Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

 Meh. The villians good but everything else treads a well worn path. Bill Murray's cameo (in the trailer, not a spoiler) feels very shoehorned in. Much visual barrowing from Star Wars, Dune and Guardians. I have issues with what was done to the Cassie character. **

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Minor Spoilers

"How's the despair?", the priest will ask Brendan Gleeson's Colm Doherty when he comes to confession; sometimes he will report it as a little better and sometimes as a little worse. But despair is always there and not just with Colm specifically but throughout Inisherin generally.

Inisherin is a fictional little island just off the Irish cost and the setting for 'The Banshees of Inisherin' the latest film from writer/director Martin McDonagh, best known for 'In Bruges' (which like this film stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrall) and the Oscar winning 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'.

It is 1923 and the post independence Irish Civil War rages on the mainland. The people of Inisherin pay it little mind, shunning news of it as unimportant but often commenting when the sounds of arms fire can occasionally be heard from across their little moat. A "civil war" of another sort has caught the imagination of the islanders, Colm Doherty the fiddle player dosen't want to be friends with Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Ferrell) the dairy man anymore. The two had been best friends for years, you could about set your clock from the 2pm pint they would enjoy at the tavern together, then one day Colm just didn't like Padraic anymore.

When pressed on the matter Colm says that he can feel the time slipping away on him, the friendship with Padraic represents wasted hours he could spend compossing, besides which Mr. Suilleabhan is a dull man who once spent two hours "I timed it" discoursing on things he found in the waste of his beloved miniture donky "Jenny".

Like Colm Padraic is a sad man, a life long bachelor he has little in his life of value, chiefly "Jenny", his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and the friendship with Colm. The loss of that friendship is incomprehensable to Padraic, try as he might he can't wrap his mind around it, it must have been something he has done, there must be something he can do. He pressures Colm who finally gives him an ultimatum, leave him alone, don't talk to him, or every time he does he will shear off a finger and deliver it to him. 

The priest asks Colm if he left anything out of his confession, he says no. The Priest asks what happened between him and Padraic? Colm asks if it's a sin to not be friends with a man? The priest says no but that it isn't nice.

Padraic is considerd a nice man by his neighbours, certainly Dominic Kearny (Barry Keoghan) thinks so. That Padraic and Colm have had a falling out presents him an opportunity to make Padraic his new best friend. Dominic is considerd to be the dimist man on the island and is lacking in friends. Dominic's father is the local constable, a mean drunk who beats him. Being friends with Padraic would get him out of the house and allow opportunity to be near Siobhan, whom he fancies. 

A new friend however is insufficient distraction, Padraic is still obsessing, looking for ways to repair things with Colm, or failing that get some kind of revenge. Siobhan starts seriously considering a job offer at a library on the mainland, Dominic starts thinking Padraic not so nice, Mrs. McCormick (Shelia Flitton) the local soothsayer states that death is coming to the island soon, "One, maybe two". A reckoning awaits.

'The Banshees of Inisharian' is elegantly consturcted, full of parallels and counterpoints, a prolonged parable that cries out for exigious. A sad rumination on depression, existential angist, frustration and dispair. I found it unexpectedly profound, perhaps the most thought provoking film of the year, a status I had thought 'Women Talking' had all sown up. In addition for roughly it's first half or so this is one of the funniest movies of the year, the situation is absurd, even as it becomes tragic. **** 

Secret Valley (1937)

 Virginia Grey finds out her new husband is a notorious racketer, flees to Nevada for a "quckie" divorce, stays at Richard Arlene's failing ranch, at first he finds her annoying but ultimelty falls for her. Grey's husband and his henchmen come looking for her, there is a confrontation and somewhere in there the ranch gets saved. Film also sports an Asian cook with a fondness for hooky western songs like "Oh My Darling Clementine". Not horrible but consistently blah without an original bone in it's body. Too long at only about an hour in length. *1/2

All Over Town (1937)

 The largely forgotten comedy team of Chic Johnson and Ole Olsen try to put over a show in a famously haunted New York theater and get a gun out of the belly of a trained seal. Suitably off kilter but it's no 'Hellzapoppin'. **

Fort Bliss (2015)

 Michelle Monaghan is an Army medic, loses someone close to her in Afghanistan... Comes home to Fort Bliss, outside El Paso... Her 5 year old son, she's a stranger to him, thinks of his father's fiance as Mom... Relationships are tough for her, son, her ex, nice guy mechanic she meets... Is called back to Afghanistan quicker then expected, there's fall out... Sex assult and suicide bomber flashbacks... Pretty earnest, fairly good, took a bit to grow on me... Ron Livingston, Emmauelle Chriqi and a guy I thought looked like Freddy Rodriguez but turned out to be the real Freddy Rodriguez. **1/2

The Trial (1962)

 While Orsen Wells will always be best known for 'Citizen Kane' he is on record stating he thinks 'The Trial' is his best movie; I think he's wrong, I think it is 'Kane' but 'Trial' is one of his best. 

An adaption of the Franz Kafka novel of the same name, this is the story of a man awaiting trial for a crime, but no one will tell him what he's supposed to have done and what he's being charged with. This is Kafka's wheelhouse, absudity, futility, an impenetrable buracracy crushing ones very soul, Franz Kafka had been a civil servant.

 Anthony Perkins two years post 'Psycho' is the everyman victim Joseph K., he does fine work and is on record saying this (not Norman Bates) is the role he's most proud of. The rest of the cast consists largely of 'faceless-type' men, though director Wells also appears as an 'Advocate' and then there are various beautiful women who seemingly throw themselves at Jospeh K., with Romy Schneider being the most memorable. (Joseph K.'s general disinterest in these women, as well as Perkins casting, has lead this film to be often viewed as queer coded.)

A surreal horror story, an anxious movie. Excellent editing, camera work and wonderful set design and locations, from crumbling courthouses to bleak modernist apartment blocks. The film was shot throughout Europe, from Paris to Prauge to Rome. Film has some excellent dialouge scenes, it's that rare movie where I could both just listen to it and watch it without sound.

I was always interested while viewing but at a certain point the absurdity reached "big grin" levels and held them for some time. I was lucky to see this theatrically. 'The Trial' is a hard to run down film, I hope to see it again. ****

Switchblade Sisters (1975)

 'The Silver Daggers' and their female auxiliary 'The Dagger Debs' go to war against 'Crabs' and his gang. Lace's man Dominic is killed in the "roller rink massacer" but it was an inside job, the 'Debs' go independent as 'The Jezabels', team up with some inner city communists and have an internal leadership struggle which results in Maggie assuming power.

Teen gang film is well thought of amongst explotation afficenandos. Jack Hill's always capable direction is manifest throughout and despite a few good set pieces film suffers from lack of a charismatic central character ala Pam Grier. I suspect however that this is the kind of film that gets better on repeat viewing. **1/2