Reviews

Dear sir: You have put out in the unwelcoming harshness of commercialization a movie that combines psychosocial realism with fantasy. Your main support has been a lore of werewolf movies that goes back to Henry Hull in London and the by now easily recognizable frame of Sundance independence from Hollywood. The outcome? A stark drama about a young fellow who reassesses his life as a misfit. Here and there, werewolf attacks. A sort of chocolate chip cookie, BLACKOUT with the wandering structures of so many pictures in the same genre creates a drama with horrific elements that could have been a good horror movie; e.g. The wolfman causes a massacre . Next scene: a lengthy talk between his love interest and her boyfriend in her kitchen. Tension and suspense mysteriously vanished.

On the plus side: technically speaking, Fessenden directs better than in his previous works.

Cast: The absolute protagonist of BLACKOUT is Alex Hurt, son of the great William Hurt and his spitting image. The role is demanding and he lives up to it. The supporting team includes veterans like Barbara Crampton, Marshall Bell and James LeGros, whom fans of the eighities' fantasy/horror will enjoy spotting and naming.

Not a greatly original addition to the lycanthropic subgenre ("The Cursed" for one is better) but a pretty watchable movie.

Rarely have I enjoyed watching a miniseries as I did with "Mr Bates vs the Post Office". I went into the first episode just because I'm a fan of the wonderful Mr Toby Jones. Honestly, I am a Spaniard that checks the news daily and I had never learned about this story that is Recent History. The themes it involves are the omnipotence of the institutions of the State, the blind worship of new technologies, the sheepish acceptance of injustice and the abjection of being criminally processed, losing your property, your health, going to prison... Lots of food for thought but also heartwarming solidarity and tenacity in purchase of ultimate justice. The cast is uniformly good, both famous actors like Jones and Ian Hart and the rest, whom I hadn't seen previously. The direction is realistic and practical, aware that the audience might prefer to watch a story with romance, adventure, fantasy and so on and this is a drama about people who sit down and converse, most often in that superpolite way that is typically British.

The actors. I'd like to stress Toby Jones, perfectly comfortable in the shoes of postman Alan Bates; an almost unrecognizable Ian Hart, with a bald head and glasses, and, last but not least, Monica Dolan, who plays the leading female role as a woman whose world crumbles around her while she naively tries to figure out what went wrong and how. Otherwise, an equally adept ensemble of performances, natural and believable.

I might have a couple of minor qualms with MBVTPO but, all in all and simply put, an excellent miniseries that I dare to recommend. I'm sure it'll get to you.

I must confess I plunged into this netlix job rather unaware of what lay ahead. Therefore, it is difficult to claim offense when the thing came to an abrupt end. It was a short and I found out the hard way, but with a feeling of relief as well. After all, I wasn't especially enjoying what I had seen, so out of sight, out of mind. The very bare plot juggles demonic possession, maternity and boogie in a hurry that mostly denotes a flair of 70s nostalgia (mostly Dario Argento and John Travolta) and a slavery to well trodden tropes of both horror and musical movies. The outcome is not remarkably outstanding, just another netflix whim of a genre, that of horror, that requires imagination and sense of humor. Most recent case in point: Adult Swim Yule Log. This one, I do recommend.

Melancholy is the key word in this perhaps most beautiful yokai movie. The yokai (incarnated spirits of nature) may play second fiddle to a more down-to-earth plot about friendship versus love, but the fantastic atmosphere is there from the start. Handsomely shot outdoors, the valley (and of course, the eponymous pond) remain the main centre of interest, if only visual, as well as its ultimate fate. Plus music by Isao Tomita. Lovely movie. Give it a spin.

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Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I sat down through this painful seriocomedy about the Famiglia in Brooklyn. It never manages to be really funny. Black humor requires balancing gross and witty, and the latter is lacking in spades. As for the admittedly cool cast, they have all known better days. For instance, Pantoliano and Tilly in "Bound". Kevin Pollak is a unique actor with a peculiar physique whose most interesting work by far is his youtube podcast the Kevin Pollak Chat Show. Joe Mantegna should have known better than producing this. It's so much better to appear in a cameo in a good movie than to star in a mediocre one, which is what he does in "Hoods". Last but not least, notice that Mantegna's father, important character in the plot, is played by no less than Seymour Cassel, but you won't find his name in the credits. He might have needed the money but sure as hell he didn't want to be remembered for his portrayal of this raving paranoid godfather. In short, this is not "The Sopranos".

The "raison d'être" of this entertaining and occasionally amusing comedy is to see the 3 "grands gueules" (Marielle, Noiret and Rochefort) working together as a team, which they do in spades. I know, it's not a "film de qualité" like other more well known flicks (Monsieur Hire, Le mari de la coiffeuse, Ridicule, L'homme du train) directed by Patrice Leconte. Instead, you get a humble but bubbly concoction to honor the many travails of a theatrical troupe (like "Noises Off"). Best gag: Philippe Noiret, one of the greatest actors of the XX Century, crippled by stage fright. 3 and a half out of 5.

I last saw it a long time ago, 30 years or so, but I can't help laughing whenever I remember the scene with Alex Karras "coming out of the closet".