This Week In Film (8/2 - 8/8)
August 2, 2021 - August 8, 2021
• Zola • Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings • Psychomania • The Spell • Annie • Death Car On The Freeway • Suicide Squad • Spiral • Val • The Face Of Fear •
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Hello readers. This last week I devoured Are You In The House Alone? A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999 edited by Amanda Reyes. You'll see I've been trying to do my TV Movie homework. Katie, the wife, is obviously a little annoyed by it. And maybe you will be too, but lets face facts, you'll just skip over them if you get frustrated. Katie is less fortunate. I've tried telling her what I've learned from Amanda Reyes' work that these 1970's to 1980's films were restricted by being on television which meant that they had to be creative in other ways. This restriction lead to a lot of the films being weird or turn into issue films that didn't hide their politics in subtext but laid it all out. I love how you never know what you're going to get. It can be a torturous viewing experience and then, all of a sudden, a mother beats the hell out of her daughter, or a rape van causes a pile-up on the highway, or an acrophobic psychic former mountain climber has to climb down a skyscraper because one half of a Leopold and Loeb set of killers is intent upon silencing them. The impetus of this research was not only a cool new book, but I'm obsessively trying to select this year's 31 Days of Horror list. Countless hours of TV Movies just to find one worthy for October, I swear I'm practically sane. But that's not what I came here to tell you about...
Welcome to 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 my favorite viewings of the week.
Lets begin...
OVERVIEW:
*****
ZOLA (2021)
dir: Janicza Bravo
This was our second viewing of Zola. I’m not going to attempt to write a better review than my wife. Instead, I want to point out a conversation we had during this viewing. As we weren’t in a theater this time, we could talk about the visuals, the actual tweets, and things we missed. I’m not spoiling anything but there is a scene where Zola, Stefani, “The Roomate,” and Derrek are in the middle of the road trip to Florida when they stop for gas. We cut to Zola and Stefani going to the bathroom. I remembered that this scene baffled me, so I asked out loud why it was included. It was interesting because I was viewing it from a heterosexual male perspective, “Butts!” It’s also a world I’m not privy to, the women’s restroom in general or women’s restroom etiquette. My wife provided illumination on the meaning of the scene. She told me that it immediately shows the differences between Stefani and Zola. We see Zola hovering over the seat, she asks for toilet paper, she wipes, and she flushes her semi-clear urine. Stefani on the other hand sits right on the seat, doesn’t wipe, and doesn’t flush her very dehydrated urine. Stefani doesn’t take care of herself, and this is reflected through the rest of the film. It was an epiphany for me. For Katie, my wife, and most women watching, this detail was glaringly obvious. And this is why I love as many perspectives as possible when it comes to analyzing art.
Except one perspective, lets call him Jack. So, Jack is a member of a social media group that likes to rally behind films that A24 releases. You have to list your favorite A24 films to get in and there’d be no reason to be there unless you enjoyed the company’s output. Jack felt like it was his duty to critique the film on the group page. He starts off by criticizing all the characters in the film as being sh*t people and saying that people will watch this to see a part of themselves. Then Jack puts down Twitter and said he failed to see any point to the film. But then Jack said the film would promote more “whoring” on Backpages than anything else. It was then, we all realized Jack’s insecurities. But it was also this statement that caused him to violate the social media platform’s community standards, and it was removed. He was also roasted on the platform. I get it Jack, you’re allowed to critique art. I’d be a hypocrite if I said you’re not allowed your own opinions about films. In my review of Pumpkinhead 2, I say the filmmaking ingredients were used to create a sh*t salad. But I did my research. It is as if Jack forgot to read the beginning of the film that tells you it was a true story. That real people were involved. That Stefani is a victim of sex trafficking. That sex work in and of itself is not a reason to put someone down. That the world is larger than you. I’m sorry, I’m not sorry Jack.
dir: Jeff Burr
What a missed opportunity! While this is a good general description of the whole film, I’m specifically referencing the subtitle Blood Wings. The wings the title refers to are a group of high school douchebags in the 1950’s that went by the lame moniker: Red Wings. I’m assuming they got the nickname the old-fashioned way. The first boys from their high school to not care what time of the month it may be. And for that, they may not be the complete douchebags we assume them to be. Wait, okay, they just hanged a boy with special needs. They’re bonafide pr*cks. Who does the boy happen to be? Well, he is Pumpkinhead’s child. And that is where they missed a golden opportunity to call this sequel, Son of Pumpkinhead. As if the title debacle alone wasn’t enough to pass on this second entry, it’s lack of a realistic creature or on-screen kills doom this early nineties attempt to rekindle the love of horror. Part 2 just never lives up to the Stan Winston classic.
Living up to the likes of Pumpkinhead is a tall order on its own. The original was the directorial debut of master special effects artist Stan Winston and where it may lack in story, the creature is picture perfect. For the sequel, the creature looks like an amalgam of foam and rubber. All the life was sucked out of the great puppetry featured in the first film. And with a new iconic monster there was acting legend Lance Henriksen providing heartbreak, grief, revenge, and repentance for us. None of this is present in Blood Wings. Instead, the story gets too confusing to follow. At least the Pumpkinhead rules do. First the monster seeks vengeance for himself and then vengeance for the death of the old woman who protected him. Pumpkinhead’s not selfish!
To the film’s credit we get Andrew Robinson (Larry and Frank in Hellraiser (1987)), Soleil Moon Frye, and the cameos of Linnea Quigley and Kane Hodder. Jeff Burr was no stranger to horror sequels as he directed Stepfather II: Make Room For Daddy (1989), Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Puppet Master 4 (1993), and Puppet Master 5 (1994). I’ve always considered Leatherface as one my favorite sequels and Stepfather II is just as good as the first. With the actors, the cult status of the creature, and Burr’s background it’s difficult to imagine these ingredients making a sh*t salad.
The source material for the myth of Pumpkinhead was a poem written by Ed Justin and it’s awesome!
“Keep away from Pumpkinhead, unless you’re tired of living. His enemies are mostly dead. He’s mean and unforgiving. Laugh at him and you’re undone, but in some dreadful fashion, vengeance, he considers fun. And plans it with a passion. Time will not erase or blot, a plot that he has brewing. It’s when you think that he’s forgot, he’ll conjure your undoing. Bolted doors and windows barred, guard dogs prowling in the yard, won’t protect you in your bed. Nothing will, from Pumpkinhead!”
PSYCHOMANIA (1973)
dir: Don Sharp
A biker gang finds the secrets to immortality. All you have to do is commit suicide and believe you will come back. And now the gang is offing themselves one-by-one and rampaging the surrounding towns. You don’t get cooler than that plot. Add some psychedelic late-sixties riffs on the score, some post-mod actors, shoot it wide, include plenty of biker scenes, and a deal with the devil to take your plot to another level. Psychomania’s tone is hip and refreshing. There’s not a lot of violence or gore, but it makes up for it in showing the gang members kill themselves. The bit never gets old in the film. There are moments where it feels as though the director doesn’t know what to do with such a clever story. This is why the ending falls flat. But maybe, I was just cheering for the gang. As blasphemous as it sounds, a remake in the hands of a competent filmmaker would be amazing. My aspirations for the gang is that they do end up living forever. And they get so very bored of it. Instead of vampires or Highlanders, this gang cannot die. Let's make it so their flesh is impervious to puncture, flame, acid, or any hazards. This way, they will be around for the end of everything. An after-the-world-dies story, that’s the remake I see for Psychomania.
THE SPELL (1977)
dir: Lee Philips
We’re in the weird world of NBC Made-For-TV here. Writer, Brian Taggert, swears up and down that he wasn’t aware of Stephen King or Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) when he was conceiving the film. I’ll buy it. For all it’s surface level similarities, The Spell swerves way off the path of a sympathetic telekinetic teen. Here we have Rita, a fifteen-year-old who is picked on for being overweight. I don’t see it, but her classmates, sister, and especially her father see it. At first we feel bad for her, obviously no one should be bullied. But she has this strong bond with her loving mother and yet treats her like an *sshole. Soon, you come to the realization that everyone but the mother deserves what’s coming to them. If you’re waiting for that build up to the prom, no such scene will come. There is no explosion of powers and femininity.
Instead of telekinesis, there’s witchcraft afoot. One major twist, without spoiling a 44-year-old TV movie, is Rita likes to be an outcast. She is one of the weirdos, mister. But Rita’s not alone in her witchery, someone’s been teaching her, coaching her innate talent if you will. The film builds up to a battle at home. But unlike Piper Laurie versus Sissy Spacek where it’s a fight between madness and traumatized innocence, this fight is between a loving mother and selfish-jerk daughter. The Spell’s climactic fight, if you can call it that, is very strange. For a film that treats exposition as monologue, they leave out the fact that Rita’s powers come naturally – from her mother. There is a para-psychologist who says he gets a strong reading when he’s near momma. However, he’s mostly in the film to try out his Christopher Lee impressions, so it’s hard to listen to anything he dictates.
I was just thinking, if you take the witchcraft out of this film, you have a great story about a young teen’s come-to-Jesus moment with her parents. Follow me for a second here. Rita’s a spoiled brat. Sure she’s bullied at school, but she never wanted to fit in in the first place. She’s mean to the only person that loves her, her mother. She’s become so unruly that the family decides to send her to a boarding school in England. Yeah, I forgot to mention. The family is dripping rich. Rita has gotten everything she ever wanted, and still hates the world. When she throws a tantrum and says she’s not going away, she tries to fight her mother. Then the ending, now with no witchcraft, is fifteen minutes of the mother just beating the sh*t out of her kid and telling her she needs to act right. It ends with them hugging it out and maybe having a decent relationship afterword. Sounds about right.
A scene between Col. Sandurz and Lord Dark Helmet from Spaceballs (1987) about sums up The Spell:
Col. Sandurz: That is his name, sir. *sshole. Major *sshole.
Lord Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
Col. Sandurz: He’s an *sshole, too, sir. Gunner’s mate first class Phillip *sshole.
Lord Dark Helment: How many *ssholes we got on this ship, anyhow? I knew it, I’m surrounded by *sshole’s. Keep firing *ssholes!
ANNIE (1982)
dir: John Houston
Post written by: Katie Huhn
Annie is a classic musical that is a favorite of mine. The husband and I watched it as part of Criterion’s tribute to John Huston. Any excuse to get Shaun to watch this with me would do though.
Annie, played by the lovely Aileen Quinn, is a precocious orphan living in the Hudson Street Orphanage in NYC during the Great Depression. Annie believes that her parents left her there only to be reunited later with them. This glimmer of hope is what fuels her singing and trying to keep morale up at the orphanage. Morale is a hard thing to come by because of the cruel drunk, Miss Hannigan played hilariously by Carol Burnett. She runs the orphanage as if the girls are her slaves.
Fate smiles on Annie when she is chosen, as a publicity stunt, to live with the famous billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Albert Finney) for a week by his lovely assistant Grace. Annie takes her new dog Sandy to live in the lap of luxury, falling in love with Grace, “Daddy” Warbucks, and this brand-new way of life. It is the first time in Annie’s life where she can be a child. But when Daddy Warbucks offers to adopt her, Annie declines. She’s unable to give up the dream that her parents are coming to rescue her one day. Daddy Warbucks begins a worldwide search for them, offering money if they agree to come forward. Miss Hannigan and her brother Rooster, played by a young and sexy Tim Curry, along with his girlfriend, Bernadette Peters, seize this opportunity to try and scam the billionaire out of money and the little girl out of her hopes and dreams. But Annie herself foils their plans and is reunited with her new family. The film closes with the promise that the orphanage is getting a facelift and that Annie can finally live happily ever after.
Growing up, I fell in love with Annie while watching it at my father and stepmother’s house. For reasons untold to me, I was not allowed to wear my own clothes, go to the bathroom, or eat or drink food without permission, and I wasn’t allowed to sleep in a bed or on the couch. When I visited every other weekend, I pulled my sleeping bag out of a closet where it was stored in a trash bag and set myself up in front of the television. At night, I missed my mom and my older sister who I’d left at my permanent residence to spend time in this hell where my stepmother restricted access to my father as much as possible. So at night, when she was gone or asleep, it was my time. The only few hours I was free from being under her thumb. I’d watch Nick At Nite mostly, but sometimes I would get to play one of the five VHS tapes my stepmother owned. Annie was one of these. Silently singing “Tomorrow” got me through those tough weekends inside that house. It made me remember that I had a better place to be, where I could be myself. Now when I sing the songs, I do so with pride and as loud as possible. When Annie begins to sing “Maybe” my little-girl heart swells, every f*cking time.
Also, as an adult, I can fully appreciate the hilarity that is Carol Burnett’s Miss Hannigan. She is a perfect drunken mess, whose physicality is everything to her performance. And her cruelty is balanced well with her unwitting ability to be foiled by the little girls she’s supposed to be taking care of. And her redemption in the end is always such a surprise, but it makes sense because Burnett makes it hard to hate this character. Honorable mentions for Tim Curry’s crazy Rooster and Bernadette Peters’ lovely, sticky-fingered vixen. And also for Albert Finney, who I honestly just learned was Oliver Warbucks; I’m a huge fan of his and never knew. Can’t wait to check out more classic John Huston films via Criterion.
PSYCHOMANIA (1973)
dir: Don Sharp
“You can only die once, after that nothing and nobody can harm you.”
A biker gang finds the secrets to immortality. All you have to do is commit suicide and believe you will come back. And now the gang is offing themselves one-by-one and rampaging the surrounding towns. You don’t get cooler than that plot. Add some psychedelic late-sixties riffs on the score, some post-mod actors, shoot it wide, include plenty of biker scenes, and a deal with the devil to take your plot to another level. Psychomania’s tone is hip and refreshing. There’s not a lot of violence or gore, but it makes up for it in showing the gang members kill themselves. The bit never gets old in the film. There are moments where it feels as though the director doesn’t know what to do with such a clever story. This is why the ending falls flat. But maybe, I was just cheering for the gang. As blasphemous as it sounds, a remake in the hands of a competent filmmaker would be amazing. My aspirations for the gang is that they do end up living forever. And they get so very bored of it. Instead of vampires or Highlanders, this gang cannot die. Let's make it so their flesh is impervious to puncture, flame, acid, or any hazards. This way, they will be around for the end of everything. An after-the-world-dies story, that’s the remake I see for Psychomania.
THE SPELL (1977)
dir: Lee Philips
We’re in the weird world of NBC Made-For-TV here. Writer, Brian Taggert, swears up and down that he wasn’t aware of Stephen King or Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) when he was conceiving the film. I’ll buy it. For all it’s surface level similarities, The Spell swerves way off the path of a sympathetic telekinetic teen. Here we have Rita, a fifteen-year-old who is picked on for being overweight. I don’t see it, but her classmates, sister, and especially her father see it. At first we feel bad for her, obviously no one should be bullied. But she has this strong bond with her loving mother and yet treats her like an *sshole. Soon, you come to the realization that everyone but the mother deserves what’s coming to them. If you’re waiting for that build up to the prom, no such scene will come. There is no explosion of powers and femininity.
Instead of telekinesis, there’s witchcraft afoot. One major twist, without spoiling a 44-year-old TV movie, is Rita likes to be an outcast. She is one of the weirdos, mister. But Rita’s not alone in her witchery, someone’s been teaching her, coaching her innate talent if you will. The film builds up to a battle at home. But unlike Piper Laurie versus Sissy Spacek where it’s a fight between madness and traumatized innocence, this fight is between a loving mother and selfish-jerk daughter. The Spell’s climactic fight, if you can call it that, is very strange. For a film that treats exposition as monologue, they leave out the fact that Rita’s powers come naturally – from her mother. There is a para-psychologist who says he gets a strong reading when he’s near momma. However, he’s mostly in the film to try out his Christopher Lee impressions, so it’s hard to listen to anything he dictates.
I was just thinking, if you take the witchcraft out of this film, you have a great story about a young teen’s come-to-Jesus moment with her parents. Follow me for a second here. Rita’s a spoiled brat. Sure she’s bullied at school, but she never wanted to fit in in the first place. She’s mean to the only person that loves her, her mother. She’s become so unruly that the family decides to send her to a boarding school in England. Yeah, I forgot to mention. The family is dripping rich. Rita has gotten everything she ever wanted, and still hates the world. When she throws a tantrum and says she’s not going away, she tries to fight her mother. Then the ending, now with no witchcraft, is fifteen minutes of the mother just beating the sh*t out of her kid and telling her she needs to act right. It ends with them hugging it out and maybe having a decent relationship afterword. Sounds about right.
A scene between Col. Sandurz and Lord Dark Helmet from Spaceballs (1987) about sums up The Spell:
Col. Sandurz: That is his name, sir. *sshole. Major *sshole.
Lord Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
Col. Sandurz: He’s an *sshole, too, sir. Gunner’s mate first class Phillip *sshole.
Lord Dark Helment: How many *ssholes we got on this ship, anyhow? I knew it, I’m surrounded by *sshole’s. Keep firing *ssholes!
ANNIE (1982)
dir: John Houston
Post written by: Katie Huhn
Annie is a classic musical that is a favorite of mine. The husband and I watched it as part of Criterion’s tribute to John Huston. Any excuse to get Shaun to watch this with me would do though.
Annie, played by the lovely Aileen Quinn, is a precocious orphan living in the Hudson Street Orphanage in NYC during the Great Depression. Annie believes that her parents left her there only to be reunited later with them. This glimmer of hope is what fuels her singing and trying to keep morale up at the orphanage. Morale is a hard thing to come by because of the cruel drunk, Miss Hannigan played hilariously by Carol Burnett. She runs the orphanage as if the girls are her slaves.
Fate smiles on Annie when she is chosen, as a publicity stunt, to live with the famous billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Albert Finney) for a week by his lovely assistant Grace. Annie takes her new dog Sandy to live in the lap of luxury, falling in love with Grace, “Daddy” Warbucks, and this brand-new way of life. It is the first time in Annie’s life where she can be a child. But when Daddy Warbucks offers to adopt her, Annie declines. She’s unable to give up the dream that her parents are coming to rescue her one day. Daddy Warbucks begins a worldwide search for them, offering money if they agree to come forward. Miss Hannigan and her brother Rooster, played by a young and sexy Tim Curry, along with his girlfriend, Bernadette Peters, seize this opportunity to try and scam the billionaire out of money and the little girl out of her hopes and dreams. But Annie herself foils their plans and is reunited with her new family. The film closes with the promise that the orphanage is getting a facelift and that Annie can finally live happily ever after.
Growing up, I fell in love with Annie while watching it at my father and stepmother’s house. For reasons untold to me, I was not allowed to wear my own clothes, go to the bathroom, or eat or drink food without permission, and I wasn’t allowed to sleep in a bed or on the couch. When I visited every other weekend, I pulled my sleeping bag out of a closet where it was stored in a trash bag and set myself up in front of the television. At night, I missed my mom and my older sister who I’d left at my permanent residence to spend time in this hell where my stepmother restricted access to my father as much as possible. So at night, when she was gone or asleep, it was my time. The only few hours I was free from being under her thumb. I’d watch Nick At Nite mostly, but sometimes I would get to play one of the five VHS tapes my stepmother owned. Annie was one of these. Silently singing “Tomorrow” got me through those tough weekends inside that house. It made me remember that I had a better place to be, where I could be myself. Now when I sing the songs, I do so with pride and as loud as possible. When Annie begins to sing “Maybe” my little-girl heart swells, every f*cking time.
Also, as an adult, I can fully appreciate the hilarity that is Carol Burnett’s Miss Hannigan. She is a perfect drunken mess, whose physicality is everything to her performance. And her cruelty is balanced well with her unwitting ability to be foiled by the little girls she’s supposed to be taking care of. And her redemption in the end is always such a surprise, but it makes sense because Burnett makes it hard to hate this character. Honorable mentions for Tim Curry’s crazy Rooster and Bernadette Peters’ lovely, sticky-fingered vixen. And also for Albert Finney, who I honestly just learned was Oliver Warbucks; I’m a huge fan of his and never knew. Can’t wait to check out more classic John Huston films via Criterion.
DEATH CAR ON THE FREEWAY (1979)
dir: Hal Needham
“I never saw someone drive like that, like a demon.”
Suffering from vehophobia (yes, there’s even a word for being terrified of driving), each highway accident was triggering to say the least. I enjoy the spectacle of a car chase, some good guys versus bad guys, guns that shoot straight at 100 MPH, or even creative directors building a completely new freeway to re-invent high octane action. Some of my favorite films feature fender benders prominently. Vanishing Point (1971) is a masterpiece. I also include myself in the camp that enjoys Tarantino’s Death Proof (2007) as one of his best films. But, the car action in this little-known made-for-TV movie really bothered me. Death Car On The Freeway is Duel (1971) filtered through the women’s liberation movement. One can even see elements at play that would lead to QT’s Stuntman Mike. The opening accident and especially the vehicular explosions are expertly choreographed and the feminism has you rooting for our independent journalist turned stunt driver.
In the vain of Duel, we never see the deadly driver. We see him clean his steering wheel with a tissue, put on some fancy leather driving gloves, pop in his chewed-up Charlie Daniels 8-track, and murder women with his rape van. But his face is never featured. This makes him the everyman. Every man threatened by a woman’s rise to power. It makes this killer, a metaphor for every man in our protagonist’s life.
We follow newly single reporter Jan, who after seeing a report about our first potential freeway victim, remembers a story from six months prior. But no one takes the coincidence seriously. As for the latest victim, well she’s an actress, it is said that you can’t take her word for anything. Or is it that she’s a woman? The third victim burns in the accident and dies in the hospital. After her death, Lieutenant Haller (Peter Graves) begins taking this killer driver seriously. Sidenote: Peter Graves best line of all time is in Airplane! (1980) where he’s the questionable pilot and he asks a boy, “Danny, you ever seen a grown man naked?” I couldn’t see him here without thinking about Captain Clarence Oveur. He’s the image of sober ignorance in both films, but his sexism here makes you recoil.
An actual report came out during the liberation movement that stated there was a rise of feminism due to mobility. Women were getting out of the house and into the family car. The lieutenant gives a litany of excuses for why the killer is targeting people. He says that each of these women had a bad driving record. They must have taunted him. “Are you saying it’s the women’s fault?” Jan won’t have it. You go Jan! Elsewhere, the men around her treat her like a joke. “Oh yeah, like super-skirt’s gonna bring him [the killer] in singlehandedly?” Well, the joke’s on you, boys. Jan’s ex is probably the worst. They once worked together, but she moved on and moved up away from him. When he felt threatened by her success, he tried to steal her story. He also advises her to quit before she gets fired. That way, she can come back to work for him.
A profile by a female psychologist is discussed on air and it’s a fantastic way to belittle all the men watching. She says the Freeway Fiddler (the killer’s ridiculous name) seems to be saying, “Hey you women are getting too big for your britches.” She continues and says he must have a strong death wish as a punishment for being such a bad boy around his mother. Jan then blames the advertising for automobiles showing that they inexcusably attempt to promote masculinity. She’s fired from the station due to f*cking with their advertising revenue but continues her pursuit of The Fiddler. Eventually, Jan and The Fiddler are head-to-head on the highway. As The Fiddler tries to slam into the back of Jan’s car, we see his van as the rape vessel it is, but Jan has taken defensive driving courses and she’s ready.
There’s a moment when Jan’s ex says, “You can’t just walk away from me Jan!” To which, Jan replies, “I can do anything I want!” Yes you can Jan, yes you can. This movie rules! And if all that wasn’t enough, Sid Haig has a brief cameo as a semi-sleazy mechanic.
SUICIDE SQUAD (2021)
dir: James Gunn
In our first slow-mo character line up, my wife and I were betting on which characters would be killed off quickly. Then, as if James Gunn was in our heads, the control room characters were actually betting on who would survive. It was the obvious joke knowing how the ‘other’ Suicide Squad film killed villain/heroes quickly. Also, did anyone believe a human-sized Sean Gunn weasel would survive?
I often wonder about Gunn’s writing style. I’m wondering if his first draft includes all the trappings of a typical action film, just so he can go back and undercut every big moment with comedy. Does he let his mind wander into the minefield of cliché, just to twist our expectation? It works. However he gets there, it’s comedy gold. While watching Gunn’s Suicide Squad it is hard not to draw comparisons to his style that helped him retool Marvel film expectations. Where Guardians is about creating your own family and place in this universe, Squad is more about individual morality and group loyalty. Being granted an R rating, gives Gunn his ability to inject some of that old Tromaville education into a $185 million dollar action romp. There’s blood and gore flying all over the screen, there’s fantastic morbid humor, armies of rats, intestines, Lloyd Kaufman himself, skyscraper-sized ‘Karens,’ and glowing polka dot vomit. And how could you not mention the best Stallone role since Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003).
It is a fun film filled with unexpected scenes that exceed your expectations. And can we just talk about Margot Robbie. I know that Birds of Prey (2020) wasn’t that perfect Harley Quinn film you wanted, but it was still Margot Robbie as the perfect Harley Quinn. Eventually we will get Gotham City Sirens with another outing for Robbie’s Quinn, but we need more. Harley Quinn is one of the younger DC characters, she needs a full run. While everyone shines in Gunn’s Squad, we all know that Robbie just shines brighter. Gunn gives her a montage set to “I Ain’t Got Nobody” by Louis Prima, and it is a ballet of bullets and blood. But something strange occurs during the gunfight, cartoon flowers bloom all around Quinn. She has found herself in a euphoric flow while destroying all the men that kept her confined. We slip into her lunatic mind, and instead of the debris of bodies splattering the walls, a bouquet of madness blossoms. A final note about the music, well it’s a James Gunn soundtrack where they throw money at him to create needledrops. So we get: Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues,” Jim Carroll Band “People Who Died,” The Fratellis, Kansas, and The Pixies “Hey,” to name a few. Enjoy.
And a final thought. There's a lot of talk about the film underperforming in theaters. Well, what do you expect, COVID numbers are increasing at a rapid rate, AGAIN. People aren't as fearless about going to the movies as they were a month ago. I, like many others, watched this from the safety of our homes. I imagine the numbers would have been different pre Delta spike.
SPIRAL (2019)
dir: Kurtis David Harder
Set in 1995, complete with burned CDs, strange internet search engines, flip phones, and leftover fears of gay men we follow a same-sex couple who move from the city into a prosaic paradise. Obviously, there’d be no film if their move weren’t met with undertones of hostility from the rural folks. Partners Malik played by Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (Jay, whose character was one of the less ruthless one from UnReal) and Arron (Ari Cohen) retreat from the hustle of city life along with Arron’s daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte). Soon, within their new refuge, Malik begins to suspect their neighbors aren’t as they seem. But, Malik’s mental health isn’t a reliable narrator. He begins to lose chunks of time. We flashback to the trauma that Malik lives with everyday. He and a former lover were assaulted by a group of guys for making out in the backseat of a car. This trauma doesn’t allow Malik to fully trust others. The film then creates two parallel storylines for the viewer, is Malik slipping into madness, or is there homophobic witchery afoot?
Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman is a delight to watch. He conveys Malik’s breakdown realistically. As the gaps in time become more frequent, he’s left more and more bewildered by life happening around him. The neighbors Marshall (Lochlyn Munro or Hal Cooper, Betty’s dad, from Riverdale) and Tiffany (Chandra West) never appear too eager to seem sinister. Instead, from any other character’s perspective they are just helpful neighbors across the street. The ending of the film more than makes up for some of the lackluster paranoia scenes that act as steppingstones toward the final resolution. We all know they are needed in a film trying to convey a mental breakdown, but I’m not sure anyone knows how to successfully film them. Sure, Martin Scorcesse teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio for Shutter Island (2010) is damn near perfect, but that’s Martin f*cking Scorsese. Overall, Harder’s film is serviceable, and the experience is made enjoyable by an ending you don’t fully see coming.
VAL (2021)
dir: Ting Poo, Leo Scott
The trailer frames this film as a clip show exposé. Val Kilmer has carried his personal cameras with him since youth, and we will get nothing but montages of other stars and a behind the scenes look at Hollywood. And while we do get all those things and more, we also get a meditation on aging, celebrities as commodities, artistic expression, and death. Without that silky voice we remember, lost due to throat cancer, Val uses every other element at his disposal to express himself. He still speaks to us, but as he explains he has to make choices whether to breath, speak, or eat now. Val gives most of his words to his son Jack to narrate. They are words of a man attempting to figure out the meaning of his life. Unafraid of his own natural death, but seemingly scared of not finding a way to summarize his existence, the film begins with Val as a child. We move from era to era with Val always trying to reinvent himself inside the characters he plays. There are four that stand out: Iceman, Jim Morrison, Doc Holliday, and Mark Twain. These are the roles he poured himself into and made his own, you can tell the pride he has in these performances. Whereas the rest of his career, he tells James Lipton on Inside The Actor’s Studio, was an attempt to find a path to perform a style of acting he was never able to. It appears to us, his audience, that he found that performance with his own Mark Twain play, “Citizen Twain.” Which had a successful run prior to Val’s cancer.
There’s footage of Val as Twain performing for a packed house. He wanders around the audience and asks what is the greatest question of all? A member from the audience responds, “Why are we here?” And Mark Twain says, “I reckon cause you paid $70.00.” One of the many brilliant moments we are privy to during Val’s life. The directors give us all the actor’s ups and downs so we may form our own opinion. I enjoyed the stripping away of the ego to show an artist never content and always valuing the process of expression. Others might enjoy getting to see Val lovingly rock Marlon Brando to sleep on a hammock during the shooting of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). To each their own cinema.
THE FACE OF FEAR (1990)
dir: Farhad Mann
Ira laughs to himself, “Some superman.”
This film has stuck with me for thirty years. Actually, plagued me as I couldn’t remember the name of it until a few years ago. I even used internet forums to see if anyone could help. What’s that late eighties or nineties film that features a guy climbing down a skyscraper? One day my call to arms was answered, then the next step was to seek out the film which took some time as well. But here we are, we’ve finally filled that gap in memory.
The Face Of Fear features the editor of a magazine, Climb, that specializes in mountain climbing returning to work after a terrible accident. This trauma has left him with a limp, a phobia of heights, and psychic powers. Excuse me, what was that last part? Yes, he has psychic powers, and they are being used to help the police solve a series of violent murders. This ultimately leads to him being on the killer’s radar, which means he and his psychologist girlfriend will have to be eliminated. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues throughout a 40-story building leading our heroes to break out a few windows and make the descent of their lives.
Farhad Mann would go on to direct Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996), but before that he’d cut his teeth with this CBS TV movie. The original novel was written by Dean Koontz under his pseudonym Brian Coffey. From reading the novel’s synopsis, it appears that all the major plot points are directly from the source material. So it is Koontz to blame for the clairvoyant climber. I’m not against utilizing psychics in your plot but it feels like lazy writing in this story. The power to see is more than likely fully explained and used in glorious ways in the novel, but here it places our character in danger and is used once more to give our heroes the upper hand by thirty seconds. It’s a waste of good psychic power. Without it, the film is an entertaining suspense thriller that is a caliber better than most nineties TV.
The film is a Thanksgiving movie, if you need a new tradition to add to your annual viewing of Blood Rage (1987), Dutch (1991), and Planes, Trains, And Automobiles (1987). We get William Sadler before his role as the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), Bob Balaban before Best In Show (2000), and we get Kevin Conroy before he’d become the best Batman ever in Batman: The Animated Series. Early on we learn that Kevin Conroy is the killer working with an accomplice. It’s rather easy to deduce who it might be, but I’ll leave that detail out. We get hints throughout the film that our two killers are a Leopold and Loeb set. There are Nietzsche quotes at crime scenes and quotes like, “The new men always win,” or, “I’m the lightning out of a dark cloud man.” Then, later in the film, when the reasons for murder spill forth from our killer it is mentioned that the two men met in college and have been together ever since.
Overall, the film works. It does feel as though it's bulging at the seems with too many concepts, but there’s enough suspense to drive the plot. Watching Kevin Conroy’s dissent into madness as our heroes descend the building is something special.
*****
BEST VIEWING: SUICIDE SQUAD
Low: Lowlights include Spiral, which was still good but not as great as the premise itself. And the lowest of lows this week goes to:
WORST VIEWING: PUMPKINHEAD 2: BLOOD WINGS
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