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Movies from 2012 that I recommend
So realistic that they seem redundant.
Reviews
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Spencer Tracy gets intense
If you only know Spencer Tracy from his nice guy roles, then you're in for a shock with Michael Curtiz's "20,000 Years in Sing Sing". Tracy plays a cocky hoodlum sent to the notorious prison but remains determined to escape amid constant humiliation. Nonetheless, he and the warden grow to respect each other, despite being on opposite sides of the law.
Since this got made before the Hays Code got enforced, it contains some material that would've probably been unacceptable just a few years later. Spencer Tray's and Bette Davis's intense performances, plus the support from the other cast members, make this one that you have to see. You won't be disappointed. It could make an effective double-billing with "I Want to Live!", "The Birdman of Alcatraz", "The Shawshank Redemption" or "The Green Mile".
This Day and Age (1933)
When is "aggressive justice" okay?
Cecil B. DeMille's "This Day and Age" has some commendable characteristics (an integrated school) and some questionable ones (glorifying what is essentially vigilante justice). I couldn't tell which position - if any - the movie was taking. What I can say is that there's a line or two marking it as a movie released before the Hays Code (you'll know them if you see the movie).
It's not any sort of masterpiece, especially because the students turn into what is basically a lynch mob; it apparently got banned in the Netherlands for having fascist tendencies. I guess that it's something you could check out to see a different kind of DeMille if you only know him as the director of biblical epics. Worth seeing in that regard.
Cow (2021)
old McDonald had an unpleasant farm
We've heard a lot about factory farming in recent years, and even seen movies and documentaries about this process. The more "normal" kind of farms might be different, but not always for the animals. Andrea Arnold's "Cow" focuses on a dairy farm and the lives of the cows thereon.
An unusual method that this doc uses is to keep the focus almost entirely on the cows. On this farm, the bovines exist only to give birth and produce milk. And of course they get separated from the calves.
Like I said, this might not be exactly the same as the factory farms that supply the fast food chains, but it might make you think twice about drinking milk. I recommend it.
Mr. Crocket (2024)
Hulu enters one of the horror genres
The genre in question is childhood icons going terribly wrong, and boy does this icon go wrong! Brandon Espy's "Mr. Crocket" also functions as a warning about letting one's child spend all day in front of the TV, or gaining too much control over the household. There are plenty of tykes out there who don't appreciate the sacrifices that the parents make.
Anyway, this is nothing special, but the title character makes it fun to watch. I hope that more people take the time to watch this movie, as well as some other movies about TV shows that start turning sinister (most recently we had "Late Night with the Devil", but another one is 1992's "Stay Tuned", which inadvertently predicted reality shows).
All in all, fun movie.
Live Wires (1946)
The East End Kids become the Bowery Boys
Enjoyable if unspectacular flick about a hothead who, unable to hold down a job, gets a job where he starts running into gangsters. Phil Karlson's "Live Wires" was the first movie in which the group previously known as the Dead End Kids got called the Bowery Boys. There's nothing particularly original about this movie, but the protagonist's short temper and Archie Bunker-like malapropisms provide plenty of laughs. Leo Gorcey's accent certainly drives the role.
I should note that the only movie in which I've previously seen this crowd was the 1937 crime drama "Angels with Dirty Faces", starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart. Obviously this is a completely different kind of movie. It's not the greatest comedy, but an okay way to pass an hour and a half. Quite silly, but likable.
Heavy Metal Basement (2001)
I never knew all this about heavy metal music
It appears that I'm the first person reviewing Jeff Krulik's "Heavy Metal Basement". I understand that it got released as a special feature on a DVD. In my case, I watched it on YouTube.
Anyway, it features an interview with a man showing off his collection of Judas Priest albums, describing the changes in heavy metal music reflected by each album (including one that he thought tried to be too mainstream).
As someone who's never been into heavy metal, it wasn't easy for me to follow everything that the man was talking about, but it was nonetheless impressive to hear his deep knowledge of Judas Priest's work. It just goes to show that everyone has to have a passion, and this man has one of the deepest passions. Worth seeing.
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
avoiding religious indoctrination is a way to prevent bigoted views
Bette Davis had another masterpiece with Vincent Sherman's "Mr. Skeffington", playing an empty-headed heiress who surprises everyone by marrying her brother's Jewish employer (the title character). With World War II well underway and news of the Nazis' atrocities coming out, it made sense for movies to not only feature Jewish characters but to address antisemitism directly. Part of what makes the movie so great is not just the performances and direction, but the changes that the characters go through. Some of it is physical (look what happens towards the end), but also emotional changes in response to events.
One scene really hits home an important matter. Job is in a restaurant with Fanny Jr. He struggles to explain his Jewish background to her, and simply says that he and her mom are of different faiths. Having gotten raised with no religion, Fanny Jr. Sees no difference between them. This just goes to show that when parents refrain from hammering indoctrination - especially religious fundamentalism - into a child, the child will not grow up with bigoted views of other races, religions, ethnicities, etc. As Nelson Mandela put it, no one is born hating anyone.
Anyway, it's an undeniable classic. Bette Davis and Claude Rains received Oscar nods for their roles, with Davis losing to Ingrid Bergman for "Gaslight" and Rains losing to Barry Fitzgerald for "Going My Way" (a problematic movie, considering that it depicts a priest teaching children; do I have to go into everything that's questionable about that?).
Definitely check it out.
Back to Bataan (1945)
OK, there are some things to talk about
On the one hand, yes, the Japanese forces committed some horrific atrocities in their colonization of East Asia and the Pacific islands, and their treatment of POWs flouted the Geneva Conventions. On the other hand, the US colonized the Philippines at the turn of the last century and waged the predecessor to the Vietnam War. Malolos? The US army razed that town during the occupation of the Philippines.
Which makes it all the more ironic that Edward Dmytryk's "Back to Bataan" casually depicts the US as the hero. Of course, I wouldn't expect otherwise from a John Wayne movie (never mind that Wayne never served in the armed forces). I suspect that the Filipinos themselves got to the point where they saw any outside power as an invading force (even though the Japanese were easily the most sadistic).
The point is, Dmytryk's movie is a typical popcorn version of World War II. It doesn't make sense to take any John Wayne movie as a serious version of history (even if some of the movies were well-crafted).
Gone in the Night (2022)
one of those movies that has a good plot but is put together awkwardly
Eli Horowitz's directorial debut starts off good but then starts to drag out too much. I liked how "Gone in the Night" was trying to make a point about its topic, but it suffers from pacing problems. Most of the movie's strength comes from its performances, namely leads Winona Ryder and Dermot Mulroney.
While watching it, I wondered if it was going to do what "Barbarian" (also about a residence used as a hotel room) did. It only did so in the loosest sense. Otherwise, it felt wasted.
The point is that if you want to see a sinister movie about a vacation, a far more interesting one is "Speak No Evil". This one has an interesting plot but drags out too long.
Tarot (2024)
passable, if nothing special
While the overall plot of Spenser Cohen's and Anna Halberg's "Tarot" is original, the basic concept is nothing that we haven't seen before. In this case, a bunch of youths find some tarot cards that bring evil to life. Yeah, we've seen similar plots in countless movies. So hackneyed that it could easily be a Leslie Nielsen comedy (were Nielsen still alive).
Even so, the movie manages to have some charm. Maybe it's the whole part about the cards' origin, or some of the gruesome scenes, but I can't call "Tarot" a bad movie, just a cliched one. Basically, it's an okay way to spend a few hours (especially during October). I figure that some people might be able to enjoy it more than I did.
On Our Merry Way (1948)
Let's not imply that John Huston had anything to do with this
I was reading about John Huston and "On Our Merry Way" appeared on his filmography. Having never heard of it but knowing that he was a fine director, I decided to watch the movie. It turns out that Huston only worked on one small segment, while King Vidor directed most of it.
It has some funny parts (especially the trumpet scene and the kid's pranks) but is mostly pretty banal, with Burgess Meredith as a reporter in over his head and asking people how children affected their lives. Paulette Goddard - best known for her roles in "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator" - is woefully underused.
Basically, the movie's okay for a few laughs, but that's it. I've seen far more interesting movies starring each of the cast members individually.
The Fugitive (1947)
redemption on the lam
John Ford is known as one of the directors who helped craft cinema as an art form with his use of cinematography and set design (in "The Fabelmans", the film student based on Steven Spielberg gets to meet Ford, who gives him some harsh advice on framing shots). It's hard to say how much of Ford's style comes across in "The Fugitive", starring Henry Fonda as a priest seeking redemption in a small Latin American town amid the totalitarian government's persecution of the clergy.
One thing about which I was confused is the movie's political position, or if it's even taking one. The autocratic government professes to act in the people's name, denouncing the Church as the oppressor. This implies that Ford meant to correlate the government with the Soviet-backed governments taking over in Eastern Europe at the time. Ironically, in Latin America it was the Catholic clergy who stood up for the people against the dictatorships, making them targets.
Aside from that, this strikes me as a lesser production in Ford's work. It's got great acting and cinematography, but a rather banal story. Also starring Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz and J. Carrol Naish.
Industrial Britain (1931)
"The Full Monty" and John Oliver would like a word
Robert J. Flaherty, best known for "Nanook of the North", also made this short documentary about the various industries that employed large numbers of people in the United Kingdom in the early '30s.
Of course, there a few things about it that look less pleasant nowadays. One is the ignoring of the exploitation of the British working class. Another is one scene that mentions a steel mill manufacturing weapons for the British troops abroad (which nowadays simply reminds us that the United Kingdom colonized and brutally subjugated half the world). But above all, seeing the exaltation of the British steel industry makes one remember how the steel mills eventually closed and moved to countries with cheaper labor. "The Full Monty" was partly about this. Don't even get me started on how the documentary exalts coal, now known to be one of the dirtiest energy sources.
Otherwise, it's an interesting documentary short, even though it seems like something funded by the company executives. It's probably the sort of work from which John Oliver might pull a few scenes to remind us of how the UK wanted to see itself way back when.
What Price Hollywood? (1932)
a plot is born
An entertainment bigwig comes across a woman trying to make it in the business, and decides to make her a star. Her star rises while his falls. Sound familiar? You probably recognize this plot from "A Star Is Born", filmed in 1937, 1954, 1976 and 2018. Most people likely don't know that the 1937 movie took inspiration from George Cukor's "What Price Hollywood?".
Like the more famous versions, Cukor's movie depicts the entertainment industry's less-than-glamorous inner workings, with Constance Bennett - boy was she a babe! - as the rising actress and Lowell Sherman as the burnout director (as opposed to an actor). Moreover, it came out before the Hays Code got established, so it's allowed to show some things that were taboo just a few years later. A viewing of any pre-Code movie makes one realize just how much the Hays Code suppressed creativity.
I don't know if I would go so far as to call the movie a masterpiece, but it certainly gives one a sense of what Hollywood was like in the early '30s, both the good and the bad. Bennett and Sherman put their all into the roles, as do the supporting cast. A fine example of pre-Code cinema.
As to the inevitable comparisons with the more famous versions, I think that we should view each movie on its own merits, as each one has its upsides and downsides.
Christopher Strong (1933)
Eleanor of Aquitaine meets Dr. Frankenstein meets Glinda
Katharine Hepburn's second movie - and her first lead role - casts her as a woman in an illicit romance. On the one hand, it's a bit eye-rolling to see a movie about love among the British ruling class. Nonetheless, Dorothy Arzner (the only woman director in Hollywood back then) manages to give the story more depth than most of this genre. "Christopher Strong" is no masterpiece, but Hepburn's performance gives it the strength needed for at least one viewing. Billie Burke (best known as the Good Witch of the North in "The Wizard of Oz") also puts on a strong performance; it helps that hers is a well-written character. Less compelling is the male lead played by Colin Clive (the doctor in 1931's "Frankenstein").
Overall, it's a decent enough movie. I'll have to see more of Arzner's movies.
Smile 2 (2024)
with joy comes horror
The sequel to 2022's horror movie about an evil entity that makes the possessed person think that they're seeing sinister grins focuses on a pop singer. Naomi Scott gets the lead role in Parker Finn's "Smile 2", as a superstar who witnesses a suicide, only to descend into mental instability as the terror starts dominating her life.
I'd say that this movie lives up to the original. We don't learn anything new about the malevolent force, but the intense scenes and general willingness to go all out with the graphic stuff makes up for that. It's certainly a flick that the horror fans will like. I guess that you could say...they'll be grinning from ear to ear while watching this.
Barcelona (1994)
Remember: American means "of the Americas"
I first learned of Whit Stillman from his 1998 movie "The Last Days of Disco", released while the country was having a '70s nostalgia phase. I didn't see any movie of his for years until I watched 1990's "Metropolitan" a few years ago. Clearly he goes for arthouse stuff, the polar opposite of Michael Bay.
So now I've seen the middle of Stillman's unofficial trilogy about the bourgeois in relationships. "Barcelona" is an impressive piece of work, although you have to understand some of the material in context. If the Catalans associate military uniforms with fascism, then it's because they saw their culture suppressed under Franco. The parts about people in the US knowing nothing about their own history ring true, especially when you look at certain things that have happened since the movie came out (or even today). As for the criticism of NATO, there were questions about its usefulness and expansion after the Cold War ended, although Russia's occupation of Ukraine made NATO more popular.
Okay, that was a lot of side stuff. The point is that this movie is enough to make anyone want to go to Barcelona, maybe move there. Gaudeix-ho!
Qingshaonian Nuozha (1992)
lives of 1990s Taiwan
Tsai Ming-liang made his directorial debut with 1992's "Qingshaonian Nuozha" ("Rebels of the Neon God" in English). This look at some youths in Taipei in the early '90s manages to tell a lot without saying much. Minimal dialogue and limited camera work allow the setting to tell the story. One can easily see the hierarchy inherent in society, with many of the youths resigned to spending their lives in places like arcades.
The only other movie that I've seen from Tsai is 2020's "Days". I'd certainly like to see the rest of his work. We tend to only know Taiwan as the successor to pre-revolutionary China, but I suspect that there's a lot more to it than that. This movie certainly gives us some insight, so I recommend it.
Satansbraten (1976)
Fassbinder's comedy
Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the leaders of New German Cinema in the '70s. His movies often dealt with post-war Germany and how it sought to atone for its sins. Otherwise, he simply depicted shocking things. An example is 1976's "Satansbraten" ("Satan's Brew" in English).
This movie focuses on a writer who hasn't written anything in a while, his acquaintances, and some zany occurrences. If you think of German cinema as no-nonsense and grim, Fassbinder's comedy will show you that this is not always the case. Mind you, it's not silly comedy. More like shocking stuff with a humorous element. It certainly manages to keep the audience engaged.
Basically, Fassbinder gave us some of the best that German cinema has ever had to offer. This mix of anarchic comedy and serious drama is an experience like no other. Definitely see it.
One More River (1934)
one more monster movie to film
Today, 1930s director James Whale is best remembered for "Frankenstein", "The Invisible Man", and "The Bride of Frankenstein", as well as for being probably the only openly gay person in cinema at the time (Ian McKellen played him in 1998's "Gods and Monsters"). Lesser known are Whale's dramas. There was "Waterloo Bridge", about a relationship strained by World War I, and "One More River", about a woman who flees an abusive marriage and hooks up with someone else. Not something usually depicted back then, so I wonder if it would've even been possible once the Hays Code went into effect the following year.
It's not a masterpiece, but passable. I find these fetishistic looks at the British ruling class weird (especially considering Whale's dirt-poor childhood). I suppose that nowadays, such a movie - whether focusing on the working class or ruling class - would probably come from Pedro Almodovar. Diana Wynyard, Jane Wyatt, Colin Clive (Dr. Frankenstein in Whale's more famous movies) and Frank Lawton all turn in fine performances.
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Scary Claus is coming to town
You've probably heard all sorts of things about Damien Leone's "Terrifier 3". Well, it's true. The difference with this one is that it takes place around Christmas (so we get Christmas in the lead-up to Halloween). Art the Clown is back and brutal as ever. By which I mean that he does some things that you wouldn't expect, even in a movie as graphic as this.
The movie does have a serious element: it focuses on survivor's guilt. Sienna, having lived through Art's rampage the last time, is reeling from it and remembering those who didn't survive. Well, she's in for even more this time.
In addition to the main cast, there were some surprise appearances, but they were the right actors for the roles. All I can say is that this is one movie that goes all out. Just when you think they've done the most shocking thing, there's more to come. Nothing is off limits. Between the willingness to go all the way and the lovable performances by Lauren LaVera and David Howard Thornton, this movie is, well, to die for. Definitely check it out.
No Exit (2022)
this is not at all the sort of movie that I would've expected to share a title with a Sartre play
From the title, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is an adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's play about a bunch of people trapped in an existential hell. But Damien Power's "No Exit" has nothing to do with that. It's a thriller that, as it turns out, is based on a book. I didn't know about the book - and I doubt that I'll ever read it - but the movie is passable. At the very least, this story of a woman trying to figure out who's holding a girl hostage while trapped during a snowstorm is not predictable. It's nothing special, but if you've got nothing to do, then it's an okay way to spend an hour and a half.
Gothic (1986)
reality breeds fiction
I first learned of Ken Russell's "Gothic" from an ad that played on a video that I watched years ago. Its gist was something like "Before Mary Shelley could write 'Frankenstein', she had to experience it!"
So, I've finally seen the movie. Basically, it posits what might've gone on the night Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and her husband Percy (Julian Sands) spent with Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne). If you've seen any of Russell's other movies, you should know not to expect anything lighthearted.
As for the movie itself, it's a neat idea with some clever scenes, but I felt like it went overboard in what it showed. It's not a bad movie, just too over-the-top. Russell's fans will probably like it, but probably no one else.
Also starring is Timothy Spall (Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies).
À l'intérieur (2007)
they don't call it the New Extremity for nothing
Julien Maury's and Alexandre Bustillo's "À l'intérieur" (called "Inside" in English) is bound to go down in history as one of the most shocking commercial movies ever. As part of what is commonly called the New French Extremity - which features not only graphic violence but significant sexual violence - it pulls out all the stops. This is one movie that the squeamish should avoid at all costs.
I do recommend seeing it at least once, just to see what it is (if you can stomach it). Just be forewarned: this is not a movie that everyone will be able to finish, and if you manage to, then you won't forget it anytime soon. That's all that I can say.
Barakat! (2006)
somewhere in Algeria's civil war
To understand the context in which Djamila Sahraoui's "Barakat!" (sometimes called "Enough" in English) takes place, you have to remember Algeria's history. A colony of France for over a century, it waged an eight-year war for independence - during which France tortured Algerian prisoners - before finally winning sovereignty. The party that rose to power after Algeria won independence was in power for the next thirty years. When a different party won the 1991 elections, the government simply cancelled the election results, causing a civil war.
So that's the context of this movie, wherein a doctor comes home to find her husband missing. She gets no help from the authorities, so she and a friend go and search for him. I don't know if I would call it a masterpiece, but I liked the focus on the relationship between these women (and I assume that Algeria has historically been a patriarchal society).
Worth seeing.