Under the Shadow (2016)

Tags

Foreign, Horror, Thriller

The night is black,
A bleak throwback
To when the world was without shape.
A shadow shifts,
The darkness drifts
And snares your eye with no escape.

You crane your neck
To merely check
That all is well outside your bed.
And pray no face
Or graver case
Will give you reason for your dread.
________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

I’m not really into horror generally, but it’s become something of a tradition for me to watch a scary movie alone at night, just to review it for Halloween. Like The Conjuring, The Babadook, and Lights Out in years past, I decided to check out an acclaimed creepfest that focuses more on atmospheric tension rather than gross-out gore. This time, though, I went outside the English-speaking world to watch Under the Shadow, a Persian-language horror (with a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes) set in 1980s Tehran.

Of course, 1980s Tehran wasn’t the best place to be, especially during the increasingly frequent bombings of the Iran-Iraq War. It’s already a tense setting, as the inhabitants of an apartment building must head downstairs into the basement at the sound of bomb sirens, much to the chagrin of mother Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi). Disgruntled by her country’s rigid decrees keeping her from becoming a doctor, Shideh is further unsettled when her husband is sent off to war, and as strange events start to occur late at night, she wonders if there is indeed something haunting her family.

In many ways, Under the Shadow is exactly the kind of horror movie I like, with a creeping dread serving as the main source of fear, knowing that something could happen at any moment and jumping out of your skin when it occasionally does. There’s zero blood on display, and it doesn’t need it. While it taps into the mythology of malevolent air spirits or djinns, it’s surprising how well the frights work when they stem from what is essentially the most minimalist ghost, a floating sheet (technically a chador, a Persian women’s cloak). The uncanny fear conjured by its sudden appearances is potent stuff.

However, there’s nothing especially notable about the story itself, aside from its unique cultural setting, which is itself a danger, since Shideh can be punished for even fleeing her home without a head covering. Yet the plot isn’t too far from that of The Amityville Horror, and the mother/child dynamic, while showing growth, has been done with better closure elsewhere. Even so, Under the Shadow provided exactly what I look for in a scary movie, while excluding what I avoid in the genre. Well-acted with a slow-burn anxiety, it’s an excellent addition to my Halloween reserve, even if it’s made me look over my shoulder more often than before.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
652 Followers and Counting

 

VC Pick: Terms of Endearment (1983)

Tags

Comedy, Drama, VC Pick

You love her so dearly,
And not insincerely,
Your mother, your mom whom you know loves you, clearly,
And yet you resent
Her distinct discontent
That causes her love to be dealt so austerely.

Your choices, your bearing,
The clothes that you’re wearing
Are always subject to her stare and found erring.
All that you’d withstand,
Every vague reprimand,
For the knowledge or hope that behind it is caring.
____________________

MPAA rating: PG (should be PG-13)

I know I haven’t posted in a while, being busy with a college class, but I’m back now and thought it was about time to review something chosen by my dear VC (Viewing Companion, for the uninitiated). I saw Terms of Endearment years ago and never gave it much of a thought since. I recalled it being good and sad by the end, and, sure, it won Best Picture in 1983 alongside several other Oscars, but for some reason, it never really stuck with me. At my VC’s urging, I finally got around to it again, and found to my surprise that I remembered a lot more than I thought I did. Even so, it was helpful to remind myself of a lot of the context that inevitably slips through the memory cracks, which further convinced me that it’s a great movie that’s just not one of my favorites.

The film’s greatest strength is its actors, particularly the dueling mother/daughter portrayals of Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger, as Aurora and Emma Greenway, respectively. MacLaine is the quintessential disapproving parent, distant by default, content to let love be implied, and rarely allowing her emotions to show themselves. Winger as her daughter is hungry for that love and emotion and constantly trying to balance her love for her mother with their mutual exasperation. It’s a dynamic that my VC had with her own mother, so I can completely understand why it hit close to home for her, particularly a line about how the fighting between them doesn’t always feel mutual but simply a facet of their relationship. And the part about Aurora always being the first to let go of a hug certainly imitated life. I, on the other hand, have a largely warm and loving relationship with my own mom, making the emotional constipation onscreen less relatable for me but no less frustrating.

Supporting the main two women are Jeff Daniels as Emma’s less-than-faithful professor husband, John Lithgow as her own secret lover, and Oscar-winning Jack Nicholson as Aurora’s self-absorbed astronaut boyfriend, who is honestly insufferable half the time but skates by with that Nicholson swagger. The drama can get heavy, what with strained parental bonds, failed romances, and familial loss, but the accomplished actors do an expert job balancing the dramatic material with its comedic flourishes. With both MacLaine and Nicholson winning Oscars, though, I rather wish Debra Winger had garnered the same acclaim, since this is easily one of her best roles.

It’s no surprise that Terms of Endearment was an Oscar magnet, including its engaging script, based on a 1975 novel by Larry McMurtry. It’s an unabashed tearjerker about the messiness of family life, and while it does touch the heart, it will undoubtedly touch some more than others. I suppose it depends how much you see yourself or your parent in this classic mother-daughter relationship.

Best line: (Aurora Greenway) “I just don’t want to fight anymore.”
(Emma) “What do you mean? When do we fight?”
(Aurora) “When do we fight? I always think of us as fighting!”
(Emma) “That’s because you’re never satisfied with me.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
652 Followers and Counting

 

Mr. Church (2016)

Tags

Drama

A life lived in service is seen as disgrace,
For service is wholly ignoble and lowly,
A shame to escape and oppose.
For so many saints, though, this wasn’t the case;
To serve was a method to mimic the Holy,
A sacrifice God only knows.

A life lived in service is never a waste;
A volunteer’s spirit’s congratulatory,
And oh, that all servants could know!
Such angels of earth are not easily replaced,
For not all bear burdens as badges of glory
And not all saints lived long ago.
_________________

MPAA rating:  PG-13 (for limited profanity)

Mr. Church has been in my Netflix queue for so long that I was considering making it one of next year’s Blindspots just to finally get myself to watch it. The film was written by Susan McMartin, who based it off her own short story “The Cook Who Came To Live With Us,” drawing from her own life. I was curious to see a rare serious role for Eddie Murphy after four years of inactivity, and lo and behold, it turned out to be one of his best films, though you wouldn’t know it based on critical reviews or its scathing box office (less than a million dollars on an $8 million budget).

Murphy plays the titular mister, a cook in 1965 assigned to single mother Marie Brooks (Natascha McElhone) by the dying wish of his employer/Marie’s former lover. Tasked with caring for Marie through her treatment for breast cancer, he expects to only stay for six months, much to the chagrin of her daughter Charlie (played by Natalie Coughlin, and later by Britt Robertson), but, as Marie outlives her diagnosis, Mr. Church becomes a mainstay of the home and their family.

There’s something about this kind of movie that just gets me, an irresistible sweetness that stays in my heart when the credits roll. Mr. Church’s presence spans decades as Charlie grows from a callow girl to a young woman with a daughter of her own, and he imparts to her things that are near and dear to my own heart: a love of cooking, classic literature, music. And like Forrest Gump, Charlie’s poetic narration fits perfectly with this kind of nostalgic, generational story.

Robertson and McElhone excel in their emotional roles, but the surprise is a much-subdued Murphy, who instills Church with evident depth at arm’s length, making Charlie and the audience want to know more about him even as he self-effacingly insists on retaining his privacy. Critics have complained that, despite the film bearing his name, he is too much of a one-note character, there merely to serve his white “family,” and while that argument might have some merit, I fear they miss the point. It may not check the “woke” boxes of what critics expect in a black character these days, but that shouldn’t detract from the sweetness of the relationship forged between Charlie and Mr. Church, one of shared interests and quiet service, which becomes mutual over time.

Professional reviewers may decry it as sappy and sentimental, but Mr. Church deserves so much better than a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many compared it to a Hallmark movie, but that shouldn’t be an insult by default, since such films can be deeply affecting when done well. I was disappointed that Mr. Church was such a box-office failure, since that likely makes Hollywood less likely to make these kinds of movies. If they’re as poignant as this one, I wish they’d make more.

Best line: (Charlie) “People act strange around death. There are those who talk about everything but the person who died. Those who talk about only the person who died. Those who try to cheer you up. And those who can’t help but make you cry. And then there are those who say nothing at all, because they don’t have to.”

 

Rank:  List-Worthy

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
651 Followers and Counting

 

2019 Blindspot Pick #9: Vertigo (1958)

Tags

Classics, Drama, Hitchcock, Mystery, Romance, Thriller

The birds in flight
May love their height
And laugh at bounded, grounded man,
But gravity
Can guarantee
That staying low’s a better plan.

Some love the thrill,
The view, the will
To see a limit and defy,
Yet none deny
That when you’re high,
It’s so much easier to die.
_____________________

MPAA rating: PG

Vertigo has to be the most critically lauded among my Blindspots this year, and I was quite curious to see whether it would match its reputation, since so many Hitchcock movies have fallen short, for me at least. Vertigo lands somewhere in the middle, confirming my opinion that Hitchcock mostly excelled in creating tension in individual scenes rather than whole movies.

The fourth and last collaboration between Hitchcock and star Jimmy Stewart, Vertigo is a tale of obsession that toys with the possibility of the supernatural. Stewart plays John “Scottie” Ferguson, a cop who retired after a deadly experience with heights but is commissioned by wealthy friend Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) to investigate Elster’s wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) and her sudden strange behavior. As he learns more about her connection to a suicidal ancestor and develops a relationship with her, he encounters secrets and mysteries that shake him to his core.

As a fan of film, I can say that I am definitively glad to have finally seen this classic of cinema, an oversight that represents exactly what this Blindspot series is meant to solve. Yet it doesn’t hold the same fascination for me that it apparently does for so many. Perhaps it’s because the film’s intrigue was such a rollercoaster. It starts out interesting enough with Stewart as his ever-likable self, but the story really drags during his investigation, which consists of far too much of him wordlessly following Madeleine by car. Maybe it’s just me, but the picture below doesn’t do much for me in the way of tension.

Then comes a famous scene in a bell tower, which is indeed one of Hitchcock’s best for buildup and shock value. Not too much longer, and the reveal of the mystery left my brain working overtime, surprised at the unanticipated twist and giving me a new appreciation for the storyline. Yet what follows becomes a somewhat uncomfortable exercise in obsessive grief (including a weirdly unnecessary psychedelic dream), played out through what would be a deeply unhealthy relationship if not for the audience’s knowledge of its psychological underpinnings. How it ends, while effective, is also anything but satisfying, so abrupt that it made me recall how much I despise the final scenes in North by Northwest and An American Werewolf in London. I know Hitchcock knew how to end a movie, but I wouldn’t know it based on this one.

I certainly can’t fault the actors. Stewart is always good, always, and Kim Novak might be one of my favorites of Hitchcock’s blonde leading ladies. Barbara Bel Geddes is also great as Scottie’s casual friend/former crush, who is short-changed by the ending’s lack of closure. I also liked a cameo by Ellen Corby, who also appeared with Stewart briefly in It’s a Wonderful Life (“Could I have $17.50?”) Likewise, Bernard Herrmann’s hypnotic score is an outstanding accompaniment, and, like the score of Psycho, adds so much to the film’s atmosphere.

All in all, Vertigo is the second best one-word Hitchcock film that ends with an O, as well as the second best Hitchcock film that begins with an injured Jimmy Stewart. Sorry if that doesn’t sound like high praise, though I do appreciate its cinematic contribution of that vertigo effect above. I can see why film enthusiasts like it and why its filming locations around San Francisco have become iconic, and I have half a mind to see it again just to pick up on the hints to the twist that I might have missed the first time. Yet, considering it’s been ranked both 1st and 9th on lists of the best films ever made, I feel like its reputation is somewhat overblown. Psycho is still Hitchcock’s masterpiece as far as I’m concerned.

Best line: (Madeleine) “Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere. ”

Rank: Honorable Mention

© 2019 S.G. Liput
649 Followers and Counting

Circle (2015)

Tags

Drama, Mystery, Sci-fi, Thriller

Someone must die one minute from now.
You lack any power on why, when, and how.
But someone must die, and it could be you,
Unless you choose somebody else.
But who?

You don’t know a soul as you look all around.
They’re nothing but strangers, their eyes on the ground,
For they have the same choice, deciding who dies,
And may well have voted for your own demise.

So who will you pick, knowing death is no joke?
The seediest? Noisiest? Least of the woke?
Will you choose at random, no malice or spite?
And if you survive, then does that make it right?

Ten seconds to lose,
So judge them and choose.
_____________________

MPAA rating:  Not Rated (should be R for plentiful language)

This is my contribution to MovieRob’s Genre Grandeur for September, which focused on Ensemble Films.

If an ensemble means that the entire cast are on equal footing with no clear main characters, then few films match that description as closely as Circle, a sci-fi chamber piece currently available on Netflix. I have MovieRob to thank for even alerting me to this low-profile film’s existence, and it’s a fine example of a simple premise expertly executed.

Partially inspired by 12 Angry Men, the plot can be summed up in one sentence: a group of fifty people wake up standing in a circle, unable to move or touch each other else they die, and they discover they collectively decide who dies every two minutes. That is practically the whole movie, people standing in a circle debating who should be the next to die. Yet that simple, disturbing idea turns out to be something intense and thought-provoking from start to finish, buoyed by a talented cast of totally unfamiliar actors who give no clue as to who will survive.

After the disorientation of coming to grips with what’s happening, assumed to be an alien experiment of some kind, the deliberation among the “survivors” illustrates how easily people judge each other, delving into such a diversity of social debates, from race to gender to religion. While some of the stressed characters seem to act rash and stupid at times, the film lets the characters’ words and actions speak for themselves, not judging them but allowing them (and the audience) to judge each other. As the bodies keep dropping, a major split concerns the presence of a young girl and a pregnant woman, half the group believing one of them deserves to be the last one standing while others see them as obstacles to their own chance at survival. The film asks, without a clear answer, how evil is the desire to live?

While laden with far too much profanity for my liking, Circle is nonetheless a fascinating study into human nature. The deaths, carried out by a lightning strike, have shock value, always unpredictable in their selection, yet are mercifully bloodless. Some of the logistics aren’t 100% clear, such as how people make their choice with an implant in their hand. And while I would have liked some last-minute twist (or rather a different twist), its final scene is more about sparking conversation, theory, and ethical soul-searching than providing a satisfying end. Compelling in its moral grayness, Circle is an ensemble thriller that asks uncomfortable questions through an alarming, improbable situation as only science fiction can.

 

Rank:  List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
648 Followers and Counting