Braindead

Peter Jackson's directorial trajectory has reached its apex just like Francis Ford Coppola's.  Work under the radar, mysteriously get handed a franchise, then succeed beyond all expectations.  Let's see what happens next.

Jokey splattercore and MST3K targets aren't my thing.  Why spend time with "so bad they're good" when there are 1000s of "so good they're good" and "so funny they're funny" films out there?

Rating: 1 out of 10 (stopped watching once the old lady escapes from the cellar)

Recommended instead: Shivers by David Cronenberg.  Nice review here.

Stars in My Crown

Jacques Tourneur is best known for Out of the Past and his wonderfully titled run of B-horror in the 40s (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie and The Leopard Man).  He's the poor man's Michael Curtiz, letting the story and actors take the spotlight while moving from genre to genre without screaming "I'm an AUTEUR."

I've now seen 11 of his films, and Nightfall is my favorite.  It's a sharply written crime drama with consistently superior dialogue and a few original riffs off the standard noir melodies. "I don't carry a gun. That's why we pay taxes, so the police can do that for us."

As for Stars in My Crown, it features one of the best "lone man standing up to the mob" speeches I have ever seen, bringing to a climax the Our Town/Mayberry take on the traditional homesteader vs land baron Western rivalry.  Overall though, pretty bland.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Recommended instead: Wagon Master by John Ford, which elevates the Muzak Western

Le journal d'une femme de chambre

I don't spend too much time reading reviews, but when I see the World Socialist Web Site in the external reviews section of IMDB, I always seek out their unique slant. So, it was disappointing when they were not in the list for Diary of a Chambermaid since I definitely needed some perspective on this relatively restrained and "realistic" Buñuel. When the weird go normal, you start looking between the lines (e.g. Lynch's The Straight Story).

It takes rigor to keep from drifting between:

1. Believing that something is worthy of critique


2. Agreeing with a particular critique


3. Agreeing with the philosophy behind a critique


4. Agreeing with the solution proposed by that philosophy

I am almost always with the Socialists on #1, less on #2, rarely on #3 and almost never on #4.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Recommended also: The Exterminating Angel is an ideal introduction to the Spanish surrealist's work.

Because I Said So

We all need to set boundaries. One of the more overlooked steps is actually telling other people what they are. The conversations in my head can be so vivid and full of feelings that I can easily forget that no one else has been invited.

One summer day I was awoken at 7AM by the phone. At this time, I was still intensely entangled with my mother's day-to-day health problems and so I fearfully answered anticipating an emergency (powerless to assist, but anyway...).

Turns out a friend just wanted to chat. He thought it was 7PM. Drinking around the clock will do that to you. Someday later (because I am slow to act on resolutions) I told him that I did not feel comfortable talking to him when he was drunk. A boundary was set and the consequences of crossing that line were spelled out. Please grant me the courage to do things like that more often.

Rating: 3 out of 10.

Recommended instead: Bad Santa (more Lauren Graham, among 100 other reasons)

Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes Formula:

1. Substitute mixed martial arts for the Marquess of Queensberry rules [for the teens]
2. Withhold iconic props like the Calabash Meershaum and the Henschel Deerstalker for sequel usage ("Behold! The character is gradually recreated before our eyes" [for the adults])
3. Make Irene Adler more important than Watson (feminist or sexist? You be the judge.)
4. Take the whole milieu several classes down the social ladder (Gangs of New York is cooler Scorsese than Age of Innocence, I guess)
5. Add cuffs or chains wherever possible [for Madonna?]

Rating: 5 out of 10

Recommended instead: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes