Condemned! (1929)

 Early talkie. Ronald Coleman (Clark Gable before Clark Gable) is a suave thief sentenced to the South American French penal colony at Devils Island (in operation 1852 -1952). The stupid warden (Dudley Diggs) decides to make Coleman his house servant, which means he'll be spending alot of time around the wardens much younger wife Ann Harding. This doesn't end well for the stupid warden, and he has only himself to blame. Much as I have only myself to blame for watching 'Condemned', as I already knew that 1920's talkies are seldom good. **

White (1994)

 A Polish hairdresser (Zbigniew Zamachowski) is divorced by Julie Delpy in France, then is smuggled back home in a suitcase, gets involved in a real estate scheme, prevents a bridge players suicide, becomes a business mogul, and fakes his own death, all in an attempt to... The darkly melancholy Polish humor may not fully translate. Odd middle chapter in Krzysztof Kieślowski 'Three Colors Trilogy'. This thing threw me, I'll probably like it more on a rewatch. **1/2

Midnight Express (1978)

 This is the once famed "Turkish Prison" movie, bain of the Istanbul tourist board. I was aware of this from a pretty young age, it used to be referenced in pop culture a fair bit, today you never hear about it. Gen Z knows not 'Midnight Express'.

This is the true story of Bill Hayes, at 23 he was arrested for trying to smuggle 4 lbs of hashish out of Turky. This was in 1970. Originally sentenced to around 3 years in prison, 53 days before he was to be released his sentence was upped to 30 years. A higher court wanted to set an example, the lower court judge (one of the few Turkish characters to come off reasonably well) was forced to comply. Bill would eventually escape from prison in 1975, come back to the Sates and write the book on which this movie is based.

The movie is mostly slow periods mixed with moments of brutality and horror. There is a real sense of helpless dread to the piece. Brad Davis plays Hayes, he's not the strongest actor but he conveys Bill's torments effectively. John Hurt and Randy Quaid play two of Bill's fellow inmates, they are likely the only actors in the film you'll recognize.

'Express' did tremendously well at the box office, taking in $35 million off a $2.3 million budget. It won two Oscar's, Best Adapted Screenplay for Oliver Stone, and best score for Giorgio Morodor, an Italin born composer who did other film scores, most memorably for 'The Neverending Story', but made his greatest mark as a composer and producer of popular music, earning him the honorific "The Father of Disco". ***

Call Northside 777 (1948)

 This oddly titled film is based on the true story of a Chicago journalists investigations, which got a man wrongly convicted for the murder of a police officer released. (The woman whose testimony convicted him lied, afraid of retribution from the real killers.) Sometimes mistakenly identified as a film noir, which its really not. The movie is done in a then popular quasi documentary style, one which I don't much care for, though there are exceptions like 'The Snake Pit' which came out that same year. 

James Stewart is the reporter, he elevates this thing, it would be forgotten without him. I also liked the polygraph scene, which manages to both explain the then newish process to the audience, and be somewhat tense. On the whole though not much to this. I'm glad the guy got released, but suspect the reporters articals were more interesting then this movie. ** (One of those stars is for James Stewart's performance alone.)

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part 1 (2023)

 The 'Mission Impossible' films remain the most consistently high quality vehicles for Hollywood action spectical today. Tom Cruse's signature stunt work and elaborate set pieces, highlights here being a Roman car chase, around a half hour on a train, and that motor cycle jump off a mountain. Regulars Ving Rhams, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson return, new additions include Hayley Atwell, Pom Alexandra and Esai Morales. While the plots don't really matter a whole lot here, they are at least reasonably intelligent. The main villain of the piece is reveled before the title sequence, so it's arguably not a spoiler, but I'll just say I think we will be seeing alot of this type in the near term. Worth seeing on the big screen. ***1/2

Holy Hell (2016)

 Three weeks after graduating from film school in 1985, Will Allen meet his sisters spiritual guru Michel Rostand, he was mesmerized by the man and his movement and would spend the next 22 years in the Buddfield cult. Will served as the groups in-house filmmaker, doing documentary work, directing short films, at least one music video, and recording the annual ballet performances the group did during most of the 1990's. Will retained this massive video archive, which combined with roughly present day interviews with former members and family, make up most of this documentary film.

The charismatic Rostand started his group in Hollywood, moved it to Austin and later Hawaii. Something of a mystery who was vauge about his past, he changed his name several times, even while leading the group. His true backstory had to be pieced together. Born Jamie Gomez in Venezula in 1942, his mother died when he was an infant, details about his relationship with his father are uncertain, but he had implied or told multiple followers he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child.

Gomez came to the United States, apparently in the 1960's, danced ballet professionally in California and became an actor, bit parts, mostly or all non speaking, but in some major movies including 'Airport 1975' and 'Rosemary's Baby'. He also did gay porn. Gomez became a licensed hypno therapist and then started Buddfield in the 1980's. A hodgepodge of vaugly Eastern New Age beliefs, Gomez claimed to have trained under a 'Master' but really got his ideas out of various books. While in its early years the group was somewhat benign, it didn't stay that way.

Gomez's group preached celibacy, but former group members state there was alot of consensual sex going on between members, and non consensual between Gomez and some of his better looking male acolytes. Will chronicals his near quarter century with the group form idealistic early day's, to mass defections in 2007 when the extent of the guru's abuses came to light via an anonymous whistle-blower, confirmed by many others. However not everybody left, Gomez also managed to attract additional followers and apparently leads a small group even today.

This film exists and this story is told largely because of Will Allen's near constant filming, as well as his perseverance both as a film maker and as a cult survivor. This is a one of a kind work. ***

A Different Story (1978)

 'A Different Story' lives up to its title. Meg Foster is Stella Cooke, a real estate agent in Beverly Hills. One day while about to show a property she finds a squatter inside, a squatter she vaugly knows. Perry King plays that squatter, his name is Albert Walreavens and until recently he was the boyfriend of one of Stella's wealthy clients. Ms. Cooke invites Albert to stay with her until he can make other arrangements, he tries unsuccessfully to do so but ends up staying on a long term basis. Stella and Albert find that they get along, their personalities click, they become best friends. Stella goes out and makes the money, Albert stays home, takes care of the condo and proves an excellently cook. The whole situation becomes very domestic. The sexual tension such a set up would seem to invite is mitigated because Stella is a lesbian and Albert is gay.

Things go well, but then complication arises when Albert's legal status in this country comes into question. You see Albert is Belgian, something you wouldn't guess from hearing him talk. The movie explains this away through some delightfully lazy dialogue. "Why don't you have an accent?" "Because I don't want one."

Stella suggests they get married as way to keep Albert in the country legally, so they do. Things continue to go well and Albert manages to land some work outside the home. One night they attend a birthday party, they get drunk, once home they start to fool around and end up having sex. The next morning neither talks about it, they are not sure what to make of it. When they finally do talk about it they realize they both liked it, so this domestic partnership becomes a real marriage.

Within three months Stella is pregnant, they decide to have the kid and raise it. Stella has a sometimes girlfriend named Phyllis, played by Valerie Curtin.  Phyllis is a high strung sort, a school teacher she is paranoid about her personal life becoming public, a major reason her and Stella's relationship never quite worked out. Well she finds out about Stella and Albert's new relationship, this prompts a suicide scare our couple must intervene to stop. They succeed but we never see Phyllis again.

Stella and Albert have a baby boy they name Albert Jr. Stella stays home to care for him. Albert, the son of a tailor, gets work in the fashion industry. His talent is soon recognized and he rises through the ranks quickly to become the assistant of a prominent designer, this designer is clearly gay. Albert start spending more and more time working late, Stella gets suspicious and surprises him one night. She finds him in the shower with someone, unexpectedly it's another woman.

Unsurprisingly this puts a great deal of stress on their relationship, Stella wants a divorce, Albert wants to explain but she won't listen. Eventually Albert forces a situation where she has to hear him out. He apologizes profusely, says he deeply regrets his mistake, loves Stella, and it will never happen again. He explaines that he had never anticipated becoming a husband and father, nor the work success he'd achieved; he was modeling off his understanding of what a successful man does, cheat on his wife. You know what, I can kind of buy this explanation, so does Stella and by the end the couple is reconciled. This really is a different story.

What a strange movie. I don't know who this was for then, and even less so now. The film never really takes a position on homosexual relationships, it doesn't overtly critize them, though it would be hard not to notice the couples adoption of traditional gender roles by the end of the film. The movie is too graphic to be of presumably much use in a 'pray the gay away' "educational" context.

The story of course is a horrible model, the 'become straight by finding the right partner' trope which is highly unrealistic and has caused so much pain for so many over the years. However, as viewed from our time of increased acceptance of gender fluidity, perhaps these two were more bisexual then they realized.

This film could have easily been a total disaster, but the likability of Foster and King goes a long way to selling it. Both are long time second stringers who never broke out, though Foster has extremely memorable blue eyes, and King is one of those actors you recognize but can't quite place. The pretty good script is directed in a pretty straight forward style, the films mixture of the low key and melodramatic works for it. It's off kilter energy is matched by an extremely 1970's production design, I'm a fan of the aesthetic but here there is honestly too much of it. It's a hard to make out kind of picture, though honestly I enjoyed it, was charmed by it, even with all its problems. **1/2