more_films_you_should_maybe_see raze thought it might be worthwhile to start a new one of these. so. the verdict (1982) i don't know if sidney lumet ever made a bad film, but it feels like this one gets overlooked a little bit. and that's too bad. because paul newman gives the performance of his life as a shambling wreck of a lawyer-turned-ambulance-chaser who performs desperate cpr on his own alcohol-soaked heart, trying a case he seems destined to lose when even the plaintiffs want him to settle out of court, because if he can prove to himself that he's still capable of doing one good thing, maybe he won't be a total lost cause. the supporting performances are all solid. you've got jack warden as the long-suffering, more-noble-than-he-first-appears best friend. you've got james mason, in one of his last film appearances, as the slick, satanic defense attorney. but charlotte rampling is the one to watch. if this movie were made — or remade — today, she'd get a big dramatic speech or two to flesh out her past and explain why she does the things she does. we don't get that here. we only gets hints, and she suggests entire unexplored dimensions to her character with her eyes. speaking of dramatic speeches, newman's closing argument is nothing like the chest-pounding histrionics found in other courtroom dramas, and it's all the more effective for it. it's interesting early work from mamet before he brought his "mamet-speak" to the screen — tough and terse, but with only hints of the hyper-stylized dialogue to come in the likes of "house of games" and "glengarry glen ross". there's even a young, uncredited bruce willis in an early non-speaking role as a courtroom observer. and lemme tell ya, once you've seen the face of bruce willis in court, you can't un-see it. 150110 ... raze wandâfuru raifu / after_life (1998) in hirokazu koreeda's vision of the afterlife, the recently departed find themselves in a way station for "processing". the people who work there (also deceased) help them to select one memory from their lives they like best. after a memory has been recreated, filmed, and screened, its owner moves on to the next place, forgetting everything but that single memory, living inside of it forever. some memories are easier to film than others, though, and some of the employees have troubles of their own. 150112 ... raze "prom night iii: the last kiss" (1989) full disclosure: this is not a good movie. in any way. at all. but i think it knows it isn't good, isn't even trying to be good, and ends up being wildly amusing in its badness. there are four films in the "prom night" series, all canadian-made (the less said about the abysmal 2008 american remake of the original, the better). it's a very loose series. almost none of the films connect in any coherent way. the first instalment is a pretty straight low-budget slasher flick featuring leslie nielson and a very young jamie lee curtis. the second is an effective supernatural thriller with a bit of dark humour thrown in. the third is a demented spoof of the series itself and the entire horror genre. at least i think that's what it is. and the fourth film is some sort of bizarre attack on the catholic church shoved inside the body of a pretty awful slasher film that makes every other "prom night" movie look like the work of ingmar bergman by comparison. "the last kiss" is just a fun way to kill an hour and a half late at night when there's nothing better to do. mary lou maloney, who died in a stink bomb prank gone wrong in the second film when she was played by a different actress (continuity! sort of!), cuts through the chains that bind her in hell with a nail file (seriously), returns to her old high school to get revenge on an old boyfriend by electrocuting him with a possessed jukebox until his pacemaker explodes out of his chest in one of the most hilariously awful special effects sequences you'll ever see (he's killed by ropes of fake pink electricity … seriously), and then falls in love with a good-looking but intellectually bankrupt student, boinks him on an american flag, and starts murdering anyone who gives him trouble, leaving him to bury the bodies on the football field. so it's your typical "boy meets sexy ghost, boy has sex with sexy ghost, sexy ghost ruins boy's life" tale, with some so-bad-they're-good cheesy one-liners thrown in, some pretty fun buried jokes in the form of the p.a. announcements that float around in the background, and a cameo from tough-as-nails canadian boxer george chuvalo as a science teacher who meets his gory end when mary lou slices him up with razor sharp ice cream cones and turns him into a human banana split. seriously. the whole thing is so over the top and ridiculous, it deserves to be seen at least once. the icing on the misshapen cake is the insane "what were they thinking?" hip-hop remake of the guess who's "american woman" that plays over the end_credits. i'm going to be having nightmares about that song for a good long while. 150209 ... raze vanya on 42nd street (1994) i already knew how good julianne moore could be, but brooke smith and larry pine (in_between two stints slumming it on "all my children") turn in what could be the performances of their careers in louis malle's document of the culmination of stage director andre gregory's three-year collaborative experiment with his cast, during which chekhov's play was workshopped, rehearsed, and performed in a number of informal settings. note to aspiring filmmakers: start and end with good jazz, and you can't go far wrong. though i have to say, from the little we saw of paul giamatti rehearsing the same play with his borrowed russian soul in "cold souls", if given the choice i'd tip it to his uncle vanya over wallace shawn's somewhat hammy interpretation. 150321 ... raze the outlaw josey wales (1976) gotta be one of the best westerns clint eastwood was ever a part of. even if you're no great fan of westerns or the scowling one, there's an uncommonly rich cast of supporting characters here, making for a lot of great little moments. chief dan george is worth the price of admission all on his own. the man radiated dignity in everything he did. 150330 ... raze seven psychopaths (2012) if only to see christopher walken dig in and do some real acting work instead of playing a caricature of himself the way he has been in a fair few of his films for a while now, and for tom_waits in a small but memorable part. as roger ebert once said about tom, he sings even when he acts. there are other reasons to watch too, even if this genre-warping, violent, profane, straddling-the-boundaries-of-hilarity-and-delicacy sort of thing isn't your cup of coffee — like hearing p.p. arnold sing "the first cut is the deepest" for probably the first time. maybe there are a few too many endings, but the dream sequence walken narrates is well worth sticking around for. i mean, who else should ever be narrating a dream, if you got to choose? 150612 ... raze romance & cigarettes (2005) walken's in this one too, but that's mere coincidence. this is like no other musical you've ever seen. john torturro whips his cast into a collective bravura performance, and for all the funny business, the realness of life keeps threatening to intrude until it finally spills over and derails the whole film, making it a stronger, deeper thing in the process. 150626 ... raze cruel & unusual (2014) you can look at this as the flip-side to "after_life". instead of a way station separating limbo from heaven, you've got a purgatory for people who've committed murder, where they're forced to re-experience their crimes over and over again, with only some surreal group therapy sessions to serve as relief. some reviews have complained that not enough is done with the opportunity to really suck the audience into this world through the cinematography, but merlin dervisevic's film works for me (aside from the ending, which feels like it might be a little too neat) because i tend to find ideas more frightening than gory visuals. as with "pontypool", there are some good ones here. hell, if that's what the setting is, is presented as a drab prison-like institution where authority figures are seen only as faces on old television screens and each inmate's "cell" is a room that repeatedly transports them into the past for the worst possible version of their own private "groundhog day". for me at least, that's a lot more unsettling and thought-provoking than a bunch of expensive special effects and cheap "boo!" moments. this vision of one possible afterlife for certain people seems just plausible enough to get you wondering. there are no real "name" actors here. the only face i recognized was michael eklund's. michelle harrison stands out as a character who keeps you guessing and then breaks your heart when you find out what her deal is. if you catch this on tv late at night like i did, consider sticking around to see what happens. mixed feelings about the ending aside, i think it's worth a watch. 150717 ... raze romy and michele's high school reunion (1997) hear me out on this one. i watched this when it first hit television, later the same year it was released. i watched it for one reason only. i thought mira sorvino was the most beautiful thing in the history of things. i ended up kind of enjoying it in spite of myself, beyond the impure surface-level teenage stuff that got me to the front door. it was a good popcorn movie. it made me laugh. i caught it on tv again the other day, almost two decades after that first viewing, having not seen it a second time in any of those intervening years. again, i kind of enjoyed it in spite of myself. i was amazed by how much i'd forgotten. here's the thing about this movie. it's goofy. it knows it's goofy. it's not some stunning work of cinematic art that's going to change your life. but it's got a heart. it's got a foul-mouthed, scene-stealing janeane garofalo. and it's got a three-way interpretive dance scene at the end set to cyndi lauper's "time after time". that dance scene is worth watching the entire movie for. yeah, it's silly. it's also strangely moving, and somehow beautiful. there's real catharsis there, as the proverbial ugly ducklings are finally revealed as the swans in hiding they always were. 151116 ... raze the apostle (1997) i'm a lapsed catholic who isn't quite an atheist or an agnostic. i haven't seen the inside of a church in years. i believe there's something bigger than us in the universe. i don't believe it's just a big dark nothing when we die. but the idea of a bearded man in a bathrobe upstairs, and a horny dude with a pitchfork down below ... not really buying that these days. so "pentecostal preacher seeks redemption in a small lousiana town after committing a crime of passion and becoming a fugitive" doesn't sound like the premise for a film that would appeal to someone like me. but this is a classic example of a film where the premise doesn't begin to do the story justice. robert duvall's character gives his fair share of sermons, but they have a magnetic intensity to them that feels authentic. and the script defies predictability at every turn. it gives us a flawed man who believes himself to be an instrument of the lord, who argues with and rages at and has quiet late-night conversations with a silent god, who knows he's a bastard, who makes horrible mistakes and also does genuine good. it shines a light on his world and the people in it and says, "watch, and decide for yourself what you think and feel about all of this." it has the feeling of life unfolding instead of standard plot devices being recycled. it took duvall more than a decade to get this movie made. he wrote the script by hand, couldn't get anyone interested in directing it, couldn't get anyone to help finance it. finally he decided to direct it himself, putting up his own money to make it happen. he was nominated for a best actor oscar, but lost to jack nicholson, who won for "as good as it gets". now, jack was once a wonderful, resonant actor who showed his stuff in great films like "five easy pieces" and "chinatown", along with lesser-known gems like "the king of marvin gardens" and "ironweed", before becoming a blowhard more interested in prostituting his talent for money and phoning in acting performances in abysmal shit than doing anything worthwhile that might add to his legacy. but duvall got robbed at the oscars that year, straight-up. his performance here is astonishing. 151122 ... amy in red now i want to see "The Apostle" with Robert Duvall. yes, even if i already have. 151122 ... raze it really surprised me. i'd been meaning to watch it for years but kept putting it off because i figured i wasn't in the right mood. but i've got a cold, and my dad's got a cold, and last night he said, "let's watch a movie. let's watch that one." i expected the god business to get preachy, but it never did. and every time i thought i knew where things were going, i was wrong. it got its hooks in me, and i just accepted that this was the dude, and i wanted to follow where he was going and see who he really was. it left me with a lot to think about, too. not even about religion so much, but about people. (also, note_to_self: don't use the words "abysmal" or "caricature" again for a while.) 151122 ... raze a tale of two sisters (2003) kim jee-woon's korean folktale-inspired film is one of the few horror movies from recent years to really get under my skin. it's more about atmosphere and the psychological slow-burn, though there are a few good "jump out of your seat" scares thrown in to keep you honest. if you're a fan of brain-benders like "jacob's ladder" and "memento" that keep you guessing until the end and then bruise your heart once they explain themselves, here's one to add to the pile. 151126 ... raze limbo (1999) this is maybe not the ideal place to start with john sayles. "lone star" is the generally-agreed-upon best point of entry when it comes to his films. but i started here, and i have no regrets. this is a film that seems, for the most part, like it's going to be about a relationship forming between a singer and a taciturn handyman. it is, for a while. then it becomes something different. to say any more about the story would be to give too much away. this is one of those movies best experienced without knowing too much going in, letting it wash over you and uncoil its surprises. i can say this much: you get a rare star turn from underrated character actor david strathairn, who plays "thoughtful" better than anyone. mary elizabeth mastrantonio has never been better (she even does her own singing). and kris kristofferson is as reliable as ever. the real revelation is vanessa martinez. she's so good here, turning what could have been a rote "troubled teen" character into a vivid, three-dimensional human being, it's insane that she hasn't had more work. she has seventeen acting credits on imdb covering a period of nineteen years. that's it. most of those are bit parts. the only way most people know her at all is from her almost microscopic role in "warrior", where she manages to rip your heart out in what can't be much more than three minutes of total screen time. even the song that plays over the end credits is a surprise. it's bruce springsteen, but it's not like any springsteen song you've ever heard. 151231 ... raze elephant shoes (2005) two people have a meet_cute on a montreal sidewalk and stumble into a relationship that lasts all of twelve hours. their chemistry is wholly believable, which can't be said of the leads in too many "romantic comedies". the initial awkwardness is as palpable as the slow-growing attraction, and the humour grows out of human moments. this is a rom-com with a brain and a pulse. i didn't even know those existed anymore. 160616 ... raze it's all gone pete tong (2004) paul kaye (he of "dennis pennis" fame) gives a bravura performance in this genre-bending semi-mockumentary following the rise and fall of a dj who loses his hearing. there's a lot of infectious music, and a grotesque badger beast that bleeds cocaine, but the real soul of the movie is in the last hour or so, where it becomes a sweet little love story. 160809 ... raze (better make that the last HALF hour or so. eh, time is fluid anyway.) 160809 ... raze mr. magorium's wonder emporium (2007) i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "this is a children's movie. and it's not even one of the old classics. and dustin hoffman's eyebrows are funny." all true. but it's kind of wonderful to watch a movie that's all about the power of imagination, where there are no villains, and the only real conflict is one character's struggle to believe in herself. it made me feel a little like a kid again. all the critics who didn't like the "bland story" can go suck it. besides, no movie with a cat stevens song in it can ever be bad, can it? 161205 ... raze summer (2002) most comedy-tinged "coming-of-age" films are kind of shit. not this one. for all the quirky grace notes in phil price's low-budget canadian indie flick, there's real heart here. this feels like a group of real people wrestling with the questions of who they are, who they want to be, and what growing up entails for them. there are two late-film "apologies from characters who have messed up and are trying to win back the respective objects of their affection". this sort of thing is an age-old screenwriting cliché that tends to drag down the intelligence (where there is any) of almost every movie now made that has anything to do with non-platonic relationships. these apologies here are two of the best, funniest, most original and heartfelt things of their kind, exploding the clichés into joyous showers of soul confetti. especially the "ad-lib poem with audience participation" from karen cliche (that's her real name, too). 170119 ... raze edge of the city (1957) peter bogdanovich and sidney_poitier died on thursday. both men were old enough that it didn't come as much of a shock, but it still felt like the end of something significant. while bogdanovich directed some great movies ("paper moon" and "the last picture show" among them), i have some serious problems with the way he behaved offscreen. not so with sidney, who was never anything but class. anyone who's experienced his psychic duet with rod steiger in "in the heat of the night" will never forget it. the film i'm left thinking of, though, is the little-seen noir-tinged character study "edge of the city", directed by martin ritt and adapted from robert alan aurthur's play "a man is ten feet tall". sidney's character is a stevedore who befriends an army deserter played by john cassavetes. there are searing supporting performances from ruby dee and jack warden (a world away from the well-meaning sidekick he was in the first film mentioned on this blathe). but sidney is the heart of the whole thing. there's a scene in a diner where john's character tells his story, and all sidney does is listen. there's so much going on in his face, he doesn't need to speak to tell you what's etched into his soul. that's some kind of acting. 220108 ... raze the_fall (2006) i've had this on dvd for the better part of twenty years. i just made my way around to watching it for the first time. part of me regrets waiting so long. another part of me thinks i waited just long enough. when i was in my early twenties, i'm not sure i'd done enough living yet to feel the full weight of what the film has to give. there's some dark, heavy shit here. it ain't the cute, whimsical little romp the trailer would have you believe it is. and it's all but lost now. director and co-writer tarsem covered the production costs himself and paid the cast and crew out of his own pocket. he shot for a period of four years in almost thirty different countries. the end result was a box_office_bomb that got some very mixed reviews. that shiny piece of spinning plastic i was lucky enough to buy when it was brand new is out of print now. you can't even find a digital copy online unless you get a little sneaky. tarsem recently reached out to criterion about a potential 4k release. you'd think they would jump at the chance to give a labour_of_love like this a second life. nope. what was arguably once the most respected home video distribution company on the planet would rather release special editions of "risky business" and michael bay's "armageddon" than even pay lip service to the artistic ideals they claim to care deeply about. i've got two words for you, criterion. and they rhyme with "duck hue". anyway. our story pivots around a stuntman named roy, paralyzed after a caper gone wrong in his very first silent film, and alexandria, a six-year-old romanian girl with a broken arm. after their paths cross at the same threadbare hospital, roy tells alexandria a sweeping tale of love, vengeance, and betrayal. there have been other movies with nested narratives. "the_neverending_story" and "the_princess_bride" are two that come to mind. what's unique here is the way the story within the story is shown as alexandria sees it in her imagination, populated with people from her own life. there are no sets. there isn't one moment of computer-generated imagery. every bit of impossible architecture onscreen is real. the results are visually stunning and often impossible to describe. eiko ishioka's costume design work alone deserves a full-length documentary. catinca untaru, who plays alexandria, has never acted in anything else aside from a few shorts that sank like heavy stones. there aren't many performances from child actors that are as unaffected and as moving as hers. much of the movie is a duet between her and lee pace's roy, and the music they make together is a thing of rare, resonant beauty. few films have made me cry. this one did. maybe that tells you all you need to know. 240521 what's it to you? who go blather from