Return of Daimajin (1966)
★★★
It’s daimajin—more of the same.
Wish he popped up like 10 min earlier in these movies.
The Trip Back (1970)
★★★
Do schools still invite motivational speakers to come talk about their experiences with drugs? This cult
video, famously a rental at Kim's Video, is the best of that genre.
A New Leaf (1971)
★★★★½
Hard to go into this knowing about the troubled production and the almost 80 minutes of cut footage (including a completely new character! And a murder plot). You can feel a bit of wheel spinning as this thing winds down. But this is so dry and funny, with some great gallows humour. Henrietta’s lawyer whispering his threats to kill himself as he walks down the aisle slayed me. Walter Matthau plays the perfect rich asshole, who in today’s parlance would be a ‘failson’. A miracle that this is still a fun straightforward picture despite studio meddling.
Thunder Bay (2023)
★★★½
Went into this not listening to the podcast, so take that for what it’s worth. Does this series make the case for Thunder Bay as a city struggling with race and burdened by a deeply racist institution? Certainly. Is it frequently compelling? Sure. But I found parts of this a little thin. For a guy talking about how much the city means to him, how it’s a place he lived for many years, I felt like I never got a real sense of the community of Thunder Bay, outside the handful figures (mostly journalists, lawyers, and bureaucrats). The third episode, which lays the groundwork for the investigation into the police force, is the most compelling stuff here (and really would have worked better as the main focus of the series).
License to Steal (1990)
★★★★
Solid kung-fu comedy action. But the real MVP is the synthy score—reminded me of some classic SNES beat-em ups.
Marking as ‘need to revisit’ since I threw this on 20 minutes in while I was doing laundry. But a great entry to the movie mind melter marathon!
The Super Snooper (1952)
Everyone is horny for Daffy.
The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994)
★★★★½
Man, what a total hidden gem. Gorgeous b/w photography and neo-noir action. Quite brutal at times! Just a real formal delight. On that front, loved the image distortion/stretching thing on with some of the fight scenes (and even the more macabre, surreal elements). Need to see the next Maiku Hama film STAT.
Lethal Force (2002)
★★★★½
Shares the DNA of a Massacre Mafia Style.
One of the guys looked like Alexandre Daigle.
Twilights (1994)
An incredible picture to fall asleep, wake up, fall asleep again, wake up again, to.
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
★★★★
First watch in what feels like 10000 years. This time, a fan edit with a new industrial score replacing the mixed bag Silvestri one.
Crazy how much BTTF2 DNA this has in it. Was waiting for the Jaws 19 hologram shark to show up.
Simple As Water (2021)
★★★★
A beautiful series of vignettes of various refugee families from around the world—from Brooklyn to Beirut. Reminded me a lot of a recent watch I had of the verité-style Cameraperson.
Heart of Dragon (1985)
★★
An odd picture. A good 35% of this is some solid, thrilling, B+ Jackie Chan action. But 65% of this is a straightforward family drama focusing on Sammo Hung in a problematic, to say the least, but ultimately well-intentioned role as Jackie's mentally disabled brother. Weird to say, but has some emotional beats here that I found pretty affecting! Giving it the 'like' despite the low star rating on those grounds.
House of Gucci (2021)
★★★½
Spoiler warning.
Ridley Scott continues his series of films (American Gangster, All the Money in the World, The Counselor) depicting corruption of the soul caused by American greed (this one by way of 'the old country'), depicted in the form of a great tragedy. Unlike All the Money..., this one is less stuffy and prestige; its arch, campy, and has its tongue fully in cheek. Additionally, it features some gorgeous costumes and designer products, most of which were Gucci originals donated for use in the picture.
It's far and away the funniest Ridley Scott picture. Driver and Gaga are quite good, going full hambone with their Italian accents. But the real stars are Al Pacino, in a rather meaty and emotional role playing Uncle Aldo, and Jared Leto as the Gallagheresque Paolo Gucci. I cannot stress enough how insane Leto's performance is in this: elevating at times a fairly mundane Scorcese-style crime film into something totally sublime.
The film loses steam in the second half when it tries to be a more serious piece of Oscar bait. And frankly, I think the turn with Driver's character is a bit silly when most of the film's runtime makes it clear he is a "good man". Nevertheless, it is satisfying to this film subvert a lot of these expectations we have with the inevitable "fall"—Paolo DOES rebuild his relationship with his father, and Maurizio really isn't cut out for things. His relationship with Gaga is like a Macbeth/Lady Macbeth dynamic, if Macbeth was incompetent and uninterested in seeking greatness.
Trap (2024)
★★★★★
Spoiler warning.
Maybe M. Night Shyamalan’s best since Signs? Him and Mukdeeprom shoot the ever loving hell out of this thing. Lately M. Night dabbles in these focused, cerebral thrillers. Wasn’t really all that into the turgid Knock at the Cabin or its closer cousin Old; a film that felt like watching a janky 70s euro horror at 1 AM on Tubi. Josh Hartnett brings this to a whole other level, his Jack Torrance role of a lifetime. He absolutely nails his effort with the stilted, hyper naturalist Playstation 3-style psycho protagonist that we observe navigating spaces and charming his way through the order of command. Saw some fun comparison to the Hitman games, and it’s not far off what the film is going for. The moment he was walking into the police meeting within minutes of snagging the key card I was locked IN. We may look on this as the inflection point between Hartnett as a loveable 90s relic and Harnett as one of our most celebrated actors. Cage eat your heart out; there’s a new challenger to the ‘Nouveau Shamanic’ throne.
And then everything switches up and it becomes a throwback suburban horror. Cooper as The Shape; a symbol of middle class suburban rot and rage. Shyamalan’s daughter gets her “Mother Is Talking” Mrs. Voorhees moment and I was grinning like Sam Neill In the Mouth of Madness style.
Lastly, LOVED the father/daughter dynamic in this. Cooper might be the psychopathic, survive-at-all-costs Butcher, but he remains a loving father throughout. Between the daughter IRL casting and that, Shyamalan clearly has something to say about spilling your guts out for the panopticon of the movie-going public whilst trying to keep your passions burning and making time for concerts with your little girl. Cooper’s face when his daughter is dancing on stage with Lady Raven says it all: trepidatious, deep in calculation, but proud and beaming with pride.
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
★
Sleepaway Camp for Cum Town fans.
Shakedown (1988)
★★★★
James Glickenhaus (as a filmmaker)... I was unfamiliar with your game.
Has perhaps the most insane ending in cinema history.
Sungazer (2020)
★★★★★
Cool as hell—watching this filmmaker with great interest.
“Suppose what your faith has said is essentially correct. Suppose there is a universal mind controlling everything, a god willing the behavior of every subatomic particle. Well, every particle has an anti-particle, its mirror image, its negative side. Maybe this universal mind resides in the mirror image instead of in our universe as we wanted to believe. Maybe he's anti-god, bringing darkness instead of light” — Professor Birack; Prince of Darkness.
2016: Obama’s America (2012)
½
A funny (albeit BORING) artifact to come back to in 2024. Much of the criticism leveled at Obama here can be summarized as: he's not like you and me, he's not a democrat and he is CERTAINLY not a republican, he is an outsider with his own interests that are not aligned with the American state. Pretty funny to see how that same framework that made Obama such a compelling figure to independent voters ultimately help Donald Trump ascend to the White House with that same support.
Watched this on Canada's home for entertainment: the CTV app.
Sleeping Giant (2015)
★★★★
One of the more impressive 'coming-of-age' films—let alone feature debuts—that I've seen for a while. There's little else out there that feels like this: so unstated, so dry, so CANADIAN (specifically, Northern Ontario), with characters that don't feel unlike folks (white, anglo, conservative, kind of fucked up) you might run into in that area of cottage country. Kind of makes for an interesting comparable with the much different In A Violent Nature. Most male 'coming-of-age' stories fixate on big, pivotal moments and follow predictable genre beats. Cividino does a great job avoiding that familiar framework and captures a particular kind of white middle class cottage country ennui that I rarely see in film. None of the characters are all that likeable; even the protagonist Adam, who is a bit of a bore and a bad friend to both Nate and Taylor in different ways. But they're all so goddamn real. I think all of us had friends, either close or periphery, like Nate and Riley. We all spent our boring, aimless summer days by doing silly dumb stuff like smashing sticks against logs, throwing rocks at dead birds, and messing around with fire crackers. Or maybe us Barrhaven kids were a weirder breed than most.
It's all presented beautifully, taking in the gorgeous landscapes and lingering on awkward character reactions and moments. Admittedly I did find the almost austere presentation and characterization a bit tough to chew on, especially as the film takes a pretty dark turn towards the end. But this is a real special piece of work. Looking forward to more from this filmmaker.
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
★★★
When I was introduced to Godzilla as a kid I was told he was a mutation caused by nuclear testing in the Bikini Atoll (something that was confirmed in the 1998 American film), but after watching/rewatching through the series I believe this is the first movie that actually makes this part of the canon. In the earlier films, Godzilla is an ancient monster that 'awakens' BECAUSE of testing. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
As a Fukuda head, I loved this return to the lighter alien sci roots of some of the latter Shōwa works. Lots of goofy, head scratching time travel stuff happening in the first half, including the Godzillasaurus origin story (which was revisited in Godzilla Minus One). Got a kick out of the 'Major Spielberg' name drop and the really wooden American actors. Unfortunately, once King Ghirdorah makes his appearance this film really starts to spin its wheels. It doesn't help that it takes a good hour for Godzilla to make his proper appearance. And Kazuki Ōmori just doesn't share the same visual eye of the other Godzilla masters, including Koji Hashimoto from a few films prior who isn't all that well regarded. Really ugly blocking going on in this thing. Although I do think the sort of neo-Shōwa mix of practical effects and CGI has its own kind of funky aesthetic. Pretty funny to consider this came out TWO YEARS before Jurassic Park.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
★★½
I usually find the whole “iPhone face” thing ignorant and revisionist, but damn does everyone have iPhone face here. Is there anyone among the leads older than 28? The original film felt like a genuine crew of smoking and drinking ROUGH NECKS
Gorgeous CGI and set design. A lot of it feels pretty perfunctory though, and it would not shock me if this was Alvarez’ audition for a Star Wars movie because so much of it plays out like a Disney Star Wars horror flick. I did have a lot of fun in the second half when things got going but idk I think A+ Alien Resurrection isn’t exactly a high bar to clear.
Final note on the A.I. thing: I’m a pretty big fatalist on this—A.I. is coming and there is little we can do to stop it. It doesn’t help that the biggest A.I. haters can’t seem to apply the same standard when it is used by directors or ‘content creators’ that they like. We can only hope it’s “good”. Unfortunately, in the case of zombie-Holm, *Big Justice voice* I’m giving it a “DOOM!☠️”.