Inherent Vice (2014)

Director Paul Thomas Anderson reteams with his The Master lead Joaquin Phoenix in this sprawling 70's noir based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. Inherent Vice is a rambling comedy drama with a winding plot concerning among other things drug smuggling and real estate development, it's massive largely name cast boasts the desired norish mix of odd ball characters. Not the emotional gut punch of The Master or There Will Be Blood, I'm not sure what if anything the film is trying to say on a subtextual level, it seems to be mainly about homage and playing in genre form. But its finely crafted and intriguing. and at 2 1/2 hours in length it only occasionally drags. This movie also makes me want to give The Nice Guys another viewing. *** 1/2

Snowden (2016)

Oliver Stone's biopic of Edward Snowden, the private intelligence contractor who at age 29 infamously leaked a treasure trove of classified American intelligence data to British journalist Glenn Greenwald and others before fleeing ultimately to Russia. The film follows the gradual political disillusionment of Snowden from a conservative training for special forces in 2004, to a disgruntled intelligence analysis who in 2013 committed what, slice it whichever way you like, was one of the larger acts of treason in U.S. history. The film is sympathetic to Snowden as you might expect from the politics of its famously liberal director, and I for one do not doubt that Snowden's actions came from a sincere place, and I suspect were ultimately for the long term benefit of the United States. But  I also think he still needs to go to prison. The film is well written and even restrained in its presentation, and its nice to see Stone again do a political film that's not about a politician. The cast is good, including small roles for Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Olyphant and Scott Eastwood. Shailene Woodly plays Snowden's long time girlfriend Lindsay Mills. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite good as Snowden as well, though I have mixed feelings about the way he does peoples voices. Really though, best Stone film in some time. ***1/2

One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern (2005)

Documentary on Democratic South Dakota Senator George McGovern and his famously failed 1972 bid for the presidency, in which he lost all but one state (Massachusetts) and the District of Columbia to Richard Nixon. McGovern, a famously decent man of true conviction and sincerity, who I had the privilege to briefly meet at a speaking engagement at Boise State University in 2004, is the chief but far from the only taking head in this film which also features the likes of Dick Gregory, Gary Hart, Gloria Steinem, and Gore Vidal among others, and is narrated by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. The movie covers pretty much all of McGovern's life and carrier up through the 72 campaign, but really doesn't go into his life after that, in which he still had a lot to accomplish (and in fact would live another 40 years). Released in 2005 this film has a lot of the anti George W. Bush / Iraq War background feeding into it, and very near the surface, yet the movie also struck me with its weird inverse parallels to the current presidential campaign, with a corruption plagued establishment figure on one side (Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton), and a populist who energized a 'forgotten base' and took on his party establishment on the other (McGovern, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump). ***

Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

Kiss of the Vampire is a Hammer Horror film about a newlywed English couple on their honeymoon in Germany circa 1905, and the vampire cult that attempts to recruit the misses. Nominal lead Edward de Souza looks remarkably like Raul Julia. A few elements in this, like how the vampires operate as a cult, and the way in which the film ends feel a little fresher then most Hammer vampire movies. It also feels perhaps the closet to The Devil Rides Out, my favorite Hammer film, of any of the studios other product which I have seen. ***

Targets (1968)

Ironically one of the last movies to feature "Old Hollywood" horror icon Boris Karloff, was also the first movie to be directed by "New Hollywood" wunderkind Peter Bogdanovich. The genesis of  what would become Targets comes from Karloff owing B movie producing legend Roger Corman a few days work, and the desire to reuse some footage from his 1963 horror film The Terror, featuring a young Jack Nicholson. Writer/director Bogdanovich took these two directives and built a rather effective and original story around them. The film itself is really two narratives which come together in the end, the first being Karloff playing essentially himself, an aging horror movie veteran named Byron Orlok, seriously considering retiring from film because the movies he's being asked to make just aren't that scary anymore. The second narrative was inspired by the then recent case of University of Texas tower sniper Charles Whitman. In this narrative the largely forgotten actor Tim O'Kelly nicely underplays a seemingly all American type young man who comes unhinged, kills his wife and his mother, and then goes on a shooting spree culminating in a very well staged sequence at the end, were from a small hole in a drive in movie screen he starts picking off movie goers in their cars who have come for a movie showing/ meet and great with Orlok. Though not a big success at the time Targets has since become something of a cult classic and impressed enough people in the film industry to help Bogdanovich secure financing for more personal projects and launch his film carrier. A good and unusual piece of horror filmmaking that showcases what a lot of creativity and talent can do on a shoestring budget. ***1/2

The Light Between Oceans (2016)

Film adaptation of the generally well received 2012 novel of the same name by Australian writer M. L. Stedman. The Light Between Oceans concerns Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) a traumatized veteran of the First World War who in the 1920's becomes the light house keeper on an isolated island, falls in a love and marries a girl named Isabel (Alicia Vikander) whose courtship occurs largely through letters, and takes her to live with him on the island. Shortly after Isabel's second miscarriage the couple rescue a baby girl they find in a small boat floating near the island in the company of her dead father. Rather then report this, and after much pleading from his wife, Tom agrees to pass the child off as their own. Some months later while visiting the mainland and Isabel's family to have baby Lucy christened, Tom spots a woman in mourning in the church yard cemetery (Rachel Weisz) and from the date and inscription on the tombstone she was crying at quickly puts together that Lucy is actually her baby. This puts Tom in a pretty obvious moral quandary and it is an agonizing one. This a hole in the pit of your stomach movie, and I will confess that I cried a little in the theater. Thought slow to get going, and entering Lifetime movie territory by way of style of R. F. Delderfield, this is an effective 'woman's weepy' of the old school, anchored by three strong lead performances. Not the kind of film I would usually go out of my way to see, but my mother loved the book and wanted me to get to know the story, and I'm glad I did. ***1/2

Inside Out (2015)

Disney Pixar film about an 11 year old girl named Riley coping with a family move from Minnesota to San Francisco, and seen largely through the perspective of the five personified emotions living in her head. Disney did an animated short along similar lines back in the 1940's, only there I think it was the Ego and the Id at the drivers seat, rather then Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Sadness in the control room. (Also as a point of reference there is the early 90's Fox sitcom Herman's Head). The movie is likable, charming and creative, though not on the level of many of Pixar's more iconic works. Still a strong animated film. I had been suspecting it was going to deal with clinical depression, instead it was a more straight forward case of the 'I miss my old home blues', which is fine because the other could have been rather dark for Pixar. ***1/2