The Saragossa Manuscript: Wojciech Has

What a movie. Wojciech Has' The Saragossa Manuscript can be counted among those great, sprawling Eastern European masterpieces like František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová (1967) and Béla Tarr's Sátántangó (1994) that create their own universes and exist outside of time itself. Cliché it might be, but The Saragossa Manuscript is not so much a movie as an experience that redefines the way you watch cinematic images. It skips and jumps through myriad genres: the first half is a dark magic story, the second half is a tapestry of romantic farces. It's a story about stories about stories (about stories). What a movie. What a marvel.

9/10

The Silence: Ingmar Bergman

[Revisit Review]

The first time I saw Ingmar Bergman's The Silence was in college...and I hated it. I'm not entirely sure why in hindsight: maybe I thought it was boring. But re-watching it years and years later, I'm stunned by the film's simple power. I think it might now be in my top ten favorite Bergman films. The scenes involving the tanks rolling by the train window is one of those blessed moments like the climactic "Life of the Mind" sequence in the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink (1991) that seem to have sprung fully formed from the filmmakers' foreheads with little to no artistic precedent. Bergman's images have rarely been more powerful.

9/10

Back to the Future Part III: Robert Zemeckis

Here's how I would rank the Back to the Future movies: 1>3>2. While Back to the Future Part II was fine, it felt like an extended epilogue for the first film. But Back to the Future Part III had it's own identity, it's own emotional fulcrum. Watching it, I felt like I was watching Marty McFly and Doc Brown actually learn and grow as human beings. I loved the Western setting, although in a weird way I can sympathize with Roger Ebert's criticism that the set decoration looked like it was designed for a sitcom instead of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. But in another weird way, I kinda liked it. I don't think the Western world of Back to the Future Part III was supposed to be any more realistic or serious than the futuristic world of Back to the Future Part II.  It felt like it was all made by a bunch of friends who wanted to celebrate a genre they loved. What it might lack in realism it makes up for in enthusiasm.

8/10

Back to the Future Part II: Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future Part II may be a great entertainment, but it is hampered by a very simple fact: it's too busy being a retread of the first movie that it never really gets an opportunity to develop its own identity...except for the brief scenes that take place in the future and the dystopic alternate timeline where Biff Tannen becomes a business mogul. It seems like the film bent over backwards to revisit, repeat, or homage all of the most famous moments from the first. Hopefully the threequel which takes place in the Wild West will be allowed to be its own film. Still, there was a lot of creativity and passion onscreen and I'd be amiss if I said I didn't enjoy it.

7/10

Back to the Future: Robert Zemeckis

[Revisit Review]

One of my deepest, darkest secrets as a film buff is that I've never actually seen the Back to the Future sequels. But today, October 21, 2015, that will change: I'm binge-watching the whole trilogy. I have to say, the first film holds up as a pitch-perfect piece of Hollywood entertainment. Wildly entertaining, effortlessly inventive, it's so close to perfect that practically every single film involving time travel that came out afterwards has had to contend with its legacy. The screenplay is razor-sharp and memorable. The visual language is so subtle yet brilliant that you hardly notice that many parts of it could work as a silent film.

9/10

Difret: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-difret/65838.

7/10

Bone Tomahawk: S. Craig Zahler

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-bone-tomahawk/65739.

4/10

Invasion U.S.A.: Joseph Zito

No no...no no no no no! This shouldn't be possible! A movie where Chuck Norris fights off a Soviet invasion of terrorists armed with rocket launchers, automatic weapons, and quips should not be so boring! But apparently the people behind Joseph Zito's Invasion U.S.A. thought that watching Norris walk really slowly while speaking in a barely audible whispered monotone was intense and exciting. What began as an enjoyable silly and improbable popcorn flick devolved into a boring, lifeless slog. Some of the special effects work was admirable and impressive, particularly the scene where the terrorists blew up a residential neighborhood block and raided a shopping mall. Of course, these scenes were aided by the fact that the destroyed properties had been scheduled for demolition so Zito and his effects team were literally allowed to do just about anything they wanted to do to the buildings. But still...this movie was unforgivably dull.

4/10

The Last Man on Earth: Ubaldo Ragona, Sidney Salkow

Almost a silent movie, Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow's The Last Man on Earth is a visual wonder packed with visceral power. Several scenes are beautifully shot and stunning: shrouded bodies being thrown into a hellish fire pit in the dead of night; Vincent Price marking off yet another day on his wall of makeshift calendars; a small army of "vampires" approaching the eponymous hero in a church with stakes raised high at the ready. What keeps the film from being a masterpiece is its shoddy plotting and direction. The second act is dominated by flashbacks which are...tiring. These flashbacks feel like they were handled by a different director who didn’t speak English as a first language—numerous lines are flubbed or stumbled over. Still, I would be amiss in not recommending the film. It's just a shame that it couldn't have been more polished.

7/10

Prison: Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman's Prison is proof that being well-made from a technical stand-point doesn't necessarily make a film "good." A bizarrely structured film-within-a-film, Prison juggles a number of different stories which all explore a similar idea: that earth is actually Hell. As one of his earliest films, it's fascinating to see Bergman fiddle so intensely with frame compositions, depth of field, and camera movement—much of which is very showy and exists purely for its own sake. There’s even an extraneous silent film sequence. Eventually everything collapses from a "narrative" to a string of successive images and apparently unrelated vignettes. Any philosophical or existential theme he tried to promote was ruined by the narrative pyrotechnics. Again, it’s superb from a technical standpoint. But because of its incoherence it fails to achieve anything it set out to do.

4/10

The Bat: Crane Wilbur

One should always be wary of horror films like Crane Wilbur's The Bat: films shot like television shows instead of actual movies with ubiquitous three-walled sets and super-bright lighting that swallows most shadows (although to be fair the second half does have more dynamic lighting since it takes place at night in an old mansion). Many early scenes that attempt dramatic lighting frequently result in the foreground objects and characters being drowned out in harsh white light. But that's not even the best part...it's that there are prop bats literally held up with strings. Based on a famous play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, The Bat certainly feels like a filmed play. It's a shame that Vincent Price is never given enough material to work with in order to turn in anything other than a mediocre performance.

5/10

Aferim!: Radu Jude

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-aferim/65545.

8/10

Joe: John G. Avildsen

I think what's most impressive about John G. Avildsen's Joe is that it doesn't devolve into an exploitation picture in the last act. It could have very easily been some hippie-sploitation shlock picture ending with them getting brutally gunned down by the protagonists. But Avildsen had bigger fish to fry. The little violence seems toned down, more brutal and sudden than gory and exploitative. Joe is a sincere thriller when it didn't need to be. Note its nervous use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound and music: music that seems to literally comment on the action cuts out with the close of a door or a jump cut. It really drives home the idea that the music is all in the titular character's head. One would think that the violent climax would be the most shocking and intense, but I found the scene where Joe and his wife are visited by the accidental hippie-killer and his wife superior.

8/10

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films: Mark Hartley

I certainly knew about the Cannon Film Group before watching Mark Hartley's Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. In fact, I had already seen several of their films and become aware of their reputation as schlock-purveyors. But nothing prepared me for the depths and lengths of their audacity, insanity, and general incompetence as this documentary. Their career is like one long train wreck, hopping from one disaster to the next. It’s actually quite enjoyable for film buffs like myself when you hear people talking about how Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus would rebound from one disaster with their “next big thing” which would end up being a BIGGER disaster. Every time you think things can’t get worse, they’d hit you with something like the production of John Derek's Bolero (1984) or their initial hiring of Jean-Claude Van Damme. It's hypnotizing, enraging, and thoroughly fascinating.

8/10

Momentum: Stephen Campanelli

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-momentum/65343.

6/10

Les Rendez-Vous d’Anna: Chantal Akerman

I've always viewed cinematic structuralism with suspicion. And after working my way through the Criterion Eclipse box-set Chantal Akerman in the Seventies I've found my suspicions of the genre as being bloated, pretentious, and vacuous confirmed. In my opinion, Akerman's filmography works best as a career-long depiction of depression. Take her film Les rendez-vous d’Anna: a listless filmmaker drifts through Europe while promoting her latest movie only to fall in and out of various beds and reunions which she meets with identical detachment. She reacts practically the same way with a one-night stand and her first meeting with her estranged mother in three years. Much like Akerman's other protagonists--at least in her films which have protagonists--the lead character wanders through life in a somnambulist, anhedonic daze. Anyone with depression can identify. But, as with Akerman's other work, I find just about every other aspect of the film to be lacking and unsubstantial.

Je Tu Il Elle: Chantal Akerman

Another Akerman film, another N/A rating. Characteristic of her oeuvre, Je Tu Il Elle can't really be classified as a narrative film despite the fact that, unlike her other films which I've watched recently, it could be postulated that there was a "plot." But I was only truly interested in the first third. The second two-thirds collapsed into a morass of pretentiousness and awkward, silent sex scenes of which European art-house cinema is so fond. But the first 15-20 minutes are a perfect depiction of depression. Some people may find the fact that it took Julie several days to write a single letter ridiculous, but that happens with depression. There are literally days where I feel like I can only complete ONE task. I don't know if that was Akerman's artistic intention here, but that's my reading of the opening scenes.

News From Home: Chantal Akerman

Once more I find myself unable to give one of Chantal Akerman's films an official rating. News From Home is too cerebral and experimental for me to treat it like a regular narrative film. Comprised almost entirely of steady long shots of New York City, Akerman acts as omnipresent narrator reciting real-life letters from her mother received during her time living in the Big Apple. Many of the takes are dull and pointless, but some have a galvanizing beauty: a graffitied subway platform; black children playing stickball on a street lined with parked cars; rows of empty red buses; subway after subway train of tired people going about their business. About halfway through I noticed that the voice-over segments were beginning to be drowned out by the background noise. By the end much of the narration was unintelligible. It gives an odd sense that Akerman was being consumed and assimilated by the city.

Hôtel Monterey: Chantal Akerman

Blow me down! I've found a Chantal Akerman film that I actually kind of like! Only in hindsight, though--I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again, mind you. But I was struck by two things. First, the cinematography was brilliant: delicately framed, warmly lighted—it seems like a series of still lifes. I don't know if it was wise to linger on certain shots of hallways and elevators for minutes at a time, but at least the imagery was striking. Second, I actually like the structure of examining a run-down, cheap hotel from the bottom to the top, occasionally stopping in at certain rooms to examine various social outcasts. This felt like structuralism with a purpose beyond such abstracts as "redefining the act of looking or seeing."

La chambre: Chantal Akerman

Here's my issue with a lot of structuralist filmmaking: it seems like work that literally anybody regardless of experience or training could do. Anybody can set up a camera and do several 360-degree pans of their apartment building. And indeed that's what happens in Chantal Akerman's La chambre, one of her earliest cinematic experiences. It may seem impolite to say, especially considering her recent passing, but I don't see the value in this film. Maybe it has some historic value that I'm missing. But for the most part it seems inconsequential.

Tokyo Tribe: Shion Sono

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-tokyo-tribe/64975.

6/10

Call Northside 777: Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway's Call Northside 777 feels like an odd middle stage between the early film noir shot mostly on studio sound stages and the middle era film noir shot mostly on location in cities and suburbia. Based on a real-life court-case about a man wrongfully arrested and imprisoned for eleven years for the murder of a police officer, Call Northside 777 sometimes feels like the dying embers of Expressionism. I was particularly interested in its depiction of a culture of corrupt cops more than willing to imprison possibly innocent people in the name of vengeance for the murder of one of their own. In this sense, it seems eerily timely considering the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement. I kind of wish that this sub-plot had extended beyond the second act. But unfortunately it is largely dropped for a rather tedious third act where we watch the characters repeat investigative information we largely already know. The ending where the exonerated man reunites with his family also seems bizarrely anti-climactic. Maybe some music would have helped?

7/10

Miami Connection: Richard Park, Y.K. Kim

The problem with Richard Park’s Miami Connection (1987) isn’t that it’s an abysmal mess, it’s that, despite its flaws, the film isn’t actually that bad. Most of the film’s notoriety comes from its haphazard smashing of three different genres: rock ’n’ roll musical, narco-thriller, and ninjasploitation. Both on paper and in practice the idea of a rock group of taekwondo orphans bringing down a Floridian cocaine ring controlled by a group of nefarious ninja seems more like the result of a drunken game of Mad Libs than a coherent plot. Indeed, Miami Connection could be mistaken for one of those deliberately over-the-top film trailers that pop up in late-night comedy shows. But if broken down, each of the three generic elements works surprisingly well on its own. The two musical numbers performed by Dragon Sound, our troupe of heroes, may be drenched in kitschy 80s cheese, but they’re surprisingly catchy and memorable. The drug scenes vibrate with an uneasy tension aided in no small part by cinematographer Maximo Munzi who lights, frames, and blocks them like faux-Miami Vice episodes. And while the spectacle of chunky white guys clumsily grappling with each other never fails to elicit guffaws and groans, it must be pointed out that Y. K. Kim—the film’s writer, producer, and lead star—cannot be discredited for his martial arts acumen: as one of the youngest people in Korea to ever earn a black belt in taekwondo, Kim legitimately brings the pain whenever onscreen.

5/10

A Christmas Horror Story: Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, Brett Sullivan

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-a-christmas-horror-story/64854.

4/10

Passenger: Andrzej Munk, Witold Lesiewicz

Andrzej Munk’s Passenger (1963) would have been an important film if he had managed to finish it before his untimely death: it viciously deconstructs the “Good Nazi” myth through one woman’s Rashomon-esque memories of her time as an Auschwitz guard and her bizarre, sadistic relationship with one of the inmates under her charge. At first she remembers herself as “one of the good ones,” showing comparative mercy to her prisoners as they awaited their inevitable deaths. But as the film goes on and her remembrances redouble over each other, her true portrait as a cruel taskmaster who used the emotions of her prisoners as toys becomes apparent. But the incompleteness of the film, its documentary voice-over, use of production stills for gaps in the story, and its refusal to extrapolate the missing ending transforms the film into a self-reflexive meditation on the very art of memory.

9/10

Two Days, One Night: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne

They're not bad people, y'know, just desperate ones; poor ones; people who need the extra money for this or that. It's not their fault they were forced to vote on a cruel decision: fire one of their own number, Sandra (Marion Cotillard), or lose their 1000 Euro bonus. But Sandra isn't going down without a fight. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's Two Days, One Night has perhaps the most compelling premise in their entire filmography--a series of encounters and confrontations between Sandra and all of her co-workers as she struggles to get them to reverse their votes. There isn't a single performance that misses the mark, not a scene that doesn't hit home somehow. I've found most of the Dardenne Brothers' films too indulgent to enjoy or appreciate, but they struck a sublime balance here.

8/10

Sólo Con Tu Pareja: Alfonso Cuarón

[Revisit Review]

There's a certain muchness to Alfonso Cuarón's Sólo Con Tu Pareja (1991) that I quite enjoy: there always seems to be something going on, somebody doing something. The film has barely any breathing room, but that feels appropriate considering the farcical nature (and by "farcical" I mean that in its classic sense) of its material and characters. The main character is a little shit and the ending suggests that he ultimately doesn't change his ways. But Cuarón's plotting and direction is so advanced that we still care about him...somewhat.

8/10

The Visit: M. Night Shyamalan

I've been waiting for The Visit for so, so long. Why? Because it's the long-awaited return to form of M. Night Shyamalan. The Visit may be the groundwork for an entirely new sub-genre: bizarro horror—films that are genuinely scary and funny at the same time without reducing the comedy to kitsch/camp or the horror to cheap jump scares. Everything about this film works: the acting is phenomenal, the scares are incredible, the characters quirky yet endearing, the ending emotional without becoming melodramatic. I haven't seen found footage done this well in a long time (I particularly liked how many shots were either out of focus or poorly framed). The Visit is Shyamalan's best since The Sixth Sense (1999), the best horror film since The Babadook (2014), and the most original since Paranormal Activity (2007).

8/10

A Story of Floating Weeds: Yasujirō Ozu

[Revisit Review]

The first time I watched Yasujirō Ozu's A Story of Floating Weeds was years and years and years ago. The one thing that really stuck with me was the scene where the head kabuki actor goes fishing with a young man who doesn't know that he is actually his son. The framing, the poetry of their synchronized movements captivated me. This time around I watched the film with a commentary track by none other than that great scholar of Japanese cinema Donald Richie. His insights really helped me appreciate how varied, complex, and rich the film is in terms of its generic progression (it starts as a comedy and gradually evolves into a tragic family drama), its cinematography (including a fantastic scene where two characters argue across a street while it rains), and some truly astounding acting (like one scene where sad members of a disbanding kabuki theater troupe try to sing together in a circle only for it to break apart when one character--whom up until then had been relatively stoic--bursts into tears and runs away). I don't know if I'll ever get to a point where I'll enjoy a film by Ozu. But I think this was perhaps the first time that I've ever truly appreciated one.

9/10

Hell's House: Howard Higgin

Most of what impresses me about Howard Higgin's Hell's House has to do with its technical aspects as a piece of early Hollywood sound cinema. The film features some impressive camera work for an era when the size and noise of the damn things made moving them impracticable. There's an impressive sequence where two characters have an extended conversation while walking down the street where the camera dollies along after them. Fascinatingly, I couldn't figure out where they had hidden the audio microphones for capturing said dialogue. The story itself isn't anything too spectacular: an innocent young man accidentally gets sent to prison for something he didn't do, survives their brutal system, escapes, and reveals the prison's corruption to the media. It takes 28 minutes for him to actually get sent to the eponymous prison; almost a third of the way though it! The only thing about the prison that really shocked me was their Penitence Line, a form of punishment wherein the boys were made to literally stare at a chalkboard line for hours at end without moving. Other than that, the story was rather melodramatic and blasé.

6/10

Too Late Blues: John Cassavetes

John Cassavetes' Too Late Blues stands as one of the best jazz movies I've ever seen—not a movie necessarily about jazz or even featuring jazz, but a movie that attempts to emulate the very genre itself: its spontaneity, its atmosphere, a capriciousness between ebullient joy and helpless despair. Too Late Blues centers on the self-destructive relationship between "Ghost" Wakefield (Bobby Darin) and Jess Polanski (Stella Stevens), two struggling jazz artists who are perfect in their incompatibility for each other. Seemingly incapable of not hurting each other, they sabotage what little hope they have for making the big time. Cassavetes always managed a curious tension in his films between extreme emotional volatility and insouciant improvisation, two elements which rarely mix. Somehow Cassavetes managed to incorporate impromptu baseball games and drinking contests into this film without damaging its emotional velocity. The result plays like a superb jazz solo: unpredictable and sublime, perfectly constructed without seeming planned out.

7/10

The Diabolical: Alistair Legrand

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-the-diabolical/64411.

4/10

Mystery of the 13th Guest: William Beaudine

Y'know what? William Beaudine's Mystery of the 13th Guest could have been a fascinating, William Castle-esque whodunit. It features a fantastic set-up: relatives are invited to a decrepit mansion 13 years after the death of a wealthy family member where they are murdered and ceremoniously arranged around a dinner table to mimic their previous meeting 13 years prior. The set is creepy, the premise wonderful. But whatever tension, atmosphere, and creepy vibe the film creates is smashed by the bumbling cops. They play like characters out of some comedic serial, bumbling about and making stupid jokes like “I know who killed her!” “Who?” “The murderer!” The ending is unfulfilling and the overall experience ruined.

3/10

The Milky Way: Leo McCarey

Very few silent film stars managed to make the transition to talkies. But if Leo McCarey's The Milky Way is any evidence, legendary comedian Harold Lloyd made the leap very comfortably. His persona, gumption, and charisma salvage a film otherwise largely bereft of humor and enjoyment. There simply aren't enough moments for Lloyd to stretch his slapstick muscles; the gags are too far and in-between. Much of the time he literally just makes a fool of himself, running back into rooms to close doors that he missed, kissing his prize horse. Not to say that his silent comedies were well-springs of dignity, but at least they were creative and genuinely funny. The only gag in the entire film that I felt actually worked was near the end during the climactic boxing match where Lloyd grappled with his opponent and hit him in such a manner that his own fist smacked him in the chin at the same time. But Lloyd's simple enthusiasm makes the film watchable.

6/10

Death Valley Rangers: Robert Emmett Tansey

Robert Emmett Tansey's Death Valley Rangers is a sleepy Poverty Row Western notable for two reasons. First, it features a trio of paunchy has-beens for leads: Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Bob Steele. All of them had seen better days. In some sense, seeing them in this film is sort of like watching Bela Lugosi in any of his Poverty Row pictures. The film doesn’t really progress, it awkwardly stumbles from one plot point to the next. That said, there is an odd plot point about a villain who invents a chemical process through which he can return gold into ore. It's the kind of revelation that jolts you up from your coma long enough to mutter, "What in the HELL are they talking about?" Other than that, the film is as tired as its tired, should-have-been-retired leads.

3/10

Chico & Rita: Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando

I think it was the assassination scene set to the sound of Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" that made me realize that Chico & Rita was something special. The odds were already in its favor what with its story centered around the late 1940s, early 1950s jazz scene and stunning animation reminiscent of mid-century Cuba. But it was that scene that really jolted my spine into awareness. I found the central romance rather tepid, actually. I never believed that their initial bond was so powerful that they would sacrifice and suffer for each other for decades despite their abusive and destructive behavior. To me, Chico & Rita is a blast of jazz nostalgia and a celebration of animation's power to elevate and exaggerate.

8/10

Dukhtar: Afia Nathaniel

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-dukhtar/63934.

9/10

The Men: Fred Zinnemann

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/2015/09/15/b-roll-fred-zinnemanns-men-1950/.

8/10

The Flame and the Arrow: Jacques Tourneur

Jacques Tourneur's The Flame and the Arrow may be my all-time favorite swashbuckling film. It contains everything that I love about the genre: exciting action, charismatic heroes, despicable villains, and an overall sense of fun. This was a movie designed to entertain and it succeeds. The film was a breathe of fresh air after watching so many modern, bloated action blockbusters. It's nice to see a filmmaker who keeps his camera steady and refuses to unnecessarily edit during acrobatic action scenes. I had almost forgotten that there was a time when action leads had to be able to do actual stunt-work. Well, maybe not the actual actors. But it's nice to know that actual human beings were doing legitimate acrobatics and tumbling on-camera.

8/10

I Killed My Mother: Xavier Dolan

It’s been a long time since a film has made me feel as conflicted as Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother. It’s more interesting than it is “good.” The semi-autobiographical story of the tumultuous relationship between a teenage son and his single mother, it's an explosive demonstration of creativity and skill on the part of its 19-year-old director. But it's woefully uneven. As the film continues, we begin to suspect that all of the problems in the relationship are the fault of the son. While the mother can be grating, indecisive, and overbearing, nothing she does in the film warrants the emotional manipulation, abuse, and torture inflicted upon her. The son comes off as a petulant, spoiled brat. But here's the thing: the film sort of knows that he's a petulant, spoiled brat. A supporting character even calls him out as such. But that doesn't fix the fact that everybody treats him like some tortured, misunderstood soul with the heart of a poet. He's an asshole with mommy issues. Maybe if the mother was more combative and abusive—maybe if their one-sided battle was truly two-sided—I Killed My Mother could have hit harder.

6/10

Arise, My Love: Mitchell Leisen

Is it weird to say that Mitchell Leisen's Arise, My Love merely made me appreciate Michael Curtiz's Casablanca (1942) even more? Arise, My Love does everything wrong that Casablanca does right when it comes to telling a gripping war-time romance. Both films deal with a couple trying to navigate their relationship through the rise of Nazism in Europe. Both end with the lovers agreeing to fight back against Hitler however they can. But here's the crucial difference: the romance in Casablanca was tragic, the romance in Arise, My Love was melodramatic. There are a couple of things about the film that I enjoyed, first among them being Claudette Colbert's performance as a go-get-'em, Lois Lane reporter type. But little else about the film works.

6/10

Johnny Dangerously: Amy Heckerling

I love a good spoof movie. And, thankfully, Amy Heckerling's Johnny Dangerously is just that. Fast-paced, clever, and inventive, the film manages to strike a good balance between being absurd and being annoying. Many spoof movies miss that. I've heard some say that without a deep knowledge of classic Hollywood gangster movies people won't understand or enjoy the film. But I disagree. While there are certainly many great touches that only film buffs would catch, much of the humor is broad enough for casual viewers to enjoy. You can't tell me that you have to have an intimiate knowledge of Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney to appreciate watching Danny DeVito get assassinated via impromptu bull-fight. Plus, Michael Keaton has never been more charming or charismatic.

7/10

Maniac: Dwain Esper

Dwain Esper's Maniac is sorta like if a wannabe art-school filmmaker tried to replicate all of the stylistic errata of great art filmmakers without first learning how to actually make a film. In short, it's like Ed Woods Jr. meets German Expressionism. The film is thoroughly incompetent with its nonsensical plot, multiple intrusive intertitles describing mental illnesses which attempt to provide dramatic gravity to the farcical goings-on, and ridiculous scenes of scantily clad women chatting about nothing in particular. But I can't fault the film for trying: there are several camera angles that I admire, I enjoyed the idea of doubled identities, and the effect with the cat's eyeball was deliciously repulsive. But Maniac fails. Hilariously so.

1/10

Listening: Khalil Sullins

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-listening/63370.

6/10

Zombie Lake: Julian de Laserna, Jean Rollin

Julian de Laserna and Jean Rollin's Zombie Lake is...just precious. A film about a French village terrorized by Nazi zombies, it seems to put more stock into titillating its audience with nudity than with violence. I think a better title would have been Vulva Lake: there are multiple scenes of beautiful women getting naked and swimming in the eponymous lake before getting munched on by zombies. The most preposterous is when a female volleyball team shows up in a van and inexplicably decides to go skinny-dipping together. There is literally no good reason why they showed up. Many of these scenes are downright gynecological. Perhaps the directors were trying to distract us from the fact that the gore effects--the few there were--are laughably incompetent. During one early scene where a zombie bit down on a victim's neck in order to drink their blood, I could swear that the actor playing the zombie literally had a blood pack in his mouth, burst it, and smeared it all over the other actor's neck with their lips and tongue. However, I will applaud the film's effort in trying to communicate the scenes with the lead Nazi zombie and his long-lost daughter via purely visual language.

2/10

Paul Taylor: Creative Domain: Kate Geis

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-paul-taylor-creative-domain/63217.

6/10

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood: Paris Barclay

Paris Barclay's Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a comedy that aims for nothing higher than the lowest common denominator. There's barely a joke that isn't over-played or over-done. It's not so much a movie as an anthology of parodies of late 80s, early 90s hood films that just happen to have the same cast of characters and a loose narrative linearity. It isn't very striking visually. I think this is due in large part to its being directed by a man who mostly did television work. For example: the interiors and exteriors all have the same kind of omnipresent, omni-directional lighting. And yet...I love this film. Perhaps it's because I just happened to get a lot of the jokes since I'm so familiar with the kind of cinema they're spoofing. And perhaps the film is genuinely funny in spite of itself.

5/10

Catch-22: Mike Nichols

To read this review, go to: http://www.theblackmaria.org/2015/09/01/b-roll-mike-nichols-catch-22-1970-and-the-perils-of-literary-adaptation/.

4/10

A Walk in the Woods: Ken Kwapis

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-a-walk-in-the-woods/62929.

6/10

Beyond the Grave: Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-beyond-the-grave/62864.

7/10