Falling Down (1993)

FALLING DOWN  (1993)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Joel Schumacher

    Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey,

    Tuesday Weld, Rachel Ticotin, Lois Smith,

    Frederic Forrest, Michael Paul Chan

Michael Douglas, sporting the least fashionable haircut and wardrobe in North America, plays a laid-off defense engineer who snaps one day during the morning commute, abandons his car on a traffic-clogged freeway, and decides to walk home through some of the meanest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. A violent, live-action cartoon, a tense, comical, heat-crazed variation on the 1968 Burt Lancaster movie "The Swimmer", and a pointedly bleak commentary on what some would view as the death of the American Dream. Despite some scathing reviews on its theatrical release, it's a terrific piece of pulp filmmaking: primitive, simplistic and horrifying.

Joel Schumacher

(1939-2020)

Midsommar (2019)

MIDSOMMAR  (2019)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Ari Aster

    Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren

    William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Ellora Torchia,

    Archie Madekwe, Isabelle Grill, Gunnel Fred

I was going to start this off by saying that "Midsommar" is a dark movie, which is true, except that most of it takes place in broad daylight. It's about some American grad students who get invited to observe and take part in a summer solstice celebration in a small community in northern Sweden. At first, it all seems idyllic. They're welcomed with open arms (and mushrooms). But then things start to get, well, dark. You know the old saying that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is? Believe it. The characters are more like movie types than real grad students, but Florence Pugh, as the only female in the group, has a kind of Kate Winslet quality about her, and the script does a nice job of capturing the way people in testy relationships try to evade and manipulate each other. The movie won't transport you out of your seat necessarily, but it's creepy enough. Just be careful where you urinate. And stay away from the tea. 

Hudson Hawk (1991)

HUDSON HAWK  (1991)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Michael Lehmann

    Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell,

    James Coburn, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard

Bruce Willis co-wrote this alleged caper comedy about a cat burglar who gets out of prison and immediately goes back to work stealing priceless Da Vinci artifacts. You know how some movies get a lot of bad ink, and then you see them and they turn out to be better than you expected? That's not the case with "Hudson Hawk". It's at least as bad as its reputation, and that might be understating it. Grant and Bernhard go way over the top as the villains, and even they're not any fun. One thing you'll see in this movie and nowhere else: the pope trying to adjust his TV so he can watch "Mr. Ed". 

Joker (2019)

JOKER  (2019)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Todd Phillips

    Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz,

    Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Wigham

The darkest origin story ever, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the demented, tormented Joker. It's an extraordinary performance, a sort of BASE jump into the psyche of a character who's being ripped apart. Robert De Niro appears as a late-night talk-show host (shades of "The King of Comedy"), and there are references to "Taxi Driver" and Charlie Chaplin, but the ticking time bomb at the core of it all is Phoenix, dancing at the edge of the abyss, a grotesque mirror image of the madness he sees all around him: Travis Bickle for the 21st century. 

Naked Lunch (1991)

NAKED LUNCH  (1991)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: David Cronenberg

    Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm,

    Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mecure

David Cronenberg's eye-filling, downbeat hallucination about a writer and his relationships with his wife, his friends, his work, his ambivalent sexual orientation, his typewriter and his drugs. Watching this is like crawling around in William S. Burroughs' skull, a mystifying, paranoid, junked-up landscape inhabited by giant bugs, organic typewriters and even a talking asshole. It's not a world you'd want to spend a lot of time in, but fans of Burroughs and weird cinema might want to take a look. Weller gives a wry, deadpan performance in the Burroughs role, while others stand in for Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Paul and Jane Bowles.

Ian Holm

(1931-2020)

The Merry Frinks (1934)

THE MERRY FRINKS  (1934)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Alfred E. Green

    Aline McMahon, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert

    Allen Jenkins, Helen Lowell, Joan Wheeler,

    Frankie Darro, Ivan Lebedeff, Harold Huber

An ensemble comedy about an oddball family trying to get by without killing each other while keeping the landlord at bay. It's like "You Can't Take It With You", only more dysfunctional, and the humor has a distinctly wicked edge. Aline McMahon, Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert, who mostly made their mark in supporting roles, get a little more screen time here, and make the most of it. 

Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010)

MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED  (2010)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Mark Hartley

An entertaining look at exploitation filmmaking in the Philippines in the '60s, '70s and '80s, when American producers crossed the Pacific to grind out movies with titles like "Vampire Hookers", "Women In Cages" and "Beast of Blood": horror and action pictures notable primarily for their insane violence, transparent cheapness and frequently topless women. It's worth tracking down, if only to help you decide whether or not you'd actually want to watch one of those films. They're not for everybody, that's for sure, but there's an inherent goofiness about them that's kind of fun. Plus topless women. Witnesses include Jack Hill, Joe Dante, Pam Grier, Dick Miller and (inevitably) Roger Corman, but it's the clips that tell you everything you need to know. And did I mention the topless women?

Hickey & Boggs (1972)

HICKEY & BOGGS  (1972)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Robert Culp

    Bill Cosby, Robert Culp, Rosalind Cash

    Vincent Gardenia, Ed Lauter, James Woods

Four years  after "I Spy" went off the air, Bill Cosby and Robert Culp teamed up on the big screen, playing down-and-out detectives who uncover a high-stakes money-laundering scheme. In contrast to the dashing agents they'd played on TV, these guys are visibly on the skids, working out of a rathole office and wondering how they can keep the phone from being cut off. Boggs (Culp) has alcohol issues. Hickey (Cosby) is battling depression. Even their wisecracks have an edge of weariness about them. Walter Hill wrote the script, and Culp does an effective job behind the camera as well as in front of it. The scene where Boggs, his cherished Ford Thunderbird torched in a gun battle, goes to a used-car lot and finds another beat-up wreck just like it is a throwaway highlight. He doesn't even test-drive the car. What would be the point? It's clear at a glance that they're made for each other. Both were young and cool once, but not anymore. Both have seen better days.

Screen Test / Take 13

Match the following pairs of actors with the movies they appeared in together:

           1. Paul Newman and Lee Marvin

           2. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton

           3. Bruce Dern and Walter Matthau

           4. Henry Fonda and James Cagney

           5. Nick Nolte and Robert Redford

           6. John Wayne and Kirk Douglas

           7. Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper

           8. Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra

           9. Randolph Scott and Joel McCrae

         10. Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift

                 a. "Vera Cruz"

                 b. "The Young Lions"

                 c. "A Walk In the Woods"

                 d. "Pocket Money"

                 e. "The Pride and the Passion"

                  f. "The Laughing Policeman"

                 g. "Ride the High Country"

                 h. "Where Eagles Dare"

                  i. "The War Wagon"

                  j. "Mister Roberts"

     Answers:

     1-d / 2-h / 3-f / 4-j / 5-c / 6-i / 7-a / 8-e / 9-g / 10-b

Lost & Found (2017)

LOST & FOUND  (2017)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Liam O Mochain
    Liam O Mochain, Norma Sheahan, Liam Carney,
    Lynette Callahan, Fionnula Flaherty, Anthony Morris
A collection of short stories from Ireland, revolving around the people and misplaced items that turn up in a train-station lost and found. Most of the stories are funny in some way, but there's also a hint of sadness about them, a sense of dreams never quite coming true. They're Irish, of course. Maybe that's why.

Steambath (1973)

STEAMBATH  (1973)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Burt Brinckerhoff
    Bill Bixby, Jose Perez, Valerie Perrine,
    Stephen Elliott, Neil Schwartz, Patrick Spohn,
    Herb Edelman, Kenneth Mars, Peter Kastner
A Hollywood Television Theatre production of Bruce Jay Friedman's play about some characters hanging out in a steambath, which turns out to be a waiting room in the afterlife. They come in one door and go out another. There's no turning back. One of these souls, a writer played by Bill Bixby, doesn't think he belongs there and decides to argue his case, but God - a Puerto Rican bathhouse attendant with a whimsical sense of fun - won't be easily persuaded. A clever idea that maybe works better on a stage where a live audience can react to the punchlines and show-stopping bits. Even without that, it's a funny, inventive theater piece. The gay couple played by Neil Schwartz and Patrick Spohn are scene stealers, and if Valerie Perrine parading around in a towel (and briefly without one) doesn't steam up your spectacles, I'm not sure what would.

Bruce Jay Friedman

(1930-2020)

International Falls (2019)

INTERNATIONAL FALLS  (2019)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Amber McGinnis
    Rachael Harris, Rob Huebel, Matthew Glave,
    Mindy Sterling, Kevin Nealon, Erik Griffin
Shades of "Fargo" in an indie romance about two lonely people who hook up for a day or two in International Falls, Minnesota. Tim (Rob Huebel) is a standup comic who's just about reached the end of his rope. Dee (Rachael Harris) is a hotel clerk who dreams about doing comedy herself. A lot of the movie is the two of them talking - about life, love, marriage, kids, and how to put over a joke if you're going to do standup. It'a funny, insightful and winningly played, especially by Harris, who could be like Marge Gunderson's cousin living up by the border, ya know. Eventually something happens that's not funny at all, but true to the spirit of the film and its characters, even that gets recycled into comedy. 

The Ape Man (1943)

THE APE MAN  (1943)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: William Beaudine 
    Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford,
    Henry Hall, Minerva Urecal, Jack Mulhall
Screwy low-budget horror starring Bela Lugosi as a scientist whose experiments cause him to start turning into a gorilla. According to the notes on the video box, he'll just keep getting "harrier" unless he can find the "anecdote". With the cops on the case, reporters snooping around, a real gorilla on the loose and local citizens turning up dead, Bela had better find that anecdote fast.