Month: January 2022

I had thought I had watched this film before but it left no impression on me. A second watch didn’t do much to alleviate that feeling. The story of Edie Sedgwick, an heiress who was best known as one of Andy Warhol’s Superstars who died at a young age because of her drug abuse, isn’t very interesting, at least as shown in this film. It portrays her as a poor little rich girl whose life follows a rather predictable trajectory, used and discarded by any of the men in her life. Sienna Miller does do an admirable job in portraying Sedgwick, from her highs to her lows. Comparing pictures from the time portrayed, the two are almost indistinguishable from each other.

After the mute wife of a movie theater owner ‘dies of fright’, pathologist Vincent Price discovers an internal creature crushed her spine because she was unable to scream her fright away. He theorizes everyone has one of these creatures residing within them and names it the Tingler. There is a lot of silly terrorizing when the Tingler that was removed from the woman’s spine escapes its cage. The original run of the film included a couple of gimmicks including buzzers being attached to some seats in the theater to be activated during particularly tense scenes. While it’s unfortunate that that can’t be replicated for home viewing, there is a great scene with bright red blood flowing in an otherwise black and white film that just shines on a newer television.  

An abused Ojibwa teen murders his romantic rival, witnessed only by his cousin whom he coerces into helping cover the crime. In the future, the boy has hidden most aspects of his earlier life, only utilizing bits when it furthers his career as a businessman. His cousin on the other hand has spent most of his life in and out of jail. After his most recent stint, he attempts to come clean to his participation in that earlier crime. It’s a suffocatingly dark tale, reflecting on cycles of abuse and the human shells that are left behind. Michael Greyeyes’s portrayal of the cold-hearted adult is haunting. He has built a new life, pulling on a mask whenever it’s needed, but is never free of his past.

Aspiring actor Robert Townsend dreams of his big break, but is worried that being cast as a stereotype in an exploitation film isn’t the way he wants to make it. Interspersed into this tale are fantasy vignettes satirizing other aspects of the film industry told from a Black perspective. Co-written and also featuring Keenan Ivory Wayans, a lot of these bits are similar to some seen in In Living Color. Though they are almost all humorous, I somewhat wish the sketches were nixed and the focus was entirely on the Black actor’s experience in Hollywood. The entire film is less than an hour and a half and it feels like a longer story was sold short.

Henry Fonda visits his insurance company to borrow money from his policy to pay for his wife’s dental work. The employees there report him as being the same man who has robbed the office twice before. Fonda’s life, and those of his family members, spirals downward as he awaits trial and circumstantial evidence piles up against him. The claustrophobic pressure is palpable as there is nothing that relatable everyday man Fonda can do to clear his name even while he and everyone who knows him is certain of his innocence. There’s no great exciting action sequences in the film, but the acting and direction are thoroughly effective in their rendering.

Very soon to be released convict Jim Belushi escapes from jail in order to see the Cubs play in the World Series. On the way, he stumbles across uptight executive Charles Grodin’s filofax and for reasons unknown, takes over the latter’s life. I watched this because of the Cubs connection but there’s sadly barely any baseball shown in the film. Instead, it’s all about Belushi’s hijinks as he ruins Grodin’s life. For some reason, everyone in the film seems to treat Belushi as an attractive, lovable scamp, but there’s no actual evidence shown supporting this. It’s somehow billed as a comedy yet is almost completely unfunny.