A day in the life, May 4, objet trouvé
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.
Fascinating and mind-boggling documentary about mankind's oldest known art.
On renewed viewing: a documentary worth rewatching every so often.
On second view: wins through repeated viewings; an what would it be without Werner Herzog's Teutonic intellectual speculations?
Maltin***: "Compelling documentary...capture a sense of genuine physical and historic wonder. Herzog's philosophical naarative maunderings sometimes veer into the obtrusive but mostly he lets the spectacular images speak for themselves."
Sorority Girl (1957)
A poor-little-rich-girl feels alienated by her mother and enacts a string of revenges on her fellow pupils at a girls' boarding school. However, she is outcast when one of her stunts nearly drives a girl to suicide.
Dark, but heavy-handed tale of teenage malice; Susan Cabot, however, is quite convincing as the disturbed and ill-willed sorority girl.
Halliwell (no star): "Corman's campus exploitation movie is positively middle-aged in its stodgy approach, with a cast that looks far too old and a script mouldering with aged cliches."
Maltin*1/2: "Lumbering tale of angst and alienation, 1950s-style."
Friday, May 10, 2019
First Lines: Margaret Peterson Haddix - Among the Hidden
He saw the first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance.
Runaway Daughters (1956)
Three teenagers with troubled families are unable to adjust at home and in high-school. Tempted with an easy, carefree life they soon pass from misdemeanors into serious crime - and will suffer for it. Sometimes, repentance comes too late.
Despite presenting a large and lively ensemble the tale itself is lame and its moralizing outmoded.
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Buried (2010)
After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find a truck driver working in Iraq is buried alive inside a coffin; with only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this death trap.
Remarkable achievement staging a whole movie with only one actor trapped in a coffin; well scripted with a great performance by Ryan Reynolds.
Maltin**1/2: "Claustrophobic but intriguing film is definitely not for all tastes, but does tell an unusual story that is equal parts ingenuity and terror. Reynolds acquits himself ably, but this might have worked better as a longish short subject. Bests Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT in one sense: its minuscule setting."
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
First Lines: Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red
I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well.
King Kong (2005)
In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to the mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with leading lady Ann Darrow.
A remake of a classic movie that is worthy to be compared with the original and adds its own magic with a capable cast, top-of-the art effects and some nice new touches to the famous story
Maltin***1/2: "A rare remake that reinvents the original film while honoring it at the same time. Jackson pulls us into a world of wonder, both on Skull and Manhattan Island, and takes us on a long but thrilling adventure that's hard to beat."
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