Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean, 2005)

Wolf Creek is one of the movies that were praised by almost everyone but I have always managed to miss somehow. I don’t think it got theatrical release in Slovenia and I downloaded it few times but file was always somehow fucked (either synchronized or badly ripped or created by some obscure codec etc). So I didn’t hesitate for one moment when they were showing it on Film Four the other night.

It was worth waiting because it really is that good! It’s surprising how great horror flick can (still) be made without trying to do anything really new or radical and just using well known and established “tools of the trade”. Suspense, eerie atmosphere, creepy sound effects and music, few unsettling scenes (I guess torture porn became mandatory these days) together with good technical qualities all result in above average movie.

But what I liked the best is intelligent use of clichés to achieve some cool mind fucking. Good example is when our villain is lying unconscious and his victim is frantically trying to find car keys in his pockets. In 90% of the movies guy would wake up and in the rest 10% some other shit would happen (usually nasty and not pleasant at all for our heroine). But nothing here! Greg Mclean just uses this cliché to scare us shitless. Very smart and original!

Cool stuff, go see it!

8/10

The Drowning Pool (Stuart Rosenberg, 1975)

Second Harper movie and somehow I like it a bit more than the first one. Which is strange in a way because (a) I don’t usually go for crime stories that involve our hero personal shit and (b) don’t like crime stories that take place outside the big cities. They belong to urban jungles right?

Paul Newman is still overdoing his character a bit too comically for my taste, but Drowning Pool is much darker than its predecessor. It also deals with more sinister topics than “simple” greed and successfully manages to merge couple of fucked up family dramas into crime/mystery. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still as hard boiled as they come and body count reaches quite respectable number at the end!

Supporting cast is not such an all-star affair as in the first one but they somehow function together even better. Joanne Woodward is of course great but real mini-star here is Murray Hamilton who plays villain perfectly. He steals every scene he’s in even from the mighty Mr. Newman. 

Good stuff indeed. Probably mostly well-known for its ending climax escape scene but I liked it because of its dark moody noir atmosphere and well developed story that works on many levels. It feels very modern even today and – as Harper – doesn’t age at all.

8/10

Harper (Jack Smight, 1966)

Ross Macdonald is probably my second favorite crime author of the classical pulp era (first one - needless really to point out - being Chandler) and his Lew Archer the second coolest P.I. ever (after you know of course who being the first one). Apparently Paul Newman liked him a lot also and was happy to play the part under one condition – name Archer needed to be substituted with Harper because letter H was his lucky one (after filming The Hustler and Hud).

And he’s okay but I think he’s overdoing the part just a little bit. Yes, we know he’s supposed to be cynical but sometimes he’s acting like he’s being in comedy and not in a hard-boiled crime. I don't know, there are just too many of those facial grimaces. He is not at all bad and doesn’t damage the movie (like Frank Sinatra for example might) and especially his lines with witty dialogues and one-liners are delivered perfectly. But credits for that probably go more to its brilliant literary source.

Anyways, he’s okay but supporting cast is magnificent. Especially Lauren Bacall, Shelley Winters (once again!!!) and Janet Leigh. Bacall seems to be having really good time filming this and she plays her bitchy character to perfection. Real joy to watch, she was so cool!

Movie too is okay but has few faults. With almost two hours of running time it is for sure too long for mystery flick and story gets too convoluted. It doesn’t drag on and it never gets boring but both characters introductions and suspense building simply take too long. Seems like screenwriters tried too hard to stick to the book as much as possible when adapting it. Which was probably not needed since it was published in 1949 so they could afford a bit of tweaking it. I think it would be better to drop some character (like Harper’s wife and whole thing about divorce) or sub-plots altogether. Who knows…

Still a great movie and very enjoyable to see every few years or so, it doesn’t age at all! And last thing totally worth mentioning is hilarious poster – I simply must give Harper an extra star for it!

8/10

Il deserto rosso aka Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)

One of those you see every now and then every few years on either TV or cinema even though you don’t really like (or understand) but they kind of stick with you.

It is character study of upper middle class woman and it starts really cool with beautiful images of Monica Vitti wandering on some industrial wasteland looking totally lost and/or disturbed. We soon learn that she actually is mentally disturbed but also that both her family (husband + kid son) and friends are all basically ass-holes. So it ends up that she’s not really THAT disturbed, it’s the world she lives in that is fucked. Or some existentialist shit like that.  

Typical 60s/70s Italian pretentious and "intelectual" arty stuff. Though quite interesting and not entirely boring. But not really my cup of tea, I always preferred French new wave and Godard’s masterpieces from 60s.

6/10

The House of the Devil (Ti West, 2009)

Saw this one for the first time few years ago because Larry Fessenden had mentioned it in an interview. I remember being totally blown away by his Habit and Wendigo and decided to watch House of the Devil just because he was its producer. Good thing I did because it’s really fucking cool and it was no brainer to go see it again when Hollywood Babylon film club in Dublin put together its screening in a local pub. 

Like most of the next-to-none budget indie horror flicks it’s all about atmosphere build-up. Since the 1940s and thanks to Jacques Tourneur we all know that horror images can be very, very, very effective (=horrifying) when director leaves them to audience's imagination instead of force-feeding you with his/her vision of scary shit. Skilful director will lead you just by using tools like solid script, intelligent narration, photography, editing, music, sound effects and you will seat on the edge of your seat for an hour. No special effects are needed.

And director Ti West obviously knows these things. And I’m pretty sure he has good knowledge and respect of horror genre. And was also lucky with his choice of leading actress Jocelin Donahue. 

And you should definitely check it out!

8/10

Phenomena (Dario Argento, 1985)

 For me Phenomena marks boundary of Dario’s masterpieces and just good ones. True, it was impossible for maestro to keep up the pace of Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre, … and Phenomena is not bad at all, it’s just … well … only good. 

It’s been years since I’ve last seen it so I didn’t hesitate for a second when I saw uncut Arrow DVD release in a local Tower Records selling for a mere 7 euro. Sometimes you find a cool new shit in a movie when watching it again after long time. Not this one and not this time I’m afraid – Phenomena is still just good :)

So what exactly is good? Without a doubt chimpanzee with a razor blade is a fucking winner, Jennifer Connelly is good as a cool and not at all cry baby like terrified brat, killing of Daria Nicolodi is (once again) great and it’s of course always nice to see Donald Pleasence.

Not so good: a little bit of Suspiria rip-off, definitely too long, story too weird and fairy tale-ish and surreal at the same time, uneven pace as it starts slowly as a Giallo and ends as bizarre and too violent/gory horror .

7/10

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Guillermo del Toro, 2008)

To be honest I don’t remember much about this one. And since it’s been only a month or so since I’ve seen it, I guess It’s fair to rate it as forgettable right?

But it was nice to see Selma Blair again. I really liked her in Waters’ Dirty Shame and she looks hot in this one also. Even without those giant tits :)

3/10

Le Voyage en Douce ( Michel Deville, 1980)

In my opinion Michel Deville is (together with Claude Miller) one of the most underrated French directors from the 80s. His movies have distinct style and bear his personal signature. I like most of his stuff, from light hearted comedies to more complex and often dark stuff he made later in his career before retirement. It’s just too bad that so many of those are unavailable with English subtitles. Damn French snobs!

This one starts totally Rohmer-esque. For the first 20 minutes or so we have our two main ladies protagonists just talking about everything and nothing. Both Dominique Sanda and Geraldine Chaplin are phenomenal and their acting is so effortless that it makes you forget you’re watching a staged movie. Story then moves “on the road” as they take a trip for a few days to countryside and through the conversations they revisit their childhoods and revive their friendship. It’s all very subtle and nostalgic (Google translates French title to “The journey quietly”) with more than enough sexual undertones to keep viewer interested. And frankly, those few nude shots of both of them do help as well.

Truly great stuff and kind of movie they unfortunately don’t make anymore.

8/10