I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022)

 This is of course a bio pic of the singer Whitney Houston, formulaic in the way these films tend to be. Some version of wide eyed innoccenc, tremendous success, romantic and substance abuse issue, some level of redemption, but we know how this one ends. I however wasn't particularly well versed on Houston's life so I did learn some stuff, particularly in regards to her long standing and sometimes romantic relationship with her friend and personal assistant Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams). Also in regards to her career spanning business relationship with producer Clive Davis, played by Stanley Tucci he seemed to be a positive and stabilizing influence in her life. Of course nonaganarian Davis is a producer on the film so of course he's gonna come off well.

The movie works because of the music, which is not given short shift and really allowed to breath. I mean the whole point of the movie is the music, no one in the audiance I saw this with left until after the credits and the music was over, though there were only five of us. Lead Naomi Ackie does a great job as Houston, of course her singing is all dubbed from recordings of the real Whitney, you couldn't make this film any other way. As Whitney sang the National Anthem at an early 90's Super Bowl, and to a lesser extent a few other times in the movie, a tiny techican in my head flipped a switch and out came the water works. For me this was a simple and satisfying, if rather undemanding, film going experince. ***

The Bodyguard (1992)

 I'd never seen 'The Bodyguard'. On finally viewing it I didn't think it was very good. Structured as a thriller, I mean it is a thriller, at least technically. At heart however it is a melodrama. Very corny, often ridiculous, and really all over the place. Kevin Costner's stoicism, well we've come to expect that from him, it's fine, it works well enough. Whitney Houston's character, very hot and cold, trying at times. I thought the twists were whacked, not sure they'd hold up under close scrutiny. Saved, to the extent it can be said to be saved, by the music and good chemistry between the leads. **

Babylon (2022)

 It would be hard to talk about director Damien Chazelle's new film about Hollywood 'Babylon' (2022) without comparing it to his other film about Hollywood 'La La Land' (2016), so I'm going to save myself the trouble and compare them. 'La La Land' is an Oscar winning musical/drama about achieving one's Hollywood dreams through a mixture of persistence and luck, it is a love letter to the movies and the film industry. 'Babylon' is a epic (some would say bloated) spectical of debauchery and striving in old Hollywood. It is a gaudy indictment, it is both critique and celebration, it is Oscar bait Hollywood self love merged with a seedy explotation film. It is, in its way, rather great. Perhaps greater  then it's better recived predescor 'La La Land'.

The two movies are yin and yang, the other side of their respective coins, 'Babylon' is 'La La Lands' evil twin. That two such different takes on roughly the same subject matter could come from the mind of the same writer/director, and in such a short space of time, is indeed impressive. It is an understandably polarizing film. It is full of cliches and types. We have been here before. It is a condensation of 'A Star is Born', 'Singing in the Rain', 'Sunset Boulevard' and 'Boogie Nights'. It is excess, it is a disaster, it is a triumph. It is a journey through Hell. It is decadence, tragedy, and a little hope.

The viewing experience reminded me of the first time I saw Sam Peckinpah's notoriously violent 1969 western 'The Wild Bunch', I hated, loathed the first half hour, it was just too much, but by the end I was loving the flick. The wild Hollywood party which makes up this movies extended prolog, the films title dosen't appear on screen until after its over around 35 minutes in, I found to be uncomfortable, as is a good deal of what comes later.

The film covers a collection of characters, their ups and downs through the years that transitioned Hollywood from all silent to all talkie films (Chaplin excepted). There are well established types, the ageing leading man (Brad Pitt), the ambitious young ingenue (Margot Robbie), and less established ones, the Asian 'Jill of all trades' constantly reinventing herself (Li June Li), the black jazz musician in an awkward relationship with the industry (Jovan Adepo) , the film splits the difference on its earnest young go getter (Diago Calva) by making him Latino.

Robbie and Calva's characters meet at the party which opens the film, her crashing it and he working it. Their Hollywood dreams bond them, they promise to keep in touch. She is discovered at the party and is off to the fictional Kinoscope Studios, he endears himself to Pitt's character whose patronage lands him at the very real MGM.

As a movie nerd with a good knowldge of the era depicted I enjoyed the "inside baseball" aspects of the picture, like knowing who Irving Thalberg was, recognizing a depection of the inciting incident of the Fatty Arbuckle scandle, and a costuming choice for Ms. Robbie that is reminiscent of a fairly famous photograph of the actress Bessie Love. But there is much to the film that is more accessible for general audiences. 

The movie covers themes of love and loss, dreams turning into nightmares, and how after grasping the big brass ring it can be hard to hold onto. There are stories within it that ask the question of how much someone would and should be willing to change or deny about themselves, and is that worth it to achieve the goal. There is sex, there is violence and there is substance abuse.

Pitt and Robbie give solid performances, but both very much within their established ranges. Calva does a good job as a sympathetic audiance surragate, with little in the way of movie experince he holds his own with the established players. Li June Li has a strong film presence and may be a genuine find. The supporting cast ranges from a now middle aged Lucas Haas to Flea of The Red Hot Chille Peppers. In keeping with the precident of 'The Fabelmans' we have another cameo part where an eccentric director plays an eccentric director, with Spike Jonez as a von Stroheim type.

The movie alternates between its various story line quite adeptly, everyone seems to be given their due and despite a more then three hour running time I was never bored. The film functions in many ways like a series of losley connected short films or vignettes. Stands out include a long day on various silent film sets, the difficulty of getting the sound right on a single scene in an early talkie, Margo Robbie's snake fight, and a sort of Dante's Inferno segment where Calva and a character known as 'The Count' take a tense journey with a disturbed Toby McGuire. There is also a monologue delivered by Jean Smart as a Hollywood gossip columnist that is both very good and manages to sum up the overriding message of the film, to the extent that it has one.

The film also includes a coda or epilogue set some years after the main events. Even the movies fans seem to be split on this, I was fine with most of this sequence, but there is a sort of tone shift at the very end which is kind of jarring and wants to have it both ways, I would have appricated something more understated.

'Babylon' is a flawed film, but an ambitious one. In less capable hands I could have hated this movie, but it really worked for me, Chazzell expertly played a tune I was receptive to, at times it seemed almost built for me. I get why those who didn't like it didn't like it, there are plenty of legitimate reasons, but for me this was **** a highlight of the film year.

Marathon Man (1976)

 Dustin Hoffman is a grad student and running enthusiast (hence "Marathon Man"), the younger son of a blacklisted historian who suicided 20 years previous. He is close to his brother Roy Scheider, but thought him to be in the oil buisness until a fateful visit to New York.

 Roy was on the trail of escaped Nazi war criminal Laurence Olivier (who himself would play a Nazi hunter only 2 years later in 'The Boys from Brazil'). Now Roy's partner William Devane proposes to use Dustin as bate to flush the old Nazi out. Swiss actress Marthe Keller is Dustin's love interest, and she's hidding something.

An at times rather good and at times rather slow thriller. Directed by Joseph Schlesinger ('Midnight Cowboy', 'The Falcon and the Snowman') and based on a novel by 'The Princess Bride' author William Goldman; in fact it's the book he wrote immediately after 'The Princess Bride', and perhaps the book fills in this films plot holes. ***

New Years Evil (1980)

 From Cannon films it's 'New Years Evil'. Our killer commits murder as each time zone hits midnight and calls in to a New Wave New Years broadcast to gloat. Filming began in Los Angeles on October 15th 1980 and the movie hit theaters on December 19th, so this was a real quicky. That they managed to make the killer, played by the late Kip Niven, genuinely charasmatic is a real accomplishment. Also each murder becomes harder to commit then the last, metaphor for how it can be hard to keep one's New Years resolutions? All the non killer stuff pretty much sucks, but on balance film is a little better than its reputation. **

The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)

 Jack Nicholson is a Jean Shepard type radio story teller out of Philadelphia, he is contacted by his semi-estranged brother Bruce Dern to come to Atlantic City and help him with what turns out to be a long shot real estate scheme. The brothers attempt to evaid black gangsters and sell Japanese investors on a Hawiian resort, amidst the playground of 50 years previous, decaying in the salt water air (pre urban renewal Atlantic City sure is fun to look at). They do so in the company of a step mother (Ellen Burstyn) step daughter (Julie Ann Robinson, Twin Falls, Idaho born actress who would die in a Eugene, Oregon hotel fire in 1975) pair.

Written by Jacob Brackman, who wrote songs with Carley Simon, and directed by co-creator of 'The Monkees' Bob Rafelson. This is in the tradition of Rafelson's previous Nicholson collaboration 'Five Easy Pieces', a rambeling character piece, quriky, dry and poignant. That ending is something, a marvel of subtle set up. ***

Hellzapoppin' (1941)

 Losley adapted from the hit Broadway review of the same name, 'Hellzapoppin'' is essentially a meta comedy about the process of adaptation, similar in a way to the Charlie Kaufman movie 'Adaptation' only a hell of a lot more surreal. This is the closet thing I've seen to a live action Tex Avery cartoon, and I include 'The Mask' in that assessment. A showcase of visual gags, absurdist humor, camera tricks and 4th wall breaking. The Marx Brothers on crack, how is this movie so obscure? With Chick Johnson, Ole Olsen, Martha Ray, Jane Frazee, Hugh Herbert, Shemp Howard and Elisha Cook Jr. ***1/2 

Dames (1934)

I don't recall even hearing about 'Dames' until I learned that director Edger Wright ('Shaun of the Dead', 'Baby Driver') had included it on a list of his favorite films, #22 sandwiched between 'Fury Road' and 'Halloween'. If he had just wanted to include  a Busby Birkley musical in his list there are more famous examples so why this one? I had to investigate.

Eccentric Bufflo millionaire Hugh Herbert must determine if his cousin Guy Kibbee's family is morally worthy to inherent $10 million. Herbert comes to visit, Kibbee and kin want to put on their best face, but Guy ends up being blackmailed by Joan Blondel, while his daughter Ruby Keeler ends up in a racey Broadway show being put on by  distant cousin Dick Powell with whom she is in love.

Birkley's quarkiest musical its a solid three stars for the first two acts, but the last act is four stars, boasting the strangest, trippyist musical numbers to come out of the pre code era, which is really saying something. I get why this is on Wright's list. I give it ***1/2

Happy Christmas (2014)

 Having recently broken up with her boyfriend Anna Kendrick travels to Chicago to spend Christmas with her brother (Mark Webber) his wife (Melanie Lynsky) and their two year old son. While there she is a low level mess. Directed by Joe Swanberg, who Kendrick would work with again the following year in 'Digging for Fire', 'Happy Christmas' is an example of "mumbelcore" (which spell check wants to change to Dumbeldore) a lose genra defined by low budget, improvisational structure and a focus on relationships.

 Mark & Melanie have a strong and functional marriage, Anna's presence adds some stress to it but they adapt. At first Melanie is a little leary of Anna, especially after Mark has to pick her up drunk at a party her first night in town, but the two form a bond while outlining a romance novel together. Anna and Mark have a scene where they get stoned together, and Marks friend played by director Swanberg tries to form a relationship with Anna, but finds it difficult to do anything quite right. Leah Dunham is also in this as Anna's friend. Like Anna's visit the movie starts a little rocky but really grew on me. ***

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

 Belted conclusion to the Bush I era franchise about two stupid California rockers destined to unite the world through song. Pretty consistent with the other two films in terms of themes and humor, and while it has  moments, a pleasant cast and a chill vive, the whole 'Bill & Ted are morons' shtick is tired and a little sad coming out of leads in their fifties. **

The Whale (2022)

 After neglecting him for more then a decade, sometime in the last couple of years the collective zietgiest rememberd that it loves Brendan Fraser and has promoted him to a sort of secular sainthood ala Keanu Reeves. Interestingly this collective love hasn't really corolated with much new work for the actor. He played the villain in the 'Batgirl' movie, but new management at Warner's has decided to chuck that film, now slated to be released never. 

The awards buzz, and I'll say now it's deserved, has been centered around 'The Whale', a new film that combines Fraser's public likability with director Darren Aronofsky's tendency to polarize. But Aronofsky's always at least interesting, even when his films don't really work, which is about half the time. I am pleased to report that I really thought 'The Whale' worked, and might even be the directors best film.

'The Whale' is based on a play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter, the film takes place over the course of about a week in March of 2016, and like much of Hunter's work it is set in Idaho, seemingly around the Moscow area. I did not know going in that this was based on a play, but with the small cast and being set entirely in a single apartment, as well as the quality and heft of the writting, this quickly became apperent.

Lite spoilers 

Fraser plays Charlie, a 600 lb, reclusive English professor, who teaches courses online from his apartment with the web camera off. In the first scene of the film Charlie suffers what may be a heart attack while pleasuring himself watching gay porn on his computer. His life is saved by the well timed knock of an evangelical missionary (Ty Simpkins), who contacts Charlie's only friend Liz (Hong Chau) a registered nurse. Liz emplors Charlie to go to the hospital, he refuses even after being warned that he may only have days to live. This news however does prompt Charlie to try and reconnect with his estranged daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink of 'Stranger Things' fame). Now a high school senior Charlie has not seen Ellie since she was eight, when he left her and her mother to peruse a homosexual relationship with a former student who subsequently died. 

Starting from an intentionally off putting low point the film slowly unravels the history and interrelationships between its five characters, six if you count the pizza delivery guy. Glancing at summaries of some of Hunter's other plays his main themes seem to be interpersonal alienation and the short comings of religious faith, themes very much on display here. There are also thematic similarities to Aronofsky's 2008 film 'The Wrestler', so much so that the movies are really companion pieces. What sets Fraser's Charlie apart from Micky Rourke's Randy "The Ram" Robinson is the formers capacity for hope.

This is a powerful film, an empathetic and even charitable one. It's about the struggle to find grace amidst our worst failures. It is both atheistic and Christian. Strong performancs all around. While I have some mixed feelings about Fraser's fat suite the characters obscene weight is actually central to the story, not just a gimmick. Fraser really does some career best work here and is the obvious favorite for a best actor Oscar next year.

Clearly this is a movie that lacks a big tent appeal, but if your open to it there is a lot here, many layers to be appricated, much to be unpacked and interpreted. An exceedingly different kind of movie that is a window onto people, places and themes that aren't explored much on screen. One of this year's greatest cinematic achivments. ****

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

 Adapted from the 2003 Louise Bayard novel of the same name, 'The Pale Blue Eye' is a mystery/thriller set in 1830 and built around the investigation into the death of a West Point cadet, a death that may have occult connections. Handsomely mounted and featuring a largish and Brit heavy cast, there is simply not enough heft to the thing. Surpringly little happens, I never felt invested, never felt any meaningful stakes, my mind wanderd. There are a few good character moments and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in the 'Harry Potter' films) is something of a revelation in a scene chewy performance as young Edger Allen Poe. I hated the final act. **

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

 James Cameron's career as a filmmaker is defined largely by exceeding expectations. 'The Terminator" could have been just another throw away b movie, instead it was a huge hit and started a franchise. "Titanic" was noted for cost overruns, became the most money making movie of all time. The original "Avatar" stretched visual effects in a way many expected to fail, but it wowed audiences visually and also became the most money making movie of all time.

 "Avatar: The Way of Water" was thought to have waited too long for release and be an unintersting retread people wouldn't want to see. Well it's already paid for for its self a week out, and for me at least it really worked. It is better then the first movie, I loved it. 

I thought the movie worked for two principle reasons:

1) World building spectical. The visual umph is still there. I saw it 3D on IMAX, I highly recommend paying the extra money. The movie like it's predecessor is in no hurry, it takes its time, it shows you vistias, it shows you creatures, alien cultures, it's truly immersive and captivating.

2) It became something different. The plot of the original "Avatar" was borrowed from other movies and the characters not very memorable. "The Way of Water" moves into the realm of the multi generational family saga. The kids make the movie, relationships make the movie. I grew to love this family, I cared about what happened to them, one of the reasons this film had to be so long is to cement that connection, to earn it's ending.

I wasn't expecting much from this beyound the visuals, I was very much surprised how involved I got. I want to see it again, and I hope that Cameron gets his two additional sequels, I want to see this saga through. ****

Sorority Girl (1957)

 Roger Corman quicky is basically Susan Cabot being a bitch to her sorority sisters for an hour. Cheaply made, poorly acted, devoid of substance and point, as well as pretty darn boring this movie is bad. Corman and Cabot got along famously however and would make several more pictures together, including the far superior 'The Wasp Woman' (1959). *

I Heard the Bells (2022)

 'I Heard the Bells' tells the story of how a series of personal tragedies prompted the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to pen the Christmas carol whose full title ends with "on Christmas Day". The first film from  Sight and Sound, a company which specializes in overtly Christian stage productions, this movie does feels more like theater then film. The production design and costuming is decent enough, the cinematography unexecetional and the no name cast gives earnest but largely pedestrian performances.

The film's biggest problems are in the writting and directing, which lays practically everything on too thick. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows the movie decrees to us that we are to be swept up in, nay overwhelmed by, Henry Longfellow's every emotion. The heavy hand took me aback, pushed me away rather then pulled me in. Though this is not everyone's experince, the only other person in the theater with me was audibly sniffling through the last 30 minutes, which is admittedly the best part of the film. So if you think Frank Capra's not corny enough and like a movie to tell you exactly what to feel and when, 'I Heard the Bells' may ring true. Otherwise it's a kind of cinematic tinnitus. *1/2

White Noise (2022)

 Don DeLillo's 1985 novel 'White Noise' is one of those books that was said to be unfilmable. Multiple previous attempts, including one that was to be helmed by Barry Sonnenfield, all fell through. Finally Noah Baumbach was able to rangel the thing into some coherence, adapting and directing the movie version. The film shows evidence of some adaptive difficulty, with a busy first half and a more reflective second. 

While the central narrative is not particularly complicated, the film touches on so many different themes that it can seem kind of crowded. Academic pretension, consumerism, fear of death, environmental disaster, changing family dynamics, depression, prescription drug abuse, existential dread, and plain old denial. It's a stew of American psychosis in the 1980's.

It's the start of the academic year in 1984 and Jack Gladney (the always great Adam Driver) is a celebrated professor of "Hitler Studies" at the College-on-the-Hill in suburban Ohio. He is on his fourth marriage, this one to Babbette (Greta Gerwig) a homemaker and part time aerobics instructer also on her forth marriage. Their blended family includes a boy and a girl from two of Jack's marriages, a girl from one of Babbette's, and a boy they had together. Their lives seem mostly good until the "Airborn Toxic Event".

"Airborn Toxic Event" is the name given to the result of a collision between a tanker truck carrying toxic chemicals and a train doing the same. The Gladney's do their best to ignore the ominous black cloud until an evacuation is finally ordered. What follows plays kind of like an unusually dark 'National Lampoons Vaction' movie. After 9 days things are said to be under control and residents allowed to return to their homes, but something has changed for the Gladney's, their sense of security and control over their lives has been shattered, strains in the marraige manifest. Thus begins the films more contemplative second half.

Driver anchors the film with a typically solid performance, Grewig comes off a little over strong at first but settles into the part. The kids are all good, though one never speaks, and for me the standouts among the supporting players are Don Cheadle and Jodie Turner-Smith as two of Driver's work colleagues. The aesthetics of the film are a few shades down from Wes Anderson.

A writerly film it loves its words. Generally stylized, there are some standout dialouge scenes and a sequence that can best be described as "dueling monologues". While watching the film it registered as a mixture of good and bad, though always interesting. On reflection how can a film so much about the idea of pretension not ocassionly wander into pretension its self? On further reflection this film is still at times genuinely pretensious. But the ending worked for me, things came together and I was generally satisfied. I also rather enjoyed the a-typical end credits.

'White Noise' takes risks and is the better for it. Not for all tastes, it's a film of some literary heft and a walleyed perspective on foibeles, from the personal to the societial. ***1/2

Black Christmas (2019)

 The second remake of 1974's 'Black Christmas' isn't a classic like the original, but it's a hell of a lot better then the 2006 version. Remake number one was unimaginative garbage, while remake number two actually has some ideas. While the sexual politics of the 1974 and 2006 films are almost shockingly similar, the 2019 version is decidedly post MeToo. While versions 1 & 2 are extremely white, one non caucassion speaking part among them, version 3 is brown. This movie is woke, and the better for it.

While the 2006 remake was interested in the sorority house and it's history, the 2019 version is interested in the college and it's legacy. Hawthorne College has been around for 200 years, it's founder Calvin Hawthorne apparently among the last slave holders in the North. Changing times bread diverse reactions, while women characters challange the old order, the "Founders Frat"  (target of sexual assult allegations in the recent past) is feeling rather disrespected. This movie goes overtly supernatural, something neither of its predecessors did. 

It reminded me a bit of 'Don't Worry Darling', both films have something of a Jordan Peterson figure as a bad guy. I was expecting some kind of a trick ending in that movie, not so much here so it could surprise me more with less effort. Good central performance by lead Imogene Potts, likable enough supporting characters, one of whom is named Nate and he dies (most characters in this die) at least trying to be heroic. The film could get rather heavy handed in its messaging and I prefered its more ambiguous first half. I was impressed with the improvement between the sequels, this adaption is not a lazy rehash, it's loser, using the basic premise as a vehical for exploring some contemporary social controversies, and of course serving up some kill sequences. **1/2

The Fall of '55 (2006)

 Low budget documentary on a "gay panic" that hit Boise, Idaho in the fall of 1955. Police investigations, newspaper editorals, and public outrage at allegations of a vast network of homosexuals praying on children and young adults in the area. Not baseless, but at times exaggerated, perhaps even used as a means of settling scores. People were scared so things happened. 16 were arrested, 15 convicted or pleaded guilty. A cross section, many prominent, a lawyer, bank vice president, teacher, theater director, restaurateur, janitor, salesman ect. National news story, later the subject of a prominate 1965 book 'The Boys of Boise'. 

I grew up in Boise, people don't like to talk about this there. I don't think I was even aware of it until I was in my 20's. Documentary contains interviews, a scholar, a couple mental health professionals, children of people involved, various locals who lived in the area at the time. Lots of footage and pictures of 1950's Boise, I enjoyed seeing that, and the story is pretty interesting, lives were destroyed. The idea is seemingly implied that the erection of a metal cross (still there) on Table Rock in the spring of 56 may have been in part a reaction to the sense of scandal and disgrace in the community. The film is narrated by former local newscaster Claudia Weatherman. **1/2

Violent Night (2022)

'Violent Night' is (as seemingly every review will tell you) composed of used parts from other Christmas movies, principly 'Bad Santa' (1 & 2), 'Die Hard' (1 & 2) and 'Home Alone' (1 & 2). It is the story of a disillusioned real life Santa Claus (David Harbour) reluctantly come to the rescue of a dysfunctional wealthy family, when they are held hostage by John Leguizamo and his band of crooks on Christmas Eve. So the question is can this Frankenstein monster of a Christmas movie come to life, can it walk on its own? Would you settle for drunkenly stumble?

Less then the total of its parts 'Violent Night' is successfully there. It is a real, mostly coherent movie. It's uneven and as you might expect it's tone is all over the place. The movie contains a few interesting ideas (principly Santa's backstory), and is anchored by a sweet relationship between Santa and a little girl (Leah Brady) who still believes in him even when he doubts himself. This movie really delivers on the violence however so be aware of that going in. You will see characters killed in ways you've never seen characters killed before.

This cliched assembliage, boasts a couple pretty good action sequences, and one or two clever or somewhat heartwarming moments, but everything in it has been done better before, multiple times. It was nice to see Beverly D'Angelo again though. **

Black Christmas (2006)

 I am a fan of the original 1974 'Black Christmas', an early slasher film from future 'A Christmas Story' director Bob Clark. That movie stared Olivia Hussey and John Saxon, was filmed in Canada, and introduced "the killer is calling from within the house" trope. 2006's 'Black Christmas' is a lose remake, keeping the basic premise of murders in a sorority house, apropreating some of the moetephes (sp), and dropping in some Easter eggs from the original (such as the crystal unicorn used to kill Margot Kidder).

What we get here is a more gorey, less interesting film. A bad film, a cliche film, one with paper thin characters and nothing to say. We get backstories for Billy and the previously unseen Agness, they used to live a tourted existence in the home that became the sorority house. This is from that school of remake or sequel that wants to explain everything not made explicate in the first film, and in so doing misses the point. The scariest thing about the original Billy was not knowing why he was doing what he was doing, Bob Clark understood this, which is why he deliberately never explained Billy. John Carpenter got this right in the first 'Halloween' as well, he even used Bob Clark as a sounding board early in the creative process.

The Bush era remake is chiefly notable for period cell phones, and murdering a string of beautiful young actresses of the time, including Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Michelle Trachtenberg. Also one decent Dick Cheney joke. *

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

 Yep I'd never seen 'While You Were Sleeping'. Sandra Bullock saves Peter Gallagher from being hit by a train, while he's in a coma she is mistaken for his fiance and falls in love with his brother Bill Pullman. Ms. Bullock is at peak adorable and has an easy chemistry with the whole cast, which includes Jack Warden and Glynis Johns. A likable 90's rom com. ***

Passport to Shame (1958)

 The plot of 'Passport to Shame' could accurately be described as taxi drivers vs human traffickers, though that also makes it sound cooler then it is. English cabbie Eddie Constantine marries French waitress Odile Versois so she can get a work permite, neither realizes at the time it is part of Herbert Lom's overly complicated plan to turn the woman into a high class prostitute. Things are further complicated by this discovery and the two actually falling for each other. Lom then has Versois kidnapped and Constantine must enlist the help of his fellow cabbies, as well as that of a lady of the night played by the U.K's answer to Marylin Monroe, Diana Doors. An odd film, but kind of endearing for being so odd. **

The Northman (2022)

 Prior to 'The Northman' director Robert Eggers feature film career had consisted of two black and white, indie, existential horror movies, 'The Witch' which I really liked, and 'The Lighthouse' which I didn't care for.  The Northman' is a much bigger film, with a budget over 70 million, filmed on location with an international cast, it's a large scale Viking action drama, different then anything he's done before but still very Eggers.

The colors are largely muted though there are some vibrant greens. Anya Taylor-Joy, who Eggers more or less discovered in 'The Witch' is back, as is Willim Defoe from 'The Lighthouse'. Like the previous movies this is a period piece with a heavy sense of versimilitude, while still incorporating fantastic or supernatural elements.

Spoilers

The plot is a variation on Hamlet with Alexander Skarsgard as prince thought dead, who tracks down his family and the uncle who killed his father. The clan has relocated to Iceland after their small kingdom was conquered by a larger one. Skarsgard infiltrates as a slave, has a romance with Taylor-Joy, then proceeds to sow chaos and create the impression of devine retribution before a final battle with uncle, which is like a medevil version of the ending to 'Revenge of the Sith'.

It's as close to a Viking story as a 10th century Viking might tell it, as we are likley to ever see in a major motion picture. Took me a bit to get into it, though I have Scandanivain roots I profoundly dislike the society in which this is set, and not just because the slavery, but the mysoginy, the violence, the rigid class structures. Skatsgards character is little better then those he fights, their concepts of glory strike  as profanity. Again though that's kind of the point, it's a Viking story from a Viking point of view, make of it what you will. Impressive and unique, though not really my thing. ***