THE DANMAN CAN

More than twenty years on,  Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999),  Jim Jarmusch 's genre/culture mashup, holds up incredibly well and is perhaps even better than I remembered it. Jarmusch's film presents a lone hit man ( Forest Whitaker ) living by a code, embracing both ancient practices and modern technology. Whitaker perfectly portrays the titular character—emoting through his sad and stoic eyes, deliberate movements, and sparse dialogue. Many, seemingly disparate, elements comprise this unique minimalist poetic slice of cinema—the mafia movie, chanbara , blaxploitation, books (including  Yamamoto Tsunetomo 's  Hagakure  and  Ryūnosuke Akutagawa  short stories such as Rashōmon   (1915) and In A Grove (1922)), and hip hop (the RZA 's jittering, pulsing score), to name a few.   Jarmusch borrows from two 1967 films in particular— Jean-Pierre Melville 's  Le Samouraï   ( my review here ) and  Seijun Suzuki 's  Branded To Kill . Ghost Dog 's languid pace

Review My Criterion Top 10 [Vol. 6]

Review

Describing the plot of  Tammy And The T-Rex  (1994) is sort of like telling a bad joke. Per IMDb: An evil scientist implants the brain of Michael, a high school student, into an animatronic Tyrannosaurus. He escapes, wreaks vengeance on his high school tormentors, and is reunited with his sweetheart Tammy. The film plays like a joke too but one that is so absurdly fun that you can't help but enjoy its campiness (if you're like me, anyway). It has a lot of the same energy as another cult film/play that I love,  Psycho Beach Party   (2000) (my review  here ), with a touch of  Frankenhooker  (1990) too (minus the nudity). Terry Kiser , of  Weekend At Bernie's   (1989) fame, plays the evil scientist,  Paul Walker  is Michael, and the titular (sorry not sorry) character is…um, brought to life by  Denise Richards  (who is actually pretty charming at times).  John Franklin  (Isaac from  Children Of The Corn   (1984)) is also on board and  George 'Buck' Flower  (man, I love

Jim Wynorski has directed a lot of schlock. I admit, I've only seen but one of his films, the subject of this review, but just take a look at his IMDb filmography —lots of direct-to-video titles, TV movies, softcore parodies, and sequels to films that he didn't create. The titles alone are enough to make you giggle.  Chopping Mall  (1986) has a great (if misleading) title and an equally great (and equally misleading) theatrical poster. Originally released under the name Killbots (which actually makes more sense), this horror comedy wastes basically no time setting up its premise, wherein "state-of-art" mall security robots (immediately) malfunction and terrorize a group of employees partying after hours.  Wynorski's sophomore feature is light on gore (though it has one hilarious death and one very disturbing one), heavy on cheese, and is a weird mishmash of tone. While they're not exactly the same, The Protector robots resemble ED-209 from  RoboCop (my revie

Unlike  Knight Of Cups   (2015) (my review here ), I felt more connected to the characters in  A Hidden Life   (2019) and it felt a bit less meandering. Unfortunately though, the film feels unnecessarily long at just shy of three hours. I think the same ideas could have been delivered in a two or even two and a half hour long film.  AHL is based on the true story of  Franz Jägerstätter  (played here by  August Diehl ), an Austrian who refused to fight for the Nazis in WWII. Franz's resistance and refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler led to him being imprisoned and eventually executed in 1943. The performances/narrative are typical of what you'd expect from a  Terrence Malick  film—lots of gazing off, upward or downward, touching the earth/objects/other characters, little dialogue, poetic voice-over. Nothing bad, just a bit formulaic for Malick at this point (what used to feel spontaneous now comes off as staged). Of course there is plenty of absolutely breathtaking

Before Midnight (2013) picks up nine years after  Before Sunset   (2004) (my review here ) and eighteen years since the "fateful" meeting in  Before Sunrise   (1995) (my review here ). This is what you call the "bummer" entry in the trilogy. It was a critical darling, but it's my least favorite of the series by a mile. Jesse and Celine now have children together (but aren't married) and the action takes place in Greece during the tail end of a family vacation. The realities of life have sunk in for this couple and they no longer have the spark that they once did.  Linklater 's direction is just as good as the other two Before films, and  Hawke  and  Delpy  once again give impassioned performances that feel true to life, but the writing feels a bit more forced and pretentious (particularly in the villa scenes). And while I certainly appreciate the realism, I have to say I am not a fan of who the characters have become by this outing, particularly Celine,

Before Sunset (2004) is Linklater 's briskly paced, breezy sequel to  Before Sunrise   (1995) (my review here ), where our leads meet again for the first time since their encounter nine years earlier. Hawke  and  Delpy  slide back into their roles with ease, partly because these are the actual nine year older versions of both the actors and characters, and partly because Jesse and Celine feel like extensions of Hawke and Delpy's actual selves. The story is transported from Vienna (in the first film) to Paris here and it's filled with more naturalistic conversations, as the pair catch up with each other's lives. While I didn't like it quite as much as its predecessor, Before Sunset  does a beautiful job of following up a beloved film with a worthy sequel in a way that feels fresh—again featuring a smile-inducing ending that leaves much to the imagination. You can find my  Richard Linklater Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

Well, I finally got around to watching Richard Linklater 's nearly universally beloved Before trilogy. And I have to say they truly are great films. In particular, the hopeless romantic in me connected most with the first film, Before Sunrise (1995).  Linklater, Hawke and Delpy  seemingly effortlessly capture the fantasy of a single night's worth of discovery, city roaming, and conversation between two strangers who take a chance on, and fall in love with, each other. What appears to be improvisation is actually incredibly rehearsed and cynicism is kept to a minimum. It's like  Roman Holiday   (1953) (my review here ) for Gen Xers minus the overt comedy and with more realism. Before Sunrise is a really wonderful film that tugs at the heartstrings without being saccharine, with a perfect ending. You can find my Richard Linklater Feature Films Ranked list here .

The last time that I had a drastic change of opinion of a film on "Take 2" resulting in a full star deduction from my rating was just under a month ago when I marathoned the Scream films.  Scream 4   (2011) was the film in question (my review here ). Sadly, the same has happened for  Doctor Sleep   (2019) (my initial review here ). On this rewatch (this time via streaming), I was struck by how much more the film plays out like a TV series than I remembered when I saw it in the theater. The callbacks and recreations of scenes from The Shining (1980) (my review  here ) really called attention to themselves in a bad way this time as well. More scenes than I previously recalled looked overly clean and some far too digitally created. Furthermore, I got more of a superhero vibe (not a good trait for this viewer) with the characters and pacing this go around. I still think  Rebecca Ferguson  is an excellent Rose The Hat but the rest of the performances didn't do much for me on

If you want a good laugh Teen Witch (1989) is your film. I never saw it when it was released (as a 9-year-old boy I wasn't exactly the target demographic), but I became aware of the notorious " Top That " scene and the film's cult status only a few years ago. I can honestly say that watching it now was a lot of fun.  It's a pretty poor Teen Wolf (1985) imitation (which honestly I haven't seen since probably the early 90s so who knows how well that film has even held up), the acting isn't top notch, and it's goofy as all get out, but some of the songs (clearly aiming for a Madonna sound) are actually pretty enjoyable and there is an undeniable charm.  In today's climate, it's fine to recognize the whitewashed rap appropriation, the message sent to girls about priorities, and other problematic areas in Teen Witch but I don't think it's worth getting offended by those aspects because it's a silly, cute and harmless movie. Robyn Livel

Martha Coolidge 's Valley Girl (1983) is essentially a modern (for the time) update of Romeo And Juliet . It's a cute film with an excellent soundtrack but it's not terribly memorable if you didn't grow up with it (this was my first time seeing it).  Deborah Foreman is pretty and gives a pretty good performance as Julie but her character is definitely lacking (even for a valley girl). Nicolas Cage 's Randy is...supposed to be a punk (I guess?; not convincing) and has weird chest hair. This is definitely lesser Cage (he doesn't really ever Rage here) but it's also only his third film role (his first top billing and the first in which his last name was not credited as Coppola). Julie's hippie parents ( Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp ) are amusing and provide some comic relief.  The conflicts aren’t well-developed and Michael Bowen isn't a particularly great preppie/villain. Cage also doesn't have on-screen parents to speak of so the  R&J

In 2014 I watched  Sean Byrne 's debut film, The Loved Ones (2009). I enjoyed that film overall, though it was least favorite of the three films I discussed with co-founders/hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie for the Movie Matters Podcast  Halloween Special V (which you can listen to here ). Unfortunately, I liked Byrne's sophomore feature, The Devil's Candy (2015) even less. TDC is pretty well-made overall, but it feels very underdeveloped story-wise, easily forgettable, and, frankly, I'm surprised at the amount of love for this one. Also, I'm not sure if this is only present via streaming or on the Blu-ray as well (I watched on Hulu), but the dark scenes looked like absolute garbage (washed-out blacks were gray, atrocious banding, bad compression, and I couldn't even tell what was what).  Further, Ethan Embry is not a convincing metalhead/artist, coming off as more of vain, skinny-ripped poseur who just can't seem to keep his shirt on. Pruitt Tayl

Divorced from the audience hype at the time of its release, the Normandy beach sequence is still thrilling, chaotic, and harrowing, and  Saving Private Ryan   (1998) remains a really strong Spielberg film (though one that sits just above the halfway mark of my rankings of his filmography—hey, the man has made a lot of classics!).  It is indeed one of the best war films ever put to celluloid, both a technical and emotional achievement. I actually find the final bridge battle perhaps even more exciting than the Normandy one. SPR 's main troupe of characters are easy to like and relate to. In particular, Jeremy Davies is impressive—portraying cowardice convincingly on screen (and in a way that still evokes empathy) is a difficult role. While I do slightly prefer the other, more poetic war film of 1998,  Terrence Malick 's The Thin Red Line , and while I've never been a fan of its bookend scenes   (and still find them saccharine), SPR is nonetheless a moving and visceral ex

Summer Of Sam (1999) is  Spike Lee 's take on Italian American toxic masculinity and tribalism, filtered through the lens of a famous real-life serial killing spree and the effects that it had on residents of NYC.  Lee very much feels like he's channeling  Martin Scorsese  (this film shares two actors who were in  GoodFellas  (1990) (my review  here )) and Paul Thomas Anderson  here when it comes to the vibe, the camera movements, and the needle drops—two of the same songs that were on the Boogie Nights (1997) soundtrack appear here as well as   Heatwave 's song " Boogie Nights " (which makes sense since the story takes place in 1977). What I don't really understand is why Adrien Brody 's character is supposed to be a "punk" yet he's obsessed with The Who , to the point that he (stupidly) adopts a (bad) British accent in a few scenes—I myself love The Who and plenty of punk rock, it's just an odd character trait to call so much attentio

In 1975  J.G. Ballard  released his novel High-Rise , said to be one of Ian Curtis of Joy Division 's favorite books, cited as an influence on the Doctor Who   (1963–1989) serial Paradise Towers (1987), and used as the basis for a song of same name by the band  Hawkwind on their 1979 album PXR5 . 40 years later  Ben Wheatley 's cinematic adaptation  High-Rise  (written by his wife Amy Jump ) was released via legendary producer Jermey Thomas  (who also produced  David Cronenberg 's controversial  1996 film adaptation of Ballard's infamous 1973 novel  Crash ). Thomas had been trying to make a film version of H-R  since the 1970s, originally with Nicolas Roeg set to direct and Paul Mayersberg set to write (the two had previously worked together on 1976's incomparable The Man Who Fell To Earth ). Based on that collaboration and considering the source material, that would have been a dream team and one can only ponder the trippiness that could have been. As it is,

Claudine (1974) is a beautiful, funny, heartfelt, soulful, and deeply humanist portrait of a struggling  family with an overwhelmed single mother (an incredible Diahann Carroll ) at its center. As she raises six children on welfare in Harlem, she falls in love with a charming but flawed garbage collector (an electric James Earl Jones ) and it further complicates her life.  Claudine touches on systemic and working class problems but never gets preachy. It embraces drama and the seriousness of the family’s situation but never strays far from the humor that grounds it. It’s romantic (and also sexually frank) but in a way firmly rooted in reality (particularly because of the noteworthy performances). It’s a really wonderful, multifaceted movie—featuring a fantastic, propulsive soundtrack performed by Gladys Knight & The Pips and written by Curtis Mayfield —and I’d recommend it to anyone. My Criterion Top 10 [Vol. 6]

With the recent passing of the legendary Sean Connery (R.I.P), I thought it fitting to revisit one of my favorite films featuring one of my favorite performances by him. The great thing about the Indiana Jones  movies is that they're not sequential so you can watch any of them at any time without feeling like you  need to brush up on previous events or that you're missing out on anything. The third in what was intended to be (and in my opinion should have remained) a trilogy, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989) is a special film to me for personal reasons: I saw it with my grandfather in its original theatrical run. I clearly remember 9-year-old me having an absolute blast at the cinema and I recall my Da (that's what we called grandpa) loving it as well.  Though I still slightly prefer 1981's  Raiders Of The Lost Ark  (I consider it the quintessential action/adventure film), Last Crusade is probably the Indy flick that I've watched the most. Well, it might

For their sophomore album, A New Joy  (2020),  Artificial Pleasure  lean more heavily on synths and a synthesized soundscape. When combined with their singer's distinctive timbre, it results in a sound even more reminiscent of  The Faint  than on their debut,  The Bitter End (2018) (my Top Album that year; my review here ).  If that first album was their early 80s tribute, A New Joy  feels like their mid 80s follow-up. AP are still pulling from the  Bowie ,  Eno ,  Ferry ,  Talking Heads  songbook but they never simply ape a formula.  ANJ  does not immediately grab the listener in the way that TBE  did, but it's a really good album and feels like it will be a grower. There are a few tracks that don't do much for me, but thankfully the album's weakest track is also its shortest.

Joe Begos ' skill at filmmaking has undoubtedly improved over the course of his four features, but despite directing from a script by other writers this time, and despite the old-time, big name character actors assembled,  VFW  (2019) still rings hollow and feels like more of the same derivative cinema that he has made his name from. Begos doesn't attempt to disguise his  John Carpenter / Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) worship in the slightest. As with his previous film, Bliss (2019) (which I think is his best work so far; my review here ), VFW appears to have been shot on Super 16 mm, giving it a gritty, grainy look, but some scenes are lit so darkly—and the action is so sloppy—that it's difficult to distinguish exactly what is going on. There's plenty of nice, gory violence for those that crave it, but many of the practical f/x get lost in the murkiness and shaky cam. Once again  Steve Moore 's score is excellent—I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Introduction Through the use of numerous innovative techniques such as animation, stop-motion, puppetry, miniature models, matte paintings and live action,  Karel Zeman  created wondrous fantasy/adventure films that embrace a very special cinematic language that is all but lost these days—one in which unreality is not seen as a weakness but rather a cause for celebration. The audience can clearly sense the human interaction (and sometimes even the strings) behind his special effects but that only serves to stimulate the imagination and call attention to the heart, soul, and creativity of these films, as well as the many hours that went into bringing them to life. Many viewers will find the effects dated and laughable but I prefer these methods to the heavy use of CGI any day. There’s something magical about these practical approaches that is important to appreciate and preserve. Zeman’s films are truly delightful works of art, and as an adult viewer, they do an extraordinary job of tra

Introduction Through the use of numerous innovative techniques such as animation, stop-motion, puppetry, miniature models, matte paintings and live action,  Karel Zeman  created wondrous fantasy/adventure films that embrace a very special cinematic language that is all but lost these days—one in which unreality is not seen as a weakness but rather a cause for celebration. The audience can clearly sense the human interaction (and sometimes even the strings) behind his special effects but that only serves to stimulate the imagination and call attention to the heart, soul, and creativity of these films, as well as the many hours that went into bringing them to life. Many viewers will find the effects dated and laughable but I prefer these methods to the heavy use of CGI any day. There’s something magical about these practical approaches that is important to appreciate and preserve. Zeman’s films are truly delightful works of art, and as an adult viewer, they do an extraordinary job of tra

Introduction Through the use of numerous innovative techniques such as animation, stop-motion, puppetry, miniature models, matte paintings and live action, Karel Zeman created wondrous fantasy/adventure films that embrace a very special cinematic language that is all but lost these days—one in which unreality is not seen as a weakness but rather a cause for celebration. The audience can clearly sense the human interaction (and sometimes even the strings) behind his special effects but that only serves to stimulate the imagination and call attention to the heart, soul, and creativity of these films, as well as the many hours that went into bringing them to life. Many viewers will find the effects dated and laughable but I prefer these methods to the heavy use of CGI any day. There’s something magical about these practical approaches that is important to appreciate and preserve. Zeman’s films are truly delightful works of art, and as an adult viewer, they do an extraordinary job of tran