The Big Roundup

I saw a lot more than the 33 movies (and one TV series) I wrote about last year. I realize 33 is too much for some people. Five would be a lot for some. But as a movie buff who writes about movies for a living as well as for love, 33 seems almost paltry. Between theatrical visits, which are becoming increasingly rare as I get older and crankier, and streaming services, I see much more than that. If I haven't written about all of them, it's because life keeps getting in the way. Sometimes I don't have time to get down my thoughts in a timely manner. And other times, however much I may enjoy or dislike a film, the words just don't come.

So here's a rundown of some of the films I didn't get a chance to share. Originally, I was going to write about everything I saw, but the list got a little long, so I'm just going for the highlights. These are quickies —random observations. I've put them in alphabetical order so you can skim for what interests you.

 

Clockwise from upper left: Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Bad and the Beautiful.

City That Never Sleeps and Boy Erased

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) — With Paul Rudd co-writing and starring (and solid comic support from Michael Peña and Walton Goggins), this film is so much fun it's easy to lose sight of the plot. It's something about keeping an evil mutant what's-it from getting the equipment Rudd and the new Wasp (Evangeline Lily) need to rescue her mother, the original Wasp, from the microverse. Since that role is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, the sooner they get to it the better.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) — Three thoughts on an enjoyable if over-stuffed film:

1.     What's the point of casting an actress as good as Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight if she's going to be lost behind heavy makeup, with half her performance delivered by a stunt woman or CGI?

2.     When you put most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes into one film you begin to notice the funny ones all sound pretty much the same.

3.     If you're up on your industry news, the big finish loses some of its impact, despite Robert Downey, Jr.'s well-played reactions to the carnage. Most of the people who got ashed are signed for sequels to their own films, so death is as impermanent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it is in their comics.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) —Two years after All About Eve (1950), MGM produced a film equivalent, using wit and blind-item plotting to dissect the worst aspects of the art form. If you don't take it too seriously (this applies particularly to the lines about the Lana Turner character's becoming a great actress), it's a lot of fun. Nobody plays a heel like Kirk Douglas, and if you're surprised that Gloria Grahame won an Oscar for playing the writer's flighty wife (which she does very well), remember she had two other big hits that year —The Greatest Show on Earth and Sudden Fear — neither of which had the cachet of The Bad and the Beautiful.

Begone, Dull Care (1949) —This eight-minute film is more creative and exciting than most features. Rather than shooting images, directors Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted, drew and scratched directly on celluloid, even including dirt that got on the film while the strips were drying in the lab. It all plays out to music by jazz great Oscar Peterson. Made long before computer editing, the whole thing still seems to fit perfectly. It's Fantasia (1940) for adults, very sophisticated adults.

Blood Beach (1980) — Back before Syfy, cheapies like this actually played in movie theatres. Blood Beach features a mostly unseen thingie lurking under the Santa Monica beach that keeps sucking people under the sand to eat them. It takes out an old woman, thereby motivating the romantic plot; her daughter (Marianna Hill) comes home and renews ties with her childhood sweetheart (David Huffman). The actors are decent, but the writing for them isn't. After his stewardess girlfriend gets eaten, Huffman gets back with Hill in record time. As head of the city police department, John Saxon pops in every so often to register confused disgust, which seems prescient when the monster is finally revealed. It looks like an ambulatory vulva.

Boy Erased (2018) — Not having the time to write up all my thoughts on this one really hurt. In only his second feature as writer and director, Australian actor Joel Edgerton navigates a tricky script that plays with time to dramatize Garrard Conley's memoir of his stay in a Christian rehabilitation center for gay and lesbian youth.  Shortly after the young man's arrival, the camera pans through the group as they pray, revealing ever younger participants, the last of whom seem to have barely reached puberty. It's one of the most horrifying sights in any film this year. The entire cast (including Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, singer Troye Sivan and Edgerton, who plays the rehabilitation center's leader) is strong. As Jared, the fictionalized stand-in for Conley, Lucas Hedges dominates the film with effortless grace. Hedges has the perfect face for a middle American everyman. There's an open passivity to his look that makes him seem like any face in the crowd, but he also has the emotional depths to break through that. In one scene, he goes running on a night off from the center. He passes a bus shelter with an ad featuring a male model posed seductively. It's an amazing moment, and a terrific bit of physical acting, Without any words, he and Edgerton suggest conflicting feelings about our sexualized culture that go beyond what a lot of filmmakers try to do with just dialogue.

City That Never Sleeps (1953) —It's a good thing this Republic film noir was recently restored. There's a key plot point you can't see in the print available on YouTube. It would be a pity if print quality kept people from enjoying this surprising little combination of film noir and fantasy. Gig Young stars as a Chicago cop tempted to pull off a crooked deal so he can run off with his mistress (Mala Powers). On what could be his last night out, his regular partner is replaced by Chill Wills as an officer nobody knows who keeps spouting folksy wisdom about the city and seems to have inside information on Young's life. The picture is filled with unusual characters and surprising performances, with Marie Windsor as a classic noir femme fatale and William Tallman as a psychopath with a pet rabbit almost walking off with acting honors. It's imaginatively directed by the Hungarian Joseph H. Auer, who never did anything comparable in almost 30 years of filmmaking, and beautifully shot by John L. Russell.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) — Dear Return of the Jedi: You are no longer the most disappointing end to a film trilogy. Sincerely, The Cloverfield Paradox.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) — It's wonderful to see a film showcasing such a strong cast of Asian actors and so many Asian musicians, but this is one rom-com that's long on the rom and short on the com. And the rom part is pretty generic. It's your basic spunky girl falls for someone without realizing how rich he is and then gets rejected by the wealthy family, even though they're the ones who aren't good enough. Some critics have labeled it "affluence porn," suggesting the ultimate message is that the only good Asians are rich Asians. Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh and Lisa Lu are very good, while Awkwafina, Ken Jeong and Nico Santos (as the gay cousin who's tolerated because he can get his aunties anything) carry what little comedy there is.

 

Clockwise from upper left: Creep, The 400 Blows, Diabolique and Games

Creep (2014) — This film could have been made by the people who preach against the dangers of social media, except few of them are anywhere near this witty. An aspiring filmmaker (the director, Patrick Brice) answers a Craigslist ad from a supposedly dying man (Mark Duplass) who wants to record a video message for his unborn child. Most of the film is improvised, and Duplass comes up with a series of increasingly threatening provocations, as frightening as they are silly. Ultimately, the low-budget film is more unsettling than most mainstream horrors.

The Darkest Minds (2018) — I only mention this because seeing the simple, clean work of leading man Harris Dickenson led me to the much better Beach Rats (2017, see "Closets and Complexes"). He and Amanda Stenberg are fine as the leads in this tale of teens with super powers being hunted down by a corrupt government —think of it as "X-Men Lite" — but the whole thing is a little pat and is very obviously designed to launch a franchise, though the picture's poor box office would seem to have put an end to that idea.

Diabolique (1955) — What a wonderfully nasty piece of work it is! Henri-George Clouzot's classic thriller pits abused wife (Vera Clouzot) and mistress (Simone Signoret) against the nasty headmaster of a boy's school, or does it? There's not a sympathetic character in sight. Even the students are little terrors. This film may have the most oppressive mise en scene on record. There isn't a plain wall or bare table in sight. Clutter rules!

Enchanted (2007) — Why did it take me so long to catch up with Disney's goof on its own conventions? Amy Adams, between her first and second Oscar nominations, is a delight as Giselle, an animated almost-princess magically transported to New York City. Her confrontations with the real (at least in comparison to her cartoon reality) world are often very funny, particularly when she gets to sing.  She's such a good musician she can get away with making fun of musical conventions. There isn't enough of James Marsden as her animated prince or Susan Sarandon as the wicked witch, but when he's not being directed by Mike Leigh, a little bit of Nicholas Spall as the queen's evil accomplice is already too much.

Excision (2012) — If you don't read the credits, you won't realize the uptight mother in this comic horror is Traci Lords. After years of playing overgrown delinquents with more enthusiasm than technique, she turns in a thoroughly accomplished character turn as a woman whose perfectionism pushes her misfit daughter (a very good AnnaLynne McCord) to horrifying ends. Get this woman into an A-budget film, now!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) — The beasts are enchanting. Eddie Redmayne isn't. For an actor capable of delivering work as good as his Anthony Baekeland in Savage Grace (2007) and Stephen Hawkings in The Theory of Everything (2014), he has a distressing habit of turning into a human-sized wind-up toy in this film, so mechanical you can't tell if it's real or CGI.

Final Destination 5 (2011) — With this entry, the franchise becomes the Ring of the Nibelungen of the horror genre. Five films and seven and a half hours later, and you're right back where you started.

The First Purge (2018) — The curious thing about the third Purge film is the opening newscast, which reveals that the purge (the yearly orgy of legal violence that supposedly frees the nation of its aggressions) was made possible when a new political party swept to power thanks to massive donations from the NRA. Amazing to think a film could be outdated before it even hits home video.

The 400 Blows (1959) — With the demise of FilmStruck, is it still possible to stream this painful, exquisite portrait of a troubled young man? Francois Truffaut's semi-autobiographical film remains one of the most impressive feature directing debuts in the form's history. The conventions of nouvelle vague filmmaking (hand-held cameras, improvisation, extensive location footage) give the picture a documentary feel that makes some of its more melodramatic excesses (the hateful parents) more believable. Jean-Pierre Leaud, as the young Antoine Doinel, is a great find and would go on to serve as Truffaut's alter ego in a series of films. The final freeze frame is shattering.

Games (1967) — One of the great forgotten auteurs, Curtis Harrington, made the leap from experimental films and B movies to the mainstream by borrowing plot elements and leading lady Simone Signoret from Diabolique (1955). Heiress Katharine Ross and trophy husband James Caan collect antique games while playing practical jokes on friends and each other. When con artist Signoret infiltrates the household, the stakes rise. Caan does a great job as the pretentious, nouveau riche husband. He's particularly funny imitating a loutish delivery boy (Don Stroud) caught up in their games. Stroud plays the role like a young Brando, so Caan's mimicry, five years before The Godfather, seems oddly prescient.

Clockwise from upper left: Last Train to Busan, The Giant Claw,  

Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things and Searching

The Giant Claw (1957) — The Earth is attacked by a giant turkey buzzard from an anti-matter universe. The creature looks as ridiculous as the plot description makes it sound, but stars Jeff Morrow and Mara Corday play it so earnestly they're almost endearing, at least when his behavior doesn't start approaching sexual harassment. In an era when mainstream features presented women in roles so submissive they bordered on the masochistic, it's fascinating to think how many horror films gave actresses like Corday, Faith Domergue, Paula Raymond, Joan Weldon and Julia Adams opportunities to play empowered women.

Hurricane Bianca: From Russia With Hate (2018) — The sequel to 2016's Hurricane Bianca is so lacking in the qualities that made the earlier film work it's surprising to realize it was written and directed by the same man, Matt Kugelman. Within the first few minutes, Kugelman's script undoes most of the ending of the earlier film, putting us back to square one. As Bianca Del Rio, Ray Haylock is a dynamic performer with a gift for delivering insults that's ultimately empowering. The film robs him of most of his power with a contrived plot that sends his character, high-school teacher Richard Martinez, to Russia for a series of jokes that should have gone out with the Cold War. With Bianca robbed of most of her mojo, the greatest acting energy comes from a new addition, Doug Plaut as a druggie friend. At first, he's saddled with a bunch of tired jokes about how stupid he is, but eventually his zonked-out sweetness becomes funnier and more compelling than anything else in the film.

The Idle Class (1921) — Sublime. Charles Chaplin wrote and directed this lightweight short in which the Little Tramp is mistaken for a dissolute society type. In one inspired bit, the wealthy man's wife (Edna Purviance, of course) leaves him because of his drinking. We see his back as he's seemingly wracked with sobs. Then he turns around to reveal his heaving shoulders were actually the result of his shaking a cocktail to celebrate his newfound freedom. The film is informed with Chaplin's grace as a performer without any of the rampant sentiment that can get a little heavy in his later works.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) — How inept is this sequel to the more entertaining, if still rather absurd Jurassic World (2015)? At one point, the film seems to forget that Geraldine Chaplin is in the cast. Where does she go? What happens to her? Since she's not a cute kid, a hot redhead, a hunky moron or a villain, nobody seems to care. Ultimately the film's only sympathetic character is a CGI dinosaur caught in a volcanic eruption. Pity they couldn't save him or her and kill all the humans.

Justice League (2017) — If the highlights of a superhero mash-up are the simple scenes in which two characters communicate, you know you're in trouble. Like Marvel, DC has filled its cinematic universe with good actors. When Diane Lane's Martha Kent and Amy Adams' Lois Lane compare notes on how to deal with grief or when Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman and Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne discuss leadership qualities, there's a compelling movie there. When the action starts, however, it's a mess of body blows and misplaced wisecracks.

The Prowler (1981) — This vintage slasher film has a nonsensical plot (Can anybody explain the killer's motivation? Go ahead. I dare you) and most of the standard tropes. But it also has a lot of atmosphere thanks to its Jersey shore location. I grew up in Philadelphia and spent a lot of summer vacation time in places like those in the film. They could be pretty spooky even when there wasn't anybody running around killing teenagers. A rather sad-looking graduation party is invaded by the return of a killer, a jilted G.I. who had taken out his faithless girlfriend and her 4F lover 35 years earlier. The leads are appealing and leading lady Vicky Dawson appropriately spunky. There are two "name" actors slumming in this one. Lawrence Tierney doesn't have nearly enough to do to justify his powerful presence (the handsome young actor aged into a virtual special effect), while Farley Granger looks like he'd rather be back touring with the National Repertory Theatre, and who can blame him?

Reflections of Horror (1974) — The biggest surprise about this TV remake of Diabolique (1955, see above) is how much it doesn't suck. There are the inevitable plot changes, but they work, particularly with the mistress' nasty tenants transformed into Lucille Benson's loquacious landlady. Joan Hackett and Tuesday Weld are great casting as wife and mistress, respectively, and who'd have thought Sam Waterston would be so good (and so sexy) playing an unredeemable bastard?

Searching (2018) — If John Cho's work on the second season of The Exorcist or in the independent drama Columbus (2017) hasn't already convinced you that he's a star just waiting to happen, I don't think you're smart enough to play with me. This intriguing thriller takes a troublesome concept — the entire story is told on computer screens — and whips it into shape. Cho's a widowed father whose high-school-age daughter suddenly goes missing. As he trolls through her laptop for clues as to where she might be, he realizes he's been so isolated by grief he has no idea who the girl really is. Any objections you might have to the gimmick melt away under the strength of Cho's performance, and he gets solid support from Debra Messing as a police detective who picks up the case.

Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things (1971) — If the way this low-budget thriller plays with gender is intentional, writer-director Thomas Casey is one of the great unsung heroes of independent film. If it's accidental, this remains one of the most interesting exploitation pictures ever made. Two crooks hide out in Miami after a murder. To throw the police off their trail, the older (Abe Zwick) masquerades as the younger's (Wayne Crawford, billed as Scott Lawrence) Aunt Martha. Their relationship is more than a little unconventional. They bicker like a dysfunctional mother and son. When Lawrence brings home a date who begins to get too grabby, he calls for his Aunt Martha, who dispatches the real girl with a kitchen knife. At one point they have to share a bed, which leads Crawford to joke about Zwick's having his way with him, but when they make up after a fight, their physical intimacy borders on the romantic. It's almost as if they were trying to prove that you could indeed do Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with an all-male cast. The two leads are surprisingly good. Zwick never made another film (at least under that name), while Crawford went on to a long career as a character actor and producer.

Train to Busan (2016) — Korean horror has become a thing, though this differs from the most popular examples of the type by eschewing body horror in favor of a good old-fashioned zombie plot. The setting this time is a train, and director Sang-ho Yeon makes great use of the confined setting to generate tension. The attack scenes are powerfully kinetic. It's all grounded in a basic human plot — workaholic father Yoo Gong has to take daughter Su-an Kim on a train ride to spend time with her mother, his ex-wife. When the zombie apocalypse breaks out, his drive to protect the girl surprises him more than anybody. The film did so well there's already a sequel in the works and talk of a U.S. version. Paging John Cho?