High School Hitch Hickers (1973)

 We are finally nearing the end of the Grindhouse set. Listed on the box as 'High School Hitch Hickers' but on the screen as 'Schoolgirl Hitchhiker's' our leads are in their 20's and never hitchhike. This is a French production. Dark haired girl and blonde are bisexuals on a hiking trip who chance upon an abandoned villa (great location). They decide to spend the night but later find the place is used as a hide out by a group of criminals, French Ben Gazzara, French Maude Adams and French Tom Savani. There's a lot nudity from the leads. Airy film with a lose vibe and not much to it. However there is something about the obvious dubing and odd acting and musical decisions that kind of worked for me. **

Demon Witch Child (1975)

 Again from the Grindhouse set, the double feature companion piece to 'The Children' is 'Demon Witch Çhild', an Italin knock off of 'The Exorcist'. Staring Marian Salgado (who had dubbed Linda Blair in the Italian release of 'The Exorcist') as a pubescent girl possessd by the ghost of a satanic witch. All in all this is not that bad, it's hoaky, the variations on the 'Exorcist' often amusing, once or twice kind of disturbing stuff happens. The second half of the film is better then the first. This is also Italy substituting for The United States, which is always entertaining. **

The Bad Sister (1931)

 'The Bad Sister' is the screen debut of the ill fated Sidney Fox, dead at 34 from a probable suicide. The Broadway star Fox is second billed behind Conard Nagel and before Bette Davis (also her film debut) and Humphrey Bogart. The diminutive Miss Fox (4'11) is the spoiled (middle?) daughter of a prominent small town Ohio family, whose hottie ways are humbled when she falls for a con man (Bogart). This film is perfectly fine melodrama based on Booth Tarkington's 1913 novel 'The Flirt', which had been filmed twice before as a silent. Fox dominates the film, though the supporting cast is good, especially Davis who I prefer in nice girl parts like this. The ending here is definitely one of its time. ***

I Used to Go Here (2020)

 Living in a small Chicago apartment, her engagement recently broken and her debut novel under performing, Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs) accepts an invitation to return to her alma mater Southern Illinois University for a book reading and some student mentoring. A sort of coming of middle age story, the woes of the professional writer is overdone territory, but this low key story sets its sights on the appropriate levels of pathos and humor. Fine central performance from Gillian Jacobs who I'm always happy to see. ***

Tabloid (2010)

 The oddness of Joyce McKinny can not be done justice in a short review, but film maker Errol Morris captures her strangeness in the documentary 'Tabloid'. McKinny was the central figure in a major tabloid story of 1970s England, when with the help of a friend she abducted her Mormon missionary "fiancé" for a weekend of sex in a rented Devon cottage. People seeing things from different perspectives is a major theme of this work, McKinny's narratives can not exactly be trusted, but she seems to really believe them. A decades later development in McKinny's life, also rather strange and unexpected, is perfect coda to the whole surreal buisness of this former beauty queens life. ***

The Children (1980)

 We are back to the Grindhouse DVD set for a film I wasn't expecting much from but was kind of impressed with. In 'The Children' a school bus passes through a toxic cloud accidentally released from a nearby power facility. The result is that the children on board become zombies whose hands burn and disfigure, since most people wouldn't refuse the hug of a lost child they do alot of damage.

So the basic premise is a different enough rif on the zombie cliche to be interesting, but the film really successeds, despite its small budget, in its sense of place and characters. Nice regional flavor here, small town New England but most of the houses seem rather upscale, commuter community to NYC or Hartford perhaps. There is some local color in the form of the general store owner and some middle aged twins who are ultimately deputized. I liked the sheriff, he is rather deferential to the more high income residents, part of his job is keeping them happy and this complicates the investigation for him some. A lot of the films on this DVD set can be kind of hard to sit through, but this one wasn't which was a nice surprise. **1/2

High School Hellcats (1958)

 I'm developing a bit of a theme apparently. 'High School Hellcats' is another female juvenile delinquent movie from the 50's, more professionally made then 'The Violent Years' but lacking the same crazy energy (though Susanne Sidney is pretty crazy). Yvonne Lime (like Jean Moorehead before her also still alive at 89) is the new girl in town. Aggressively recruited by her schools female "gang" "The Hellcats", Yvonne's a good girl at heart but susceptible to peir pressure and experiencing problems at home. The romantic interest of a coffee shop employee and night school student (Brett Halsey, also still alive and 90), may be her salvation from the troubles beseting her. A lean 70 minutes. **

Civil War (2024)

With a $50 million budget 'Civil War' is the most expensive film yet to come out of A24, a production company that has made a name for its self with modestly budgeted art house and horror films. While not so modestly budgeted 'Civil War' is both an art house film and a horror movie, among other things. The British writer/director Alex Garland's take on a worst case scenario of where America's political polarization could take us, a second Civil War. 

In an effort not to alienate half his audience Garland is vauge on the details and the political lines that define the films military conflict. What we do know is that we are in the neighborhood of 14 months into the war which seems to have been triggered by an incumbent president taking a third term. The president is played by Nic Offerman, cast against type he is a tyrant but we never learn what his politics are, if he's a Democrat a Republican or something else. The country has split at least five ways (Alaska's status is murkey), with breakaway confederatesions made out of north westerly states and the deep south, as well as Texas and California seceding individualy, but combing military forces to take on the corrupt federal government.

Our protagonists are a group of four journalists on a roundabout trip from New York City to D.C. for an interview with the president. Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura are respectively a war photographer and reporter working for Reuters, their companions are Stephen McKinley Henderson of The New York Times and Cailee Spaeny as a young freelance photographer. This quartet are our surrogates on a road trip odyssey across a balkanized Ameica. Along the way they find fear, atrocities, refugees and in some places a disconcerting normalcy in the face of it all. 

Reporters and journalism are of course central to our current discourse of polarization, but the ones here seem pretty old school, functionally detached observers, who still struggle at times with their human reactions to what they see around them. Their journy climaxes with (not a spoiler it's in the trailers) a military seige of Washington D.C.

The films succeeds at being unsettling, at times horrifying, it brings what we are used to seeing in other parts of the world home. The central characterizations are reasonably good, the films well shot, well scored and the climatic battle delivers on a number of levels. What the film lacks is much of anything to say about why we are so polarized and what if anything we can do about it. It's content to be a kind of national 'scared straight'video, rather then engage in any substantial analysis. Still this is a very zeitgeisty film that takes a refreshing number of risks. ***

The Violent Years (1956)

Knoxville, Tennesse native and playboy centerfold (still kicking at 89) Jean Moorehead plays the leader of a quartet of delinquent high school girls who run amuke in 'The Violent Years'. They rob gas stations, make out with guys, deface school property for communist agitators, steal a sweater, kill a few people, stay out past curfew and Jean rapes a guy. All this because busy and overindulgence parents don't spend enough time with her. Low budget explotation film that pretends to be redeemed by a tough love message for parents (who aren't exactly the target audiance) was written by an uncredited Ed Wood, this might actually be his best script. Rather bad, but also pretty watchable. **

Wicked Little Letters (2023)

 Recently I went to the theater with plans to see a movie I wasn't entirely in the mood for. When I got there I noticed another movie that was starting sooner, one I know practically nothing about. After glancing at it online and finding it contained several actors I liked and had a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score, I decided to take a risk and see it. That I was the only person in the theater wasn't the best of signs, but I found 'Wicked Little Letters' to be nicely low key and reasonably pleasant. 

Based on a true story that happened in England circa 1920. A devout Methodist spinster (Olivia Coleman) living with her aged parents (Timothy Spall plays her dad) begins receiving vile and profane anonymous letters. The chief suspect is her neighbor, an Irish single mother with a notoriously foul mouth (Jessie Buckley). The Irish woman is arrested and spends some time in prison before being bailed out by friends prior to her trial. After her release more and more locals begin receiving similar vile and insulting letters and the whole thing becomes a national news story. A female police officer (Anjana Vasan), whose superiors don't take her seriously, dosen't believe Jessie Buckley wrote the letters and sets out to prove her innocence.

You probably get where this is going, but it has a lite charm in getting there and a real cozy mystery vibe to it. But also alot of swearing.

 This is a movie with some post racial casting, for example actress Anjana Vasan is Singaporian ethnically, but her being a racial minority is not relevant to the plot; this is an alternate version of 1920 where racism isn't a thing, but sexism is. I don't have a problem with this except that it throws off my subtext radar, when in a period piece film you don't immediately know if a characters race is a plot point you need to pay contextual attention to, or if it's not relevant.

'Wicked Little Letters' feels more like something that would be on Masterpiece Theater then a theatrical feature, but it's an interesting enough obscure historical story with good performances from the four principle leads. **1/2

Hitler's Hollywood (2017)

 During the years of the Third Reich (1933-1945) approximately 1,200 feature films were made in Nazi Germany. 'Hitler's Hollywood' is a survey course documentary on that output. Only around a hundred or so of these films were overt propaganda in nature, German studios, principly UFA, made comedies, musicals, historical epics, melodramas, detective pictures, even science fiction. The production quality of these, for the most part, was quite high, Hollywood levels.

Unlike Hollywood German cinema of this period lacked much in the way of autore filmmakers, men of distinctive vision and style, whose work had subtext, most of these figures like Fritz Lang and Douglas Sirk fled the Nazi's. What German cinema did have was a star system, and like Hollywood many of these players were foreign born. Kristina Soderbaum was one of the most popular actresses in Germany, a Swede she fit the blond, blue eyed, Aryan ideal and stared in all of the films made by her director husband Viet Harlan during the war, these were mostly melodrama's. In one film, I don't believe Harlan directed this one, Soderbaum's character is raped by a Jew, thus promoting anti semitism to German audiences.

This is a fascinating documentary, a look at a weird, parallel Hollywood. Many of these films look to be pretty good. I had only seen two of the movies featured, 'Triump of the Will' and a version of the Titanic story, but I'd be honestly intrigued to see more. German actor Udo Kier's English language narration is solid, though the white subtitle text was sometimes hard to read against black and white film. An impressive and informative documentary. ***1/2

Left Behind III: World at War (2005)

 'Left Behind III' concludes the Kirk Cameron trilogy with a depiction of the last 50 pages of the second book... in a 16 book saga. Kirk really isn't the principle character here, instead the focus is chiefly on a new character, the President of the United States played by Oscar winner (and recently deceased as of this posting) Lou Gossett Jr. Gossett aided anti Christ Nicoli Carpathia's rise to power and he's none to pleased when he realizes what he's done. Kirk manages to lead the nation's chief executive to Christ just as World War III is starting, shortly after this the President acts as essentially a suicide bomber in an unsuccessful effort to eliminate Nicoli. 

Other plot points include a double wedding and the bad guys spreading a deadly plauge through infected Bible's, the cure turns out to be communion wine. Again, silly and cheap looking, but at least things happen in this one as opposed to the snore feast of part 2, plus Gossett adds suitable gravatous to the times he's on screen. This might be the best of these three, but that's still only *1/2

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002)

 'Left Behind II: Tribulation Force' is the second film in the Canadian produced, turn of the Milleniaum 'Left Behind' Trilogy of Evangelical doomsday porn staring Kirk Cameron. This middle chapter is both cheap and dull. I read one reviewer describe the film as a movie stuck in idel, which is pretty accurate, almost nothing seems to happen until very late in the run time and even then it is underwhelming. I can understand why the films planned theatrical release was scraped. Interestingly the second half of this film is rather different then the second half of the 'Rise of the Antichrist' film, which is the second chapter in the current 'Left Behind' reboot. *

God's Not Dead: We the People (2021)

'God's Not Dead: We the People' is the 4th film in this series dedicated to Christian persecution-splotaion. Reverend David A.R. White heads to Washington with a group of home school parents to defend their rights against elitist, anti-God, strawman who somehow manage to get elected in the most religious democracy in the first world. This movie ends with an angry speech it feels like White has been waiting to give for some time.

 The film marks the return of Muslim convert Hadeel Sittu from the first film, and offers something of a redemption arc for her abusive father, one which falls short of his conversion to Christianity, so impressive for this franchise. Fox News personality Judge Jeanine Pirro has a part as a secularist judge, and from this performance I suspect she makes a better actress then almost anyone else on her network, though I'd love to see Hannity try some acting, it would probably be very (unintentionally) funny. They actually went to Washington to do some filming for this movie, yet none of the interiors are credible as the halls of congress. This film is so all over the place and half-assed with its subplots that I liked it more then it's predisascors, but that still translates to *1/2.

Late Night with the Devil (2024)

 'Late Night with the Devil' is a variation on the "found footage" school of horror movies, one that might be dubbed "archival horror" or "docu-horror". The film begins with brief documentary style context setting, then purports to show the master tape, along with behind the scenes footage, of an infamous live television event, the October 31st, 1977 episode of 'Night Owls with Jack Delroy'.

Delory is played by David Dastmalchin, a name you probably don't recognize but a face you probably do, he was part of Micheal Pena's crew in the 'Antman' movies, his is also probably the only face you'd recognize in this film. Delory is a late night talk show host seemingly modeled after Dick Cavett, as evidenced by the side burns, the set and the stage actress wife. Perpetually in second place to Johnny Carson, and with his contract soon to be up for uncertain renewal, Delory and his producer are planning a big, live Halloween show for the first night of sweeps.

In addition to a genericy musical guest, they have scheduled a gaudy psychic, a magican turned professional skeptic (ala James Randi), and a doctor and patient duo, a parapsycholist with a book to sell and her ward, a 13 year old girl with a history of demonic possession. From an awkward opening the show consistently goes wrong, the sense of foreboding and chaos build to what, had it really happened, would surely have been the most infamous night in television history.

The film really looks its part, it feels like a 1970's TV talk show, period appropriate down to the 4:3 framing. Dastmalchin is perfectly cast, he's really selling it, while the supporting cast, all playing types, do admirable work. The background provided in the films docu style preamble provides use some subtexts to watch out for, including Delroy's involvement in a Bohemian Grove style group of power elites as well as the passing from cancer of his beloved wife the previous year. One can quibble with the ending, though I will tell you the film left me feeling a little unsettled, which in a movie like this is success. ***

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)

 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' is an anime concerning a love triangle, two boys and a girl who meet in middle school. The story is set in an alternate timeline in which the Soviet Union invaded Hokkaido, the northern most of Japan's four major islands, at the end of World War II and set up a puppet state there. While the film dosen't say when exactly it is set, it appears to be roughly contemporary to when the film was made. Our protagonists live in the non communist part of Japan, which seems healthy economicly, but war scares with the north are fairly common. In addition the "Union" state on Hokkaido has constructed a massive tower which looks like it reaches into the stratosphere and in which they are conducting experiments into parallel universes. Side effects from the work going on in the tower, as well as joint US/Japanese efforts to learn more about what is going on there play into the plot. These are some interesting ideas but the execution is far too slow and understated, I got bored. This was dull and should not have been. **

Notting Hill (1999)

 'Notting Hill' is a romantic comedy in which the awkward owner of a travel bookshop in the Notting Hill section of London (Hugh Grant) has a chance encounter with an American super star actress (Julia Roberts) and they fall in love. Written by the master of the Brit rom-com Richard Curtis, this is a charming film, the leads have surprisingly good chemistry, but its Grant's group of friends (including Hugh Bonneville and Gina McKee) which really made the movie for me, I want those friends. ***

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' is the 5th theatrical Ghostbusters movie and the 4th in its continuity. That's not an enviable place to be, especially given how beloved the first film is. Even taking into account the unenviable task, creatively and expectations wise of making yet another Ghostbusters film, the final product, and I emphasize the word "product" because that's what this is more then it's a movie, well its both too much and not enough. 

Take a look at that poster, there are 11 lead characters there, original cast, carry overs from the 2021 film and new additions. This is an overcrowded film, even when they don't give many of these characters much of anything to do. The plot feels like a bad guy of the week story from the old Ghostbusters cartoon series, with too much of the plot conventions of the original film grafted on. This whole franchise has had a real problem in coming up with new ideas since the original film 40 years ago, it all feels rather tired. 

New addition Kumail Ali Naniiani and to a lesser extent Patton Oswalt are the only ones displaying old school Ghostbusters energy here. The plot, which concerns a malevolent ancient god with freezing powers and the ability to mind control other ghosts, is well enough put together if kind of blah. The most inventive new angle is the relationship between Phobe Spanger (McKenna Grace) and a ghost girl played by Emily Alyn Lind, which has a carefully constructed ambiguity to it, it can be read as mere friendship or as would be romance depending on the needs of the viewer. All in all competent, but depressingly mediocre. **

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

 New Mexico, 1989

Kristine Stewart runs a small gym where she meets Katy O'Brian, a drifter and aspiring body builder. The lesbian Stewart and bisexual O'Brian start a relationship, despite Katy working for Kristine's estranged father Ed Harris, who runs a gun club and is involved in various illegal activities for which the FBI is investigating him. Kristine also has a sister, Jena Malone, a mother of three boys who is in an abusive relationships with husband Dave Franco, who also works for Harris. Anna Baryshinko is a local lesbian with a major crush on Stewart, which makes her suspicious of new arrival O'Brian. The whole situation is a powder keg and at lest one of these people is going to lie bleeding by the end of the movie.

This is rather different, it's a Neo-noir, a melodramatic love story, there is some magical realism. Very strong on sense of time and place, solid tension, good performances all around. Those last 15 minutes or so are designed to be debated, I'm still not quite sure what to make of them. This film is obviously not for everybody, but was a cinematic experience that kept shocking and surprising me, I'm a fan of that. ***1/2

Mavrick (1994)

 'Mavrick' proved a wonderful flashback, though not as much to the old west as to the days when Mel Gibson was widely considered likable. An action comedy by a master of such, Richard Donner, who had helmed Gibson in the 'Leathel Weapon' franchise. The film is inspired by the 1950's TV western of the same name that started James Garner, who also has a leading role here. Notable cast members include Alfred Molinia, Graham Green and James Coburne. Jodi Foster is the female lead, apparently this is the film that started her unlikely friendship with Gibson. The story is low key and episodic with a winking sense of humor, enjoyable and undemanding, big tent entertainment confidently done. ***

Man on a Ledge (2012)

 There is a man on a ledge of New York's Roosevelt Hotel (Sam Worthington), he's threatening to jump, but its really an attempt at distraction for a dimond robbery across the street. There are a lot of attempts at distraction in this movie, Elizabeth Banks, Genesis Rodriguez in a cat suit, Ed Harris as an amoral New York real estate developer, but none of them can conceal that this movie is really just blah studio product. An assembledge of types and clichés signifying a nothing movie. *1/2

Buffaloed (2019)

Blue collar girl and small time hustler Zoey Deutch, decides to get into the telephone debt collecting buisness in her native Buffalo, only to butt heads with less scrupulous debt collectors. While the story is not drawn from an actual incident, it is reminiscent of stylized, Exposé-ish films that are, like 'The Informant' or 'The Big Short'. Solid ensamble cast includes Judy Greer and Jai Courtney, but it's Deutch's energetic  performance that sells and impells this thing. Occasional unevenness is made up for by elements of charm, amongst which is the films continual ribbing of the city of Buffalo, New York. I started this one thinking I might not finish it, but it won me over. ***

Pumpkin (2002)

 Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris) is a mostly wheelchair bound, mentally challenged teenaged boy. He is to be paired with a sorority volunteer from the local college to coach him for a regional equivalent of the Special Olympics. When Pumpkin first sees his mentor Carolyn McDuffy (a blonde, 21 year old Christina Ricci) he is gobsmacked by love for the first time.

Pumpkin stretches himself as he has never stretched himself before, all to please Carolyn. He wills improvement of his hand eye coordination, starts to stand and even walk more, starts to talk more, its miracle level improvement. Carolyn is deeply moved and effected by the time she spends with Pumpkin, so much so that this beautiful girl who has lived a mostly surifacey life enters a state of existential crises and finds herself, much against her will, falling in love with a mentally retarded man.

I've been using the word audacity a lot lately, but really who decides to make a movie like this? A strange mixture of turn of the Milleniaum raunch comedy and Hallmarkian message film, becomes black comedy gold. The movie delights in messing with expectations, a prime example is Samuel Ball as Kent Woodlands, Carolyn's fraternity royalty, tennis star boyfriend. On the surface Kent seems to embody every jock stereotype in a college movie, yet he is a reasonable person, cares about other people's feelings and sincerely loves his girlfriend, who he might even be (at least at first) a better person then. This makes it all the more tragicly humorous when Carolyn leaves Kent for Pumpkin. 

Starting fairly grounded the film reachs heights of absurdist bliss, it has seemingly all the ingredients of a cult classic yet sadly never achieved that status. Cast includes pre star Amy Adams and Melissa McCarthy in bit roles, as well as Nina Foch in one of her later screen appearances, I was shocked when I saw the name of this 1950's Oscar nominee in the opening credits. I found 'Pumpkin' to be enderingly odd, a bitting but strangly sweet piece of self mockering satire. It's a shame that this film has been forgotten, but its also something of a joy to stumble across it.***

What if I Defect?: Directors Cut (2020)

I had heard that Shelise Ann Sola, the rather attractive host of the 'Cults to Consciousness' YouTube series and podcast was an actress. Curious to see her in something, the only movie of hers I could find was the directors cut of 'What if I Defect?', as a two dollar rental on Amazon, so I thought I'd give it a watch.

A low budget indie film featuring many of the minuses of low budget independent film making. There is some bad sound mixing, especially early on. A very limited number of locations, principly in some ones house and apperent gurilla film making at a mall, hotel, book store, restaurants. The camera quality varies, cheap visual effects are used, the acting quality genrally poor to blah. Shelise is good in this, nobody else is.

This is kind of a Christian movie, though it's pretty sensual for one of those. Filmed in the Anchorage area 'What if I Defect?' is a vanity project for director/writer/star Robby Monroe. Robby plays Daniel, a Christian man whose fiancé has just broke up with him. Daniel is apparently in college, though he looks around 30. He plays video games, Magic, has nerd culture conversations with his friend. He sells shirts at the mall but indicates he has other sources of income. He whines alot, is annoying, kind of self righteous, not much to look at, but Shelise falls for him.

They meet at the mall, she's sad, he's nice to her, tries to cheer her up, listens, they start hanging out. In time we learn that Shelise's character, whose name is Olivia, has been subject to the sexual advances of men since the age of 14, she's been in bad and abusive relationships. Olivia and Daniel are not evenly yoked looks wise, I guess we are suppose to buy her falling for him because he's nice to her, though he's not always nice to her. Again, vanity project, I can buy this story as Robby Monroe's fantasy, but as a movie its clunky. The Iong car drive/ conversation scene near the end of the movie was probably my favorite part, though that felt more like a memory or dream then a fully functional movie scene. 

This was an odd one, also a way too long one, alot of cutting would have really helped, especially in the first half of the film. This 141 minute cut, should have been closer to 110. I kind of admire its strange audacity, but this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I do not hold Shelise responsible however. Still *

Interestingly, I could not find a single other review of this online.

The Well (1951)

 In 'The Well' a small Midwestern town's racial divisons are laid open, when a five year old black girl disappeares shortly after being seen in the company of a white stranger (Colonel Potter himself Henry Morgan). Tensions quickly rise and before long there is race rioting and the national guard is called in. Then the young girl is found having fallen down a well, the town awkwardly comes together to try and rescue her. A bold movie to make in 1951. I wish it had been tighter. **1/2

Actor Richard Rober, who played the towns level headed sheriff, died the following year in a car accident at the age of 42. The car he was in plummeted over an embankment in a heavy fog. Three years earlier in the movie 'The File on Thelma Jordan' Rober played a character who also died in a car the plummeted over an embankment.

Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009)

 Another 'Bring It On' movie. 'Fight to the Finish' is basically 'All or Nothing' in reverse. Christina Milian is captian of her east L.A. high-school cheer squad, but shortly into her senior year changing economic circumstances (her mother marries a rich white widower) relocate her to a posh Malibue high school with a faltering cheer team, one she is determined to re-energize. I guess if you've got a money making formula you don't mess with it. I'm a bit surprised how central race is to these movies. **

Bring it On: All or Nothing (2006)

 'Bring It On: All or Nothing' is the 3rd film in the 'Bring It On' film series, I skipped the second one because it is not currently free on Prime. The franchise is seemingly all variations on a theme, no recurring characters or schools. Number 3 is very on par with number one, maybe even slightly better. The first film wanted to be two kinds of movies at the same time, this is also true of number 3, wanting to be both naughty and wholesome, however this central contradiction is seemingly more at home in a smaller, non theatrical budget.

Hayden Panettiere, still a minor at the time of filming, is cheer captain at her upscale California high school. Shortly into her senior year her family is forced by economic circumstances to move, relocating her to a very working class and ethic high school. Hayden slowly accustomes herself to a new environment and friends, overcomes personal prejudices and realizes how shelterd she was and how shallow some of her old friends were. In the end her new squad must compete against her old squad to land positions as back up dancers in a Rhianna (yes she is actually in the film) music video and get new computers for their school. Turns out as you'd expect. **

Bring It On (2000)

 The original 'Bring it On', the theatrical movie which launched a direct to video franchise. Hot young Millennial actresses compete in cheering competitions, love triangles and internecine power struggles. Containing a number of period cultural elements that wouldn't fly today, it as Roger Ebert described it, what should have been a R rated comedy squeezed into PG 13 Nickelodeon form. A very mediocre movie. **

Dune: Part II (2024)

 'Dune: Part II' aka 'Dune 2: More Dune', like it's predisascor is a visual triumph. The cast of characters here expands, people change and get more complex as do their relationships. In the first film I wasn't yet invested in these characters, I feel invested now.

The 'Dune' franchise continues to be perhaps  the most anthropological of science fantasies; at times it seems almost documentary. It has a great story canvas as well as a visual one. Such themes, political intrigue, an insurgency  against an imperial occupier, the manufacture and fulfillment of prophecy. It's all very deep for a blockbuster. Plus that cast. Better then 'Dune:Part I'. See it on as big a screne as possible. ****

The Babysitters (2007)

 In 'The Babysitters' high school student Katherine Waterson runs a suburban prostitution ring out of a babysitters club. She's a smart girl and had been good up till then, it just sort of happened. I really liked Waterson's performance in this, she's playing about a decade younger then she was at the time and really sells it; her gradual transformation until discovering she has become kind of a monster, well its impressive. A cross between comic caper film, character driven drama and a prurient explotation film, it gets dark and that is what redeems it from being merely naughty. John Leguizamo is good as the inital client. **1/2

The Humanity Bureau (2018)

 Set in a mid apocalyptic near future, 'The Humanity Bureau' is a clichéd dystopian thriller overlayed with Trumpian/ vaugly Q-Anon adjacent conspiracism (death panels, positive reference to a late president Trump). Nic Cage is an agent of "The Humanity Bureau", an Orwellian US Government agency tasked with relocating "un productive" citizens to a new life in "New Edan". Now "New Edan" is pretty clearly a euphonium for killing government designated undesirables, but it takes about 27 of this movies 95 minutes for Cage to figure this out.

Armed with this new information Cage procedes to go on the run to Canadia with an attractive single mom and son who he was supposed to relocate. Cage is persued by an obsessive friend and coworker who feels betrayed by Nic's defection. So the basic story is barrowed from 'Logan's Run'. This is pretty bottom of the barrel stuff, almost like the script was written by an AI that was feed clichés. Cage's presence and antagonist Hugh Dillion's hammyess makes this almost watchable. *

Mandinga (1976)

 From the Tarantino Grindhouse DVD Box Set. 'Mandinga' is a work of low budget Italin made explotation trash whose name is meant to sound like 'Mandango', the name of a similar work of moderately budgeted American made explotation trash that came out the previous year. Now I have not seen 'Mandango', but I know it was a box office failure, so trying to capitalize off the name is a pretty exquisitely Grindhouse thing to do.

This whole movie is pretty exquisitely Grindhouse. Set in Antebellum Louisiana over the course of around 20 years, though the movie does a pisspoor job of communicating the passage of time. The sexual explotation of slaves, by both men and women, is depicted multiple times then we skip forward a couple of decades for more of the same as well as our main plot, which is a kind of love quadrangle. The big reveal at the end is a case of accidental incest and two generations of plantation owners realizing slavery is wrong when they end up with a mixed race heir. A mostly unpleasant first half followed by an also unpleasant but watchable second half. I kind of admire the audiciousness of this movie, but I don't think I can even call the film fair, so I'm giving it *1/2

Three Tough Guys (1974)

 From the Tarantino Grindhouse DVD set. I don't know why 'Three Tough Guys' is called "Three Tough Guys", because there are only two tough guy leads and even the movies theme song is called "Two Tough Guys". Now it's possible I missed the explanation because this movie was hard to sustain interest in, though I doubt the film bothered to explain its self.

Filmed and set in Chicago. Issac Hayes is a disgraced ex cop who lost a partner in a bank robbery, he teams with fighting Catholic Priest Lino Ventura who lost a parishioner in the same bank robbery. Together they work the mean streets to solve the crime and find the missing million dollars. Why they wanted the lost money so bad I'm not sure, again this movie was hard to pay attention to because it is generally pretty dull. Issac Hayes does fry some eggs on an upside down iron and that's pretty cool, otherwise *

Armageddon Time (2022)

 In 'Armageddon Time' it's the fall of 1980 and  Paul Graff (Micheal Banks Repeta), a 6th grade Jewish boy living with his blue collar family in Queens, learns important lessons about race, class, friendship, his family and himself. All of this you can more or less gather from the movies trailer, it looks to be a pretty conventional coming of age/awaking of social consciousness film and in broad stokes it is that. However there is a certain gruffness here, a hard edge of disappointment and disillusionment that sets it apart. 

While not exactly autobiographical, writer/director James Gray (whose been making movies a good while but this is the first of his films I've seen) was a young boy growing up in Queens in 1980. His childhood period piece is remarkably free of nostalgic glow. Paul isn't a particularly bad kid, but he's not a very good one either. I must confess I could see alot of a younger me in him. 

Paul seems to have an undiagnosed learning disability (we are here about a decade before the idea of ADD was mainstreamed). He's an underperformer, he's flighty, selfish in a non self aware away, very naive about the basic functionality of the world around him. In his family he is his mother's favorite, but is bonded most deeply with his indulgent and well meaning grandfather played by Anthony Hopkins.

Socially awkward Paul befriends held back black student Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb, also good) at his public school. The two commit various minor trespasses together, eventually partaking of Marijuana while not knowing entirely what it was. Subsequently and with financial help from grandpa, Paul is enrolled at Forest Manor Prep, a real world private school in Queens. It is here that we meet two real world characters, Forest Manor graduate Maryanne Trump and school benefactor Fred Trump.

One of the films more interesting gambles,  having two Trumps as characters in your film is risky for a number of reasons. Somewhat surprisingly Fred and Maryanne do not come across as mere charictatures, they feel like real people to me. Maryanne has only one scene, as a visiting assembly speaker at the school she gives a speech, Jessica Chastain seems to be giving best efforts in the small role. Fred Trump (John Diehl) has a few scenes, he first emerges sulkely in the background, a kind of vaugly menacing Dabney Coleman type, he's pleasant enough, remarkably so from what I know of Fred Trump, but there is a subtext to him, self satisfied, subtily racist and willing himself the aura of a great and beneficent man. 

Paul grows more dissatisfied, self pitting, he makes a stupid decision that may be the turning point of his life. Yet there is also some naive nobility to the way he handles getting caught. 'Armageddon Time' is not a great film, mostly it's just okay, but it has a few moments and a way of just brushing up against the profound, the way a child would, something I found to be unexpected and satisfying. ***

PS I'm just not sure what to make of Ann Hathway's Jewish mother performance, but I thought that Jeremy Strong was pretty good as the father.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

 Robert Riskin, who was Frank Capra's writting partner on most of his 1930's work, including Best Picture Oscar winners 'It Happened One Night' and 'You Can't Take It With You', decided to make one of his 'Capraisque' screenplays without Frank Capra after World War II. 'Magic Town', released in 1947 stars Jimmy Stewart as a public opinion surveyor who discovers a small town whose demographics and voting history so mirrors the larger nation as a whole,  that he simply dosen't have to ask opinions anywhere else. Of course once the locals realize this they get kind of full of themselves and their opinions quickly cease to reflect the national mood, it's up to Stewart to set things right.

The parallels to 'Magic Town' occurred to me fairly early while watching 'Drive-Away Dolls', the first feature film directed by Ethan Coen sans his older brother Joel. Written by the younger Coen and his wife, professional film editor Tricia Cooke, 'Drive-Away Dolls' concerns two lesbians (Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan) on a road trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in 1999, who discover in their rental car a briefcase whose contents some bad men would gladly kill over. Like 'Magic Town', 'Drive-Away Dolls' contains all the elements associated with hits under its writers previous directorial pairing, but it never seems to spark as brightly as films made with that old partner.

The two Coen Brothers films this reminded me of the most are 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Burn After Reading', one of their best and one of their worst. This is a quirky piece with lots of stange, mostly undistinguished side characters. It is actually very well constructed, though it takes awhile to see where it's going. To often the movie felt flat and overly derivative of earlier Coen work. Leads Qualley and Viswanathan are the best thing the movie has going for it, an odd, distinct couple who each have some great lines. I suspect this movie may be very rewatchable but on first viewing I was kind of underwhelmed. **1/2

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

 Having spent most of their college years concentrating on developing a skill of limited marketability, the Bellas find post grad life less then satisfying; so they go on a USO tour. I expected that this would be the worst one, but appreciated the deviations from formula and how this briefly became an action movie. **1/2

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

 'Pitch Perfect 2' is of the school of sequels where they basically just remake the first film only bigger. So instead of competing for the national title, this time the Bellas have their sights set on the international accapela championship, their main competition the Eurotash German team. Crasser, lazier and less endering then the original, 'Pitch Perfect 2' has a real off putting glut of celebrity cameos and name dropping. However it ends pretty well. Hailee Steinfield joins the cast. **

Pitch Perfect (2012)

 'Pitch Perfect' turned college competitive acapelia singing into an improbable pop culture hit. At heart this is a pretty dumb and cliche story, well scripted but still dumb and cliche. The film is saved by some catchy singing, its attractive cast and my suspision that these only get worse from here. ***

Life Partners (2014)

 Long time best friends, lesbian Leighton Meester and straight girl Gillian Jacobs, must deal with changes in their relationship after Gillian finally meets the man she's going to marry (Adam Brody). Likable and low key dramadey about romance and friendship. Filmed in California and Minnesota. ***

A Family Thing (1996)

 A few days after his mother's funeral sixty-something Arkansa mechanic Robert Duvall receives a letter from her, a personal letter entrusted to her pastor to be delivered after her burial. In the letter she explains to her son that she is not infact his biological mother, rather he was conceived as the result of his father's rape of the housekeeper, who was black. His biological mother died moments after childbirth and owing to his surrogate mothers genuine love for her and his coming out of the womb white, he was raised with no knowledge of the circumstances of his birth or his true ethnic heritage.

Duvall's mother also advises him that he has an older half brother who is a cop in Chicago, as a last request she asks Robert to seek out his brother and come to know that side of his family. After a couple days brooding on this Robert decides to honor his mother's request, travels up to Chicago to meet his brother James Earl Jones and come to know his extended black family. At first the two siblings are warry of each other but over the course of the film develop a genuine mutual affection.

Co written by Billy Bob Thorton 'A Family Thing' is sweet, solid and empathetic. An impressive, understated work with a very warm quality. The two leads are famously talented actors but the MVP of the picture is Irma P. Hall as their no nonsense, blind aunt who is determined that these two siblings really get to know each other. This film wisely eschews the cheap comedy potential of its premise and makes this both a character piece and an ultimately hopeful rumination on race relations in this country. The gang banger subplot I could have done without. ***

The Iron Curtin (1948)

 'The Iron Curtin' (1948) is the first of two feature films (the other being 1954's 'Operation Manhunt') to tell the tale of Igor Gouzenko (1919 - 1982), a "clerk" at the Soviet embassy in Ottowa who on defection with wife and child in 1946 revealed the presence of an extensive Russian spy network in Canada. Propagandistic docu-drama reteams Dana Andrews and Gene Tierny, stars of the Noir classic 'Laura', under the direction of workhorse William Wellman. It's just fair, though location filming around Parliament Hill is neat to see. **

Madam Web (2024)

 'Madam Web' is a movie where the more I heard about how bad it was the more I wanted to see it. Preparing myself for a complete disaster no doubt benefited my ultimate reception of the film, which is low to middling but watchable. A Sony picture the film serves as an origin story of the titular Madam Web and various other 2nd to 3rd teir Spiderman side characters. 

A period piece set principally in 2003, this plays like it was written as a TV pilot for Fox and then for inexplicable reasons shot as a feature 20 years later. I enjoyed its low stakes, superhero adjacent quality, clichéd writting and bad ADR are among this movies charms.

 Dakota Johnson's low energy, mildly snarky approach to the material might seem like she was trolling her own film, but I think that's just the way Dakota Johnson acts. Three attractive and ethically diverse young women play future spider heroines who Johnson's psychic paramedic must protect from Tahar Rahim's forgettable villian. Adam Scott and Emma Robert's are also in this for some reason.

The movie ends the way I might end a spoof of superhero movies. I think the descriptor "charmingly bad" best reflects my feelings towards this film. I've been enjoying reflecting on the movies plot holes and stange decisions the last few days. **

You Don't Nomi (2020)

 'You Don't Nomi' is a documentary that takes its title from the name of Elizabeth Berkley's character in the notorious 90's flop 'Showgirls'. I hesitated in watching this, figuring I could get most of its information and insight off of YouTube videos, but there is something to be said for this doc. It is not a lazy hit piece, it was not made to mock. Rather its a fairly serious examination of the critical and cultural legacy of a film that has become a synonym for bad, but in actuality is a much more complex and interesting failure then it might at first appear. It made me want to watch 'Showgirls' again. ***

Showgirls (1995)

 'Showgirls' the notorious 1995, Las Vegas set "erotic drama", was the first major studio release with an NC-17 rating, severly damaged director Paul Verhovan's career and essentially ruined that of its star Elizabeth Berkley. The stylistic term "camp" is sometimes defined as an artistic work of  "failed seriousness", this is the perfect descriptor for 'Showgirls', which seems to really aspire at being a serious work of character study and social criticism. However, there was some serious miscalculation and this piece of cinematic ordinance missed its target and detonated in the uncanny valley. 

'Showgirls' is legitimately very bad, I'm talking piece of shit territory. Yet it clearly wasn't intended to be, you can feel it reaching for, if not greatness, at least adequacy for its entire run time and never quite reaching it, save maybe for the cinematography which at times is very good. On a skeletal level the plot is essentially the same as that of the 1950 Oscar winning film 'All About Eve', both are stories of ambitious young women out to displace an established star. Here this takes the form of Elizabeth Berkley angling to usurpe Gina Gershons position as the queen of Las Vegas erotic dance spectaculars. There are just so many strange choices made here, but playing Berkley's character as decidedly unpleasant and having every other character inexplicably charmed by her, is by far the greatest. One of those films that really needs to be seen to be believed. *1/2

Radio Days (1987)

 In 'Radio Days' Woody Allen combines childhood memories with vignettes about old time radio for a nostalgic portrait of New York City circa 1939-1944. Fellow director Stanley Kubrick, who grew up in around the same area at around the same time, loved this film saying watching it was like watching a home movie. One of Allen's warmest works. Large ensamble cast includes many an Allen regular and a young Seth Green playing a young Woody. ***

Bottoms (2023)

 Lower social strata high school lesbians start a fight club as a way to get with cheerleaders. Gen Z teen sex comedy is both raunch and woke, pretty funny though 'Book Smart' remains the masterpiece of this slim genra. ***

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

 This was a very anticipated movie by me, but I find I don't have much to say about it. I respect the movie alot, subject matter, performances, but it just didn't grab me emotionally the way I'd hoped it would. It's very understated, it's very long, as many have said this would have been better served as a limited series. ***

Dishonored Lady (1947)

This is a couple of steps removed from the Madeleine Smith scandal that inspired it, as well as the more faithful and recently reviewed by me David Lean picture 'Madeleine'. 'Dishonored Lady' takes a couple of story beats from the original tale and grafts them onto a forgettable, contemporary set nourish thriller. Hedy Llamar can't sustain it as the lead, she may have been a great beauty and a brilliant engineer, but I don't know if she was that much of an actress. Surprisingly bad. *

Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman (2009)

 'Fallen Angel' is a documentary on Larry Norman (1947 - 2008), a pioneer of Christian rock music. Born in Texas but raised mostly in California, Norman was the duel lead of the rock group People! who scored a hit in the late 60's with a song simply titled 'I Love You'. Yet Larry was difficult to work with so the rest of the band asked him to leave, he did but that ultimately doomed People! because as their manager said 'Larry was the talent'.

In the aftermath of being booted from his group Larry got a job as a song writer at Capitol Records and had a born again experience at a Pentecostal Church. In 1969 Larry released  his debut solo album for Capitol 'Upon This Rock', widely credited as "the first full-blown Christian Rock album." Larry's carrer would continue, sometimes in fits and starts for the next 30 odd years, he would have hits with songs like 'Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music' and the Rapture anthem 'I Wish We'd All Been Ready'. He even performed at the White House for president Jimmy Carter in 1979.

Larry released many albums, performed all around the world, started record labels, sheppard new talent and lunched careers. He would also marry twice, have one child who was born out of wedlock and who he would never formally recognize as his own; he could be petty, vindictive and slept with his best friends wife. Larry Norman was a Christian but he was also very much a Rock Star, that duality and contradiction certainly made him interesting.

The documentary is not as polished as it might have been and suffers from evident budgetary limitations, but it tells a reasonably intriguing story about a man who in his sphere was at one time a giant. **1/2

Madeleine (1950)

 David Lean is a director best remembered for truly epic movies like 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Doctor Zhivago'. Some years ago I saw a small scale romance Lean directed in the 1940's called 'Brief Encounter', it was as good as his better known epics and made me interested in seeing more from him in that vain. 1950's 'Madaline' is based on a famous scandle that happened in 1850's Glasgow. Madeleine Smith was the socialite daughter of a prominent architect who was tried for the murder by possioning of an ex lover, who had been threatening to derail her engagement to a wealthy young man of whom her father approved.

A period piece, 'Madaline' is situated closer to 'Brief Encounter' then 'Lawrence of Arabia' in scale. It is a good looking movie, well written, directed and acted, with star Ann Todd the highlight, giving an impressively enigmatic performance as Madaline, despite being a 43 year old playing a 21 year old, they couldn't have gotten away with it had the film been shot in color.

My biggest problems with the movie was its pacing, it was slow and took along time to get started. There probably isn't much that could have reasonably been done about this, the story is a slow burn that requires alot of set up. I had just seen 'Poor Things', which is also set in Europe during the latter half of the 19th century, earlier that day and that movie was so well paced Lean's film suffered in comparison. Still 'Madaline' is a solid film which I'd probably enjoy more on a rewatch sometime down the line. ***

Poor Things (2023)

 'Poor Things' is the second colaberation between the stange Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Emma Stone; their first film together was the 2018 historical drama 'The Favorite', for which co star Olivia Coleman won the best actress Oscar for her portrail of Queen Ann.

'Poor Things' is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alister Gray. It is a sort of lady Frankenstein story. In late 19th century London (in the source material its Glasgow) a deformed scientist (Willam Defoe) resurrects the body of a pregnate woman (Stone) who had thrown herself off a bridge, he implants the fetel brain into her skull to create a new person.

What we have here is a very well written, very well paced film, with a solid enasmble cast, interesting ideas to explore, lots of subtext, creative camera work and gorgeously inventive sets, which all play second fiddle to the lead performance. Emma Stone is fantastic in this, it's the best work she's ever done. 

Emma plays a character who when we first meet her, despite being in a full grown body, is essentially a toddler. She walks in a jerky, awkward manner, eats as a young child might, and speaks in a clipped, basic and uncensored way. Over the course of the film we see her character, Bella Baxter, grow up at an accelerate pace. She proves in fact to be quite bright, while her ability to speak improves markedly, she continues to express herself in a kind of charmingly blunt shorthand. The performance of her dialogue is my single favorite aspect of this film.

As Bella has not gone through the normal, gradual process of growing up, she is not attuned to social mores and self censorship. She is a frank person and a person in a hurry to gain new experiences. She embarks on a European trip with a self involved and lecherous lawyer played delightfully by Mark Ruffalo, she surpasses him intellectually and sexually in fairly rapid order.

The sexuality of the film and Ms. Stones performance has gotten a lot of attention, it is pretty in you face. She really goes for it. The sexuality however is just one way in which the film acts subversive. For a movie based on a book written by a man born in 1934, directed by a Gen Xer and staring a Millennial, its sensibilities struck me as rather Gen Z. Using "Woke" as a descriptor rather then a value judgment, this film is very woke.

"Poor Things" is the kind of film that might really have collapsed under the weight of its own pretension, but I think it avoided doing so because it was so intricately thought out, put together and executed (only once very late in the film did I feel it lag a little). There are large audiences for whom this film is decidedly not for, but for others it can be quite the cinematic experience. ***1/2

Sickies Making Films (2018)

 'Sickies Making Films' is a documentary on the history of film censorship in the United States, most specifically the Maryland Board of Censors, the longest running and last state operated film censorship board in the country, it operated from 1916 to 1981. After the New York board was dissolved in 1965 due to a decision by the state Supreme Court, Maryland's was the last board standing, it continued to stand for another 16 years, largely at the grace of a sympathetic state board of appeals and the inability of the legislator to muster the votes to repeal it. The  tenacious three person committe was finally shuttered by the state early in the Reagan administration, not for ideological reasons but because the MBC cost more to operate then it generated in film licensing fees. I knew most of the genral cinema history presented in this film, but the Maryland stuff I was not familiar with. ***

Promises! Promises! (1963)

 'Promises! Promises!' was the first Hollywood film of the sound era to feature nudity by a mainstream star (*), that star was Jayne Mansfield. A stunt move for the 30 year old Mansfield, whose box office glory days of the mid 50's were behind her. Made well into the long slow death of the production code and five years before the birth of the MPAA ratings system, it is perhaps needless to say that the uncut version of this film was NOT available in all markets.

Based on the play 'The Plant' by Edna Sheklow, the plot concerns two couples, Jayne Mansfield & Tommy Noonan and Marie McDonald & Mickey Hargitay (Mansfield's real life husband at the time), who may have spouse swapped during a drunken night on a cruse. The film has a couple moments but really isn't very good.

Interestingly all of Mansfield's nude scenes are front loaded (double entendra) into the first 10 minutes of the movie, though we see those same scenes again multiple times in flashback. This movie marks the final film appernce of Marie McDonald, the 7 times married actress would die of a drug overdose in 1965 at the age of 42. The film is also the big screen debut of T.C. Jones, probably the eras most famous drag performer, though he does not appear in drag here he does play a clearly gay coded hairdresser named Babbette. Character actor Fritz Field appears as the ships doctor.

Again this film is not very a good, a cash grab with an odd cross section of performers. American Export Lines, whose ship the S.S. Independence was used in the production, seemed to see this movie as a kind of commercial and is heavily referenced in the opening credits. *1/2

(*) Annette Kellerman holds the distinction of being the first mainstream star to appear nude in a Hollywood film of the silent era, specifically 1916's 'A Daughter of the Gods', a movie which helped inspire greater calls for censorship in that era. 

Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' is an exuberant, spofish musical/comedy from director Alan Arkush and Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Dey Young wants Vincent Van Patten, Vincent Van Patren wants PJ Soles, PJ Soles wants Ramons tickets and principle Mary Woronov hates the Ramons. Featuring The Ramons, exploding mice, ticket winning nuns and Clint Howard as Eaglebauer, perhaps his greatest role ever. ***

American Fiction (2023)

 Some Spoilers

In 'American Fiction' Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a university professor and author of respected but not commercialy successful fiction. Having trouble getting his latest serious work published and frustrated by the success of a stereotype ladden novel called 'We's Lives in the Ghetto', Monk quickly dashes off his own clichéd work of black fiction and submits it to publishers under a pseudonym as a kind of "F You". To his surprise the intentional trash he wrote really takes off, a publishing phenomenon that has Hollywood after the movie rights. This in short is the movies satirical set up and what is emphasized in the advertising. However...

One of the themes of the film is that the publishing industry, movie makers and audiences eschew serious writing about the black experience in America, in favor of derivative, stereotypical crap. 'American Fiction' presents its self as a satirical critique of that situation, it was what I was expecting and what I went to see. But like a Trojan Horse 'American Fiction' the satire has within it the kind of serious work of black fiction that is considered non commercial and generally ignored, but is in fact of high quality. 

It is around a third to 40% into the movie before Monk writes his work of rage literature, at first called 'My Pafology' but later something more vulgar. Before that Monk has a conflict with a student leading to some forced time off, during which he travels from California to Boston where he grew up in a well to do family. There he has to deal with the sudden death of his  sister (Tracee Ellis Ross), his mother's (Leslie Uggams) worsening dementia and a perspective romance with a lawyer neighbor (Erika Alexander). Much of this narrative has more in common with the complicated well to do families of a John Updike or Michael Cunningham novel, then with "stereotypical black fiction." This is a work of "American Fiction" and to me the family drama was even more engaging then the satire, which its self is extremely on point. 

I found 'American Fiction' to be a real surprise, first rate all around and probably the most original movie of last year. A frank film, a character study, that has a timelessness to it while also being extremely now. I loved the ending. ****

Smoke Signals (1998)

 In 'Smoke Signals' childhood frienemies Adam Beach and Evan Adams, travel from the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation in Idaho to Phoneix, Arizona to pick up the remains and belongings of the formers estranged father. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, a rare filmic portrait of contemporary Indian life. ***

 

Dirty O'Neil (1974)

 'Dirty O'Neil' is 'Dirty Harry' explotation. Morgan Paull (yes two L's) plays small town California cop Jimmy O'Neil, he fights crime, sleeps with beautiful ladies and still finds time to coach the high school women's basketball team. Largley episodic film in which Jimmy will gladly sleep with women on duty, but at least he draws the line at drinking on duty. The first hour of the film is largely aimless wandering, but the last half hour when it grows a plot and decides it wants to go for some real grit, well I liked that part, raising this from ** to **1/2

Vampyr (1932)

 A vampire movie from the great Danish director Carl Theodore Dreyer, an approate subject given his preoccupation with the supernatural. 'Vampyr' was filmed and set in France, however the best surviving cut is the German one, I watched that with English subtitles.

I appreciate that this isn't another telling of the Dracula story, rather the narrative was inspired by mid 19th century short story's by the Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu. Allen Gray, a young man studying the occult, comes to a small French village recently subject to vampire activity, there he studies and learns how to fight them with the help of an elderly local Lord (Maurice  Schutz). Gray is played by Nicolas de Gunzburg, a producer on the film and not a professional actor, in fact there are many non actors in the cast. The leads performance is minimalistic but that works here; de Gunzburg, who was gay and never married, was perhaps most famous in life as an editor at Vogue and other classy American magazines.

The movie is pleasantly short at about an hour and fourteen minutes. Dreyer employs some subtlety disconcerting visuals, which help compensate for a slow narrative. The film was not a hit on initial release but gained a cult following in subsequent decades. ***

The Tuxedo (2002)

 'The Tuxedo' is a 2000's action comedy and like most of its brotheren pretty bad. Jackie Chan is the driver for James Bond like secret agent Jason Issacs, who after Issacs is severely injured in the field, ends up in possession of a super-powered tuxedo which he decides to use to complete the mission. This involves teaming with junior agent Jennifer Love Hewitt, who thinks he's Issacs, to stop bottle water magnet Richie Costers plot to poison the world's water supply. 

It's pretty awful, very little of this works. Chan's natural charm and material arts skills are there, but the script is a mess and the film never uses Chan's physical abilities to full effect. For some reason it was decided to make Jennifer Love's character rather unlikable. The film is also obsessed with Ms. Hewitt's, in its own words, "nice rack". This is pretty much crap, though Chan has a few moments and Jennifer Love's costume designers understood their assignment. *

For the Boys (1991)

 Story of the fraught relationship between comedian Eddie Sparks (James Caan) and singer Dixie Leonard (Bette Midler), who tour together in USO shows from World War II through Vietnam. Not a rosey movie, its Sometimes a little too spot on, director Mark Rydell brings out the gloom and sentimentality, but struggles some with rendering the joyous moments. Midler is strong, it's a perfect part for her, while Caan is not bad he feels miscast, I'm thinking Elliot Gould or Alan Alda would have been more fitting. Still movie has plenty that works and carries its nearly 2 1/2 hour run time reasonably well. A holiday 1991 release the film got genrally poor to middling reviews and failed at the box office, making back $23.2 million of its $40 million budget. ***

The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959)

 Hey, this is technically a film literacy movie. Relassed without the production code seal of approval, 'The Immoral Mr. Teas' inaugurated the "nudie-cuties" sub genra, a type of lightly comic film that was essentially an excuse to look at the naked bodies of beautiful women, but without any other sexul content.

 The plot of 'Mr. Teas',  to the extent that there is one, has the titular Mr. Teas, a mild mannered California dental appliance salesman, go about his days, encounter alot of cleavage and imagine some of the women he sees naked. That's it. The film was shot without sound, adding some music and a comic narration in post production; it is not all that dissimilar from, and likely modeled after, Jacque Tati's Monsieur Hulot films. 

 Shot in color this movie might be the greatest return on investment in cinema history, taking in over $1.5 million off a $24,000 budget, making at least 625 times what it cost to make. The film was made possible by a 1957 Supreme Court decision that weakend obscenity laws, the fadding power of the production code and slow and subtle changes in socitial mores. The film would spawn a host of imitators and launch the career of its director Russ Meyer. Today it plays as kind of boring. **1/2

Cult Killer (2024)

 When her boss, mentor and AA sponsor (Antonio Banderas) is brutality murderd, PI Alice Eve sets out to avenge him. Banderas's Mikhail Tellini had been working as a consultant for an understaffed rural Irish police department, on a similarly brutal murder of a wealthy local. Soon Eve's Cassie Holt and local sergeant Rory McMahon (Paul Reid) are looking into a secretive group of wealthy locals, while trying to outsmart a serial killer whose begun to pick them off. Trauma in Cassie's own past and a mysterious young woman (Shelley Hennig) also play heavily into the plot.

While not well reviewed and certainly overwrought and clichéd at times, this worked for me. Part of me thought I was better then this movie and it's tricks, but the characters are solid and I found myself invested in the story. Most of Eve and Banderas's scenes together are told in flashback because he dies so early in the film, at first I was uncertain about the narrative usefulness of this storytelling device but it won me over by the end. The film also indulges in something of an expectation subverting cheat, yet still manages to make it feel like it's earned and not a cheat. With bad guys worthy of hate and some reasonably effective catharsis, this is solid pulp which I'm giving an arguably better then it deserves ***

Also I wish this movie had a better name.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

 A father, his young son and daughter are involved in a horrible boat accident, eight years later the surviving child and her cousin are sent by an evidently disturbed aunt to summer at Camp Arawak. Shortly after arrival a pedophile cook is severely burned, then a camper drowns, then more disturbing things happen, the emotionally distant Angela (Felissa Rose) and the protective Ricky (Johnathan Tiersten) seem to be at the center of things. An imaginative and effective varation on camp/slasher troops, this cult classic has a deceptively well thought out construction and is famous for its ending, which if you don't already know it, best to see it unaware if you can. ***

Paris, Texas (1984)

 We open with Harry Dean Stanton walking out of the Texas desert, parched and dusty in a worn suit, red baseball hat and deteriorating shoes that might be sandles. Upon encountering civilization he heads into a sort of bar/general store, greedily scarfs down some ice from the ice chest and then collapses. Medical authorities identify him as Travis Henderson Jr., they contact his brother Walt (Dean Stockwell) in California, who promptly comes out to retrieve him. We learn that Travis disapered four years ago along with his wife (Nastassja Kinski) leaving behind a then three year old son, who Walt and his wife Ann (Auorore Clement) have been raising as their own. The mystery of what happened to Travis and his wife is slowly reveled over the course of the film.

'Paris, Texas' is a beautiful movie. Beautiful in its story and the empathetic portraits of its characters. Beautiful in its visual composition, gorgeous to look at nearly every frame in this movie could be blown up and hung on a gallery wall. Beautiful in what its German born director Wim Wenders is able to suss out about America, things us natives may be too close to see clearly and really appreciate. It has one of the greatest endings I've ever seen and is quite possibly the best movie of 1984. A real achievement and a glorious and moving experience to watch, I was very invested.

While in hind sight some things strain credulity a bit, the pairing of Stanton and Kinski, while not exactly credible when I was watching it seems even less so on reflection. Not that this really matters, the emotional truth of that relationship is there and expertly rendered. There are moments of German weirdness, though they add to the charm. That something could be so esoteric and expressive, almost surreal, but practically documentary at the same time, that's really something. A rainy road, under an overpass, a hillside California home and a fadded Texas neighborhood, kentic in a way I've never seen. Also the kid, Hunter Carson, so good but so much a real kid at the same time. Sam Shepherd's source material, L.M. Kit Carson's screenplay, as strong as Wim Wenders direction and Robby Muller's cinematography. Everything really comes together in this, I can't praise it highly enough. Please see 'Paris, Texas'. ****

Rare Beasts (2019)

 'Rare Beasts' is the directorial debut of Billie Piper, who also writes and stars. Piper is a single mother of an autistic son, who must decide if she can really see herself marring the traditionalist guy she's dating (Leo Bill). This is kind of the anti-romantic comedy, everything is messy and compromised, but true. At first Billie thinks Leo is the last man she wants, but finds that maybe he's the man she needs, maybe.  Throughout the whole film I kept thinking about Jordan Peterson, to whom this movie is partly in sympathy and partly in critique. There are alot of interesting ideas here, they don't entirely coalesce, but its intriguing. **1/2

The Bounty Man (1972)

 While geneally speaking I am a big fan of 20th century TV movies, which I watch fairly frequently, I have made it a policy not review them on this blog; I make an exception here for 'The Bounty Man', as it is what came up next in the Tarantino Grindhouse Box Set.

Produced by Aaron Spelling for the American Broadcast Company in 1972, at first I thought this may have been intended as a pilot movie, but given the way it ends I don't think so. Clint Walker, star of the 1955-1962 ABC western series 'Cheyenne', plays the bounty hunter Kinkaid, who is after high value outlaw Billy Riddle (John Ericson). Kinkaid succeeds in apprehending Riddle, but the bad guys girlfriend Mae (23 year old Margot Kidder) insists on accompaing them on the journey to the authorities. Along the way rival, less scrupulous bounty hunters, attempt as it were to jump Kinkaid's claim.

Fairly unremarkable western is mostly of intrest in Tarantino's selecting it for the box set circa 2007. There is here alot of what would make its way into later Tarantino films 'Django Unchained' and 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood'. Walker is an easily analogous figure to Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton, a TV western star of the Eisenhower/Kennedy years still working in genra TV in the Nixon era.

This is reasonably enjoyable in an undemanding TV kind of way, its unexceptionalness kind of its chief virtue. It's like watching an episode of 'Bounty Law' or  'Lancer'. **1/2

Apartment Troubles (2014)

 Co-written, co-directed and co-staring Jesse Wexler and Jennifer Prediger, the duo play life long friends, struggling artist and actress respectively, who upon the death of their cat and eviction from their illegally sublet New York City apartment, travel to Hollywood to compete on an American Idol knock off. Also staring Megan Mullally, Will Forte and Jeffrey Tambor. Very indie, indie dramedy features a cameo by Bob Byington, one of my favorite indie directors playing a rather socially awkward man. This is one of those movies where you either embrace what it's doing or it's likely to piss you off, I embraced it and rather enjoyed.  ***

Any Gun Can Play (1967)

 'Any Gun Can Play' is a Spaghetti Western labeled in the Tarantino Grindhouse Box Set as 'Go Kill and Come Back'. I was waiting and waiting for that films listed American star Chuck Conners to show up, but he didn't and the plot varied enough from what I'd read it should be online, that it prompted further internet searching to find out what movie I was actually watching. Turns out that there are two different late 1960's Spaghetti Westerns that were relassed in some markets under the title 'Go Kill and Come Back'. That both movies concern train robberies further complicates things.

The story here features a banker (Ed Byrnes), a bandito (Gilbert Rolands) and a bounty hunter (George Hilton) double crossing each other over $300,000 in stolen gold. Once I knew what movie I was watching, rather then being confused by the lack of Confederates and Chuck Conners, I was able to enjoy this more. Easy going, occasionally comic, with a plot that seems intentionaly hard to follow, by the end of the movie there are at least five different factions after the gold and three after the beautiful Stefania Careddu. This might be worth revisiting knowing what it is. **1/2

Addicted to Fresno (2015)

 When Judy Greer gets out of rehab for sex addiction, her sister Natasha Lyonne gets her a job as a hotel maid. In short order Judy accidentally kills a guest, the bronze medalist in hammer throwing at the 2008 Olympics. The sisters try to dispose of the body but end up being blackmailed and then have to raise $25,000 in 3 days. An occasionally funny comedy with alot of cameos, Aubrey Plaza, Fred Armisen, Clea DuVell, Molly Shannon, Ron Livingston and Kumail Nanjiani. **

Satan Never Sleeps (1962)

 Based on the book by Pearl S. Buck 'Satan Never Sleeps' concerns two Catholic mission priests facing the communist takeover of China in 1949. Clifton Webb, in his final film role before retirement, plays the senior priest, while William Holden is his junior. Holden certainly was cast in alot of Asian set films, he was also in 'Bridge on the River Kwai', 'The Bridge at Toko-Ri', 'Love is a Many Splendord Thing', 'The Proud and the Profain', 'The World of Suzie Wong' and 'The 7th Dawn', I may have missed some.

An on going bit in this film has France Nuyen as a potential convert who is smitten by Holden, in fact this drives a fair bit of the plot; the rest of the plot is principally about Communist agitation and Clifton Webb's health. 

'Satan Never Sleeps' isn't very good. A critical and financial failure, 31% on Rotton Tomatoes and $1.5 million box office on a $2.9 million budget. Also Holden sanctions the marriage of a woman and her rapist. **

Dreamboat (1952)

 Thornton Sayre (Clifton Webb) has been living comfortably for decades as a pompous professor of Latin and English literature at a small east cost college. Now a widower and with his academically inclined daughter Carol (Ann Francis) attending the college, his contented existence is thrown into turmoil when his past life finally catches up with him.

Decades before Thorton had, under the name Bruce Blair, been a celebrated lover of the silent screen. The films he made with co-star and then romantic partner Gloria Marlow (Ginger Rogers) have started showing on television and Thorton's students and his colleagues are in a tizzy. Thorton and Carol head for New York City in an effort to stop the films from being shown, high jinx ensue.

Clifton Webb, 62 at the time this movie was made, had in fact appeared in a number of silent films, though the ones shown here where made for this feature and use makeup and camera tricks to imply that Webb and Rogers are decades younger. The film also takes some amusing digs at television, a medium at the time much hated by the studios. This movie is legitimately funny, my favorite bit being when Webb ends up in a bar room brawl while a bar room brawl from one of his old movies plays on the television, he looks at it periodically for guidance in fighting. As with the other Webb comedys of the time this is targeted at a family  audiance, so it lacks the bite that someone like Billy Wilder could have brought to the project. Still ***

The Razor's Edge (1946)

 'The Razor's Edge' is adapted from the 1944 W. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage) novel of the same name. In fact Maugham is a character in the movie, played by Herbert Marshall the author is used as a sort of narrative device, as he chronicals events in the life of "a fascinating young man" he had encountered a number of times over the years.

Said young man is played by Tyrone Power, a WWI air fighter who Maugham first encountered at a party in the U.S. shortly after the advent of prohibition. Restless, Power leaves fiancee Gene Tierny behind to "loaf" around France for a year. She tracts him down in Paris, they breakup, she heads back to the States and marries a man of good prospects. Power stays in France, eventually he ends up working in a mine where he meets a defrocked Catholic priest who encourages him to go to India and study with Holy men there. Tyrone does this, has profound spiritual experiences that change his life. 

Years later, were are in the Depression now, Power is back in Paris, meets Maugham and Tierney again, as well as a childhood friend Ann Baxter (who won an Oscar for this part). Ann lost her husband and baby in a car accident back in Chicago, became a drunk, and because she is a character in this movie ended up in Paris. Tyrone cleans her up, gets her sober, they fall in love and get engaged. Tierney, a jealous woman who never got over Power, facilitates Baxter's relapse into alcoholism, which unsurprisingly dosen't end well.

A somewhat awkward adaptation, even as a movie it feels like a book. A passion project of studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, he spent lavishly on it an it paid off, $5 million in the US and Canada off $1.2 million. The critical reaction was and remains mixed, the film most notable for Baxter's Oscar, Power's post war transition into more serious parts, as well as an unusually positive portrail of Hinduism for an American studio film of the time. The movie also boasts a nice chewy part for Clifton Webb as Tierny's rich uncle. ***

Nope (2022)

 'Nope' is the 3rd feature from comedian turned horror auture Jordan Peele (I loved 'Get Out' but haven't seen 'Us'). Daniel Kaluuye and Keke Palmer are brother and sister, the family business for generations has been training horses for the movies, with changes in the industry and the death of their father its unclear how much longer that way of life can be sustained. But strange happenings around the ranch may mean that a new, potentially more lucrative opportunity has arrived at their doorstep.

Kaluuye and Palmer are joined by gravely voiced cinematographer Micheal Wincott and  curious Fry's Electonics employee Brandon Perea, in a plan to capture footage of a increasingly agreesive UFO before it kills them or others beat them to it. Steven Yeun is their neighbor, a former child actor turned family amusement entrepreneur who also has his eyes on the phenomena in the local sky's. This seemingly disjointed bunch of characters are on course to startling encounters and lots of subtext.

'Nope' borders on, but isn't quite, a horror parody, its much more. The movie has one of the strongest, most intricate screenplays I've seen in a long time, it is doing an awful lot. The movie is full of ruminations and has plenty of points it wants to make, it does an artful job of making them. 'Nope' reflects on genera trops of the sci-fi, horror, western and Hollywood navel gazing genras. It's about how Hollywood will chew you up and spit you out, how not all wild animals can be tamed, and the seduction of spectical and the prospects of easy stardom. It is about not learning your lesson, the ubiquity of cameras and the quest for "the impossible shot". It is about blood and found family and trying to save the dead. It is electric.

'Nope' sucked me in, offering a sense of awe and mystery of a most satisfying sort. I can't say enough about how well constructed this movie is, how it's many moving parts work together in  ways that at first seem halting and obscure, but which gain focus as they revel more and more. I  regret not seeing this on the big screen, though there is something to be said for watching it alone at home in the dark. As much as I enjoyed 'Get Out' you can really see Jordan Peele's growth as a filmmaker in this, he evokes flavors of feelings in his work that are idocenticly his own and yet made universal. Needless to say I am sold.****

Kiss the Girls (1997)

 I liked 'Along Came a Spider' enough that I rented 'Kiss the Girls' to complete the twology. Like its sequel this is also a satisfying thriller, it has twists but I saw more of them coming this time, I was aware. Watching them in reverse order I think I got more out of both films, processed the shared beats differently. (Something similar happened for me by accident years ago when I saw the Clint Eastwood / Clyde the chimp movies in reverse order.) Ashley Judd is rather strong in this and puting her and Morgan Freeman together as a team, well that's some real strike of lightning casting. ***

Along Came a Spider (2001)

 This is an Alex Cross movie, a James Patterson character, one of two in which he is played by Morgan Freeman. 'Kiss the Girls' came first, but this is the one that was free on Prime. Anyway a senators young daughter is kidnapped and Dr. Cross works with secret service agent Monica Potter to rescue her. Given the 32% Rotten Tomatoes rating this was alot better and smarter then I thought it would be. There were a number of twists I simply didn't see coming, I enjoyed being surprised. ***

The January Man (1989)

 Faye Grant, the socialite best friend of the daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) of New York City Mayor Rod Stiger is strangled to death as the ball drops in Times Square ringing in 1988. Part of a string of murders the police can't solve, the Mayor pressures police commissioner Harvey Keitel to reinstate his effective, but unorthodox and enemy making brother Kevin Kline to solve the case. Kline and Keitel are estrangenged owing to Harvey's using Kevin as a fall guy in a corruption scandal, as well as the commisioners stealing and marrying his girlfriend Susan Sarandon.

Police Captian Danny Aiello is none too happy about having Kline back either, especially when he commanders the best office in the precinct, brings in his kitten, his parot, expresso machine and painter best friend Alan Rickman as his assistant. Oh, dose this movie ever want you to know it's quirky. It's also soapy and silly and a mess. Tone is all over the place, picture can't decide how serious it wants to be. 

Kline getting a grieving Mastrantonio into bed after a brief post funeral conversation is gross and creepy. People don't behave like normal people in this movie. I did like seeing Alan Rickman playing something of a beatnik like character, as opposed to his typical uptight types. Kline's Holmsian leaps of deduction strain credulity. Why is artist Rickman, against established character, also a computer expert, during the Reagan era when there weren't many of them and it was hard to become one? Why the killer's overly elaborate and obscure patterns of killing? Why does Bill Cobb have only one scene? Why so many good actors in service of one of the worst screenplays I've  ever seen a major studio put to screen? This movie is so bad, that I'm puzzled why its not part of the pantheon of famously bad movies. An at times painful watch. *

Edge of Doom (1950)

 A distributed young man (Farley Granger) with a (not entirely baseless) grudge against the Catholic Church, murders a less then sympathetic priest (Harold Vermilyea) and gets away with it, only to be acussed of a robbery he didn't commit. Dana Andrews is a sympathetic priest who trys to help, well everybody.

Granger is so whiney in this it gets rather annoying, which unfortunately overshadows an otherwise pleasantly different idea for a film noir. **

Movie contains a clip that used to be used in TCM's night time bumpers. After seeing several clips also so used from 'Killer's Kiss' the other week, this is something of a streak.

Support the Girls (2018)

 Various happings over the course of one day at a Texas breasturant. There is an attempted robbery, a thrown together car wash fund raiser for a troubeld employee, a cable outage and problem customers. Regina Hall is the capable den mother of a manager, Haley Lu Richardson, AJ Michalka, Dylan Gelula some of the servers and Lea DeLaria a lesbian regular. The drama inherent to the young, the poor and working in the food service industry. It's a real slice of life, sweet and sad. ***

Emergency (2022)

 Three college roommates, two of them black and one brown, find an unconscious white girl in their apartment on the biggest party night of the year. Starts as rowdy college comedy then crosses with Jordan Peele infused racial horror. More awkward then funny, I have a sense of what it was aiming for, but the film didn't start coming together for me until more then an hour in. There are parts of this that I thought worked, some really worked, but it was just too uneven, tone all over the place, lose threads that never pay off. Disappointied. *1/2

Status Update (2018)

 Moving from California to Connecticut for his senior year Ross Lynch hates his life, until a magic, wish granting social media app teaches him what really matters. Gimmicky, Disney-esque fantasy romance is saved by likable characters and good music. Also staring Olivia Holt, Harvey Guillen, Brec Bassinger, Wendi McLendon-Covey, John Micheal Higgins, Famke Janssen and real life social media personality The Fat Jewish. **1/2

Pretty Maids All In A Row (1971)

 Southern California high school physiologist and football coach Rock Hudson, takes to killing the co-eds he sleeps with, can sexually frustrated student John David Carson stop him? 'Pretty Maids All In A Row' has been described as a perfect example of the "willing to try anything" attitude of the desperate film studios of the time, in this case MGM. Movie is a hodgepodge, a script by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, alot of sensuality, some nudity and a theme song by The Osmonds. In addition to Hudson cast includes two other 70's TV police officers, Angie Dickinson and Telly Savalas. This movie is a mess, but a watchable one. **

Mulholland Falls (1996)

 'Mulholland Falls' is essentially a remake of 'Chinatown' with shades of (the then forthcoming) 'L.A. Confidential' thrown in. Nick Nolte is with "the hat squad", plan clothed cops who skirt the law to uphold the law. Nick's ex mistress Jennifer Connelly turns up dead, sending him on a journy into a world of high end corruption. I side more with Siskel then Ebert on this one, couldn't get past the cliches and the better films this reminded me of. **

 Best of 2023

10 Dumb Money/Air

9 To Catch a Killer

8 Asteroid City 

7 Eileen

6 Napoleon 

5 Priscilla 

4 Barbie

3 Godzilla Minus One

2 Oppenheimer 

1 The Holdovers 

Drinking Buddies (2013)

 In 'Drinking Buddies' Olivia Wilde is Jack Johnson's work wife (at a brewery), which causes complications with respective love interests Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick. Joe Swanberg film from the year before 'Happy Christmas', which this is a little more serious then. Not much happens plot wise, the point is to have fun spending time with these characters. I prefer the 'Happy Christmas' characters but these folks are all right. **1/2

Deadline U.S.A (1952)

 Editor Humphrey Bogart takes on a mobster while trying to keep his paper from being sold and shuttered. Warm newspaper movie goodness. ***