obake-the-sincere

La Llorona (2019) ** ½ The poor Weeping Woman has a spotty filmography. I have not seen her American releases, though judging by word of mouth they are not great. Her Guatemalan La Llorona (2019), directed by Jayro Bustemante, has a lot to say. Though it too has problems. A veiled woman speaks in what looks like an empty space. The camera slowly pulls back, revealing that she’s in a packed court room. She accuses aging General Don Enrique (Julio Diaz) of genocide towards her people, the Mayan-Ixil. She recalls her rape and other atrocities carried out by the General’s men. We learn she is the 82nd witness. Outside of that court, the film mostly stays in Don’s home, where he, his family, and their maids are walled in by protesters. In a genius move, the protesters are not just there for story, but provide background ambiance through shouting and music. The family hires a new maid, Alma (María Mercedes Coroy). She has flowing hair and a quiet demeanor. It is hinted that Alma may

Five Nights at Freddy’s *** Scott Cawthon is a mad genius. His Five Nights at Freddy’s video game series, rich with grisly lore and jump scares, is one of my favorites. As far as its (first) movie adaptation, it holds up. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is unstable. Fired from a security gig for assault, threatened of losing custody of his sister Abby, and late on bills, you understand his plight. Yet his villainous aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) is right in some ways about wanting custody of Abby. One of the reasons the movie works is that even at his best, Mike is flawed. Hutcherson gives depth to what could have been a shallow protagonist. Abby (Piper Rubio) has troubles of her own. She barely acknowledges the world around her. Her only friends are imaginary, and her time is spent drawing them, over and over. It is her relationship with Mike that holds the horror set pieces together. As in most of the Fnaf games, the crux of the movie is our protagonist getting a security job at a

The Vanishing (1988) **** Can horror be effective when stripped to the bone? George Sluizer’s Spoorloos (translated to The Vanishing) proves it can. Most regular horror conventions are thrown out here, in favor of only the implications, and it is all too effective. Rex Hofman and his wife Saskia are on holiday in France. By sheer chance, Saskia is kidnapped and presumably murdered. Rex creates a national campaign to find out what happened. In a refreshing twist, we know immediately who her kidnapper is: a man named Raymond. He is introduced donning a fake arm cast, a la Ted Bundy. The movie makes no pretense of hiding his guilt, though it keeps his motives muddy. Chunks of time are spent away from Rex and Saskia’s story in favor of Raymond and his family. Sluizer has made moments that would be humorous in other movies somehow chilling. I think it is because the characters are so well developed, so strange yet close to life. We know people like Raymond, Rex, and Saskia exist.

Asteroid City *** Remember the gag in Looney Tunes, of the Roadrunner going into a tunnel, and Wile E Coyote chasing after him only to find the tunnel is a painted backdrop? The desert around Asteroid City looks like backdrops from Looney Tunes shorts. There is even an animated roadrunner. I assume the fake look is intentional. It was shot in both Spain and Arizona, according to Cinemaholic. This is Wes Anderson’s vision of an American desert town, circa 1950’s. An ensemble of eccentrics arrive for a science festival. There is the Sunday school teacher June (May Hawke) and her class, the recent widower Augie Steenbeck (Jason Scwartzman) and his children, troubled actress Midge (Scarlett Johansson) and her daughter Dinah (Grace Edwards), to name just a few. Augie and Midge begin a relationship. Both have emotional baggage, Augie having been a war photographer who lost his wife a few weeks before, Midge having been abused by men through most of her life. Though both have seen

The Drowning Pool ** It is surprising how flat Paul Newman is in The Drowning Pool. Paul Newman playing a cocky, hard boiled Private Eye sounds fantastic. It could be any range of things, from thrilling to funny. Here it is boring. The Drowning Pool isa 1975 crime drama based on a Ross MacDonald novel. Lew Harper (Newman) is a PI working on a case involving an ex lover whom he had an affair with. The lover, Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward) wants Lew to find the identity of a letter writer. The writer claims to know of Iris’s infidelity, and threatens to let the word out. Meanwhile Iris’s stepmother, Olivia Devereaux (Coral Browne) keeps a strict household. As Lew points out, Olivia treats her pet birds better than people. She also has no time to suffer oil tycoons trying to buy her land. In comes J Hue Kilbourne (Murray Hamilton.) He is the local head of the oil industry. A weird, southern accented man with a lot money, and little idea how to use it all. His idea of fun is

Toxic relationships are the subject of Dragnet Girl. A woman and her boyfriend, both small time crooks, promise to go straight after a life of crime. Just after one last robbery. Crime, in their case, may be an addiction, as there always seems to be “one last time.” Tokiko’s relationship with her beau, Joji, is strained. Both he and her seem to hate one another at times, but they are always falling back into each other’s arms. Joji, a retired boxer, runs a local gang. One of his proteges, a featherweight by the name of Hiroshi, is eager to please his boss. Joji, on the other hand, wants little to do with anybody, sitting longingly in the club’s rec room while boxers and pool hounds get into fights. Hiroshi, who is young and not an ounce cynical, steals small amounts of money and dreams of making it big. Meanwhile Hiroshi’s sister, Kazuko, sees her little brother’s life of crime for what it is. There is no stability in the life of a crook. Joji is the ultimate testament to that;

Key Largo **** Systemic abuse is a running theme of John Huston’s Key Largo. The mafia were abusers of the law, kowtowing cops and politicians to do their bidding. As the movie shows, some mobsters had antiquated views on women as well. A former Major named Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) goes to a sleepy hotel in Key Largo, Florida. He says he is there to visit a soldier buddy’s father. Reality may be that Frank is searching for a meaning to life after seeing war. He does, after all, seem to drift into deep thought every so often, even when others speakto him. His friend George’s father, James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) runs the hotel with his son’s widow, Nora (Lauren Bacall.) The two know of Frank from letters George sent to them. They are optimistic about the visit from McCloud. Frank, as courteous as he is, seems to almost not want to be there. Perhaps he thinks closure is impossible, but he still wants to help George’s family. Also at the hotel are a group of suspicious men

Picnic at Hanging Rock *** ½ Picnic at Hanging Rock is a peculiar time capsule. If it were made today, it would likely be more blunt. Vague undertones of sexuality permeate Sarah, one of the girls attending Appleyard College. Her character may well be a lesbian, but like the Victorian times it is set in, it never explores further. I assume that is purposeful. The film is set in Victoria, Australia. Appleyard College, a progressive leaning girls school, is run by Miss Appleyard (Rachel Roberts.) She seems the typical authoritarian. Even her hair is high strung, always in a bun as big as her head. The movie starts with the college girls getting ready for a field trip. They are going to Hanging Rock, a real life inactive volcano. When I think of the Outback, I think of dry deserts or swampy jungles. Hanging Rock is a mix of both. Alongside the arid heat is the growing height of the rock formations. Four of the students take a hike up the mountain, and only one gets back down. What

Starman *** Jenny Hayden is a young widow. Her husband Scott died in an accident, leaving her virtually alone. She does not have neighbors to confide in, as she lives in a cabin, distant from civilization. Distance is a theme of Starman, both physical and emotional. When an alien crash lands and takes the form of Jenny’s late husband, she has an understandable reaction. Rather than screaming or running, she takes a moment to ask if it really is Scott, before realizing it could not be, and fainting. What starts out as nightmarish turns out to be rather sweet. The titular alien (played by Jeff Bridges) is a fish out of water, only knowing English from a probe sent by astronauts with various media on it. Think greetings in several languages, and some songs (“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, for one.) The alien’s goal is to get to a rendezvous in Winslow, Arizona, where a ship will bring him home. Starman is a road trip movie, with Jenny (Karen Allen) taking the

Bicycle Thieves **** My family, although well off now, has had hard times. When you are poor, you treasure what little you have. A home. Photos. Toys. In the case of Antonio Ricci, a bicycle. Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves is an unrelenting look at poverty. The protagonist, Antonio, takes a loan to get a bike so he can work far out in the city, during a general workers strike. Antonio is lucky to have been hand picked for the new job. Crowds of fellow workers get nothing. His wife Maria and son Bruno finally look forward to having real money. As if fate has it out for Antonio, his bicycle is stolen. Knowing time is short, he and Bruno go on a rabid search. The once collected Antonio (played dutifully by Lamberto Maggiorani) slowly descends into despair. That is one part of poverty. The other is desperation. Desperation so menacing it makes people willing to lash out. Antonio almost breaks down after slapping Bruno in frustration. Something that went through my mind

New Movie Reviews: Five Nights At Freddy's (2023) (Watched twice in theaters on 10/28/2023) Rated: PG-13, 1 hr. 49 mins., ⭐⭐⭐ Director Emma Tammi has made a very fine horror movie, based on the survival horror video game series "Five Nights At Freddy's" created by Scott Cawthon, with fine characters, a decent story and good effects and puppetry. The story follows Mike (Josh Hutcherson), a security guard who's having trouble keeping a stable job as he tries looking after his young sister Abby (Piper Rubio) who always draws and talks to imaginary friends. Yet after losing his job working at a mall due to mistaking a kidnapping, Mike's offered a nightly security watch from career counselor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard) at a pizzeria called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, that was big in the 1980s until it was shut down but kept up due to the owner not letting it go. So, after some time, Mike accepts the job and watches video monitors to keep people out of Freddy's. He's soon visited by

Greetings fellow fandom admirers! I'm Nick Wright and this is A Wright Reviews. Was it really that hard to make a movie about Marvel's Jekyll-and-Hyde? The Incredible Hulk is by far the strongest and deadliest member of the Avengers. His creative destruction and thrilling rushes of adrenaline, and just the pure action of devastation. There's a monster film and a disaster film locked within this comic book series. But despite his potential for great storytelling and cinematic gold. The Hulk has had an underwhelming impact in terms of cinema. Sure people enjoyed watching the Incredible Hulk show on CBS during the late 70s and early 80s. And even though they had an actual Hulk on TV instead of a CGI monster. It didn’t match the same energy or excitement of seeing the Hulk go all the way with his destructive force. While the cartoon shows from the 90s and comic books did so. But what I did like about the 70s Hulk show was it captured the struggles of a man having to battle

New Movie Reviews: Asteroid City (2023) (Watched in theaters on 6/24/2023) Rated: PG-13, 1 hr. 45 mins., ⭐⭐ 1/2÷ Director Wes Anderson has made an alright, but unusual film with okay characters, an okay story and fine effects. The story, set in 1955, has the Steenbeck family travelling to Asteroid City (known for its giant crater that contains an asteroid that landed in a California desert and left unbroken in its impact) where it has a yearly celebration called Asteroid Day to commemorate the anniversary of the asteroid's landing. The Steenbeck's son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) is partaking in an invention contest as the war photographer father Augie (Jason Schwartzman) wants the father-in-law Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks) to pick up the three young daughters as their car breaks down on their journey. And during their stay, the Steenbeck's meet other people who work there, are visiting the city for the event or vacationing, including actress Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), scientist Dr.

At first, this was going to be a straight-up Top 10 list. But before I once again dived into the eternal struggle of defining an absolute order for these entries, I took myself aside and argued: "No." Which was a pretty thorough argument. So instead, here is a collection of 10 very, very bad MLP-episodes that I personally find to be my Top 10, but in no particular order. Also: What I said previously about my least favourite episodes has to be taken with a grain of salt. I chose that one for a controversy meme without long consideration (for formerly mentioned reasons). I still think they are objectively bad, but a good chunk of their ranking also comes from personal preferences, annoyance or a lack of ironic detachment. If it calms you down: The upper row pretty much represents my Top 5, though I wouldn't know where to put them in comparison to each other. So let's begin: Daring Doubt (Season 9) It all starts when Dr. Caballeron publishes a tell-all-book about "the

It took me a rather long time to catch up on the movies that made Arnold Schwarzenegger famous. I knew about The Terminator, though I only saw it after I'd graduated from college. I also knew about Conan the Barbarian (but, speaking as a fan of the original stories, I'm not at all interested in watching John Milius' film any time soon). Typically, when I think of Arnold as an action star, three movies come to mind: Terminator from '84; Predator, from '87; and Total Recall from 1990. All three of those are movies that my father is a huge fan of (he considers the original "Terminator" to be nearly perfect from what I recall :XD: ) and, one day in October in the spirit of Halloween, I suggested we sit down and watch the middle of those three - both because it had an actual monster in it, and because I had it on DVD and had been meaning to watch it for a while already. So, with all of that setup out of the way, let us dive into the story of "Predator" and see what it offers us! :)