Viktoria: Maya Vitkova

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-viktoria/77657.

4/10

Dough: John Goldschmidt

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-dough/77654.

4/10

3rd Street Blackout: Negin Farsad, Jeremy Redleaf

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-3rd-street-blackout/77586.

3/10

El Clásico: Halkawt Mustafa

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/el-clasico/.

6/10

Children of the Mountain: Priscilla Anany

To read this review, go to: screencomment.com/2016/04/children-of-the-mountain/.

7/10

Special Correspondents: Ricky Gervais

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/special-correspondents/.

6/10

A Hologram for the King: Tom Tykwer

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/hologram-for-the-king/.

7/10

Command and Control: Robert Kenner

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/command-and-control/.

8/10

Memories of a Penitent Heart: Cecilia Aldarondo

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/memories-penitent-heart/.

9/10

Here Alone: Rod Blackhurst

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/here-alone/.

5/10

Courted: Christian Vincent

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/courted/.

7/10

Elvis & Nixon: Liza Johnson

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/elvis-and-nixon-tribeca-festival/.

8/10

Obit: Vanessa Gould

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/obit/.

8/10

Bad Rap: Salima Koroma

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/bad-rap/.

6/10

Bugs: Andreas Johnsen

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/bugs/.

7/10

Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator: Dušan Makavejev

I'm not entirely sure what Dušan Makavejev is trying to say in his film Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator. Is it that state-sponsored sexual oppression leads to murderous impulses? That sexual openness is counterrevolutionary? Then again, one of the first sex scenes in the film between the main couple is juxtaposed with scenes of Communists destroying churches. Are we then supposed to interpret sexual freedom as being coterminous with Communist values and their successes? Of course, this being Makavejev, he might just be pulling our chain. Perhaps that's the point?

8/10

From the Terrace: Mark Robson

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/blu-ray-review-terrace/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=the_retro_set&utm_content=Blu-ray%20Review%3A%20FROM%20THE%20TERRACE.

8/10

Magnus: Benjamin Ree

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/magnus/.

7/10

A Kind of Murder: Andy Goddard

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/a-kind-of-murder/.

6/10

The Human Thing: Gerardo Chijona

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/human-thing/.

5/10

AWOL: Deb Shoval

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/always-shine-awol/.

4/10

Always Shine: Sophia Takal

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/always-shine-awol/.

6/10

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: Justin Krook

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/steve-aoki/.

7/10

Hunt for the Wilderpeople: Taika Waititi

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/hunt-wilderpeople/.

7/10

Do Not Resist: Craig Atkinson

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/donotresist-movie/.

8/10

Nerdland: Chris Prynoski

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/tribeca2016-nerdland/.

5/10

Life, Animated: Roger Ross Williams

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/life-animated/.

5/10

High-Rise: Ben Wheatley

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/tribeca2016-high-rise/.

4/10

First Monday in May: Andrew Rossi

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/04/first-monday-may/.

6/10

Thank Your Lucky Stars: David Butler

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/blu-ray-review-thank-lucky-stars-warner-archive/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=the_retro_set&utm_content=Blu-ray%20Review%3A%20THANK%20YOUR%20LUCKY%20STARS%20from%20Warner%20Archive.

7/10

The Invisible Ray: Lambert Hillyer

Lambert Hillyer's The Invisible Ray is one of the most unexpectedly beautiful low-budget horror films I've ever seen. Cinematographer George Robinson captures the film almost like a series of baroque tableaux, rich in mise-en-scène, careful balances of light and dark, and blocking which frequently utilizes empty space within medium-long and long shots. The plot is pure pulp, both deliciously absurd (an element from outer space turns a scientist into a walking death machine) and unfortunately racist (the less said about the Darkest Africa sequences, the better). It also helps that both Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi are in top form!

8/10

Dracula's Daughter: Lambert Hillyer

Lambert Hillyer's Dracula's Daughter contains too much unnecessary comedic relief in the first third and too much unnecessary chatter in the second. With a tighter script I feel the film could have gone down as a classic instead of as the curio it has become for its lesbian subtexts. And in all fairness the subtexts are fascinating as well as their implications for the titular character. She represents something practically unheard of in vampire cinema at the time: a self-hating vampire who wanted to be human. Gloria Holden brings a noble dignity and intensity to her role as Countess Marya Zaleska. I wish she had returned for future films; I find her more interesting than Dracula himself.

6/10

Mysterious Island: Cy Endfield

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/blu-ray-review-mysterious-island-1961-twilight-time/?utm_content=buffer85f3d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.

7/10

One More Time: Robert Edwards

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-one-more-time/76288.

6/10

Murder, My Sweet: Edward Dmytryk

[Revisit Review]

Just like how Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely is a superior novel in all respects to his more famous novel The Big Sleep, Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet is a superior film to Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep (1946). Darker, moodier, and more cutting, Murder My Sweet may not have the sheer star power or quotability of Hawks' film, but it captures Chandler's vision better with amazing impressionist sequences that mimic Philip Marlowe's mindset--just take the sequence where he's being drugged by a corrupt doctor.

9/10

The Raven: Lew Landers

Lew Landers' The Raven is surprisingly tepid for a movie featuring both Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi in their prime. I did like how its version of "adaptation" of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven was the feature a villain obsessed with the man's work and that poem in particular. That's just smart screenwriting, right there. But not much really happens until the last 20 minutes when Lugosi starts tormenting his dinner guests with all of his crazy mansion toys--working replicas of Poe's torture devices, mechanical mansion traps, even an entire room which descends into the basement via a massive elevator. It's old school pulpy fun. I also appreciated how Karloff snarled like Frankenstein's Monster when he first realized that he was betrayed and enslaved by Lugosi. Nice tough.

6/10

Children of the Corn: Fritz Kiersch

Stephen King's Children of the Corn is a legitimately creepy and unsettling short story that juxtaposes a crumbling marriage against an atmosphere of specifically American religious extremism and paranoia. Fritz Kiersch's Children of the Corn takes the general story and tries to make it into a watered down exploitation movie bereft of tension and atmosphere. Part of this is its use of two protagonists--the married couple from the short story (who here have a great and happy marriage) and a young boy living in the damned town who inexplicably narrates the film. So half of the film is narrated, the other half not. What's worse, all of the scenes with the couple take place after the town and its backstory are fleshed out and explained. As a result, we watch the couple discover things that we the audience already know. Imagine if in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) the film began with a lengthy prologue explaining that the Overlook Hotel was haunted, how it was haunted, and that it intended to entrap the Torrance family. Children of the Corn is boring because it doesn't allow its characters and its audience to figure out the town's secret on their own.

4/10

Pandemic: John Suits

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-pandemic/76013.

4/10

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2: Kirk Jones

Kirk Jones' My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 has many, many problems--jokes ripped off wholesale from the first movie, a flimsy premise, characters whose only features are their own pettiness. But the biggest one is that for a film which ostensibly takes place 14 years after the first one, the characters haven't grown one bit. Aged, perhaps. But if anything they have become Flanderized. Toula (Nia Vardalos) has it the worst, devolving from a slightly insecure but determined woman in the first film to a full-fledged neurotic who chews scenery like crazy. In both physical appearance and mannerisms she is becoming a Greek Tina Fay. Also I didn't buy the granddaughter's character arc. After 17 years of a torturous upbringing it takes only one act of bravery on Toula's part for her to completely re-evaluate how she views her family? Not buying it. This film may be benign, but it's also aggravating.

4/10

Alphaville: Jean-Luc Godard

[Revisit Review]

Rewatching ALPHAVILLE (1965). Man, Godard had the best credits sequences back in the day...

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) March 22, 2016

ALPHAVILLE is so deliciously weird. Too self-aware to play itself straight, too straight to admit that it idolizes the noir it mimics.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) March 22, 2016

Jean-Luc Godard's ALPHAVILLE (1965) pic.twitter.com/diTtLR9zuA

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) March 22, 2016

No matter how many times I watch ALPHAVILLE, I'm not sure I'll ever reconcile my feelings for it? Deliberate craziness or slapdash nonsense?

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) March 22, 2016

Jean-Luc Godard's ALPHAVILLE (1965) pic.twitter.com/Zpig6AXEca

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) March 24, 2016

6/10

The Lady Vanishes: Alfred Hitchcock

[Revisit Review]

The brilliance of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes reveals itself with repeated viewings: the strength of its narrative construction. The film is a meat-and-potatoes mystery film--an elderly woman has seemingly disappeared from a crowded train. In a sense it almost predicts Hitchcock's later single-set thriller Lifeboat (1944). But this time around I was amazed with how little I liked the leading man, musician Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave). I used to find him charming and self-assured. But now I just find him annoying, self-centered, and bratty. Side note: I could find no Hitchcock hiccup here.

8/10

The Detective: Gordon Douglas

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/frank-sinatra-the-detective/.

7/10

The Black Cat: Edgar G. Ulmer

[Revisit Review]

There's a delicious oneiric quality to Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat (1934): the harsh modernistic interiors of Boris Karloff's castle fort brimming with geometric shapes, planes, and angles; the constant tension between Karloff and Bela Lugosi as two enemies hellbent on killing each other while doing nothing to impede each other from freely wandering the fort; the obsession with dead or confused women. Even better, it gives us one of Lugosi's best and most dignified performances.

8/10

The Human Condition: Road to Eternity: Masaki Kobayashi

Yes, I know I waited too damn long to watch the next part of Masaki Kobayashi's towering The Human Condition. Sue me. Anyhow, here are my thoughts about it. It's incredibly well photographed, using its widescreen cinematography in that gorgeous way that only Japanese filmmakers from the 50s and 60s really understood. The story became a bit repetitive: the lead character endures beatings and humiliations, things around him change, he endures more beatings and humiliations, rinse and repeat. There's less narrative variety than in Part One. Still, many of the scenes are breathtakingly powerful. The two best in my opinion are the scene where the abused bespectacled private accidentally shoots and kills himself in a bathroom stall seconds after resolving not to kill himself and a moment near the very end where the protagonist's group is annihilated by a Soviet tank unit. Two terrified Japanese soldiers look out at each other from their foxholes and desperately reach out to the other. But for what? A moment of human contact? Sympathy? Love? Comfort? It hardly matters since the moment their hands touch they are both obliterated by a tank shell.

7/10

They're Watching: Jay Lender, Micah Wright

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-theyre-watching/75563.

1/10

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Zack Snyder

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice/75609.

6/10

Risen: Kevin Reynolds

Kevin Reynolds’ Risen is one of the best religious movies in years due in large part to the fact that it doesn’t feel like a religious movie until the second half. We are presented with a side of the Resurrection story scarcely considered by artists, writers, and religious leaders: the reactions of the Roman authorities to the disappearance of the body of a martyred Jewish prophet. After all, to the Romans Jesus of Nazareth was just a rabble-rouser exacerbating their precarious relationship with local Jewish authorities. The authenticity of the rumors surrounding his so-called “resurrection” is irrelevant—if the people believe them the results could be riots, turmoil, and upheaval. So when reports of an empty tomb surface, Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) orders Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), an experienced and jaded tribune, to recover the body at all costs.

 Essentially a police procedural, the first half follows Clavius going about his investigation with the meticulousness of a detective. Jewish cemeteries are ripped apart, bodies are exhumed for identification, and possible witnesses are arrested and interrogated. These scenes can be difficult to watch for their somewhat graphic content. Though the film boasts a PG-13 rating, Reynolds doesn’t hesitate to linger on the more “scientific” aspects of crucifixion, Roman corpse disposal, and bodily decomposition. It’s one thing to read about how crucified criminals had their legs broken to speed up their dying. It’s quite another to actually see it. But these scenes are important in how they recontextualize the film as a kind of skeptic’s investigation. Scoffing at the divinity of Jesus and the religion of the Jews, Clavius seeks rational explanations for the Resurrection even in the face of irrational evidence. At least, that is, until he makes a miraculous discovery and meets the Messiah among His disciples.

The other half of this review will be published in my church's monthly newsletter.

7/10

Sweet Adeline: Mervyn LeRoy

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/dvd-review-three-from-wb-archive-collection-irene-dunne/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=the_retro_set&utm_content=DVD%20Review%20-%20Irene%20Dunne%20to%20the%203rd%20Power.

6/10

Ann Vickers: John Cromwell, Tommy Atkins

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/dvd-review-three-from-wb-archive-collection-irene-dunne/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=the_retro_set&utm_content=DVD%20Review%20-%20Irene%20Dunne%20to%20the%203rd%20Power.

4/10

Consolation Marriage: Paul Sloane, Charles Kerr

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/dvd-review-three-from-wb-archive-collection-irene-dunne/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=the_retro_set&utm_content=DVD%20Review%20-%20Irene%20Dunne%20to%20the%203rd%20Power.

5/10