lee_eisenberg

I would describe "The Substance" thusly: imagine if David Cronenberg got tired of the obsession with youth, beauty and perfection, so he made a movie about it. Coralie Fargeat's movie about an aging celebrity who takes a serum to be a younger version of herself has elements of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" and "Death Becomes Her", and even some Stanley Kubrick movies. The point (like in "Frankenstein" and "Jurassic Park") is that when you try to alter anything natural, you'd better realize that you can't foresee the results.

All in all, a lovably shocking movie. I'd go so far as to call it Demi Moore's best role ever (this is actually the first movie of hers that I've seen in the theater), with excellent support from Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid. I recommend it.

I watched the TV adaptation of Stephen King's "Rose Red" because a co-worker gave me the DVD. What an experience! Admittedly, it's no comparison to "The Shining" or "Carrie", but I was quite impressed with how they did it. Very fun series. It also reminded me a bit of the first season of "American Horror Story".

Since I lived in Seattle from 2020-2024 - and in fact occasionally walked past the house's supposed location - I could make out the obvious inaccuracies about where the miniseries located things. Nevertheless, this is one fun series. Nancy Travis, Melanie Lynskey, Kimberly J. Brown, Judith Ivey, Julian Sands, Emily Deschanel, and the rest give it their all. I recommend it.

It appears that I'm the 100th person reviewing Garry Marshall's "Frankie and Johnny" here. Pretty impressive, and certainly not what I expected from Marshall (on the small screen he created "Happy Days" and its spinoffs; on the big screen he directed "Pretty Woman" and "The Princess Diaries"). Adapted from Terrence McNally's play, it depicts a relationship between a cook and waitress both working in a New York cafe. He's just gotten out of jail, and she's reeling from a failed relationship.

I actually knew the title song long before seeing the movie, having heard Sam Cooke's version of it (I later heard a different version in the Jean Harlow movie "Red-Headed Woman", and then saw the 1951 cartoon "Rooty Toot Toot", based on the song). Either way, the movie is a fine piece of work. I recommend it. In supporting roles are Nathan Lane, Hector Elizondo (whom Marshall always cast) and Kate Nelligan. Playwright McNally succumbed to COVID in 2020 (as if you didn't need another reminder of what a dumpster fire that year was).

Barbet Schroeder is probably best known for "Barfly" and "Reversal of Fortune", but he also turned out this addition to the wave of erotic thrillers in the late '80s and early '90s. In the vein of "Play Misty for Me", "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" and "The Cable Guy", "Single White Female" is depicts someone befriending a person who turns out to not be what they seem. The movie makes clear that Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh are some real babes. It's not a masterpiece but an enjoyable way to pass time.

The rest of the cast includes Steven Weber, Peter Friedman (Frank on "Succession") and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Okay, so Bill Condon's "Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh" is a sequel, meaning that it will inevitably exist in its predecessor's shadow. Even so, I did like how they showed the title character's backstory. It was also neat how they incorporated Mardi Gras and the general New Orleans culture into the plot.

One thing that I started wondering while watching the movie is why Veronica Cartwright isn't considered a scream queen. In addition to this one, she co-starred in "The Birds", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Alien", "The Witches of Eastwick" and "The Invasion", and also had a recurring role on "The X-Files". She's got as much right to be known as a scream queen as Jamie Lee Curtis does!

Okay, that was a side note. The movie is what it is, pretty much what I expected. Bill Condon went on to direct "Gods and Monsters", "Dreamgirls", two of the entries in the "Twilight" franchise, and Disney's live-action version of "Beauty and the Beast".

Lars von Trier has made a career out of directing depressing movies, often depicting people in hopeless situations (a notable example is "Dancer in the Dark"). Emily Watson often plays women in miserable situations (such as Frank McCourt's mom, living in grinding poverty in "Angela's Ashes"). So it makes sense that they collaborated on "Breaking the Waves" (her film debut). Basically, this movie is about the drive to have someone in one's life. Watson - in an Academy Award-nominated role - plays a woman in 1970s Scotland whose husband gets injured on the job, so she starts seeking out relationships; he even tells her to.

A previous reviewer talked about the role that the protagonist's faith plays in the story. I interpreted it to mean that she was looking inwards, as opposed to becoming ultra-Christian. Robby Müller's handheld cinematography gives the movie an extra-unpleasant feeling, although we shouldn't expect light, cheery stuff in a von Trier movie.

All in all, it's a fine piece of work, if hard to watch. I suspect that the film buffs will consider it an undeniable masterpiece. If you want a stereotypical Hollywood flick, then avoid it at all costs.

Donald Sutherland died recently, so I decided to watch one of his movies. Jon Avnet's "Uprising" is about the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazi occupation, focusing mainly on the Jews who participated in the rebellion (the uprising led to a generalized uprising across Warsaw the following year, prompting the Nazis to level the city). Obviously it doesn't equal "Schindler's List" in terms of making the viewer feel the sheer brutality of things, but it gives one an idea of it.

Sutherland plays Adam Czerniaków, head of the Nazis' Jewish Council, with support from Hank Azaria, Leelee Sobieski, David Schwimmer and others as members of the Jewish underground, as well as Jon Voight as Maj. Gen. Jürgen Stroop and Cary Elwes as filmmaker Fritz Hippler. All in all, the movie - like "The Great Dictator", "Schindler's List" and "Life Is Beautiful" - should remind us that there are NO good Nazis. Definitely see it.

I didn't know James Watkins's "Speak No Evil" was a remake of a Danish movie until I read about it. Now I'd like to see the original just to compare them. This look at a visit that soon turns sinister lets everything build up. Obviously most of it is about James McAvoy's intense performance. As it stands, this is the third successive movie in which I've seen Aisling Franciosi that has an thriller element (the first was "The Nightingale", set during the Black War in 1820s Tasmania; the second was "The Last Voyage of the Demeter", about the ship that brought Dracula to England).

So, it's no masterpiece, but a good enough thriller to pass a few hours.

If you don't know who Eva Norvind was, don't feel sad. I had never heard of her until I saw Monika Treut's "Didn't Do It for Love". She had a life that sounded like the result of Mad Libs (born in Norway to a Finnish woman and a Russian prince, became a sex symbol in Mexico, and later ran a BDSM studio in New York). According to Wikipedia, John McTiernan hired Norvind to coach Rene Russo for the sexual image in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (which was after the documentary). Quite an impressive career, as shown in the documentary. I sure would like to see her movies.

Unfortunately, Norvind's no longer with us, having drowned off the coast of Zipolite, Oaxaca, in 2006. I suspect Treut was shocked to learn that the focus of her documentary had died so tragically. Either way, this is definitely a documentary that I recommend. It's included as a special feature on the DVD of "Female Misbehavior".

Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" is a horrifying look at what might happen if a virus spread and turned people into mindless killing machines. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's "28 Weeks Later" expands on the idea, showing how the army would have no choice but to resort to extreme measures.

While these movies were understood to be pure fiction when they got released, they look more serious now. COVID-19 caused thousands of people to go crazy. They might have become like the infected in these movies, but plenty refused to take even the most basic precautions (and we saw how many died of the virus).

Anyway, this is one of the most intense movies that I've ever seen. The violence and horror pull no punches. It's not something that you'll forget anytime soon.

As made clear by Bill Guttentag's Academy Award-nominated "Death on the Job", one of the most dangerous things that you can do in the US is go to work. The documentary shows a number of on-the-job deaths resulting from unsafe conditions and the companies' disregard for regulations. A lawyer mentioned that while OSHA is supposed to investigate workspaces, it rarely does, and it often gets announced when OSHA is coming so that the company can give the illusion of safety.

I don't know if the number of on-the-job deaths is the same today, although I could think of some examples that happened since the documentary's release (namely the Crandall Canyon Mine in 2007 and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2010). Not to mention the horrible things that happen in the meatpacking plants that supply fast food chains.

The point is that if you do a job, there's a chance that it might be the last thing you do. Definitely check out the documentary (you can watch it on YouTube).

"Female Misbehavior" is the first Monika Treut work that I've seen. This is a compendium of short documentaries that she made focusing on gender. The first is about a woman who uses her genitals as art, the second is about BDSM, the third is an interview with a documentary who talks about the definition of feminism, and the fourth is an interview with a transgender man.

Admittedly, some of this will be shocking stuff (especially the first segment). Whether or not you like it depends on how willing you are to hear discussions of sexuality and see some of the stuff up close. At the very least, you should try it.

Tim Burton's zany, twisted "Beetlejuice" was going to be a hard act to follow. Well, he accomplished it. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" starts with Delia (still a multimedia artist) informing Lydia (now host of a supernatural talk show) that Charles is dead, and so Lydia has to pick up her estranged, cynical daughter Astrid to attend the funeral in the small town. Sure enough, the skeptical Astrid accidentally releases the title character. In addition, we learn his backstory.

The movie retains the original's morbid humor with plenty of new stuff. Not appearing are Adam and Barbara, as Burton wanted the sequel to have a different focus (also absent are Otho and Juno, their actors having passed on). We get a new set of characters, all bringing something to the story.

The point is that this is a fun movie. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux and Willem Dafoe have all the fun in the world with their roles. Between this, "Wednesday", "X" and the last two "Scream" movies, Jenna Ortega is this era's undeniable queen of comedy-horror.

You're sure to love it.

"Rizi" ("Days" in English) is the first Tsai Ming-liang movie that I've ever seen. It appears that he's Taiwan's answer to Jim Jarmusch. The movie is the ultimate example of slow cinema, featuring long takes and only a handful of lines (none of which are subtitled). I guess you could say that the movie is about life, as an affluent man and an immigrant have a brief fling.

You'll have to avoid the movie if you want to see superheroes, explosions, car chases, etc. This is a low-key film focused very much on the characters. I wouldn't call it the greatest movie ever made, but it's still more interesting than the umpteenth movie where Tom Cruise narrowly avoids all danger. I don't know if it's available on any streaming service, so you'll probably have to check a neighborhood video store.

Stuart Gordon is most famous for horror movies, namely 1985's "Re-Animator" (best known for THAT scene of Barbara Crampton). That makes it a surprise that he directed the neo-noir crime thriller "King of the Ants". The title might make it sound like a remake of "Them!" or something, but it's got no horror or sci-fi elements. Basically, it's about the instances when you dig yourself too deep into a dangerous situation, so that the only way out is to do something drastic.

It's not any sort of great movie, but it managed to stay gritty enough to hold my attention (and I mean that it had some particularly shocking scenes). If you only know George Wendt from his comedy roles, then you're in for a big surprise here.

I should admit that I don't know much about Japan's Meiji era, so I can't comment fully on the background of what Yoji Yamada's Academy Award-nominated "Tasogare Seibei" ("The Twilight Samurai" in English) depicts. Nonetheless, it's a stunning movie. Whereas most samurai-themed movies depict them performing their duties, this gives one a look into their personal lives. It focuses on a samurai's relationships with his acquaintances and family, and how the era's events end up affecting him.

I understand that it's the start of a samurai trilogy that Yamada made. I'm now eager to see the second and third installations. The visuals, cinematography and direction make this a movie that you have to see to believe. I don't know if it's available on any streaming service, so you'll have to check a neighborhood video store for it.

I happened to read about Kate Davis's Emmy-nominated "Southern Comfort" a few years ago and added it to my list of movies to see, only getting around to it now. What a story! It's become even more important nowadays, as hate crimes against trans people have increased. But beyond that, this movie reminds us that LGBT people exist everywhere; honestly, how many of us would've expected rural Georgia to have a proud trans man living there?

All in all, this documentary is one of the best focuses on trans people that I've seen. As for Robert Eads himself, he lost his battle with ovarian cancer in 1999, so I guess that the documentary got filmed over three years before the release. The documentary got adapted as a stage musical that debuted in 2011.

Paul Schrader isn't the most famous director. Although he was part of the new generation of directors in the '70s along with Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg, few of his movies became as iconic as theirs did. His most famous is probably "American Gigolo", but a profound one is "Light Sleeper", starring Willem Dafoe as a drug trafficker wondering how long he'll last in the business.

A couple of things that I noticed. The movie shows New York in all its old grittiness (before Disney plastered over everything). Also, with much of it filmed at night, there's a blue tint to the scenes, possibly evoking the protagonist's dismal mental state. But most importantly, while we might think of this as a crime story, the truly ugly stuff comes at the end.

I haven't seen every Schrader movie so I don't know how this stacks up against most of them, but if this one, "American Gigolo", "Affliction" and "Auto Focus" are any indication, he leans toward depictions of the unpleasant side of things. This is a good movie to see if you want to see a true-to-life depiction of a brutal world, as well as the question of leaving it. Dafoe's performance, and those of Susan Sarandon, David Clennon, Dana Delany and Victor Garber (plus early appearances of Sam Rockwell and David Spade) make this one that you should see.

We in the twenty-first century probably know Felix the Cat from the 1950s TV show where he has a bag of tricks that he has to keep away from the Professor (although depending on the episode, the prof is sometimes friendly with him). Therefore we might not have known that Felix originated in a cartoon series in the early twentieth century. In fact, I think that he may have been the most notable cartoon star before Mickey Mouse came along.

Anyway, "Felix Finds Out" is one of many entries in the series. In this case, Felix gets a boy to skip school but then has to help him answer questions. When a question involves moonlight, Felix gets the wrong idea.

The cartoons were nothing special but nothing harmful. In animation's infancy the cartoons tended to depict either bizarre imagery or characters doing "ordinary" things. It wasn't until the late '30s when cartoons started having complex - if silly - stories. This one is okay if you want to see all of Felix's old cartoons.

"Miller's Girl", from first-time director Jade Halley Bartlett is one of those movies that has an interesting plot but a less-than-stellar execution. It focuses on the relationship between a college professor (Martin Freeman) and his student (Jenna Ortega). Their focus on Henry Miller's works starts spinning out of control.

The movie has well-developed characters and good direction. I think that the main problem is the pacing. A lot of the movie drags. I would've liked to see some background to the characters (or would that have amounted to unnecessary padding?).

Basically, the movie is a mild exercise in southern gothic. I didn't find it anything special, although it had excellent performances from Freeman and Ortega. Maybe worth seeing once.

We sometimes hear about cults, but we don't realize what it's like to be part of one. "The Other Lamb" depicts a polygamist cult where the women are forced to be breeders for the single man. The cult looks like a mixture of "The Handmaid's Tale" and the cult from which the title character got rescued on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" (also with an element of the fundamentalist Mormon compound that forced fifteen-year-old girls to dress as if they were still living in the nineteenth century).

Personally I felt like Malgorzata Szumowska's movie dragged a bit too much to be any sort of great movie. It's a good movie if you're trying to get an idea of how sick some of these cults are, but otherwise it doesn't have much. We get to see some beautiful shots of the Irish countryside, though.

Sarah Polley had been acting in movies for many years when she decided to adapt Alice Munro's "Away from Her" to the big screen. One of the most powerful movies that I've ever watched, it casts Julie Christie (in an Academy Award-nominated role) as a woman suffering from Alzheimer's. I have to admit that I've never known anyone suffering from the disease, so I can't comment on the accuracy, but Christie puts her all into the role, so that the viewer feels for her every step of the way.

This topic also got covered in "Still Alice", for which Julianne Moore won an Oscar. Both movies give a deep look at Alzheimer's, and I think that it would be worth watching them back-to-back. They're certainly movies that everyone should see (we need more movies like these and fewer movies whose plot is Tom Cruise narrowly avoiding all danger).

The rest of the cast includes Gordon Pinsent, Michael Murphy, Olympia Dukakis and Wendy Crewson.

Undeniably, "The Brothers Grimm" won't be for everyone. In my case, I interpreted Terry Gilliam's movie as one of the many cool, unusual versions of fairy tales (along with "Freeway", "Into the Woods", the 2003 movie "Grimm", and the TV series "Grimm"). If the dark, grotesque material shocks you, then you need reminding that these didn't start out as cute stories to comfort children; that came about when Disney mangled them.

Anyway, this depicts the brothers (Matt Damon and Heath Ledger) as con artists who suddenly have to battle an actual evil entity. With the man behind "Time Bandits", "Brazil" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" behind the camera, you know that you're in for some surreal stuff. I liked it, anyway.

Obviously it's about as historically accurate as "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", but this is one movie that's all about the weirdness factor. I suspect that anyone with a flair for dark fantasy will enjoy it. The rest of the cast includes Monica Bellucci (of "Bram Stoker's Dracula", "Malena" and the upcoming "Beetlejuice 2"), Peter Stormare (of "Fargo" and "Constantine") and Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister on "Game of Thrones").

Another movie about the Grimms is the 1962 fantasy-comedy "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm", starring Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Böhm, Jim Backus, Barbara Eden and Buddy Hackett.

When people think of New Zealand cinema, they most likely think of Peter Jackson and Taika Waititi. This makes "Rain" all the more interesting. Christine Jeffs's directorial debut focuses on a girl's coming-of-age in the '70s while her parents' marriage is starting to unravel. This is a character-driven, deliberately slow-moving film without any major stars, so you'd better be the type with a long attention span if you intend to watch it. Very much the opposite of a typical Hollywood movie.

One might say that, as shown in the likes of "The Ice Storm" and "Igby Goes Down", sometimes the child is the most forward-thinking member of the family. Children are the future, after all. This is one that I recommend. Jeffs went on to direct "Sylvia"* (about Sylvia Plath) and "Sunshine Cleaning" (about a cleanup business), and she apparently has a movie coming out this year with Elizabeth Banks.

Another 2001 release sometimes called "Rain" was an Iranian movie called "Baran".

*Incidentally, the actress who plays the mom starred in an unrelated 1985 movie by that title.

"Tek dou bou" ("Lucky Encounter" in English) is the first Johnnie To movie that I've seen. A quite enjoyable one, I might add. As in many Hong Kong movies, it has a ridiculous plot that's an excuse for a series of gags. In this case, some inventors come across a murdered boy's ghost, and they decide to help him avenge his death.

Of course, it's one of the most cornball things imaginable, with a whole sequence that appears to be based on "Home Alone". The one problem that I had was that there was a lot of product placement (I'm not sure if it was deliberate or the Coca-Cola just happened to be there, but it was sure prominent). Other than that, I liked the movie.

Overall, it's a fun movie. Not as much in the way of martial arts as other Hong Kong movies, but that's not a problem. I'm eager to see To's other movies.