Nightcap 12/14/14: Christmas recommendations, an award winning short film and Randi's links

If you didn’t realize it Christmas is coming. Actually the whole year-end holiday season is upon us from Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza, Festivus and New Year (not to mention a whole slew of friends birthdays) are rapidly approaching. This is time of year when we are flooded with holiday movies and specials all aimed at getting us in the mood to deal with our families and friends.

Everyone has their own favorite holiday films and traditions. We at Unseen are no exceptions, we all have favorite films and specials that we watch every year and hold as something special.

For me, a guy who collects Christmas films and music, I have three films I always go back to:

The Bishops Wife with Cary Grant and Loretta Young. To me this holiday tale of an angel come to earth to help a bishop and his wife is my idea od what we are looking for at the holidays, not the material things but the feelings the interaction with friends and family brings. Its also weirdly one of my most spiritual films with something about it clicking into my universal view.

Closer to the way things really are is The Holly and The Ivy. This little British film is about a family full of secrets who come together to not fix everything but begin the healing process. Things are not all better at the end, instead they have been simply deflected into a more hopeful direction.

Albert Finney’s Scrooge is my choice for favorite version of a Christmas Carol. There was something about seeing this at the former Felt Forum (now theater at Madison Square Garden) when I was a kid cinched it for me. I love the music, I love the change in Scrooge. There is something about it that makes me smile.

Weirdly possibly the best representation of Christmas magic comes from the grossly under seen Always Sunset on Third Street-. This Japanese slice of life spawned several sequels. There is a sequence in the film that takes place during Christmas which had me replaying it over and over again when I saw it the first time. It’s a short little bit of a the film but there is such a flash of magic in it that it has stayed with me despite the rest of the film getting jumbled up with the sequels

Earlier this week I sent off an email to the Unseen family and several friends and I asked them what are their choices for Christmas films that people should track down. Here are the responses I got back-

My brother Joe sent me a list of films he loves:

Emmet Otter' Jug Band Christmas and John Denver Christmas with the Muppets.

The Gathering, Ernest Saves Christmas and of course Scrooge. The Bishops Wife and We're No Angels.

And there was always, Freddy The Free Loaders Christmas with Red Skelton. I had never watched it. Then one of the last times it was on I watched it and it was really good and they never showed it again.

The Ref is also a Christmas film.

Hubert chimes in with:

An unsung Rankin & Bass stop-motion film, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a Santa origin story in which he was an abandoned child raised by a lioness and a fairy. There's a battle between a Gandalf-looking guy with a magic ax and an army of darkness, and framing narrative that involves a druidic council determining if Santa deserves to be an immortal. Based on an L. Frank Baum novel (yes, that L. Frank Baum), this may be one of the odder and more badass Santa Claus stories around

Matthew Monagle aka Lab Splice columnist at Paracinema, The Daily Grindhouse and various other places seemingly goes off the board but lands on target with:

I know this won't be a popular opinion, but one of my favorite parts of Christmas is sitting down to watch a movie with my parents. For most families, this would mean one-and-a-half iterations of A Christmas Story on TBS. For us, this always meant horror films and Lord of the Rings. My mother is the dominant movie-watcher in my household; when they sit down to watch something, she usually pulls up some new creature feature off Netflix and subjects my dad to ninety minutes of low-budget schlock. The one movie she loves most of all - mostly because of its wonderful first ten minutes - is Ghost Ship, starring Gabriel Byrne and that cocky detective from Dexter. It's not great, but it's beloved in the household, and that means it has a soft spot in my heart. As for my dad? All Lord of the Rings, all the time. The holidays is usually when he embarks upon an epic re-watch of all three extended editions, back-to-back-to-back. Maybe Ghost Ship and LOTR is not the typical Christmas re-watch in your household, but in mine, they're just as festive as mistletoe and gingerbread houses.

Eden makes two recommendations:

Christmas at Pee-Wee's Playhouse: Pee-Wee always embraced a childlike quirkiness in his work, but it's never on bigger display than in Christmas at Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The strange group of celebrity guests stars (everyone from Grace Jones to K.D. Lang to Little Richard) and the kind-hearted lessons taught here feel oddly out-of-time and continue to bring delight more than 25 years later.

Invader Zim: The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever: Invader Zim was one of the weirder things to ever appear on Nickelodeon (let's give the creator best known of a comic called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac his own cartoon for kids!). So, of course any Christmas special was going to ramp up the show's often bleak humor. Zim decides to take over the world by impersonating Santa and things don't quite go as well as he thought (as things tend to do for Zim). It's a playfully dark antidote to the season's usual overt sentimentality.

Joe Bendel of Libertas Film Magazine and JB Spins offers:

For me, Christmas always means one thing: watching Jewish films, because I really start working on NYJFF screeners during the company break between Christmas and New Years. However, if there is one Christmas movie I could re-watch it would be the French serving of Bah Humbug diplomatically translated as SANTA STINKS. I covered it a few years ago when MoMA programmed it and its a thing of shameless beauty:

http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-stinks-en-francais.html


And I have to ask what are your choices for must see holiday films/specials? Either respond below or email me. If I get responses I’ll post them next week.
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The video at the top is from Melanie the daughter of Sam Juliano, one of the minds from Wonders in the Dark and a good friend. The film won the Jersey Filmmaker of Tomorrow Award
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And we end with more of Randi's links:

World's coolest movie theaters
A young Jane Fonda gets the heat for a fail Broadway show
Less well loved Altman films on Bluray
Wind creatures
The last Thanksgiving at Joan Rivers apartment
Trying to  locate a lost love of the Holocaust
ugly renaissance babies
Who killed the color of the new Paul Schrader film?
Lets gossip- the leaked Sony Emails
Great movie sequels
Recent torture revelations cast doubt on chunks of Zero Dark Thirty
Is art cinema dead?
Best Superhero movies since Blade?
On the Unbroken controversy in Japan
Every Star Trek episode ranked

Amateur (1981)

In director Charles Jarrott‘s second espionage film from 1981 (the other is Condorman) John Savage plays a CIA cryptographer whose fiancé is killed by terrorists in a hostage situation. Wanting revenge h, blackmails his bosses into sending him into the field to get the men responsible only to find things relating to his fiancé and her killing are not all that clear cut.

Made at time when John Savage could open a film, before he became a stalwart character actor, The Amateur is a tense little thriller made more so because Savage isn’t a superman. Very much not an action hero, or at least what we think is an action hero Savage plays his role very much as a character that could be you or me. He is not the unflappable Liam Neeson in the Taken films, he’s just this guy. I know some people who don’t like the film because Savage isn’t the super-agent, but for me that’s what makes the film work, this could be anyone. He bumbles his way through his self-imposed mission. He makes mistakes, gets in over his head and yet somehow he still manages to carry on.

Actually I think one of the reasons that the film worked then and still works today is that the film was made at a time when the world was locked in a cold war and the idea of spies keeping the world safe was viable. The movies cat and mouse games were mirrors of what was going on in the real world. Nowadays the idea of spies has been replaced by the notion of electronic surveillance, but back then people were needed on the street and being a spy was a dangerous thing. Also, as I said above we expect our spies these days to be super men of action. In recent films everything is tied to computers, danger comes from the double agent down the hall not from the spies somewhere in the city. In this old school film there is a sense that anything can happen and that danger is everywhere and anyone could kill you.

I really like this film and if you ask me it’s time to pull it off the shelf and dive back behind the iron curtain. 33 years on this film is best described as a lost classic (though admittedly the term classic is a loose on). This is one of those great films that are best viewed on a rainy Saturday from the comfort of your couch and with a big bowl of popcorn on your lap to deflect any stray shots

Evidence (2011)

Recommended to me by Bob McLain, this found footage film seems to be completely off the radar. I could not find a copy of it anywhere until I found it on Vimeo (the link has long since been taken down).  The film was described to be as being just okay to start been then getting weirder and more disturbing as it goes on until it goes balls to the wall in the final half (the film only runs about 75 minutes)...having seen it I can say that the description is dead on.

The plot of the film has four friends going camping. The first night out they hear weird noises around them which they take to be coyotes. Well that's what they try to convince themselves it is  The next night weird more noises are heard and strange things begin happening.  It isn't long before they are under siege and trying to stay alive.

To be quite honest the film doesn't make a great deal of sense, but then again if you were trapped in the situation I doubt things would make sense to you either. I'm at a loss to explain much of it and while the gaps in logic really bothered me to start (I mean why are they filming some of this and why doesn't the battery die) there is this point where logic and reason go out the window and you stop wanting to turn the film off because it's not particularly special and it becomes you want to turn the film off because its just f-ed up.  I don't like how this film made me feel- I mean that in a good way.

Is this a good film? If you look at logically, probably not. I mean the story isn't anything special, the found footage/POV doesn't always make sense however on the other hand the film just turns so bat shit crazy in the second half that you really have to go with it. There is a visceralness to much of what happens that reaches out and pulls you along. As I said I wanted to look away but couldn't.

Worth a look if you can track it down.

Emperor of the North Pole (1973)

Bleak tough film stars Lee Marvin as a hobo of the old school. He is looked on with deference by many other hobos. He is annoyed by the attention of Keith Carradine, a young man just starting out in the life. When the evil Ernest Borgnine, a conductor on a freight train pushes things too far (he takes great pride in crippling or killing anyone who hitches a ride on his train), Marvin decides to take him on.

Good movie about life on the road turns great in the final hour or so as Marvin and Borgnine go after each other in one of the most brutal confrontations ever put on film. While not gory or overly bloody the sequence is so intense that it is all you’ll remember from the film. There is something about the two old pros going after each other more or less hand to hand that has a gravitas that most other films can never hope to match.

The problem with the film is that the last part of the film is so good that I find I have no real memory of what leads up to it. Actually the real problem is that the final part of the film is so good that I don’t really pay attention during the first half of the film when it’s on. When the film plays on TV I will click in and out on it for the first half of the film waiting for Marvin to head out for the train ride and then I switch over to watch that.

Yes I know this is the wrong way to watch a film, but at the same time to me that IS the film...and it's one of the finest action set pieces ever put on film.

Definitely a film you want to keep an eye out for. I know it still gets regular play on cable and elsewhere and it's absolutely worth putting on your must see list.

Ninjas vs the Mafia (1985)

This is an often silly Chinese martial arts film that concerns two guys who help out a Chinese mob boss and get caught up in a mob war that brings American gangsters and ninjas into the mix.

In all fairness I'm going to have to take a pass at rating this film since how you find the film will depend up how you take its broad comedy mixed with action and drama. I know that when I was watching the film the other night I was very much not in a silly mood and the result was that I found the film hard to take. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, perhaps it was simply the film didn't click with me; for whatever reason I didn't really care for it.

On the other hand I have a couple of friends whose opinions I trust who find the film very funny. What sort of mileage you get out of the film is up to you

Moon Over Parador (1988)

I’m flipping I’m flipping

Yes you have seen a variation on this film before. The plot has actor Richard Dreyfuss playing an actor shooting a film in the fictional banana republic of Parador. As luck would have it he is the spitting image of the dictator of the country. When said dictator dies, Dreyfuss is pressed into service as a stand in. At first it’s kind of scary fun but after awhile his conscious begins to get to him and he plots his escape.

Definitely not the great film, it is however a damn funny one.

The joy of the film is watching Dreyfuss be very silly (which is something he hasn’t done enough of lately), be randy with Sonia Braga and cause Raul Julia to go into fits. The joy that Dreyfuss is experiencing making the film carries over to those watching the film. How can you not laugh when the actors seem to be having such a good time?

It’s the sort of film that I’ll stop to watch when I run across it on its now less frequent trips to cable.

Its also the sort of film that I’ve co-oped lines from such as the top remark which references the deceased leaders way of saluting.

Not something you need buy, but definitely worth seeing as a rental, on cable or on one of the various streaming services.

Killer Shrews (1959)

What is it about mad scientists and deserted islands? Apparently it’s a prerequisite to not only be not only mad but also antisocial- or maybe that should be considerate since if you stay on a deserted island you’re less likely to have your stupid experiment injure someone... As a safety warning I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t get off any boat that lands on a desert island inhabited by collies with fangs.

The Killer Shrews is a drive in classic. Its an utterly preposterous film (it was on MST3K) about scientists who take tiny shrews and grow them to the size of large dogs (they are played by collies with fright masks) which then get loose and then try to eat everyone and everything that gets in their way.

It’s a film that is stupid as a stick and a great deal of fun.

The reason the film works is that the cast plays it painfully straight. There is no hint that they are finding it anything other then deadly serious which somehow manages to make the proceedings work.

As I frequently say this ain’t high art- which means we are oh so much better for it.

What I like is that the serious tone mixes with some moody black and photography in order to make a slightly creepy, tense on it’s own terms film. There is no denying that the film generates a certain amount of suspense since the filmmakers kind of plot themselves into a corner which they some how manage to get themselves out of.

A neat little movie perfect for a Saturday night on the couch with popcorn, soda and stack of Drive In movie sort of titles.

Club Paradise

Robin Williams and Jimmy Cliff star in a film is another one of those films I stop to watch when I run across it on TV.

The plot has injured Chicago fire fighter Robin Williams heading off to the islands to recover. Finding he likes the warm weather and the location he along with buddy Cliff decide to open a resort. As the tourists arrive and try to deal with the misleading accommodations, developers wanting to take over the island arrive and begin to bribe the local officials to get there way.

Ruckus but gentle comedy kind of went nowhere when it played in theaters. However on home video, where I first discovered this gem of a film, it was a hit Back in my video store days this was a perennial renter with the film going in and out even when the film hit cable and went into it’s time on eternal rotation.

For me the film works not so much because the script is good, it’s only okay, rather the film works because the cast lead by Williams and Cliff and including Rick Moranis, Peter O’Toole, Twiggy, Adolph Cesar, Brian Doyle Murray,Eugene Levy, Robin Duke and Andrea Martin sell the nonsense. Its clear that the cast is having a blast so it translates into we the audience having a similar good time.

As I will say about many of the films this week, they aren’t high art, but they are good fun. Actually the best thing I can say about this film is that its so non-taxing that it makes you forget your worries like a great vacation will…however unlike a trip to the islands this vacation can be repeated as often as you want just by hitting the start button to replay the film.

High Risk (1981)

We begin this week of atypical vacation films with one of the first films I ever recorded when I got a VCR. I discovered this neat little film thanks to it being a Siskel and Ebert pick of the week way back when they were first doing their TV show.

The plot of this film has James Brolin and his friends deciding to go on a little hunting trip down to South America where they will rob a drug lord of his money and then go home. The idea is that it’s going to be a quick in and out. As you might expect things go sideways from the get go and they are soon running for their lives from everyone who wants the money for themselves.

Played for some laughs as well as suspense the film is a grand romp that will leave you smiling when it finishes running out its breezy 90 minutes. One of the huge pluses in the film is that the film doesn’t have a nasty edge that many other directors would have used. The film is light and bright and not what you think of when you think of an action film.

Also helping the film immensely is the cast- Brolin, Clevon Little, Lindsey Wagner, Bruce Davidson, Anthony Quinn, James Coburn, Ernest Borgnine, and Chick Vennera who sell every minute of the film and make you feel that they were doing this for more than a pay check.

High art it’s not. It is a great little film that is perfect for a rainy Saturday on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a soda

Hanna (2011)

Living deep in a snow covered wasteland of Finland Eric Bana is raising his daughter to be a ruthless killing machine. Cut off the world he teaches her as best he can so she can survive in the world. There is a method to his madness, he is trying to protect her from Cate Blanchett who will do anything, anything, to get her hands on young Hanna. One day when Hanna professes to be ready, Bana brings out a tracking device. If she turns it on it will bring her into contact with the Blanchett; if she doesn't flip the switch they will continue on as before. She of course flips the switch and all hell breaks loose.

Saorise Ronan plays Hanna with an icy coolness. She is very good at what she does, but she is also a fish out of water. Once things are set in motion and Hanna is turned lose in the world she makes it very easy to believe that she can speak a variety of languages and kill you in 47 ways to Sunday but at the same time is baffled by how a light switch works. Its a tricky role that she manages to pull off wonderfully.

Cate Blanchett is hopefully a shoe in for at the very least an Oscar nomination. Playing one of the greatest villains you'll ever see on screen, Blanchett is the reason this film will have a long and healthy life in the years to come. Evil isn't strong enough word for what Blanchett is, she is somewhere else. Stuck in some sort of twisted neurotic world of her own she is the sort of vile creature that might give Hannibal Lechter a run for his money (though she is closer to Lechter of the books and the rough cut of Silence of the Lambs). Nothing is beyond her or her aim. I do warn you you will not like her in any way, she is pure demon and there is nothing to love about her.

The film itself is an odd mix of action and coming of age tale. As Hanna heads to the meeting with her father and her target she is forced to come to terms with growing up and dealing with a world that she only knows as abstractions. The things her father taught her can only take her so far. Its an intriguing tale that is not really like any other I've run across in film.

Its uniqueness helps the film over come some bumps in the road. These bumps come mainly in the cool distanced style of director Joe Wright. Wright seems to be very much going for a feel and a look for much of the film and this form over content weakens the film in places where a little bit more emotion could have been used. This is particularly the case toward the end of the film where things seem to be a tad neater than they should have been.

Still I like the film a great deal and find that I was thinking about the film for days after I saw it on home video.

Definitely worth tracking down.

A big thank you to long time friend of Unseen Film Miriam for pushing me towards the film. For those of you who haven't discovered her blog in the side bar I suggest you all go over and click on mimo studios or simply click here.

Twitter, Tin Tin and some Sunday night tidbits.

DB here. just a few quick notes before I head to bed on a Sunday before all the holidays start.

The Twitter account is live again. Things went silent after the New York Asian Film Festival for a variety of reasons. Randi and myself then got frustrated because our efforts to have Twitter automatically tweet when the posts met with the similar problems to the Unseen Tumblr page. In any case I've vowed to tweet once more so if you want to get some updates and comments to things before they show up here or about things which may never show up here take a look. The feed can be found here. (And yes we will get a Twitter button in the side bar).

As I tweeted earlier today starting tomorrow we're going to take a look at a few films that escaped in forms that were never meant for the viewing public. These are cuts of films that can not be found at the local video store (well Friday's film can). Its an interesting look at films that in three cases the directors hoped could have seen the light of day more fully.

A while back I promised a review of the new Tin Tin movie before it hits screens in the US Wednesday. As many of you know the film is already playing elsewhere in the world, but since Tin Tin isn't a major character here is the US they delayed the opening. Bully has said that he'd like to take a crack at the film, however he's been sidelined by a trip to Japan to find an egg salad recipe and one of the worst colds on record. I may or may not be kidding about the egg salad however Bully and his buddy John are genuinely sick,so much so Bully's blog has been silent for several days. (Bully please get better, or else we can't go for pancakes)

To be perfectly honest I've seen the film, and while I could review it for you all I think Bully would be a better person to review it since he's more familiar with Tin Tin and his comic origins (The film is based on 3 different Tin Tin stories.) I will throw my two cents in and say that if you like Spielberg action epics give the film a try since it's more Spielberg than Herge. I will only add that I don't like the character design since it wipes out all of the facial movement and weakens a stunning Andy Serkis vocal performance.

Wednesday I'm hoping to get into the city to see Zhang Yimou's potential Oscar nominee Flowers of War. I say potential because the film is China's submission for Best Foreign Film so it's simply one of many films that might get chosen. I mention this for two reasons, first so you keep an eye out for a review. Secondly I want to use this as an excuse to mention that in January we at Unseen will be doing nine days of films from China for Chinese New Year. Mr C is putting it together, and it looks like one of the films included will be Zhang Yimou's previous film Under The Hawthorne Tree, which is a wonderful unashamed old style romance.

Lastly a couple of links purloined from IMDB and other suggested by a great friend of the blog:

Why movies need epic failures

As a lead in to January's week of Buster Keaton films (it precedes the Chinese New Year marathon), a piece on Keaton's use of illusion.

Finally the short film Boatlift, about the boats that got people off of Lower Manhattan on 9/11. (Thank you A.L.L)

Fists in the Pocket (1965)

This is the one title that has been sitting on the suggested pile the longest. It hasn’t been that I haven’t tried to watch the film, I have, rather it’s simply that the copy I have is an old worn rental copy and two of DVD players refused the play the disc past the 40 minute mark. It wasn’t until I picked up a new DVD player that I was able to get through to the end.

Marco Bellocchio's first feature has been described as stick in the eye of Italian audiences with it’s attack at their sensibilities and notions of that most holy of all things, the family. To me the film has the feel of a filmmaker who is very assured trying to show off so he gets noticed (think of the situation with A Serbian Film from a couple of weeks back). This isn’t to say that the film is bad, it’s not, it’s very good and it will push your buttons. All I’m saying is that the film feels like it’s going an extra step or two just to make sure you notice the film. It’s the sort of film that you get from a young man full of piss and vinegar who is so sure he knows all of the world’s ills, which he is going to fix in one fell swoop by rubbing our noses in it. (In a weird way the result is now rather quaint)

The plot of the film has the son of a once prosperous family deciding that it would be best if his family all died. Mom is blind, his one brother is hopelessly middle class, another is an idiot and he has epilepsy. In his mind they all should die. His initial plan of driving everyone off a cliff gets derailed so he changes his approach to more one on one, beginning with walking his blind mother off a cliff.

Watching the film it’s easy to see how people were furious over it. It really is a poke in the eye of what many people consider sacred. It’s also easy to see how Bellocchio was put on the map by the film, since as well as being inflammatory it is a stunningly well made and well acted film.

I like the film a great deal. I like that the film, some 46 years after it was released, still can get under your skin. I found myself getting a tad angry at what I was seeing. I kept thinking people are not like that, and then I paused and realized, yes they are. People are as nuts as these people are.

Nothing like holding a mirror up to society, even almost 50 years later and seeing it reflected back.

Definitely worth tracking down.

Currently out in a very nice Criterion edition with a half hour documentary on the film and an afterward with Bernardo Bertolucci on the importance of the film.

Blood Sucking Freaks (1976)

This is a bad movie. It was made to be intentionally bad and if you don’t know that this will be one of the worst viewing experiences of your life. Then again even if you know it the film goes from being a bad bad movie to a good bad movie. When I saw this film for the first time with my brother at a midnight screening we watched the film in silence, both hating the film but not wanting to say anything to each other because we thought the other person was liking the film.

After that the film became a party tape that we’d drag out and inflict on our friends and loved ones with the promise of them seeing a great or unique film. No one really liked it, even if we admired the twisted nature of it all.

The plot of the film has Sardu the great, a magician doing all sorts of nasty things on and off stage to various people. The nature of the on stage antics lead to the films original title The Incredible Torture Show. Its basically a series of gory tortures and rude behavior for “laughs”. (probably the mildest of which is using a bare bottom as a dart board)

Truth be told as much as I’ve co-oped the non sequiteur statement of “elective neurosurgery”, I really hate this film. Its stupid, poorly done, extremely misogynistic and only occasionally remotely fun. In a many ways it’s the embryonic form of what we now call torture porn. It’s a series of nasty things for the edification of the audience, but its so artificial all the life has been sucked out of it.

As a straight film it really sucks rocks.

After suffering through and inflicting the film for years I thought I was done with the film. I thought I was free of ever having to see it again….

…but then someone handed me the special edition DVD (Why? WHY? I don’t know) and in a moment of self abuse I sat down and watched the film with the commentary. I was shocked to learn that the film was made to be bad and as a spoof of artistic pretention and horror films. They wanted it to be bad. They thought it was a satire. It was released as a horror film. It was promoted as a straight film with the result that everyone thought it was a worse film than it was. Most people didn’t get the joke because they didn’t know it was a joke.

Knowing that, my extreme dislike for the film softened. So perhaps the film isn’t THAT bad. Watching it with the commentary I found myself laughing with the film for the first time.

Maybe I thought it wasn’t that bad.

Sometime later I tried it again on it’s own. Stripped of the friendly commentary and left to its own jokey terms I found the film really doesn’t work. While not quite the cesspit I once thought it’s now a less extreme version of a bad bad movie.

Sadly the film is back to being a punch line to a joke.

This is one to avoid

The Shrine (2010) (revised)

Okay, lets get a few things out of the way, the Polish setting seems to have been picked at random and was done so without researching, ie. it takes place in a town with a name that couldn't be in in Poland since the name isn't Polish in pronunciation or spelling. Also if you know Polish the Polish dialog is a mixture of poor to awful (or so I've read).

That said this is a damn creepy film.

The story follows a group of journalists to a small town in Poland which they have linked to a series of disappearances, particularly to the disappearance of a friend. Once there they find not only are they not welcome, but there is some really weird stuff going on, like a tower of non-moving smoke or fog in the forest(with something at its center).

Nominally the sort of thing that you've seen a couple of hundred times before, the film some how manages to take the set up cliches and turn them on their head. Actually what it does is it takes the cliches and uses them against us, stretching out sequences in ways that we expect and then suddenly don't, or turning things side ways(What happens in the fog still makes you jump even though you suspect whats coming). I also give the film points for not taking the easy way out at the end with a gotcha ending.

Watching the film on IFC In Theaters On Demand I found that I wanted to hit the fast forward to get past the creepy parts, I didn't of course, I hung out to the bitter end. I did hit the rewind because I wanted to see somethings a second and third time.

This film creeped me out, there is something about the tone and the mood that just is bothersome.

While I certainly wouldn't call this one of the great horror films of all time, I will say that it's yet another in a growing line of horror films that I saw in 2011 that have bucked the trend and refused to do things by the numbers or simply be a remake of an old title. The result of this seems to be proof that we maybe in a mini-golden age of horror.

Search this one out on NetFlix or IFC on Demand.

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Wong Kar Wai's visually stunning romance follows two people as they grow closer and closer as they hash out whether their spouses are having an affair.

Forget it, the film doesn't do what you expect. It doesn't act like you expect, its a film that is ultimately unique and unto itself...its a love story where the lovers really never do anything but talk.

I really like this film. It was my first trip into the realm of Wong Kar Wai and it came at the insistence of Eden who really liked the film. She was right to insist that I see the film since its a film that really helped me break down my expectations about what films should do. I should mention that I had to try to watch this film for the first time on DVD and was annoyed by it's refusal to do anything other than what it was doing.Why aren't these people getting together, why is the film framed the way it is , why is there an occasional insistence on form over content? I didn't know and was fighting it at every turn. Then I talked to Eden who told be to let all my expectations go and just watch the film. Let it be and I would be surprised.

I did and I was.

In it's way this is one of the most romantic films you'll ever see. Why is it that the unrequited or unacted upon romances are the sexiest? My guess would be is that you get to have all of the slow burn and chances to show interest with out all of the smarmy kissy kissy stuff.

For me this is one of those movies where I keep thinking this is the sort of emotion I'd want to feel in my relationship. Its a damn near perfect romance.

In the special features of the Criterion DVD are several deleted scenes, one of which is a sequence which was set many years after the fact where our two near lovers meet again. Its a great sequence, but when it's done you'll be very happy that they left it out of the film. It's not that the sequence is bad, its quite good, it's just that the sequence radically alters everything that happened before and makes a great film an okay one.

As it stands now this is a great film. If you want a real romance with real people give this film a shot, it will amaze you.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Ben Affleck hits a long fly ball that is either a home run or an in the park triple depending on how you want to score it. The way you score the film will be how you react to the ending of the film which you either throw your hands up at and go with or storm off figuring that they ruined a perfectly good story.

The plot of the film has Casey Affleck playing a detective hired to find out what happened to a missing little girl. The police are having no luck and seem to have been given up on the case. He is hired because he is not police and because he knows the neighborhood and not because he has experience in this sort of thing.As the investigation proceeds he and his partner begin turning up numerous dark leads and when they stumbles on the solution they are faced with a serious dilemma no one could have anticipated.

Amazing well done crime thriller will have you on the edge of your seat for all of it's running time. Its a masterful film that makes you wonder about Ben Affleck and why he hasn't been directing more films. This was Affleck's first feature film but it looks like he's been doing it for years. Think of the best Arthur Penn films or maybe some of Sydney Lumet or some of the other great directors who do gritty street stuff well and add Affleck to the list. He does a kick ass job here and it's truly amazing to see.

The only problem for me, as well as several other people I know, is that the end of the film, comes from an artificial ending factory somewhere in left field. To say I didn't see it coming is an understatement. I can't blame Affleck, rather I blame source novel author Dennis Lehane, who, at least as far as I'm concerned, tends to have endings that never seem natural to the story (I won't get into Mystic River nor Shutter Island). For me the ending, or rather the solution to whats going on, just doesn't work.

On the other hand the rest of the film does, even the actual bittersweet ending of the film is on target, even if how we get there isn't.

While this was a critical hit I don't think this has ever been a popular one, even after Affleck hit gold again with The Town. If you want to see a great little film, one that will truly impress you give Gone Baby Gone a shot.

TintIn and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961)

After two solid weeks and reviews of well over thirty films from the New York Film Festival we're going to start to shift back to our more regular programming. Not to worry we'll still be reviewing films from the festival in bonus posts almost every day, but as the number of films we're attending lessens we're going to blend our coverage with some films chosen to get you in the mood for the New York Comicon which starts Thursday in Manhattan. To start things off this weekend, we're looking at the first two Tin Tin films.

First live action adaption of the classic comic by Herge was one of the few adaptions to meet with his approval. I'm guessing it's because it's one of the few to actually get it right.

Starting rightly with the assumption that we know the characters we're thrown right into the middle of things. It seems Captain Haddock has been left a ship by an old crew member. Flying to Turkey with Tin Tin, he finds the ship is in fact a beaten down old cargo ship. Uncertain it's worth keeping the pair is intrigued when they are offered a fortune for the ship for no good reason. Deciding to hold off on officially accepting the ship they take it on a trial voyage to Greece. Along the way things become tense as attempts are made to kill the pair and take the ship.

A ripping good film it's easy to see why the film was a popular one with kids across England, a fact which is related in the insert book that comes with the BFI edition. Played more or less straight and real, as any Tin Tin adventure should, here is a film that logically brings in all the characters and allows them time to take center stage.

I also love that the film feels real. It was clearly shot on location and the film is all the better for it. (The weak sequel which I'll discuss tomorrow could have been shot anywhere). I loved that we are in real places with real people who are doing real things. At no point does the film feel fake or staged or at least filmed on a sound stage.

Watching the film I was struck by how I wished it was a rainy Sunday afternoon instead of a sunny Saturday. This is a film that is one you'll want to watch repeatedly curled up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn.

The DVD was given to me by Bully, John and Randi because they thought I'd like it, and because they thought it might go well on Unseen Films. They were right on target.

Currently out in a solid BFI region 2 edition that is both dubbed (its excellent) and subtitled. There is also an Australian edition, also region coded floating around. Look for a US release in the wake of the unnatural Steven Spielberg film.

Clownhouse (1989)

Coulrophobia is the fear of Clowns. It’s been said that up to 15% of the population have or have had this phobia. I can honestly say that in my childhood I was one of these people. The reality is Clowns are friggin’ creepy! For example: Pennywise in IT, the doll in Poltergeist and Bobcat Goldthwait in Shakes the Clown….ok, maybe that last one is a stretch.

In 1989, franchise sequels ruled the horror genre such as Halloween 5, Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and Friday the 13th 8..etc etc. Needless to say there were not many good flicks coming out at that time. However there were a few that managed to slip through the cracks and Victor Salva’s Clownhouse is one of them. Released one year after the more comical approach of Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Salva’s film couldn’t be more different.

Instead of going with the grain, Clownhouse took a page of the book that Halloween popularized. It’s about the suspense, tension and the stalk factor. It’s not a film made with buckets of blood. It plays with your fears and toys with them in a PG-13-ish sorta way.

The plot involves three young boys, all brothers, who when left alone one night decide to visit the local carnival for some light hearted fun. Much to the dismay of young Casey who happens to have a major fear of clowns. Unfortunately for them three mental patients have just escaped from the near by insane asylum and their first stop happens to be the same park. After murdering three of the circus clowns, the mental patients use their makeup and costumes to change their appearance. Casey (played by Nathan Forrest Winters) visits a fortune teller and is told that his life is in great danger. Soon after, the boys flee home little do they know they are being followed.

This is where Clownhouse sets itself apart from it’s competition at the time. The atmosphere and pacing that Salva sets with the boys and the deranged psychopaths is awesome. From the lighting to the music that is used, it all works. Once the men break into the house, Casey, is left to face his fears to save not only his life but the life of everyone else involved.

So I’d be hard pressed to not mention the controversy revolving around the film. In 1988, director Salva pleaded guilty on charges of sex with a minor. That minor was Nathan Forrest Winters, the main actor of Clownhouse. He was 12 years old at the time. I saw Clownhouse when it was first released on VHS in 1990 and had no idea of the story behind it till many years later. When I watch the film now, knowing what went on behind the scenes, of course it’s disturbing especially with a few scenes early on in the film.

In 1995, Winters went public with the ordeal of what happened while on the set of Clownhouse. Salva was directing the Disney-produced film Powder, the story of a boy with paranormal powers. The backlash felt was immediate and the film had a very disappointing run at the theatres. Salva did not direct again until many years later. He turned to the horror genre in 2001 with the successful Jeepers Creepers along with it's sequel.

It’s unfortunate that, in my opinion, one of the better horror films to come out in the late 80’s has such a black mark against it. It was not until 2003 when Clownhouse finally saw the light of the day for the first time on DVD. Although it did not have a long run it now fetches up to as much as $90 for a new copy on Amazon. Two little fun facts about the film: it stars a very young Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Cowboys & Aliens) and was helped funded by Francis Ford Coppola.

If you can find a copy, see this movie if have not already. Forget what I said about the history behind it, watch the movie for what it is. There’s no killer with a glove for a hand and no one with a hockey mask cutting teenagers into pieces. It’s an exercise in suspense. Watch it with the lights off especially if you suffer from Coulrophobia.

Satantango (1994)

Made with the intention that you will watch the film in one sitting (with a couple of intermissions) Bela Tarr's seven hour adaptation of Lazlo Krasznahorkai's novel will either thrill you or make you run for the exits. Despite the fact that this has been popping up recently all over the New York Metro area at revival houses I sat down to watch it over the course of a very long evening at home on DVD where I could control the pacing and the breaks.

The film nominally tells the story of several characters who are at a a farming collective. It then spins out from there but it always crosses back and forth in such away that we see some events repeated from differing angles. We have two slackers who refuse to work, the various people in the collective who all want to take all the money they earned for themselves and then run off with it (but people keep finding out about the larceny), a young girl and a cat and all of the peripheral characters.

It's done in what seems to be Tarr's typical fashion: shot in black and white in long takes (as long as ten minutes) and often focusing on things which don't seem to be important (several times we watch tables as action goes on off screen). It's a beautiful and daunting film which for me held mixed rewards.

I've had the film on my shelf for about two years now. The trouble was finding a day or a night where I could just sit down and watch it. Having liked two of the previous three Tarr films I'd seen (Damnation and Wreckmeister Harmonies I liked, Man From London I thought was way too long) I wanted to give the film a fair shake- in other words at least try and see the film as Tarr intended-in one sitting.

For me the film is a mixed blessing. Its a beautiful film. It's an often funny and heartbreaking one. The trouble is that it's a frigging seven hour one and it's length is occasionally a killer.

Told in twelve segments of various lengths (from about fifteen minutes to about an hour) the film often feels like it' 12 short films tied together with a visual style and a group of characters. As is often said you could release several of them as short films in their own right. Watching the film it's at times almost too much of a good thing and I found that I paused after several sections to take stock of what I had seen.

The two problems for me with the film come from Tarr's long take mis-direction style. After a while some of the long takes, the walking to the horizon sequences and the focusing on a table or a chair or even a person while things transpire off camera wore thin. Granted I knew what I was getting into when I saw this film, but some where about two hours in,and knowing I had five more hours to go, my patience began to get frayed for however long we just sort of stared at nothing. On the other hand most of the rest of the film is actually quite good.

Is this a film for everyone?

Oh hell no. Its a long winded, rambling pretentious piece of film making. I say this with love and affection, and the badge of honor of having actually made it through the seven hours. Its an often painfully slow film that will reward those who can click with it and send others screaming from the room.

The choice to watch it is your own...

Actually the best thing about Santantango is the reviews it inspires. I would never have attempted the film with out reading many differing opinions on the films. They are a blast. If you want to start try Slates piece or the one at Spectrum Culture and then google some more. Watching people try to explain how they feel about the film is great fun.

(An aside with a possible spoiler- Having lost my place after pausing the film I found I had to scan to get back to where I left off...Watch the sequence with the dead person on the table at high speed and you'll notice they are breathing.)

It Came From Hollywood (1982)

Because of a rights issue It Came From Hollywood is damn near impossible to see. It was supposed to get a DVD release a few years ago but the knotty issue of the right to use the clips rose up and the discs were withdrawn just as they were to be released. A few escaped but now if you want to see this very funny movie you either have to dig out your old laser disc, VHS tape, or pray that one of the odd cable stations runs it.

The film is a collection of choice clips from “bad” movies introduced and kidded by Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, John Candy and Cheech & Chong. The clips are from every type of movie imaginable with titles like Prince Of Space, Monsoon, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes, and of course the films of Ed Wood.

The films clips are grouped together by subjects such as BRAINS. After a title the films are introduced by one of the stars who does a little sketch before providing some pithy dialog. The clips and the narration are the subject of much mirth. In a weird way the film is a kind of forerunner to Mystery Science Theater 3000, except that the riffing is over a clip instead of a whole film.


I love this movie a great deal. I've seen it so many times I've lost count. I know that when it was in theaters my brothers and I would make regular pilgrimages to whichever local cinema was running it to see it.


In all honesty I've seen most of the films in this film straight and many of them do play better with the ribbing.


If you can find a copy do so. This is a great party film and one of the best comedies out there.


(An aside. There is a weird shootout between Sydney Toler and another man where we watch as the two shoot slowly at each other. Bang....bang...bang....bang....and on and on until someone falls down dead. It looks like the people behind It Came From Hollywood played with the footage to draw the sequence out. Well, surprise, that's the way it is. Find yourself a copy of the film Monsoon directed by Edgar Ulmer and you'll see what I'm talking about.)