HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (Rob Zombie) viewed 4-27-03 in theater
Grade B- 2003
A refreshing horror film, that breaks from the recent respectable horror films (The Ring, Signs) and looks back to the dirty roots of the genre. Specifically, Zombie pays homage to (and borrows liberally from) the white-trash slash movies of the late seventies and early eighties (the best of the genre being Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Motel Hell and The Hills Have Eyes). Out of that mold he has created a very ambitious film: with healthy amounts of bloody gore and nudity (although less of the later) offset with weird back country values and black humor (I love the sign that advertises: Captain Spalding’s Fried Chicken and Gasoline). The film is very effective at challenging conventions of the genre and audience expectations: killing characters we have come to identify with (usually before the others) and changing the dynamic with those we expect to be coming to the rescue. The film even temporarily puts a human face to the tragedies that it is exploiting (with a quick flash of a family photo of one of the victims). The film is sometimes hard to watch – with its shaky camera work and extreme close ups (of faces that would best be kept at a distance), but it is rewarding for fans of the genre and those looking for a wild and sometimes scary ride. I particularly liked the relish that the actors brought to their roles, most of them veterans of important horror or exploitation films of the seventies or eighties – and not getting a lot of work since. The film also features one of the most protracted execution scenes ever filmed (you’ll know it when you see it) – and that should be enough for anyone who can’t help but smile at the title.
4 LITTLE GIRLS (Spike Lee) viewed 4-28-03 on video
Grade B 1997
A sad and solid documentary feature from Spike Lee (which I had previously seen bits and pieces of on HBO) that moved me quite a bit while I was watching it. I’m not a fan of the ultra-close up style Lee chooses to use here, as I feel an hour and forty minutes of extreme close ups can be numbing and they should instead be used only for punctuation – although the emotions portrayed in the close ups are great. Also, the two takes of an old and senile George Wallace pathetically calling for his black friend, was painful and didn’t help the film in any way. Despite the quibbles, this is a very strong film.
CABIN IN THE SKY (Vincente Minnelli) viewed 4-30-03 on video
Grade B+ 1943
Very good musical, much better than I would have guessed from the opening few minutes and brief plot description I had going in. The film isn’t overloaded with musical sequences but rather they appear only to punctuate the content of the scenes. The performances are all likable and the ending isn’t quite as I’d expected it to be. I would comment negatively on the segregation of the casting in this film (there are no non-black actors) but that would be terribly hypocritical since I have never bitched about the white segregation in other films of this time period.
BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (Budd Boetticher) viewed 5-1-03 on video
Grade A- 1958
Buchanan Rides Alone is more comical than the other Boetticher/Scott pairings, although the film is mostly played with a straight face. If Boetticher had instead opted to make the film overtly comical, it might play as screwball farce: as the characters’ fortunes are continuously changing and the plot twists occasionally takes the characters back where they started out. I particularly liked the climax of this film which works itself into a hopeless standoff (Boetticher’s films are usually a series of showdowns), which resolves in a way that feels true to the characters.
THE ROAD TO HONG KONG (Norman Panama) viewed 5-2-03 on TV
Grade B 1962
The first Hope and Crosby comedy that I’ve seen is often considered one of their lesser efforts but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The plot is ridiculously stupid, but the gags comment upon the stupidity of the plot and are often very funny.
A DAY AT THE RACES (Sam Wood) viewed 5-2-03 on TV
Grade B+ 1937
I am a little scared by the Marx Brothers, as their films are crazy and relentlessly striving to make you laugh. They throw an incredible number of jokes at you and although most didn’t make me laugh, after a while I just give up and ride with the loony-insanity. I actually laughed more in the Hope and Crosby film The Road to Hong Kong, but A Day at the Races is more ingenius and inspired.
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (Christian Nimby) viewed 5-3-03 on TV
Grade A- 1951
Smart and exciting horror film with direction credited to Christian Nimby but with Howard Hawks’ fingerprints all over the film. The pacing builds well and the creature scares are timed with great craftsmanship, overcoming the fairly unconvincing creature effects.
STOLEN KISSES (Francois Truffaut) viewed 5-3-03 on dvd (fifth viewing – first in a year)
Grade A+ 1968
I wasn’t actually planning to watch this film again and simply put it in to check out the quality of the fancy new Criterion Collection edition DVD, and then the film hooked me again. The film is just simply irrepressible. I love The 400 Blows more, but I can’t imagine living without this film and the way this film makes me feel. Cameron Crowe pays homage to the film in Almost Famous (It is on the marquee near the beginning of the film) and that is a fitting match since Stolen Kisses blends humor with sadness so effortlessly that it tickles your emotions without seeming like it wants to.
Stolen Kisses follows Antoine Doinel about ten years after The 400 Blows (and a few years after the great short Antoine and Collette), through several jobs and in and out of love. The film is structured like an episodic film but never feels like one, probably because it moves between Antoine’s occupations and love life without force. Also the film is effective at creating mysteries out of very little: in particular a motif of being followed is introduced and punctuates scenes with a slight anxiety.
It is impossible to talk about these films without mentioning Jean Pierre-Leaud, who is wonderful as Antoine and shares responsibility with Truffaut for how great their cycle of films turned out. In The 400 Blows, Leaud proved great dramatic chops (at a young age – making him my vote for best child actor). In Stolen Kisses he shows off his brilliant comedic talents, which he would develop more with Bed and Board (which I’m sure I will watch again in the next few days).
This is one of my very favorite films.
RIDE LONESOME (Budd Boetticher) viewed 5-3-03 on video
Grade A- 1959
Another superb Boetticher/Scott teaming (which is becoming redundant since all their work together has awed me), this time again with screenwriter Burt Kennedy – who also wrote The Tall T and Buchanan Rides Alone (see above). This film is closer to Decision at Sundown and The Tall T than to Buchanan Rides Alone, as this film is more concerned with psychological showdowns and bitter revenge than plot twists. The villain of the piece (played by Lee Van Cleef) is also consistent with the villain in The Tall T, with some shades of gray and the film implies that he may be trying to leave his past behind him.
THE SERVANT (Joesph Losey) viewed 5-4-03 on dvd
Grade B 1963
Highly stylized and bitter about the British class system and although it’s a good film, those two defining traits kept alienating me from enjoying it more. The stylization seems at times stuffy and too calculated and the class system angst didn’t translate to me (also because the lead character seems too strong to really work as a servant – I kept thinking of Pulp’s song I Spy as a more realistic victim aggressor of the lower class).
WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN? (Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Pena) viewed 5-5-03 on video
Grade C 1987
A strong subject for a documentary is botched by overly muddled timelines that are meant of unravel the murder over the course of the film but instead confuse and manipulate the events.