Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Europa '51 (Rossellini, 1952) 7/10 strong start then it turns into a christ metaphor
An Affair to Remember (McCarey, 1957) 7/10 one of those rare movies where the melodramatic violins work.
Super Fly (Parks Jr., 1972) 5/10 incompetent audio. movie gets better as the plot gets going.
Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975) 6/10 too many characters! had to watch the first half a second time.
Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, 1981) 7/10
Mortdecai (Koepp, 2015) 4/10 i enjoyed depp's performance
Evangelion 3.0+1.0 (Hideaki Anno, 2021) 8/10 the best evangelion movie? even though the answer to every mystery is that seele did it

Phaedra 1963 Jules Dassin
Modern retelling of the Hypolytus story. A shipping tycoon marries a younger wife (Melina Mercouri as titular figure) who he gets to contact his son who is studying in London. THey meet and hit it off rather too well, have a passionate affair. I had to warn her not to doit cos he was a psycho(Anthony Perkins as Aleksis). The father has sent his new wife to try to get his estranged son to come to Greece for the summer. He eventually does and is given the gift of a new Aston martin which the supposedly artitstic son has fallen in love with while in london.
The atmosphere gets dark . Melina Mercouri smoulders for weeks as she refuses her husbands attentions, Aleksis meets the daughter of a competitor ship tycoon who his father is trying to set up a wedding with , Phaedra doesn't like it.
Well it smoulders and intrigues and stuff. It's in English and it has a Theodarakis score that is more Western than i've heard him elsewhere. Kimda cool I guess.

Umut 1970 Serif Gören, Yilmaz Güney
Turkish film depicting a poor coach driver who is just scraping by when a car driver smacks into his parked coach and kills one of his horses. He tries to find a way to get out of his situation but it isn't forthcoming.
Film starts apparently pretty realistic , possibbly stays taht way but depicts a quixotic project he gets involved with thanks to a friend of his.
INteresting film. I saw it in a cut taht seemed on the verge of solarisation and sound was weird. But yeah good film .May look at others by the same director

Den Muso 1975 Souleymane Cissé
A mute girl gets seduced and impregnated by a young guy who has turned to a life of petty crime after feeling exploited by the girl's father who is his ex boss. She is kicked out of her home.
decent film with good soundtrack. It has teh members of the Salif Keita era Les Ambassedeurs suddenly appearing on screen playing though it doesn't really show a perfromnace which is a shame. Do love that band.

Still A Brother: Inside teh Negro Middle Class 1968 William Greaves
Documentary looking at the phenomenon of the black bourgeois. Kind of interesting to look back at and wonder if its been progressed from.

Once in a Lifetime (Mack, 1932)
The Dude Ranger (Cline, 1934)
California Straight Ahead (Pollard, 1925)
He's in Again (Chase, 1918)
*His New Mamma (del Ruth, 1924)

La Ilusion Viaja En Tranvia 1954 Luis Bunuel
A couple o fmisfit garage workers in Mexico City go for a ride on a streetcar they've fixed not knowing it was going to be retired. Somewhaty gentle comedy with no real surrealist touches, possibly closest to that is an irreverent Morality Play staged for a neighborhood party. Quite funny in places if you like the kind of thing.
Once they have drunkenly taken the streetcar out for a ride they get stuck trying to get it back to the depot and things get worse when the ex-streetcar service busybody gets involved. But serious family feelgood tropes throughout.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night 2014 Ana Lily Amirpour
Iranian Vampire Western filmed in Taft California. A young guy with a James dean vibe has his car taken as payment by his dad's dealer, he winds up involved with a strange young looking woman. B+W film made 7 years ago based on the Vampire myth, possibly with an Iranian twist.
Atmospheric and stuff. Quite enjoyed it,
Why do I know the name Taft is it a place that turns up in Kerouac or Steinbeck or something?

Celui Qui Doit Mourir 1957 Jules Dassin
1921 , A Greek village under Turkish occupation holds an annual Passion Play. The conservative orthodox priest names the main players that have been picked by the village council and these are all people who wouldn't have picked the roles themselves but find having done so to be really fitting over the course of the play. Lead character is probably the shepherd Manolios who has been picked to play Jesus, he is thought to be simple minded and speaks with a stammer he will gain confidence over the course. People are also picked for James, Peter, John , Judas and Mary Magdalene. I think all of these are supposed to have character traits that fit the role, I'm not sure about the character traits of teh apostles though. But the last 2 mentioned, Judas is a family man who had wanted the role of Jesus and winds up absolutely betraying the character playing Jesus. He is a frequent visitor to the widow who winds up playing Mary Magdalene and enjoys a lot of male company. She is played by Melina Mercouri who was pretty delectable in the mid 50s.
The film starts with the surviving members of a village that has been destroyed by the Turks for their support of the Greek army trying to find a new home. They appear at the village that is holding the Passion Play and are offered some food and the ability to recuperate while they prepare to hit the road again. They protest saying they could take over some unused land in the vicinity. Shortly afterwards one of the women from this refugee village dies and the priest from the Passion Play Village starts hollering cholera. The refugees move on but don't go very far. They actually set up on a nearby hillside and go to layout their new village but have no supplies so conti8nue to starve. Trying to correct this leads to further tragedy.
I found the film pretty moving but sometimes moving bit too far into melodrama. I think the setting of it being around the staging of a Passion Play may set the tone pretty heavily. Shows up the hypocrisy of people supposedly being fervent believers while allowing people who could be helped to suffer.
Film is mainly in French but I think made in Greece with some Greek actors. It certainly looks really good, but the copy i watched hasa lot of noise issues. It sounds like there is a wind blowing through the set even when they are inside. Not sure how popular the film is , might look for another copy but have seen it now so may not be rushing to rewatch it. It is oretty good though.

I've seen 7 of Dassin's movies and all of them were good to great. I should seek out the rest of them.

yeah he's done some good stuff.

THe Green Knight 2021 David Lowery
Dream like multiracial reimagining of the medieval myth of Sir Gawain. It's pretty slow but I enjoyed it greatly.
Have been wanting to see this for a while, think I tried to get a d/ld a while back that wasn't perfect.
Gawain takes a mushroom at one point that had me wondering if they were citing psilocybin and that atmosphere seems to be running through the film.
Wonder how this will stand up over the years. I may have another look at the early 70s version of the story which I saw sometime during that decade i think but not very recently.
Worth a watch i would say but my copy came with very quiet dialogue which I had to turn up a lot.

Stroszeck 1977 Werner Herzog
An alcoholic musician leaves prison and gets involved with a prostitute he knew before going to jail. He has some nasty run ins with her pimp and his enforcer. Th eold man who has been looking after his flat and his mynah bird is going to relocate to the US thanks to his nephew. The other 2 go with him and stay in a mobile home on his nephew's land. They run into trouble with finances.
THis was apparently the last film that Ian Curtis watched before he killed himself, did he associate himself with a dancing chicken or was that already prewritten to happen.,
Anyway, weird film with an odd cast including a lot of Wisconsin public who otherwise hadn't acted. & Bruno S who had an interesting past of institutionisation and things. He is a real presence in the film .
I think I enjoyed this but it is a bit weird, wonder if it is likely to trigger people. NOt sure if I've seen this before.
Also wondering how Curtis got to see it. Was it on tv, seems a bit early for it to be around on vhs May 1980.

It was on BBC 2 on Saturday May 17th. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_two_england/1980-05-17

Used to show a terrific selection of foreign and art house films back in the day.

yeah I remember that being a feature of my youth

i had a week off recently and spent it catching up on the dvds sat under the tv:

Twenty Four Eyes (Kinoshita, 1954)
Silence (Scorcese remake)
Madadayo (minor Kurosawa, his last apparently)
Woman Of Tokyo (1933, Ozu)
Early Spring, (1956, Ozu)
Tokyo Twilight (1957, Ozu, those last 3 are the bfi melodrama box)
Fitzcarraldo
Aguierre (finishing off the Herzog box i've had for years)
and two feature length episodes of Beck from bbc4

Bonjour Tristesse (Preminger 1958) 9/10 gorgeous
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes 1976) 8/10
Thief (Mann 1981) 8/10
*Oliver & Company (Disney co. 1988) 3/10
Dirty Work (Saget 1998) 4/10 coffin emoji
Pig (Sarnoski 2021) 8/10

a good week! now my goal is to finish the tsptd top 100. Criterion Channel has the mirror, late spring, viridiana, close-up. the only other ones I need to see are greed and the last two thirds of shoah, which might take a while.

I re-watched Thief this week myself. Amazing movie, but I wish I still had the Anchor Bay DVD instead of the Criterion Blu-Ray, which is much darker and bluer than the theatrical release.

Her Secret (Millais, 1933)
Waltzes From Vienna (Hitchcock, 1934)
The Defense Rests (Hillyer, 1934)
The Scotland Yard Mystery (Bentley, 1934)
Bedlam (Robson, 1946)
The Loudspeaker (Santley, 1934)

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) 4/5. Supposedly Mitchum's favorite role of his own and he's clearly invested in the character (and in Deborah Kerr).
Gregory's Girl (1980) 4.5/5
Jennifer's Body (2009) 2.5/5
Project A (1983) 4/5
To the Ends of the Earth (2019) 3.5/5
Drunken Master II (1994) 4.5/5
* Collateral (2004) 4/5
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) 2/5. I wonder how many of the people who like this one have seen it recently. The humor is aging poorly. Conversely, I liked The Nice Guys better on second viewing.

Shorts:
Gap-Toothed Women (1987) 2.5/5. At one point one of the interviewees says that straight-toothed women all skate easily through life. Ok.
Good Intentions (2018) 3/5
Glorious (2008). A ghost does something here I've never seen a ghost do in a movie before. Check it out on Criterion Channel to see what I mean.
Man Rots from the Head (2016) 2/5

The Enigna Of Kaspar hauser 1974 Werner Herzog
Herzog's treatment of the true story of a young man being found who had apparently spent all of his life chained up in a cellar. He was therefore without reference for most of the everyday practises and objects of contemporary life.
Hauser is portrayed here by Bruno S who himself had a strange upbringing which is presumably why he was chosen.
Slow moving story as Hauser becomes acquainted with mid 19th century germany and winds up in a Freak show.
Florian Fricke has a cameo.
I know I saw this once in I think my late teens and possibly again when i was studying philosophy but not sure about that latter one. Have thought about Hauser and his lack of referents to the outside world definitely when epistemology has been discussed.
Took me several goes to fgind the correct subtitles taht actually played in sync but definitely benefits from having that. First tired watching this the day after Stroszeck since it has the same lead as well as a couple of more minor supports.

The Lord of The Rings The Battle fo teh Five Armies 2014 Peter Jackson
the last part of jackson's expansive Hobbit trtlogy. I'#m a bit confused about chronology within the story I thought Smaug was in this though maybe he gets dispatched towards the beginning. Could be that he is being set up for the same at the end of the previous film.
BUt this is where the Dwarfs have reached the end of their mission and then the forces of darkness arrive.
Enjoyed it but then realised that the Blondie OGWT live set from Glasgow in 79 was on the other side so caught that and then came back for the end.
Quite epic innit?

Windfall In Athens 1954 Michael Cacoyannis
I think this is probably typical of its time. NOw seems pretty conservative. Greek Roamntic comedy. I guess it has its moments but it may just show its age.
Starts off ok but really not sure about the underlying message. But I guess its just an entertainment.
Male lead is a cad and a bounder. Female lead should grow up.

The Dead Don't Die 2019 Jim Jarmusch
All Star b movie celebration. I guess Jarmsuch wanted to make a zombie film . He did so.
THought I ought to watch this and i guess it's ok. But would hope for more.

Weekend 1967 Jean-Luc Godard
A married couple drive across a near apocalyptic vision of France. They don't get off to a great start as there is action in the car park tehy start out from. & the end is even worse. Pretty surrealistic I guiess.
I know i saw this in my teens and possibly not since. But bits of it have stuck in my mind ever since. The endless gridlock for one.
Very deep I guess. Godard being pretty avant. Satirising contemporary French Society. Not sure how well it stands up now but it looks pretty good.

Paris Is Burning 1990 Jennie Livingston
Documentary on the gay balls that were being held within the trans community at the time. Shows the state of the art where voguing is concerned, hadn't realised quite how energetic, gymnastic etc that dance form was until I saw this.
Entertaining, the extents to which posing can be pushed etc.Interesting now that mainstream tv series have been set in the milieu.
I assume it was quite popular at the time and does have some popular names attached to it if the thanks lists are to go by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdgYBCnW-8

The Panic In Needle Park 1971 Jerry Schatzberg
A look into the underlife of a section of NYC where the junkies hang out. Nt sure to what extent the subject would have been looked at before this. Man With a Golden Arm is a decade plus earlier but I don't think it looks at the junk bit to anything like the same extent. THis has needlemarks, vein scars and people nodding out throughout.
Lead girl often looks a little bit too clean but she has bits where she semi convincingly nods out.
I thought this was Pacino's screen debut but it doesn't seem to be, maybe his first lead. Apparently it was this that lead to him playing Michael in the Godfather.
Quite good, quite dark. I enjoyed it and hadn't seen it before somehow.
Oddly as i type this the podcast I'm listening to brings up the name Pacino from another film out of the blue

Pacino's actual debut was in Me, Natalie (1969), a lightly comedic character study of a young Greenwich Village bohemian (Patty Duke). Very worth watching but difficult to find.

Kino put out Me, Natalie on Blu-Ray last year: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_123/me_natalie_blu-ray.htm

AUG:

*Murder by Decree (Clark, 1979) BLU-RAY 7/10 - superb Holmes/Ripper mash-up let down by a clunky expository finale
Octopussy (Glen, 1983) DVD 4/10
Calling Dr Death (Le Borg, 1943) BLU-RAY 5/10 - part of Eureka's Inner Sanctum set w/ Lon Chaney
The Black Cat (Ulmer, 1934) BLU-RAY 8/10 the best Boris and Bela by far
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Newman, 1972) BLU-RAY 8/10 - amazing performance from Newman and Woodward's daughter as the youngest child in this
The Suicide Squad (Gunn, 2021) CINEMA!! 7/10
The Raven (Landers, 1935) BLU-RAY 7/10
Possessor (Cronenberg, 2020) DVD 7/10
Rising Damp (McGrath, 1980) DVD 4/10 - unofficial Hammer film
Never Say Never Again (Kershner, 1983) DVD 5/10
The Invisible Ray (Hillyer, 1936) BLU-RAY 6/10
Black Widow (Shortland, 2021) CINEMA 5/10
John Wick (Stahelski, 2014) DVD 6/10
*The Belles of St Trinian's (Launder, 1954) IPLAYER 8/10
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (Lenzi, 1972) BLU-RAY 7/10 one of the great Giallo titles
Blue Murder at St Trinian's (Launder, 1957) IPLAYER 6/10

Black Friday (Lubin, 1940) BLU-RAY 6/10
The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (Launder, 1960) IPLAYER 5/10
The Legacy (Marquand, 1978) BLU-RAY 7/10 - w/ Rog Daltrey as a rock star who gets an emergency tracheotomy, in the film's best death scene; Jimmy Sangster credit
Silent Cry (Dwoskin, 1977) file sent to me by a friend 9/10
Murders in the Zoo (Sutherland, 1933) BLU-RAY 7/10 - includes horrific real big cat fight footage, as well as an especially chewy Lionel Atwill
Daimajin (Yasuda, 1966) BLU-RAY 8/10
*A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971) New 4K 'restoration' at the CINEMA 7/10
The Mad Ghoul (Hogan, 1943) BLU-RAY 7/10 - love me some George Zucco
Kansas City (Altman, 1996) BLU-RAY 8/10
*The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941) New 4k restoration at the CINEMA 9/10
*Iron Man (Favreau, 2008) BLU-RAY 7/10
The Big Fix (Kagan, 1978) YOUTUBE 6/10

and SEPT:

Late Spring (Ozu 1949) 6/10 i guess i don't get it
Viridiana (Bunuel 1961) 5/10 bunuel's return to europe is 0 out of 5 for me so far

i had to watch some silly movies to cheer me up:
The Gang's All Here (Berkeley 1943) 6/10 that ending though
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (WB execs/Dante, 2003) 4/10
Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter 1941) 8/10

Close-Up (Kiarostami 1990) 8/10
That Uncertain Feeling (Lubitsch 1941) 7/10
The Kid Detective (Evan Morgan 2020) 8/10

Bienvenido, Mister Marshall! 1953 Luis García Berlanga
Machinations within a Spanish village when tehy think an American group with funding is going to visit.
Satirical stuff from early 50s small town Spain.
I think it may have some moments and looks ok but I also think I dozed off during it.

The Man Who Sold His Skin 2020 Kaouther Ben Hania
Story of a young couple in Syria falling afoul of the authorities for the way he frames a comment made in public when she says she loves him. I think her family had disliked him from an early point. In consequence of him being brought in by the police he flees the country , she takes off to Belgium and marries a man taht her family likes who works in the embassy there. he takes to ligging at art openings in Lebanon to see about food and stuff there. Doing this he meets a Belgian artist who tattoos his back with an art piece and makes him into the exhibit. Fun ensues.
Quit enjoyed it but it may be a bit romanticised. I thought the girl in the couple was incredibly tasty so may need to track down other performances by her. Ending may be a little too deus ex machina

Me. Natalie 1969 Fred Coe
story about a female misfit trying to find herself. Looks like it wasa bit allstar, or maybe everybody in it is more famous later.
i got told about thsi because it was the actual Al Pacino screen debut not Panic In Needle Park which I watched last week.
It is a little cloying but maybe that's the interim 52 years. THough it may be a bit soapy, probably does have some controversial bits and pieces in it. Reminds me of things like Barefoot In The Park, a bit too middle class white gazey like.
Like, would have preferred it if the ugly duckling wound up as a strong lesbian or something. & this girl being the ugly duckling reminded me of the trope about the way too goodlooking ugly best friend from sitcoms etc. I think this actress went onto being more widely recognised over the next couple of decades and seen as not being an ugly duckling type.
I found it a bit cloying/Hallmark. BUt it has some ok bits i guess

"This actress" = Patty Duke, who'd already won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker (1962) and had a starring role in the blockbuster Valley of the Dolls so she was already famous before Me, Natalie, but you're right that she was unreasonably cast as an ugly duckling there and that wasn't the only time. She was short (5'0") but always nice looking I thought.

Incoherence (Bong 1994)
Streetwise (Bell 1984)
Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Horvát 2020)
The Cremator (Herz 1969)
Comanche Station (Boetticher 1960)
The Fate of Lee Khan (King Hu 1973)
Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell (Bell 2016)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (Huston 1957)
The Ox-Bow Incident (Wellman 1942)
King of New York (Ferrara 1990)
Titus (Taymor 1999)
Twentieth Century (Hawks 1934)
Seven Men from Now (Boetticher 1956)
Days of Being Wild (Wong 1990)
After Hours (Scorsese 1985)
Crimson Gold (Panahi 2003)
A Cat in Paris (Gagnol, Felicioli, 2010)
Cutter's Way (Passer 1981)
A Touch of Sin (Jia 2013)
Ride Lonesome (Boetticher 1959)
Bumping Into Broadway (Roach 1919)
Nude on the Moon (Wishman, Phelan, 1961)
Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You (B. Cronenberg 2010)
E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo (Sachs 2021)
Vacation from Marriage (Korda 1945)

The Oil Raider (Bennet, 1934)
Paradise Island (Glennon, 1930)
No More West (Grinde, 1934)
Makers of Melody (Kaufman, 1929)
The Loves of Carmen (Walsh, 1927)
One Year Later (Hopper, 1933)
Young and Beautiful (Santley, 1934)
The Avenging Conscience (Griffith, 1914)
Cartoon Carnival (Smith, 2021)
The Boxing Kangaroo (Fleischer, 1920)
The Reunion (Fleischer, 1922)
The Cartoon Factory (Fleischer, 1924)
Vacation (Fleischer, 1924)
Come Take a Trip in My Airship (Fleischer, 1924)
It's the Cats (Fleischer, 1926)
Hurry Doctor! (Fleischer, 1931)
Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions (Fleischer, 1933)
Let's Sing With Popeye (Fleischer, 1934)
Betty Boop and Grampy (Fleischer, 1935)
*Dancing on the Moon (Fleischer, 1935)
8The Fraidy Cat (Parrot, 1924)
*Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (Sennett, 1913)
*The Rough House (Arbuckle & Keaton, 1917)

Better Call Saul (S5: 7.5)
It’s My Turn (5.5)
The Ice Storm (9.0)
The Card Counter (5.0)
Carlito’s Way (6.0)
The Deuce (S3: 7.0)
Best Sellers (2.0)
Six Feet Under (S1-S5: 7.5)
The Guilty (--)
The Many Saints of Newark (6.0)

Really disliked The Guilty (the new remake--never saw the original), but I did fall asleep for 10-15 minutes, so I'll give it a ratings pass.

Third or fourth time through, Six Feet Under felt like more of a mess than ever...Not sending Claire to art school would have been a big improvement: no Olivier, no Russell, no Edie, less Billy. One thing still holds me, though, from start to finish, the most obvious thing in the world: it's a great show on the subject of death.

October so far. I'm using my free month of Shudder.

Geometry (del Toro 1987) short, updated version, 3/10
The Stone Tape (Peter Sasdy 1972) tv movie, 7/10
The Raven (Universal, Landers 1935) 6/10
Blood and Black Lace (Bava 1964) 6/10
Blacula (Crain 1972) 5/10 not bad enough to be fun bad
The Telephone Box (Mercero 1972) short, 8/10
Shakma (1990) 3/10 creatively bad
Night of the Comet (Eberhardt 1984) 7/10 the stand as chronicled by mallrats
Love at First Bite (1979) abandoned, racist and unfunny
One Cut of the Dead (Shin'ichirō Ueda 2017) 8/10
*Outer Space (Tscherkassky 1999) short, 7/10

also
Explorers (Dante 1985) 6/10
Columbo seasons 8, 9, 10

A Scream in the Night (Newmeyer, 1935)
Madame Behave (Sidney, 1925)
Two Fresh Eggs (Carter, 1930)
The Merry Frolics of Satan (Melies, 1906)
Hollywood Mystery (Eason, 1934)
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (Iwerks, 1934)
This Little Piggie Went to Market (Fleischer, 1934)
The Show Off (St. Clair, 1926)
The Haunted Castle (Murnau, 1921)
Titane (Ducornau, 2021)

* An Autumn Afternoon (1962) 5/5
Titane (2021) 4/5
The Invisible Man (1933) 4/5; such a funny movie
* After Hours (1985) 4/5
The Black Cat (1934) 3.5/5
* Ms. 45 (1981) 4/5
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) 3/5
The Many Saints of Newark (2021) 1.5/5
Remember My Name (1978) 4/5. Geraldine Chaplin is extremely unnerving in this.

MALIGNANT is the best movie I've seen all year. If you don't like it, you should reevaluate whether or not you actually like horror movies.

just watched The Wailing (Na Hong-jin, 2016), a horror film which was too long, but it was bat-shit crazy and I liked it

Marriage Italian Style (De Sica, 1964)
Les Diaboliques (Clouzot, 1955)
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Barreto, 1976)
Open Hearts (Bier, 2002)

"Late Spring (Ozu 1949) 6/10 i guess i don't get it"

What didn't you get?

I've actually watched enough in the last few weeks to contribute to this thread:

Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais, 1961) 4/5
Prince of Darkness (Carpenter, 1987) 3/5
Throne of Blood (Kurosawa, 1957) 4/5
Night Moves (Penn, 1975) 5/5
Man on Fire (Scott, 2004) 3/5
Us (Peele, 2018) 4/5
Breathless (Godard, 1960) 4/5
Black Narcissus (P&P, 1947) 5/5
The Burning (Maylam, 1981) 3/5
River's Edge (Hunter, 1986)

River's Edge 3.5/5, I think. Still can't decide about Crispian Glover.

The thing that saves Glover's performance in that movie, I think, is that the rest of the cast acts like he's their weird friend who they put up with without being 100% sure why. Their collective "he's an asshole, but he's our friend and we haven't got that many of those" affect puts what he's doing into the proper light, because every group of high school friends has/had one of those guys.

I agree with that: their credulity and general acceptance guides (maps?) ours. His final howl in the park is pretty shattering.

What didn't you get?

The main thing is that the plot is so basic that it could have been a short -- I don't know what the feature length adds. I also don't know why the daughter dislikes the idea of remarriage, or why that's important enough to repeat several times.

Thanks. Agree it isn't much of a plot though I think what it's trying to capture is the emotions bought by that set-up and Noriko's unknowability. I find her at attempt at withdrawal from the normal way of things fascinating. I'll keep some of this in mind for the next time I see it.

No Time to Die (Fukunaga, 2021)
The Ghost Train (surviving elements, Forde, 1931)
The Phantom Honeymoon (Dawley, 1919)
The Midnight Message (Hurst, 1926)
Rain (Ivens & Franken, 1929)
*Force of Evil (Polonsky, 1948)
I Walk Alone (Haskin, 1947)
Fly-By-Night (Siodmak, 1942)
Road House (Negulesco, 1948)
Somewhere in the Night (Mankiewicz, 1946)

In Search of Darkness (2019) 5/10
In Search of Darkness Part II (2020) 6/10

some hooptober movies, although i'm not reviewing them

haunted houses:
House (Miner, 1986) 6/10
Saturday the 14th (1981) 6/10

the worst part 2 I can find: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) 2/10
kaiju: The Giant Claw (Fred Sears, 1957) 2/10
POC director: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (Ernest Dickerson, 1995) 4/10
hooper/1981: The Funhouse (Tobe Hooper, 1981) 7/10
00s: Jennifer's Body (2009) 4/10
spain: Pieces (Juan Piquer Simón, 1982) 5/10

Watched In the Earth yesterday; first time I've been able to get through anything by Ben Wheatley.

Roaring Road (Hurst, 1926)
Roadhouse Nights (Henley, 1930)
The Fall of the House of Usher (Epstein, 1928)
The Tell-Tale Heart (Hurst, 1934)
Side Street (Mann, 1950)
The Sound of Fury (Endfield, 1950)
High Tide (Reinhardt, 1947)

Dune
Not helped by the fact that the sun came out and reflected on my tv screen during the darkest bits of this which I must rewatch.
Anyway thought it quite epic and visually stunning and all like that.
Did wonder when the book was written from seeing the military showing off on the arrival of the Altreides and if it was actually something that was seen asa positive by Herbert. Now seen that book published in 1965 not the early 50s I was thinking, but Foundation was written in the early 50s which I had reversed in my head at the time.
Looking forward to seeing part 2. So wonder when it will appear

Ms.45 (Ferrera 1981) 6/10 if taxi driver were even less subtle
Candyman (1992) 4/10
*Se7en (Fincher 1995) 7/10
The Kiss of the Vampire (Don Sharp 1963) 6/10
Halloween Party (1989)
My Bloody Valentine (1981) 5/10 de-censored version
Pontypool (2008) 7/10
Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) 5/10
Sleepaway Camp (1983) 6/10
*Plan 9 from Outer Space (Wood 1957) ed/10
*Re-Animator (Gordon 1985) 8/10 first time watching the uncensored version
Halloween II (1981) 4/10
Train to Busan (2016) 6/10

i am tired of horror movies now

also
No Time to Die (Fukunaga 2021) 7/10

i am tired of horror movies now

The ratings bear that out.

Rat Film (2016) 3.5/5
Dune: Part One 3.5/5
* The Innocents (1961) 4/5
The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) 3/5
* House (1977) 5/5
* To Die For (1995) 3/5
Deep Cover (1992) 4/5. Found out a dialogue sample I first heard on De La Soul's Buhloone Mindstate in 1993 is from this movie.
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) 4/5
The Velvet Underground (2021) 4/5

Settlers (2021) - I don't know, I'm not really a ratings guy, 4/5? A dark (tone - it's lit quite brightly), minimalist sci-fi movie about a family who live all alone on Mars when suddenly some other people show up. There's violence, but it's mostly off camera, and things take several surprising turns. Recommended.

Musty's Vacation (Myll, 1917)
Koko Sees Spooke (Fleischer, 1925)
*Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (Rock & Pembroke, 1925)
Young Eagles (Bennett, 1934)
The Oval Portrait (1934)
Fancy Curves (Breslow, 1932)
*The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1920)
*Vampyr (Dreyer, 1932)
Last Night in Soho (Wright, 2021)
*Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
The French Dispatch (Anderson, 2021)