Drugstore June (2024)

 I recently became a fan of the comedian Esther Povitsky, so when I learned that she was to be the lead in a film I knew I had to see it. I will start by saying 'Drugstore June' is not for all tastes, it's an incredibly idiosyncratic film that only Povitsky could make. She plays June Fine, a variation on her wider comic persona. June is a Millennial stereotype as well as an extremely individual person. The world she lives in, a small Illinois town populated by fellow comedians and a couple of unexpected casting choices, I found a delight to visit.

This is a film dense with dry humor, almost every line of dialogue is on at least some level funny. June is of indeterminate age, still living at home with her parents and brother. She is self obsessed, a social media and sugar junkie, still desperately in love with her ex boyfriend of two years Davey. Davey is played by Haley Joel Osment and it is an ongoing joke how this unexceptional looking fast food manager is somehow admired by everyone who knows him and is considered a real catch.

June hopes to get Davey back from his fiance Miranda Cosgrove. She at one point wants to be deputized and literally arrest him in order to spend time with him. You see the drugstore where June works for her very tolerant employer Bobby Lee has been robbed. June thinks that she can somehow solve the case and this will somehow get Davey back. She sets out on her own investigation, interacts with a bunch of colorful characters and in the end, against all odds, somehow...

I won't spoil it.

There are so many funny and telling details, quarks of personalities and the way people interact. June's propensity to speak in clichés, her strange obsessions, such as 20 years trying to convince the family doctor Bill Burr to diagnose her as on the autism spectrum, she's both off putting and oddly endering. I've watched this three times and it's funnier each time. Again not for all tastes, but for me this is a new favorite. ***

Carry on Emannuelle (1978)

 Well, after 15 years I finally finished that Grindhouse movie set I bought at Boarders Books and Music. Tarantino chose to close it up in a kind of meta fashion with movie #20. 'Carry On Emmanuelle' is the 30th in the series of 'Carry On' films, bawdy sex comedies of the Benny Hill school which spanned from 1958's 'Carry On Sargent' to 1992's 'Carry On Columbus'. I'd heard of these but never seen one before, I was aware they spoofed all kinds of topics. What they are saterizing here are the 'Emmanuelle' films, a series of internationally successful French erotic dramas featuring a sexually adventures woman named Emmanuelle.

Here Emmanuelle (the lovely Suzanne Danielle) is married to the newly appointed French ambassador to England (Kennth Williams). The ambassador is impotent so his wife seeks her pleasure with the household staff and various big wigs who visit, including the Prime Minister. Larry Dann, a recurring player in these since the 50's, is an obsessive one night stand of Emmanuelle's who documents her hanky panky resulting in a massive public sex scandle remiscent of the real life "Profuma Affair" of 1960's British politics. 

Audiences and critics were exhausted of this series by 1978, the film scores only 17% on Rotton Tomatoes and they didn't make another one of these until 1992, which would turn out to be the last. However I enjoyed this, I'll take lower tier Bristish spoof over lower tier American spoof almost any day. Suzanne Danielle is quite enchanting, she sells the thing, if they hadn't cast her right I can see this film being kind of awful. **

Mad Max (1979)

 Yep, I'd never seen this. The first in Frank Miller's 'Mad Max' series, this is essentially an origin story for Mel Gibson's iconic character. The film is set mid-apocolypse, society is slowly breaking down from gas shortages and ecocide. Agreesive motorcycle gangs roam the country, there is still a police force and they a leather clad for some reason. Max is an effective cop but he leaves the force to protect his family after earning the ire of a particularly vicious gang. This is not enough however and they track him down, resulting in the incident that makes him so mad. This is pretty solid, the slow collapse of the society is unsettling. The franchise would go the way of Rambo with the first film being very reflective and ethically gray, while later entries focus more on action spectical. ***

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. *