The Lobster (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Lobster (2015) – Y. Lanthimos

High concept alternate reality tale told in clinical deadpan by the director of Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos), another weird one.  Here, Colin Farrell (unrecognisable with 20 extra kilos and a Ned Flanders moustache) is sent to a mysterious hotel after his wife has left him.  Apparently, it is illegal to be single and this is his last chance to find a partner among the other singles; if he fails, he will be turned into an animal of his choice (he chooses the lobster).  So, yes, it is something of a comedy – particularly when hapless John C. Reilly turns up – but it is very dry, very dry.  The real theme seems to be about the yin and yang of aloneness and togetherness (there are pros and cons of both) and society’s expectations about which is to be preferred.  In this society, they hunt down and kill loners (or turn them into undesirable animals).  Farrell’s character wants to stay alive, stay human, and fall in love.  The film speaks to the challenges of doing so. It’s fresh, blunt about many things, possibly perceptive (it is hard to tell) and definitely one-of-a-kind.

The Woman in Green (1945)

☆ ☆ ½

The Woman in Green (1945) – R. W. Neill

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) tangle with Professor Moriarty who was previously thought dead in Montevideo (although Holmes suspected otherwise).  Now, he has masterminded a blackmail scheme that tricks wealthy men into thinking they have murdered young women and cut off their pinky finger (finding this in their pocket the next day).  How is this done?  Through hypnotism, my friend, which (of course) Watson has total disdain for, resulting in one of those scenes where Bruce can play the total buffoon (while hypnotized).  Fortunately, the blackmailed men aren’t doing the actual killing – they just think they have.  Holmes figures out that the hypnotist is a beautiful woman (in green) and the finale involves her believing she has triumphed over Holmes by giving him cannabis japonica and forcing him out onto a dangerous ledge – but fortunately he quickly substitutes another drug and is only pretending.  That wily Holmes!  And now perhaps Moriarty really is dead (!?!).  A solid entry in the long-running series, although not its peak.

Days of Being Wild (1990)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Days of Being Wild (1990) – Kar-Wai Wong

Wong Kar-Wai’s second film (before his international breakthrough Chungking Express, 1994) is another example of his style over substance technique.  This glimpse at Hong Kong in 1962 is all greens and blues and greys, perhaps fitting for a nostalgic reverie, but somehow dark.  And so is the subject matter, which transmutes Rebel Without a Cause (from which it gets it title a la the Hong Kongese translation) into a blur of insolent moves by twentysomethings who do or do not want to care.  But it is hard to get inside these characters (played by emerging stars Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau) whose motivations seem to be only grand gestures or reactions to those of others.  This strategy comes together much better in the next film in the putative trilogy, In the Mood for Love (2000), starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, the latter of which appears mysteriously in a coda to the earlier film (apparently with the rest of his role left on the cutting room floor).  This is one to check for a mood induction of the blue kind.

They’re a Weird Mob (1966)

☆ ☆ ☆

They’re a Weird Mob (1966) – M. Powell

Good-natured comedy about an Italian immigrant to Australia and the wacky culture into which he is adopted.  Michael Powell (of Powell & Pressburger fame) directed this extremely broad but affectionate tale that shares little in common with his previous outings except for an interest in “place”, the location (in this case, Sydney), and “people” or culture (in this case, a very blokey set of Aussies).  Powell doesn’t poke fun at Italians at all, although he doesn’t shy away at depicting the prejudice that some Australians showed (and still show?) to the “New Australians” who migrated here in the 1950s and ‘60s (from Italy and Greece).  Nino is meant to work for an Italian newspaper but it no longer exists and instead he finds work as a tradie, putting in foundations for houses.  It’s back-breaking work but he bonds with the other guys and eventually finds love as well, not with the Italian girl that he initially pursues but with the Anglo-Aussie sheila that owns the building from which his cousin’s newspaper company was evicted.  But all this plot is simply an opportunity to expose the world to some proper Aussie slang, their fondness for drinking beer, the beautiful vistas of Sydney (harbor, Bondi Beach), and most of all about mateship.  Yet, there is not an Aboriginal fella in sight and this is an Australia that is long gone in favour of a much more multicultural land where, in principle, everyone deserves a fair go, regardless of where they were born.

   

The Connection (2014)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Connection (2014) – C. Jimenez

So, this film was a bit like a fast food meal – you’ve had it before, you know what it tastes like, it’s pleasing when it goes down, but then you aren’t really completely satisfied feeling a bit like you shouldn’t have eaten it. A French version of The French Connection or at least a version of the law enforcement challenge of taking down that big heroin ring in the’70s that saw Marseilles serving as the middleman between Turkish poppies and American consumers.  Jean Dujardin is charismatic as the magistrate in charge of the investigation and Gilles Lellouche is suitably unsavoury (but not without some sympathetic notes) as the drug kingpin, but damn if the whole script isn’t full of clichés.  I guess we could just chalk it up to this being a genre pic and leave it at that (the prosecutor that risks all, neglected wife who threatens to leave, the villain who is vaguely noble but not coping well with the heat, the possible rats within the ranks of the cops).  But despite the vaguely stimulating Scorsese-like moves (i.e., with pop music and travelling cameras) things ultimately end up a bit flat and then I’m hungry again. 

  

Scandal Sheet (1952)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Scandal Sheet (1952) – P. Karlson

Phil Karlson directed this “newspaper noir” adapted from the novel (The Dark Page) by Sam Fuller (a director in his own right).  In fact, if you watch The Big Red One (1980), Fuller’s late autobiographical war film, you’ll find that one of the characters has just had his first novel accepted by a publisher – this was Fuller’s own experience, having his book bought up by Howard Hawks (who did not go on to direct it) when he was a young kid fighting overseas.  The story is high melodrama, in line with Fuller’s usual approach, but Karlson makes it a bit more mainstream and less didactic than Fuller might have.  Broderick Crawford stars as a tabloid editor going for the sensational and tawdry headline to boost subscription rates who soon finds himself hoisted on his own petard when he accidentally kills his long estranged wife (resurfacing under an alias) and his own paper begins a high profile investigation, looking for the unknown killer.  So, the noose tightens around his neck, slowly but surely, led by reporters John Derek and Donna Reed.  Karlson handles the well-scripted plot admirably and the supporting cast are all top notch. Better than I expected.

The Whisperer in Darkness (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Whisperer in Darkness (2011) – S. Branney

Another adaptation of an H. P. Lovecraft short story from the H. P. L. Historical Society, following their short silent version of “Call of Cthulhu”.  Again, you can see the loving care that has gone into the production, fashioned in the spirit of the Universal horror films of the 1930s (when Lovecraft was still alive; he died in ’37 at age 46).  Having read this story earlier this year, I can attest to the fact that this is a very faithful rendition – to a point:  after the first hour, the screenwriters have concocted their own conclusion to the story which actually ends at a fully horrifying point, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions about what happens next).  Basically, we follow a sceptical professor as he travels to Vermont to meet with a local who claims to have seen flying crab-like creatures from outer space.  Initially afraid, this man now has changed his mind to suggest that his new alien friends actually come in peace.  But do they really? Much of the spookiness of the story remains intact and the stylized production works well but things do seem to drag – this would have been tighter as a short (as with the previous HPLHS effort).  Let’s hope they have the chance to make some more films!

  

A Night to Remember (1958)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

A Night to Remember (1958) – R. W. Baker

This is a film that moves inexorably to a foregone conclusion – and it is no less suspenseful or moving (in some small moments) for that reason.  Not really a soap opera but a look at a cross-section of passengers and crew on the doomed Titanic as it launches, hits an iceberg, and then sinks rapidly in the icy North Atlantic.  Most of the attention falls on Second Officer Charles Lightoller (Kenneth More) who is most heroic and the first class passengers who escape to the boats first.  Second class and steerage folks are mostly left to die, save for a few impetuous Irish (and Polish) passengers who make their way up to the top (one of these characters was apparently the inspiration for Leo DiCaprio’s role in the 1997 film).  But, as I said, this isn’t a soap opera because the focus is less on the people and following their stories and much much more on the actual disaster and its mechanical causes and the actual process of sinking and rescuing (and dying).  This makes the film ultimately more gripping and horrifying.  Even with some obvious model work, the result is epic.