The House That Jack Built

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Lars von Trier
Screenplay:  Lars von Trier, story by Jenle Hellund and Lars von Trier
Starring:  Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Grabol, Riley Keough, Jeremy Davies
Running Time:  150 minutes
Genre:  Horror, thriller

Jack (Dillon) is an engineer, and aspiring architect who wants to build a house, he is also the brutal serial killer "Mr. Sophistication".  Telling his story to a mysterious interviewer (Ganz), Jack relates five of his murders, or "incidents" as he calls them, that took place over a period of twelve years.

This is kind of a violent horror art-film.  If you are familiar with the work of notorious danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, than you'll have an idea of what to expect with this.  It mixes scenes of shocking brutality, with images of striking beauty, odd digressions, archive footage and animation.  It's constructed in five chapters, and an epilogue.  Von Trier always seems to be trying to shock, provoke and frustrate his audience, and this will certainly do that.  I have seen many horror films, and even I found some of the violence hard to watch, which includes a graphic, but simulated, scene of animal torture, and documentary footage of historical atrocities.  However, it is also fascinating, striking and often darkly funny.  It is shocking, disturbing, offensive, funny, breathtaking, fascinating, dull and frustrating.  It kind of frustrates expectations at every turn, and the ending is frankly bizarre.  The performances are good, but this is really von Trier's show.

Riley Keough and Matt Dillon in The House That Jack Built         

Captain Marvel

Year of Release:  2019
Directors:  Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Screenplay:  Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dwort, story by Nicole Perlman, Meg Lefeuvre, Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dwort, and based on a character created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan and Roy Thomas
Starring:  Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimou Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, Jude Law
Running Time: 124 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, action, adventure, superhero

In the year 1995, on the planet Hala, homeworld of the Kree Empire, Vers (Larson) is training to be a warrior, but is haunted by nightmares of a past on Earth that she does not consciously remember.  The Kree are at war with the shape-shifting Skrulls.  When a mission to extract a Kree spy turns out to be a Skrull trap, Vers is captured and her mind is probed, revealing that she is a human from Earth.  Vers escapes to Earth and soon learns that she is a test pilot named Carol Danvers.  Teaming up with spy Nick Fury (Jackson) Carol fights to stop the Skrull infiltrating Earth, as well as trying to discover the secret of her past and powers.

This is the latest entry in the seemingly endless MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) franchise based on Marvel comicbooks.  At this late stage, the MCU is like a well-oiled machine, churning out well-made, entertaining films at a rate of two or three a year, so it really isn't a surprise that this is a good, fun film.  Here we are introduced to Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and the usual superhero origin story film tends to be:  The hero is introduced as a normal person, they get their powers somehow, they learn how to use their powers and finally fight with a villain for the rest of the film.  Here Carol already has powers, and her origin story is a mystery that is revealed slowly throughout the film.  The film is funny, well-paced, with some genuinely exciting action scenes (even if, as is almost inevitable with these movies, it feels like a special effects showcase towards the end), and there is fun 1990s nostalgia.  The script is well-written, with regular twists and surprises, and a surprisingly contemporary relevance.  Brie Larson is a great actress, and she is perfectly cast as Carol Danvers, making for an engaging, kickass new hero, and she has real chemistry with a youthed down Samuel L. Jackson as a young Nick Fury, and it's fun to see Fury take his first steps into the superhero universe.  There is a fun cameo from the late Stan Lee riffing on his cameo in Mallrats (1995).  While there are many references to other MCU movies this can be enjoyed even if you've somehow avoided the others.  The ending sets up sequels and, to be honest, I am more looking forward to them than I am to the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. 
A quick note: As always with MCU films there are additional scenes during the end credits, here there are two, one in the middle of the credits and one at the very end, so make sure to stick around.   

Brie Larson leads the charge in Captain Marvel   

The Sting

Year of Release:  1973
Director:  George Roy Hill
Screenplay:  David S. Ward
Starring:  Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw
Running Time:  129 minutes
Genre:  Crime, thriller,

Chicago, 1936:  Johnny Hooker (Redford) is a small time crook who joins forces with veteran con man Henry Gondorff (Newman) to scam a wealthy and powerful Mob boss (Shaw) with an elaborate con, as revenge for his ordering the death of their friend.  However, as the plan progresses it becomes apparent that the police, FBI and a hired killer are closing in on the pair.

This is probably the best film made about con men and, as with all movies in this genre, the scammers are charismatic, loveable rogues (instead of the sleazy slimeballs they really are) conning a wealthy villain who is worse than they are and deserves what he gets (instead of ordinary innocent people) and the pleasure comes in seeing how the plan is laid and put into operation like an elaborate house of cards where one wrong move could send it crashing down (here the various stages of the con are set out in chapters headed by title cards written and illustrated in the style of Norman Rockwell and The Saturday Evening Post) .  Reuniting stars Redford and Newman with their Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid director Hill, this is one of those classic Hollywood films, reveling in rich period detail.  Photographed in rich, vibrant colour where Newman's eyes have never looked so piercingly blue, and Redford's hair never so golden.  Redford and Newman have genuine chemistry together and the film coasts along on their considerable charisma.  Robert Shaw is good as the urbane but mercurial gangster, who is the target of the con.  The soundtrack consists of variations of ragtime music arranged by Marvin Hamlisch, most notably "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, which became a top ten hit on the back of this movie.  The script is witty, clever and packed with twists and turns.  This film is pure classy entertainment from beginning to end.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting   

Detour

Year of Release:  1945
Director:  Edgar G. Ulmer
Screenplay:  Martin Goldsmith, based on the novel Detour: An Extraordinary Tale by Martin Goldsmith
Starring:  Tom Neal, Ann Savage
Running Time:  68 minutes
Genre: Thriller, film noir

Penniless New York piano player Al Roberts (Neal) undertakes to hitchhike to Los Angeles.  Along the way he is picked up by loudmouth bookie Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald) who drops dead on the road.  Despite being innocent, Roberts is convinced that he will be convicted of murder, and so he decides to steal Haskell's clothes, money, car and identity.  Later he picks up ruthless drifter Vera (Savage) who immediately sees a chance for blackmail.

This low budget film was allegedly shot in six days, and is full of technical errors, a plot reliant on almost impossible coincidences, however it is a kind of minor masterpiece.  It does boasts razor-sharp dialogue, and performances which are one note, but surprisingly effective, with a sweatily anguished Tom Neal and a terrifyingly snarling Ann Savage.  The film conjures up a bleak, unforgiving world, a shadowy twilit universe of unforgiving fate.  Filmed almost entirely in a studio with minimal sets, and only one exterior shot, the characters are filmed usually in close-up or surrounded by heavy shadows, which emphasizes the traps that they are in and their inescapable fate.  While there are many better films than this, almost none have managed to capture the same paranoid, doom-laden atmosphere that this one has.

Ann Savage and Tom Neal take a Detour

 

Rome, Open City

Year of Release:  1945
Director:  Roberto Rossellini
Screenplay:  Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini
Starring:  Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero
Running Time:  105 minutes
Genre:  Drama, war

Nazi-occupied Rome, 1944:  Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi (Pagliero) is being hunted by the Gestapo.  With the aid of Pina (Magnani), the fiancee of a fellow Resistance member, and Don Pietro (Fabrizi) a priest who aids the local Resistance groups, Manfredi struggles to evade the Nazis and the Italian Fascists.

This was filmed in the months immediately following the end of the Second World War, with scenes shot documentary-style on the still ruined streets of Rome mixed with more conventional studio-set scenes, and many of the cast being non-professional actors, alongside established stars Anna Magnini and Aldo Fabrizi.  This was the film that brought the movement known as Italian Neorealism to international attention.  While doubtless not as shocking today as it would have been to viewers of the time, it still has shockingly brutal moments, and still packs a real punch.  It features great performances, particularly Magnani and Fabrizi, who at the time were known as comic actors, and here playing against type in serious dramatic parts.

        Anna Magnani in Rome, Open City

"Goodbye, Columbus" by Philip Roth

Year of Publication:  1959
Number of Pages:  259 pages
Genre:  Fiction, short stories

This book consists of one novella and five short stories:  Over the course of a summer a young working-class man falls in love with a much wealthier student; A thirteen year old boy confronts his rabbi with challenging religious questions, and goes to extreme lengths to get answers; A war hero sergeant finds himself being manipulated by three new recruits; A married 59 year old man suffers a life crisis and has an affair; A high-school student befriends the class troublemaker; and a lawyer tries to keep the peace between the conservative inhabitants of a small community and  an Orthodox yeshiva recently established in the neighbourhood.

This was the the first published book by the celebrated author Philip Roth, and for a first book it really is astonishing how good it is.  Every one of the stories is worth reading.  The prose is light and beautifully written, and there is a real feel for character and dialogue.  It's also very funny.
The title novella was turned into a film in 1969.

Zombie Flesh Eaters

Year of Release:  1979
Director:  Lucio Fulci
Screenplay:  Elisa Biganti and Dardano Sacchetti
Starring:  Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Stefania D'Amario, Olga Karlatos
Running Time:  88 minutes
Genre:  Horror

An abandoned sailboat drifts into New York Harbor.  When two harbor patrol officers board the boat they are promptly attacked by a zombie.  While the police interrogate Anne Bowles (Farrow), the daughter of the ship's owner, who hasn't seen her father in months, newspaper reporter Peter West (McCulloch) investigates the story.  Anne and Peter join forces, and trace the boat to a remote Caribbean island called Matul.  They hitch a ride with Brian Hull (Cliver) and Susan Barrett (Gay) who are on a vacation, sailing around the Caribbean. Needless to say, when they do reach Matul, they very soon wish that they had stayed home.

This Italian film exists under a number of different titles and in a number of different versions.  It was originally released in Italy as Zombi 2 in a blatant attempt to cash in on the huge success in Italy of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1979), known as Zombi in Italy.  While this film has no connection to Dawn of the Dead in either plot or characters, it's not too much of a leap to see it being set in Romero's world.  The film has it's clunky moments, but mostly it is pretty good.  It's extremely violent and very gruesome, and contains a couple of notorious scenes (one involving a splinter of wood and someone's eye, which is genuinely hard to watch).  There is also some sleazy sexploitation, although not quite as much as you might expect.  The zombie makeup is suitably disgusting, and the numerous gore scenes and violence are well staged.  The performances are good, with Tisa Farrow (sister of Mia Farrow) making an engaging heroine, and Ian McCulloch an effective and likable hero.  Most notable in the cast though is Richard Johnson as the sweatily sinister doctor on the island.  The pacing flags during the middle, but it's pretty well made and is probably the best of the Italian zombie movies which followed. 

Tisa Farrow and Ian McCulloch set sail for the Island of the Zombie Flesh Eaters