Frank's Movie Log

Nightmares plague a group of suburban teens. A common figure haunts their dreams. He wears a tattered fedora hat and striped sweater. Burn marks cover his face and he has razor blades for finger nails. Continue reading...

Between body horrors Rabid and The Brood, director David Cronenberg made a pit stop in the world of minor-league drag racing. The film follows a crew travelling the northwest circuit. They’re sponsored by a motor-oil company repped by John Saxon. Conflict arises between the team’s drive to win and Saxon’s corrupt motives. Continue reading...

Ken Russell’s debut feature. James Booth plays Jim, a deckchair attendant in a dying English seaside resort. Alita Naughton plays his charming girlfriend, an American journalist who’s showing signs of outgrowing their small town. With his world threatened, Jim concocts a scheme to stage a film festival starring a French beauty. Continue reading...

Chris Sheffield plays Harry, an aimless young man living in the isolated community of Block Island. He lives with his aging father Tom, his sisters long since having departed for life on the mainland. He returns home one night to find Tom standing outside in a stupor, staring at the neighbor’s dog. Tom shrugs it off, but Harry senses something’s wrong. The next morning, Tom is missing. When he turns up, Tom struggles to account for the time he’s been gone. Harry’s investigation into his father’s strange behavior leads him down a similar path of blackouts and missing time. Spoilers follow. Continue reading...

Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie play an estranged married couple. They head to their lake house for a weekend getaway. Bad things happen. Spoilers follow. And please, if you watch it on Netflix, watch it in its native Norwegian. Continue reading...

Nicolas Cage plays a truffle farmer living in the Oregon wilderness. His lone companion is his truffle pig. One night, a pair of assailants break into Cage’s cabin, assault him and steal his pig. The search for said pig leads Cage to Portland, where we discover what led to his life of isolation. Continue reading...

Wes, what have you done? You return to your independent roots after two studio efforts (Deadly Blessing and Swamp Thing) and deliver a tepid, inane mess. Was this a paycheck gig? Was the film wrested away from you? The truth fades, but your “written and directed by” credit remains. Continue reading...

Christmas Eve night. Sarah, a young pregnant widow, sits alone in an isolated house. Tomorrow, her boss will take her to the hospital to deliver. But tonight, still grieving the recent death of her husband, she wants solitude. A knock at the door. A woman outside begs to use Sarah’s phone. Sarah demurs. The woman insists, calling Sarah by name. Alarmed, Sarah refuses. The woman leaves but Sarah soon catches sight of her outside a large window. The mysterious woman pounds the glass, then vanishes. Soon the woman is inside, and Sarah must fight for her and her unborn child’s lives. Continue reading...

John Travolta plays a Foley engineer recording wind sounds for a low budget horror movie. A nearby car blows a tire and crashes into a lake. Travolta captures the audio on tape, only to discover he’s stumbled upon a far-reaching conspiracy executed by a sinister John Lithgow. Continue reading...

Hmm… How to offer a sense of Trouble Every Day without spoiling it? I spent the first fifteen to twenty minutes wondering what was happening. We’re thrust into a story already in its second act. As we get our bearings, the film coalesces into a meditation on self-destructive behavior with allegories of drug use and infidelity. It explores this theme from two perspectives: one a woman played by Béatrice Dalle and a man played by Vincent Gallo. The differing reactions from their partners proffers a commentary on contemporary sexual politics. To this end, the film works. But the metaphor it uses necessitates extreme gore and sexual violence. Continue reading...