Passing

Filmed with an aspect ratio of 4:3. Shot in black and white. Passing just sounds like one big ol' affectation. Over here we might even scoff and accuse it of having notions. But as you watch it you'll realise both decisions make perfect sense in terms of it's claustrophobic feel and it's story layered with as many shades of gray as you see onscreen.

Passing means being part of one racial group but being able to pass for another one. In Pre-Civil war America the ability to pass as white was a way for slaves to hold on to their freedom if they managed to escape slavery. After abolition it was a way for light skinned Black people thrive in a country that despised them. Half a century after the emancipation proclamation Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga, Gwan Limerick!) is still passing and she's living a well off but unhappy life in New York, married to a white doctor with no knowledge of her past. On a melting hot day in the city she bumps into Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), a friend from her past who she's lost contact with. Claire lives in Harlem with her husband Brian (Andre Holland) and her two children and she too is light skinned enough to pass as white when she travels downtown but for Claire it's just a way for her to escape from regular life for a few hours every now and then. They stay in contact but slowly Claire realises that their life choices are leading them somewhere troubling.

Passing feels as delicate as a cobweb you'll see on a frosty morning but under that quiet,calm and fragile demeanour, there's anger and there's fire. It's mirrored in Irene, who's first, caught off guard meeting with Claire starts in wonderment that quickly turns to something else when she meets Claire's openly racist husband John (Alexander Skarsgård) and realises how far her old friend has gone to keep her secrets from him. She begins to both resent and envy Claire, jealous of how her passing has opened up society to her but also longing for it too. Claire too desires a return to the past, before she had to deceive to survive, when she could feel comfortable in her own skin, be around people like her but she's lived a lie for too long now, she has kids she cannot leave. It's a tangle of secrets and lies and for African Americans in the roaring twenties there's not many ways out.

The claustrophobia both feel in their renewed relationship is made palpable by the film's boxlike framing and Irene's steadfast refusal to say the things she means to say put a strained edge on every encounter leaving us viewers unable to relax. Director Rebecca Hall, who's own grandmother passed for white during her life, uses a subtle and steady hand, leaving certain things vague and others unsaid leading to an ending that can be interpreted in any number of ways but ultimately it's a powerful treatise on racism that rarely feels the need to be blunt about it. It's a subject Irene won't allow to be discussed in her house even when her husband wants to educate their kids in the horrible ways of the world. It's what's shaped her life and forced her friend to change her entire existence and it once again lays bare the complicated relationship race and the people most affected by it will always have.

Passing is out now on Netflix. It's a strong, beautifully crafted and wonderfully acted adaption of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel that will certainly strike a chord with a modern day audience used to carefully curating an outward appearance for themselves. Except for the fact that we'll never be in danger for it.

The Card Counter

Taxi Driver. American Gigolo. Light Sleeper. Autofocus. First Reformed. The Card Counter. You can't deny a certain theme runs through the films Paul Schrader writes. He does like the men he writes about to be damaged and Oscar Isaac's intense but likable William Tell is as broken as broken can be. 

La Linda (Tiffany Haddish) gives all the gamblers in her stable pet names and one of her favourites is Minnesota Fats, an overweight Asian player she runs into from time to time. She's named him after the card player from The Hustler but she's got it wrong, there was no card player in the Hustler and professional gambler William informs her she's getting mixed up with The Cincinnati Kid. These early name drops of films about card sharps and pool sharks might fool you into thinking you're about to see a film about the inner workings of America's gambling dens but The Card Counter is ultimately interested in a far darker American past-time. 

On one trip to a casino William sneaks into see a security seminar talk by retired Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe, Schrader's muse) and it's here he meets Cirk Baufort (Tye Sheridan), a young man with grudge against the military man. Because of his former army life William's interest in Gordo intersects with Cirk's but he doesn't want the younger man to ruin his life so he begins to work with La Linda to make enough money to set Cirk straight. He has the skills to make a mint as we see during informative card counting explanations sure to make real life casinos furious but as the old saying goes - If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.

Unsurprisingly The Card Counter is a dark one. A deep dive into the psyche of a man haunted by what his country made him become. He can't get away from it. He spends his days and nights in casinos so he doesn't have to think. It's made him an expert but he never enjoys it, it's not about the money. He's like Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle, another man so broken by wartime experience that he just numbs himself with his work. He never stays in the same place for long, living out of a suitcase and motel rooms, always on the run, haunted in his sleep by his past, heading down that well-worn Schrader highway of self destruction until a chance encounter gives him a shot at something different, a chance to be a positive in someone's life instead of a negative.

It's an easier watch than you'd think for such a dark subject.  It's traumatic, queasy, horribly familiar flashbacks aside there's a nice, easy chemistry between it's lead trio; friendly/romantic between William & La Linda and paternal between him and Cirk. There's an enjoyable, naturalistic flow in their conversations, things are hinted at but not pushed towards, there's no need for forced drama. Three people with darkness in their rear view mirrors, enjoying their present while screeching towards...... Not everything gets answered as the film ends and there's no reason it should with Schrader's writing and direction leaving plenty of blanks for us to fill in. Then elsewhere he's blunt as hell, one of Tell's perennial opponents being a player dressed in a suit made up of stars and stripes who's prone to shouting "USA" when he wins. Try as he might, he cannot outrun the country that made him.

The Card Counter is in cinemas now. It's tough going and won't be to everyone's taste but it's a fine watch. 

Finch

"Set in a post apocalyptic world"

Words that strike fear in the hearts of many a hardened film goer. Quite possibly the most overused story setting in modern cinema. These tales of existence after the majority of the population has been wiped out hit differently in Covid times though as they don't seem quite so silly anymore. Finch has the feel of a film made during lockdown too but surprisingly it was filmed in 2019, before the madness started. It was supposed to hit cinemas last year but... well... you know, so it was delayed and now it's getting a belated and very low key release on Apple TV. It deserves a bigger audience than it's going to get because it's really good.

A decade ago a solar flare made life on Earth almost impossible. Day time temperatures of 150 degrees fahrenheit killed every animal and every plant and drove the few surviving humans underground. Finch (Tom Hanks) was one of the unlucky few survivors and now he spends his days scavenging the city above him for food and bits of electronics he can use in his experiments in his below ground laboratory. His time above is a dangerous combination of avoiding both extreme weather events and life threatening UV radiation and his time below is spent with his one companion, a dog called Goodyear. Finch is sick though, the UV radiation is killing him and he's worried about Goodyear so decides to build a robot to look after him in case the worst happens. His creation is Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones), a machine with a thirst for learning.

This was a fine film. A funny, imaginative, heartwarming drama that will kick you right in the chest. Tom Hanks, the most likable actor on the planet is playing a scientist. So how can you relate to him? Well he has a friendly dog. How can that go wrong? Oh he is very sick and the poor dog is sad about it. Good jesus how mawkish does it sound now? How do they fix that? ROBOTS! Well one robot and one glorified basket on wheels. The robot's soul purpose is to look after Goodyear but of course Goodyear is jealous of this new being interrupting the status quo. How to solve that? ROADTRIP!! A roadtrip in a film is always a fun undertaking and now we get to see this bizarre trio heading off on one where one mistake will see them baking to death fast.

So many films like this live or die on the actor carrying the film but we're in the hands of a pro here, Hanks can create audience empathy for his characters with his eyes closed and *slight spoiler here* the story doesn't wimp out and give him another human to bounce off. He's the only flesh and bone person we see over the course of the film and it makes his performance even more effective. Caleb Landry Jone's Jeff, a robot unplugged and sent moving before he can upload all his needed information is an interesting creation too. Speaking in clipped robotic tones at first but as he learns and interacts his voice becomes more and more human and we get to see a metallic version of Pinocchio coming to life before our eyes. Goodyear of course, well his belief in his future master remains to be seen but the three of them together will have you grinning...for a while anyway.

The world that director Miguel Sapochnik has created for our heroes to travel through is a dull but dangerous place. It's like every post-apocalyptic landscape you've ever seen in film. It's Mad Max without the Road Warriors. It's The Bronx Warriors without the extreme unpleasantness. The Book Of Eli without all that stabbing. It's a family friendly take on a horrible future but it might be too much for the more easily upset amongst us. There's a lot of humour to leaven the hardship Finch is going through but watching him suffer is quite the gut punch. It's Tom Hanks for god sake. No one else would have the same impact in the lead role.

Finch is streaming online now. It's upsetting but it's worth your time.

Video nasty rewatch part 36 - SS Experiment Camp

"OK YOU BASTARD WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY BALLS."

A hell of a line of dialogue shouted near the end of the laughably bad SS Experiment Camp, the 36th of the 39 films prosecuted for obscenity by the Director Of Public prosecutions during the Video Nasty scare of the early 80's in the UK.

The 4th nazisploitation film on the list is easily the tamest of the lot, mostly shorn of the horrible sexual abuse and violence that the others (Beast In Heat, Gestapo's Last Orgy and Love Camp 7) reveled in. It's the story of a prisoner of war camp ran by a doctor who's interested in creating the ultimate master race (yep) and to do so he's pairing off his fittest, healthiest prison guards with his fittest, healthiest prisoners. But his real plan is to find out who the most virile guard is so he can steal their testicles to replace his own that he lost when a prisoner bit them off. Yep. Said ball-less guard somehow doesn't realise what's happened to him (yep) until he tries to sleep with a prisoner who's fallen in love with him (yep) and it causes him to snap, getting revenge on the system that ruined him.

It sounds bad doesn't it. The reality is worse. It's awful stuff, not a jot of it makes sense. The experiments of the title consist of blowing air into a woman's ear until she dies and making other people have sex in a tank of water for no reason other than it's an interesting visual. The acting is atrocious with some actors visibly stifling laughter in numerous scenes. Why was this film made? There's no real reason for this film to exist other than it's abundant nudity. Ah yes, I've just answered my own question there. SS Experiment Camp hit screens when everyone involved had giving up even trying, when 2 and 3 films were being shot at the same time because the sets and extras were simply available. Riding on the coat tails of the notorious Ilsa films and Tinto's Brass's outrageous Salon Kitty it was never going to live up to them and wasn't even going to try. One scene though....one scene and it's appearance outside of the film caused an awful lot of fuss.

A female prisoner snaps and stabs a guard and as a result is gunned down and tied upside down to a post and left to die. It's a haunting, gruesome visual soundtracked by her dying whimpers. Someone out there thought it would be a good idea to use it for the film's poster and VHS artwork cover and the howls of offended outrage began. This, along with the garish artwork for The Driller Killer and Cannibal Holocaust were the catalyst for the Video Nasty scandal and moral crusader Mary Whitehouse was leading the way despite claiming to have watched none of the films. If she'd watched SS Experiment Camp she'd have just laughed but politicians and tabloids were having a field day causing a media feeding frenzy. Absolute trash like this became infamous instead of fading away like it should have.

SS Experiment Camp was prosecuted and banned in July of 1983. 23 years later it rolled into the BBFC again and to no one's surprise was released totally uncut. Certain aspects of the media had another moan but this time it all came to naught. The BBFC's justification for an uncut release said it all - 

"The content of the film is in fact very mild and poorly executed. If anything, it was the title of the film and its original packaging that led to difficulties, rather than the content. The idea of the film may, of course, be offensive to some but that is not a good enough reason to cut or reject it. We would only cut or reject a film for adults if the content was illegal or harmful. SS Experiment Camp is neither illegal or harmful, just tasteless."

Tasteless. There's no denying it's that but the idea of banning a film because it was offensive it preposterous. 

Did it deserve to be on the Nasties list? Not a hope.

Is it worth a watch? Get the fuck out of here. But if you do decide to watch it at least get the bells and whistles version available on bluray. The fact that is got a blu release is astounding but that's the power of the words "Video Nasty". Release it and cult film fans will come running.

Next up - Tenebrae. An honest to god Giallo masterpiece from Dario Argento. 

Eternals

On the 6th of October 2013 a teenager from Dublin called Wayne gunned down a cat with an MP5 and Irish twitter went into meltdown. The fact the the killing was both fake and on a TV show called Love/Hate was of no consequence. People were roaring for RTE's downfall. They wanted the ISPCA to denounce the broadcaster. The actor who did the deed, they wanted his head on a stick. Oh it was a hell of a controversial way for young Barry Keoghan to burst onto the scene. Eight years later he's making a name for himself again in the MCU's latest installment, Eternals. There's no cats to be seen this time around, only Babylonians, Aztecs and hungry aliens.

The Eternals were a group of powerful beings sent to Earth 7000 years ago to protect the planet and it's inhabitants from alien invaders called Deviants. With the job finally complete they go their separate ways and they've been instructed by a Celestial higher power that they can use their skills to help the advancement of civilisation and to fight invaders from other worlds but that man made conflicts are to be ignored. In the present day an Eternal called Sersi (Gemma Chan) is living a fulfilling life in London when a threat from the past threatens her life and that of those she loves. Ikarus (Richard Madden), a fellow Eternal arrives and they eliminate the threat together but both realise this is only the start of something bigger so set out to get the gang back together one more time to protect the planet they've called home for several millennia.

The reason The Avengers film worked so well back in 2012 was four previous films had led the groundwork for it. We got to know our heroes on their own before they all got lumped together. Not taking the time to build up to a get together was one of the many reasons The Justice League crashed and burned in 2017. By dint of a great cast and some lovely chemistry generated between them Eternals is far better than the latter while falling short of the former. It's a fun watch but by jesus you have to earn it. If you go into it cold you might struggle because there's a lot going on, a lot of people to meet and get to know and an awful lot of exposition to get through. The film is almost at the halfway point before everyone is back together again and honestly, there's so many characters onscreen that some of them are going to get short shrift.

Deep breath.

We've got Ikarus who might as well be Superman, Sersi who has power over matter, Druig (Barry Keoghan) who can control minds, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) with his energy beam firing hands, Sprite (Lia Mchugh), a child Eternal with the power to create optical illusions, Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), a creator and inventor who over 7000 years has helped civilisation with all it's major inventions, Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) who's blessed with super speed and Gilgamesh (Don Lee) who's super strong, Thena (Angelina Jolie) the elite and fearless warrior and finally Ajak (Salma Hayek), the leader of the Eternals, blessed with warmth and a Ghia like love for all the world around her. Some of them take centre stage, some are shunted off screen for well over an hour, Ikarus of course gets a tonne of screentime despite being the most boring of the bunch. Gotta get the handsome white dude closeups for the trailers dontchaknow.

A big deal was made of Makkari as being Marvel's first superhero with a physical disability but she barely makes an impact at all. Phastos is the first gay superhero in the MCU and thankfully he gets rather more screentime as we get to meet his husband and son and see a bit of his backstory too when we realise the toll ignoring human conflict can have on even a superhuman pysche. Imagine watching an atomic bomb going off over Hiroshima and knowing you had the power to stop it and couldn't. It's this internal conflict that gives Eternals an unexpected bit of heft. Barry Keoghan's Druig has the power to control the mind of every person on Earth but isn't allowed to use it. The moment he can't take his orders anymore is a memorable one, a little bit of Irish accented rebellion in the middle of a blazing Tenochtitlan.

The main story is as silly and nonsensical as always and the big CGI set pieces are Marvel 101, nothing you haven't seen before but it's the character interactions and smaller moments that really work. Dinners served with spit beer, Bollywood dancing, basically anything that comes out of Harish Patel's (Kingo's manager) mouth. This is the stuff you'll remember next week when all the laser blasts and alien beasties have faded from memory. It's here that director Chloé Zhao makes her mark. 

Eternals is out now everywhere. In every screen. In every cinema in the world. 

17 films on TV this week worth your time

Miami Vice   Sat   6/11   TCM @ 21.00

Michael Mann's stylish and action packed update of the famous 80's TV show about cops taking on drug dealers. Bristling with testosterone, it's a moody grown up thriller full of suspense, action and neo-nazi's getting shot in the face. Whats not to like about that? Colin Farrell & Jamie Foxx are solid as the leads but Naomie Harris steals the film with one small scene in a mobile home. The soundtrack is wicked too.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire   Sat   6/11   BBC4 @ 21.00

In Brittany at the end of the 18th century a painter called Marianne is commissioned to paint a portrait of a woman called Héloïse who is due to be married off to an Italian nobleman. A marriage she wants no part of. Do you fancy a romance that will both uplift you and leave you in absolute shreds? Well here you go. Magnificent turns from Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel carry a sublime story.

Rain Man   Sat   6/11   TG4 @ 22.55

Charlie's father has died and left his fortune to an autistic brother he never realised he had. To get the money him and his brother tear off on a road trip where he finds out about both his sibling and himself. Aspects of Rain Man have dated these days but it's still a lovely story of discovery and reunion buoyed by a couple of memorable performances from Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.

Pawn Sacrifice   Sun   7/11   BBC1 @ 00.15

Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky. 1972. The chess game to end all chess games. Two grandmasters. West vs East. Some said it was only a game but in a time of cold war it's also something far more important than that. Tobey Maguire does fine work as the tragic lead of a well crafted film riddled with paranoia and suspense while Liev Schrieber uses his trademark brooding to intense effect. 

Walk Like A Panther   Sun   7/11   CH4 @ 00.55

Their local pub is closing and the only way to make money is to return to the lycra and capes. But these folks aren't superheroes, nope, they are 80's wrestlers and aching hips and shoulders aren't going to stop them. An entertaining slice of fluff and whimsy from 2018 that will make you feel nostalgic for Saturday morning television. Stephen Graham, Sue Johnston, Robbie Gee and Julian Sands are among the familiar faces having fun.

Ladyhawke   Sun   7/11   Talking Pictures TV@ 22.05

Navarre and Isabeau are in love but they have a wee problem. There was a curse placed on them making him a wolf during the night and her a hawk during the day ensuring they can never be together. The only person who can help is a thief called Gaston. Richard Donner's 1985 fairytale is a likable, well made, glorious looking romantic escapade. Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer play the lost lovers and Matthew Broderick has a good time as their only hope.

St Vincent   Sun   7/11   Film4 @ 23.20

After an incident with his next door neighbour a grumpy old Vietnam vet begins to babysit her bullied son and soon they begin to see the best in each other. A funny, bittersweet comedy that will make you laugh and upset you in equal measures. Bill Murray in the lead is better than he's been in years and Melissa McCarthy as his neighbour does well in a role that's a lot more dramatic than her usual parts.

Bridge to Terabithia   Mon   8/11   Great! Films @ 19.05

Jesse and Leslie become fast friends when she moves in next door to him. Soon their childhood imaginations are running riot and the kingdom of Terabithia is created. Real life is sadly never far away though. A little beaut of a movie, one full of lessons about life, both the lovely and tragic sides of it. Anna Sophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson are both amiable leads. Be warned, this could/might/will make you cry.

Doubt   Mon   8/11   TG4 @ 21.30

A well liked priest is accused of child abuse. But did he do it? That's the crux of the tale in an excellent adaption of the famous Broadway play. Philip Seymour Hoffman (ah god, even typing his name would make ya sad) is the priest in question and Meryl Streep is the nun investigating him. We get immense performances from both. The subject matter might be hard to take but it's compelling and gripping stuff that will stay in your head for days after.

Dog Soldiers   Mon   8/11   Film4 @ 23.10

A group of soldiers on routine training in the Scottish highlands find themselves under siege from a pack of beasts that should not exist. Neil Marshall's debut film is awesome. Hilarious, horrific, quotable, disgusting and damn scary. A rare horror comedy that gets it's blend just right. All this and we get a wicked cast too with Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham and Darren Morfitt who's just deadly as Spoon.

All The King's Men   Tues   9/11   Great! Movies Action @ 09.25

Wille Stark. A real salt of the earth fellow. Liked by all. Well......  He's a politician, a self taught kind of guy. He's a decent man, at least he was once, back when he hadn't sold his soul. A deserved Best Picture winner back in 1949, this portrait of the rise and fall of a famous face mixes politics and noir to brilliant effect. Broderick Crawford (who also won best actor) and Merceded McCambridge both put in first rate performances.

Journey's End   Wed   10/11   BBC2 @ 23.15

France. 1918. The trenches of Aisne. A young soldier called Raleigh once who once believed in the importance of war sits surrounded by his comrades in a filthy, rat infested trench as the German army only metres away get ready to attack their front lines. A powerful watch that shows us bullets make no distinctions when it comes to class and social status. Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany and Sam Clafin do strong work.

Nebraska   Thur   11/11   Film4 @ 01.35

A father and son called Woody and David are taking a trip from Montana to Nebraska to claim a prize. Woody is slowly losing his memory to dementia and David is dragged into the mess. Alexander Payne's comedy drama is a beautifully written and crafted look at the complexities of family relationships. Plus it has a couple of wicked belly laughs hidden away. Bruce Dern, Will Forte and especially June Squibb are all on fire.

Paths Of Glory   Thur   11/11   BBC4 @ 23.05

The men of B-company refuse to make a suicidal run at a German hill during World War 1. Their general is embarrassed by his perceived failure and sets out to make someone pay. Stanley Kubrick's masterful anti war film is an enraging watch, one that shows the toll military life can have on humanity even when the fighting is over. Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax has never been better while George Macready as General Mireau will make you despair.

Sam Whiskey   Fri   12/11   TG4 @ 21.05

Her husband is dead and Laura has a problem. The gold he stole is sitting in a boat at the bottom of the Colorado river and she needs someone to find it and return it to it's rightful place. Unfortunately she hires the rogue Sam Whiskey for the job. A charming. amiable western is just what you need for a Friday evening and this one led by Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson is just the ticket. You'll instantly guess how it's going to end but it will keep you smiling throughout.

American Mary   Fri   12/11   The Horror Channel @ 23.05

A broke medical student discovers an unusual way to make extra money and finds herself in some very very dark places as a result. This 2012 dark drama/horror film starring Katherine Isabelle is a highly effective piece of work. Be warned though, it should probably only be watched by those with a strong constitution but if you can go with it you discover a unique little story that will open your eyes to a whole other world.

The Belly Of The Whale   Fri   12/11   RTE1 @ 23.40

Joe and Ronald. Two loners in a miserable, run down seaside town in Donegal. One has come home after a long time and the other is already there scratching out a miserable existence. They come together with a plan but there's someone venal in their way. A dark dark dark Irish comedy from 2018 that went under the radar at the time but it's still worth your time. Michael Smiley, Peter Coonan and Pat Shortt do nice work as three men you'd cross four fields to avoid.

Retweets are always appreciated :)

Faves and friends

We all know the feeling. You've a film you love. You want to share it with your friends in the hope they'll love it too and you can have a big in-depth chat about it. You hint at how good it is but you don't want to big it up so much that can never live up to the hype. Your friends arrive or you head to theirs. Anticipation is high and the beer is tasty. You press play and say "You're going to love it." The opening scene kicks off and those familiar rhythms wrap you up tight and that brilliant dialogue dances around your head and you look over to see if your friends are loving it too and

THEY ARE ON THE PHONE. THEY'RE SCROLLING. ACTUALLY SCROLLING. THE FUCKING AUDACITY OF THE BASTARDS.

Oh it's a rotten feeling.

On Wednesday I watched Riders Of Justice with one of my oldest buddies. I'd told him about it 6 months ago but covid got in the way meaning we only got around to seeing it together then. It's one of my favourites, if not my favourite film I've seen this year. I was a bit anxious tbh because this buddy has a habit of nitpicking films, one small thing can put him right off a story and if the moaning started it would ruin the viewing for me. We went through the rigmarole described above. I hoped I hadn't bigged it up too much. The heat was on. I pressed play. 5 minutes in he started laughing, with not at btw (very important), he got giddy when the action kicked off, he cringe laughed at some of it's dark as fuck humour and best of all, never took out his phone once.

VICTORY!!

It's amazing the stupid shit that makes me happy.

The Harder They Fall

Wyatt Earp. Seth Bullock. Pat Garrett. Bat Masterson. Judge Roy Bean. The Wild West lawmen we've all heard of and seen onscreen any number of times. What do they all have in common? Have a guess. What about Bass Reeves? Lawman extraordinaire. The man who took down 3,000 dangerous criminals as a U.S. Marshall down Arkansas and Oklahoma way. His name isn't as well known. Why? Because he was Black of course. One of the Western genre's biggest failings was the whitewashing of American history and while things are improving there's a long way to go yet. The Hard They Fall is another stepping stone and Bass Reeves is along for the journey alongside Nat Love, Rufus Buck, Stagecoach Mary and Cherokee Bill, four more real life names that never got the screentime they deserved.

Young Nat Love is having a roast chicken dinner when his world comes crashing down around his ears. Years later he's a grown man (Jonathan Majors), a bandit and a revenge seeker. His gang have just robbed money belonging to a killer and want to rest up for a while and enjoy their spoils. The killer is Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), a bandit with a reputation as wide as a state. He's also the man who ruined Nat Love's life and he's about to do so again when his partners Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield) and Trudy Smith (Regina King) release him from jail. The Buck gang quickly takes over the town of Redwood and when Nat finds out he's free he starts to itch for some justice. Along with his lady Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), quickdraw supremo Jim Beckwourth (RJ Cyler) and Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo), the man who put Buck away, they head off into the sunset for the showdown to end all showdowns.

Aw man this was a blast to watch. You'd be amazed how entertaining a film that starts with a child being scarred by a straight razor can be. After that vicious opening we get to meet everyone, get to see what makes 'em tick, what their skills are, how far they'll go to get what they want. Everyone's having fun, in front of and behind the camera. In the opening moments you might fear we're in for a Tarantino fest but that feeling quickly disperses and the racism and horror his recent westerns were guilty of wallowing in are nowhere to be seen. It was an oppressive time and it's hinted at throughout but the characters never let themselves be held back by it. The films one partial use of a racial epithet is cut short by a bullet to the head and the tension afterwards is quickly and comically cut short by preposterous alternative suggestions from LaKeith Stanfield's ubercool gunslinger. For a film this darn violent the light tone it's handled with by director Jeymes Samuel is quite something.

One of the biggest western cliches is the slow build up to all out war in the final reel and The Harder They Fall takes it's time moving all it's pieces into place and sometimes it's guilty of moving a bit too slowly meaning the middle section of the movie feels kinda sluggish in places. But it's a small nitpick in what is undoubtedly an important watch. Whole swathes of the frontier were opened up in the late 1800's by freed slaves looking for a better life and Hollywood has nearly always ignored them. Films like Posse and TV shows like Hell on Wheels and Godless gave us a glance at how hard life was when you had dark skin in a land ruled by a gun and The Harder They Fall tells those stories while leaning into the romance of the western, the myth making, legendary side of it, it allows itself to have some fun with it all, letting loose with blasts of verve and energy that will leave you giddy.

When everything kicks off in the techicolored (sic) town of Redwood you'll be grinning at all it's knife spinning, dynamite throwing, head exploding madness. Our factual heroes becoming the superheroes of the west, taking down six men with six bullets while diving to avoid the seventh. Bloody chaos overlayed by a Jay-Z curated soundtrack, tunes from Lauren Hill, Seal (brother of director Jeymes Samuel) and Kid Cudi all leading us to the big showdown, when Idris Elba's Rufus, who's rather laidback throughout, gets his time to shine. Jonathan Winter's Nat Love though, he's a western hero you'll definitely want to spend more time with and it might just happen too, you never know. 

The Harder They Fall is streaming now online. It rocks.

Antlers

In 2017 Get Out was released and the term elevated horror began to be bandied about. It was a fancy way of describing a film that used horror elements to tackle social issues. Something that, in fairness, the horror genre has being doing forever. But, as is want to happen on the interweb, people started getting ratty about it, taking offence to the phrase, others started using it in an aloof fashion to separate films they saw as more than horror away from other genre pieces. Scott Cooper's new film Antlers fits the very definition of elevated horror but that doesn't mean it can't work as pure horror too.

Something odd is happening in a small Oregon town. Poverty is widespread and drug use is rife but locked away in a house outside town something supernatural is lurking. It's a secret kept by a young boy called Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas, superb) and the secret is taking it's toll on him. His suffering is noticed by his teacher Julia (Keri Russell) who's become alarmed by the sinister pieces of art he works on in class. Julia has her own demons too, having run from childhood abuse years before. After the perpetrator's death she's come home to live with her brother Paul (Jesse Plemons), the town sheriff. As she tries to bond with Lucas she realises he's sheltering something horrific and so tries to save him from a terrible future while untying herself from a traumatic past.

Antlers was shot in the town of Hope, in British Columbia. If it looks familiar it's because First Blood was filmed there too over 40 years ago. Not much has changed there, not much ever changes in small towns. The same faces, the small places, the old facade covering up the sedentary badness that lurks in places where everyone knows everyone else's secrets. It's the perfect place for evil to dwell and in the mines below town something primal has risen and a small boy is keeping its secret. Kids in horror films, christ, always the best way to up the ante, add tension, no one ever wants to see a kid in trouble and Keri Russell's Julia, in looking out for Lucas, becomes the audience proxy. In films like this everyone else seems blind to what is happening except the proxy, authorities are always willing to look the other way or just not care until its too late. Antlers is pretty predictable in that manner and yes it does bluntly hammer you over the head with it's metaphors and meanings but when it starts working it becomes very effective.

Director Scott Cooper has made a name for himself over the last decade portraying the darker side of the American dream while producer Guillermo Del Toro has been creating weird and wonderful flights of gothic fancy for the bones of three decades now. Together they seem like odd bedfellows but somehow it works with Antlers' slowburn turn from a gritty study of small town misery into all out creature feature almost feeling like a relief when it happens. Monsters of the mind are tough to beat down but when they're alive and breathing in front of you and you've something sharp at hand at least it feels like you've a fighting chance. It's in these latter moments you'll really feel Del Toro's influence, with wonderfully drawn and queasily tactile effects but Cooper's direction will always remind you that nothing is ever that easy.

Antlers is in cinemas now. There's plenty here for those who like their horror movies dark and gor while those who prefer a touch of depth in their genre viewing will be pleased too. Don't expect to leave the cinema smiling though. 

Can't let go

I've had nothing to play them on for at least 15 years but for some reason I can't quite let go off these tapes.

Bought the trilogy in 1998 in Forbidden planet on Dawson Street in Dublin. It cost what I thought was a fortune.

The one everyone says is best.

The actual best though. A masterpiece.

So good it deserves a clothed and unclothed pic. VHS tapes though. What clunky ugly yokes.

Held onto the one below because right's issues made it unlikely it would get a DVD release.  I thought someday I'd sell it for thousands. So of course it got released on DVD. Still not throwing it out though. Too many memories attached to it. Got it for Christmas 1994 and me and the boys watched it until we new every word.

Come on over and do the twist yeah hah

I wanna do it and have a fit yeah hah

I love you so much it makes me sick yeah hah

Come on over and shoot the shit.

Back then we thought that song was about a boy and his girl. Ha. 

Have you any tapes left?

Army Of Thieves

Earlier this year Zack Snyder's Army Of The Dead was released on Netflix. It's the biggest and most expensive zombie film ever made. It wasn't very well received but it was a harmless bit of escapism that let us hide from the current state of the world behind a shower of undead viscera and gunfire. It's open ended storyline would lead you to expect more of the same but nope, instead we're getting a prequel and a non horror one at that. Oh and there's no Dave Bautista headlining either, no this one is all about Ludwig Dieter, the German safecracker who may or may not (ha!) have survived the living head hordes. It seems the trend of giving minor characters their own prequel spin offs isn't just a Disney + thing anymore.

Potsdam. A dull, rainy city. Home to Sebastian (Matthias Schweighöfer, who also directs), a bank teller living a life as mundane as the place he calls home. A zombie outbreak is making worldwide news and thankfully it's been contained to Las Vegas but that isn't placating him and to take his mind off it he's making youtube videos about his true passion, the art of breaking into safes. One of these videos gets him invited to a safecracking competition and his prowess gets him noticed by a skilled jewellery thief called Gwendoline who's part of a robbery crew that need Sebastian to carry off a heist involving three safes created by a legendary locksmith called Wagner. All three safes are due to be destroyed within a week so time is of the essence. Sebastian's fear of getting involved in crime is tempered by his desire to crack a Wagner safe and his desire for Gwendoline. So he decides he's in, his life is about to change but the first thing a criminal needs is a change of name and Ludwig is born.

Most prequels are absolutely unnecessary and Army Of Thieves isn't going to change anyone's mind about that fact but it's a bit of fun, it's a bit of a laugh, it's got some creatively realised action sequences and it's main character is a likable little dude. It also sadly  falls afoul of the twin curses of modern day film making; it's too long and it wants to be the start of a franchise. Everything wants to be the first of a series nowadays, nothing ever gets a real ending and no one ever dies. The ending of this one is very cynical, tying into it's predecessor and set up future films but fuck it, if it's going to happen it may as well be about the most entertaining character onscreen. Ludwig's not your usual hero, he's a nerd, he's scrawny and he adores classical music. It's a refreshing change when your lead doesn't have a neck thicker than his head.

Anyone coming into this without seeing AOTD first is going to be confused as it plays out like a straightforward heist film but with occasional glimpses of the zombies from AOTD on news reports or in Ludwig's dreams. You'll wonder why and it does dovetail into the narrative slightly but this would have been more satisfying as a standalone story. There's certainly enough going on and enough characters to make the zombie stuff unnecessary. There's the charming and resourceful Gwendoline who's budding friendship with Ludwig lends the film a nice chemistry and filling out the rest of the gang are Brad Cage (Stuart Martin), Korina Dominguez (Ruby O. Fee) and Rolph (Guz Khan). Cage's character lets the film take the piss out of the usual, muscle bound action hero tropes while Rolph, well he's just funny. Nothing wrong with funny. The world needs more funny.

The heists themselves are enjoyable too, especially the first one which flat out makes a mockery out of one of the most well known heist movie cliches. Flipping off the usual conventions always earns a thumbs up and helps us look past the film's failings, namely a mid section that just slows things to a crawl. Schweighöfer might be enjoying directing his English language debut but he seems to have picked up a bad habit from his time working with Zack Snyder, namely not knowing where to cut and snip and tighten. Less is always more boys, less is always better.

Army Of Thieves is on Netflix now. It has no real reason to exist but it's an easy way to pass a couple of hours.

'Salem's Lot

Me. 11. Sneaking downstairs to watch a horror on ITV. The film was 'Salem's Lot. A classmate had told me it was deadly. Then all of a sudden a vampiric Danny Glick was floating outside Mark Petrie's bedroom window pleading with him to open it and let him in to feed and this young Tipperary boy thought fear was going to make his head explode. Last night, 31 years later I watched it again and it's still as creepy as ever.

There's a 'Salem's Lot remake coming. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand it's based on what could quite possibly be the scariest book ever written but on the other hand there's far too much story here for a film unless it's at least 3 hours long. A film will inevitably gut the story and it's rich tapestry of characters. It might be split in two like the It adaptions from a couple of years back but it's unlikely. It's not an easy story to carve in two because the vast majority of what draws a horror crowd to a horror film happens in the second half.

It's the tale of a man coming home. Ben Mears has returned to Maine after decades away to write a book about the town he grew up in. He has plans to buy a house that has haunted his dreams since childhood and is dismayed to find out a pair of businessmen called Kurt Barlow and Richard Straker have just snapped it up before him. He decides to stay on after he meets a woman by the name of Susan Norton but the mysterious disappearance of a child kicks off a series of horrifying events that turn the town on it's head.

The book is magnificently written. It does what too few books do these days, it takes it's time. It slowly introduces us to the town of Salem's Lot through the eyes of the returning Ben Mears. We get a sense of the place and of the people populating it. The rhythms of the town are slowly shaken out and we seen how the people there interact with each other. The people who run the place like sleazy business owner Larry Crockett & hotel owner Eva Miller & Sheriff Parkins Gillispie. Then there's the downtrodden and forgotten like the alcoholic Weasel Craig and Dud Rogers, the hunchbacked custodian of the town dump. Slowly we learn enough about them to have our favourites and the ones we hate. All the while the town's atmosphere grows more oppressive and before we realise it Anywhere USA has turned into a Transylvanian horror show. A horror show made scarier by the fact that writer Stephen King has made us care about the characters caught up in the whole mess. It's a superb, thoroughly affecting and totally unsettling read.

In 1979 Tobe Hooper (of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame) directed a mini series based on the book. It's a series that looks dated in places but it's still scarily effective. Due to network TV censorship constraints the grittier aspects of the story had to be scaled back along with it's violence. In place of this shadow and suggestion are cleverly used meaning a scary story becomes a creepy one and it's that kind of slowburn creep that gets under your skin far more effectively than a gallon of gore. It's why the miniseries is still remembered 40 years after it was first shown. That and it's rat like take on the vampire Kurt Barlow. It's far from perfect now, don't get me wrong. Even at 3 hours long it lost a lot of story and quite a few characters had to be amalgamated to streamline the plot. A supporting cast of dozens just wouldn't work in a miniseries and some plot lines got jumbled and silly as a result. But as a horror it worked. Gravedigger Mike Ryerson opening the coffin of a child vampire. That first jail cell appearance of a hissing Barlow. The crawling dead slowly moving towards Ben and Mark when they make their final move. Barlow's attack on the Petrie's and of course that infamous bedroom window moment. Nightmare fuel created in King's imagination and brought to life brilliantly by Tobe Hooper.

Then in 2004 the powers that be decided a new version was needed. This new version had a superb cast full of actors like Rob Lowe, Andre Braugher, Rutger Hauer, Samantha Mathis & Donald Sutherland. More of the supporting cast from the book appears too and this time the take on the vampire Barlow skews far closer the book than the previous adaption.........but it's not one bit scary at all. None of it works. Plotlines are needlessly changed (the horrible opening for example, Matt Burke's sexuality), there's no bit of atmosphere and the "scarier" scenes are augmented with cheap and shoddy looking CGI. The practical fx of the 1979 version look far superior. It's a pity. It could have built on the older version but it fails at nearly every hurdle apart from Rutger Hauer's Barlow. He's far removed from the 1979 creature with his take being a far more sophisticated and urbane monster. This time he could talk too and some of King's beautiful dialogue sounds great coming from him. He's far better than the miniseries deserved.

After a failed adaption like this you'd assume that it would be time to move onto something new. King has a tonne of stuff that hasn't been adapted yet but nope, we're heading back to the Lot again it seems. The success of the new version of 'It' has reminded the big studios of the $$$$$ potential of a well made Stephen King adaption. There's a glimmer of hope though. This time around James Wan is involved. Not as a director unfortunately but as a producer. A man with plenty of horror experience behind him. The fella behind The Conjuring movies, a series that's been critically bashed but a series that's genuinely enjoyable and actually unnerving. In his mitts Salem's Lot could conceivably work out fine, hitting both on the book's horror and it's dark, dark comedy. Director Gary Dauberman (who co-wrote the new versions of It) is promising a return to truly scary vampire cinema, not the romanticised versions so prevalent in the last few decades. No sparkling or gliding, but ripping, tearing, snarling, primal evil. William Sadler will be taking the role of Kurt Barlow. He's an interesting choice. In the picture above you'll recognise him from The Shawshank Redemption and the Bill And Ted trilogy. We'll see what happens. I'm not one bit confident but if it turns out good then happy days. 

And if it's shit we'll always have the book.