John Stockwell.
I was going, “What?! How did I miss him?” 
Thanks for the head’s up about Late Night With the Devil being on Hulu. It’s a fun period piece that I think would have been a lot better without the expository dump at the start or the muddled dream (?) sequence at the end. I’ve never found demonic possession stories very scary, but this one fit so nicely into the zeitgeist of the 1970s it easily held my interest.
Woman of the Hour. As mentioned, it centers on a serial killer’s real life appearance on The Dating Game back in the 70s. Anna Kendrick plays the female contestant. While she’s there for the POV purposes, she doesn’t play a key role in the unfolding of the events regarding the killer.
In order to “fit things in”, the film is a major time jumper all over the place. While the main thread is set during the filming of the game show, it jumps all over to the killer’s past activities. Yes, there are a few scenes of his murders but the physical violence is not focused on too much.
The filming of the game show is not just interrupted heavily, but they also drag it out within it’s own time line. E.g., if someone says they’re back in 8 seconds, assume these are James Bond Goldfinger seconds.
Kendrdick is good. Tony Hale is a surprise as a dramatic character. Daniel Zovatto nails the coldness of such a person.
It is tense. Really tense. Plan on doing something distracting to decompress afterwards.
Give it 4 index cards.
Good Catch
I was too focused on getting the last name correct.
I am watching the film Moonfall.
It is fantastic.
Fabulous.
You should watch this film.
Wow.
Thank you! I’ve been telling these people they’re nuts for shitting on the greatest cinematic achievement since Citizen Cane!
It is my favorite movie. I’ve watched it at least five times already. I think I’ll watch it again today.
It’s even better than Jawz or Schindler’s Liszt
Icy, what you did there.
The ending and post-credits scenes suggest that while Tom Hardy/Eddie Brock is done, we’re not done with the symbionts yet.
Some notable recent movies I’d recommend (some more than others) that I don’t recall being posted:
The Outrun - A decent addiction and recovery story elevated by the choice of location (the Orkney Islands) and the central performance by Saoirse Ronan. Expect buzz around Oscar time for Ronan’s Best Actress performance (it would be her 4th Best Actress nomination).
Look Back - A short (~1 hour) anime based on a manga by the creator of the popular Chainsaw Man manga series. It’s a very adult animated feature (in the best way), with themes of friendship, ambition, talent, and destiny. It should be streaming by now and I hope they include the Q&A with the director and both lead voice actresses (it is one of those rare Japanese anime imports that doesn’t replace all the Japanese voices with well known actors speaking the lines in English).
Anora - The shortest description I can think of is that it is a down n’ dirty version of Pretty Woman. But it’s definitely not a rom-com. It’s more along the lines of the original plot of Pretty Woman. It’s by the director of The Florida Project, who seems to be good at sympathetic treatment of unsympathetic characters caught in circumstances that are at least partly their fault. Mikey Madison’s central performance draws the audience in and you end up rooting for a not very nice person. I expect Madison to be one of those dark horse candidates for a Best Actress Oscar. Be warned, it features a lot of nudity and sex, as befits a movie who’s central character is a sex worker.
Goodrich - Michael Keaton portrays another character caught in circumstances of their own making. It’s got a rom-com(ish) feel to it, but their are some fine performances anchoring it and the plot doesn’t try to tie everything up in happy endings (or does it?). Ultimately, it is a slight film, but engaging. I expect it to be fairly popular with the “grown-up” audience (those who complain they don’t make movies for grown-ups anymore).
I recently re-watched two similar but quite different movies: Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973). Both involve an innocent (couple/police man) interacting with non-normal people, one a coven of witches in a NYC apartment building and the other a pagan cult on a remote Scottish village.
They’re both great movies with fine performances and moodiness. But they’re hard to watch more than once, since you know what the “surprise” ending going to be; I tried to remember what it was like to see these movies the first time and how shocking both of the endings were to me then.
I could imagine being in either of those two situations, as an expectant parent or as a stranger in a small town, and feeling more and more isolated and confused. But between the two, The Wicker Man was more scary, especially the final scenes.
Maybe I should follow up with the original The Exorcist (1973), another devilish thriller. I also wonder what was in the water at that time…
Caddo Lake on MAX. It’s impossible to state the premise without a spoiler, but let’s just say it manages to jump the low bar set by M. Night Shyamalan for these types of movies.
A recent film set in 1977 (Late Night with the Devil on Hulu) begs the same question.
indiana Jones (tho I didn’t like it). Last one was Beau is Afraid if I’m not mistaken. Cool movie, though I’ve enjoyed the two former more well known (Midsommar and Hereditary) more.
The original The Omen is actually pretty good, if you’re finding that 70s vibe entertaining.
I thought I’d watch a good horror story and decided on Midsommar on Max. Sadly, it’s mostly boring and predictable.
I have always enjoyed this movie but only watched it twice. For some reason I forget about it. I am adding it to one of my movie lists.
I have been in a WW II movie/TV mood this past week.
Watched Conspiracy (2001) for about the 10th time. One of my all time favorites.
Watched The Woman in Gold (2015) on Netflix since it is leaving the service. Very well done, thoughtful, emotional film. It drags a bit in the middle but I am glad I watched this one.
Over the weekend I watched Will on Netflix (Wil 2023 on IMBD). It’s a Belgian/Dutch film set in 1942 Antwerp.
Very well done but not an easy watch.
It highlights the moral ambiguity that encompasses brutal choices people have to make during such situations.
I had to do a palette cleaner for my mind after that one.
I did enjoy seeing the Antwerp train station in the film.
I visited there a few years ago and it is truly stunning & magnificent architecture.
I haven’t seen it yet, but plan to watch it this week in honor of Halloween: The Fly, the 1986 version.
I have seen a couple of minutes of it in the past and found it grim and grotesque. But I’ve seen The Thing and all the Alien movies, so I assume I should be able to tolerate The Fly.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Yep, 50th anniversary! It’s aged well. As I explained to the kids, it’s 1970s movie pretending to be a 1930s movie. And the movie does it well. It’s got the typical Mel Brooks low-class humor (“Schwanzstücker”, “knockers”), but the actors play it straight. Well except for Igor (“eye-gore”) who breaks the fourth wall regularly. The rest of the cast act as serious actors in a noire film, which only coincidentally has ridiculous scenes. And it’s rather an all-star cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Gene Hackman are all actors I’m familiar with.
While there’s a lot of callbacks to older movies that are probably outside common memory at this point, the arc of the plot is very accessible and entertaining. It’s slow to develop and interspersed with a lot of subtle comedy with the occasional in-your-face zinger.
I’d call this Mel Brooks personal best directed movie. We watched on BluRay. I’ll have to rewatch with his commentary turned on.
Comments from the kids: they liked it, but hated the actors faking the violin playing. (They’re both violinists.)
I re-watched the original Universal Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) recently in honor of Halloween. They both have issues I’ve written about often enough, but they’re fun nostalgia