Movie Reviews: Strangers on a Train

Strangers On A Train
directed by Alfred Hitchcock

I was only familiar with this film via the later spoof Throw Momma From The Train which starred Danny Devito and Billy Crystal. So when I had an opportunity to watch the original I decided to check it out. 

It wasn't a dark comedy like the DeVito film. 

This was a serious noir film. It was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, who also wrote the novels The Talented Mr. Ripley and its sequels. Many of these books were also adapted into films. Highsmith was a lesbian. This would not be relevant but for the fact that Strangers On A Train seems to contain some gay subtext. The viewer can decide on that for himself/herself. 

I haven't read the novel to see if Hitchcock turned up this subtext or if it was present in the book. Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is an up and coming tennis star with women problems. Big ones. He's married to a woman Miriam (Kasey Rogers, later seen in the tv series Bewitched) who not only gets around with anyone and everyone, she's pregnant. 

And Guy is definitely not the Daddy. Guy is, as you might suspect, a bit bummed out by this development. He wants to get a divorce so he can marry his own sidepiece, Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a US Senator. 

Book Reviews: Dave vs. The Monsters: Resistance

Dave vs. The Monsters: Resistance
by John Birmingham

Often second books in a trilogy are a let down. Resistance is not a bad book, but the middle of stories are rarely are exciting as introductions or as satisfying as endings. To briefly recap the first book, parts of the United States and other places have been invaded by monstrous insectoid/ogrish looking creatures who have either lived in the planet's interior or are denizens of an alternate dimension that has intruded upon our own.

 

The aliens always reach our world by tunneling upwards. The aliens remember humanity as frightened scared cattle. We don't remember them at all, although they could be the inspiration for some old legends. 

Although most of these creatures are more than a match for a full grown man, their technology is at Dark Age levels. After the hero, Dave Hooper, defeats their champion, the aliens are massacred by human air weapons and ground artillery. The aliens have no words to express what is happening to them. 

The aliens are shocked at what they saw as treachery by Dave; the deal was that that particular alien army could return to the underworld without further bloodshed. The US military was not party to the deal that Dave made and wouldn't have lived up to it if it had been. Dave was initially upset about that.

In Resistance, Dave has gone Hollywood. Dave spends his time partying with Hollywood starlets, eating, drinking, and copulating with said starlets and other female members of the jet set.

Movie Reviews: Clown

Clown
directed by Jon Watts

This movie came out in 2014. Clown was Watts' directorial debut. It's low budget but does its best with what it has. Clown is by turns equally inventive and formulaic. I guess the viewer can decide for himself or herself which description best fits this horror movie. 

Upon watching it a second time I also wondered if Watts might be using the supernatural evil described in this film as a metaphor for an all too common real life evil. This movie really doesn't pull many punches in terms of graphic violence so if that is not your thing then this movie is most definitely not something you should be watching. Most of the special effects appear to have been done without the noticeable use of CGI. That choice gave the film a sense of reality that intensified the emotional impact of the violence.  

Horror movie viewers know the horror movie survival rules. 

If your special rider invites you to a weekend getaway at his/her ancient isolated family estate you should respectfully decline the invite and end the relationship. If you find an old box marked with ancient runes, don't open that box. If an old man/woman moves into the crumbling house next door and neighborhood animals start disappearing, call the police instead of doing your own investigation.

If you receive an unexpected package, return it to sender. If you only see someone at night, be suspicious. If this person also hates crucifixes and won't enter your house without a very explicit invitation, don't give that invitation.

Movie Reviews: Scream Blacula Scream

Scream Blacula Scream

directed by Bob Kelljan

Hollywood occasionally notices that Black audiences exist and would like to watch films in which Black actors/actresses are not always the chaste best friend, comic relief, incompetent bad guy, or useless "red shirts" who die to demonstrate the danger for the (usually white) hero/heroine. 

The late sixties and early seventies were one of those times. Scream Blacula Scream was created during that period. Scream Blacula Scream was a sequel to the original, equally unimaginatively titled Blacula. Despite the name, however, neither the original nor the sequel were bland mishmashes of Stoker's Dracula. In the original film--although the time period is off by about three hundred years--- Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall), leader of the African Abani people is traveling Europe to seek support for ending the African slave trade. 

Mamuwalde asks the help of Count Dracula. Unfortunately Dracula is apparently a racist who supports the slave trade. Dracula finds it ludicrous and offensive that any African could call himself a prince. 

Dracula turns Mamuwalde into a vampire and imprisons him, telling him his new name is Blacula. In the seventies, Blacula's sealed coffin was transferred to Los Angeles where the revived Blacula starts turning people into vampires while searching for the reincarnation of his long lost love. He fails at that second task and willingly immolates himself by walking into sunlight. 

This film starts shortly after the first film's events. A religious leader/voodoo Queen is near death. She decides to pass on leadership to her adopted daughter Lisa (Pam Grier) instead of her biological son Willis (Richard Lawson).

Deer Stampede

I wouldn't say this is a common sight in Michigan. But it's not uncommon either. Good thing no humans or deer were harmed.

Georgia Republicans Attack Black Voting

A constant in American politics and society is that white racists create rules to exclude Black people from enjoying benefits or from accessing certain constitutionally guaranteed rights. 

When Black people figure out a way around, over, under or through those roadblocks the racists retreat to a prearranged rally point and create new rules to continue doing (exclusion and prevention) what the older rules can no longer legally accomplish. The mid 20th century Civil Rights movements removed many of the explicit anti-Black rules. But there was always a backlash. Forced to let Black people into public pools? Close down all the public pools. Forced public school integration? Depart districts with Black residents or send your children to exclusive private schools which can legally discriminate. Forced to hire Black people? Hire some but make things so unpleasant that they leave on their own. 

Forced to let Black people vote, as if they are American citizens or something? Can't bring out the dogs, thugs, and firehoses as much as you would like?  Well change the rules to target Black voters. We should remember the intellectual Godfather of post WW American conservatism and founder of the National Review, William F. Buckley, made a name for himself by opposing voting rights for Black people:

The central question that emerges-and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by merely consulting a catalogue of the rights of American citizens, born Equal-is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes -the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.

LINK

Although Buckley later disavowed this view it was then and is now the driving motivation for many American conservatives. They don't like the idea of Blacks voting. So if Buckley were still alive (and honest) I think he would applaud the actions of Georgia Republicans, who, evidently shell shocked by Republican losses in Senate races and the Presidential race, have targeted Black voters with military specificity and extreme malice.

Now, Georgia Republicans are proposing new restrictions on weekend voting that could severely curtail one of the Black church’s central roles in civic engagement and elections. 

Movie Reviews: Shot Caller

Shot Caller
directed by Ric Roman Waugh 

I remember the righteous living and doing all I knew for good/If I could change this corruption you know I would if I only could

A Shot Caller is the person or persons in a prison gang who has the authority (keys) for his gang for a particular yard, building, prison complex, group of prisons, or even entire state. What this person says goes. Challenging his authority or otherwise disrespecting him isn't very wise. While a specific shot caller won't necessarily have defined authority over other races or gangs in the prison, depending on how numerous, vicious, and/or well connected his particular gang is, a particular shot caller could be the dominant boss. If you are in a prison of 3000 and 2500 of the inmates belong to your race or gang then the shot callers for other races/gangs probably don't want too many problems with you. Or vice versa, if your 500 out of 3000 are known to be unified and insanely hyperviolent, you could punch well above your weight in terms of prison power and influence.

Shot Caller examines the fall of California stockbroker Jacob Harlan (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau , Jaime Lannister from HBO's Game of Thrones) from naive yuppie and upstanding citizen into a prince of darkness. The film has a lot of flashbacks and flash forwards. I thought it had too many flashbacks. It made sense at the end for reasons I can't discuss here but in my opinion a traditional narrative would have been just as powerful. Physics hasn't given us the definitive answer for whether time travel into the past is possible. I think most people have wished that we could go in back in time to change a bad decision or otherwise alter something. Jacob certainly wishes he could have made better choices.