Reaction Shots

  There are few things I enjoy more than a good actor getting a chance to legitimately chew scenery. I say “legitimately” because there is nothing worse than even a great acting chewing scenery and watching a performance of tics, barking, and/or mugging. I’m not just thinking of Al Pacino here; I can almost guarantee you that every great actor has turned in a risible, stupid, flailing turn either out of boredom, arrogance, or they just needed the money. See also Nic Cage, but even in his hammiest moments, there’s such commitment, you kind of go down the rabbit hole with him joyfully. In that way, Cage reminds me of Vincent Price about whom a friend of mine once said, “he is the greatest ham, and I mean that as a compliment.” What Hugh Grant does in Heretic is not that but not entirely not that. His line of attack is so sincere and delivered so earnestly (and filmed so artfully), that it is very, very far from ham. Besides, the script is too intelligent and this is a genuinely good ...

Aubrey Plaza sure is swell. She does make just about everything she’s in better. For example,   Megalapolis . Then there are times when she finds herself among a cast with equally skillful actors and she can take it easy. Such is the case with My Old Ass which I rewatched recently. Really glad I did. It’s the very definition of a charming YA movie with a nice bit of magical realism, as well. That’s where Aubrey Plaza comes in. And the title. It’s Maisy Stella’s Elliott who is the movie’s focus and Stella delivers a layered performance that fills Elliott out with all the complexity that comes with that moment of transition into adulthood. Aubrey plays Elliott, too, by the way. From the future. She plays 18 year old Elliott’s 39 year old self and even though neither actress resembles each other (young Elliott tells older Elliott that she looks more like their mother; “oh no! We do become our mothers!”) This all happened on Elliott’s birthday when she and her pals Ro and Ruthie motorb...

Yep, that’s a heavy handed lede for a reason. But before I get into this too far, let em be clear; I love Wicked Part One. I really do. I was expecting an expertly done, family friendly musical with lessons about being kind or whatever folded in. I knew from reading reviews of Gregory Maguire’s novel that it’s a resetting of Baum’s characters so that the Wicked Witch of the West is framed in a heroic light and Glinda, not so much.  Never saw the musical on stage but was familiar with a couple of tunes and overall, was apathetic enough not to care to ask what, if anything, I was missing out on.  I think, maybe I should have. Since the film’s only been out a short while, I’ll avoid spoilers, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be avoiding spoilers territory completely. Besides, I don’t think there’s much that most people haven’t gotten from reviews plot wise. What hooked me in were the following: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande absolutely bringing it. I can’t remember when two performers...

From René Laloux, who gave us  Fantastic Planet  in 1973, a meditative and thought provoking animation if there ever was one, comes a slightly less meditative and thought-provoking animation that is still amazing to look at.  The reason it's so eye-catching is because the design of the film is by Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, who also worked on the scenario with Laloux from Stefan Wul's novel "L'Orphelin de Perdide".  On the face of it, the story is simple; a young boy is brought to safety by his father on the planet Perdide where the human population has been wiped out by real murder hornets. His father has sent an SOS to an old partner Jaffar to rescue his son Piel. Jaffar's ship is transporting a particularly lucrative, if annoying cargo in the form of Prince Matton and the chunk of his planet's treasury that he pilfered, along with Princess Belle. This sounds like Joss Whedon's Firefly but that's about where the shared details end.  Sure, ther...

Countess Dracula (1971) was the film that introduced me to Elizabet Bathory. I remember being disappointed as young teen that there was no Dracula to be found, but that disappointment changed when I laid eyes on Ingrid Pitt (and Nike Arrighi and Lesley-Anne Down). I also remember the “Hammer atmosphere” and its subtle web of a kind of dreaminess that both undermined and underscored the horrors in the film. The first Hammer film I saw was a rerelease of The Horror of Dracula somewhere around 1966 or 1967. There were heaving bosoms, a riveting Count Dracula who said nothing because he didn’t need to, and his demise at the end that left me speechless. It would be a few years and then I’d catch Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein , The Mummy , Count Dracula , and The Brides of Dracula .  Hammer films were fascinating in a different way from Universal’s horror films. They were sexier, sure, but it was the pacing, the acting, and that general state of some kind of dream logic at work, e...