This Week In Film (7/19/2021 – 8/1/2021)

July 19, 2021 – August 1, 2021

• Phantom Of The Paradise • Liquid Sky • Curse of Frankenstein • Dracula A.D. 1972 • Return To Horror High • Rambo: First Blood • Cobra • Demolition Man • Stripped To Kill • Night Drive • Scary Movie 3 • Blade Runner 2049 • Space Jam • Blow Out • Born For Hell • Killer’s Delight • Looker • Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage • The Green Knight •

As a writer with bouts of depression, procrastination, and perfectionism, of course I’ve been working on a book for what feels like forever. I did an ungodly amount of research about Cannon films and Orion films. The characters in my book were curating battling film festivals. One festival was celebrating Cannon and watching New Years Evil, Lifeforce, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Highlander, Missing In Action, and Masters Of The Universe. The other festival celebrated Orion films and the characters watched Silence of the Lambs, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Caddyshack, First Blood, The Terminator, and Return of the Living Dead. I lived in this chapter of the book for months. So much so that when I see the Cannon logo I think of this battle with Orion. Even though this comparison between the two distributers only exists in my head, it feels like it was a real-life competition. I’m just wondering if this is a thing that happens with writers or is it my mental illness? But that's not what I came here to tell you about...

This Week In Film where we create a weekly rundown of the random sh*t we 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 our favorite viewings of the week.

Lets begin...

OVERVIEW:

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974)

dir: Brian De Palma

Thank you, Music Box Chicago, for your garden series. Katie and I absolutely adore this film. From the Juicy Fruits “Goodbye Eddie, Goodbye” to Paul Williams singing “The Hell Of It,” smiles were plastered on our faces. While checking my film diary, it looks as though in the last year we’ve watched Phantom… four times. That’s a decent average. I’ve been addictively watching it since I was twenty with my college friends, so I can say with some accuracy I’ve seen it roughly 72 times. It never gets old. It’s never less fun. Sure, there are a couple things that don’t age well. Paul Williams saying, “Get this f*g out of here,” is damn cringy. But the songs and the roller coaster of varying musical genres all while mixing in various homages to Universal Horror films, is brilliant. We brought a few first timers (virgins in Rocky Horror terms), and they were blown away. It was such a wonderful feeling to view the film vicariously through their eyes.

This time while watching I saw that Philbin was wearing an Annette T-shirt when he speaks with Winslow about his music. I love this new detail that I failed to catch in my 18 years of watching Phantom…

Prequal / sequel idea: The story that Philbin tells Swan about their latest pop sensation while Winslow is playing the piano. It is the story of Annette. It’s the tale of the meteoric rise of a young ingénue who through the guidance of Philbin and under the Death label becomes the biggest star the world has ever seen. We can even hide a subtext of Britney Spears’ conservatorship. The twist for our Annette film is that halfway through, Philbin talks to Swan, and her career begins to deteriorate all around her. Her ruin comes to a point where she’s broke with writer’s block. But the moment Swan dies live on TV, Annette is metaphorically unshackled and starts writing a song on her guitar.

LIQUID SKY (1982)

dir: Slava Tsukerman

“Whether or not I like someone doesn't depend on what kind of genitals they have.”

As an avid fan of cinema, complete with a worthless BA, and decades of cinematic immersion, I can still admit when I’m wrong. I’m not humble-bragging or any such thing so crass. I merely implore my credentials to tell you how wrong I’ve been. I have hated Liquid Sky. I have been annoyed by Liquid Sky. Even with this viewing, I still didn’t ‘get’ it. And there’s nothing I abhor more than not understanding. When I began to dive into the passionate droves of cult cinema lovers, they helped to point something out. My inability to understand comes from being born in rural Illinois with no understanding of New York City. I was born a Cisgender, heterosexual, white male. And while I protected those bullied in school and stopped off-color jokes in their tracks, my background didn’t allow me the access to understand how groundbreaking Tsukerman’s film was.

I’ve always been a fan of cult cinema and transgressive cinema. But from the first few keys of cacophonous 8-bit music, there’s a panic that rises in me. It took multiple attempts to finish this film. While I saw the film as lackluster, I understand that it is a punk masterpiece.

Our star Anne Carlisle plays the always-victim Margaret as well as the impotent new star Jimmy. Margaret’s monologues provide a glimpse at the expectations of women through the guise of men who ‘teach’ and use and abuse. She was originally from Connecticut but found that a life of waiting for prince charming was too boring.  Margaret turned her goals toward New York where she dreamed of meeting an agent and being an actress. She was taught that to be an actress one must be fashionable and to be fashionable one must be androgynous. “They will call me beautiful, and I kill with my c*nt.”

In the plot of the film, that seems secondary to it’s context, an alien spaceship has landed on the roof of lovers Margaret and her beau, the drug-dealing Adrian (Paula E. Sheppard). The invisible aliens seek brains that are high on heroin or brains experiencing an orgasm. Margaret’s rotating stable of lovers begin dying from alien crystals embedded in their heads, but these men all take advantage of her in different ways or try to ‘teach’ her how to live her life. When no one believes that Margaret ‘kills with her c*nt,’ Adrian takes a chance. But all orgasms lead to death. “Come on, teach me. Are you afraid? You're right. Because they're all dead. All my teachers."

In my first attempts to watch Liquid Sky, I worried about pesky things like plot and score. But when I gave myself into the experience of the film. You have an androgynous punk queen attempting to find greatness in a neon drenched land of outcasts and weirdos. She and her flock are reaching for the infinite through art, in the Warholian way, grabbing all that is perceived normal and distorting it through a lens of queerness and vaginal empowerment. There is an allegory for the end of punk culture playing all around Margaret and her friends as the sex and drugs begin to kill everyone near her. Even our Bowie-like beauty queen paints herself neon, gets revenge against her rapist, and seeks to dissolve into the ether. It is as if the culture that created this moment has seen the end of the poem and instead of allowing it’s last words the weight they deserve, they’ve decided to abort the process in a whirlwind of heroin, fashion shows, and meaningless sex.

Beyond the frame itself, Liquid Sky, is astonishing for 1982. Within the frame, there are issues. But you’ll wonder after the experience is through, if all those issues had their own purpose? Are the moments of wooden acting, migraine inducing music, horrid heat vision for alien perception, and the sub-plot with the professor researching the heroin loving aliens necessary to this punk parable?

CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)

dir: Terence Fisher

It is interesting to go from Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing to his Dr. Frankenstein. Both men of genius and hellbent on forcing their opinions into the world. It should be noted, Curse, was the first Hammer horror film. Its success led to countless sequels and new variants of Dracula, the Mummy, the Phantom, and anything Hammer wanted from Universal’s catalogue.

While America was psychologically dealing with our use of nuclear weaponry and a red scare, we no longer had a use for the Universal monsters. No, our threats were atomic in nature and thinly veiled alien movies about being conquered by an ‘other.’ Britain took these properties and filtered them through technicolor and pageantry. Curse feels appropriately astute and stuffy with cinema’s first attempts at gore. This would become the blueprint for Hammer’s horror collection: a juxtaposition of erudite atmosphere and vibrant carnage.

The story begins in Baron Victor Frankestein’s jail cell on the eve of his death. He provides his final confession that sounds similar to a Mary Shelley novel. Victor grows up without parents. As Baron, he hires himself a tutor, Paul Krempe. The two grow close over the years and begin collaborating on experiments. One night, they make a breakthrough, they bring a dead dog back to life. The Baron wishes to pursue further, while Paul wants to present their breakthrough. I’m sure you can guess which one wins. Of course, it’s Paul. They present their academic research, earn prizes in science, and live together as boyfriends. Or they piece together a zombie that resembles Christopher Lee who goes on a rampage and must be stopped?

There are elements that differentiate Curse from the original Frankenstein (1931) and sure it’s in color with a splash of blood, but the film falls flat. I’m wondering if it is the lack of a character to root for. I’m not talking about a protagonist necessarily, but someone we care enough about to see the story through. Now, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, had everything and more.

 

DRACULA 1972 A.D. (1972)

dir: Alan Gibson

The Dracula film that brought Peter Cushing back as Van Helsing for the first time since The Brides of Dracula (1960) and first time since Dracula (1958) to have Cushing and Christopher Lee back together.

The film opens with Dracula and Van Helsing battling to the death in 1872. Dracula is staked, but a follower of the count collects some of his remains, and we move 100 years forward. We follow a group of hippies who are bored by their normal 'freak out' sessions and want something even more 'far out.' Luckily, they've met a new friend, Johnny Alucard who's into all things occult. He invites them all to a black magic ceremony in a deconsecrated church. In attendance is none other than Jessica Van Helsing, descendant of the vampire hunter. The ceremony brings back Dracula right into 20th century London. Alucard offers his new friends as victims, but Dracula wants the Van Helsing lineage to suffer. It's up to Jessica's grandfather, Lorrimer Van Helsing (Cushing), to stop the vampire and save the world.

While Dracula and Van Helsing seem more at home in the Victorian era, it's amusing to see them in a more modern setting. The film never rises to the occasion. In 1972, set in 1972, the film could have made a bold decision to lean into sex and violence. It doesn't necessarily need those elements, but it was those aspects that pushed Dracula (1958) further than any film prior. Dracula A.D. 1972 is a fun and acceptable entry for Hammer horror, but no boundaries are pushed unless you include teens at a black mass.

 

RETURN TO HORROR HIGH (1987)

dir: Bill Froehlich

Return to Horror High is the feature film debut of Bill Froehlich who went on to direct a couple episodes of Freddy's Nightmares. It was written by Dana Escalante and Mark Lisson. The only film credit for Dana and among a long list of TV credits for Mark. The reason I went in for a deep dive is due to the cleverness of the film. The film is at times a film within a film about making a horror film. It works as a meta-fiction about the state of slasher films and their necessity to include increasing amounts of blood and nudity. It feels like something a filmmaker would make later in their career after experiencing the trials and tribulations of the script to screen process. While this film lacks all the sophistication of Wes Craven's Scream series, the pointed commentary is present.

I’ve always had a love / hate relationship with Return to Horror High as it always felt like an obscure title to throw out to unseasoned horror viewers, but a film I could never commit to as a fan of the genre. All that changed with this viewing. It was as though the light came on, and all was illuminated. I finally understood the ending. It was brilliant. I guess watching with the intention breaking the code finally helped.

The story involves a film crew heading to a high school where years before a series of brutal murders occurred. They are filming a horror film adaptation of the brutal slayings. The producer is on the film set played by Alex Rocco - who my wife knows from The Wedding Planner (2001). But I can’t place him, maybe I’ve always known him as this character because when I see him, I think sleazy manager. The producer keeps pushing for more blood and breasts. George Clooney is the first murder. The story is told between the aftermath of the gruesome killings while the police are trying to investigate and during the killings.

The multi-layered story gives any slasher parody of the time a run for its money. Now, granted there was only April Fools Day (1986), Student Bodies (1981), Wacko (1983), Pandemonium (1982), and National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982) at the time. Class Reunion has always held a special place in my heart. But now, I’m adding Return to that list of horror-comedies that work.

 

RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD (1982)

dir: Ted Kotcheff

Technically, the title was First Blood. Only after the film’s success and its subsequent sequels did it become Rambo: First Blood. While the sequels made John Rambo into an action icon, our first meeting of John is vastly different. He’s a veteran returning home, looking up old friends, and trying to make sense of a world without war. Passing through the small town of Hope, Washington located in the northwest forests – or in reality Hope, British Columbia, Canada – John is taken for a drifter. An idiotic sheriff played by Brian Dennehy hauls him in and abuses him. This triggers PTSD in our veteran Green Beret. He escapes custody harming a few officers along the way and flees into the mountains. When one of the officers dies in pursuit of John, the whole department seeks revenge. For John Rambo, this means war.

First Blood features plenty of themes that go against the icon Rambo would go on to be. Boys bought the Rambo action figures, played war in the backyard, and my brother even dug holes he could crawl down into to hide from other soldiers. The word Rambo became synonymous with American values. He was an icon of the Reagan-era emboldened by our belief that Americans were all souped up action heroes and untouchable. But go back to the source material and what do you find? Police brutality, veterans returning home and treated like villains, men wrecked by guilt, an action star crying in the arms of his commanding officer, and small town America sacrificed due to pride. Knowing the legend of Rambo and going back to First Blood is a great, ‘Holy Sh*t,” moment. But the Rambo of the first film should be the one we revere, someone built for the horrors of war and discarded by a government ashamed of their creation. You know, a real war hero.

 

COBRA (1986)

dir: George P. Cosmatos

What do you remember about Cobra? That’s easy, that car and the grocery store opening that sets up exactly who Stallone’s character is. But there’s an entire film after that scene. One written by Sylvester Stallone. Originally, he wrote most of Cobra while he was attached to play the lead role in Beverly Hills Cop (1984). The studio wanted a comedic cop film and rejected Stallone’s expensive idea. Enter Golan and Globus with Cannon, ready with money to waste on any project that came their way. Sometimes this method worked, a lot of times it didn’t, but Cobra’s 25 million dollar budget became 160 million box office. Why? Three reasons: action, violence, and… that car.

Did you know that Cannon single-handedly ruined the actor salary? Stallone made 4 million to be John Rambo. We’re talking an up front, hired gun salary. It’s not unusual for an actor to get paid less to be a producer of some kind to be paid on the back-end, but that’s not what were talking about. After the success, financial success of course, of Cobra, Cannon wanted to do another Stallone film. They offered him Over The Top (1987) and like any human in the right mind he turned it down. Who would want to play a truck driver estranged from his son and looking to win back his sons affection through an arm wrestling tournament? Well, Stallone requested an ungodly paycheck thinking Golan and Globus would refuse. But they called his bluff and gave him twelve million reasons to star in an arm wrestling movie. And after that, movie stars could literally ask whatever they want for a salary. The full budget for Over The Top ended up being around 24 million and it made 6 million at the box office. Stallone cut and ran from Cannon. He continued on as Rambo, Rocky, and Angelo ‘Snaps’ Provolone.

But we all have a soft spot for Cobra. Director Cosmatos worked with Stallone on Rambo First Blood Part II (1985). He knew how cocky the actor could be. It was his prior work with him that allowed the director to ridicule Stallone on set. It was a much-needed humbling that Sly never received prior. On the other side of the altercation, Marion Cobretti was born.

The film revolves around a group calling themselves The New World. These weirdos believe they are strengthening natural selection by killing the week. Brigitte Nielsen accidentally witnesses one of the cult’s murders and is put into protective custody under Cobra. The rest of the film alternates between trying to protect her and killing every New Worlder in sight. It plays out to the conclusion you’d expect. And everyone goes home happy. A tidy action film packed with gore and bullets. It’s exactly what you think it is, nothing more and nothing less. But that damn custom-built 1950 Mercury is a thing of legend.

 

DEMOLITION MAN (1993)

dir: Marco Brambilla

“We're police officers! We're not trained to handle this kind of violence!”

One of the three writers was Daniel Waters of Heathers (1988) fame. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the three seashells were his idea. Or since there were three writers, maybe they conceived three variations on how to use the seashells and never shared their notes with the class. But hand it to Stallone who revealed in 2006 that you, “Hold two seashells like chopsticks, pull gently and scrape what’s left with the third.” Or Sandra Bullock playfully explained in 2013 that you should think of a bidet with several processes for number one, two, and cleanup. And you can use them as musical instruments she continued. This was a red carpet answer. As you can see, this is still the most important part of the film as it necessitates a paragraph of description. The other important element is how they changed the illustrious restaurant of the future from Taco Bell to Pizza Hut.

You will see atrocious dubbing while watching Demolition Man every time they describe where they are going to eat. This is because the releases have been mixed up and messed up for years. Originally, the American theatrical release included Taco Bell as the restaurant of the future. But, for non-American release they changed it to Pizza Hut. The Hut had more clout overseas, foreign countries weren’t aware of the Bell. Due to various releases of the film over the years, it’s hard to tell if you’re going to get Pizza Hut or Taco Bell in your screening. That’s two paragraphs expounding on the integral aspects of Demolition Man.

As for the actual film, what can you say. It’s an over-the-top (pun intended) action film with a fun, self-deprecating Sylvester Stallone. All you really need is his own review of the film: “A good action film, ahead of its time.” Alright Stallone don’t get too excited. Wesley Snipes feels like a coked-up version of himself throughout the runtime, and that is a good thing, even if it comes across like a Looney Tunes character. Denis Leary basically plays himself. But, Sandra Bullock is the real winner of this film. Her deer-in-headlights performance against the violence of Stallone and Snipes, is a damn fine treat.

My favorite line from the film is a throw-away TV clip. A TV reporter is asking John Spartan (Stallone): “How can you justify destroying a $7 million dollar mini mall to rescue a girl whose ransom was only $25,000 dollars?” And the little girl responds, “F*ck you, lady!” Best line ever.

 

STRIPPED TO KILL (1987)

dir: Katt Shea

Katt Shea would go on to make Poison Ivy (1992) and The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), but for her first film it appears a script was tossed in lieu of more strippers stripping. If you were to make a FanEdit featuring all the non-stripping scenes, like a Plot Cut of the film you’d have a fifteen-minute short film about a psychosexual killer. As I have a healthy libido, strippers of any gender are fun to watch. So, don’t get me wrong, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing for everyone to take off their clothes. But if you’re going to build a narrative around it, either make the story intriguing enough to sit through or have the stripping lead to hardcore sex and just go the porn route. There is nothing wrong with a fun 1980’s porno and Stripped To Kill would have made a great porn film.

Maybe Shae was going for the American erotic thriller genre. And on paper, that somewhat resembled a script, sure. The film opens with a stripper being thrown off a bridge and set on fire. An undercover cop, Cody (Kay Lenz) and her partner witness the atrocity. The investigation begins, which just means they find out that the victim was a stripper, and they find out where she worked. Cody decides to go undercover as the club’s newest act: a stripper who can’t dance. Instead, she eventually implores costly set pieces to cover up the fact that she can’t keep a beat. We’re supposed to believe that she gains the trust of the other dancers. But they keep dying. The killer must be someone who works or frequents the club. It’s up to Cody and her partner to solve the case before the Rock Bottom club loses all its talent.

It may not be the most riveting plot, but the attempt at a Hitchcockian or - maybe better described as a - De Palma twist is appreciated and welcomed. Remember in the late sixties or seventies that when you feature a homosexual who is out of the closet that the Hollywood code was to ensure they died or were the villain of the film. Good thing Stripped To Kill was made by a woman, mostly an independent project, and created in the 1980s that means they can provide a positive spin on homosexuality and gender identity. Nope, just kidding, the film features lesbians and trans individuals as villains. 

 

NIGHT DRIVE (1977)

dir: E.W. Swackhamer

Night Drive is a Made-for-TV beauty. The film has the feeling of another Made-for-TV extravaganza, Duel (1971); however, this time we get a female driver, Valerie Harper, being chased by a lunatic with a face, Richard Romanus.

Carol (Harper) and her husband are planning some convoluted trip that involves leaving at different times, the kids being watched by a nanny, a new city, and a honeymoon. It’s too confusing, and none of it matters when Carol gets a call that her son is in the hospital. She decides to drive 16 hours straight through to Denver to see her son. On this journey she begins to run out of gas, and the stations are closed. She sees a cop on the side of the road and decides to pull over and ask for help, but instead she sees the highway patrolmen get shot by our killer. The killer shoots at Carol too, but she speeds off. The rest of the film is a cat and mouse chase where each obstacle tossed in Carol’s direction makes her more resilient. Until she’s finally able to face the killer one-on-one. Valerie Harper is no Rhoda in Night Drive. She absolutely becomes Carol; whose fears and problem-solving skills feel very real.

Our first moments with Carol, she is seen as an easily distracted and non-organized housewife. But thrown into a situation of survival and necessity to be with her son in the hospital, show who she really is under the housewife veneer. The joke is on her husband at the end. He teases that she needs someone to take care of her all the time. She looks at the camera and we share a moment. The film ends right before we can all yell, “F*ck you, Walter!”

  

SCARY MOVIE 3 (2003)

dir: David Zucker

I know. I shouldn’t have. There was no reason to continue the series after the Shawn and Marlon Wayans bowed out. But I’ve always been curious. I mean, it’s David Zucker of Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984), and The Naked Gun (1988). It wasn’t good, but I wasn’t let down as much as I thought I would be.

This time around, our major spoofs are Signs (2002) and The Ring (2002). The film is self-reflexive enough to know that these two properties are so vastly different from one another that they even question how the events are related. And of course, when it is explained that the aliens watched a video and will die in seven days so they came to Earth to destroy the Ring-girl before she kills off their race, we just go with it. Obviously, we’re not here for plot. We are here to see the passing of the torch.

Scary Movie alum Cindy (Anna Faris) and Brenda (Regina Hall) return for another outing. This time they are joined by Charlie Sheen, Simon Rex, Anthony Anderson, Leslie Nielsen, and Kevin Hart. With Nielsen and Sheen, this means that Scary Movie 3 brings Naked Gun, Hot Shot, and Scary Movie all together. Other spoofs include: The Others (2001), 8 Mile (2002), The Sixth Sense (1999), Pam & Tommy Lee: Stolen Honeymoon (1998), The Matrix (1999), and Airplane!. George Carlin is featured in a scene as a play on the Architect from Matrix Reloaded (2003) and it’s just great to see Carlin. There’s a terrible Michael Jackson fight. Pre-fame Kevin Hart is really fun. But there are also elements of cringe.

Leslie Nielsen has a rough line reading where he listens to 2 Pac and says, “all eyes on me, this shit banging.” But it’s nothing compared to making racist comments to a group of Native Americans visiting the White House. Luckily, there are people reacting with the appropriate amount of head shake warranted. Then again, the scene ends with the president physically fighting with special needs award recipients as he believes they are all aliens.

While you can totally do without seeing anything past Scary Movie 2 (2001), there is an incredible monologue that Cindy gives to her nephew. In the face of imminent danger she tells him about how his mother died in the delivery room, “Your mom turned to me and said, “Hey, you want him? Take him.” And then she died. And I took you. Do you know why? I’d just lost my cat in a fire, and I needed something to pet and feed. And I miss that cat, Cody. But I love you. And nothing’s ever gonna change that, not even the very painful death we’re about to experience.” A singular moment of comedy gold. 

 

BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017)

dir: Dennis Villeneuve

With the director’s sweeping beauty, neon holograms, ten-story tall breasts, and an apocalypse ruined Las Vegas, the story revolves around a replicant killing a replicant and starting a revolution. Or is it about an android’s existential crisis when he learns he may possibly be an evolutionary miracle? For all its themes of fatherhood, it is the womb of an android that takes center stage.

The unthinkable has happened. 30 years prior to our meeting up with K (Ryan Gosling) a baby was born from Deckard (Harrison Ford), a blade runner and Rachael (Sean Young), a prototype Nexus-7. It makes me think of a Google Nexus 7 tablet I had; it was the slowest operating system ever. But I digress, mine wasn’t a female android with a working reproductive system. Deckard gets father of the year award by staying out of the picture. To love someone is sometimes to be a stranger to them or some sh*t. We get it, they were being hunted down, and they had to part ways. Deckard lives in a mansion/casino in the ruins of Vegas while Rachael was hunted down until she died giving birth.

This Christ-like miracle baby means an uprising of the androids or it means that the new Tyrell, Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) no longer has to create slaves. Leto plays the insane genius who’s invented subservient replicants to mine off-world. Unlike the Nexus series, these new replicants are unable to rebel. But he needs more. And instead of creating them, if he can find the miracle that spawned the Christ-baby, he can breed slaves at a much faster rate. So it becomes a race to find the miracle child.

Villeneuve does the impossible, he makes a sequel to one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time, and does it justice. It feels like a continuation of the world first established by Ridley Scott. This time we see that world through the eyes of a replicant. Now, I don’t know if it was intended, but the hologram that K has (played by Ana de Armas) is a J.O.I. These are companion holograms and as we see later in the film they can provide vivid fantasies. A simple Google search of JOI comes up with something that is all too perfect. Apparently JOI stands for Jerk Off Instruction videos which show people giving verbal commands for your masturbation session. Villeneuve, normally a very serious director, adds this delightful detail for those who go digging for meaning. And it makes 2049 a true gift to genre fans.

 

SPACE JAM (1996)

dir: Joe Pytka

Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Shawn Bradley, Vlade Divac, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tazmanian Devil, Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, Pepe Le Pew, Lola Bunny, McDonalds, Nike, Gatorade, Warner Brothers, Looney Tunes, and the NBA are all crowded into one place to make the largest endorsement film ever created. Cartoons and basketball with limitless product placement, who would say no to such a film. I’m surprised it took 25 years to make a sequel. With all the products and stars and Bill Murray, the film still manages to be a fun watch. There’s literally something for everyone. Even for that one kid out there who followed the career of Wayne Knight. That kid loved him as Newman in Seinfeld and aspired to one day become the greedy scientist in Jurassic Park (1993). Even for that one kid out there, your icon is front and center through a good chunk of the film. Wayne Knight kids unite!

 

BLOW OUT (1981)

dir: Brian De Palma

“It's a good scream. It's a good scream.”

Loose adaptation of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up (1966) through the filter of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974). De Palma’s films are made for film geeks. They draw attention to themselves. Instead of the invisible cut, he jars our attention. He uses split screen to literally divide our perception. He’ll give us a three-minute close-up of breasts to show how body doubles work. His Hitchcock and Kubrick influences are infused in every frame. De Palma once said of Hitchcock, “He is the one who distilled the essence of film. He's like Webster. It's all there. I've used a lot of his grammar.” His is a world of duplicity with doppelgängers and dissociative identity disorder. Blow Out is another De Palma masterpiece.

“We met on Blood Bath, then Blood Bath 2, Bad Day at Blood Beach, Bordello of Blood and that brings us up to today with Co-ed Frenzy.” – Jack’s filmography. When a scream goes wrong in the latest slasher film he’s working on, he’s tasked with finding a new one. He gets more than he bargained for and may have to lose everything to find that perfect scream.

Blow Out places a sound effects engineer and part-time voyeur, Jack (John Travolta) right into the middle of a political conspiracy concerning a primary candidate, an affair, and an unhinged assassin. Travolta isn’t his typical *sshole character like Tony in Saturday Night Fever (1977), Billy in Carrie (1976), Danny in Grease (1978), or Bud in Urban Cowboy (1980). He plays a self-sabotaging audio geek that’s humbled by his past f*ckups. He’d be that *sshole Tony Manero again in Staying Alive (1983) a few years later. But for Blow Out and De Palma, Travolta played against type and it works. We dive headfirst into the conspiracy with him. Nancy Allen is phenomenal, hers is the standout performance. Her accent and the amount of dialogue that falls out of her mouth is incredible. There’s no trace of Chris Hargenson from Carrie or Liz Blake from Dressed To Kill (1980), she is only Sally. While Jack and Sally are supposed to seem like a whirlwind couple, I’ve always seen them as the hope of a great couple. They’ve only hung out a few times, and their relationship was borne of near-death accidents and turmoil. But they treat each other with the promise of a future and long-lasting love. Whether it’s their performances or that mind-blowing theme by Pino Donaggio - that was later used by Tarantino in Death Proof (2007) – we are invested in their story.

Blow Out creates tension by providing us characters we care about in a situation out of their control. That tension ratchets until the final frame and by then, there’s no release from De Palma’s grip. He wants us to sit and stir in what we’ve witnessed. And we do. We bask in the futility of life itself. Thanks De Palma, Thanks.

 

BORN FOR HELL (1976)

dir: Denis Heroux

Loosely based on Richard Speck, who one night in July of 1966 brutally murdered eight student nurses in Chicago. There’s a line after in this film after the murders, where the killer is compared to ‘the one in Chicago.’ The film also begins by telling you it is based on true events; however, they use the term true with a grain of salt. When the film begins in Belfast amidst “The Troubles” (Northern Ireland Conflict), we wonder how in the hell is this going to relate to Richard Speck. Eventually, it gets there, and when it does, you’re in for a decent into the disturbing.

Instead of a lowlife like Speck, we get Cain Adamson (Mathieu Carrière) a Vietnam vet who won a medal of honor and is trying to make it back home to America to be with his wife and kid. As the film progresses, we are given additional info on our Cain to ease our transition into him as loathsome killer. Still, it’s an interesting choice to go with someone playing a Richard Speck-type character and have them be our lead. In the 1970’s world of anti-heroes, this protagonist is diabolical. There is no reason to follow him in any film. There is no sympathy for this character so stop filling the frame with his evil. And there’s no ultimate comeuppance like Maniac (1980). It’s bittersweet when the director turns our attention away from Cain and toward the student nurses. While, we are relieved by getting away from our psychopath, we know each of these women are in danger.

In reviewing Richard Speck’s mini biography, he came from a drunk and absent step-daddy, was a terrible student, didn’t want to get glasses that he needed, failed out of school, by 15 was an alcoholic, at 20 met his child bride. She got pregnant and had a child,  and he was in and out of jail for disturbing the peace, forged checks, and robbing stores. He served six months for attacking a woman with a carving knife. He stabbed a man during a knife fight at a bar, but that was called disturbing the peace again. He granted his wife a divorce in March of 1966. That same month he robbed a store, stole cartons of cigarettes, and decided to park his car outside the same store and sell the cigarettes out of his trunk. He knew he would be arrested once again, so he boarded a bus that was Chicago bound.

In Chicago he stayed with one of his sisters in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. April of 1966, he burglarized a home, raped the 65-year-old home owner, and left with $2.50. A week later the body of a 32-year-old woman was found near where Speck had done construction. Speck’s brother-in-law helped him get a job with the US Coast Guard but it didn’t last. Soon he was forced to return to National Maritime Union hiring hall day after day looking for a ship assignment. Eventually, he grew tired of the waiting and decided to go day drinking. He assaulted a fellow bar patron with his knife, raped her, and stole a gun she was carrying. He returned to the tavern where he drank until leaving toward the nurses’ townhouse.

Speck entered the dormitory with his knife and killed the eight student nurses by leading them off one-by-one to their deaths. One woman survived by hiding under the bed. Speck miscounted or wasn’t aware there was a ninth nurse staying the night. After the killings, he attempted suicide. The doctor who stitched him up noticed his “Born to Raise Hell” tattoo. A tattoo that had been described by the surviving nurse. And with that, he was caught.

Heroux’s adaptation of Speck’s murder spree is pure exploitation. The film features a surviving nurse, Cain arriving by ship, a tattoo that gets him caught, our killer having a wife and kid, and the explicit murdering of student nurses. Sure, A Serbian Film (2010), Irreversible (2002), Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), or Last House On The Left (1972) are all films that are designed to disturb an audience. Each of them is a parable about violence itself. They are fictions created to elicit a response that shocks an audience and sparks conversation. Because of the film’s source material, i.e. real life this film is disturbing on another level. When our hero attempts rape or when he forces two of the nurses to be with each other or when his rampage causes one nurse into madness and suicide, it is painful to watch. These scenes are never pure entertainment. But when handled correctly, they can empower the revenge that normally accompanies scenes of assault. Here, it’s just: lets follow this killer, lets watch him kill, lets watch him gloat, lets watch him maybe be caught. It is pointless and cruel.

 

KILLER’S DELIGHT (1978)

dir: Jeremy Hoenack

From assistant editor on Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) to editor on The Hitchhikers (1972) to feature filmmaker on Killer’s Delight aka The Dark Ride aka The Sports Killer, director Jeremy Hoenack never directed again. It would be harsh to say this film killed his career, but it did help him to realize his true passion, sound editing. Hoenack went on as sound editor or sound effects editor on 255 projects including: Airplane! (1980), My Bloody Valentine (1981), The Beastmaster (1982), Maniac Cop 3 (1992), and Ticks (1993) to name a few.

For Hoenack’s only director’s credit, a lot of creative license was used to call this thing a true story. In no way does it resemble the story of Ted Bundy or even The Zodiac. The only reason this film was made was to cash in on the apprehension of Bundy. I’ve just seen another serial killer exploitation film from the 1970’s, Born For Hell (1976) about Richard Speck. Again, the film was a loose retelling or just capitalizing on a serial killer’s shocking crimes. I felt Born For Hell wasn’t redeemable in the slightest as we follow a killer with nothing to offer. Luckily, here we’re not following our killer. Instead, we’re following our lead detective as he bumbles around and finally figures out who the murderer is. The film is a lackluster affair in all categories. It falls flat as a cop procedural and would have had better pacing had it been composed as a TV movie. For all the nudity and attempted suspense, it was boring from the first frame.

There was a moment of interest, but not interesting enough to seek this film out. It involves a teen working at the public pool, Annie (Hilarie Thompson). We are given a few scenes with her before the killer gets to her. She talks with Sgt. Vince De Carlo our square-jawed take-no-sh*t cop a few times, and her innocent banter feeds our sympathy for her. In a page from the atrocities of Bundy, she takes a ride from him but attempts to get out several times. This scene builds suspense successfully. It’s a shame the rest of the film is such a letdown, even for fans of police procedurals.

 

LOOKER (1981)

dir: Michael Crichton

Albert Finney, James Coburn, and the wildly successful writer Michael Crichton, what could go wrong? The film gets going quickly. It begins with a commercial for perfume and slides into our first scene with Finney consulting a model about plastic surgery. You see, Finney’s a successful plastic surgeon, who’s recently performed nips and tucks for several women who came in with a list of precise needs. It’s the 80s with some very male dialogue like, you’re pretty you don’t need any work. Finney is mainly professional given the era he’s working in. From Finney’s meeting we go to the apartment of one of the models. A knock on the door, a flash of light, glimpses of someone in the apartment, another flash of light, and the model falls from her balcony to her death. This is around the twenty-minute mark of the film, you know that sweet spot where the inciting action is supposed to grab the viewer prior to the end of Act 1. And color us interested.

Too bad the film unravels into conspiracy, Sci-Fi light flashes that stun, hypnosis in commercials, and finally into shootout filmed without any excitement. Apparently, a conglomerate has found a way to perfectly sell products with digitized actors. These digital actors are programmed with hypnosis light signals that subdue the viewer into wanting a given product. Finney is on the case as he becomes protective over his last ‘perfect’ model left. I’m still unclear as to why the company was killing off the models. The only reason I can see is that once they are digitized there’s no use for them? But, when the plot goes into overdrive it was too much information to process. It feels as though Crichton was tossing any amusing element he could into the film.

While the film may not be the hidden gem I wanted it to be, the Kim Carnes version of the titular song IS the 80’s song you never knew you wanted in your life. The chorus says it all, “She's a looker. That's what they say. She's got it all. She's got it made. She's a looker. With a beautiful face. Always on display.” This earworm gets stuck in your head probably the way Crichton wanted his film to. But my question always remains, why would you make a film about hypnosis without experimenting with the audio and visuals? A few subliminal words or images snuck in, Binaural Beats, suggestive aura colorings, embedded or superimposed images, or any of the other thousand tricks used by advertisers may have helped us enjoy the film.

 

WOODSTOCK 99: PEACE LOVE AND RAGE (2021)

dir: Garret Price

My takeaways: I was 16 when Woodstock 1999 occurred, and I remember enjoying the chaos that I witnessed on TV. Today while watching Price’s documentary, I enjoyed watching the progression of that chaos due to terrible planning. This documentary gives you all the reasons '99 didn’t work. From the setting on an asphalt aviation base, to acts directed towards that douche demographic of privileged 24-year-old white dudes, to the Girls Gone Wild spring break feeling, to the overpriced and inaccessible water needs, and to the overselling of the event. Without the numerous sexual assaults and the deaths due to heat and inexperienced medical professionals, the event would have been a perfect time capsule ending the 20^th Century. And maybe it is a perfect time capsule with those atrocious things included. Lodged between the Columbine Massacre and the technocratic fears of Y2K, a generation so upset by the world and inability to control anything got together to literally Rage against the machine.

The director tells us at the beginning that the event location was built like a mini-city. This only adds to the metaphor of the breakdown of society that occurred over the course of three days. These attendees revert to a Freudian childhood playing in their own sh*t and revolt against parental authoritarian figures, all within three days under the mass psychosis of a dystopian herd mentality. They rape, pillage, and scorch the Earth behind them. They left their plastic remnants and proceeded into adulthood. And these are the privileged people who now are old enough to run for public office, enter the house of representatives, the senate, and even run for president.

To all the boys out there, strip club rules apply in and out of the strip club. If you see a tiddy, it does not give you license to touch said tiddy. The only way you get a license to touch a tiddy is by asking for consent. Without consent there should be no tiddy touching. At 16, two years away from my first trip to the strip club, I knew that rules of seeing tiddies in the wild. What the hell is wrong with people?

 

THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021)

Dir: David Lowery

Leaving the theater, we overheard multiple variations of, “WTF?” And, “Huh?” During our viewing, there was a couple near us that snapped their fingers at the screen while the guy was attempting to mansplain the entire plot. We had to ask if they would mind, “Shutting the f*ck up!” They did, but it was much later that I realized people were not prepared for this film.

If you’ve seen A Ghost Story (2017), Lowery uses most of the 92 minute runtime showing the Big Crunch theory where the entire universe will eventually collapse into singularity. He shows the end of man and the rebirth of human history repeating itself until we see the beginning of the film again. Having known this about Lowery, we were ready for some heavy poetic imagery. And The Green Knight delivers.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the best-known Arthurian stories. Sir Gawain was King Arthur’s closest companion and right hand at the round table, as Sir Lancelot was always off on adventures. The tale of the Green Knight involves testing Gawain prior to his knighthood. In the story, it’s New Years Eve and King Arthur asks for a story of bravery. The Green Knight arrives as if on cue and requests a game. He who be so brave shall land a blow against him; however, that blow will be returned one year and a day henceforth. The bloated ego of Gawain makes him jump to the task, and he chops off the Green Knight’s head. The Knight picks up his decapitated head and rides off reminding Gawain the deal he is now sealed to. The year passes, and Gawain sets off to keep his word. Along the way he has various adventures, meets a lord and lady that play a game of seduction with him, and finally meets his fate.

In Lowery’s version of the fable, we get all the main themes of the legend. We get the nephew of King Arthur, son of Arthur’s witch sister, accepting a duel with the mysterious Green Knight. Lowery never mentions the names of King Arthur, Guinevere, Camelot, Knights of the round table, Excalibur, or Merlin but they are all present. Gawain sets out on his journey still a coward, having wasted a year puffing up his ego and drinking with knights. During his journey, we are given beautiful cinematography with long takes and golden ratio-perfect compositions. The film uses medieval folk music to fill it’s stretches of horse riding. And the film gives you that epic-ness of something akin to Willow (1988), but if you’re expecting some sword fighting or duels you will be disappointed. This film is all about the journey. It is filled to the brim with poetic imagery, it didn’t have any room for action set pieces. And this is a good thing.

 

High – Highlights of the last two weeks include Phantom of the Paradise in a garden screening, understanding Return To Horror High for the first time, backyard Stallone marathon, made-for-TV greatness Night Drive, the brilliance of Blow Out, and the Camelot poetry of The Green Knight. And it seems to easy, but seeing The Green Knight on the big screen has to be the best viewing of the past two weeks.

BEST VIEWING: THE GREEN KNIGHT

Low – Lowlights were lower than low. These include Stripped To Kill, Scary Movie 3, Born For Hell, Killer’s Delight, and Looker. But the winner of worst has to go to Killer’s Delight, the only film I know that would have worked better in the made-for-TV format with its limitations.

WORST VIEWING: KILLER’S DELIGHT