Winter Kills (1979)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Winter Kills (1979) – W. Richert

I wonder if the Coen Brothers were thinking about Winter Kills when they cast Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowksi? Although he’s much younger here, he also plays a much put-upon “straight” character caught up in zany episodic situations beyond his control. In this film, he’s the much younger half-brother of the assassinated president who is provided with evidence that contradicts that single-shooter theory put forward by a Government Commission.  With pressure from his father (John Huston), he descends into the rabbit hole.  If this plot sounds like a thinly veiled retake of the events surrounding JFK’s shooting, it shouldn’t take long to confirm when faced with characters like “Joe Diamond” (Eli Wallach), in lieu of “Jack Ruby” of course (all from Richard Condon’s novel).  And it also doesn’t take long before the serious subject matter starts to give way to some blackly comic moments, as Nick Kegan (Bridges) finds himself confronting a range of eccentric characters played by well-known character actors: Sterling Hayden, Ralph Meeker, Richard Boone, Toshiro Mifune, Anthony Perkins, even Elizabeth Taylor (in a well-paid cameo). Not unlike the real thing, the conspiracy theory laid out here includes various red herrings and dead ends (with most informants meeting unfortunate fates after providing evidence).  Letting things wash over you without worrying too much about details is probably the best strategy.  And, in the end, the film ties things together with a truism about power and money that doesn’t feel wrong. A lost half-baked classic of sorts.

 

One from the Heart (1981)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

One from the Heart (1981) – F. F. Coppola

I’ve finally gotten around to watching this famous flop (the 2003 re-release, I think) by Francis Ford Coppola – the follow-up to Apocalypse Now, retreating to the newly purchased Zoetrope Studios to do everything off-location (as it were).  So, he built Las Vegas’s famous Strip, neon and all, from scratch, and set out to use all of the latest technological cinematic methods (including the first use of “video assist”, something that my long-lost friend Tim O’Toole used to commandeer back in Minnesota) to create this highly stylised colourful musical.  Tom Waits wrote all of the songs on the soundtrack, which accent or comment upon the action, assisted by Crystal Gayle – but this is definitely the bluesy ‘70s Waits rather than the weirder more experimental persona he later adopted (think Foreign Affairs more than Swordfishtrombones).  Did I say “highly stylised”? The film’s plot, which finds Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest as a couple breaking up on their fifth anniversary, is just a schematic framework on which to hang the set-pieces, art design, and music. I didn’t mind this, occasionally thinking of (the much better) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, where the dialogue is entirely sung, unlike here).  That was probably Coppola’s aim, to recreate the lavish musicals of the past, but it’s hard to get emotionally involved here.  Although Garr and Forrest give it their best shot, they never seen made for each other or even interested in each other (instead, as others have noted, they might be better partnered with Raul Julia and Natassja Kinski, with whom they have one-night flings). Ultimately, it’s a bit of a mess but every other scene seems to contain eye-popping technical wizardry, clearly expensive enough to have bankrupted Coppola. Still worth a look. 

 

Oddity (2024)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Oddity (2024) – D. McCarthy

Irish director Damian McCarthy’s second feature is one of those horror films that I’ve been seeking, the kind with an emphasis on spooky supernatural events that don’t involve a surplus of blood and gore.  Any violence happens off-screen (although there is the occasional after-effect shown).  Instead, we are treated to the foreboding chilling (and gently teasing) suspenseful feeling that a jump-scare could be coming – or worse, the revelation that there are evil or malevolent forces that can reach us from beyond the grave (or elsewhere).  In this case, those malevolent forces might, thankfully, only target those who deserve their wrath.  The film opens with what turns out to be a flashback – Dani Odello-Timmis, wife of Dr Ted Timmis (a doctor in a psychiatric clinic; played by Gwilym Lee), is alone in their unfurnished stone house in an isolated part of Ireland.  An ex-patient of Dr Timmis knocks on the door to warn her that a stranger is in the house and she should let him in to assist.  Fast forward one year and it turns out that Dani was killed.  Her blind and psychic twin sister, Darcy (also played by Carolyn Bracken), who runs an antique shop full of cursed and haunted objects, believes that Dani’s death was not as straightforward as it appeared to be.  Things come to a head when she arrives to spend the night at the house with an ominous wooden golem, much to the chagrin of Dr Timmis and his new girlfriend.  This film gave me the creeps in more than one spot and the ending is pretty much perfect, although perhaps making the film just a little too tidy (for a supernatural thriller).

No Sudden Move (2021)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

No Sudden Move (2021) – S. Soderbergh

There’s no doubt that director Steven Soderbergh is a master of his craft, alternating between experimental arthouse works and crowd-pleasing mainstream fare. No Sudden Move finds him mining the rich neo-noir vein (specifically the mob subgenre), setting up a plot that sees one twist after another (and also a slow dripfeed of information to the audience that casts unexpected light on characters’ motivations and relationships).  Don Cheadle plays Curt Goynes, a player currently on the outs with the Detroit gangs (and freshly out of prison for his involvement in a scheme gone wrong). He and Benicio del Toro are recruited by mob lackey Brendan Fraser to “babysit” an auto exec’s family while the exec steals an important document from his boss’s safe.  Needless to say, things don’t go to plan but Goynes seizes every opportunity he can and soon he and del Toro are involved in a high stakes gamble with big fish too big to care.  Echoes of Chinatown (including on the soundtrack) are unavoidable as seemingly little crimes breakaway to reveal a larger darker reality.  Along the way, Soderbergh risks losing viewers with these overly complicated machinations and despite the cool acting, perfect mise-en-scene, and vintage lenses, the film’s ironic denouement ends things with a whimper rather than the reverberating feeling that the powerful always win which must have been the aim.

 

Nightwatch (1994)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

Nightwatch (1994) – O. Bornedal

A Nineties serial killer thriller out of Denmark that was a huge hit there but didn’t get released in the US while a remake was being organised.  The film has an iffy tone, almost comedic at times, darkly (but too causally) taking in prostitution, lads’ pranks, and even necrophilia.  Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is a law student who takes a job as morgue night watchman right at the time when a serial killer is prowling Copenhagen.  His best friend Jens (Kim Bodnia) is an edgy jokester who might be crazy enough to be the killer.  His girlfriend, Kalinka, is played by Sofie Gråbøl (who years later would star as Detective Sarah Lund in the Danish police procedural series The Killing).  The morgue certainly is spooky and young Martin is shown the ropes by the retiring night watchman and has other details filled in by the homicide detective who visits regularly (particularly when a new victim is brought there). Perhaps there is something European about the odd tone of the film because it remains weird even as the film descends into a stock-standard “killer chases our heroes” climax, culminating with a silly wedding scene.  I know humour is often used to cut the tension in horror films but something feels not quite right here.  An undertone of ‘90s misogyny (passive not intentional) leaves a bitter aftertaste.  Apparently, there was a years-later sequel in 2023.

 

Enemy Mine (1985)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Enemy Mine (1985) – W. Petersen

Never saw this unforgettable sci-fi film back in the day and didn’t know enough about it before screening it with Amon.  For those who think it’s a buddy film in space, that’s only half correct (bromance would be the better term and I can’t think of another mainstream genre film from this era with such a barely hidden gay subtext). Dennis Quaid (channelling the later Jack Black persona) is a space pilot on the front line in the human war against the reptilian Dracs.  After a vicious dogfight, he crash lands on a deserted planet but soon discovers a Drac (Lou Gossett Jr.) has also crashed there.  In order to survive the harsh environment, they have to team up … and eventually become friends.  Months or years go by (making Quaid even more Jack Black-like) and, although the pace of the film does drag, it is anything but predictable and soon gets quite weird. I won’t spoil it here but by the end of the film, Quaid is on a rescue mission to get some Drac slaves out of the grips of some evil human miners.  This latter scene is the only explanation for the film’s title – unless you just accept that it is really meant to be “my enemy”.  Ultimately, taken as a film that desires to take on big issues, such as cross-cultural acceptance and anti-racism, in a sci-fi genre context, my feeling is that it pretty much succeeds without being too heavy-handed.  As a sci-fi film, perhaps it drags, though the old-school special effects (and especially set design) are pretty cool.

Ip Man (2008) / Drunken Master II (1994)

 

Ip Man (2008) – W. Yip (3 stars)

Drunken Master II (1994) – K.-L. Lau (3 ½ stars) 

Amon likes action films and has seen most of the good Jackie Chan films already, so we thought we would branch out to the more recent Ip Man series (available for free streaming on SBS).  However, it didn’t take long to realise that Donnie Yen’s portrayal of historical figure Ip Man (who brought the Wing Chun style of kung fu to Hong Kong and eventually trained Bruce Lee) was akin to a super-hero who could never be defeated. This was in keeping with the strongly nationalistic flavour of the film which takes place during the Japanese occupation of China just prior to WWII. The drama is pretty heavy going with Ip Man often going it alone against the sadistic invaders. This film spawned three sequels but we aren’t too interested. 

In contrast, Jackie Chan’s films from his best period (80s/90s) use a nice blend of slapstick comedy and action. Although he began to gravitate toward expensive set-pieces (hanging from a helicopter or a bus, car stunts etc.), his original stardom came as a result of his hand-to-hand combat skills (learned as part of the HK Peking Opera troupe he joined as a kid).  Drunken Master II returns us back to that style while also giving Jackie a chance to reprise his role as Wong Fei-hung (another historical figure, also played by Jet Li – with wires – in the Once Upon a Time in China series), which he originated in the 1978 action comedy Drunken Master directed by Yuen Woo-ping (who worked on The Matrix and also later with Donnie Yen).  Jackie’s kung fu style here (and in the earlier film) is called drunken boxing and is apparently amplified if the proponent actually drinks alcohol.  Set in Canton (in an earlier part of the 20^th century than Ip Man), this time the Brits are the baddies, although they have some disloyal Chinese fighters working for them (smuggling antiquities out of the country).  As usual, things start with a great deal of humour (including by pop singer Anita Mui as Jackie’s stepmother) but begin to turn rather grim as Jackie’s family gets dragged into the protests at the steel factory (where workers are treated as slaves).  It’s another film with a lot of fire stunts (similar to Police Story 2) which I find less fun than the rough-and-tumble choreography in films like Project A.  Ultimately, Jackie needs to drink industrial alcohol for the final boss fight, leading to a scene where he is blind and mentally crippled played for laughs (not included in the US release called The Legend of the Drunken Master, which is the version we watched).  Although Drunken Master II has received high ratings everywhere, it seems a step down from Jackie’s best films, despite his clear athletic prowess.