Frank's Movie Log

Marinates a Frank Henenlotter plot in a slew of genre trappings, then spoils it with some awkward wire-fu action and an unfortunate lack of humor. The bird’s-eye shot of Annabelle Wallis running through her house left me wishing director James Wan would make a straight giallo.

Commentary watch. Screenwriter Roger Ebert proves entertaining and enlightening.

My favorite anecdote shed light on how director Russ Meyer achieved the film’s unusual tone. According to Ebert, Meyer convinced the performers they were playing a straight drama. When some expressed concern about the film’s comical nature, Meyer assuaged them with earnest discussions about their character’s motivations in each scene. I love it.

And Ebert can’t find Pam Grier either, leading me to believe she’s not present in the final cut.

A satirized Valley of the Dolls. The story follows an all-girl rock-and-roll trio and their manager, who head to Los Angeles. There, they succumb to fame, sex, drugs, and murder. Continue reading...

Clive Owen plays Jack, an aspiring writer who takes a job as a croupier in a London casino. He soon decides the job would make an excellent book. But his protagonist’s perverse addiction to watching people lose bleeds into Jack’s sense of morality. Complicating matters, a mysterious punter played by Alex Kingston offers Jack a lucrative but dangerous proposition. Continue reading...

Two girls traveling on an overnight train cross paths with two dangerous young men. What begins as sleazy exploitation escalates to a brutal rape sequence. It’s a Last House on the Left remake I didn’t see coming. But, by that point, the film had demonstrated enough competence that I grit my teeth and endured. I’m glad I did. Though structured as a rape-revenge picture, the ending proffers an acerbic condemnation of class-based justice that haunted me. Worth watching if you’re up for the challenge.

Bob is an aging hood turned compulsive gambler. He drives a nice car, wears nice clothes and always has money in his pocket. He keeps a foot in the underworld but maintains a friendship with the local police chief. But Bob’s luck is running out. Facing bankruptcy, he hatches a desperate plan to rob a coastal casino. Continue reading...

Andy, a young Vietnam draftee believed killed-in-action, returns home to grateful parents in a small Florida town. Though he appears fine on the outside, Andy is… different. Detached, icy, unfeeling and possessed with a terrible desire to kill. Continue reading...

In his autobiography, The Friedkin Connection, director William Friedkin chronicles the improbable path to his debut feature, a musical comedy starring Sonny and Cher. Continue reading...

Ingmar Bergman directs this story of three women sharing a maternity hospital room. The monologue-laden script lacks visual action. Bergman compensates by filling the screen with close-ups and the performers rise to the challenge. Still, the trite ending underwhelmed. Eva Dahlbeck’s final collaboration with Bergman.

Keanu Reeves plays Johnny Utah, an FBI agent fresh out of Quantico assigned to the Los Angeles robbery division. He’s paired with a gruff veteran partner, Pappas, played by Gary Busey. Together they tackle a years-long series of bank robberies. Pappas harbors a much-maligned theory that the perpetrators are surfers and Johnny believes him. Johnny goes undercover, posing as a surfer and finding a friend in the charismatic Bodhi, played by Patrick Swayze. Of course, Bodhi’s behind the robberies, and Johnny’s soon in too deep. Continue reading...