Carrie (1976)

 This is the original cinematic 'Carrie', and though I know the story pretty well from cultural osmosis, I've never seen a version of this before or read the book. Interestingly De Palma's 'Carrie' is the first film version of a Stephen King novel, and also interestingly it happens to be of King's first novel. This is a real strong start for what would turn out to be a veritable sub genre, the "Stephen King Film".  

I knew going in how iconic this film was, while I haven't read the book so can't fully speak on it as an adaption, as a movie it gets everything right, much as would the second King feature 'The Shinning' four years later (though King was famously dissatisfied with that film as an adaptation, as a film in its own right its momentous). 'Carrie' is well cast, well acted, well shot, well paced, well structured, and leads up to a climax that is probably still King's most iconic. 

There are some things I had assumed about the story that turned out not to be true here, in addition to the PE teacher there are in fact a couple of students who turn out to be sincerely wanting to help Carrie, Amy Irving (who De Palma cast in multiple films) and 'The Greatest American Hero' himself William Kitt. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie are so wonderful in their roles as Carrie and her mother, that its hard to imagine they could every be surpassed. 'Carrie' is another classic for a reason, De Palma could seemingly do no wrong in the late 70's and early 80's. ****

Blow Out (1981)

 I hesitated to watch this one for a long time, because I suspected it would just be a modified version of 'Blow Up', which is a movie I think very highly of and don't think needs remade. To an extent it is that, but it is also a lot more; 'homage' is something De Palma does very well, while always putting his distinct tonal and directorial mark on it. 

In 'Blow Up' a photographer captures evidence of a murder in a photograph, though he doesn't realize at first the significance of what he caught on film. In 'Blow Out' John Travolta is a sound man out capturing nature sounds at night, when he catches audio of a passing car experiencing a tire blow out and then crashing into the river. Travolta is able to rescue only one of the two people in the car, Nancy Allen, making this a reteaming of the two from 'Carrie' five years before. While in Carrie the couple are assholes, in 'Blow Out' they are generally good people. 

It is only when at the hospital following his rescue of Nancy, that John learns the other person in the car was the governor (this film is set in Pennsylvania), an early favorite for the next years presidential election. As you'd expect given the set up, the audio Travolta captured may prove the death not an accident. 

While the first act of the film owes a lot to it's Antonioni predecessor, the bulk of the film owes more to the paranoid political thrillers of the seventies, such as 'The Parallax View'.  As I've been watching these De Palma films I've been noticing his penchant of casting many of the same actors in his films; I'm getting a sense of his stock company, for example I don't think anyone else has used Dennis Franz as effectively. 'Blow Out' is a very involving movie, and provides further evidence that Brian De Palma was Alfred Hitchcock's early successor as the cinematic 'Master of Suspense'. ****

Dressed to Kill (1980)

 I hadn't really planed on it, but I ended up having a Brian De Palma week. I had started 'Dressed to Kill' a couple times before but had never completed it, stopping in the first 10 minutes or so, finding I wasn't in the mode. I decided to power through it this time and I'm glad I did. De Palma is known for being obsessed with Hitchcock, whose influence on his work is very overt. 'Dressed to Kill' is a riff on 'Psycho', sharing structural, thematic and visual elements. Yet it totally works as its own movie, its not a mere rehash like the notorious 'Psycho' remake of the 90's. I hesitate to get into the plot in any detail, as the surprises are worth experiencing, and if I started writing about this movie in detail I think I'd have a hard time stopping. It is in a number of ways exploitative, but it's parts are all strong leading to a satisfying whole. This is considered one of De Palma's best for a reason. ****

Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)

A now 73 year old Charles Bronson returns as Paul Kersey, now back in New York and living under a fake name courtesy of the Witness Protection Program, he's teaching architecture at a university (seems like a place he might run into old colleagues, but what the hay) and dating Lesley-Anne Down whose 33 years his junior and has a 12ish year old daughter. Down is a well known fashion designer whose ex husband Michael Parks is a sadistic mobster who still has his hands in her business. Parks, not knowing who Bronson really is, makes the mistake of killing Lesley-Anne, and as this is a Death Wish movie you know what happens next. Bronson is long in the tooth, but I'd be lying if I said some of those revenge deaths weren't fun to watch. This film comes close to rivaling 'Death Wish 3' in terms of ridiculousness and camp, but if you see just one Death Wish movie it should still be number 3. 'Death Wish 5' is still better then it should be. *1/2

The Living Idol (1957)

 Part rather slow and abstract horror movie, and part travelog, 'The Living Idol' boasts some gorgeous color photography of 1950's Mexico, both urban and the jungle. The plot concerns Liliane Montevecchi, the daughter of a Mexican archeological worker whose father is killed under unusual circumstances. Following his death Liliane is taken in by James Robertson Justice, a European archeologist whose lived in Mexico for decades, and his native wife Sara Garcia, both of whom she's known her whole life. 

Liliane's dads (accidental?) death occurs during the visit of a family friend, Yankee photo journalist Steve Forrest, who Liliane has been in love with since she was eight. Liliane makes this known to Steve, but Steve thinks she's too young (I think her character is supposed to be around 18). Steve leaves to cover the Korean War and says they'll talk about it when he gets back. 

It is several years before Steve makes it back to Mexico, Liliane is now a college student and James is teaching at the university. In the interim James has becoming increasing obsessed with an Aztec legend about a fearsome Jaguar God who demands human sacrifice. Steve determines that James may not be so sane anymore and that Liliane might be in danger. 

This movie is beautiful to look at, top notch cinematography, lovely locations and people, I just wish they'd done more with the story, it  lacks the heft to properly compliment the visuals. **1/2

 

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)

The Gen Z children of rich parents decide to wait out a hurricane in Pete Davidsons dad's mansion (I guess this is supposed to be Florida) and have a party.  Amandla Sternberg, recently out of rehab, arrives unexpectedly with her new (and decidedly not rich) girlfriend Maria Bakalova. So Maria is the audience surrogate character, she quickly notices tensions within the friend group and mostly tries to keep a low profile. 

To pass the time the group decides to play a 'guess the murderer' party game called 'bodies, bodies, bodies', but then the actual dead bodies of group members start to turn up and the friends quickly find themselves turning on each other, and trying to determine who the real murder is. I hesitate to say more then that concerning the plot, it took a bit to get going but I really enjoyed this movie, it surprised me. ***

High Treason (1929)

British sci-fi film was released in talkie and silent versions, I saw the talkie version. Set in the future year of 1940, 'High Treason' posits a future where the Western World is divided chiefly between two federated states, 'The United States of Europe' compressing that continent, Africa, Britain and its Common Wealth; and the Empire of the Atlantic States, comprising North and South America save for the Dominion of Canada. So the boarder between Canada and the old United States is the most tense in the world, there are skirmishes there, chiefly related to rum running because apparently America is still under prohibition. We see these reported on the television news. 

A prominent peace advocate, as this movie was made at a time when prominent peace advocates were a thing, tries to hold Europe back from the brink of war, but then there is a terrorist attack on the Chunnel (yes this film predicted the Chunnel) and war seams inevitable. The peace advocate, whose daughter is dating a higher up in the European military (I made the decision not to bother with the names of the characters and the obscure actors who played them), may need to commit some titular 'High Treason' to stop it. 

He does commitment that treason, but owns it and consents to his execution, taking one for the geo political team. It's dry, but its short (95 minutes for the talkie), and there is some decent model work for the time. A curio. *1/2