twala Mhlongo.
• Extra Ordinary is a very goofy and charming horror-comedy.

• You might be wondering, how is there a movie starring Paul Newman, Ed Asner, and Pam Grier that I’ve never heard of? And it’s because it’s a really lousy movie called Fort Apache the Bronx. Newman’s the best in it, creating something almost approaching a character, but he’s almost as wasted by the scattershot script as everyone else.
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever works best as a meditation on grief, and if the movie had sat with that more, it might have been less of an unfocused mess. Alas, the demands of the Marvel machine are all over the film, which is therefore all over the map.
• Performance is an interesting film—maybe a little dated and cluttered with stylistic touches, but interesting nonetheless.

• The Artist is a silent movie about silent movies, and it somehow rode that gimmick all the way to multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It’s not without its charms and cleverness—and is arguably no worse than any of the other movies nominated that year—but it’s also very, almost instantly, forgettable.

I also re-watched Blue Velvet and, not remembering that I’d seen it once before until I was a little ways in, The Rapture. They’re both really good movies. Although it occurred to me, as I re-watched him in Blue Velvet that Dennis Hopper was in four other films the same year it came out, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Hoosiers. The ’80s were weird, man.