April absolutely flew by and I'm still coming to terms that it is May and that the year will be halfway through in a month. I did not watch a ton of movies last month but I did get out to several screenings and still have plenty to talk about. For those of you who still enjoy print, I had the privilege to contribute to volume 2 of Klon Waldrip's Ghastly Horror Society Compendium zines. Klon's a great artist and writer and he does such a terrific job with these. The contributors he gets are wildly talented and I'm lucky to be included. I wrote a piece on Truck Turner but I highly recommend you just snag both volumes (you should just buy all of Klon's zines to be perfectly honest). I made no contribution other than pre-ordering Erica Schultz' book, The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film, but I also highly recommend snagging a copy of that before they're all gone. She and Hauntlove and all of her co-conspirators put something really special together. Follow her @Hexmassacre on IG or Twitter for the most up-to-date info on availability. That's all my plugging for now, let's talk about movies.
Rich Kids (1979) - Another winning entry in the late 70s/early 80s divorce film genre. I believe this was Trini Alvarado's film debut and the start of a series of NYC focused coming-of-age films for her that included Times Square and Dreams Don't Die. Both Alvarado and her co-star, Jeremy Levy, account well for themselves and the focus on the kids' experience as well as the city scape lend this a similar quality to Jeremy (though the protagonists' ages result in a more innocent story). The adults, including Kathryn Walker and John Lithgow, are also quite good and manage to deliver a series of believably flawed though well-intentioned individuals who are navigating life as best as they can (though they all have piles of money). I'd be curious to know what motivated Robert M. Young to move from a prison film (Short Eyes) or an immigrant story (Alambrista!) to a domestic drama on the Upper West Side but while I don't think this rises to the heights of An Unmarried Woman, it's still excellently realized.
Handgun/Deep in the Heart (1983) - This is another absolutely fabulous discovery (for me) thanks to Fun City Editions and the aforementioned Erica who has been singing its praises for a while now. Karen Young plays a young teacher from the East Coast who relocates to Texas for work. She's pretty and well-liked but experiences a bit of culture-shock which is further exacerbated by several dates with a local would-be alpha male named Larry (Clayton Day). Young's Kathleen enjoys Larry's company well enough though she pauses at his fascination with firearms and his litany of conservative talking points. Things get genuinely ugly when Larry decides it's time to become more intimate despite Kathleen's protestations. Kathleen seeks help from the authorities but is ultimately driven to immerse herself in the gun culture so embraced by Larry and the surrounding community. This isn't as exploitative as it may sound and its narrative twists distinguish it from other rape/revenge stories - the result is something closer to a deep character study. Directed by Englishman Tony Garnett, Handgun brings a critical outsider's perspective at what passes for normal in many places in the US. Most importantly, Garnett seems to have been granted inside access to real locations and non-actors including local high schools and gun shops. This isn't meant to ridicule or even satirize as much as it feels like documentation of a society (perhaps betraying his frequent collaboration with Ken Loach). This is a tremendous piece of regional based filmmaking and hits every bit as hard today as it must have in the 80s. I haven't yet had a chance to listen to the commentary with Erica and Chris O'Neil but I can't wait to learn more about this one.
The Outside Man (1972) - Another case of Europeans traveling to the US and bringing an outside perspective to a uniquely American milieu. I've heard a variety of stories about the origin of this Jacques Deray L.A. crime/conspiracy movie but it does resemble a mood piece more than a strict thriller. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a hired gun and Roy Scheider is cast as the man looking to clean things up after Trintignant wipes out a local crime boss. It's a cat and mouse pursuit throughout L.A. with Trintignant truly evoking the outsider in a world of go-go dancers, cruising down the strip, roller derby tournaments, and sun-kissed elites. I can understand this not being quite propulsive enough to sway the hardboiled crime fanatics but I was really taken with it. I have a deep affection for Deray's willingness to let things play out and not over-explain every last detail. I'll definitely be curious to know more about the production especially in the wake of The French Connection which came out the previous year.
The Assassination/The French Conspiracy (1972) - Yves Boisset directed political thriller with an absolutely insane cast including Trintignant, Scheider (briefly), Michel Piccoli, Gian Maria Volonte, Michel Bouquet, Philippe Noiret, and Jean Seberg just to name a few. Assassination sounds better on paper than it is in execution - it runs a little long and yet the details can be a bit fuzzy if you're not familiar with the case in which it is based on. Still, I found it to be a totally worthwhile addition to Boisset's politically charged films - it is very much rooted in his critique of power and corruption. Undoubtedly this was meant to be a large prestige picture but doesn't quite hit the mark. I still enjoyed watching this absolute powerhouse of a cast and the Z like story of political machinations and the media courtesy of screenwriter Jorge Semprun.
Save the Tiger (1972) - Jack Lemmon's total showstopper of a performance as a garment industry hustler who has extended himself to the breaking point is reason enough to seek this out. The fact that it's also well directed by John G. Avildsen (still coming off of the scorching Joe and a few years before Rocky would change his career significantly) and the supporting cast is excellent doesn't hurt one bit. I had put this one off for ages for reasons I can't entirely remember but I'm happy to have finally gotten here. This is a touch theatrical but I like it when Lemmon leans into his stage persona and the performances are just too good to care.
Graveyard of Honor (1975) - Another brutal, nihilistic slice of Yakuza legend from the man himself, Kinji Fukasaku. This is based on the life of Rikio Ishikawa and told in a pseudo-documentary style which I think does some work grounding the piece. Tesuya Watari's Rikio is such an insanely self-immolating force of nature that it's helpful to know this is rooted in reality to an extent. One thing I found odd is that the early film testimonies from his friends and neighbors all mention how smart he is and then he doesn't do a single smart thing for the duration of the film. Still, he's totally mesmerizing in that way that Fukasaku anti-heroes tend to be. Not my favorite of his films but still damn good.
California Suite (1978) - I went to a production of Neil Simon's I Ought to be in Pictures while I was in NYC and this had led to a bit of catching up with film adaptations of Simon's plays. I have to wonder how this film would feel if it maintained Simon's original vignette structure instead of trying to overlap the different stories. I totally admire Herbert Ross' attempt to make a cohesive narrative out of the stories but I found myself resisting the transition between something as (brilliantly) acerbic as Fonda's performance, the bittersweet melodrama of Caine and Smith, and the slapstick violence of the Pryor/Cosby story. I also nearly forgot that Matthau was in the movie though once his story picks up with Elaine May it's quite good. Probably not where I would start with Simon adaptations, but with a cast this stacked, the time period, and the source material, it's very much my kind of movie.
Shot Pattern (1982) - The first of three movies collected in Fun City Editions' recent Seeing Red - 3 French Vigilante Thrillers set. Gerard Lanvin (who I watched in Exterior Night in March) stars as a flea market dealer who has his life upended when his girlfriend (Veronique Jannot who I watched in French Postcards in February) is attacked and killed on a train. Jean-Claude Missiaen was not a prolific director and isn't terribly well known in the US, but the talent involved in the making the film all feature prominently in movies I've loved and written about previously. Apparently this project was driven forward to an extent by director/cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn (LouLou, Serie Noire, Coup De Torchon), it was co-written by Claude Veillot (The Cop, Le Juge Fayard), and edited by Armand Psenny (Round Midnight, Watchmaker of St. Paul). You wouldn't be remiss expecting French Death Wish after reading the synopsis but Shot Pattern delivers a much different experience in its execution. Editing and jumping back and forth through time play a significant role in the story-telling. Rather than opening with a simplistic, heartwarming scene between the two leads interrupted by tragedy and resulting in hard-nosed vengeance - the film flashbacks continuously to their lives and establishes a much more substantial relationship between the two. Revenge is generally an easy thing for an audience to relate to which makes it such a well-used trope in filmmaking, but in Shot Pattern Missiaen doesn't take the audience's sympathies for granted. He takes the time to build out real characters so that we have a full understanding of the tragedy that has taken place. Another notable difference between Shot Pattern and its contemporaries is that the police (led by the incomparable Michel Constatin) are actually doing their job and doing it rather well. It's a sharp contrast to the either overwhelmed or apathetic authorities as featured in dozens of other vigilante films. These elements along with some plot beats that challenge the typical revenge narrative result in a film that is both satisfying as a thriller and has heartfelt emotional impact regarding how violence can shape our lives. Also, I was impressed with the portrayal of the "thugs" (including a young Dominique Pinon) who were potently believable in their depravity. This is another killer set from FCE and one I'll have to write at length about once I've devoured all three films.
Theatrical Screenings!
Samurai Reincarnation (1981) - My expectations for Samurai Reincarnation were through the roof the first time I put it on and how could they not be? Kinji Fukusaku directing a supernaturally tinged chanbara flick with Sonny Freaking Chiba as Jubei Yagyu facing a series of demonic martial artists including Tomisaburô Wakayama and Ken Ogata as an undead Musashi Miyamoto! What I found myself watching was in many ways much stranger and less satisfying. Fukasaku's economic storytelling and hyperkinetic delivery were out the window and instead exposition is achieved through a series of monologues and flashbacks which still seem insufficient to tie all of the various threads swirling around Reincarnation together. It seemed slow and the dogshit transfer I watched with bad cropping and subtitles wasn't doing it any favors.
When I saw that Samurai Reincarnation would be playing at the Trylon I resolved to give it another shot hoping that a theatrical experience and realistic expectations would allow me to appreciate it better. I think I was right. It's still surprisingly languid in its pacing and while the details - mountains of corpses, demonic samurai, crucifixions, amazing actors - would lead you to think this is a total genre banger, the execution still feels more weird than thrilling. Having said that, I can appreciate the vibes which vary from oddball Shaw Bros. horror tales to something approximating a Fulci film. Lots of fog, impending dread, rubber band bass lines in a proggy soundtrack almost feel like something akin to The Beyond. However, Fukusaku's dalliance with the supernatural never seems to kick it into that gear which would make this a stone cold classic. IMDB rumor says this was meant to be a Hideo Goshi movie which maybe accounts for some of the disconnect. Certainly worth a visit and I'm glad I made time for a rewatch.
The Beast (2023) - Last year for MSPIFF, I attended so many movies that I wrote multiple posts dedicated to everything I saw at the festival. This year, I couldn't even get a response to my request for a press pass so that (combined with travel plans) meant I only caught a single film. Still, I'm happy to have come out for Bertrand Bonello's The Beast. Very loosely based on a Henry James novella and then morphing that into a time warping, sci-fi rumination on existential dread featuring the masterful Lea Seydoux. I've been reading some lukewarm to positive reviews on this one, but I have to say that I was sucked into it. It's certainly sprawling and doesn't resolve neatly but the sheer anxiety channeled in this had me in its grip. The broad strokes of the themes have been exhaustively addressed - our humanity and our reality are being stripped away by modern circumstances. Films about this were being made a hundred years ago but The Beast feels no less poignant for it. Bonello's interpretation harvests uncertainty about AI, virtual reality, the pandemic, environmental collapse, superficiality, cultural stagnation, and our inability to connect and by weaving all of these uncertainties together manages to approximate the titular beast that haunts the edges of our psyches and lives in the pits of our stomachs. There are some very good scenes (including one that gave me legitimate chills - a rarity that I have to celebrate) and no terrible ones. I'll be giving this another watch for sure.
Bugged (1996) - Watched this as part of the Blood Brunch series at the Spectacle in Williamsburg. I have some real hesitancy around Troma in the mid/late 90s so I'm not sure when I would have gotten around to this had it not been a mystery screening. I found this relentlessly charming - the budget limitations are clear, the story is hardly groundbreaking, but the performances are earnest, there's some terrific shot ingenuity, and some of the cartoon-ish violence really lands. This was a particularly good movie to watch with an audience who laughed because the movie is pretty damn funny and not for performative irony. The Spectacle appears to have some fantastic programming - check them out if you're in the area.
Elevator to the Gallows (1958) - Caught this at The Metrograph in Chinatown. I hadn't been to the Metrograph for a long time and was happy they were showing one of my favorites. Gallows works so beautifully on the big screen and it was such a joy to lose myself in the rainy streets of Paris with Miles' incomparable score and Jeanne Moreau looking about as hopeless as anyone ever has. Extra points, as always, for a Lino Ventura appearance.
From Beyond (1986) - Watched on 35mm at the Prospect Park Nitehawk Cinema. I have always loved From Beyond and seeing it on a big screen with Q&A from screenwriter Dennis Paoli was such a treat. So much goo, so much purple, so many of the great hands behind 80s practical effects contributing to this one. Whether you find it repellent or liberating, I love how Stuart Gordon, Paoli, and Brian Yuzna take Lovecraft's inherent squeamishness about the sexual and make it the glaring, neon purple text of the piece. Paoli had a brief slideshow that featured some production artwork from Gordon and I had no idea he was such an accomplished draftsman. Early on in my life, I had a fleeting dalliance with art school and I was always blown away by the artists trained in commercial illustration in the previous decades. Also, the Nitehawk and the Brooklyn Horror Society did a great job with this screening so hats off to em'
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