2022 Film of the Year Nominees

 WE'VE LET THOSE OSCARS DO THEIR THANG; SO LET'S HEAR FROM THE 'RICKSTERS'.

  Here are the nominees for Film of the Year (in alphabetical order).

1. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN  (dir. Martin McDonagh)
   
   
   
2. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE  (dir. Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan)
   
   
   
3. THE FABELMANS  (dir. Steven Spielberg)
   
   
   
4. THE MENU  (dir. Mark Mylod)
   
   
   
5. PEARL  (dir. Ti West)
   
   
   
6. SHE SAID  (dir. Maria Schrader)
   
   
   
7. TÁR  (dir. Todd Field)
   
   
   
8. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING  (dir. George Miller)
   
   
   
9. THE WOMAN KING  (dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood)
   
   
   
10. WOMEN TALKING  (dir. Sarah Polley)
    
    
    

Paul Bridgeman July 22, 1966 - March 8, 2023

 Rest in peace, my friend.

THE JACKSON FIVE

 MY CO-WORKER JOE BLACK (YOU SHOULD MEET HIM) HAS BUILT THIS DESKTOP SHRINE TO THE GREAT SAMUEL L.

I've re-upped a much better quality photo provided by the wonderful Joe Black himself!

DOG TAGS (1987)

 "IF CECIL AND HIS ZOMBIES WANNA RIDE OUT, THEY GOTTA MAKE IT TO CHECKPOINT 2!"

Awwwwwwww, if only there WERE zombies!  Only 20 minutes in and I was looking at my watch.  The problem with DOG TAGS is that is suffers from PLATOON-itis.  Released a year after (that terrible movie) PLATOON, DOG TAGS takes itself way too seriously.  A group of POW's (this is during the Vietnam War) held in tiger cages are rescued by an Army Captain who takes them on a secret mission. 

Soon the men find a cache of gold bars and that ole devil greed takes over.  So yes, this is basically TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE in the jungle.  But there the similarity with that superb movie ends.  Going in, the synopsis led me to believe this would be kinda a KELLY’S HEROES type of movie but it’s not fun at all.  The mention of a “cache of gold” brings to mind more of a fun caper movie in the jungle (which this is not).  Seriously in need of the editor’s scissors.  Also most of the ‘emotional beats’ in the film are not earned so we get the clichéd Vietnam soldier mental breakdowns etc. without any emotional lead-up to them hence they seem even more clichéd and we couldn’t care less.  These characters/actors constantly emote different emotional states but they have not been established by the script or the performances so they are basically faceless nonentities whom we also couldn’t care less about. 

The one ‘Dustin Hoffman in PAPILLON’ character with the monstrously oversized eyeglasses was the only one I hooked onto and . . . well . . . let’s just say don’t get too attached to him.  The thing is beautifully shot and the new Vinegar Syndrome print is flawless!  The script is way too heavy-handed and melodramatic so I can’t really slam the actors for not being able to do anything with it.  If the direction for the film wasn’t going to be ‘fun’ then it’s perfectly acceptable for it to be a serious action flick but there’s precious little action in it and, when there is action, it’s oddly anti-climactic and uninvolving.  Director Romano Scavolini also directed the video nasty NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN which I own but haven't watched yet.  I certainly hope Scavolini brings more life to that one.  Kinda really disappointed with this.  

OUR SISTER BLOG THE COBWEBBED ALCOVE IS ALIVE!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

 AFTER 7 YEARS, THE COBWEBBED ALCOVE IS BACK FROM THE GRAVE! 

That's right, I've finally revived my sister blog after giving up the ghost 7 years ago.  I have turned the blog over to Pope Hilarius II, the Horror Pope!  His Goryness will be using it to provide a list of the icons of horror whom he will canonize as the Horror Saints!  So head on over to THE COBWEBBED ALCOVE as the Horror Pope declares the Saints of Horror. 

Professor Miller's pure joy as experiment takes unexpected turn (1964) |...

This is so terrific!  Julius Sumner Miller was a science guy that I only knew from his occasional appearances on THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN as "The Professor".  But the joy and wonder he shows in this video when an experiment doesn't quite go as expected, is wonderful to behold!

CROWN COURT (1972 - 1984)

 MY LATEST ADDITION TO ADDICTIVE TV. 

I just randomly stumbled across this long-running British courtroom drama series made by Granada for ITV for most of the seventies until 1984.  This groundbreaking show is apparently being currently rerun on British TV after an absence of 40 years.  I, however, stumbled upon the show randomly on youtuberz and was immediately hooked.  The show dramatizes court cases using actors following a written script.  The show is shot live like a stage play with several stationary cameras and no retakes; it's done straight through.  Also really interesting is the fact that, while the cast in the courtroom all all actors, the jury is selected using real people -- actual citizens -- who watch the proceedings and are given a half hour to render their verdict based upon what they've seen.  Because the show is filmed live with no retakes, the cast rehearses two endings -- based on a guilty or not guilty verdict from the 'real people' jury -- so that they know what to do at the end of the show depending on the verdict.  Each case usually spans three 25-minute episodes and I've watched over a dozen already.  This shizzle's addictive!  Another major drawing point for me is the fact that not only is it full of that 1970's ambiance I love but also is filthy with character actors I love.  The programme was apparently well-known as the show that launched a galaxy of stars.  Colin Firth has his first TV job on CROWN COURT

OMG it's a 12 year old Colin Firth!!!

and the cast features everyone from Oscar-Winner Jim Broadbent to ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE's Richard Wilson to late great Hammer Horror icon Barbara Shelley

Stylish and sexy Barbara Shelley!

(that's her in the hat up above).  There are TONS of actors here who've appeared on DOCTOR WHO -- you can also see Ian Marter in the photo up top as well) as well as a couple actual Doctors:  Patrick Troughton and Peter Capaldi can also be seen in court on this wonderful show. 

OMG a punk Peter Capaldi from 1984!!!

All the shows are on DVD (in British Region 2 only so you'll need a multi-region playah) and I've picked up over half of them already!!!  Some are incredibly easy to get and inexpensive while a couple volumes are impossible to get and outrageously overpriced!  But at least there are some episodes on youtuberz you can see (including the Patrick Troughton one). 

Patrick Troughton has been naughty . . . maybe

 

B'TWIXT NOW AND SUNRISE [2011/2022]

 "THE FOG ROLLED IN OVER THE LAKE..."

  Sorry, I just HAD to start with that.  If you've seen the movie, you'll know why.  The has to be the weirdest viewing experience I've had so far this year!  I never saw the original version entitled "TWIXT" in 2011 which most critics lambasted while Cahiers du Cinema simultaneously named it one of the best film of the year.  I only watched the brand new "Authorized Version" Francis Ford Coppola released last month.  So naturally I cannot speak to whatever differences there are between the two versions.  However, THIS 2022 version wow-ed me in the oddest manner and has sat with me since I saw it days ago!  I can see why people in 2011 (and those watching the new version now in 2023) either love it or (more probably) hate it.  Especially with the almost violently abrupt ending!  At first, when I realized the movie was over, I had a momentary knee-jerk "NO!!!!" reaction but seconds later I changed my mind and thought it was right for some reason totally unknown to me.  If this is all very confusing, it's appropriate for a mystifying film which was based on a spooky dream Coppola had.  The director recorded his recollections of the strange dream into a tape recorder immediately upon awaking and the dreamlike logic is expertly ported over into the film.  Besides Coppola's dream, the director also works through the grief and trauma of the death of his son Gian-Carlo in that bizarre boating accident!  Grief and dream-logic are the two main themes in this movie and keeping those two concepts in your mind will hopefully make the viewing of this film ring true.

Val Kilmer plays lower-grade horror fiction writer Hall Baltimore who has arrived in a small

town during a book signing tour.  The town doesn't have an 'actual' bookstore so Baltimore sets up the best he can.  The town DOES have a 7-sided clock tower/belfry which is infamous for having 7 clock faces each telling a different time!  Not a single person comes to see Baltimore at his book signing -- until Sheriff Bobby LaGrange drops in on the author to get a book signed but also to ask Baltimore if he'd like to collaborate with the Sheriff on a book about the local murder spree!  In the morgue is a dead woman with a large wooden stick stuck in her chest.  This seems to be the serial killer's trademark.  Or, more to LaGrange's thinking, they're vampires.  The Sheriff wants to collaborate with Baltimore on a book entitled "The Vampire Executions".  LaGrange also has a big sign in front of his house that reads "GOT BATS?" because he has a sideline in building bat houses (birdhouses but for bats)!    Hall Baltimore is desperately in need of money as well as a 'bulletproof' idea for a new book which will make him a best-selling author once again.  Especially since his wife (hilariously played by Kilmer's actual former wife Joanne Whalley!!!) is threatening to do something terrible to his first edition of Walt Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS unless he comes up with a book advance PDQ!  Baltimore is also an alcoholic who is still grieving at the death of his young daughter (which is revealed to be in exactly the same type of accident which killed Coppola's son Gian-Carlo).  The town also is known for an old, abandoned hotel in which Edgar Allan Poe once slept. 

While out walking in the night, Baltimore encounters the boarded-up hotel as well as a pale 12 year old girl (looking rather goth) named Virginia or V. as she prefers to be called (beautifully played by Elle Fanning).  She says she is teased by the other girls who call her 'Vampira' because of her braces-enmeshed teeth.  Coming back to the abandoned hotel, it is suddenly lit up and open for business.  V. refuses to go inside but Baltimore goes in (at the proprietoress's invitation) for a beer and possibly something to eat.  All this is shot in a wonderful, atmospheric, dreamlike way which brings to mind Coppola's baroque BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA.  Amongst all this spookiness there is also the fact that, in the past, 12 children were murdered in this very same hotel by Pastor Allan Floyd and are all still buried underneath the stone floor in the dining room!  Oh yes, and there are a bunch of 'evil' Satan worshippers down by the river led by one Flamingo (played nicely by Alden Ehrenreich) who are probably vampires.  And I can't forget the fact that Hall Baltimore is visited by a ghostly Edgar Allan Poe himself (spokily evoked by Ben Chaplin).  I'm sure there are dozens of other details I'm leaving out (including the dead woman in the morgue communicating with Baltimore and the Sheriff through a Ouija board) but this film is loaded with spooky treats.

But fair warning, this is not your ordinary movie!  Coppola mixes hilarious comedy with intense emotion focusing on grief, death and coping with both.  While there is a very definite story/plot, it is wound up in bizarre dream logic of the flavour of a Lucio Fulci 'Gates of Hell' movie.  This is a meditation wearing the cloak of a horror movie.  Your tolerance for such things will directly influence how you respond to this film.  The cast (yes, even Val Kilmer) is top notch and all seem to 'get' what Coppola is going for here.  Val Kilmer's 'breakdown' scene in which he probably ad-libbed some celebrity impressions (including his co-star Marlon Brando from DR. MOREAU) I found to be quite funny (while others seem to hate it).  Bruce Dern, as always, is a welcome presence and his goofy Sheriff Bobby LaGrange hits all the comedy without overselling it.  As I already stated, the fact that Kilmer's ex-wife Joanne Whalley plays his character's estranged and hostile wife Denise is absolutely inspired casting!  Ben Chaplin looks uncannily like Poe and Elle Fanning is suitably haunting as V.  So if straightforward movies are your thing, B'TWIXT is probably not for you.  But if you're open to tons of atmosphere, the working through of grief and dream-logic, you might like to give this movie a try.

February 2023 Top Ten List

 HERE ARE THE FILMS I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN FEBRUARY 2023.

1. THE FROGMEN  (1951)
2. THE FABELMANS  (2022)
3. HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK  (1980)
4. BEAT STREET  (1984)
5. HITMAN HART:  WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS  (1998)
6. BERNARD & THE GENIE  (199)
7. BLITZED:  THE 80'S BLITZ KIDS STORY  (2021)
8. BENEDICTION  (2021)
9. THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO  (1944)
10. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT  (2022)