The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
1. The Reeds (2009) Dir. Nick Cohen - UK
2. Hardware (1990) Dir. Richard Stanley - US
Guilty Pleasure Cinema:
1. Hellraiser (1987) Dir. Clive Barker - US
Astounding Cinema:
8. Kontroll (2003) Dir. Nimrod Antall - Hungary
7. Ministry of Fear (1944) Dir. Fritz Lang - US
6. Delta (2008) Dir. Kornel Munruczo - Hungary
5. Nuts (1987) Dir. Martin Ritt - US
4. Mammoth (2009) Dir. Lukas Moodysson - Sweden/Denmark/Germany
3. The Consequence (1977) Dir. Wolfgang Peterson - West Germany
2. Sylvia Scarlett (1935) Dir. George Cukor - US
1. Mississippi Masala (1991) Dir. Mira Nair - US
Theatrical Screenings:
2. The Human Centipede (2009) Dir. Tom Six - Netherlands 6/10
1. Ajami (2009) Dir. Scandar Copti & Taron Shani - Israel 9/10
Rewatched:
1. It's Complicated (2009) Dir. Nancy Meyers - US 5/10
The Reeds (2009): Part of the After Dark horror series, The Reeds is about a group of young Londoners that go away for the weekend to get drunk on a boat in the swamp, only to discover a terrible secret in the reeds! While the first half hour pulls you in effectively, the second half of the film's lack of credibility leading into fantastic ridiculousness may infuriate you as much as it did me. While this series of films tends to be hit or miss, this is definitely a miss, from a director whose previous film was called Voodoo Lagoon (2006).
Hardware (1990): I can't say for sure why I thought this newly released, remastered edition of this pitiful early 90's sci-fi flick intrigued me, but let me just say that if I didn't have a reason to despise Dylan McDermott, I do now. It's the future, the world has fallen apart and people are being sterilized while a wandering soldier/scavenger finds a robot head in the desert which he brings back to his scrap-metal artist girlfriend (the epitome of early 90's B-acting in a performance from Stacey Travis). Well, the robot turns out to be a self-assembling mechanism designed to kill humans---that's just some bad luck for them. And Iggy Pop apparently plays some radio DJ named Angry Bob, though I can't recall if he got any screen time. What makes this boring, tepid film even worse is realizing that filmmakers like Paul Verhoeven and James Cameron were making excellent sci-fi epics at this time. Hardware isn't worth the reboot.
Hellraiser (1987): I can't say I cared much more for the acting in Clive Barker's infamous Hellraiser, but there's some interest there. By the second half of the film when it gets all weird/overthought/Clive Barker-ish I lost interest, but I can see why this was so frightening to people upon release, and Pin-Head is creepy. But the best part of the film is the adulterous drama angle about a woman who help's her husband's dead brother basically escape from a sadomasochistic hell while some creepy demons chase after him. Helping him means bringing stray men that want to have sex with her into the attic so that her brother-in-law can reconstruct his human form. But that's not to say it's a good film.
Kontroll (2003): I absolutely loved Nimrod Antal's Vacancy (2007)---sadly, I think I loved it more than his breakout hit, Kontroll, though there's a lot to like in this first feature a group of train inspectors in Budapest's subway system. It tried to do a little much for me, mostly with a bizarre love story that seemed out of place, but basically, not everything is as it seems. Consistent in tone, the film is energetic but drab, but most of all, I know that I never would want to be a ticket inspector. A huge box office smash in Hungary, it's worth a look.
Ministry of Fear (1944): Man, I love Fritz Lang. While this was not my favorite Lang film, I'm quite happy I was able to find a copy of this flick, available only on VHS and starring Ray Milland as a man barely released from serving two years in a WWII era asylum in England before basically being involved in bizarre espionage by the next frame. Marjorie Reynolds stars as a rather ill-fitting love interest while Milland has to find out who wants a strange piece of information wanted by a spy ring that had been hidden in a cake. Oy, yoy, yoy. Based on the novel by Graham Greene.
Delta (2008): The debut of Hungarian filmmaker Kornel Mundruzco, I liked this film much more after I had time to think about. It's rather slow going at first, mostly because our portagonist is a man that doesn't like to speak. After having returned from making huge amounts of money doing god knows what in the city, a man returns to the small village he was born in to greet his mother, step-father, and a half sister he has never met before. Well, half sister takes quite a liking to half brother, and they, umm, bond over the construction of a home on the river delta, which was property his father had owned. And, of course, the townsfolk don't quite like the nature of their forbidden love and you all must just know a Hungarian incest drama isn't going to end like a Mackenzie Phillips bio.
Nuts (1987): While it sometimes becomes obvious that this is clearly based on a play material, Babs Streisand gives it her all as a high-class call girl fighting for her right to be declared mentally competent to stand trial on manslaughter charges. High-court melodrama ensues with a bevy of award-winning heavyweights supporting Streisand's flashy, angry turn, including Karl Malden and Maureen Stapleton as her estranged parents, Richard Dreyfuss as her altruistic lawyer, Eli Wallach as an evil, ignorant psychiatrist, and Leslie Nielsen (yes, Leslie Nielsen) as the john that got a lot out of control for Bab's tastes. A downright emotional little potboiler, with excellent helmsman Martin Ritt (
Sounder, 1972;
Norma Rae, 1979) at the wheels.
Mammoth (2009): Let me just preface this with the fact that I think Lukas Moodysson is one of the the most interesting, thought provoking and wonderful directors working today---and I don't understand why this mega-transnational production centering on the difficult theme of globalization garnered such harsh criticism, because quite simply, I loved it, and I feel like it kicks the hell out of what celebrated Babel (2006) was also going for. Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal star as NYC upper class parents with a Filipino nanny whose own children are still in her native country. When Bernal travels to Thailand for work, all three central characters discover that perhaps some things may need to be reevaluated. The title, which quite uniquely addresses the far-reaching thematics, is borne from a 3,000 pen Bernal receives inlaid with the ivory of a wooly mammoth, a creature that once could have been considered a ruler of the earth, travelling across continents before finally becoming extinct.
The Consequence (1977): It's sad to see that German filmmaker Wolfgang Peterson has been reduced to the master of Hollywood Box Office schlock in the past decade (The Perfect Storm, 2000; Troy, 2004; Poseidon, 2006), but even before his renowned Das Boot (1981), which I've yet to see, Peterson helmed this beautiful and distressing film that aired on German television in 1977 called The Consquence. Filmed in a striking, beautifully stark black and white, Jurgen Prochnow (who would also be cast in glossy H-wood productions as a Euro-baddie in productions like Dune, 1984; The Seventh Sign, 1988; and In the Mouth of Madness, 1995) stars as an actor recently imprisoned for sleeping with an adolescent boy. Putting on a play in prison, he meets and falls in love with the warden's son. Upon release, the two attempt to start a life together but are virtually thwarted at every turn. I found this film completely believable and completely distressing---and I can't wait for there to be a day when someone will watch subject matter like this and feel like we've truly come a long way.
Sylvia Scarlett (1935): One of a pair of films from the 1930's featuring Katharine Hepburn in a cross-dressing scenario (the other being Christopher Strong, 1933, directed by lesbian auteur Dorothy Arzner) Sylvia Scarlett is a strange, bizarre and funny 30's comedy helmed by "woman's director" George Cukor. Hepburn stars as Sylvia, who must pose as Sylvester when forced to leave France with her father due to his large debts. The pair canoodle with a con-artist played by Cary Grant and when her father (Edmund Gwenn) falls for a maid they attempt to swindle, the four set up a travelling circus-type caravan and travel the countryside---until Sylvester falls for a man (Brian Aherne), who can't quite tell why he's so attracted to Sylvester---however the resolution (much like Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) finds its heteronormative solution since Hepburn is revealed to be female. Fans of Hepburn, Grant, and classic queer thematics should eat this right up.
Mississippi Masala (1991): Mira Nair's followup to her stunning debut, Salaam Bombay (1988) makes the number one pick this week, with a wonderful, beautiful, moving and extraordinary film starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury. Choudhury stars as a young Indian woman who has grown up in Mississippi after her family was uprooted from Uganda during Idi Amin's notorious regime. Her father still hopes to regain his Ugandan property and has never stopped longing to live in the country he truly loved. However, conflict arises when Choudhury falls in love with carpet cleaner Denzel Washington, exploring interracial subtexts often left untouched in a theme that seems to stop at a dialogue between black and white. Incredibly moving and completely romantic and realistic, I loved every minute of Mississippi Masala. Also starring Charles S. Dutton, Nair's masterpiece is not to miss.
The Human Centipede (2009): A recent splash in the shock cinema circuit is this surprisingly tame feature from the Netherlands directed by Tom Six. So, this creepy surgeon specializing in the separation of conjoined twins living in an isolated house on the Austrian/German border has an obsession with conjoining things together, mouth to anus, in order to create his sick centipede fantasy. We don't know why this is his fantasy or what is truly accomplished besides someone that's simply misanthropic having too much time on his hands, but he did it with dogs (that didn't survive for long) and now two American girls lost in the woods have given him an opportunity to realize his dream of creating the Human Centipede! Thankfully, the director leaves a lot to the imagination, perhaps depending more so on the implied. And that's about it. I wouldn't call it entirely sensational, and perhaps not even very exploitative (I found it certainly more tasteful than any of the atrocious Saw entries) but in the end, I feel it will simply end up being a curio piece and nothing more---but Dieter Laser as the creepy doctor is chillingly effective.
Ajami (2009): Nominated for Best Foreign Language film for 2009, Ajami (the name of a Tel Aviv neighborhood) has received rave reviews. Concerning Muslim and Christian conflicts, gang and drug related violence, Ajami is, at times, completely engrossing and moving. However, I found the narrative to be confusing at times, and a tad long in the tooth. And while I'm usually one that's all for a melodramatic twist, I felt the very end of Ajami was completely unnecessary and manipulative---and based on all of the preceding events, not half as hard hitting as it could have been. However, I did give the film 9 out 10 as there is a lot here to enjoy. Was it one of the 5 best foreign films from 2009? Hell no, but then, I don't get a say. Directed by Scandar Copti (who also stars as Binj in the film) & Yarin Shani.
It's Complicated (2009): I rewatched this because I bought it for my mom for Mother's Day and also the husband hadn't seen it. I'm proud to say that I was able to keep verbal criticisms to a minimum while we watched this (my 20 year old sister, on the other hand, wasn't so polite, but I was thankful to see a female that hated this tripe as much as I did). Let me just say this doesn't get any better with a second viewing. I can see plenty of reasons why Meryl Streep wanted to play this role---I really can. There's a slim, slim markety for 60 somethings like Streep, my lady Weaver, Sarandon, Lange, Keaton, etc. But I will just think that one day, mainstream features with 'mature' women leads won't be so damn sloppy and annoyingly trite.
