THE DANMAN CAN

Heavily influenced by Mad Max  (my review of the first film here ) and Bruce Lee , Fist Of The North Star  (1986) is an ultraviolent, post apocalyptic, actionfest from director Toyoo Ashida  ( Vampire Hunter D   (1985) ( review )). This western-themed anime is chock-full of i nventive, insanely over-the-top gore, s toic (toxic) masculinity, t estosterone-fueled, absurdly powerful, muscle-bound men, a tmospheric sound design, a lush and kickass score by Katsuhisa Hattori , two memorable songs from Kodomo Band  (including the fist-pumping anthem “ Heart Of Madness ”), and  beautiful, striking (literally) animation. While the more philosophical aspects of the story may get lost in the many, many epic battles, there is a definite theme of man’s destructive nature and the dangers of unchecked power. I spent countless hours of my teenhood watching  FOTNS . I hadn't watched the film since 2009—it's a touch on the long side but it remains e ndlessly entertaining and rewatchable.

While on the surface it appears to be mostly a straightforward action/adventure drama, Death In the Garden   (1956) does contain  Buñuel ian surrealist touches and director trademarks. The political overtones might lead some viewers to believe the film is a kind of rally cry, but Buñuel is more interested in human behavior and the choices his characters make.  Those characters comprise a kind of ragtag band of rogues, who expose the cynical quality and selfishness that human beings often fall prey to when forced into a desperate, life-threatening situation (in this case being pursued by soldiers in the jungle). Buñuel pairs Simone Signoret  with  Charles Vanel , both of whom appeared together the previous year in Henri-George Clouzot 's Diabolique  (my review here ). Vanel also starred in another Clouzot classic, 1953's  The Wages Of Fear  (my review here ), which bears more than a few similarities to DITG .  It's a different kind of picture than what Buñuel's reputatio

I used to think that Mission: Impossible (1996) wasn't very De Palma esque but on this latest watch (my first time in 13 years and with the film looking the best I've ever seen it on 4K UHD) I realized that it very much is so. Sure, it's an action spectacle that requires major suspension of belief by the end of the film but there are so many great set pieces and thrilling sequences prior to that. De Palma employs his usual bag of camera and editing tricks to bring this world to the cinematic landscape, but does it in a subtler, more accessible way to create superb espionage entertainment. I'm aware that cast members of the original TV series  (which I'm also a big fan of) were not happy with the direction the characters were taken, but ignoring that isn't difficult for me to do. One of the reasons for that is that M:I  is "big" blockbuster 90s fun. This movie is a ride; it's not  John le Carré . That's not to say the film is dumb—it's far

The Milky Way ( 1969) is  Luis Buñuel 's picaresque pilgrimage concerning two vagrant vagabonds (and other characters) as they travel across time and space, encountering various people (including Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Devil), all of whom have discussions about Christianity, dogma, and heresies (in great, historically accurate, detail). It's a surreal satire featuring many of Buñuel's usual players, and a perfect example of his charm and style—opening up plenty of questions, and never providing answers. You can find my  Luis Buñuel Films Ranked  list  here .

The Party (1968) is a difficult picture to rate. On one hand, it's a really funny, experimental film (though it certainly borrows a lot from Jacques Tati ) that showcases Peter Sellers ' comedic genius. On the other hand—while perhaps not as egregious as Mickey Rooney in Blake Edwards ' other, more well-known, classic Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)—there is the elephant in the room of Sellers in brownface  (and also a literal elephant in the room in the film, the poor thing).  Though I don't think the racial stereotyping in The Party comes from a place of hate, it is such a central part of the film (now considered incredibly outdated and potentially offensive) that it's hard to ignore. But if you can look past that, there is a lot of Chaplin /Tatiesque fun to be had with the various sight gags, a typically groovy score by Henry Mancini  (including the dreamy song " Nothing To Lose " sung beautifully by Claudine Longet ), and lots of super sexy, sup

The first of three films (one being a short) that  Luis Buñuel  made with  Silvia Pinal  and  Claudio Brook , Viridiana  (1961) was considered by some to be blasphemous and it was banned in Spain, only seeing release there in 1977 when Buñuel was 77 years old. Viridiana has a lot of bold symbolism and sexually suggestive imagery and dialogue. Somehow to me it feels like Buñuel at his most Bergman esque. It also has a protagonist whose piety is taken advantage of at every turn, by both strangers and relatives alike. I'm not quite sure if the message is as simple as “be wary of well-intentioned charity,” but as a piece of filmmaking that presents human beings as realistic, complex, and sometimes base in nature, it's a masterwork. You can find my  Luis Buñuel Films Ranked  list  here .

The Mirror Crack'd  (1980) was the third of four  Agatha's Christie  adaptations—following 1974's  Murder On The Orient Express   (my review here ) and 1978's  Death On The Nile   (my review here )—made by producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin . It's my least favorite of the three mentioned (I have yet to see 1982's  Evil Under The Sun ), and I have to admit to being a much bigger fan of Hercule Poirot as protagonist (as good as Angela Lansbury is as Miss Marple here).  But there is of course another great ensemble cast (though not as large or as well-known as the previous two Brabourne/Goodwin Christies), some choice one-liners including humor that pokes fun at both the cast of this film and other associated actors, and frequent Bond director Guy Hamilton  does a solid job. The best and most amusing part of the film though (and honestly the main draw were I to revisit this one) is easily the catty, campy quarrels between Elizabeth Taylor and Kim No

Event Horizon (1997), Paul W.S. Anderson and Philip Eisner ’s Lovecraftian   Hellraiser / Alien / The Shining / Solaris hybrid (my reviews for the first three of those films here , here , and here ), was a box office flop that has gone on to become a cult favorite.  EH wears its influences on its sleeve and some would accuse it of being too derivative but there is too much goodness here to dismiss it outright. It’s uneven, there’s a good deal of silliness and tropes galore in the final third, and some of the visual fx are a bit dated but there’s also some undeniably arresting images, wonderful makeup, impeccable production design, and ideas that, if they had been explored with more finesse, could have resulted in something truly special. As it is, EH is a flawed but fun sci-fi/horror/actioner with a great cast that, despite its shortcomings, has immense rewatchability. 

Almost completely devoid of the surrealism present in all of  Luis Buñuel 's films that I've seen so far, Diary Of A Chambermaid (1964), the first of six screenplays Buñuel co-wrote with  Jean-Claude Carrière , is based on Octave Mirbeau 's 1900 novel . While my least favorite of the Buñuel films that I've seen, it's still a very good drama with comic touches and great performances. Jeanne Moreau  is a good Célestine, the titular character, but I can't help but wonder how the film would have differed if Silvia Pinal , Buñuel's original choice (rejected by the French producers) had been cast. You can find my  Luis Buñuel Films Ranked  list  here .

More of a message movie than a film noir , Edward Dymtryk 's  Crossfire (1947) is nonetheless a strong picture with moody low-key lighting, based on a book by writer and soon to be director Richard Brooks , featuring a trio of famous Roberts and a sultry but sad Gloria Grahame .  The anti-Semitism theme can be a bit heavy-handed at times, but the drama is well done, and it's no surprise that the film was nominated for best picture (despite being a B movie), being one of the first films to deal with this issue post World War II. Brooks' novel had the victim as a homosexual but the Hays Code (unsurprisingly for them) forbade any mention of homosexuality because it was seen as a sexual perversion at the time, so the theme of homophobia was changed to racism.  This was my second time viewing Crossfire  and what caught my attention this time around was how good Grahame and Robert Ryan 's performances are. In particular, Ryan so convincingly portrays a murderous racist but

After the success of The Curse Of Frankenstein  (my review here ) in 1957,  Hammer  mainstay  Terence Fisher  returned to direct another update of a  1931 Universal  Monster film with 1958's  Dracula (aka  Horror Of Dracula ).  Christopher Lee 's first outing as the titular character cemented the image of the Count as we know it, taking what was established by Bela Lugosi in Tod Browning 's film and upping the blood and eroticism. As with TCOF , there's lots of gothic goodness here, and even more sumptuous lighting and cinematography.  Peter Cushing  is magnetic as  Van Helsing  and the finale where the two leads duke it out is fantastic and action-packed. It's probably blasphemy to some but my favorite screen adaptation of  Bram Stoker 's  1897 novel  remains  Francis Ford Coppola 's  Dracula  (1992) (my review here ). Nosferatu (1922) ( review ) and Nosferatu The Vampyre   (1979) tie for second, but D58  is a strong contender for third best.

It's funny to think that 1957's  The Curse Of Frankenstein ,  Hammer 's first color horror film, first in their Frankenstein series, and the film that helped establish their horror legacy, was considered very gory in its day and received an X rating when originally released. TCOF  is a strong update of the 1931 Universal version , with plenty of gothic flavor, wonderfully moody and meticulous lighting, and excellent performances from Peter Cushing  (as the further and further unhinged titular character) and Christopher Lee  (as The Creature).

Libeled Lady  (1936) is a breezy screwball  that's great if you need a solid escapist farce with a stellar cast.  William Powell and Myrna Loy  (in their fifth of fourteen films together) don't have quite the same chemistry here as they do in the Thin Man movies (my reviews of the first and second films in that series  here and here ) but they are still delightful.  Jean Harlow  is saucy, as one would expect, but she's also got a tender side that she does well to portray.  Spencer Tracy is the weakest link but he's more than serviceable in what is essentially the thankless straight man role. Interesting tidbits about Libeled Lady : Harlow and Powell were an off-screen couple, and Harlow wanted to play Connie Allenbury. During filming, Harlow changed her legal name from her birth name of Harlean Carpenter McGrew Bern Rosson to Jean Harlow. She made only two more films before dying at the age of 26 in 1937. It has been rumored that Loy and Tracy had an affair during t

How does one even "review" a  Luis Buñuel  film? I'm sure plenty of other people can and have done it better than I could, but I find it difficult to delineate exactly what it is about his films that I am attracted to, so I'm not going to attempt to go too in depth (besides I think Buñuel himself would have told you that reading too deeply into his work was futile).  I think my appreciation of Buñuel has something to do with the way he banally explores both the ordinary and the extraordinary aspects of life, love, class, and politics. He does so in the truest form of surrealism—not by being extra weird or showy, but rather by gently subverting his subjects (both his stories and his characters) into something unique, hilarious, tragic, one oneiric, and absurd—which can only be described as "Buñuelian". He's truly a director whose influence can't be overstated and I still have much exploring of his work to do.  You can find my  Luis Buñuel Films Ranked

How does one even "review" a  Luis Buñuel  film? I'm sure plenty of other people can and have done it better than I could, but I find it difficult to delineate exactly what it is about his films that I am attracted to, so I'm not going to attempt to go too in depth (besides I think Buñuel himself would have told you that reading too deeply into his work was futile).  I think my appreciation of Buñuel has something to do with the way he banally explores both the ordinary and the extraordinary aspects of life, love, class, and politics. He does so in the truest form of surrealism—not by being extra weird or showy, but rather by gently subverting his subjects (both his stories and his characters) into something unique, hilarious, tragic, oneiric, and absurd—which can only be described as "Buñuelian". He's truly a director whose influence can't be overstated and I still have much exploring of his work to do.  You can find my  Luis Buñuel Films Ranked  li

How does one even "review" a  Luis Buñuel  film? I'm sure plenty of other people can and have done it better than I could, but I find it difficult to delineate exactly what it is about his films that I am attracted to, so I'm not going to attempt to go too in depth (besides I think Buñuel himself would have told you that reading too deeply into his work was futile).  I think my appreciation of Buñuel has something to do with the way he banally explores both the ordinary and the extraordinary aspects of life, love, class, and politics. He does so in the truest form of surrealism—not by being extra weird or showy, but rather by gently subverting his subjects (both his stories and his characters) into something unique, hilarious, tragic, oneiric, and absurd—which can only be described as "Buñuelian". He's truly a director whose influence can't be overstated and I still have much exploring of his work to do.  You can find my  Luis Buñuel Films Ranked  li

Pump Up The Volume (1990) is a film that I would have loved and appreciated a lot more if I had seen it when it was released or sometime in the 90s. Its subject matter is right up my alley and it undoubtedly would have appealed to a tween or teen me. As it is, this one escaped me and I only just watched it for the first time, so it was a different experience than I am convinced it would have been had I seen it at a younger age. All that is to say that PUTV  is very much a product of its time and some elements have not aged well but its message of fighting the establishment still resonates. The first half or so of the film is excellent, but I felt that the latter half's love story was sloppily handled, and some of the editing and plot details were messily revealed. Additionally, the character development could have been a whole lot better.  Christian Slater  does do a great job of carrying the film, but every time he becomes the withdrawn "shy Mark" it feels like a put on

It's a shame that  Philip Ridley  hasn't made more films (and claims he's not going to make any more). Of his only three features, Heartless (2009) being his latest, it's the weakest of the three, which is especially unfortunate given that it arrived a whopping 14 years after his previous feature,  The Passion Of Darkly Noon   (1995) (my review here ). Ridley has been incredibly prolific though—he's written books, plays, painted, worked on music and more. I have much exploring to do when it comes to his output—having only been introduced to his work through his 1990 film debut  The Reflecting Skin   (my review here ) (which had been on my radar for some time) for the first time last summer. Heartless is a  Faustian  tale about troubled and lonely twenty-something Jamie ( Jim Sturgess ), who endures one tragedy after another in a life almost comically bereft of lightness. It's a solid film but one that —despite having themes carried over from his previous two p

Over 80 years on, Walt Disney 's Fantasia (1940) remains a landmark in animation and sound in the world of film. It has an indisputable power to capture the viewer's attention and imagination. Basically a perfect film and a singular experience, Fantasia 's influence cannot be denied.

The Passion Of Darkly Noon   (1995) is the second of only three feature films from author/playwright/poet/painter/director/etc.  Philip Ridley . Arriving five years after his stunning debut  The Reflecting Skin  (my review  here ), Darkly Noon is another surrealist drama with hints of horror with a lot to appreciate and much to contemplate. Brandon Fraser is the titular character, named after a Bible passage from Corinthians (the same one that  Ingmar Bergman 's 1961 film  Through A Glass Darkly  (my review here )   took its title from). Having escaped an attack on the conservative Christian cult that he belonged to wherein his parents were killed, the childlike Darkly wanders confused and exhausted through the forest. Coffin transporter Jude ( Loren Dean ) brings Darkly to his friend Callie ( Ashley Judd ) who nurses Darkly back to health. Callie lives a seemingly idilic life in a big house in the forest with her mute coffin-making boyfriend Clay ( Viggo Mortensen ), but as Darkl

I forget where I first saw Matthew Rankin 's absurdist comedy/drama/biography  The Twentieth Century (2019) advertised but when I found out it was available to stream on The Criterion Channel , I decided to give it a shot. Mileage will vary depending on your tolerance level for quirkiness, but Rankin's film is too weird and interesting to ignore.  I can't say I loved it, and it's kind of a confusing mess, but the production design is really fun and the actors go all in. I don't see this one becoming a cult classic for this viewer but this fictionalized portrait of Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King  will appeal at least on some level to fans of Monty Python , Guy Maddin , and John Waters  and is worth a look. 

Joyce Chopra 's Smooth Talk (1985), based on Joyce Carol Oates ' 1966 short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? ,  is a strange bird. It's two-thirds a coming-of-age story about 15-year-old Connie ( Laura Dern , just one year away from her breakout role in  David Lynch 's  Blue Velvet   (my review here )) and her contentious relationship with her mother ( Mary Kay Place ), and one-third a sort of cautionary tale with a terrifying denouement.  That's not to say that everything occurring prior to the final 30 minutes is inconsequential—in fact the details are delightful and there is a nostalgic quality to the bulk of the film. It’s just that there is a definite, jarring, tonal shift in that all-important central scene that feels like it’s from a different film (which I imagine was intentional). Furthermore, the way in which the film concludes brings the mood back to a lighthearted place, but we know that Connie is changed, as we the audience are as well.

Having revisited  David Cronenberg 's 1996 film adaptation  ( review ) for the first time in over 20 years just over 2 months ago (and having watched another  J.G. Ballard  adaptation,  Ben Wheatley 's  High-Rise   (2015) ( review ) a couple of months prior to that), I was in the right frame of mind to finally delve into Ballard's controversial 1973 novel, Crash   (my first time reading the author). It's difficult to really put into words my feelings on this book, which, much like Cronenberg's film, is basically sex and car crashes. That's not to say that there isn't a sense of reflection, existentialism, and a comment on commodification present in the text. The repetitiveness of the narrative reinforces this, however there is also the sense that Ballard (who named the narrator here after himself) is on some level confessing his fantasies, fetishes, and obsessions.  That makes the novel that much more challenging, due to it being so explicit and occasionally

The Parallax View  (1974),  Alan J. Pakula 's second film in his so-called "Paranoia Trilogy" (which includes 1971's  Klute   (which I have yet to see but will be watching soon) and 1976's  All The President's Men  (my blogpost here )), is an exceptionally made thriller that comments on American ideas and ideals, the search for truth, the real truths behind the facade of normalcy, the violence inherent in the history of America (past and present), and the dangers of power—without ever offering answers.  The film avoids dating itself or coming across as heavy-handed by creating a mythical reality, one that doesn't name-check actual specific historical events, but rather presents a fictional story that feels very real. A nod to the Kennedy assassination in the preamble leads to the film's Space Needle -set opening where a politician is assassinated. Warren Beatty plays a reporter who, years later, becomes embroiled in an investigation into a shadowy or

Review