Late Phases

I've always been drawn to Werewolf stories.  My favorite of all time is The Howling, but I also have a special place for An American Werewolf In London and Wolfen in my heart.  The big problem, of course, with Werewolf movies is that the rich subtext of internal evils externalized is often shrugged off in favor of the carnivorous beast that stalks the night.  Over the years I've watched my favorite of the movie monsters turned into a boring stereotype of rage and fury, lusting after blood on the moonlit thrill of the hunt.  That or they're played by teenagers who are in love with triangle mouthed girls who can't decide between them or the vampire in their life.  Boring.  So, imagine how happy I am to be writing about Late Phases, a new Werewolf movie from the director of Here Comes The Devil.

Set in a rural old retirement community on the edge of a nondescript mountain town, Late Phases starts off with a bang, so to speak, when curmudgeonly blind Veteran, Ambrose McKinley (Nick Damici) is attacked by a Werewolf.  The story then follows Ambrose as he silently picks through his community in an effort to find out who the Werewolf is and dispatch it.  Sounds pretty straightforward, but where the film does a much better job with the genre than any of it's recent predecessors is by giving it the feel and attention of a true character piece.  By holding Ambrose up in the forefront we are allowed to examine the behaviors of those around him and at times we feel that he may be the luckiest one of all unable to physically see the ugly sides of humanity any longer.

The film still falls in the low budget horror realm, but it makes due with it's budgetary constraints by amplifying the story visually while also employing some excellent costuming and makeup befitting of the bi-pedal hulks of fur and fury.  The whole look of the film has a golden hue to it, visually representing a community of people who's golden years have now passed.  Ambrose, a gruff do-it-yourselfer, doesn't really belong here, but driven by a sense of duty, he stays to put an end to the story.  If I hadn't known any better, I would have guessed that Damici was actually blind, as he does a remarkable job of portraying the physicality of it.

I missed the film's one off theatrical run in Los Angeles, but luckily it can be rented, or even bought, on Amazon Instant.  It's not without it's cheesy moments, but Damici's standout performance is amplified by a good pace and visual element, that when you add in the gore and Wolves you've got yourself one hell of a good Werewolf movie.  Sprinkle in some great supporting performances from Lance Guest and Tom Noonan, what more do you really need?  Definitely on par with some of the greats, if not tugging lovingly at their tails.

"Let's Wage War": Beyond Outrage

When I was fresh out of High School and in my first year of college I used to go to this video rental in Old Town Eureka called Video Experience.  I was tuned into the place by the brother of my girlfriend (at the time) who was also introduced me to the insane world Takashi Miike.  I was hooked on this place.  I used to rent 7 movies a week from them and just eat up foreign films and gangster movies etc.  Then came that fateful day when they announced they had to close that location.  I was crushed, but we went to their going out of business stock sale and I found this little VHS tape of Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine pointing a gun at me on the shelf.  It was 2 dollars, I figured "What the hell."  Ever since I've been obsessed with Kitano's films, so imagine my delight one particularly sleepless night when I found Beyond Outrage as I scrolled through the netflix titles.

Picking up five years after the events of it's predecessor Outrage, the film chronicles the booming Sanno and Hanabishi crime families.  Opening with the discovery of a dead cop and a bar hostess in a sunken car, the police force determines that the Sanno have gotten too big for their britches.  They employ the skills of Special Inspector Kataoka, who has gotten close to the families under the guise of a corrupt cop.  Through suggestion and direct maniuplation, Kataoka uses Kitano's character Otomo and another disgraced yakuza, Kimura, to completely destroy the leadership of the Sanno family.

Kitano has had a tough time with critics following the release of his "Meta Trilogy" (Takeshis', Glory to the Filmmaker!, Achilles and the Tortoise) so when he returned to the yakuza film genre with Outrage it came as somewhat of a surprise as well as a delight to audience and critics alike.  While Outrage and Beyond Outrage don't quite have the meditative quality about them that a film like Sonatine or Hana-bi do, they still manage to pull in the audience and hold interest up to the final moments.  One of Kitano's best qualities when it comes to this genre is his ability to set up and expectation and then surprise the audience in it's delivery.  As a dramatic actor, he has a kind of new wave deadpan style, only showing emotion in the extremes which makes his violent explosiveness sudden and thrilling to watch.

The disappointing thing about this film is the incredibly straightforwardness of the plot.  It's very much an A + B = C sort of experience, which is not what I usually expect out of Kitano.  However, this is subjugated fairly well by the actors and cinematography.  Fumiyo Kohinata eyes everyone with the look of a Japanese Fox mask as Kataoka.  It's no surprise to the audience that he's manipulating the outcome at every step planting suggestions that the yakuza hotly act upon bringing their own doom upon them.  Even though we know that Otomo and Kimura are going to get these guys, Kitano manages to still do it at the moment when least expect it making the violence sudden and brutal.  I'll never be able to look at a baseball batting cage the same way again.

Not one of his best, but certainly not his worst either, Beyond Outrage is a solid yakuza film and the first direct sequel that Kitano has ever made to one of his films.  There are currently talks of a third film, which would make it his first direct trilogy of his career.  If you haven't seen Outrage watch it first.

Keaton is Back!: Birdman

"Meta" is a prefix that seems to get thrown around a lot these days.  A simple dictionary term describes it's adjective use as pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., that consciously references or comments upon its own subject or features, often in the form of parody.  This particular form has been popping up quite a lot in our entertainment art forms these days, each to varying degrees and with varying metaphorical contexts.  It's not the easiest thing to pull off, but when it's pulled off well it is damn near dazzling.  Although, "dazzling" is probably not the appropriate descriptor of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's Birdman, it still works given the subject matter.

The film is centered on Riggen Thomson, a washed up film actor trying to put on a play adapted from Raymond Carver.  Everything seems to be going against him, from a volatile co-star (Edward Norton), various stage accidents, a disaffected daughter (Emma Stone), and, did I forget to mention the voice in his head?  Spurred on by the desire to create something meaningful with his art form and to thereby give his own megalomaniacal ego the stroke that it needs, he plunges forth against all odds to get through previews and finally achieve true artistic success like a moth to a flame.

Nothing is quite what it seems in this story.  For one, Iñárritu masterfully uses his camerawork and editing to make the majority of the film look like one continuous shot, showing the fast and often frantic pace behind the scenes of a theater production, only to bring us to a dead halt on some of the most brutally worded and amazing monologues I've seen on screen in some time.  This is truly an actor's film, but with enough of the behind the scenes insanity thrown in that any industry type person will be in on a joke or two that flies straight overhead of anyone else.  That doesn't distract from the true intention of the story though.  The meat of the story is Riggen's desperate attempt to maintain what fragile control he has left.  Be it his mental state, his relationship with his daughter, or just trying to keep his production from imploding, all the while seemingly cursed by his own self-centered desire and the internal war of his dual personality, Birdman himself.

The "meta" comes into play in the character of Riggen himself.  Riggen, being a fading Hollywood star who's claim to fame is a series of films about a costumed super hero named Birdman, which he quit making in the 90s.  To get even closer to this whole "meta" thing, Riggen is played by Michael Keaton.  Those Batman bells ringing yet?  Keaton's own Hollywood career began to decline in the mid to late 90s, but that didn't stop the actor for making the occasional film or two while throwing himself into a long and warmly received Theater career.  On top of all of this, there is a sort of scathing view of the entire entertainment industry that almost bleeds out of the screen.

What makes the film so damn good is it's humanity.  There is such a human quality behind everything that motivates even the smallest side characters of the story.  Everyone seems to be unsure of their place in the world, whether it's about how they fit, what they want, or who they are in their heart of hearts.  Despite all the volatile personalities and the ups and downs everyone seems to come together to complete the performance, a very human characteristic.  It's this kind of film making that sets Iñárritu apart from most of his contemporaries.

It's still in theaters.  It's probably also on demand.  This film really has a little something for everyone.  Give it a good chance before shelling out all your money for the latest blockbuster schlock that is about to bombard us til the end of the year.

"No Speeches. You point the gun? You shoot the gun.": Blue Ruin

Revenge has always been a constant in the fictional world.  Be it in poetry or prose, theater or film, revenge seems to go back as far as humankind first began as harry apelike beasts evolving too fast for their own good.  There's a whole gamete of revenge films, but the type that seems to stick out are those with a sort of Shakespearean blood feud attached.  Throw in a bit of Greek tragic irony and a Jean-Pierre Melville style of deadpan lead acting, and you've got one hell of a film in Blue Ruin.

The premise is simple.  A young man, Dwight, learns that his parent's killer is about to be released from prison and goes after him in revenge.  Through a series of tense and suspenseful moments we learn that not only is there some seriously messed up southern style retribution coming, but that the nature of the killings are not so clear cut.  The story then becomes about family vs family, son killing son because of the transgressions of the fathers.

Through meditative cinematography and a consistent following of the primary character, the film manages to suck you into Dwight's incredibly conflicted state of mind.  His need to kill his father's killer regardless of his foresight that it can't end there is what makes it so deliciously tragic.  Pitched as a quasi Cohen Brothers style film, Blue Ruin utilizes the revenge story to analyze the bond of blood and bounds of reason.  When it comes to blood, reason tends to get thrown out the window, culminating in a deadly stand off of truly brutal proportions.

The film is remarkably well made and utilizes a cast of nearly complete unknowns and character actors, which forces us to look simply at the characters and story without the distractions that come with A-List casting.  Macon Blair's portrayal of the troubled lead is such a quiet intensity that you can practically see the fuse burning.  His pain reaches beyond the screen so viscerally that it's hard not to sympathize with Dwight's plight, but his conflict is a hugely internal one that he manages to externalize incredibly well.

You can catch this film on most streaming sources, or buy a blu ray.  Top notch indie film making!

"Do you believe that love is a continuous stream?": Love Streams

I'm a little late to the game where John Casavetes is concerned.  In fact, I'm pretty late to the game where a lot of American Cinema is concerned, having spent a great deal of my life absorbing foreign classics and contemporaries from Japan, France, Sweden, Germany, and Russia.  However, I've been slowly making my way through his films and I must admit, the man had a style unlike any other film maker I've seen.  As consummately unique and whole in vision as any of Woody Allen's films, Love Streams is no exception to this, but is indeed an exceptional piece of work in the auteur's canon.

Love Streams concerns the fucked up lives of two siblings, Robert and Sarah, played by Cassavetes and wife Gena Rowlands, in the late middle ages who can't seem to get it together and don't seem to be particularly perturbed by that fact either.  With an improvisational and cinema verite like spin we are given a glimpse into the lives of these two characters in a profoundly honest way.  He does not glamorize the two, instead, shows us their ugly sides as flagrantly as their good sides, although the darkness seems to loom ever so close to the surface, threatening to consume them at any given moment.

I would like to note that I caught this film at work after the projectionist made, what he thought was, a joke about how "...we should be serving Gin and Valiums for this utterly depressing shite of a film."  I laughed outwardly, but inside I felt myself glaring.  If there's one thing I despise, it's a callously derisive approach to films with no regard to another person's preferences or taste.  Having already seen Husbands and Minnie and Moskowitz I had made up my mind to see Love Streams regardless, but I couldn't get the damn statement out of my head.  Luckily, as with matters of taste, my own taste prevailed and I instead enjoyed the intense, funny, sometimes outrageously strange study of these two lonesome characters who can only seem to tolerate each other in a truly compassionate way.

The camera work in this film is top notch and it's subtly induced me to feel like I was almost watching a documentary a few times.  I would plunge into the lives of these people and then just as suddenly be transported to an elaborate and farcical dream sequence.  Rowlands plays neurosis in such a way in this film that I found myself staring wide eyed at some of the situations befalling the character.  It's this quality that defines her as such an amazing actress, her ability to take a character that is, basically, bat shit crazy and still make me love and worry for her.

Even with Cassavetes roguish and sometimes misogynistic portrayal as a man who seems to truly believe that "Well, love is dead." I couldn't help but to pity him.  It's part of his charm, this ability to simultaneously cause shock and adoration.  While not for everyone, it is impossible to deny the profound effect that Cassavetes had upon the women and men who would later rise up through the ranks as America's Independent Film Renaissance.  This is purportedly his truly final film, as his health began to decline in the coming years and he would be dead from cirrhosis of the liver five years after it's completion.  I saw a beautiful 35mm print, but you can also get it on Blu Ray from The Criterion Collection or watch it on their Hulu Plus Channel.

We're Not Policemen. We're Spys: A Most Wanted Man

Ever since 9/11, there has been an emphasis in the "Spy Thriller" genre to create a sort of gung-ho terrorist take down conclusion to further define the narrative as a good vs evil situation, similar to our news media.  Of course, anyone who chooses to educate themselves past High School knows that there is no such thing as good and even.  Rather, there are thousands of shades of gray to every angle of every story.  Few films convey this fact and when they do they're often not met with financial success.  A Most Wanted Man is one of these films and you should do yourself a favor and pay it some considerable attention.

Based on the 2008 John Le Carre novel of the same title, it centers around an intelligence organization that is shadowing two particular men to determine ties to Al Qaeda.  Caught up in the mess are a Banker and a grass roots civil rights Lawyer, but the central characters are Chechen, Issa, and German intelligence man, Gunther Bachmann (one of the final roles of late Philip Seymour Hoffman.)  Bachmann seems to not only have his mission at hand, but seems to continuously clash with an incredibly hawkish German security council and the CIA as well.

What this film does, exceptionally well, is provide multiple points of view.  From the Lawyer to the CIA official, the characters all seem to have a very clearly defined idea of what they stand for and what makes them who they are.  It is Bachmann alone who seems to be more concerned on the big picture, while the Security Council and CIA are more interested in taking down what they believe to be key players in the war on terror.  We start to wonder, who is really the Most Wanted Man (a potential play on words) as the story plays out.

Le Carre was inspired by the real life story of Murat Kurnaz who was kidnapped by the CIA, jailed and tortured in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay for five years under the Bush administration.  While Le Carre's obviously fictional story serves more as a soap box for dissent against many post 9/11 Policies that had sprung up world wide, it also serves as a huge "What If..." argument.  As it was proven that Kurnaz was not a military combatant, is it not possible, likely even, that there are many more people under similar treatment and scrutiny?  How do we justify actions taken before all the facts are in.  

It's no secret that to win popular opinion the only thing that matters is an immediate result.  This is the central theme of the film, the long term vs the short term.  There's also a crippling sense of the humanity one must set aside to attain the goals of the, so-called, greater good and "making the world a safer place."  I can think of no better cast to portray these themes than the one in this film.  Philip Seymour Hoffman's controlled performance is shattered in the stunning climax of the film, making Bachmann's story truly heart breaking.  Furthermore, I seem to find myself more and more surprised at how good Rachel McAdams can be, and when you've got stalwart's like Robin Wright and Willem Dafoe on top of your incredible international support cast, you cannot lose.

This film is a slow burn, make no mistake, and it is made in the same vein as previous Le Carre adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  Director Anton Corbijn makes use of wide shots so well in this film that it feels like it's from a different era entirely, adding to the unsettling nature of the subject matter.  A must see for fans of great cinema, but unfortunately this film will probably not keep the attention of the blockbuster junkie.

Phantasm: 31 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

This is a somewhat momentous occasion.  Here we are, Halloween of 2014, and rather than failing like I did last year I have completed my little challenge to watch 31 Horror Movies that I had not previously seen.  Some of them were really good and some of them were really bad and some of them still I'm not really sure what to make of.  In fact, this last one, which numerous people gasped and told me "You're Kidding?!" when I confessed to not having seen it, is one of those.  Don Coscarelli's debut, Phantasm.

Strange things are happening at the cemetery and youngster Mike (Michael Baldwin) is determined to discover the cause.  A Tall Man appears to be causing general havoc with some strange dwarf-like minions, who look remarkably like Jawas, killing people and stealing their souls to another dimension.  With the help of his blank faced brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and the Ice Cream Man, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), Mike attempts to not only discover just what the hell is going on, but put a stop to it as well.

Made in the spirit of the original Night of the Living Dead, the film is a lo-budget late 70s picture that enlisted the help of Coscarelli's local town and aspiring actors.  While the film is somewhat disjointed, the passion to create is evident on every frame, in the attention given to the formal aspects of the craft.  The film has a somewhat slow pace to it and the inspiration from Italian Horror is evident in the camera movements and the music cues.  This influence is also very evident in the second half of the film when things start going absolutely bonkers visually.

In all honesty, I'm still not exactly sure what the hell the story is supposed to be telling me.  It has an unfortunately double cop out kind of ending that actually left me completely confused, which was probably intentional.  That doesn't mean that it's a bad film per se, just that I don't really get it.  I'm coming late into the game with Coscarelli, having only seen Bubba Ho-tep and John Dies At The End, but it appears the Phantasm spawned a cult fan base and numerous sequels, the fifth of which is in post production and is due out next year.

Most of the "acting" in this film is pretty damn bad, but Michael Baldwin actually carries the picture quite well compared to his older co-stars.  I swear, I don't know if anyone has as blank of an expression as Bill Thornbury in this movie and judging from his imdb page, this didn't quite help him into a future as an actor (most of his final credits are Phantasm Sequels.)  Luckily, Coscarelli is quite inventive visually which it makes up for it.  There's a particularly enjoyable FX gag involving a blood spewing silver orb with knife points.

3 out of 5 skulls.

The Devil Rides Out: 30 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

I have this terrible habit of trying to watch a movie when I should be going to sleep.  Usually this happens after I get home from an incredibly late shift from work and I'm all wind blown from riding in the cold on my motorcycle.  I can't sleep quite yet so I always figure, "Well, I'll just watch a movie and by the end I'll definitely be tired."  It always ends up the same way, about 20 to 30 minutes in I pass out on the couch and wake up three hours later realizing that I passed out, stumble to bed, and go back to sleep.  This has happened to me with some movies a number of times, enough times that I feel like maybe I'm cursed not to finish them.  Tonight I broke the curse for The Devil Rides Out and I'm quite glad to have done it.

The plot of the film centers around a reunion of three friends, Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee), Rex van Ryan (Leon Greene) and Simon Aran (Patrick Mower), except that Simon appears to have missed the reunion.  Richeleau and Rex decide to drop in on his house where they uncover a group of Black Magic practicing Satanic Worshipers led by a coldly calculating Mocata (Charles Gray) planning to Baptize Simon and a girl named Tanith (Nike Arrighi) in the name of the Dark Lord.  Through many set backs they take it upon themselves to halt this baptism and put an end to Mocata's sinister plans.

The script is penned by Richard Matheson, based off of a Dennis Wheatley novel.  The dialogue is quite good, but some of the character decisions made little sense.  For example, if a character has proven themselves time and time over to be correct why would anyone question them after a certain point?  It's a behavior common to horror movies that I've always felt was a rather weak device to steer an event.  Luckily the film makes up for these weak points by a great use of special effects and cinematography.

All in all, the acting ensemble represented in the film was quite strong and supported each other greatly through the story.  It's hard to hold a candle to Christopher Lee but Leon Greene played off of him quite well and Charles Gray's Mocata is such a downright sinister man that Lee's usually dark imposing quality is lightened by contrast.  It's no secret that I have a soft spot movies about Black Magic and Witch Craft so it should also be no surprise that I liked this movie quite a bit, regardless of a few of the strange choices on the writing side of the script.

It felt like quite a bit of research into the scientific side involving the power of suggestion had been done as well as the Seance Rituals of communicating with the spirits.  Such research served to really heighten the mood of the film, steering the audience to wonder just how much could be possible and how much is farce.  At the end of the day, it's a tale of good and evil, and good most certainly trumps evil in this case.

4 out of 5 skulls.

Horror Of Dracula: 29 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

The Hammer Horror films have been on my mind for quite some time now.  There's something peculiarly unique and so very British about them, that even at their worst they tend to have some sort of redeeming quality that sits with me.  As I wrote earlier, me and vampire movies don't usually agree, but there are occasions where I overcome my bias and get to watch a few gems.  It was completely shocking to my friends that I had never seen Horror of Dracula, so I've decided to set it straight.

Based on Braham Stoker's Dracula, the film stars Christopher Lee in the role of the titular character and Peter Cushing in the role of Dr. Josef van Helsing.  While certain elements, like the boat of dead bodies and the Renfield character are removed, the film purportedly maintains a fairly close resemblance to the novel.  It sports a bit of a slow pace for the majority of the film, but the climactic battle between Helsing and Dracula is so commanding that it makes up for other places lacking in the pace department.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee work so well off of each other that it's no wonder they would become best friends and co-starts on a number of Hammer productions including, but not limited to, the Dracula series.  The color, for 1958 is nicely saturated and it seems that not a single color on the spectrum is missed in the production design, which is also rife with the Gothic imagery that made Hammer famous in the first place.

Easily, this is one of the most enjoyable versions of the Dracula story and is every bit of a classic in it's own right.  It brought sensuality to the otherwise monstrously cold Lugosi Dracula and even though Lee is an imposing 6'6" of gaunt British awesomeness, he still brings a charm to the character that is unmistakable.  Cushing's eyes alone are so arresting that you want to slap every other character in the film for ever doubting him!  A wonderful treat for the old and new fans alike, Horror of Dracula is not to be missed.

5 out of 5 skulls.

VAMP: 28 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

When I was a young lad, I loved Vampires.  Everything about Vampires was sexy and mysterious.  The fetishism surrounding blood drinking, the concept of having to hide in the darkness among society, the violence; pretty much everything about it spoke to my frustrations with growing up.  As I grew older I watched my idea of Vampires get slowly morphed into this strange pop culture thing where they were suddenly the sullen outcasts that desperately clung to any shred of their lost humanity.  These are not the Vampires I love.  The Vampires I love hide in plain sight and are merciless hunters of a common prey.  So I had a falling out with the depiction of Vampires and 1986's VAMP sure as hell ain't bringing me back into the fold.

Two savvy college kids desperate to get into a college frat make a plan to obtain a stripper for an upcoming party.  Heading into the city, in one of the weirdest and longest spinning vehicle car sequences ever, they come across a Bar called After Dark which just so happens to be inhabited, like much of the surrounding neighborhood, by a pack of Vampires led by an Egyptian Vampire Queen.  Plenty of magenta and green lit mayhem ensues in a movie that carries every single stereotype from an I Love The 80s episode.

This movie is bad.  Not bad in the unwatchable way, it's just so god damned silly that unless you are drunk with friends or completely brain dead you will most likely turn the damn thing off.  Don't get me wrong, it's got it's fair share of witty dialogue and an adorably spunky Dedee Pfeiffer, but that doesn't save it from it's cemented place in 80s nostalgia hell.  I don't even need to get started on the obvious White vs Black, Man vs Woman subtext (if you can call it SUBtext) of this film, but let's just say that the heroes of the story are all White kids.

There are a couple of moments that are just fun enough that they're not pure cheeseball silly, like a skeletal middle finger from an animatronic skeleton, but so much of the film is centered around the basest gags and thrills that it loses it's credible.  Anyone who drinks alcohol knows that brandy does not create enough vapor to catch fire within 2 seconds of being spilled on a bar or on the floor and it most certainly doesn't light a person's clothing on fire like fresh kerosene.  Even with all these faults though, I have to admit I had a good time making fun of the movie with my buddy Patrick, Still, I would never have put the film on had we not already been half-cocked.

2 out of 5 skulls.