A few reviews

[Zaharoff]

Maudie - 2016 - 6/10



Arthritic and otherwise disabled female moves out of her aunt's home to work as housekeeper.
The man who hires her, a fish seller, is slow on the uptick, as well.
She paints, however, and her work has an undeniable primitive charm.
Slow, very slow, yarn of the creative outsider, based on Nova Scotia artist, Maud Lewis.
Bleak cinematography captures the loneliness, and acting is excellent, if depressing.

[Zaharoff]

Camera Store - 2017 - 6/10



1994, Christmas Eve day. Amateur hour for procrastinating shoppers.
Set inside a mall back when malls were popular and people still bought film rolls.
Change is in the air, however. Digital.
The two burnouts who run the dying store have squandered their ideas, their dreams, their youth.
Despite some acid dialogue, this Yule timed yarn is devoid of good will toward men.
Christmas, mean spirited and most unmerry.
Production screams theatre play.

[Zaharoff]

Argon - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - 아르곤



K-drama about a television magazine news show.
Not the news/weather/sports show, but the special features.
Exposes, scoops, headlines, and human interest fluff.
Juvenile comedy mars first couple of episodes, though that vanishes if you hang with the series.
Decent drama, though few care about "news" any more. People hunt for, and believe what they want.
Limited crying in this, thank God, and no real romance.
Nice premise of rookie employee looking up to mentor she admired when she was younger.

[Zaharoff]

Black Christmas - 1974 - 5/10



A decade before director Bob Clark struck holiday gold with Christmas Story ( “... You’ll shoot your eye out ...” ), he helmed this Yuletide slasher.
Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder star in this, as their sorority house receives chronic obscene phone calls.
Christmas Eve, the house is invaded, and one by one ... yes, you can guess the predictable plot.
The genre had not hardened yet, so the girls I pointed out did not necessarily die, nor was the “order of victims” followed.
Very slow proceedings, especially by today's tempo, and gore mavens will lament a lack of blood.
Keir Dullea and John Saxon male roles.

I love that movie!

> : (

; )

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I love it too. One of the only slasher films I do like.

[cannibal cop]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

The Pact - 2012 - 6/10 After ma dies, wild child daughter returns to her sister’s home and the funeral. Straight away, she realizes something inside the house is not right...

I was pleasantly surprised by this one, I might even rate it a 7, but I should probably see it again first to make sure. Still, it impressed me enough that if I was pushed to list a horror top 10 for the last decade I would have to rank it pretty high there.

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Black Christmas - 1974 - 5/10

Oh, come on, man. That one's an all-timer. And as one who's as fond of gore as the next cannibal, I don't feel this movie lacks in any way. It's probably a little like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that respect, it's so well put together that it seems more explicitly gruesome than it is, because the violence has impact. As for a lack of "today's tempo", well, if that's because the thing is perfectly paced in order to establish a fully realized set of characters and setting and perfectly tuned suspense, I hardly see that as a fault, now.

Ah, well, at least you liked Ebola Syndrome.

[Zaharoff]

Cool Air - 1999 - 5/10



Struggling writer rents room in boarding house.
When he suffers a heart attack, he is treated by the doctor who resides above him.
They strike up a friendship. The writer discusses his literary challenges, the doctor his past.
Lovecraft's oft adapted story is filmed here as a one set drama.
Low budget is compensated with two fine leads, helpful black n white photography, and a serviceable ambient sound design.
Pace is sluggish, though, the narrative predictable, and the secondary players overact.

[Zaharoff]

Christmas Holiday - 1944 - 6/10



One of the most misleading Christmas titles ever.
After young lieutenant receives his commission, he shows comrades an engagement ring, then receives the Dear John telegram.
He opts to fly to San Francisco, nonetheless, have it out with the woman who dumped him and married another.
Narrative shifts almost immediately as his passenger plane is forced down by bad weather to New Orleans.
A newsman tags the lieutenant as a lost soul and takes him to a “sporting house” where he meets one of the girls, Deanna Durbin.
They go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, then to an all night coffee shop, where she starts to tell how a nice girl from Vermont wound up in a Louisiana brothel.
Look for Gene Kelly in genuinely offbeat casting.
Depressing Christmas Noir, with almost every single character miserable, doomed, unhappy.
Durbin regarded this as her best film.

[Zaharoff]

The Living And The Dead - 2016 - 6/10



Circa 1890. Educated couple relocate to his mother's rural farmstead after she dies.
Viewers - even inattentive viewers - will quickly realize the pair has moved to Spooky Lane England.
Possessions, ghostly hauntings, curses, the Ouija board!, and deaths, lots of graves.
Our couple, being educated and of scientific inclinations, disregard superstitious villagers.
Well photographed, nicely cast (save for the husband), the stories feel like "death of the week."
This viewer's sympathy ebbed more each week as the characters became myopic and dim brained, putting friends, neighbors, and family into clear risk.

What made this so disappointing is because the time, 1890, is the cusp of the Modern Age. The couple are familiar with Freud, photography, and scientific journals.
The pair are outsiders, and juxtaposed against the villagers, whose activities and attitudes have changed little since the 1600s.
Many possibilities were available, the writers seemingly took the easier route.
Bummer.