Lake George (2024)

 

No level hood gets out of jail and goes to collect some money owed. The guy who owes him won’t pay him because he messed up getting arrested. He’s offered his money if he agrees to kill a woman who has become a thorn in the boss’s side. In need of money, he agrees to do it. However when he meets the woman he can’t do it and is soon talked into robbing the men who want her dead.

This bittersweet humor tinged noir is a small gem of a film. While the film is probably too long at 118 minutes, the film still holds out attention thanks to the performances of the cast. Carrie Coons is great as the femme fatale of the tale. I complete understand why she is starting to show up everywhere. The real revelation is Shea Wingham as the doomed man. From first frame to last he grabs your attention and breaks your heart. He’s a man never in control and sliding toward his future. This is as good a performance as you will see all year. What kills me is the fact that this is probably better than most of the Oscar contenders but it’s not going to go anywhere because there isn’t a budget to push him for an Oscar.

On this very busy week at the movies (45 films are opening) do yourself a favor and go see this film- or at the very least put the film on your list of ones to track down.

Recommended

Mars Express (2023)

In 2200 private detectives Aline and Carlos are hired to find and bring home a notorious hacker. The case puts them into the middle of something bigger involving the robots on Mars and Earth.

This is a scifi hard boiled detective noir. Its classic 1940's film noir mashed with modern day science fiction and the look at artificial intelligence. It has the classic rhythms mixed with eye popping visuals and some kick ass action sequences. It's a blast and a half and I loved it.

I know that some of you are going to be scared off because this is animation. Yes I know anime has made it more accepted, but some people still don't want to watch animation, Never mind that if this was live action they would be first on line to see it. Understand that because of what the film is about and because of where its set and who the characters are the film had to be animated. Even if was live action other than a few characters the vast majority of the rest would have been CGI, or more simply photo-realistically animated.

Watching this film I ended up reacting verbally.  Twists and turns had me talking out loud. The same can be said about the action sequences. 

And then there are the themes and ideas running around in the film. The notions of what it means to be alive, about free will and basic human stupidity have haunted me for days after seeing the film. What I love is that the film's ending has improved the more I think about it. I first thought it was unremarkable and a bit been there... and then all of the things that it implied hit me hard. The profound sense of sadness contained in it filled my heart.

I love this movie. I love it to the point that I regret that I missed going to the work in progress screening that Animation First had a couple of years back.

I really do need to make one  note concerning this film and that when you see this you need to realize that this is a detective film and not an action film. There is action and suspense but there are also slow sequences of detecting. In other words there are some slow sequences, or slow at least compared to some of the bat shit crazy fights.

Once more with feeling- I love this film. You need to see it. If possible when it plays at Animation First Tuesday, or down the road when G-Kids releases it.

How good is it? I don't think it's going  of to move off my Best of the Best of 2024.

Brief thoughts on THE LONG GAME (2024) SBIFF 2024

Modern film noir is a delightful must see.....

I'm going to keep the plot description brief lest I give anything away. The story concerns an out of work actress (Sekai Abení) who helps her boyfriend (Jackie Earle Haley) run a scam on a fading star (Kathleen Turner). Things become complicated when the women begin find they have a lot in common.

Based on the story "The Method" by Janet Fitch, this film is wonderful. A delightful throw back to the old film noirs, but with an updated twist or three, THE LONG GAME surprises as it refuses to do anything other than follow its own way. I love that the film takes our expectations and tosses them aside and just goes for it with a tale that grabs us and pulls us in and makes us go along on it's journey.

What makes this film work is the cast. The three principles are operating at the top of their game and we are so much better for it.  Sekai Abení in her feature debut announces herself as an actress to reckon with. The woman at the center of the story holds the film together with a firm hand. You would never believe that this is her first time out of the chute. I can't wait to see what she does next. Jackie Earle Haley is staggeringly good. Why in the hell isn't he in more things? He has to be one of the best actors working today and yet he isn't in all the big films. He's Oscar good. And then there is Kathleen Turner who chews the scenery, spits it out and then does it again. Wow. She is is having so much fun that it infects everyone in the audience. She is just so much fun to watch. Best of all, her chemistry with Abeni makes this film something glorious.

I had so much fun that as soon as I finished the film I sat down and wrote this review because I had to tell you about it.

The film just premiered so it maybe a little bit before you see it. That's okay, just put it on your list of films to see when it plays near you..

Mars Express (2023) opens this year's Animation First 2024 on Tuesday

In 2200 private detectives Aline and Carlos are hired to find and bring home a notorious hacker. The case puts them into the middle of something bigger involving the robots on Mars and Earth.

This is a scifi hard boiled detective noir. Its classic 1940's film noir mashed with modern day science fiction and the look at artificial intelligence. It has the classic rhythms mixed with eye popping visuals and some kick ass action sequences. It's a blast and a half and I loved it.

I know that some of you are going to be scared off because this is animation. Yes I know anime has made it more accepted, but some people still don't want to watch animation, Never mind that if this was live action they would be first on line to see it. Understand that because of what the film is about and because of where its set and who the characters are the film had to be animated. Even if was live action other than a few characters the vast majority of the rest would have been CGI, or more simply photo-realistically animated.

Watching this film I ended up reacting verbally.  Twists and turns had me talking out loud. The same can be said about the action sequences. 

And then there are the themes and ideas running around in the film. The notions of what it means to be alive, about free will and basic human stupidity have haunted me for days after seeing the film. What I love is that the film's ending has improved the more I think about it. I first thought it was unremarkable and a bit been there... and then all of the things that it implied hit me hard. The profound sense of sadness contained in it filled my heart.

I love this movie. I love it to the point that I regret that I missed going to the work in progress screening that Animation First had a couple of years back.

I really do need to make one  note concerning this film and that when you see this you need to realize that this is a detective film and not an action film. There is action and suspense but there are also slow sequences of detecting. In other words there are some slow sequences, or slow at least compared to some of the bat shit crazy fights.

Once more with feeling- I love this film. You need to see it. If possible when it plays at Animation First Tuesday, or down the road when G-Kids releases it.

How good is it? I don't think it's going  of to move off my Best of the Best of 2024.

Cinnamon (2023) Tribeca 2023

 

This modern noir  contains one of Pam Grier's greatest performances. A bone chilling creation that is the personification of real world  evil on a level we haven't seen since Hannibal Lecter . The fact that Tubi is not releasing the film to theaters so Ms Grier can get an Oscar is a sin of the highest order.

The film is the story of the aftermath of robbery. An aspiring singer who works at gas station and her boyfriend conspire to rob the place she works, the trouble is it all goes wrong, not only because there is a murder, but because the owner of the store is one truly evil people, headed by Pam Grier's Mama. If that wasn't bad enough there are additional levels of nastiness that they had no part of which makes this an even worse situation.

Kick ass thriller is a twisty delight. Outside of a too goofy performance by Damon Wayons (he's in a different film altogether) this is a tight little gem that will make you squirm in your seat. What makes the film work is not the twists we can see but the unexpected one we don't. I'm not saying a word. 

And Pam Grier is a goddess. If you want to know how good she is see this film. Without saying a word she will chill you to the bone. It's frightening. Why hasn't she done more villains?  What delighted me was seeing her do nasty things for 90 minutes and then come out on stage for a Q&A and just be so lovely and charming. She was and is nothing like Mama. She should be an Oscar contender - assuming Tubi makes an effort.

A true delight.

Are You Lonesome Tonight (2021)

This moody modern Chinese film noir skirts the line of form over content but always remains compelling.

The film is a recounting of a prisoner explaining how he got locked up. It seems that late one night he ran someone over in the street. Deciding to cover it up he hides the body, but this causes complications as he becomes involved with the widow of the dead man, who is being pressured by some bad men to settle her husband's affairs. But nothing is as it seems.

An overly convoluted plot is compensated for by some expert filmmaking as the tropes of noir are used to fill in the blanks or smooth over the bits that don't make sense. Frankly I don't know if I understand it all, but I really don't care because I really enjoyed the ride. In all seriousness. this is a really cool crime drama that grabs you early and drags you to the finish. When the plot confuses the set pieces or great noirish dialog save the day.

I had a grand time, even if I'm not sure of all of the little bits.

Recommended

Double Down South (2022) Dances With Films New York 2022

Diana blows into a small Southern town and is noticed at a run down plantation turned pool hall. Quickly showing that she can more than hold her own against the big guys, Diana convinces Nick that he should stake her. With Little Nick acting as her coach/confidant she begins to a run to a fortune playing keno pool.

Film noir collides with a caper film that is a hell of a ride.  This is a twisty turny film that has a great deal going on. There is so much going on I'm not going to really discuss the plot since I don't want to give anything away. 

I will say that the film is trying to be more than just a thriller. This is a film that wants to take on both racism and misogyny, being set in a world where anyone not a white man is a target. While the film gilds the lily  a bit to make it's point, the film does make a point, at times taking the piss out of the good ol boys.

If I have any quibbles with the film is that the film feels long at running just shy of two hours. While I wouldn't know what to trim, there is a moment somewhere where in the middle where I just wished it moved a tad faster.

Nit pick aside, this is a solid film you'll want to see when it plays near you

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Nightmare Alley is the latest from Guillermo del Toro and it is a new cinematic version of the tale that inspired the classic Tyrone Power film.

The film has Bradley Cooper joining a traveling carnival, learning the tricks to fool the rubes. He then moves on from the carnival, reinventing himself as a psychic, enthralling the wealthy of Buffalo. He then begins a dangerous game of scamming several of the wealthy with the aid of a therapist.

This is a technically brilliant film that is stunning to look at. This is an old school Hollywood film done large as life and in full color. I absolutely love the craft of the film.

The cast is wonderful, with Bradley Cooper turning in an actual performance for the first time in many years. While I have always liked Cooper in the past, he has essentially been playing a version of himself for the better part of decade. This is the first time he actually disappears int the role and we are better for it.

As much as I like the film, I don’t love it.  While it is Guillermo del Toro operating at the top of his game, it is also his one film that doesn’t seem to have his fingerprints on it. If I were pressed to say who directed it I would never have guessed del Toro.

Another quibble I have is the structure of the film is odd. First the film is very much two films with the same characters. Yes I know it’s one story but the first hour seems like it’s a completely different film than the final hour and a half. The division for me  is such I almost wished there was an intermission once Cooper leaves the carnival. Additionally there is a forced sense of call and echo in the film where a number of plot points and statements made by characters in the first hour that come back to haunt everyone one in the second. You can feel the filmmakers working very hard to make sure that every warning given to Bradley Cooper comes back to haunt him from believing his own ability to how one becomes a geek. Its not done subtly by forcefully, and the instant Cooper id warned you know its gonna bite him. I wish it had been done better so I went “oh crap” instead of “saw that coming”

My quibbles don’t mean that the film is bad, it’s not rather it’s just an indication that the film is not as great as it thinks it is.

Worth a look for the curious.

La Flamme Rouge (2021)

 

Ex-cycling champion is having a bad night. Money is owed, his fiancé maybe cheating and people are dying. Will he survive the night.

The real answer is will anyone have any idea what the hell is going on? Probably not.

Desperate attempt at neo-noir film goes nowhere fast as the Maze Brothers (they wrote and directed) put the game cast through their paces but fail to explain anything at any point. There is never a really clear explanation of anything only that there is something about money, and cheating and I don't knw what. Seriously I was half an hour into the film when I stopped it and restarted it because I had no idea what was going on. I figured that I missed some revelation but nope this film really doesn't explain anything and it just gets more convoluted as it goes.

This is a mess that is best just swept up and dumped.

Catch The Fair One (2021) Tribeca 2021

Josef Kubota Wladyka who scored at the 2014 Tribeca Festival with DIRTY HANDS returns to the festival with CATCH THE FAIR ONE about Kaylee, a Native American woman looking for her sister who has been human taken by a human trafficking ring. 

Full disclosure, I was not a big fan of Wladyka's earlier film  but I do like his new film. As with the earlier film the film looks great, has mood to burn, but the there are problems with  some of this.

Part of the problem with the film is that while the film's reason for being is to rescue the kidnapped sister, there was  no sense of the sister. While she is a shadow or idea to Kaylee (something Wladyka explained to me when I spoke with him) she is a little too ethereal for us. There is also a problem in that the world isn't fully set up, and some of the peripheral characters are a little too sketchy

What isn't sketchy Kaylee, she comes across as a fully formed person thanks to a stellar and award worthy performance by Kali Reis. Reis is a world champion boxer and a force of nature. We can't help but watch the film because her physical presence is so commanding. It doesn't hurt that she is a damn fine actress who knocks it out of the park in the emotional scenes. She is an actress to watch because she can seemingly do it all. She is so good you will want to see what she does next, perhaps kicking the ass of someone like the Rock. You'll want to see it because with the right project she is going to be huge.

While I have reservations Kali Reis is worth the price of several admissions.

The Penny Black (2020) Hits Virtual Theaters Friday and VOD June 1

With THE PENNY BLACK getting a release starting Friday, here is my Slamdance review from last year

THE PENNY BLACK is a film that has bothered me since I saw it a few days ago. It bothered me so much that I sat on reviewing it until I could really sort out what I think of the film.

The film is the story of Will Smith who got to know a Russian man named Roman when they would both go outside to smoke. One day Roman tells Will he is going away for a couple of weeks. Would it be okay if he left something valuable with him until he came back. Will says sure and ends up with a collection of stamps, potentially worth millions in his possession. Not long after that Will tells director Joe Saunders about it and he begins filming. Then Roman disappears, Will gets spooked and isn’t sure what to do and he begins to try and run down Roman.. It a quest that last several years and goes in unexpected ways.

For the most of its running time THE PENNY BLACK is compelling norish tale with potential links to the Russian mafia, an Arizona murder and robbery and other twists. There are all these intriguing threads of speculation of what might be happening that keep us watching straight on to the end. There are so many dangerous possibilities that we have to see what happens. There is even a mid-tale twist where we begin to wonder about Will because of what happens and his past (his father was conman). We are invested from almost the outset, and we stay invested until almost the end credits…

…and that is the problem, there is a point very close to the end when the grip of the film is released when we realize that how it’s going to end is not going to live up to all the speculation in previous 90 minutes. It’s so bad that when it ended I said “really?” very loudly out loud. Obviously if that’s the way it went, that is the way it has to go and I can’t argue that...

…but at the same time without a big definite payoff the whole thing seems like a long con. While I had moments where I wondered if some of the turns were manufactured, when the ending arrived I was left to ponder if any of the film was true. Some of it probably is or maybe all of it. I wasn’t sure and in the wrong sort of way I didn’t care. Don’t get me wrong it is a hell of a ride- but there is no real pay off it just kind of ends, with the implications about the missing stamps feeling awfully contrived.

I honestly don’t know what to say- it’s a hell of ride that made me feel like I was following PT Barnum’s signs to see the Egress.

ADDENDUM:

A couple of months ago I got an email from Joe Saunders concerning my reaction to the film. I rewatched the film at his request and we discussed the film over the course of several emails. 

The first thing I noticed was the fact that not having expectations about the end I liked it so much more. The film does work better than I thought. You really do want to see the film.

The second thing we discussed was Saunders refusal to become part of the film. Despite the fact that this is a story being told to him he tried to remain outside the film. He never really tells us wat he thinks of it all. I completely understand why, but at the same time he is there and I wanted to see what he thought. It was of course a personal choice. (I'm curious what you all will think of it)

Now that the film is out it is your turn to wade in and see a film that really is a hell of a ride.

Nate Hood's Quarantine Qapsule #83 The Lineup [1958] ★★★½

In 1971, director Don Siegel changed the face of the police procedural forever with his film Dirty Harry about a violent, rule-breaking San Francisco police inspector who kills and tortures above and beyond the purview of the law. Correctly identified by Roger Ebert as fascistic, it’s since served as the template for any number of copycat cop characters who shoot first and ask questions later. (The legacy it’s had on the self-image of real-life cops is one we’re tragically still dealing with today.) But those who turn to Siegel’s earlier film The Lineup—another police procedural about San Francisco cops chasing mentally unstable killers—hoping for a precursor to Dirty Harry will be sorely disappointed.

With a script penned by Stirling Silliphant who’d go on to perfect the police potboiler with the shows Route 66 and Naked City before winning an Oscar for Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night (1967), the film has more in common with its fellow 50s noir which frequently eschewed the dreamlike atmosphere and carefully constructed studio sets of late 30s and 40s noir in favor of gritty, realistic stories shot on location in major cities and suburbs. Curiously, though, the film could also be seen as a crime procedural, as it gives equal narrative weight to its villains and their criminal methods as it does its police heroes. The villains here are Dancer (Eli Wallach) and Julian (Robert Keith), two unbalanced collectors-cum-hitmen for an international drug-smuggling ring who “visit” a number of recently returned tourists who unknowingly had heroin stashed in their souvenirs. As they leave a trail of bodies all over the city, they’re chased down by Lieutenant Ben Guthrie (Warner Anderson), a no-nonsense (and no-personality) cop who embodies the kind of impersonal yet dogged professionalism the police were desperate to project to the 50s American public.

The story itself is competently told yet hardly remarkable for its era, and with the exception of Wallach and Keith’s performances none of the acting is particularly memorable. Instead the film’s main selling point is its intense visual beauty; veteran cinematographer Hal Mohr made the best of his locations, more than once pausing the story so the film can drink in its characters being dwarfed by their surroundings like the cavernous hallways of the San Francisco Opera House or the spacious inner shell of the Sutro Baths

Union Bridge (2019) hits home video May 19

Returning home Will finds he is unwelcome thanks to the sins of the past. In trying to sort things out he begins to uncover his town's darkest secrets and no one is particularly happy about it.

This modern noir is a nifty little thriller. Bouyed by an excellent cast who play it all for real. Everyone is invested and it lifts what could have been a typical thriller into something much more.

You'll forgive me if I don't go into too many details but part of the fun for me was not having any clue as to where this was going. That is the result of my simply agreeing to review the film because I had a slot to fill as a result of the Covid 19 nonsense. Some times miracles happen and you stumble up on small hidden gems that make your day.

I suspect that UNION BRIDGE was not on your must see list but it should be. This is a great thriller that pulls you along. In an age when we are stuck watching instead of doing it is films like this that remind us that like in the real world going off the well worn cinematic trails offers up unexpected pleasures.

Recommended.

Nate Hood's Quarantine Qapsule #2 Affair in Trinidad [1952] ★★

Lest you think things have gone loopy with the numbering of Nate's Quarantine Quapsules,I have not.  Nate didn't start sending me the capsules until he had reached number 5.  In order to keep the set complete I'm posting the first four over the next couple days as bonus pieces.

The first ten minutes of Vincent Sherman’s Affair in Trinidad are one of the great fake-outs of 50s Hollywood cinema. Six years after Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford made Hollywood magic in the timeless noir Gilda (1946), they reunited for what at first glance appears to be a better-late-than-never victory lap. The first scene sees Hayworth in a nightclub, singing and dancing a shockingly risqué (for the early 50s) calypso number, flashing more bare legs than a line of can-can dancers while her strapless bustier proves more stubbornly defiant of gravity than Anita Ekberg’s sweetheart neckline during the Fontana di Trevi scene in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960). Sherman even gives a knowing nod to Gilda’s most famous moment—Hayworth’s infamous head pop/hair flip into the frame for her introduction—with a quick close-up hair toss near the start of the dance. Could this film be a greatest hits of Gilda, we wonder?

Alas, it’s not to be. Immediately after this show-stopping number Affair in Trinidad reveals its true colors as an idiot rip-off of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946): it follows a woman forced by government authorities local cops to infiltrate a group of ex-Nazi expats living in Brazil Trinidad and Tobago by faking romantic interest in their leader while actually falling in love with a different man, all of which leads to a climactic party sequence where she steals valuable information and escapes down a staircase narrowly misses getting killed on a staircase.

I call it an idiot ripoff because everyone in the film acts like a total and complete ignoramus the whole time, best demonstrated in a scene where Ford, the brother of a man murdered by de facto ex-Nazi leader Max Fabian (Alexander Scourby), barges into his home, waves damning evidence in his face, and…sticks around. (The longer the film goes on the more and more one develops an intense kinship with Juanita Moore’s Dominique, the West Indian housekeeper of Ford’s brother’s estate who can barely hide her exasperation with all the stupid white people running around her islands.)

Only Hayworth seems to be trying here; the usually dependable Ford is a charisma sinkhole who’s not so much stoic as non-responsive and non-reactive. When we see them fall in love, we see the mechanics of a hackneyed script, not a believable story development.

Nate Hoods's Quarantine Qapsule #16: Angels Over Broadway [1940] ★★★½

Ben Hecht’s Angels Over Broadway beings with the most stereotypically noirish opening ever. One rainy night in New York City, a small time hood stands under a neon sign, his fedora and trench coat sopping. As he looks out on the street we hear his inner thoughts. “That’s what this town is. A dice game,” he monologues. Staring up at the sky, he pleas “rain me a seven.” Smash cut to a dimly lit office where a nebbish sap pens a suicide note only to be interrupted by his boss. As if Hecht hit a literal exposition dump button, the boss swiftly berates him for embezzling $3,000 for his unfaithful wife and demands he pay it back by the next morning or he’ll turn him in to the police.

Filmed by legendary cinematographer Lee Garmes, there’s a tight, claustrophobic unease to these scenes, signaling the start of a desperate, hard-boiled bit of gristle. But these opening scenes are a trick. Not only is Angels Over Broadway not a noir, it’s practically an anti-noir standing in direct opposition to that genre’s hopelessness and nihilism; it’s a film about the triumph of man’s better angels in the face of despair and adversity. It follows the suicidal embezzler Charles Engle (John Qualen) as he stumbles into the path of the monologuing criminal Bill O’Brien (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) in the middle of a self-destructive bender in a casino. Mistaking Engle for a rich out-of-towner, he conspires with showgirl Nina Barona (Rita Hayworth) to trick him into a high stakes poker game with a gangster in exchange for a “finder’s fee.” (This was Hayworth’s first leading role in an “A” picture and her starring as a nightclub showgirl was a portent Rita fans will get a kick out of.) But their plans get interrupted when Engle is intercepted by failing playwright Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell) who learns of his plight and conspires to help him actually win the poker game. Eventually O’Brien and Barona come around and help Engle win the $3,000 he needs before fleeing into the night.

In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the story could’ve easily come off as twee and insincere, but something alchemical happened in Hecht’s hands. My money’s on the combination of Garmes’ moody cinematography and Hecht’s grandiose patter (“Venus was never an epileptic,” a drunken Gibbons rumbles while watching an exotic dancer).

Nate Hood's Quarantine Qapsule #11 The Dark Past [1948] ★★★★

[Spoilers Ahead]

Rudolph Maté’s The Dark Past is a superb noir remake of Charles Vidor’s subpar proto-noir Blind Alley (1939). The story of a psychoanalyst held hostage with his friends and family by a group of criminals led by a homicidal prison escapee, both were based on the same play by James Warwick and both had the same team of screenwriters adapting it. Both films had experienced, reliable Hollywood workhorses directing them and both featured prominent stars. Yet it’s Maté’s remake that stands head and shoulders above its predecessor, both stylistically and in key modulations within Warwick’s overarching plot.

To begin with, it’s simply a superior piece of technical filmmaking. Though Blind Alley was released in 1939, it looks and feels like an early talkie with flat compositions and theatrical blocking (though cinematographer Lucien Ballard had some early success working with Josef von Sternberg, he only truly came into his own in the Fifties and Sixties shooting Westerns with Hathaway, Boetticher, and Peckinpah). Compare this with Joseph Walker’s photography in The Dark Past: the compositions have more depth and variety, occasionally almost emulating how Gregg Toland shot people within the spacious interiors of Citizen Kane (1941). Walker clearly used his experience shooting visual masterpieces like Only Angels Have Wings (1939) to turn his sets into chiaroscuro tableaux with rich blacks and whites. Maté was also smart enough not to meddle with the only unimpeachably gorgeous sequences in Blind Alley—two German Expressionist dreams recounted by the lead criminal after the psychoanalyst begins poking at his brain while being held hostage. (While he recreated the first dream sequence shot-for-shot, Maté literally copy/pasted a key shot from the second sequence from the 1939 film.)

But perhaps the most effective changes were in the story itself. Both films take a didactic approach to the science of psychoanalysis, patiently explaining to the audience its power to heal and reform criminals. Indeed, the story subverts traditional crime thrillers by having the heroes “defeat” the villains not with violence but with compassion. But the 1939 film betrays this thesis by having its villain gunned down by police after he’s been helped, a cynical submission to the Hays Office that demanded all violent criminals meet violent ends. In The Dark Past, the villain survives and surrenders. This “happy ending” does more justice to Warwick’s vision of psychoanalysis as a modern, humane method of reforming criminals.

Blow The Man Down (2019) hits Amazon Prime Friday

Who would have thought to use sea shanties as a linking device for a modern film noir, but we have to thank directors Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy for doing so since it made BLOW THE MAN DOWN something special.

When their mother dies leaving them with a  mountain of debt the pair don't know what to do. However as bad as that is things get worse when one sister kills a man, the pair try to bury him at sea, find a stolen fortune and have the whole underbelly of their quaint little town exposed.

Intriguing look at small town gentility is a great deal of fun. While hitting some of the expected spots, the film stands out thanks to the songs, the black as night humor and the realization that in a small town murder is possibly the least terrible thing you can do. I love that Cole and Krudy are well aware of what they are doing, and use the social commentary to keep us  not only hooked but laughing at the proceedings.

The cast, headed by Sophie Lowe and Morgan Saylor is stunning. The women play it perfectly and they are wonderfully aided and abetted by a cast of vets that make it all look easy.

What a joy.

Highly recommended.

The Wild Goose Lake (2019) NYFF 2019

Chinese neo- noir about a gangster who is hunted by authorities for killing a cop. Knowing his days are numbered he tries to arrange it so his estranged wife and son can get the reward, but the cops and his associates have other ideas.

Form over content thriller would have overcome all its short comings if only someone had trimmed this by twenty minutes. There is a great story here done in numerous rambling sequences where people wander around and walk and sit and nothing much happens. While the long sequences allow us to get a slightly better sense of the place and some characters it also gives us time to think about how chunks of this make no sense. Its around about plot where the most of characters are cut outs being moved around just to keep things going.  Worse it's not always easy to keep track as to who is who and it kind of becomes a relief when the cops start to wear motorcycle helmets.

On the other hand the action sequences, the decapitation, the umbrella fight,  are kick ass. The final sequence in this film is a real grabber and it singlehandedly makes this film a recommended one

To be honest, while I have reservations about the pacing of the film it is still a gripping one. That aid I suspect that THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is at the wrong festival. This is a film that shouldn't be at some thing like NYFF but instead the New York Asian Film Festival. I say this because there seemed to be a sense at the screening I attended that NYFF is the wrong audience since people who don't go to NYAFF or aren't familiar with Asian cinema really didn't like it.

Recommended for Asian film fans

THE WILD GOOSE LAKE plays September 29 and October 1 at NYFF. For more information and tickets go here.

Blow the Man Down (2019) Tribeca 2019

Who would have thought to use sea shanties as a linking device for a modern film noir, but we have to thank directors Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy for doing so since it made BLOW THE MAN DOWN something special.

When their mother dies leaving them with a  mountain of debt the pair don't know what to do. However as bad as that is things get worse when one sister kills a man, the pair try to bury him at sea, find a stolen fortune and have the whole underbelly of their quaint little town is exposed.

Intriguing look at small town gentility is a great deal of fun. While hitting some of the expected spots, the film stands out thanks to the songs, the black as night humor and the realization that in a small town murder is possibly the least terrible thing you can do. I love that Cole and Krudy are well aware of what they are doing, and use the social commentary to keep us  not only hooked but laughing at the proceedings.

The cast, headed by Sophie Lowe and Morgan Saylor is stunning. The women play it perfectly and they are wonderfully aided and abetted by a cast of vets that make it all look easy.

What a joy.

Highly recommended.

Low Tide (2019) Tribeca 2019

This is a two part review. The first is the nutshell take on the film and the rest is a longer discussion which may give things away.

At its most basic Low Tide is a good, if unremarkable, suspense thriller that will, assuming you don’t think about things too closely, keep you on the edge of your seat. It is a film that will keep you glued to the screen wanting to know what happens next. In an age when we can pretty much say how many films will end ten minutes in, Low Tide manages a few surprises despite following the typical film noir path.

If you want to see a good film give it a look.

Unfortunately it could have been so much better if writer director Kevin Mc Mullin had only had a tighter grasp on the plot details.

As suspenseful as the film is my feelings for it were tempered by plot points that just don’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Time and time again the film does things that requires not so much suspension of disbelief as completely ignoring what is happening. It begins with why everyone is a friend of Red’s. That three seemingly nice guys would be hanging out with the town psychopath doesn’t make sense. Nor does the fact that one of the boys doesn’t know about the stabbing at the community pool.

From there it’s a long unending list of problems (I've hidden them in invisible text so it won't spoil anything for those who don't want to know):
Where are the fourth of July crowds?
Where are all the kids the age of the characters?
Why aren’t the kids caught if they are constantly breaking into summer homes? And if they will only do it to summer homes why are they doing it when people are there?
Why don’t the police take fingerprints? (especially at the old guys house)
If one of the boys sees the map and doesn’t know where it is, how can he lead the cop straight to the treasure? More importantly how does he manage to draw it on his cast so expertly, especially when the cast was previously covered in people’s signings?
How was the treasure originally buried when it had to be dug up with an oar? Why doesn’t anybody bring a shovel?
Why are they listening to the Mets in south Jersey? Shouldn’t it be the Phillies?
Could they be any more obvious about foreshadowing when they look for an anchor to tie up to a dock?
How did they get the bandage for they eye?
And there are even more I’m not mentioning.

The film also suffers from being adrift in time. Looking like now it feels like it’s the 70’s or 80’s. There are no cellphones, but there are cars and the odd items from now. (Addendum: I was informed after this piece went up that the film is set in the late 80's early 90's which presents additional historical issues the least of which is we hear a baseball game between the NY Mets and Tampa Bay Rays which didn't exist until the late 90's)

And while there is even more to discuss there is no point since despite it all the film still holds your attention. Yes, I was talking to the screen from start to finish wanting to know why the characters were doing stupid things, but at the same time I was intrigued enough to not get up and walk out. I wanted to know what happened.

Frankly if you don’t think about it, something most people in the critics screening I attended didn’t do, you’ll love it.

Worth a look but don’t think about the details.