THE PALE BLUE EYE (2022)

1830s West Point murder mystery (soon looking like a series of Satanic Ritual sacrifices), sees Cadet Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), peculiar enough to be a natural suspect, drafted as sideman to visiting ‘problem solver’ Augustus Landor (Christian Bale).  Set in the dark of winter, this plush entertainment is somber, serious and painfully stupid.  In tone & story development, it’s something between literary thrillers like THE ALIENIST/’18 or THE NAME OF THE ROSE/’86*, but shows little of their cleverness, sense or sensibility in the main crime before tossing in a ‘Got’cha’ twist epilogue that makes mincemeat of the story.  Turns out our ultimate villain just happened to stumble onto the perfect conspiracy to cover his tracks.  (An alibi of opportunity?)  The whole thing not only ludicrous, but positively distasteful; which is saying something these days!  With whispered vocals so you can’t HEAR clues; candlelit interiors so you can’t SEE them*; and Method Acting to show everyone was neurasthenic with iron poor blood.  And to think, the real Poe started the whole detective genre with his Tales of Ratiocination.  Writer/director Scott Cooper could have used that guy.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  *While THE NAME OF THE ROSE received nothing like the staggering international reception of Umberto Eco’s novel, it looks considerably better now then it did in 1986.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-name-of-rose-1986.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Amusingly (and it's the only amusing thing in here), the cast is so ultra-U.K., you’ll wonder which side of the Revolution they’d have fought for.  (Also amusing to imagine how much this 70+ million dollar film would have lost if released theatrically.  Ah, there’s the real mystery, how NetFlix balances the books on all these DOA streamers.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Sans ‘fill light,’ which the human eye naturally adjusts for but camera lenses don’t, we’re literally left in the dark.  Stanley Kubrick’s BARRY LYNDON/’75 has a lot to answer for on this misguided technique.  Try it out yourself.  Turn off the lights, light a candle or two in a room, then note just how much is visible.  Surprising, no?

ONCE YOU KISS A STRANGER (1969)

There’s bad, there’s inept, and there’s inexplicable.  All present and accounted for in this dunderheaded refashioning of Patricia Highsmith’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN/’51.  Not that Highsmith’s debut novel, famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951 is necessarily untouchable.  She wasn’t much sold on it.  (Though it certainly ‘sold’ her!)  But someone @ Warner Bros. in the dark days of Major Hollywood Studio free-fall must have figured that since they owned the rights, why not a remake?  Okay, but why bother if your theatrical release is barely above a TV Movie-of-the-Week?  Or was this prepped as a MotW, then bumped up to theatrical for having too much sex & violence?*  The story is largely intact: Two strangers playfully plan to swap apparently motiveless murders, but only the crazy one is serious enough to go thru with it.  Plus two big swaps to the storyline: Pro Golf standing in for Pro Tennis; and a gender swap that has lithe Carol Lynley in for fey Robert Walker, deleting any sub-textual gay angle from Paul Burke who has the Farley Granger role.  TV series director Robert Sparr shows little aptitude for how these things work.  How many POV shots can one man screw up?  And a low wattage cast culled from the guest star wish list of NBC’s FAME IS THE NAME OF THE GAME takes care of the rest.  Two modest successes: a famous moment from STRANGERS with Robert Walker’s ‘Bruno’ popping a little boy’s balloon with his lit cigarette (a huge surprise laugh) opens this film when Lynley walks out of the ocean and shoots a little girl’s beach ball with a spear-gun.  Plus a decent turn from murder victim Philip Carey who coasts on his resemblance to Charlton Heston to good effect.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *When a scene meant to play between 11 p.m. and midnight is bright as the noonday sun, chances are good it was designed to be visible on the crap resolution of tv monitors at the time rather than in theatrical showings.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT:  Obviously, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN.

THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN (2018)

Pity the poor SUPERMAN adaptor!  Like Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan or King Arthur (among many such ubiquitous characters) name recognition is too high, it creates an unsolvable problem since everyone thinks they know just how the characters ought to behave and what adventures they ought to have.  Beloved and untouchable.  Projects may be easy to set up & fund, but destined to disappoint.  Even the ones that pay off.  So, no surprise this rather flat animated film of a Special Edition DC Comic (first made as SUPERMAN: DOOMSDAY/’07, not seen here) gets a mid-tier vocal cast for what’s largely a prologue to REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN/’19 (also not seen here).  The action follows a lot of mayhem in the streets after some dangerous space aliens land on Earth, which neither Superman nor an ethnically diverse Justice League, cross-plugging the DC franchise, are able to beat back without casualties; even with Lex Luthor helping out.  Why similarly conceived BATMAN animation projects come off so well (cool stylistics, starry vocal casting, visual coups & re-imaginations) while SUPERMAN makes do with the B-Team is a mystery.  (Here, the general look tries to merge 1960s comic book to 1980s anime.)  And do we really need to push on the Superman Christ allegory embedded in the Man of Steel origin story?  That casket with the lid knocked off a bit on the nose.  Apparently, the sequel goes all Supermen Multi-verse.  Think of the possibilities: SPARTACUS Superman: I am Superman! No, I am Superman!  OR: TO TELL THE TRUTH Superman: Will the real Superman please stand up!  Here’s an idea: Give It A Rest SUPERMAN.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  As usual, we point our readers toward that lodestar of Supermania, the 1940s Fleischer Bros. shorts.  A dozen or so little visual gems that perfectly capture the look, design and kinetic feel of the early classic comic books, with simplified narrative elements perfectly balanced to their purpose.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/07/superman-1941-43.html  

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  When this one opens, reporter girlfriend Lois Lane once again has yet to realize Clark Kent is Superman.  Hasn’t this ‘reveal’ run its course?

CRIMSON TIDE (1995)

Scroll down a few posts for William Friedkin’s updated CAINE MUTINY, specifically the tricky last scene where Jason Clarke’s conflicted defense attorney gets away with a duplicitous speech on his win over the inept Captain Queeg by channeling the recognizable vocal cadence & scratchy high baritone of Gene Hackman.  Works like a charm.  So, what a surprise to find the real Gene Hackman in this Nuked-up CAINE MUTINY ripoff, not playing defense (the trial is largely excised), but as Captain Queeg!  And worse, giving a painfully obvious, bulldozer perf.  But it’s hard to blame Hackman, the greatest utility player of his era, for overreaching when everyone’s at their worst in this hyped-up would-be thriller that sees Denzel Washington (in the spot Van Johnson had in the 1955 CAINE MUTINY film!!!) tasked with overseeing a nuclear sub, overloaded with testosterone & fat sailors, in Tony Scott’s typically overworked countdown suspenser.  Hooey about a power struggle in Russia that may put atomic codes into the hands of an ultra-Nationalist.  Our Mission: take out the weapons first (and probably start a Nuclear Holocaust) or lose the war before it starts.  Our Problem: orders from command central have been interrupted!  Is it an order to Proceed or Stand Down?  Yikes!  Scott, as usual, over-masticates every shot, special-effect, camera move & sound edit, running out of thrills or suspense while giving away all his characters’ traits & surprises by the third reel.  With forced laughs leading to a power struggle showdown between Gene & Denzel, the inevitable mutiny is doubled in this version with a counter-mutiny.  Then a copout ending, courtesy of Guest Star Jason Robards Jr.  The film a new low for all, but no doubt a particular embarrassment for its two stars.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  Early in the film, James Gandolfini, one of the uncomfortably fat crew members, quizzes newbies on classic sub movies: THE ENEMY BELOW/’57; RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP/’58.  Both would substitute nicely here.  OR:  For a more contemporary comparison, try THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER/’90.  Its success likely got this the Green Light.  (Note copycat Black & Red posters.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-enemy-below-1957.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/03/run-silent-run-deep-1958.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-hunt-for-red-october-1990.html

FORTUNE FAVORS LADY NIKUKO / GYOKÔ NO NIKUKO-CHAN (2021)

After the ‘Gaia’ driven concepts and Earthly metaphysics seen in CHILDREN OF THE SEA/’19, Ayumu Watanabe brings a less abstract, less sophisticated, but still wildly inventive anime style to this second feature.  Not too far from traditional coming-of-age pics, Kikuko, our middle-school heroine, is an outlier by choice and by circumstance.  Stuck on the fence between rival girl squads, she chooses neither, but does find an outlier boy to wonder about.  (He’s a hoot, his face hidden under a mop of hair except when he’s ‘pulling’ faces as if he’s got a slight case of Tourette’s.)  Kikuko’s also dealing with batty mom Nikuko, Earth Mother in dimensions, childlike in enthusiasms.  All this playing out in the new port town they moved to after Mom’s latest romance collapsed like all the rest.  Watanabe runs a loose narrative, local events and sights grabbing attention from the modest narrative line, along with recurring abstract visual motifs.  (Mom keeps turning into a whirling dervish of pure energy.)  Much of this visually enchanting, but held back for Stateside viewers by Japanese custom and attitudes that don’t travel.  Though an image of a firmly embedded tree stump being extracted from the ground pretty on point as a metaphor for labor pains!  Then the film ends with young Kikuko learning about her complicated maternal past and finally getting her period while seated on the toilet.  Thank goodness, Watanabe has puberty rather than constipation for a subject.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Pixar’s TURNING RED/’22 is an obvious choice, but stick with Watanabe for his flight-of-fancy debut in CHILDREN OF THE SEA.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/02/children-of-sea-kaiju-no-kodomo-2019.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  The rare film to get cooking right on screen.  Not only from the local chef at the restaurant where Kikuko's mom works, but also from Nikuko herself when she makes a pan of French Toast to share with her daughter.

FROM HEADQUARTERS

Exceptionally fun programmer from Pre-Code Depression Era Warner Bros., a murder mystery/police procedural that’s a paradigm of the form (especially the first two reels), positively loaded with pace and moxie.  After a score of films in the States since 1931, UFA actor-turned-director William Dieterle is still eager to show off his acquired Hollywood DNA in intertwined camera moves, smooth transitions and overhead shots for clarity & punctuation on what easily could have been a throwaway assignment.  Here, a Big City montage takes us thru documentary-style police arrests & formalities from analogue days, including a super cool look at an early IBM punch-card sorter.  Meanwhile, the main case is coming into focus as lead detective George Brent* and his team (Eugene Pallette, Henry O’Neill, Edward Ellis) figure out the latest tabloid sensation (note the baying news-hounds in the Press Room) was no suicide, but murder.  Murder with dueling pistols in a luxe penthouse.  Worse, Brent’s ex, a typically underwhelming Margaret Lindsay, is a prime suspect.  Or was it her brother, quick to defend her honor?  Could it have been the victim’s disapproving valet?  That new, shady business partner?  (He is European!)  Maybe it was the recidivist lock-picker who retrieved papers from the dead man’s safe.  So many suspects, each with a wildly subjective P.O.V. flashback for us to see.  (Lindsay’s shows her being sexually harassed from her own POV.  How’d they shoot that?)  Things slow down a bit in reels four & five to let  Brent get us all up to speed before we jump back to Express Tempo for the loop-de-loop whodunit denouement.  This was the kind of film you’d walk in right in the middle, then stay (thru the feature, newsreel, trailers, short subject, cartoon) till you noticed, ‘This is where I came in!’  But better hurry, it only got booked for a split-week.  Lucky us, we can catch it any time.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  For an A-list example of this type of snappy Warner Bros. product, try Cagney & Davis in JIMMY THE GENT/’34.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/06/jimmy-gent-1934.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Solid, handsome, always a little dull at his home studio, Brent came alive when on loan.  But here, at his youngest and leanest, he’s a charmer.

BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (2017)

REACHER lands in Maximum Security . . . on purpose.  That’s the gist of writer/director S. Craig Zahler’s ultra-violent actioner.  The switcheroo being that our protagonist isn’t Lee Child’s tru-blue Jack Reacher, crushing bones on the ‘right’ side of the law, but Vince Vaughn’s creepy thug, wrecking the joint to keep his kidnapped wife (and unborn daughter) from dismemberment.  Yikes!  True, BRAWL predates the current (surprisingly good) REACHER streaming on Amazon, but not the books or the less satisfying Tom Cruise iterations.  The other main influences seem to be Gaspar Noé’s risible IRREVERSIBLE/’02 (for the flinch-inducing bone breakage*), and, of all things, Alexandre Dumas for the far-fetched prison revenge scenario.  Nabbed during a drug run, Vaughn’s on the hook for 3.5 mill.  If he takes out a guy for the mob his wife (and unborn child) gets released unharmed.  But how to get to the top security jail and find the guy?  Go crazy violent and get transferred.  Well, maybe.  But since the drug lord seems to have men stationed all thru the joint (on both sides of the fence), why blackmail an outsider to do the job?  Grim doings, lots of gross-out kills, but how the heck does Vaughn remain such a formidable foe when he hasn’t had a decent meal, a full night’s sleep, a proper bowel movement or a work out in months?  With threatening stares, bulky muscle and none of his signature playful charm, Vaughn gets to play with, rather than against his towering beefy physique.  He looks like he’s trying to expand his rep.  Director Zahler looks like he’s trying to type himself.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT:  As mentioned, the new REACHER series, two seasons now available (only the first seen here), really comes off.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Noé, and for that matter Zahler, are so desperate to induce a visceral reactions, they overreach.  The machine goes TILT!  Hence, the giggles.

A GUILTY CONSCIENCE / DUK SIT DAI JONG (2023)

Recent winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards (all-time top local grosser, too), this courtroom procedural, a glossy-looking debut for director Wai-Lun Ng, wins you over with a double prologue that might serve as a pilot for a CBS weekly series, comic supporting characters and all.  Dayo Wong's leading role might well be called Judge Drudge, as he yawns his way thru mind-numbingly petty cases before ditching his job to join a mega-bucks law firm; then yawning his way thru crap cases, including an unwinnable manslaughter charge against a single mom whose child supposedly died from her neglect.  Briskly handled with pacey heightened realism, the actors skirting nimbly ‘round Ng’s odd jerky editing.  But the fun stops once the main story gets up & running as Mainland Chinese political priorities take over and turn the whole drama into a sort of anti-Capitalist Perry Mason episode where we discover Single Mom Louise Wong (from the manslaughter case) was set up to take a fall by the rich, ultra-connected Chung Family dynasty whose scion is the secret father of the child who died and whose jealous wife may be involved.  (And just like Perry Mason, Wong gets on-the-witness-stand confessions as needed.)  Setting the story from 2002-to-2005, before Hong Kong’s independence was severely curtailed from the One China/Two Systems days looks like awfully convenient blame placing.  Guess the fix was in for Mom to take the fall and now the fix is in to give major awards to films that point out past injustice under the old democratic government system when Billionaires, rather than Beijing, were Big Brother.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Though most of the good stuff comes early, Ng pulls off a great shot during the trial, filling the courtroom with members of the powerful Chung clan, all dressed in the exact same style & dark blue color of a conservative business suit.

THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL (2023)

Herman Wouk’s novel-to-play about a neurotic, barely competent, deservedly unpopular Navy Captain endangering his ship during a severe storm, and taken out of command by his own Lieutenant, has always been catnip for ham acting.  Who could resist its series of showy moments in court, none more so than Captain Queeg, reliving a nervous breakdown with strawberries under oath!  It’s the only thing people remember about Edward Dmytryk's overrated 1954 film with Humphrey Bogart rattling those ball-bearings.  The film significantly ‘opens’ the play, saving the courtroom for act three.  Other versions stick closer to the play: 85% courtroom; 15% soft-soap epilogue at a hotel conference room that celebrates either patriotism or mediocrity.  Hard to tell which.  And yet, the damn thing always works; the situation too meaty to miss.  (Plus it’s a courtroom drama, dummy.)  Back in his commercial doldrums days, Robert Altman made a starry tv film of it; now it serves as swansong for director William Friedkin, both men keeping the play structure, but Friedkin updating to the present.  Probably a mistake since a main part of the prosecution is keyed to mutineer Lt. Maryk’s (Jake Lacy) adoption of half-digested psychological terms.  Outlier behavior in the 1940s, hardly a stretch these days.  And Friedkin’s big cast of entertaining blowhards all seem to have won their sea legs rewatching A FEW GOOD MEN/’92 rather than on a ship.  Yet the film comes together just where the rest fall apart, in the mealy-mouthed epilogue when triumphant defense attorney Jason Clarke shows up drunk at a victory party after ‘slaying’ reviled Captain Queeg, played with a weird sense of chuckling defeatism by Keifer Sutherland.  Considering that the likes of Henry Fonda, José Ferrer, Barry Sullivan*, Eric Bogosian, John Rubinstein & David Schwimmer have all been undone by this belayed climax, how did Clarke pull it off?  Listen closely, and you’ll hear the answer: Clarke somehow switches vocal gears to channel an impression of Gene Hackman giving the speech.  A conjuring trick that must have left Friedkin smiling as he was the guy who directed Hackman in THE FRENCH CONNECTION/’71, career breakthroughs for both men.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Sullivan in a 1955 tv adaptation with original stage Queeg Lloyd Nolan.