Bad Santa (2003)

I believe this is the film that inaugurated the "Bad" sequences of films which has since encompassed grandpa's, mom's, and teachers. The "Bad Santa" of the title is Willie T. Soke (played perfectly by Billy Bob Thorton) an oft drunk and perpetually ornery mall Santa who along with his elf Marcus Skidmore (Tony Cox) have for years been running a scam where they travel around the country and rob the malls they work at on Christmas Eve. This time in Arizona Willie is good naturedly stocked by a rather awkward and odd fat kid named Thurman Merman (Brett Kelley) who he reluctantly ends up befriending and who might just rekindle what good is left in the old grump. It took me awhile to get into this one but in the end it won me over, its strangely sweet in it's own way. Bernie Mac, Ethan Phillips, Octavia Spencer and Cloris Leachman have small rolls, and this was John Ritter's last live action film. Lauren Graham plays Willie's love interest, and I'd forgotten just how beautiful she looked in her mid 30's, I'm not saying she doesn't still look great, but in her mid 30's, wow. ***

The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

Cinematic hit-piece from Hammer films choses to focus only on Frankenstein's evil qualities and ignore the good. That's a joke of course but it kind of works because this is not a good movie, mostly it feels lazy and cheap. This lackluster and belated follow up to 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein and 1958's The Revenge of Frankenstein has Peter Cushing again playing Dr. F, this time returning to his home castle roughly 10 years after the events of the first two films to resume is research, and like previously things don't work out that well for him. Though generally unimpressive perhaps the most memorably bad thing about this film is the monster itself, very different from the innovative look of Christopher Lee as the creature in the first film, this time the ghoul (played by New Zealander wrestler Kiwi Kingston) is a kind of puddy variation on the classic Boris Karloff take and looks plan terrible. Lame. **

Night Creatures (1962)

Can the local legend of mysterious "Marsh Riders" help kindly vicar Peter Cushing keep safe his charity driven wine smuggling operation, now that The Kingsmen have come to town looking for tariff avoiders? Or are people of the 1790's too sophisticated to fall for that kind of thing? And what of Captain Clegg, the mysterious pirate buried in the church yard? Or rakish Oliver Reed, the squires son and his love for the busty serving wench Imogene (Yvonne Romain, whose accent was such that I surprised to learn that she was born in England)? This Hammer Studios production struck me a bit for its relative originality and complexity of plot. **1/2

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

A satisfying expansion on the Harry Potter cinematic universe, based loosely on an early faux text book by Potter creator J. K. Rowling, the film follows eccentric English wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, perfectly cast) on a 1926 visit to New York City with a suitcase full of magical creatures, some of whom inevitably escape. Scamander stumbles upon some darker, ominous goings on while in New York and assembles a small group of friends, Hermione-esque Porpentina "Tina" Goldstein (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam Waterston), a No-Maj (American slang for Muggle) Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) as Ron-like comic relief, and Tina's Luna Lovegoodian sister Queenie (Alison Sudol). Those four seem set to make up the casting base for what apparently will be a trilogy of films. The movie is fun and exquisitely well constructed, with a screenplay written by Rowling herself. While there is a lot new in Fantastic Beasts, there really isn't a lot "new" to it. Rowling plays it safe setting up an archetype heavy story arc, but frankly its what we want to see from her and as long as she keeps filling it with interesting people, places and things, this series will prove excellent cinematic comfort food. ***

Boy and the World (2013)

Oscar nominated Brazilian animated film is not what I expected it to be. Here is the films summery from Wikipedia : "Cuca is a boy who lives in a distant world, in a small village in the interior of his mythical country. One day, he sees his father leaving in search of work, embarking on a train towards an unknown capital. The weeks that follow are of anguish and confusing memories. Until then, one night, a breath of wind breaks into the bedroom window and takes the boy to a distant and magical place." This story about a young boys search for his father is rendered as a small child might depict his first outing into the larger world, with an animation style that often looks of crayon, pencil and collage, but is also very interested in patterns. I thought I was going into a very simple, heartwarming, child like story but this film has a surprisingly darker edge, but presented in a muted and indirect way that will come up and surprise an adult viewer, but whose implications might not fully register in younger children. Boy and the World is in fact a work of South American leftist social/economic critique, and a powerful one. Maybe not quite a children's story by Che, but one by Chomsky. I must confess I was moved by the ending. ***1/2

Nightmare (1964)

Blah Hammer film about gaslighting. **

Arrival (2016)

Contact meets Interstellar meets Gravity. I wish I could have cared more. ***

Sleep with Other People (2015)

Smarter then average, likely the only time the phrase "Malcom Gladwellian" will ever be used in a romantic comedy. Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis have strong chemistry. ***

Dr. Strange (2016)

Basically its Dr. House goes to Hogwarts. Or if you prefer, Iron Man with magic. ***

Inherent Vice (2014)

Director Paul Thomas Anderson reteams with his The Master lead Joaquin Phoenix in this sprawling 70's noir based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. Inherent Vice is a rambling comedy drama with a winding plot concerning among other things drug smuggling and real estate development, it's massive largely name cast boasts the desired norish mix of odd ball characters. Not the emotional gut punch of The Master or There Will Be Blood, I'm not sure what if anything the film is trying to say on a subtextual level, it seems to be mainly about homage and playing in genre form. But its finely crafted and intriguing. and at 2 1/2 hours in length it only occasionally drags. This movie also makes me want to give The Nice Guys another viewing. *** 1/2

Snowden (2016)

Oliver Stone's biopic of Edward Snowden, the private intelligence contractor who at age 29 infamously leaked a treasure trove of classified American intelligence data to British journalist Glenn Greenwald and others before fleeing ultimately to Russia. The film follows the gradual political disillusionment of Snowden from a conservative training for special forces in 2004, to a disgruntled intelligence analysis who in 2013 committed what, slice it whichever way you like, was one of the larger acts of treason in U.S. history. The film is sympathetic to Snowden as you might expect from the politics of its famously liberal director, and I for one do not doubt that Snowden's actions came from a sincere place, and I suspect were ultimately for the long term benefit of the United States. But  I also think he still needs to go to prison. The film is well written and even restrained in its presentation, and its nice to see Stone again do a political film that's not about a politician. The cast is good, including small roles for Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Olyphant and Scott Eastwood. Shailene Woodly plays Snowden's long time girlfriend Lindsay Mills. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite good as Snowden as well, though I have mixed feelings about the way he does peoples voices. Really though, best Stone film in some time. ***1/2

One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern (2005)

Documentary on Democratic South Dakota Senator George McGovern and his famously failed 1972 bid for the presidency, in which he lost all but one state (Massachusetts) and the District of Columbia to Richard Nixon. McGovern, a famously decent man of true conviction and sincerity, who I had the privilege to briefly meet at a speaking engagement at Boise State University in 2004, is the chief but far from the only taking head in this film which also features the likes of Dick Gregory, Gary Hart, Gloria Steinem, and Gore Vidal among others, and is narrated by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. The movie covers pretty much all of McGovern's life and carrier up through the 72 campaign, but really doesn't go into his life after that, in which he still had a lot to accomplish (and in fact would live another 40 years). Released in 2005 this film has a lot of the anti George W. Bush / Iraq War background feeding into it, and very near the surface, yet the movie also struck me with its weird inverse parallels to the current presidential campaign, with a corruption plagued establishment figure on one side (Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton), and a populist who energized a 'forgotten base' and took on his party establishment on the other (McGovern, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump). ***

Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

Kiss of the Vampire is a Hammer Horror film about a newlywed English couple on their honeymoon in Germany circa 1905, and the vampire cult that attempts to recruit the misses. Nominal lead Edward de Souza looks remarkably like Raul Julia. A few elements in this, like how the vampires operate as a cult, and the way in which the film ends feel a little fresher then most Hammer vampire movies. It also feels perhaps the closet to The Devil Rides Out, my favorite Hammer film, of any of the studios other product which I have seen. ***

Targets (1968)

Ironically one of the last movies to feature "Old Hollywood" horror icon Boris Karloff, was also the first movie to be directed by "New Hollywood" wunderkind Peter Bogdanovich. The genesis of  what would become Targets comes from Karloff owing B movie producing legend Roger Corman a few days work, and the desire to reuse some footage from his 1963 horror film The Terror, featuring a young Jack Nicholson. Writer/director Bogdanovich took these two directives and built a rather effective and original story around them. The film itself is really two narratives which come together in the end, the first being Karloff playing essentially himself, an aging horror movie veteran named Byron Orlok, seriously considering retiring from film because the movies he's being asked to make just aren't that scary anymore. The second narrative was inspired by the then recent case of University of Texas tower sniper Charles Whitman. In this narrative the largely forgotten actor Tim O'Kelly nicely underplays a seemingly all American type young man who comes unhinged, kills his wife and his mother, and then goes on a shooting spree culminating in a very well staged sequence at the end, were from a small hole in a drive in movie screen he starts picking off movie goers in their cars who have come for a movie showing/ meet and great with Orlok. Though not a big success at the time Targets has since become something of a cult classic and impressed enough people in the film industry to help Bogdanovich secure financing for more personal projects and launch his film carrier. A good and unusual piece of horror filmmaking that showcases what a lot of creativity and talent can do on a shoestring budget. ***1/2

The Light Between Oceans (2016)

Film adaptation of the generally well received 2012 novel of the same name by Australian writer M. L. Stedman. The Light Between Oceans concerns Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) a traumatized veteran of the First World War who in the 1920's becomes the light house keeper on an isolated island, falls in a love and marries a girl named Isabel (Alicia Vikander) whose courtship occurs largely through letters, and takes her to live with him on the island. Shortly after Isabel's second miscarriage the couple rescue a baby girl they find in a small boat floating near the island in the company of her dead father. Rather then report this, and after much pleading from his wife, Tom agrees to pass the child off as their own. Some months later while visiting the mainland and Isabel's family to have baby Lucy christened, Tom spots a woman in mourning in the church yard cemetery (Rachel Weisz) and from the date and inscription on the tombstone she was crying at quickly puts together that Lucy is actually her baby. This puts Tom in a pretty obvious moral quandary and it is an agonizing one. This a hole in the pit of your stomach movie, and I will confess that I cried a little in the theater. Thought slow to get going, and entering Lifetime movie territory by way of style of R. F. Delderfield, this is an effective 'woman's weepy' of the old school, anchored by three strong lead performances. Not the kind of film I would usually go out of my way to see, but my mother loved the book and wanted me to get to know the story, and I'm glad I did. ***1/2

Inside Out (2015)

Disney Pixar film about an 11 year old girl named Riley coping with a family move from Minnesota to San Francisco, and seen largely through the perspective of the five personified emotions living in her head. Disney did an animated short along similar lines back in the 1940's, only there I think it was the Ego and the Id at the drivers seat, rather then Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Sadness in the control room. (Also as a point of reference there is the early 90's Fox sitcom Herman's Head). The movie is likable, charming and creative, though not on the level of many of Pixar's more iconic works. Still a strong animated film. I had been suspecting it was going to deal with clinical depression, instead it was a more straight forward case of the 'I miss my old home blues', which is fine because the other could have been rather dark for Pixar. ***1/2