Been a year since I last watched some Kurosawa films, so today I’m digging more through his filmography. In a twist of fate, I’m starting with a different version of a film I just recently saw. Akira Kurosawa’s version of The Lower Depths is a much darker tale than Renoir’s. Jean Gabin’s Pépel is replaced with Toshiro Mifune’s Sutekichi. His relationship with the landlord’s wife (Osugi) and later, her sister (Okayo), is similar, but there are harsher realisms for the likable thief this time around. The film also seems to be more closely aligned with the original play, as most of it takes place on a single set, and the characters never stray far from it. Sutekichi never goes to a Baron’s house, and this version of the Baron, an ex-samurai who claims to once come from a powerful house, is already living in the ramshackle building with the others from the beginning. Kurosawa’s Depths also spends a lot more time with all the others in the house, sometimes for comedic relief, but also to really hammer down the dire situation of all those living there. There is a real sense that these people are barely squeaking by at the bottom rung of society, and they have no hope of escaping. About half way through this film, a sick wife dies in their communal room, and you get the sense that if the movie continued, the others would follow her, one by one. ★★★½

Dodes’ka-den continues looking at people at the fringes of society, this time the communal residents of a shantytown, assembled literally around and among a trash dump. There’s a big cast of characters here, some for comedy, some for tragedy, but all sharing the same background. The title comes from a young man of mental deficiencies, who, every day, gets in his pretend trolly and “drives” it around the haphazard town, ignoring the cruel taunts of children and waving to the kind and knowing inhabitants; the whole time, he’s muttering “dodes’ka-den,” in mimicking the sounds of a beat-up old bus. Other residents include a young boy who goes out begging for food at the local eateries and bars, so as to provide food for himself and his daydreaming father; a pair of wives whose husbands drink together (and who end up swapping wives one night, much to the delight of the gossiping ladies at the water well); an old man who willingly gives money to a thief, rather than see his tools stolen; and others. It’s a hard life for the inhabitants, and they often don’t make it any easier on themselves. There’s a lot of ugly, but that makes the beautiful moments that much more so. There isn’t really an overarching plot here. It just plays out as a glimpse at a few days in the life of people struggling to get by with the hands they’ve been dealt. ★★★

The director returned to war epic genre in 1980’s Kagemusha, which literally means “shadow warrior,” but it is a term for a political decoy. The decoy in question is a thief, brought in because he resembles identically the current lord, Shingen. Shingen’s brother and confidant, Nobukado, found the thief and saw his use as a double for Shingen, and scooped him up (the thief’s name is never given). Not long after, Shingen is gravely wounded by a sniper during a battle, and it is time for the former thief to earn his keep. The kingdom is currently in a sticky situation, with skirmishes on all sides, and Shingen’s son Katsuyori bristling that his father passed him over as future ruler, choosing his son (Shingen’s grandson) as his heir instead. Trying to keep the status quo for a bit longer, Nobukado installs the kagemusha as a fake Shingen; only the generals and the former lord’s closest guards know of the secret. But the new Shingen quickly realizes that danger doesn’t exist only on the battlefield, as political dangers await at ever corner. And rumors of Shingen’s death have circulated among the nation’s enemies, so they send spies trying to determine if Shingen is real and alive, or in fact a double. This is a great 3 hour long epic, with wonderful battle scenes, plenty of drama at court, and apprehension throughout. It’s a slow moving film, but with Kurosawa using the pace to build tension, I never grew bored, or even felt the length of the movie draining on me. ★★★★

For a director with so many accolades, it is hard to peg his “best film,” but 1985’s Ran is certainly in the discussion. Supposedly based on Shakespeare’s King Lear (which I ashamedly have never seen nor read, so I can’t comment), it follows the Ichimonji family, and chronicles its downfall from a powerful ruling warlord to the family’s complete destruction in a short period of time. Hidetora has ruled the surrounding lands for decades, having brutally conquered the local lords in battle many years before. Now he is an old man, and ready to “retire.” He has 3 sons, all aged close to each other, but as with tradition, he names the eldest, Taro, as his successor. For the middle and youngest sons, Jiro and Saburo, Hidetora bequeathes the second and third castles and their lands, but neither is too happy with the situation. Jiro eyes the whole of the kingdom, and Saburo, the only wise one of the three, anticipates the weakening of the family, as he sees his brothers jockeying for power. Saburo arguing with his father’s decision results in getting himself banished, and he is joined by Hidetora’s longtime friend and advisor when he too questions his master’s choice. That is just the start of the splintering of the family. When Hidetora returns to the first castle, with Taro now in control, he finds himself powerless, and he doesn’t like it one bit. He fights with Taro and leaves in a huff, riding with his retinue to the second castle. There, he finds a cold shoulder from Jiro as well, who doesn’t want to see his own power limited either. Hidetora ends up a wanderer, and though his loyal followers stay with him, they all begin starving, even as Hidetora sinks into madness. Meanwhile, skirmishes between the brothers turn to all-out war. A fantastically epic tale, beautifully filmed in vibrant colors and with a subtle soundtrack that belies the violent battles on screen. I have rated so many of Kurosawa’s films in the 4+ range, I’m like a broken record here. ★★★★★

Five years after Ran and at 80 years old, Kurosawa followed up with a much “quieter” film, Dreams. Supposedly based on some of his own dreams over the years, this isn’t a narrative film per se, but is made up of 8 short vignettes, unrelated to each other. In each, the lead is supposedly Kurosawa himself at different points in his life. There’s a boy who witnesses a marriage between foxes in the woods, and later sees dead peach trees become spirits, who perform a dance for him. As a young man, he leads an expedition up a snowy mountain, only to nearly freeze to death. In another, he is haunted by soldiers killed under his command during a war, and in another, visits Van Gogh, while traversing trough his paintings in a colorful landscape. The latter dreams deal with death and the destruction of the world, as an older lead character sees nuclear reactors blow up and kill everyone around, or demons play along a mountainside. The film is inarguably beautiful, with rich colors that pop on screen, but it’s not my cup of tea. The dreams are either too obtuse or too blunt; Kurosawa is either trying to get you reach into deeper meaning or hitting you over the head with his views, with little ground in between. This director is often known for the action in his films (though Ikiru is my personal favorite), so I appreciate the different approach, but this one’s just not for me. ★½

• TV series currently watching: Star Wars The Clone Wars (season 7)
• Book currently reading: The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks

No Man of God is based on the final years of serial killer Ted Bundy, and the interviews he gave to FBI agent Bill Hagmaier while on death row. At the start of the film, Bundy has already been in jail for quite some time, and he’s refused to cooperate with authorities to name his other victims, of whom the cops suspect but need Bundy’s help to sew it up. The authorities just want to help the victim’s families find closure, but Ted hates federal agents. Hagmaier wants to get help for those families too, but more than anything, he wants to get inside Ted’s head. Hagmaier is looking to see what makes a serial killer tick, to help in profiling future murderers. As the film progresses, over the course of a couple years, Hagmaier is able to gain Bundy’s trust, mostly by being honest and not trying to trick him into lapses, which helps those families, as well as Hagmaier’s overall goal. Elijah Wood and particularly Luke Kirby are very good as Hagmaier and Bundy, but while the movie is billed as a crime mystery film, it ends up being light on the mystery, and even fairly light on the crime. It certainly sets up as Bundy being the focus, but the truly sensational parts of his killing spree are barely touched on, and the movie becomes more about Hagmaier’s goals. Despite the strong acting, the ending comes off as a letdown. ★★½

Old is the latest film from M Night Shyamalan, whose last film Glass was poorly received (though I enjoyed it). This film received mixed reviews, but like a lot of Shyamalan films, it has a great premise. While on vacation at a resort, two separate families are taken to a private beach by the hotel’s taxi. The beach is gorgeous and secluded, surrounded by cliffs. Seems like paradise, but they aren’t there long before they find a dead body. While accusations and fear are spreading around, the adults notice that their children are suddenly appearing much older than when they arrived. Soon everyone is rapidly aging, at the rate of a year every 30 minutes or so. When anyone tries to leave through the cliffs, the person develops a massive headache and blacks out, only to find themself back on the beach again. Crashing waves prevent swimming around to the next cove. As the children become teenagers and then young adults, and their parents become elderly, answers as to what they can do to escape continue to elude them. What should be great suspense (and there is some) is hampered by truly awful dialogue, and misguided attempts to force a series of dread for the viewer. Shyamalan has always had a problem with writing dialogue that feels natural, and this one is even worse than his norm. Good idea, but the movie just doesn’t deliver on the goods. ★★

I recently watched a film featuring Anna Magnani and was reminded how great she is, so I looked up the one film where she won a Best Actress Oscar. The Rose Tattoo was originally written as a play by Tennessee Williams and he had Magnani in mind for the lead, but in 1951, she felt her English wasn’t good enough. She kept practicing, and by the time the film version was made in 1955, she was ready to go. She plays Serafina Della Rose, an Italian immigrant with a philandering husband, but she is unaware of his pursuits. After he dies one night, killed trying to evade police while smuggling goods in his truck (again showing he is no saint), Serafina still honors his memory and raises their daughter on her own, stressing an abstinent upbringing. A couple years later, daughter Rosa is getting ready to graduate high school and is falling in love with an American sailor, which sends her mom Serafina into a tizzy. At the same time, Serafina begins to have feelings for a widowed truck driver, a hard working man also from Sicily, but who’s a bit of a dunce (she laughingly calls him a clown to his face). To this point, Serafina has refused to besmirch the memory of her dead husband, but will she keep to that virtue after she finally learns of his womanizing? The plot of the movie is only so-so, but Magnani makes the film. Her highs and lows are felt by the viewer, and she does an amazing job of pulling us in to her predicaments. ★★★

Werewolves Within is a comedy horror film, and reminds me a bit of Shaun of the Dead, in more ways than one. Finn Wheeler is a newly appointed forest ranger to the tiny town of Beaverfield, and no sooner does he arrive on the eve of a winter storm, that things start going strange. That is, stranger than what is expected in the town, where each of the quirky citizens is odder than the next. The only one that seems normal is the mail carrier, Cecily, with whom Finn immediately hits it off. The two become spectators to the antics of the others, but Finn is in for more than he signed up for: first an eccentric woman’s dog is killed, and then Finn finds the body of a missing man under the porch of the lodge. The dead man looks to have been mauled by a dog, and a strange visitor to town is convinced there is a werewolf at play. When the town’s generators are sabotaged, by an assailant leaving large claw marks, the citizens huddle together at the lodge and let their fears play out against each other. I wouldn’t call it an extremely funny film, but it is quirky enough to elicit plenty of chuckles, and while not scary, there’s enough spooky moments to keep you engaged. All in all, a better-than-average example of the genre. ★★★

Finch shows again that if you put Tom Hanks in front of a camera, like Cast Away 20 years ago, he can carry a picture all by himself. Instead of an island, this time he is a survivor of a solar flare which has stripped the earth of much of its ozone. Daytime temps can reach 150+ degrees, and the UV radiation burns skin in seconds. Finch Weinberg, a robotics engineer, survived the initial calamity because he was working in an underground facility the day it happened, and has lived there for the ensuing 15+ years. His only companions are a dog (named simply “Dog”) and a robotic pet who travels with him to the surface to scavenge for food and supplies. However, over the years and because of his surface travels, Finch has developed cancer, and he knows his time is growing short. When he’s gone, no one will be around to take care of Dog (who has stayed healthy, never having been to the surface), so Finch has created a new human-like robot to care for the pet after he is gone. Unfortunately their training is cut short when severe storms head their way, storms made worse without the ozone, and which will blanket the city for 40 days. Finch knows their dwindling supplies won’t last that long, so he, his two robots, and Dog head out in an RV for the west coast, traversing sun-baked lands where nothing lives except the dangerous other scavengers who come out at night. There’s some very funny moments as Finch tries to teach his new robot how to care for Dog and how to be safe in the completely unsafe world, and the visuals of a destroyed world are devastatingly beautiful, but Hanks’ performance is the true saving grace. Ultimately I don’t think the movie is very memorable, and doesn’t set itself apart from other films of this genre, but worthy of a watch for its star, who hasn’t lost a step. ★★★

• TV series currently watching: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (season 6)
• Book currently reading: The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks

I can’t believe it has been over 2 years since I last sat down to watch some of the great French director Jean Renoir’s films. Well past due for more, I’d say! Starting today with 1935’s Toni, a lesser known film of his using non-professional actors. Unfortunately it tells. The eponymous Toni is an Italian immigrant working as a laborer in southern France. He starts with a relationship with his boarding lady, Marie, mostly to get a place to stay, but as time goes on, it is clear he isn’t interested for the long term. He has his eye on Josefa, a Spanish immigrant, but she gets involved with another man, leaving Toni to settle for Marie. A couple years down the line, things haven’t changed, but Josefa is ready to leave her abusive husband, and Toni sees his chance. Unfortunately the story is altogether forgettable, and some of the actors are downright bad, like Josefa’s husband, who can’t seem to stop grinning in every scene he’s in, whether he’s being cruel or loving. I’ll give Renoir a pass on this one. ★½

The Lower Depths followed a year later, and is based on a Russian play. Thankfully we bring out the stars this time, led by French superstar Jean Gabin as Pépel. Pépel is a thief living in a flophouse. He’s been shagging the boarding house owner’s (Kostylev) wife Vassilissa, but admits later that his heart isn’t in it anymore. Pépel makes a true friend in an odd way: while robbing the local Baron one night, he is discovered, and Pépel and the Baron hit it off. The Baron invites Pépel to take what he wants, as he is heavily in debt and his creditors will be by in the morning to take all his belongings anyway. Now penniless, the Baron ends up living at Kostylev’s building too, and he and Pépel continue their friendship. As the story plays along, Pépel grows feelings for Vassilissa’s younger sister Natasha, but she doesn’t want to be with a thief. Pépel laments to the Baron that he is only a thief because his father was one, and it is all he has ever known. As he tries to prove himself to Natasha, Pépel must break the mold or risk dying in jail as his dad did. A much better film than Toni, with a fantastic turn from Gabin. Lots of humor too, supplied mostly by the various characters living in the flophouse with Pépel. ★★½

Jumping ahead to 1951 and Renoir’s film The River, which was shot in India and had that country’s soon-to-be-celebrated director Satyajit Ray assisting in finding filming locations (his breakout Pather Panchali was still 4 years away). Based on a novel, the movie follows a British family living near the Ganges River in India, and is narrated by the eldest daughter, teenager Harriet. Harriet begins the film by introducing her family and friends, throwing names at the viewer in a whirlwind, and I’m glad I didn’t have to remember them all! The important ones are Valerie, Harriet’s friend, and Captain John, the neighbor’s cousin who is visiting from America. Harriet is immediately infatuated with John (to be honest, she doesn’t have many other options), but so is every other girl in the area. Valerie has been Harriet’s childhood friend, but being a year or two older, she already has the body of a woman, and competes for John’s attention, as does John’s benefactor’s daughter, Melanie, a young woman of mixed heritage, from her English father and Indian mother. All of the drama takes place along the Ganges, where everyone from the lowliest peasant to the richest landowner does business, and on which they rely for their livelihood. It’s a very good drama, and like most Indian films I’ve seen from this era, shot in beautiful technicolor that pops on screen. I’m really liking Renoir’s style of humor too. ★★★

The Golden Coach came the next year, and brings to the screen the great Anna Magnani (of Rome Open City and Mamma Roma fame; I still need to see her Oscar winning performance in The Rose Tattoo). Shot in Italy, it is an English language film about a traveling troupe of actors who’ve been commissioned to come to Peru for entertainment. They arrive to see much lesser accommodations than what they were used to in Europe, but try to make the best of the situation. On the same ship that brought them was also transported a golden coach, which the local Viceroy originally purchased to give to his mistress, but has decided instead to use public funds to pay for it so it can be paraded in front of the locals. To throw a further wrench in the Viceroy’s grand scheme, he falls in love with Camilia (Magnani), one of the actors. Camilia has also caught the eye of a local celebrity, Ramon the bull fighter, and she already has a boyfriend among their travelers. Between the Viceroy’s love triangle and Camilia’s love quadrangle, there are plenty of laughs to be had. Though the film petered out just a bit by the end, I still really enjoyed the fun along the way. Great cast up and down. ★★★½

French Cancan is a fictionalized telling of the opening of the famous French cabaret Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays Henri Danglard (a fictional version of Charles Zidler), a night club owner who sees his small club struggling, despite good talent, which includes his mistress Lola, a belly dancer. One evening, Henri and Lola go to a dance hall where the working class kick back at night, and Henri is immediately intrigued by a young woman named Nini. She loves to dance, and particularly likes the old fashioned cancan style. Pursing an idea, Henri secures financial backers to renovate the old dance hall and turn it into the Moulin Rouge, a new venue where average people can feel like nobles, drinking champagne and watching premier entertainment. Henri hires a dance instructor to teach Nini and other dancers a new style of the cancan that will bring in the people. While he tries to get the new club open, he faces jealousies between Nini and Lola, as well as each of their lovers/significant others having their own jealousies over Henri. Sound intriguing? Unfortunately it’s not. For a quasi-musical about a famous (or infamous?) institution, the movie is quite dull. I couldn’t get too excited about any of the characters, and the film feels too much like a standard 1950s American drama. Maybe Renoir had had a bit too much Hollywood influence by this point in his career, as I felt much the same about the next film… ★

Elena and Her Men carries that same kind of feel and texture (overly-played Hollywood romantic comedy), but at least it is a lot funnier. The eponymous Elena is portrayed by the great Ingrid Bergman. She’s a Polish noble with a good family but no money, living in France in the late 19th century. Elena has a way of turning every man’s head, and has no shortage of suitors. Knowing her family’s situation, she promises to marry an affluent businessman, but immediately regrets her decision. During a parade to celebrate Bastille Day, she meets a Count, and is swept off her feet. The Count is a longtime friend to General Rollan, a war hero who is being pushed by advisors to take over the unpopular government. Rollan too is smitten by Elena, and seems to always have good luck in life, both professional and personal, when she gives him her favor. Now with three men clambering after her, Elena has her hands full. As does everyone else in this cast, which is full of cuckolded lovers and unrequited love. I can’t say I ever laughed too hard, but I chuckled and grinned a lot, and Bergman is charming as always. ★★½

• TV series currently watching: Star Trek Lower Decks (season 2)
• Book currently reading: The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Was so, so excited to finally watch Dune. I’m not a longtime fan, just recently getting into them. I read the first book in February of this year, and subsequently read the first 2 sequels and watched the 1984 movie. Have really liked it all so far, and with all the hype surrounding this release, I was pumped. It did not disappoint.

The movie does not follow the book perfectly (there’s too much material to do so), but it is fairly faithful. It begins with introducing the Atreides family, paying particular attention to main character Paul. The Atreides family has ruled the oceanic planet of Caladan for generations, but have new marching orders from the Emperor to oversee the desert planet of Arrakis. Nearly uninhabitable, except for the local “freeman” population who somehow have adapted to eke out an existence, no rational person would want to live there. However, Arrakis is the only source of “spice,” a sand-like mineral which makes interplanetary space travel possible. This means whoever runs the planet will be extremely wealthy. The Harkonnens did so for a long time, but the Emperor has, for an unknown reason, decided to replace them with the Atreides.

Enter into this politically unstable environment Paul and his mother Jessica. Brought up by the almost mystical Bene Gesserit women, Jessica has certain powers of deduction and can use “the voice,” an ability to give unable-to-resist commands to those that hear it. Against the Bene Gesserit law, Jessica has taught these skills to Paul, making him a candidate to fulfill prophecies handed down for hundreds of years about a young man who will lead all peoples with otherworldly powers.

Once on Arrakis, Paul, who has been having prescient dreams for some time about the desert planet, starts to see things that he had previously envisioned. Hardly have they settled in though before the family and their army is attacked, by the Harkonnens, who aren’t ready to release their control over the spice trade. In the ensuing battle, can Paul escape to see if he can become the leader that is foretold?

This movie is truly a sight to see. Huge in scope with ginormous vistas, massive armies, and the unfathomable expanse of space, the movie dwarfs the viewer in its reach. The soundtrack, by the great Hans Zimmer, builds continuously throughout, giving you plenty of heart-pounding moments. And the direction from Denis Villeneuve, who’s handled other large sci-fi projects like Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, is spot on. If I have one quibble, it is that the movie, as large as it is, doesn’t give quite enough attention to its individual characters. I know the ins and outs of these people from reading the book, but newcomers may feel they lack personality, and you don’t really get to know them as well as you maybe should, perhaps leading to a lack of caring when some die or others struggle. There’s so much story to tell though, that I don’t know where they could spare time to do so, short of stretching its 2 1/2 hour runtime into a 3 1/2 hour butt-numbing run. It’s a minor spat, and for Dune fans like myself, it won’t bother you as much. I await with bated breath for the sequel. ★★★★½

Finally got around to watching Free Guy, the pandemic-delayed film about a character inside a video game who realizes his world is much different than he’s always thought. So unimportant inside the game that his name is simply “Guy”, he lives inside an open world called Free City, that resembles a Grand Theft Auto-style game. Guy and the other NPC’s (non-player characters for you non gamers out there) are unaware that they are just computer characters inhabiting a world where “real people” come in and rob, steal, and blow stuff up for fun. But Guy is a little different than the other NPC’s: he has dreams of something different, specifically, finding a woman and falling in love. He gets his chance when he sees the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately for Guy, she’s not an NPC; Molotov Girl in the game is really Milly outside of it, and she’s inside Free City looking for evidence that the game is built on a platform she wrote and was stolen by Free City’s creator, code that she could use in her current lawsuit against him. When Guy approaches Molotov Girl and expresses his feelings, she at first thinks he’s just a “noob” (beginner player) and treats him as such. Little does she know that parts of her code is what is giving Guy his freedom of thought. As Guy gets attention outside the game and becomes an online celebrity (which he is unaware of), inside the game, he tries to help Molotov Girl with her mission. Extremely funny, bright and colorful as a game should be, and also unexpectedly with a lot of heart, this is a fun film with a high re-watchability factor. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of The Truman Show, another film about a person stuck inside a program with no way out, but still, a solid movie. ★★★½

Atlantis is a post-apocalyptic film out of Ukraine. As a movie, it’s about as bleak as they come. Taking place in 2025 after a war with Russia, Ukraine is left as a polluted wasteland. Sergiy and Ivan are a couple buddies working at a steel factory, and share depression and PTSD from their time in the war, shooting off guns haphazardly in the evenings. Neither is doing well mentally, leading to Ivan’s suicide in a dramatic fashion. Sergiy picks up a new job delivering water around the area, as the ground water has been contaminated from the war and is unsafe to drink. While driving one day, Sergiy comes upon Katya and her team, who goes around digging up bodies left in unmarked graves from the war, and doing their best to ID them. In these morbid times, in that harsh landscape, it’d be impossible to find any joy, yet somehow Sergiy and Katya do, in their own way. With the ever-present gray skies, muddy roads, and reminders of death everywhere, it would be easy for this film to become a dirge, but those small moments of hope give some to the viewer as well, and the whole film is shot beautifully (inasmuch as any dark film can be beautiful). ★★★½

I let my inner child out and settled in for Muppets Haunted Mansion, a short film (about an hour) currently on Disney+. As a big fan of the Muppets as a kid, I couldn’t help myself. The film centers around Gonzo and Pepe, with the other muppet characters having smaller parts. On the night of a Halloween party, Gonzo and Pepe don’t join the rest of their friends, and instead go to a haunted mansion which once belonged to Gonzo’s favorite magician, The Great MacGuffin (haha!). The magician disappeared 100 years ago and there’s a party every year in the house. Pepe is expecting an A-list crowd of celebrities, but Gonzo is there for the magic. Of course, the house really is haunted, and you have to wait and see if Gonzo and Pepe can be the first to survive the night and come out the next day. In true Muppets fashion, the film is chuck full of cameos and supporting roles from Hollywood celebs, including Darren Criss, Taraji P Henson, John Stamos, and Will Arnett (and tiny roles for a bunch more, including a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-him Pat Sajak). I laughed plenty in the beginning, grew a bit bored in the middle, but emerged happy enough in the end. It’s good light-hearted fun for the family, with plenty of jokes and fourth-wall-breaking gags to satisfy all ages. ★★★

Like every boy in the 1980’s, I had my share of G.I. Joe toys and watched the cartoon. When the first movie came out 10 or so years ago, I went and saw it, and came away ashamed with how bad it was. As such, I skipped the sequel a couple years later. I was going to do the same with Snake Eyes, but despite the poor reviews, the trailer looked great, and I like the lead actor, Henry Golding. Should have stuck to my gut; Snake Eyes isn’t very good. An origin story about the character, the movie begins with a young boy watching his father killed, and then growing up to be known as Snake Eyes, a martial artist with vengeance on his mind. He is lured to work for a Yakuza boss to steal an artifact from a Japanese dojo, with the promise that the mob boss will deliver his father’s killer as payment. Would you guess that Cobra is behind it all? Unfortunately there’s no real saving grace to this dumpster fire. Outside of a few nice moments, even the fight scenes are uninspired. The dialogue is downright awful, and the plot, which I’m sure is meant to surprise, is too thin to even wow a child. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I’m swearing off these movies again. ★

Scenes from a Marriage is an HBO 5 part miniseries, a remake of the celebrated Ingmar Bergman series (which is about as perfect as they come). Normally, I avoid remakes, especially when the original is going to be impossible to match, but HBO got two good leads to give it a shot, with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain cast in the leads. Doesn’t get much better than that, and they are amazing in this film. For just a quick set up: Jonathan and Mira have been married for years, but their marriage has gotten stale. This series starts just like the Bergman one: the couple is being interviewed, this time for a study involving gender roles, and you can tell from their answers that there isn’t much passion left in their relationship. They seem uncomfortable around each other, and give ambivalent answers to what should be easy questions. At the end of the first episode, Mira tells Jonathan that she is pregnant with their second child, and while they decide to keep it, the second episode begins with Mira having an abortion. Ostensibly this was done because a new baby would be a strain on their lives (he is a professor and the main caregiver in the house, whereas she is the breadwinner and always traveling with work), but Mira later admits that she felt if she were to have another child, she’d continue to be trapped in her marriage. When she returns from her latest work trip, she admits to an affair, and as the episodes progress, we see the couple divorce. Through it all, we see various moments of love and hate, passion and vitriol. The true inner moments of a marriage, both tender and painful, are shown equally. I won’t give away how it all ends, but if you want to see acting at its peak, I urge you to check it out. For myself, it doesn’t match Bergman’s original (how could it?), but it is damn good work and emotionally charged from beginning to end. My only quibble is that each episode begins with a “behind the scenes” look as the camera crew and production get set for the opening scene, and then you hear “Action!” to set it off. It lets the viewer know that what we are seeing isn’t real, it’s just actors on a set. Takes away some of the emotion of it for me (even if the actors certainly pull you in and make it feel real!). ★★★★½

• TV series currently watching: Marvel’s What If…?
• Book currently reading: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Danielewski

I usually space my films sets by same directors out a bit, but I had such a good time with Vittorio De Sica recently that I dove right back in. Up first today is Terminal Station, a 1953 Italian/USA co-production, directed by De Sica and produced by the legendary David O Selznick. Mary is an American housewife who’s been visiting her sister in Rome, but at the beginning of the film, she suddenly and without warning goes to Rome’s main railway station, Stazione Termini, to book passage out of town on the next available train. She wants to catch a flight out of Paris to return to the USA, but despite being told there’s an 8:30 train direct to Paris, she opts for the earlier 7:00 train to Milan, and will connect from there. The reason for her sudden departure becomes clear when Giovanni arrives. Mary has been having a month-long affair with the Italian (who strangely doesn’t have an Italian accent… welcome to 1950’s Hollywood), and has finally gotten cold feet. The guilt has reached a level that she wants to return to her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. I think the film tries to be Brief Encounter with some more lurid details and a couple thrills thrown in, but never reaches those heights. The actors (celebrated Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift, respectively) come off as cold to the camera and to each other, and I never felt the simmering, burning desire. Behind the scenes, despite an all-star team of De Sica and Selznick, as well as De Sica’s longtime screenwriter Cesare Zavattini and even Truman Capote, production was plagued by problems. The known perfectionist Selznick, now late in his career and having never been able to get away from the shadow of his triumph Gone With the Wind, rubbed De Sica the wrong way constantly, and ended up chopping 15 minutes off the film and releasing it in the USA under a new title, Indiscretion of an American Wife. ★★

Two Women (Italian: La clociara) gets us back on track. Cesira (Sophia Loren) is a single mother and shopowner in Rome during World War II, but as the war is turning against Italy and the city is constantly under threat of air raids, she wants to move her 12-year-old daughter out of the city and to the safety of the mountains. Her daughter Rosetta (Eleonara Brown) is very religious, and very innocent, and Cesira would like to keep her that way as long as possible. After asking a friend to watch the shop for awhile, the two up head up to Cesira’s childhood village in a rural part of the country, where they still have family. Many people have fled to there, including a college graduate named Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo). Michele is a smart guy, deep in his studies, and is able to have conversations about everything from the Bible to the government to society. He becomes a father figure of sorts to Rosetta, even while he falls in love with Cesira. But before long, he is taken prisoner by German soldiers and forced to be their guide. Now lonely, and with Allied forces having recently captured Rome, Cesira decides to take Rosetta back to the city. Unfortunately they are attacked on the road, and the brutality of the event will take Rosetta’s innocence and forever change the trajectory of their lives. Loren is fantastic as always, and Belmondo, having recently come off his breakout hit Breathless (just released earlier in the year) is wonderful in a much different role than he was typically cast. De Sica is able to inject humor early in the film, which balances out the darkness that comes later, and the climactic attack is gut wrenching. ★★★½

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is an anthology film consisting of three stories, each starring superstars Sophia Loren and Marcelo Mastroianni in different roles. In the first, Adelina is a woman who’s been fined for selling cigarettes on the black market. Police show up to arrest her for not paying the fine, only to see that she’s pregnant, and a law on the books says a woman can’t be jailed while expecting, or for 5 months after while she’s nursing. Seeing a way out, Adelina gets her husband Carmine to keep her “in a family way” to avoid jail time, until they have 7 kids in tow and Carmine can no longer physically keep up his end of the bargain. In the second short, Anna is a rich housewife driving her husband’s Rolls Royce around town, with her new lover Renzo in tow. Until he wrecks the car and we see where Anna’s true love lies. The final act focuses on a high-end prostitute named Mara, who’s become the fascination of a young clergyman-to-be, much to the consternation of the boy’s grandparents, as well her horny client Augusto. The first and third segments are the best, but all are lighthearted comedic acts, allowing Loren and Mastroianni to show off different skills that you don’t always see from them. The laughs weren’t always to my taste, but there’s enough here to be entertaining. ★★★

Marriage Italian-Style brings Loren and Mastroianna back, in a role that really allowed Sophia Loren to shine. The film begins near the end, so to speak, with a middle aged Filumena suffering from a mental breakdown because her boyfriend, Domenico, is about to marry another woman. We then get flashbacks showing how they first met during World War II. Domenico is visiting a brothel when an air raid siren goes off. He finds Filumena, a young 17-year-old at the time, hiding in a closet, and they strike up a conversation. Over the intervening years, she falls in love with him, and while he takes care of Filumena financially (putting her in an apartment, etc), he continues to have dalliances with other women. Her “sickness” in the present day is just a ploy to trick Domenico to marry her instead of the other woman. And boy does he have another thing coming, when he realizes that Filumena has mothered 3 kids over the years, and claims one of them is his! This film is very funny, but also full of emotion. Watching the household rally around Filumena is hilarious, as all of Domenico’s own servants take her side in all their arguments. While the ending is a little too “clean” for a movie that can be a bit messy at times (purposefully so, for its subject material), it’s a thoroughly well made picture. Loren received her second Oscar nomination, after having won it previously for the above reviewed Two Women. She is certainly deserving for this performance. ★★★★

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a much different film from those above, in both look and feel. It follows a community of Jewish Italians in Ferrara during the years leading up to, and start of, World War II. The Finzi-Continis are a family of wealthy aristocratic Jews who have, for a generation, walled themselves off in their huge estate, rarely leaving, and only allowing friends in for visits. Brother and sister Alberto and Micol are the newest generation, themselves young adults getting ready to graduate from school (mostly home schooled from private tutors). That is, if they will be allowed to graduate, as more and more limitations are being set upon the Jewish community from the fascist leaders. One of Alberto’s friends is Giorgio, who is really the focus of the movie. His dad is in the fascist party, but even so, as a Jew, he isn’t given any special privilege, and yet he refuses to believe the worst is yet to come. Giorgio has had a crush on Micol all of his life, sneaking over the wall into her family’s gardens as a kid, and now hoping to marry her as they are getting older. She obviously has feelings for him too, yet she rebuffs him when their moment comes, explaining that they are too alike for a romantic relationship to work. The backdrop for this romance is the coming war, and even on their estate, the Finzi-Continis can’t keep out the hate growing for their people in their own country. It’s a fascinating film. A little slow at times maybe, but made me think of some of the classic period films made by Merchant Ivory. This movie won De Sica his second Oscar in the Foreign Language category. ★★★½

• TV series currently watching: Superman & Lois (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Danielewski

Though I have seen every James Bond film, I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan, and certainly not an aficionado, but I do enjoy them. Even the bad ones! And No Time to Die is not one of the bad ones. It’s a solid film, showing a human side of 007 that you certainly didn’t see often in Daniel Craig’s predecessors. And it brings Craig’s run as Bond to a satisfying conclusion, as it has been well known that this will be his final tour.

In the beginning of the film, Bond is still with Madeleine Swan, who we met in Spectre. They’ve been living idyllically off the grid, and Bond is, for all intents and purposes, retired. However, someone has ratted on him, and he is attacked by Spectre agents, just narrowly surviving. James thinks Madeleine has given him up, and puts her on a train heading out of town, ostensibly never to see her again. But it’s a pretty girl in a Bond film, so you know she’ll be back, and she does, in a big way, before the end.

Five years later, an MI-6 lab is attacked and a scientist, Obruchev, is kidnapped. The project he was working on involves Project Heracles, a bioweapon that attacks discriminately; a gas let off in public will only be harmful to the DNA of its target, leaving innocent bystanders alive. But since the target DNA can be manipulated, it is a dangerous weapon, and MI-6 needs to get it back. Bond is approached by the CIA first, his longtime friend from the other side of the pond, Felix Leiter. And while Bond is able to get his hands on Obruchev, the mission goes sideways, and Obruchev is ferried away. Brought into MI-6 by M, Bond is lured out of retirement to try to see who is really pulling all the strings in this latest scheme.

Knowing from the beginning that this was Craig’s last go at the character, I couldn’t help but anticipate how he would exit. And the movie doesn’t disappoint, in a way that is a true first for the franchise. While the espionage aspects of this movie aren’t among the best you’ll find in the history of Bond in film, the action scenes are right up there, and there’s a lot of “gripping your chair and leaning in” moments, especially in the final act. Craig’s 5 Bond films were a bit uneven, but all were at least decent, and he ends on a high note. I look forward to who gets to be next 007, and where they go from here. ★★★½

The Perfect Candidate is a film from Saudi Arabia. It is one of those films with a good message, but unfortunately poorly executed. Maryam is a young woman doctor in a small town, fighting not only poor roads in her little community, but also the religious prejudice against women in her country. The road outside her clinic isn’t paved, so emergency vehicles struggle to even get patients in the door safely. And when they are inside, they don’t want to be treated by a woman. Maryam sets out to Dubai for a medical conference, but is refused entry onto the plane when she doesn’t have a male guardian’s permission (her father, a traveling musician, is on the road). Maryam rushes to get her uncle’s approval in time to catch her flight, and in order to see him (through a silly circumstance), ends up entering the ballot to run for the municipality’s council. She misses her flight, but goes through with the election, running on a platform of paving the road in front of the clinic. By running, Maryam hopes to also shed a light on the growing vocalization of a strong female population. This is the kind of movie that critics will gobble up, but honestly it’s not very good. It feels way too contrived and there’s a subplot involving Maryam’s father that is only present as filler in the movie. Unless something is lost in the translation, the whole thing feels hokey. ★½

The Guilty is a film of two halves. The first half is fantastic. It follows a cop, Joe Baylor, who’s been on leave from the force while being investigated for some unknown transgression. In the meantime, he’s working at a 911 call center, and this evening, the night before his hearing to be reinstated as a police officer, he takes an unforgettable call. On the phone, Emily, in a scared, frantic voice, says she has been abducted, but doesn’t know where she is. Joe can hear a male voice in the background, but Emily is light on details. While Joe is frantically making phone calls to the highway patrol and local police, Emily’s situation gets more dire. With her cell signal bouncing around at different cell towers, Joe is unable to pin down Emily’s location for her to be rescued. It gets more frantic when Joe learns that she has kids at home alone, and he talks to her 6-year-old daughter, who is going crazy with worry. This part of the film is just as good as it sounds. It’s gripping, tension-filled, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Then the big “reveal” hit with about 30 minutes to go, and while it was out of left field, it made the entire film feel gimmicky to me. All of a sudden, my interest level dropped to a level 2. It wrapped up OK I guess, and Jake Gyllenhaal is great in the lead, but the movie is nowhere near as good as it could have been. ★★

I’m bound to find a good movie out of this batch, but I’m still waiting. Echoes of Violence is the worst one yet. I don’t know why I keep watching these “B” movie thrillers, hoping to find a diamond in the rough. Too often disappointed. This one is about a man, Alex, who is a real estate agent getting ready to show a property in the middle of the desert when he hears a struggle off in the sand. He goes to investigate and sees a man standing over a girl. The girl is covered in blood, and cries for help. Alex is able to overcome the man and scares him off, then brings the girl back to the house. She’s been drugged, and as she comes to, she gives her name as Marakya and says she’s recently escaped a bad man who’s been running a sex trafficking ring for immigrants like her. Her attempted murderer was under this man’s employ, and there will be others trying to find her and silence her. Being an illegal, she doesn’t want Alex to call the police, but she wants to get a ride back to LA to exact her own revenge. The only thing going for this one is the pretty face, as Marakya is very easy on the eyes. The movie though is awful, with every bad gimmick, trope, and stereotype under the sun. ★

10-15 years ago, I would have been very excited for The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to the popular Sopranos TV show. Unfortunately too much time has passed since the show ended in 2007 for me to get too worked about the new movie, but I still wanted to see it. Tony Soprano is a kid when it starts and a teenager when it ends, but he isn’t the focus. Most of the story follows Chris Moltisanti’s (Michael Imperioli from the show, who narrates this film from beyond the grave) dad, Dickie, who was a father figure and idol to Tony when Tony’s own father was in jail. It’s a turbulent time in Newark and in the states in general, with the race riots of the 60s being just one of the events in the backdrop of the film. Ultimately this movie is for Sopranos fans alone. There are lots of easter eggs for faithful viewers, and it is fun to see the “old crew” when they were young, like Uncle Junior, Paulie, Silvio, Pussy, and the rest, but that’s about all this movie is: a walk down memory lane for all the old characters. The plot is too loose to really get behind, and for a film following in the footsteps of the one of the great gangster shows of all time, it is awfully light on gangster material. More of a crime drama than anything else, and not a memorable one at that. Very average on its own merits. ★★½

Based on a true story, I Carry You With Me is a Mexican film about two men, in love with each other, and their lives over a couple decades trying to balance their dreams with their relationship. It is told over a couple timelines: in the present day, where Iván and Gerardo play themselves in modern-day New York; a few flashbacks to when they were little kids dealing with the prejudice from others, even their own family, about being gay; and a large part of when they are young men in Mexico. It is this time period, the tale of their time together before Iván leaves to find his dream of being a chef in the USA, and his first year alone there, that showcases the best parts of the film. Iván has held the secret of his homosexuality, knowing the disappointment he’d face from his family. He’s even fathered a son, keeping his hidden life from everyone. Gerardo is openly gay and accepted by his mother, but ridiculed by his father. The actors portraying these two men, Armanda Espitia and Christian Vazquez, are fantastic. Unfortunately I wasn’t a big fan of the documentary-like approach to the modern day storyline. The movie loses its focus and goes all-in on hitting the hard obstacles illegal immigrants face in today’s America. The younger men storyline : 4 stars. The latter: 2 stars. Evens out to 3. Unfortunately, too many uneven films today. ★★★

• TV series currently watching: Batwoman (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Danielewski

The newest Sony Marvel film, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is the sequel to the surprise hit (at least financially) from 2019, and it is the latest in Sony’s attempt to carve out their own Marvel Universe. Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, along with his symbiot Venom. The two share Eddie’s body, and while Venom wants to go around eating people’s heads, Eddie has talked him down to only eating chickens and chocolate.

To this fragile but stabile relationship, enter villain Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). A serial killer behind bars, it is Brock’s work as a reporter that gets Kasady’s sentence changed to execution. Kasady’s last request is one final interview with Brock, and during it, Kasady bites Brock’s hand, infecting himself with some of Venom’s blood and creating Carnage, another big bad symbiot, with no such qualms about eating people. Kasady escapes, and goes on a rampage to free his long-lost girlfriend (who is every bit as crazy as he), and then go around hunting those that wronged them, including Brock. Brock and Venom have to set their differences aside again and try to take down Carnage before he destroys the entire city.

OK, lots to unwind there, and at a brisk 97 minutes, this movie flies by at breakneck speed. Don’t look for any character development; there isn’t any. It is mindless mayhem from start to finish. Outside of Venom’s crazy humor (like refusing to eat his pet chickens, Sonny and Cher, because their love is special), the movie was kind of a bore for me, until the climactic battle in the end, which I have to admit was pretty good. But it’s just too nuts. I feel like Sony’s Marvel films are having the same problems as the early DC Universe: they are throwing way too much at the wall and hoping something sticks. Honestly the best part of the movie was the wonderful end credits scene, building excitement for the future of the franchise. I hovered around the 2 star range, but am bumping it a bit in hopes that Sony can right this ship in the future. I love Tom Hardy, and while this film doesn’t properly showcase him, the next Sony Marvel flick (outside of Marvel-produced Spider Man 3) brings in another great actor, Jared Leto, in next year’s Morbius. Here’s hoping! ★★½

Today, I’m checking out a few films from influential Italian director Vittorio De Sica. He was a leader in Italian neorealism, a film movement focusing on the poor and working class (often with nonprofessional actors). Maybe not a household name outside of film circles, De Sica was hugely popular in his day. Two of the films below were awarded special honorary Oscars before there was a foreign language category, leading to the creation of the category in 1956 (and De Sica would win two of those as well!).

First up is 1943’s The Children Are Watching Us (Italian: I bambini ci guardano). The film revolves around a young boy, Pricò, caught up in a terrible moment in life: the falling apart of his parents’ marriage. Nina has been running around on her husband, Andrea, with a dashing young man named Roberto. Roberto has convinced Nina to finally leave her family for him, and she does, leaving Pricò devastated. He gets sick a few days later, and only then does Nina return. Andrea isn’t happy with her return, but he tries to make it work for Pricò’s sake, doing his best to forgive and move on. He proposes a beach vacation to liven everyone’s spirits, and they do seem to fall into a comfortable relationship with each other again. However, when Andrea has to leave a couple days early for work, and Roberto shows up at the beach, Nina can’t help herself but go back to her lover. When they return home, Nina sends Pricò up to their apartment from the cab, and leaves the family once again. But Pricò will get the final say in how his life will be lead before the end. It’s a very nice film, funny in the beginning and heart wrenching in the end, with better-than-expected acting from young Luciano De Ambrosis as Pricò. ★★★½

Shoeshine (Italian: Sciuscià) is a post-World War II film, again focusing on youth. Giuseppe and Pasquale are best friends working the streets as shoeshiners with a goal in mind: they want to buy a horse. Pasquale is an orphan living on the streets, and while Giuseppe has good, caring parents, they are poor. Unfortunately this duo are ripe targets for an older gang with a robbery in mind. Giuseppe’s older, no-good brother tasks them with selling blankets to a widow. When the blankets are delivered, the gang storms in pretending to be cops, and robs the widow when her attention is turned. When she goes to the real cops, they are able to round up Giuseppe and Pasquale and she ID’s them, thinking they are the thieves. The cops know how these things work, and know the boys aren’t the masterminds. But the boys aren’t squealing. They get sent to juvenile hall, and have to learn the ropes on the inside, even as the cops continue to turn the screws to find the real culprits. Don’t expect a happy ending in this one. De Sica does a fantastic job of painting the plight of the poor, who have little to stand on other than their honor and friendship. ★★★★

Bicycle Thieves (Italian: Ladri de biciclette) is just about the perfect film. It follows a man named Antonio Ricci who, like so many after World War II, is struggling to support his family in the poor economy. He wins the lottery, so to speak, when he is chosen for a job putting up posters around the city. It’s a menial job with not much pay, but he is thankful for it, as his wife and son, Bruno, are close to starving. Unfortunately, he is chosen for the job because he has a bicycle for transportation, and he’s just pawned it. His wife goes into action, gathering the sheets off the bed, cleaning them, and pawning the sheets to get the bike back, saying, “You don’t need sheets to sleep.” Antonio gets his bike out of hock and shows up for his first day of work. His good luck ends there. While up on a ladder, a thief steals his bike, and escapes before Antonio can chase him down. He goes to the police, but they do little more than record the serial number of the bike and tell him good luck. The next day, Antonio and his son Bruno head out to comb Rome, in vain search for the bike or the thief who stole it. This is not a feel-good story, but it is highly emotional and brutally honest in its portrayal of a down-and-out man who will do anything to keep his family alive. The views of a city on the losing side of the war, with an unhelpful police force and a multitude of citizens starving, is harsh to see. In that way, it presents also a wonderful time capsule, as Antonio wanders around Rome and all of its people. ★★★★★

If Bicycle Thieves leaves you feeling that there is no hope in the common man, Miracle in Milan (Italian: Miracolo a Milano) does the opposite. In this film, De Sica drops the realism and goes for the fantasy. Totò is abandoned as a baby, raised by a kind old woman for a few years until she dies, and then in an orphanage until he’s an adult. With his hard life, he should be jaded, but before she died, his adopted mother taught Totò to be an eternal optimist; not only did she literally not cry over spilt milk, she made a game out of it. So when Totò is out on his own, and finds himself in a shantytown, he makes the best of it. Totò goes around organizing his fellow homeless, and changing the area from a haphazard scattering of tents and lean-tos to a small self sufficient city made up of cast-off lumber and metal. Families now feel safe and people come together to help each other. Things are good, until oil is found under the land, and a wealthy entrepreneur wants to kick the homeless off the land. Totò’s salvation comes in the form of a magic dove, bequeathed to him by the ghost of his dead mother, which allows Totò to grant wishes to his fellows in need. At first, human greed takes over, and people wish for nice clothes, riches, etc., but eventually they come to see Totò’s outlook on life, and turn back to what made their self-built city so good in the first place. Wonderful story, a bit Fellini-esque at times, with a much different feel from the other De Sica films I’ve seen to this point. ★★★★½

The above films focused on younger people; even in Bicycle Thieves, the perspective of Antonio’s son plays a huge part. In Umberto D, the narrative switches to the older generation, whose struggles are just as real in the current economy. Umberto Domenico Ferrari worked in public works for 30 years, but is now long retired with nothing to his name but his trusty dog Flike. On his pension, he can barely pay his rent, and his landlady is just looking for an excuse to evict him. Outside of old coworkers he bumps into on the street from time to time, his only friend is Maria, the boarding house’s maid, but she has her own problems. She’s pregnant, but doesn’t know which soldier is the father. As the movie progresses, Umberto edges closer to homelessness. Less a movie about the loss of money and options, it is more about a man’s loss of dignity. It’s an age old question, and one with fewer answers today than in 1952. With an aging population that is living longer than ever, countries are going to continue to face problems on how to treat them well and support them in their twilight years. ★★★★

• TV series currently watching: Black Lightning (season 4)
• Book currently reading: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Danielewski