The Babadook (2014)

 

One of the things I enjoy about social media (yes there are some things worthwhile there) is the opportunity to discover films that might otherwise have slipped under the radar. "The Babdook" was a film that never played in more than two theaters at a time on it's original release. However, the word of mouth on the film back in 2014 was that it was terrifying. Those praises made it worthy for me to seek out when it became available for home viewing. I can say that it is in fact one of the few horror films that lives up to it's hype. The set up of the story is maddening, but when the supernatural elements kick in, you are ready to believe in what follows.

Amelia is a widow with an incredibly challenging six year old son. Samuel is both very bright and enthusiastic, but he is also incredibly needy and like most children, self centered. From the beginning of the film, actress Essie Davis makes Amelia look worn out and fragile. Hers is one of the best depictions of physical and mental exhaustion I can remember seeing on screen. Samuel and his obsessions, keeps her constantly on edge, and her brittle protection of him is driving a wedge between her and almost everyone else she is connected with, even the friendly co-worker and her sister. The monster in the story is here well before the trigger mysteriously appears.

This is a psychological horror story, and at the end, there is a very valid question about where the "Babadook", the monster of the tale, comes from. It is quite possible that everything that occurs is a manifestation of Amelia's mind. The true source of her difficulties is the unresolved grief she has for her husband, who died in a car accident while driving her to the hospital to deliver Sam. The character is extremely sensitive about discussing her late husband, in part because it appears that Sam reminds her constantly about the loss. All of us have dark thoughts that creep into our heads now and then, but her character allows those thoughts to grow, in part because she is so exhausted from trying to manage Samuel. Even a temporary respite from the tension she lives under is interrupted by Sam. 

There are some great uses of sound to create a aura of dread in the house that Sam and Amelia occupy. As almost every film fan knows, the less you see and the more you imagine, the greater the fear factor can be. Even when the title figure is manifested, he plays mostly in the shadows and our chances to see him are very brief and ambiguous.  The horrifying foreshadowing in the book that she and Sam first discover the "Babadook", lets us know how this terrible horror will manifest itself. [Potential Spoiler: Animal Lovers Beware]. The resolution of the film comes after a harrowing third act where the norms of parent child relations are stressed to the limit. It is not so much that Amelia has let the Babadook" in, as it is that she is letting her grief out in a very destructive manner.

I literally got chills at least three times in last nights screening. There are a few well done jump scares that fit with the story and are not simply cheap moments that the director is imposing to get a rise out of us. This is writer/director Jennifer Kent's debut feature film. It is an accomplished piece of work that makes the most out of it's limited setting and small number of characters. There are some emotionally deep themes in the film, and in the end it is uplifting, but you have to absorb some disturbing moments to get to that more positive resolution. 

This is a Tenth Anniversary screening, and if it is playing in your local cinema, be sure to stick around for a ten to fifteen minute conversation between Kent and Alfonso Cuarón, as they talk about the themes and the process of writing the film. 

Am I Racist? (2024)

Matt Walsh is a conservative provocateur who has taken up filmmaking as a way of getting his message across. As a filmmaker his goal seems to be to create something entertaining not just a polemic on his philosophy. Of course that doesn't mean that his views will not be a part of the film, it simply means that the way he's going to present those views will be in film terms rather than in pundit form. His previous film "What is a Woman?" was available only on the Daily Wire platform, with a brief exception for a YouTube presentation to expose the film more broadly. His new film, "Am I Racist?" is being presented is a theatrical release and is available on 1500 screens around the country. This feels like a major departure for the Media Group that he is working with, and part of an overall goal to expand cultural entertainment to include conservative perspectives.

The approach that he takes in this film is similar to the one taken by Sacha Baron Cohen in his Borat films. Walsh assumes an identity, in order to interact with unsuspecting advocates of the DEI movement. When, pretending to be a fellow Traveler, he manages to get them to reveal their true thoughts and feelings about anti-racism and a variety of other ills. These are the most entertaining part of the film, because he's letting them hoist themselves on their own petard. In an early sequence he attends an anti-racism training session, ones filled with rituals and comments that are simply shown to be odd in the way the people in the seminar act and speak. He inserts himself by asking frequent questions and offering comments to provoke responses from the seminar leader. The results are contentious, cringe-worthy, and hysterical. After being recognized, he later tactics, by arranging interviews with a variety of so-called anti-racist speakers, academics, and theorists. He poses as a DEI advocate on a journey to understand how to "de-center" racism. The questions he asks, demonstrate some of the contradictions in the whole DEI premise. Those contradictions become points at which it is easy for the audience to laugh.

For me, the most uncomfortable, and the most revealing segment of the film comes when he infiltrates one of the "Race to Dinner" sessions held by two women of color who guide white women to confront their white guilt. Walsh himself is not supposed to be able to participate, since the dinners are only open to women. He manages to insert himself into one of these dinners as a server in the facility that the dinner is being held at. What he manages to get away with is audacious, and continuously uncomfortable, much like the humor you will find in one of those Borat films. My favorite moment, came when he comedically acts out as a incompetent waiter by dropping a set of dishes at a particular moment in the monologue being presented by one of the two women who host these events. There may be people who agree with what's being said at that particular moment, I however I'm not one of those people, and I thought that the interruption was particularly called for, and amusing.

Not everyone is going to enjoy this film, especially those who espouse some of the Critical Race Theory that underpins the DEI movement. The average person however will probably find this movie to be very entertaining, as well as enlightening. Maybe those folks who go through DEI training in their workplace will see this as old news, but there are plenty of people out there who have not been exposed to some of the details of these theories, and they're likely to be befuddled and offended by some of the things that are being said.

Matt Walsh is basically playing himself in this movie, with a tongue in cheek attitude as a Seeker of anti-racism excellence. Of course he is also a master troll when it comes to mocking those ideas that he sees as being contemptuous. One of the times where he steps out of character a little is a sequence where he reimagines that Jussie Smollett hoax of a few years ago. It's a funny bit, but it does take us out of the diorama that he has created for the rest of the picture.

Two sequences in the last third of the picture probably highlight the places that will be most controversial about his comedy approach. In the segment with anti-racist author Robin D'Angelo, he engages her with a series of questions that illustrates some of the convoluted thought processes that are required in order for the anti-racist ideology to function. As amusing as those contradictions might be, they end up being overshadowed by the improvised conclusion of this segment, which mocks the idea of financial reparation for past racist actions, especially slavery. D'Angelo in her desire to remain true to her position demonstrates the absurdity of that position by her actions. It will probably be the most talked about part of the movie.

The last segment consists of Walsh trying to take what he has learned about DEI and apply it by creating his own seminar on anti-racism. His ability to act in a dead pan, serious demeanor, makes most of the things that he does in the film feel satirical. In his role as DEI seminar leader, he comes across as inept because the premises of the philosophy don't hold up. The response of the trainees to his approach provide the most insightful element at this point. It demonstrates that the goal is not to bring us together but to further drive us apart.

I completely understand that this will not be everybody's cup of tea. If you find Sacha Baron Cohen to be a little bit uncomfortable, or if you find the films of Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore to be less than tolerable, you will be put off by this film. On the other hand, if you are who enjoys clever trolling, and taking down untrustworthy authority figures a peg or two, I think you'll be entertained by this movie.

 

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024)

 

Legacy sequels have been showing up on a regular basis for the last few years. From "Top Gun" to "Planet of the Apes, from "Creed" to "Furiosa", the studios have been strip mining their IP properties for topics, spinoffs, reimaging and direct story sequels. Some of these, like "Top Gun Maverick" and "Blade Runner 2049" have been quality products which do not besmirch the collective memory of their  progenitors. Others, such as "Indiana Jones" and "Bill and Ted", try but just can't recapture the magic of the originals. Still others are atrocities that need to be wiped from our memories ( I'm looking at you "Independence Day Resurgence").

Now, 36 years after the original "Beetlejuice" is getting a legacy sequel, and I can tell you, it is not in the dreadful category at all. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" is a spry resurrection of a character  created almost entirely by Michael Keaton in the first film. He designed the look of the crazy bio-exorcist and improvised as much as eighty percent of the dialogue he speaks. That is pretty impressive, but it should be noted that the character of Beetlejuice appears for a total of less than fifteen minutes on screen in the 1988 film. It was however an impactful enough fifteen minutes to make the film one of the top ten hits of the year, spawn a children's cartoon show, and a Broadway version. I can't say Beetlejuice is back from the dead, because he still is dead, but he is back on the big screen in what looks to be a sizable hit for the fall.

I liked the original well enough, but it was never a staple at our house so when I was getting ready for the new film, I screened the prior movie at home. It was pretty much as I remembered. Th jokes are hit and miss, the sets are a gas, and the look of the movie is pure Tim Burton. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" leans into those Tim Burton touches and he seems to have a little of his old swag back. The visuals from the next world are all creepy and funny simultaneously, and the outrageous living characters are just sane enough to keep the story from going off the rails. 

The film takes a while to get it's footing, seeing how we are being introduced to a new main character in Astrid, the daughter of Winona Ryder's character Lydia from the first film. She is played by Jenna Ortega, who I know from "X" and the legacy "Scream" sequels. She is as disaffected as her Mother was but for different reasons. Mom has a thriving career as the host of a ghost hunting television program, since she can actually see ghosts, she is a popular paranormal investigator, but her daughter thinks she is a fraud and is embarrassed by her. Their estrangement is somewhat ended by their return to the town of Winter River by the death of Lydia's Father and Astrid's grandfather Charles. His death is presented in one of the amusing sequences that start the film rolling on it's comic momentum. After that sequence there are three or four set pieces that just worked for me and provoked a ton of laughter.

In the 1988 film, the "Banana Boat Song-Day Oh" was used for comic effect at a dinner table sequence. I was amused by it but in this film, we get a different song being mocked by the dead and acted out on possession form which worked even more effectively for me. It also makes a little more sense for the story this time.  All you disco fans and lovers of 70s Rand B music, have something to look forward to as well. Surprisingly, the Halloween sequence is only moderately as funny, but it still works. Oh, and if you thought you saw the last of Sandworms when you went to catch "Dune Part 2" back in March, well, think again.

Catherine O'Hara is used much more extensively in this movie than in the original, and that is all in the good. Monica Bellucci is under utilized but still creates a plot line that meshes with the main story. I'm not sure that Willem Dafoe was needed and his part feels disconnected from the plot, but I can see how it made sense at some point. The best new addition to the cast is the love interest for Astrid, Jeremy, a boy who has a mysterious back story. Justin Theroux is the poor man's Jon Hamm, and he has some classic good looks and an not very savory way of fitting into the story. The film is a little longer than the original to accommodate all of the background issue. 

Michael Keaton as the repulsive but charming Betelgeuse (more easily pronounced as Beetlejuice) is again the main feature of attraction for the film. He gets more screen time, but he never overstays those moments. Once the Juice is loose, the fun begins.  I was not sure I was going to enjoy the movie, but it won me over and I am happy to recommend that you say "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" and invite this demonically witty spirit back into your movie life. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-What's Up Doc?

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series finishes off with another presentation by Robert Rodriguez, of the film "What's Up Doc?" This is the same film that finished the summer series last year, and it was hosted by Rodriguez then as well. His presentation before the film continued to be interesting but it was not as elaborate as the introduction he gave last year, but it was just as enthusiastic. This is clearly a movie that he loves and is happy to share with the audience. While sitting in the theater which was packed, I listened to the sound of laughter coming from several hundred audience members, I was reminded about why seeing a movie in a theater with an audience matters. This kind of experience reminds us that we all can find something in common, and that we are human beings capable of enjoying a shared experience, even without interacting with one another. Of course since it was the closing night film, there were some special events that went along with the evening, and that did encourage us to interact with one another. Two guys we had met in the garage elevator of the parking structure across the street, were seated right behind us. There was a trivia contest going on and we teamed up with them to participate. I know I had a lot of fun, and I think they did as well. The fact that we came in second place was only mildly disappointing because we were one wrong answer off, and we'd guessed ourself out of the correct answer on one of the questions. Oh well, we still had the movie to look forward to.

At the time this movie was made Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal were huge stars in Hollywood. O'Neill was coming off of "Love Story" which was the biggest Blockbuster of 1970, and Streisand was an academy award-winning actress who also had huge successes with a variety of films in the previous four or five years. Director Peter Bogdanovich was also on a hot streak. This film he made to explicitly be a screwball comedy in the mode of the great 1930s films that he loved. Rodriguez told the story about how the original script ended up being rewritten, by Buck Henry, who apparently had a pretty good idea about what makes something funny.

The movie introduces us to Madeline Kahn, who would become a comic icon for the next 20 years. Her role in this part might be thought of as thankless, because her character is such a wet blanket. But she turns out to be a wet electric blanket, shocking us with how funny she could be while playing a drudge. She gets a surprising number of laughs as the straight man in the story. Of course she is surrounded by a cast of secondary characters who are equally good at getting laughs from some of their few moments on screen. Austin Pendleton and Kenneth Mars both delight us with their ridiculous delivery of some of Buck Henry's lines. Mars uses an accent that seems like it will show up again in "Young Frankenstein" a couple years later.

The slapstick in this film centers around four identical suitcases that all have varying degrees of valuables in them. One suitcase contains nothing but rocks, but they are important rocks. One suitcase is full of secret government documents revealing a scandal. Another suitcase is loaded with jewelry that belongs to a wealthy visitor to the hotel where everyone is staying. The final suitcase simply contains the personal items of our leading lady. The pursuit of these various suitcases, and the comedy of changing hotel rooms, opening and closing doors, and hiding under beds, in closets, and on window sills, is exactly the kind of humor that you would find in one of those old movies. Here it is just multiplied.

The climax of the film is a street chase thru the city of San Francisco. O'Neal and Streisand are on a delivery bicycle, careening down the hills,  crashing through a Chinatown street parade and generally causing havoc. Of course in the 1970s, there have to be car crashes, and there is an abundance of them from all the pursuing vehicles. The bit with the giant window pane is staged beautifully so that the payoff is much funnier than it would have been in someone else's hands. The rapid film style follows the same pattern as the patter in the first section of the film, with multiple points, finished off by a topper. Bogdanovich was a film scholar who understood how to read a scene. 

I saw this movie years ago on television, but I had very little memory of it. I have seen it the last three times, in a theater, with a packed audience and it is such a treat. I'm sad the Summer season is over but I am grateful for all the movies I saw at the Paramount in the last three months. This cherry on the top will have me thinking about next years programming, all Fall and Winter long. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Streets of Fire

 

Let me Begin by telling you how excited I was to see this movie. When it showed up in the schedule for the summer series, I wrote it down in pen on a calendar, and put it in all of my electronic calendars, with a heavy emphasis on the date. I was not going to let anything else interfere with my ability to see this on the big screen. Since 1984 I have loved this film, for a whole variety of emotional issues. There is of course the nostalgia factor, because 1984 was not only one of the great years of film, it was my greatest year of films. I saw more films that year that have influenced me and made me want to go see another movie, than I have ever seen in any subsequent year. A second reason that I was so anxious to see the film, is that the music of the band in the movie, is mostly attributable to the late Jim Steinman, a writer and composer of epic rock arias. I've been a fan of his style of music since the original Meatloaf album "Bat Out of Hell". Finally one other reason that I was so anxious for this screening was that it was to be a 70 mm presentation at my favorite theater here in Texas. So that's how anxious I was to see the movie. Now I had bought tickets for a concert that was scheduled 2 weeks before. That show got postponed... to this date. I basically had to choose, and I chose this film.

It's not that the story is so fantastic, or that the performers are so compelling, since everybody is talking about the "vibes" in the world today, I will honestly say this is a vibe movie. The film is loaded with the kind of imagery that movie fans love. There is a combination of wet streets and neon lights, there are shadowy alleyways and gleaming diners, and everybody in the film is dressed in a way it is stylish as hell. And some of those styles look like they came right out of hell. This is a movie that thrives on its looks. The opening of the movie is a flash cut concert video which feature that driving propulsive song from the damsel in distress in this story. As she's singing in a near hypnotic state, we see the ominous motorcycle gang arriving in their town, entering the auditorium, and lurking in the shadows waiting for their moment. When Willem Dafoe is backlit and we can't see his face but only the ominous silhouette, we know danger is coming. When the light finally hits his face and reveals a demonic expression, we know that danger has truly arrived. This is the kind of visual artifice that director Walter Hill uses to tell his story throughout the film. The hero Tom Cody, arrives alone ss the sole rider on an elevated, train. Later in the movie, The Sorrells, a singing group who gets hijacked by the rescue team, perform an acapella song on a dimly lit bus. Hill knows how to take the environment and make it a character in the story, that happens repeatedly in this movie. There are two different bars, a diner, an auditorium, and a street, that are all important characters in the narrative. The fact that these sets sometimes outshine some of the actors is a deliberate choice to emphasize style. And boy is this movie stylish.

Most of the background characters in the film, dress as if it's 1955. They do it up with pizzazz. Bill Paxton plays a feckless character named Clyde, but regardless of whether he is a wimp or a stronger than expected person, he knows how to dress and put his hair up in a pompadour that would do any Elvis fan proud. This is a little ironic considering that last night I saw him dressed down as a punk with spiked hair in "The Terminator". His character could have been the same person, but just dressed differently. The costume of Willem Dafoe in the last half of the movie always gets a laugh, but as the movie goes on, it feels more and more ominous. Who needs a high-waisted vinyl set of waders? What the hell was he doing at Torchy's that required such an outfit? We never figure that out, but we do know that his character might very well have just been described as Satan. 

The film also features actors Rick Moranis and Amy Madigan as members of the rescue team. Madigan is great, as a soldier out of the army and looking for any kind of work that might fit with her skill set. She plays a tough character, with a no-nonsense attitude, but she never is going to be a threat to the relationship between the two separated lovers at the heart of the story. She might be a better match in temperament with Tom Cody, but is she makes clear he is not her type. The coded implication that she has a different sexual identity is not particularly subtle and probably fulfills a few too many stereotypes. Speaking of stereotypes, poor Rick Moranis is trapped as the belligerent buffoonish and nebish manager of the kidnapped singer that everybody is trying to free. He's also supposed to be something of a romantic rival to Tom Cody. That is just laughable on its face. He does what he can with a thankless role, but it is grating every time we have to listen to him b**** about something. If this film has a flaw, is the amount of time granted to his character Billy Fish.

If this were a straight action film, the fight near the end between Cody and his nemesis Raven, using sledgehammers, would be the climax of the movie. As I've already said though, the narrative here is less important than the emotions and the style. So it is the final song performed in front of a large audience as Cody makes his farewell from the scene, that is really the centerpiece of the last Act. "Tonight is What it Means to be Young", turned into the tagline for the movie, and it is a perfect summary of the attitude the film is taking. We see nobody in the film who looks like they're over the age of 30, or under the age of 20. This is a rock and roll fable designed to specifically stimulate the emotions of people in this age group. I'm happy to say that although I'm 30 years over that demographic, I still feel the way I did when I saw this movie in 1984 and I was in the prime age that it was shooting for. Once again I'll just say I love this movie and the vibe that it exudes. I'd watch it again tonight, because it makes me feel young.

The Terminator (1984)-Revisit 2024

 

I said it earlier this summer when I had the chance to see "Terminator 2" at the Paramount, frankly "Terminator" from 1984 was always my favorite of the films in the series. T2 has some great special effects and an exciting story, but the origin of The Terminator and the creativity required by a limited budget, make this version that I prefer. This was a terrific piece of entertainment from that great year 1984, and it fits in perfectly with its use of rear screen projection, stop motion, and puppetry. In addition there is some fantastic makeup work that goes along with the other effects to create a truly terrifying concept.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was just beginning to become the movie star that would ultimately dominate for the next 20 years. This was his second major role in a clearly commercial enterprise. After "Conan the Barbarian" two years earlier, it would have been easy to find himself stuck in fantasy films with muscular guys wearing furs, because that was all the rage in this period. Remember, he also made the sequel to Conan which came out earlier in this year, and the very next year he did "Red Sonja", so between those three films typecasting was about to become a problem for him. "The Terminator" showed that he was capable of more, even if it was as a robotic killer from the future.

Sometimes there's just a confluence of events that allows great things to grow from them. The connection between James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of those great connections. That connection started with this film. I'm still hoping for "True Lies 2".  However, watching the movie I was reminded about how many great moments there are which do not feature Arnold. There are secondary characters that people sometimes forget. Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen are terrific as a pair of put upon cops, following up on a spree killing where the victims share a name. Henriksen's character just can't stop talking and making comments that feels slightly inappropriate at the end of a conversation. Winfield's captain looks at him askew, and seems to suggest "shut up!" with just a glance. Winfield is particularly sympathetic as he comforts Sarah Connor when she first arrives at the police station. We can almost believe that everything's going to be okay. Of course we know at this point that the police are in way over their heads. Sarah has to rediscover that, and the shootout at the police station is a forerunner of so many contemporary shootout sequences that we see in today's films. John Wick and Jason Statham clearly have been influenced by these scenes.

Michael Biehn is maybe the great underrated aspect of this movie. Clearly Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are pivotal characters as the film series develops. It is the role of Kyle Reese, the soldier from the future, who arrives to protect Sarah Connor, that sets the standard for badass heroes and plot twists. Reese is just a man, fighting an unstoppable machine, but constantly finding ways to slow it down, and get the best of it. He and Sarah could have easily disappeared, but it is a human error on the part of the pursued victim, that allows the pursuer to track them down. Reese never loses his cool, and even as he's dying, he plays the badass. You can also clearly believe that he fell in love with the reputation and the Polaroid picture of Sarah Connor from the past. The fact that he becomes the father of the man who was his Commander is just one of those nice twists that come with time traveling stories and a creative like James Cameron.

There were a load of people at the screening at Alamo when we went. Many of them look like they had been in a theater 40 years ago when the movie first opened. Like me, they were experiencing a bit of nostalgia, but also the excitement that comes from seeing something that is really well made, and sells itself based on the innovative ideas and the creative shortcuts that the filmmakers took advantage of. As most of us know, these films will never stop playing, even if franchise follow-ups stop being produced. The best way to say it, is to simply the paraphrase,  "this will be back".

The Last Starfighter (1984) - Revisit 2014

 

The above is not the trailer for the film, rather it is the YouTube version of the podcast that we did on the LAMBcast a month ago. I also wrote about the screening we went to last year, and you cna check that out HERE. 

So there are no additional comments that I want to add at this time, but I will share a picture with you.

We have been recruited to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan Armada