jmerlino Reviews

Altered States (1980)

Kinda goofy, kinda fun

[7/10 · 30 December 2023]

Altered states is a relatively sedate movie by Ken Russell standards. It gets gloriously unhinged during the hallucination sequences with some of the cheesiest visual effects you'll see this side of a Bert I. Gordon extravaganza.

John Hurt gives a convincing performance of a guy so far inside his own head that he can't connect with the people in his life. He pulls some seriously goofy faces and has some fun moments with prosthetics.

Blair Brown is well cast as Hurt's love interest. She does a great job of conveying her love for him despite the frustration of his self-isolation.

The rest of the cast are fine as a bunch of nerdy scientists.

So... I'm not going very deep with this review, because despite what I think Russell was going for, this is not a very deep movie. Russell's talent is mainly for the visual. He composes really effective hallucinatory sequences that despite looking super cheesy, are fairly effective. What he's not so good at is digging deep into an idea.

This movie came out in the same year as The Shining. The two make a wonderful contrast with the Shining having very little of its actual meaning on the surface, while Altered States is pretty much all on the surface.

All of the above not withstanding, it's an entertaining movie if you just want something fun to watch.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Magic is in the world

[9/10 · 29 December 2023]

The thread of magical realities that can often be found in Spanish literature is on full display here. Other reviewers have wondered if Ofelia's world is real or not. The answer is, it doesn't matter. You're not going to get a neat answer to that, and it's a good thing.

Historically, fauns and fairies are nature spirits and so it is here. The world outside of Vidal's mill is teeming with magical creatures, and also republican soldiers. The point here is that the woods - nature - are out of Vidal's control.

The power Vidal wields is brutal and absolute, but only within the confines of the mill. The forest will take everything from him. His son, his stepdaughter, his command, and ultimately, his life.

Ultimate, the message of the film is that nature is magical, and authoritarianism ultimately cannot stand against it.

Last and First Men (2020)

Lovely writing and narration. Boring film overall

[5/10 · 28 December 2023]

I can't fault the people who like this one OR the people who don't. The writing is wonderful, and Tilda Swinton's narration is sonorous, but the visuals really add nothing, and the pacing is painfully slow.

Visually, we do get the sense of a dead planet. We get it hammered into us shot by excruciating shot for the entire duration of the film. It's rather fatiguing.

I don't want to argue with the people who like it. If you're so taken with the story that it kept you involved, then great. The film makers could have done a lot more with it. The visuals could have told much more of a story, even with keeping the same approach. Unfortunately, for me the experience was that of a half-hour audiobook crammed into an hours worth of a film.

Midsommar (2019)

Damn near perfect

[10/10 · 13 December 2023]

How do you approach a movie like Midsommar? I've seen it 3 or 4 times now, and every time I watch it, it gets better.

I won't rehash the plot here. What I will do is praise Ari Aster to the heavens. This guy could well be another Kubrick or Lynch. He has the ability to create multilayered narratives that tell several stories at once. I think if you put Midsommar up against, say, The Shining, it holds its own.

Visually, it's gorgeous. Brightly lit and colorful, it thumbs its nose at the idea that a horror film has to look dark and moody. Script wise, it's as well done as one could ask. There is the surface story about a cult that lures in outsiders for breeding and sacrifice. Underneath, themes of grief (well addressed in Aster's previous film Hereditary), xenophobia (on the part of both the outsiders AND the Hargre), the effects of trauma, and what a truly collectivist society might look like.

The characters are not the MOST 3 dimensional that you'll ever see, except for Dani, but function well within the context of the film, but Dani is really the subject here, and her trajectory says a lot about how the emotionally vulnerable are easy targets for cults, but also how they are somewhat shunned by others in mainstream society. Pelle is the only one of Christian's friends not to be exasperated by Dani.

Psychedelics play an important part in the this film. It operates on both a literal and metaphorical level. Literally, it opens Dani to the influence of the cult by giving her bad experiences around the Americans and good experiences with the Hargre. Metaphorically, it gives us a feeling that reality within the confines of the commune is somewhat warped. Dani might have been horrified by the sacrifice had she not been tripping nuts. It also draws the viewer into the warped reality. (Also, the pulsing flower in Dani's costume is just flippin' cool!)

In all, it's an immensely satisfying film. The ending is just ambiguous enough that you can argue about it, but not so vague that it'll seriously confuse people. There are enough easter eggs to satisfy the kind of people who look for such things, but they also support the narrative.

For me, this is in the top 3 or 4 horror movies of all time, and in the top ten for best film of all time.

Smile (V) (2022)

Pretty formulaic

[6/10 · 13 December 2023]

Smile is a basic, formulaic supernatural horror thriller. It's reasonably well constructed and acted. The plot is your basic possession type demon that passes from person to person. You've seen it before. There's some genuinely unsettling imagery, and a few reasonably effective jump scares. The ending sets us up nicely for a sequel.

There's really not much to say about it. It's reasonably entertaining, but there's no real originality or innovation. If you can stream it for free, it might be worth 90 minutes of your time. I don't know that I'd pay actual money to see it. 8 for execution, 2 for script. Net 6.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

OK, but unworthy of the original

[5/10 · 2 December 2023]

The Shining was a singlar film. Stephen King fans will complain that it wasn't faithful to the book, and they're right. It's much, much better than the book. This sequel - again sourced from King - seems much more a sequel to the book than a sequel to Kubrick's triumph.

To be sure, many of the first film's visuals are replicated, but the overt supernatural elements put it in a very different universe than Kubrick's. Gone is the menace, the existential fear of we-don't-quite-know-what. The way the very air of that film seemed to vibrate with terror.

Gone also is the multilayered narrative. Kubricks film had themes of Native American genocide, and a strong suggestion that Jack's abuse of Danny is far worse than we're told.

What we're left with is a pretty generic horror movie complete with a black female protagonist (only way to get greenlit these days I guess). The subtle shine in the eyes that took people YEARS to catch is now replaced with a very obvious CGI effect. Add to that such predictable things as Danny refusing the drink that's offered to him, and you get a thoroughly average film.

It is perhaps unfair to expect Mike Flanagan to be able to clear the high bar that Kubrick set, but I do feel he could have given us something with a little more meat that this. Better yet, this film probably shouldn't have been made at all. It was bound to look mediocre up against Kubrick's masterpiece. Flanagan is good, but he's not one of the greats. A better director for this might have been someone like Ari Aster or Christopher Nolan.

Part of Kubrick's genius was that the supernatural elements all had plausible doubts about them. We are led to believe that Grady let Jack out of the freezer, but we never see him do it. There's never a scene where two people face a supernatural horror at the same time, or any physical evidence that these things happened. As well, we don't really know what the supernatural entities may want (we start to get an idea towards the end, but it's never really stated), or even are.

The baddies in Doctor Sleep are very clearly supernaturals and we know exactly what they want. Basically this is a very conventional vampire movie.

If you're a Stephen King fan, and you liked the 1997 TV adaptation, you'll probably like this. If you're a Kubrick fan, and you're looking for something worthy of his 1980 opus, then this isn't it.

May (2002)

I fell in love a little

[8/10 · 9 November 2023]

Granted, I've had a couple of scotches, but I felt oddly drawn to May. She just wanted to be loved. May is oddly wholesome. She's a sweet girl with some messed up ideas about friendship and love. By the time she loses it, it feels almost right, what she does. May's creepiness feels organic.

A party with May and Polly seems like it'd be a lot of fun, but you'd probably end up paying for it.

Seriously though, I don't think this is going to change anybody's life, but I found myself weirdly invested in May's fate. The flow of everything is relentlessly logical by the time the action resolves. May's development makes perfect sense in the universe that we've been given.

An absorbing little ditty.

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

Gloriously silly

[8/10 · 3 November 2023]

When I watch a Nick Cage movie, I'm not looking for oscar-worthy acting (although he's capable of that), I'm looking for over the top, scenery chewing wackiness. On that score, Prisoners of the Ghostland does not disappoint.

You'll see some reviews here saying that this picture is a mess, that there's too much going on, etc. They're right. But I don't care. When I heard that this was the same gang that made Mandy, I was in.

This pic does not include a chainsaw duel (alas), but it does have a lot of crazy, unhinged action including a little girl mowing down a crowd with a gatling gun, Nick fighting with a sword attached to the stump where his hand was, and a group of men desperately trying to avert a nuclear explosion by restraining a clock's second hand.

The setting of this movie is really interesting. Seems like it could be the American west, or it could be japan. It feels like a period piece but there are modern cars, weapons and other modern tech. The dialog is in both English and Japanese, and the cast is multicultural to the point where it just kind of doesn't matter what race the cast is.

The main baddie - The Governer - is played by Bill Mosley, who is probably best known for his role in the Rob Zombie Devil's Rejects movies. Mosley plays The Governor as if he were Dennis Hopper starring as Boss Hogg.

The style of the movie is all over the place. It has nods to westerns, samurai/martial arts movies, and Hong Kong action flicks. There are specific nods to John Woo and Sam Peckenpaugh, and probably others that I missed.

This is just crazy fun, and it's awesome. Is it a great film? Hell naw. But you won't regret watching it unless you hate fun.

Fried Barry (2020)

An alien's view from the bottom

[7/10 · 3 November 2023]

I've been going back and forth with myself about whether or not I liked this movie. It is by turns Interesting, tedious, exciting, and boring.

So, Barry is a real piece of work. He's abusive to his wife, and neglectful of his kid. He's a junkie, and one gets the idea that he's about two weeks away from homelessness. After meeting one of his ne'er do well friends at a bar, they go back to the friends place and shoot up.

Then Barry gets abducted by aliens, and an alien possess him, presumably to experience life as a human.

The irony here is that alien Barry is a far better person than human Barry. Unfortunately, they kind of spoil the effect of the irony by having the wife comment at the end about how things were just starting to get better, which rather gives the game away.

Alien Barry has a bunch of misadventures. He does a bunch of drugs, hooks up with several women, and frees a girl from her abductor.

Overall, it's an enjoyable movie that doesn't quite live up to its premise. Worth a watch, but don't expect to be blown away.

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

Body horror, plus police procedural, plus family melodrama

[6/10 · 2 April 2021]

I've got to say, Tokyo Gore Police is one of the better films I've seen in the Japanese dystopian splatterpunk genre.

The think I love about Japanese body horror is that people don't just sprout new orafaces or lumps or whatever. They sprout almost anything. From telescope eyes, to sword limbs, to crotch guns - you never know what new thing a person is going to grow. I'm not sure what this says about Japanese cultural anxieties, but there's probably something in there.

Story-wise, this is a pretty typical "guy presented as a good guy turns out to the bad guy" thing. The details aren't really important, as the story is really just the backdrop for the fight sequences, which are, as the title promises, plenty gory.

Fans of Asian trash cinema will probably love this. Most other people will probably be grossed out or confused by it. I thought it was fun, if a bit overlong. The lead actress is lovely, and engaging onscreen. I thought that the fetish elements didn't really add much, and could have been used a lot more effectively. They did contribute to the general WTF atmosphere of the whole thing, but it really just felt like the director was a big fan of Hellraiser. (I'd love to see a horror/action flick actually treat S&M and fetish stuff realistically and not just play it for the costumes and edgy situations.

Overall, decent. Not great. Fun if you're into this sort of thing, but don't get too hung up on the plot.

Adrenochrome (2017)

Who knew Venice Beach was scarier than Iraq?

[6/10 · 2 April 2021]

Yes, there is a substance called adrenochrome. It is a metabolite of adrenaline. No, it is not a psychedelic. The major effect of the substance seems to be severe headaches.

But ever since Hunter S. Thompson wrote a passage about it in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, people have had a weird fascination with this semi-non-existent drug.

So, suspending my disbelief of the premise of this film, how was it? It was... okay. Some good fight scenes and some hot girls occupy much of the screen time.

Let me just say that anyone who compared this to Easy Rider is full of it. Yeah, there's a guy on a motorcycle, and some 60s-ish sounding music, but that's about the only connection.

Hunter Thompson does make an appearance of sorts. His literary alter ego - Dr. Gonzo - appears in one of the main character's hallucinations.

They used a rotoscoping technique a la A Scanner Darkly for the drug sequences. I think it mostly works, adding a layer of irreality to them.

Overall, I found it entertaining, but I won't be surprised if, in a week or so, I don't remember much of it.

The Black Room (2017)

Fun!

[6/10 · 2 April 2021]

This is a sexy, campy homage to 80s horror flicks with a comedic undertone.

I think it works pretty well. Lukas Hassle's performance is a bit, um... Cagean but it works well enough. Natasha Henstridge is terrific as the wife.

From the reviews, I was expecting a lot more in the way of sex. There's some, but I don't think it overwhelms the movie, especially considering the incubus/succubus theme.

All in all, it's pretty fun. I wouldn't pay for it, but it's streaming on Prime right now, so the price was right.

Meatball Machine (2005)

Meh.

[6/10 · 1 April 2021]

This film plays like a full-length, color Tetsuo the Iron Man. As with that film, I suspect that viewers who are not Japanese (like me) are missing some important cultural resonance.

What I, the gaijin, saw was a somewhat entertaining gore/splatter film with some uniquely Japanese body horror elements. (Japanese body horror often seems to involve growing massive new parts that may be made of non-organic materials).

I wasn't, like, on the edge of my seat or anything, but the fight scenes are pretty great.

It's free on Amazon right now, which is about what you'd want to pay for it.

The Hunger (1983)

Good 80s flick

[7/10 · 26 March 2021]

Worth it just for the scene where Bowie ages like 20 years while sitting in a doctor's waiting room.

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Significant, but overrated

[6/10 · 25 March 2021]

First things first. Brando and Bertolucci sexually assaulted Maria Schneider. There's no getting around this, and both men should have faced consequences for that. Having said that, I hope the people who gave this movie a '1' because of that are doing the same on all of Roman Polanski's films. Just because the rape he perpetrated didn't happen on film, doesn't mean it wasn't every bit as bad, or worse. With that out of the way, my perspective watching this film now, outside of the historical context in which it was released, shows the film as being about a very, very stupid man. Whether that was what was intended or not, I don't know. I can certainly understand a guy acting irrational after his wife's suicide, but that's what I got. The intensity of Paul and Jeanne's sexual relationship was something that wasn't seen much on screen at that time. At least not in "respectable" movies, and I think that the film's reputation has become inflated by the fact that people were seeing a "real" movie about sex. And as such, it is significant for being one of the first films in which sex - not just the fact that the characters have sex, but HOW they have sex - is the organizing principle. Brando does a terrific job of showing how this affects Paul. The problem is that as talented an actor as Brando was, Paul is just extremely unappealing. He's headstrong, self-deluded, impulsive, and just not very smart. Whether this was intended or was though of as smart at the time, I don't know. So, in a nutshell, I think that the film's reputation is overinflated because it happened to be a movie about sex at a time when people were really wanting something like that. The movie itself is a good, but not great story, effectively told, but hardly the work of utter genius that you see a lot of reviewers proclaiming.

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Very true to the book, and to Dick.

[7/10 · 23 March 2021]

There is a central question that runs through all of Phillip K. Dick's novels, and that is, "Are you really who you think you are, and how do you know". His books all tackle different material - different subjects, different stories - but this question is always there.

Film adaptations of Dick;s novels and stories generally do honor this element of his work, but the question is not always as much in the foreground as it seems to be in his writing.

A Scanner Darkly could be looked at in many ways. It's a cautionary tale about the trap of addiction. It's a black comedy of people having animated and intense conversations about absolutely nothing. It's a detective/cop story. It's an SF/suspense story.

To his credit, Linklater puts the identity question front and center in ASD. We have Fred, an undercover cop, who's been assigned to investigate a drug ring which seems to be centered around Bob Arctor. Arctor is addicted to Substance D - a drug that causes the hemispheres of the brain to stop communicating. What neither Arctor nor Fred realize is that they are the same person. Bob Arctor went deep undercover to live with the druggies, and he got hooked on the Substance D that he was supposed to be investigating. The Substance D damaged his mind and he has compartmentalized his life as Arctor, the druggie, and Fred, the cop. He is, in fact, investigating himself.

PKD wrote the novel after he'd been living in Berkeley, CA for a few years, and had seen the effects that drugs -especially speed - had had on he and his friends. According to some of his writings, the atmosphere in Berkeley at that time was very paranoid. People thought the FBI were infiltrating, or that the army would come rolling in.

But in addition to the overall craziness, the drugs really were damaging people, and that's what ASD is ultimately about. Well, that, and the identity thing.

Linklater's film sticks about as close to the book as it's possible to do. The rotoscoping technique he used gives the film a cartoony, psychedelic look that really complements the material (kinda makes you feel like you're watching it on mescaline or something), and also allows him to pull off interesting effects like the "scramble suit".

Keanu Reeves is not one of my favorite actors (though he is one of my favorite people. Seriously, look up some of the stories about him that are floating around online. The guy is a mensch), but he gives a believable performance as a guy trying to do his job in the midst of the dissolution of his identity. Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. are hilarious as his druggie sidekicks, and Winona Rider is her usual winsome self.

This is a very good, very faithful adaptation of a very good book. This is a great movie to show a friend who's maybe watched Total Recall or Minority Report, and doesn't see what the big deal about PKD is.

I've seen this film a couple of times, and while I can't say it blows me away, it does leave me feeling much the same way as I feel after reading one of PKD's books.

Now if someone would just make a movie of "Flow My Tears the Policeman Said."

Harold and Maude (1971)

I am conflicted about this one

[5/10 · 19 March 2021]

I first saw this film in college in the late 80s. At the time, I loved it. Over the years, when I've reflected on it, I've liked it less and less.

When I saw it in college, I was taken by the story of how this old woman with her joie de vivre teaches the young Harold to embrace life, rather than running from it as he had been. I also liked the idea of a couple acknowledging their mutual attraction even though the age gap seemed insurmountable.

The older I get, the more I see it as a story of an irresponsible old woman using a young man to have one last good time before she kills herself. Selfish and cruel.

In this way, it reminds me a lot of another movie from around the same period: The Graduate. I get that people were feeling unmoored and alienated in the 60s, but to turn that into some kind of admirable quality is, well, something that's best appreciated if you're 20 and smoking a lot of weed.

Other reviewers have made note of Maude's irresponsible and lawless behavior, so I'll just note it and move on.

This is a movie that really only makes sense in the context of its times, and even then, it doesn't really stand out as a great articulation of that time. People deal with uncertainty about the future in a lot of different ways, but I don't think glorifying theft and suicide is a healthy one.

Final note: The soundtrack lost any appeal for me when Cat Stevens (now Yusef Islam) endorsed the Ayatollah Khomenei's fatwah against Salman Rushdie. If your endorsing a death sentence, I don't want to hear your trite warblings about morning breaking or whatever.

The Princess Bride (1987)

Traditional Cinema at its Best

[10/10 · 19 March 2021]

This is about as close to a perfect traditional Hollywood movie as has been made post 1960 or so. It's pure escapist entertainment, and as such, it succeeds as well as any movie possibly could.

It is by turns funny, exciting, uplifting, sentimental, and endlessly entertaining. The hero is dashing and (mostly) pure. The heroine is pretty and chaste. The companions are, in every situation, unfailingly true to themselves. The villains are threatening enough to provide dramatic tension, but sufficiently comic that they're never too scary for kids.

Speaking of kids - this is a great movie for them. It has all the elements of a great story, but it never gets too scary, violent or otherwise unwholesome. It extolls true love throughout but there's not a hint of sex beyond the "perfect kiss" at the end. But it's entertaining and well made enough that adults will find plenty to love.

One aspect of this movie that might fly under the radar is the fantastic score by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame. Knopfler's film soundtracks are terrific and nearly as good as his albums.

Anyway, to paraphrase David Letterman: If you haven't seen this movie, there's something WRONG with you.

Miller's Crossing (1990)

Watch the hats!

[9/10 · 19 March 2021]

This may be my favorite movie of all time. It's definitely my favorite Cohen Brothers movies.

I'm not going to say much about this other than watch the hats. Hats are a major symbol of power. Whoever is wearing the hat has the power, and this especially true in the Danny Boy scene. Leo isn't wearing a hat, but he seems to be winning the battle. Is he really?

The time you really want to pay attention to a symbol is when it seems to be functioning against the way it had functioned previously.

The Shining (1980)

Good Book. GREAT Film!

[9/10 · 18 March 2021]

The Shining is one of my favorite movies.

Kubricks films always seem a little "cold" to me. Lots of long shots and hard, shiny surfaces, I guess. But to his credit, he always knew how to turn that coldness to underscore whatever the theme of that particular film is about.

In The Shining, the coldness is terrifying. And it's not just metaphorical. It's literally too cold and snowy to go outside. The Torrances are isolated, bunkered in, and Kubrick somehow manages to make huge spaces like the ballroom and the lobby where Jack sets up his writing station, feel claustrphobic.

Stephen King, so the story goes, does not like this adaptation. He felt that Kubrick didn't understand or believe in evil, so he changed it to insanity. And he's right about that. But the thing is, the movie is SO MUCH BETTER than the book. In the book we get King's standard fare - guy with a drinking problem and a troubled marriage, source of stored-up evil, demonic possession, etc. While I think it's one of King's better books, there's nothing there that you can't find in many of his other books.

But Kubrick gives us something completely unique - a film that is both a fascinating portrait of a man losing his mind, and a master class in how to compose a shot. Every shot in this film is beautiful, and most are perfectly symmetrical. Somehow that manages to be terrifying. The "fascinating portrait" part is due in no small part to Jack Nicholson's very, um... Nicholsonian performance. But Jack had been around for a while at that point, and I'm sure Kubrick knew exactly what he wanted when he hired him.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, there are many books like King's The Shining, but there is only one film like Kubrick's.

Now, I don't really blame ol' Steve for being a little chuffed that Kubrick didn't run with his central concept. But I suspect that what he was mostly feeling was kind of abashed that Kubrick had schooled him on the difference between being a good artist, and being a great one.

Pretty much nobody remembers the remake that King actually had a hand in making. But here, 40 years later, everybody knows Kubrick's - even if they haven't actually seen it.

Bad Boy Bubby (1993)

Wow

[7/10 · 18 March 2021]

I was not expecting this film to go the way it did.

Imagine trying to navigate the world while knowing NOTHING about it. I mean nothing. You don't know what money even is, much less what it's used for. You've never heard music. You have no clue how to fit in with society or even communicate with people, or even WHY you should communicate with people.

That's Bubby's situation.

You can read about the plot in other reviews - I just want to say this. From the first third or so of this film, I was expecting Bubbie to go on a killing rampage. That would have been the standard horror movie plot, and this movie would have ended up being a lot like Angst, probably.

I am so surprised and happy that the filmmakers didn't go this route. Instead, Bubby finds a few compassionate souls among the wreckage of society. He eventually finds a place, and even love and family.

It's a very heartwarming and uplifting ending, which I was not expecting.

If you can handle the first part, see this movie. It's not what you'd think.

EDIT: I had to edit my review because I realized a couple of things after I wrote it.

Some reviewers have suggested that Bubby is suffering from some kind of mental disability. I don't think that's true. He's simply completely uneducated and unsocialized, but he's actually pretty smart. Consider the following:

1. He invents science: His mother tells him the air outside is poison. He says the cat comes in from outside and is OK. The mother says cats don't need to breathe. Using cling film, he suffocates the cat, establishing that cats do indeed need to breathe. Then when Pops drops by, he comes in without a gas mask. Bubby puts 2 and 2 together, and figures out that his mother has been lying.

2. He invents technology: Having figured out the science, he now understands that he can use the cling film as a tool to get out of the house.

3. He invents art: When he enters the pub and sees the band who had "adopted" him, he walks up on stage, apparently only because they're his friends and he wants to be with them. When someone puts a mic in front of him, he does the only thing he knows how to do: repeat what people have said to him. But by later gigs, he's figured out how to make that an effective performance with some kind of meaning. It's legit self-expression at that point.

So, no, Bubby isn't mentally handicapped. He's in fact a very smart guy who's at a disadvantage(?) because he has to figure everything out from scratch.

Bad Lieutenant (1992)

A Career Performance.

[8/10 · 18 March 2021]

This is a movie you either get or you don't. For people who don't get it, it's a grubby little video nasty, with a trite religious twist. To the rest of us - even us non-believers - it's an incredibly strong statement of faith. Faith that anyone - ANYONE - can be redeemed.

Harvey Keitel's performance is as raw as it gets. I don't know what he had to do to get himself to a place where he could give that performance, but holy HELL did he. This is a man who has given up. On everything. On justice. On humanity. On himself. On God. He's committing suicide slowly.

At his lowest point, he has a vision that redeems him. He's like Dante, going through hell itself.

This is not a pleasant or an easy movie to watch. You will not be "entertained". You'll be challenged. Provoked, maybe, or possibly one of the unfortunate many who are simply revolted or bored.

High Tension (2003)

Lame "twist"

[3/10 · 11 December 2020]

I'll save you an hour and a half: The "friend" is actually the killer. This is revealed about 80% of the way into the film, and makes the previous hour+ nonsensical.

I'm absolutely astonished that this is considered a "classic" and gets such high ratings. The plot twist is lame. The only reason you might not see it coming is because you wouldn't believe that the filmmakers could be so ham-handed and cliched

Boring, unappealing characters, obvious lifts from superior films, and sound effects that are unrealistic and distracting are only some of the rookie mistakes in this film.

Without the twist it would have been a mediocre slasher film. With the twist is just an incoherent mess.

Personally, I blame M. Night Sham for somehow making illogical or obvious plot twists bankable.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Very true to the book

[9/10 · 10 December 2020]

I was a huge fan of the book before this movie was ever made. When I heard it was being made I was a little nervous. Would they ruin one of my favorite books? When I heard Terry Gilliam was at the helm, I knew it was in good hands.

I only really have two complaints with the film: 1) some of the CGI acid hallucinations are just a little too cartoony looking, and 2) when I read the book, I'd felt a certain insane glee on the part of Duke and Gonzo. In the film, the glee is gone - just the insanity and the fear remain. That's probably truer to Thompson's intent than my own reading was, but it was a tone that I was not expecting.

Apart from that, Gilliam stayed really true to the book. Sure, there's a scene here and there that was added/removed/tweaked, but it's all pretty minor stuff. The vast majority of the book is adapted very faithfully.

Hunter Thompson was one of the few writers of the 60s who understood why the hippie movement fell apart. In "Hell's Angels" he writes that Ken Kesey, who was on the run from the law at the time, should have "stayed in Mexico and gotten a job." We get the "high water mark" passage in a voice-over during a flashback. That passage may well be the best thing Thompson ever wrote. It's eloquent and insightful, and makes you wonder how such a perceptive guy could have been so much of a head case. (It's also worth bearing in mind that he was a pretty awful human being. He called his wife on the phone so she could hear him shoot himself. That's vile.)

Johnny Depp gives a pretty solid performance as Thompson/Duke, but he runs up against a serious problem: Hunter Thompson in person was a very nervous guy who mumbled and muttered when he spoke. This does not make for great film. Depp wanted to be true to Thompson (having spent time at Thompson's house preparing for the role), but mumbling your way through a movie makes you difficult to watch and understand. He does about as well as he could have done without reinventing Thompson/Duke as someone with completely different mannerisms. He's clearer in the voice-over narration parts.

Benicio Del Toro, as Dr. Gonzo, has much the same problem. Throughout the movie, he's usually so wasted that his speech is very slow and slurred. Even when he's approaching sobriety, he's kind of hard to understand. You have to listen closely to catch some of the dialog (unless you're an HST fanatic like me, and already had the dialog memorized).

Visually, the film is somewhat restrained. Apart from the hallucination sequences, Gilliam takes a somewhat more naturalistic approach than in some of his other films (say, Time Bandits, or Baron Munchausen). Of course, when the hallucinations do come, you remember why you love Gilliam. And what he does with the hotel room set over the course of the movie is just beautiful in its ever-mounting squalor.

In sum, this movie isn't what I wanted it to be, but it's probably closer to what Thompson had in mind when he wrote the book, than my mental version of it .(In my defense, I was like 16 when I first read the book).

If I met someone who had neither seen the film nor read the book, I'd probably tell him to read the book first. HST's narrative style is something you kind of have to internalize in order to appreciate the film. (I'd probably also tell him to read "Hells Angels" and "The Curse of Lono")

A previous attempt at adapting Fear and Loathing gave us "Where the Buffalo Roam" which was kind of funny, but it was more Bill Murray than HST. This film is far superior, and definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of the book.

Keep your head on a swivel. This is bat country, after all.

The Bunker (2015)

More twisted than it seems

[7/10 · 10 December 2020]

It's interesting to note the way David Lynch's influence has influenced the next generations of film makers - most notably, non-American ones.

Der Bunker reminded me very much of Dogtooth, a film by Yorgos Lanthemos, himself obviously a student of Lynch. It has a lot of Lynchian elements. Strange behavior that's unremarked on. Shots where nothing much happens, but the atmosphere becomes menacing, and so forth, but he adds his own touches as well.

I was a little confused by the ending, but here's my theory: Franz is obviously not eight. His parents' plan was not for him to be President, but simply to educate him to the point where he could leave the house on his own, having been there far, far too long for the parents' comfort. Hence the mother getting all sexied up for their first post-Franz dinner. Heinrich has moved into The Student - for what reason, we don't know. The student, obviously, cannot leave, or he'd report them.

I'm sure there are metaphoric elements that I'm missing. The whole Heinrich subplot seemed unnecessary, except as a crutch for understanding why things are the way they are in that home. I'm sure there is something metaphoric about The Student being pulled away from his work.

Speaking of The Student's work - I'd be interested to know exactly what he was working on. He said it had something to do with the Higgs boson, which is where the physical property of mass comes from. He says later that he's missing the "final component" so it's some sort of device he's working on.

If I really wanted to stretch, I could make some comment about how the smarter, more creative people are pressed into service for richer, dumber folk, but I'm not at all sure that's the comment that the movie is trying to make. The family doesn't seem to be extremely rich, though they are obviously middle class and educated.

This film does not seem to be as self-contained as Dogtooth. There's no particular effort to shelter Franz from the outside world, apart from his not leaving the house. But his education is (or at least is supposed to be) pretty normal.

I mostly liked it, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes to me. That's probably not a good thing. But if you like movies like Dogtooth and generally weird, Lynchian stuff, you'll probably dig this.