Night of the Comet (1984)

'Night of the Comet' is a film I really wanted to like, and probably would have liked a lot more if I'd seen it in say the 1990's. This extremely 80's 'cult' film barrows from 'The Day of the Triffids', 'I Am Legend' and other source material to produce a tale centered on two sisters in their late teens (Catherine Mary Stewart, and Kelli Maroney) who are among the few to survive a passing comet that turns people exposed to it into aggressive zombies and/or dust (depending on degree of exposure). I liked the beginning and end of the film, I thought the middle too slow, predictable and boring. As teen aged girls the two of course go on a spree of consumerism at the mall, and take the whole thing too matter of factley, at lest Kelli does. Robert Beltran plays the main love interest, the sound track contains a lot of pop music, excused in part by the girls taking up a residence in a radio station. **

Fury of the Demon (2015)

 'Fury of the Demon' is a film that it would probably be best not to spoil. A documentary about early French film pioneer Georges Méliès and a mysterious 1897 film titled 'Fury of the Demon', which is attributed to him and supposedly causes madness (think 'The King in Yellow'). This film was not what I was expecting, an intriguing surprise. ***

The Brainwashing of My Dad (2015)

 'The Brainwashing of My Dad' is a documentary by first time film maker Jen Sinko. The project has its roots in a kickstarter campaign, but the final product looks reasonably professional and manged to get the likes of Noam Chomsky and Jeff Cohen as talking heads, not to mention Matthew Modine to narrate. The film uses as its starting point the transformation of Sinko's once nominally democratic dad into a right wing zealot, and practically a different person as a result of consuming increasing amounts of conservative media. This is a our gate way into a pretty good survey course on the rise of conservative media since say the 1960's, and it's effects on people. consumers, family and friends. I was already aware of most of this information but it was presented in a way (that didn't annoy me) and would make it a pretty good introduction to the topic for those who aren't. There is even a surprise happy ending. Better then I would have thought. ***

The Last Party (2001)

 'The Last Party' is a 'Democracy Now' reminiscent, thematic collage of a documentary about the 2000 presidential election. The high light is host Phillip Seymour Hoffman's face as he reacts to poetical speakers he is clearly not believing. This is the 2nd in a trilogy of films, the other movies being about the 1992 and 2004 elections. **

MacGruber (2010)

 'MacGruber' is a feature film adaption of a 90 second Saturday Night Live skit that pokes fun at the 80's/90's adventure series MacGyver, it probably should have stayed a skit. About 20% funny and 80% stupid the cast, which includes Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Powers Booth and Val Kilmer is all game, but the material's just not there. I honestly laughed out loud several times but you have to wade through a lot of crap, the movie relies far too much on gross out humor. *1/2 

Future '38 (2017)

 'Future '38' is a low budget indie comedy, a science fiction romance that is presented as a supposedly lost film in an introduction hosted by Dr. Neil DeGrass Tyson of all people. Nick Westrate plays Essex, sent 80 years into the future by the War Department (with almost no explanation on how this was accomplished) to retrieve a dangerous isotope developed in the 30's, but that takes decades to achieve it's full explosive potential. The government hopes to use the isotope to deter Nazi aggression and prevent a second World War. When Essex arrives in the future he finds that he has succeeded and the world is peaceful, but there are a group of unreconstructed Germans who have learned how the war was prevented and hope to stop Essex in his mission. 

Essex enlists the aid of a hotel operator played by Betty Gilpin, who becomes his love interest and delivers her dialogue in Katheryn Hepburn diction. I found the movie plucky and charming, it's chief gags concern relaying the world of 2018 in a way that would be theoretically decipherable to viewers in 1938. It's like a book translated into a foreign language and then back into English, so the internet become 'the electromesh', plastic becomes 'Bendo', and the spork becomes the froon. There are many amusing gags here, such the '24 hour new cycle' being a newspaper delivery service on unicycle. Gilpin and Westrate have a nice chemistry and the whole thing is probably better then it should be. It even boasts a surprisingly soulful and down beat ending. At around 75 minutes probably worth seeing if your at all intrigued. ***

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

This very indie movie stars Michelle Williams as Wendy Carol, a young and poor woman from Indiana traveling cross country with her dog Lucy in the hopes of getting work at the fishers in Alaska. While in Oregon their car breaks down and the consequences of a poor decision on Wendy's part results in her leaving the dog unattended tied up next to a supermarket for hours. When Wendy returns Lucy is gone and the rest of the film concerns her effort to retrieve her lost dog, the only thing in her life that she loved.

Slow and understated the film is a character study, not much happens plot wise, and while it has a few moments that engage and a nice tone and sense of place, it doesn't command the viewers full attention. As a result when the films stronger moments due pop up they may not register as well as they would if you were in distraction-less theater rather then watching at home. Only 80 minutes long its a movie that practically asks to be skimmed more then watched. **1/2

Carnage (2011)

 Roman Polanski directs this adaption of the 2006 French play 'God of Carnage'. There are only four characters with speaking lines, two married couples, Kate Winselt and Christoph Waltz, and Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, who have gathered at the latter couples New York apartment to discuss what to do about the former couples child attacking the latter couples child with a stick. Things are very stilted and civil at first and degrade from there, and what starts as basically family A vs family B devolves largely into the men vs. the women. Strong performances by all, obvious comparison can be made to 'Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe' but that 1960's film opened things up better, here I think I'd rather have seen a filmed production of the play then such a stage bound movie. **1/2

Somebody Up There Likes Me (2013)

Not to be confused with the Rocky Graziano bio-pic of the mid 50's staring Paul Newman, this 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' is another one of those Bob Byington films I've been indulging in lately. Staring Jess Wexler and such Byington regulars as Keith Poulson and Nick Offerman, the film is told in a series of flash forwards at five year intervals from the 1990's into the near feature. It focuses on Max (Poulson) who at the beginning of the film is a waiter at a steakhouse whose marriage has just ended in divorce. Over the course of the film Max gets married again, has a kid, gets rich, has an affair, gets divorced, loses his money, starts business, becomes a grandfather, gets rich again, reconnects with his estranged son, and somehow never seems to age while the other characters do, which of course is a set up to the final joke of the film. The plot is not so much important as the shear Byingotnness of the proceedings, if you like dry, awkward, surreal, sometimes inappropriate humor and Nick Offerman, I would recommend this, and practically any other Bob Byington directed feature. ***

The Trip (2011)

Adapted from the British TV series of the same name 'The Trip' is the first of a now four film series that features actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing versions of themselves on a working vacation reviewing restaurants, in this case located in the north of England. The film consists of the two talking in restaurants, the two talking in the car, the two talking in hotels, the two doing impressions to each other, Brydon calling his wife on the phone and Coogan sleeping with a local women. I liked the casualness of the film, the lose structure, though there is just enough stakes in Coogan's general dissatisfaction with his life and career and eventually making an important decision about a TV project. While not all the gags worked for me for the most part I found this a pleasant trip. Yeah that gag didn't work for me either. ***

The Stepford Wives (1975)

 The original film adaption of the 1972 Ira Levin novel of the same name 'The Stepford Wives' concerns a high end Connecticut community where the married woman tend to transform, overnight, from their regular flawed and human selves into seeming automatons of domesticity. While the 2004 remake played the material as a comedy this version treats its pretty straight, and you can definitely see its influence on a recent horror classic about personality transformation 'Get Out'. I wasn't wild about the specifics of the final twist but I enjoyed getting there and the general mode of the piece. Good cast includes Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss and Tina Louise. While the film deals with feminist themes Betty Friedan reportedly hated it. ***

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

 Based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Joan Lindsay, 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' is a wonderfully evocative mood piece. an existential horror movie ably directed by Peter Weir ('Witness', 'Dead Poet Society', 'Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World'). It is 1900 and a group of twenty or so students from a women's finishing school in rural Australia are accompanied by two teachers and a carriage driver on a Valentines Day picnic at a nearby geological attraction known as 'Hanging Rock'. Three of those students and the teacher that went looking for them after they wandered off disappear, without a trace. Search parties are organized but they appear to have simply vanished off the face of the Earth. 

The bizarre uncertainty of the whole thing rock the school and nearby community to their core, emotionally destroying almost everybody. The film that it reminded me of most was Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion' which also also has an incessant feeling of dread and foreboding throughout. Both films are not what you would traditionally call a horror film, there are not monsters human or otherwise just an overwhelming psychic sense of something being extremely wrong. I was absolutely blown away, possibly the best film I've seen this year. ****

Indiscreet (1931)

In preparing to do an episode of the podcast I'm on about 'Sunset Blvd' it occurred to me I'd only seen Gloria Swanson in three films, in one of which she could be said to be playing herself, and in another she was actually playing herself (the third was a silent with Rudolph Valentino). 'Indiscreet' was free on Prime, it's a love quadrangle and I thought the most interesting thing about it is that co-star Barbara Kent lived to be 103 years old. This is a bad movie, drama-ish, but a segment of a review on its Wikipedia page claimed it was a comedy, well not a funny one. There is one moment however where Swanson's character gives another character a death glare that is downright meme worthy. * 

Playtime (1967)

French comedy legend Jacques Tati directors and stars in this his penultimate Monsieur Hulot film. 'Playtime' is a lose assemblage of segments that concern both Hulot and a group of English speaking tourists over the better part of 24 hours in Paris. It plays kind of long so while all of these segments are good (some more then others) they might work better as short films then parts of a whole, at least up until the last two where you get your pay off. 

The film practically bankrupt Tati who was a perfectionist and spent loads of cash on the project, the large sets he had built for the film are extravagant, but play nicely off his evident interest in modern architecture and human alienation from it. Shot in 70 millimetre the film now doubt would be best appreciated on as a large a screen as possible, Tati so loves along shot and filling a frame with movement its the closet thing I've seen to 'Where's Waldo: The Movie'. 

If you see it be prepared for something very structurally different, it is only loosely a traditional narrative film. Francois Truffaut said of the movie  "a film that comes from another planet, where they make films differently". ***1/3

Scott Joplin (1977)

Not that long ago it occurred to me as kind of funny that there hadn't been a big screen bio-pic about black composer Scott Joplin. Then I looked more into the details of his life and that suddenly seemed less strange, Joplin dying in middle age at an asylum from syphilis isn't the most inspiring stuff. Then I discovered that there in fact was a Scott Joplin bio-pic, so I watched it. 

'Scott Joplin' was produced by Motown Studios on a noticeably small budget for a period piece and stars Billy Dee Williams as the famed rage time composer (who was undergoing a period of historical rediscovery and appreciation in the 70's, hence the movie). The film starts out fairly promising but really drags in it's second half. Art Carney has a good sympathetic supporting part coming off of 'Harry and Tonto' as John Stark, the Missouri music publisher who championed Joplin and did probably more then anyone save the man himself to make Scott a star. **

Ten Who Dared (1960)

'Ten Who Dared' is a largely forgotten and not very good Disney movie (Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide described it as "rock-bottom" among the studios canon), that tells the true story taken from the journals of Major Wesley Powell of his and nine others 1869 mapping expiation down the Colorado River. Seemingly made to be shown in classrooms this man vs. nature story is generally quit dull and the mix of location and obvious studio shooting for the great outdoors doesn't work well. The film suffers from the lack of a good heavy, and is episodic in nature. Nobody here is all that interesting and the Disney/educational approach smothers what might be a compelling story, so I'm open to a gritter remake. Interesting as a double artifact, both of the period Disney factory film making, and of the celebratory manifest destiny historical world view I associate with both the studio and America in general at the time. *1/2

Knives Out (2019)

'Knives Out' is director Rian Johnson's updated take on the 'Agatha Christie' school of mystery's. A wealthy mystery writer (Christopher Plummer) dies under mysterious circumstances on his 85th birthday at the family Massachusetts estate. Famed detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired by an anonymous party to sit in on what at first he takes to be the routine investigation of a suicide. Blanc quickly deduces that any number of the authors generally unpleasant kin had motives for murder, and when his will is reveled to leave everything to his young nurse (Ana de Armas) things get even more complicated. 

I found the first third or so of this movie to be kind of blah, it doesn't really get going until the first major revel which finally provided me with invest-able stakes. An ensemble piece with a large cast of established name I enjoyed that the movie ultimately centers on Ana de Armas's character, a relative new comer surrounded by old hands she holds her own. The film is clever, has some find dialogue and nice twists, and while it's classic in format I was surprised how contemporary and even political it is. I have my opinion about what Johnson's message was here, but encourage viewers to think on it themselves. ***1/2

RSO [Registered Sex Offender] (2008)

For obvious reasons this would be the least general audience friendly of the Bob Byington directed films I've seen. 'RSO [Registered Sex Offender] is presented as a (mock) documentary chronicling a registered sex offender after his release from jail and his efforts at rehabilitation and reintegration as a productive member of society. Only the documentaries subject (played by Gabriel McIver) stubbornly refuses to seem redeemable, at lest for most of the film (minor spoiler, not that this is a 'plot movie' it is a 'scene movie'). We don't find out exactly what our protagonist has done until very late in the film, and a good portion of that had to do with an address mix up. Full of awkward humor, smartish, it has it's moments. **1/2

Harmony and Me (2010)

My recent viewing of 'Francis Ferguson: The Substitution' (2019) led to a further exploration of the work of director Bob Byington, many of whose films are currently available for free on Amazon Prime. 'Harmony and Me' (2010) looks much smaller budgeted then 'Francis Ferguson' but the sensibility and style is there. This indie made in Bob Byington's native Austin features a number of his recurring acting company, the most famous of which is Nick Offerman who doesn't show up until near the end. 

The basic story is very simple, Harmony (Justin Rice) is some kind of computer programmer in Austin, in his late 20's he has just experienced a breakup with his girlfriend of a year (Kristen Tucker, so breakup devastation more then understandable) and the film chronicles his various efforts and failures to cope with the assistance of friends, family, and an odd neighbor girl. The film kind of wanders loosely but that very much works for it, again very dry humor, some of the dialogue delivery itself devastating. 

Like the character Francis Ferguson, Harmony is allergic to chocolate (I sense a directorially autobiographical motif). At one point in despair Harmony tries to eat his way through a box of Valentine chocolate and ends up in a coma for five days at the hospital. There is a moment where the odd girl is visiting Harmony while he is still comatose, she is telling him a story which sounded familiar, it took a little bit but I eventually realized it was the plot to the 1978 movie Coma. I could have died, it was so funny to me. Having been in a coma myself and having a dry sense of humor it was practically like I wrote the thing. Needs to say I really enjoyed it, but needless to say not for everybody. ***

Frances Ferguson: The Substitution (2019)

I saw this movie come up on the Amazon streaming service, watched the trailer and was intrigued, it looked like the Lifetime movie from Hell. Kaley Wheless is Francis Ferugson a 25 year old substitute teacher in North Platte, Nebraska, she is an unhappy person in an unhappy marriage and has a four year old girl that she's almost neutral towards. Francis embarks on an ill advised affair with a student, gets caught, goes to jail, and the film follows the unwinding of her life. While this could all be the stuff of melodrama director Bob Byington comes at it form an odd angle. This is a bone draw, sardonic comedy.

Nick Offerman (one of a number of Byington regulars in this movie) is the films sometimes distracted narrator, whose narration occasional comes into competition with Francis's own sometimes voice over. At times Offerman's narrator will say things like how they weren't there for Francis's arrest but caught up with her later, or that they aren't set up to show us much of Francis's time in jail. He will also announce the last time in which we see a supporting character on screen, the boy, Francis's soon to be ex-husband, her mom, even her daughter.

The film doesn't feel rushed but still flows at a brisk pace, running only around 70 minutes. I quickly found the director Byington has made a number of these short dry comedies, often on at least slightly off putting subject matter, and typically clocking in at an hour 10 or hour 15 minute running time, which is an old TV movie running time that almost no one makes films in anymore. 

The movie reminded me of the early work of Alexander Payne. Payne grew into one of our most empathetic film makers, and while there was always that strain in his work his early films especially had  a rough bite to them as does 'Francis Ferguson'. Ferguson is set in Nebraska like many of Payne's films (Alexander was from there, Byington is from Texas), is built around an emotionally distant character ('Citizen Ruth') who is a teacher who has an affair ('Election') and is cast adrift after a major life change ('About Schmidt), it is hard for me to not see these homages as intentional. 

While certainly not one of the best films I've seen this year it is one of my personal favorites, and has tipped me off to a director I don't think I've ever heard of before. I haven't been so excited to peruse the work of a new creative film maker in some time. Not for everybody but for me ***