Absurd (1981)

Also known as Anthropophagus 2, The Monster Hunter and Horrible, Absurd is Italian horror impresario Joe D’Amato’s (aka Aristide Massaccesi) unofficial sequel to his 1980 splatter epic, Anthropophagus.  You’ll recall (or maybe you won’t) that the earlier film was about several couples who encounter a rather nasty cannibal on a deserted island.  The most infamous scene involves the killer devouring a…well, if you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about.

Certainly nothing in Absurd, about a genetically altered man who goes on a killing spree, matches the vileness of Anthropophagus; but D’Amato never shied away from piling on the gore, and he does so here with a certain maniacal glee: a woman’s brain run through with a surgical drill; a man’s head split open by a buzz-saw; a teenage babysitter impaled by a pickaxe; and so much more.  The effects are suitably (and predictably) cheesy, though surprisingly better than anything by, let’s say, Lucio Fulci or Umberto Lenzi, who were both from the same school as D’Amato.  Also expected is the atrocious dubbing and dialogue, that was sometimes so hilarious, I had to rewind just to be sure of what I heard (“So, you’re here…in a hospital…to get your car fixed”).

Nothing earth-shattering here.  Just good, old fashioned Italian horror–perfect for a Saturday night.

1981; starring George Eastman, Annie Belle; directed by Joe D’Amato; 96 min; not rated (unsuitable for children); dubbed very badly in English.

Diabolique (1955)

Part Hitchcock, part Gothic thriller, Diabolique is one of the most famous suspense films ever made.  That it carries its suspense consistently through to the shaky ending, is a testament to the talent of director and co-writer Henri-Georges Clouzot, and screenwriter Jerome Geronimi.

How is it that two women can hate one another so viciously, yet loathe the man they share more, so much so that they’re willing to plot his murder? Paul Meurisse answers that question easily, as Michel, the cruel headmaster of a French boys’ school: he’s a beast of a man, with a poisonous tongue and swift hand.  His wife, Christina (Vera Clouzot), who actually owns the school and is stuffed with money, has suffered years of abuse, as has his mistress, Nicole (Simone Signoret). Together they plot a murder they believe to be almost perfect, right down to the details of their alibi, which, of course, involves the two women vouching for one another.

L’Avventura (1960)

What exactly did happen to Anna?

That’s the central question in Michelangelo Antonioni’s haunting masterpiece, L’Avventura, a film uneasy with answers and so much more than a missing persons case.  Like Anonioni’s later film, Blow Up, it builds suspense, not with the shock and action of a modern-day thriller, but what we–and the characters–think has happened, or might happen.

The plot is deceptively simple: A group of wealthy socialites on a leisurely yachting expedition decide to spend the afternoon exploring a remote island chain.  They dock near an islet that could be called desolate, if that weren’t such an understatement: the place is a rock, covered in nothing more than sparse scrub; waves crash all around it violently.  Sitting atop it all, ancient and lonely, is a small stone building, long abandoned.

The Wolf Man (1941)

Whew!  Catching up on six movies I watched over the past week.

Still to come: The Wolf Man (1941).

Whip It (2009)

Fun, light, but not forgettable, Whip It is Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut about a small town Texas girl who eschews her smothering mother’s beauty pageant dreams for the shit-kicking brutality of girls’ roller derby.

Ellen Page, who is turning into her generation’s most important actress, plays Bliss, anything but, and tired and weary of pageant competition.  One day, she answers an add for derby try-outs and, based on her preternatural speed, makes the team and is monikered as Babe Ruthless.  Along the way, Babe makes new friends who all have awesome derby names like Smashley Simpson (Barrymore herself) and Rosa Sparks.  And Maggie Mayhem, played by the terrific Kristen Wiig, gets some of the movie’s best dialogue (“You think you’re gonna sleep with your regional manager and he won’t give you crabs…Have you ever had crabs?”).

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

“It smells like Thai food in here.  Have you two been fucking?”

That’s just one example of screenwriter Diablo Cody’s whip-crack wit, evident in nearly every frame of Jennifer’s Body, a shockingly fun horror movie that will, I’m predicting, become an underrated genre classic.

Megan Fox, showing the first signs of a talented actress here, plays the titular Jennifer, a walking sex bomb ready to explode all over every boy in high school (or is it vice-versa?). Jennifer takes off one night with a local rock band, after the bar they play at burns to the ground.  The band has dubious motives, at best, and…well, never mind. What’s important is that Jennifer shows up on the doorstep of her dorky BFF, Needy (Amanda Seyfried, far too pretty in real life to be the 2AM drunken take home girl), bloodied from head to toe and….changed, somehow. Soon, Jennifer is literally devouring every naive high school boy she can get her hands and teeth on–including Needy’s equally dorky boyfriend, Chip (yes, Chip).  There’s plenty of gore here to satisfy even the most hardcore horror buffs (myself included), as well as a little lesbian action that should make the straight guys stand up and take notice (ahem).

Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)

Rubber monsters unite!

Say what you will about Creature From the Black Lagoon: seeing this drive-in classic again after twenty years, I was startled and impressed by how technically proficient it really is.

You know the story, of course: scientists discover a prehistoric amphibian alive and well in an Amazonian lagoon that is not so very black and attempt to capture it for study.  The “gill-man” becomes enamored with the only female on the expedition (naturally), and tries to steal her away to its remote cave hideaway–surely to talk about things such as the American economy after the end of WWII.

The acting is predictably bland for a low-budget horror film at the time, and there are plenty of dramatic musical swells and stingers to accompany the action.  But I was surprised by the little details of Bud Westmore’s intricate creature design; obviously rubber, but not too much so, if you know what I mean.  The underwater photography, too, is impressive.  In several scenes, director Jack Arnold frames the creature and our heroine, Kay (Julie Adams), in long shots, with Kay swimming along the water’s surface, and the creature in a mirror image below her, paddling upside down.  And there’s a neat shot toward the end involving a spotlight and air bubbles.

Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

Sissy Spacek embodied Loretta Lynn in Michael Apted’s biopic well enough to win an Oscar for best actress.  It’s a strong performance in a modestly weak film, helped tremendously by the gifted Tommy Lee Jones, who plays Lynn’s husband, Mooney.

The first half of the film is strong, as Spacek, all pluck and naivete, leaves the poor back country of Kentucky–with Mooney at her side–for the road to superstardom.  There she meets Patsy Cline (Beverly D’Angelo), already a success in the country-western world, who takes the young and talented hillbilly under her wing.  I admired the way Apted and screenwriter Thomas Rickman take the time to build the characters and the tumultuous relationship between Lynn and Mooney.

The second act follows Lynn’s career trajectory a bit too swiftly, moving from gig to gig, and year to year, with alarming speed.  We’re expected to sympathize with the road-weary ingenue, and her struggle to accept her fame, but it all happens so darn fast, we never really get a sense of who she is.  This might have been a great film, if only Apted and Rickman had been a little more consistent.

Still, Coal Miner’s Daughter is worth a look, if a nostalgic one, for Spacek’s terrific performance–and for Jones’, too, for that matter.

1980; starring Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones; directed by Michael Apted; 125 min; PG; in English.

Zombieland (2009)

Splattery good fun from director Ruben Fleischer.  Jesse Eisenberg, who has cornered the market on playing quick-witted misfits, teams up with Woody Harrelson on a cross-country road trip–the road being lined with legions of the undead.  Along the way they meet up with sisters Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.  The siblings (and amateur conwomen) believe there’s a west-coast amusement park utterly devoid of zombies. They kidnap the men for their car and set off for the Sunshine State.

This is a fun movie, and far gorier than I had anticipated, though the carnage is giddily over-the-top.  Harrelson has a lot of fun with his role as the supreme zombie ass-kicker, and Eisenberg is helped along in his survival by a list of neurotic do’s and don’ts that pop up on the screen at opportune times.  Bill Murray has an absolutely hilarious cameo as himself, which, as it turns out, is maybe not such a great thing after all.  Horror fans will love this one.

2009; starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson; directed by Ruben Fleischer; 88 min; R; in English.

Wings of Desire (1987)

Regarded by some as an inscrutable poetic masterpiece, I can’t help but think that Wings of Desire, despite all its beauty, falls into the category of pretentious arthouse cinema. The film follows two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, through a series of images and setpieces, as they regard the modern world around them–always observing, pondering, helping.  The angels have existed since the beginning of time (“it took a long time for the river to meet its bed”) and watched the progression of God’s creations with a mix of sympathy and wonder.

Along the way, they encounter a series of lost souls–a holocaust survivor, a lonely circus acrobat, a suicidal man–and help when they can; but most often they are left to witness from the margins of reality. Damiel has tired of his mere existence and longs to be, while Cassiel laments that childhood is something to be lost instead of cherished.