This Week In Film (3/15/21 - 3/21/21)
March 15, 2021 - March 21, 2021
Hello fellow internet readers. Big news this week. My life-threatening asthma finally paid off. I was able to get my first vaccine shot. It was an easy process, once the appointment was made. I showed up and so many soldiers were nothing but helpful. I had my appointment barcode pulled up on my phone, and I was treated as VIP. You can proceed to lane two sir. You can skip around those people sir. Right over here sir. My anxiety pumped an unhealthy amount of adrenaline through my system prior to getting to the vaccination site. I abhor not knowing rules. Even if I don't always stick to rules, I hate not knowing them. My brain was fried thinking about all that could go wrong. Not with the shot mind you, but with not finding the correct line to wait in. That's how my mental illness works. The moment I sat down with the soldier grabbing the alcohol swab, my anxiety melted away. I got my sticker and my card, waited in the observation room, and left. That was it. My side effects from shot one included being tired, body aches, and a migraine the next day. But that's not what I came here to tell you about...
This Week In Film where I create a weekly rundown of the random sh*t I watch. There’s a HIGH / LOW at the end of this entry, so if words aren't really your thing, you can scroll quickly, look at pictures, and skip to my favorite viewings of the week.
Lets begin...
OVERVIEW:
******
EDGE OF THE AXE (1988)
dir: José Ramón Larraz
So it's a Spanish film, with exteriors filmed in northern California, interiors filmed in Madrid, and lead American actors who sport semi-Canadian accents, okay I got it. From the onset, this feels like a gritty 1970's Giallo. With the opening set piece, axe through the windshield of a car while it's moving through an automatic car wash, the film sets itself apart. The only detail that dates this film is the nonsense plot device of super computer internet in 1987. Luckily, Gerald Martin our lead character is obsessed with all things tech. He has a computer that answers any question. By the end it even tells us who the killer is. Speaking of the whodunit, I'm still not entirely convinced. There may be a flash of a devious smile to indicate a truth, but then again there could have just been a lot of gaslighting. One of these two characters at the end has a scar on the back of their head. Just saying.
The kills are great. The 'American' drag this film wears is mostly fishy. The beginning and ending are both high notes. The mouth-less Papier-mâché mask is terrifying. The practical effects work, and overall the acting is as good as can be. Not only is this a great late entry slasher film, it's just as good as early era slashers.
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (2021)
dir: Shaka King
Effortlessly engaging. Judas plays out unlike any other biopic. As the director has stated, he set out to make a film akin to The Departed (2006) dealing with the world of counter intelligence. In Shaka King's interview with Amy Goodman from DemocracyNow.org he states his reasoning to use William O'Neal as the angle in which to engage with Fred Hampton. Shaka says it was, "A very clever vessel and kind of intelligent way to sort of Trojan-horse a Fred Hampton biopic and introduce the world."
As the film shows, the world spewed hate toward the Black Panthers then as much as they do now. This belief that they were a terrorist organization is still being taught in schools today. To use the informer's story, we follow someone who has no opinion of Fred Hampton in the beginning and grows close to him. We grow closer as well. We learn about the yearning for equality, the food kitchens, the community service, and the calling out of corrupt police. It isn't often we follow a supposed protagonist who turns out to be a nearly complicit villain. I say nearly, because he believed he was forced into his deeds. The honest truth is that William O'Neal could have admitted what was going to happen to Fred Hampton. Wild Bill could have quit and taken the prison sentence.
Never has a title had more impact as Judas and the Black Messiah. Fred shows Christ-like understanding and patience throughout, while the film's title follows Wild Bill until it consumes him. This film broke me. Then the post-script and interview with William O'Neal shattered those already broken pieces.
We need someone like Fred Hampton today. Someone to unite the revolution. Can we just nominate Amanda Gorman already? She's a year older than he was, but that just makes her all the wiser.
HILLBILLY ELEGY (2020)
dir: Ron Howard
Based on J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis about his childhood in Middletown, Ohio and his trials and tribulations growing up with an addict mother. Ron Howard's adaptation examines the generational abuse trickling down from grandmother, to mother, to her children. The film initially received three nominations for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Supporting Actress for Glen Close. But, somehow audience perception shifted, and Glen Close received a best supporting actress nomination at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild. Amy Adams' bipolar addict performance also received a nomination for lead actress at the Screen Actors Guild.
I bring up the divisiveness of the film's reception, because I too can't judge how I feel about this movie. At first I hated Ron Howard's choice of handheld camera movements in the early scenes. I thought, okay, I'll be able to evaluate this. But then I started to cry and couldn't stop. I looked over at my wife and her face was also slick with tears. Every moment of abuse burrowed deep and plucked moments of my childhood like an upright bass. Each flashback was a trigger. I didn't grow up an Appalachian transplanted to Ohio. I didn't grow up with divorced grandparents, or a single mother, or a single mother addicted to drugs, but I still deeply felt the moments of abuse. I grew up trying to do my best and get out. I grew up knowing the world was vast and where I was from was small. I felt J.D.'s plight. His necessity to separate himself from a world obsessed with drawing him back in. Is all this felt because of great filmmaking? Is it because of empathy? I could not disconnect myself. Due to the intense emotional responses elicited from the film, I've decided I liked the film overall. However, I know I will never watch it again nor can I recommend it to anyone. Talk about divisive.
BUTCHER, BAKER NIGHTMARE MAKER (1981)
dir: William Asher
How does one culminate a prolific career in TV? Maybe we should look at their TV output to know where someone would ultimately end up. William Asher directed 102 episodes of I Love Lucy, an episode of Twilight Zone, 9 episodes of The Patty Duke Show, 131 episodes of Bewitched, and nearly the full run of The Bad News Bears show, and countless one-offs. When not lensing some of America's favorite shows, he handled the mid-sixties boom of the beach film with Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), How To Stuff A Wild Bikini (1965). Now that we've reviewed his previous output, does any of it prepare us for Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker? Absolutely not.
Aunt Cheryl looks familiar. She looks very familiar. Oh sh*t, it's cult film sensation Susan Tyrrell: Ramona Rickettes from Cry-Baby (1990), Queen Doris of the Sixth Dimension from Forbidden Zone (1980), Tyrrell was also in Flesh+Blood (1985), and Big Top Pee-wee (1988). She looks great as Aunt Cheryl, at least in the first scene holding three-year-old Billy. This is worth noting, because what Asher does to Aunt Cheryl's look throughout the film is phenomenal. As she becomes more unhinged, her whole persona transitions from disheveled quack to dirtbag lunatic. That's a spot on interpretation of the film as a whole too. A clingy aunt, with only her nephew as a companion, goes batsh*t when he tells her he wants to go to college. From faking a rape to get away with murder to sabotaging all chances of a scholarship, Aunt Cheryl will do anything to stave away loneliness. This on it's own is a great premise. But then we add the granddaddy of cinema's douchebag cops, enter human toilet Detective Joe Carlson.
Where does one start with this guy? How about his first lines of dialogue: "You don't buy attempted rape do you? ...Poor guy didn't even get his pecker out." His level of sensitivity only broadens going forward. "You say he touched your booby?" He's a real gentleman. If his misogyny isn't your cup-o-tea, no worries, he's also a homophobic piece of sh*t too. "Doesn't it bother you he's a f**? Are you a f**?" Or later, the homicide investigation actually has an official 'F** theory,' because they say new evidence weakens this theory. I have included him in this writing, because I was astounded at his level of merciless bigotry. I wanted something terrible to happen to him. And the film delivers. He is murdered in cold blood in front of other officers, and no one goes to jail for it... because his insignificant life was completely worthless. I love a good, "And they all lived happily ever after" ending. Well, except for dead Aunt Cheryl and her nosy neighbor Margie and the TV repair guy and Sergeant Cook and Billy's parents and Cheryl's dead boyfriend and Couch Landry who lost his job for being a homosexual in 1981 and the years of PTSD going forward for Billy and...
ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)
dir: Zack Snyder
Some people will hem and haw over the 4 hour and 2 minute runtime, but I'm sure those people have seen all 5 1/2 hours of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. To say this version Justice League is epic is the understatement of the year. Back in 2017, I went into that other Justice League movie with high hopes. I knew Snyder stepped down and one of my [at the time] favorite directors (oh how the world has changed so drastically in 4 years) Joss Whedon helped finish the film. I was excited. The darkness of a DC superhero film with the comic wit of an Avengers film. It was a complete disaster both on set and final delivered product. It was a damn shame. But then a rumor began to gather traction, and it built an internet mob. #releasethesnydercut became a trend among nerds throughout the nerd-verse. And somehow their voices were heard. And like a phoenix rising from the ashes... no, that's Marvel. Like never before, a film has been resurrected by the fans and fan-edited by the original director with the studios helping to pump in another 90 million dollars. Studios, fans, and HBOMax have come together to allow a film's original creator total access to sew his vision back together. But does it work?
Not one minute of Zack Snyder's Justice League felt like filler. Unlike it's cobbled together predecessor, there is a precision and consistency to the characters and their actions. While The Flash / Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) was a sensation in the 2017 version, this version really allows The Flash to electrify. Bringing back Superman had the weight it was supposed to. The attack on Steppenwolf's stronghold was super cool. It felt like by expanding the sequence our eyes didn't just see a jumble of pixel effects which normally occur in epic battles. I enjoyed the new pacing and camaraderie within the league as well as the extended solo sequences. Now, my only gripe would be with that epilogue. We've waited the entirety of the film for a glimpse at Jared Leto's Joker, and when we get it, well all I can say is, maybe it’s a step up from our Suicide Squad version. Also, I don't know why you would toss in a few F-bombs and a handful of CGI blood effects for the R rating. If you're going to do that, go all-out. Have Wonder Woman arrive one second late and as a result have a few kids killed/wounded. I'm not saying this is the answer, but if you're going to go out of your way to have an R rating - do it. Arterial sprays for days. Let's end this will a little pretension.
The length of Snyder's cut is everything. It gives each action room to breath. It gives, not just more screen time for your favorite superhero, but more detail to the elements we can relate to. Andrey Tarkovsky, who spent his life stretching every moment of film to its breaking point, says it best in his book Sculpting In Time. "It is above all through sense of time, through rhythm, that the director reveals his individuality. Rhythm colours a work with stylistic marks. It is not thought up, not composed on an arbitrary, theoretical basis, but comes into being spontaneously in a film, in response to the director's innate awareness of life, his 'search for time'. It seems to me that time in a shot has to flow independently and with dignity, then ideas will find their place in it without fuss, bustle, haste."
SLAXX (2021)
dir: Elza Kephart
What do you really expect from a movie about killer jeans? We've seen killer tomatoes, killer plants from outer space, killer clowns from outer space, all sorts of killer animals, killer cars, a killer laundry press, and even a killer tire, so what can killer denim offer? This is where Slaxx doesn't slack. First, we are made aware that a new kind of denim jean is hitting the market at a trendy upscale shop where a baseball shirt costs $175.52. These new jeans are able to react to the body and shape to your contours, 'whether your five pounds underweight or five pounds overweight.' They're called Super Shapers and their SS logo is reminiscent of another terrible SS logo. We follow bright-eyed brand enthusiast Libby on her first night working for her dream company CCC (Canadian Cotton Clothiers). She's wanted to work for the company since she was sixteen because of the CCC promise: Making a better tomorrow today through sweatshop free, organic, GMO-free, fair trade, and ethically sourced cotton.
Had CCC kept their promise, a pair of killer jeans wouldn't be running around eating people and drinking the blood of their victims. It is through cutting company costs and using contractors in non-safe conditions while experimenting with cotton growth that created the setting for a 13 year-old-worker to get injured, killed, and seek revenge. While it's fun to see a plot and even give an environmental/ethical point to the plot, we're here for a pair of pants that punishes people. And it is here, that Kephart shines. From a background including having worked the art department on a couple X-Men films, working as an assistant on big budget films, and producing a few shorts Slaxx works as a culmination of her early talents. We're given the blood and effects we want, while getting to see a pair of jeans dance to Bollywood music. What more could we want?
dir: Sam Peckinpah
Dr. Tony Williams of Southern Illinois University Carbondale taught an English class on Peckinpah and an analysis of his films. It was there under that harsh florescent lighting, I first heard an intellectual discourse on violence in cinema. Here, I learned that with Peckinpah a new era of violence in Hollywood cinema was born. Between the last scene in Bonnie & Clyde (1967) and all of The Wild Bunch, general audiences were now privy to violence on-screen with consequences. This is to say that when characters were shot in these films, they suffered before death. Wild Bunch, like many other films of this period were all reactionary to the violence occurring in Vietnam.
Wild Bunch begins with the stunning shoot-out, ambush, and railroad bank robbery. Gunshots and squibs galore. There's blood, there's anguish, and there is high stakes action filmed and edited beautifully. The middle of The Wild Bunch features another set piece. This one told via the hissing of steam train as another robbery takes place. While less blood is shed, the sequence again is fantastic to witness. The Wild Bunch then ends with an epic war between our bunch and an army. These three sequences glue the film together. Without them, the film falls to pointless meandering. My first viewing was through the eyes of a young film student who knew nothing of Peckinpah or Westerns. This viewing comes weighted with an obsession of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns and a devotion to Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971) and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), and I have to say I was bored. A few weeks ago I re-watched Once Upon A Time In The West (1968), which clocks in at nearly 3 hours, and I was captivated every second. So it pains me to say that even though The Wild Bunch stands as a landmark in cinema and in the Western genre, it might not deserve it's place among the best the genre has to offer.
dir: Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace
Coming in at a tight 73 minutes, this blood-drenched pop-gore opera is fantastic. A debaucherous and frantic opening solidifies our cast as vapid permanent spring breakers who will get whatever is coming to them. But really, it's just teens having fun. There's masturbation, face-sitting, drinking games, drugs, spin-the-wheel lap dances, and piss drinking. They aren't harming anyone, and everything is consensual. Then they find The Game Of Death. Again, at such a short run time, the film doesn't waste a moment. In the blink of an eye the kids are putting their fingers on the game board's skulls, having blood drawn, and starting the game. 24 must die. Two heads explode before the group realizes they are connected to the macabre Jumanji board. From there, the film moves at lightning speed. Are they going to kill or be killed. The cinematography is beautiful and is a perfect juxtaposition to the diabolical images. As it says at the beginning, "This game will blow your mind."
EATING RAOUL (1982)
dir: Paul Bartel
I first saw Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov as Mr. McGree and Miss Togar in Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) and again in Chopping Mall (1986). Later in life, I realized all the Easter eggs hidden in Jim Wynorski's Chopping Mall. My favorite hidden treat was the smug and out-of-place Paul and Mary at the film's beginning. While I'd seen Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) in Bucket Of Blood (1959), I had never seen Paul and Mary's origin in Eating Raoul - that is until now.
Those damn swingers. They just keep moving in and causing the rent to go up for everyone in the building. If it wasn't for those swingers, Paul and Mary Bland could afford that restaurant that serves fine wine they've been dreaming to own. Watching the world's morals deteriorate all around them, forces them to take matters into their own hands. They pose as a dominatrix couple to lure perverts to their home so they can kill and rob them. Rid the world of swingers and save money for their restaurant, what could go wrong? Enter scam artist Raoul, who drives a wedge between our heroes.
Terrible Fact: Gary Michael Heidnik (one of six real-life murderers upon whom Buffalo Bill is based) kidnapped women, tortured them, and kept them in his basement. It has been reported that he used the remains of one of his victims mixed with dog-food to feed the women he kidnapped. It was further reported that he got the idea from Eating Raoul.
Fun Quote: "Can you buy a new frying pan? I'm a little squeamish about using the one we use to kill people."
THE SECRET CINEMA (1968)
dir: Paul Bartel
This short film was remade in 1985 (by Bartel) as part of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. The story revolves around Jane whose boss sexually harasses her. And then her boyfriend Dick dumps her because he's not into girls. Jane is having a terrible time lately, but it's only getting worse. Her mother tells her to stop talking about her life because she doesn't want Jane to ruin the movie. This sparks Jane's search for something called The Secret Cinema where she may unwittingly be a star of the films shown there or she's going crazy. The concept of this short is highly interesting as a early influence for The Truman Show and feels like one of the great episodes of the OG Twilight Zone.
HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)
dir: Tommy Lee Wallace
As a fan of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, I'm with Darcy. Halloween III is a national treasure and needs to be shown on The Last Drive-In. Dreamy Tom Atkins could show up and we could watch Darcy geek out. I bring this up because if Sundance TV (who is owned by AMC Networks) can show it, Shudder should be able to. I caught the showing as part of their Screaming Sunday marathon. My gripe with this programming from what I can see is that Sundance showed Halloween (1978) followed by Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III (1982) then with Halloween (1978) before showing Halloween 5 The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989). What sense does that make? Almost as much sense as Halloween III not featuring Michael Myers to the untrained eye.
It has been reviewed over and over, but for those not in-the-know, John Carpenter saw the Halloween series as anthology films. Debra Hill and Carpenter thought they could give creative control to upcoming filmmakers to make varying horror films about or taking place on Halloween. Ahead of his time, like Carpenter always was, this anthology holiday film concept didn't take hold until Blumhouse's Into The Dark (2018). If viewed without the anger surrounding a Myers-less story, Season of the Witch is great. Killer masks made from pieces of a Stonehenge rune are distributed on a mass scale and all of them will be triggered during the Silver Shamrock giveaway. What's not to love when you build in robots that set themselves on fire, sexy Tom Atkins, and a slashing John Carpenter score. Remember, it's only, "221 more days till Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. 221 more days till Halloween, Silver Shamrock."
******
Best viewing of the week. Again, this is difficult. I love Edge of the Axe. Judas and the Black Messiah may be the best film I watched all week, but seeing Eating Raoul for the first time was fantastic, Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker is a new cult favorite, and Game of Death was pretty and gory. But my favorite viewing was all 4 hours of:
HIGH: ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE
Worst viewing of the week. This is embarrassing. Since I cried during Hillbilly Elegy, enjoyed Slaxx, and love Halloween III... I can't believe I'm saying this was a low:
LOW: THE WILD BUNCH
TV CORNER:
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