Category: Reviews

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

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Once again we’ve run into a film that I had forgotten I watched. I pretty much request to review anything that is offered from the Criterion Collection because they are always good, or if not good, at least interesting. Seeing this title, I instantly remembered I had seen it, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it. Reading my review makes me want to watch it again.  

The story is about a Japanese kid who wants to be an actor but isn’t very good at it.  He has to make many a sacrifice to hone his craft, as does his lover. The film dives into what it takes to make great art and if the sacrifice is worth it. You can read all my thoughts here.

Snowden (2016)

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Edward Snowden was a former NSA contractor who leaked thousands of documents proving the USA government was spying on its citizens. He was a complicated dude and not completely aboveboard, as one can assume since he’s become a Russian citizen, but also a hero for leaking those documents and letting us know what our government has been up to. This was all back in 2013, and considering everything else that has happened in this country since then, it all seems a little like “nothing much” which is a crazy thought in and of itself.

But I don’t  like to talk about politics in these pages, and I’ll leave it at that.  Of course Oliver Stone made a movie about Snowden, and I got to see it on the big screen back then. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Little Murders by Agatha Christie

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There have been a million adaptations of Agatha Christie stories. This French television did something original with it. They essentially removed Christie’s detectives (Poirot, Miss Marple, etc.) and inserted two original characters while keeping the plots. 

I reviewed this back in 2016 and haven’t watched it since, but I’m thinking it is time for a rewatch.  You can read my full review here.

Dead End Drive-In (1986)

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The thing about watching a lot of movies is that I can’t always remember all the details of every film.  Or any of the details.  Or whether I’ve even seen the film. The thing about writing lots of movie reviews is that when I forget about a movie, I can go back and read my reviews to jog my memory.

So it was with DeadEnd Drive-In. I probably would have recalled seeing this if you had asked me about it, but I wouldn’t have any idea what it was about.  But reading this old review makes me want to watch it again.

You can read it over at Cinema Sentries.  And yes, this is me once again going through these old reviews and posting them here.

Somewhere In Time (1980)

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Somewhere in Time is a film I’ve always felt like people loved. I thought it was a revered minor classic. I watched it many years ago and was a little disappointed in it, but when I got the opportunity to review this new UHD release from Kino Lorber, I figured it was time to give it another try.

Furthermore, I was still disappointed in it. Apprently, I was wrong thinking everybody else loved it because all my Letterboxd followers feel the same as me and all the reviews I’ve read find it to be mostly average.

Christopher Reeve becomes obsessed with an old painting of Jane Seymour and finds a way to travel back in time to meet her. 

Reeve and Seymour look beautiful, and the idea of the story is interesting, but I never really bought into the romance.  And the film didn’t seem all that interested in the time travel aspects. 

You can read all of my thoughts over at Cinema Sentries.

Foreign Film February: Iphigenia (1977)

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I’m a big fan of Radiance Films. They put out really cool releases of relatively obscure films. My understanding is that one of the guys who used to run Arrow Video now runs Radiance, and that checks out. Arrow made a name for themselves by doing some very nice restorations of low-budget cult films and giving them loads of cool extras. Radiance is doing the same but with obscure arthouse European films. 

I try to get as many of them as I can, and I’m never disappointed.

Iphigenia is based on a Greek legend about Agamemnon having to sacrifice his firstborn child in order to win the war with Troy. It is a really beautiful, wonderfully made film, and I’m so glad I watched it.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Foreign Film February: 2 Minutes Late (1952)

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Pretty much whenever I watch a movie, I internally review it. More often than not, once the movie is over, I’ll spend some time mentally writing a review. Sometimes that makes it onto the page, and I post it here or elsewhere. Sometimes I get distracted, and it never goes anywhere.

Every once in a while I’ll mentally write a review and think that I have actually posted it only to discover, later, that I never did write it out. This is one such occasion. I sure thought I had written a review for this film, but alas, I have not.

The trouble is I watched this a couple of weeks ago, and the plotting details are already foggy. And because this is a fairly obscure Norwegian film from 1952, there aren’t a lot of details of the film online. 

But it is still Foreign Film February, and I wanted to write something about it, so here goes. 

The Criterion Channel is running a little collection of Nordic Noir, and I’ve been enjoying it. The first two films I watched weren’t all that noirish, to be honest. There were hints of noir in there, but you have to stretch the definition a little bit to categorize them as such. But 2 Minutes Late is straight-up noir, and I loved it.

Max Paduan (Poul Reichhardt) is married to the nervous, clingy, and extraordinarily jealous Grete (Grethe Thordahl). She’s even jealous of her sister Beth (Astrid Villaume), thinking her friendship with her husband might be something more. 

One day Grete goes to an old bookstore to find something to read while she’s getting her hair done. She accidentally leaves her purse behind. When she returns, she finds the owner has left for lunch, but a little push on the door and it opens. She smells something strange in the store but shrugs it off, grabs her purse, and leaves. 

Later she’ll learn someone was murdered in that store right around the time she was in it. Suspicions fall on Max, and it is Beth who does some investigating to find out who really did it. The plot gets all sorts of twisty, and it’s filled with lots of interesting little details. This is where my memory gets fuzzy. I don’t remember exactly where it all goes, but I do remember I quite liked it.

If you like film noir and have the Criterion Channel I highly recommend it.

Stranger On the Third Floor (1940)

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I freaking love me some Peter Lorre. I am a huge film noir fan. Stranger on the Third Floor stars Peter Lorre and is often cited as the very first noir. Several times now I’ve gotten all sorts of excited thinking about that and put this movie on only to be disappointed by it. 

It isn’t a terrible film, but it is definitely a B-movie that never expected to be talked about some seventy years after it first appeared on screens. And Peter Lorre is in it for less than ten minutes.  He’s great, and there is a pretty cool dream sequence in the middle, but other than that it is kind of dull.  Anyway, you can read my full review here.

Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection

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Spencer Tracy is one of those actors whom I like in just about everything but that I’ve never really gravitated towards. I have no idea why. I got this four-film set the other day and quite enjoyed it (well, three of the films, anyways).

You can read my review of the entire set here.