Over the Edge

 Year of Release:  1979

Director:  Jonathan Kaplan

Screenplay:  Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter

Starring:  Michael Kramer, Matt Dillon, Pamela Ludwig, Vincent Spano, Harry Northup, Tom Fergus

Running Time:  95 minutes

Genre:  Coming-of-age, crime, drama

In the isolated planned community of New Granada, Colorado, the adults live quiet peaceful lives in their nice houses, while their teenage kids have nothing to do except hang around at the local recreation centre (which closes at 6PM) and get into trouble.  As the instances of vandalism and other crimes committed by the kids increases, they become harassed by hated local cop Sgt. Doberman (Northup).  When the recreation centre is closed, the tensions between adults and kids escalates into violence.

This film was based on a 1973 news article from the San Francisco Examiner about gangs of kids called "Mousepacks" who had been causing chaos in a middle-class planned community in California.  The film does a good job at depicting the bland, dull and entirely white community of New Granada, where the affluent residents are more concerned about property resale values than the fact that there is nothing to do there.  The kids have a recreation centre which is little more than a large barn, and which closes at 6PM.  A planned cinema and bowling alley is revealed to have been scrapped for a business park.  The kids hang around, argue, get into fights, drink, take drugs and do pretty much what kids everywhere do.  They really are just ordinary kids, not particularly good or bad, just bored.  The adults however treat them as a problem to be locked away or yelled at, instead of talking to them.  The characters in the film are all pretty solidly middle-class and are fairly comfortable.  The kids live in large, nice houses, with plenty of cool stuff, but they are pretty much cast adrift.  This may make it sound like a worthy, message film, but, while it is a message film, it is fun, exciting and entertaining, although it does drag occasionally towards the middle.  The kids, which include a 14 year old Matt Dillon in his film debut, look and talk like real teenagers.  It also boasts a cool seventies soundtrack including Van Halen, Cheap Trick, The Cars and The Ramones.  It all comes to a satisfyingly apocalyptic conclusion.  The film wasn't a big success on it's first release, and someone had the baffling idea to market it as a horror film with a poster that made it look like Village of the Damned:  The High School Years, however it has become something of a cult film.  Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain named it as his favourite film, and it influenced the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", as well as influencing the Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused (1993).  It has inevitably dated, there are no people of colour and the kids frequently use homophobic slurs, but it still feels relevant and packs a real punch.  

The Kids Aren't All Right:  Matt Dillon and Michael Kramer go Over the Edge

  

The Night House

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  David Bruckner

Screenplay:  Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski

Starring:  Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, Vondie Cutis Hall

Running Time:  110 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Following the death of her husband Owen by suicide, Beth (Hall) is left alone in their large lakeshore house trying to put her life back together again.  As she organises her husband's possessions, Beth finds herself haunted by strange dreams, from which she wakes in different parts of the house to where she went to sleep. The drams lead to clues that Owen had been leading a secret double life.  As strange phenomenon increase, Beth becomes convinced that she is being haunted, and not just by her husband.

This is a dark, sombre supernatural mystery.  For the most part it is a slow burning, genuinely creepy, intelligent ghost story, with an intriguing mystery, however in the last twenty minutes or so it falls into more conventional horror movie territory, which while it does have some good chills, feels slightly disappointing compared to what has gone before.  The film is elevated by a fantastic performance by Rebecca Hall who is in almost every scene, and often on her own.  She gives a brittle performance as the recently widowed Beth, and doesn't really soften the edges, as she pushes away friends and family who try to reach out to her, and the mixture of grief and rage is never far from the surface, mixed with her increasing obsession over the mystery of her husband's double life.  The film frequently features her alone in this vast, but very modern house, wreathed in shadows, where you glimpse furtive darker shadows among the shadows.  It may not stand up to scrutiny, but the mystery is an involving one.  This is an above average creepy tale, which does let itself down a bit in the last twenty minutes or so, which rushes to answer all the questions, and falls victim to some silly plot contrivances, however it does have some effective special effects work, and even if the finale is a little disappointing, by then we are too involved in Beth's story not to feel invested.

Rebecca Hall in The Night House

Full Metal Jacket

Year of Release:  1987

Director:  Stanley Kubrick

Screenplay:  Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford, based on the novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford

Starring:  Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard, Kevyn Major Howard

Running Time:  116 minutes

Genre:  War drama

During the Vietnam War, US Marine Private Davis (Modine), nicknamed "Joker" due to his wisecracking, endures the brutal basic training under tough drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Ermey), with a platoon of recruits including dim-witted, unfit Leonard Lawrence (D'Onofrio), nicknamed "Gomer Pyle".  Following basic training, Davis is assigned as a military journalist, and finds himself plunged into the horrors of combat in Vietnam.

Based on the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford, and co-scripted by Michael Herr, author of acclaimed Vietnam memoir Dispatches (1977), this is among the most acclaimed films about the Vietnam War.  One of Stanley Kubrick's recurring themes is dehumanisation and control: in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) the human characters are reduced to automatons and the most engaging and "human" character is the singing, killing computer; in A Clockwork Orange (1971) the lead character is "cured" of his violent ways by brainwashing at the cost of losing his humanity; in Barry Lyndon (1975) the characters are straightjacketed by the strict mores and manners of 17th Century society; in The Shining (1980) the main character is the tool of supernatural forces; and this interest in control is seen in Kubrick's films about the military, including Paths of Glory (1957) and Full Metal Jacket, where we see the recruits being turned into soldiers.   The film's first 45 minutes is devoted to the Marine's basic training where they are subjected to non-stop verbal and physical abuse by the monstrous Hartman.  Actor R. Lee Ermey was a Marine drill instructor during the Vietnam war and was originally brought on as an advisor, but impressed Kubrick so much that he fired the original actor and cast Ermey instead.  Ermey made such an impression in the film that he became something of a star, subsequently appearing in about 60 films, usually as tough authority figures.  Vincent D'Onofrio plays the pathetic Private Pyle, Hartman's favourite victim, and to be honest, it's hard to understand how a recruit like Pyle even got through the doors of the training camp, when he is obviously not up to it right from the start.  The bullying he endures begins with Hartman and then expands, with Hartman's encouragement, to the rest of the platoon.  D'Onofrio gives Pyle a real sense of humanity and tragedy, right from the moment he appears on screen you know that it will not end well for him.  The training passage of the film plays like a very dark comedy, mostly thanks to Ermey's endlessly inventive, foulmouthed insults and invective all delivered at maximum volume ("You're so ugly you could be a modern art masterpiece!" is one of his more repeatable lines).  Matthew Modine plays the nominal lead and point of view character, Private Joker, although throughout most of the film he is more of an observer, however he is the only one who seems to have any real compassion for Pyle, although he does join in with the others bullying of Pyle, during a brutal "blanket party" scene, where Pyle is held down in his bunk, while the rest of the recruits take it in turns to beat him with bars of soap wrapped in towels. 
The scene then switches to Vietnam and the horrors of war, with Joker and rookie combat photographer Rafterman (Kevyn Major Howard) plunged into the thick of battle.  The focus of the film is more on the effects of war on the soldiers, few if any of whom seem to understand why they are there, or even to particularly care.  Military slang and terminology is used frequently which, similar to the "nadsat" slang in A Clockwork Orange, creates something of a distancing effect.  The Vietnam segment of the film, while good, doesn't have the power of the training aspect, but it still leaves an indelible impression, and the question remains of what is to become of Joker and friends when they "rotate back to the world" (return to civilian life)?    

"What is your major malfunction?" Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) is berated by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) in Full Metal Jacket

A Bucket of Blood

 Year of Release:  1959

Director:  Roger Corman

Screenplay:  Charles B. Griffith

Starring:  Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, Julian Burton, Ed Nelson, John Brinkley

Running Time:  65 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, horror

Walter Paisley (Miller) is a none too bright busboy at the funky Yellow Door coffee house.  When he accidentally kills his landlady's cat, Walter covers it in clay and passes it off as a sculpture, imaginatively called "Dead Cat".  He is immediately hailed as the next big thing in the art world, the only question is how to follow it up?  Walter's answer is to become a serial killer, encase his victims in clay and pass them off as sculptures.  Soon he is making a killing on the art scene.

This horror-comedy was directed by prolific low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman in five days on a budget of $50,000.  While completely worthless as a horror film it does work as a dark comedy.  Corman pokes fun at the then topical beatnik scene, with the stoned hangers on in the coffee house listening to pretentious poetry and bad folk singers, and the pretentiousness of the art world, who hook on to whatever is seen the next big thing.  While times have changed, it still works as a genuinely funny film and poking fun at blindly following trends is as relevant today as it was in 1959.  Dick Miller, who appeared in numerous genre and cult films, gives a good performance in the central role as the likeable, nerdy killer, and Barboura Morris is engaging as the object of Walter's affections.  This is a textbook example of how talent can transcend limitations.  The production values might be low, but Corman directs with style and works from a witty script from Charles B, Griffith (who went on to write The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) for Corman).     

Dick Miller and Antony Carbone in A Bucket of Blood

The Tin Star

Year of Release:  1957

Director:  Anthony Mann

Screenplay:  Dudley Nichols, from a story by Joel Kane and Barney Slater

Starring:  Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer

Running Time:  93 minutes

Genre:  Western

The Old West:  Bounty hunter Morg Hickman (Fonda) arrives in a small town to collect his latest bounty.  While waiting for his claim to be processed, he befriends Nona Mayfield (Palmer) a young woman who is treated with contempt by the townspeople due to her son Kip (British actor Michel Ray), whose father was Native American.  Hickman also forms a grudging almost-friendship with the town's decent, but inexperienced young sheriff Den Owens (Perkins), who Hickman helps build his confidence and improve his shooting skills.  When one of the town's most beloved citizens is shot dead, Hickman and Owens find themselves caught between a pair of ruthless bandits and a violent posse.  

This is a solid old-school Western.  It moves along at a good pace, empty of inessentials and, while the outcome is never really in doubt, it's final half hour or so is extremely suspenseful.  Henry Fonda, with his weathered face and sad eyes, plays the grizzled bounty hunter with a past whose hard shell of weary cynicism hides his innate decency.  Anthony Perkins, who will forever be known as Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), plays the idealistic and courageous, but naive and inexperienced sheriff with the blend of nervy energy and boyish charm that he would bring to his most famous role.  Anthony Perkins was a good actor, with a strong screen presence, but never really became a major star because he became so associated with Norman Bates, although, to be fair, it is an iconic performance.  Betsy Palmer, who, like Perkins, became something of a horror icon for her role as Pamela Voorhees (Jason's mum) in Friday the 13th (1980), and does well as the winsome single mother who wins Henry Fonda's heart, and keeps the home fires burning while the guys are away playing cowboys.  Anthony Mann had a reputation for more psychologically complex Westerns, many of which starred James Stewart, who was the original choice to play the Henry Fonda role.  Here, the characters have flaws, they do have complexity and are more than the cliches that you often find in these films.  There is also a message about the evils of racism and mob justice, although it is still a product of its time.  The script by Dudley Nichols (who wrote the Western classic Stagecoach (1939)) from a story by Joel Kane and Barney Slater was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay (if your interested it lost out to George Wells for Designing Woman, a film which I had never heard of).  The film is well made, and the action is exciting, and the film's California locations are impressive.  Western veteran Lee Van Cleef has a supporting role as a bandit.           

Anthony Perkins and Henry Fonda in The Tin Star

The Unbelievable Truth

Year of Release:  1989

Director:  Hal Hartley

Screenplay:  Hal Hartley

Starring:  Adrienne Shelly, Robert Burke

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Romantic comedy, drama

In a small Long Island community, cynical teenager Audry Hugo (Shelly) is about to leave high school for college however Audry, who is obsessed with nuclear annihilation, is convinced that the world will end any day, and so doesn't see the point in higher education.  Recently released from prison, talented mechanic Josh (Burke) takes a job at a garage owned by Audry's father (Christopher Cooke).  A cloud of suspicion hangs around Josh because, while it is generally agreed that he was convicted of murder, no-one can remember what it was he actually did.  When Audry and Josh meet they immediately fall in love, but friends, family and a series of misunderstandings prove that the course of true love will not run smooth.

American writer/director Hal Hartley was something of a darling in the independent film scene through the 1990s.  The Unbelievable Truth was Hartley's debut film, and also marked the debut for lead Adrienne Shelly.  The tone of the film is quirky and very deadpan, it meanders along without much of a plot to speak of, with characters mainly delineated by their quirks and preoccupations rather than anything else.  While the quiet, deadpan humour won't be to all tastes, if you can get on the film's wavelength it is pretty funny.  The main problem is that it does at times feel too self-consciously hip and quirky for it's own good and it could almost be shown to students as the stereotypical late '80s American indie film.  Adrienne Shelley is engaging in the lead, and Robert Burke does what he can with what he's given as walking cipher Josh.  There is also an early appearance from Edie Falco, who went on to fame on TV in The Sopranos (1999-2007) and Nurse Jackie (2009-2015), and future director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy (2008), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Night Moves (2013) and First Cow (2019)) has a small cameo and worked as Wardrobe Supervisor.  This is an engaging, likeable movie, which has enough charms to balance out it's rough patches.  

Robert Burke and Adrienne Shelly face The Unbelievable Truth

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 Year of Release: 2021

Director:  Destin Daniel Cretton

Screenplay: Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham, from a story by Dave Callaham and Destin Daniel Cretton,  based on the Marvel Comics character created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin

Starring:  Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung,

Running Time:  132 minutes

Genre: Fantasy, action,

Shaun (Simu Liu) lives in San Francisco and works as a valet parker with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina).  One day Shaun receives a message apparently from his estranged sister, Xu Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), and he and Katy are attacked on the bus by a highly trained team of fighters intent on stealing the pendant that Shaun wears, which was given to him by his deceased mother.  Believing his sister to be in danger, Shaun and Katy track her down to an underground "fight club" in Macau.  Shaun soon finds himself having to embrace his true identity as Shang-Chi, son of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) leader of the shadowy Ten Rings organisation, who has existed for thousands of years with his mystical ten rings which give the owner godlike powers and immortality.

This is the 25th film in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) base don characters and situations from the Marvel comic-books.   This has the advantage in being an essentially stand alone story, although there are connections to previous instalments, notably Benedict Wong in brief appearance reprising his role from Doctor Strange  (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Ben Kingsley reprising his role as clownish actor Tony Slattery from Iron Man Three (2013), and Mark Ruffalo and Brie Larson appear uncredited as Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers respectively in a brief mid-credits scene.  This is a fun martial arts fantasy film.  It suffers from an uneven tone, but the action scenes are very well staged, and there is plenty of spectacular special effects.  Tony Leung makes for a complex and almost sympathetic antagonist, who is more than just a one-note villain.  Simu Liu, Awkwafina and Meng'er Zhang make for likeable heroes, and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.  The film doesn't entirely break free from the Marvel origin story formula, but there is enough here to please longstanding fans and newcomers alike.  

Stick around until the very end of the credits because, as is usual for Marvel films, there are two bonus scenes during the closing credits, one comes about half way through, and the second at the very end of the credits.        

Meng'er Zhang, Simu Liu and Awkwafina in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Dracula

Year of Release:  1958

Director:  Terence Fisher

Screenplay:  Jimmy Sangster, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker

Starring:  Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Christopher Lee

Running Time:  82 minutes

Genre:  Horror

In 1885, Doctor Van Helsing (Cushing) investigates the disappearance of his friend Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen), vampire hunter, at the Castle Dracula.   Van Helsing soon realises that Harker has fallen victim to the evil vampire Dracula (Lee) who has now set his sights on Harker's friends and family.  

Produced by the now legendary Hammer Films, this is probably the highpoint of what is known as "Hammer Horror".  It features the Hammer hallmarks of lavish production values (despite a low budget), classically trained actors, stories based on legendary horror tales, and most importantly all the blood and heaving bosoms that the 1950s censors would allow, photographed in vivid colour.  Christopher Lee turned in a star making performance as Dracula.  Lee made Dracula sexy and physical, moving from suave sophistication to demoniac monster.  Peter Cushing complements him as the rational but compassionate Van Helsing.  The film suffers from a low budget and some obvious day-for-night shooting, as well as an indeterminate sense of place where, despite being set in Eastern Europe, everyone seems to be English, but the qualities far outweigh the negatives.  Lee and Cushing became horror icons with this film.  Right from the opening images of Dracula's tomb spattered with blood this is empty of any inessentials.  This is a full blooded horror, which brought blood, fangs and sex to the vampire film.   

Christopher Lee is Dracula

Dr. Who and the Daleks

 Year of Release:  1965

Director:  Gordon Flemyng

Screenplay:  Milton Subotsky, based on the Doctor Who serial "The Daleks" by Terry Nation

Starring:  Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden, Roberta Tovey

Running Time:  82 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction

In London, eccentric inventor Dr. Who (Cushing) shows his granddaughters Barbara (Linden) and Susan (Tovey), and Barbara's clumsy boyfriend Ian (Castle), his latest invention the Tardis, a machine disguised as a police telephone box which can travel anywhere in time and space.  When Ian accidentally activates it, they are catapulted to a mysterious, desolate planet, where they encounter deadly cyborgs called Daleks, who plan to destroy the planet's other inhabitants, the peace-loving Thals.

This is based on the second serial from the BBC television series Doctor Who (1963-1989, 1996, 2005- ) which introduced the series' most popular antagonist, the Daleks.  This is an adaptation of the seven part serial "The Daleks", not really the Doctor Who series itself, while it more or less follows the plot of the serial, it changes a lot about the characters and backstory.  Peter Cushing's Doctor Who (who is definitively named as such in the film, but is always just The Doctor on TV) is a doddery, eccentric, grandfatherly old gentleman, rather than William Hartnell's portrayal of The Doctor on TV as an abrasive, crotchety alien antihero.  On TV, Barbara and Ian (as played by Jacqueline Hill and William Russell) were staid, responsible schoolteachers, whereas here their occupations are never given and Ian in particular is more of a klutzy comic relief character.  Susan (played by Carole Anne Ford on TV) was a sixteen year old high school student, but in this film she appears to be about twelve years old.  The film is a colourful affair, although it's low budget is painfully obvious in several places.  The blonde, blue-eyes Thals are supposedly starving, but their supply of mascara, lip gloss and hair care products seem to be plentiful, because they all seem to style themselves after David Bowie.  The Daleks themselves seem to have a fondness for lava lamps and salmon-pink plastic sheeting.  Originally the guns were supposed to shoot fire, but this was vetoed on the grounds of health and safety, and also that it would be too frightening for the kiddies, so instead they shoot jets of CO2 gas.  The Daleks were hugely popular in the 1960s, appearing in comics, games, toys, books and even a terrible novelty song by The Go-Gos called "I Wanna Spend my Christmas with a Dalek" (which contains the lyrics "I wanna spend my Christmas with a Dalek / and hang him underneath the mistletoe /and if he's very nice / I'll feed him sugar spice / and hang a Christmas stocking from his big left toe").  

The film suffers from bad dialogue (particularly the Daleks' long speeches which serve as clunky exposition) and storytelling, the climax is especially ludicrous and seems to largely hinge on the Daleks immediately becoming extremely stupid, and misplaced humour.  Peter Cushing does what he can with what he is given, and Roy Castle (who would later go on to present the long running children's TV series Record Breakers from 1972 to 1993) hams it up although he did have a gift for clowning.  The big problem with the film is that it just hasn't aged well, not that it is really offensive or anything like that, but it looks so cheap and such a product of it's time, that it just appears comical today.  If you are a Doctor Who completist or interested in sixties science-fiction it's worth a look, and to be fair it can serve as a guilty pleasure on a dull afternoon.  It was followed by Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD (1966).

Dr. Who (Peter Cushing) and Susan (Roberta Tovey) encounter the mechanical meanies in Dr. Who and the Daleks