Tag Archives: Film

The Films of 2024: Spaceman (dir by Johan Renck)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

At some point in an unspecified future, Czech cosmonaut Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) floats through space in a capsule.  He’s on a mission to investigate Chopra, a cloud of dust and debris that has been spotted near Jupiter.  On Earth, he’s a hero.  People love to watch interviews with him from space, though few realize that the majority of his interviews were actually pre-recorded before he left the planet.  Corporations are sponsoring his trip and Jakub is under order to use their marketing slogans as much as possible whenever he communicates with the people back home.  Jakob is in a race to reach the cloud before a competing mission from South Korea.  One can only guess what’s happened back on Earth to create a situation where the Czech Republic and South Korea are the two countries with a working space program.

Jakub is someone who grew up yearning to leave the planet and escape from the pain of being the son of a “party informer.”  Now that he’s in space, he obsesses on how much he misses his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan).  He and Lenka used to talk regularly through “CzechConnect” but it’s been a while since she’s answered any of his calls.  Lenka was not happy when Jakub accepted the mission to Chopra, accusing him of abandoning her when she needed him most.  Considering that she is pregnant (and that a previous pregnancy ended in a miscarriage), she’s absolutely right.  What Jakub doesn’t know is that Lenka has decided to leave him.  As her mother (Lena Olin) puts it, Jakub will always find an excuse not to return home and deal with their relationship.  After he inspects Chopra, who is to say that Jakub won’t want to continue to see what is waiting beyond Jupiter?  Lenka’s final message to him is being suppressed by the Czech government (represented here by Isabella Rossellini).

What is it that drives Jakub to separate himself from the rest of the world?  Jakub is himself not totally sure.  But when a giant space spider (voiced by Paul Dano) shows up in the capsule and explains that it wants to understand the human mind, Jakub starts to learn.  The spider, who Jakub names Hanus, becomes Jakub’s companion and his confessor.

I’ve often said that there are two Adam Sandlers.  There’s the Adam Sandler who makes goofy comedies with his friends and who mostly seems to view making movies as a working vacation.  And then there’s the Adam Sandler who is a sad-eyed character actor who captures regret and spiritual malaise about as well any performer working today.  To me, it’s always been interesting how the same actor who starred in something like Jack and Jill could also be absolutely heart-breaking when cast in something like The Meyerowtiz Stories.  If the only Sandler films that you ever watched or heard about were his dramatic roles, you would probably assume that he is one of America’s most honored actors.  Spaceman finds Adam Sandler in serious actor mode and he does a good job at portraying Jakub’s loneliness and the deep sadness that makes it difficult from him to open up emotionally.  That said, I have to admit that, as I watched this deliberately-paced and rather somber film, there were a few times when I found myself thinking about how they should have made a sequel to Happy Gilmore where Happy became the first pro-golfer in space.

Spaceman is a film that I wanted to like more than I did.  It’s a well-acted film, with Carey Mulligan again getting a chance to show the depth that she can bring to even a somewhat underwritten role.  The Chopra is beautifully rendered.  The Giant Spider becomes a fascinating character as the story plays out.  The film does a good job of capturing the claustrophobia of being stuck in a space capsule.  (Jakub may have escaped Earth but he’s still definitely trapped.)  The problem is that the film’s approach is a bit too literal-minded.  Instead, of engaging with viewers and letting them discover the film’s themes and solve the story’s mysteries for themselves, Spaceman spells everything out in the most obvious ways.  The film, like Jakub, makes the mistake of not trusting the people watching to be able to understand what they’re seeing.  2001: A Space Odyssey was an obvious influence on the film’s final third but, whereas Kubrick took an obvious joy in leaving audiences scratching their heads, Spaceman wraps things up a bit too neatly,

In the end, I think Spaceman will be best-remembered for being the first film in which audiences will not be surprised to see Adam Sandler giving a dramatic performance.  After Punch-Drunk Love, The Meyerowtiz Stories, Uncut Gems, and Hustle, we’ve reached the point where the idea of Adam Sandler being a good actor is no longer shocking.  Who would have ever guessed?

6 Trailers For May 4th

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Star Wars not only launched an entire expanded universe.  It also launched a few thousand rip-offs.  For this weeks edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers, we’ve got six trailers that might seem just a little familiar….

  1. Battle Beyond The Stars (1980)

From Roger Corman comes this film, which is as much a rip-off of The Magnificent Seven as it is of Star Wars.  Battle Beyond The Stars was a surprise box office success when it was first released.

2. Space Raiders (1983)

Also from executive producer Roger Corman, Space Raiders tells the story of what happens when a quirky band of intergalactic outlaws pick up an annoying (and frankly, rather stupid) kid.

3. The Humanoid (1979)

From director Aldo Lado, The Humanoid features the great Richard Kiel as the title character.  There’s also a cute robot, an older mystic, and an evil Empire.

4. Message From Space (1978)

Do you remember another film that had a message from space?

5. Flash Gordon (1980)

Interestingly enough, Star Wars was as inspired by the original Flash Gordon as the Flash Gordon reboot was inspired by Star Wars.

6. Starcrash (1978)

And finally, we have Starcrash, the Star Wars rip-off that is actually better than Star Wars!

The TSL Grindhouse: The Spook Who Sat By The Door (dir by Ivan Dixon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1973’s The Spook Who Sat By The Door opens with Senator Hennington (Joseph Mascolo) in a panic.

The Senator is running for reelection and is struggling to appeal to white voters and minority voters at the same time.  White voters are happy that the Senator recently gave a speech in favor of “law and order” but now, he’s polling weakly with black voters.  His wife (Elaine Aiken) suggests that the Senator win back black voters by demanding that the CIA hire more black agents.

The CIA responds to the political pressure by hiring Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook) to be their first black agent.  Freeman is given the standard CIA training and taught how to start revolutions in other countries.  However, after he completes his training, Freeman is assigned no real responsibilities.  He is given a desk job and spends most of his day making copies.  Whenever a senator or a reporter visits CIA Headquarters, Freeman is trotted out so that the CIA can claim to be diverse.  Freeman understands that he’s a token.  He knows that his job is to basically sit by the door and be seen.  But Freeman actually has bigger plans.

After spending a few years at the CIA, Freeman resigns and heads back to Chicago to work as a social worker.  Using what he learned at the agency, he starts to recruit young black men as freedom fighters.  He and the Cobras (as they’re called) launch their own guerilla war against the establishment in Chicago.  Some of their tactics are violent and some of them are not.  Freeman understands the importance of winning both hearts and minds and he recruits Willy (David Lemieux) to serve as his lead propagandist.  Because Willy is light-skinned, he is also assigned to rob a bank because Freeman knows that both the witnesses and the police will mistake him for being white and will be less likely to fire on him.  (The other members of the Cobras wear whiteface during the robbery.)

Freeman hopes that he will be able to recruit his childhood friend, Dawson (J.A. Preston), to the cause.  Dawson, however, now works as a detective for the Chicago PD and has been assigned to beak up the Cobras.  Will Freeman be able to bring over Dawson and what will happen if Dawson resists?

Based on a novel by Sam Greenlee (who was one of the first black men to be recruited to work with the United States Information Agency and who based many of Freeman’s CIA experiences on his own), The Spook Who Sat By The Door has achieved legendary status as a film that the FBI reportedly tried to keep out of theaters.  Theater owners were pressured to either not book the film or to only book it for a week before replacing it with a less incendiary film.  As a result, The Spook Who Sat By The Door became a difficult film to see.  As often happens, the efforts to censor the film only added to its revolutionary mystique.

Of course, in 2024, one can go on YouTube and watch the film for oneself.  It’s definitely uneven film, one that has pacing issues (especially at the beginning) and also one that suffers due to its low budget.  Depicting the overthrow of the government on a budget will always be a challenge.  Some of the acting is a bit amateurish but Lawrence Cook broods convincingly as Freeman and he’s well-matched by J.A. Preston’s portrayal of the more down-to-Earth Dawson.  At its best, there’s a raw authenticity and anger to the film that immediately captures the viewer’s attention.  It’s the rare political film to actually feature conversations about actual politics and it’s a film that asks how far people would be willing to go to accomplish change.  The Spook Who Sat By The Door suggests that the true villains are the members of the establishment who cynically embraced the civil rights struggle in their words but not in their actions.  In the end, Dan Freeman becomes a bit of a fanatic but the film suggests that perhaps a fanatic was what the times demanded.

Robert Englund as Han Solo? A Little May 4th Trivia

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Can you imagine how things might have played out if Robert Englund had played Han Solo?

It’s not as far-fetched as it might sound.  In his autobiography, Hollywood Monster: A Walk Down Elm Street with the Man of Your Dreams, Englund mentions that he was one of the many actor who, in 1975, auditioned for a role in the first Star Wars film.  It’s often forgotten that, before he became famous as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare In Elm Street, Englund was a busy character actor who had roles in several big studio productions in the 70s.  He was definitely a part of the “new Hollywood” that included people like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Jon Milius.

Though Englund doesn’t go into much detail, he does say that he read for the roles of both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.  At the time, Englund didn’t feel that he was right for either role and he went back to his apartment under the correct impression that he would not be cast.  However, he did feel that his friend and then-roommate Mark Hamill would be a good pick for Luke Skywalker and Englund writes that he encouraged Hamill to try out for the role.

Would Mark Hamill have been cast if Robert Englund hadn’t told him about the audition?  Probably.  Given that Star Wars was Lucas’s follow-up to the very popular American Graffiti, it’s probable that every struggling young actor in Hollywood was hoping to audition.  As well, Hamill was not totally unknown to George Lucas, having early read for a role in American Graffiti.  Still, it’s nice to think that, long before he was cast as Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund may have played a role in casting one of the most successful films of all time.

What would Robert Englund have been like as Han Solo?  He definitely would not have been as grouchy as Harrison Ford’s Han.  Indeed, one of the striking things out about Englund’s pre-Nightmare career was how he was usually cast as friendly characters who were almost shy.  Englund would have been friendlier and rather eccentric Han Solo but I think he would have been entertaining in his way.

Because of the film’s success, it can be a bit difficult to know who was actually considered for a role in Star Wars.  Lucas has said that he originally wanted to cast Black actor Glynn Turman as Han Solo but he feared audiences would not accept the possibility of an interracial romance between him and Leia, even in a galaxy far away.  (Lucas’s regret over that decision is one of the things that led to the casting of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian.)  The film’s IMDb trivia page insists that everyone from Al Pacino to Bill Murray to Marlon Brando to Chevy Chase was considered for the role of Han Solo and I have to say that this is a case where I doubt the accuracy of the IMDb.  Harrison Ford, who had originally been hired only to read with people at the auditions, eventually got the role despite telling Lucas, about the script, “You can type this shit but you can’t say it.”

In several interviews, Christopher Lee expressed regret at having turned down the role of Grand Moff Tarkin, which was instead played by Lee’s best friend Peter Cushing.  Interestingly enough, Cushing was also one of Lucas’s choices for Obi-Wan Kenobi so it’s easy to imagine a universe in which Star Wars reunited two Hammer films legends, along with setting box office records.

Famously, Lucas held joint-auditions with his friend Brian De Palma.  De Palma was casting Carrie and just about everyone who read for one of the films also read for the other.  Reportedly, William Katt came close to getting the role of Luke before instead being cast as Carrie’s doomed prom date.  Amy Irving was also a strong contender for Leia, before instead ending up as Sue Snell in De Palma’s film.  Some source that that Sissy Spacek also read for Leia, though I’ve also read that Spacek was not a part of the joint-auditions.  That’s one thing about collecting trivia about classic films.  It’s often hard to know what’s true and what’s just wishful thinking.

I should mention that another strong contender for Han Solo (and reportedly Luke as well) was Kurt Russell.  It’s actually easy to imagine Kurt Russell as Han and, just as with Englund, it leads to an intriguing game of what if.  Would Kurt Russell have gone on to have Harrison Ford’s career if he had been cast in Star Wars?  Would Russell have gone to play Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan if he had been cast as Han Solo and would Harrison Ford have ended up helping the President to Escape from New York?  Or is it just as possible that Star Wars have not worked without the chemistry of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill?  Would a Kurt Russell, Amy Irving, and William Katt version of Star Wars captured the imagination of audiences?

It’s a question to which there is no real answer, a bit like wondering if The Godfather would have been as big a hit if it had starred George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, and Burt Reynolds.  Still, it’s interesting to consider.

Live Tweet Alert: Watch The Wicker Man with #ScarySocial

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, for #ScarySocial, Deanna Dawn will be hosting 1973’s The Wicker Man!

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  The film is available on Prime and Tubi.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Scenes That I Love: Audrey Hepburn in Two For The Road

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 95rd birthday of one of my favorite actresses, the wonderful Audrey Hepburn!

We’re all Audrey Hepburn fans here at the Shattered Lens.  How could we not be?  Long before she made her film debut, Audrey Hepburn literally risked her life as a part of the Dutch Resistance during World War II.  After she retired from regularly appearing in the movies, she devoted herself to humanitarian causes and brought attention to the plight of refugees the world over.  She was one of the greats and, for that reason, today’s scene that I love comes from one of her best films, 1967’s Two For The Road.

In this scene, Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn play a married couple who discuss their troubled but loving marriage while on the road.  This film features one Audrey’s best performances.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Star Wars Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, we wish all of our readers a happy May The Fourth Be With You Day!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Star Wars Films

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977, dir by George Lucas, DP: Gilbert Talyor)

The Empire Strike Back (1980, dir by Irvin Kershner, DP: Peter Suschitzky)

Return of the Jedi (1983, dir by Richard Marquand, DP: Alan Hume and Alec Mills)

Rogue One (2016, dir by Gareth Edwards, DP: Greig Fraser)

The Film of 2024: Lola (dir by Nicola Peltz Beckham)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Lola (Nicola Peltz Beckham) works her days working in a convenience store and her nights dancing at a strip club.  It’s not enjoyable work but she’s trying to raise money so that she can enroll her little brother, Arlo (Luke David Blumm) in a special arts school in Dallas.  At present, Arlo is being homeschooled by their religious fanatic mother, Mona (Virginia Madsen).  Heavy-drinking Mona throws a fit whenever she sees Arlo putting on makeup or wearing a dress but she doesn’t do a thing about the way her boyfriend (Trevor Long) leers at Lola.  She’s the type who gives people doughnuts with “God” written in icing.

Lola thinks that it is a film about poor people but actually, it isn’t.  Written by, directed by, and starring the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz, Lola is less a film about poor people and more a film about what rich people think being poor is like.  As such, everyone smokes and everyone lives in either a trailer or a one-story house but the inside of those houses are perfectly lit and not the least bit cluttered.  Lola may have to work two jobs and she may be hooked on cocaine but her hair and her makeup are always perfect.  Lola’s homelife may not be perfect but, as all poor white girls do in movies like this, she has a super-loyal Black friend (Raven Goodwin) who doesn’t appear to have a life outside of obsessing on Lola’s problems.  Lola also has a dumbass boyfriend (played by Richie Merritt, the star of White Boy Rick) who keeps her supplied with cocaine but who also gets upset when Lola says she’s not ready to lose her virginity to him.

The film follows Lola from one trauma to another.  We’re supposed to sympathize with her because her life is so bad but the film itself doesn’t seem to realize that Lola is often her own worst enemy.  For instance, knowing that she cannot afford to lose her job at the convenience store, she still tries to steal from the store in the most obvious way possible.  When she gets caught, her boss fires her.  Even when she offers to get the stolen stuff out of her locker (seriously, she put it in her locker?), her boss tells her that she’s fired.  The film sets this up as if the boss is somehow being unfair but actually, he’s doing what any boss would do to an employee stealing products from his shelf.  He has every right to fire her and if he didn’t, he would basically be inviting everyone else who works for him to steal from him as well.  Losing the job sends Lola into a spiral of depression and desperation but again, it was her own fault so how sorry am I supposed to feel for her?

Eventually, there is a tragedy.  It’s not great shock when it happens but it does lead to scene of Lola sobbing while portentous string music playing on the soundtrack.  Much like everything else in the film, the music choice is so obvious and heavy-handed that it’s more like to inspire a chuckle than a tear.  The right to portentous string music is something that a movie has to earn.  Requiem For A Dream earned Lux Aeterna.  Lola is no Requiem For A Dream.

Instead, Lola has more in common with Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River.  Both Lola and Lost River are films about poverty that try way too hard to be profound.  The difference is that Lola lacks the spark of madness that made Lost River interesting, albeit incoherent.  That said, I do think that Nicole Peltz Beckham does have some talent as a director.  There are a few impressive shots to be found in Lola, even if Beckham doesn’t really seem to yet understand how to use them to tell a compelling story.  But with some experience and a script written by someone other than herself, Nicole Peltz Beckham seems like she has the potential to be a worthwhile director.

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix For Rolling Thunder!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 10 pm et, we’ve got a classic, 1977’s Rolling Thunder!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Rolling Thunder is available on Prime and Tubi!  See you there!

Scenes That I Love: Amy Steel Confuses Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Part II!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Amy Steel, the actress who played Ginny, the strongest and most resourceful of all of the final girls to appear in the Friday the 13th franchise.  Whenever I watch any of the Friday the 13th films, I always like to think that I would be Part 2’s Ginny, though I know, deep down, I would actually probably more likely be Part One’s Marci, getting stuck outside the rain in my underwear and somehow not hearing someone stepping up behind me with an axe.

Today’s scene that I love comes from Friday the 13th Part II.  In this scene, Ginny proves herself to be the only camp counselor in history to be smart enough to confuse a backwoods vagrant who wears a flour bag over his head.  This scene is one of the reasons why Ginny is one of the franchise’s most popular characters.