Reviews

Andrew McCarthy's doc is half-nostalgia, half-therapy session. McCarthy has never gotten over being tagged as a member of the Brat Pack, and blames that label as the primary reason his career stalled. McCarthy sets out to interview the other acknowledged Pack members and see how they have been doing the past three and a half decades and if they similarly feel stung by the moniker (he notes that he hasn't been in contact with many of them over those many years).

It's a strange, not to mention, awkward, set-up, but it has interest for anybody interested in 80s mainstream cinema. One of the issues that McCarthy has to address is exactly who qualifies as a full Brat Pack member? The original magazine article by David Blum is focused really on only three: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson . Ironically, McCarthy himself is only mentioned once. Assumed Brat Packers Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald aren't mentioned at all, and Demi Moore is simply cited as a girlfriend. McCarthy stretches the circle and interviews Jon Cryer, Timothy Hutton and Lea Thompson. Two members of the Pack don't give on camera interviews although McCarthy acknowledges that they at least called him back. What becomes clear is that the term never really had any meaning save for an easy catch-all for the media and the Hollywood publicity machine to exploit.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the interviews aren't too challenging and the other actors seem to have put it all behind them more than McCarthy himself. Usually, Much more so. Sheedy and Moore are the warmest to his plight and he's visibly moved by their words. Other interviewees include Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, Agent Loree Rodin and Director Howard Deutch who give first person accounts of how they handled the hoopla and the actors themselves. Some of the best footage come from Authors Brett Easton Ellis and Malcolm Gladwell who put the era in context.

The grand finale as where McCarthy confronts head to head the movie's boogeyman - Blum. To his credit, the author doesn't back down from his word; instead, he tries to put it all in context, including the fact that he was only a few years older than his subjects at the time - he wasn't some middle-aged fuddy-duddy wagging his finger at youths.

BRATS isn't a full success. It does go on a bit, and some of McCarthy's directing touches are more distracting than interesting. While it's only 92 minutes in length, one does feel that it devolves into self-pity more than once (McCarthy has also written a book on the subject - I guess that didn't sufficiently get it out of his system). Those who grew up watching John Hughes' films (BREAKFAST CLUB in particular), ST. ELMO'S FIRE etc. Will likely be interested in wading through the run-time.

In tribute to the passing of the great Donald Sutherland... Philip Kaufman's remake of the Don Siegel classic is a terrific example of how to both be respectful to the original while also taking its own course and direction. W. D. Richter's (BUCKAROO BANZAI) screenplay updates the Jack Finney novel to the Bay area during the late 70s. Wisely, Richter and Kaufman completely re-thought out the basic kernel of an idea and take into account the many social, sexual and moral changes that occurred over the more than two decades since its 50s inspiration(s).

Donald Sutherland heads an extremely talented cast which also includes Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright and Leonard Nimoy in a perfectly chosen role as Dr. Kibner. Robert Duvall has a brief cameo as does Kaufman himself (actually two) along with the original star Kevin McCarthy and Director Siegel (talk about getting your film blessed!). The McCarthy appearance may be my favorite of its type in any film. It's as if he's running from one movie to the new one across time!

Michael Chapman's cinematography is eerie as are Ben Burtt's sound effects. Denny Zeitlin's offbeat experimental score keeps the viewer consistently off-balance (remarkably, it's his only soundtrack). My only quibbles is that I never quite believed that all of San Francisco was under the Snatchers' control (tiny Santa Mira was more believable) and the pods' arrival and dissemination is too obvious too soon. Minor qualms considering how good the film is. Donald Sutherland is very good as Bennell, giving the character believability no matter how fantastic the circumstances. A fine actor. RIP.

Director Asghar Farhadi's 2009 film finally saw stateside release in 2015 - and, it was well worth the wait. One one level, it's just a story of a young woman who goes missing, but, this is one of the scripts where every scene, every character, every line and every nuance works together. Like the layers of an onion, as one layer peels away, another is revealed. The mysterious Elly (a luminous Taraneh Alidoosti) is a kindergarten teacher who joins some friends for a fateful outing. Enigmatic and utterly breathtaking.

Farhadi is simply one of the the finest storytellers in the cinema right now (A SEPARATION, SALESMAN).

Dev Patel's passion project melds action and Indian mythology, if not seamlessly. A buffed up Patel himself plays Bobby a street fighter who battles under the banner of the 'Monkey Man' complete with a simian mask. It's in tribute to the legend of Hanuman (aka The Monkey Man).

Bobby uses his hustling skills to work his way into the employ of Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar) who runs a glitzy, sleazy establishment which caters to the rich and powerful. It soon becomes obvious that Bobby's target is Rana Singh, the local police chief.

Patel (who also co-wrote and co-produced) is clearly concerned with depicting India's oppressed underclass and how they have to clutch to ancient superstitions to get by. As a director he's also seemingly inhaled every action cliche over the past couple of decades (John Wick is name-checked). The stunt work is flashy and exuberant at times.

The two halves never really convincingly join together. On one hand, it purports to be all about spirituality and the common man, but, at its heart, it's still a revenge flick. A brutal, downbeat and nasty one at that. The exoticism of the project will be enough for many to lift this above the action film pack. It certainly has more of an offbeat heart to it than standard, but a little more care with the the screenplay could truly have made this one special.

P. S. The movie was originally purchased by Netflix for distribution, but they chickened out fearing that its frequent criticism of Indian society would rub officials there the wrong way. On that score, Patel certainly hit a nerve. (it is a Universal release)

Roger Corman's second in his series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations is more fun than the first (HOUSE OF USHER) while still keeping the creepiness factor. This one again feature Vincent Price as a bad brother in law who takes to extravagent means to take it out on the unfortunate Francis (John Kerr) including the title sequence.

The supporting cast includes cult faves Barbara Steele, Luana Anders and Corman regular Anthony Carbone. Richard Matheson again wrote the screenplay adaptation, while Cinematographer Floyd Crosby and Art Director Daniel Haller stretched the AIP budget making the film look better than dollars alone could achieve. Les Baxter wrote the score. The movie made a great turnaround on investment and the edict from Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson was clear: More Poe please!

HIT MAN (2024). Netflix Richard Linklater's pleasant dramatic comedy is about an unassuming college professor, Gary (Glen Powell), who moonlights as an undercover New Orleans cop. His specialty is becoming "Ron" a hit man who helps the police catch would be murder for hire suspects. Gary becomes incredibly good at his job and assumes many disguises for "Ron". He slips up one day and falls for a gorgeous (of course) would be murder conspirator, Maddy (Adria Arjona).

Loosely based on the true story of Gary Johnson, Linklater and Powell's script keeps things light for the most part (the screenplay is based on a Skip Hollandsworth article). The lead performers are well supported by Austin Amelio, Retta, Sanjay Rao and Gralen Bryant Banks as the fellow law enforcement officers Gary works with. The script makes the most of the serio-comic situations. Of course, being a Linklater film, HIT MAN isn't really just about the plot, per se. Gary starts to like how "Ron" has more swagger and ease, and the two characters begin to merge. Powell is good, but, he slips a little too easily into "Ron" at times. A bit more bite could have made the switch more convincing. Arjona more successfully informs her performance with a pinch of darkness and duplicity. Linklater cleverly frames the story as very much a "Hollywood" version of a crime thriller, which makes it go down easier.

Linklater also adapted a Hollandsworth true crime story into his 2012 movie BERNIE, which again was enjoyable enough, but a little too lightweight to really nail the tone he's going for. Fortunately, the performances and wit in HIT MAN is enough to make for an agreeable lark.

Hirayama (an excellent Koji Yahusho) lives an ordinary solitary life. He gets up before dawn, grabs his morning beverage from a vending machine and dutifully goes to work. He has dinner at a plain little restaurant and then retires to his small flat where he reads old books, listens to music on cassette tapes and takes photographs on an old fashioned film camera. An analog man living in a 21st century digital world. Occasionally, he visits an old school dive bar. Cinematographer Franz Lustig even frames things in the traditional 1:33 aspect ratio.

Director Wim Wenders's screenplay (with Takuma Takasaki) doles out Hirayama's details deliberately. The only real background we learn are when a wayward niece unexpectedly comes to stay with him for a few days. Typically, Hirayama doesn't make a big deal out it and takes it all in stride. His job is hardly glamorous as he cleans toilets for Tokyo's rather elaborate public bathrooms. He's diligent and exemplifies the dignity of work.

PERFECT DAYS is about the small moments and interactions of life. Yahusho's (SHALL WE DANCE?, BABEL) performance exemplifies Zen. He's quiet, but speaks loudly in his discipline (as does Wenders' filmmaking). Other than music (some choice cuts by Patti Smith, Van Morrison and, Lou Reed) and reading, Hirayama's only other hobby is photography. He loves to focus on trees (at one point, a character calls them Hirayama's "friend"). The one true directing flourish Wenders adds are in depicting Hirayama's dreams. In keeping with the film's themes, his night visions are simple and kaleidoscopic (they were done by Wenders' wife Donata).

In the end, this is a tale of a man who experiences his life, his way. He simply wants to stop and smell the roses (or trees, as it were). If one gets on the movie's wavelength, you might even agree that they are truly Perfect Days.

This programmer has a unique monster that brings it up a notch from the its contemporary creature feature movie crowd. Shiny rocks from outer space descend upon a small town. When mixed with water they grow and become deadly to the human touch (Hmm. Did M. Night Shyamalan see this?).

Based upon a story co-written by Jack Arnold, Jack Sherwood's film was one of a series of sci-fi films from Universal's B unit and shares the isolated locale setting of others such as IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and TARANTULA (each directed by Arnold). MONOLITH was largely shot near Lone Pine, California.

The veteran cast includes Grant Williams, Lola Albright and Les Tremayne with brief roles for William Schallert, Troy Donahue, Eddie Parker and narration by Paul Frees. The compilation soundtrack includes library music from Henry Mancini, Herman Stein and Irving Gertz. The special effects by Clifford Stein are quite good considering.

Everybody now, how about a chorus of Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" (sometimes referred to erroneously as "Everybody Must Get Stoned") !

TASTE OF THINGS (aka POT-AU-FEU ) 2023. The original French title POT-AU-FEU ("Pot On Fire") is much more apropos as 'Taste of Things' makes it sound like the name for a generic cooking show. Based on a novel by Marcel Rouff, Anh Hung Tran's movie (for which he also wrote the adaptation) is about a famed Chef, Dodin (Benoit Magimel), who runs a manor with his Chef Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) and their assistant Violette (Galatea Bellugi). Along the way, a precocious young girl named Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) enters the scene eager to learn all about the culinary arts from a master. Eugenie has lived in the home for years, sharing more than meals.

The plot isn't very complex - by design. It's fairly easy to discern what direction it's moving it. No matter. Like with cooking, it's all in the details. Tran is a sensualist as he displayed in his debut feature SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA. One will be quite hungry as Jonathan Ricquebourg's camera seemingly lingers on each and every ingredient as it's prepared and savored. It's a movie about the process of not only cooking, but of living.

TASTE OF THINGS is a dual romance with the love of food inter-twined with the relationship between the couple. The sexiest scene in the movie is one where Dodin simply cooks for Eugenie and he sits and watches her enjoy her meal. The storyline yields few genuine surprises, but, as with the finest meals, it's all about the payoff. Tran and his talented cast carry it off heartily.

John Badham's entertaining techno-thriller plays like a teen cross between COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT and DR. STRANGELOVE. Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker's deft script centers around a young student, David (Matthew Broderick), who hacks into the government's defense systems. Before you know it, David is playing Global Thermonuclear War - for real. Ally Sheedy is his winsome girl. Dabney Coleman plays McKittrick, a government engineer who's suspicious that some kid could hack in without some sinister assistance. The film adds some substance through the introduction of a mysterious and legendary programmer, Falken (John Wood).

Badham keeps things moving and it remains a very fun film. Even if the tech is passe, the lessons remain.

WARGAMES is a "movie" in the old fashioned sense. Badham once told me that he preferred "movie" to "film" because the latter often seemed too pretentious. He made movies for audiences, not critics (although he got more than his fair share of good reviews).

This post is dedicated to Dabney Coleman. RIP.

It's 1957. Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) finds himself at a crossroads. His famed car company may be "the pride of Italian industry" and the sports automobile of choice for kings and the wealthy, but his insanely high standards (and spending) have put the corporation on the brink of insolvency. His wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz), co-owns the firm. Complicating matters is Ferrari's womanizing which doesn't exactly help negotiating with his proud wife. Further, Enzo has a longtime mistress named Lina (Shailene Woodley) and an illegitimate son, Piero (Giuseppe Festinese).

Troy Martin Smith's screenplay tries to balance the personal with the public life of Enzo. The main event for Team Ferrari that year is the legendary cross-country Mille Miglia race where they will square off against their national rivals, Team Maseratti. The winner will not only have bragging rights - but, economic leverage. The personal story becomes a grand soap opera with egos a plenty - although none bigger than Enzo's. Tossed into the mix is a new hotshot driver, Alfonso De Portago (Gabriel Leone) and his 'Hollywood' girlfriend Linda Christian (Sarah Gadon).

Director Michael Mann is more confident on the track than off. The racing scenes have an energetic zest that makes up for some of the personal drama's weaknesses. Having the international cast of Americans, Spaniards and other Europeans (including actual Italians) all try to speak accented English becomes a circus of cadences which only adds to the stilted ambiance.

Fortunately, there is enough emphasis on the racing to keep things moving with strong cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt and terrific stunt driving including a harrowing and graphic accident sequence. Driver, as in GUCCI, does a serviceable job of playing an Italian industrialist. Cruz (who has played Italians speaking the language before and was terrific in that year's superior L'IMMENSITA) is fine in a fairly thankless role. Woodley isn't exactly convincing, but it's not a bad performance. The bulk of the cast is good in support.

Mann's FERRARI is serviceable, but doesn't elevate because of the rather bland and predictable behind the scenes melodrama, but it does roar on the track.

Pretty much a perfect bit of low budget cult movie gold. Infamously shot in 2 1/2 days Roger Corman takes its delicious one-joke premise to absurd heights. Full of throwaway bits, fun cameos (Dick Miller! Jack Nicholson!) and inspired lunacy. Charles B. Griffith's (he also voiced the killer plant) wacky screenplay is essentially a riff on his own BUCKET OF BLOOD, with enough U-Turns and Film Noir touches to stand on its own. Fred Katz' rollicking score is a good touch.

Jonathan Haze plays the ultimate schlub who works for boisterous flower shop owner Mel Welles with Jackie Joseph as his very patient girl. Wally Campo and Jack Warford play the noirish detectives on the beat. I got to work with Welles, and he boasted to me that he 'rehearsed the actors" while Corman took care of the camera and technical specifics. Another Hollywood boast? Sadly, they are both now gone.

Is it a great film? Perhaps not, but, who would have thought that this miniature masterwork would become known not only as possibly Corman's best film as a Director - but, the inspiration for a hugely successful musical play and a big budget Hollywood remake?

Joe Dante's cheeky JAWS knock-off (even Spielberg was impressed) is cheezy Roger Corman B-Movie fun. Scripted by a young John Sayles (his debut) has the benefit of not taking itself too seriously.

For a drive-in flick, it has a decent cast including Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin McCarthy, Barbara Steele, Keenan Wynn and, of course, Corman/Dante regular Dick Miller. The behind the scenes crew has Rob Bottin on makeup, future composer Joel Goldsmith mixing the sound, and Phil Tippett who did some stop-motion work. Pino Donaggio provides the score.

P. S. Not only did these little cannibal fish give Dante and Sayles early starts to their careers, a certain James Cameron got his first Directing credit with the sequel: PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING.

Have to admit, when I first say John Sayles' BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, it didn't fully hit me. It was ok, but didn't really pop. Seeing it again a good number of years later, I was astonished that I had missed the boat on this soulful sci-fi film.

The always good Joe Morton stars as the title character who lands in New York City and is treated as very much an 'alien'. The outline coincidentally has parallels to THE TERMINATOR in that The Brother is being chased by a pair of 'terminators' (the two films were released within a month of each other*). Sayles himself plays one of the Men In Black, the other portrayed by the fine David Strathairn.

Sayles' script sets up a parallel between the immigrant experience and that of an extraterrestrial. In a nice touch, Sayles doesn't give the lead character speech, relying instead on Morton's moving performance. The VFX and makeup are minimal, but Ernest Dickerson's (with whom I've had good fortune to work with) cinematography and the sensitive yet witty writing, direction and acting carry the day.

BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET is a low key gem worth seeking out.

Of all the competitors to Johnny Carson's talk show throne, none flamed out quite so ignominiously as Jack Delroy, who, on Halloween 1977, saw his career end. Delroy is, of course, a fictional character created by the Cairnes brothers, Colin and Cameron, who wrote and directed LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL. The Cairnes are Australian, but they have done their research and the movie feels authentic through and through.

Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is more based on Australian talk show host Don Lane than the likes of the actual Carson rivals such as Dick Cavett, David Frost, Alan Thicke, Pat Sajak etc. (Lane was, like Dastmalchian, an American). The Screenplay references many of the cultural aspects of the U. S. in the 70s such as cults, political corruption, secret societies, conspiracies, changing lifestyles and, here specifically - a growing interest in the occult. The gimmick is that the viewer is watching a long suppressed tape of the actual TV broadcast from 1977 (the commercial breaks are cleverly covered by a documentary film crew filming it all take place).

The "guests" on the episode include a psychic named Christou (Fayassal Bazi; a definite nod to Uri Geller) and a debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss; clearly patterned on the famed skeptic Amazing Randi). The main guests are June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) - a paranormal researcher and her supposedly possessed patient. The conceit of presenting the program in 'real time' (after a short pseudo-documentary intro narrated by Michael Ironside) does risk boring some of the audience - as watching any random episode of a second rate talk show from nearly 50 years ago naturally would. Still, the writing is pretty strong exhibiting a dark wit, and the performances keep it moving well enough.

For the most part, the Cairnes brothers play fair with the viewer, adhering to proper aspect ratios and allowing the viewer to only see what one would have watching it on a 19" television back in the day (the behind the scenes doc is a, mostly acceptable, cheat). One has to accept that as things go so haywire that the network wouldn't have just cut away and stopped filming. As good as Dastmalchian's performance is, it doesn't quite ring true that of all of Carson's competitors, Delroy would be his most serious rival. He just doesn't have that kind of general appeal. The movie does go a bit off the rails towards the end, not so much from a story standpoint, but as too extreme a departure from the standard the brothers themselves have set as keeping it all from one POV (also, the big reveal isn't much of one, nor is it properly set up).

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL is a solid feature. It ingeniously weaves in such reference points as ROSEMARY'S BABY, THE OMEN, THE EXORCIST (it's prime inspiration) and even a dash of Chayefsky's NETWORK. It makes for suitable late night horror film viewing itself.

John Sayles' charming film adaptation of a 50s novel by Rosalie K. Fry about an out of the way isle where the mythical Selkies are said to wander. Haskell Wexler's cinematography is lovely as is Mason Daring's music.

The film received glowing reviews but never quite got the audience it deserves. It's a bit of a departure for Sayles, best known for dramas like LONE STAR, MATEWAN and EIGHT MEN OUT, but his writing and direction handle the material with a sure hand and a delicate lyrical touch.

This is the kind of under the radar film for folks wanting to check out something they've never should seek out.

Jack Arnold's seminal film, based on a Ray Bradbury story really set a standard for a lot of 50s sci-fi cinema. The isolated location. A mysterious object in the sky. Alien takeovers. The man of science who nobody believes. And, of course, the damsel in distress.

Harry Essex adapted Bradbury's tale. It's fairly straightforward and, because it helped set the template, may seem a bit cliched now. Richard Carlson plays the amateur astronomer who discovers the spaceship and Barbara Rush is his girlfriend. Along the way, mysterious events occur and people start acting mysteriously (Richard Johnson among them). Arnold plays up the creepiness of the desolate Mojave desert setting. Clifford Stine does a good job with the cinematography and the Universal stock music (by Henry Mancini, Herman Stein and others) is suitably eerie.

The movie was originally released in 3D and the exploding fireball opening is a stunner. Filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter have waxed rhapasodic about how that scene changed the course of their lives seeing it as kids. IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE was re-released in 3D in the 80s to cash in on the format's craze then happening.

Carlson is his solid dependable self, and Rush is a charming leading lady. She won a Golden Globe for Best Newcommer - help set up her six decade career. She passed away last week at 97. RIP.

SKINAMARINK (2023) Full marks to Writer-Director Kyle Edward Ball. He came up with a concept and doggedly keeps to it, with virtually no concessions to his viewers. SKINAMARINK (named after a similarly titled old nursery rhyme) is an experimental arthouse horror project. Two little kids, Kevin (Lucas Paul) and his sister Haylee (Dali R. Tetrault) wander around their family home in 1995. Their parents (Ross Paul and Jaime Hill) are in their bedroom. They see a few visions, and, possibly, some violence. And, that's it as far as any real 'plot' is concerned.

From the outset, Ball and his Cinematographer Jamie McRae plunge the viewer in what looks like a battered old 70s grindhouse 35mm film print transfered to VHS tape (the viewer sees a few discarded cassettes strewn around for good measure). Almost all of the movie's credits are at the opening as well. The camera is intentionally almost never aimed at anything in particular - walls, ceilings, stairs, doors, feet and hands. Occassionally, one of the kids or parents is seen full body -- as if by accident. Much of the source lighting is either from a very low wattage night lite, flashlight or the glow from a TV. For minutes on end, the viewer can't make out anything but videotape noise. The dialogue is all hushed and whispered, with some it subtitled (its often so unintelligibe that many will want to turn on the closed captions). The movie must have been high near impossible to watch in a dingy theater with bad projection (Hint: turn off all the lights when watching it at home).

So, what is SKINAMARINK? It's proabably best to take it as a conceptual piece to simply experience. Boredom is part of the viewer's journey. If you get on its bead, one can find themselves mesmerized in an almost hypnotic state as you stare into the abyss. It's like a 60s Andy Warhol art film - almost daring one to turn away or off completely. It makes other minimalism movies like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY look like the latest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise by comparison.

There are tiny hints at a possible "plotline". A nod here or there to POLTERGEIST and THE SHINING. Maybe a murder. Potentially, a portal to another dimenstion. Most likely, it's a representation of some form of 'Dream Logic', but the more concrete one wants to make of it, the less enjoyable it becomes. Why would a widescreen film be captured on old VHS? Why are there a couple of jump scares? If it's someone's dream, why would they be staring at the floorboards or a piece of empty carpet? Why does the POV shift from objective to subjective (not to mention from one entity to another)? Why are some edits smooth and others seemingly random?

In many ways, SKINAMARINK might have been more effective as a short rather than at 100 minutes (of course, as noted, the tedium is part of the message). It will be interesting to see what Ball does with a more narrative feature. For now, SKINAMARINK stands as both a fascinating and an enervating exercise -- often concurrently.

When DUNE Part One debuted, I gave it a grade of 'Incomplete'. It was decent, well-mounted, but there wasn't enough that was definitive to give it final marks. With Part Two, Director Denis Villenueve earns a solid passing grade.

After a brief prologue, which introduces Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan (this also functions as a tidy recap), the new entry picks up with Paul Atreidies (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) who have joined forces with Chani (Zendaya), Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and the Freman.

Villenueve and Jon Spaiht's script improves on the pacing of the original, managing to weave in new plot developments and important new characters such as the Emperor (Christopher Walker) and the menacing nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) of Baron Harkonnen (a returning Stellan Skarsgard) . The screenplay is still burdened with much exposition and some of the dialogue rings flat. The cast does their best with Butler and Pugh making the strongest impressions of the newcommers. Ferguson is excellent once again. Chalamet is better than in the first half, and grows into the role. Unfortunately, Bardem and Walken are saddled with lesser material.

As a combined film, DUNE is an impressive achievement on a grand scale. Some of the Greig Fraser's cinematography is a bit too murky at times, but otherwise quite solid. The production design, sound, costumes, VFX, Zimmer's score - all set a high standard.

For hard SF fans, the fantasy elements may create a certain distance with their amorphous and seemingly flexible rules. Unless one is truly steeped in Frank Herbert's mythos, the details often create more confusion than cohesion; Not to mention that the 'ending' truly isn't -- as there are five more original books to go. For all the criticism the 1984 David Lynch version gets, he did manage to distill it into a coherent enough film that runs less than two and a half hours. The collective Dune here runs over five. Obviously, there are many more details explored, but there are times where it hinders the overall dramatic rhythm.

All that noted, Villeneuve can hold his head up high. His two-parter is a good attempt at adapting a dense series of novels which have gained their own mythic status. If there are to be more Dune filmed adaptations, Villenueve can walk away proud of his accomplishment.

The Mission Impossible series is a bit of an anomaly in that it didn't really hit its stride until the fourth entry (GHOST PROTOCOL). Unfortunately, DEAD RECKONING is a step back to the bad old days of the franchise with its haphazard plotting and uneven pacing.

Writer-Director Christopher McQuarrie, who has shepherded the previous pair of films is again at the helm (he co-writes here with Erik Jendersen). The Production is top level with strong stunt-work, FX and location photography (it was Oscar nominated for Sound and VFX). What's missing (along with a tight script) is the staging and editing. Everything takes too long to develop and play out. No matter how eye-popping the action scenes are, they are no substitute for a story where one really cares about the consequences; Doubly so, because this is only "Part One". Is this truly a tale that will take upwards of six hours to tell? It's quite ironic that will all the car chases, parachute drops, shoot-outs and mano-a- mano combat, the biggest tool in our heroes' bag of tricks is simple pick-pocketing!

Cruise is his movie star self, Pegg and Rhames do their MI buddy thing, Pom Klementieff is a decent villainess and Hayley Atwell is a pretty good new addition as Ethan Hunt's new sidekick (if reluctantly). Rebecca Ferguson, is utterly wasted and quite clearly shunted aside for the fresher, newer model in Atwell. Esai Morales makes for a bland villain who seemingly only shows up when the script needs him to - and even then, mostly just to be certain that his coif looks marvelous.

DEAD RECKONING PART ONE has enough thrills to still be passable, a final grade really can't be rendered until Part Deux is released in 2025.

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (2023). Academy Award Winner for Documentary Feature.

Mstyslav Chernov and his team of Ukrainian journalists embedded themselves in Mariupol for some of the earliest days of the Russian invasion and documented it for the Associated Press. It's a brutal bracing first person look at the war (Chernov narrates).

It's not an easy watch and Chernov never shies away from bringing the viewer up close to the events. It's the citizens of Mariupol who are it focus, although the Documentary makes a good case that the city itself is a 'person'. Once vibrant and alive, and now under constant siege.

In Chernov's stirring Oscar acceptance speech, he wishes that he never had to make 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL, and as a viewer one may wish to have never seen it. But, watch it we must. It's vital for the story to be told.

When the pre-release buzz is about how a 149 minute theatrical release is just the teaser for a four-hour streaming cut, one can't help but be wary going in. Unfortunately, that wariness is mostly warranted in this "shortened" version of Ridley Scott's take on the life of the famed French emperor. (to be honest, flags are raised whenever a filmmaker pre-defends his movie by saying: Wait for the director's cut)

Regardless of what was left on the cutting room floor, Scott's movie does have a genuine epic feel. Production Designer Arthur Max (GLADIATOR, SE7EN) has done some splendid work here and Dariusz Wolki's camerawork ably captures it all in its big screen splendor (the movie was nominated for three tech Oscars). Scott stages the battle scenes quite impressively, including the Waterloo sequence.

Unfortunately, Scott never quite gets a handle on the movie's tone nor focus. Vanessa Kirby brings an insouciant liveliness to her Josephine. She immediately captures not only Napolean's (Joaquin Phoenix) eye, but, when the film allows her to, the attention of the audience. The big issue here is to what to make of Phoenix' performance. When he isn't glowering, he tries to inject humor into the fairly staid period piece. There are fragments of comedy that land, but it's never consistent. Virtually none of the other characters show much wit outside of Josephine (before she's shunted aside). Phoenix' acting exists in its own plane too much of the time. It's as if Scott allowed him to do "one more take, but funny this time" - and then left them all in this edit. David Scarpa's screenplay isn't consistently witty and Scott has a leaden comedy touch. Further, there is nothing in the overall design of the story that leads one to believe that was the intended approach - Phoenix is on his own island as it were. More damning is that Phoenix' Napoleon never shows the kind of magnetism nor leadership that leads one to believe he would rise to the top of the French government.

When the movie is about Josephine and Napoleon's relationship, it has a certain dramatic pull, largely guided by Kirby's fine characterization. Napoleon's other affairs lack any sense of intimacy by comparison. Sadly, this edit keeps Josephine off-camera for much of the last act. For the record, Scarpa says he prefers the theatrical cut to the longer version that will be streaming later.

NAPOLEON is a mixed bag. It's thrilling to see a true big screen saga with a generous budget about a subject of importance (as Scott achieved with GLADIATOR). Kirby and much of the cast is solid, but there's a void in the story-telling that is unlikely to be filled by just adding more minutes to the run-time.

Bizarre black comedy horror film about a biker gang who commit to Satan in order to become the undead. It has a certain cool detached mood. Making it more effective is that it doesn't try too hard to either amuse or frighten. It just lets the story play out and the actors mainly kept their tongues in cheek. Although unique in own right, PSYCHOMANIA is very much of the THEATER OF BLOOD / DR. PHIBES branch of British horror.

The cast includes Beryl Reid and George Sanders in his final film. John Cameron's wild music sparks the action and the warped screenplay by Arnauld d'Usseau and Julien Zimet has it's dark tongue firmly in cheek (the pair also collaborated on the equally gonzo HORROR EXPRESS). Director Don Sharp manages the tonal shifts well (he also directed three episodes of The Avengers TV series along with such horror films as KISS OF THE VAMPIRE and TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER).

I got to see a rare 35mm IB Technicolor print years ago with an appreciative crowd. PSYCHOMANIA is in the public domain so its quite readily available to stream and on physical media.

Menahem Golan's THE APPLE is a sci-fi/musical mash-up that succeeded only in being forgotten for over 30 years. It began as more serious vision of a 1984 society intended for the stage; But, once it got into Cannon Films' hands, it morphed into the inexplicable mess that it is. Catherine Mary Stuart got her first lead, but, hardly a memorable one. The budget for the Munich shot film also ballooned from $4M to $10M (about $35M today). Hardly huge by studio standards, but, quite large for Golan and Globus at the time.

Golan wanted it to be a mainstream musical like THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY, CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC and, in his dreams! -- SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. It was also made and released concurrently with the sci-fi ish XANADU. As anybody who knows the history of Golan and Cannon Films understands, they were infamous for jumping on a trend, including making a lookalike low budget version of a studio picture. THE APPLE got a big splashy premiere where crowd hooted and hollered AT it - much to Golan's disappointment. He though he'd have a mainstream hit -- not a cult film (which it became years and years later). Soundtrack albums were handed out, which the crowd tossed about like frisbees! Having worked with Menahem Golan, I can assure folks he had gloriously bad taste - thankfully, with THE APPLE! It's what makes it so deliriously entertaining.

Write about what you know. That's the advice Beth (Julie Louis-Dreyfuss) dispenses to her writing students. It's also pretty much the path Writer-Director Nicole Holofcener has followed in her six feature films. Her stories center on urban upper middle class professionals.

Beth is an author who's latest novel hasn't sold yet and it's causing her some stress. Her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies), is a therapist who is also having some career doubts. They have a son (Owen Teague) who wants to be a playwright. Beth's sister, Sarah (Michaela Watkins), is an interior decorator who is becoming disenchanted with her work. Her husband Mark (Arian Moayed) is struggling actor. Plenty of first world angst to go around.

Holofcener and her cast are good enough to overcome some of the familiar tropes here and the theme of how to tread the line between honesty and (hurting one's) feelings is decently explored. David Cross and Amber Tamblyn as a passive aggressive couple in Don's care are terrific scene stealers. What's missing here is true bite. There's never a sense of either urgency or sharp insights. One never feels that any of the interlocking relationships are truly in peril. A hug, a kiss, or a hit of edible marijuana and all will be fine.

YOU HURT MY FEELINGS is a pleasant enough little movie, but, it's the epitome of a 'dramedy'- it falls just short of either of it's components.