THE DANMAN CAN

Mad Max (1979) is a bonafide classic. It has one of the best cold opens and one of the best endings of any film ever. Aussie  George Miller 's feature debut went on to spawn three sequels (with more supposedly planned) and he has maintained control of the franchise , which I commend him for (even if I'm not so into the third film, 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , and think the fourth one is vastly overrated). Long before the digital sheen of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (which everyone but me seems to love; my initial review here  and my "Take 2" review, where I liked it even less,  here ), Miller created the template for low budget post-apocalyptic films which so many other films would attempt to replicate or blatantly rip-off in the 1980s.  Max 's world, while certainly dystopian, is presented as but a few years in the future, where the societal collapse still seems new. A ruthless motorcycle gang faces off against a leather-clad police force in spectacula...

Darius Marder 's debut feature film, Sound Of Metal (2019), is an affecting portrait of a heavy metal drummer that loses his hearing. It's a sparse and expertly edited (particularly the sound, obviously) drama with an excellent central performance by Riz Ahmed . SOM plays out very much like one of Marder's co-story writer's—director  Derek Cianfrance — films (the two wrote also co-wrote Cianfrance's 2012 film  The Place Beyond The Pines ). The film does a good job of placing the audience into the perspective of a person going through an experience that most of us can't imagine going through, while avoiding pandering or falling prey to saccharine movie tropes.

Jessie Ware 's fourth studio album,  What's Your Pleasure?   (2020), is a hi-NRG/disco/funk/house masterwork. It taps into the kind of late 70s/early 80s nostalgia that a fair amount of artists channel these days but without ever feeling like old hat. Ware's velvety voice fits her collaborators' grooves like a glove. 12 boogie jams good for any occasion. Recommended for fans of Giorgio Moroder , Chromeo , Madonna , Kylie Minogue , and  Sade .

I was never a mallrat. I went to the mall, like anyone else, but I didn't enjoy "hanging out" there or spending more time than necessary. I preferred to frequent places like New England-based retailer Newbury Comics  (where I eventually worked from 2000–2008)—this was in the days before many of their stores were in malls—to pore over compact discs and vinyl. Nevertheless, when I was 15 (and after falling head over heels for Kevin Smith 's debut Clerks on video   the previous year), I could find enough to relate to in his sophomore effort,  Mallrats , to greatly enjoy it.  A notorious box office bomb, Mallrats  has gone on to have a cult following—Smith referred to it as "the Blade Runner of comedy" (my review of that film  here ) in a commentary for the film. I've always liked it a little less than Clerks  but always found it funny (hilarious at times, honestly), so it's been strange to see the turnaround in attitude toward the film. It always ...

Alejandro Jodorowsky ’s The Holy Mountain  (1973) is a surrealist, theatrical, and to some pretentious, sacrilegious, antagonist head trip.  Without a single line of dialogue spoken until 30 minutes in, the film features meticulously designed, beautifully shot, seemingly random scenes—some mystical, some comical, some sexual, some disturbing. Lizards bedecked in royalty, an elderly gentlemen bestowing a glass-eyed gift to an underage prostitute, electronic orgasms, rock & roll weapons—these are just a few of the images on display in Jodo’s existential, political, poetical, spiritual, personal masterwork.  A truly singular work of art about everything and nothing at all made by an artist outside the system with no interference. You can find my  Alejandro Jodorowsky Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

Criss Cross (1949) is a good noir, heavy on the cynicism, and features two unreasonably attractive leads ( Burt Lancaster and Yvonne De Carlo ). Director Robert Siodmak 's earlier crime classic The Killers (1946) (also featuring Lancaster and a sizzling Ava Gardner ) overshadows Criss Cross (as does Stanley Kubrick 's 1956 robbery masterpiece The Killing ) but this is still a solid melodrama with a bleak ending. Apparently I forgot this, but Steven Soderbergh remade CC  as The Underneath (1995) (which I own, so I should revisit it soon). You can find my  Film Noir Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

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For some reason I thought I had never seen Scrooged (1988) so I went into this viewing believing it was my first time. But I basically remembered all of it as I watched (and not just because I'm familiar with  Charles Dickens 's 1843 novella  and its many, many adaptations).  It's kind of a sloppy movie (known for behind the scenes clashing between star Bill Murray and director Richard Donner ) but it's very funny at times. The cast is wonderful but the tone is a weird mix of cynicism and sudden sentimentality that isn't entirely convincing. Overall though, it's highly enjoyable. You can find my Richard Donner Feature Films Ranked list here .

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Review

Well, I finally got around to seeing Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2  (1987). While I can't say that it will become a yearly tradition for me to watch this, as I almost always do with its 1984 predecessor (my review here ), I still had a good deal of fun with SNDN2 . Eric Freeman 's overacting, overactive eyebrows, and maniacal laughter are all greatly amusing. His rampage in the second half of the film is pretty hilarious, full of crazy carnage and memorable dialogue (and one infamous moment). Honestly, the film could have been a trash classic in its own right if the filmmakers hadn’t chosen to recycle so much of the first film (seriously, I think there was five minutes of new footage in the first forty of this sequel).  The voice-over during all that recycled footage is funny but having just watched the first film immediately before this one, it was a chore to sit through. There’s a scene in a movie theater where a character says, “This movie’s so bogus”—that about sums u...

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Review

Review

I didn't grow up with Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) but once I first watched it, in my late twenties, I immediately loved it (and have only loved it more through the years). It's very melancholic but I think it just hits a certain tone that a lot of other Christmas specials/TV movies fail to. Plus the Riverbottom Nightmare Band is one of my favorite things ever. Paul Williams ' songs are wonderful,  Jim Henson and company's artistry is delightful, and the message is timeless.

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My favorite non-traditional Christmas movie. Review

36•15 Code Père Noël (aka Deadly Games aka  Dial Code Santa Claus  aka  Game Over ) (1989) plays as a horror-centric  Home Alone  crossed with Commando ,  Rambo: First Blood Part II  (both 1985), and  Die Hard   (1988) ( review ), filtered through the minds of directors like  Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Terry Gilliam .  French director  René Manzor  cast his own son ( Alain LaLanne ) to portray child prodigy Thomas, a tween boy who likes to play pretend war games in his widowed mother Julie's ( Brigitte Fossey ) mansion. When Julie is away on Christmas Eve, managing the Printemps  department store where she works, Thomas, believing he's contacting Santa Claus via a Minitel (an online precursor to the World Wide Web), accidentally reveals to a deranged man ( Patrick Floersheim ) where he lives. When the killer Santa shows up at his home, it's up to Thomas to use his resourcefulness, secret doors, gadgets, and booby traps ...