As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop over to twitter, pull Rope up on Prime, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag!
In 1995, an 11 year-old boy named Orion (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) lives in Philadelphia.
He has two loving parents. He lives in a nice house. He has his fist crush, on his classmate Sally (voiced by Shino Nakamichi). He has a bully (voiced by Jack Fisher) who enjoys giving him a hard time and he has several notebooks full of his thoughts and drawings. He also has a lot of fears.
Indeed, it’s his fears that largely define Orion. Some of his fears are understandable. I don’t like wasps or murder clowns either. Some of his other fears are a bit more elaborate. He’s scared of his bully but he’s even more scared of fighting his bully because he might accidentally break the bully’s nose and drive a piece of bone into the bully’s brain, therefore killing him. His biggest fear, however, is his fear of the Dark.
In fact, Orion spends so much time talking about how much he hates the dark and how scared he is of the dark that Dark (Paul Walter Hauser) appears to him in human form and explain that he’s getting tired of Orion blaming him for anything. Dark takes Orion with him as he travels across the world, bringing darkness to various countries and overseeing various other elements, like Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett), Unexplained Noises (Golda Rosheuvel), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), Quiet (Aparna Nancherla), and Sleep (Natasia Demetriou). Dark shows Orion that there’s no need to scared of the dark and that everyone involved is just doing their job. Orion comes to understand and appreciate Dark but, when he makes the mistake of saying that he still kind of likes Light (voice by Ike Barinholtz) better, it leads to a lot of hurt feelings and resignations….
If this sounds a bit weird, one should keep in mind that the story is being told by the adult Orion (voiced by Colin Hanks) to his daughter, Hypathia (Mia Akemi Brown). Adult Orion is telling the story to help Hypathia deal with her own fears and it soon becomes obvious that he’s making it up as he goes along. Hypathia is aware of this and has no hesitation about calling out the stuff that doesn’t make any sense. And when Orion proves incapable of coming up with a satisfactory ending for his story, Hypathia jumps into the story herself in an attempt to bring it all to a proper conclusion. But once she’s in the story, can she get back out?
Orion and the Dark may sound like a standard “conquer your fears and believe in yourself” animated film but the script was written by Charlie Kaufman and, in typical Kaufman fashion, the story is full of twists and turns and more than a few moments of commentary on the whole act of storytelling itself. There’s actually a lot going on in Orion and the Dark, with the film ultimately becoming a tribute to the power of imagination and to all of the parents-turned-storytellers in the world.
I’m a bit notorious for crying while watching animated films and I will say that Orion and the Dark brought tears to my eyes more than a few times. It’s an incredibly sweet movie, one that can be appreciated by both children and adults. It’s a movie about not just conquering fears but also using those fears to make oneself stronger. The final message is that light cannot exist without the dark and vice versa but that’s okay. There’s much to love in the light but the dark can be lovable too. Fear is a part of life but it’s not the only part of life.
Creatively-animated and featuring a strong cast of voice actors, Orion and the Dark is definitely one to check out.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1994’s Fantastic Four! Selected and hosted by Rev. Magdalen, this movie was produced by Roger Corman and never released! So, you know it has to be good!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Fantastic Four on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
On this date, 38 years ago, Top Gun was released and the movie changed forever.
From the opening shot, Top Gun captured the attention of audiences who understood that, though the film’s script may have been full of cliches and though the movie was basically just a remake of the old service moves of the late 30s and 40s, it didn’t matter because jets are freaking cool.
And that opening scene is today’s scene that I love!
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 85th birthday to the legendary actor, Harvey Keitel! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Harvey Keitel Films
Mean Streets (1973, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Kent L. Wakeford)
Taxi Driver (1976, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Chapman)
Reservoir Dogs (1992, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Andrzej Sekuła)
Bad Lieutenant (1992, dir by Abel Ferrara, DP: Ken Kelsch)
The year is 2002 and countries across Europe are giving up their old currencies and making the transition to the Euro. The future looks bright, especially for Ivan (Aron Piper), a young man from Spain who has gotten a job as a courier. He drives around Europe, often at lighting-fast speeds. He takes money across the continent so that it can safely be hidden away in Switzerland. Along with his lover and boss, Leticia (Maria Pedraza), Ivan quickly rises through the ranks of an international cartel. Helping others stay wealthy leads to Ivan becoming wealthy as well. Soon, he has fast cars, fast friends, a cocaine habit, and a mustache that makes him look like a 1990s NASCAR driver.
With its constantly moving camera and its voice-over narration, this Spanish film owes more than a little to the films of Martin Scorsese, Ivan’s descent into drugs will be familiar to anyone who has seen The Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas. Unfortunately, Ivan is never quite as interesting a character as either Jordan Belfort or Henry Hill, largely because Aron Piper is not as charismatic an actor as either Leonardo DiCaprio or Ray Liotta. Ivan comes across as just being a punk who wandered into something that temporarily made him rich and his narration often descends into shallow psychobabble. As a character, Ivan would never have the confidence to throw hundred dollar bills off of his boat. He also wouldn’t have the creativity to pull off the Lufthansa heist. He’s boring and all the cocaine in the world isn’t going to change that.
Interestingly enough, the film also borrows from Adam McKay, with an ending that highlights a lengthy list of consequences of Ivan’s money laundering operation. Much as with the films of McKay, The Courier makes the mistake of assuming that everyone watching shares its dreary Marxist outlook and is going to be outraged. The truth of the matter is that most people would probably love to hide their money from the government because only weirdos enjoy paying taxes. The film assumes that the audience will be demanding revolution whereas the majority will probably be saying, “Hey, money laundering seems like a good idea and you get a nice car out of it! How do I get in on that?”
(Scorsese, at the very least, understands and admits that most people would rather be Jordan Belfort on a yacht than the FBI agent on a subway. Most people would rather be Henry Hill living in New York as opposed to being Henry Hill living in the suburbs of Indianapolis and being an ordinary schnook.)
The Courier does have its moments. Maria Pedraza gives a good performance as Leticia, though you do have to wonder why she should would ever waste her time with someone as boring as Aron Piper’s Ivan. Carlos Jean’s score is wonderfully propulsive and provides them film with a needed rush of adrenaline. In the end, though, The Courier never really escapes the shadow of the films that came before it.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1977’s Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night! It can be viewed on YouTube.
Damn.
I mean, seriously! I have seen some depressing films before but nothing could have quite prepared me for Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night.
Susan Dey stars as Rowena, a young single mother whose 3 year-old daughter, Mary Jane Harper (Natasha Ryan), is taken to the hospital with a broken arm. Dr. Angela Buccieri (Tricia O’Neil) doesn’t believe Rowena’s claim that Mary Jane is just accident prone and when she discovers what appears to be cigarette burns on the little girl, Dr. Buccieri goes to the head of pediatrics (played by veteran screen villain John Vernon) and requests a full set of X-rays to see if there are any previously healed injuries. Buccieri’s request is denied. It turns out that Rowena comes from a wealthy family and her father (Kevin McCarthy) is a trustee of the hospital. Even after Dr. Buccieri opens up about her own experiences as an abused child, she is told to drop the matter.
She doesn’t drop it. Instead, she goes to a social worker named Dave Williams (Bernie Casey). Dave does his own investigation but none of Rowena’s neighbors want to talk about all of the crying and the screaming that they hear coming from Rowena’s apartment. Rowena presents herself as being a stressed but loving mother. Dave suggests a support group that she can attend. When Rowena goes to the group, she opens up a little about how overwhelmed she feels. Unfortunately, she leaves Mary Jane in the apartment alone and, when a fire breaks out, Mary Jane is lucky to survive.
As intense as all of that is, it’s also only the first half of the movie. The second half is even more intense and emotionally draining and it all leads up to one of the most devastating final lines ever uttered in a movie. Throughout the film, the system fails both Rowena and Mary Jane. Mary Jane is failed when all of the evidence of the abuse that she has suffered is either ignored or shrugged away by the same people who are supposed to be looking out for her. Rowena is failed when no one pays attention to her obvious emotional instability. When she finally does have a breakthrough during a therapy session, her psychiatrist (played by James Karen) curtly tells her that they’ll have to talk about it next week because their hour is up.
Rowena is a character who I both hated and pitied. Like many abusers, she herself was a victim of abuse. Even when Rowena tries to get support, no one wants to admit that a mother is capable of abusing their own child. That said, Mary Jane Harper is at the center of the film. She’s a little girl who is desperate to be loved by a woman who often terrifies her. She is continually failed by the people who should be looking after her and it’s just devastating to watch. I’m sure I’m not the only person who was moved to tears by this film.
What a sad film. At the same time, it’s also an important one. If the film takes place at a time when no one wanted to admit to the abuse happening before their eyes, we now live in a time when people toss around allegations of abuse so casually that it’s led to a certain cynicism about the whole thing. Even when seen today, Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night works as a powerful plea to watch out and care for one another.
On this date, 117 years ago, Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She would go one to become a cultural icon, a performer who survived being labeled box office to poison to eventually become one of our most acclaimed actresses. Hepburn was a total of four acting Oscars over the course of her career, a record that has yet to be topped.
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1940’s The Philadelphia Story and it features Katharine Hepburn acting opposite another one of my favorite performers, the great James Stewart.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today is the 94th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Franco! One of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, Franco made movies that …. well, they’re not easy to describe. Jess Franco was responsible for some of the most visually striking and narratively incoherent films ever made. He made films that you either loved or you hated but there was no mistaking his work for being the work of someone else.
Today, in honor of his birthday, here are….
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Godofredo Pacheco)
Count Dracula (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DPs: Manuel Merino and Luciano Trasatti)
Vampyros Lesbos (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Manuel Merino)
Female Vampire (1973, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Jess Franco)
First released in 2017, Divine Will is a short film but it’s also a rather odd film.
Dave Blessing (Brent Reed) used to be the lead singer of Isolation, a band that was apparently the hottest in the world in the 90s. His son, Will (Lee Roessler), is the result of a marriage that only lasted for two weeks. When Will’s mother dies, he moves to Chicago and lives with Dave and Dave’s quirky sister, Jenny (Kat Moser).
We are told (but we do not see) that Will had trouble in Chicago and that he spent a few nights in jail. Wanting to raise his son in a better environment, Dave accepts an offer to become the music minister for a church in small town Kentucky.
So, Dave, Will, Jenny, and the always silent ghost of Will’s mother move to Kentucky. At first, everyone is skeptical about a rock star becoming a choir leader but then all of the women in town see how handsome Dave is and they all suddenly remember that they were once huge fans of Isolation. While Dave tries to avoid all of the women that now want to marry him, Aunt Jenny gets a job as an art teacher. Jenny’s quirky methods go against the staid traditions of the school.
As for Will, he falls for Casey Buckner (Kathryn Boswell), who lives next door and who is still coming to terms with the death of her brother. Will should be able to help both her and several other people in town because he has the power to bring people a feeling of peace just by touching them. It’s a power that he’s had ever since the passing of his mother. Did I mention that the silent ghost of his mother keeps popping up at random moments?
Oh! And did I also mention that the movie is a musical? Will breaks into song while walking around the countryside. Later, he and Casey share a duet.
As I said, it’s an odd film. I’m a little bit hesitant about reviewing it because the imdb lists the film as having a 114 minute run-time while the version on Tubi was only 74 minutes long. Either the imdb is incorrect or the version of Tubi was heavily edited. Either way, the version I saw did feel as if it was missing a few scenes. It crammed a lot of plot into just 74 minutes and the film was not always easy to follow. The version I saw leaned very heavily on Will’s narration, especially during the first few scenes.
But you know what? It’s a likably goofy film and it’s earnest enough that it feels somewhat churlish to be too critical of it. If nothing else, it definitely captures the feel of living in the country. There’s a scene set in a barn that has so many bales of hay that I immediately felt like I was back on my grandmother’s farm and suffering from allergies. Much like the country that it portrays, the film was odd but the scenery was lovely.
Through the Shattered Lens 