ph: Steven Meisel
Saturday, November 7, 2020
House on Bare Mountain (1962)
The Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein spy on a girls' school in the mountains, where most of the girls spend their time sunbathing in the nude, nude exercises and nude art classes.
Silly and juvenile nudie horror comedy creates more unvoluntary laughs than the intended jokes do.
Friday, November 6, 2020
Satan in High Heels (1962)
A carnival burlesque dancer robs her junkie ex-husband, goes to New
York, gets a job at a high-class club where she becomes the mistress of
the wealthy owner.
Seedy
sexploitation Noir drama doesn't compel with its simplified, undramatic
plot, but Meg Myles does show talent as actress and singer, and Mundell
Lowe's jazzy score is excellent.
Chambre 666 (1982)
During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, German director Wim Wenders asks fifteen other famous directors to give their views on the future of cinema.
Curious
short documentary with an interesting idea is fascinating for its array
of important directors and their views, but is generally, due to the
temporal nature of the query, outdated.
The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds (1965)
An agent for the Liquor Control Department is dispatched to disband a
gang of cut-throat still operators on an island in the everglades run by
their leader "Doc".
At first, this off-kilter Southern Gothic drama puts its audience off with over-the-top screeching performances and seemingly amateurish direction, but does compel with its harsh b/w settings and a genuinely nightmarish atmosphere.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
First Lines: Iain M. Banks - The Hydrogen Sonata
In the dying days of the Gzilt civilization, before its long-prepared-for elevation to something better and the celebrations to mark this momentous but joyful occasion, one of its last surviving ships encountered an alien vessel whose sole task was to deliver a very special party-goer to the festivities.
Orgy of the Dead (1965)
A couple driving to a cemetery looking for inspiration for a horror story encounters the dancing dead.
Mercilessly
juvenile and utterly tedious succession of amateur nudie dance scenes
and not much else; believe it or not, Ed Wood's inane dialogues add some
(involuntary) comic relief.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
The Staggering Girl (2019)
Francesca, an Italian-American writer who lives in New York and must return to Rome to retrieve her aging mother.
Sumptuous art house short with lots of Valentino Haute Couture to admire actually utilizes its stellar cast to tell a compelling woman's story.
Lock Up (1989)
With only six months left of his sentence, an inmate is
transferred from a minimum security prison to a maximum security prison
by a vindictive warden.
Tough prison camp thriller is watchable for its cast, but adds nothing new to the genre.
Halliwell (no star): "Nasty and sadistic, with no redeeming qualities."
Maltin*1/2: "Missing are Linda Blair, John Vernon, a lesbian guard, and 15 gratuitous showers; you do get a body-shop montage backed by Ides of March's "Vehicle." Bottom of the world, ma."
Maltin*1/2: "Missing are Linda Blair, John Vernon, a lesbian guard, and 15 gratuitous showers; you do get a body-shop montage backed by Ides of March's "Vehicle." Bottom of the world, ma."
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Monday, November 2, 2020
The Movies I Watched in October
American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020) 7
Babylon Berlin 3 (2020) 6
Beyond Skyline (2017) 5
Casablanca (1942) 10
The Chase (1946) 6
Chloe (2009) 6
The Conspirator (2010) 6
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) 8
Emily in Paris (2020) 6
End of Summer (2014) 8
Everything and Nothing (2011) 7
Une femme coquette (1955) 6
Good Time (2017) 6
Home to Danger (1951) 6
House of 1,000 Corpses (2003) 6
I See You (2019) 6
Idiocracy (2006) 6
Johnny Come Lately (1943) 6
The Key to Reserva (2007) 6
The Meg (2018) 6
The Mist (2007) 7
Mortal Engines (2018) 6
The Naked Street (1955) 6
Oculus (2013) 5
Of Mice and Men (1939) 7
Patterns (1956) 7
Pontypool (2008) 6
Une rencontre (2014) 6
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) 7
Street Scene (1931) 7
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933) 8
The White Diamond (2004) 7
You're Next (2011) 6