Watch it and try not to be hypnotized.
Enoy!
Tag Archives: review
International Film Review: How I Fell In Love With A Gangster (dir by Maciej Kawulski)
For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to fall in love with a gangster.
*cue Layla piano coda*
How I Fell In Love With A Gangster is a three hour Polish film, one that the audience is told is based on the true story of Nikodem ‘Nikos’ Skotarczak (played by Tomasz Wlosok), a career criminal who became a bit of a celebrity in Eastern Europe during the late 80s and 90s. The film follows Nikos from his unhappy childhood in Poland to his time as one of Eastern Europe’s most notorious car thieves. He assembles his own crew and, while he does steal a lot of cars, he also seems to be a rather amiable criminal. He’s not the type of criminal who kills people or who even threatens to kill people. Instead, he’s just looking to make some extra money, have a good time, and defy anyone who would try to tell him what to do. He’s the type of criminal who would rather deal with trouble by escaping out a window than by drawing a gun. At least from the way that he’s portrayed in the film, it’s hard not to like him. As more than one character points out, he’s hardly a gangster.
Unfortunately, things change. Nikos does a few stints in prison. Each time he gets out, he discovers that the underworld had become a bit more violent and that it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to stay loyal to his old business associates. He may not be a gangster but the people around him definitely are. The cops are still after him. Two rival gangs expect him to support them in a gang war. Nikos just wants to snort cocaine, spend time with his latest wife, and try to be a good father but none of that turns out to be as easy as he was hoping. Also haunting Nikos is his own belief that his family has been afflicted with a death curse. Every six years, one of his relatives dies violently. Eventually, Nikos believes, it will be his turn.
It’s a bit of an odd film. The story features a framing device, in which a young reporter interviews an older woman who was in love with Nikos. The majority of the film is told in flashback but, throughout the flashbacks, Nikos’s friends and business partners often break the fourth wall and talk straight to the audience. Occasionally, this is used to good effect but it still leaves the viewer wondering just who exactly is telling the story. The film’s 3-hour running time also feels excessive. For every scene that really works (and there are quite a few), there are other scenes that are a bit too derivative of other gangster films. As soon as Nikos partnered up with a criminal named Silvio, it was obvious that the audience had reached the part of the film where the clever and honorable criminal mastermind would have to deal with an out-of-control subordinate.
Flaws and all, the film did work for me. A lot of that was due to Tomasz Wlosok’s charismatic performance as Nikos. Over the course of the film, Nikos went from being a fun-loving, hyperactive criminal to being a rather sad and defeated middle-aged man, isolated from his former associates and waiting for fate to intervene. Wlosok was never less than compelling in the role. Though the soundtrack was occasionally a bit too on-the-nose, the use of Moby’s One Of These Mornings added a certain poignance to the film’s final scenes. Finally, the film itself looked great, providing a nice contrast between the industrial drabness of communist-controlled Eastern Europe and the neon-infused glory of Nikos’s life as a criminal. In the end, Nikos emerges as a tragic figure, a man who just can’t understand how or why the underworld has suddenly become such a dangerous and unforgiving place.
Music Video of the Day: GO OFF (Nuthin’ 2 It) by Dillon Francis (2019, dir by The Dads)
If this music video from Dillon Francis doesn’t make you happy, I don’t know what to tell you. Who can’t enjoy a video about someone who finds a new confidence and a love for dancing?
The gentleman in the video is played by John Gemberling.
Enjoy!
Lisa Marie’s Top 6 Super Bowl Ads
As I’ve said many times on this very site, the Super Bowl is pretty much all about the commercials for me. This year, there was a few commercials that I liked but, for the most part, the selection was pretty bland. Usually, I pick anywhere between 8 to 10 favorite Super Bowl Ads. This year, there’s only six that really made much of an impression on me.
And here they are:
6. Frito Lay — Push It!
Sloths are so cute!
5. Amazon — Mind Reader
Why is Alexa trying to destroy Scarlett Johansson’s marriage!?
4. All-Electric Chevy Silverado — New Generation
To be honest, I got kind of sick of all of the electric vehicle commercials that aired this year. Most of them felt …. a little insincere. But I did like this one, just because it reunited The Sopranos’s Meadow and Tony. Jr. It’s good to see that they’re still with us, regardless of what happened to Tony at the end of the series. I’m not sure how Tony would feel about his daughter driving an electric truck, though. “Gary Cooper didn’t need no charging station.”
3. Planet Fitness — What’s Gotten Into Lindsay?
Of course, if anything bad happens to Lindsay, we know who to blame.
2. Budweiser — A Clydesdale’s Journey
The horse survived! I had tears in my mismatched eyes.
- Salesforce — “The New Frontier”
I’m not sure what exactly Matthew McConaughey is selling here but he’s one of the few people who can pull off lecturing from a hot air balloon. As I watched this commercial, I considered that if McConaughey had run for governor, he could have floated around the state, campaigning from his balloon. Instead, we’re stuck with Beto and his skateboard. Oh well. Miss opportunities.
Music Video of the Day: What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong (1967, dir by ????)
Happy Super Bowl Sunday!
Enjoy!
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and for you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying
“I love you”
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more
Than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Oh yeah
Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 2/6/22 — 2/13/22
It’s been quite a week. The Oscar nominations were announced. The creepiest Winter Games ever have been playing out in China. South Park revealed that some people apparently didn’t understand that Tolkein was named after the author of The Hobibt and Lord of the Rings. (Like, seriously, you guys…..) And the z-list celebs on Celebrity Big Brother revealed themselves to be taking the show way too seriously.
Here’s a few thoughts on what I watched this week:
Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)
Chaos on a train! Rene thought he and Yvette were going to elope on the Geneva Express but unfortunately, his wife Edith found Rene’s note and thought that it was meant for her. While Rene wandered the train, trying to hook up with his two mistresses without his wife noticing, Herr Flick, Lt. Gruber, and a host of others wandered the train in search for the valuable original copy of the painting known as The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies. Things got a bit chaotic on the train and they were even more chaotic back at the Cafe, where Officer Crabtree and his mangled French offered up very little in the way of help. I laughed, I always do.
The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)
I wrote about the latest episode of The Amazing Race here. The Amazing Race has been a bit odd this season. Due to the COVID lockdowns, two of the strongest teams ended up dropping out of the race. As a result, we are late into the race and there are currently three strong teams and then two teams that basically can’t even read a road map. The two weaker teams would never have lasted this long in a normal season. I’m going to laugh and laugh if one of them somehow manages to win. As of right now, though, it seems as if the oddly robotic but hyper competent team of Kim & Penn have to be considered the favorites.
BBC World News (Tuesday Morning, BBC)
I watched the Oscar nomination announcements on the BBC because, unlike ABC, the BBC actually showed all of the categories instead of just showing the major nominees. (Add to that, why would anyone want to watch Oscar analysis from George Stephanopoulos?) I have to admit that I enjoyed the BBC’s take on the nominations, which basically amounted to, “Quite a few nominations for Belfast, that’s a win for our side.”
Celebrity Big Brother (CBS and Paramount Plus)
I wrote about Celebrity Big Brother for the Big Brother Blog. I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of celebrity reality competition shows to begin with and Celebrity Big Brother tends to be the worst of them all. Since celebrities really don’t have much at stake in these games, most of them just leave the House when things get too intense, like Chris Kattan did earlier this week. As for the remaining celebrity houseguests, Todd Bridges is an idiot and Toddrick Hall seems to be taking this whole thing just a little bit too seriously. Don’t ruin your brand just to give Julie Chen something to talk about.
King of the Hill (Weekday Afternoon, FXX)
Among the episodes I watched on Monday afternoon, there was one where Hank got to carry the Olympic flame and Dale got a chance to use the flame to light his cigarette. Go, Hank! Go, Dale! That was back when the Olympics were something special.
On Thursday, after getting disgusted with all of the propaganda at the Winter Games, I again turned over to FXX and watched a few episodes of King of the Hill. I watched five episodes, from Lucky trying to sue Dale to Launne getting married to Boomhauer surfing at Corpus Christi. It was fun and took my mind off what Boomhauer would call “the dang ol’ enormity of it all.”
The Love Boat (MeTV, Sunday Afternoon)
Yay! It was a 70s Valentine’s cruise! Love was in the air and cocaine was probably backstage. Sailing on the Love Boat were Patty Duke, Frankie Avalon, Barbie Benton, Denny Evans, Jamie Farr, Ricky Nelson, and Carole White! A computer program that was designed to link everyone to their ideal Valentine’s Day partner caused havoc on the boat but everything worked out in the end. That’s the important thing.
Pam & Tommy (Hulu)
Because I have the world’s worst martyr complex, I wrote about the latest episode of Pam & Tommy here.
South Park (Wednesday Night, Comedy Central)
For the record, I always knew his name was Tolkien. I don’t know what the Hell was wrong with the rest of you.
The Winter Olympics (All Week, NBC and Other Stations)
On Sunday night, I watched figure skating. Even though I’m not as into the Olympics this year as I’ve been in previous years, there’s still no way that I would miss figure skating, curling, yeti hunting, and that weird sport where they ski and shoot a rifle.
On Monday morning, I watched that very sport, with the skiing and the rifle shooting. It still seemed like a strange sport to me but, as I watched, I also realized that it was probably the only Olympic event that James Bond would have enjoyed (and, by that, I mean Roger Moore’s joyful Bond as opposed to Daniel Craig’s whiny Bond) and I was happy about that. Later, I watched some curling and I seriously think I could do well with that sport. I know how to work a broom.
On Wednesday, I watched some skiing and that totally freaked me out, just because I’ve heard so many stories about people slamming into trees. Agck! Then, on Thursday, I watched a bit more curling and that definitely left me less freaked out than the skiing. You can’t hurt anyone with a broom, unless you’re Jackie Chan in an 80s movie.
Saturday morning, I watched some figure skating, which I loved. I also watched some ski jumping and I marveled at how fake the snow looked. Apparently, they’ve been using fake snow for the Winter Olympics because it’s not actually that cold or snowy in Beijing. That’s weird and strange and yet somehow appropriate for these uniquely uninspiring games.
WKRP In Cincinnati (MeTV, Sunday Afternoon)
Radio DJ Johnny Fever got a job hosting a television dance show and sold out his soul to play disco music. Fortunately, Johnny was able to vanquish his evil Rip Tide identity at the end of the episode. At one point, Johnny’s TV boss said that she loved the 60s and would love to “get mellow and listen to the Dead” after the show and I was like, “Oh my God, they allowed people talk about weed on TV back then?” You learn something new every day.
A Blast From The Past: Big Man On Campus (dir by Sid Davis)
The 1963 educational short film, Big Man on Campus, tells the story of Jerry, a 13 year-old with the attitude of a 16 year-old.
Jerry thought he was the coolest kid at his middle school. He thought throwing a milk carton was no big deal. He thought not studying for his classes wasn’t the worst thing in the world. He thought all of his classmates would like him if he rode his bicycle into traffic. He thought starting fights was no biggie. He thought everyone wanted to listen to another chorus of Grease Lightning. He thought Sandy was just a summer fling and that having the Ramones play at the local high school wouldn’t be a big deal. Jerry thought a lot of things.
Jerry was wrong.
Fortunately, the Vice Principal was there to set Jerry straight. That’s right, the vice principal. Jerry may thing he’s a big man on campus but he’s not even important enough to rate a meeting with the principal. Instead, he has to make due with the guy who teaches Chemistry. It takes a while for the vice principal to step out of his office but when he does, it’s obvious that the vice principal, with his navy haricut and his eyeglasses, isn’t going to stand for any nonconformity. Most afternoons, the vice principal would be busy tracking down and tearing up flyers for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Instead, on this day in November of 1963, the vice principal is having to discipline Jerry. Not only has Jerry caused a disruption at the school but he’s also allowed for the proliferation of pro-Castro propaganda. Can Jerry be saved or is he destined to become a pinball wizard with his own holiday camp?
You probably already know the answer. This educational film comes to us from Sid Davis, whose films were best known for their use of an extremely judgmental and rather dramatic narrator. The Sid Davis narrators were the ones who wouldn’t only explain what had happened but who would also offer up questions like, “You never thought one little action could ruin your life and the lives of so many others, did you?” That narrator is heard in Big Man on Campus but we also hear the voice of Jerry, trying to convince himself that his actions were no big deal and that everyone is totally overreacting.
Of course, deep down, Jerry knows that he’s no good. He knows that his mother is setting him up for a life of crime by arguing that “boys will be boys.” He knows that he’s destined to end up at juvenile hall and, after that, a life of unemployment. He knows all of this but he needs the help of a seriously annoyed adult to help him truly understand it. He needs the hard-earned, war-scarred, and apparently nearsighted wisdom of the vice principal.
Can Jerry be saved or is he destined to end up working a prop comic in Wichita Falls? Watch and find out!
Music Video of the Day: Cocaine Blues by Alice Martin (2022, dir by Julian Bordeau)
To be honest, I originally just picked this video because I liked the name of the song and it reminded me of how, for one semester, I was friends with a guy in college who had a cocaine connection. He was very popular during the fall semester but then he transferred to another college and he didn’t bother to tell anyone where he got his cocaine from before he left. On the whole, that was probably a good thing since I don’t anyone in my social circle really needed a raging cocaine addiction but still, I often wonder if he realizes that, to this very day, his former group of friends still debate where he got his cocaine from.
Anyway, after I picked this video, I actually watched it and you know what? I absolutely love it. I love both the video and the song. Alice Martin is a force of nature.
Enjoy!
The TSL’s Grindhouse: C.C. and Company (dir by Seymour Robbie)
As our long-time readers know, I’ve seen my share of bad movies but it’s been a while since I’ve seen one as bad as 1970’s C.C. and Company.
C.C. and Company is about a drifter named C.C. Ryder (played by Joe Namath, who was a pro football quarterback at the time). Ryder rides through the desert on his dorky motorcycle. He doesn’t have a job. He doesn’t have much money. He does have a lot of hair and he also has a lot of teeth. We know that because it’s rare that there’s ever moment when C.C. isn’t smiling. C.C. is perhaps the most cheerful amateur criminal that I’ve ever seen. Even when C.C. really shouldn’t be smiling, he’s smiling. There are moments when people try to kill C.C. and he responds with a smile. This could be a sign of C.C.’s devil-may-care-attitude but I think it has more to do with Joe Namath being a really bad actor.
C.C. is apparently a member of a motorcycle gang. I say apparently because no one in the gang seems to like him and they’re constantly beating up on him. The leader of the gang is Moon (William Smith) and among the members of the gang is an intimidating figure named Crow (Sid Haig). Smith and Haig were both professional actors and genuine tough guys. They not only knew how to act on camera but they also knew how to throw a punch without faking it. Having them act opposite Namath doesn’t really accomplish much beyond emphasizing just how terrible an actor Namath was. Even though Moon is a Mansonesque creep, you still find yourself rooting for him whenever he and C.C. get into a fight because Smith creates an actual character whereas Namath…. well, he doesn’t. I sat through this entire film and never once did I find myself wondering what C.C.’s initials stood for. That’s how uninterested I was in C.C.’s life.
Anyway, C.C. meets the wealthy and chic Ann McCalley (Ann-Margaret) after Ann’s limo breaks down in the middle of the desert. C.C. not only fixes the limo but he also saves Ann from Crow and Lizard (Greg Mullaney). It’s love at first sight but, unfortunately, Ann has places to go so she drives off and C.C. returns to the biker camp and watches as Moon sends his girlfriend, Pom Pom (Jennifer Billingsley), out to make money on the highway. As I watched all of this, I found myself wondering how everyone else in the gang got stuck with names like Moon, Lizard, Crow, Rabbit, Pom Pom, and Zit-Zit (my favorite) but somehow C.C. was able to keep his innocent initials. The movie never explained the ritual behind receiving motorcycle gang names and I think that was a missed opportunity.
Eventually, C.C. trades in his dorky motorcycle for a Kawasaki, largely because Kawasaki apparently paid the film’s producers a lot of money. C.C. enters a race and wins. Ann sees him win and falls even more in love with him. C.C. gets into a fight with the gang and then he and Ann head to …. well, it looked a lot like Reno but honestly, who knows for sure? Eventually, Moon and the gang track C.C. and Ann down and it all leads to one last fight. We never do find out if the “company” of the title referred to Ann and her rich friends or Moon and the gang. Not even C.C. seems to know for sure.
So, there’s a lot of reasons why C.C. and Company doesn’t really work but mostly it all comes down to the lead non-performance of Joe Namath as C.C. There’s nothing tough or intimidating or rebellious about Namath. C.C. is the biker you can bring home to meet your parents. William Smith and Sid Haig are a lot more fun but they’re playing totally disreputable characters. Namath and Ann-Margaret have zero romantic chemistry and the entire film has the look of a cheap made-for-TV movie. Between C.C. and Company and Altamont, 1970 was not a good year to be a biker groupie.
That said, there is one good scene in C.C. and Company, where C.C. and Ann go out dancing. While Joe Namath awkwardly shakes his shoulders while flashing that ever-present grin, Ann-Margaret dances as if the fate of the world depended upon her. One year after the release of this movie, she would prove herself as dramatic actress and receive her first Oscar nomination for Carnal Knowledge.
Film Review: KIMI (dir by Steven Soderbergh)
KIMI, the latest addition to Steven Soderbergh’s interesting but frustratingly inconsistent filmography, stars Zoe Kravitz as Angela Childs. Angela is an agoraphobic tech worker who is living in Seattle during the COVID pandemic. A sexual assault survivor, Angela spends her days and nights safely locked away in her apartment. She works from home. She always keeps her mask some place near. Occasionally, she’ll have a video session with her therapist. Her mom calls and scolds her for not going outside. She exchanges texts and occasionally more with Terry Hughes (Byron Bowers), an attorney who lives across the street.
And, she’s watched by Kevin (Devin Ratray). Kevin also lives across the street and, throughout the film, he’s occasionally seen watching her from his top floor apartment. It’s creepy but it’s not surprising. KIMI is a film in which everyone is being watched by someone else. Sometimes, they realize it and often they don’t. Welcome to the Surveillance State, where privacy is the ultimate illusion.
Angela works for the Amygdala Corporation. Under the leadership of CEO Bradley Hasling (Derek DelGuado), Amygdala has created KIMI, the virtual assistant that is superior to Alexa because all of KIMI’s errors are corrected not by a pre-programmed algorithm but instead by human workers who are constantly listening to KIMI’s data stream and correcting errors. Angela is one of those engineers. Usually, her job consists of programming KIMIs to play individual Taylor Swift songs as opposed to building Taylor Swift playlists. When one owner calls KIMI a peckerwood, Angela programs the KIMI to understand that peckerwood is an “insult; vulgar.” However, one data stream contains the sounds of what Angela believes to be a sexual assault and a subsequent murder.
Uniquely, for a film like this, Angela’s struggle is not to get people to believe that she heard what she heard. Instead, her struggle is to get the evidence to the people who need to hear it for themselves. Angela is terrified of leaving her apartment and, once she finally does, the outside world confirms all of her fears. KIMI is a film about paranoia, a portrait of a world where everyone can be tracked and no one — from Angela’s too-helpful boss (Rita Wilson) to the man who casually walks by with an umbrella — can be trusted.
As I’ve said in the past, Steven Soderbergh has always been hit and miss for me. It’s remarkable how many Soderbergh films that I love but it’s equally remarkable just how many Soderbergh films I absolutely loathe. At his best, he can be a clever stylist and, at his worst, he can be painfully pretentious. And yet, regardless of anything else, you do have to respect Soderbergh’s willingness to experiment with different genres and styles. Soderbergh never stops working, despite the fact that he announced his retirement years ago. Despite getting off to a slow start, KIMI is one of Soderbergh’s more entertaining thrillers, one that does a great job creating an atmosphere of paranoia and one that is also blessed with excellent performances from Zoe Kravitz and Rita Wilson, who makes good use of her limited screen time. KIMI is a well-made Hitchcockian thriller and, along with No Sudden Move, it’s a return to form for Soderbergh after the two terrible movies that he made with Meryl Streep, The Laundromat and Let Them All Talk. Yes, Soderbergh can be inconsistent but when he’s good …. he’s very, very good. (Sometimes, he’s even brilliant.) Narratively, KIMI may be a relatively simple film by Soderbergh standards but it’s undeniably effective.
Along with being a portrait of our paranoid age, KIMI is very much a pandemic thriller. Angela mentions that her relationship with Terry started during the lockdowns, a time when no one found it strange that someone would be unwilling to leave their apartment. When Angela does finally step out of her apartment, she is, of course, fully masked up and her paranoia about being followed severs as a metaphor for the paranoia that many people felt (and continue to feel) during the pandemic. KIMI is not the first pandemic thriller and it certainly won’t be the last. Still, what’s interesting to me that the pandemic subtext will probably be more noticeable to those who lived in states with mask mandates and aggressively regulated lockdowns than it will be for those of us who live in states that never had mandates and which, for lack of a better term, re-opened last year. Half the people viewing KIMI will nod in recognition as Angela grabs her mask before walking up to her front door and as she quickly dashes down the street, careful not get too close to anyone else. The other half will feel as if they’re watching some sort of dystopian science fiction film. It all depends on where you’ve lived for the past two years.
Through the Shattered Lens 