I Wake Up Screaming

Noir
4.5 stars

After a rocky opening, this one gets going in a huge way. It must be said that Laird Cregar, for my money, steals the show as an obsessed cop that reminded me a lot of Forest Whittaker as Cavanaugh in The Shield. There are a few times when the lighting inventiveness is stunning, and really capture what noir lighting is all about. The story about a murdered model is done in a fairly complex way. Overall, the movie has a similar feel to The Night of the Hunter, in the stark, Gothic contrast.

Daisy Kenyon

40s Drama
Noirish
4 stars

This is the type of movie of which doctoral students are made. A so-called "Woman's Picture" of the immediate post-war era, with a dominant performance by Joan Crawford, and strong support from Dana Andrews and a creepy Henry Fonda. The love triangle, the noirish elements, and the depth and complexity of the characters lend this movie to analysis from all sides. Huzzah, Otto, huzzah!

The Child/L'Enfant

00s Drama
French
3.5 stars

Sad tale about a guy who sells his child because he's too lazy to get a job. Very sad & intense. Oh, the realism!

Suburbia

80s Drama
3.5 stars

I was surprised by this film. First, by how stiff some of the acting was. But then, as I got deeper, at how well this film seemed to capture being 14-17 years old, feeling like an outcast and living like one. It's also a solid commentary on early 80s California, not too dissimilar from Repo Man (but not nearly as polished) with great live documentary-style footage of a couple bands of the era. Definitely took me back. Yeah, this is the one with a young Flea. And his rat.

Black Sunday

70s Drama
3 stars

Sheeoot. If they could've cut 45 minutes off this thing, plus rewritten the ending, they would've had something here. First off, the ending is like something out of a bad James Bond movie (bad like A View to a Kill bad). However, up until the final 30 minutes, the movie had some simmer. A plot featuring anti-Israeli terrorists planning to cause major destruction at the Super Bowl is intriguing. Bruce Dern is actually quite good here. Pretty good for the political stuff, awful for a tremendous nose dive at the end.

Macon County Line

70s Drama
2 stars

A couple of young men with a woman in tow run into trouble in the deep south. A potentially interesting formula, but this one was a dud. Scary southerners has been done elsewhere, and better. I had my finger hovering over the "stop" button on the remote like I was Jamie Farr wielding the gong on The Gong Show, but I put in the time and watched the entire thing. Bleh.

Gone Baby Gone

00s Drama
3.5 stars

This one starts out pretty good, but the veering into police corruption is a snore-bore of the highest order. Also, I haven't yet found anyone who saw this film who thinks the crime would've gone down that way. The very ending dilemma is an interesting one, however. Casey Affleck is obviously the actor Affleck to watch. Not a bad flick, just didn't sustain the good stuff long enough.

Two-Lane Blacktop

70s Drama
Existentialist
4.5 stars

This film can easily be held up to represent the best of 1970s American cinema. With an incredible cast (Warren Oates, James "Fire and Rain" Taylor, Dennis Wilson, and a don't blink cameo from Harry Dean Stanton), this story exists in the some of the same spaces as Easy Rider. Like Cockfighter, this film lurches ahead at its own pace using minimal dialog. Drag racing is the theme, and the viewer is challenged to draw metaphorical meaning. A strong, surreal, existential film.

Branded to Kill

60s Drama
Japanese
4 stars

This film exudes style in bunches, it's so creative. I had to start this one twice, because the first time I was starting to have a major downer. The gangster death contests are set amid heavy sexual sequences. Deviant behavior abounds. Expressionist in the same vein as Murder, My Sweet or The Professionals. Palpable desperation. This one deserves a viewing.

Young Man With A Horn

50s Drama
3.5 stars

This film touched me as a jazz lover, a non-musician and a film fan. I'm not saying this is the greatest film, but the scenes where the young boy hears the music and is able to feel it, thereby cementing his destiny, reminds me of what I felt like during the time I filmed the organists for First Gravy and heard Bob Birch with the New Mastersounds, or Nick Rossi plugging away at Club Deluxe in San Francisco. This film is about 80% great and the rest not so much.