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| Tell Me A Creepy Story |
Don Roos has morphed into a screenwriter for hire these days, but his 2005 effort Happy Endings made me wish he would return to directing films one day. Happy Endings was a box office dud, I don't think any of Roos' films were hits, and was given mixed reviews by the critics, one scribe described it as "Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia for adolescents." I would describe it an Altmanesque (one of Anderson's heroes) in its use of interconnecting stories, a large ensemble, and a 20th century LA setting. Roos has his own obsessions though, best displayed here and in The Opposite of Sex: chiefly affluence in America, sexual ambiguity and deceit. The plot's hinging on abortion and immigration give it added resonance today. Roos use of hand held cameras, limited to the more volatile scenes, is a model of restraint. Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom Arnold, Steve Coogan, Bobby Cannavale, and Laura Dern all have their moments.
Nicholas Ray's Hot Blood is a outlandish Gypsy quasi-musical, from 1956, starring Jane Russell and Cornel Wilde. Russell tricks future Gypsy King Wilde into marriage and for the rest of the flick they circle each other like polecats, brandishing whips and knives. The film shares the same set bound saloon milieu as Ray's other quasi-musical, Party Girl. Ray being Ray, there are more than a few tilted shots and interesting inserts. The view of Romani culture is pure Hollywood balderdash and the ethnic humor is excruciating, but Ray channels Russell and Wilde's physicality well. The picture is well paced and vivid, almost comically so. The film is a Cinemascope and Technicolor eye popper which Tubi is currently streaming in its proper ratio. Not great art or even a good Nicholas Ray film, Hot Blood does have its entertaining and bizarre moments. Featuring Luther Adler, Joseph, Calleia, and Richard Deacon.
Frank Borzage's Strange Cargo, from 1940, is an MGM romantic adventure drama that reteamed Joan Crawford and Clark Gable for the final time. The Christian mystical aspects of the film, with Ian Hunter playing a Jesus figure, jibes with Borzage's tremulous Romanticism, but the action scenes are routine and, like a good deal of MGM productions, the picture feels overstuffed. Crawford plays a "dance hall girl" in French Guiana who somewhat improbably escapes with Gable and five other dangerous inmates. There are the usual jungle perils: quicksand, crocodiles, sharks. and Peter Lorre playing an informer and procurer. There are also unusual elements. Gable debates theology with Hunter! Crawford is shown without full makeup for a quarter of the film! The plot is seamy, there are intimations of prostitution, homosexuality, and rape, and it drew a Condemned rating from the Catholic League of Decency which also criticized the film's "naturalistic concept of religion". Not coherent enough to be a good film, the film boasts sterling performances. Crawford and Gable are relaxed and fun as they duel each other with knives, kisses, and brickbats. Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, J. Edward Bromberg, Eduardo Ciannelli, and John Arledge make up a memorable rogue's galley.
Ira Sachs' Passages is an insipid love triangle. Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adele Exarchopoulos, all competent performers, are not given believable characters to inhabit. The impassive results fail to even rise to a soap opera level.
Burt Kennedy's Young Billy Young is an extremely feeble Western from 1969. A rehash of innumerable cliches, not even the presence of Robert Mitchum, Angie Dickinson, Robert Walker Jr., David Carradine, and Jack Kelly can enliven this dud.
Paul Anderson's Mortal Kombat, from 1995, is risible drivel.
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