Azor (2021)

 

During the early 1970’s after the military coup, a Swiss banker and his wife go to Buenos Aires in order to replace his partner who has disappeared with out a trace. While he tries to reassure the ruling class that everything is fine as he makes new deals, he begins to hear troubling things about his partner and the situation in the country.

This is a dark political drama/political thriller. Many reviews are grabbing on to the similarities to Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness  because of one sequence in particular, however I would say that this is something much darker. What we see is not one persons journey observing as he goes but a turning of the soul of one man has he fights to survive in the dark world of a ruling junta and the powerful people behind them.  While our hero is nominally a good man , the fact that he is Swiss banking exec suggests there is a bit of darkness in his soul.

What I love about this film is that it doesn’t do anything we expect. Things are not overt. Everything is in the background and talked around. We may not see everything but we hear about everything and what we hear is enough to chill us.  This is a film that understands that many times inferring is more chilling then showing.

What is also great about this film is that it doesn’t do what you expect it to.  Its rhythms are its own things, it’s a film that is a perfect thriller that never really resorts to any of the thriller tropes. Not that you will mind, you’ll be so caught up in waiting to see where it goes to care.

Highly recommended AZOR opens Friday

Ultrasound (2021) Tribeca 2021

The problem with ULTRASOUND is that they have made a film that will be completely wrecked once people start reviewing it. Long before anyone gets to see it the film critics will have spilled the beans and ruined one the great cinematic rides of the year. Granted the greatness of the ride will depend upon how little you know about the film- but for those going into it blind this is going to the best cinematic theme park there is.

The only thing I feel comfortable saying is the film starts on a rainy night when a man returning from a wedding runs over some nail filled boards in the road and is forced to spend the night with a strange couple. What happens from there is the film and all of the answers are not given until the very end.

Actually what happens after that will have you talking to the screen for 100 minutes.

Now the trick with this film is that in order to dull appreciate it you need not to know anything about it. I mean you need to know zip. The joy of the film is finding out each twist and turn as it goes. The shock and surprise as well as the genuine feeling of  "WTF is it doing now!?!!!" will warm the cockles of your heart.

And when I beg you go into the film blind I am very serious. I watched the film a second time  and while I still think it's a good film I suddenly found the film as not as mind blowing because I suddenly could see  what it was doing. I connected the early moments to the end and saw some flaws I missed te first time. (Think about you reaction to David Finchers' THE GAME the first time and every time after)

Reservations about second viewings aside this is a great cinematic ride and worth seeing.

Clover (2020)

Sent to me billed as a crime thriller Clover is really a comedic crime story that isn’t really good. It is so bad it makes the ever wonderful Ron Perlman give his worst performance.

The premise of the film has two brothers running an bar on the short end to the mob boss they borrowed money from. Sent to out on a mission that will clear their debt things go from bad to worse.

The problem with this film is that the cast plays this as if walking around with an attitude is the same as acting. No one ever changes their expression nor shows any sort of range of emotion. The whole cast, Chazz Palmentari excepted wanders around as if they were in a comedy sketch. It’s the actors attitudes that lead me to believe this is a comedy because the script isn’t very funny. Actually the script plays like a thriller but without thrills. Its very funny but for all the wrong reasons.

To be honest if this film had been played as a serious thriller this would have been a nifty little thriller but the above it all performances of the cast just kill this.

This is a turkey of the highest order and one of the worst films of 2020

UNSEEN FILMS STAY AT HOME FEST: Film Eight PATTERN FOR PLUNDER (1963)

If you want a nifty black and white thriller PATTERN FOR PLUNDER is just the ticket. Years ago when I started diving into B films, specifically thrillers and mysteries, this was a film that many of the older collectors I knew  swore by, and insisted that I see it. They were right, is a great film.  If you want a great film to curl up on the couch on a rainy evening this is it.

This is currently available on Amazon and highly recommended.

Keenan Wynn shows up on the door of several of his old army buddies promising a fortune in lost Nazi gold if only they join him to get it. Crazy as it might sound they join up and before long they are hip deep in intrigue.

What can I say, this is a small scale gem, the sort of film that deserves to be seen. Its perfect proof at how good B- movies could be even as late as the 1960's.

This is a well acted story of post war greed that doesn't want to be anything other than an entertaining evening. There are plot twists and a traitor in their midst and if you put your mind to it you might be able to figure things out, but its so much fun just watching whats going on on screen that it really isn't worth the effort. Why spoil the fun of the mystery by sorting it out way too early?

If you come across this film take the time to watch it since its 90 minutes well spent.

Night Sweats (2019)

Night Sweats is a tough film to review. While the film is the story of a skateboarder who begins investigating what is happening with a self-help organization following some deaths of people connected to it is the synopsis that will get you in the reality is that where it goes is something else entirely. The fact that the film goes into unexpected territory is what will keep you watching…

This is a small little joy. A solid well made thriller that simply is entertaining it isn’t trying to hit it out of the park so much as getting a few extra bases. Beautifully designed so as to give us a bunch of characters we really like, the film has created a tale that is twisting and turning enough that we genuinely want to know how it all comes out.

If you want to know how good it is consider that while I watching the film at lunch on my computer I ended up joined by a co-worker who came by not long after I started, got hooked, and then brought their lunch to sit and watch with me…. And they got really pissed off when we had to stop the film because out hour to eat was over. Then then made me promise to finish up the film before went home. When the film was finished I asked them what they thought they said “You know I liked it, I mean I stayed past quitting time to see how it ended.” That may not be a Siskel and Ebert two thumps up or five star review, but it does prove you will be entertained.

Night Sweats starts on November 14th in New York and VOD and is recommended

The Tattooist (2018)

Director Michael Wong has done a terrible thing He has made a wonderful micro-short that kicks serious ass and is impossible to review. Its such a problem to write about that it has taken me four months to figure out how to write the film up. I mean I could have written a single line and been done with it, however that isn’t fair. More importantly I could explain how the 90 second film showcases just how good Mr Wong is.

The plot, or as much as I can tell say, has a tattoo artist tattooing the back of a beautiful girl and thinking about things. Other than that I can’t say more because, well that would give everything away.

The Tattooist is a neon drenched rapid fire film that feels like the trailer for a much longer film, except that it says and does everything that a feature would do in two minutes. It is a film that left me staring at the screen the first time I saw it in disbelief. Did I see what I thought I saw? I mean the rapid fire images were like watching a stunning ballet that ends with a poke in the eye. I had to watch the film again…

If this isn’t a calling card for a big Hollywood feature film I don’t know what is. As I said back when I reviewed Mr Wong’s THE STORY OF 90 COINS he is a great director, and this film proves it. His marriage of sound and image is beyond masterful.

What makes Wong’s work so important, and what tripped me up in writing the film, is that what Wong does with sound and image isn’t just pretty pictures. He is working them for maximum effect for the story he is telling. Because the film is so short I can’t tell you how each image builds on the next so that we are pulled in and dragged down a run down corridor before we are slapped across the face. Earlier versions of this review went into detail explaining what he was doing, but I couldn’t post those reviews because it would take away from your reaction when you saw the film. I wanted you to have the same reaction that I did when I saw it the first time all those months ago and again when I saw the film to write this piece. If I talked about what happened then you wouldn’t be slammed into silence at realizing what you just saw as the end credits came up. I can only imagine how this played at a festival where the film just comes up out of nowhere, grabbing an unsuspecting room of people by the throat before dropping them off in some dark place before they realized it.

Make no mistake The Tattooist is a great film. I’m not just saying that, I mean it. I am so serious about how this 90 second film is one of the great films of 2019 that I took four months to write about it.

Yea, The Tattooist is a great film and Michael Wong is a great director. Now someone, anyone let him do what he just did for two minutes for a film that’s a two hours.