FOUR FILMS - LISTEN TO ME MARLON, DEEP DARK, EVEREST, CONDEMNED

LISTEN TO ME MARLON

Documentary on Marlon Brando whose narrative tool is mostly audio tapes Brando made where he discusses his life and feelings in full. This is intercut with iconic scenes from his films and interviews he did. I loved it but I am a Brandophile and that is who this film is largely aimed at. It is loosely chronological as Brando discusses his early years, his troubled relationships with his parents (especially his dad), his introduction to acting and first bushes with fame, his most famous roles, his political activism, Tahiti, his son killing his daughter's boyfriend etc. Brando is at his most eloquent when he philosophizes. At the point where he made these tapes he understood what an illusion his life is and it is amazing to hear him talk so negatively about acting which he revolutionized. The filmmaker does a very good job of keeping the flow interesting through good use of stock footage and Brando highlights. A must for Brandophiles and I would say also entertaining for anyone else.  

                                             

DEEP DARK

Some interesting visuals and general weirdness keep this film slightly interesting. The human blood donating mobile for example. However, the main story of a failed artist who gets guidance from a creepy female voice in a hole in the wall of his apartment moves is too slow and uneventful to hold the attention for long. Not really much happens until the very end and then the gory violence feels forced.
      

EVEREST

For what I'm assuming is a big budget film with lots of name stars based on well known true story and a successful book about this incident, this is a surprisingly uninvolving, sloppily made film. For one thing, many of the action scenes which occur during heavy snowfall make it impossible to tell the identities of the characters. This ruins the set-up of each character's backstory earlier in the film and all the effort in getting the audience to care about them. Dull and confusing, a total waste of a large budget. 

 

CONDEMNED

One of the sub-genres that has proliferated in the last decade or so with REC, THE HORDE and others is that of people trapped in a building or other enclosed space with people infected with some kind of zombie or otherwise homicidal virus. This film is about squatters in a rundown building and adds nothing except truly grotesque scenes of BDSM, pee drinking, etc in the interests of establishing "character". A movie that should be avoided at all costs.

SIX FILMS - THE END OF THE TOUR, BONE TOMAHAWK, THE MARTIAN, HOWL, THE HALLOW, SUSPENSION

THE END OF THE TOUR

The irony is while I am not a fan AT ALL of David Foster Wallace's writing (Self involved babble, Thomas Pynchon without a good editor), this is a very good movie. What I like most about it is it primarily consists of conversation and it's good conversation (Of course it's based on a real interview that was documented on cassette). Feels like genuine discourse not some Hollywood screenwriter's version of how intelligent people talk. I watched the real Wallace on You Tube after seeing this film and Jason Segal has really got him down - it's uncanny. If anything, the film Wallace is more likable less affected and pretentious than real life Wallace. Jesse Eisenberg is annoying and weaselly as usual but it totally fits the role here. 

 

BONE TOMAHAWK

What makes this quirky horror western different is its strange freeform dialogue and diffident pacing technique. The movie takes itS time to reach the violent conclusion. Cannibal inbred troglodytes kidnap Patrick Wilson's wife and others. Wilson (nursing a broken leg), Kurt Russell (as the local sheriff), Richard Jenkins (as an elderly deputy), and Matthew Fox (as a cool gunfighter) go after them. Jenkins in particular is memorable - His conversations about reading in the bathtub and a flea circus are inspired scenes. Good performances, excellent script, unexpectedly eccentric characters. Worth seeing.

 
THE MARTIAN

Keeping intact the credible science and detail of the book, this movie is a thinking man's action thriller, as much science fact as science fiction. At times, it reminds me of a Discovery channel space show. My only complaint is that there are moments that feel padded out - Cutting out 20 minutes or so would have made it a leaner, tenser thriller. Large number of good actors and actresses featured in supporting roles.

HOWL

There is not that much you can do with werewolves other than differ the location of where one encounters them. Here a commuter train outside London that has broken down is beset by not one werewolf SPOILER but a whole pack. The director takes some time to establish all the stereotypes - Schlubby hero who saves the day, female co-worker the hero has a crush on, self-centered rich ahole, old couple, brainy Asian. The werewolves themselves have an imaginative look and the scares and action scenes are solid. Decent and it sets up the horror conflict scenes well. 

 

THE HALLOW

Average creature horror film with two things going for it - 1.) Moving quickly into the horror without much build-up (Most of the action takes place in one night) 2.) Good makeup effects....The creatures do indeed look icky. These two plus points however are not enough to save this film from mediocrity.

SUSPENSION

Truly mundane slasher thriller that bets the whole narrative on a surprise ending that is visible from a 100 miles away. The heroine turns in a decent performance and there's plenty of bright red blood which are the only good things I can say about this film.

FIVE FILMS - THE SAND, THE FINAL GIRLS, TALES OF HALLOWEEN, KNOCK KNOCK, THE GREEN INFERNO

THE SAND

BLOOD BEACH is one of my favorite all time B horror movies with the main reason the inventive monster that lives under the sand and kills and eats people. THE SAND has a different location and plot but mines much of the same territory. This is pretty good thriller with a bunch of hungover college students stuck on a beach with a hungry something that will eat them the moment they touch the sand. Well directed, well paced, excellent set-up of suspenseful scenes. Only complaint cheap CGI effects but they don't get in the way too much

THE FINAL GIRLS

Clever, funny, and meta to the bone. Teenagers find themselves trapped in a famous slasher film starring one of the main teen's mothers who has died in real life. Knows the in and outs of slasher mythology enough that this feels like a primer on the genre. My only criticism is spends so much time talking and on set-up, I wish there were more scary scenes and action. Love the faux trailer at the beginning and the twist at the ends. A movie made by people who really know slasher films. 

 

TALES OF HALLOWEEN

The set-up here is ten short horror stories by ten different directors about Halloween. Most of them don't have much in the way of surprise endings which should be a given for horror anthologies. My two favorites were Trick and The Night Billy Raised Hell both of which balance humor, gore, and shocks into ten minutes or so. The rest of the stories had some thrilling moments but either had a flat premise or were not very artfully told or both. 

 

KNOCK, KNOCK

What was the point of this film exactly? There is no explanation at the end and what the two female antagonists do to home alone married Keanu Reeves isn't particularly sadistic or creative. The most entertaining part of this Eli Roth film is where Reaves finally loses it and tells the girls what he thinks of them. Reaves is such a bad actor, the lack of conviction in that scene is very amusing. This is apparently a remake of an obscure 1970's film and also has echoes of FUNNY GAMES but it is all forgettable and meaningless. Two positives - The glossy look suits the subject matter and Ana De Armas and Lorenza Izzo are both suitably convincing as the menacing young females.

THE GREEN INFERNO

It's a twofer for Eli Roth. Combining a semi-remake of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST with a weird take on environmental activism might have looked good non paper but it is a bloody mess (literally). No tension, not much story, only gross man eating man violence. Lorenza Izzo, who was also in KNOCK KNOCK and is Roth's wife in real life, is a decent enough heroine which is the only good thing I can say about this film.

FIVE FILMS - MANSON FAMILY VACATION, DEATHGASM, VYCHISLITEL, I'LL BE ME, THE HIVE

MANSON FAMILY VACATION

A surprisingly warm family drama given the Charles Manson hook. Two brothers, one a biological son played by Jay Duplass who is successful attorney with a wife a child and a house, the other played by Linas Phillips adopted as a boy who is now a drifter visit sites associated with Charles Manson suggested by the adopted brother culminating in a trip to the desert and a predictable revelation about his paternity. The relationship between the brothers is patiently revealed and written in such a natural fashion you don't notice the exposition. Both Duplass and Phillips are excellent in their respective roles. A unique film that actually has a pretty traditional underpinning about taking family for granted and a reasonable amount of dry humor to boot. Recommended. 

                                           

DEATHGASM

2015 is turning into the year of the horror comedy. This film from New Zealand about a loser metalhead teenager who accidentally summons demons while performing a cursed piece of music made ma laugh out loud a number of times which is high prase indeed as the number of public laughs produced is how I judge comedies. The excessive gore and rampaging demons of the second half are a bit much and I got a bit tired of it but overall amusing. Two best bits - A satanist tells his minions they should have put a tarp down when cutting off a head as they ruined his rugs and an argument over if the demon's hour takes into account daylight savings time. 

 

VYCHISLITEL (Alternate English Titles - TITANIUM and CALCULATOR)

This Russian sci-fi tale of convicts on an alien planet facing hostile lifeforms is justified for me by the thought put into the creatures which are all variations on underground man-eating plants. There is enough excitement and drama coupled with the authentic looking alien planet which is in the realm of believability to make this slightly above average. Also a dubbed Vinnie Jones in a Vinnie Jones type thug role. 

 
I'LL BE ME

More of a PSA on Alzheimer's Disease than a reflection on the life and career of Glen Campbell who suffers from the disease. There is plenty of good music but we also get a lot of warts and all scenes of how difficult it is to struggle with is illness (the numbers of those afflicted with Alzheimer's are increasing). Campbell's struggle against the inevitable is deeply moving. My only criticism is instead of just a five minute montage on Campbell's music, TV, and film career, perhaps they could have made this segment at the beginning of the film slightly longer. 

THE HIVE

I appreciated what the people making this film were trying to do and that they'd clearly thought out the whole story but they borrowed from so many places (most noticeably MEMENTO and THE EVIL DEAD) it's hard to really praise them. The plot is about a virus that creates a hive mind among those who get it transforming them into black sludge vomiting zombies One one hand, a well-made movie that takes time to develop its characters. On the other hand, not really very scary and as I said we've seen it all before.

A POETRY ANNOUNCEMENT

Happy to say my poem JOAN OF ARC KILLED BY DRONES is included in the October issue of the art and poetry e-zine The Bitchin' Kitsch - It appears on Page 30

http://www.talbot-heindl.com/oct2015

My recitation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLzKJKWXNsA

THE VISIT

It's been awhile since M Night Shyamalan has made a film like those that initially brought him fame - THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE, THE VILLAGE. Essentially they are LIKE well-constructed jokes wherein the punchline is everything but you don't need to be told it more than once.

THE VISIT definitely falls into this category with a terrific twist and plenty of scary foreshadowing. This is the best film he's made in a long time but as I said once the surprise is over that's it.

Two children visit their estranged grandparents while their mother goes on a cruise with her new beau. They have never met their grandparents before and we see through their eyes the elderly couple's weird behavior which gradually escalates to its horror movie conclusion over the length of a week.

Shyamalan has joined the ever growing list of filmmakers using found footage as the vehicle for telling a story. It does make sense in the context of the story here as the granddaughter is an aspiring filmmaker and documents all that is going on. It also is a good storytelling method as it prevents the audience from finding out too much and moving at the same rate of speed of knowledge as the characters in the film.

Shyamalan's best film is UNBREAKABLE as it was an example of a filmmaker who totally understands the comic book narrative flow and style and also has the best Shyamalan surprise ending. THE VISIT is not on the level of that film but easily as good as the best of his other films.

The performances by Peter McRobbi and Deanna Dunagan as the grandparents are really creepy and unsettling and make perfect sense once you know the twist .

Overall a strong horror movie with plenty of jump scares and excellent pacing.

Here is a post from 2008 I wrote about Shyamalan

https://rajdronamraju.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/unrealistic-expectations-and-the-films-of-m-night-shyamalan/

 

THREE FILMS - LAST SHIFT, COOTIES, HELLIONS

LAST SHIFT

Rare to see a horror movie these days that is this genuinely scary and it is successful at being scary because it is very focused, relentless in piling on one nailbiting scene and shock scare after another, and takes place at one location (The set is perfect) - A police station the night before it closes for good. A rookie officer (Juliana Harkavy) has been assigned to play watchman by herself but little does she know the station is haunted by the ghosts of a Charles Manson like cult leader and a couple of his followers who committed suicide while in custody one year earlier. All the scares here are legitimate and might be something as simple as a chair that moves by itself or a hideously mutilated ghost-corpse. The end is a bit of a mind screw and I dug it. Anthony DiBlasi, the director, previously made the films DREAD and CASSADAGA but this is much much better. Maybe the best horror movie I've seen this year.

COOTIES

Horror comedies are difficult to pull off as they often seem like an uneasy mix of two things that don't go well together but this film does a good job I think because it is primarily a comedy. One can ignore the gruesome violence and bloody gore because of the large number of jokes, hilarious dialogue, and the characters in particular the angry right wing Christian teacher, the ridiculously perverse and socially awkward science teacher, and the anal retentive fake cool vice principal. There's even couple Lord of the Rings jokes (Elijah Wood is the main star). Not a masterpiece of the genre, just good gory fun.

HELLIONS

Crappy film in love with its bargain basement psychedelic visuals and containing a muddled pro life message. Had no idea what the plot was about and by the end I didn't care. The first twenty minutes made me think it was going to be yet another variation on THE STRANGERS and it would have been better off for everyone if it had gone in that direction.