A welcome break from the emotional bog left us by "Infinity War"

My headline is not original, as many reviewers have noted that this next MCU entry is a nice repose (riposa) from the heavy weight we all felt after the last Avengers movie. But, if it were just that, it would feel like a the cinematic equivalent of a pallete cleanser - that is, the in-between food that gets us ready for the next major course in the meal. Ant Man and the Wasp is anything but. Featuring an even more developed main character, ably played by Paul Rudd, and a typically great surrounding cast, this second Ant-Man feature develops its own Mini-MCU by having the eponymous micro hero involved in a significant quest of his own, to save the life of his mentor's wife, and love-interest's Mother. No spoilers here, but getting to see the lovely Michelle Pfieffer in anything these days is a treat, in and of itself. As much as she and Michael Douglas have aged, the film places them in age-appropriate settings while not taking for granted their acting skills or considerable visual appeal. Great stuff, all around, highlighted by the inimitable Michael Pena, who I just love. Even after the disastrous, "CHIPs". And that is saying something.

You came and you gave. Without taking?

Is Barry Manilow ever rolling in his grave. Wait, is he still alive? Sorry, Barry. Can I just say, to start, that this is not a feel-good movie? Unless your idea of feeling good is falling on a massive chainsaw in the third reel. I mean, wow.

Can I also just say that everything you have heard about Panos Cosmatos' acid trip-cum-horror flick is true. For all the right reasons. This is one f-ed up story, executed by one f-ed up director, acted with f-ed up intensity by Nic Gage, who may be the most under-rated American actor in history. But more on that later.

Not that the plot really matters, but Gage plays Red, who, with his wife, the eponymous "Mandy" - played with searing, zombie-like effectiveness by Andrea Riseborough, lives a kind of quasi-Hippie Utopian life somewhere in a forest. In AD 1983, we are told. Again, not that details matter here. What does matter is that an odd Death Metal Cult lead in a show-stealing performance by Linus Roache happen upon them and then do what Death Metal Cult's do...fill in the blank. After "it" happens the real fun begins, as Red turns Angry Avenger from Central Casting. Sufficed to say Red gets.the.job.done.

Big Time.

I have been sparse with plot and details because what matters here, more than anything including Gage's career-defining performance is Cosmatos' unique visual style. He clearly has a DP but, like Steven Soderbergh it kind of doesn't matter because what comes at you, visually on the screen seems to have been mined from the very depths of Cosmatos' somewhat unhinged mind and soul. Red's visceral revenge fantasy plays out on a palatte of dark tones, with various reds and other hues washing over -- like the blood that washes over his face, and never seems to leave -- and combines a pastiche of crude animation, almost cheap SFX (no CGI here) and a grainy look that echoes 1980s horror films. If Stanley Kubrick had had a music video baby with George Romero, this what it would have looked like.

Oh, and speaking of music. I have rarely seen a film where the score has had more of an impact on the overall experience, than in "Mandy". It is tragic that this was "Sicario"-scorer Jóhann Jóhannsson's last film score, as he died of a drug overdose in Berlin in February of this year.  His haunting, lyrical 80s era synth score nails the pathos and drama of "Mandy," and, just as no one could have played Red with the feral intensity of Nic Cage, no one could have written a better score than Jóhannsson'. I still have the lilting chord progression, which reminds me of Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" in an almost creepy way, echoing through my head.

I have a theory that one out of every 5.3 films Cage makes is good, some are great. I really liked "Drive Angry" which shares some DNA with "Mandy". I don't really know why he has to make so many crappy films, but if it is because he needs to keep working because some a-hole Manager lost a bunch of his money then so be it. Keep working, Nic. Keep giving us films like this and we will forgive the Nicole Kidman family thrillers. Or "The Season of the Witch." OK, we can't really forgive that.

Cage brings his trademark rage to "Mandy" and then amps it up to a level I think few actors would even dare. As has been pointed out in other reviews, there is a scene about halfway through the film where Red is in the bathroom, trying to take stock about what has just happened to Mandy, and the rawness and honesty of his scream could make Lee Strasberg come out of his grave. Wait, is Strasberg still alive?

This is truly great film-making, from a director I personally am going to keep my eye on. On Amazon Prime of course in HD with the volume turned way up on my surround system, this was nirvana. Now I need to go and see it in a theater, for heaven's sake.

Enjoy.

The title music is only half the story with "Laura"

My "way in" to this timeless noir was the remarkable theme music, written by David Raskin. I had heard several great jazz riffs on the Raskin theme but finally, about ten years ago actually saw the film. Wow. Just wow.

It is hard to limit my comments on "Laura" since so much about it is great. Starting with one of the truly great Studio System era directors, Otto Preminger at the helm. Like the late, great Billy Wilder on "Sunset Boulevard" Preminger clearly was in complete control, here and the film is all the better for it. What emerges is a mesmerizing, crisply-acted, expertly-written thriller masquerading as romance, or romance masquerading as thriller. Not sure it matters what the order is.

Basic plot here is the title character is apparently found dead in her apartment of a shotgun to the face. As was famously said of John Ford (in the Pioneer slaughter aftermath scene in "The Searchers"), a great director implies horror rather than showing it, and it is more gruesome to imagine the beautiful face on Laura's apartment wall blown apart by buckshot than to actually see it, regardless of how really talented you think Rob Zombie is (and I think he is pretty talented). A smart mouthed Detective -- played in a scenery-chewing performance by the late, great Dana Andrews -- is all over the murder like a cheap suit. And given the pittance he is probably paid to detect, it is a pretty cheap suit.

He begins questioning those who knew the late beauty, and that process provides both the narrative structure of the film, and the opportunity for a virtual Who's Who of great Fox contract players to emote. Let's see, Dame Judith Andersen? Check. Vincent Price in an early, and delicious dramatic role? Gotcha. But besides the late, great Gene Tierney (more on that later) the one who steals the show is Clifton Webb, sarcasm dripping from his somewhat pansy lips in a career-defininng role as Critic Waldo Lydecker. Despite being almost clearly Gay, Lydecker apparently is smitten with Laura and jealous of any man who has the remotest hold on her affections. And many do.

Then, as they say in the Magic World, comes "The Turn." The Turn here is when the supposedly dead Laura simply walks into her apartment once fine day while said lovesick Dick is pining over her beautiful potrait, killing time whilst mentally processing the crime. This scene, where the fantasy woman in his head actually walks in the door is almost Hitchock-esque, and the vision that does walk in the door is played by perhaps the most beautiful actress in the history of Hollywood. I mean, in addition to being a great actress, Gene Tierney had the face that launched a thousand, er, erections.

But I digresss. Once it is clear that the real Laura is really alive, things get very interesting. If Laura isn't dead, who is lying in the New York City Morgue on a slab? And why was she killed? That, of course is the question that provides the driving force for the remaining 30 minutes or so of this classic. It is not a spoiler to say that Laura shows up alive, half way through "Laura" but it would be to tell if who was really killed, and if the Dick gets his Gal. Well, its Hollywood, you can guess how that last one turns out.

Add solid cinematography by Joseph LaShelle and you have a movie classic that has stood the test of time. Watch in in Hi Def if you can. The version available for rent on Amazon Video is pristine - great print and digital transfer.

Enjoy.

To Dad: Indie Sci Fi Films I love

Dear Dad.

I hope you have had a wonderful birthday. Your gift, this year (from me and my sister, Christina) is a curated collection of Indie Sci Fi films. You should have received, and will continue to receive Blu Ray shipments from Amazon containing your curated collection.

Weird, wonderful, maddening, and perhaps, in some cases, not your cup of tea. But curated, with love, by your son.

Enjoy.

First up is this mind bender from one of, hands down, the most interesting American directors working today, Shane Carruth. Oh he of the weird other Indie Sci Fi thriller Upstream Color that I made you watch a couple of Christmases ago in Mexico. Primer is his earlier, lower budget and altogether amazing entry about a group of Silicon Valley engineers who decide to make a Time Travel machine. It has been called by no less than The Last Jedi helmer Rian Johnson "the best time travel movie ever made". I can't disagree, and if it leaves your head spinning that is exactly the point.

BTW, from the "interesting trivia department": Carruth was a software programmer in Silicon Valley before he started his career as a film director.

Both Christy and I love this much-higher-budget, but still indie thriller/comedy starting the wonderful Mark Duplass and the equally wonderful Aubrey Plaza. Why? Well, Duplass plays a slightly unhinged fellow in far flung Washington State that apparently has built a time travel device, and advertises for co-time travelers in a Tabloid newspaper. His classified ad concludes with the priceless admonition, "safety not guaranteed", hence the title. Of course, the film is not about Duplass, or about Time Travel, but about the oddball bunch of characters who go chasing him down, including Plaza, Jake Johnson and, in a show-stealing performance as a virginal Indian-American lad, Karan Soni. The interplay between their faux Seattle know-it-all intellectualism and Duplass' earnest just-might-have-actually-built-a-time-travel-machine pseudo-scientist provides the slow burn manic energy of this delightful film.

Fun fact: if you think you don't know Duplass, I can tell you that you do. You saw him, er, lose his limbs in the last Episode of the Second Season of Goliath.

What do you get when you put a group of Millennials in a house during a possibly apocalyptic celestial event? Coherence, the head-twister from director James Ward Byrkit, that poses the question, what is reality, really?

I'm not sure it is possible to actually spoil the plot, because it is hard to figure out exactly what happened, when the film is done. Sufficed to say, a group of friends are having a dinner party at a charming bungalow somewhere in LA, when the "event" occurs. Following it, whatever it is, they start to wonder if in fact something has happened, and as they investigate, and leave the house, they return changed in odd ways. In a nod to the law of Entropy, the more they try to "figure it out" the more it appears to spin out of control. Are there multiple versions of each of them? Has time and space fractured and are they actually now intermingling with alternate time loops? Only the Shadow knows.

Fun stuff.

If the first three films are intellectual "acid trips" then Ink is just a visual feast of a ride, worth just going along with. The director, Jamin Winans has made both of his films (including his other marvel, Frame) entirely in Denver, Colorado, which in some ways should recommend them in and of itself. Like Shane Carruth turning a surprising Dallas into something that looks more like a Heavenly vision, Winans takes an otherwise pedestrian Denver and finds great beauty using it as the background for a truly original story, and remarkable, and remarkably inexpensive, CGI.

Here is the short form summary, courtesy of IMDB: "A mysterious creature, known as Ink, steals a child's soul in hopes of using it as a bargaining chip to join the Incubi - the group of supernatural beings responsible for creating nightmares." Again, just go with it, and enjoy the remarkable photography and effects.

I saved the best, or at least my favorite, for last. The notion of a film-making team is not a new one. The Coen Brothers are perhaps the best known, having burst on the scene low these many years with the still-pungent Blood Simple. The difference here is that Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the co-writers/directors of Spring are not brothers, but have made now three amazing films together, and seemingly share a common vision of the world, and film-making.

Spring is rather mind-blowing, as it blends at least two, or three genres together into a Gazpacho that is as tart and filling as it is spicy. OK, enough of that metaphor. The film concerns a young-ish LA lad who has just lost his mother, and decides, of all crazy things, to go to Italy to try to re-center his life. There, after a brief jaunt with a couple of Euro-slackers, he ends up in gorgeous Italian sea-side town, meeting an even more gorgeous Italian gal who turns out to be the love of his life. This indie romance is moving along very nicely until we find out that said Italian gal is actually a creature who has lived for thousands of years, constantly shedding her "skin" (for want of a better term) through meaningless sex with unwitting males.

I haven't really spoiled the plot by revealing this much because: a) if you are invested in the film as I was you want to know how it turns out; and b) somewhat contradictorily, it is very much the journey (and not the destination) that is the reward here. The writing, acting, photography and even the music all work together to provide a remarkable cinematic feast.

And, oh by the way, this may be the best romance-cum-horror-cum-sci-fi flick ever made, Or maybe the only one.

Thanks for reading.

 - Eric

Shanghai Soon?

The Hong-Kong-born-British-citizen-IRA-revenge thriller you have always been waiting for. The trailer for this looked really good, and I was not disappointed. Jackie Chan deftly plays the father of a woman who is killed in a terrorist bombing (no spoilers, I promise) who sets out to "find the bastards who killed my daughter" as the saying goes. Pierce Brosnan is terrific as the former IRA/Sinn Fein leader turned peaceful bureaucrat to whom Chan's character turns to find answers, and of course in the super-secretive world of the New IRA, none are coming. That is where it goes terribly wrong for Brosnan's Deputy Minister for Irish Affairs, as he drastically underestimates Chan in ways that would spoil the plot if I revealed. This is really a two person cat-and-mouse game but the supporting cast of English and Irish stalwarts is great - the main event is Man v. IRA. You can take a guess who loses. Pretty violent, so if you don't like that avoid this film. But, if you can stomach it, it is well worth the effort.

Advice and Dissent

I am getting kind of tired of films or TV shows being called topical, timely or prescient.Witness, for example, "The Handmaid's Tale" - the excellent Sci-Fi-ish dystopian series on Amazon. It is 'eerily prescient' if you are anti-Trump, and not, if you are not. And a lot of people are not.

So, while my way in to Advise and Consent would be to say, watching it I am reminded of the last decade or so of American politics, I refuse to call it timely, or eerily prescient. Well, it can't be because it was made a long time ago. What this outstanding Otto Preminger helmed political thriller is, is, well, outstanding.

Staring a virtual laundry list of A and B list American (and non American) actors -- which seems to be what Preminger could command -- the long-ish film concerns the confirmation hearings for a Secretary of State candidate (played with usual deft assurance by Henry Fonda), and attempts by both sides to play the politics in order to effect the outcome they desire. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes, based on a popular novel by Alan Drury, takes what could be a tiresome and overly complicated exercise and focuses on the people involved, not the politics. That, I think, is the starting point for why Advise and Consent is such and excellent genre film, along the lines of the under-appreciated "State of Play", the more thriller-ish "All the President's Men" and the outstanding, and of-a-kind Rod Lurie film "The Contender".

With so many cast members, it might be sufficient to just say everyone is excellent. Which they are. Standout performances from Fonda, Gene Tierney, and many others make this a master class of ensemble acting. But, as often happens in these types of films, the late, great Charles Laughton nearly steals the show as a cantankerous, crafty Senator from the South who clearly does not want Fonda's candidate -- from the opposing Party, natch - to be confirmed. When I watch Laughton perform, as I have often recently, I am reminded of how effortless his acting was. There is a long history of British Actors doing American parts and vice-versa (recent examples are plentiful) but seeing the same man who played English kings so expertly nail a the mannerisms, accent and general comportment of a mid-century Southern politico is a great pleasure.

The plot is probably not that important, as it primarily serves as a vehicle for the actors and actresses. The primary question is not, will Fonda's Secretary of State candidate be confirmed, but how low will both parties go to achieve their ends, and watching that evolve is one of the many pleasures of Advise and Consent. The location photography in Washington is remarkable, especially considering many of the scenes were shot in actual Senate chambers and offices. Perhaps that is (or was, then) more common than I am aware, but the verisimilitude lent is striking.

If you like political thrillers that don't lean Left or Right, just hew excellent, check this one out. On Amazon Prime the print and transfer to SD are excellent. The video quality is "DVD like" but on a good quality TV with a good sound system it is still a very satisfying experience.

Enjoy.

Ed Jagels should have resigned a long, long time ago,

Wow. Just wow. As others have commented, a compelling portrait of a monumental Miscarriage of Justice. Rabid Kern County. CA prosecutor Ed Jagels makes his career on convicting ordinary middle class white people (yes, I said it) of child molestation on trumped-up and poorly investigated charges. What is more amazing than the fact that good people spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit is the fact that the a-hole at the top -- Ed Jagels - not only never was forced to resign, but was actually re-elected several times. Even well after the first of the convictions were overturned, and the children who had been forced to testify falsely that their OWN PARENTS molested them recanted their testimony in court. Every one of them. The film, exec produced and narrated by Sean Pean sensitively and powerfully focuses on the true victims of this travesty, and, although Jagels made me quite mad the film rightly did not spend much time on the topic of what a jerk he is. This is about the deep effect this unforgivable injustice played in the lives of the parents, and the children forced to lie. I mean, what could be worse than to be brow-beaten into lying and saying that the most important person in your life -- your mom, or dad -- molested you?
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