To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

To the Devil a Daughter is a rather heavy re-working of the 1953 Dennis Wheatley novel of the same name. Updating the setting from the 1950's south of France to contemporary England and Germany, the story leaves out a lot from the book, omits some characters, condenses others, and changes the gender and nationality of the protagonist from an English woman to an American male (here played by Richard Wydmark). There are a few lightly interesting ideas in the movie, and it did keep my attention, but it only vaguely resembled the book on which it was based and was on the whole a disappointment. While Christopher Lee makes all things better, sadly he alone can not save all things. **

The Piano (1993)

Romantic drama that won Oscars for Holly Hunter (lead actress), Anna Paquin (supporting actress) and Jane Campion (screenplay), Campion was also nominated for best director, only the second woman to ever be nominated in that category, the first being  Italian director Lina Wertmuller for the 1976 the film Seven Beauties. The Piano is set in the mid 19th Century and concerns a mute Scots woman (Hunter) who takes her daughter (Paquin) with her to New Zealand when she is basically solid in marriage by her father to a man she has never meet (Sam Neill). Hunter is  essentially cold to Neill, but over course of time slows falls in love with Harvey Keitel, a white man who has largely gone native and who Hunter is suppose to be giving piano lessons too, though mostly she just plays and he stares at her.

The Romantic dynamics are a little odd, Neill is awkward but nice to her, and Keitel kind of a creeper, but I suppose you could say that the prior is false as a person while the later genuine, if a little pervy. The film consists of a lot of build ups and slow burns, primary among these being what the heck is Neill going to do when he figures out his wife is cheating on him, and what he does is not pleasant. This film is largely a mode piece but contains impressive acting from all of the primary cast, but especially Hunter who is silent save for book ending narrations in voice over at the beginning and end of the film, and Paquin who at 11 would be the 2nd youngest person to win a best supporting actress Oscar, after Tatum O'Neal who was 10 when she won hers. A powerful and intense little movie that surprised me and prompts (albeit confused) reflection. ****

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

My sister really liked this movie and I wasn't opposed to seeing it for two principle reasons: 1) I was familiar with John Green, the author of the book the movies based on, as he his also a minor internet celebrity from his Crash Course educational videos and I enjoy his sense of humor, and 2) I've really been won over by Shailene Woodley. The Fault in Our Stars is a teen romance picture, not a genera I have a lot of experience with, nor do I desire such experience, but you can just tell this movie is smarter and quirkier then most films that aim for the teen girl demographic. The romance here is among cancer patients, a likable pair played by Woodley and Ansel Elgort, who ironically play siblings in the Divergent series. Anyway Woodley and Elgort are kind of obsessive fans of  a fictional novel about teenage cancer patients called An Imperial Affliction and its reclusive author Peter van Houten (played by Willem Dafoe), and through course of events they get to go visit him in exile in Holland, and it turns out he's a jerk. Then some other things happen which I won't spoil, but it's still pretty predictable considering the films set up. For the most part the resolution is handled well, and I genuinely enjoyed the film. Man I've been pretty easy on Young Adult flicks as of late, should I be concerned. ***

The Awesome 80's Podcast Episode Index

The Vatican Museums 3D (2014)

A short tour of some of the more famous art to be found within the Vatican Museums, including the Belvedere Torso, Augustus of Prima Porta, Stefaneschi Triptych, da Vinci's St. Jerome in the Wilderness, and of course Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. The best thing short of actually going there, The Vatican Museums also boasts both expert commentary and some of the best 3D I've ever seen. I love the shots where your just going down the hallways in 3D and are free to look at whatever you want, and of course the shots of the Sistine Chapel are just breathtaking, I only wish this was longer then just 70 minutes. Not much of a movie per-say, but still a strong cinematic experience. ***

Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

Based on the 1936 novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest tells the story of a sickly young priest on his first assignment, a small parish in the north of France. The Priest (Claude Laydu, then little more then an amateur) is never given a name beyond his title, he is sickly (a chronic stomach aliment which limits his diet) but sincere, he doesn't really know what he's doing and is not free from doubt, but he tries, and though he makes a lot of mistakes, and his effect on his parish is limited, he improves with time.

The plot, from Wikipeida:

"A young priest arrives at Ambricourt, his new parish. He is not welcome. The girls of the catechism class laugh at him in a prank, whereby only one of them pretends to know the Scriptural basis of the Eucharist so that the rest of them can laugh at their private conversation. His colleagues criticize his diet of bread and wine, and his ascetic lifestyle. Concerned about Chantal, the daughter of the Countess, the priest visits the Countess at the family chateau, and appears to help her resume communion with God after a period of doubt. The Countess dies during the following night, and her daughter spreads false rumors that the priest's harsh words had tormented her to death. Refusing confession, Chantal had previously spoken to the priest about her hatred of her parents.

The older priest from Torcy talks to his younger colleague about his poor diet and lack of prayer, but the younger man seems unable to make changes. After his health worsens, the young priest goes to the city to visit a doctor ....& a... former colleague, who has lapsed and now works as an apothecary, while living with a woman outside wedlock."

A poignant, beautiful film it helped to establish the careers of both its star Laydu, and its director Robert Bresson. A thoughtful, reflective piece of cinema, that I can highly recommend. ***1/2

The Human Factor (1979)

Now director Otto Preminger's later films have a reputation of being not good, now its a little hard for me to independently verify this as most of the movies Preminger made in his last working decade have not been released on DVD, and are thus hard to come by. I can generally agree however that I find his later films, says those made 1965 and after, like Skidoo and Bunny Lake is Missing, to lack the gravitas of his great movies like Anatomy of a Murder and Advise and Consent. Preminger's last film however, The Human Factor, showed the man very much back on his game. Now this film had a very small budget, and thus has a look far from that of the epic drama's of the directors heyday of the late 50's and early 60's, but like many of Preminger's early films it can boast strong performances and is thrilling as human drama.

Based on author Graham Greene's same titled novel of the previous year, The Human Factor is a sort of spy movie by way of human interest story. It tells how Marcus Castle (played expertly by the sadly under-known Nicole Williamson) an otherwise loyal mid-level member of the British intelligence service became a Soviet Spy. The movie starts out with British intelligence, by way of its own double-agent in Moscow, having becomes aware of a leak in its Africa section, and sending one  Colonel Daintry (Richard Attenborough) in to investigate. The film follows mostly along a contemporary narrative and then revels, by way of a couple of long flashback's, how Castle came to aid the Soviets following a series of disillusioning incidents while on assignment in South Africa around eight years prior.

The film is thus mostly a character study of Castle, and Williamson imparts to his character an appropriate level of depth, but never makes him more then what he is, a moderately capable, kind of soft hatred guy, who gets in a situation beyond his ability and not to his liking. Castle is a character who at one point tells his Soviet contact pointedly that he is not a communist, doesn't want to defect, but may have to. All of these events which are ultimately set in motion by Castle's desire to be with the black African woman he has fallen in love with, and who also loves him, may ironically result in his never being with her again. The film is made more pungent by a nice twist of a dramatic topper at the end that reframes everything you've seen before in a new light.

The movie loaded with good character actors like Derek Jacobi and Robert Morley who provide brief tastes of interesting subplots and make the world of the movie all the more rounded, and tragically ironic. In The Human Factor everyone is a real or potential traitor, which just serves to lend the proceedings a lite flavor of the tragically Kafkaesque. ***

Bright Leaf (1950)

Michael Curtiz directed melodrama set in 1890's North Carolina. The plot concerns conflicts between cigar makers and a new class of cheap cigarette makers, so its hard to know who to route for. The film features a couple of love triangles and a good hate triangle. This Overwrought offering reteams stars Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal from the previous years similarly over-the-top The Fountainhead. Lauren Bacall and Jack Carson are also along for the ride. Story is loosely based on the rivalry of tobacco tycoons Washington Duke and John Harvey McElwee, or so says McElwee descendent Ross McElwee in his 2007 documentary film also titled Bright Leaf. This movie reminded me that while I like it when similarly iconic star Jimmy Stewart plays dark, I don't like it when Cooper does. This films a bit of a mess. **

The Return of Count Yorga (1971)

The sequel to the 1970 vampire in California film Count Yorga, Vampire. Now it might seem that it would be a little difficult to make a sequel to Count Yorga, Vampire, in that at the end of the original film the titular Count Yorga is turned to dust, however it was not difficult because the filmmakers simply chose to ignore the events of the first film, retaining only the character of Count Yorga and a contemporary California setting. In this film Yorga (still played by Robert Quarry) prays on the staff of an isolated orphanage, but makes the mistake of falling in love with one of the teachers there(Mariette Hartley, interesting face) which of course leads to his downfall, only now its a downfall from which no subsequent sequel would ever arrive to rescue him. Not as good as the first Count Yorga film, the movie does a mediocre job of building to something and then never quite pays it off. This movie is perhaps most notable for the appearance of a young Craig T. Nelson in a small role as a police officer. **

Grumpy Cat's Worst Christams Ever (2014)

Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever holds the distinction of being the first movie based on an internet meme. This Lifetime  Network  production is a kind of break-the-forth-wall meta comedy that finds internet star Grumpy Cat unwittingly trapped in a syrupy TV holiday movie plot, and you know it works. Aubrey Plaza proves great casting a the voice of  Grumpy Cat as she gives a running, lightly sarcastic commentary on the events of her own movie. The tried and true 'must save the pet shop or school or church or what have you from bankruptcy before Christmas' plot is appropriate here as well. I also enjoyed the rife on magic movie Santa Clause's with the obviously fake seeming mall Santa who turned out to be magic after all. The goofy crooks worked too. I hope Lifetime take advantage and puts another Grumpy Cat TV movie into production soon. **1/2

The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast

Herblock: The Black & the White (2013)

Documentary on the legendary political cartoonist Herbert Block (1909-2001), better known by his pen name of Herblcok, who produced a mountain of biting and observant drawings over a career that amazingly spanned from 1929 to 2001 (Herblocks last cartoon appeared just a few weeks before 9/11). The film has a lot of talking heads from the newspaper business and the greater media world, as well lots of great Herblock cartoons and interludes of actor Alan Mandell playing an elderly Herblock. Film is effusive in its praise of its subject, especially his seemingly uncanny ability to get things right in his satire, even before all the facts are known, (one example being his contention in the very early days after the Watergate burglary, long before this contention was seriously entertained by others in the media, that the burglary would trace back to Nixon). I might be more critical of all the Herblock praise if he wasn't such a great artist and commentator, a seemingly very nice man, and in fact more often then not right in his observations. This film is a solid survey exam of the mans work, and to a lesser extent his life. Still it's probably too 'inside baseball' to be of much interest to a general audience. **1/2

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Wes Anderson comedy-drama (perhaps a little heaver on the drama then is typical for him) concerns three brothers (played by Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson (I can maybe buy the first too as brothers, but when you throw in Owen Wilson) on a train journey across Indiana in search of spiritual enlighten, reconnecting with each other, and finding their eccentric mother. A few things in this movie paralleled with my real life enough to resonate with me, including surviving  bad automobile accident (I did this in 2010) and dealing with the recent death of ones father (mine died in October). The film is Wes Andersonie as expected, but still has a few reasonably effecting moments of pathos, especially the flash back of to traveling to the fathers funeral. Film also features a blink and you'll miss it silent Natalie Portman cameo. ***

PT 109 (1963)

The movie PT 109 released in June of 1963 holds the distinction of being the first commercial theatrical film about a sitting United States President released while he was still in office, this was not to happen again until W in 2008, or arguably Primary Color in 1998.  Based on the 1961 book PT 109: John F. Kennedy in World War II,  PT 109 tells the story of future president John F. Kennedy and his command of the titular PT Boat in the Solomon Islands in 1943, and how he was able to save the majority of his crew when there boat was accidently rammed at night by a Japanese ship. Kennedy's was an impressive accomplishment here, and arguably a major source of the back problems that would afflict him for the rest of his life, this movie however is a rather dull affair that boarders on hagiography. Cliff Robertson was personally selected by the president to play his younger self, and he gives us a John Kennedy with very little personality and whose supposed charisma seems a bluff, which is too bad because Robertson is capable of doing better, the script and excessive reverence for his subject limited his performance here. Still the film is watchable and interesting as an artifact of its time. I did enjoy James Gregory and Robert Culp in supporting parts. **1/2

Fury (2014)

In the weeks before my father died the previews for Fury started showing on television and you tell in his eyes that my dad was interested. Now my dad would only go to see a movie in the theater maybe once or twice a year, but you could generally tell when something had caught his eye and that he would soon gather the family up to go the theater, this was one such occasion. Sadly my father passed away before he had a chance to see Fury, so about a week ago my mother, my sister and I went and saw it for him.

I think my dad would have loved this movie, though it took me a little while to get into it, Fury will now always hold a special place in my heart. That is kind of weird in that this is a violent and often profane film, but I think it captures something of how war must be, especially one was savage as the second world war, and perhaps especially towards the end. Fury follows roughly 24 hours in the experience of an American tank crew in Germany in April of 1945, just before the end of the war. The characters are not always the most likable, especially at first, but they grow on you, and are played by a great assortment of actors including Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal and Michael Pena. Logan Lerman ably grounds the film as the audiences surrogate character, the newest member of the tank crew, a fresh recruit just come from the states. There are some good character moments for everyone involved, most notably an extended interlude with some German woman, and several really good action sequences in this movie .This is also the film that finally put writer/director David Ayer on my cinematic radar screen. A strong war movie with pathos and character, and one that would have appealed to my father. ***1/2

The Hunger Games (2012)

Well I finally saw it. The movie that made Jennifer Lawrence a household name and launched a tremendously successful franchise, The Hunger Games is adapted from the first volume in author Suzanne Collins young adult dystopian trilogy, one that was shrewdly divided into four money making parts by Hollywood. Lawrence is Katniss Everdeen, a young woman who circumstances more or less force into participating n the titular reality TV/ gladiatorial battle to the death hybrid that the oppressive government of Panem uses to commemorate their subjugation of  "12 districts" in a North America of say a 100-120 years in the future. Well executed and grounded by Lawrence's performance the film is arguably more engaging then it deserves to be, slightly smarter then the usual popcorn fair. I was not blown away, but I was suitably impressed and look forward to seeing the future films in this series. After Divergent I fear I'm developing a slight weakness for this kind of film. ***

Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

This clever animated film tells one of the better known stories from Hindu scripture, the Ramyana's tale of the beautiful princess Sita and her long, often difficult relationship with the prince (later king) Rama, the seventh avatar of the God Vishnu (their marital problems mostly relate to a rigid sense of decorum and unfounded suspension).  The story is told in a variety of animation styles, often collaged together and ranging from shadow figures, to moving icons, to squiggly lined figures, to flash style animation. This is all the more impressive in that the whole thing was animated almost entirely(the exception being some of the battle sequences) by one person, animator, writer, producer, director, and voice actress Nina Paley. The movie also features a parallel story about Paley's breakup with a former lover, a breakup that seemingly inspired her interest in Sita's sad tale of unmet devotion. This film also boasts fun musical numbers animated in sync to old Annette Hanshaw blues recordings from the 1920's.

This film has real spunk, creativity, and even freshness to it, though the story it tells is thousands of years old. The late Roger Ebert said of this film: "I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord... To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle."^[27  I concur with Mr. Ebert here, although the film is about 'the blues' its a joyous thing to watch, though maybe boarder line appropriate for kids. ***

Call Her Savage (1932)

Silent screen "It Girl" Clara Bow made only a handful of 'talking pictures', the most famous of which is arguably this pre-code gem. Sometimes the plot of a movie is just so crazy that I can't think of anything better to say in a review then just summarize the plot. This movies only ninety minutes or so long, but they cram a whole lot of outrageousness into that brief run time, I'll try to summarize as quickly as I can.

Late nineteenth century wagon train. Wagon master having an affair lady in the group, even though his own wife and daughter are in the train as well. Old timer thinks wagon masters behavior will bring God's rather on the group. Indians attack the wagon train. Before he dies old timer warns wagon master that the sins of the father will be visited on the next 3-4 generations'. Wagon master laughs this off.

18 years later wagon masters daughter has married an ambitious young man who is away from home a lot trying to make his fortune in the railway business. While husband is away wife has an affair with an Indian prince, baby conceived, when born baby girl doesn't look Indian so wife never tells husband who raises girl as his own.

18 or so years later again (chronology in this film doesn't seem to add up by the way, they go from wagon trains to the 1930's in about 40 years). Nasa Springer (the baby from earlier) has grown into a wild young woman (Bow) who lives on Texas ranch with parents. Father sends Nasa to finishing school in Chicago, planes to marry her off to son of business associate. Two years later Nasa graduates from school, has become local tabloid fodder as wild girl "Dynamite Springer", does not want to marry dad's business associates son, so she elopes with playboy from prominent banking family. Father more-or-less disowns daughter.

For reasons not really explained Nasa and husband don't live together, husband off on business ventures, wife lives lavishly off allowance, parties a lot, appears to have affairs. Nasa gets visit from lawyer, husband sick, dying in New Orleans, wants to see her. Nasa goes to visit husband in private hospital, husband has gone crazy, tries to rape Nasa. Nasa, takes little money she has an moves into tenement house in New Orleans, is pregnant with unknown mans baby. Nasa has baby and takes him home to tenement house to live.

Some time later Nasa running low on money, reluctantly decides she must work as a prostitute to live. Nasa goes out to solicit work, leaves son in care of young girl, maybe 10 or 12 in the tenement house while she goes out. While Nasa is out successfully landing a customers, child molester who is after the babysitter accidently sets fire to tenement house,  son suffocates to death. Nasa arrives back at burnt tenement house just as half Indian boyhood friend arrives to tell her that her grandfather (presumably the wagon master from earlier) has died and left her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nasa presumably morns baby, this would have had to happen between shots, divorces husband, takes new money and moves to New York City.  Nasa hires young man to show her the town, the two start to fall in love, Nasa discovers young man is actually the son of another millionaire, this one in the mining industry. Mining heir tells skeptical father he wants to marry Nasa, father tells son Nasa is no good, has shady past, but aggress to have her over for dinner. Boyfriends father invites Nasa's now ex-husband and his new wife to dinner, fight ensues, young man breaks off engagement.

Nasa depressed, seems she plans to drink herself to death, but gets message that her mother is dying in Texas. Nasa goes to Texas, she tells her daughter who her real father was, Nasa gets more information on her biological father from half Indian friend, turns out he committed suicide over Nasa's mother many years ago. Nasa tells half Indian friend that they are both half casts, and now her crazy life makes more sense somehow. Movie ends.

I told you, a pretty crazy flick. **

Great Movies: Roger Ebert

Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn's second film paring is not one of their better known, in part because it's not a romance film, at least not in any traditional sense. Keeper of the Flame is adapted (by Donald Ogden Stewart no less) from the novel of the same name by I. A. R. Wylie. It's a very topical story and kind of an odd one to have been produced during the United States involvement in the Second World War. I say its kind of odd because its a rather self-critical film when it comes to the American people, its a warning that fascism could happen here.

The story, which is set in the months of September and October 1941, just before American involvement in the war, concerns the death of American war hero, civic leader and millionair Robert Forrest, a beloved figure who accidently drove his car off a bridge that was washed out in a storm. Tracy plays Steven O'Malley, a dogged and well respected war correspond who looked up to Forrest, and upon hearing the news of his death quickly returned home to the United States with the intention of writing a glowing biography of the man, so that the deceased famed spirit of patriotism might live on. O'Malley tries to enlist the help of Forrest's reclusive widow Christine Forrest (Hepburn) in his efforts to write the mans life story, at first she demurs, but Robert's right hand man and personal assistant Clive Kerndon (Richard Whorf) manages to persuade her to cooperate, feeling that a book on Forrest by O'Malley would be of great service to Robert's legacy.

O'Malley starts on his book, is given access to Forrest's mountain estate, but quickly begins to feel that something about Forrest and his death is being covered up. He investigates, and starts to think that Mrs. Forrest may have been having an affair, and may have been more directly involved in her husbands death then she lets on. The truth of the matter is not what O'Malley at first suspects but turns out to be worse, Forrest had become a fascist, and was plotting to use his influence to bring about a fascist cue, and while his death was (for the most part) in fact an accident, it was one that Christine could have prevented as she, unlike her husband, was aware that the bridge had been washed out in the storm.

Keeper of the Flame is a wonderfully atmospheric film, it's rather reminiscent of the Hitchcock classic Rebecca, as both films are about a new comer to an isolated estate uncovering the hushed up legacy of its owners dead spouse. There's also a bit of Citizen Kane here too, a reporter investigating the life of a famous man who died under mysterious circumstances. Keeper of the Flame however is not up to par with those other films, even the movies very capable director George Cukor wasn't satisfied with it, to quote him about it on Wikipedia:

"Cukor himself was highly dissatisfied by the film. "I suspect the story was basically fraudulent," he told an interviewer.^[68] Like many critics, he felt that "as a piece of storytelling, the unfolding of a mystery, the first half of Keeper of the Flame is a damn good show", but the rest of the film had substantial problems. He praised Spencer Tracy's work, saying: "Tracy ... was at his best in the picture. Subdued, cool, he conveyed the ruthlessness of the reporter sent to investigate Forrest's death without seeming to try. He was ideally cast in the role, grimly and skeptically exploring the secret of the dead boys' club hero who was in fact a rampant fascist."^[69] <> Overall, though, Cukor felt the film was leaden, and that it had "a wax work quality".^[68] Even screenwriter Stewart eventually came to feel the film was "tedious, wooden, and heavy-handed".^[11]"

None the less I still feel that this is a good film, particularly interesting as an artifact of its time. Looking at it now I couldn't help but think of Forrest as a stand-in for Charles Lindbergh, another  "boys club hero" beloved of his countrymen, with supposed fascist leanings, and who could quite easily have been elected President of the United States, though maybe that's just Philip Roth's The Plot Against America intruding on my thoughts. Warts and all though Keeper of the Flame still earns ***

Left Behind (2014)

Left Behind, the first in the popular series of Evangelical end-times novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins has been made into a movie before, and not that long ago. In the year 2000 Left Behind: The Movie staring born again former child star Kirk Cameron was released, and it  was successful, at least in the Evangelical community, and spawned several sequels based on later novels in the LaHaye/Jenkins book series. Exactly why one would remake the film now, and do it the way those involved chose to do it, is a mystery.

The new, 2014 version of Left Behind differs in a number of ways from the novels first film version. For starters this movie was given a traditional theatrical release, whereas the original Left Behind movie was released first on home video and then given a limited theatrical showing. The new version of Left Behind also differs in story, for one it covers maybe a third of the plot from the original film, and characters that were minor or non-existent in the first version are here given center stage. This Left Behind is basically an airplane in crises disaster film, even stealing plot elements form the original Airport movie, only the disaster here just happens to be the rapture.

Nicholas Cage of all people is the star, playing Rayford Steele, a commercial airline captain in the early stages of cheating on his wife (played briefly by a still lovely Lea Thompson), who has driven him to stray by her newly found religious zeal (for a film that's suppose to be a kind of theological recruiting tool, most of the 'Christian' characters in this film don't come off that great).  Rayford is about to embark on a flight from New York to London with a pretty young stewardess he's been seeing on the side, when at the airport he is confronted by his college age daughter Chloe (Cassi Thomson) who came into town to surprise her father for his birthday. The two have an awkward conversation, and then Ray leaves for his flight, while Chloe leaves having figured out that her father is (or plans to soon be) cheating on her mother, and although Chloe is no fan of her mothers new religiosity, she is hurt by this discovery.

The scenes at the airport also serve to introduce us to the man who was the main character in the earlier Left Behind films, Cameron "Buck" Williams, here played by Chad Michael Murray, a world famous adventurer/reporter who in his brief time around Chloe becomes quite taken with her, and is also to be a passengers on Rayford's plane. Anyway if you know anything about Left Behind you know what comes next, The Rapture does, mysteriously disappearing a number of people on the plane, including Ray's co-pilot, and untold millions on the ground. Ray and Cameron team up to keep order on the plane, calm the passengers, and try to figure out what's going on. The plane reroutes back to New York and then develops mechanical issues that could prevent a safe landing, especially since no one seems to be manning the ground control anymore.

The film goes through a number of standard, seen it before troupes of both 'the rapture' and 'airplane in peril'  genera's. In the end it is of course Chloe, contacted via conveniently off-and-on cell phone service, who must help Buck and Ray find a place to land the jet, in this case a stretch of Long Island freeway that is still under construction. This Left Behind is not as bad as it could have been, granted much of it doesn't make a lot of sense, and I've always been puzzled how next to no one who isn't already a 'Christian' in these films seems to know anything about what 'the rapture' is, but in a paint-by- numbers way all the key points are hit and the film is at least watchable. As to whether there will be any further films in this new Left Behind outing, the box office does not bode well, but then again it didn't make much since to remake this film in the first place, so who knows. **

Mean Streets (1973)

Generally consider director Martin Scorsese's first significant film, Mean Streets sets the precedence for much of what would come later in the directors canon, including setting, themes, mode, subject matter, and even cast, with future Scorsese regulars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro featuring in important roles in the film.

The story is about Charlie (Keitel) a young low level operative in his uncles organized crime syndicate, who aspires to work his way up to be a mid-level operative in said syndicate and run a restaurant or club for his uncle. Charlie has a number of friends who exist in the same seamy underworld as he does, most notably 'Johnny Boy' (De Niro) a two bit hood and lousy gambler who is perpetually in debt, but my finally have run up a tab that he can't pay and with the wrong people to boot. Charlie does what he can to keep Johnny Boy alive, in part because he is his friend, in part because he has religious scruples which make it so that Charlie's never quite comfortable in doing what he does for a living, and in part because he is in a secret romantic relationship with Johnny Boy's cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson) who suffers from epilepsy and who Charlie's uncle does not approve as a romantic interest for his nephew.

The film was a lot less violent then I'd expected, but still has everything you'd come to expect from this great directors later work. There are a few moment in this film that strongly foreshadow better known moments form Scorsese's later films, for example the scene where Charlie is strutting his way through his friends club is rather similar to a famous scene from Goodfellas where Ray Liotta struts his way through a club. An important film for true Scorsese fans to see, and a rather good one besides. ***1/2

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

The term 'Zero Dark Thirty' is derived from military time and means 30 minutes after midnight, or as Dictionary.com states "a very early morning hour, implying an unpleasant time to be awake." Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow follow up to her Oscar winning The Hurt Locker,  is about an extended "unpleasant time to be awake", the decade long effort to track down Al-Quida leader Usama bin Laden. Much of the events chronicled in the film are doubtless still classified and shrouded in mystery, even the actual name of the films Protagonist (here portrayed ably by the great Jessica Chastain) is unknown.

"Is Jessica Chastain's character based on a real CIA agent? CIA officers have confirmed that Jessica Chastain's CIA analyst "Maya" is based on an actual bin Laden hunter. The real female analyst joined the CIA before the September 11 attacks, and worked for a time in Pakistan identifying targets for drone attacks. Like Chastain, the agent is now in her 30s. And, like Maya, the wunderkind CIA analyst was single-mindedly devoted to finding bin Laden and was known to be combative in that task." http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/was-jessica-chastains-character-in-zero-dark-thirty-based-on-a-real-person/

So while the film was early billed as 'the true story of the woman who brought down Usama bin Laden' (and isn't great that it was a woman), it will be interesting to learn how much of the details this movie got right as further information about the hunt, location, and killing of the despised Al-Quida leader is doubtless made public over the course of the coming years. So a good film to compare it to in this respect would be All the Presidents Men, and I think this movie actually holds up well in that comparison.

The late Roger Ebert said of this movie: "The film's opening scenes are not great filmmaking. They're heavy on jargon and impenetrable calculation, murky and heavy on theory. [...] My guess is that much of the fascination with this film is inspired by the unveiling of facts, unclearly seen. There isn't a whole lot of plot – basically, just that Maya thinks she is right, and she is." And he's right, it's a jargony film, the narrative and progression are not smooth, but neither was the actual efforts to eliminate bin Laden. For me this really wasn't a problem, I enjoyed the film's structure, which felt like rough shards of narrative with minimal context, I thought it was appropriate for the story being told, and this story of an obsessive CIA analyst an appropriate companion piece to the story of an obsessive bomb disposal expert that was The Hurt Locker. A strong piece of film making in the post 9/11 milieu that has become director Bigelow's trademark canvas. ***1/2

Divergent (2014)

Another young adult dystopian film, this one with a particularly ridicules premise, a society set up in the post apocalyptic remnants of Chicago divides their residents into five competing 'Factions' based on different personality traits (Selfless, Honest, Brave, etc), but those people who have more then one trait are considered 'Divergent' and hunted down and killed. I know ridicules, beyond silly, but the movie actually works, in no small part do to star Shailene Woodley, a lot of good action scenes, and pretty tight screenwriting. I find I'm actually looking forward to seeing further installments of this series, and am curious to what this world beyond Chicago will look like. ***

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Elizabeth Olsen, the far more talented younger sister of 90's celebra-twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, had her big break with this psychological thriller/drama. I first recall seeing Elizabeth in this years Godzilla movie, but she really didn't have a lot to do there, it was a very stock part, so it wasn't until I saw Martha Marcy May Marlene that I realized how really talented she actually is.

Elizabeth is tasked with carrying the film, which is a lot to ask of someone for what was essentially their first feature. But Elizabeth dose it, and is all the more impressive for such a strong performance in a rather nuanced and complicated part. Elizabeth plays the titular Martha "Marcy May" Marlene, a young woman whose life was apparently rather difficult, and who stayed at home with her dying mother while her older sister (Sarah Paulson) was busy with her own life. Shortly after their mothers death Martha disappears from sister Lucy's life altogether, with out a word, not to reappear until years later, now acting strangely and giving her sister and her new husband (Hugh Dancy) next to no information about where she's been.

Where Martha has been is in a cult, a small group, twenty or so, mostly women, living commune style in the Catskill mountains, where they are lead by a psychologically manipulative and sexually abusive charismatic named Patrick (John Hawkes). Martha manages to escape and get in touch with her sister who puts her up in her lake front summer home, Martha quietly attempts to self deprogram from the cult, but isn't fully successful and makes matters worse through her difficult manner with family and her refusal to disclose just what's going on. The story movies back and forth from the present narrative to a flash back depiction of Martha's time with the cult, Elizabeth Olsen very impressively embodies her character as  essentially two different people, pre-cult and post-cult, and shows how one is slowly transformed into the other. A strong performance in a surprisingly unique film, I'm kind of surprise that I can't think of a single other portal of cult deprograming in film. Anyway this movie is a strong effort all around. ***1/2

Repentance (1987)

Filmed in the Soviet Republic of Georgia in 1984, this film was not permitted release until 1987. A satire and  semi-allegorical critique of Stalinism, making this movie was a risky move at the time, but Gorbachev's Glasnost feed a new sense of openness that allowed the Soviet people the freedom to look critically at their past.

"Repentance is set in a small Georgian town. The film starts with the scene of a woman preparing cakes. A man in a chair is reading from a newspaper that the town's mayor, Varlam Aravidze (Avtandil Makharadze) has died. One day after the funeral the corpse of the mayor turns up in the garden of his son's house. The corpse is reburied, only to reappear again in the garden. A woman, Ketevan Barateli (Zeinab Botsvadze), is eventually arrested and accused of digging up the corpse. She defends herself and states that Varlam does not deserve to be buried as he was responsible for a Stalin-like regime of terror responsible for the disappearance of her parents and her friends. She is put on trial and gives her testimony, with the story of Varlam's regime being told in flashbacks.

During the trial, Varlam's son Abel (Avtandil Makharadze) denies any wrongdoings by his father and his lawyer tries to get Ketevan declared insane. Varlam's grandson Tornike (Merab Ninidze) is shocked by the revelations about the crimes of his grandfather. He ultimately commits suicide. Abel himself then throws Varlam's corpse off a cliff on the outskirts of the town.

At the end the film returns to the scene of the woman preparing a cake. An old woman is asking her at the window whether this is the road that leads to the temple. The woman replies that the road is Varlam street and will not lead to the temple. The old woman replies: "What good is a road if it doesn't lead to a temple?"-from the films Wikipedia entry.

The society depicted in the film didn't seem particularly communistic to me, it was a Totalitarian state for sure and the mayor Varlam actually looks like a cross between Hitler and Mussolini. But the film is best understood as an allegory of Stalinism, though the parts about the Stalin figure were to me not nearly as interesting as the parts about his legacy. This movie was made in Georgia, Stalin's birthplace, which serves to stress the psychic importance of the story for both the characters and the cast. This is a movie about a people dealing with, or refusing to deal with, the legacy of an evil former ruler. I thought the dichotomy of Varlam's son's refusal to acknowledge his fathers crimes, and Varlam's grandson's true interest in determining if the charges were true or not, and his horror when he determines they were true, probably spoke a lot about a generational divide and how Stalin was viewed by the Soviet and more specifically Georgian people. This film won the Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Film Festival in 1987, I don't know qualitatively if the film would have been up to that honor if not for the fact that is was the first Soviet film to be openly critical of the Soviet past and to get a wide release. I did find it surprising effecting however. ***

My dad's life sketch, yes I realize I switched formats half-way through.

Stephen Brent Dredge was born August 23rd, 1951 to Nathan Edward and Helen Margret Ivey Dredge in Wendell Idaho.
In his early years my dads father was a sheep rancher and the family moved around southern Idaho a lot, but Nathan went to night school in engineering and eventually got a job with the Highway Department and the family moved permanently to Pocatello.

Stephen had three brothers and there sisters. Anita, Andrew, Cheryl, Terrance, Mary and Wilford. Dad was the 5th of the seven.

Stephen was a quite kid but he was also very curious.

As a little boy he used to collect things, kind of random things, and put them in his pockets. Rocks, nails, bolts, beetles the occasional frog. It got to the point that it made his mother nervous when she had to empty his pockets for laundry.

Because he came from a large family the Dredges always had station wagons, so a sedan with an open trunk was a novelty worthy of being explored. On one trip, while stopped for gas, Stephen crawled into the trunk of a neighboring vehicle whose owners didn't notice and closed the lid on him. After his family figured out what had happened the owner of the gas station knew the owner of the car and the police were called to track the vehicle down and retrieve him.

One can image that scene, the officer, 'we think you have a small boy in your trunk', 'no we don't', 'lets open it and see', the cars owner was shocked, but Stephen was apparently quite calm.

In a large family there is a lot of teasing going on, and while he was low on the totem pole Stephen could give as good as he got. When his dad took the family to the movies each of the kids when get a cowtail, a chewy candy that would generally last one through the movie. Stephen was a natural when it came to rationing, so he would save most of his cowtail, and make a point the next day to be seen eating it front of his siblings who had already consumed there's. He did the same thing with Halloween candy.

He could be frustratingly slow when ordering ice cream, he didn't get it that often and he wanted to make sure he made the right choice when the family went out to get some. He actually kept this indecisiveness in ordering food his whole life, he was always the last person to order at a restaurant.

One day Stephen came out of the bathroom discoursing at length about the tooth past he'd just used. That was weird toothpaste, there was just something real funny about it, what a unique taste. Upon going into the bathroom to investigate his siblings found a tube of brill cream with the cap removed. He was just teasing.

During the summers Stephen would move pipe for money and was obliged by his parents to set some of it aside for school and some for clothing. He hated to shop and he wouldn't spend any money on clothes until his mother dragged him to the store. Some things never changed.

In high school Stephen was in a bad car accident, one that got his fathers auto insurance canceled. He rolled his vehicle, which was full of his friends and several of them were thrown clean from the car, but one had to have a metal plate put in his head. It was because of this incident that he could never quite get angry at me for any car accident I got into.

Stephen Graduated from Pocatello High School with the class of 1970.

After graduation he served for two years in the Indiana-Michigan Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1970-1972. He never talked much about his mission but he always know the area geography really well, and more then a decade ago he was contacted by a woman he'd taught who wanted to let him know that her oldest son had received his mission call.

Shortly after returning home from his mission Stephen's father Nathan died of cancer. This was very hard on Stephen, who very much loved his father and would go on to name me after him. The hymn 'Oh My Father' was played at Nathans funeral and my mom recalls that very early in their relationship my dad expressing his wish that that hymn be played at his funeral, which it will be today. Even just one day before he died when he was gathered with family arranging his mothers funeral Stephen re-iterated that request.

Stephen had no definitive plans about what he was going to do, school and career wise after he returned from his mission. He would receive a little money as a death benefit from his fathers passing, and his mother had noticed in the newspaper that there was a new votch program in microchip design at Idaho State University, and suggested that he should check it out. He did, and would go on to work in the industry for the next four decades.

As the industry was so new Stephen was prepared to work in it full time after only a semester of course work. He took a job in California working for AMI.

Stephen met my mother Janile at a youth fireside in December of 1973. She had decided to take a semester off from BYU to earn money and the two started dating in March of 74, by May my dad was sufficiently solid on my mom that he asked her to marry him, as he would say ' I had to keep her from going back to BYU'. They were married on September 14th, 1974 in the Idaho Falls temple.

As my father and mother we preparing to get married my mothers parents were in the midst of a rather unharmonious divorce, they agreed however to set differences aside for a night to take Stephen and Janile out to eat on the fisherman's warf in Santa Cruz, something that had always been a treat for my mother growing up. Now dad was a beef eater from eastern Idaho, his experience with sea food was limited. But it was important to impress my mom so when she suggested they split a crab louie (a kind of crab and shrimp salad) he agreed. ... Green is apparently a hue that human skin is capable of taking, and my dad did that night.

The wedding reception had a bit of a miss-hap, the cake didn't arrive, so there are pictures from the wedding of my parents cutting a sweet tart pastry, a short notice cake substitute.

After the honey moon my parents settled into the routines of married life, my father moved on to a job with National Semi-Conductor, and my mother worked as a secretary for the Stanford Research Institute.

It took them a while to have kids, but eventually I came along, canceling a planed trip to Hawaii that never got rescheduled, Sorry mom.

Shortly after my birth our family moved to South Jordan, Utah when my dad was transferred by his company.

Perhaps my first memory was of my father. I think I was around 3 and we were at a ward Easter egg hunt, my father spotted an Easter egg hidden on top of a fence post and lifted me up to retrieve it. Dad was good at finding Easter eggs, years later at another ward Easter egg hunt he found a plastic egg with a note inside it which said it could be redeemed for a special prize, turns out there was no prize anymore because that egg had been planted for an Easter egg hunt held several years previously.

In 1983 a second son, my brother Colin came along. He was a very active kid, I think he was my dad's main source of exercise for years.

1987 was a hectic year for our family, National was going to transfer my dads unit back to California and my parents had decided that that was not where they wanted to raise their kids, so when my dads friend and co-worker Randy Whitting offered to take him along to a new job opportunity at Micron, our family moved to Boise. This was complicated by the fact that my mother was pregnant at the time and we moved into the house on Hickory Dr, still the current Dredge homestead, just 2 1/2 weeks before my sister Autumn was born. My dad made sure to pick up a new kid in every state he and my mom lived in.

Stephen was a good father to his children. He spent time with each of us, he'd take us to movies and camping, teach us how to work in the yard, and help with school projects.

In the 1990's, a particularly prosperous period for stock at work I remember we went on three major family trips. In 1994 we went cross country to the Mississippi river, traveled down parallel to it, visited his sister in Arkansas, and then back home. That was the trip where dad introduced me to cheesy tourist traps like South Dakota's Corn Palace, my brother Colin to anything that had a ride, and my sister Auti to Graceland and Elvis

In 1996 we meet up with my mom's dad on a trip to Disney World.

And in 1998 it was off to exotic Canada, the only foreign country my dad ever visited, where we smuggled limited edition Canadian Bennie Babies across the boarder for friends. It was a different time.

Growing up I remember that one of my dads obsessions was the garage door, and maintaining a certain knowledge of its status, preferably closed. "Did you close the garage door" is possibly the most repeated phrase of his life. Coming back from my senior prom I remember remaking to those in the car with me that the first thing my father would ask me when I got home would not be 'how was prom' but rather 'did you close the garage door', and I was right, prom came in second place.

My brother and I would both serve missions to Knoxville, Tennessee, so my parents concluded that they should probably go see the place and went to pick my brother up from his mission in 2004. Some months later Colin meet Sarah and brought Ethan into our lives, he would be Stephens first grandchild

Colin and Sarah were shortly married and there followed grandchildren Brinna and Jaxon. For some reason when he was little Jaxon took to referring to my dad as Gobby, Stephen was a proud Gobby to all of his grandchildren.


I'd like to tell you some things I know about my dad:

Stephen loved babies and had a special rapport with them. If he was in a room with a baby, it wouldn't be long before he was holding that baby content in his arms. When my sister was fussy as an infant, and my mom couldn't comfort her, she would call up my dad and even over the phone he was able to put her at ease. The last picture taken of my dad, which is on the cover of your programs and was taken nine days before he died, is Stephen with a baby, his great grandnephew Wesley Lewis.

Of his many church callings over the years by far his favorite was nursery. But my dad would throw himself into whatever calling he was given, for the last several years that was insuring that this building was clean for Sunday services, and he did that with aplomb, always making calls to those who were to help him clean on a given week, always following up on things, always staying until the work was done, and when there was a shortage of people to help, always calling us to help him. If he were to come back as a ghost, he would probably haunt this chapel to make sure it stayed clean.

For years he worked as a ward clerk, and later with the scouts, making long time friends at Wood badge in the early 90's. He used to haul the water to scout camp, and the camping gear to girls camp. The ward kept a lot of their tents and camping supplies with my dad because they knew he'd always be ready to get them were they needed to go. He also kept Dutch ovens that he would employ in the making of cobbler, his signature dish, at any opportunity that would arise, be it a ward activity, a family reunion, and even one time for his father-laws retirement home.

My dad was a layout designer for microchips, a job that involved squeezing as much stuff as possible into as small a space as possible, and he was real good at it. One day my father came home from work beaming as he told my mother that he had achieved a new level of greatness in his profession, his bosses had told him that on his current project he had made things too small, he had to open them up so they'd be practical. This ability to maximize the use of space spread into other areas as well, you should have seen him load a dishwasher or pack a moving van.

While technically skilled in a great deal of things, there were other matters in which he was often befuddled. The man designed microchips, but if there was a problem with the house hold PC he'd go to my sister for help. For some reason he could seemingly never remember to pack pajamas when he was going on a trip, even when specifically reminded too. A number of years ago he forget his pajamas on a short trip, so he decided to make due with wearing his swim shorts to bed. The sound of the swim trunk material rubbing against the sheets made for a largely sleepless night. The weekend before he died traveling to Pocatello he mistakenly packed a second pair of my mothers pajamas, somehow thinking they were his.

My dad was one of the most friendly people you could ever meet. Even if he'd just meet you he'd like to have a conversation with you and be your friend. He wanted to talk with just about everybody, he was a guy that was sincerely interested in having a conversation with his casher, his waitress, or the guy you pay when you drop a load of garbage off at the dump. There were even times when this was kind of annoying, like any time when you needed to keep him on a tight schedule. He kept stocked M & M candy dispensers in his office at work as incentive for people to stop by and talk.

Stephen was incredibly loyal, to family, friends, and even to people many would never give a second though about. He was loyal to the guy who sold him cars, he was loyal to the man who did his auto body work, he was loyal to his pharmacist, to the lady who would sit us at our favorite Chinese restaurant, heck he even got to know the guy who ran the local snow cone place.

He was generous with his time, his talents, and his money, always willing to lend a hand however it was needed. I've never known a bigger funeral goer then my dad, even relatives that I'd never even heard of, he'd be there if there was any way that he could be.

Stephen loved M*A*S*H and The Poseidon Adventure. He loved American Pickers and NCIS. He loved Chevy Chase and Bruce Willis, westerns and disaster movies, popcorn and popsicles, and The Moody Blues. And don't forget Ham. He loved his friends, his neighbors, his co-workers, and most of all his family. When my brother died four years ago he took it hard, there are no words for how it affected him. He lost a little of his spark, a little of his drive, and a little of his optimism, but he kept going, he kept living life, giving it all that he could.

The last few months of his life were busy ones, in addition to a full load at work, we had extensive landscaping done at the house, and much of the interior painted. He had carpets pulled out and new ones installed at our rental property, hauling multiple loads of refuse from that site to the dump in my sisters truck, which he also helped arrange service on after it was hit while parked in front of the house. One day his father-in-law slipped into an apparent coma, six hours and no one could get him to respond, as the hospice personal came to pick him up it was my dads voice that rousted him awake, he lived for an additional month and then my dad helped plan his funeral.

The Wednesday before he died his own mother too feel into a coma, he made it to her bedside in Pocatello with only a few hours to spar before she passed that Saturday. He, my mother and sister came back home on Sunday, and Monday was to be spent packing and preparing to travel back to Pocatello for the viewing on Tuesday and the service on Wednesday. He went into work on Monday morning, but his friend and boss Paul could see he was upset and advised him to go home. He did. When I woke up Monday morning around 8:30 he was in the family room with my sister, half watching a movie he'd seen dozens of times, but mostly getting a big kick out of our rabbit and our new kitten (the first cat we've had that's ever taken to him) playing with each other on the carpet. Around 10:30 he went down to the master bedroom to rest, close to eleven he called for my sister to get him insulin, within about half an hour he was gone. My sister who had only weeks previously been re-certified in CPR did all that she could, as did the paramedics who were remarkably quick in there response time, even though it felt like it took forever.


I've tried to think of what we might take from his death. For me I know that I took my father too much for granted, he was always there and its easy to not appreciate someone that's always present. He didn't take care of himself like he should have, neglecting his diabetes and at 63 continuing to put as much effort into everything as he did when he was 30. Anyone who is aging or has a serious health condition should take note of my fathers mistakes in these areas. And anyone who may not be fully appreciating their loved ones should take heed as well.

But mostly what you can learn from my father is plain decency. Just be good. Just be kind. Be generous where you can be. Be forgiving of fault. Be the best kind of servant you can be and you'll find yourself. Stephen Brent Dredge is one of the best men I'll ever know, and I hope that I can truly live the lessons that he taught me.

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

While later re-made by Mel Brooks as a film which I remember as being rather blah, the original To Be or Not to Be is still fresh, bright, and brimming with wit, in short it has the Lubitsch touch. Made during the second world war its a comedy set in occupied Poland and concerns a theatrical troop that must use its talents to dupe the Nazi's concerning a double agent who could potentially cause the collapse of the Polish resistance movement. Kind of a ballsy production to mount at a time when Hitler was alive, winning, and technically not yet our enemy during most of the period of production. The films stars are Jack Benny, who is really good in a variation on his standard send-up of himself, and Carole Lombard, who sadly died in a plan crash before this film was released, there is also a young Robert Stack in the cast as well as a bunch of enjoyable character actors. A real testament to the truism to 'stick with the original', this 'To Be or Not to Be' is certainly 'To Be.' ***1/2

Little Big Man (1970)

This movie has been on my list of films to see since the 1990's. Sort of a subversive 'anti-western', based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Berger the film tells the story of a young man (played as an adult by Dustin Hoffman, who at this time in his career was hitting everything out of the park) raised by Indians and his Forrest Gump like adventures on the great planes of mid 19th Century America. The film is full of great character parts for performers from Martin Balsam, to Faye Dunaway to Chief Dan George, who is the best part of the movie, all do respect to the rest of the talented cast. The production has a number of tonal shifts, and handles those well which not everybody can do so kudos to Arthur Penn. A smart satire with its share of poignancy, not a lament for the passing of an old west, but a lamination on an old west that has rightly passed. ***1/2

Child Bride of Short Creek (1981)

Child Bride of Short Creek is a 1981 made-for-TV movie built around the 1953 raid on the Short Creek polygamist compound in Arizona. The Short Creek raid was the biggest on a polygamist sect in the US up until that time, not topped until the 2008 raid on the FLDS Church's 'Yearning for Zion Ranch' in Texas. While the Short Creek raid is interesting in its own right, that's not truly the focus here, but rather the forbidden, because its psychological healthy, romance between a young Diane Lane and the guy from The Blue Lagoon (Christopher Atkins). The film also stars a young Helen Hunt,   E. T. mom Dee Wallace, and the dad from 'Diff'rent Stokes' Conrad Bain, who is suitably creepy as the polygamist 'prophet'. Most notable for the appearance of some of the young stars involved, this movie is also a then rare depiction of post 19th Century polygamy in America, something we see much more of in our popular entertainment now (see Big Love and Sister Wives). Not bad for the kind of movie it is. **1/2

The Cabinet of Caligari (1962), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005)

A classic of German, silent, expressionist horror, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has spawned a number of bastard children, here we will briefly look at two.

The Cabinet of Caligari is a British horror film scripted by Robert Bloch, who is best known for writing the novel on which the iconic Hitchcock horror film Psycho was based. As Psycho was a tremendous success Bloch understandably wanted to cash in so he wrote this script which is a lose retailing of Caligari but with a female lead, (Glynis Johns, and it turns out that I watched this film on her 91st birthday). The films quite slow so I got restless and looked the movie up online thus spoiling its twist ending, which turns out wasn't much of a twist because its basically the same one as in the original film. In essence with this film Bloch tried to overlay the basic form of Psycho onto the Caligari story and it didn't work very well, even not knowing the twist before hand I suspect I would have found it lame and derivate. So basically this film was a bore. *1/2

That fact that the 2005 remake of  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari even exists is interesting. It's very much a fan film, more of a tribute and a retailing then a 'movie' in its own right, and this is by design. Director David Lee Fisher did something that hadn't been done before, through the use of computers and green screen technology he remade a silent film with the very sets it was first shot on. So technically this film is very intriguing and impressive, though about 10 years on the effects look like something you'd see in a TGWTG production. This film is not silent like the original, there is plenty of dialogue here, but there's nothing great about the acting and the whole thing has kind of an amateurish feel about it, despite its technical achievements and even the novelty of the whole enterprise. **

In short, best to stick with the original.

Gone Girl (2014)

If you'd like to have yourself a smart and satisfying film going experience, well Gone Girl would be a safe bet. Based on the best selling novel by Gillian Flynn, who also penned the screenplay, Gone Girl is directed with aplomb by the always strong David Fincher. Fincher excels at dark, mind bending thrillers with some cerebral gravitas, and that's exactly what you get here. Ben Affleck  does well as the lead, a not so faithful husband whose beautiful wife mysteriously goes missing, leaving an intriguing crime scene at their home. There's a good supporting cast here as well but this picture really belongs to Rosamund Pike as the wife, the titular 'Gone Girl'. I'd heard the name Rosamund Pike before but prior to seeing this movie I don't think I could have named a single other film that she was in, well now I'd consider myself a fan, she just owns this movie, its a delayed break-out performance, and I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of her in the near future.

I'd say more about the story but this film is to new to risk spoiling, and I was grateful and impressed that I was able to go into the film without having it spoiled for me ahead of time. I think all your really need to know about this move going in is summed by the films excellent pedigree and the rave notices its been getting. To summarize what I read another reviewer saying about, its very difficult to pull off an innovative and compelling thriller anymore, but Gone Girl sustains its self throughout the whole of 2 /12 hour running time, and honestly feels new. ****

Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style

Iron Sky (2012)

In hindsight probably not the best choice to be my follow up review to The Diary of Anne Frank. I first became aware of this movie through this video essay by Renegade Cut. Iron Sky looked like it would truly be something to see, so I saw it, though not with the highest of expectations. Though I wanted to see it because I thought it would be goody, and it was, I still didn't think the premise would sustain the films run time, yet somehow this movie did and I was never bored.  The execution here truly is remarkable considering this could of been just so much Syfy Channel type filler. The movie was engaging and clever, I liked the characters, and even liked the satire, it took the brains behind the film years to finally get it made, so they had plenty of time to perfect what they were trying to do. This is a cheesy, guilty pleasure film that wasn't just tossed off, it even reminds me a bit of the work of Kurt Vonnegut. Not to read to much into the film, its silly, but well done and defiantly earned its place in the list of films that blur the line between trash and treasure. ***

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

The Diary of Anne Frank has come to be almost the representative story of the Jewish holocaust experience. However the story is really not representative in a couple of ways, primary that Anne and her family were so successful at hiding from the Nazi's for so long, something like two years, most didn't get a chance to really hide, or at least not for long, and also the story that Anne's diary tells ends before her capture, time in a concentration camp and death. But because the story is told through the eyes of a young girl, only 13 when she starts her narrative, its accessible to a wide audience and here in the states is generally taught in the Jr. High or Middle School years, where it works well at introducing kids similar in age to Anne to the horrors of the Nazi's final solution.

This film adaptation is not direct from the book, but rather its based on the Pulitzer winning 1955 play which adapted many of its lines straight from Anne's diary. The film version was originally to have been directed by William Wyler, who did such definitive World War II home front pictures as Mrs. Miniver and The Best Years of Our Lives. However as often happens in pre-production things change and the film was ultimately directed by George Stevens. Stevens pictures like Giant an Shane  were often delivered on a large canvas, so the closterphobic setting for Anne Frank may seem counter intuitive, but I believe he was the right choice to direct because Stevens also possessed the tremendous sense of character empathy which this picture required, he also makes great use of the four story set they built of the of the Amsterdam building were Anne, her family, and a few others hid for those two plus years.

The drama here for me was not as interesting as the idea of the situation Anne found herself in. Millie Perkins is good as Anne, she's not a tremendous actress but she manages to carry the producing's with the right amount of innocence, preconsciousness and character growth for the part. A good assortment of supporting players as the Franks and the other Jews who shared there hiding place, include Joseph Schildkraut reprising his stage role as Otto Frank, Shelley Winters who won an Oscar as Petronella van Daan, and Lou Jacobi also reprising his stage role as Hans van Daan. I also want to point out Diane Baker for her nicely underplayed performance as Anne's intensely private sister Margot.

I had forgotten a lot of the details of the story, but as I said the idea of their situation was more interesting to me then the day-to-day incidentals. There are few strong moments of suspense in the film, including multiple break-ins to the office bellow the Franks cramped attic hiding place. This film is one of the first made in America to really deal with the Holocaust, which as a subject matter was so often skirted and walked around by the post war pop culture, witness the complete lack of reference to the subject in the Oscar winning Gentleman's Agreement (1947) which was suppose to be about anti-Semitism! The Diary of Anne Frank is a well handled rendering of an iconic story, not as deep or brutally honest as much later work about the Holocaust, but possessing a subtle poignancy capable of reaching a large audience. ***1/2

3:10 To Yuma (1957), 3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Years ago a friend of mine suggested that I should do a joint review of these two movies, and for whatever reason I kept putting off viewing them, well that was my mistake as both films turned out to be very strong. Both are based on Elmore Leonard's 1953 short story Three-Ten to Yuma, this was back during the period in which the author specialized in westerns, though today he's better known for his crime fiction. Like other movies and TV series I could name based on Leonard's work, these two film adaptions of Three-Ten are dramatically juicy, action packed yet cerebral, and contain some of the best dammed dialogue produced by anybody.

The plot of Three-Ten is a simple one, and iconically western, but its thoroughly thought through and has unusual depth for the genera. I find this particularly true of the original cinematic rendering, which I think compares favorably with High Noon, one of the most iconic westerns of all time. This 1957 version stars Glenn Ford and Van Heflin as the two leads, well known actors both but not generally considered A list stars, and certainly past their prime at the time this picture was made. This works for the film because the audience isn't distracted by star power, and makes their performances all the more unexpectedly revelatory. Ford plays Ben Wade, a notorious outlaw and gang leader in post civil war Arizona, at the start of the film he is in the midst of  holding up  a stage containing passengers and a good chunk of money belonging to a railroad company his group has been targeting lately (it's not expressly stated in this film, though it is in the later, that much of the railroad in Arizona is still being built at this point, hence the use of the stage). Van Heflin is Dan Evans, a struggling cattle ranch in immediate danger of losing his land (the immediacy of this is much more expressly conveyed in the 2007 remake). Evans cattle have gotten away from him and were obstructing passage of the stage at the point that Wade and his men overtook it. Evans and his boys watch from a distance as the stage is robbed, in no practical position to do anything to stop it (this lack of action none the less annoys his older (roughly 12 year old) son, which again is a much bigger plot point in the remake).

Evans and his children as spotted by the gang, Wade speaks to them and decides to leave them alone once he determines that all they want is to retrieve their cattle, he does take the Evans's horses however, so they won't run to town and shout a warning too soon, though he promises to leave them tied up nearby, which he does. The stage coaches horses have either been scattered or killed by Wades gang so the Evans, once determining most everyone from the wagon is okay, save on man that was murdered, take the railroads representative Mr. Butterfield (Robert Ernhardt) to has ranch, and from there to town to get help for the stranded passengers etc.

Meanwhile Wade and his men (there's probably about 8 or so of them) make for the nearby town of Bisbee. They pretend to be a team on its way to a cattle round up and even inform the local authorities they saw a stage being robbed on their way into town, so the sheriff quickly rounds up a posse to go out and help the survivors and see if they can catch the culprits, unaware of course that the culprits themselves are the ones who reported the crime. Wade's group has some beer, then decide to split up for safety and reconvene later, Wade stays behind to seduce the comely bar made (Felica Farr), there is some really, though tastefully done sensuality to this, and its very clearly conveyed that the two end up having sex, nothings shown of course, but I felt that this was handled in an unusually straight forward way for a movie of this time. Because he stays in town for so long Wade is eventually captured, though his right hand man Charles Prince (Richard Jaeckel), who I guess had come back for Wade, see's this happen and hightails it out to gather the gang to effect their leaders rescue.

Mr. Butterfiled, the Sherriff, etc. determine the best course of action is to take Wade to Contention City and get him on the titular train to Yuma due the next day. The risk involved in this transaction make most of the townsfolk reluctant to get involved, but when Mr. Butterfield offers $200 to anyone who will assist, Evans volunteers and that amount of money should be enough to see his ranch through until the rains come and save his property from being reposed.

Due to the shear amount of plot I'm going to have to switch to Wikiepdia for the summery (major spoilers):

"Wade is placed on a stagecoach, which then stops (in view of some of the gang) for a faked repair; the outlaw is secretly taken off while the stage continues on with an imposter, in the hopes that by the time the outlaws figure out what has happened, it will be too late. Wade is taken to Dan's ranch, where Dan's devoted wife Alice (Leora Dana) serves supper to the family and their "guest".

Dan, Alex (the town drunk and the other volunteer to transport Wade) and Wade leave under cover of darkness, reaching Contention City at daybreak. Butterfield has reserved the bridal suite at the hotel. While they wait for the train, Wade tries several times to bribe Dan into letting him go, his interest in Dan seeming to go beyond a simple exchange of freedom for cash. Dan is greatly tempted. The local sheriff is out of town, but Butterfield hires five men to help escort the prisoner to the train.

Things go awry when Bob Moons (Sheridan Comerate) barges in unexpectedly and threatens to shoot his brother's killer. Dan wrestles his gun away from him, but in the struggle, it goes off. Downstairs, Charlie Prince (Richard Jaeckel), who has also come to Contention City, hears the gunshot, and spots Wade in a window. Charlie is seen riding off to fetch the rest of the gang.

The men Butterfield recruited watch as seven riders enter the town. Not liking the odds, they retreat, leaving only Dan, Alex and Butterfield. When Alex goes out to reconnoiter, he spots one of Wade's men on a rooftop opposite the hotel. Alex calls out, warning Dan, but is shot in the back by Prince. The gang hangs the wounded Alex from the lobby chandelier, killing him. Butterfield decides that maintaining Wade as a prisoner is not worth the risk, and releases Dan from his obligation. Alice arrives and also tries to change her husband's mind, but he is committed: "The town drunk gave his life because he believed that people should be able to live in decency and peace together. You think I can do less?"

When the clock strikes three, Dan escorts Wade out the back door. Gang members take shots whenever they can without endangering Wade, but despite their best efforts, they cannot stop the pair from reaching the platform, where the train is waiting. Finally, the outlaws emerge to confront Dan as the train starts to leave. Charlie shouts for Wade to drop to allow them a clear shot at Dan. Instead, Wade unexpectedly tells Dan to jump into the passing baggage car. They jump together. The gang starts to run after the train, but Dan shoots Charlie and the rest then let it go. Wade explains himself, saying he felt he owed Dan for protecting him from Bob Moons in the hotel room, and confidently claiming he has broken out of the Yuma jail before (implying he can do so again), but whether these statements reflect his true motivations and prospects is not clear. Alice sees Dan safe on the train as rain pours down on her, breaking the long drought."

This is all presented in a crisp black and white, in a barren background, the tension between these two central characters as they feel each other out, take a measure of one another's characters, is amazingly done. How Wade comes to have such deep respect for Evans that in the end he will even risk his own life to help the man bring him to jail, where they are going to want to hang him, its such a powerful thing and so very well executed. Ford and Heflin give two of their finest performances, and director Delmer Davis is at top form. This movie deserves to be considered part of the top rank of western films for its period and beyond.

It's all just such great stuff that no wonder it was remade. The 2007 remake directed by James Mangold is strong in its own right, but for me, and this could all just be because I saw this version second, it lakes the subtle awe that dawned on me as I watch the original. Mangold takes the basic story of the original and expands it some, as I've not read the original short story both films are based on I don't know how much of these additions come from the original text, and how many are unique to the latter screenplay. There is more backstory presented in this remake, a couple additional characters, and an entire new acts worth of material in the middle as they take Wade to Contention City, also the endings different. The leads this time are Russell Crowe as Wade and Christian Bale as Evans, interestingly both non-American actors, and both much bigger stars then there predecessors in these parts, these two do bring star power to the proceedings, but as both are known for there ability to act, not just shout catch phrases, this actually works in the films favor. Grittier then the original this film does a fine job of drawing out the way Wade and Evans feel each other out through the proceedings, and Russell Crowe's Wade is more of a basterd then Glenn Ford's Wade, but they both work.

It's a gritty, rough, contemporary felling western, though it still has one foot strongly rooted in the mythic realm. The latter 3:10 to Yuma is still great filmmaking, and my only reservation being that seeing this version first might make modern audiences less appreciative to the exquisite subtleties of its predecessors. So I strongly recommend seeing both films in order, they are both worth your time.

1957 version: ****
2007 version: ***1/2

Evil Dead (2013)

Another remake of another film I have not seen, in this case Sam Raimi's classic cult horror film Evil Dead. The original Evil Dead made good use of its star Bruce Campbell (essentially starting his career) and a limited budget to create a film with a great reputation among genera aficionados. This remake try's to pump what it can from its limited setting and cast, basically five people in a cabin in the woods, but with a greater effects budget. Unfortunately the end product is dull, lacking a single character interesting enough to draw you in. The characters are boring, the violence excessive, the point lost. In the end this movie is something you just sit through and then ask yourself why you bothered. Not even an interesting failure, though technically competent this Evil Dead  doesn't offer the viewer anything worth experiencing, the  worst movie I've seen in a while. *1/2

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Loose remake of the 1976 John Carpenter film of the same title, which admittedly I haven't seen. The film concerns Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) an officer traumatized by the death of two associates under his command eight months prior, now its New Years Eve and Roenick along with a small skeleton staff is overseeing the last day of operations of the titular Precinct 13, a police stations in a sparsely populated part of Detroit that is being shuttered due to budget cuts. Roenick is visited by a police psychologist played by Maria Bello who wants to help the officer truly cope with his earlier trauma, plus the two like to flirt. In addition at the precinct there is a grizzled veteran cop played appropriately by Brian Dennehy and a "sexy secretary" played by Drea de Matteo.

A convenient snow storm forces a bus conducting a convenient prisoner transfer to stop and temporarily unload their inmate cargo at Precinct 13 until the storm blows over. Conveniently among them is crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) who has just been conveniently arrested and is likely to turn on his erstwhile corrupt cop associates lead by Gabriel Byrne once he meets with the state prosecutor. Byrne and his men are pretty motivated not to let said meeting happen and so they conduct and assault on Precinct 13 to prevent it. Bishop eventually explains to Roenick what this whole siege is really about and the two join forces to defend the precinct with a mixture of police officers, civilians and criminals awkwardly joining together in an effort to save there lives.

This is a pretty good set up, and I like these kinds of 'Alamo-type' 'ragtag band is hopelessly outnumbered' kind of stories, so for me you'd have to be pretty incompetent to mess a film like this up, and fortunately director Jean-Francois Richet is not incompetent, though he really hasn't done much with his career. The cast is solid, they don't have to stretch much for these proceedings, so they can carry the film with little effort. Nothing really exceptional about the film, but there are no major flaws except maybe a little bit towards the end. There are plenty of clichéd 'surprises' but they are forgivable. A quite watchable bit of action. **1/2

Black Swan (2010)

I'm a late comer to this film, which somehow has managed to remain mostly unspoiled for me prior to finally watching it last week. Natalie Portman won an Oscar for her work here, an honor she very much earned. She plays such an obsessed, and tightly wound character, a virginal, repressed lesbian who is losing her mind (come to think of it all Darren Aronofosky films are about characters who are slowly losing their  minds, to one extent or the other). Portman plays Nina Sayers, a working ballerina at  a prestigious New York company who at 28 has never been cast as a lead, her talented but slightly lecherous director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel, very good) takes a risk at casting her as the lead in his new production of the much done Swan Lake. Leroy wants to get more out of Sayers performance then she's ever been able to give before, and given her frightened, reserved nature it seems impossible that she will be able to play the erotically tinged part of the Black Swan in the ballet, though as Cassel notes her playing the dual part of the virginal White Swan, will not be a problem for her.

All this stress doesn't help the perfectionist Sayers, whose suffering some undiagnosed mental issues, including paranoia. She has a love/hate obsession with a new ballerina in the company played by Mila Kunis (good in a rare serious part), and as the film progresses her obsessions, a number of them, grow greater, and her mind starts playing tricks on here. The mental descent of Ms. Sayers is done wonderfully well, its truly unsettling and creepy. This owes mostly to Ms. Portman's remarkable performance in the part, but is aided as well by visual effects, sometimes subtly done, that aid in conveying the characters sense of things coming unhinged. As we are seeing things through Nina's eyes in the film sometimes we'll see things that turn out to be hallucinations, but we can't be sure if what we are seeing is really happening or not until later events in the film either confirm or deny that they really took place.

Director Aronofosky has taken elements from the story of Swan Lake and overlade them on the story of characters mounting a production of Swan Lake, and he's done so in such a way as to create a supremely well crafted piece of psychological horror that is utterly riveting and inventive. This movie left me feeling truly awed.. ****

The Great Moment (1944)

Writer/director Preston Sturges had the odd idea to make a bio-pic about Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, the 19th Century American dentist who pioneered the use of ether based anesthetic as a pain killer during surgery. This odd idea resulted in an odd movie, a bio-pic that's part comedy, and part earnest championing of a man who Sturges felt got a raw deal from history. Joel McCrea plays Dr. Morton, he's not a great actor but he was a favorite of Sturges and gets down the earnestness combined with indignation of his part satisfactorily. The story its self is intriguing, though not one that particularly lends its self to a film treatment, Sturges even goes so far as to put selections from books that Morton is reading up on the screen, a fairly clever way of communicating kind of dry information to the audience. Mediocre as a bio-pic, and for the most part lame as comedy, with the great William Demarest (another Sturges favorite) providing most of the laughs, "It was the night of September 30th, and I was in excruciating pain..." The final film was evidently edited by the studio in a manner not keeping wit  Sturgeses intent, so maybe a directors cut of the film would have been better, though sometimes Sturges was his own worst enemy when it came to overloading his films. In the end The Great Moment is an odd curio, which has a couple of good moments, but on the whole never came together for me. **

Village of the Damnd (1960)

The original screen adaptation of the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by author John Wyndham, he of Day of the Triffids fame. The first 10-15 minutes of this movie is some of the most atmospheric, creepy, and down right intriguing horror film making I've ever seen, and the set up even pays off, which doesn't always happen.

"All of the inhabitants (including the animals) of the British village of Midwich suddenly fall unconscious, and anyone entering the village also loses consciousness. The military arrives and establishes a cordon. The military send in a man wearing a gas mask, but he too falls unconscious and is pulled back by a safety rope. The man awakens and reported that he had experienced a cold sensation just before he passed out. The pilot of a passing civilian plane is contacted and requested to investigate. When he goes below 5,000 feet, he loses consciousness, and the plane crashes. A five mile exclusion zone around the village is established for all aircraft. At nearly that very moment, the villagers regain consciousness, seeming otherwise unaffected. The incident is referred to as a "time-out," and no cause is determined.

About two months later, all women and girls of childbearing age who were in the affected area are discovered to be pregnant, sparking many accusations of infidelity and premarital sex. The accusations fade as the extraordinary nature of the pregnancies is discovered, with seven-month fetuses appearing after only five months. All the women give birth on the same day, and their children's unusual appearance is remarked upon: They have "unusual," "arresting" eyes, odd scalp hair construction and color (pale blond, almost white), and unusually narrow fingernails. As they grow and develop at a rapid rate, it becomes clear that they also have a powerful telepathic bond with one another. They can tell each other anything that they see from great distances. As one learns something, so do the others."- Wikipedia.

Creepy huh, and the implications of this, the stuff we don't see on screen, is creeper still, turns out this isn't the only village this happened too. George Sanders, the only 'star' in the film plays Professor Gordon Zellaby, the village resident who comes closest to understanding what is going on. Sanders is  good as always and gets to be kind of the hero of the film, which outside of the Saint franchise wasn't something he got to be very often. I highly recommend this movie, it's a must for fans of horror, both phantasmagorical and psychological. ***

Donnie Brasco (1997)

"The  film is based on the true story of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI undercover agent who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family in New York City during the 1970s, under the alias Donnie Brasco, aka, "The Jewel Man". Brasco maneuvers his way into the confidence of an aging hit-man, Lefty Ruggiero, who vouches for him. As Donnie moves deeper into the Mafia, he realizes that not only is he crossing the line between federal agent and criminal, but also leading his friend Lefty to an almost certain death."-Wikipedia.

At first I felt that I'd seen enough Mafia expose movies, but this grew on me until by the end I was really liking it. It helps that its based on an interesting true story, and stars the likes of Johnny Depp (who uncharacteristically underplays his part to effect) as the FBI agent and Al "Crime Movie Legend" Pacino as Lefty. Also if you've read this blog you know I love close to anything with a gritty 1970's backdrop. ***1/2

Jeopardy (1953)

Director John Sturges, who would later make such legendary suspense/adventure pieces as Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven, and The Great Escape, manages to get about everything you could out of this simple, modestly budgeted, and surprising unrushed race-against-the-clock film. Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Lee Aaker are an American family on vacation in Mexico's Baja peninsula, Barry gets pinned down by some heavy wood from a decaying pier on an isolated beach, and with high tide coming to swallow the poor fellow Stanwyck is forced to leave young Lee to tend her husband while she rushes to find help in a sparsely populated land were she doesn't even speak the language. A seeming bit of luck doesn't pan out when the lone American she encounters (Ralph Meeker) turns out to be an escaped fugitive wanted by Mexican authorities (the film never bothers to give us any backstory on how Meeker ended up jailed in Mexico and how he escaped). Meeker wants to keep Stanwyck as a hostage and use her car to hightail it to a not well thought out conception of safety. Barbara only has a mater of hours to convince her captor not only to return her to the beach where she came from, but to then help save her husbands life once there, which of course in the end is what happens, and predictably just in the nick of time of. Sadly forgettable, I recommend instead a far better film from the same year with a  surprisingly similar plot, (instead of an American woman held hostage by an American fugitive  in Baja Mexico while on vacation, its two American men held hostage by an American fugitive in Baja Mexico while on a hunting trip), the Ida Lupino directed suspense drama The Hitch-Hiker. Jeopardy gets only  **