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Chained for Life (2018)

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Director: Aaron Schimberg

I’m really working overtime on this one. It’s one of those films—which I personally love so much—that resists explanation, resists definition. But I’ll do my best because I really want you to see this one.

The film opens with a quote from Pauline Kael, written across the screen: “Actors and actresses are usually more beautiful than ordinary people. And why not?”

It’s clear quite early on that this film is satire, an examination of the expectations of beauty, the falseness of cinema, and the standards by which we treat those who don’t meet those expectations.

It’s another film-within-a-film (I just finished One Cut of the Dead), a film about a pretentious German (maybe) director shooting his first American film (Marked for Life) about a doctor who operates on the disfigured, trying to make them look “normal.” (Think Eyes Without a Face.) Herr Director (no, seriously…that’s what he’s called) has decided to cast actual disfigured people as extras in the film. The bus full of them arrives, introducing us to Rosenthal, a man with neurofibromatosis (Adam Pearson). He is paired up with Mabel Fairchild (the underrated Jess Wexler), an actress who plays Frieda, the doctor’s blind sister, in Marked for Life. Much like her character in the film, Mabel can’t make eye contact with Rosenthal. At least at first.

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Share (2019)

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Director: Pippa Bianco

The second film I watched today (after To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) is another film about teens, but they couldn’t be more different. Share is darker, both in subject matter and in execution. In it, sixteen-year-old Mandy (outstanding newcomer Rhianne Barreto) comes to one night on her front lawn. She’s clearly been drinking, and taking stock of her body, she finds bruises and other signs that indicate that something physical must have happened to her earlier in the night. The trouble is, she doesn’t remember anything. The next evening, though, she gets bombarded by texts from classmates telling her how sorry they are and asking if she’s okay. She doesn’t know what they’re talking about until one of them sends a blurry video, taken by someone at the party she attended. In it, Mandy is unconscious and surrounded by several boys, one of whom has pulled down her pants, exposing her bare bottom. They’re laughing and making comments and then the video stops.

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The Wind (2018)

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Director: Emma Tammi

One key to creating a good horror film is isolation. Characters are almost always isolated physically (John Carpenter’s The Thing, Alien), culturally (Hostel), or both (An American Werewolf in London). Emma Tammi’s new film The Wind creates isolation through the setting of the Old West, where your nearest neighbors are often a mile or more away, and there are no cell phones with which to call 911. Reminiscent of recent slow-burn thriller/horror films, such as The Witch and Hereditary, this film, unlike this year’s Midsommar, immediately lets us know that something is off. The film opens with what appears to be a bloody childbirth, an event not unusual for a home birth in the Old West. But all is not what it seems…

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The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

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Director: Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a sweet buddy picture. Zak (Zak Gottsagen), a young man with Down Syndrome, escapes from the retirement home that has been his home for several years, in order to make his way to a wrestling training school and fulfill his dream of becoming a wrestler. He very quickly meets up with a rebellious-but-kind-hearted local on the run named Tyler (Shia LaBeouf). Together they embark on a Huck-Finn-style river trip. The duo becomes a trio when Zak’s health-care worker Elanor (Dakota Johnson, about as adorable as I’ve ever seen her) catches up with them, with instructions to return Zak to the home. Zak and Tyler have other plans, however.

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Mandy (2018)

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I’m never sure what to make of Nicholas Cage. He’s such a “feast-or-famine” actor. For every Joe (2013) there’s a Rage (2014); for every Leaving Las Vegas (1995), there’s an awful remake of The Wicker Man (2006). So where does Mandy fit in? I’m not really certain. The only thing I am sure of is that many of you will group it with the latter films in the previous comparisons, rather than the former. It would seem to be a film perfectly suited to Cage’s…unique form of acting. In the dreamlike world of Mandy, full of colored lens filters, evil cults, demonic biker gangs, and sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Cage’s tendency to chew scenery fits right in.

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Better Late Than Never!

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In case you didn’t notice, my list of favorite films of 2017 is up! Just click on the link for it under the “Yearly Favorites List” menu item at the top of any page. Or, you can just click here. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. What should I (or shouldn’t I) have included?

Red 2 (2013)

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(Originally from Facebook – August 2, 2013)

Going to keep this one short. You know what you’re getting into with this one, especially if you’ve seen the first one. It’s not highbrow cinema, by any means. It’s frenetic, and often times unbelievable, but it’s also a lot of fun. I thought Parker and Malkovich were quite funny, and I have a bit of a man-crush on Willis, so any movie that he’s in, I’m going to watch. IMDB gives it a 7.2, which seems very high, especially when taking into account some of the critical reviews out there. I really enjoyed it, and I think if you liked the first one, you’ll like this one, too. I’m giving it a 6, or 6.5 if you’re a fan of any of the players. (running time 1:56)

Saturday Morning Mystery (2012)

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(Originally from Facebook – July 30, 2013)

I really, really wanted to like this, once I heard the premise. Imagine “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” done in a real-life, real-horror version. So much potential. I was imagining something along the lines of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, which I thought was brilliant. Unfortunately, this film took itself too seriously. Other than the fact that you’ve got four kids (properly stereotyped), a van, and a dog, there’s little direct connection to the Scoobies, for copyright reasons, I’m sure. They tried, though, even including a version of the “hallway-door-opening” scene made famous by the cartoons. But all the jokes fell flat. There’s no Old Man So-and-So behind the haunting of the old carnival here, either. The horror is much more disturbing than that, but they’re hardly original baddies. The performances (all by unknowns) weren’t too bad, considering, but they just weren’t enough.

If you’ve always wanted to know what Fred and Daphne do when no one else is around, or wondered why the cops never caught Shaggy with any drugs, then maybe it’s worth a watch for you. I found it to be terribly sad that they wasted a great premise with kind of a dull film. IMDB says 4.7, which is probably about right, but I’m giving it a 4, just for getting my hopes up. (running time 1:23)