François Ozon directs Hélène Vincent, Josiane Balasko and Ludivine Sagnier in this gentle French thriller where a retired grandmother and her best friend’s criminal son find themselves embroiled in murders and betrayals.
Very Claude Chabrol. Lovely subtle performances that retain their internal mystery. Good twists and turns. Every scene drip feeds you new information. Probably the best thing Ozon has done in a while.
Barry Levinson directs Robert DeNiro, Robert DeNiro and Debra Messing in this true gangster story of warring mob bosses.
Solid trot through of the beloved mob cliches. Classy but creaky, the weakened gait of old age gives it a sense of unintentional camp. The gimmick of De Niro facing off against himself actually works fine in the moments but his Vito Genovese is pretty much just a Joe Pesci impersonation. I have read the book on Genovese and more exciting stuff happens after his coup.
Fritz Lang directs Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Claus Holm, Sabine Bethmann and Luciana Paluzzi in this adventure romance where a dancer and architect try to survive a Maharaja’s jealous revenge when they fall for each other.
Fritz Lang’s two part Indian Epic is a big, gorgeous, cheesy, sexy romp which runs out of wind. The exoticism and ‘orientalism’ feels relatively sincere though the constant use of actors in brown face lets it down. The first film is a string of really strong set pieces. The second film feels too repetitive to be a conclusion. It should be a blast, not a holding pattern. Less happens, we run around in circles. Does Lang have anything interesting to say about western modernity in colonial India? The German architect hero is hired to take an ancient city of ornate higgledy-piggledy beauty and time honoured tradition then impose straightness and order to it. He fails. But he finds love. The beautiful Debra Paget in various states of glitzy undress undulating provocatively to Indian music. The scene where she must seduce a snake to save her life is… memorable. Of it’s time, expensive trash, pop art.
Alexander Payne directs Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates and Hope Davis in this road movie where a retired actuary’s life spirals out of control when he no longer has his job to define him.
Well made but never really clicks with me. I don’t need to see Jack denuded of everything that makes him awesome. I’m not sure the sneering tone of the direction does much more than justify itself.
Neil Jordan directs Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson and Forest Whitaker in this IRA thriller / romance where an on the run terrorist falls for the lover of a British soldier he kidnapped and killed.
Far more interesting than its heavily marketed “twist”. When viewed through a current trans gaze it can seem like an exploitative and negative depiction but I don’t think that was the intent. I think the ultimate message of The Crying Game isn’t revulsion but revolution. Whitaker’s soldier plays his last card before death to teach his captor a lesson. It could be seen as smirking punitive revenge but I don’t think Jody (Whitaker, terrible accent, brilliant performance) would put his beloved Dil in danger. He wants to change his captor from beyond the grave. Change his nature. Show him nothing is set in stone – not gender, sexuality, nationality, identity or morality. So he does it via the mode of knowing sexual prank. It works. Whether as unlikely romance or “one last job” genre flick, The Crying Game holds up strong. And it owes plenty to the daddy of all strange erotic thrillers – Blue Velvet. It really hit home on this rewatch just how much of Lynch’s masterpiece is purloined by Jordan for new purpose. Breathy torch song performances, closets, sexual awakenings, vulnerable femme fatales, apartment shoot out finales. Which makes Miranda Richardson’s stand-out psycho the Frank Booth of the piece. That scans.
Jacques Audiard directs Mathieu Kassovitz, Anouk Grinberg and Sandrine Kiberlain in this French post-World War II drama about a grifter who fakes a resistance record to start a new life.
Early softer Audiard. Does follow an underdog who works his way up the ranks, so there’s that. Kassovitz mild mannered hustler is a blank and a sponge. Everyone shows him how they lie to get by. Salesman, beggar, politician. He replicates. The ultimate take home is the whole system is bullshit. A documentary style framing device here, a beautiful love interest or two there, some intrigue. Ultimately a process movie but one with enough mystery to be watchable.
Damien Leone directs Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton and Elliott Fullam in this horror sequel where Art the Clown returns to terrorize a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.
If you embrace that this is both long for a horror flick and extreme for even a horror flick then Terrifier 2 has so much to offer. Unfathomable resurrections. Unbelievably nasty kills with gloopy physical FX, animatronics and CGI. Nightmare On Elm Street inspired dream sequences. The same quicksand sense of reality as the high points of that series. Who exactly is The Pale Girl and why can people who aren’t Art The Clown see her? And David Howard Thornton committed take as new slasher icon really finds its groove here. It is unpredictable, silly, shocking… and… well… terrifying. You never know what iteration of the silent Art we are going to get shot from shot. In this sequel he is matched by final girl Lauren LaVera. Likeable, undeniably sexy and convincingly vulnerable, her conversion to battling hero is a stand out. There’s a touch of the mythic to all this, to some wider, not quite fully defined, ambition. As revivals of VHS-era nasty nights in go, the Terrifier series just gets better and better. Only Rob Zombie and Leone are making blood soaked love letters with this level of craft and care.
Takeshi Kitano directs Beat Takeshi, Aya Kokumai and Tetsu Watanabe in this Japanese gangster flick where a Yakuza is sent to a seaside town on a suicide mission.
Slow cinema. It is slight and feels even more cult now than it did back in the mid 1990s. I have a lot of affection for this deadpan delight. It blends art, genre and comedy affectingly at its own purposeful pace. The violence is impactful, the downtime very playful and heartfelt. The romance is the highlight. There is a very sexy scene involving a rainy downpour. This is about as quirky and personal as a hyper violent film can get while still satisfying the fans of the genre.
Steven Soderbergh directs Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender and Tom Burke in this spy mystery where a married couple, who keep their work lives out of the bedroom, begin to suspect each other of betrayal.
30 years ago the mid-level budgeted movie saved Soderbergh’s career with Out Of Sight. Here he is now returning the favour trying to revive the mid-level budget movie. The plot is essentially Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy… only Smiley’s estranged wife Ann is a high ranking field agent and chief suspect. There is also a fair amount of the corrosive sexual mistrust from Mike Nichol’s Closer bunged in. Don’t expect any titillation. One explosion aside there isn’t even a whiff of 007 scale action. This is a talky piece. Bluffs, ruses, mind games, confessions, confrontations. Formally elegant (bookended by two dinner parties in the same location) and visually elite. It was fine as a one watcher and the ensemble casting is really quite special. Fassbender is outstanding as the cold fish investigator.
Hayao Miyazaki directs Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Shigesato Itoi in this Japanese animated fantasy film about two sisters who move to the countryside and befriend a nature god.
All hail the catbus! The soot sprites. The leaf as hat. Not as anodyne as I remember… the beautiful motifs and themes of Miyazaki’s oeuvre are more apparent to me now… but still very much one for the kids.
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Perfect Double Bill: Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 