The Devil In a Convent (1899)

 

THE DEVIL IN A CONVENT  (1899)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Georges Méliès

The devil, up to his old tricks. Méliès, up to a few new ones. 

The Black Imp (1905)

 

THE BLACK IMP  (1905)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Georges Méliès

A demon, a man with a beard and some disappearing furniture. 

Victor/Victoria (1982)

 

VICTOR/VICTORIA  (1982)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Blake Edwards

    Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston,

    Leslie Ann Warren, Alex Karras, John Rhys-Davies

A musical gender-blender set in 1934, with Julie Andrews as a starving singer who becomes the toast of Paris by pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. James Garner plays a Chicago gangster who falls for him/her while trying to make sense of the ambiguity. Robert Preston plays a gay nightclub performer and Julie's partner/mentor/pal. Andrews makes a cute girl-boy, and the gay humor holds up better than you might expect. One of Blake Edwards' best movies.

Spring Break Massacre (2008)

 

SPRING BREAK MASSACRE  (2008)  ¢

    D: Rex Kramer

    Reggie Bannister, Sarah Minnic, John Shumski,

    Linnea Quigley, Renee Darmiento, Erin Meyers,

    Aly Hartman, Bob Farster, Toni Buena, Sue Willett

Horny, empty-headed twenty-somethings spend spring break hanging out in Illinois (?!?) in a movie called "Spring Break Massacre". See if you can guess what happens to them. 

Vanishing Point (1997)

 

VANISHING POINT  (1997)  ¢ ¢

    D: Charles Robert Carner

    Viggo Mortensen, Christine Elise, Steve Railsback, 

    Jason Priestley, Keith David, Rodney A. Grant,

    Paul Benjamin, John Doe, Peta Wilson

A television remake of the 1971 car-chase classic, with Viggo Mortensen in the old Barry Newman role as Kowalski, a hero of the highway driving a souped-up Dodge Challenger from New Mexico to Idaho at decidedly unsafe speeds, while an army of cops try to take him in or bring him down. The original movie was primal and existential. This one has backstories and religion. The tire-squealing, gravel-spewing stuntwork is all right, but by the time the asshole lawman played by Steve Railsback throws his badge in the dirt, you know the filmmakers are running out of gas. 

Times Square (1980)

 

TIMES SQUARE  (1980)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Allan Moyle

    Trini Alvarado, Robin Johnson, Tim Curry,

    Peter Coffield, Herbert Berghof, David Margulies

Two teenaged girls, the daughter of a city councilman and a reckless street kid, escape from the psych ward together, steal an ambulance, and embark on a life of adventure on the New York streets. An adolescent fantasy with a full-throttle performance by Robin Johnson as the swaggering, go-for-broke outcast, Nicky. Tim Curry plays the radio D.J. who provides the girls with on-the-air encouragement and publicity from his perch overlooking Times Square. Somebody went on a thrift-store binge to come up with all the cool costumes, and the soundtrack (the Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, etc.) is a time capsule of punk-era hits. The climactic rooftop concert echoes the Beatles' "Let It Be", while anticipating both the 1997 German movie "Bandits" and "Empire Records" (1995), another Allan Moyle film.

The Zone of Interest (2023)

 

THE ZONE OF INTEREST  (2023)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Jonathan Glazer 

    Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Martyna Poznanski,

    Medusa Knopf, Audrey Isaev, Stephanie Petrowitz

For most of this movie, you're eavesdropping on the mundane activities of a moderately prosperous German family, the catch being that the dad in this case, the guy with the really bad haircut, is Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and their beautiful house and pool and garden are just outside the wall of the camp. The movie doesn't show you what'g going on on the other side of the wall, but you hear it - the muffled sounds of heavy machinery, shouts, screams, dogs barking, gun shots. You see only what the family sees: the smoke from a passing locomotive, the razor wire on the top of the wall, a glowing red light reflected on the curtains of somebody's bedroom, black smoke coming from the chimneys. But look at this nice fur coat and these clothes that just came in. Yesterday I found a diamond in a tube of toothpaste. Those Jews are clever, aren't they? Here you can (literally) smell the roses.  Why would anybody want to leave? The banality of evil and the evil of banality. This is a horror movie.