Author: Mat Brewster

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The Friday Night Horror Movie: The Faculty (1998)

the faculty

The Faculty is so of its time, so late 1990s that I spontaneously turned into a 22-year-old college senior again while watching it. It was produced by Miramax, the hippest studio at the time. It was directed by Robert Rodrigues at the very apex of his coolness factor. It was written by Kevin Williamson hot off his hit-making turns with Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It stars a veritable who’s who of late ’90s hip young actors including Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Clea Duvall, and Jordana Brewster. The soundtrack features Stabbing Westward, The Offspring, Soul Asylum, Creed, Garbage and Layne Staley with Tom Morello covering Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” If it was any more late 1990s I think it would create a black hole time warp.

It was part of the late-90s horror boom that began with Scream in 1996 and catered to a more younger, cooler, and mainstream crowd that horror was used to. I was very much into that whole scene. I freaking loved Scream and was so excited that horror had become popular.

I hated The Faculty when I saw it in theaters. Hate is probably too strong of a word, but I was very disappointed with it. I dug Rodrigues and Williamson, I loved this new wave of horror, but something about The Faculty just didn’t sit right with me. Looking back on it now, I think it was that it is more of a throwback to older films. It clearly has influences in all those schlocky 1950s sci-fi/horror films, and it outright references Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing (both films I wouldn’t see for several more years). I wasn’t hip to that vibe just yet so it all felt off to my brain.

I didn’t watch it again until tonight. I now am quite familiar with the film’s reference points and I think twenty years of distance has given me perspective on that particular wave of horror (it was mostly not very good) and so I found myself rather enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, it is still not a great film, but it’s an enjoyable one.

Plotwise it takes a lot from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but sets it mostly inside a high school where initially the teachers are the aliens and the kids are all that’s left to save humanity. And not just any kids, the outcasts, the freaks, and the nerds.

Wood is the book-smart nerd who everyone picks on. Hartnett is the drug-dealing tough kid. Duvall is the put-upon shy kid who wears all black and might be a lesbian (in 1998!) The teachers (including a goatee-wearing Jon Stewart, Piper Laurie, Famke Jannsen, Salma Hayek, Bebe Neuwirth, and Robert Patrick – geez this cast is stacked) get controlled by these little alien worm things and are out to invade the entire world.

Williamson’s script is smart (but not nearly as smart as he thinks it is, not Scream smart) and Rodriguez’s direction is steady. The cast is mostly great. Overall it is a pretty good little horror film with some nice comedic moments

When I started this review I noted that The Faculty was very much a movie of its time. Unfortunately, that time has not aged very well. The CGI effects look bad. There is a scene that directly references a scene from The Thing. Actually, there are a couple of them, but this particular scene apes some very effective practical effects from that John Carpenter film, but here they are all computer generated and they look terrible.

It is a Miramax film, which of course was run by Harvey Weinstein. Danny Masterson has a small role (his character is simply named F’%# Up #1 which is appropriate, I guess) and freaking Harry Knowles has a cameo so call this a sex pest trifecta.

If you can get past all of that, I think it is worth seeking out, especially if you are a fan of late 1990s horror and somehow missed this one.

The Movie Journal: February 2024

mademoiselle

I watched 38 movies in February 2024. 24 of them were new to me. 23 of them were made before I was born. It was Foreign Film February and I watched 12 foreign films.

I actually slowed my movie-watching a little as I intentionally tried to watch some television series. My wife and I watched A Murder at The End of the World, which started off really strong and then concluded in as ridiculous a manner as possible And I started watching The Americans (again). I think this is my third attempt. It is a show that I think is really good, but not quite so amazing that I just can’t put it down. I keep getting through the first season and then getting distracted. When I’m ready to pick it back up again I feel like I need to watch Season 1 again to remember the story and then I get distracted again.

My top actors watched this year are still slim pickings. Clark Gable remains at the top with 8 films watched followed by Burt Lancaster with 3. Robert Wise, Lewis Allen, Joseph Henabery, John Ford, Tony Wharmby, and Umberto Lenzi are tied for the directors list with two films watched a piece.

Here’s the full list.

Vera Cruz (1954) – ***1/2
Blood on the Moon (1948) – ***1/2
Les 3 Boutons (2015) – ****
Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (1964) – ***
Commando (1985) – ***1/2
Action Jackson (1988) – ***1/2
When Strangers Marry (1944) – ***1/2
My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) – ***1/2
The Upturned Glass (1947) – ***
Sparkling Cyanide (2003) – ***
Shin Godzilla (2016) – ***1/2
Office Space (1999) – ****
Darkman (1990) – ****
The Ear (1990) – ****
Tokyo Joe (1949) – **1/2
Appointment with Danger (1950) – ****
Mademoiselle (1966) – ****1/2
Rhubarb (1951) – ***1/2
Hair Wolf (2018) – ***1/2
Paganini Horror (1989) – **
The Symphony Murder Mystery (1932) – **
The Trans-Atlantic Mystery (1932) – ***
Faithless (1932) – ***1/2
Donovan’s Reef (1963) – ***
The Fighting Seabees (1944) – ***1/2
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery (1981) – ***1/2
The Big Gundown (1967) – ****
Battleship Potemkin (1925) – *
The Secret Adversary (1983) – ***1/2
House (1977) – ****
Fox and His Friends (1975) – ****
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) – ****
My Fair Lady (1964) – ****
Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge (1937) – ***1/2
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) – ****
Re/Member (2022) – **
Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) – ***1/2
Noroi: The Curse (2005) – ****

Foreign Film February: Les 3 Boutons (2015)

les 3 boutons

Agnes Varda was a titan of French cinema. She was a member of the French New Wave and a pioneer of using location shooting and non-professional actors. She made narrative films and documentaries. I’ve only previously seen Cleon From 5 to 7 but it is a masterpiece. My wife adores The Gleaners and I.

I keep telling myself I need to watch more foreign language films this month, and I keep finding other things to watch, but before February comes to a close, I wanted to watch something. Something short. Because it has been a long day and I’m tired.

Luckily the Criterion Channel has a bunch of short films and they even categorize them by their time frames – Under 60 minutes, Under 30 minutes, Under 15 minutes…

Les 3 Boutons (The Three Buttons) is an eleven-minute film from Agnes Varda. It was commissioned by the fashion house Miu Miu. It stars Jasmine Thiré as a young goat farmer who goes on a magical journey.

A postman brings her a package. Inside the package is a large red-looking tarp. When she unfolds it the tarp becomes an enormous red dress. The girl walks inside the dress and finds herself in a cave. When she spies some school girls walking down a lane her own clothes turn into the same dresses they are wearing. Suddenly, she’s on a city street. When she spies some kids having ice cream she reaches inside her pocket and finds her own cone. It is a stream-of-consciousness fable.

Varda infuses this very simple story with a playfulness and joy that is a delight to behold. There isn’t much to it, and so I don’t have a lot to say about it. But if you have the Criterion Channel (or Mubi) and you have 11 minutes to spare I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Black Tight Killers is the Blu-ray Pick of the Week

black tight killers

I assume it is obvious that I like lots of weirdo cult films. When I was younger I really enjoyed finding obscure films to watch as it gave me certain bragging rights. I could ask my movie nerd friends if they’d seen some completely unknown film and then feel a bloated sense of superiority when they hadn’t seen it yet. As I’ve gotten older and pretty much every film imaginable has become available at the click of the button the bragging rights have gone, but I still love obscure, weird movies.

Obviously, I watch a lot of movies and the more you watch the more you come to understand the formulas and cliches of cinema. So to find something that truly does something different is pretty cool.

I have no idea if Black Tight Killers is any good, but I love the summation of it. A war photographer tries to rescue a waitress from the clutches of an all-girl band of stylishly dressed ninjas who use records as weapons. Tell me that isn’t something you want to see!

Radiance Films is a fairly new label but they seem to be doing good work. This one comes with a new transfer and lots of extras.

Also out this week that looks interesting:

Wonka (2023): There was a bit of hilarious chatter when this new adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl book came out because some people went to see it without knowing it was a musical. The Gene Wilder version had a lot of songs, but I guess this one is a full-on singing and dancing musical and a lot of folks don’t like that. Personally, I like musicals, but I see no reason to see yet another adaptation.

The Roaring Twenties: The Criterion Collection presents this Roal Walsh-directed film about some soldiers getting mixed up in the mob. James Cagney stars.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVII: Kino Lorber continues to put out these nice boxed sets of three relatively obscure film noirs. I asked Cinema Sentries to get me a copy to review, but I haven’t received it yet. This set contains the following films: Vice Squad, Black Tuesday, and Nightmare.

Hollow Man: Wal-Mart is doing an exclusive Steelbook release of this Kevin Bacon vehicle that is yet another take on the whole Invisible Man scenario. I remember not liking it when I watched it in theaters.

I Know What You Did Last Summer: Another Wal-Mart exclusive type deal. Both this and Hollow Man are coming from Mill-Creek who are notorious for their cheap releases.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Shin Godzilla (2016)

shin godzilla
My daughter has started to get into Japanese culture, including Anime so I got her a subscription to the Crunchyroll streaming service. I noticed that Shin Godzilla was included in that service so I gave it go. I’d say I am a fan of the Godzilla movies, but I’m not hardcore about it. I’d been meaning to watch this one since it came out, and the reviews for the new one – Godzilla Minus One have been really good, so today seemed like a good day to watch a lizard monster attacking Japan. Godzilla Minus One isn’t a true sequel of Shin Godzilla but I still wanted to watch it before Godzilla Minus One.

Crunchyroll had two audio options. I could watch it in the original Japanese with English subtitles or I could watch an English dub. In general, I prefer to watch movies in their original language and so I chose that option. Unfortunately, the sync was off which meant I got the subtitles appearing on my screen about three seconds before the characters actually said them. This was especially true during the more frantic action sequences in which the dialogue is rapid-fire. It was very confusing so after about an hour I switched to the English dub. It was a very bad dub, but somehow I survived.

Made in 1954 the original Godzilla served as a metaphor for Japan’s post-war fears of another nuclear holocaust. Shin Godzilla is at least partially concerned with the ways in which bureaucracy stalls decisive government action in a time of crisis. Making it a metaphor for the Japanese government’s response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Just off the coast of Japan, an eruption of some kind occurs in Tokyo Bay. The water begins to boil and an underground tunnel ruptures sending water flooding into traffic. The government meets to discuss the issue, they call in top scientists to figure out what is causing the eruption, but they do nothing.

Soon a tail emerges then a large lizard thing (with hilarious googly eyes. But not to worry, the scientists say, it probably can’t come on land. It’s legs are too small. Then it does come on land and mutates into something more Godzilla-like. More government discussion, but little action. They have to have meetings, you see, and decide what the laws say they can and cannot do during this crisis that no one in the history of the world is prepared for.

Some low-level agents form a secret board of folks willing to actually do something, and they (eventually) save the day. But not before Godzilla destroys most of the city with his super-awesome fire breath and lasers that shoot out of his scales and tail.

It is a curious mix of dudes in offices arguing over the correct procedures, other dudes in other offices actually trying to find a real solution, and some crazy Godzilla action.

Honestly, I was mostly bored during the office scenes. I got what it was trying to do within the first ten minutes or so and after that, it just felt redundant. But the Godzilla attacks stuff is pretty great.

Mademoiselle (1966)

mademoiselle

I reviewed a couple of Blu-rays for Cinema Sentries this past week and I’ll be linking to them today. First up is a British film set in France that stars a French woman speaking English (with a French accent) an Italian actor who speaks both English and Italian, and a bunch of other Europeans who all speak English with various British accents. All of which I find very funny for a film that is supposed to be made up of a bunch of French people.

But I’m not sure if I get to call it part of my Foreign Film February or not.

Also, it’s quite good. You can read the review here.

Darkman 4K UHD is the Pick of the Week

darkman 4K

As always I’m late with posting this. Sam Raimi’s completely original superhero movie was a bit of a bomb when it first came out in 1990. Watching it now it feels a little like a dry run for his Spider-Man films, but it still has its charms. They are releasing a really nice 4K version of it this week along with several other cool-looking movies. Read my article about it over at Cinema Sentries.

Foreign Film February: The Ear (1970)

the ear

I’ve been a little slack in my Foreign Film February watching. It seems like I’m always slack these days in whatever I’ve decided is the movie theme of the month. I still like the idea of the themes, but some days (most days) I like to watch whatever I’m in the mood for.

I do love foreign language films, but they can be difficult to watch. I don’t mean difficult thematically or that the style is obtuse or whatever (though that can be true), butthe act of reading subtitles creates extra work. Normally, I don’t mind that little bit of work, but increasingly my eyes are going bad. I used to have excellent eyesight but as I get older that is less and less true. These days they are dry and tired. That little extra work of reading what I’m watching is sometimes just too much. When I watch a film at the end of a day I want to relax, to rest, not have to give my eyes a workout.

Weekends are better and this is when I watched The Ear. It is a Czechoslovakian film that was made in 1970 but was banned by the Communists until the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. It was part of the Czechoslovakian New Wave, and I realize I don’t think I’ve seen any of those films. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a movie from Czechoslovakia. This is why I love Foreign Film February.

A married couple, Anna (Jirina Bohdalová) and Ludvik (Radoslav Brzobohatý) return home from a political party to find their gate unlocked and their front door open. The power is out and the phone doesn’t work.

Ludvik becomes increasingly convinced he is about to be purged by the government. He is a mid-level bureaucrat and in flashback, we see that his boss and several others were disappeared at the party. His wife, drunk and belligerent, continually speaks loudly about things she ought to keep quiet about.

It is well known by everybody that the government is listening. The omnipresent “Ear” has been placed in various rooms in everybody’s house. Rumors abound about it. They say that they won’t listen to you in the bathroom or the kitchen (but they love to listen to what you do in the bedroom).

They see men standing outside the house across the street. Ludvik begins flushing notes he took at various meetings. Things that might not look good to the new administration. When the toilet clogs he burns them, destroying his toilet seat in the process.

As the night rolls on the tensions increase. As do the cracks in their marriage. It is clear they haven’t been happy in a long time. Anna doesn’t seem to understand how serious it all is. She yells at the ear and continues drinking. Ludvik is convinced he’s going to prison or worse.

Reminiscent of 1984, The Conversation, and even Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Ear is an intense, meticulously crafted bit of paranoia. The stark black-and-white photography increases the fear by not allowing any warmth in. In the flashback sequences, we often get POV shots from Ludvik’s perspective which increases the paranoia as really we’re seeing what he sees from his memory, and he’s increasingly convinced things are as bad as can be.

It ends almost ironically. I won’t spoil it, but it is a slap of reality as to how truly insane totalitarian governments can be.