Frank's Movie Log

Brie Larson deserves better. She’s a rare performer whose innate charisma can smooth over a film’s rough edges. Captain Marvel has many. Consider the film’s first quarter. An exposition-laden opening meanders to a surprisingly cheap-looking set piece on an alien world. The script proffers a mystery around Larson’s character’s identity, but it doesn’t engage. Larson does. Continue reading...

Debut feature for both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. Tracy plays the beloved ace pitcher for a prison baseball team. He’s the sort of inmate who, after returning to prison following a failed escape, assures the warden he’ll give notice before his next attempt. Continue reading...

Disappointing sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment sees Brian Donlevy returning in the titular role, but the character has changed. A bulldog in the first film, this script affords Quatermass little agency. Continue reading...

Clive Barker’s debut feature. Frustrated with her effete husband and sedate lifestyle, a woman schemes to aide a former lover on the run from sadomasochistic creatures from another dimension summoned by a magical puzzle box. As one such creature says, “We have such sights to show you!” Continue reading...

An unengaging adaptation of Seán O’Casey’s play about a poor Dublin family undone by an unexpected windfall during the Irish Civil War. Hitchcock limits his formal rigor to constructing long takes which—combined with the monologue-heavy script—give the sense of watching a filmed stage performance. The film even drops O’Casey’s final gut-punch scene. Often ignored in Hitchcock’s oeuvre for good reason.

Nicolas Cage plays a logger in the Pacific Northwest living a bucolic life with his girlfriend Mandy. A Manson-like cult invades their home, murders Mandy, and leaves Red for dead. But Red survives and descends on the cult like a hellish spirit of vengeance. Continue reading...

During a late-night make-out session, a suburban teen sees two men carrying a coffin into the neighboring basement. Intrigued, he spies on the nightly goings-on next-door, only to discover his suave new neighbor—played by Chris Sarandon—has fangs. Desperate for help, he turns to the local creature-feature host, an aging horror star played by Roddy McDowall. Continue reading...

On Halloween night in Salem, Massachusetts, a transplanted L.A. teen inadvertently resurrects three witches, played by Midler, Parker, and Najimy. With a single night to live, they attempt to steal the town’s children’s life to extend their existence. Continue reading...

I expected a sleazy giallo and I got a sleazy giallo. The catchy folk-rock theme song? That surprised me. Continue reading...

In scenic Perugia, Italy, a masked killer strangles two female university students, sparking a manhunt. Another student may have recognized the murder weapon, leading to threatening phone calls from the killer. Alarmed, she retreats to a cliff-side villa with four girlfriends, including an American exchange student, played by Suzy Kendall. The killer, of course, follows. Continue reading...