Mutiny In Outer Space (1965)

 

MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE  (1965)  ¢

    D: Hugo Grimaldi

    William Leslie, Dolores Faith, Pamela Curran,

    Richard Garland, James Dobson, Harold Lloyd Jr.

A deadly fungus from ice caves on the moon invades an orbiting space station whose commander has been away from Earth too long. Ho-hum sci-fi with a low-key performance by the not-very-scary-looking fungus. Produced by the Woolner Brothers (there were three of them), and if you're thinking, oh, you mean like the Warner Brothers? - well, no, not quite. 

Ray Meets Helen (2017)

 

RAY MEETS HELEN  (2017)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Alan Rudolph

    Keith Carradine, Sondra Locke, Samantha Mathis,

    Keith David, Jennifer Tilly, Joshua Caleb Johnson

Two lonely, screwed-up people meet and hit it off, just as they both come into some unexpected money. It's another bit of cinematic sleight-of-hand from Alan Rudolph, his first movie in 15 years, and a nice vehicle for Keith Carradine and Sondra Locke. It was Locke's last screen role - she died six months after the film's release - and she has a sort of dreamy remoteness that fits her character, and Rudolph's dreamscape universe, perfectly. For the rest, it's an Alan Rudolph movie starring Keith Carradine - the sixth picture the two of them have worked on together. If you're a fan of either or both, that'll be enough.

Running Scared (2006)

 

RUNNING SCARED  (2006)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Wayne Kramer

    Paul Walker, Vera Farmiga, Cameron Bright,

    Chazz Palminteri, Karen Roden, Alex Neuberger,

    Elizabeth Mitchell, Bruce Altman, David Warshofsky

At its most basic, this is a movie about some gangsters trying to track down a stolen gun. Beyond that, it's a twisted, down-and-dirty thrill ride in which every incident and encounter uncovers a whole new level of perversity. Paul Walker and Vera Farmiga are the protagonists, along with a moon-faced kid named Cameron Bright, who has an interesting way of watching events unfold while holding the key to the story, and sometimes the gun. You know how with some movies, you can just leave them running while you go out to the kitchen for a beer? You don't want to do that with this one. If you do, you'll be missing something. 

A Rainy Day In New York (2019)

 

A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK  (2019)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Woody Allen

    Timothée Chalomet, Elle Fanning, Liev Schreiber, 

    Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Rebecca Hall,

    Cherry Jones, Kelly Rohrbach, Suki Waterhouse

This almost plays like a parody of a Woody Allen movie, the catch being that it is a Woody Allen movie, made by the man himself. Elle Fanning plays a novice reporter (remember Scarlett Johansson in "Scoop"?), in New York City to interview an arthouse filmmaker for her college newspaper upstate. Tagging along is her pal Gatsby (Timothée Chalomet), an idly wealthy kid who's drifting along on a sea of family money that he augments by winning at poker. It's a rainy day in New York and they get separated, and she ends up in encounters with three (count 'em - three) older men, while he runs into a few old friends, connects with the sister of an ex-girlfriend, and picks up a prostitute, which leads to a revealing conversation with his mother, played by Cherry Jones. So, okay, it's a movie set in New York, filled with articulate, self-important intellectuals who live in the kinds of places that in a real Manhattan would cost way more than most real people could ever afford. It's beautifully designed and shot, smartly cast and acted, and every now and then a line lands and you think, yeah, that could only be Woody Allen. The story's episodic and a bit thin, though, the outlook on romance is cynical, and Fanning's character seems a little too dull and bland for all the attention she gets from those guys. (Or maybe intellectual depth is not what they're looking for.) Johansson had more sharp edges in her Woody Allen movies, or seemed to. It made all the difference. 

The Quake (2018)

 

THE QUAKE  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: John Andreas Andersen

    Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Edith Haagenrud-Sande,

    Kathrine Thornborg Johansen, Jonas Hoff Oftebro

The same geologist who predicted the tsunami in "The Wave" in 2015 starts to believe that a massive earthquake is about to wreak havoc in Oslo. With three years of high-grade PTSD under his belt, do you think anybody will listen to him this time? Don't bet on it. Another crazed but exciting disaster thriller from Norway, with Kristoffer Joner as the beleaguered scientist, a walking head case who can't seem to escape the wrath of nature. I'm thinking that wherever this guy goes next, you'll probably want to be somewhere else.

Sacred Flesh (2000)

 

SACRED FLESH  (2000)  ¢ ¢

    D: Nigel Wingrove

    Sally Tremaine, Simon Hill, Kristina Bill,

    Moyna Cope, Eileen Daly, Moses Rockman,

    Emily Booth, Daisy Weston Michelle Thorne

A debate between Mary Magdalene and a tormented bride 

of Christ frames a series of erotic episodes in which a conventful of nuns succumb to their basest carnal desires. Mary Magdalene wins the debate on points and has a fondness for alliteration. The sisters are conspicuously stacked. 

Out of Print (2014)

 

OUT OF PRINT  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Julia Marchese

For most of this documentary, you're listening to a bunch of filmmakers and movie geeks talk about how much they love the New Beverly, a landmark repertory cinema in Los Angeles. The rest is an argument for film preservation, specifically a pitch to the industry powers that be to maintain their libraries of 35mm prints and keep them in circulation. That might be a lost cause in the digital age, but it's a worthwhile one, and it's got some passionate advocates. There are a few movie houses scattered around that are still doing what the New Beverly does, and if you happen to live near one, you're lucky. Joe Dante, Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright, Seth Green and Clu Gulager (who had his own personal seat at the New Beverly) are among the witnesses.

The Power of the Dog (2021)

 

THE POWER OF THE DOG  (2021)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Jane Campion

    Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons,

    Kodi Smit-McPhee, Genevieve Lemon, Alice Englert,

    Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy, Alison Bruce

"There Will Be Blood" meets "Brokeback Mountain" in a western set in Montana but shot in New Zealand with a British actor playing an American cowboy in the lead. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, a mean, foul-smelling sociopath who abuses everybody around him, but especially his brother George (Jesse Plemons), George's wife Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and Rose's effete son Pete (Kodi  Smit-McPhee). You can tell from the start there's something fucked-up about Phil. How fucked-up and why is something that becomes more apparent through the course of the film. It's ferociously acted by Cumberbatch, who shows you not just Phil's seething rage and cruelty, but the fear that's concealed somewhere behind his eyes. Phil is a swaggering stereotype, tougher than tough, and the key to the story is his relationship with Pete, who's his stereotypical opposite. It starts with Phil the macho bully toying with Pete, who seems defenseless. By the end, the balance has shifted. In a game like this, you can't always tell who's got the upper hand, and it's not necessarily who you think. The ending's perverse.

Riot In Cell Block 11 (1954)

 

RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11  (1954)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Don Siegel

    Neville Brand, Emile Meyer, Leo Gordon,

    Frank Faylen, Robert Osterloh, Paul Frees,

    Dabbs Greer, William Schallert, Whit Bissell

Straight-ahead storytelling with no side trips or diversions, about a revolt over living conditions in a maximum-security prison. Quentin Tarantino thinks it's the best prison movie ever, which might be stretching it, but you can see what he's getting at. Shot on location at Folsom Prison, and directed with brutal efficiency by Don Siegel, whose personal assistant on the picture, working on his first movie ever, was Sam Peckinpah.

Ryna (2005)

 

RYNA  (2005)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Roxandra Zenide

    Dorothea Petre, Valentin Popescu, Matthieu Rozé,

    Nicolai Praida, Theodor Delciu, George Custura 

A coming-of-age character study from Romania, about a 16-year-old girl named Ryna, who works as a mechanic in her father's garage. Ryna wears coveralls most of the time and keeps her hair cut short, on orders from her old man, who wanted her to be a boy. But there's no hiding the fact that Ryna's no boy, and the men in the village are starting to take notice. Ryna's aware of it, too, and wouldn't mind looking pretty and putting on a dress once in a while. Played with understated sympathy by Dorothea Petre, Ryna is resilient, free-spirited and instinctively smart, stuck in a limiting, rigidly controlled existence she longs to break out of. In the end, she does get away. Something bad happens, and she has to. It's hard to say where her life will go from there, but you hope it's someplace more welcoming, or at least less restrictive, than the one she's leaving behind. 

Screen Test / Take 19

 

Name the actors who played the following pairs of historical figures. For bonus points, name the movies they played them in.

              1. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ambrose Bierce

              2. Jimmy Hoffa and Eugene O'Neill

              3. Margaret Thatcher and Karen Silkwood

              4. J. Edgar Hoover and Howard Hughes

              5. Richard Nixon and Pablo Picasso

              6. Princess Diana and Joan Jett

              7. Caligula and H.G. Wells

              8. Bob Dylan and Katharine Hepburn

              9. Sid Vicious and Lee Harvey Oswald

            10. Dashiell Hammett and Chuck Yeager

                                     ANSWERS:

 1. Gregory Peck in "Beloved Infidel" and "Old Gringo"

 2. Jack Nicholson in "Hoffa" and "Reds"

 3. Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady" and "Silkwood"

 4. Leonardo DiCaprio in "J. Edgar" and "The Aviator"

 5. Anthony Hopkins in "Nixon" and "Surviving Picasso"

 6. Kristen Stewart in "Spencer" and "The Runaways"

 7. Malcolm McDowell in "Caligula" and "Time After Time"

 8. Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" and "The Aviator"

 9. Gary Oldman in "Sid and Nancy" and "JFK"

10. Sam Shepard in "Dash and Lilly" and "The Right Stuff"

Operation Bikini (1963)

 

OPERATION BIKINI  (1963)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Anthony Carras

    Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, Scott Brady,

    Jim Backus, Michael Dante, Jody McCrae,

    Gary Crosby, David Landfield, Eva Six

A film with "bikini" in the title from American International in 1963 starring Frankie Avalon: That's gotta be a "Beach Party" movie, right? Well, no, not quite. It's a World War Two action picture set in the South Pacific about an underwater demolition team out to blow up a sunken American ship before the Japanese can get at whatever the ship contains. It's in black and white, except for a couple of absurd musical numbers and the end credits, which feature two girls in bikinis who have nothing to do with the rest of the film. So, okay, maybe it's a "Beach Party" movie, after all.

The Northman (2022)

THE NORTHMAN  (2022)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Robert Eggers 

    Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke,

    Anya Taylor-Joy, Gustav Lindh, Claes Bang, Björk,

    Elliott Rose, Olwen Fouéré, Willem Dafoe, Eldar Skar

Wild men of the North pillage their way through a blood-and-guts variation on "Hamlet", with Alexander Skarsgård as the conflicted prince, Nicole Kidman as his mom, Anya Taylor-Joy as his girlfriend and Ethan Hawke as the murdered king. Plus Björk as a blind oracle, as strange and otherworldly as only Björk can be. It risks being silly at times. When the sweaty, bare-chested warriors bust out their synchronized dance moves, you half expect to see Terry Gilliam in the ensemble somewhere. But it looks and sounds great, the actors play it for all it's worth, and unlike most Hollywood movies about Vikings, it's a believably harsh depiction of life in the 10th century. Be glad you weren't living back then, that's all I've got to say.