Death Proof

00s Drama
4 stars

I've already been in one heated discussion about this Tarantino film (with Drew from I Am Spoonbender), but I liked it. Way more than I liked either volume of the insufferable Kill Bill, and also more than Jackie Brown. Tarantino seemed to have a good time making this film and it is reflected on the screen. Sure, there's the overt homage to Vanishing Point, but what the heck is wrong with that? Nada. I didn't mind the on-and-on dialog, as I felt it made the violence that much more impactful. Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike rocks, but can't touch Snake Pliskin. Those stunts at the end, while totally gratuitous, were adrenaline inducing, to say the least.

The Desperate Hours

Noir
3.5 stars

Despite whatever profound commentary can be made about the corruptibility of the haven of the suburban household, this one didn't really do it for me. I thought it predictable (although very well crafted) and routine. On the plus side, Bogart is dominant, as it should be.

The Missouri Breaks

70s Western
2.5 stars

A rather low rating on this one, even though I love Brando and Nicholson, and Night Moves by Penn is one of my all-time favorites. I actually like Brando's performance here, even with his all-over-the-place style, he's still somewhat of a rated PG badass. The story just doesn't compel. Film seems influenced by another favorite of mine, Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, but is nowhere near as good. Should've been rated R, and if it had been we could've learned what was really up with Brando's sexually ambiguous character.

Side Street

Noir
4 stars

Anthony Mann noir about a guy who commits thievery only to regret it!

Buena Vista Social Club

Music Doc
3.5 stars

Great music, moving stories and masterful craft demonstrated, but let's be clear: the moving camera bothered me in this context. I also feel this film is entirely overrated. The film seems somehow stiff and inorganic to me. I did NOT teach on this film to my class.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

00s Comedy
4 stars

Wildly entertaining with great music about a transvestite singer. Music is great. Hilarious, similar in many aspects to Velvet Goldmine.

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage

70s Thriller
3 stars

I know this film has crazy street cred, but I was a little underwhelmed by it. There's style in bunches, but overall what we've got here is a fairly standard story with a less-than-thrilling payoff. This was my first Argento experience, and I'm intrigued to check out more. I'm just not frothing at the mouth to do it. Yet.

For Your Consideration

00s Comedy
3 stars

I fell promptly and soundly asleep. Granted, I had just come back from Las Vegas where I enjoyed a weekend with the fellas, drank a lot of margaritas and slept little. The comedy here was the first I've seen by this team not uproariously funny. A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and Spinal Tap were all way more memorable. Ok that's cheating because I snored through most of this, so I really can't say.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

50s Drama
Existential
4.5 stars
My Uncle Stu's Favorite Film!

A poetic, interesting piece on the nature of loss. My Uncle Stu's favorite film, and his is one opinion I trust. For my money, this is about as powerful as film making gets. It's hard from 2008 to understand just how pervasive and horrifying WWII must have been on every level of consciousness, but the existence of this film and Night and Fog reveal some of how coping was approached by Resnais.

Crime Wave

Film Noir
5 stars

A great find. This noir has a strong story, a young Charles Bronson, an on-his-game Sterling Hayden, wonderful footage of old-school Los Angeles and outstanding cinematography.

Strait-Jacket

60s Drama
Woman in Danger
4.5 stars

This is best described as a "B" picture, but Joan Crawford gives an amazing performance, at once psychotic and sad. I found myself getting quite taken in by her character. It's a totally campy movie, with George "Police Squad" Kennedy as some sort of threatening farmhand, but this movie deserves a special place in any film lover's heart.

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte

60s Drama
Older Woman In Danger
4 stars

The so-called "psycho biddy" (older woman in danger) subgenre continues here with Bette Davis as the main character and she's in fine acting form, along with Agnes Moorehead. Another decent Robert Aldrich film, the cinematography is great, and the spastic violence surprises and shocks. Long, melodramatic, but Gothic and good.

Die! Die! My Darling!

60s Drama
Older Woman in Danger
3 stars

Another from the crazy old woman series, this one's got an English twist, produced by the Hammer Studios. Not exactly graphic, not exactly gruesome, but no doubt hammy and over the top. This time, the older woman is not in danger, she's causing it. Alternate title is "Fanatic" and that fits this film.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

60s Drama
Older Woman in Danger
4 stars

I know how highly regarded this film is, and I have love for Aldrich, but how much mean stuff from Davis to Crawford can I take? The payoff confession at the end also fell way flat, although I loved seeing King Tut Buono from the old Batman tv show in here. Wonderfully acted, downright scary.

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?

60s Drama
3 stars
Older Woman In Danger

I can say this film was almost so bad it was great, and I suppose in a strange way it is great. A lonely, batty woman knocks off her housekeepers, as numbered by the trees in her garden. A kooky, hammy mess of entertainment, churned up in the wake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.

Fear In The Night

Noir
1940s Drama
2.5 stars

DeForest Kelly fans rejoice! Here's a starring old-school vehicle for your man Bones. This movie is a very slow kind of mystery, with some noir elements such as the sets showcasing the inner psychological makeup of the main character. This movie is excruciatingly slow, however. I fell asleep twice watching it, but managed to get through it in 3 sittings.

Genghis Blues

Music Doc
4.5 stars

Fascinating story about blind American who picks up Tuvan singing and travels to Mongolia. The music is incredible. A bit like watching home movies spun into a great story. Would have shown this one to my students had there been more time.

Double Indemnity

Noir
5 stars

An all time classic, baby.

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde

70's Thriller
British
2 stars

I'm not sure when I last thought this about a film, but this film is a prime candidate for a remake, by a thoughtful producer who can push the gender-bending and sexual elements (I'm thinking Shawn Ryan of The Shield) using today's mores. This film rushes headlong into deviant territory, only to become relatively chaste when the going gets good. Premise for the ages, though, a gender battle of Jekyll and Hyde rather than meek/ogre.

Pretty Poison

60s Drama
3.5 stars

Interesting film starring Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. This has many noir elements despite the vibrant colors and lush musical score. The plot contains a wonderful surprise in character motivation. Very 60s. I wanted to like this movie so much and thought it was...good.

The Big Sleep

Noir
70s Drama
Mitchum
1.5 stars

This seems like a made for tv movie. It is the first film I've seen with Mitchum where he shows no charisma. Why this film was even remade is beyond me. Mitchum plays too old and can't carry Bogart's lead from the original. I fell asleep watching this on 2 different viewings. A flop on all counts.

Sympathy for the Devil

60s Drama
4.5 stars

I don't know if I've ever seen a film quite like this. I really liked this movie. A bit clunky, but the camera movements were outstanding. Scenes of the Rolling Stones working out the title song cut between various scenes of revolutionaries, artists and intellectuals. Great filmmaking. Requires a lot of concentration to watch, but should be more well-known.

Medium Cool

60s Drama
4 stars

Very interesting blend of documentary style and story. Captured an interesting zeitgeist, the craziness surrounding the 1968 national Democratic convention in Chicago. The director has taken some great doc footage and crafted a narrative fiction film around it. Creative storytelling. Stars a young Robert Forster for all you Tarantino junkies.

Fury

Noirish
3.5 stars

Very early and interesting noirish story loosely based on the Brooke Hart case. The scene of the mob storming the jail was particularly chilling, the rest of the film less so, but as Lang's first American picture, it's historical.

Murder, My Sweet

Noir
4 stars

Very stylish noir thriller. Some excellent, inventive camera work. Good Marlowe story. Another noir that can easily be held up to represent the genre. Despite the scary character Moose Malloy, this film is fun the entire way through.

Tokyo Story

50s Drama
4.5 stars

The camera never moves! A lyrical story about realizations at the end of one's life. Growing old doesn't seem like fun. Slow and steady wins the race, or does it?

The Seventh Seal

50s Drama
Existential
5 stars

This is great highbrow cinema. Existential cinema. I could imagine Woody Allen watching this and coming up with humorous situations based on it. Set in the 14th century, but pertinent to eternal questions. Wonderful filmmaking.

Hoover Street Revival

Documentary
4 stars

Almost-great doc about how a preacher in impoverished LA has changed lives. Old school yet marginally experimental. Me likey.

Performance

70s Drama
4.5 stars

With Mick Jagger. A very interesting film of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Outstanding. Contains the early music video Memo From Turner. I watched this a couple of times and texted several friends about it.

Le Cercle Rouge

70s Drama
French
4.5 stars

Great, relatively unknown stylish French crime film. Hugely inventive, and deserving of much wider recognition. Recommended without reservation.

Radio On

Borderline 70s/80s Drama
British
4.5 stars

This is a real gem of a find, a British art house road movie. The opening, with the German version of Bowie's "Heroes" and a camera moving around an apartment, is wonderful and sets the tone for what follows. One of the best soundtracks I've ever heard including Kraftwerk (from Radioactivity), incredible visual sense (Wim Winders had some involvement with production), pacing meditative, and overall a strong film.

Los Zafiros: Music From the Edge of Time

Music Doc
3.5 stars

A touching look at the surviving members of Los Zafiros, Cuba's all-time pop group from the early and mid 1960s. A love of the subject and the people shines through here, as does a nice look at Cuba today. Plus the music is great.

Decoy

Noir
3.5 stars

Old school noir about a greedy woman. Veers into sci-fi and that's not so good.

American Blackout

Documentary
3 stars

A valuable social doc on the disenfranchisement of African-American voters, focused on the '00 and '04 elections. Any elected official who engages with tough questions of the Bush administration-and not ex post facto-deserves some sort of notice. The fact that some of our elected officials feel voter disenfranchisement isn't an issue at all is downright scary. More serious attention needs to be paid to this problem.

Marie Antoinette

00s Drama
2.5 stars

Wonderful sets & costumes, the use of (relatively) modern music with a period piece movie is occasionally inspired, and the outdoor scenes often engage an evocative use of camera. That's the good. This film is about 45 minutes too long, as so much of the action repeats itself and the story itself moves at a snail's pace. I fought the urge to turn it off about 3 times. Some may quibble over the Schwartzman casting, but I thought he was a nice choice.

They Drive By Night

Noir
3.5 stars

Decent early noir (very similar in some respects to Thieves' Highway) that starts as a workers' struggle story and ends up with a mad woman gone amok. Bogart is a supporting player here, but Raft is good. Not bad, but I like my noirs with more grit.

Green Street Hooligans

00s Drama
4 stars

I liked this movie about a US college kid going to England and finding friendship with a hooligan. Good soccer fandom film. I've always wanted to go over to the UK and follow a soccer club around for 6 months or so. This movie is a little underrated.

Silent Running

Sci-Fi
3 stars

An interesting ecological sci-fi movie that showcases a few precursors of Star Wars. There are no women in this film, and for a rated G film, actually has a murder. I found the subject matter of this film very compelling, although Bruce Dern is a little strange for a leading figure and the movie follows the pattern of early 70s sci-fi with lots of quiet spaces and solitude as subject fodder. This movie is a bit preachy, but with our current climate crises, it seems loaded with foresight. The ending is provocative.

The Spiral Staircase

Noir
2.5 stars

Country-noir. This movie was a snoozer, with some interesting characters but a non-starter plot. Overall a whodunnit with some strong expressionist elements and fine acting, but the problem here is a suspense story where the suspense never mounts.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Music Doc
5 stars

A fascinating look at a young musician with manic depression. Here's another film I showed to my students at UCSC. This film pulls the veil back on the notion of celebrity and is blessed with such a wealth of personal archival material. See this film.

Bad Day at Black Rock

50s Drama
3.5 stars

This film gets a lot of hype. The use of widescreen/cinemascope and color are very impressive, and of course Lee Marvin is great, but I thought the social messaging was disappointing.

The Amazing Mr. X

Noir
3 stars

A very short film, John Alton cinematography, but kind of fluffy. A woman is tricked by her supposedly deceased husband into fear of carrying on another relationship. They definitely don't make this kind of movie anymore.

On Noir...

A few quick words here about my affection for film noir.

As someone interested in social history, I am curious about the influential group of noir filmmakers who emigrated to the USA from Europe, folks like Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, etc. Whether fleeing persecution or pursuing artistic opportunity, the noir film directors list lends itself to further reading.

I also have nostalgic appreciation (although what's the term when you are nostalgic for something you never actually experienced?) for location shooting in these pictures, especially the films set in California. I've spent a good amount of time driving all over Los Angeles just to stand on locations where Mike Hammer stood in Kiss Me Deadly, to see Phyllis' Double Indemnity house, etc.

At its best, noir storytelling is a splendid mix of desperation, law v. crime, lust and betrayal, all set to hard-edged dialog, sharp clothes, shadowy streets, shots of whiskey, and endless cigarettes. And it should not be overlooked how noir gave female actors wonderful, memorable, exciting, commanding opportunities.

I'm not saying noir is perfect. Too often, perhaps in a reflection of the times of production, racial stereotypes on screen are embarrassing and insulting. This makes films like Odds Against Tomorrow and No Way Out all the more stunning and powerful.

Just a few Favorite Noir Films
Kiss Me Deadly
Touch of Evil
Asphalt Jungle
The Big Combo
Lady in the Lake
Odds Against Tomorrow
Sorry, Wrong Number
Elevator to the Gallows

and, of course,
Double Indemnity

The Big Knife

50s Drama
3.5 Stars

A dark, interesting film that views just as much like a play as a movie due to the serious restrictions in locations. Palance is excellent, almost Pacino-esque, and Rod Steiger is the closest I've seen to another Brando. A Hollywood horror story. Good stuff.

Zoo

Doc
.5 star

The responsibility for this dud falls on the director and editor. At what point did they think they had the story? The entire movie circles around the issue of zoophilia or bestiality, never landing on any insightful explorations or even insight into the event itself. There's way too much Errol Morris homage as if the filmmaker either never found the story or proper access. The story is what was gelded here.

Prime Cut

70s Drama
3.5 stars
Lee Marvin

This is one of those weird 1970s dramas, with Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman. There are some fascinating scenes here, but overall this movie is kind of flat.

The Enforcer

Noir
3.5 stars

Flashbacks in flashbacks abound here for this derivative noir. Bogart is great in this paint-by-numbers noir.

Criss Cross

Noir
4.5 Stars

A gem of a noir with Burt Lancaster as a sympathetic lovestruck man. The film, like the great Kiss Me Deadly, features a shot of the Angels Flight in Los Angeles. The story is good, the only thing keeping this from being a 5 is the all-too-quick final scene between the triangle of lovers.

Bullet Boy

British
00s Drama
4 stars

Called the "Boyz in the Hood" of England, it's the story of some youths trying to stay on this side of the law. Sad stuff. Massive Attack soundtrack. Damn good movie.

High Sierra

Noir
4 stars

Good early noir showing the transition from the gangster picture to noir. Bogart is outstanding and the story is consistently interesting from start to end. A very intense 1940 movie from Raoul Walsh.