It’s good that they addressed that point.
The vampire theme has been re-interpreted through so many different films and different genres that it’s certainly become a cliché. It’s even been done as comedy (I recommend Dracula: Dead, and Loving It with Leslie Nielsen). But it’s for that very reason that I think the modern Nosferatu remake is notable – it manages to rise above the crowd in a really special way, much like its progenitor.
Well, like dozens of other films before it, it’s the same plot as the original Stoker book.
Aftersun
Recommended.
I saw this recommended after it made the “top 100 movies of the 21st century” list. Well, it’s not that good, but it is quite good. It’s about a girl who is on vacation with her single dad and how, when you are a child, you don’t always notice the same things you do as an adult. There are signs the father has many issues and the movie hints towards tragedy throughout.
I liked it. Didn’t love it, but liked it.
Dead Mail
Recommended.
A letter finds its way to the Dead Letter office. It indicates the writer was kidnapped, but does not provide enough information to track down for sure.
We then flash back and find out the entire story of the kidnapping and exactly what went down. It’s fascinating, but you need to go in blind so I will leave the details out.
It streams on Shudder, but this is not a horror movie. Just a really well done thriller.
On DVD, I just watched WIZARDS, an animated feature from 1977 by Ralph Bakshi.
This may be a strange take but I read it as a distinctly feminist trauma and abuse narrative. Eggars has mentioned its feminist intent, I don’t know that he intended a trauma narrative, but Nosferatu preyed on the protagonist when she was a lonely young girl, she is haunted by him, given to strange fits/flashbacks and
ultimately she has to face him again to save her love from ultimate destruction.
Because that’s how trauma works. You have to experience it over again to process it. And when it’s interfering in a relationship, facing it can be a sacrificial act.
(Also, I must mention how refreshing it is that when she revealed her “shameful” secret to her husband, he wasn’t angry or disgusted with her, he was concerned and trying to help her with it.)
I was deeply moved by it.
(I also love that director.)
Some recents:
Materialists A rom-com, but not your typical rom-com. Oh, it has the meet-cute, the triangle between the new guy and the ex, and it resolves as you might expect, but its less hilarious and more meditative than I expected. The director is the director of the Oscar-nominated Past Lives, which I’ve also seen described as a romantic comedy (it’s not). As in Past Lives, the characters are fully human, which means they actually think past romance and consider their potential partners in the context of their potential life together. If you appreciated the realistic view of love and life in Past Lives, you’ll definitely want to see this one. (I’ve become a big fan of Celine Song)
Sorry Baby An indie set in a small northeastern college that is essentially about dealing with the trauma of sexual assault (though the assault is off-camera and the perpetrator disappears very early in the film) Written, directed, and starring Eva Victor, who is able to carry the central role quite well. It’s advertised as a black comedy, but it is more of a bittersweet comedy, with the emphasis on the bitter.
Mr. Blake At Your Service A sweet French comedy starring John Malkovich as “a recently widowed British businessman, (who) takes a job as a butler in a manor house in northern France, in a bid to get closer to the memory of his late French wife.” It plays out exactly as you might expect, but it is respectful of all the characters and each one has a story. A nice comfort food movie.
Where did you see that last movie (Mr. Blake At Your Service)? I started to watch it on an airline flight last year but the flight ended before I could finish it and haven’t been able to find it anywhere since.
It was at the Laemmle theater on the West Side. It ended Thursday. I have no idea if it is streaming anywhere.
G.I. Jane on the Roku Channel. This one turned up as a suggestion on our Roku screen saver. We hadn’t seen it before, and mrs. dirtball said, “Let’s watch it.” And so it was done. Demi Moore is put into Navy SEAL training as a test to see if the more physically demanding military assignments might be opened up to women. Strictly formula, no real surprises, but it’s watchable.
Sinners on Max
This was, by far, a more satisfying vampire film than Nosferatu. Make sure you stick around for the coda. The Max app went to tiny picture mode before the final scene and we almost missed it.
Based on your recommendation, I watched it last night. Extremely contrived and unbelievable plot, heroes that escape inescapable situations, and some really bad scripting involving puns. I loved it!
When this came out, I was working at a local video store, and we had trailers that we had to play nonstop in the store. This was one of them, but it took forever (my guess is six months) for it to come out. I was dying to see it. When it finally arrived, it did not disappoint. Probably my favorite music/band movie- the cast is perfect and it’s so bittersweet.
Netflix has a bunch of Alfred Hitchcock classics on the roster, all of which I’ve seen many times. They also have “Hitchcock,” a 2012 effort starring Anthony Hopkins as the Master of Suspense and Helen Mirren as his wife and collaborator Alma Reville. The film primarily involves their efforts to make “Psycho.”
It took me a while to accept Hopkins’ imitation of Hitchcock, but soon put it out of my mind. I’d only ever seen photos of Alma, and said to my wife that Helen Mirren was much prettier and glamorous than the real Alma, who was rather dowdy.
We enjoyed it much more than we thought we might, and the supporting cast was quite good. Though reviews were mixed, fans of Hitch might enjoy this look into the great man’s psyche, which was reportedly quite strange.
It’s easily in my top ten… I dunno, horror/thriller genre with social subtext? I don’t know how to categorize it. It might be in my top ten movies ever. I’m watching again with friends tomorrow and I can’t wait.
I can see that, but I more think of Anderson characters as just extremely dry. For stiff unnatural androids, I don’t think you can beat Yorgos Lanthimos. All of his works, but most especially The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
The opening (after the surgery) with the whole “I like your watch” scene really sets the tone. At first I thought their robotic, non-human method of interacting was a commentary on surgeons, but nope. Every single character in the film is the same, with the possible partial exception of Nicole Kidman.
Which is also similar to Wes Anderson movies. All the characters act the same.
I watched Tarzan the Fearless (1933) starring Buster Crabbe in his only outing as Tarzan.
A weird and interesting flick. Buster Crabbe played Tarzan, Flash Gordon three times, and Buck Rogers once (and much later on his his career played "Brigadier Gordon on the TV series Buck Rogers). He had all three of the top comic strip action heroes sewn up.
MGM thought they had the Tarzan franchise sewn up with Johnny Weismuller, but Edgar Rice Burroughshad sold the rights to this one earlier, and it hadn’t been used. The guy who made it wanted to make a 12-=chapter serial and also sell it as three free-standing features. This one feature-length film is all that came out of it. Except for a few brief snippets, the rest of the serial stuff has been lost.
Crabbe does a creditable job a Tarzan, but he’s (you should pardon the expression) just aping Weissmuller. He’s virtually inarticulate, like Weissmuller, swings through the trees on vines like him, pals around with a chimpanzee named “Cheetah”, rides on the back of an (obviously Indian) elephant, and romances the Daughter of a wise White Guy (only she’s named Mary in this, not Jane).
Lots of stock footage, scenes of someone convincingly wrestling a lion, and in this one we get the menacing African tribe AND the Lost Civilization White Tribe of Kor. The Korians have a statue that looks Egyptian, which IMDB says is from the Universal film The Mummy, but isn’t really. The statue has a hand with inlaid gem stones, as if they anticipated the Infinity Gauntlet, and one of the Evil White Guys in the safari has stolen the emerald from this, ad the Korians want it back..
Interesting thing: The 17th book in the Tarzan series is called Tarzan and the Lion Man. The titular Lion Man is a Hollywood Tarzan-like guy. Brought to African for filming, the actor playing the Lion Man proves shockingly inept, unable to climb trees or the like. I used to think that Burroughs was just poking fun at the many Tarzans and imitators put on film, and giving them a generic name “Lion Man”
Well. Just before he starred as Tarzan in this film, Buster Crabbe had appeared as a low-rent Tarzan in a film called — King of the Jungle, in which he played “Kaspa the Lion Man”.
King of the Jungle was released on March 10 1933. Burroughs’ novel appeared in Liberty magazine between November 1933 and January 1934. So the timing works out.
For future reference, King Kong was released on April 7, 1933
Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk in a very untypical role. Mayhem with a wink. Guest appearance by Christopher Lloyd. Too bad there’s not a sequel, as this was quite a hoot.
Nobody 2, in theaters on August 15.