Werner Herzog and Friend (Image from the documentary The Burden of Dreams)
Since today is Werner Herzog’s birthday, I thought I would share a Herzog scene that I love.
Herzog is such an iconic and eccentric figure that I think there’s a tendency to overlook just how good of a director and a storyteller he actually is. People just tend to think of him as being the man with the German accent who makes random comments about how the universe is governed by chaos.
But, he’s actually a brilliant director as well and if you need proof, just watch his 1972 film, Aguirre, The Wrath of God. The scene below is actually from the final few minutes of the film so I guess it’s technically a spoiler if you haven’t seen the film yet. That said, people who get upset about spoilers are wimps.
Klaus Kinski plays Aguirre, a Spanish conquistador who attempts to conquer the South America by floating down the Amazon River. Things don’t quite go the way that he intended. By the end of the film, all of his man are dead and a large amount of monkeys are congregating on his raft. Has Aguirre conquered the monkeys or have they conquered him?
“What a nice ranch!” I thought as I watched the opening scenes of Killer Daddy Issues.
Listen, I live in Texas. I’ve grown up all over the Southwest. I’ve seen a lot of really nice ranches and I’ve seen a lot of really mediocre ranches and the ranch in Killer Daddy Issues is definitely a nice one. The scenery is green and bountiful. The hills are covered with beautiful trees. There’s a big river nearby. Majestic horses run across the fields. This is the type of ranch that you definitely want to visit. Unfortunately, even the best ranches have their issues.
This ranch is currently owned by Grace (Carolyn McCormick) and her daughter, Carrie (Jillian Murray). They inherited it and a good deal of money after the death of Grace’s husband. However, a new man has entered Grace’s life. Carrie is shocked when Grace returns from a five-day cruise with a new husband! Reed (Chris Riggi) is handsome and charming and young enough to be Carrie’s brother. Carrie takes an immediate distrust to Reed. Despite Reed assuring her that he’s already independently wealthy and that he doesn’t have a criminal record, Carrie is convinced that Reed is only after her mother’s money. Carrie’s suspicions are not eased when Grace is seriously injured during a riding accident.
Meanwhile, Sofia (Kristina Reyes) has made a shocking discovery. She and her mother both work at the ranch and, while Carrie treats them with superficial respect, it’s still obvious that there’s a world of difference between their lives and the lives of Grace and Carrie. When Sofia discovers that her father was Grace’s husband and that she’s actually Carrie’s half-sister, she’s not happy at all. She’s been cheated out of the ranch that she views as her birthright.
Meanwhile, someone is wandering around the ranch with a rifle, taking shots at people. Hmmm …. I wonder if that could have anything to do with all the other stuff that’s going on at the ranch?
Needless to say, there’s a lot going on in this movie. Not only do you have a mysterious new husband who might be a murderous gold digger but you also have the issue of Sofia’s paternity. One thing that really struck me about this film was just how unlikable Carrie and Grace are. Even though they’re the main characters, both of them seem to be a bit too secure in their positions. In the beginning, at least, Sofia is a far more sympathetic character because she does have a legitimate complaint. She had been denied what rightfully should belong to her. It’s a bit subversive actually. Even though Carrie and Grace are presented as being the protagonists, it’s clear that the audience’s sympathy is meant to go to Sofia.
Anyway, this one is okay. It crams three hours worth of plot into a 90-minute runtime and, as a result, the film does occasionally seem to be a bit overstuffed. There’s a lot to keep up with. But the ranch is gorgeous and Kristina Reyes gives an excellent performance as Sofia. This is a good movie to watch on a weekend afternoon.
When Anna (Cystal Allen) loses her husband and one of her daughters, all in one night, it doesn’t do much for her state of mind. Even though the official report is that the fire that killed them was due to a gas link, this is a Lifetime movie and that means that they had to have been murdered. And since the name of this movie is Beware of Mom, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to figure out that Anna must be responsible. However, she didn’t mean to kill her daughter. Sometimes, you’re just trying to murder your husband and these things happen.
Anyway, Anna and her remaining daughter, teenage Jessie (Monica Rose Betz), move to another suburb and try to start their life over. Anna is one of those moms who is determined to be the “cool mom.” She’s friends with musicians. She has thousands of followers on social media. She throws big parties at her house and encourages Jessie to stay out late with her friends.
Her new neighbor, Tanya (Rene Ashton), is not a cool mom. In fact, Tanya is an extremely overprotective, controlling mom who is determined to make sure that her daughter, 16 year-old Kylie (Nicolette Langley), is not led down the wrong path. She expects her daughter to not date, to not dress provocatively, to not post pictures of herself online, and to not stay out late. Needless to say, Tayna is not happy about having Anna living next door, especially after Kyle and Jessie become friends and Anna starts to encourage Kylie to rebel.
Soon, Kylie is going to parties, posing online, and making out with a 34 year-old musician! Tanya tells Anna to stay away from her daughter. However, Anna is not one to take orders and she also knows both how to fake a break-in and how to poison someone in such a way as to make it appear as if they’ve had a heart attack.
Beware of Mom, indeed.
As I said at the start of this review, I absolutely loved this movie. The plot is just so melodramatic and Anna is just such an entertainingly over-the-top villain that it was impossible not to love it. I mean, to a certain extent, anyone watching this film will be able to relate. I think everyone went through a period where they felt like their mom wasn’t giving them enough freedom or was being overprotective. Everyone was jealous of the girl who had the mom who apparently let her do whatever she wanted. This is a film that acknowledges that our jealousy was understandable and then goes on to explain that the reason why the cool mom let her daughter get away with everything was because she was an insane murderer who wanted to kidnap her daughter’s best friend. It’s so crazy that you can’t help but love it.
It helps that Crystal Allen really dug into the role of Anna. Whether she was murdering a stranger or encouraging underage drinking, Anna seemed to believe that all of her action were very reasonable and she seemed to be genuinely bewildered that anyone would object. Allen was well-supported by the performances of the rest of the cast, especially Monica Rose Betz as her conflicted daughter. It all added up to the type of suburban melodrama that we can all embrace.
His Fatal Fixation tells the story of Lilly Abrams, a woman who discovers that not even changing her name can ensure her safety.
Lilly (played by Sarah Fisher) is a physician’s assistant. When we first meet her, she’s getting ready for a date with the handsome and successful Jason. However, that date is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Spencer (Stephane Garneau-Monten), Lilly’s stalker. According to Lilly, she and Spencer went on one date and Spencer has been following her around ever since. He claims that he just wants to protect her but it’s obvious that the only person that Lilly needs to be protected from is him.
Since Spencer’s arrival ruins dinner, Lilly and Jason go back to her place and order a pizza. Unfortunately, when there’s a knock at the door, it’s not the deliveryman. Instead, it’s Spencer! Spencer promptly stabs Jason to death and, after slashing Lilly’s face, he ends up falling out of a window. It appears that Spencer’s dead but …. is he?
A few months later, Lilly is trying to rebuild her life. She’s moved to a new city. She’s changed her name to Stella Gordon. She takes medication to help deal with her PTSD. And, after visiting a plastic surgery clinic, she even manages to get rid of the nasty scar that Spencer previously left on her face. The folks at the clinic like her so much that they give her a job. Soon, Stella is even having an adulterous affair with her boss. You know that you’ve made it once you start cheating with a married man.
Still, Stella is haunted by her past. She has frequent nightmares and sometimes, she swears that she can feel Spencer watching her. But isn’t Spencer dead? Stella knows that he certainly looked like he was dead after he fell out of the window but how can she be sure?
Strange things start happening. Someone sends her a dozen lilies, just like Spencer used to do. People die mysteriously. Is Spencer back or is Stella losing her mind? While Stella wrestles with that question, she also grows close to a heavily bandaged patient named Joshua. Soon, Joshua will be removing the bandages and he’s specifically requested that Stella be there to see his repaired face….
His Fatal Fixation is an enjoyably over-the-top melodrama from Canada. It’s the type of film where it’s best not to worry too much about the plot. Sure, there’s all types of plot holes and the film’s characters don’t always act in the most logical or reasonable of ways. But if you treat the film as the cinematic equivalent of a trashy, sex-filled novel, it’s a lot of fun. The director even manages to craft some genuinely creepy dream sequences.
Sarah Fisher has appeared in a lot of these films and she does a pretty good job of capturing both Stella’s fear and her hope that she’s actually found a new life, away from her stalker. Before she became a Lifetime mainstay, Sarah Fisher played Becky Baker on Degrassi. One of the things that I love about Lifetime films is that they often provide a chance to check in on how my favorite Degrassi cast members are doing. (Since many Lifetime films are Canadian productions, it’s not surprising to that they tend to be full of Degrassi alumni.) Fisher is not the only former Degrassite to appear in His Fatal Fixation. Cory Lee, who played Ms. Oh on the series, also has a small but important role.
His Fatal Fixation is an enjoyable Canadian thriller. See it with someone who isn’t stalking you.
I have mixed feelings when it comes to the idea of camping.
On the one hand, I grew up in the Southwest. By the time I was 12, I had already lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Louisiana. My family moved a lot and there were times when we did live in the country. I’ve spent time on farms. I love the city a bit too much to ever be called a country girl but, at the same time, I could probably adapt if I ever had to enter the witness protection agency and they gave me a new life in rural Arkansas.
And, even though I currently live in the suburbs and spend as much time as I can in the city (or at least I did until this year started), I still enjoy a nice country vacation. I enjoy going up to the lake. Jeff and I usually go out to Mt. Nebo at least once a year.
So, camping is not necessarily something that I can’t do. That said, I would be lying if I said that I’m really an experienced camper. To be honest, I find the wilderness to be a bit creepy. I’m the girl who jumps at every sound and who freaks out at the sight of a bug. I may say that I’m spending the weekend up at the lake but what that means is that I’m spending the weekend in an air-conditioned lake house with WiFi and cable. By that same token, going up to Mt. Nebo doesn’t mean actually camping out on a mountain. It means staying in a nice cabin and making sure that there aren’t any wild animals wandering about whenever I step out on the front porch.
My point is that I could relate to Sandra, the main character in the recent Lifetime film, Secrets In The Woods. As played by Brittany Underwood, Sandra is a smart, independent woman who may not have a lot of experience camping but who is determined to make the most out of the weekend that her boyfriend, Brant (Taylor Frey), has in store for them. Brant is definitely a country boy and he’s looking forward to showing Sandra around the cabin where he grew up.
Brant seems like a nice guy but, from the start, the camping trip has its problems. For one thing, a stop at a gas station leads to Sandra meeting a super creepy local who seems like he’s trying a bit too hard to be friendly. Then, when Sandra arrives at the cabin, she finds a picture of Brant’s dead mom. Though Sandra may not notice it, those of us watching immediately notice that Sandra and Brant’s mother share a physical resemblance.
A series of unfortunate events leads to Sandra injuring her foot and then losing the bag that not only had all of her clothes but also her shoes and the keys to Brant’s truck. They’re stranded up at the cabin! Brant says not to worry because his father will be along soon. And if Sandra wants to change clothes, she can just wear some of his mother’s old dresses and….
Uhmmm, wait …. what?
Okay, seriously, if a guy tries to get you to wear his mother’s clothes, it’s a huge red flag. I don’t care what the situation is. Even if it means spending the entire weekend in just your underwear, you do not agree to your boyfriend suggesting that you wear his mother’s old dress. YOU JUST DON’T! Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Anyway, things get even worse when Brant’s father, Langley (Jim Klock), shows up and it turns out that father and son have been looking forward to trapping Sandra in the wilderness….
You’ll probably be able to guess where Secrets In The Woods is heading from the minute that Brant and Sandra first show up at the cabin but no matter. The fact that movies like this are occasionally predictable is a part of a fun. We know that Sandra’s making a mistake by trusting Brant and the real suspense comes from waiting for Sandra to figure out what’s going on as well. Brittany Underwood is a sympathetic lead and she’s ably supported by Kabby Borders, who plays her sister. Depending on what’s going on at any particular moment, Taylor Frey is both convincingly likable and convincingly creepy as Brant. Meanwhile, Jim Klock turns Langley into a wonderfully hissable villain.
Secrets In The Woods is fun, as the best Lifetime films tend to be. See it before you go on your next camping trip.
The 1978 film Avalanche tells the story of a beautiful resort that’s been built in the mountains of Colorado. Self-righteous photographer and activist Nick Thorne (Robert Forster) keeps insisting that it’s not environmentally safe to build a resort up in the mountains. According to him, there’s too much snow building up and it’s inevitably going to lead to an avalanche.
The owner of the resort, David Shelby (Rock Hudson), insists that Nick doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Sure, David may have had to cut a few ethical corners to get his resort built and he may currently be under criminal investigation but that doesn’t make David a bad guy. All he wants is to have a nice and expensive resort located in the most beautiful and dangerous place on Earth. Does that make him a bad guy?
Unfortunately, if David was watching the film with the rest of us, he would be aware of all the shots of snow ominously building up on the side of the mountain. However, David would still probably be distracted by the presence of his ex-wife, Caroline (Mia Farrow). David would love to get back together with Caroline but Caroline finds herself growing attracted to Nick. When David isn’t chasing after Caroline, he’s trying to keep his mother, Florence (Jeanette Nolan), from drinking all of the liquor in the resort. Good luck with that! Florence is an eccentric old person in a disaster film so, of course, she’s going to be drunk off her ass for the majority of the run time.
There are other dramas occurring at the resort, of course. TV personality Mark Elliott (Barry Primus) is upset because his ex, Tina (Cathey Paine), is hooking up with arrogant skier Bruce Scott (Rick Moses). Bruce is upset because Tina expects him not to cheat on her. Ice skater Cathy Jordan (Pat Egan) is hoping to conquer her insecurities. Rival ice skater Annette River (Peggy Browne) is …. well, she’s there. To be honest, I’m not really sure what the whole point of the ice skating rivalry was since they all end getting buried in snow regardless. Then again, maybe that is the point. An avalanche doesn’t care about your personal dramas. All it cares about is destroying tacky resorts that overuse wood paneling.
Yes, the avalanche does come crashing down the mountain eventually. It takes a while, though. There’s almost an hour of Rock Hudson walking around with a pained look on his face before the snow finally comes crashing down. For all of Nick’s talk about how the avalanche would probably be the result of too many people skiing, it actually happens because someone crashes a plane into one of the mountains.
Obviously, the avalanche is the main reason why anyone would want to watch a movie called Avalanche. Anyone with any knowledge of the disaster genre knows that no one watches these movies for the human drama. They watch them because they want to see at least 10 minutes of solid destruction. A disaster movie can get away with almost anything as long as the disaster itself looks good.
The disaster in Avalanche does not look particularly good. This film was directed by Roger Corman and, despite being one of the most expensive films that Corman ever produced, the avalanche effects are definitely a bit cut-rate. At the same time, the cheapness of the special effects does provide the film with its own odd charm. Just consider the scene where one of the ice skaters gets covered in snow while spinning around with a triumphant smile on her face. (Sure, she might be dead and she’ll certainly never make it to the Olympics but at least she finally mastered a fairly basic skating move.) The avalanche effects are super imposed over the image of the skater spinning but it’s obvious that it didn’t occur to anyone to tell the skater, “Hey, act like there’s a gigantic amount of snow crashing down on you!” It’s so inept as to be charming, like when a child draws a really ugly picture but it’s cute because at least they tried and, as a result, you wait until the child leaves your house before you throw it away.
The thing I love about Avalanche is how everyone is even more ineffectual after the avalanche than they were before it. Usually, in a movie like this, the disaster leads to unexpected heroism and the villains getting the comeuppance. In this one, the avalanche just inspires more stupidity. Fire trucks and ambulances literally collide with each other while heading for the resort. At one point, a group of fireman set up a net directly underneath someone falling out of a ski ramp chair just for the person to somehow land a few inches to the left of them. Though the film sets David Shelby up to be the villain, it’s hard not to feel that everyone at the resort is just an idiot.
Listen, I love Avalanche. It’s terrible but it’s a lot of fun and the less-than special effects go along perfectly with the overheated (or, in some cases, underheated) performances. Rock Hudson wanders through the movie with a strained smile on his face that has to be seen to be believed while Mia Farrow and Robert Forster both try so hard to make their underwritten characters credible that you can’t help but kind of appreciate their devotion to a lost cause. If nothing else, the shots extras reacting to superimposed shots of the avalanche makes this film worth a look. This is a cheap and silly movie and if you don’t enjoy it, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.
The 1978 film, Corvette Summer, tells the story of Kenny Dantley (Mark Hamill).
Kenny is a student at a high school in Southern California. He lives in a trailer park and he’s kind of dumb. He’s the type who rarely shows up to class and, when he does, it’s just to discover that he managed to score a D-minus on his last test. Kenny doesn’t think school’s important, though. All Kenny cares about is cars. He doesn’t date. He doesn’t have friends. But he can rebuild a corvette and spend hours talking about why it’s the greatest car in the world.
Yes, Kenny’s an idiot.
Kenny’s auto shop teacher, Mr. McGrath (Eugne Roche), warns Kenny that he’s spending too much obsessing on cars. Don’t fall in love with a car, Mr. McGrath says. A car is just a machine and a machine will always let you down. A machine is something that you build so you can sell it and move on to something else. To me, Mr. McGrath makes sense but Kenny’s like, “No, that’s totally squaresville. Real melvin, man.”
(Well, okay, Kenny doesn’t use those exact words but you can tell that he’s thinking them…..)
Anyway, Kenny and the shop class have just rebuilt a red corvette and Kenny’s convinced that it’s the greatest car ever. However, on the same night that the car makes its debut by cruising down the streets of Kenny’s hometown, it’s stolen! Maybe Kenny shouldn’t have given the keys to Danny Bonaduce. Kenny gets so angry that he smashes a cup of coke and attempts to beat up Bonaduce.
Mr. McGrath tells Kenny that these things happen and he suggests that Kenny instead look into enrolling at a community college after high school. Kenny, however, is too obsessed with finding his car to listen to Mr. McGrath. He even prints up flyers with a picture of the corvette. “Have you seen this car?” the flyers ask. Amazingly, it turns out that someone has. He tells Kenny that he saw the corvette in Las Vegas.
That’s all it takes for Kenny to head to Nevada. Of course, since Kenny doesn’t have a car, he has to hitchhiker. Despite the fact that Kenny looks like a killer hippie and tends to spend a lot of time yelling in a somewhat shrill manner, he’s picked up by Vanessa (Annie Potts). Vanessa is an “aspiring prostitute” who lives in a van. “Vanessa” is written on the side of the van, which means that it will be useless if anyone ever needs to use it as a getaway vehicle for a bank robbery. Way to go, Vanessa.
Once they arrives in Las Vegas, Kenny and Vanessa work a series of different jobs while looking for that corvette. Along the way, Kenny falls in love, discovers that there’s more to life than just cars, and also suffers a bit of disillusionment when one of his mentors turns out to be not as perfect as Kenny originally believed.
Corvette Summer is best known for being Mark Hamill’s first post-Star Wars role. He’s in almost every scene of the film and, to be honest, his performance kind of got on my nerves. Some of that is because, as written, Kenny is almost unbelievably stupid. But Hamill doesn’t help things by giving a rather shrill performance in the lead role. Though the film may be a coming-of-age comedy, Hamill is so intense in the role that he comes across as being less like a naive teenager and more like a mentally unbalanced time bomb. You find yourself hoping that he’ll get the car back before he’s forced to take hostages. Annie Potts is a bit more likable as Vanessa but her character is dreadfully inconsistent. One gets the feeling that she’s mostly just there so that Kenny can finally lose his virginity and be a little bit less of a loser by the end of the movie.
I will say that I did really like the performance of Kim Milford, who plays a superslick car thief named Wayne Lowry. As I watched the film, it took me a few minutes to realize where I recognized Milford from. He was the star of Laserblast, a film that featured Milford finding a laser gun and using it to blow up a sign advertising Star Wars. Milford only has a small role in Corvette Summer and we’re not supposed to like him but he’s so handsome and sure-of-himself that it’s hard not to prefer him to the rather histrionic character played by Mark Hamill.
Corvette Summer is such a film of the 70s that watching it is like stepping into a time machine. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Indeed, in 2020, the main appeal of a film like this is a chance to see how people lived in 1978. (It’s always a bit odd to watch a movie where no one carries a phone or has a twitter account.) Watching this film in 2020, it’s hard not cringe a little at the sight of not only Kenny hitchhiking but also people stopping to pick him up. Seriously, are they just trying to get killed?
Here is the 2nd trailer for what will probably be Daniel Craig’s final outing as British secret agent James Bond, No Time To Die!
Speaking as someone who has had mixed feelings about Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond (I loved Skyfalland I liked Casino Royale but Quantum of Solace and SPECTRE rank as two of the worst Bond films of all time), I have to say that this trailer looks pretty good. If nothing else, I’m happy to see an emphasis on action as opposed to the whiny angst that overtook SPECTRE.
As critical as I’ve been of Daniel Craig’s interpretation of the character, he’s a good actor and he’s got an underappreciated talent for comedy. Oddly, the Bond films haven’t really taken advantage of that talent. Craig has been the grim and serious Bond. which may be true to Ian Fleming’s original conception of the character but which hasn’t always made him a compelling cinematic hero. Hopefully, Craig will actually get a chance to have some fun with the role in No Time To Die.
Starring Christopher Abbott, Andrea Riseborough, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuppence Middleton and Sean Bean, Possessor is the new film from Canadian filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg! And yes, if you’re wondering, Brandon is the son of the iconic horror director, David Cronenberg.
Possessor is a film about an elite assassin who can inhabit other people’s bodies. The film made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, way back in January. At the time, the critics loved it. Speaking for myself, I’ve heard wonderful things about the film and I can’t wait to see it. Possessor will be released on October 9th.
Just in case you had forgotten that Halloween is just around the corner….
Here’s the trailer for a film called Halloween Party!
Judging from the trailer, this looks a bit like a low-budget film, which can often be a very good thing as far as horror films are concerned. Too often, spending a lot of money on a horror film will take away the film’s authenticity. The slicker the movie, the more likely it is that you’ll be reminded that it is just a movie. Whereas low budget films have a rougher, more authentic feel to them. You don’t need a lot of money to be scary. In fact, it helps to have as a little money as possible!
Through the Shattered Lens 