Cinema Basement

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich What scares you in a film? Is it a masked killer jumping out of the darkness with a knife? A ghost appearing in the blink of an eye? Someone having their skin peeled off slowly? There are all kinds of scares in horror. Today, I want to focus on one of the most interesting: psychological horror. A subgenre that lives entirely in the mind. The best ones don’t show us much. They make us do the work. And sometimes, that’s far scarier than anything we could actually see. A work crew is hired to clear asbestos out of the run-down Danvers State Hospital. There’s competition for the job, so Gordon, the crew’s leader, underbids with a two-week estimate—something he knows isn’t realistic. But they get the job. Then he cuts it to a week. Now they have no choice but to grind. And then… something might start happening. There may be something in the dark of Danvers State. Or there may not be. This is the brilliance of  Session 9 . The film lives and dies on i...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich I know Woody Allen is a complicated figure. He is a creep in a lot of ways and some people find his sexual weirdness to be too much. I get that. But on the blog I sometimes like to separate the art from artist. Not always to be sure. Jeepers Creepers will never be covered here because Victor Salva is a useless piece of human garbage. What he did I can't ignore. Allen I can push aside him being weird to cover him now and then. It's hard to write a film blog and not mention a Woody Allen film now and then. The man has some bangers. And I've always wanted to cover this film. The concept is so interesting and Allen post 2000 is fertile ground for Forgotten Film Friday. So let's look at the film and not Allen himself.  Melinda and Melinda is a dual narrative about a woman named Melinda, an underrated and brilliant Radha Mitchell, who shows up unexpectedly at a dinner party in New York. The film questions if life is inherently tragic or comic a...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich So this was not the big start of John Travolta's career. That would be the classic sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. But this did elevate Travolta to another level. For any of you going oh come on. This silly movie with a disco soundtrack? Come on, Brooks. Just wait. Have you ever actually seen this? This isn't about disco. Disco just happens to be the music of choice. This about the kind of people who are kings at the dance clubs and then losers the rest of the time. There is a lot of darkness and truth in this film. So if you've never seen it please. Do yourself a flavor and check it out. Just watch it and then come back to read this.  This is a movie about the different types of people we become between our real lives and our weekend lives. Tony Manero is a regular working class guy in a Brooklyn neighborhood, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with his loving but at times overbearing family. He lives in the shadow of his priest brother. ...

 Get your dancing shoes on! Order a Royale with Cheese! Blow millions in an overblown sci-fi disaster built around a weird Hollywood religion! Because for the month of June we are discussing the filmography of the one and only John Travolta. A man saved from being a laughing stock in the early '90s by a director making one of the greatest American masterpiece. A man who then had a stunning run of films before blowing all his goodwill not once but twice. But we of course do not disparage the great John Travolta. We want to celebrate him like we do with all of our monthly subjects. 

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Lasse Hallstrom is one of those directors I think is incredibly talented but his films normally don't do a thing for me. There just always that comes up short for me, whether its the story or how its shot or the acting or something. Most people will know Hallstrom as the director of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, the breakout role of Leonardo Dicaprio. That is probably my favorite of his films. I know everyone loves Chocolat. Great, enjoy, I think it's lame. But today let's discuss his follow up to The Cider House Rules, his film from 1999 which did very well come awards season, and Chocolat. Both of these films did very well, especially The Cider House Rules. The big reward it got was Best Supporting Actor for Michael Caine. It also won Best Adapted Screenplay for John Irving. This isn't fair to Cider House Rules but I think it's overrated as far as nominations go. 1999 is one of the greatest years in cinema and really? We nominate...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Sometimes the Academy is right on the money. Occasionally I am confused on why a movie doesn't seem to hit when it comes to awards season. The early trailers come out and it seems inevitable this thing will be an awards player. No doubt in anyone's mind this is an Oscar player. Here's an awards film. This was the case when the first trailers for Amelia came out. A biopic about the world famous aviator starring two time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank? This thing can't miss. Spoiler alert. It missed. Amelia didn't crash and burn when it came to awards seasons. It didn't get off the runway. OK. I'm done with the plane puns. So the rest of the article is cleared for takeoff. Ok. Now I'm done. The first problem is the movie is just kind of boring. Nothing really happens beyond just the beats of her life. There is nothing that feels cinematic about it. Mira Nair is a wonderful person I'm sure but her direction just comes ...

 The Academy Awards. That time of the year when everyone debates what movies are truly the best and there is never a consensus and no one is ever happy. A movie can be incredibly popular and then it wins a bunch of Oscars and suddenly it's overrated and not very good or downright bad. It happens every year. But for the month of April let's take a look at those films that had Oscars on their mind and instead fell flat on their faces. Now Oscar Bait is a term that can also be applied to winners or films that did score a bunch of nominations. For example Bradley Cooper's film Maestro is very much an Oscar Bait movie even though it had a decent awards season. I want to talk about the films that did nothing. That were early contenders then either faded away eventually or just plain crashed and burned. Oscar Bait's biggest failures. What wrong here with these? Was the movie poor? Did something else just have a dominant run? Or were politics involved? Maybe all of the above. S...

A retrospective by Brooks Rich Let's kick off the spooky season with a bona fide classic. I love the horror genre, but not much really scares or creeps me out. Most horror films I just watch and enjoy. However, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is one of those that really gets under my skin, and not just because the Sawyer family are eating people. The way Tobe Hooper shoots the film gives it an almost documentary feel. If you have never seen 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' you should probably fix that immediately. Do I need to explain what it's about? A group of '70s kids is driving across Texas in a van and runs afoul of the Sawyer family, including the man himself, Leatherface. It's a classic of the horror genre and one of the pioneers of the '70s and '80s horror boom. The film has a reputation for being sickeningly bloody and violent, but that is not true. It's essentially a bloodless film, which makes it even more horrifying. Most of the violence...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich I decided to extend John Candy month for a bit as I had some personal issues come up. So just wrapping up some film I wanted to cover. Works for me. Just an excuse to keep talking about a master like Candy.  Steve Martin is Neil Page, a marketing executive who is flying from New York to Chicago for Thanksgiving. While trying to hail a cab he trips over a large trunk and has his taxi stolen by Del Griffith, the immortal John Candy, who ends up being one of Neil's seat mates on the plane. Bad weather in Chicago strands them in Wichita. Determined to make up for ruining Neil's travel plans, Del swears to get Neil home to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving. Hilarity ensues.  I mean come on. Who doesn't love Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? This is Candy's best film and I don't think that's a hot take. Sure some people might vote for Uncle Buck but not me. My vote is for this masterpiece of '80s comedy. It is also John Hughes best fi...

A retrospective by Azzam Abdur-Rahman When Brooks asked me if I had any movie in mind for John Candy month I honestly only had one in mind, Only The Lonely. This film I related too so much but due to my life I just didn't feel comfortable discussing it. It became a weird albatross I was carrying, I hadn't written anything for the blog in a while and I wanted to contribute something but what I honestly couldn't tell you. I worried I would end up on a Lance Bangs-ish review that became less and less a review of the movie and more a musing on the struggles of losing a talented actor/comedian too soon to their own vices. I worried I like many other months wouldn't have a damn thing to say. Then last night after seeing the latest Mission Impossible I returned home to a sea of dog vomit and disappointment. It was literal dog vomit. 2 hours well into 3am I cleaned as my dog and I lay in misery at our lot in life. After commuting a task that was truncated by more vomit and...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Air traffic controller Jack Chester (John Candy) is given paid time off when he nearly causes two airline disasters. He takes his family down to Florida for a vacation. Hijinks ensue because its '80s comedy and Candy ends up challenging a pompous Richard Crenna to a yacht race to close out the summer.  This is a movie that has been forgotten to time in the grand scheme of Candy's career. Even with Carl Reiner directing it does have the same name recognition as some of Candy's other works. But I think it's a solid entry in his filmography. He plays a great everyman who we have no problem rooting for. The slobs versus snobs relationship he has with Crenna works like a charm and he genuinely seems like a good father and husband. Candy was always great at playing both the everyman and the aloof goofball. Sometimes he'll even play both. His character of Jack Chester in this is a good example of that. At times Jack is the goofy comic relief...

 What can you say about John Candy? He was a comic genius who was taken from us too soon. There were a lot of comedic heavyweights of the eighties and nineties but Candy stood above most of them. If there is a Mount Rushmore of comedy I imagine John Candy would be on it. For the month of July we are honoring this comic genius. 

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...

A retrospective by Brooks Rich I'm back from hiatus. Had to regroup and find my creative center. Let's kick the blog back off with a weird romantic drama from 1980 that stars Gary Busy as a dunk tank clown and Robbie Robertson from The Band as his partner at a carnival.  Frankie is a dunk tank clown. Patches sells the balls people throw to dunk Frankie. Donna wants to escape small town life. Together the three of them form an odd love triangle set among the carny life of early '80s America.  Sometimes we feature a film on Forgotten Film Friday that is forgotten for a reason. I get why this film has faded into obscurity. It is a weird little movie with an unsettling tone. Gary Busey is a dunk tank clown and this is not part of the slasher movie boom of the '80s. The sexual politics of this film have not aged that well either. Jodie Foster was around eighteen when she made this movie and although that's not illegal it still has an ew factor.  But there is something ab...

   A retrospective by Brooks Rich One of my favorite sub-genres in fiction is magic. I love a good story about a magician - they tend to follow similar story beats to the con man genre. Cop shows usually have an episode where a magician is the killer and the hero has to match wits with him. Magicians can either be the heroes or the villains. Even when they are the heroes, there is always a slight edge to them. They aren't squeaky clean. Not every film I cover as a forgotten film is a lost masterpiece. This film is not a cinematic marvel. In fact, it is fairly routine - not awful but more TV movie quality. It is the debut of director Caleb Deschanel, who is a cinematographer of some significance. He is perfectly serviceable, but he wastes his cast with a workman-like style. It is forgotten because it is not that interesting looking. It’s seriously lacking in style. I won't reveal too much of the plot - it is fun to see it unfold. Basically, young Danny Masters tries to follow i...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Joe Pesci is Leon "Bernzy" Bernstein, a freelance photographer in 1940s New York. He is known for out scooping the competition and always finding the perfect shot, especially murder scenes. Night club owner Kay (Barbara Hershey) asks him to look into a man who has been hustling her for money. Bernzy is soon involved in a murder plot with ties to the mob and gas prices.  This was Pesci's first leading role since winning the Academy Award for playing Tommy in Goodfellas. It was an attempt to captizilaie on his fame from Goodfellas. Sadly for Pesci and writer/director Howard Franklin the film was a commercial bomb. It only returned about three million of it's fifteen million dollar budget. This is truly a forgotten film as honestly I only saw it for the first time recently.  Sometimes I will watch an obscure movie to see if it is worth covering as a forgotten film. I have seen plenty of unknown films I didn't think were worth being fea...

 A retrospective by Forest Humphrey Trigger Warning: “Wind River” depicts and deals heavily with the subjects of sexual violence, self harm and drug abuse.  2017's “Wind River” forms a kind of thematic trilogy with writer/director Taylor Sheridan's previous two films “Sicario” and “Hell or High Water”. Sheridan has a knack for this kind of “modern western” and takes his work to dark places. If you've seen the aforementioned films you know you're in for a gritty and tense thriller that is not afraid to deal with heavy subject matter. On the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, hunter Cory (Jeremy Renner) discovers the body of a local young woman in the snow, miles from anywhere. When the tribal police investigate, they discover the woman had been raped, and contact the FBI. They send one rookie agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to assist in finding out what happened.  The film's plot is as straightforward as they come, but everything else around it is what I believe...

 A review by Forrest Humphrey In the aftermath of “Avengers: Endgame”, Thor decides going on space adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy is just what he needs to get back into his groove. Its on one of these wacky scenes that the Guardians get a distress call, one of particular interest to Thor. Something out there is going across the universe killing gods, and New Asgard might be next. So Thor parts with the Guardians and returns to Earth to confront this new threat, discovering his old flame Jane Foster has also somehow rebuilt Mjolnir after Hela destroyed it in “Ragnarok”. Now Thor, Jane, Valkyrie and Korg have to deal with a new villain, Gorr the God Butcher, before he finishes doing what his name implies. Up front, I think this is a mix of things I like more than the last film and some I like less. Up front, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are still here to put in work, and Natalie Portman's return comes along with what is hands down her best outing in these movie...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Middle aged childless couple Richard and Rachel are desperate to have a child. They have exhausted every option it seems, fertilization treatment, adoption, everything. In a last desperate effort they ask their niece to be an egg donor, which she immediately agrees to.  Writer director Tamara Jenkins is someone I don't think gets her fair shake. I find honesty in her films. Her slice of life stories feel real, with the perfect blend of comedy, drama, and a little bit of cringe. Much like real life. I'm a big fan of her previous films Slums of Beverly Hills and The Savages. Seek out both especially The Savages. It has the immortal Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it. But I think Private Life is Jenkins best film so far.  Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn are fantastic in this. Hahn gives the performance of her career in this. She is astonishing as Rachel, showing the vulnerability sorrow, hope, and anger that comes with the situation. Jenkins is grea...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Sheet music salesman Arthur Parker (Steve Martin) begins to have an affair with a schoolteacher in 1934. His wife does everything she can to win him back. When Arthur breaks off the affair, the schoolteacher becomes a prostitute. But fate may reunite her and Arthur. Life is tough in the depression. Sometimes the characters need an escape, even if it's into a fantasy music and dance number. Herbert Ross' Pennies From Heaven was a box office bomb in 1981, recouping just a fraction of it's 22 million dollar budget. The film was critically acclaimed and even gained an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay. But the audiences just didn't turn up for this one. It makes sense. Entering 1981 Steve Martin was a comedy all-star, whether it be guesting on Saturday Night Live, his standup, or the 1979 classic The Jerk. Audiences weren't ready to see him play a pretty unlikeable guy in a weird musical where the song and dance numbers are fan...