Tusk (2014)

 I find it rather difficult to even know where to begin in writing a review of 'Tusk', or even what I make of it exactly. It is a puzzle of a movie. It is one of the weirdest tonal experiences I've ever encountered with a film. It's an in-joke of a movie, it's tongue in check but also deadly serious... but not. It's disturbing, and dry, and rye, and gross, and dumb and clever, and I'm flummoxed by it. An amalgamation of things born of a joke on a podcast. Writer director Kevin Smith evokes trashy monster movie's and also Bergman. This is a movie about a guy (Michael Parks) who turns another guy (Justin Long) into a rough surgical approximation of a walrus. Haley Joel Osment is also in this, as is an uncredited Johnny Depp. It's just so weird and awful but it stays with you, it's a like a bad dream. There are long dialogue sequences that are impressive if odd, and some stylized flashback sequences and everything is done on a tight budget but looks probably better then it should. This whole movie is probably better then it should be and I don't know how to process my disbelief and revulsion with a sense of appreciation for it's boldness and creatively, and for Smith pulling of his very ideocentric vision. I don't particularly want to revisit it but I think I'm gonna have to. For the time being at least I'm going to give it **1/2 which is my go to rating for an interesting failure or successful trash, I'm not fully sure which of those this movie is yet, but probably both. 

The Addams Family (2019)

 This animated film version of the 'The Addams Family' (inspired at least visually more from the original magazine cartoons then the 1960's TV series) may seem at first glance a superfluous even random product, but it's enjoyably low key and surprisingly unfrenetic and has a great hook, The Addams's vs the high strung host of a home rehab show voiced by Allison Janney.  Fun visual style, amiable tone, good voice cast including Charlize Theron, Oscar Issac, and Chloe Grace Moretz. **1/2

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

 'Phantom of the Paradise' is Brian De Palma's visually striking Pastiche of 'The Phantom of the Opera', 'Faust', 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', 'A Star is Born', classic horror films, movie musicals, Phil Spector, Karen Carpenter, celebrity culture, the record industry and on and on, and it's kind of great. This cult film has a bit of a reputation, I thought it would be interestingly bad but I rather enjoyed it, including the music which I know doesn't work for everyone but I'm a big Paul Williams fan, who both wrote some songs and is in this, top billed even. William Finley and an adorable Jessica Harper round out the main cast. This is a movie I could probably go on about for some time, but if your at all eclectic in your film taste you really should just see it. ***

Hal (2018)

 'Hal' is a documentary on the under apricated late film maker Hal Ashby (1922-1988) who won an Oscar for editing in the 1960's, made a string of influential films in the 70's, and faded to near obscurity in the 80's before succumbing to pancreatic cancer. A non Mormon from Ogden, Utah he had a difficult personal life, his parents divorced when he was a small child, and then his father killed himself when he was 12. He fled his first wife and only child when he was still a teenager and moved to California for a career and to marry four more times. 

He could be a faithful friend and while actors and crews loved to work with him studios didn't, he was very idiocentric. His period of greatest artistic and commercial success was the 1970's, he made seven films, all of them classic's from 'The Landlord' to 'Being There'. I'm not huge on 'Harold and Maude' like most of his fans but I should really revisit it. I love 'Being There', but have yet see 'Shampoo' or 'Coming Home', so I'll have to correct that, I should have some strong movie nights coming in the nearish future. ***

7 Chinese Brothers (2015)

The title of '7 Chinese Brothers' is about what to make of one mans life, and an excuse to play the R.E.M. song of the same name over the closing credit of this Bob Byington film. Pleasant, unassuming, small scale and amusing it is the story of man with no direction (Jason Schwartzman) who takes a job at a Quick Lube because he is infatuated with its manager (Eleanore Pienta, charming) and attempts to win her over. Olympia Dukakis plays our leads endearingly crusty grandmother and Tunde Adebimpe his best friend, if you don't count his French bull dog to whom he constantly talks. Not much really happens, which is something I love about Bob Byington films, it's obviously modest budget is just perfect. I'm a sucker for these. **1/2

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2019)

'What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael' a documentary on the influential and sometimes controversial late film critic (1919 - 2001) is pretty conventional in it's presentation, but comes alive when her words are read aloud. A fine primer it did make me want to read more of what she wrote, and what better purpose a documentary on a writer. **1/2

Bucktown (1975)

Despite her prominent presence on the poster I saw this is not really a Pam Grier movie, but rather a blaxsplotation movie where Pam Grier plays the love interest. The star of 'Bucktown' is Fred Williamson, playing a former professional boxer who travels to the small southern community of Bucktown to attend his brothers funeral and inherit the club he owned. Williamson tries to spruce up the joint with the intention of selling it but persecution by the local and corrupt white constabulary causes him to double down and invite criminal friends from Chicago to help him clean up the community. Things go kind of too well and before long the crooks have taken over local law enforcement and its a case of new boss same as the old boss, with Williamson and his former best bud Thalmus Rasulala set on a collision course. Despite some elements of promise at the start and not going the way I had expected it would this movie is bad. By 74 or 75 the 'extremeness' of these kind of pictures which had been so novel in 72 and 73 had really begun to wear off. *1/2

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

'The Secret Life of Pets' is an extremely standard CG animal adventure children's film with an all star cast. The more manic second half is preferable over the blandly conventional first. A curio for featuring Louise C.K. Still **1/2 

Operator (2016)

Indie type comedy/drama 'Operator' stars (the under used) Martin Starr as a possibility Aspergers Chicago area computer programmer who enlists his hotel clerk/ aspiring performer wife Mae Whitman to voice a new interactive customer service telephone interface for a major healthcare provider. In the course of the film Starr's character starts to prefer his programmed to please creation over his real life wife causing a potentially permanent break in their marriage. While the 'millennial' sensibilities of the film might at first make it seem as though it could end too soft on coddling and selfishness it does not, and it is nice to see Starr given perhaps the most taxing role of his career. Nat Faxon and Cameron Esposito round out the cast and there is even a subplot about Starr's mother (played by Christine Lahti, nice to see her) not taking proper care of her Addison's Disease. ***

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

 I had never seen a Mae West movie before so I decided to fill that gap in my cinematic knowledge with one of her best known films. 'She Done Him Wrong' is West's second feature film, based on the play of the same title by West the story centers on a night club singer in the 1890's (West of course) as she juggles at least 4 men and makes various sexual innuendos, this is very much a film of the pre code spirit. Kind of hard to categorize, it's a comedy but has some serious elements, including multiple murders, one accidental, and a sub plot about a sixteen year old girl lured into the world of prostitution. At 66 minutes this is the shortest movie ever nominated for a best picture Oscar, though the version I saw clocked in at an hour and two minutes so I'm curious about what's in the missing four, I assume they were removed for theatrical re-release during the period of production code enforcement. Also featuring a young Cary Grant, this is the film from which the oft misquoted line "Come on up some time and see me" originates. ***

Space Cop (2016)

 From the folks at Red Letter Media comes an actual movie, one of at least two from them. 'Space Cop' is a send up of genera types and conventions, it tells the story of cop mistakenly sent back from the future (Rich Evans) teamed with a detective who had been cryogenic-ally frozen in the past (Mike Stoklasa) solving a mystery concerning aliens and a mad scientist in 2016 Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An homage to bad movies it's not what you could really call 'good' but I did for the most part chessely enjoy it. The highlight for me was probably the cameo scene with Patton Oswalt. **

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's The Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)

 I was a pretty big fan of the work of H. G. Wells in my high school and middle school years so I made sure to read the original novel before seeing the 1996 film version. I was excited at the prospect of the film but was disappointed in the final product, an opinion I shared with the projects original director South African film maker Richard Stanley. 'Lost Soul' is a documentary on the making of the 1996 film version of Wells's 1890's novel 'The Island of Dr. Moreau', a notably dysfunctional production which saw the projects originator Richard Stanley kicked off the set and replaced by a reluctant John Frankenheimer, though Stanley would find a unique way to get back on the film, kind of. 

This was an everything that can go wrong did go wrong situation, changes in staffing both in front and behind the camera, two raging egomaniac stars in Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, heavy rain, drug addled extra's, production over runs, constant script changes, its amazing that the final product turned out as good as it did, and it turned out bad. I had also really been looking forward to this film, and while things weren't quite as insane as I'd hoped/ been lead to expect, they were still pretty bonkers and this is one of those cases were the story of a films troubled production is more engaging then its finished product. **1/2

The Human Tornado (1976)

 'The Human Tornado' is Rudy Ray Moore's follow up to Dolemite, it came out the following year and concerns the same main character, only now he owns a mansion in like Alabama for some reason, though most the movie takes place in California like the first one. The acting skills have improved a little and the budget has increased slightly from the first film, consequently this movie doesn't have quite the same 'seat of its pants' charm as the original does, so if you see one make it Dolemite. **

Tenet (2020)

 Man it's been awhile, back to the theater for the first 2020 release I've seen on the big screen this year. 'Tenet' the new Christopher Nolan film was to have been one of this summer's big releases, it's $20 million opening weekend would have been considered profoundly disappointing in a normal year, but in Covid times it's pretty good. The kind of smart action spectacle we've come to expect from it's director the movie concerns a government agent (John David Washington, very good) putting together a team (including Robert Pattinson, I didn't hate him) to confront a threat involving time flow manipulation and an exiled Russian oligarch (Kenneth Branagh, scary). Elizabeth Debicki (whose 6 ft 4) is the female lead. 

A bit of a different beast, in terms of comparison I'd describe it as a cross between a James Bond film, 'Inception', 'Looper' and 'Primer'. There is some hard sci-fi here repackaged as an espionage film, while I understood the bulk of what was happening on the screen I'm pretty fuzzy on some of the exact details of how things fit together. There is an awful lot of theoretical physics here and in a lesser hands I wouldn't trust that things actually added up, but with Nolan I trust him on this front, no contemporary director is as interested in time and structure as he is. 

A finely put together film, though for a movie of this scale I'd say the action sequences were arguably understated. To me most everything worked though the film is lite on its character development, but in its defense this was never intended to be a character focused film. I'm really interested in reading up on the logic of the thing and then seeing it again, and with conditions in the movie world being what they are I expect this picture is up for a very long stay in first run theaters. ***1/2

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Put succinctly I did not enjoy Guy Ritchie's 2009 'Sherlock Holmes' film. It was too big, too loud, the leads were prettified, the stakes were over inflated and I could hardly care about the characters, also the logistics of how they end up on the Tower Bridge at the end makes no sense. It's Sherlock Holmes ran through an inane blockbuster filter thus removing most of its nutritional value. *1/2