“Here’s the story of Ted Bundy. Murdered young girls, monday through sunday. Lured them into his car. Then they wouldn’t see tomorrow.”
Thus sang Macabre in 1993. The film focuses on another side of Bundy’s life though.
Bundy is a handsome and charming law student who gets a relationship with a young single mother. Their life seems perfect, but Bundy has other hobbies for which is he eventually apprehended. He tries to confince everybody he did not do any of the things he is accused of.
For a long time his girlfriend supports him. Bundy even manages to become friendly with the judge that eventually sends him to the electric chair.
This long titled film is a descent drama with only at the end some attention for his crimes. Not badly done.
From the director of “Ghosts Of The Civil Dead” (1988) comes “The Road”. A dystopian film playing in an apocalyptic future.
The world has burned and nothing much remains. Animals have died, trees and crops are scorched, only a few people remain. Some have allied themselves into gangs.
We follow a small family, the father and son of which try to get to the South where the climate is less severe. On their way they meet hardship and a lot of drama.
Indeed,”The Road” is not exactly a light film. It is a descent one though.
The beautiful Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) has a car accident and stops aging after 29. When everybody around her ages and dies, Adaline does not. Of course this catches the attention of some people and Adaline decides to change her identity every 10 years and move to another part of the country.
We see Adaline in our own time and of course with flashbacks to times passed. A man sets his mind on ‘conquering’ Adaline, while she prefers to not get too involved with anybody. Of course this can only lead to a melancholic and romantic drama.
This film is somewhat uncomfortable. William Keane’s seven year old daughter disappeared a few months ago and Keane has lost his mind. We very closely follow Keane who appears to be schizophrenic and developing paranoia.
He keeps coming back to the place where he last saw his daughter, talking to himself, trying to find out what happened. He also seems to be trying to relive moments spent with his daughter.
Keane is far from home. He rents a hotel room in the city where his daughter was possibly kidnapped. In that hotel he meets another seven year old girl.
Yes, ‘up close and personal’ that describes the film. It is not an easy watch. Not because it is very heavy or weird, but mostly because you feel sorry for the man. Quite a feat of actor Damian Lewis.
I have been looking for this film for quite some time, but each time I had no luck. The film features Douglas P. which is how I heard about it. P. also features in the recently reviewed “Pearls Before Swine“, but there he has an actual part, in “The Doctor” his is the narrator.
Nöla wrote both the book and the film and only recently I noticed that a DVD can be ordered from Old Europa Cafe. This is fitting, since films that a recently saw (“Pearls”, “Lords Of Chaos“) and also this one of course have a connection with the music that I listen(ed) to, so getting it from a ‘scene label’ is appropriate.
“The Doctor” being a small production, could I even say ‘an underground film’?, will probably not make you expect a perfect and well-produced film.
In some ways it reminds of “Pearls Before Swine”. The acting is not too convincing, the protagonist is a narcissistic, brute, foul-mouthed, over-philosophical character that likes to hold lengthy monologues with difficult words and wild ideas.
The doctor from the title appears to be some sort of psychiatrist, but he is also his own patient. Haunted by a former patient of his, the doctor slides into a surrealistic world from which he tries to form ideas about the world outside and inside himself.
Just as with “Pearls” the film is not entirely amateurish. There are some alright scenes and some original ideas. Again it is a small production to watch some time just to see what it is exactly.
I was curious about this film in spite of the 5.7 on IMDb. It seemed to be one of these comedies with an absurdist story like “Being John Malkovich” (1999) or “Dogtooth” (2009).
In order to solve the problem of overpopulation and therefore environmental problems, Norwegian scientists found a way to shrink people. Smaller communities, smaller necessities, less waste.
We quickly jump forward in time a few times until we get in the time in which most of the film plays. There are already a few cities for small people and commercial parties have taken up the downsizing of people. As everything in much cheaper when you are small, people chose to have themselves downsized in order to live in luxury.
The Safraneks will have themselves downsized after long deliberations. Then of course things are not as perfect or easy as the companies said.
After amusing and weird scenes in the beginning, the film gets a more serious tone when the ‘solution’ the environmental problems came too late and when the small communities are not perfect either.
“Downsizing” is a descent film. A nicely absurdist start with humour, but also a message.
A while ago I saw a film about Neil Armstrong as the first man on the moon. That was Apollo 11 about which recently a documentary has been made too. As you can guess, Apollo 13 was a later mission.
Bound for the moon too, we mostly follow Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks). Preparations, practising, etc., but also family life is shown, quite like in “First Man”. The launch is pretty far in the beginning of the film. This -of course- is because Apollo 13 was a troubled mission. Still on its way to the moon, there are major problems, so big even that it is doubtful that the crew can return safely.
With the moon landing abandoned quickly, a new mission arises. There is not enough air and most importantly, not enough power and fuel to complete the return flight. In a gripping and realistic way, Howard tells the story of three man living in a small craft with no power and hence, no heating. They have to repair their CO2 filter with duct tape and a sock, the people below are practising return scenarios and try to come up with ways to have just enough power for the return. Where there initially was little interest from the media in the first mission to the moon, when things went bad, the media was all over it. Specialists talking about the unlikelines of a safe return while the family is watching. All is well-done.
Also well-done are the space scenes with for example weightlessness, the -in our contemporary eyes- amateurish equipment and the hardship of the crews above and below. I am quite surprised that the film is as old as it is.
14 October 2011 2% of the world’s population suddenly vanished without a trace. This is later called “the Sudden Departure”. The people who have gone are “Departed” and the rest “Leftovers”.
This is the basis of this three season series. Not the investigation of what happened, but how the lives of the “Leftovers” fare. Some families lost one member, other people lost their entire families and since noone has ever figured out what happened and where everybody went, there is no closure for most people.
“The Leftovers” is a drama, sometimes pretty heavy showing peoples’ deep grief. Of course there are some main characters. This is mostly Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), police officer, his daughter and wife and the siblings Matt Jamison and Nora Durst. Another familiar face that we meet is that of Liv Taylor.
The first season is mostly around a group who tries to prevent people from forgetting what happened. A weird sect-like group dressing all white with brute manners of making their point.
In the second season we find ourselves in a small village from which nobody departed and it became a popular place for hippies and other people, especially around anniversaries of “the Departure”. Then also here children disappear. Or did they? Characters from the first season overlap.
In the last season is stranger than the other two and more focus goes to Kevin Garvey. Much more than he cares for himself.
“The Leftovers” is an alright series. To me, by and far not the 8.3 of IMDb.com. The story is well written with all kinds of references that make only sense later. Even though there are not too many episodes, some still feel as ‘fillers’ and the psychological need of some characters is sometimes overdone.
On Netflix I noticed the face of David Duchovny. Back in the days I was a fervent X-Files watcher, but I have not really followed Duchovny after. The cover seems to suggest that “Aquarius” is some sort of “Californication”-type series which I never watched.
Actually, “Aquarius” is a very descent crime/drama kind of series. A wonderfully acting Duchovny plays Sam Hodiak, an old and cynical detective who has been on the police force way too long. His temporary boss is a long time friend and Hodiak has two young colleagues, but he prefers to work alone.
The series play in the 1960’ies and like Tarantino’s latest, it combines a few of the interesting storylines of the period. The Kennedy assassination, the campaign of Nixon, the hippy movement including Charles Manson and the rise of (militant) black movements.
The series are based on true events, but in some cases I wonder if it was smart to use the real names, like in the case of Manson. Especially in the first season he is portrayed as a pimp with musical ambitions. That first season is in most ways the better. Duchovny is great as the blunt Hodiak who also proves to have a social antenna and even emotions. The pace is nice and slow, the storyline is somewhat interesting.
In the second season things become less interesting. ‘Juicy’ elements are added and the series become more typical for an American crime series. Season two ends suddenly as if there were plans for another season that was never made.
Not bad, not great. Duchovky is a great actor though.
Scorsese made a classic mafia film with classical mafia film actors such as Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and Joe Pesci.
Robert de Niro is the man from the title, a small time man who works himself up in the mafia ranks. Pacino is great at the overheated head of the truckers union and became one of the most powerful men in the USA.
The Italians in the USA have their hands in many businesses, often illegal. When the Kennedys rise to power, they start to get opposition, but fortunately that problem solves itself. Then internal problems occur that need to be taken care off.
“The Irishman” is an alright mafia film that in my opinion needed not to last for three-and-a-half hours. I must say that De Niro does not really convince.
