Spring 2015 Catch Up List

Time to catch up again - to the extent I can even remember all the movies I've seen. Actually, this year has been a really slow one for moviegoing. A lot of it, honestly, is that there just hasn't been much out there that excites me enough to see. And, as I've mentioned before, I just don't find myself rushing out to see every studio blockbuster - especially sequels to movies I didn't want to see in the first place. I'll just list as many recent movies I watched or re-watched as I can remember here and maybe add a few run-on thoughts on selected films.

Highly Recommended
     - Mad Max: Fury Road - I worried that I might be disappointed due to how much I had been looking forward to George Miller's latest Mad Max movie. But as soon as the Doof Warrior shot flames out of his guitar, my concerns dissolved away. Mel Gibson is still the best Mad Max, but this chapter as a whole gives Mad Max II (The Road Warrior) a real run for its money as the best, most exciting entry in the series. I saw it first in 2-D and then again in 3-D, and do recommend giving the 3-D theatrical version a shot.
     - Farewell to Hollywood - An emotional documentary about a teenage girl's dying days spent trying to live her dream to be a filmmaker even as she finally succumbs to the cancer that robbed her of her teenage years. The film, as she apparently wanted, shows her struggle with cancer in excruciating manner. Yet the film actually is more preoccupied with the girl's deteriorating relationship with her parents, who appear to have been driven off the edge by the twin realization that their daughter will die and that she is now an adult and not the little happy child they prefer to remember. The film perhaps inadvertently raises some ethical questions with respect to documentary filmmaking. It's worth seeing on a number of levels.
     - 1971 - After a short, limited release in theaters, where I was able to check it out, this documentary received a welcome national release on PBS. This fascinating story of the until now unsolved break-in of an FBI office in Pennsylvania focuses on procedural aspects but deftly interweaves just enough material on how the stand that these folks took led to earth-shaking revelations about FBI abuses - if not necessarily much in the way of actual reform.
     - It Follows - A decent film that probably was a little overhyped, it nonetheless works as a fun horror film with enough levels that filmgoers can leave the theater and have some things to talk about.
Recommended
     - Going Clear - This documentary features just enough interesting material to make it worthwhile, but if you've heard any of this stuff before then it can get repetitive here. It doesn't make quite as compelling a case as the filmmakers seem to believe. Some of the stuff written in the wake of the film and its revelations has been more interesting.
     - Village of the Damned (1960) - This modest little horror film proves that sometimes the creepiest thing in the world is a blonde-haired child. The film holds up fairly well, although it's filled with far too much dialogue that comes off as trying to extend the film so it can qualify as feature-length.
     -  Buzzard - If you are a fan of mid- to late-90s indie cinema, especially the early works of Harmony Korine, then run, don't walk, to your Roku and order the VOD of Buzzard. It works well for a while and features an interesting character study, but it ultimately doesn't add up to as much substance as the early parts of the film suggest.Filmmaker Joel Potrykus shows some promise, but it is not yet fully realized.
     -  Tales of Hoffmann
     - The Last Starfighter
     - Krull
Not Recommended
  - Ice Station Zebra - A few nice moments and a decent concept and climax don't do enough to remedy the fact that most of this movie is a complete snooze.
  - Avengers: Age of Ultron - A formulaic rehash that isn't offensively bad - and can even be enjoyable at times - but that washes away from your brain in a matter of seconds when the lights go back on in the theater.
  - Furious 7 - The films in this series aren't meant to be seriously analyzed. But I do expect more fun moments and would appreciate at least some effort at crafting a coherent plot. Dividing up car chases with dramatic scenes that might make All My Children's core audience cringe does not count as a coherent plot. I had a few good laughs at the absurdity of the last entry, and thus perversely enjoyed it. Here I was mostly bored.
  - Jupiter Ascending - I've been a booster of the Wachowskis in the past few years and and feel that their films Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas will eventually be seen as unfairly underrated. But this one just doesn't work. There are some nice visuals and some nice moments, but not enough to save what is just too messy to work.
  - The Mind of Mr. Soames - This melodrama about an adult male awakened from a coma he went into as an infant covers little interesting ground. The pacing is poor and way too little story develops. As a character piece it suffers from several characters that make little to no sense, as well as a lack of focus on what the film wants to say. Pity the poor two female actresses in this thing, who are forced to portray two ludicrous characters - one a bored housewife that instantly falls for the titular character because he strokes her hair like a curious little child, and the other a younger woman that appears to be in a permanent state of rape panic. Overall, the filmmakers never decide from whose perspective they want to tell the story. Even more muddled than the characters is the point of this whole thing. A movie that does not work on pretty much every level.

If I remember others, I'll try to add them.

The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) - Brief Review.

Robert Aldrich's film The Legend of Lylah Clare is occasionally funny, but never intentionally so, and often quite dumb, even though meant to be arty.  It is a mess. Messy enough to be worth two hours of your life to chuckle at? No.

Some old Hollywood types that once ruled the business have been in exile ever since their meal ticket, actress Lylah Clare, fell to her death 20 years earlier. The group discovers a woman that is the spitting image of Lylah. They decide to cast her in a movie about the actress' life. Both are played by Kim Novak. In her effort to become Lylah in the movie, the new girl morphs into Lylah in real life, leading to a repeat of history and a race to discover how Lylah really died.

The movie is melodramatic in the extreme, but there’s no genuine drama. Kim Novak can’t pull off the charismatic performance needed to sell the character – problematic given that every other character is supposedly enraptured by her. Novak looks more confused than anything. There are some funny moments – unintentionally. The flashbacks I think were intended to be boldly artistic but are actually quite silly. I really suspect Aldrich thought he was making Vertigo meets Sunset Boulevard. Nope. The camp value is only intermittent. The rest of it a bad stage play you can’t wait to end. With some friends this might be worth some chortles and sarcastic commentary, but not much here otherwise.

Screened on Warner Archive Instant.

I Bastardi (aka The Cats; aka Sons of Satan; aka The Bastards) (1968) - Review.

Rita Hayworth in I Bastardi

The family that kills together simply can't stay together. It's a familiar refrain, and one that is at the core of the flawed but interesting 1968 Italian-French film I Bastardi.

Giuliano Gemma plays Jason, a young, naive assassin (an odd mix) who starts the film on a killing spree taking out his partners in a jewelry heist. It turns out that Jason is on the payroll of his brother Adam, played by Klaus Kinski. The killing is designed to take out Adam's criminal rivals. Jason keeps the jewels as payment for the killings, but Adam double-crosses Jason, takes the jewels, and cuts the younger brother's tendons to end Jason's career as a shooter.