A peculiar SF allegory about a mental patient in Buenos Aires who claims to be from another planet, this probably has the second best use of the climax from Beethoven’s Ninth in a film (after Tarkovsky’s Stalker). Not for every taste, and perhaps a bit deja vu for spectators who’ve encountered too many versions of this visionary Christian parable elsewhere, but otherwise odd enough to warrant a look. Directed by Eliseo Subiela, with Lorenzo Quinteros, Hugo Soto, and Ines Vernego (1988). (JR) Read more
Juan Antonio Bardem’s 1956 adaptation of a popular Spanish play, La senorita de Trevelez, with Betsy Blair, constitutes a grim critique of Spanish machismo and sexism, and is considered by many to be Bardem’s best film. Read more
Ray Bradbury appears to be the presiding influence over this nostalgic fantasy-thriller about childhood and ghosts, written, directed, produced, and scored by Frank LaLoggia (Fear No Evil). Set in a small town in the early 60s, the plot centers on the apparition of a little girl to the ten-year-old hero (Lukas Haas) while he’s locked in the school cloakroom during Halloween. Although a bit overextended, the results are something rare: an evocative, poetic horror film without a trace of gore (and in this respect closer to a Val Lewton 40s B, like The Curse of the Cat People, than to contemporary models). The Italian-American family detail is nicely handled, and much of Russell Carpenter’s photography is exquisite. With Len Cariou, Alex Rocco, and Katherine Helmond. (JR) Read more
Mickey Spillane, in an extreme act of self-aggrandizement, played his own hero Mike Hammer in this 1963 adaptation of his own penny-dreadful mystery, shot in England. Costarring Lloyd Nolan, and directed by Roy Rowland. Read more
Frank Capra comes to the Ozarks might serve as a loose description of this quirky and watchable comedy, whose heart and accents are in the right place; it’s a first feature by Arkansan Jay Russell. The Southland Railroad is shifting over to air freight, and a couple of old-time railroaders in Clifford, Arkansas (Wilford Brimley and Levon Helm), decide to steal a train and take it to Chicago to discuss the matter with Southland’s chairman of the board (Henderson Forsythe). Bob Balaban is the company’s president; Barbara Barrie, Mary Steenburgen (who doubles as executive producer), and Holly Hunter are the womenfolk back in Clifford; and Kevin Bacon and Michael Beach are younger railroad workers who double as bookiesall of whom help to keep this pleasant, despite Andy Summers’s terrible music score and a rosy-eyed finale that even beats Capra at wishful thinking (1988). (JR) Read more
When it was first shown back in the mid-60s, this experimental feature with a prelude and four sections was widely regarded as Stan Brakhage’s magnum opus, although it has surely been superseded by many major works since then. Following a cycle of seasons as well as the stretch of a single day as a man slowly makes his way up a mountain, the film features multiple superimpositions and includes traces of splice marks, painting, and scratches on the film emulsion as some of its densely woven textures. Mythological, cosmological, and physiological, like much of Brakhage’s work during this period, it can be seen as one of the most ambitious lyrical films ever madeand also one of the most pretentious, for those who are inclined to view Brakhage’s macho poetics as a trifle self-regarding. Whatever one thinks, and however much the film may seem dated now in relation to Brakhage’s subsequent output, it is an achievement to be reckoned with. 79 min. (JR) Read more
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This 1983 documentary by Ismail Merchant, known mainly as the producer of James Ivory’s films, describes a large, traditional Bombay community where the business of temptation by the local courtesans is being threatened by movies and television. Read more
Dennis Hopper’s fourth feature as a directorafter Easy Rider (1969), The Last Movie (1971), and Out of the Blue (1980)is the first in which he doesn’t appear as an actor. It’s also the first that doesn’t improve on its predecessor, except perhaps from a commercial standpoint. Sean Penn and Robert Duvall as a younger and older cop taking on the LA gangs is the hot subject, and all the elementsscript (Michael Schiffer), cinematography (Haskell Wexler), and score (Herbie Hancock)combine to provide a lively, authentic surface and an aggressively hip attack on the material. But narrative continuity and momentum have never been among Hopper’s strong points, and this time the choppiness of the storytelling diffuses the dramatic impact without offering a shapely mosaic effect (as in the previous films) to compensate for it. Too many thematic strandsthe contrast between Penn’s sadism and Duvall’s leniency, Penn’s courting of a Chicano waitress (Maria Conchita Alonso), the individual gang skirmishesget curtailed before they can bear much fruit, and too much of the energy gets lost or wasted in the patchwork editing. Considering how good so many of the pieces of this film areDuvall is especially fineit’s a pity they don’t add up to more (1988). Read more
Fans of Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March (1985) will undoubtedly recall the character Charleen Swansea, the filmmaker’s friend and former teacher, and will be pleased to discover that McElwee devoted an entire feature to this memorable woman back in 1977. An unorthodox fifth-grade teacher, small publisher, and poet who at one point was a protege of Ezra Pound, Charleen is an exuberant and outspoken southern eccentric, and McElwee’s affectionate portrait (which, unlike Sherman’s March, doesn’t do double duty as a portrait of the filmmaker) gives her plenty of opportunities to show her special qualitieswhich she takes full advantage of. Much of the film focuses on her inspired methods of teaching poetry and the difficulties of her relationship with a man who’s much younger. Larger than life and bursting with energy and intelligence, Charleen makes a fascinating film subject and indirectly gives us a glimpse of certain southern virtues that most accounts of the south gloss over. (JR) Read more
This started out as a three-song skit written and performed by Wendy Goldman and Judy Toll for the Groundlings in LA, and was later expanded into a play. Producer Ivan Reitman and his wife, director Genevieve Robert, decided to turn it into a film, getting Goldman and Toll to rewrite the play in light of the impact of AIDS, and adding a question mark to the title for good measure. The setting is a swanky health resort, though the film periodically returns to the dark space of a cabaret stage and the two female leads occasionally address the camera; Lea Thompson and Victoria Jackson star, with Stephen Shellen, Jerry Levine, Mary Gross, and Andrew Dice Clay also in the cast. Definitely a lightweight movie, without any heavy ambitions, but for the most part a likable one; with script and direction by women, it’s considerably less arch and dehumanized than the usual sex comedy. (JR) Read more
This 1987 documentary by Australian Dennis O’Rourke shows the homogenized, packaged tours being offered to Westerners who want to see the Sepik River region of New Guinea. Its tribal dwellers try or pretend to be what the tourists expect from them, though there hasn’t been a cannibal in the region since the turn of the 20th century. The result is a series of ironic commentaries. 77 min. (JR) Read more
A sleazy bounty hunter (Dylan McDermott) is dispatched to the scuzziest hellhole in Mexico to recover a fortune in laundered contraband cash from a bunch of crooks (including James Russo and Jessica Harper); the bank holding the loot is across the street from the seedy hotel and nightclub of the title. Writer-director John Lafia, making his debut here, manages to make the pseudotoughness pretty amusing on the level of dialogue, although his characters are shopworn and his plot fairly standard. From the fancy cartoon credits to the Peter Gunn-ish score (by Ethan James), the movie tries awfully hard to be hip, and while it can’t quite muster enough style to match the aggressive hyperbole, it still manages some intermittent fun. With Pamela Gidley, Yano Anaya, Dean Stockwell, Tovah Feldshuh, Michele Seipp, and an actor known as Flea. (JR) Read more
Adapted from a James Thurber story, this slightly macabre English comedy describes the plans of an elderly Scottish accountant (Peter Sellers) to eliminate a meddling efficiency expert (Constance Cummings). Charles Crichton directed; Robert Morley and Donald Pleasence costar (1960). (JR) Read more
A nice, old-fashioned horror thriller with psychological overtonesthe sort of thing Hollywood used to be able to turn out in its sleep. Andrew Fleming’s script (cowritten by Steven E. de Souza) and direction have their occasional awkward moments, but the overall drive of the narrative helps us to overlook them. The plot involves the sole survivor of a religious cult that committed suicide years before, and a series of deaths at the mental hospital where she’s recovering that suggest that the cult’s leader may still exert power over her. Unassuming, workmanlike stuff that keeps you guessing and interested. With Jennifer Rubin, Bruce Abbott, Richard Lynch, Dean Cameron, Harris Yulin, and Susan Barnes. (JR) Read more
