THE DANMAN CAN

Immaculately (sorry, had to) shot and a good performance by Nell Tiger Free , but overlong and the ending felt shoehorned (which is kind of to be expected). I found The First Omen (2024) to be another example of a modern movie trying to blend "prestige" horror with exploitation and not quite succeeding. The homages (1968's  Rosemary's Baby  ( review ), 1981's  Possession )   were a bit too on the nose ( particularly  the latter of those two films). That said, I liked it (though my expectations and the bar for my "top films" these days are  very  low).

Black Christmas (2006) has plenty of flaws and doesn’t hold a candle to the classic 1974 original ( review ), but it’s an ultra gory, trashy good time. I remember being surprised how much I enjoyed it the first time I saw it in 2007 and it didn’t disappoint on a rewatch. A dumb, fun, ridiculous slasher.

Prey (2022) is a solid Predator film that adds a cool angle to the franchise—that of Comanche facing off against the monster. I am all for taking the character and putting new spins on the basic premise (hunter vs. hunted), dropping the beast into different time periods, etc. And Prey does that, mostly quite well. I really like the way that the lead being a woman this go-around was handled and Amber Midthunder is very good. But some of the goodwill is unfortunately squandered by too much reliance on CGI and mediocre superhero-style action. This could have been something truly special but instead it's on par with 2010's Predators . My reviews of the first four films here, here , here , and here . Predator Franchise Films Ranked

1994's Wolf  is a weird smorgasbord of filmmaking talent. You've got Mike Nichols , director of such classics as Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?   (1966) and The Graduate (1967), making a $70 million werewolf picture set in the cutthroat world of publishing, with a cast including Jack Nicholson , Michelle Pfeiffer , James Spader , Richard Jenkins , and Christopher Plummer , makeup effects by genre legend Rick Baker , and an unusual score by maestro Ennio Morricone . This movie should be either be a modern-day classic or at least a batshit crazy failure, right? Well, it's neither. It's just merely...good. What you get with  Wolf is a 2-hour slow burn that, all things considered given the subject matter, is decidedly grounded in both its story and performances. There's humor sprinkled over the runtime (including a few spirited moments between Nicholson and Spader) but it never really gets campy. There's some decent effects throughout but mostly the big thing ...

John Carpenter 's Ghosts Of Mars  (2001) is essentially  Assault On Precinct 13  (1976) meets  Escape From New York   (1981) ( review ) with some bits of  Prince Of Darkness  (1987) ( review ) thrown in.  Ice Cube isn’t the best lead, but he does a solid job. The action isn't always the best either, but I rather enjoy the artifice of the production design, the way the film plays with time structure and flashbacks is engaging, and there are lots of really interesting fades. The biggest fault of the film is that there is no emotional weight for any of the characters, save the two leads (i.e., everyone is fodder) and even then, sparingly. A similar film like  Predator   (1987) ( review ) has better character development so when people die you at least care a little bit. GOF  is pretty silly at times, but it's mostly fun, and much more entertaining than its reputation suggests. You can find my  John Carpenter Films Ranke...

At times confusing, hilarious, glacial, and enthralling, Ben Wheatley ’s A Field In England (2013), his fourth feature film, will prove frustrating for many viewers. Very much a mysterious, metaphysical, existential experience, it’s my favorite of his films and I enjoyed it just as much a second time. AFIE is beautifully photographed , scored , acted, and features an all-time kaleidoscopic psychedelia sequence in its final third.  Recommended for fans of Alejandro Jodorowsky , Ingmar Bergman , and Nicolas Winding Refn . You can find my  Ben Wheatley Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

When I saw  You're Next (2011) in its wide theatrical release back in 2013, I thought it was merely decent. I think I remember why now—all the incessant shaky cam. There are few things in cinema that perturb me as much. It's a shame because YN  is a solid little home invasion flick, and works better when it utilizes slow motion (or the few shots that actually use a dolly) instead. While it's fun to watch obnoxious people get offed in horrific ways, and the ending is pretty amusing, director  Adam Wingard  and writer Simon Barrett  greatly improved their filmmaking technique with their follow-up,  The Guest  (2014) ( review ). I do have  YN  to thank for introducing me to this jam  though.

Richard Bates Jr. 's' Suburban Gothic (2014) is a breezy, funny, horror comedy—a much lighter follow-up to his 2012 film  Excision   (my review here ). I watched SG  for the first time about six years ago and I really liked it. It was just as enjoyable a second time.  I can't quite put my finger on why I like this film as much as I do—it's no masterpiece and there's not a lot of depth to it. It's just one of those slightly offbeat films that you can throw on and be easily entertained by without too much commitment. The world of SG  is hyperreal—brought to life by its vivid production design and lighting—but it has relatable characters and moments. Matthew Gray Gubler and Kat Dennings are quirky and spunky without being obnoxious. There are fun cameos from the likes of Jeffrey Combs ,  John Waters , and Jack Plotnick .  Ray Wise , as a cartoon caricature of a nuclear patriarch, has some choice dialogue. Recommended for fans of Kevin Sm...

In which Quentin Dupieux makes his version of a  Bill & Ted / Dumb And Dumber movie. Dupieux has once again proved that he is the Wes Anderson of absurdist comedies, by which I mean if you like what he does, his signature style rarely lets you down.  Toro film . You can find my  Quentin Dupieux Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

1.    Possessor   **** ( Review ) 2.    1917  (2019) ***1/2 ( Review ) 3.    Portrait Of A Lady On Fire  (2019) ***1/2 ( Review ) 4.    Corpus Christi  (2019) ***1/2 ( Review ) 5.    Palm Springs   ***1/2 ( Review ) 6.    Deerskin   (2019) ***1/2 ( Review ) 7.    I'm Thinking Of Ending Things  ***1/2 ( Review ) 8.    Sound Of Metal   (2019) ***1/2 ( Review ) 9.    Gretel & Hansel  *** ( Review ) 10.  The Lodge  (2019) *** ( Review ) Biggest Disappointments Da 5 Bloods   **1/2 ( Review ) Bill & Ted Face The Music   **1/2 ( Review ) Rebecca  **1/2 ( Review ) (Click image above for Letterboxd link)

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...

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...

While I appreciate an atypical western (one that has a female lead), I found  Johnny Guitar (1954) to be a bit of a mixed bag, particularly for a film that is mostly gushed with praise.  Joan Crawford is really good in Nicholas Ray 's film and, really, she is the protagonist, so it should have been titled Vienna —a fine western-sounding title and one that would have made more sense. Sterling Hayden (who is also good but much better in other types of roles) is the titular Johnny "Guitar" Logan, a supposed reformed gunslinger and former flame of Vienna's who has returned to her life in a town that treats her like a "tramp".  The chemistry between Crawford and Hayden is lacking but the dialogue is great, as is some  of the production design and action. Mercedes McCambridge is fun to watch but really over-the-top in her villainy, coming off as a Wicked Witch Of The West type, which feels out of place here. Overall, Johnny Guitar  is a film that...

Palm Springs  (2020) is a clever (but not too clever) little dramedy that successfully blends the concept of  Groundhog Day  (1993) (my review here ) (not the first story to use a time loop, but the most well known) with a more traditional rom-com. It's charming enough to appeal to a mass audience but subversive, sarcastic and dark enough to appeal to those that like their comedies are bit more black. It's definitely not a challenging film but a breezy one that hits just right if you need a pick-me-up and feels like the type of film that has great replay value.

Though Joel Schumacher died just recently, my reason for watching Phone Booth   (2002) stemmed from having recently watched three of Larry Cohen 's films. Cohen wrote Phone Booth and it's interesting to think about how the film would have turned out if he had directed it (hint: it would have been very  different). In the hands of Schumacher, it's a fairly straightforward film, albeit one that does utilize some interesting techniques (split screen, multiple formats) to varying degrees of success. The script and pacing are tight and Hitchcock ian, the cast is very good, there's palpable tension, and the real-time high-concept nature mostly works. Phone Booth is an enjoyable slice of escapist cinema but is already a dated film for a few reasons. There are some stereotypes that thankfully don't take up too much screen time, but at this moment in U.S. history, I can't help thinking how differently the action would have played out and the protagonist's fate ...

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire   (2019) is a very good film, written and directed by  Céline Sciamma . I greatly enjoyed most aspects of it. It's a critical darling, was nominated for and won a bunch of awards, and it's an audience favorite. I don't ever aim to be a naysayer but I don't quite share the same passion for it, at least after a single viewing. POALOF is an incredibly handsome-looking film. It was shot in 8K, so, while it's nice that The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray , it really deserves an 4K Ultra HD disc (and Criterion really needs to catch up to other boutique labels and start releasing UHDs). I watched the film on Hulu, so it looked quite nice but the darker scenes suffered, as well as some of the colors, brightness, and details, naturally. I would love to revisit the film in 4K, purely to marvel at the technical facets. The languid pacing and cinematography of POALOF  call to mind  Ingmar Bergman  and  Stanley Kubrick ...

I am a massive fan of Shinya Tsukamoto 's Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), a true cult classic, which I first witnessed in the early '90s (I still have my VHS copy). It was a formative film for me—bizarre, abrasive, hilarious, disturbing, and like nothing I'd ever seen before. It still has the power to move me in ways I can't even describe—it's very much like Eraserhead (1977) (my review here ) in that way. I only got around to seeing the sequel  Tetsuo II: Body Hammer  (1992) five years ago when I picked up  Third Window Films ' excellent  Blu-ray of the first two films. Both films are also available in an upcoming Tsukamoto box set  from Arrow Video  that my friend Michael Mackenzie produced (which to be honest looks super nice and I would pick up if I didn't already own all but one film from that box set in versions from Third Window). I remember being worried that I might not like Body Hammer  because it's in color (the original film's grai...

Directors  Severin Fiala  and  Veronika Franz  have a thing for messed-up children, apparently. As with their feature debut,  Goodnight Mommy  (2014) (my review here ), the children central to their follow-up  The Lodge (2019) do awful things to an adult female (in GM  it was their mother, here it's their father's girlfriend/potential stepmother). And boy, are there consequences. The Lodge  is one downbeat film that wallows a bit too heavily in its misery for my tastes but there is plenty to appreciate. Comparisons to Hereditary (2018) (my review here )—another bummerfest focused around a family torn apart by tragedy with religion playing a central role—are hard to avoid, though mostly coincidental I think. There is indeed a similar pacing and cinematographic choices at play here but the dynamic is different. The performances are strong across the board and the snowy setting provides a sinister backdrop of isolation. There's a great de...

I don't understand the love for this film. It has its moments for sure but few and far between. I've mentioned before, as in my review for Steve Jobs (2015) (which I loved), that Danny Boyle is very hit or miss for me. But 28 Days Later  (2002), which I seem to recall liking more when I saw it in the theater and on DVD, is mostly just annoying to me now. I detest the cheap-looking DV/camcorder look (as much as I couldn't stand it when David Lynch did the same for his 2006 film  Inland Empire   [ review ] ). The cinematography is poor, the editing is annoyingly fast and confusing, and the action is sloppy. Not to mention, the rate of infection is absurdly rapid in a film that otherwise shoots for realism. The performances are mostly good and the film works best during its "human" moments. But it's such a rollercoaster of quality—starts off really bad, works okay for a while as an eerie post-apocalyptic movie, gets good when it becomes a road movie, get...

Highly recommended documentary. Wayne White is an inspiring artist who worked on PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE and makes bitingly funny paintings and crazy puppets.