Movie Reviews: Tales From The Hood

Tales From The Hood
directed by Rusty Cundieff

This older horror/thriller movie anthology comes from the older Tales From The Crypt movie/series which itself was inspired by the old EC comic of the same name which in turn gave ideas to such creatives as Stephen King.

It's not my original idea but Black American history is similar to a horror novel plot. 

Being robbed of your culture, name and religion, being kidnapped from your own nation, being beaten, tortured, raped, and enslaved for a quarter of a millennia and being successfully taught to hate yourself is horrific. Tales From The Hood  is a decent non-explicit horror film, though by modern standards the 1995 special effects are horribly dated.

Movie Reviews: I'm Charlie Walker

I'm Charlie Walker
directed by Patrick Gilles

This is a short running independent movie. It was partially based on a true story. I have always been, well amused is the wrong word, but perhaps confusion or frustration fit, that some (Black) people today claim that they prefer open racism to hidden racism. 

That makes sense sometimes but in general I think many of the younger people who say that have rarely faced the kind of open racism that was quite common before say 1975 or so. Both covert and overt racism feed into each other. They are two sides of the same coin.

This movie took place in early seventies San Francisco. The situations and characters reminded me of tales I was told or heard about the experiences of my father, uncles, and older cousins, men from the Silent Generation or Baby Boomer generation who were often the first Black men to undergo modern desegregation. Many paid a cost.

Movie Reviews: Guns, Girls and Gangsters

Guns, Girls and Gangsters
directed by Edward Cahn

There were three top blonde bombshells of the fifties and early sixties, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and this film's star actress, Mamie Van Doren. 

Van Doren's appeal was more always more "bad girl" than Marilyn's wide eyed innocent schtick. For whatever reason Van Doren never had Monroe's success. 

After a number of roles in movies that didn't quite break through Van Doren began (and has since continued) to star in films that rarely pretended to be about anything more than showcasing her physical attributes. 

This short running 1958 movie shows that if Van Doren had gotten a few more breaks she could have been as well known for her acting as for her hourglass figure, platinum hair, and va-va voom looks. So it goes. 

The movie's title is truth in advertising. There's not a lot of wasted dialogue. Everyone gets his or her fair share of snarky one-liners and tough guy/gal comebacks.

Movie Reviews: Witness to Murder

Witness to Murder
directed by Roy Rowland

Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse and manipulation in which one person (usually a sexual intimate, trusted authority figure, or close family member) convinces his or her target that what they saw/experienced didn't happen, if it did happen then it's ok, and/or that the target is the one who is crazy/mistaken despite all evidence showing the exact opposite. 

If the man or woman employing this tactic is really skilled, well sometimes that's how you end up with men running harems or wives convincing their husbands that the wife's constant infidelity and public disrespect is all the husband's fault. If the husband wasn't such a punk then the wife wouldn't do what she did. 

Gaslighting needn't necessarily be committed by intimates though I think that's when it's most effective. One could argue that white racists have been carrying out a successful 400 year gaslighting project on Black Americans. 

The term comes originally from a 1938 play "Gaslight" that was later developed into multiple films, most notably one directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 

Movie Reviews: Black Gunn

Black Gunn
directed by Robert Hartford-Davis

This 1972 film was a foreign made entry in the American Blaxploitation boom of the late sixties and early seventies. It's not a great movie. In fact it's not even a good movie, given that its story and themes had been done many times before, even as far back as 1972. It did have a somewhat well known cast.

But as I've written before these movies were some of the few times on the big screen when Black men were portrayed as heroic, Black women were portrayed as desirable, and Black people in general could inhabit the entire spectrum of human morality and skill. Black people weren't only comic relief or sexless sidekicks who either die first or spend the entire film trying to ensure that the white lead finds happiness with someone else.

That was unusual then and is still uncommon now. I've seen this film described as neo-noir but I disagree with that. This is an action film. The lead character, played by football superstar turned actor, Jim Brown, doesn't talk much. He's not morally compromised. He's not suffering from existential dread about the meaningless of life or unhappy with his career. 

Movie Reviews: Thieves' Highway

Thieves' Highway
directed by Jules Dassin

In some respects this 1949 film is both social criticism and a morality play about the values of such concepts as love, revenge, and trust. Thieves' Highway is both a gangster and noir film, though hardly the darkest of either genre. 

Whereas some noir films like Decoy had convoluted storylines and dreamy cinematography, Thieves' Highway was simple and realistic. It was mostly shot on location in San Francisco among the produce markets.

I wasn't surprised to learn that Dassin had been blacklisted shortly after this film and forced to surrender his career in his native United States and relocate to Europe. 

Thieves' Highway may feature some criminals, even some organized ones, but this movie makes it clear to modern eyes, and apparently a few right wing eyes in the late forties, that the real crime was a system that made it only too rational to exploit workers and eliminate them if they protested. 

Movie Reviews: The Cursed

The Cursed
directed by Sean Ellis 

The Cursed harks back to the mid twentieth century Hammer Films period horror movies. The Cursed has a brief gratuitous nod to the salacious early seventies Hammer entries with a topless scene by actress Kelly Reilly. This came out of left field. It added nothing to the story except well, beauty, which is always worthwhile.

Some leading actresses have contract clauses refusing scenes with cleavage, toplessness, or nudity. Perhaps Reilly has a contract insisting that at least one such scene must be in her films. Snicker. 

The Cursed updates some old horror myths. Like Stephen King's "Thinner" it centered the titular malediction in a crime against the local (in this case French) Roma minority population. An American viewer may see similarities to crimes against Black Americans and especially Native Americans. As the saying goes the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. The Cursed references some Christian themes.

Movie Reviews: Walking Tall (1973)

Walking Tall (1973)
directed by Phil Karlson

I have a memory of seeing this film as a child at the drive-in with my parents when a babysitter wasn't available. Or it could be that I am remembering the film Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, which was similar in tone if not plot. I am sure I saw that one. 

I might have been taken along to the drive-in at a young age because my parents were confident that I wouldn't remember anything as neither film is really child friendly. I don't remember much. I just had a very strong sense of deja vu when I watched this film.

Walking Tall is based on the true (well mostly true) story of McNairy County Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser. It wasn't a pretty story. Real life rarely is. 

Pusser died in a mysterious auto accident shortly after the film's release. There was no proof of foul play but as Pusser had survived an assassination attempt by vindictive people with long memories, many folks were convinced that something in the milk wasn't clean.

Movie Reviews: Christina's House

Christina's House
directed by Gavin Wilding

This thriller movie started out with a few good ideas but quickly went south. As is usual for the genre the movie featured some gratuitous female toplessness but as the female in question was supposed to be in high school the movie felt sleazier and more disturbing than it needed to be.

It's strange that there are so many thriller or horror movies featuring high schoolers depicted by actors/actresses who are past college age. That probably says something about other social issues but I'm not going down that path in this review.

This movie was made in 2000 but had a very eighties vibe, which I thought was the only good thing about it. The plot or acting certainly weren't strong points.

The Tarling Family , father James (John Savage), daughter Christina (Allison Lange), and younger son Bobby (Lorne Stewart) has moved to a rental house on the outskirts of town. I think it's because the family can be closer to the mother/wife Joanne (Chilton Crane) who has gone completely bonkers and is locked up in an insane asylum.

Movie Reviews: Sugar Hill (1974)

Sugar Hill 
directed by Paul Maslanksy

This was another low budget American International Pictures feature that combined horror and blaxploitation themes. Sugar Hill wasn't a great movie but it had a few good scenes. Some of the story is illogical but that's normal for the genre. 

American International Pictures also created or distributed similar films such as Blacula, Count Yorga, Black Caesar, and Coffy . Some actors from those films appear in Sugar Hill. Sugar Hill's director would later produce the Police Academy movies. Sugar Hill's most direct antecedent was Coffy. As in Coffy, a sexy Black woman confronts a racist power structure. Maybe Coffy's star, Pam Grier, wasn't interested in appearing in Sugar Hill? 

The special effects here aren't ground breaking or even that convincing. Nevertheless, despite that, or perhaps even because of that, there are some honestly creepy moments.

Movie Reviews: Tolkien

Tolkien
directed by Dome Karukoski

This was a tightly focused, though ultimately not very revealing look at J.R.R. Tolkien, the famous academic and author of "The Lord of The Rings", "The Hobbit", "The Silmarillion" and several other fantasy stories, most of which were set in his imagined pre-historical world of Middle-Earth. It's not easy to make compelling films about writing, and this isn't one of them. Writing is usually a solitary activity that takes place internally in a writer's brain. How do you dramatically depict that process visually so that it will resonate with people watching it?

Perhaps smartly, the director doesn't attempt to do that. Instead the director focuses on what he can visually express: Tolkien's gift for languages, Tolkien's fascination with Northern mythologies and heroic tales, Tolkien's budding romance with and fierce love for the woman who would later become his wife, Tolkien's experiences during World War I, and Tolkien's platonic love for his close friends at King Edward's School at Birmingham.

Movie Reviews: Road Games (2015)

Road Games (2015)

directed by Abner Pastoll

This 2015 British-French co-production referenced the 1981 Australian-American film of the same name that starred Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. The 2015 movie is a thriller with twists , not a gory horror film. I thought that the movie missed its mark. Road Games has a lot of misdirection. 

But I quickly guessed the major plot twist. The other mysteries weren't interesting or made no sense. 

I enjoyed the bucolic settings. Road Games is set in rural France. Road Games looked great but could have spent more energy on establishing the difference between urban and rural living. Jack (Andrew Simpson) is an apparently charisma free British young man who vacationed in France with his girlfriend. 

Movie Reviews: The Panic In Needle Park

The Panic In Needle Park
directed by Jerry Schatzberg

I hadn't watched this 1971 movie about the romance of two New York City heroin addicts. I knew it had soon to be superstar Al Pacino's first leading role, which caught The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola's eye. 

Coppola thought that Pacino had the gravitas and intensity to play Michael Corleone and used this film to persuade skeptical Paramount producers and studio executives of Pacino's skill. Watching this movie it seems impossible that anyone couldn't have recognized that Pacino was destined for greater things. 

Hindsight is always 20/20. Many actors and actresses do wonderful work in one movie and then for whatever reason never touch greatness again. So who can really tell. This movie reminded me of similar later movies such as Requiem For A Dream, Leaving Las Vegas, and Drugstore Cowboy. This film has an anti-drug message but it transmits that message without preaching or turning its characters into caricatures. 

The film's characters are lowlifes but they're not always doing lowlife things. They have hopes, dreams, and fun like anyone else.

Movie Reviews: San Andreas

San Andreas
directed by Brad Peyton

This is an over the top 2013 disaster movie that used every action movie cliche and threw in an amazing number of fanservice cleavage shots. 

The director and writer(s) ensured no matter what was happening on screen that the cleavage of the two lead actresses (and most secondary ones) was always on display. 

Someone drowning? Show some cleavage. Building on fire? We need some cleavage shots. Deep conversation between estranged spouses? That goes better with cleavage. Someone dangling from a helicopter? Someone climbing rubble? Someone discussing events with co-workers? What better time to show some cleavage. Snicker. 

Movie Reviews: Angel Face

Angel Face

directed by Otto Preminger

Angel Face is a 1953 film noir that, like Chinatown two decades later, has some Freudian undertones. These were not usually explicit. It was the 50s. When you think about them you might get the heebie-jeebies. This movie didn't use WW2 as a backdrop but did use wealth and corruption as the story environment.

Depending on whom you spoke to, the director was known as a demanding perfectionist auteur or as a sadistic bully.

There is a famous story that Preminger required too many takes of a scene where Robert Mitchum slaps Jean Simmons. Preminger wanted the scene to be realistic; he refused to let the slap be faked or toned down as Mitchum wanted to do. After Preminger kept insisting that Mitchum slap Simmons harder, Mitchum lost his temper and slapped Preminger in the face with his full strength, sarcastically asking him was that the right force or should he do it again. 

Preminger fled the set. Preminger tried and failed to get Mitchum fired. The studio owner, Howard Hughes, had attempted to seduce Simmons, although she was married. In revenge for being rejected by Simmons, Hughes had insisted that Simmons fulfill her studio contract with Preminger as the director.

Movie Reviews: Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer

directed by Bong Joon-Ho

This 2013 dystopian movie was based on a French graphic novel. The science behind it is hit or miss. Snowpiercer is not concerned with accurate science. When the science needs to make sense for the story to work it does. And when the science must be ridiculous for the story to work, it is. 

The movie is more interested in what we think we know about human society and the various class struggles required. Or perhaps it's just certain kinds of societies that necessitate class struggle?  

Human activity--which some would argue is inseparable from human population--is responsible for the massive destruction of flora and fauna as well as global climate change. 

There is no quick fix because forcing worldwide use of renewable energy, forcing worldwide return to pre-Industrial Revolution living standards, or forcing worldwide population culling to pre-Industrial Revolution population levels are all unlikely or immoral actions. 

Movie Reviews: A House On The Bayou

A House On The Bayou

directed by Alex McAulay

This made for cable TV thriller movie should have been chopped in half and presented as an episode from Tales from The Crypt. This movie used many typical horror/thriller movie tropes. 

There's a teen girl discovering her own sexuality, bickering/clueless parents, a threatening yet polite and mysterious young man, adultery, secrets, and unexplained impossible events. A House On The Bayou was too long. I didn't care about most characters. I wasn't impressed with or apprehensive of the bad guys.

Despite the antics of some couples in Hollywood or other less traditional communities, once they are married many people still initially expect that henceforth they will be the only ones providing that good thang to their spouse and vice versa, forever. It's explicitly stated in most marriage vows: "forsaking all others". Well as my high school gym teacher once ruefully noted to our class, "Forever is a long time, baby!".

Movie Reviews: Red Rocket

Red Rocket

directed by Sean Baker

Sean Baker directed Red Rocket. Baker also directed The Florida Project, reviewed here. I didn't know that before watching Red Rocket but found it familiar because of its realistic depiction of socially marginalized people. 

Baker creates the grown folks movies that existed in the 1970s, patient character studies that neither judge nor excuse people. I could taste the sweet bakery donuts. I could feel the oppressive Texas gulf coast heat, smell the funk, and gag on the ubiquitous cigarette smoke. Red Rocket's cinematography grabbed my interest and never let go. This movie used 16mm film. It's gorgeous looking. I believe everything was shot on location.

The title could refer to evidence of a male dog's excitement. The title also invokes the hair color of a woman whom the protagonist thinks will change his life.

Baker examines an unsympathetic, manipulative, and unreliable protagonist/antihero. The protagonist can be affable but his friendliness is just a tool. Coincidentally or not, Baker set this film during the 2016 Presidential campaign, with plenty of Trump quotes.

Movie Reviews: Fear

Fear
directed by Ivalo Hristov

This is Bulgaria's entry for Best International Film at this year's Academy Awards. It is a timely and timeless film that shares surface similarities to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Ghost Dog in that Fear features a blunt older woman and two people who communicate despite having no common language.

Fear is timely because the current Ukrainian migrant crisis demonstrates racist hypocrisy by many European nations, both western and eastern. 

Countries that claimed to be full and that were trying to stop further refugees, deport current ones, or become so unwelcoming that present refugees would leave on their own have behaved much differently with white Christian Ukrainian refugees, welcoming them with open arms. 

Even poor "white" nations with no history of slavery or colonialism still have many people with racist contempt for non-whites, especially Blacks. Fear is timeless because it illuminates humanity's good and bad sides while challenging us to do better.

Movie Reviews: Dark Water

Dark Water
directed by Walter Salles

This 2002 horror film was a remake of a Japanese horror movie which I hadn't seen before and still haven't viewed. 

So I had no preconceptions about about its quality or that of the the original Japanese story.

After watching this movie I appreciated that it was ominous and a little eerie without relying overmuch on special effects, gore, or exposed female flesh. 

Dark Water is a throwback to much earlier genre films. Instead of overloading the viewer with a million frames per second as some hyperactive films do,  the director lets the story and action play out at its own natural place. 

Near the ending I thought there were a few too many jump scares but most of the film's "horror" comes from a steadily increasing sense of unease and discomfort that wraps the viewer in a cold cloak of weirdness and holds on tightly.