Oppurtunity (2024)

Rusty Rehl's OPPORTUNITY is a blast. A comedic caper it's a great mix of comedy and humor and something that needs to be tracked down.

The plot of the film has Pat living in his van. He's given up his life of crime, but things are not going his way. When a friend tells him he has a deal that can get him the money for a house, he begins to waiver. As he gets sucked in things begin to go sideways things he realizes he's in over his head and the crazy people he's dealing with, including a bunch or Mormon mobsters may end up killing him.

This film is a great deal of fun. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this little gem. Funny, suspenseful and extremely entertaining, OPPORTUNITY is just a delight. Honestly it's one of the great discoveries of the year.

This is Rehl's first feature, and it doesn't feel like it. Often when people jump from shorts to features they don't handle the longer form well, but Rehl hits it out of the park. 

It helps that that the cast is  right there with him. They deserve kudos for walking the fine line between comedy and suspense.

What a joy.

This is a film you need to track down not just because its a great deal of fun, but it's calling card of Rusty Rehl who is going to do great things.

Burmese Harp (1956) opens at Film Forum October 18

With THE BURMESE HARP opening in a restore version at the Film Forum here is a piece I posted about ten years ago.

One of the first films I wanted to right up for Unseen was Kon Ichikawa‘s Harp of Burma or The Burmese Harp. Despite numerous efforts to do so I never have. The problem for me is that the film is so powerful and so moving to me that I can’t find the words. To me the humanity in the film is so powerful that it obliterates any of the flaws of the film (it’s a tad too mannered at times).

The film is set at the close of the Second World War in the Pacific. As the Japanese rally and try to make sense of what is going on one of their number will keep their spirits up by playing the harp. When the hostilities finally end, the men are placed into a camp by the Allies. However word of the end of the war hasn’t reached all the Japanese positions so they ask the prisoners if one would go into one of the strongholds and try to talk the men into surrendering. A man named Mizushima goes.The meeting doesn’t go well, he isn’t believed and the men think he is a traitor and they elect to fight to the last man. The end comes sooner then they think when the shelling resumes everyone is is killed. Everyone that is except Mizushima, who staggers out into the jungle. Not sure of what to do or where to go he wanders the countryside horrified that the bodies of his fellow comrades have been left to rot and decay where they were killed. Deciding he cannot allow this to be he decides to bury all of the dead where ever he finds them.

Almost five years on at Unseen I still don’t have the words. This film floors me each and every time I see it. And every time I see it I try to explain why it moves me so but I can’t find the words. What I always stumble on is how the film is a near perfect antiwar film, and how it is a touching memorial for those who died. It’s not just Japanese who died but anyone who died. We will remember. We will return you to a place of dignity despite the indignities of war and of your death. This is the return of humanity after the inhumanity of war.

I am beyond words. This film places me to somewhere that is all emotion and nothing else.

I don’t know what to say beyond just see it other than to say this is on my list of the greatest films ever made.

Animation is Film Festival starts this week

I wish ANIMATION IS FILM was in New York because I could get to go. One of the best programmed animation festivals it has bumped uncomfortably against both the New York Film Festival and Doc NYC so I can't make time to fly out.

I have been covering the festival in one form or another since it starts and I've had a blast. The festival is a great look at the films that are going to be big in the final months of the year. This year the fest is running FLOW, MEMOIRS OF A SNAIL, INSIDE OUT 2, COLORS WITHIN and THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP A LOONEY TUNES movie all of which are potentially in the running for an Oscar.  It's a one stop shop for Oscar an animation junkies.

As this posts I'm trying to get access to those and other films. I'm trying to work out what I can get to here in NYC (I have press screening invites) and what I can wrangle other ways. I hope to have more coverage coming.

For now I've seen two of the films screening:

I saw REDLINE in 2012 and it blew me away. My brief reference at Unseen back then was as follows: "the Madhouse produced anime Redline. Its a wild and weird science fiction race film,that is just so wonderfully over the top I can't recommend it enough." It's a great deal of fun- and even more so on a big screen.

BOYS GO TO JUPITER was a film I saw at Tribeca earlier this year. It's a low fi animated film with its own bent view of the world (it feels like something from a couple decades back). I had a number of discussions at Tribeca about the film. It split audiences, some people loved it, some people were less enthused. I had a long discussion with an animator who saw the film multiple times at that festival and he said that the director is well aware it's not for everyone, but he is okay with it because it's the film he wanted to make.

For now if you are in Los Angeles or can get there go buy some tickets and go. The website is here.

KENSUKE'S KINGDOM opens October 18

Young Michael and his dog end up falling overboard during a storm while they were sailing around the world.  He washes up on a lost island. He is taken in by the reclusive Kensuke who has been there for years living with and taking care of the animals on the island.

I was not a fan of the early part of this film which was the set up. We’d been there before and Michael was in sufferable. I wanted to drown the kid. However once Michael is stranded the film begins to pick up and by the time the orangutans show  up I was fully invested. Then by the time end came I was an emotional mess.

I absolutely loved this film a great deal. The emotional arc was masterful and the fact the film doesn’t shy away from sadness (the ending is heart breaking) or disturbing (you though the death of Bambi’s mother was bad, you ain’t seen nothing) gives the film an emotional weight that is rare in any film, never mind animated. I think Joe Bendel was correct in comparing the film to the film THE RED TURTLE from a few years back since it was the last time I remember an animated film had this much weight.

Part of the reason the film works is the animation and the vocal performances. Rarely has character animation been this good in any films. The characters seem alive, both human and animal with each one given small nuances that make them more life like then even your typical Studio Ghibli release. Add to it a vocal performance as good as the one Ken Wantanabe gives and you instantly have something that should be in the running for a Best Actor Oscar. I’m serious about that.

This is something you need to see, and bring tissues because you will get misty.

From 2018: A fast and loose list of 25 horror films to try for Halloween - I doubt you've seen most of these

This is a repost of a piece from 2018 listing some horror films that people are not talking about but should.

With Halloween approaching and everyone making their lists of horror films you simply MUST SEE. The problem is everyone is hitting the same old titles- you know what I’m talking about- NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, HALLOWEEN, ALIEN, HEREDITARY, IT and on and on. If you went by the majority of these must see lists you’d see everything there is to see in one night and never know about the vast trove of horror films out there.

But there are literally thousands of films out there that you probably never heard of and which are way better than the lack of discussion about them would indicate. You have to keep in mind that the reason everyone keeps going back to the same old films is combination of laziness mixed with the big well know films are getting pushed. For whatever reason they had a PR machine behind them that could push them in everyone’s face. As a result you know Jason and Freddie ad nauseum and not a legion of other titles.

We have to correct that.

What follows is a list of 25 films that are largely off the beaten path, that we’ve reviewed in the last two years. While we have reviewed dozens more, these are the ones that are either the best of the bunch that aren’t the big well known titles or are interesting enough so as to be worth a look. I’m not going to pretend that they are all best of the best, that isn’t the case, but they are all worth a look. I've given each film a one line description and linked to the longer review. While you may not like everyone of these I think you'll find a few you'll really like.

Ultimately if you want a good horror film and you are on Netflix or Prime or one of the other streaming services look at the listing for horror and just start watching films - the best stuff is often hidden in under titles that you normally wouldn't try.

(And If you want even more recommendations for off the beaten horror films simply click on the horror tag )


THE BOOK OF BIRDIE - just hitting VOD is a creepy film about a young girl who is put into a convent by her grandmother. Part horror film, part fairy tale it is a film that is not like anything else you’ve probably seen.

WEREWOLF - on the festival circuit this Polish film is about a bunch of children just released from a concentration camp and the horrors of war. It will disturb you deeply.

ENDZEIT: EVER AFTER  another festival film about zombies that is not like anything you’ve seen before. Two women try to get to safety and find that the plague is the result of the earth in revolt.

SHOCKWAVES 1977 classic about undead Nazi soldiers coming back to kill people on an island paradise. A lot of fun and Peter Cushing too.

MANDY Nick Cage in a wild and weird throwback horror film that is on VOD and in theaters.

END TRIP  a ride share driver is a serial killer in this small scale thriller

CARGO Martin Feeman is bitten by a zombie and has to get his daughter to safety. A great film on Netflix

THE ENDLESS  it may not completely work, but this tale of two brothers visiting the “death” cult they left years before has some creepy moments

THE DEMON  creepy realistic film about demonic possession. Great performances and stark black and white photography help build the chills

HOUSE OF DEMONS  Think a Vertigo comic book melded into a drive-in film in a film about time travel and cults.

TRENCH 11 military horror film about an abandoned secret base and the monsters that live there- its one of the best of the sub-genre

THE OLD DARK HOUSE  Classic horror film about a dark and stormy night and a weird family who opens their doors to travelers

THE VAULT  A bank robbery goes wrong...and James Franco has a solid role

RED CHRISTMAS   Psycho Killer on the loose with a twist- who the killer is not who anyone suspected

DEVIL’S GATE   The FBI goes to investigate the disappearance of a woman and her son and finds something much worse than they could have imagined

THE VOID   a cult opens up a gate to another dimension and things cross over

DON’T KILL IT  Dolph Lundgren is a demon hunter troubled by a demon that jumps from person to person if you kill its host. This film needs a sequel

BE AFRAID   what is the dark figure that appears in a small town driving people mad and dragging people away?

DELUSION   three years on a man gets a letter from his wife saying she will always be around.

DAY OF RECKONING  Demons rise up from the center of the earth in one of the few good found footage films

PARASITES  college kids go to skid row and end up being hunted

LADIES OF THE HOUSE friends go home with a stripper only to find she and her housemates are cannibals.

WITHOUT NAME  A surveyor goes to an isolated house to map a forest and finds something weird in the woods.

INERASEABLE is one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen. The story of a haunted house that becomes truly terrifying

THE WAILING Mostly one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen about a town where everyone is going nuts and the efforts to stop it which leads to a demon.

(And a big thank you to the great Ted Geoghagen for saying on Twitter how all the list cover the same five titles- Ted -your anger got me to do this list. I hope you approve.

And while we are talking Ted don't forget to see his BROOKLYN 45, WE ARE STILL HERE and MOHAWK for three very different types of horror films)

THE BRUTALIST (2024) is far from the greatest anything

There is going to be a lot here so stay with me.

Word out of where ever was that THE BRUTALIST was going to be the next greatest film ever made. Many people were calling it all the accolades that instantly get my panties in a bunch and make me want to get them in off the ledge. Other festivals, more accolades. Finally it hits NYFF and I buy a ticket for the last day it's screening because I want to hear what friends have to say and I want distance.

Word out of the NYFF press screening ran the gamut  from it being really good (no one was genuflecting) to one person calling it a noble failure and dismantling it in terms of Paul Thomas Anderson films (specifically THE MASTER and THEIR WILL BE BLOOD). It was the politest shredding of a film I've ever heard

Calmed by that, I suddenly had hope I wouldn't hate the film from top to bottom. Grabbing Nate Hood, who truly had no idea what the film was other than it was 4 hours and in 70mm, I went to the theater to see it for myself.

The film is the story of a noted Hungarian architect who comes to the US after being displaced and being in the concentration camps of World War 2 and ends up hooked up with a rich family hoping to make a cultural center in the middle of Pennsylvania.

The first half surprised me. It was quite good. While not the American epic promised by many, I was curious where it went.

After the intermission (which is actually part of the film- there is a reel change moments after the 15 minutes run out) things pick up and.... OH HELL NO. The film became an absolute mess. It's disjointed, unfocused and in desperate need of another hour and a half. SO much is unsaid, until it is, that the film just collapses under it's bloated pomposity and pretentious bullshit.

At this point I'm going to give a warning I'm going to reference things in the film---like the ending--- so if you don't want to know surf away now. No skin off my back.

If you are going to be here for the long haul understand I'm not going to do this in a perfectly formed manner because, quite frankly there is too much wrong with the film that there is no point in ordering my grievances, I'm just going to get it all out as it hits me.

Okay that isn't fair. This isn't a total waste, its okay over all, but it's not the GREAT film promised straight faced by my fellow writers. If the film wasn't as celebrated as it is it might have gotten away with being a pretty okay over long drama that people had to chase to actually see instead of an Oscar hopeful that is going to leave the paying public scratching their heads.

I should point out that most of the problems that will be referenced here are to do with the second half.

Then again there is one thing that the first half suffers from as well as the second and that is bad acting and lack of characters.  Yes, Adrian Brody is great. Yes he should be in the running for the Oscar, but everyone else, save the guy who plays the builder is either a badly written character or badly acted. And I do mean you, Guy Pearce. Normally you are wonderful even with an underwritten role, but you are just awful here. Without real characters we have no one and nothing to follow. I didn't care about anyone because there was no one to care about. (If you think otherwise please tell me who was well rounded-the wife? The Niece? Pearce's kids? No one is given enough to form a character)

This lack of having anyone to care about goes completely off the rails when Adrian Brody's character essentially disappears from the final 20 minutes of the film. Yes, he is kind of there is the epilogue, but he really isn't (it's some guy made to look like him).

Blame the problem on the choppy nature of the second part. We travel through time and space in a disjointed matter. Huge pieces of exposition are just not there. Plot threats and thematic threads come and go (I'll come back to this).  It causes chaos in our ability have a handle on things. For example after Brody takes his wife to the hospital because of the overdose, she mentions that he confessed when they were tripping together. THE NEXT scene has her going to Pearce's house and she is, not in the wheelchair, but a walker. Where and how? More to the point because of the dialog Brody has been in New York with her for two days. Two days from when? Not the overdose, she wouldn't be there, much less walking into the house in a walker.

Part of the reason the characters don’t exist is the weird ass jumps in time. Because the second half careens through time no one is allowed to arc. They simply are the next thing. Look at the development of Brody’s wife. Ignoring the fact that she exists simply to say something that needs to be said or to be a person around which something can happen, we never are given a reason she becomes more and more assertive. She just is until suddenly she is walking into the house to reveal she knows what happened between Pearce and Brody. Where did it come from? And because there is no arcing in the second half Brody’s character simply thrashes from scene to scene in a different manic state. 

I am bothered by the film’s relationship with heroin. Not that it’s there but how it uses it. For some reason I feel that too much of the plot is driven by it. I kept wanting to say a variation of the old Woody Woodpecker line “If woody had just gone to the police none of this would have happened.” Here it would be if Brody hadn’t used heroin so much of this wouldn't have happened. The drug simply becomes the way to have events happen such as the incident with Pearce, that Brody uses it to stop his wife’s pain, and the implication that his being so sick from it that his wife has to confront Pearce is asking too much of it to the point that it’s simple a deus ex machina. This film could not go forward if Brody's character wasn't a junkie.

The truth is the film fudges too much with the wife. Not only doesn't she arc but simply exists for a moment or a line. She speaks of talking to god and knowing everything about what Brody did, but we have no clue about it really. Later after her overdose she speaks of his confessions of all these things but there is no indication of what exactly other than the incident with Pearce when she walks into the house…. 

 ...and about that there is absolutely no indication about the depth it bothered him-other than the look when he and Pearce walk out of the cave. There is no indication that it bothered him so badly that his wife would have to step up and fix the problem. 

 If it isn’t clear the second half of the film is a real mess and the more I think about it the more I keep adding to this piece because the more I need to say how fucked it is. The film is riddled with all sorts of continuity plot and thematic questions particularly in the second half.

The biggest problem with the film is what is the film about? Yes I know Adrian Brody, but thematically? The film never makes a stand for anything.

Is it the immigrant experience? Maybe, but that disappears for chunk of the film. It doesn't matter he is an immigrant, more that he's crazy.

Is it life after the Second World War? The war comes and goes.

Is it a societal expose on class? Perhaps but it says nothing new.

Is it a look at being Jewish in America? Yes, but outside of the religious services and Israel the threads aren't always there. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of overt antisemitism outside of the wife of the cousin in the film, with any objections to Brody are  not because he's Jewish but because he's from an Eastern Block nation. 

Is the ending saying that all Jews should just go to Israel because they will be happy and successful? It isn't clear and I'm not certain, enough to make a guess, though the film is geared to say that had he just gone to Israel he'd have been happy sooner.

What is this all about? I'm not certain.

But this isn't surprising since basic facts such as a seemingly that's given such as that Brody and his family were in the concentration camps is bobbled. It's referenced here and there,  but Brody is said have broken his nose when escaping from train car on the way to the camp. Did he escape or not? And while it's fleetingly referenced, it doesn't come to the forefront until the epilogue when it's said the design for the building he was making is based on the camps he and his wife were in. It's a fact that was never referenced until the final moments of the film.

If I misinterpreted something don't blame me, so few of the details are really clear.

One of the things that Nate and I talked about after the film, as did several people outside the theater after the film, was that the writing was too clever and unclear for it's own good. Forget the fact that things just happen because they need to, basic things in the dialog are set up to be really sly. There are lines all though the film that mean nothing, but suddenly become clear indications of things later on. For example the fact that Guy Pearce's character is queer and wants to screw Brody is seen in the reference to Brody that he's beautiful.  It's never really mentioned again until things happen. There are other examples, but I don't want to completely dismantle the film. The problem with clever referential dialog in a four hour film is that people will forget seemingly throw away lines in the first hour. Sure cineastes and scholars will catch things on the second or third go but the first time through its all going to be the wrong sort of missed.  While I love puzzle box films, or films that have layers to them, you shouldn't have to catch and retain everything the first time through to understand or even just like a film.

More troubling is that I felt passages of dialog seem recycled from elsewhere. The unsigned check story for example, comes from at least one other film. While I don't see the Paul Thomas Anderson references, I do sense that this isn't as fresh as many people would think.

And what are we to make of the ending where characters disappear both figuratively or literally with no real sense of an ending, except a tacked on epilogue that gives it a quasi-happy ending that isn't earned and raises a lot more questions than it answers.  It's as if they didn't know how to end it so they just winged it and tacked things together.

This is a film made by a filmmaker who desperately wants to be taken seriously. Its flashy and showy in a way that screams "I"M THE MOST IMPORTANT FILM OF THE YEAR!" Its the work of a man who wants to be an artist and can put the pieces together to create a faux piece of art, unlike his protagonist who just does it.

This film is ultimately pretentious twaddle which disappoints because if the second half hadn't been as choppy and the themes were more focused  it might have been a pretty good film.

I suspect it will get lots of Oscar noms, Brody may win Best Actor, but in a year or two we won't be discussing the film much.

Forgive me for ranting but I really don't think the film works, and I feel stronger because I went to the film with one of the smartest film people I know and he was vexed by the film as well.

(And one last brickbat - I've seen dozens of films in 70mm over the years and this was the first time I was left puzzled as to why.)

ADDENDUM: If you want to make comments on this piece or tell me I got anything wrong feel free. However you absolutely can not tell me anything that was either in the press notes or things the director said in an interview or at a Q&A. Films MUST stand on their own so you can not bring in anything from the outside because 99% of the people who see the film will not see the notes, interview or Q&A. I will delete any comments that mention them because they are not in the film.

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

 

Russell Crowe creates a role that he will be forever attached to, that of the title character. He's a no nonsense priest who is sent on a special mission in Spain and ends up way over his head.

What a delight.

I don't know when it was that I saw such an delightful and fun horror movie. Yea, its scary, but more it's just a great tale of great characters. It is the characters that carry the film and make you beleieve in the nonsense going on on screen. 

I completely understand why the film is getting a sequel. 

One of the real horror joys of the last few years, this film is destined to become a classic.

Falling Stars (2024)

One of the big surprises of the year FALLING STARS is a return to low key horror films. Not filled with blood and guts and jump scares, the film is slowly building suspense tale that gets under your skin and hangs with you well after the film is done.

Set in a world where witches are real and they come to earth on the first night of the harvest in the form of falling stars. Everyone performs rituals and stays inside in order to remain safe. However three brother find out one of their friends actually killed one the year before and buried it in the desert. Deciding to go out and see it, things go side ways when they accidentally desecrate the body setting motion something terrible.

Low key and firmly grounded in a very real world FALLING STARS is a true chiller. Its a film so close to our own that you really can't get away from it. This isn't killer clowns or guys wielding chainsaws or even demons from hell, but rather a very real evil that can come and get us. If FALLING STARS wasn't firmly grounded in reality, and if it hadn't taken the time to build that world and make it real to us, none of this would work. Because Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki take the time to create the world we get our asses kicked. What they do here is going to be studied by future generations of filmmakers about how to make a horror film that stays with you and makes you uneasy long after the credits roll.

This film is a masterpiece of modern horror. Sure the big gory films get noticed for the cool effects, but it's films like FALLING STARS that live in the hearts of fans. It may not produce toys that go on your shelf but it carves out a niche in you heart and lives there and make you better.

Highly recommended.  

Beverly Hills Cop Axel F (2024)

 

Axel Foley is back in Beverly Hills trying to  help his daughter who has been threatened to stay off a case  and former detective Rosewood who has gone missing.

Thirty years on the franchise picks up and its in okay shape. Desperately trying to reference the earlier films via music callbacks and bringing everyone alive back for the film, the film spends much of the first half hour annoying the piss out of the audience. Its a badly done greatest hits reel and it made me want to turn off the film and give up.

Fortunately the film picks up once Foley gets to Beverly Hills as the call backs lessen and the new stuff kicks in. For example Joseph Gordon Levitt is great as a young detective and the action sequence mostly rock.

Definitely worth a look, I'll be curious if a sequel happens and what it's like.

Nocturnes (2024) Hamptons 2024

You need to see this on a big screen with big sound. It was made for Dolby Atmos but even as a stereo film it it wickedly aggressive.

This film is a look at a bunch of scientists who are studying moths. That may not sound like much but watching the men collect them is truly amazing. Even more amazing is the wide variety of moths the catch. I know that there are guide books full of the little beasties, but who would have thought the guidebook would all be in one place.

This is a really cool film just on the images and sound. To be honest I was so lost in the looking at the moths I realized I kind of have to go back and see the film for everything else. Yea I know that is not going to sit will with the filmmakers-but frankly they have given us some of the coolest looking images of the year which are enough reason to see this. Needing, nay, wanting to go back for the surrounding material is just gravy.

One of the best films you’ll see all year.

Until He's Back (2023) Hamptons 2024

Deeply moving film about a father in Morocco who learns his son died trying to cross the Mediterranean into Spain. On the wrong side of the sea he desperately needs to try and bring his body home. The film is the story of how he manages to do that.

A lovely film that needs to be seen, it is cursed with a run time that is too long for most short collections and not long enough to be considered a feature. This is a great film you are going to need to search out.

I absolutely loved this bittersweet tale. Filling in the story of the migrant crisis that we need to be made aware of, the film hits us hard as the death of those yearning for a better life is revealed to leave chasms in the lives of those they left behind.

I was deeply moved.

Go see this film.

Caught By The Tides (2024) NYFF 2024

Jia Zhangke’s CAUGHT BY THE TIDES should not work, and even if it did work it shouldn’t work as well as it does.. The film was cut together from “mountains” of footage shot randomly over a 21 year period. During the lockdown Zhangke and his team went through the footage and found things they could tie together. They then shot some new footage to tie it all up together. It may take a while to click, but there is a point where it suddenly just comes together.

Beginning with some documentary footage of some women singing on Women’s Day, the film jumps around for a bit between documentary pieces and then a man and a woman who are in a relationship. They break apart and then going looking for each other over time. Before meeting again in the days of covid.

It’s not giving anything away because what makes this film special is the performances. Watching the actors age over time, in clips that were never meant to go together is something special. Somehow the ravages of time makes what we see even more special. There are nuances that we would never have seen otherwise.

What blows me away is that there is very little dialog. Everything is expressed in the physical performances. And then in the final section, set during covid, everyone is largely masked. The result is a couple of towering performances being given with only part of the face. If Oscar and other awards were truly based the best performances then the ones in this film would clean up.

Watching the film I wasn’t sure what I was watching. Some of this is as I said documentary footage, some of it is just staged bits. A bunch of it doesn’t seem to hang together. Yes the travelogue like footage is amazing  but there were times when I wasn’t sure that Zhangke was making his point…and then suddenly it clicked. Suddenly I was there. Suddenly the pain and loneliness crashed into the audience. Suddenly you realized that this seemingly imperfect experiment was going to break your heart.

I was moved.

Seeing this and taking the ride was one of the coolest things experiences of the year.

I think based on the reaction of the screening at NYFF, where no one seemed to walk out and everyone stayed for the Q&A I think the rest of the audience was too. ( do see the  NYFF Q&A where Zhangke explains in detail how he made the movie)

And if you don’t like it, that’s okay, this is a one of a kind movie.  But if you see it  don’t give up on it until the film ends.

Recommended

DISTANT MEMORIES (2024)

Chris Esper's DISTANT MEMORIES is a look inside the mind of a woman with Alzheimer's disease. We watch as she sorts through the fragmentary memories left to her.

As I have said repeatedly, Chris Esper is a filmmaker you need to be watching. A filmmaker of incredible talent, Esper manages to take subjects you think you know and think you've seen before and make them something special. Here Esper takes the notion of someone with Alzheimer's and turns it into a film with a kick in the tale. 

Yes, I know we've seen this sort of thing several dozen times, but the not quite like this. Normally we get something focusing on the caregiver or something like THE FATHER which got Anthony Hopkins an Oscar.  Esper goes different. He blends allegory, our subject looking at objects on a shelf, with home movies, moments in time and other things to create a film that looks familiar but kicks your ass in the end. As I said Esper's films may look familiar, but he uses the familiarity against us.

I think this is a companion piece to Esper's covid film YESTERYEAR, which looks at how we view our memories. While that film is very much about how those of us who are not suffering from memory issues see our past, DISTANT MEMORIES takes another view and shows us what it might be like if we don't have all of our memories.

Another solid film from one of the best filmmakers working today.

Teaches of Peaches (2024) plays New Fest 2024 virtually starting today and Oct 13 in person at BAM

 

WOW

TEACHES OF PEACHES is one of the great surprises the film year. A rock and roll pure energy look at the performer it is proof that the old days of punk alternative music are still alive and thriving.

A portrait of rock star Peached, best known for the song F--- the Pain Away, the film is one part concert film (Peaches is going on tour in 2022), one part interview with the subject, and one part talking heads discussions with her friends and colleagues. The mix is will make your eyes go wide and jaw hanging open in the best possible way – you know the way when you walk into a concert venue and you happen upon a band kicking as and taking names. It’s a film that makes you tap your feet and dance in your seat.

I freaking loved this film. It’s real and raw and in your face. Nothing is held back and the result is a film you want to give a big hug to .

One of the great films of 2024.

See it.

For details on how to see the film at New Fest go here.

Dusty and Stones (2022)

 

Two country music loving guys guys from Swaziland are invited to go to Texas to take part in a battle of the bands.

Utterly charming film about two guys following their hearts and having some adventure. I honestly don’t know what to say but this film made me smile and give these guys a big hug. What an absolute joy.

Recommended

Bad Genius (2024)

Remake of a 2017 Thailand film that was a highlight of that year for many of the people I know. The plot of the film has genius high school student helping her friends ace tests through questionable means. When the scam grows, things get out of hand and threatens her future.

If you want to see a well made film with a cast operating at the top of their game, this is it. It is a perfectly plotted thriller that hooks you early and pulls you in. It's a film you are going to watch and rewatch just so you can see all the moving parts.

Personally I had the same reaction that I had as the first film, which is this is great film but it's so perfect that I never connected to it. Why? Because despite being near perfect you can still feel the pieces being moved around. It's far from fatal, but it just means I love the construction but  just like the finished film.

Worth a look.

THE SHROUDS (2024) NYFF 2024

There is no getting around it, David Cronenberg’s THE SHROUDS is a disappointment.  Based on Cronenberg's own feeling after losing his wife, the film is the story of a man dealing with the grief he feels after his wife died. He uses his tech savvy to create burial shrouds for the dead that allow people to watch their loved ones decay. As he tries to reconnect to life the cemetery is vandalized and conspiratorial plots involving the technology are possibly hatched.

This is the first film where Cronenberg lost sight of his characters for the plot. Perhaps this is the result of this being intended to be a miniseries for Netflix that got axed or perhaps it’s just Cronenberg wrote himself in the corner. Either way this film takes a long time before focusing on the characters and then in the final third it loses them again.

To be certain when the characters take front and center the film soars- the scene where the blind wife of one of Vincent Cassel’s clients touch his face was one of the best scenes in all of this year’s New York Film Festival and the sex scenes are both erotic and manage to drive the plot – but the truth is the film is too interested in the technical stuff to really work. In the words of Hubert Vigilla, with whom I saw the film, it’s like watching THE FLY and having it be about how the pods work.

I’ve been a fan of Cronenberg for decades and this is the first time one of his movies ended and I felt nothing. Both Hubert and myself were left staring at the screen by Cronenberg’s choice of ending point for the film since it doesn’t feel like a stop but simply mid action abandonment.

While the film is well made and has moments it really isn’t a good film. If the interpersonal bits weren’t as good as they are this would probably be the first truly bad David Cronenberg film.

For die hard fans of the director only.

MEDIHA (2024) opens Friday

 Moving autobiographical film made by a young girl who escaped from Isis and tries to reconnect with her family.

This is quietly powerful film that is going to knock your socks off. The power in the film is that the film is not flashy or showy but a film that is Mediha’s life. She is the one on screen talking to us and showing us her life.  While there are highs and lows the film is never overly dramatic, its simply life happening before our eyes and we are better for it.

There is little to say beyond that other than this is one of the best films and most haunting films at DOC NYC

See it and be haunted for days

OH CANADA (2024) NYFF 2024

Richard Gere gives his best performance ever as a dying filmmaker who is dying of cancer and who agrees to an interview with his former students about his life, vowing to finally tell the truth.

This is Paul Schrader's best film in years. A mosaic film made up of various bits, memories, reality, the story of a lost son and a few other things. There is no direct through line, other than the interview. There is no effort to tell his whole life and there is no effort to truly sort out what is the "truth". This is a film about the mind, memories and experiences of a man who is near death. Everything is fluid. 

This is very much an old man's film. The source novel was written by a man looking at death. The film was made by a filmmaker nearing his end and who has been unwell. It is a film that is very much a about looking back at life and all the regrets one has. It's a film that is made by men near the end. I say that knowing that I am on the back end of life myself. In the months and weeks before and after my last birthday I realized  I have been having all of the thoughts that Richard Gere's character have been having.  In doing so I realized just how absolutely on target the film is.

As good as the film is, it is flawed, the fragmentary nature  is too fragmentary in the last half hour. Something feels missing. Schrader said at the Q&A that everything is in the film except an epilogue, but something feels , slightly off.

Quibble aside I truly love this film.  It moved me and it made me think about a lot of stuff. It's also a film that has resulted in a lot of discussions. This is a film that is going to grow on people. Its a film that I think is going to be hailed as one of Schrader's best once people understand the structure of the film and realize it isn't supposed to be a whole life but what happens on a man's last day.

And it needs to be said- Give Gere the Oscar right now.

Highly recommended.

The Damned (2024) NYFF 2024

One of two films called THE DAMNED that hit festivals at around the same time. The other is period thriller on distant island. This film follows a group of Union soldiers who are sent into the American West in order to guard an unspecified border.

That this film won awards and got glowing reviews is something I can't understand. There is quite simply nothing here. 

There are no characters. None. We kind of know who they are by their look but thats it. There is no real attempt to build characters. Any dialog is of the sort that no one would ever say. It all feels like it was taken from journals and articles, not from life. 

There is no narrative. It's a bunch of non entities wandering into the wilderness.  Where they are is never explained. What they are doing beyond "guarding the border" is never explained. They are supposed to be waiting for another group to meet them, but how the hell will they find them because they are in the middle of nowhere at a place that was randomly chosen.

Don't get me started with the few events the few events that happen.  The bad guys, it's assumed it's the South, but it isn't clear, attack twice, once after moving into position in front of the sentries who would have seen them. When four men wander off to check on a way through  the mountains and there is snow, then there is a sequence without snow and then the snow is back.  

When the film ended I literally had no idea why I bothered, because there was no context to anything. It was as if the film simply existed just to show life on the plains. But there is absolutely nothing here. Zip.

As a recreation of life for soldiers it does seem to have a place, but, I'd rather go see a re-enactment where I could talk to the guys.

Skip this film because this is a film that will leave you scratching your head if it doesn't put you to sleep.