Wrong Again: Leo McCarey

Leo McCarey's Wrong Again is second only to James Parrott's Two Tars as the funniest Laurel and Hardy short I've ever seen. I laughed the entire time through it, and so did all the children in the theater that I watched it with. It's one of the most fiendishly clever set-ups for slapstick I've ever encountered: Laurel and Hardy mistake a horse for a stolen painting (don't ask) and try to return it to its owner with disastrous results, the worst being a hilarious segment where they try to put the horse on a grand piano (more than anything, this scene made the kids shriek with laughter). Masterful silent comedy. There's no other way to describe it.

L'Avventura: Michelangelo Antonioni

[Revisit Review]

The first time I saw Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura, it was when I was a college student first getting into movies. I saw it on youtube, split up into 15 parts so it would get spotted by copyright claimants. At the time, I absolutely hated it. Now, 7-8 years later, I decided to give it another try, this time on the big screen. Well, after seeing it at the Metrograph in Manhattan's Chinatown, I can say that my active dislike of the film has been downgraded to passive indifference. I get what it's trying to say and accomplish. I just don't like it. But who knows? Maybe I'll wait another 7-8 years, watch it again, and fall in love.

Le Testament du docteur Cordelier: Jean Renoir

So, why exactly did Jean-Luc Godard say Jean Renoir's made-for-TV movie Le Testament du docteur Cordelier was one of the 6 best French films since the Liberation? Or that it was the third best film of 1961? Renoir's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is rather blasé stuff: the directing is none too inspired; it isn't very stylistically interesting; and perhaps most crucially, Renoir's faithfulness to the more lurid aspects of Stevenson's novel prevents him from fully engaging in his trademark humanism and floating detachment. But as a cheap piece of pulp, it's not without its merits, particularly Jean-Louis Barrault's enthusiastically wonky performance as the dastardly Hyde stand-in Opale. But it's not "best French film" material.

6/10

Gremlins: Joe Dante

Man...the 80s must've been wild. Just look at Joe Dante's Gremlins: the film is a slasher movie made for children. I wish I was kidding. It might disguise itself at first as a charming kid's movie about a boy and his monster, but then those monsters multiply and become demonic Looney Tunes who steal, torture, maim, and straight-up murder people! But seriously, I adore this film for all its anarchic zaniness, inventiveness, and willingness to be downright nasty and gory despite being a movie for children. I mean, the main villain gets dissolved into a gooey skeleton! Try pulling that off today! I also love how, much like John Carpenter, Dante uses his camera as much to obscure the objects of his terror as he does to reveal them. Just watch how cleverly he hides the eponymous Gremlins from the camera once they transform for what feels like ages. A+ filmmaking, folks.

8/10

Meantime: Mike Leigh

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/criterion-discovery-meantime/.

8/10

Savage Dog: Jess V. Johnson

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/savage-dog-scratches-action-itch/.

6/10

The Dark Tower: Nikolaj Arcel

Why bother making a Dark Tower movie if you're not going to bother making it about Stephen King's The Dark Tower series? Seriously! I don't understand the logic behind Nikolaj Arcel's new movie: it has the characters of The Dark Tower, the settings of The Dark Tower, and even some of the conflicts of The Dark Tower. And yet it's not The Dark Tower. It's practically a brand new story that has nothing to do with the beloved novels. It'd be one thing if the movie was in any way compelling, but other than the inspired casting of Matthew McConaughey as Walter o'Dim, there really isn't much about this film that's worth watching. The action scenes are dull, Roland is bizarrely uncompelling--I blame the fact that he gets maybe 30-40 minutes of screentime in the whole damn thing, and the portrayal of o'Dim is so off the mark that it's almost not him. I can't imagine o'Dim, or should I say Randall Flagg, ever being at the helm of a giant technological science center. On the other hand, I can totally buy him wearing an apron as he casually cooks chicken in the house of one of his soon-to-be victims.

4/10

Spider-Man: Homecoming: Jon Watts

Now see, here's a Marvel movie where the nonstop succession of quips and pop culture references actually makes sense within the film itself. I didn't buy any of forced humor in, say, Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange (2016). But the kind of tacky pop-culture lingo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe lends itself perfectly to Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Homecoming, a thoroughly delightful film that's easily one of the best of the franchise so far. Even though I was quite fond of the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films, I have to admit that Homecoming is perhaps the best Spider-Man film since the first two Raimi ones. It's a great blend of small-scale action set-pieces--loved the Washington Monument bit--and endearing humor. Tom Holland is fine as Peter Parker, but he gets overshadowed by Michael Keaton as the Vulture. I'm not sure if I'm sold on the idea of Spider-Man being in Iron Man's pocket, but it makes sense in this particular universe.

8/10

Person to Person: Dustin Guy Defa

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/person-to-person/.

5/10

Chilly Scenes of Winter: Joan Micklin Silver

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/is-chilly-scenes-of-winter-dated-or-just-downright-creepy/.

5/10

Police Academy: Hugh Wilson

Why are we so drawn to the Police Academy movies despite the fact that they're not that particularly good and the funny is juvenile at best, stupid at worst? I think it has to do with the characterizations. In just 96 minutes director Hugh Wilson introduces us to a small army of distinct characters all with their own character arcs, personalities, and quirks. And it helps that many of them are genuinely endearing and charming: the super-strong and quiet Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith); the mousey Cadet Laverne Hooks (Marion Ramsey); and gun-fanatic Eugene Tackleberry (David Graf), a character who, in hindsight, is a lot less adorable given today's political climate. I guess we can forgive a lot if we love the characters enough. And for all its failings, Police Academy delivers in that regard.

6/10

Zombie Bloodbath: Todd Sheets

Shot on VHS for $30,000 with a cast of "735 zombies," Todd Sheets' Zombie Bloodbath is a chaotic, nonsensical, ugly, poorly acted, even more poorly edited masterpiece of shot-on-video cinema. I loved every stupid, stupid minute of this film that feels more like a car crash than an actual movie. Consider the opening sequence: a zombie invasion hits a nuclear power plant, ripping and tearing apart the helpless staff. Much of this ramshackle intro which feels like a summary montage of itself consists primarily of close-up footage of actors getting their faces slathered with what I assumed to be potentially lethal amounts of ketchup, mayonnaise, and what appeared to be egg whites. Things get even stupider from there are a band of survivors--led by a grandpa who looks (and presumably runs) like Dave Thomas of Wendy's fame--who get picked off one-by-one. It's gloriously ridiculous. And yet, there are occasional moments of genuine ambition, particularly one legitimately beautiful sequence where the camera pans over a crowd of zombies jutting their hands through an iron grating. In short, see this movie, preferably in a theater with a group of camp-loving maniacs like myself.

The Richest Girl in the World: William A. Seiter

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/unscrewing-the-screwball-smart-woman-and-the-richest-girl-in-the-world/.

6/10

Smart Woman: Gregory La Cava

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/unscrewing-the-screwball-smart-woman-and-the-richest-girl-in-the-world/.

4/10