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Friday 29 September 2017

Not for Sale (1924)

An obscure rarity this week -- but I guess that's what this blog is meant to spotlight. The film is the last in a comedy trilogy (the other two are "His Grace Gives Notice" and "The Mating of Marcus": more obscurities) directed by the then British Comedy King W P Kellino, who started directing silent comedy shorts back in 1910 and founded the Teddington Studios in 1912.

Based on a novel by Monica Ewer, a forgotten writer who was also the film and drama critic for a long-dead daily newspaper, it's a sweet and rather unoriginal tale of Lord Dening, a spoiled young aristocrat with little idea of the value of money, who is cut off by his exasperated father and reduced to living in a struggling Bloomsbury boarding house and finding work to justify his new weekly allowance of £5.00. His snooty fiancĂ©e dumps him in the process (not that the horse-faced bitch was much of a catch) and he soon becomes enamoured of his landlady, the rather more fetching Annie and a curiosity to the other eccentric boarders. "What might you do" asks one old biddy; "I might join the Swiss Navy" he replies. He finds work as a chauffeur for a scatty nouveau riche lady, but loses his job when he is framed for the theft of a diamond brooch. He leaves the house when the other tenants adopt an 'it's him or us' threat against the now 'untrustworthy' crook and he falls into even harder times, forced to seek work in the Kent hop fields. Naturally love wins out in the end and Annie returns the now sickly fellow to the bosom of his high-class family home.

Nearly all of the cast were silent film stalwarts whose careers more or less ended with the coming of sound but who, without exception, give fine performances. Of particular note is Mickey Brantford as Annie's young brother who adopts a secret salute with the young Lord (now calling himself Mr Smith) and who does his best to frighten the other stuffy and elderly tenants with Lon Chaney's 1923 "Hunchback of Notre Dame" grimaces and mechanical mice. Annie is played by the comely Mary Odette, French-born, which may account for her eclipse with the coming of sound. The big exception is Lord Dening himself, played by handsome Ian Hunter in his first film role. Hunter went on to appear in three of Hitchcock's silents and to a notable career in a string of Hollywood classics between 1934 and 1942. Although his first love was the stage, he managed to make over 100 movies, while criss-crossing the Atlantic with a variety of roles in the West End and on Broadway. "Not for Sale" is something of a charmer -- not a great film by any matter of means but a pleasant look at a long-gone slice of 1920s London life.

Now for some housekeeping: There will be no blog next Friday as I balance a week of family celebrations with six tickets for the upcoming London Film Festival. I have one free day in the midst of this, Thursday October 12th and will try to touch base then. 

Friday 22 September 2017

Forsaken (2015)

It's been another of those weeks where despite more or less constant viewing no one film has leapt to the forefront. The movies I watched were either overblown and preposterous like "Underworld - Blood Wars" or worthy like Tom Hanks' "Sully" and "Tanna" (filmed entirely in Yakel, a South-Sea island dialect!) or depressing like "Man Down" (I'm really beginning to dread Shia LeBeouf) or the French flick "It's Only the End of the World" from the over-rated young director Xavier Dolan or completely forgettable like "Eliminators" (featuring action 'star' Scott Adkins -- who?) and "Ordinary World" about an aging punk rocker. Even the classic "Jealousy Italian Style" (1970) nearly put me to sleep as Monica Vitti  see-sawed between Marcello Mastroianni and Giancarlo Giannini.

So that leaves the above old-fashioned Western from TV-director Jon Cassar as this week's contender, notable for co-starring father and son Donald and Kiefer Sutherland -- if they have appeared together before, it escapes me. Set in a frontier town in 1872, Kiefer returns after many years to try to mend fences with his estranged father, the local preacher. When Kiefer's John Henry went off to fight in the Civil War, he not only lost his taste for senseless killing but he also lost his faith in a God that would allow such bloodshed. However before he could return to the simple life, he inadvertently became a killer and subsequently a feared gunslinger. So it's yet another tale of a retired gunman seeking salvation, but being forced to take up arms again for one last showdown.

It seems that local land-grabbers led by dyed-in-the-wool baddie banker, the great Brian Cox, will do whatever it takes to force the local farmers off their land. His henchmen include the uncontrollable Aaron Poole who thinks nothing of shooting first when arguments fail and the older hired gunman with principles Michael Wincott. Poole has already had a go at beating up John Henry while Daddy stands by, but his big mistake is beating up the preacher as well, nearly to the point of death. That's the final straw for Kiefer, who makes short work of the bunch. And then rides off into the sunset...

The cast also features Demi Moore (again) as John Henry's lost love, now married to another. She doesn't make much of an impression and seems to take any old role she can get nowadays. However the film is not without some merit. The standard of acting is high, the scenery impressive, and the mounting tension gripping. There's even a scene set in the church where John Henry desperately tries to regain his faith and father and son nearly reconcile. The one drawback from my point of view is that I really don't believe that the F-word was in such common parlance back in the day.

Friday 15 September 2017

It (2017)

I understand that this new film version of the Stephen King blockbuster (aka doorstop) is doing amazing business worldwide. I'm not surprised, since King is one of the most popular and best-selling living authors and there is at least a generation now who have never seen the 1990 two-part television mini-series of the novel. Subsequently there is a widespread suggestion that this movie is an instant cult-classic, resplendent with scary chills. I'm not so certain.

I certainly enjoyed watching the film -- all 132 minutes of it! However catering to modern tastes it struck me that there is an over-reliance on CGI effects without really managing to make the movie any more frightening than its original, unadorned concept: a shape-shifting demon, usually manifesting itself as the friendly-cum-threatening clown Pennywise is feeding off childhood fears resulting in a plethora of missing or mangled kiddies. Right, the story itself is eerie, but there is little here in the way of 'jump-scares'.

Unlike the book and the previous dramatization, the movie focuses on the seven youngsters who make up the 'Losers Club' and their campaign to destroy the demon -- stuttering Bill, fatty Ben, motor-mouth Richie, Munchhausen-by-proxy victim Eddie, Black Mike, Jewish Stanley, and the token girl/honorary boy Bev. The casting is excellent particularly with Jaeden Lieberher (first seen in 1914's "St Vincent") as Bill whose brother Georgie was one of the first victims, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Chubby Ben who has been studying their town of Derry's periodic history of disappearances and tragedies, and Sophia Lillis' Bev, a mini-Amy Adams, which would make the casting perfect for the sign-posted second part of this saga. The kids have great chemistry together, and as in another King adaptation "Stand by Me" there are a bunch of slightly older and slightly bigger bullies out to make their lives a misery. How the group sticks together, outwits the bullies, and banishes the Demon (albeit temporarily as implied) make this movie more of a boys' own adventure story ('the best summer of my life' says one) rather than a straightforward horror movie. Yes, there are Pennywise's gnashing teeth and occasional buckets of blood, but it's far from scary.

By the end of the movie the seven have vowed to return to Derry if and when the Demon reappears in its 27-year cycle, setting us up for a follow-up film featuring the grown-up kids. This is the big difference between the current movie and the original book and mini-series, which cut between the childhood buddies and the seven adults they have become, and which I think gives us a much greater insight into all of their characters than this 'Part One movie' allows. It's crucial to understand how the child becomes the man (or the woman in Bev's case) and how some fears and patterns of behaviour remain deeply ingrained. It's something of a cheat to expect us to sit through a second film when the two stories were previously successfully intertwined and could have been done so here.

Nevertheless it's a good movie and deserves to be popular, but it is certainly not the best King adaptation ever. Granted his novels have produced some rather iffy movies. but "The Green Mile" and "The Shawshank Redemption" would easily vie for 'the best'. Bill Skarsgard adequately fills the over-sized Pennywise shoes originally worn by Tim Curry, but despite the extra rows of teeth, he is not any more frightening.  We all realise that clowns are creepy at the best of times!

Friday 8 September 2017

Rough Night (2017)

Despite the recent hype of the growing power of women in the film industry, not all movies written and directed by women are worthy of our attention, and this Scarlett Johansson starrer is a sorry instance. Perhaps the A-list actress wanted a break from her recent more serious roles, but this film is hardly light relief -- and unfortunately she is no comedienne. Worse yet, nearly all of the female ensemble 'comedies' post-"Bridesmaids" (and I would include the recent distaff "Ghostbusters") have been singularly unfunny. No doubt this flick was inspired by the run of stag-night films where everything that can go wrong does go horribly wrong, ranging back to "Very Bad Things" in 1998 through the increasingly less successful "Hangover" movies. If men about to marry can behave badly, why not women?

Johansson's bride-to-be hen party reunites her college buddies 10 years on for a would-be riotous weekend in Miami, which means drugs, booze, and outlandish behaviour. The fact that she and her mates are getting too old for such jejune shenanigans is neither here nor there. Her posse includes raucous fat bestie Alice (Jillian Bell, a Saturday Night Live writer), latent lesbo activist Ilana Glazer, Kate McKinnon (who is not Australian) playing a scatty Australian (with a cod accent), and Zoe Kravitz as a young mother facing a custody battle. Perhaps Johansson briefly considered the possibility that she would shine better if surrounded by a bunch of 'dogs', but in fact Kravitz is the best-looking of the bunch (with the best legs as well). And even the usually tasty Scarlett has seen better days.

Add to this unsavoury mix the sex-mad next-door neighbours Ty Burrell and Demi Moore, who was once I recall an A-list actress herself, and the stage is set for a singularly stupid scenario where the 'girls' think they have murdered a stripper (who wasn't it turns out the stripper they hired) when fat Alice throws herself onto his lap causing his chair to tip over. We are then offered some sub-"Weekend at Bernie's" nonsense as they try to dispose of the body. Then the real stripper turns up! Meanwhile Scarlett's not-so-glamourous fiancĂ© is having a restrained stag-night back North with his dweeby friends enjoying a wine-tasting. When he thinks that the wedding might be off, he is encouraged by them to drive non-stop to Florida wearing nappies to avoid pit-stops (don't ask) to win her back. You think one or all of them might have joined him on this stupid journey to share the driving -- but that might have made the flick less idiotic than it is.

You might well ask why on earth we went to see this terrible film. Well Michael is something of a Johansson fan, but this movie could well kill his attraction temporarily. For some reason the picture ends with McKinnon serenading us over the end-credits (like the end-credits of the equally disappointing -- for different reasons -- recent series of "Twin Peaks") and she is no singer. The film runs an overlong 101 minutes but it might have been too long as a 10-minute sketch.  Avoid! 

Friday 1 September 2017

FrightFest 2017

Well, seven out of eight's not too bad! No longer having the stamina to face the full five day fest, we cherry-picked eight possibilities, based on only minimal info, and chose fairly well. At least it's better than last year's one out of three. There's only time to comment briefly on our selections taken in the order viewed:

The Glass Coffin (Spain 2016): With only very minor exceptions this is a nicely played one-hander. Glammed up A-list actress Amanda boards her waiting limousine en route to an awards gala honouring her distinguished career. Wallowing in self-satisfaction as she rehearses her acceptance speech and helping herself to the copious champagne, she gradually becomes aware that she is a prisoner, trapped in luxurious cage, and threatened by a commanding voice to abase herself in various ways. Any disobedience or attempts to escape are rapidly met with painful violence from the strapping chauffeur. Why she is there and who her tormentor might be are the mysteries to be unravelled. At a quick 75 minutes, the film does not outstay its welcome as one wonders how the increasingly distraught Amanda might escape her fate.

Fashionista (USA 2016): This was the choice that left us distinctly cold, although I gather it was shown previously at the Glasgow fest earlier this year to great acclaim -- I'll be dipped if I know why. From UK-born but Austin-based director Simon Rumley whose two previous movies I found distinctly underwhelming, it's a long 110 minutes of watching our heroine April, who runs a second-hand clothing store with her husband, boss her staff about and spend an inordinate amount of time sniffing the schmattes. She takes up with rich guy Eric Balfour (one of the ugliest actors about -- the kid's boyfriend out of "Six Feet Under") who plies her with expensive gear, until she works out that he's a dangerous crook. Meanwhile there's an anorexic female in some rehab clinic who may or may not be April's alter ego. Your guess is as good as mine.

68 Kill (USA 2017): This is a heist-gone-wrong epic that is constantly engaging despite being increasingly gory. Dominated by his way-out girlfriend who wants to rob her sugar daddy, wimpy Chip (Matthew Gray Gubler, the lead in the long-running series "Criminal Minds" which I've not seen) finds himself in increasingly threatening and nightmarish circumstances. Although the actor made his film debut back in 2004 in "The Life Aquatic..." and has also appeared in several other movies that I've seen (as well as voicing one of the annoying animals in the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" series), I did not recognise him. However his bewildered face and play-it-as-it-comes approach makes the film. All of the female characters are frighteningly fierce, but the wimp is the winner. I'll watch out for him in the future.

The Bar (Spain 2017): We chose this film for its director, Alex de la Iglesia, who burst onto the genre scene with the off-the-wall "Accione Mutante" in 1993 and whose subsequent movies have also dealt with comically black horror. His latest follows the fate of eight strangers thrown together by unknown factors when the coffee bar they are in is quarantined by HAZMAT-suited soldiers and two patrons are gunned down when they attempt to leave the premises. It's a one-set movie and each of the personae becomes increasingly defined -- the glamour-puss, the bearded hipster, the homeless Bible-quoting derelict, the dissatisfied hausfrau, the aged proprietor and her faithful waiter, and a couple of mysterious businessmen. A dead and diseased body is found in the toilets and paranoia reigns as each wonders which them might be infected. The closed set opens out to the basement storeroom where some of them are banished and then to the sewers from which escape and salvation might be possible, but the action does not become as claustrophobic as it might. We never do work out exactly what is going on in the outside world but we root for those who may or may not reach safety.

Mayhem (USA 2017): Another film where the premises become quarantined, but here a large office headquarters where a definite hierarchy exists between the downtrodden proles and their boardroom masters. A known but occasional 8-hour virus has entered the building causing a breakdown of inhibitions and an outbreak of violence. We watch the action through the eyes of ambitious lawyer Steven Yeun who has just been unfairly sacked and Samara Weaving who has come to complain about an eviction notice. The pair try to work their way up to the top floor where they hope to find some kind of justice, but have various obstacles along the way as the employees' pent-up frustrations segue into physical and sexual action. Anyone who has ever held a dead-end job in a corporate maze will cheer the 'peasants' revolt. 

The Villainess (Korea 2017): Unfortunately this long, long movie was very late starting which didn't put us into quite the best frame of mind to appreciate its sinuous plot and mind-blowing action. The film starts with a Tarantino-esque bout of fighting a la "Kill Bill" as small Sook-Hee singlehandedly overcomes dozens of opponents. She is picked up by a national agency to become one of its pet assassins with the promise of a new identity and freedom after ten years' service. It's not helped by the fact that she has given birth to a little girl, a souvenir of the husband killed on their wedding day -- and we gradually get the backstory of her early life and the treacherous past that has shaped her. However she is still in thrall to the Agency and despite finding a new husband, the past is far from dead -- unlike the fate of most of the characters who inhabit the tale. A good film which was feted at Cannes, but perhaps not one of the best Korean thrillers -- and certainly not really at home at a FrightFest.

Meatball Machine Kodoku (Japan 2017): Word fail me to describe this OTT movie from the director of "Tokyo Gore Police" which is reminiscent of the black and white 'Tetsuo' films where the hero grows metallic appendages; here the human players are invaded by some alien entities and become Tetsuo-like characters with appendages in full Technicolor gore and glory. It's something of a love story between a middle-aged nonentity who's just been told he has incurable cancer (shades of "Ikiru") and a damaged young woman who works in his favourite bookshop. As they both morph into uncontrollable machines being menaced by a cop who has become an even more murderous creature, they are helped by some kung-fu fighting policemen who are valiantly but futilely trying to restore order. None of it makes much sense but it is a glorious riot of mindless gore and a laugh a minute.

Tragedy Girls (USA 2017): The closing movie is a fresh and funny mash-up of the teenaged slasher film as best-friends-forever McKayla and Sadie write their blog warning of impending murder and mayhem in their small community -- most of which they are responsible for after capturing a roving serial killer (played by one of my genre faves Kevin Durand). They pose as concerned citizens but are increasingly involved in perpetrating the violence that has hit their town -- memories of "Heathers" but bloodier. Interestingly the black girl (Alexandra Shipp) is the daughter of a happy and well-off household while her white bestie (Brianna Hildebrand, who made her mark in "Deadpool" as Negasonic Teenage Warhead) is pure trailer trash. The cast also includes Josh Hutcherson of Katniss fame but rather interestingly the boyfriend who comes between the girls is played by one Jack Quaid, Dennis' and Meg Ryan's not so little boy. These evil little hussies manage to get away free and clear -- and that's the modern moral of the power of social media!

Wow, that's it for today with the annual proviso that our FrightFest years could well be at an end at last. Finally I just want to say that I've been getting an inordinate number of hits from Russia of late. Maybe they think Pretty Pink Patty's Pictures is some sort of porn site, in which case they'll be sorely disappointed....