Animal Farm (1954)

Mr. Jones is abusive towards his animals, causing them to revolt and take over the running of Manor Farm. They agree that they must work together in order to prosper, but deep down not all of them believe in the 'Animalism' ideal.
The political allegory, satire and hard-hitting subtext are easy to pick out, but they each keep their place, allowing Aristotle’s ingredients for persuasion as evoked by some of the animals to really stand out when needed.
The animation and voices are excellent. Also, the music does its job perfectly, upfront and powerful, at times even becoming the primary narrative voice.
All in all, even if it was part-funded by the CIA in the hopes of helping to promote their secret Cold War agenda, the animated adaptation of George Orwell's novella still manages to do its source proud.

5 creatures great and small out of 5

ZOOTOPIA [2016]

aka Zootropolis

Directors Rich Moore & Byron Howard put together a colorfully thoughtful feast for the eyes (and brain) with their gorgeously animated Zootopia.
Like Disney's 1973 animated Robin Hood adaptation, the viewer is brought into a world of anthropomorphic animals, seemingly living side-by-side in peace and harmony.  That is until their differences are put to the test, forcing the society to question whether they are as enlightened as they think they are.
With your usual garden-variety talking animal films (usually featuring martial arts panda bears) it's refreshing to see this one add in some intelligence and a number of important themes to ponder upon, like racism, sexism, unfair hierarchys and a heavy dose of xenophobia in a time of terrorism.  As Animal Farm-ish as it sounds there's no shortage of gags, excitement and all around good fun to be had for all ages.    

4 law-enforcing bunnies out of 5

I DON'T KNOW JACK [2002]

With I Don't Know Jack, documentary director Chris Leavens shines the spotlight on deceased actor Jack Nance, who's known mostly for parts in David Lynch works, most importantly the iconic lead in Eraserhead.
The film is mostly a series of interviews with former co-workers, friends & family and the homicide detective assigned to Nance's murder case.  We're given a little insight into the actor's past, his troubled alcoholism and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death.  However, it's mostly just a lot of reminiscing about an eccentric man most people don't even know.  If you don't know who the man is, then this does nothing to spark any sort of interest in his works.  If you're already familiar then there might be the odd funny story but it mostly seems like a lengthy funeral tribute to Nance for those closest to him.

2 almost Graduates out of 5

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

A trio of hell-raising go-go dancers out for thrills in the California desert end up with dollar signs in their eyes and blood on their hands.
Meyer was a filmmaker and photographer who loved his subject. A large portion of the scenes in which the hourglass-figured women appear is structured and framed to accentuate their feminine dominance; it has more low angle shots than a Japanese kaijū movie. Faster, Pussycat also benefits from having a ton of cheesy but extremely quotable lines of dialogue.
The acting isn't the kind that wins awards, but that's to be expected. Nevertheless, Tura Satana's performance as the leader of the fast-car loving threesome gives the film a vigour that many similar budgeted movies lack.

4 unfriendly curves out of 5

Kolchak: The Night Strangler (1973)

The second film is much like the first, except that it's set in Seattle because, if you remember, Kolchak had to leave Nevada. The similarity is worked into the plot, however, so it's not something that drags the experience down.
Elsewhere, the intrepid reporter with the distinctive hat once again provides his welcome hard-boiled(ish) voice-over as he investigates the serial murders of women who were killed under mysterious circumstances.
The atmosphere on the darkened streets is excellent. And the final act, while heavy on the dry ice, is captivating because of its unusual surroundings.

3½ timely processes out of 5

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1972)

Kolchak's first TV appearance doesn't feel like an intro movie. The character is so well-presented that it feels more like he's been established already and we're now deep into his world. Even though he's a Las Vegas newspaper reporter, with an almost ever-present cassette tape recorder, he's more like a small screen detective in a police drama. His sleuthing to find a big story takes him into what might be supernatural happenings.
Dir. John Moxey took some interesting chances with the script. It's not atypical to see the world through a killer's eyes, but from the POV of a corpse on an autopsy table? That's refreshingly weird.

4 sleepless nights out of 5

2015 - Cuckoo's Year in Review

In true cuckoo tradition, I'm submitting my annual Year in Review post a bit later than most might expect it to fall out of my ass.
I had a hefty list of 42 films I had to narrow down to this little list here before you and I cried as I watched some favorites get the boot.
Real tears.  Real manly whimpering tears.
Like all the previous years, I realize a few of the films are produced the previous year before but they didn't get a proper nationwide release until 2015, so I included them on this list.

Here's my Top 10 Favorite Films of 2015:

click on the titles for mini-reviews

10.  Mad Max: Fury Road
9.  Sicario
8.  Brooklyn
7.  Anomalisa
6.  Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
5.  Victoria
4.  Mustang
3.  The Revenant
2.  Room
1.  Inside Out

Honorable Mentions:
Amy
Beasts of No Nation
Dope
Ex Machina
Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh Ich seh)
I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
Lobster, The
Look of Silence, The
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Spy
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Steve Jobs
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom


And where's the fun if one doesn't list off the crappy cream of the crappiest of crap?
Attack on Titan: Part 1 (Shingeki no Kyojin)
Fantastic Four
Fifty Shades of Grey
Gallows, The
Get Hard
Human Centipede 3: Final Sequence, The
L.A. Slasher
Last Witch Hunter, The
Strange Magic
Wrecker

...and there we have it, kids.

Agree?  Disagree?  Have a list of your own?

Lady in White (1988)

A writer reminisces about his childhood in Willowpoint Falls, an average 1960s American small town. Like the tag line says, he once witnessed a murder on All Hallows Eve, but the victim had already been dead for ten years.
To enjoy Lady in White you'll need to enjoy 1980s supernatural films in general, because the story moves slowly. But Autumn can be a languid season and life was slower back then, so it's not too much of a problem. Plus, there are enough trace amounts of a Ray Bradbury and Stephen King influence in the fabric of the narrative to keep me entertained during the slower times.
In a way it's the story of a girl searching for her mother; it just happens to be told from the perspective of a young boy who played a role in her journey.

3 cliffside struggles out of 5

THE REVENANT [2015]

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu's brutally bleak survival thriller, The Revenant, was one of the films I was anticipating the most in 2015 and it delivered the goods something fierce.
Set in the 1820's, while on a fur trading expedition, a huntsman is viciously attacked by a bear and left for dead by the man who killed his son.
Leonardo DiCaprio, in the leading role, gives it all he's got and forces you to feel it with each drop of sweat, blood and tear that is shed.  All the while, Iñárritu is displaying his masterful technique of well-crafted photography and thoughtful direction.  There's plenty of beautifully executed tracking shots that absorb the viewer deeper into the distress of the characters and their harsh environment.  Not only is it a masterpiece with technicality but it also tells a harrowing story of survival, the love & hatred of the Earth and what's more important: one's masculinity or keeping one's humane side in-check?
With all this, I was most pleased to see the Aboriginal's finally portrayed in a mainstream film, not as victims of or threats to the white-man, but rather just human beings trying to survive on a planet that will be here long after we've all disappeared.

5 toasty warm horsies out of 5

SPRING [2014]

Directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorehead's festival favortie Spring can be best described as a gruesome love story that crosses paths with Richard Linklater's Before trilogy and Andrzej Zulawski's Possession.
After he finds his life is nothing but downs, a young man flees America, when he meets the mysterious girl of his dreams in a small Italian village...only she's got some horrific secrets of her own.
It cleverly blends the romantic drama with fantastical horror elements quite seamlessly, making it very difficult to neatly pack into any sort of genre.  My only real qualm with the film can't be revealed without some major spoilers so we'll just have to leave it there.
Like the Before trilogy, I'd love to see this story pick-up many years from now because I'm sure there's more to be said about life, death and the love that surrounds it.

3½ sacrificial bunnies out of 5

Chak De! India (2007)

A once loved but now disgraced hockey player (SRK) makes a low profile comeback by coaching The National Women's Hockey Team, a collective considered little more than a formality and a joke by the mostly male board.
Sports movies are by their very nature predicable, we know the person(s) deemed least likely to win at the beginning will overcome personal blocks and take the lead by the end, but do they have to be so damn formulaic elsewhere? I hoped that India could do something different with the overused template. Chak De! didn't. On the plus side, at least it wasn't about cricket.

2½ scrubs out of 5

KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER [2014]

Writer/director David Zellner brings us the fictional "true story" of Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter to the screen with a comically tragic flare.
A young unbalanced woman from Tokyo travels to North Dakota in hopes of finding the suitcase full of money Steve Buscemi buried in the film Fargo.
It's a beautiful and bizarre film that is funny as it is sad, while managing to be as easily accessible as it is unique.  Rinko Kikuchi does a splendid job at portraying Kumiko with a fragile determination that roars most when she's silently gesturing.   Its bleak yet alluring photography, bizarre score and gaggle of oddball supporting characters make it a wonderfully mystifying journey into a familiar yet foreign world.

4½ bunnies in transit out of 5

PAPER TOWNS [2015]

Director Jake Schreier, albeit some minor changes, does a pretty faithful job at adapting John Green's coming-of-age novel Paper Towns for the screen.
After a night out of mischief & mayhem, the girl next door runaways, leaving clues to her whereabouts, sending Q & his buddies searching for her during the last days of high school.
Like he did with Robot & Frank, Schreier proves he can juggle humor, warmth, likable characters and just a touch of lingering melancholy & cynicism all to great effect.  There's plenty of 'that would never happen' moments with a heavy helping of clichéd teen film bits but with a cast of actors this charismatic it makes it easier to digest.  It's a pretty safe indie-music filled film the leaves a smile on one's face even if Sea World is no where to be seen.

3½ Black Santas out of 5

BEASTS OF NO NATION [2015]

True Detective director Cary Joji Fukunaga brings Uzodinma Iweala's African child-solider novel, Beasts of No Nation to the life on the screen.
Young Agu (brilliantly portrayed by newcomer Abraham Attah) is forced into a squadron of West African child soldiers fighting for a violent rebel militia.
Beautifully photographed ugliness and eye-candy landscapes become a secondary character to the deeply upsetting but captivating story of rebuilding one's soul and psyche.  Many films like this would want to focus on the brutality of the war but this film wisely keeps it grounded as a very human story that is more interested in thoughts and experience.  It's a world where even a seemingly happy ending is lost in indelible hopelessness.

4 Imagination TV's out of 5

Forbidden Planet (1956)

If you've any interest in the history and evolution of science fiction on film then Forbidden Planet is a must-see. Its influence on the genre is HUGE.
The FX are amazing. The electronic score (by Bebe and Louis Barron) and sound effects exist as one and is literally years ahead of its time.
It has themes and characters analogous to The Tempest (c.1610–11): the remote island is changed for a distant planet; Prospero the magician replaced by Morbius the philologist with parlour tricks that astound; the servile Caliban role filled by Robby the Robot, surely the second most iconic mechanical biped in early sci-fi, denied top spot by Maria from Lang's Metropolis (1927). The threat, because every good story needs an antagonist, isn't any old 50s go-to creature (so no giant ants or big-brained aliens with tin foil hats), it's a powerful entity rooted in themes found in Jungian philosophy. Beneath the sheen FP is sci-fi that has something real to say about the human condition.

5 human impulses out of 5

HE NEVER DIED [2015]

Writer/director Jason Krawczyk graces us with an offbeat gruesome revenge flick starring Henry Rollins: the darkly comedic He Never Died.
It follows a withdrawn social outcast, recovering from a taste for human flesh, that goes on a violent rampage when a group of local thugs kidnap his estranged teenage daughter.
Rollins is easily the highlight of the film with his deadpan delivery that is frightening, hilarious and just plain weird.  It brings such a fascinating character to the screen but unfortunately doesn't give him much of an interesting story to go with.  At times it feels as if the film wants to be weirder than it goes but is afraid to go too far and loses most of it's steam.  However, it's a damn fine entertaining ride that I feel could have been a lot better if it just let loose a little more.

3 bingo nights out of 5

The X from Outer Space (1967)

All of Earth's manned missions to Mars have failed to reach the red planet and the ships have been mysteriously lost. Four daring astronauts go to find out why. Four daring astronauts find X, which is actually called Guilala, probably because in kaijū history names that begin with G have been profitable.
There's a lot of filler in the film. It's not until half of the running time has passed, almost exactly, that the creature appears in all his rubber-suited glory. And when he does arrive it's with no surprises in tow.

2 energy snacks out of 5

Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994)

aka Mirror Mirror II:  Raven Dance

Marlee and her younger brother are residents at an orphanage run by nuns. The old building also houses the titular mirror, stored in a cupboard, easily accessible, just waiting to be rediscovered!
MM2 has a trio of actors that I usually enjoy seeing at work, namely Roddy McDowall, Veronica Cartwright and William Sanderson, so I gave it a try. As expected, the three stars are entertaining. Also, young actress Tracy Wells was likeable and does an okay job, especially during the dance scenes.
The looking glass does very little other than sit in a corner and try to be menacing with its blue filter vision (why blue and not green?). When it does finally get its shit together and does something it's suitably cheesy.

2 chairs on strings out of 5

KRIGEN [2015]

aka
A War

Hailing from Denmark writer/director Tobias Lindholm brings a very low-key approach to the war-crime drama, Krigen.
Lindholm regular Pilou Asbæk plays a Danish military commander, that makes a split-second decision, while fighting the Taliban that leads to violent results which may or may not be a war crime.  

The first half of the film focuses on the battle in Afghanistan and, although dry, has some pretty nail-biting moments that seem to populate every war film.  However the second half of the film manages to find it's footing a bit more as it turns into a courtroom drama that's filled with all sorts of complex topics brought to the table.  It's dryness makes it a little difficult to get emotionally invested in the story, which is a shame because there's plenty of heated feelings going on within the characters.

3 smoking seats out of 5

Master of the World (1961)

In the grand tradition of science meets adventure, and after some bickering over whether it should be in the rear or in the front... erm... the adventurers take to the skies in a rather dodgy looking sky-ship. Vincent Price comes along with an attitude that says 'mine's bigger,' and soon afterwards it becomes a fight for survival in a colourful setting that was scripted by Richard Matheson, adapted from two Jules Verne novels, namely Robur the Conqueror (1886) and Master of the World (1904). And, of course, there's some old fashioned movie romance because it was pretty much obligatory in those days.
You've got to admire Vincent's dedication to his task, even if his way of going about it will be considered wrong by many viewers.

2½ gentlemanly tones out of 5

Track 29 (1988)

A remake of Dennis Potter's Schmoedipus (1974) episode of Play for Today (S4, Ep 20) that falls under a weight of clashing styles; i.e. besides a few successful explosive moments Roeg's dramatic beat clashes with Potter's lyrical approach to the same subject matter. The film is nicely assembled, but the moments that should be deeply felt are staged more as moments to be viewed when put through Roeg's lens. The emotional strain just isn't presented well enough to make the overplayed characters fully engage our sympathies, even though at least one of them is fully deserving of such.
Personally, I feel that the author's 'visitation dramas' work best when they're made on a smaller scale and when they retain a stage-like presence.

2½ pictures of long ago out of 5

LE TOUT NOUVEAU TESTAMENT [2015]

aka
The Brand New Testament

Director Jaco Von Dormael brings us this delightfully bitter-sweet black comedy, Le Tout Nouveau Testament, about Jesus Christ's kid sister who's finally had enough of their prick of  a father and decides to leave home and find 6 fucked-up apostles of her own.
Graced with some beautiful, occasionally quite dreary, imagery the film conjures up some ideas that would normally be too far-fetched to believe but for some reason it works really well here.  Even while teaching us a thing or two about ourselves, the story never gets too preachy or takes itself so serious that it won't even turn off even the most cynical of bastards.  There's nothing here that attempts to cause any major controversy, it just harmlessly wants to us to look at things in a different way and should you be open to it, you'll be surprised with it's imagination, off-beat humor and quirks aplenty.  

4 days left to live out of 5

WELP [2014]

aka

Cub

Belgian director Jonas Govaerts creeps onto the scene with Welp, a campfire horror film that lovingly follows the 80's slasher textbook to a tee.  

It follows a young misfit, who for some reason goes camping with his cub-scout pack to find something in the woods is hunting them with bad intent.
Govaerts delicately builds up a nice set-up with a vague amount of depth but once the ball starts rolling he sloppily pushes it all aside for gory carnage.  I know not a lot of dimension is expected from a film like this but why introduce so much of it when you're just going to toss it away without a care.  Nevertheless, it's a pretty tasty little ride that didn't feel like a complete waste of time.

3 tree-houses out of 5

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 2 [2015]

Director Francis Lawrence finally brings The Hunger Games films series to a close with Mockingjay - Part 2, the 2nd part of the adaptation of the final book.
Katniss & a team of rogue allies go on a dangerous mission to assissinate President Snow once and for all.
With the drawn-out pointlessness of the previous film, Part 2 charges forward with it's action sequences (and mild plot development) to the finish line with grim delight.  However, it's too late, the boring damage of Part 1 is done and makes it difficult to really give much of a crap anymore.  It'd be easier to care if the leading characters had any sort of personality whatsoever but that went out the window when the series started.  As an admirer of The Games, the film is entertaining enough to feel good about finally letting it go but it's heavy faults really can't go unnoticed.

2½ tiger-ladies out of 5

China O'Brien 2 (1990)

It's been two years since China and her two main deputies did some hick town cleaning. Thanks to her continued presence the crime rate is still down, but a recently escaped prisoner is on a murderous hunt for the people that put him away in the first place, which brings him to China's part of the world.
It's certainly a better film, and even has a villain with some actual menace to his character this time, but, once again, unless you're there for the high kicks there's really not much else to recommend.

2 cut-offs out of 5

THE DANISH GIRL [2015]

Director Tom Hooper delivers a dramatic portrayal of transgender operation patient pioneer Lili Elbe in the biographical drama The Danish Girl.
Set in the 1920's in Copenhagen, the film follows Elbe's and his wife's journey through the change from man to women and all the personal & physical complications it brings into their lives.
Despite it's wonderful performances (particularly Alicia Vikander), the film feels like it's a bit afraid to tackle it's subject matter and opts for a more safer route by merely scratching the surface.  There are moments of slight intimacy that feel a bit personal but it doesn't seem like it knows how to handle it with enough bravery.  Apart from it's beautiful photography and actors, The Danish Girl seems like it held back in order to play it safe come awards season.

3 scarves out of 5

REMEMBER [2015]

After a long string of universally panned films, Canadian director Atom Egoyan redeems himself a bit with the mystery drama Remember.
An elderly Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, suffering from dementia, travels across the Canada & the U.S. to hunt down and kill the blockfuhrer responsible for the death of his family.
Christopher Plummer brings a heartbreaking dignity and powerful subtly to his role, that is well worth the price of admission and more.  However it's the jumbled script, filled with way too many far-fetched coincidences to believe in the what should be a more humbling story.  Get past the silliness of it all and you have yourself a well-acted revenge drama that has it's fair share of intense moments of drama and heartbreak.

3 glocks out of 5

China O'Brien (1990)

The movie's selling point is that it's from the director of Enter the Dragon (1973) and was produced by Raymond Chow under the Golden Harvest banner. China is the girl next door type but with an ability to topple villains twice her size. When she exchanges the big city for a small town she encounters a squad of unsavoury types in need of a disciplinary ass-kicking.
Cynthia Rothrock is light on her feet, able to effectively deliver the moves required. It's just as well because the plot is old hat, except for that election rally that's just awful. I felt embarrassed for everyone involved.

2 staff shuffles out of 5

Dosti: Friends Forever (2005)

A rich kid wanting for nothing but attention from his parents meets a lowly poor kid. A lifelong friendship develops and MUCH bromance follows.
With that established early on I thought I'd the remainder figured out. I was wrong. I love when that happens in films as long as it stays logical.
Bollywood filmmakers work hard to turn every emotive situation into a dramatic song and dance (even when there's no actual singing and dancing) and I accept that it sometimes feels overplayed. Dosti does it often, but with no intermission on my disc there was no indication of when the change would come; I was caught off-guard. The developments thereafter held the real goal. Dammit, India, my emotions can't take that kind of punishment.

3½ restorations out of 5

Knight Rider 2000 (1991)

America needs a temporary hero with experience! Michael Knight, who's now the poster boy for denim, is the only one they've got, so he gets the gig.
It tries to be RoboCop-edgy but it's as rubbish as the original series was. Nay, it's worse because it doesn't even have the iconic music or car.

1½ bad sectors out of 5

THEEB [2014]

Hailing from Jordan, director director Naji Abu Nowar basically crafts together a sun-bathed Middle Eastern western film with Theeb.
A young boy must survive the deadly Wadi Rum desert on his own, after the World War I British officer he was traveling with is killed by a band of raiders.
It's a really simple intimate story that takes it's time reaching it's point but when it does, the storytelling is superbly vast.  The boy frustrates with each smart move he makes, he makes two more dumb ones but that's sort of the point, so stick with it.
With it's stunning visuals, pleasing musical score and glimpse into a world Western culture rarely ever lays eyes upon, makes this a film worth visiting at least once.

3 iron donkeys out of 5

TRUMBO [2015]

Austin Powers director Jay Roach takes a more serious approach to film with the lively biographical period-drama Trumbo.  

Bryan Cranston shines as acclaimed 1940's screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was famously blacklisted from Hollywood, for his communist beliefs, but continued to work and win major awards under a pseudonym.
The script has a tough time justifying itself, with so much going on it never really gives us a clear example as to why Trumbo was such a genius, unless you're already quite familiar with his work.  It's riddled with tired clichés that are all thankfully made a little more digestible with an amazing ensemble cast that is boiling over the edge with appeal.

3 grumpy tubby times out of 5

THE LOBSTER [2015]

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' English language debut The Lobster retains his oddball, unsettling sense of humor firmly intact.
Set in a strange reality where single folks are sent to live in The Hotel, where they must find a significant other in 45 days or they are turned into an animal of their own choosing and left to fend for themselves in the woods.
Like Lanthimos's previous works, it's going to leave mainstream audiences feeling like they wasted their time but those looking for something off the beaten path, they've definitely come to the right place.  Each actor deliver such understated performances, they become hilariously surreal that even the weirdest moments seem subtly organic.
Something this bizarre doesn't usually look as cinematic as it does but like it's punchy classically flavored score, it constantly lets off whiffs of Kubrick.
Where the wild roses grow, indeed.

4 toasted fap hands out of 5

CAROL [2015]

Based upon eccentric author Patricia Highsmith's groundbreaking novel of the same name, director Todd Haynes crafts a beautiful looking 1950's "forbidden" love story with Carol.
Two woman, coming from completely different lifestyles, find they have a deep attraction to each other that goes against the grain of the uppity times and dismay of their intolerable male partners.
As always, Cate Blanchett & Rooney Mara both turn in some pretty solid performances that are haunted, sensitive and so very human.  Haynes takes us into a gorgeously photography gloomy, cold world that offers it's only warmth in the embrace of it's two troubled female protagonists.  The tale is told in such frank clarity, I think it would have benefited with only focus on Rooney Mara's point of view, allowing the narrative to flow a little smoother.
Aided by the beauty of composer Carter Burwell's music, Carol is a visual and audio feast for the senses that leaves so much to ponder upon with what should be so simple.

4 road trips out of 5

Tenebrae (1982)

aka Tenebre

Dir. Argento addresses the claims of misogyny that had been directed at him by having his lead actor, bestselling crime fiction author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa), explain why that isn't the case when accused of the same. It's followed by a series of well-timed misogynistic style murders of smoky-eyed, beautiful women in tidy surroundings. Is Dario deserving of praise for turning the focus outward but not actually changing the modus operandi very much or is it hypocrisy in action? Decide for yourself.
The actual film is also two-sided. As is often the case with giallos, it's a collection of excellent set pieces with stylish camerawork, cinematography and music (Goblin in all but name), but the script has problems. Tenebrae also suffers from some awful ADR syncing, accounted for in the scoring,

3½ novel killings out of 5