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Reviews
Saltburn (2023)
To the Manor Warned
This is a film best watched alone lest you be distracted by the intakes of breath by the person setting next to you, for it's not without some uncomfortable scenes. It's a unique take on a buddy movie as the handsome and rich gentry boy takes pity on the poor scholarship boy with a muffled Scouser accent and whose parents are addicts back in Liverpool. After his old man has just succumbed to his habits, rich boy invites poor boy to his majestic period mansion (no pun intended) for the Summer. The rest of the film thrives on ambiguity since the poor loner boy (played brilliantly by Barry Keoghan) has already ensnared us with sympathy back in Oxford - not even able to afford a round of drinks in the King's Arms - and as a fish out of water, how now is he going to survive in a world of eccentric richies in a sprawling mansion fit for a King. But it's a world where everything is not as it seems and it all unfolds in an intriguing and haunting way. The language too is laden with such ambiguity - you make my blood run cold is a case in point. Great film but won't be to everyone's taste - again no pun intended.
I viaggiatori della sera (1979)
Retirement in Dystopia
This film is set in a world where middle aged people are put out to pasture, to a sinister retirement village, to solve the over population crisis. Foul-mouthed DJ, Orso is not too happy about this, nor his still pretty wife - who have both reached age where they must depart society, and set off for village number 27, where a few of their boomer friends - some quite frisky - are also reluctantly destined. They are driven there by their photogenic but cold children, who seem to be very afraid of the young authorities who are enforcing these ageist rules. The film begins with a lot of humour but eventually takes a haunting turn, though the horror is always understated but lurking insipidly in the background. Surprised this film does not have more reviews - it's well worth seeking out.
The Reflecting Skin (1990)
Beautiful cinematography, original
*spoilers*
This is a stark movie populated with unhappy inhabitants in dilapidated homes set against acres of gorgeous golden corn, all told through some brilliant cinematography. We see the bleak events unfold through the eyes of a sullen but imaginative child. A sad and broken neighboring widow is thought to be a vampire, while slick smooth-talking greased-haired leather clad guys in a shiny black Cadillac - who are likely child abductors and child murderers - are not even charged by the young man for gas, when they pull into his father's junkyard/gas pumps. It's still hard to comprehend from a plot perspective why Seth did not share the truth with the one-eyed sheriff when he witnessed his young friend - whose dead body was later recovered - being abducted by the young men in the shiny Cadillac, and later let the widow meet her certain demise when she hitched a ride in the same car. It's certainly a mortally ambiguous movie. But in true Greek tragedy fashion wisdom finally descends upon the young man after a great price has been paid.