The Damned (2024)

One of two films called THE DAMNED that hit festivals at around the same time in 2024. The other is period thriller on distant island. This film follows a group of Union soldiers who are sent into the American West in order to guard an unspecified border.

That this film won awards and got glowing reviews is something I can't understand. There is quite simply nothing here. 

There are no characters. None. We kind of know who they are by their look but thats it. There is no real attempt to build characters. Any dialog is of the sort that no one would ever say. It all feels like it was taken from journals and articles, not from life. 

There is no narrative. It's a bunch of non entities wandering into the wilderness.  Where they are is never explained. What they are doing beyond "guarding the border" is never explained. They are supposed to be waiting for another group to meet them, but how the hell will they find them because they are in the middle of nowhere at a place that was randomly chosen.

Don't get me started with the few events  that happen.  The bad guys, it's assumed it's the South, but it isn't clear, attack twice, once after moving into position in front of the sentries who would have seen them. When four men wander off to check on a way through  the mountains and there is snow, then there is a sequence without snow and then the snow is back.  

When the film ended I literally had no idea why I bothered, because there was no context to anything. It was as if the film simply existed just to show life on the plains. But there is absolutely nothing here. Zip.

As a recreation of life for soldiers it does seem to have a place, but, I'd rather go see a re-enactment where I could talk to the guys.

Skip this film because this is a film that will leave you scratching your head if it doesn't put you to sleep.  

Death Does Not Exist (2025) Cannes 2025

Hélène goes with a bunch of friends to the estate of the rich land owners. The idea is to kill them and start a revolution. As the attack happens her friends are killed and she flees. Wandering the forest she is haunted by the spirits of her friends, her guilt and her life. Meanwhile the forest seems to be changing everything in it and outside it.

This is a great looking, even better sounding sounding film. The images are frequently striking. There are several that I would love to hang on my wall. The sound design is incredible with the mix of music and effects creating a mood and place most films only hope to achieve.

I just wish the film's plot matched the technical achievement. This film is a journey through Helene's head space. What we see and experience is what she does, and that is fine, but the material is very literary. This is a film where the filmmakers are more interested in making a point  with the result that there are times where the characters get lost. I never connected to the actual people on screen as much as I did to the images and sound. It doesn't mean it's a bad film, but rather one you may just watch once and not revisit.

Worth a look for animation fans.

April Ghouls 2025- Saturday Night Dating

Saturday night was a big to do. Patty Mullen The star of FRANKENHOOKER and DOOM ASYLUMwas in the house signing autographs and talking to people.

Thankfully the rain held off and the  movies went off without a hitich.

Earlier in the day Joe and I ran around and did some shopping. Along the way we stumbled upon the Big Mac Museum.

Yes its a real thing. Actually what it is is a big ass Mc Donald's with some displays in it.  It's actually pretty cool and Joe and I made an effort to have a nosh and look at everything.

At the drive in Joe spent most of the preshow time on the phone with his office. I too ended up on the phone as well talking to friends.

Saturday group photo taken from the Drive In Monsterama Facebook page

Mostly I just wandered around and watched people wandering in to see Patty Mullens.  The audience was thrilled and she was wonderful.  Watching her interact, even during the group photo was a delight.

As showtime approached Joe and I finally grabbed a bite to eat and hunkered down for the films.

FRANKENHOOKER is a great deal of fun. The story of a scientist who builds a new body for his girlfriend after she is killed in a lawnmower accident. He uses the bodies of hookers but it all goes wrong. 

Bloody and funny in all the right ways, this really isn’t a horror film but a wicked comedy sending up the horror tropes.

DOOM ASYLUM sucks. One of the worst films I’ve ever seen it was a chore to get through. It killed my desire to go later into the night.

Nominally the film is about a psycho who survived being autopsied alive killing people at an old asylum, it is a movie trailer stretched to 90 minutes.  While its intended to be a send up, it never works because no one takes it seriously. Worse the film has long stretches where nothing happens or where we have to watch random clips from a number of Tod Slaughter films cut into the film as filler. I love Slaughter and his films, and seeing them savaged did them a disservice and shows the filmmakers to be heathen. 

I hate this film with a passion and I have no idea  why it was programmed other than Patty Mullens was in it.

Both Joe and I were done  for the night because of its badness and we headed home

Drive -in Monsterama April Ghouls 2025 Friday in the rain

My brother Joe and I went to the Riverside for the annual April Ghouls portion of the Drive-in Monster-rama. As was typical we went out the Thursday before and left the Sunday after.

The trip this year was not as exciting as in past years Joe’s work took a front seat to a lot of the trip, things were melting down and he had to be on call. 

Thursday night I cranked out a quick piece on the Riverside’s drive to crowd fund some repairs to keep things going. They want to get AC in the snack bar fixed as well as the drainage in the parking are and modifications to the ticket booth (Information here)

Friday was a rain event and all of our plans that were outside were canceled. We ended up mostly tracking down Pokemon cards for my niece.

Our time at the drive in was fun. The rain largely stayed away in the hours before the film so we got to talk to Mike and Jake and several other people whose name I didn't catch. I was going to try and grab Gene for an impromptu interview but things were a bit hectic since George wasn’t there.

Photo lifted from the Drive in Monsterama Facebook page

Not long before the group photo the rain started and it got worse as the evening went on.  By the time the first of four Nightmare on Elm Street films started it was tough to watch the films.

A clear moment in the rain

Because it was raining I really couldn't watch NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET as a film with a story. Instead I was watching it as a kind of an object. I looked at it not as part of a series or something new, but as a stand alone film for the first time since it was released.

Honestly I don't think it holds up. Actually I'm kind of at a loss as to why it clickedwith audiences. What is it about Fred Kruger (as he is billed in the credits) that clicked. He is basically a non-entity for almost the whole film. He is not the quip machine he would become. He is just a figure. The film is firmly Nancy's film, and she is really badly written (and badly performed). Even allowing that this is supposed to have dream logic, the film makes no sense.  Sure Johnny Depp came from this but he too has no character. Yes, he has a great death scene but otherwise he's a void. (That he would be an Oscar nominee later in his career is not evident) The set pieces are nothing special. Outside of the ending  I realized I remembered almost nothing of this film.

Watching it for the first time in a long time I realize it's one of Wes Craven's least films. It feels like what I think it is, a workman like film from Craven. It's very by the numbers. It feels like a 1970's drive in horror film, both in a good way and a bad way. I'm not knocking Craven, I think he is a great director, but he was best he could step away from the grindhouse  and do more - look at the films he did around it.  Sure this made money- but I like pretty much every other film he did better. This film was throw back to where he started- not what he had been doing with DEADLY BLESSING or SWAMP THING or would do after it. This is actually atypical in that this is the on film from Craven where you can actually see the construction from off the shelf pieces. Its his least organic film.

I was shocked and disappointed that it wasn't better.

Thinking about the film during the screening I realized that I never much cared for the series. Yes the films have some great pieces but at the same time the plots are crappy everything exists just to get to the kills and the quips. This is a flaw in so many horror film series. Here the problem is Fred is intially out for revenge  and has weird rules that never show up again  (you have to look at him for him to have power.). It's like in the FRIDAY THE 13TH films where Jason only shows up at the very end and is a thin, malnurished kid...only to be a hulking guy in the remainer of the series. 

I was kind of heartbroken.

With the rain getting heavy and making watching the films a chore Joe and I left early.

The Old Woman with the Knife (2025)

Lee Hye-yeong gives a performance for the ages as Hornclaw, an assassin in her 60's who is tasked with killing pests, those society deems vermin. She is broken and sliding toward her end, but still fighting the good fight. She ends up teamed with a young man named Bullfight, who may have his own agenda.

Based on a novel THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE is an interesting variation of the old guy heading into the sunset. Here we have a woman and we have  one that is very intent on taking out the grim reaper when he shows up rather than going quietly.

While the film has some great sequences, particularly in the very bloody, very bruising action sequences, the script is kind of all over the place. Flashbacks are not always inserted in the best places, breaking the forward flow of the story in order to fill us in. It's not fatal but it makes it difficult for the film to have momentum. It doesn't help that the plotting is a bit too covuluted and doesn't always make sense.

What does work and what makes the film a must is Lee Hye-yeong as the assassin from hell. She's a sweet old lady to a point and then she is a stone cold killer. Never mind her work here is at odds with her work for Hong Sang-soo, the real eye opener is she gives us a real person, who is beyond broken and still going forward. We know how bad she is physically and mentally and it makes what she does all the more amazing. Yea we've seen variations on the killer at the end but this is quite simply best that has ever been put on screen by a long way. Hye-yeong gives us character shading you never seen in a film like this. Oscar won't notice her but fans will and she will end up enshrined for all time as the greatest cinema assassin.

Recommended

CInema of Sleep (2021) on VOD May 16

CINEMA OF SLEEP is an early film by Jeffrey St Jules, the director of  the excellent SILENT PLANET. It stars Dayo Ade as an immingrant trying to bring his family from Africa. However there are complications.

This is a mind bending film where nothing is as  it seems and reality constantly shifting. The opening for example ada Ade in a hotel room finding a body in his bed, only to have things shift to have him watching a film of his finding a body, only to have reality shift again and again. It's not weirdness just to mess with the audience, but something deeper and more compelling/ St Jules is driving somewhere, we just have to belt in and go with it.

And you have to, and should,  just give yourself over to it and go where it wants to take you. This is a story with a lot going on and an interesting way to show it to you. It's not a film I can really discuss because the changing nature of what we are seeing reveals things that you can't know the first time through. Sitting, staring at my screen I realize that several things I want to say will diminish what happens.  To that end stop reading and just see this film.

Trust me this film is a wicked ride, just stay with it because there is a point where you'll be locked in and dying to see how this goes (and trust me it isn't what you expect)

Rcommended.

Hung Up On A Dream: The Zombies Documentary (2025)

This is a quiet stunner.  This look at the group The Zombies surprised me by seemingly coming from nowhere.

The film charts the rise and troubled existence of the group which came together in the early 1960’s and managed to produce a series of extremely influential songs. Unfortunately tension in the band made the groups course to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame perilous.

I was moved. The simplicity of the telling of this story really connected with me. I am not a Zombies fan but I felt myself connecting to the guys in the band. There is something about following the thing you love that really made me want to embrace them. I came away with a new sense of respect for the group and what they achieved.

In a year with a large number of music documentaries and concert films, this is one of the best.

Severed Sun (2024) opens Friday

In rigid religious community a woman kills her husband releasing an evil force. 

I don't know what a I feel about this film. There are somethings that I love and there are some things I don't.  I'm kind of left wondering if this would have been better in a different form.

The two things that are working against the film are first the film is very talky. There are lots of conversations and speeches. It's not so much that it's talky it's more that the conversations are just people sitting and talking, often sitting as if they were directed to sit that way and not in the way people who walked in would sit. As for the speechifying it's often just someone addressing the camera. It never feels real, it feels like a theatrical moment. (actually many of the shots feel theatrical)

The other problem is that the film feels padded. While film is 80 minutes long (74 minus end credits) it still feels padded. Some of this probably could have been trimmed.

On the other hand there is something about the film that I can't shake. There is an oppressive mood that I like. There are some creepy images, especially the dark figure that seems to causing everything to happen. Additionally the story is really good. 

Several days on I'm still pondering.

Do yourself a favor and read some other reviews and decide for yourself if you want to see the film.

Nightcap 5/11/25 Happy Mothers Day - some random notes

 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM WHERE EVER YOU ARE!!!

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Cannes starts this week and there will be coverage. Not sure how much as films are still drifting in. I will say there are some good films, and some films that I suspect will end up at the New York Film Festival because the check off enough ticky boxes.

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Got into arguments about Tribeca and why we should or shouldn't cover it. Some writers I know have decided to give up on the fest.

The con side argues that since DeNiro and group sold control of the festival it's slid into the toilet and the films are just things that couldn't get into any other fest, and largely suck across the board.

The pro side is that the festival is almost all world premeires and no one will know if the fest if good or bad until all the films screen and we know what .

I stand on the pro side because having seen between 70 and 100 plus films every year for the last 15 years I know better than the people lecturing me what the ratio is. More to the point because I've seen the films that show up during the next year as must sees that everyone tells me I need to see when they are released.

Now are all Tribeca films good? Oh hell no. Every year thre are some hellacious dogs, but there are more good than some people think, and as I have said I've been an early adopter for later fan favorite films.

For me, as a writer who can really wade in Tribeca is a grand treasure hunt-so much so that I've already seen one film that is on the best of 2025 list and which I can't stop thinking about.

Is it worth attending? Oh yes... but you have to remember like all film festivals its ultimately a crap shoot as to whether you'll like the films.

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Random Tribeca note:

Posts will drop as close to the embargo as I can. Things are going up already and it's first come first serve so some reviews will not be as close as some PR people will have liked.

Keep reading and watch the chaos ensue.

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I think the reason I've drifted away from Billy Joel is he is not releasing new music and since he is one of my favorite song writers, seeing him become essentially a lounge singer annoys the piss out of me. His words spoke my heart and the fact he has no more makes me feel as though I'm silent-and I know that isn't true.

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Last Castle (2001)

The original poster pulled after the 9/11 attack

 THE LAST CASTLE died at the box office in 2001. Released a month after the 911 attacks I don't think anyone wanted to see a film where bad things happened to  good people at the hands of capricious fools. This would be especially true when you consider that the film could be seen about the danger of having people without experience at the helm. Looking back almost two decades on it reveals itself to be a neat little thriller worthy of rediscovery.

The plot of the film has Robert Redford as a court marshalled general thrown into the brig. He sent men on a mission against orders and men died. He is placed into a prison run by James Gandolfini an officer who admires Redford but takes offense at his comment that he doesn't understand what a real warrior would do. Gandolfini is also a stern and cruel disciplinarian, over doing it on every punishment. Redford takes offense and begins to try get Gandolfini out of the prison. 

A solid battle of wills the film the film works best when the actors are set loose. Redford is strong and heroic, Gandolfini is a quietly evil monster, who seems like a sweet guy until the he's not. The unspoken signaling for a guard to kill an inmate who refuses to lay down is chilling.  The other actors Delroy Lindo, Mark Ruffalo, Clifton Collins, and the others in the stellar cast sell the events, even as the plot sometimes feels contrived.

While a nifty thriller in it's own right, the film is also a quiet allegory about the abuses of power. Gandolfini's warden may have the right stuff on paper but isn't the right man in actuality. He has never been in battle and thus never truly learned to lead. Its a intriguing theme about the leadership of America. It is also one that America didn't want to hear in 2001 (the original poster of an upside down American flag- the symbol for distress, was pulled and replaced).

I really liked this film a great deal. I just wish it hadn't taken me almost two decades to discover it.

Brief word on Hold Me Softly (2025)

A newcomer to the neighborhood makes the acquaintence of a girl living across the street. As the friendship grows drifts into her world.

The meeting of two awkward people tale is something we've seen before. However in this film the cast makes this something special. Jasmine Berber as Snow and Andrei Kogolenok as Calvin make the film.  We can feel their connection grow as the film goes on and as a result the film has a nice kick in it.

I'm sorry this isn't much of a review but I wasn't going to review this, but my arm was twisted when I needed a break from festival films and as a result I discovered this gem.

Recommended

I have no idea why I am telling you this but Hey Babe (1983) is a creepy film for all the wrong reasons

Yasmin Bleeth's debut film is a road accident of the disturbing kind. She plays a 12 year old show biz hopeful who is an orphan. She runs away and ends up on the street and mentored by homeless guy Buddy Hackett.

I have no idea who thought this was a good idea. I know some people argue that Hollywood sexualizes little girls, and if anyone knew about this film it would be the first exhibit. At no point does Bleeth look like a little girl, she looks like a 12 year old stripper.

The mind boggles. 

I found this film because of several references in some random articles both in print and on line. Curious, I tracked it down and ended up watching a weird Russian dub on You Tube (one voice translated all the dialog after it was spoken)

Largely it's a not very good film wrapped up in a skevy wrapping. Even back in the day this would not have been okay, both as film (it really isn't good) or as a portrait of a young girl. I know that begs the question, why mention it...well I don't freaking know, but its off the rails enough that that those looking for off the beaten track films (and dear god it is) will want to see it.

Sew Torn (2024)

Do yourself a favor and don't read on SEW TORN and instead just get tickets and see it. I say that because this film is a wild ride you will wan to take.

The film follows a desperate seamstress. Her store is on the way down. When she runs across a drug deal gone wrong she has three choices, do nothing, try to commit the perfect crime and steal the money or call the please. If she takes the money she potentially could solve all her problems...or get her killed.

This is a crazy film. I'm not going to say what happens, but it's truly insane and some of the turns require the woman to use her seamstress skills to help her remain alive. That may sound insane, especially since this film involves gunfights, but, trust me, it's true and it will make your jaw hang open.

This film is an absolute blast. I discovered it because Liz Whittemore sent me an email telling me that I had to see this SXSW film. Somehow I missed the film on the film on the list of films at the festival. As I moved to email for access more emails came in. Apparently people really loved the film. Having seen it I completely understand. 

This is one of my favorite films of 2024

Consider this my email to you. Go see this film- trust me you'll love this.

Stand Your Ground (2025)

A former special forces soldier returns home and is attacked by goons from the local crime boss who wants his land. His wife is killed. WHen he kills one of the attackers outside his house he ends up in prison for six years. Returning home he makes plans to get revenge and ends up putting the crime lord's son into a coma. War results.

Feeling at times like a riff on the John Wick films, a scene has the crime lord chatising his son like one in the first Wick film, this is an entertaining action film. To be certain we have been here numerous times before, but the set pieces are good enough that we really don't mind. 

It helps that the cast , including Peter Stormare and Eric Roberts is solid and doesn't phone anything in.

Is it high art? No but it entertains and is worth the price of admission and a bucket of popcorn

Juliet and Romeo (2025) Open in the US on Friday and gets a special one night only screening in the UK June 11

This is a music version of the classic Shakespeare play with new music from writer director Timothy Scott Bogart. It is the first of a trilogy (according to the press material I have) aiming to tell the real story of the lovers and covers the story in Shakespeares tale

Big and flashy this is an inoffensive retelling of the tale that seems a bit less bloody than other versions. It’s an amusing romp where some veteran English actors such as Dereck Jacobi can chew scenery.

And I do mean this is a romp since the film is brightly colored,  has big flashy production numbers and shows signs of the creators having seen the theatrical smash & JULIET and having seen THE GREATEST SHOWMAN a few too man times (some of the songs sound like there are borrows.)

Truthfully I enjoyed myself. Normally I hate this story of young love gone amok (I mean how many people die over a week when the wrong people meet?) but this time out of the box it’s  good enough that I had a good time. How did that happen?

While I don’t think you will remember this a week or so after seeing it, it is still a good time at the movies and is definitely worth a look.

Watch The Skies (2022) aka UFO SWEDEN

A young rebelious teenager whose father went missing in the mountains, turns to her father's friends in a UFO group to try and find out what happen to him when his car ends up crashing through the roof of a barn.

Award winning science fiction adventure (under its original name UFO SWEDEN) has been kicking around for a couple of years now for no good reason. I say this because this is a small scale genuine film of the sort that Steven SPielberg got famous making. Its a lovely film about outsides who have an extraordinary adventure. It's a film grounded in its wonderful characters and close to reality nature.

The cast is first rate. The score is perfect (including several well know songs and pieces of music). The visual effects are not overdone and feel that they could be real.

How did this not end up getting a release previously? I don't know because this film is so much better than several recent similar films like LEGEND OF OCHI. Here everything makes sense and we end up buying it all from start to finish. I absolutely loved this and I recommended it to several friends as something they should see.

While the film is a bit long at just under two hours, the film still shines and make you wish for a sequel, not because anything is left unsaid, but because you want more time with these characters.

Recommended

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey (2024)

I started this look at the JonBenet Ramsey case as a time filler before a baseball game. I had an hour until the game came on and I figured I’d give it a try. Then I was shocked and intrigued when I saw that the director was Joe Belinger. How did I miss this until now?

After decades of crap docs on the Ramsey case here at last is a docuseries that pulls together all the threads and dispels all the myths. It’s a film that clears the air and makes it clear the Ramseys did not commit the crime and that the Boulder police botched everything so badly the odds are that we are never going to know who did it.

I really liked this film a great deal. It starts pretty much at the time of the murder and just goes for three hours. Every minute is crammed with information so that when the episodes end, you are actually ready to step away and decompress. That may not sound like much, but too many Netflix docuseries over the last few years are cut into pieces for no really good reason.  This one needs it.

This is a super series. If you are a true crime fan or if you haven’t kept up to date on the investigation this series is a must.

Dalia and the Red Book (2024)

 

Dalia is a young girl dealing with the death of her father. Her father was a writer working on his first novel when he passed away. Unfortunately for Dalia her father's characters want their story told and they kidnap her and she is forced to finish the tale.

Good looking family film is an enjoyable romp. Yes the film is similar to numerous other tales told over the years, but the film still manages to be entertaining on its own terms. That should not be taken as knock against the film, it's not, rather it's simply pointing out the obvious. It also is an indication that I actually got lost in the film for 90 plus minutes.

If I was to quibble with the film at all it would be to wonder if the original SPanish language voices are better than the ones in the English dub. I ask that because a couple of them seem to be a little flat.

Regardless DALIA AND THE RED BOOK is worth a look, more so if you are looking for good family fare and are tired of  your kids and their 400th rerunning of a Disney film.

Caught by Tides (2024) Opens Friday

Jia Zhangke’s CAUGHT BY THE TIDES should not work, and even if it did work it shouldn’t work as well as it does.. The film was cut together from “mountains” of footage shot randomly over a 21 year period. During the lockdown Zhangke and his team went through the footage and found things they could tie together. They then shot some new footage to tie it all up together. It may take a while to click, but there is a point where it suddenly just comes together.

Beginning with some documentary footage of some women singing on Women’s Day, the film jumps around for a bit between documentary pieces and then a man and a woman who are in a relationship. They break apart and then going looking for each other over time. Before meeting again in the days of covid.

It’s not giving anything away because what makes this film special is the performances. Watching the actors age over time, in clips that were never meant to go together is something special. Somehow the ravages of time makes what we see even more special. There are nuances that we would never have seen otherwise.

What blows me away is that there is very little dialog. Everything is expressed in the physical performances. And then in the final section, set during covid, everyone is largely masked. The result is a couple of towering performances being given with only part of the face. If Oscar and other awards were truly based the best performances then the ones in this film would clean up.

Watching the film I wasn’t sure what I was watching. Some of this is as I said documentary footage, some of it is just staged bits. A bunch of it doesn’t seem to hang together. Yes the travelogue like footage is amazing  but there were times when I wasn’t sure that Zhangke was making his point…and then suddenly it clicked. Suddenly I was there. Suddenly the pain and loneliness crashed into the audience. Suddenly you realized that this seemingly imperfect experiment was going to break your heart.

I was moved.

Seeing this and taking the ride was one of the coolest things experiences of the year.

I think based on the reaction of the screening at NYFF, where no one seemed to walk out and everyone stayed for the Q&A I think the rest of the audience was too. ( do see the  NYFF Q&A where Zhangke explains in detail how he made the movie)

And if you don’t like it, that’s okay, this is a one of a kind movie.  But if you see it  don’t give up on it until the film ends.

Recommended

Have You Heard Judi Singh? (2025) DOXA 2025

This is a portrait of  Edmontonborn jazz singer Judi Singh.  She was Punjabi-Black woman who started performing in the 1950's. 

I had never run across Singh until I saw this film and after seeing it I'm left puzzled as to why she never achieved superstardom. Her voice was lovely and she was charming. The only thing I can thin of was her timing was slightly off. 

This is a small gem of a film. Full of people who knew her, archival footage and cassette recordings where Singh talked about her life this is a masterful portrait that brings her back to life. The result is a film that fills us with joy at having rediscovered a wonderful singer, but also making us sad in that we missed out on experiencing her in the flesh.

This is the sort of hidden gem that Unseen Films was set up to highlight and as such is highly recommended.