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This is actually my favourite Alfred Hitchcock movie; Very short, very talky drama all played out in one room.

Of course, it draws attention in Hitchcock's filmography mainly due to the experimental elements:

The apparently "real-time" action taking place against a backdrop of a city skyline set, where, through the magic of lighting and set design, day gradually becomes night as the drama takes place in one apparently continuous shot (Actually there's one visible break - zooming into someone's back, before coming back out again, and also one switched camera angle) but still impressive none the less, not least because the actors had to keep this going perfectly individually, and as an ensemble for extended stretches.

This, being centred around a murder, which we see committed at the start, as an " artistic experiment" conducted by a perfectly depicted cold, charming, and detached psychopath and his old school chum...

(Who is actually the more interesting character in a way, as he is able to do this thing, but is very jittery and troubled - not evidently, because what he has done is wrong, but through fear of consequence to himself if discovered - would this make him more a sociopath?)

...Who then invite people over for a party while the body remains in a chest / box in the middle of the room, and from which they eventually eat supper from. - their knowing, in the face of other people's ignorance of the crime, and the presence of the body, right under their noses, providing the twisted thrill our chief psycho is looking for, to round out his "art".

The crucial error, being having invited James Stewart's old schoolmaster - their old teacher, who inspired this notion in them through his, only apparently, extreme, barmy, and tenuous philosophical views about superior persons who should be allowed to commit such crimes against the inferior persons in society - who then very quickly clues in to the fact that something is up, and begins to sleuth them out, all the while the party goes on around them.

It's very much a statement about the kind of thinking that led to Nazi atrocities in the second world war.

But the truly impressive thing about this, for me at least, is the - how should I call it? - screenplay choreography taking place here, to allow this extended take scenario to work; The shifting of focus of the camera to different groups of people allows some actors to go out of shot for a spell and others have a moment, before returning fluidly to the central characters, and the main story. It doesn't feel artificial, or forced - that is: "We need to give this actor a break now, so quick, shift to some characters", but rather just floats seamlessly around the characters at the party, without disturbing the flow, or rhythm of the movie.

It's the one film of Hitchcock's that although he has some incredible movies in his filmography, has stolen through the pack to become my favourite over time, mostly through the mesmeric quality of this stage like production, which give a more intimate and fascinating tale of suspense than usual.

(I think this is also why I like Rear Window as much, over say Vertigo, Psycho et al.)

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A strange film.

Jose must been on drugs make this, one half film black and white the other was in color, the storyline was strange people take lsd then have sexual fantasies while some people try and find the beast(Jose).
Once beast is found he goes and enslaves the people who took lsd while making women slaves for himself.

4 is my rating good scenes strange storyline.

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Not bad for a 1950s man-in-rubber-suit horror. Low budget, yes, but unusual to see the creature captured early and escaping (no spoilers, IMDb has all this detail!). A nod to King Kong as the creature falls for the "girl".

Yeah, seen a LOT worse!

7/10

:happy:

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Absolutely dreadful zero-budget thriller without any thrills.

A loner strip club regular (played by Joseph Peters) becomes obsessed with the erotic dancer Jennie (who oddly stays fully clothed for the entire film despite numerous dance routines) until his incel rage grows and he abducts her. They then proceed to roam about to not much purpose until the shock ending which isn't much of a shock at all.

Even at 85 minuttes this film seems overlong with the only enjoyment coming from the obscure synthpop soundtrack by Field Of One.

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Another movie with a lot more to it than is given credit for...

>Perhaps a spoiler in here<

(A theme of both eighties music and movies, often thought to be shallow and superficial, but actually concealing a lot of stuff you didn't know was there)

...In this case, most will simply accept this as an exercise in Bravado, and Overly overt masculinity, and (as often observed by those who watch this for the first time) a pungent aroma of testosterone... As if actually celebrating it, and glorying in these elements.

But actually, nothing could be further from the truth... Indeed, quite the contrary!

This is, in reality, a statement about masculinity, and machismo and how these elements most often find their natural expression in big dudes with big guns, shooting the crap out of everything. Granted, there's plenty of that here, but you cannot fail to notice how exaggerated it all is - dry shaving with hunting knives through stony faced glares into the middle distance, massive, stupid and impractical weaponry all underpinning the evident sense of over-confidence this gives the soldiers here...

...Misplaced confidence.

And here we come to the actual statement about these things, and what this film is really saying:

You may think you are tough, and believe you're own BS, but what if something else, bigger, scarier, and both more singular in it's purpose, advanced in it's weaponry, were to appear on the scene that would render all your displays of apparent strength pitiful by comparison?

And this the essence of the movie, it, through the means of this alien lizard-oid creepy-crawly, by degrees, and systematically breaks down this bravura, shatters their illusions of superiority and strength, even their sense of relative sophistication and expertise so they become no more than scared little children running around in the jungle.

But it goes further than this, as it also, in the end, reduces Arnie back to a primitive, cave man like state - stripped of all civilization as a man, to a barbarous savage fighting for his life.

(I wonder, if the contemplative stare in the outro is a reflection on this, and what has happened to him there in the jungle - was hem and his cohorts, nothing but a cave man, and a savage all along... just took an alien to strip away this false conceit?)

It might, on reflection, have been right there in our faces all along, that this was what the movie was about, as the poster is an image of Arnie, as seen through the eyes of the alien's Infra-Red heat vision., under the massive title word: Predator.

(Who exactly is the real predator here... the alien, or Man / Arnie?

Arnie has, actually, the most normal character among the team, and has a more realistic attitude to what he's doing - playing it straight for once, as opposed to the usual comic violence with one-liners we were used to from him at this time as he casually dispatched multitudes...

(Well, there's the odd one, but nothing that renders him cartoonish, as elsewhere)

...And it's that man John McTiernan again at the helm (Die Hard etc.), who, certainly at the time, knew what he was doing, and saying with these films, and better than anyone else back then!

There is one crucial flaw in this film though for me:

The opening shot, of an alien spacecraft depositing a pod with the alien in, on earth, to set the film up - this would have been so much better, going in blind, if that had been removed, so that all you knew, was that you were in the jungle with these men, on a mission, then strange things begin to happen, of unknown origin... Which would have left you as non-plussed, and anxious as the characters. But alas, you've seen the opening shot, so know about the alien... Shame.

As with all these great original concepts: The Terminator, Alien, Predator etc., it seems those who then go on to make sequels, and franchises out of them, they only tune into the superficial elements of what the movie, at it's heart, is, and cannot understand what it is that actually made these films so powerful in the first instance, and these are the very elements that seem to get left behind, for though they didn't know it, they were what made them work, and why the newer ones do not.

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Wes Anderson's stop-motion super-symmetry masterclass.

One of those movies which has a blend of apparently disparate elements, that it would never have occurred to you that they would go well together, until you sit and think about it for a moment, and go... "yeah, actually, that makes perfect sense!"

The elements here being first: It's a Wes Anderson movie...

His ultra precise, perfectly symmetrically framed cinematic style, with those quirky, perfectly parallel sliding tracking shot movements, in an almost, moving diorama look.

The perfect compliment to the second... The precision and style required by stop-motion animation; Here a style built from different animation techniques, of models in stop-motion, over two dimensional animated set elements, which give it an almost anime / manga quality.

All of which, is rounded off by the final perfect piece:

Being set in a kind of dystopian nearly future Japan.

Not being overly familiar with Japan myself, I couldn't really say if this is an accurate representation of that country, and it's cultural elements, except impressions I have. like anyone else, of a very subdued, precise (that word again!), conservative culture, very deliberate, and exacting in it's essence...

...All of which, make for a Swiss watch of a movie, but one not lacking in heart, and warmth, with some genuine moments, as well as elements of genius in it's execution.

A tale of a near future, where dogs have been overwhelmed by a plethora of diseases, agues, and maladies, which prompt the human population of the fictional city of Megasaki. led by the stern mayor and his advisers, to decree that all dogs be exiled to a small island: The Isle Of Dogs, to live, and forage among the waste and refuse of the island as strays.

Atari, the mayor's adopted son though, has other ideas, and sets off, in defiance of his Father, to find his dog, Spots, previously assigned to be his companion, and protector after an accident.

Crash landing on the island in his plane, this "Small Pilot" immediately takes up with a group of dogs, and they set out together to help find Spots.

Basically, it's about a boy and his dog, as told through the eyes of the dogs of the island.

The subtle genius moments here, are that Wes uses a brilliant device, of having a kind of United Nations / news report translator (Frances McDormand) to translate the Japanese, but sometimes, with a mixture of Japanese and English subtitles displayed as an almost artistic feature of the film, there often is only Japanese... The dogs speak English, and so cannot understand, or be understood by the humans, who speak Japanese, so using this apparent disadvantage to great effect in showing the difficulty in dogs and humans understanding each other - very clever!

There's also, the occasional Ferrris Beuller style, look to camera, by one of the stop-motion dogs, which adds to the wickedly funny moments and jokes / gags in this sharply written piece, with Anderson's signature humour.

The final touch that often had me laughing out loud was when the dogs get into a scrap (especially with the robot dog!), and a kind of looney tunes cartoon style cloud of dust appears, and the various odd limbs are seen poking out from this frenetic maelstrom - a fist, a tail a leg etc.)

I loved this whole thing, and I hope Wes Anderson makes more of these animated movies, because, like Tim Burton's: A Nightmare Before Christmas, an ordinary stop-motion movie is elevated by a distinctive film maker's sensibility, and style.

Marvellous!

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This is a black business indeed!

There's something strangely compelling about watching a couple of men alone together going stark staring crackers by degrees.

The set up is very basic, therefore, as these two lighthouse keepers, strangers to each other, arrive on an isolated lighthouse island to... er... keep it, I guess...

...Willem Defoe's apparently grizzled old sea dog type, along with Patterson's young drifter / young buck newbie doing the initial slightly tense circling of each other in the "getting to know you" phase, within the power dynamic of mentor / master and student / dogsbody, before gradually breaking down, not only this tension, but then themselves and each other, personally and psychologically in a battle of wills that ends in madness.

Here be mad dragons me lad!

It really has a feeling of a Ben Wheatley movie (A Field In England / Hit List etc.), or one of those small, surreal nuggets like Berberian Studio, or the like, and certainly is a psychological horror movie, as it moves from tense, and generally strange through unsettling and odd, before landing neatly on hallucinatory and crazy.

Relying, as it does, on the two leads here, both have to pull this off between them, and they do expertly, with Patterson moving from quiet, self contained and uncertain, to undone and venting very convincingly in this power dynamic... but it's Defoe who really nails it... The very broad, grizzled old wart character could be hammy very easily (and perhaps it is to an extent), but it works especially with a script that you can tell made his eyes light up when he read it, as this part is one for an actor to really get his teeth stuck into, with lengthy, poetic monologues he delivers with a mesmerising, captivating performance.

It's another form that apparently ever brilliant A24 lot, who seem to be the only crew in town who still know how to make a proper movie outside the comic book formulas all too prevalent today.

...And there's a nice, evocative sea shanty to end with, all of which makes for a very haunting experience in all the finest traditions of this kind of movie.

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Nothing may be what it seems.

I don't know why this never appears on one of those lists of all time great movies, alongside the likes of Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind etc. As it certainly deserves to be there in my book.

One of those that seem to be one kind of movie, about a particular subject, but by the end, has become something else...

..And as this is a pure character study, the reason is that the characters change, or rather, reveal more of what they truly are, and what the real circumstances that compel them to be this way change too.

Ostensibly, it's a fairly straightforward story of a cocky, overly-confident young Hustler, on the make, and coming to town to take on the old king of the pool-room hustle, and so take his crown, so to speak, in the er... grass-roots, underworld of small-town pool hall hustlers, but having learned a thing or two in the process, and meeting a lonely woman in a diner, who he strikes up a relationship with, this Maverick drifter with nothing apparently to lose, discovers, all too late, that maybe he, like everyone else in this movie, is only really hustling himself, and the effects, both on him, and those around him, cause him to lose more that he can gain.

His tragedy, being that he is so conditioned to hustle, he can't really stop himself even in the face of tragic consequences.

It occurs to me that this will have a great deal of relevance to a modern audience, being a great analogy of social media experiences where people are so compelled to present an image of themselves to the outside world, they may lose themselves to this image, and forget who they really are entirely.

Which is to say, in repetition: Hustlers only ever really hustle themselves.

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Just had a rewatch, having found a DVD copy in the charity shop, and I've got to say it actually seems worse second time around.

The overly convoluted plot twists (it's one long plot twist!) remain confusing to watch, even if you know what's coming... in fact knowing what's coming only serves to highlight how messy it is.

(This really kills the dramatic aspect of it being a movie, if most of the time you are gazing into space with a look on your face like: "Did I leave the stove on?" and not absorbing the drama on screen)

While the end gets stronger and better, the elephant in the room remains the incomprehensible, and questionable physics, which are only lightly explained with the cod-physics expositions / dialogue... a logical knot that Nolan tied himself up in due to
the great flash of inspiration of the original idea.

But the real surprise on the second watch was becoming aware of actually, just how tedious this film is... it is a boring movie!

I realise now, that if you take away the surprise elements of a first time watch, and see / hear past the soundtrack that heightens suspense, and the dazzling backward cinematography, Even the action set-pieces are slow, and go on far too long.

Shame, as the idea of a sci-fi James Bond / Bourne intrigue thing was a thrilling concept.

Probably now, Nolan's worst movie...not a classic by any stretch.

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This review will be uploaded to Imdb and contains spoilers

Babylon (obvious nod to scandal book Hollywood Babylon) is a very (post)modern take on old Hollywood. Lavished with profanity, many gross-out scenes and occasional moments of beauty. It's an uneven mix of style over substance. This film has all the elements and many great bits, but as a whole it is coherent, but bloated and not as clever as it should be.

Diego Calva play Manuel Torres, a young Spanish man who seems to be a sort of fixer for rich people, from this slow start he becomes a runner on Hollywood films after befriending a drunken Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) at a party. At the party he meets Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) a young woman from the sticks with big ambition to become a star.

The film is about Hollywood actors not being able to make the transition from Silent film to the Talkies which was a real problem at the time. There's a Pygmallion inspired plot with Nellie LaRoy being taught how to speak proper. This subplot would be more tragic if it wasn't played for laughs. Jack Conrad being Hollywood's hot property and a raging alcoholic; a sort of hybrid of Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks and echoing Charlie Chaplin (who famously wasn't as successful in Talkies). It's nice to see Brad Pitt given a chance to test his acting chops with something meaty. Sadly the character is underwritten and always feels a bit one-dimensional, he has a divorce and a marriage within 30 minutes of screen time. When the emotional gut punch arrives, we could spot it a mile off.

Margot Robbie as Nellie LaRoy is one of the multidimensional characters along with Diego Calva as Manny Torres. She's sort of Mildred June, Greta Garbo, Theda Bara and of course Louise Brooks - all of which get referenced. More interestingly I was reminded of recent starlets like Courtney Love and Lindsay Lohan. She's a woman who is possibly a victim of her own actions as well as her upbringing and ultimately we learn she never learns. Diego Calva is Oscar worthy for sure with a surprisingly understated performance amongst many which are deliberately larger than life. A man who fixes other people's mistakes and manages to get recognised for doing it, but ultimately gets dragged down by Nellie.

The film is sort of a patchwork quilt of old and new. As mentioned the deliberately profanity laden script, pop culture references were most characters could be from any era of Hollywood. One highlight was Manny being chased through a series of tunnels in LA's A-hole which was blatantly a reference to Dante's Inferno and possibly the film Irreversible. The real star of the show is the cinematography (a gorgeous palate of browns, reds and burnt oranges) and jazz soundtrack. Even the soundtrack had a modern twist featuring on one track which I suspect used an electronic drum beat. There's also been a recent trend of shock elements in drama and this film has it in spades - a man getting sprayed with elephant dung immediately followed by the last days of Rome party scene: there's a dwarf on a phallic shaped pogo stick spraying white foam into the crowd, a reference to Fatty Arbuckle and a young girl, champagne bottle up the Aris' and later on we have projectile vomiting and some gory scenes. Much like how non-horror films took elements of Slasher films and put them in thrillers we have scenes that wouldn't be out of place in a gross out teen comedy or even a porn film in a mainstream big budget release and I'm not a prude, but you need a strong stomach to get through this one.

I'm a huge fan of films that are "the American dream gone wrong" and I recalled films like Sunset Blvd. and L.A. Confidential both better films. Another meta reference was Manny watching a film in the 1950s, immediately reminding the viewer of Cinema Paradiso (a much better film) and that summed it up. While the film is clever in places and knowing there's not much heart and soul to it. While it is more fun than Silent-era homage "The Artist" it never rises above feeling like its beating the audience over the head with a canapé tray to get the message across rather than being subtle. Quite what the message is supposed to be is open to interpretation: Hollywood is a mean place that will steal your soul, but look at the escapism and artistry on offer.

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