Sleepers West (1941)

 In Lloyd Nolan's second Micheal Shayne movie the detective is escorting a secret witness (Mary Beth Hughes) by train from Denver to San Fransico, this all relates to some unfinished business from his time on the police department. On the train Shayne encounters an old flame (Lynn Bari) and some people who would like to kill the witness. There is nothing special about what might be called the "mystery element" of the film, but there is some poignancy to a sub plot about would be lovers who meet on the train and the film is never more entertaining then when Shayne is messing with people. Getting the now endangered witness off the train by Ogden also becomes a plot point. So far this series remains solid. ***

Micheal Shayne, Private Detective (1940)

I recently rewatched 'Peyton Place', a movie I love in which Lloyd Nolan plays wise old Dr. Swain, it's a very endearing performance. Nolan was a character actor whose career spaned from the 30's to the 80's but not someone you'd build a film around, or so I thought.

Turns out that Nolan stared in 7 'Micheal Shayne Private Detective' movies for 20th Century Fox between 1940 and 1942; these were B pictures running around 75 minutes or so. P. I. films of this type tend to be pretty non descript, working class smart alicks with good hearts underneath, Nolan plays the part on the less cynical side and is likable.

In this first film in the series, simply titled 'Micheal Shayne, Private Detective', the plot  concerns murder, a love triangle, the fixing of horse races and all appears to be set in California. Lots of genra type characters in this, most memorable is Crossville, Tennessee native Marjorie Weaver as the female lead and Elizabeth Patterson as her aunt, a character whose vorocious appitie for mystery stories causes her to over involve herself in the proceedings.

I don't recall hearing of the Micheal Shayne character before, despite seeming rather generic he was a pretty hot property for some time. Micheal Shayne appered in 77 paperback novels (the later 27 written by ghost writers after creator Brett Halliday's death), over 300 short stories, the 7 20th Century Fox films and an additional 5 over at PRC (Producers Releasing Company) where the part was played by Hugh Beaumont, later the dad on 'Leave it to Beaver'. Three different actors would play Shayne on the radio between 1944 and 1953, there was a single season TV series on NBC 1960-61 and there were also comic books. Impressive.

'Micheal Shayne, Private Detective' is a reasonably solid first offering, kind of playful and ultimately better then I expected, so I'm going to give it ***

Cocaine Bear (2023)

 In 1985 a 175 lb Ameican black bear died from an overdose of cocaine in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in northern Georgia. The cocaine came from a duffel bag dropped by plane into the park as part of a bouched drug running operation, a participant in that operaton Andrew Carter Thornton II died when his parachute failed to open and he landed in a Knoxville, Tennessee suburb. The new film 'Cocaine Bear' takes that basic premise and imagines what violent shanagines a bear high on cocaine might get into.

'Cocaine Bear' is a funny concept and the trailer got a lot of positive buzz when it was released a few months ago, but can a movie with such a bizarre premise really work? In my view it did, exceeding expectations 'Cocaine Bear' was a fun time at the movies. The film blends the obvious explotation style gore the idea suggets, an approprate sense of humor about its self, as well as an 80's family adventure film angle, and it works remarkably well; kudos to director Elizabeth Banks for really pulling what could have been a disaster together.

Folks who encounter the bear in the woods include Margot Martindale as a Forrest Ranger, Kerri Russell as a mother looking for her truant daughter (Russell's real life husband Matthew Rhys puts in a cameo appearance as the ill fated Thorton), Isiah Whitlock Jr. as a cop after the drugs, O'shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich and Ray Liotta (in one of his last film roles) as drug dealers after the same. It took a little bit to get going but I had a fun time watching this and continue to marvel at just how well the movie turned out, the pacing is right, the character arcs work, it doesn't overplay the 80's nostalgia. It's a fine film, a legitmatly good movie which I will give ***.

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

 Spoilers

If 'Triangle of Sadness' hadn't been nominated for a best picture Oscar I likely never would have seen it, that would have been no great loss. A satire of the rich and the pursuit of money, 'Sadness' has an international cast and spends most of its running time harassing and torturing them; though the wealthy here are not so much monsters as they are clueless.

 A group of the 1% go on a Caribbean cruise is a fancy yatch, the voyage is awfull, they encounter rough seas and pirates, the ship sinks. A group of survivors wash up on a beach, their general lack of survival skills allows a toilet attendant to assume control of the group as only she knows how to fish and start a fire, it goes to her head.

While the film is well made, it looks good, the acting is fine and it's occasionally clever, it's also all over the place. The structure feels odd, divided into the three uneven acts with characters coming and going without resolution, it plays longer then it's 147 minutes. It's was not a fun watch, the back and forth between a Russian billionaire and the ships admittedly Marxist captian played by Woody Harrlson was probably the high point, though even that was barley above sea level. South African born model/actress Charlbi Dean Kriek is probably the most memorable member of the cast and this movie would likley have opened a lot of doors for her, however she died of a bacterial infection this summer at the age of 32, an unpleasant coda to an unpleasant film. *1/2

Jesus Revolution (2023)

 'Jesus Revolution' is about the "Jesus Revolution" also known as the "Jesus Movement" or "Jesus Freaks", a Christian revival amongst hippies and disillusioned young people that started in California in the late 60's, spread nationally and then petered out in the early 70's. It's cheif legacy, besides lives changed, are a number of Church's and ministries that grew out of it and the birth of "Praise and Worship" aka "Christian Rock" services which have changed the face of much of American Christianity, to no doubt mixed results. 

The film focuses on the stories of three prominate figures in the movment; Chuck Smith (played thoughtfully by Kelsey Grammer) who founded Calvary Chapel, which became a kind of "franchise church" with over 1,000 locations at peak; Lonnie Frisbee a bearded "prophet figure" (played by Jonathan Roumie, who is Jesus on the popular series 'The Chosen') who became a founder of "The Vinyard Movment" and Greg Laurie a troubled young man (played by Joel Courtney, who looks like a young Emile Hirsch) who founded Harvest Christian Fellowship and Harvest Crusides. There is much Christian brand simotry to this movie.

The film follows some pretty obvious beats for its first half or so but impressed me when it didn't wrap up everything with a quick nice bow, after initial success cracks and jealously amongst our lead figures lead to some real consequences, though everything is made good again in the closing 'what happened after' screen texts.

This film is okay, not horrible but not great. It has good moments but at least to me was not as moving as it no doubt intended to be. Still the film is quite competently done, has better the average production values for a "Christian film" and is largely good spirited, sadly not a given in the field of movies aimed at an evangelical audiance. **1/2

The Front (1976)

 Set in early 1950's New York, Woody Allen plays a small time hustler who starts fronting for blacklisted televison writers. Film written, directed, produced and co staring actual blacklistees. Excellent sense of time and place but central conceit runs thin and overdry. Nice ending. **

Stories We Tell (2013)

 Documentary chronicles actress and director Sarah Polley's discovery that she was the product of an extramarital affair. Everyone in this is Canadian and their reactions are delightfully Canadian, big hearted, loving, generous, their is little anger and pettiness here, much forgiveness. Sarah turns out to have two great dads, each of which still agrees she had a great mother too. ***1/2