Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: The Good Nanny (dir by Jake Helgren)

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I am currently in the process of cleaning out my DVR! It’s going to take forever because I’ve got over a 150 movies to watch! Anyway, I recorded The Good Nanny off of Lifetime on May 15th.)

Poor Summer Pratt (Briana Evigan).

No sooner has she gotten engaged to Clint (Ben Gavin) then she suffers a miscarriage, losing the baby that she didn’t even know that she was carrying. Before she has even had a chance to emotionally recover from her loss, Summer is offered a job. Lilly Walsh (Ellen Hollman) wants hire Summer to be her interior designer. Summer doesn’t particularly like Lilly, who drinks a bit too much, has a controversial past, and tends to come across as being just a little bit fake. In fact, Summer would rather not take the job at all but Lilly just happens to married to Clint’s boss (Peter Porte). Mostly in order to help Clint’s career, Summer takes the job.

While Clint goes out of town on business, Lilly moves into the Walsh mansion. (As one would expect from a Lifetime movie, the house is absolutely gorgeous.) It turns out the Walshes need more than just an interior designer. Their nanny has quit and they need a new one immediately. Summer takes the job and that’s where things start to get strange.

The Walshes insist that their daughter, Sophie (Sophie Guest), has borderline personality disorder and is accident prone. Summer, however, suspects that they are abusing Sophie and even comes to believe that they might not actually be Sophie’s parents. When she sees that Sophie’s shoulder is scarred, Summer grows even more concerned. And, of course, there’s the fact that Summer regularly talks about a mysterious girl named Sasha and she also sleeps with a pair of scissors.

(Admittedly, I used to do the same thing but that was just because I was sixteen and I was pretending that I was in a horror movie.)

Is Summer right? Are the Walshes abusing their daughter? Or, are the Walshes telling the truth about Sophie? Could Sophie be one of those crazy children who always seem to show up in Lifetime movies? Or could it be that Summer, herself, is imagining things? Has the loss of her own child left hrt susceptible to delusion? Are her frequent nightmares evidence of her own instability or do they mean something else?

I really liked The Good Nanny. It was enjoyably weird and over the top, featuring some memorably off-center performances, especially from Kym Jackson, who gives a ferocious performance as a character who I can’t say too much about. Particularly for a Lifetime film, The Good Nanny is gorgeously shot, with Summer’s nightmares being appropriate creepy and full of shadows and there’s a wonderful harshness to the look of the film’s beach-set finale. The film’s twisty plot will keep you guessing. Just as in real life, you’ll never be sure who is crazy or who is just obnoxious.

The Good Nanny is definitely one to keep an eye out for!

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: Dreamer (dir by Noel Nosseck)

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I am currently trying to clean out my DVR! I recorded this 1979 sports film off of FXM on February 1st!)

In Dreamer, Tim Matheson plays a character named Harold Nuttingham. His nickname is Dreamer. Do you think it’s possible that Harold has a dream!? Well, it would probably be a really cruel nickname if he didn’t!

Dreamer lives in small town Illinois. He loves to bowl. He spends all of his time down at the local bowling alley, where everyone knows him and they all love him and his dreams of becoming a professional bowler. His mentor is named Harry White (Jack Warden) and runs the pro shop. Harry dreamed of being a famous, champion bowler but his dreams didn’t come true. But now he can help Dreamer’s dreams work out. Everyone loves the fact that Harry is helping Dreamer. Dreamer’s girlfriend is named Karen Lee (Susan Blakely). She loves that Dreamer loves bowling but she is frustrated because everyone keeps telling Dreamer that it would be a mistake to take her to his games. Karen might bring bad luck.

Everyone in his hometown loves Dreamer but the Professional Bowling Association (which apparently is an actual thing) doesn’t love Dreamer. They don’t want to let Dreamer compete on a professional level. Or, at least, they don’t until Dreamer meets with them personally and shows off his amazing bowling skills. Then they love Dreamer.

Even though Dreamer is the new guy on the professional circuit, the audiences love him. And all the other professional bowlers love him, even when they lose to him. Everyone loves Dreamer, perhaps because everyone loves a dreamer…

Are you getting the impression that Dreamer might be one of the most positive movies ever made? Well, it is. Hardly anyone says a bad word about anyone in Dreamer. Nobody tells Dreamer to give up. Dreamer never really suffers from any self-doubt, though he does injure his thumb at one point. There is a moment of tragedy towards the end of the movie but it’s one of those tragedies that leads to better things. You can’t have light without a little darkness, though Dreamer seems to suggest that you can come awfully close.

Normally, films get on my nerves when they’re overwhelmingly positive but I can’t really complain about a movie like Dreamer. It’s just so earnest and sincere. There’s no real conflict and there’s no real drama but everyone in the movie is just so damn likable that you almost feel guilty for wishing something unexpected would happen. Dreamer struggles and fails to make bowling cinematic but Dreamer’s a nice guy so you wish him the best.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Dreamer is that it was directed by Noel Nosseck, who also directed an incredibly odd little grindhouse film called Best Friends. Best Friends, which I recommend tracking down, is almost the anti-Dreamer. Watch Best Friends to have your faith in humanity destroyed and then follow it up with Dreamer so your faith can be restored.

Or don’t. It’s really up to you.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: A Blueprint for Murder (dir by Andrew L. Stone)

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I am currently in the process of cleaning out my DVR! I recorded the 1953 film noir, A Blueprint for Murder, off of FXM on February 21st.)

Much like Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, A Blueprint for Murder stars Joseph Cotten in a story about a seemingly wonderful person who might actually be a murderer. Actually, now that I think about it, it seems like Joseph Cotten appeared in quite a few films that centered around that idea. What distinguished A Blueprint For Murder is that, for once, Joseph Cotten is not the murderer. Instead, he’s the one who is forced to deal with the overwhelming evidence that someone in his life might be a sociopath.

Cotten plays Cam Cameron, who is shocked when his niece, Polly, suddenly takes ill and dies. Cam’s immediate response is to comfort his sister-in-law, Lynne (Jean Peters). And yet, Lynne doesn’t seem to be too upset over Polly’s death. Could it be because Polly was only her stepdaughter? Or maybe Lynne is no longer surprised by sudden death, seeing as how her husband also died after a sudden and mysterious illness.

Or could it be that Lynne murdered both Polly and her husband? That’s the theory put forward by Maggie (Catherine McLeod), the wife of Cam’s friend, Fred (Gary Merrill). Maggie thinks that it sounds like both Polly and her father were poisoned with strychnine! As the initially skeptical Fred points out, when Lynne’s husband died, he put all of his money in a trust for his children. If his children die, Lynne stands to inherit the fortune. Polly’s already dead. The only remaining obstacle would be Cam’s nephew, Doug.

Much like Don’t Bother To Knock, A Blueprint for Murder barely clocks in at a little over 70 minutes. It’s a briskly told melodrama and, seen today, it’s easier to imagine it as an episode of a television series than as an actual movie. As I watched it, I kept thinking that it felt like an old episode of CSI Miami, with Joseph Cotten in the role that would have been played by David Caruso. (“Two deaths in one family? It sounds like something’s in the water and it’s not fluoride.” YEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHH! DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!! NO NO!) For that matter, it was also easy for me to imagine A Blueprint For Murder being remade for Lifetime, with Josie Davis in the Joseph Cotten role and maybe AnnaLynne McCord replacing Jean Peters.

A Blueprint For Murder is actually pretty predictable up until the final 15 minutes. It’s during the final 15 minutes that Cam, Lynne, and Doug all end up on a cruise ship together and, in an effort to prove his suspicions, Cam does something that has so much potential for backfiring that it kind of makes you reconsider everything that you previously assumed about him. To be honest, it doesn’t make much sense. It’s hard to believe, despite what Cam insists, that what he did was his only possible option. Then again, it is the 1950s. In an era before DNA testing, maybe the only way to solve a crime was by doing something crazy.

That said, I enjoyed A Blueprint for Murder. It’s a real time capsule film and you know how much I love those. I may never be able to find a time machine but I can always experience the past by watching something like A Blueprint for Murder. Joseph Cotten is, as always, a sturdy lead. In real life, Jean Peters’s acting career was somewhat derailed when she married legendary weird guy Howard Hughes. In this film, she gives a great performance as the potentially murderous sister-in-law.

If you’re a fan of 50s noir or either of the two leads, keep an eye out for A Blueprint For Murder.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (dir by Michael Curtiz)

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I am currently in the process of cleaning out my DVR. I recorded the 1932 film, 20,000 Years In Sing Sing, off of TCM on January 31st.)

I was somewhat surprised to discover that I had this 1930s prison film on my DVR. I’m not sure what led to me deciding to record it though, if I had to guess, I’d say that it was probably the title. I probably assumed it was about a prisoner who served a 20,000 year sentence. I mean, that sounds interesting, right?

It turns out I was wrong though. The film starts with a shot of a line of prisoners walking into a prison, with their sentence superimposed over their heads. One guy is in for 7 years. Someone else has a 50 year sentence. Another person has a 33 year sentence. I’m guessing that if you added all of the sentence up, you would end up with 20,000 years.

That’s a lot of angry men, all trapped in one location. Fortunately, Sing Sing Prison has a compassionate warden. Paul Long (Arthur Byron) is a good man, a criminal justice reformer who believe that prison should be about more than punishment. He is tough but fair and he runs his prison on the honor system. Break the rules and you’ll be tossed into solitary. Respect the rules and the Warden might even let you leave the prison for a day or two. The press and the bureaucrats may think that Warden Long is naive but prison guards love him. “We’re behind you,” the head guard says when it appears that Long might be about to lose his job. And the prisoners respect him, even if few of them are willing to admit it.

Tommy Connors (Spencer Tracy) is the newest prisoner. He’s been sentenced to 5 to 30 years for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Tommy’s a tough guy, the type who speaks in the rat-a-tat manner that will be familiar to anyone who has ever watched a 30s gangster film. He’s a tough guy so he ends every sentence with “see?,” as in, “No prison is going to break me, see?” Tommy’s the type of guy who brags that, even if they send him to solitary, he can do his time standing on his head. When he gets called into the Warden’s office, he tosses a lit cigarette on the floor. Can the Warden reform even as rough a customer as Tommy Connors!?

It doesn’t help, of course, that Tommy has a friend named Joe Finn (Louis Calhern) and, even though Joe is on the outside, he’s constantly encouraging Tommy to break the rules. Joe has an ulterior motive for wanting to keep Tommy in prison for as long as possible. That motive is his desire for Fay (Bette Davis), Tommy’s loyal girlfriend. When Fay is injured in an accident, the Warden agrees to let Tommy visit her on the condition that Tommy return in 24 hours. However, when Tommy’s visit leads to murder, the Warden is blamed. It gets even worse when the Warden announces that he is sure that, despite the charges against him, Tommy will honor his word and return to the prison.

Will Tommy do the right thing? Or will he flee and destroy the Warden’s career?

20,000 Years in Sing Sing was produced by Warner Bros and it features the studio’s typical pre-code combination of a B-movie action and progressive politics. Seen today, it’s a watchable but minor film, one that often seems dated in its view of criminal behavior. (Even I, a huge believer in the need for criminal justice reform, thought the warden was being incredibly naive when he put the convicts on the honor system.) That said, it’s always interesting to see Bette Davis in the days before she became the Bette Davis and was just another ingenue trying to make an impression while surviving the studio system. As well, since Spencer Tracy eventually became best known for portraying wise, plainspoken men, it’s interesting to see him playing the cocky and disrespectful Tommy.

Still, I think there is a place for a movie about someone spending 20,000 Years in Sing Sing.

(I imagine that, after the first 10,000 years, it gets easier.)

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: Don’t Bother To Knock (dir by Roy Ward Baker)

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I am currently attempting to clean out my DVR. I recorded the 1952 film Don’t Bother To Knock off of FXM on April 3rd.)

Welcome to the McKinley Hotel in New York City! The McKinley is a nice place, though it’s no Grand Budapest Hotel. Presumably, the McKinley was named after the late President William McKinley. While I’m sure that McKinley would have appreciated the gesture, I don’t know how he would feel about all the melodrama that’s occurring behind closed doors.

For instance, there’s Lyn Lesley (Anne Bancroft, making her screen debut). Lyn sings in the hotel bar and, though she might seem to be cynical and tough, she actually has a big heart. In fact, she cares so much about humanity that she broke up with her longtime boyfriend, Jed Towers (Richard Widmark), because he doesn’t seem to have a heart at all. Of course, she broke up with Jed by sending him a letter. When Jed checks into the hotel and tracks her down in the bar, he has questions about their breakup and he wants answers that won’t require any reading. She tells him that he’s not capable of caring about anyone so why should she waste her time on him? Then she sings a love song because that’s her job.

As for Jed, he’s kind of a jerk in the way that most men tend to be in movies from the 1950s. He’s an airline pilot who served overseas during World War II and spent a year living in England. He’s tough and he’s cynical and now, he’s single. He’s also got a room in a hotel for the night.

And then there’s Peter and Ruth Jones (Jim Backus and Lurene Tuttle), who have a function to attend in the hotel ballroom but who don’t have anyone to look after their ten year-old daughter, Bunny (Donna Corcoran). Fortunately, the hotel’s elevator operator, Eddie (Elisha Cook, Jr.), has a niece named Nell (Marilyn Monroe). Nell is quiet and shy and needs the money. She’ll be more than willing to babysit!

Of course, the only problem with Nell is that she’s a little unstable. This becomes obvious when she’s left alone with Bunny and promptly says that, if Bunny isn’t careful, something bad might happen to one of her toys. Inside the apartment, Nell is impressed by all the pretty things owned by Ruth. She tries on her jewelry. She sprays her perfume in the air. She puts on Nell’s negligee and looks at herself in the mirror. Eddie is not amused when he discovers what Nell’s been doing. If she wants all of this stuff, he tells her, she needs to marry someone rich. That’s not bad advice but the only problem is that Nell is currently single. She’s been single ever since her boyfriend died in a plane crash. In fact, Nell was so upset by his death that she even tried to commit suicide afterward.

From his room, Jed has a direct view of Nell trying on Ruth’s clothes. When he and Nell spot each other, Nell invites him over. She tells Jed that she’s a guest at the hotel and that Bunny is her daughter. Jed can immediately tell that there’s something strange about Nell. Nell, meanwhile, thinks that Jed is her dead boyfriend. Meanwhile, Bunny is helpless in her room…

Clocking in at a brisk 72 minutes, Don’t Bother To Knock feels less like a movie and more like a one-act play or maybe even an adaptation of an old television production. (After watching the movie, I was shocked to discover that it was based on neither.) Seen today, it’s mostly memorable for featuring Marilyn Monroe’s first true starring role. After appearing in small roles in several films (including All About Eve), Don’t Bother To Knock was not only Marilyn’s shot at stardom but also her first dramatic performance. Reportedly basing her performance on her troubled mother, Marilyn is sympathetic and almost painfully vulnerable. Her scenes with Elisha Cook, Jr. are especially charged, full of a subtext that will probably be easier for modern audiences to spot than it was for audiences in 1952. Marilyn gave an incredibly poignant performance and she is the main reason to watch Don’t Bother To Knock.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: A Deadly Affair (dir by David Bush)

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Once again, I am trying to clean out my DVR. I recorded A Deadly Affair off of the Lifetime Movie Network on March 5th.)

At first glance, Charlie (Alan Powell) and Mary (Austin Highsmith) might look like the perfect couple. They’re attractive. They’re apparently in love. They’ve got a nice house. Charlie has a manly job as a house renovator and he even has a badass lion tattoo on his chest.

Even better, they’re best friends with another perfect couple! Susan (Valerie Azlynn) and Trevor (Luke Edwards) are also attractive and apparently in love and they’ve got a nice house of their own! Susan’s a lawyer and Trevor has got a sexy tattoo too! Two perfect couples living so close to each other? What could possibly go wrong?

Well, Mary thinks that Charlie might be cheating on her. And Trevor says that Susan isn’t really responsive to his needs. One night, Mary and Trevor have a bit too much to drink. They end up sharing a kiss. Mary freaks out and says that she can’t cheat on Charlie, especially not with the husband of her best friend. Essentially, Mary says, “There’s no way this is going to happen.” Trevor, being a guy, interprets that to mean, “It’ll happen later.”

Later, Mary gets a call from her husband. He sounds like he’s in some sort of trouble. When he doesn’t subsequently return home, Mary goes out to the house that was renovating. Walking through the dark house, she stumbles across the dead body of her husband. Someone’s murdered Charlie!

Well, of course, the entire town suspects that Mary killed Charlie. Even her sister-in-law, the possibly unstable Crystal (Lorna Street Dopson), is convinced that she saw (and heard) Mary with Trevor. It doesn’t matter how much Mary protests her innocence. The detective (J. Terry Garces) in charge of the case thinks that she did it. The entire town thinks that she did it. Soon, Mary is running the risk of losing her teaching job. The parents don’t want a murderer teaching their kids…

In fact, it appears that only one person is willing to stand up for Mary and that’s Susan! Susan is not only Mary’s lawyer but she’s her best friend as well. But how is Susan going to react if she finds out that Mary kissed her husband…

Towards the end of A Deadly Affair, there’s a scene where the murderer says, “Thank you for begging. I appreciate that.” I love that line and it pretty much sums up the reason why I enjoyed this movie. A Deadly Affair is an enjoyably twisty and over the top murder mystery, the type of movie where characters interrupt meetings by storming into the room, shouting, “You bitch!” and then slapping someone hard. It’s a lot of fun.

And, I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I will say that the person playing the murderer did a really good job when it came time for the big reveal. It takes a definite skill to make the confessional monologue compelling but this person did it.

A Deadly Affair was a lot of fun. If you enjoy over the top melodrama (and who doesn’t?), you’ll enjoy this one.

Music Video Of The Day: Clocks by Coldplay (2003, directed by Dominic Leung)

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For the longest time, I’ve had a fantasy about the collapse of civilization.

It goes something like this: The Left and the Right in America have finally realized that their true enemy is the deeply entrenched, deeply authoritarian, nonideological government. The people have finally risen up. Rioters are in the street, attacking both each other and their oppressors. With the police proving either incapable or unwilling to try to control the riots, the National Guard has been called in. Tanks roll down Main Street. Helicopters hover above burning building. Disembodied voices announce that anyone caught violating curfew will be shot. It started with a burning city but now the entire country is on fire.

I see all of this as I sit in back of the limo that is carrying me and a few of my loved ones to the airport. At first, I feel sad that America is collapsing but, as we get closer to the airport, that sadness is replaced by hope. As bad as things are, at least we’ve got somewhere else to go. At least we can start again, hopefully without any of the bullshit that led to the collapse of civilization in the first place.

There’s a private plane waiting for us. We take our seats. As the plane takes off, I look out the window and I can see that the tanks and the rioters have just arrived at the airport. Our plane is the last one to take off. We are the last ones to escape. As the plane flies us to our new home (sometimes it’s Ireland, sometimes it’s Italy, sometimes it’s Spain, sometimes it’s an island off in the middle of nowhere), I looked out the window and I see the city burning below.

And, during all of this, Clocks is the song that’s playing in the background. Seriously, it’s great escaping music!

As for the video above, it was filmed in London, at the Docklands Excel Building. The audience was largely made up of local college students. It’s actually a rather simple video but that’s okay. It’s perfect for the song.

Enjoy!

(Val should be back and handling music video duties tomorrow!)

TV Review: Twin Peaks: The Return Parts One and Two (dir by David Lynch) (SPOILERS)

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I sit here working on my recap of the first two episodes of Showtime’s revival of Twin Peaks, it’s occurring to me that this is not going to be an easy job. Last month, when Leonard, Jeff, and I were reviewing the show’s first two seasons, we had the advantage of knowing where the story was leading. We knew what would be important and what was a red herring.

With this revival, we no longer have that luxury. I have no idea where this show is going. All I know, for sure, is that David Lynch has given us 18 hours of new material. It’s not necessarily going to be easy to review the revival. I can already tell that. From what I’ve heard and read, it appears that Lynch approached this less as a TV series and more as an 18-hour movie. I’ve already noticed that several reviewers are already overplaying the “Twin Peaks is weird” angle. David Lynch may be a surrealist but there is always a definite logic to all of his work. You just have to have the patience to find it and I imagine that’ll be the case with Twin Peaks: The Return as well.

I’ve already shared my initial thoughts on the first two episodes and Ryan The TrashFilm Guru has posted a review of his own. What follows below is a more in-depth recap of what we saw last night. Needless to say, if you haven’t seen the first two episodes of the revival yet, this entire post is one huge spoiler. So, read it at your own risk!

Okay — ready?

Let’s go!

We start where we left, with a clip from 27 years ago. In the Black Lodge, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) tells Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) that she will see him in 25 years.

Cut to Twin Peaks, the town that we all know and love. The trees are still shrouded in fog. The high school hallways are empty. Laura Palmer’s homecoming queen picture still sits in the trophy case. The title appears. Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting theme music starts to play. We see the waterfall. We read the opening credits. Twin Peaks is back.

In the Black Lodge, a much older Giant (Carel Struycken) talks to an aged Cooper. The inhabitants of the Lodge still speak backwards and we are still provided with subtitles so that we can follow what they’re saying. Cooper still speaks in his normal voice, indicating that he may be trapped in the Lodge but he has yet to truly become a part of it. The Giant tells Cooper to listen to the sounds and looks over at an old-fashioned phonograph. “It is in our house now,” the Giant says. “Remember Four Three Zero. Richard and Linda. Two birds with one stone.”

“I understand,” Cooper says. (I’m glad someone does.)

Cut to a trailer sitting in the middle of nowhere. A pickup truck drives up. The truck has two cardboard boxes in the bed. Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn) comes out of the trailer and gets the boxes. What’s inside the boxes? Shovels, of course! Jacoby certainly does seem to be happy to have them. Maybe he’s still looking for that necklace that Donna and James buried 25 years ago…

Cut to New York City. Sam Colby (Ben Rosenfield) has a new job. He sits on a couch in a room and he watches a black box that is sitting inside of a glass box. His job is to see if anything happens in the box and to make sure that there is always a camera filming the box. There’s a guard posted outside of the room. Sam’s friend, Tracey (Madeline Zima), is allowed to bring him coffee but she’s not allowed to enter the room or see the boxes. The sight of Sam sitting in that room, staring at that box, reminded me of the scenes with Michael Anderson as the man who controlled Hollywood in Mulholland Drive. As creepy as that box may have been, it was the stillness of this scene that made me nervous. Sam seemed remarkably uninterested in why exactly he had to watch the box and that lack of curiosity struck me as odd and just a little depressing.

Cut to … oh my God, we’re back at the Great Northern! And there’s Ben Horne (Richard Beymer)! He’s in his office and he’s leering at his new secretary, Barbara (Ashley Judd). It’s just like old times and, of course, it’s nice to see that Ben survived striking his head on the fireplace mantle 25 years ago. That said, Ben appears to have given up on being a do-gooder. He’s back to obsessing over money. Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) drops by for a visit and reveals that, since Washington legalized marijuana, he’s made a fortune. Way to go, Jerry!

Cut to the Sheriff’s Department and there’s Lucy (Kimmy Robertson)! An insurance salesman comes in and asks to see Sheriff Truman. Lucy asks him if he wants to see the Sheriff Truman who is sick or the Sheriff Truman who is out of the office. Neither one is available.

Cut to a country road. Someone is driving down the street while listening to evil music. The driver is none other than … Agent Cooper? Well, it kind of looks like Agent Cooper but it’s not Cooper. For one thing, this guy has long, greasy hair and doesn’t wear a dark suit. He also doesn’t smile. He has cold, dead eyes. For another thing, he parks next to a shack and beats up a redneck, which is not exactly Agent Cooper behavior. Then he goes inside, where he meets Buelah and Otis. He tells them that he has come to pick up Ray (George Griffith) and Darya (Nicole LaLiberte). I don’t remember Agent Cooper having such an affinity for white trash…

Oh wait! That’s not Agent Cooper! That must be Cooper’s Doppelganger!

Meanwhile, back in New York, Tracey shows up with more coffee. She and Sam are shocked to discover that the guard has left his post. This means that Tracey can now go into the room and see the mysterious box for herself! It also means that she and Sam can have some fun on the couch. While they do, Sam suddenly sees that the inside of the glass box has turned black. Suddenly, what appears to be a demonic creature appears in the box. It springs through the glass and, in a scene that leaves no doubt that this is Showtime Twin Peaks and not ABC Twin Peaks, it literally rips Sam and Tracey into pieces.

Along with giving me a good fright, this scene made me sad because I thought Sam and Tracey were a cute couple. The reviewer at TVLine complained about Sam and Tracey and the actors playing them and I really have to wonder what show he watched because, to me, both Ben Rosenfield and Madeline Zima were likable and sympathetic in their brief time on screen. Then again, the TVLine recapper also managed to confuse Bobby Briggs and James Hurley so we know he’s not a true Twin Peaks fan.

I should also mention that this scene, with hints of the demons flickering in the darkness before the sudden attack, reminded me of the infamous “there’s an evil man behind the dumpster” scene from Mulholland Drive.

Cut to Buckhorn, South Dakota. We’re confronted with a very Lynchian image. A fat woman walks a tiny dog down the hallway of an apartment building. She stops when she smells a terrible stench coming from the neighbor’s apartment. She calls the police, worried that her neighbor Ruth Davenport may be dead.

The police arrive and it takes them forever to find a key to open up the apartment. This is one of those sequences that Lynch loves, the sequence were a simple task is made progressively more and more difficult by awkward minutia. The neighbor doesn’t know if there’s a manager available but then remembers that the manager’s been committed to an asylum. However, the manager’s brother might have the key. But she doesn’t know where the brother is but the brother’s friend, Hank Filmore (Max Perlich), might know. Hank does know but he refuses to tell and then the neighbor suddenly mentions that she has an extra key to the apartment. When the police finally get inside the apartment, they discover the naked remains of Ruth Davenport in bed. Her eyes have been removed and her head has been disconnected from her body.

Continuing the Mulholland Drive comparison, the discovery of Ruth’s body was shot in much the same way as the discovery of Diane Selwyn’s body in Mulholland Drive. As well, Brent Briscoe played a detective in Mulholland Drive and he plays one in Twin Peaks as well, leading the investigation into Ruth’s murder.

Cut back to Twin Peaks. The Log Lady (Catherine Coulson) calls Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse), who is now Deputy Chief Hawk and who is in charge while Sheriff Truman is gone. The Log Lady tells Hawk that her log has a message. “Something is different and you have to find it,” she tells him. “It has to do with Federal Agent Dale Cooper and with your heritage. This is the message of the log.”

(Coulson died shortly after filming her scenes here and her frailty make her scenes here unexpectedly poignant. As she talks to Hawk, it’s obvious that both of them know that this could be their last conversation.)

Back in South Dakota, Detective Dave is informed that one man’s finger prints have been found all over Ruth’s apartment. The finger prints belonged to Bill Hastings (Matthew Lillard), a respected high school principal. As his shocked wife, Phyllis (Cornelia Guest), watches, Bill is arrested and charged with murder. “But the Morgans are coming to dinner!” Phyllis shouts as Dave leads Bill away.

Back at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, Hawk, Lucy, and Andy (Harry Goaz) gather in the conference room. Hawk order them to look through all the files on the disappearance as Dale Cooper. Lucy says that Cooper disappeared 24 years ago and then mentions that her son is 24 years old. “He was born on the same day as Marlon Brando,” Lucy says.

Back in South Dakota, Dave is interrogating Bill. When Dave asks Bill if he’s ever heard of Ruth Davenport, Bill says that he only knew her in passing. He denies having ever been to Ruth’s apartment but, when he says it, he nervously glances around the room. Is Bill hiding something or is he just nervous as anyone who has been arrested — whether guilty or innocent — would be? It turns out that Bill can’t account for where he was during every minute of the previous night. Dave jots down some notes on a legal pad. That’s never good. Bill wants a lawyer. Dave says that lawyer is on the way but he also asks if there’s anything else Bill would like to add “before we get a lawyer involved.” At this point, I was yelling at the screen, “Stop talking! The police are not your friends!” Dave immediately proved my point by accusing Bill of murder and then taking him to a jail cell.

Dave and the cops then go back to the Hastings house, the time with a search warrant. While the police search his car, Bill sits in his jail cell and probably wonders why he hasn’t been allowed to see his lawyer yet.

Suddenly, Dave arrives with Phyllis. Phyllis steps into the cell and tells Bill that they’re not going to give him bail. Bill says that he was never in Ruth’s apartment but that he had a dream the night that she was killed. “Fuck you!” Phyllis sanps, “you fucking bastard!” She reveals that she knows that Bill was cheating on her with Ruth. Bill shouts back that he knows about Phyllis and someone named George. Phyllis taunts him. “You’re going down. Life in prison.”

After Phyllis leaves, Bill sits in his cell. Little does he know that, three cells down, a shadowy man is sitting on a bed. The shadow slowly fades away, becoming a wisp of smoke that eventually dissipates in the air.

Phyllis arrives home. Doppelganger Cooper is waiting for her. Phyllis smiles and asks what he’s doing there. Doppelganger Cooper replies that Phyllis did a good job duplicating human nature and then shoots her in the head.

Cut to Las Vegas, Nevada. A man in an office (Patrick Fischler, who also played the man who had a morbid — and justifiable fear — of the dumpster behind the diner in Mulholland Drive) talks to his associate Roger about a mysterious figure who “uses” him. “You better hope you never have someone like him in your life,” the man says.

Cut to a diner in South Dakota, where Doppelganger Cooper has an awkward dinner with Ray and Darya. Doppelganger Cooper tells Ray that he doesn’t “need anything.” However, he does want things. Ray kind of smirks. Doppelganger Cooper explains that what he wants is information.

Cut to Ghostwood Forest. Equipped with a flashlight, Hawk walks. He gets a call from the Log Lady. “The stars turn,” she tells hm, “and a time presents itself.” The Log Lady says she wishes she could go with Hawk but then tells him to stop by. She has coffee and pie for him. Hawks says he will, as he approaches Glastonbury Grove, which once served as the entrance into the Black Lodge.

Speaking of the Black Lodge, Cooper is still sitting in the waiting room. He has been joined by MIKE (Al Strobel), the one-armed man. “Is it the future or is it the past?” MIKE asks before saying that someone has come to see Cooper.

Enter Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), still wearing the black dress from the last time that we saw her but definitely no longer a teenager. (Of course, this is because 25 years has passed not only on the show but in real life as well. Still, in the world of Twin Peaks, it’s interesting that time passes in The Black Lodge and people continue to age, even after they die.) Cooper and Laura recite some of the same dialogue from the dream that Cooper had during the third episode of the first season of Twin Peaks.

When Laura says, “I am Laura Palmer,” Cooper replies that Laura is dead.

“I am dead,” Laura says, “yet I live.”

Laura opens her face like a door, revealing a bright white light.

“When can I go?” Cooper asks as Laura closes her face.

Laura kisses Cooper and then, just as she did in the original dream, she starts to whisper in his ear while the aged Cooper smiles.

Suddenly, the curtains shake and Laura screams. Something appears to yank her into the air and she vanishes. A wind blow through the lodge and suddenly, the curtain disappear. The same white horse that, 25 years earlier, appeared to Sarah Palmer now appears to Cooper.

Suddenly, Cooper is back in the waiting room and MIKE is again asking if it is the past or the future.

MIKE leads Cooper into another room, one that is inhabited by a tree that has what appears to be a perfectly smooth brain sitting atop of it. MIKE says that the tree is his arm. The tree starts to speak to Cooper. It asks if Cooper remembers his doppelgänger. Cooper does and we get a flashback to this still powerful scene:

The tree explains that before Cooper can go out, the Doppelganger must return to the Black Lodge.

Meanwhile, in South Dakota, the Doppelganger is busy killing people. First he kills a business associate and then he returns to his motel and confronts Darya with the knowledge that someone hired her and Ray to kill him. Darya says that she doesn’t know who hired them and puts all of the blame on Ray. The Doppelganger reveals that he’s supposed to go back to the Black Lodge but he’s not planning on returning. Then, in a disturbing and deeply unpleasant scene that I personally felt went on a bit too long, the Doppelganger beats and then murders Darya.

Having killed Darya, the Doppelganger places a phone call to Philip Jeffries, the FBI agent who was played by David Bowie in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. They have a cryptic conversation. Philip says that the Doppelganger should be in New York and then says that the Doppelganger met with Major Garland Briggs. “How did you know that!?” the Doppelganger demands. “I just called to say goodbye,” Philip says.

The Doppelganger downloads the plans for Yankton Federal Prison and then walks down to another motel room. There he is greeted by Chantel (Jennifer Jason Leigh!). He tells Chantel that he needs her to go “clean up” the other room. Chantel is more than happy to do it.

At the Black Lodge, Cooper continues to stare at the tree. The tree says that Cooper can go but when Cooper goes out to the hallway, he finds that he still cannot pass through the curtains and back into our world. Cooper continues to walk through the Lodge until he discovers Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) sitting in a leather chair.

“Find Laura,” Leland says.

Suddenly, MIKE and the Tree appear again. MIKE says something is wrong. The tree says to find the Doppelganger. Cooper continues to walk around the lodge. (Is this all he’s been doing for the past 25 years?) He finally manages to open the curtains and finds himself watching as his Doppelganger drives down a desert road. Suddenly, the tree appears and starts lashing out at him with its limbs.

“Non-existent!” the tree snaps.

Cooper falls through the floor of the Lodge. Suddenly, he’s in the glass box in New York. And he can see Tracey and Sam having the same conversation that they had before they were killed by the weird demon creature. (Is time looping back on itself, in much the same way that it did at the end of Lost Highway with Bill Pullman telling his future self that “Dick Laurent is dead?”)

Suddenly, Cooper is falling again.

In Twin Peaks, Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) sits alone in the Palmer House, drinking, smoking, and watching one of those traumatic nature documentaries where predators eat their prey in closeup.

At the Roadhouse, the Chromatics are singing a beautifully dream-like song. Shelley (Madchen Amick) is sitting at a booth with a group of friends. She says she’s worried about her daughter, Becky. Suddenly, they see that James Hurley (James Marshall) has entered the bar and is now looking over at them.

“What’s wrong with that guy?” one of them says.

“There’s nothing wrong with that guy!” Shelley says, “He was in a motorcycle accident but he’s just quiet. He’s always been cool.”

And it’s such a sweet scene, even if it does feel a bit odd since Shelley and James didn’t even seem to know each other during the original series. I found myself wondering if Shelley is now married to Bobby Briggs. If James ends up stealing Shelley away (and that certainly seems a possibility, especially with Lara Flynn Boyle not coming back to reprise the role of Donna Hayward), this will be the second time Bobby has lost a lover to James.

(By the way, both James Marshall and Madchen Amick have aged wonderfully. If anything, James Marshall is far more handsome now than he was during the first two seasons of the show.)

There was also some excitement online when Walter Olkewicz appeared as the bartender at the roadhouse. Could it be, we all wondered, that Jacques Renault was once again alive!? Well, no. According to the credits, Olkewicz was playing Jean-Michel Renault. Apparently, he’s the fourth Renault brother.

And that’s how this perplexing episode ends. The Chromatics perform on the Roadhouse while two of our favorite characters acknowledge each other. At times, I loved this episode. At times, I was frustrated. However, I was always intrigued and this ending — this wonderfully sentimental little moment between Shelley and James — was the perfect way to cap it all off.

Do I understand everything that happened tonight? No, but it doesn’t matter. I can’t wait to see where Lynch is taking us next.

Music Video of the Day: Only Happy When It Rains (1995, dir by Samuel Bayer)

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve been told by more than one person that this song basically is me. At first, I assumed they were just saying that because both Shirley Manson and I have red hair and people always tend to assume that all redheads are alike. But then I actually listened to the song and I was like, “I’m only happy when it rains? I’m only happy when it’s complicated? My comfort is the night gone black? Yeah, I guess that does kinda sound like me…”

And then I watched the video, which is basically Shirley singing and dancing in a dilapidated warehouse while the other members of the band destroy stuff in the background and I immediately had flashbacks to when I was going to college and me and my friends would spend the occasional weekend exploring an abandoned and/or condemned building. And I was like, “I guess this song basically is me!”

This video was directed by Samuel Bayer. Bayer has directed close to a 100 videos, for everyone from Maroon 5 to P!nk to Nirvana. Bayer directed Nirvana’s famous Smells Like Teen Spirit video. And, just by doing quick check, I see that Val has actually reviewed two other videos directed by Bayer: Zombie by the Cranberries and No Rain by Blind Melon.

Enjoy!

What Else Lisa Watched Last Night #166: Seduced By A Stranger (dir by Scott Belyea)

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Secrets of My Stepdaughter was not the only thing that I watched last night! I also watched Seduced By A Stranger on the Lifetime Movie Network.

Why Was I Watching It?

When a movie is called Seduced By A Stranger, you watch it. Seduced is one of the most powerful words in the English language. I even tried to get Arleigh to call this site Through the Seduced Lens but he ended up going with Shattered instead.

(Which is okay because shattered is almost as powerful word as seduced. Someday, Lifetime will realize that I’m right and commission a film called Shattered Seduction. I’m already working on the script.)

What Was It About?

It’s about a woman who is seduced by a stranger.

Actually, there’s a little more to it than just that. In fact, it’s actually a movie about a teenager named Dana (Cate Sproule) and her good-for-nothing (but charming) father named Martin (Steve Bacic). Because Martin is a professional con man, Dana and Martin have never stayed in one place for too long. Dana feels like she’s missing out on life.

So, Martin agrees to settle down in a nice little town. Dana finally gets to enroll in high school. She even meets a cute boy named Charlie (Madison Smith) and soon, they’re a couple. However, Martin is also dating Charlie’s mother (Chandra West) and Dana is worried that her father is going to slip back into his old ways.

And, of course, there’s the stalker. Sloane (Lucie Guest) lost everything to one of Martin’s cons and she’s determined to get her revenge. Now that Martin has settled down in one place, it looks like she may finally get her chance…

What Worked?

This one was a lot of fun and actually kind of sweet in its own weird way. Charlie and Dana were a really likable couple and you hoped that things would work out for them. Both Cate Sproule and Madison Smith gave good performances and it was kind of nice to see a Lifetime film where, for once, the teenagers were alright and the adults were totally clueless.

Lucie Guest did a good job as crazy Sloane. The best role in any Lifetime film is always the obsessive stalker and Guest really made the most of the opportunity.

What Did Not Work?

It all worked. It was fun and enjoyable Lifetime film. The only thing that kept it from being perfect was that there was no kitchen dance party.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

When someone says that Dana has stolen Charlie’s heart, Dana instinctively responds with, “I don’t steal.” For some reason, I related to that moment.

(I know that’s vague but identifying an “Oh my God! Just like me!” moment is not an exact science.)

Lessons Learned

Sometimes, being seduced by a stranger is the best thing that can happen to you.