Age before your time

 OLD (2021)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A strangely beautiful and mystical beach area surrounded by huge cliffs where one ages considerably faster than norm is a good idea for any film, especially for M. Night Shyamalan. Let's not repeat what might be said with such a tentatively exciting movie idea, but you know the drill. It is an original idea (based on a French graphic novel) that leads nowhere, for a while, and then picks up only in the last fifteen minutes. 

A vacationing couple, Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), who dabbles in insurance, and his wife Prisca (a memorable Vicky Krieps), who has an unfortunate ovarian tumor, are on the verge of divorce. They bring their two kids, 11-year old Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and 6-year-old Trent (Nolan River), and the parents try to appear normal despite constant shouting arguments. They are accompanied to the aforementioned beach area with a schizophrenic doctor (Rufus Sewell) and his very young wife who has a calcium deficiency, not to mention the doctor's mother who has a heart condition. There is already a rapper on the beach named Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), who is hemophiliac, and they all find his girlfriend show up dead from a presumed drowning. The doctor immediately thinks the rapper killed her and and tries to slash him with a knife only to find the cuts heal themselves! Suddenly the kids start aging rapidly within the hour and the adults start getting wrinkles. Guy has wrinkles and his vision gets blurry. Prisca starts getting deaf. You get the idea - everybody is aging but why is this happening? That questions remains elusive.

"Old" just made me laugh hysterically at times because the situations build around this concept are more absurd than horrific. When Trent becomes a teenager just after the first reel, he has sex with one girl named Kara (Eliza Scanlen) and she is pregnant and delivers a baby who dies before the second reel has truly begun. Situations become chaotic but they are more funny than scary. The doctor keeps asking what movie Marlon Brando starred in with Jack Nicholson ("Missouri Breaks," of course) and begins waving that knife at everyone. Kara has the idea of climbing the cliffs to escape but she falls to her death. One other woman stops getting seizures but then they violently start again. One other guy decides to swim past the cliffs but drowns. M. Night Shyamalan has a roving camera with long takes showing these people suffering but it is all too much, too soon, too insanely hyperactive. Rather than aging every half-hour, what if it was every 2 hours? This would allow time for character development, to get to know these people beyond just their rapid aging process. 

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

"Old" then proceeds to leave us only with Guy and Prisca on the island beach after everyone else dies, once again aging and seeking forgiveness from each other. It is these scenes that strike a true emotional chord and shows that maybe fewer beachgoers would have made this film more effective. When their kids, still living who become adults, discover a coral reef and swim past it, it leads to an unexpected finish involving a pharmaceutical company! I was floored by how watchable and emotional the scenes were between Guy and Prisca and Maddox and Trent. Unfortunately, that is too little and too late. "Old" is just too unintentionally funny and ridiculous to warrant such a strong finish.  

On Golden Pond for horror fans

 THE VISIT (2015)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Just when you thought it was unsafe to see an M. Night Shyamalan film (at least after "The Happening"), his true colors burst and delivered a well-made chiller that will keep you twisting and squirming in your chair while watching it. "The Visit" is a terrific, sickening horror flick, dependent on that nauseating feeling of impending doom that could seal the fate of the two young siblings in this movie. You want them to survive the unknowing horror that awaits them, and that is a lot easier said than done when you are in a house in the Pennsylvania countryside with eccentric grandparents. 

The movie did not start off well for me, with one older sibling, Becca (Olivia DeJonge), recording and narrating everything with a camera. Becca's younger brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), also records everything and raps, eh, not so wonderfully. Cheery and Divorced Mom (Kathryn Hahn) is sending her kids to spend a week with their grandparents, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), both of whom have not spoken to their daughter in over 15 years. Once the siblings arrive at a Pennsylvania country home, things start to spiral out of control and the movie picks up steam. Nana scratches walls in the middle of the night while being naked! When Pop Pop is at the shed, he doesn't respond at all when Tyler calls him - it turns out there is something stinky in there. Nana goes nuts, hitting herself, when interviewed by Becca particularly when questioned about her daughter - geez, how bad was it that Mom decided to run away from home at an early age? Lights must be out by 9:30 at night, and another rule is to stay away from the basement due to increasing mold. Yes, you guessed it, something unspeakable must be in there.

"The Visit" has moments of alarming terror, and of course there are those "jump scares" though they are not preceded by those cliched string sounds. Scenes where grandma is all on fours as she scurries like a rat under the house's foundation, or when grandma discovers their hidden video camera or, the most alarming moment, when she screams "Yahtzee!" are enough to make your spine tingle and possibly dislocate your shoulder from covering your mouth one too many times. Shyamalan's direction is pointed and assured and makes great visual use of the wintry countryside. I never felt that I was watching rambling hand-held camera viewpoints from kids who believe in shaking a camera, giving audience members reason to reach for the Dramamine. 

Both Deanna Dunagan and reliable pro character actor Peter McRobbie give riveting, intensifying performances - they represent a sort of unnerving twist on the "American Gothic" painting without much irony. I was wary of Ed Oxenbould as the annoying brat but I grew to like him - aren't all young, wannabe rappin' brothers annoying brats? Olivia DeJonge brings a lucid simplicity to Becca - she tries to remain strong amidst this chaotic weeklong stay. When her brother reveals the truth about Becca and how never looks at herself in the mirror when combing her hair, it is honest and heartbreaking at the same time.

"The Visit" is a vintage Shyamalan effort and he succeeds in telling the tale simply without any overwrought music or extraneous shock value. I can forgive the sight of stinky diapers and one too many Tyler raps because the movie envelops you with a certain dread and horrifying moments are accompanied by  silence and no music score. Think of this movie as "On Golden Pond" for horror fans. 

Hector 1, 2, 3

 TIMECRIMES (2007)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Time travel is a sheer impossibility because it is, and always has been, complicated by its illogical pretzel logic. If you go back in time, aren't you already creating a paradox by visiting and trampling on events that have already happened? Is it similar to the novel that suggests stepping on an insect will create a chain reaction of events that ultimately change the past and the future? What is fundamental about "Timecrimes" is that it assumes the internal time logic will persist no matter what you do to change it - it can't be undone. 

Somewhere in a remote, isolated rural part of Spain, a middle-aged man with a slight pot belly named Hector (Karra Elejalde) returns to his new home that is undergoing renovations. He lives with his wife, Clara (Candela Fernández), and they have a very romantic marriage. One cloudy afternoon, Hector sits outside his home on a lounge chair and looks out at the nearby woods with his binoculars. He sees a young nubile woman (Barbara Goenaga) who is seemingly getting undressed. Hector's eyes remain wide open though he never lets on to his wife on what he's seeing. We assume, like Hector, that this woman is with someone for an afternoon sexual rendezvous. As he approaches the area, the woman is naked and laying motionless. Has she been violated? Is she dead? Before one can answer those questions, Hector is stabbed in the arm with a pair of scissors and a man whose head is covered in bandages, the Pink Mummy as it were, leaves the area. Pretty soon Hector seeks refuge in an uninhabited facility where Blondie's "Picture This" is playing in the background. A walkie-talkie conversation with some young scientist (Nacho Vigalondo, the film's writer-director) leads to a silo where Hector discovers that the Pink Mummy is on his tail. A time machine is in this silo and Hector gets in it, goes back a few hours earlier, and finds out that the Pink Mummy is, oh, I would not even disclose that information. 

Watching "Timecrimes" is unnerving, intense and has a moral quandary that will leave you with more questions than answers. The surprises build up and are part of a clockwork design where the filmmakers do not cheat and stick to the unbreakable narrative structure. Suffice to say that Hector, who uses the time machine more than once, creates multiples of himself and just about runs into himself a little too often. They are not face-to-face encounters but they do result in terrifically and unsettling violent encounters involving numerous vehicles. Hector suffers multiple concussions yet keeps getting back up, trying to restore the chain of events and some semblance of normalcy. The Girl he finds in the woods is always there to help our protagonist, unsure of what is happening and yet she suffers the most. Some will criticize the film as being misogynist and somewhat cruel in nature, but the story needs said actions to propel the story forward. Let's say that Hector goes from hero to antihero halfway through the story development, and you might feel less sympathy for our troubled protagonist as the plot unravels. 

"Timecrimes" is Nacho Vigalondo's debut and it is stunning in more ways than one. The cinematography has a dank, claustrophobic and desaturated look, stripped of any color (other than a red vehicle and the Girl's colorful logo on her T-shirt). This makes "Timecrimes" less than inviting and lends it a sense of the forbidden. The finale might give you pause yet it is a fitting reminder that time marches on, unchanged, and our destiny is predetermined by choices we make - you just can't renege on what has already transpired. Think of it as an anti-time travel movie.

Keeping Eyes Wide Open for Kubrick's swan song

 SK13: KUBRICK'S ENDGAME (2024)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Tony Zierra's meticulously constructed and thoroughly researched documentary on Stanley Kubrick's last film, "Eyes Wide Shut," deserves praise to the high heavens. It is not just an average documentary or puff piece, this is an entertaining and thoroughly captivating account of Kubrick's controversial swan song that was reviled by most and praised by a select few. In the last 25 years, it is difficult to know if "Eyes Wide Shut" is something of a cult film or if it has gained a new life as a forgotten masterpiece. Perhaps it will suffer the same fate that befell "Barry Lyndon," a beautiful picture to look at and admire and not much else. That would be a shame and hopefully "SK13" will warrant a revisit from its detractors. I am not one of its detractors, I always loved "Eyes Wide Shut" as a trance-like meditation on marriage and sex but, after seeing this powerhouse of a doco, I want to see Kubrick's film yet again. High praise, indeed. 

"SK13" begins with the criticisms surrounding Kubrick's film and the speculation months prior to its release and following the grand master's death (who knew that Jeffrey Lyons, former film critic for "At the Movies" found it pretentious and tedious). After all the hoopla, Zierra starts to objectively examine dozens of continuity errors, intentional or not (and I would definitely say intentional), throughout "Eyes Wide Shut." Still, the assumption is that members of the film crew thought that Kubrick was getting older and was not as demanding in his perfectionism - during a 2 year film shoot, did he just slip one too many times in filming the same locations and dressing them up as different areas of NYC without noticing the finer details? Why was the Somerton sign for the mansion behind the chain link fence when in fact the previous shot showed at as closer to the front gates? Why do paintings and lamps keep changing positions through different angles in the same rooms? My favorite is when Cruise's character, Dr. Bill Harford, leaves in a cab from the Sonata Cafe that is next door to Gillespie's and travels to the Rainbow costume shop yet it is obvious that Gillespie's is right across the street, thanks to a reverse shot of Harford trying to enter the shop. Or how the same yellow NY cab is seen time and again with the same license plate - was all this part of the effect to accentuate the dream-like state? Is "Eyes Wide Shut" all just a dream?

There is also mention of the exhaustive production details such as the numerous kinds of specific underwear the topless masked women wear in the seemingly Satanic ritual at Somerton. Most telling is Marie Richardson's comments on Kubrick telling her take after take to emote more, to really let it all out as her character makes a pass at Dr. Bill. Rade Šerbedžija, who plays the Rainbow costume shop owner, discusses how Kubrick pooh-poohed Rade's acting skills, claiming that Rade's audition tape shows a better actor. Sydney Pollack, a seasoned director in his own right who played the role of Ziegler, went through 70 takes of just walking across the room. The film's production went on for too long with steadicam operators quitting and being replaced, with Harvey Keitel getting fired for his role as Ziegler (replaced by Pollack) due to being disrespected by Kubrick and standing up to the director, and Jennifer Jason Leigh's role also replaced by the aforementioned Richardson. Clearly, for a 2-year continuous movie shoot, the exhaustion and exasperation set in. Sometimes Kubrick was just waiting for something special to happen while the cameras were rolling. After the film was completed, Zierra tells us that Warner executives and shareholders were not in fact happy with the completed final cut - they were furious with it and thought it was a bad, bad, bad thing. Then there's the revelation, new to me, that Pat Kingsley (Tom and Nicole's publicist) also saw an advanced screening of the film at Kubrick's home in Childwickbury two days before Stanley died. 

"Eyes Wide Shut" was seemingly taken from his hands after Kubrick's death, and allegedly completed by Sydney Pollack and Steven Spielberg. At least we do know with assurance that ILM did step in, inserting those absurd cloaked figures in front of sexual acts at the orgy to prevent it from getting the dreaded NC-17 rating. But was the film more or less complete before Kubrick died? We will never know for sure, though we do know Kubrick tinkered with his films often after a premiere date or even years after completing them. 

Nevertheless, "SK13" makes the case for a reevaluation of "Eyes Wide Shut," to look deeper into its overall meaning and subliminal themes and shot compositions. I am not sure if "Eyes Wide Shut" will ever get the "Room 237" treatment but it just might. "SK13" is exquisitely made and told with complete conviction with some very telling interviews (the late Julian Senior, former Warner Bros. Marketing Executive, at one point tells Zierra to cut the scene where he may have something revealing to say) and Zierra's commanding voice-over narration. It would be a bad, bad thing to ignore this powerful and illuminating documentary. 

Put a Little Love in Your Heart

 SCROOGED (1988)

Reassessment by Jerry Saravia

Umpteenth renditions and adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" have existed since the silent era but a modern-day variation with Bill Murray as a Scrooge-like miser is unusual. Richard Donner's "Scrooged" is also the exception in that it is often crass, mean-spirited and blackly comical yet I was a little more elated by it than I had been when I first saw it. It may be my age but I relate to Murray's Scrooge more than I did before and share his message of universal love where every day can, and should, feel like Christmas. When you are in your teens, a message like that seems forced and counterproductive. Now, it seems genuine and something I slowly believed in ever since.

Make no mistake: this is not the classiest nor one of the best versions of Dickens' novel, not even close (Alistair Sims and George C. Scott rule as the definitive versions). Some of "Scrooged's" humorous takes are not that funny, especially the Richard Pryor joke that will not make sense to anyone who might not even know who Pryor is (sacrilege). Murray is Frank Cross, the president of IBC TV productions who wants to advertise a live-taping of "Scrooge" as if your life depended on it. There is satire there with the TV ads including regaling cameos by Robert Goulet ("A Cajun Christmas") and Lee Majors saving an armed Santa in "The Night the Reindeer Died." The satire hits its over-the-top meter with Bobcat Goldthwait as a worried executive who thinks the latest ad designed by Cross goes too far - well, the executive is hastily fired at a record-breaking 4 minutes! At the soundstage rehearsals, Cross tells a guy to staple antlers on a mouse while possibly trying to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend, Claire (Karen Allen), whom he has not spoken to in 15 years. She calls him Lumpy.

"Scrooged" works best with the satisfying chemistry between Murray and Allen (the flashbacks to their initial encounter and the gift he gives her on Christmas, a set of kitchen knives, are as warm and romantic as you might expect). I also found an unsettling and darkly comical feel to the different ghosts Cross encounters, from the slapstick "Three Stooges"-variety of Carol Kane as a sprightly and improperly violent Ghost of Christmas Present (she almost knocks Frank out with a toaster oven), to some pretty mildly funny exchanges between Frank and his old "dead" boss, to some truly unnerving scenes with the Ghost of Christmas Future where we see Claire as some rich woman who pooh-poohs some Oliver Twist urchins and wears ten pounds of white makeup. Kudos to Alfre Woodard as a female version of Bob Cratchit who has to put up with Frank's taskmaster of a boss (Frank even crumples a drawing made by her son that felt cheap and unnecessary - we are supposed to be on Frank's side through the course of this story and making him that tyrannical is too realistic for this fantasy). Woodard has priceless moments, though, of disbelief over her mean boss and her eyes of wider disbelief towards the end that really help make her character believe in the power of Christmas - we believe it too.  

"Scrooged" fittingly ends with a message of hope and unity and only Bill Murray can make that work and make you believe in Christmas as more than just a consumerist holiday. For this mildly old geezer, the ending makes me want to put a little love in my own heart...every day.  

You will want to visit the North Pole

 THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Swooshing by with elegance and joy in every frame, "The Polar Express" is something of a minor miracle in 21st century Christmas movies - it is actually fun! There is a sense of fun and wonder to it all and, despite shortcomings in the CGI department with face-recognition technology, I still bought the trip and would definitely repeat it.

A young kid lays in bed on Christmas Eve, he is known in the credits as Hero Boy (Daryl Sabara), and suspects that Santa Claus may not exist. His younger sister still believes, but he doesn't. Hero Boy hears something rattling the roof and wonders if it could be Santa's galloping reindeer and those jangling sleigh bells. When he checks the milk and cookies downstairs in his house, they still have not been consumed. Then there is a more substantial rattling and practically the feeling of an earthquake when a train arrives outside his doorstep. It is the Polar Express with its chief conductor (Tom Hanks) asking the kid if he wishes to come on board and go to the North Pole. Reluctantly, he boards this magical-looking train.

Quite a few kids are on board, most still wearing their pajamas and their homes have been personally selected for this magical experience. The destination is the North Pole where they will meet Santa Claus, his reindeer and thousands of elves with a special toy given to one child on the express train. I say express but the train does make a couple of unscheduled stops, like the dozens of caribou blocking the tracks or the dangerous ride through a lake of ice where the railway can't be seen! Heading north will be dangerous with freezing temperatures to boot.

"The Polar Express" is a bit offputting at first with its CGI rubbery faces of adults and children; there is not enough nuance or emotion in their facial expressions. Still, I bought it and was along for the ride. I love the world of the North Pole with its many intricate passageways through its town. I love the giant red toy bag where the kids find themselves in accidentally, or how the elves make their determinations about who is naughty or nice with a final word by the Elf General! I also enjoyed the brief appearances of Hobo who is riding on top of the train cars, looking like some 1930's Depression-Era hobo who has been on this trip before (of course, Hero Boy only imagines he's seeing Hobo who comes equipped with hot coffee and skis).  

My biggest compliment to "The Polar Express" is that it makes me wish I could go to the North Pole. It brings back that youthful feeling, the feeling of being a kid again and wanting to believe in the impossible.  

Don't take over someone's holiday

 THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

Though director Tim Burton did not helm this stop-motion masterpiece of unparalleled imagination (the director is Henry Selick), you still feel it is unmistakably Burton all the way. The kooky, creepy aesthetics aside, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is not just an incredible animated film in its own right, it is also wondrously inventive and oodles of fun for all its 77 minutes. Not one shot is wasted, not any one shot has less detail than expected for stop-motion animation. Everything and everyone moves - motion is consistent in the background as well as the foreground so that you feel you are a part of this strange new world. Strange it is. I am not joking.

The strange new world is Halloween Town where a skeletal Pumpkin King reigns with new surprises and horrors every Halloween. He is Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon), a truly bony skeleton who has long legs that resemble sticks and no eyes in his black sockets. He is tired of Halloween, all the shock and awe has withered away for him. Sally (Catherine O'Hara), a Frankenstein-type creation and a rag doll, feels sorry for Jack. One day, Jack discovers a set of trees in the woods for different portals to other holidays. Thanksgiving is one (with a turkey as its symbol) and a curious Christmas tree symbol as another. Jack enters the Christmas tree portal and falls accidentally into Christmas Town where elves make toys, there is a jolly fat man named "Sandy Claws" (I always laugh at that one), and there is an abundance of snow and merriment. Everything is bright, cheerful and colorful with this crazy notion of putting multi-colored lights around a tree! To us, this is normal but to Jack, this is odd and surreal. Well, you know the rest and I am not joking! You're joking, you're joking, if you have not seen this Burton masterpiece in the last thirty years. Okay, so Jack has three little Ooogie Boogie misfits kidnap Santa so Jack can dress up as St. Nick and give the kids Halloween gifts of the eerie, distasteful kind such as severed heads, a slithering big snake and other deadly toys that chase kids around the house!

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a wickedly riotous, fun-filled and supremely Gothic delight that puts its own stamp on Christmas and still preserves its universal meaning (remember Jack's heart warms up earlier on in his visit to Christmas Town). Jack is not a threat nor does he mean to cause disruption - he just does like all the other denizens of Halloween Town. It takes a stitched-up Sally to save him from complete destruction. Awesomely staged musical numbers ("What's This?" might be my favorite) with memorable characters every step of the way (including the Oogie Boogie Monster and those Draculas playing on a field of ice, not to mention the sad/happy face of the local mayor), no other movie aside from "A Christmas Story" brings me more joy in the Yuletide season than this one. A true keeper. 

Space Oddity

 THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976)

Retrospective by Jerry Saravia

Before 1977's "Star Wars," science-fiction films were of a different breed. They were contemplative, bizarre, intellectual and also entertaining. "Silent Running" often comes to mind, and so does Nicolas Roeg's "The Man Who Fell to Earth." "The Man Who Fell to Earth" is no ordinary science-fiction fantasy and, coming from the mystical hands of Roeg, you can't expect normalcy. Doubly expect the bizarre when casting the androgynous, slender David Bowie as the man who fell to earth.

Thomas Newton (David Bowie) is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth and is left wandering the desert, though we do not know his purpose yet. He appears to be lost and confused and, before you know it, he has wads of cash. Where did he get it? His mission is to acquire wealth beyond $330 Million  through several patents of his own advanced scientific inventions. Essentially, Thomas wants the money to build a spaceship to bring water to his dying wife and children who live in an unnamed barren, desert planet. The visions he has of his planet are reflected in the New Mexico region he lives in (shot not far from White Sands). Still, despite his ambitious plans which he wishes to be expedited, human frailty succumbs Thomas. He becomes fascinated by television, to the point that he has five of them in his hotel room and they all have to be turned on. He meets a hotel worker named Mary Lou (an exceptional Candy Clark), and she falls deeply in love with him. Thomas has no real feelings towards her, certainly not love, yet sex is not exclusive. He seems to like it yet TV's are his obsession and it drives Mary Lou mad. They live as a couple in a gorgeous New Mexican countryside. When he finally gets the chance to leave Earth, Thomas is instead held prisoner in an elaborate hotel with a big TV screen and copious amounts of alcohol, subjected to various tests. Everyone throughout the years ages except Thomas (that includes Rip Torn as a professor with a predilection for younger women who is hired to work for Newton - it is an intoxicating performance that has to be seen to be believed). Newton also ch-ch-ch-changes and transforms into a Howard Hughes recluse and, due to forced exposure to X-rays, cannot remove his contact lenses that make him look somewhat human. 

"The Man Who Fell to Earth" is a remarkable, troubling and fascinating film with overpowering images that will stay with me such as Newton's walk down a dilapidated hill, the TV's that form half of his bedroom, the mirror reflections in the bathroom when Newton is fixated on looking at his redheaded self, the house down by the lake as seen from Newton's point-of-view and Mary Lou's, and much more. I saw the film in the 1980's and was always taken by it - its conveyance of beauty where you least expect it is memorably etched and has informed many of Roeg's films before and after this one. Every shot is luminous and striking, evoking a sense of otherworldliness that mirrors Newton's planet with Earth - that includes the soundtrack which employs extraneous, chime-like sounds coupled with old tunes like Louis Armstrong's rendition of "Blueberry Hill." This is not an upbeat sci-fi film but rather a sad and despairing look at humanity's follies that includes greed and corruption. Newton may or may not see their follies yet he keeps a blind eye, resorting to alcoholism and a preoccupation with TV - this alien being has been corrupted by humanity's flaws. He ironically becomes human.  

Allegedly a Book of Vampire Job

 THE REVEREND (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Seemed like a distinct trope for a short while in the 2010's to have a man of the holy cloth as some avenging supernatural character rooting out the evils of the world. Some like 2011's "Priest" were based on graphic novels and so is this flat, heavy-handed and thoroughly insipid movie called "The Reverend." The idea is sort of promising but the delivery is threadbare at best.

In an idyllic English village that looks harmless, the new Reverend (Stuart Brennan) is holding court fast as there is an increasing number of churchgoers at his parish. Before such good news comes his way, a blonde woman standing in the rain, dressed in a slinky white outfit, pounds on his door. He helps her and then she bites him viciously on the neck. The moral is that even a man of the cloth should selectively choose who enters his parish. The Reverend clearly becomes a vampire, biting everyone on the neck including dogs! His mission as a righteous man, selected by God and the Devil, is to rid of the evil in this village. The evil comes from truly dispiriting characters like the owner of the village, the local pub barman, a despicable and foul-mouthed pimp, and a bizarre dominatrix who violently tortures her clients' crotches with live electrical wires! 

"The Reverend" begins rather slowly and I started to be taken in by it, especially early dialogue scenes between the Reverend and the organist and the berated prostitute (Emily Booth) who holds screenings of black-and-white horror films at the pub! Yet this Book of Job adaptation never comes to fruition since this Reverend is not mad at God nor does he grapple with his piety - he just becomes a Dirty Harry enforcer of good triumphing over evil. The other problem is that the evil characters are so one-dimensionally violent and abusive and hateful that there is no one to latch onto - you just wait for them to be bitten, staked and finally erupt in flames. There are scorching cameos by Rutger Hauer and Doug Bradley and they are so vivid to watch that you wish the film was rewritten to focus on them. 

Hauer is a cut above the rest

 BLIND FURY (1989)

Retrospective by Jerry Saravia

"Blind Fury" is one of the goofiest action movies I have ever seen, lighthearted humor at times mixed with a slightly R-rated bent and some breathtaking action that will give you pause and marvel at how they did it. Based on the "Zatoichi" movies and produced by none other than Tim Matheson, it also has a sympathetic hero who is, pardon the pun, a cut above the rest.

Rutger Hauer is Nick, a Vietnam Vet who lost his sight in the war and has been MIA and presumed dead. He's taken in by villagers who nurse him back to health and teach him to swordfight! I guess Oliver Stone did not have that advantage when he was in Vietnam. Cut to 20 years later and Nick is walking the streets with sunglasses and a presumed walking stick. The stick is actually a sword and comes in handy in knocking out some bullies at a restaurant who pour too much hot salsa sauce on his food. Don't do that to Nick since he loves hot sauce! Think of that scene as a slight wink to Spencer Tracy in "Bad Day at Black Rock."

Meanwhile, Nick is looking for his Nam buddy, Frank Deveraux (Terry O'Quinn, though in the credits he is inexplicably referred to as Terrance), who is not just a gambler in Reno but he's also an organic chemist. When Nick meets Frank's ex wife (Meg Foster, who appeared with O'Quinn in "Stepfather II"), all hell breaks loose with some goons looking to kidnap Frank's son. Nick practically slaughters everyone except for the hellbent hellraiser, Slag (Randall Tex Cobb), who keeps appearing and reappearing in "Raising Arizona"-style like some avenging angel. 

"Blind Fury" is a heady, fast-paced chase picture smoothly directed by Philip Noyce with goons chasing Nick and Frank's son either through endless cornfields or trying to run them down the road. Most of these goons are clumsy and plain stupid, and one of them is even named Popcorn! Hauer shows sensitivity as Nick and projects a calmness in his Buddhist ways - he won't resort to violence unless necessary. He tells the kid that real men do cry. How often have you heard an action hero say that? Maybe not even Zatoichi. 

Male bonding has its limitations

 HUSBANDS (1970)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Unlike director Cassavetes' other films, "Faces" or "Shadows" or the masterful, unblinkingly personal "A Woman Under the Influence," "Husbands" is far too long (and was cut from an even longer running time at 154 minutes). I was on board watching three married adult males dealing with the loss of a male friend and then the film falls apart a little, picking itself up for a truly moving last scene. It ain't perfect but it is not supposed to be, just like life itself, but I do feel a measure of squalor enters the picture during its final half-hour or so that undermines just a tad what we have witnessed.

The opening sequence shows a series of freeze-frames of four male buddies who bond by flexing their muscles - they all stand in macho-istic unison. One of these guys dies of a coronary, and the three other men (John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk) deal with the trauma after attending the funeral. Archie (Falk) questions why the pastor did not mention their deceased friend's sense of humor. He also reminds Gus (Cassavetes), a dentist, that telling lies will kill you sooner than any heart disease or cancer. A mostly serious-minded Harry (Ben Gazzara) lets loose when they all drink at a bar and each one in attendance sings a song. One older woman is dismissed and bullied for not singing her song with any "real heart." She keeps trying, and failing. That is the story of these husbands in a nutshell - they try and fail to reconnect to their emotions, to their heart. Excessive drinking and smoking does them no favors. Harry arrives at an instinctual need to take off for London, and hoping his buddies will come with him. 

Harry's home life is the only one we are privy to as he arrives home, in an earlier dramatic scene, to a loveless wife who attacks him with a knife! Harry's mother-in-law is attacked by Harry in scenes that are as raw and dispiritingly honest as anything Cassavetes has ever filmed. Going to London is probably the better option than to be sent to jail. 

When the trio arrive in London and gamble and find a woman for themselves, "Husbands" falls off the meter for me. The endless gambling scenes just show the guys in medium shots with no shots of the table as they enthusiastically play craps and keep winning, until there is a loss. Same with the women they pick up - enthusiasm gives way to indifference. Hard to tell if Harry is having any real fun - the man is lost in his middle-aged, awkward fits of rage and finds comfort with an English woman who gives him back massages. Archie is the most curious soul, in bed with an Asian woman who doesn't speak a hint of English but knows how to say "Coca-Cola." They kiss and she gets into it until she gives him the tongue and Archie disapproves. Gus's fling with a statuesque blonde runs into hot-and-cold territory and, by the next morning, it is hard to say if they had sex. Gus makes a non-joke when they are at a cafe, giggling and feeling comfort with each other, claiming he doesn't like aggressive women. That is the end of that chapter.

"Husbands" is at its New York-centric freewheeling best and most animated when the guys are on their odyssey of drinking binges, playing basketball, and swimming. The film lost me a bit when they continue their binge in London and it just did not strike the same chords though it remains resolutely honest. When Gus and Archie finally decide to come home to their families and jobs and Harry decides to stay in the U.K., the loss is even greater than it was at the beginning. Family is all you have got, but friends do not last forever. Male bonding and camaraderie may have its limitations. 

Shoot to Kill again and again

 THE HITCHER (1986)

Endured by Jerry Saravia

I was a teenager when I first saw "The Hitcher" on good old VHS in the mid-80's and thought that it was an extremely nasty and violent movie. Almost 40 years later, I watched it again and it is exactly the same thing. It is a thriller exercise in the "Duel" vein except it has absolutely nothing to say - this is brutality for brutality's sake. "Duel" had suspense built on the average working man not knowing why a truck is relentlessly chasing him. One can argue that brutality was the name of the game with "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" yet that film was potent - a never-ending nightmare of seismic proportions and it stayed true to its convictions. "The Hitcher" is some superhuman villain who can materialize anywhere and everywhere in those desert highways and kill freely. But for what purpose and why does he taunt the young man who is driving on those roads to California? 

C. Thomas Howell is the young kid who picks up a mysterious stranger on a rainy night. The stranger is John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) and their dialogue almost immediately conveys brutality - this Ryder was already picked up and he dismembered that poor driver. Gee, think Howell can survive this? I should think not yet the movie grows repetitive and wearisome before the end of the first reel. Ryder kills indiscriminately though he certainly loves killing the police officers on his tail. Well, the police actually think it is Howell who is committing murders left and right. When Howell shows up at a cafe and we are introduced to the waitress (played rather dimly by Jennifer Jason Leigh), more blood and guts is headed our way as he eats french fries and almost consumes a severed finger! When the Hitcher vanishes without a trace, the police apprehend Howell who then escapes after the Hitcher kills everyone at the police station. Then Howell is at a phone booth about to make a call when he seizes the opportunity to hold two cops hostage at gunpoint! The Hitcher appears and reappears and is finally apprehended as well. Howell is found innocent and then seizes the opportunity to hold another cop at gunpoint! And on and on. 

The Hitcher has no singular purpose other than to kill, kill, kill. But he does not kill Howell nor does he seem to be interested in killing him at all, so what gives? Some critics at the time ascertained a gay subtext, as if that made it any better. Yet if the filmmakers wanted nothing more than a one-dimensional homicidal maniac on the road, then why get the charming, powerful presence of Rutger Hauer to do nothing except aim a rifle and shoot and throw himself through windshields? You could have gotten Schwarzenegger to do the same thing and called it (at that time) "Terminator 2." At one crucial point, the kid asks Ryder why he is pursuing him. Ryder responds, "You are a smart kid. You'll figure it out." I still couldn't figure it out when the Hitcher pulls apart Leigh who is suspended between two trucks with police swarming the area. The movie is on a nonsensical hyperdrive mood and I suppose I wouldn't call it boring. It is all gratuitous violence and noise and, in retrospect, about as pointless as any 80's slasher picture. 

Roeg goes rogue with Hitchcockian thriller

 DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When there is a succession of quick shots through the almost mazelike streets and bridges of Venice, all seen from a character's point-of-view, you would think it would become monotonous. Making it hand-held throughout could make you seasick (hence all the included shots of the waterways). In the capable hands of wunderkind director Nicolas Roeg, they all add up to the thrill of the mystery. You keep wondering what is around the corner, and where did that red-hooded little person run off to. That is just one of the pleasures of "Don't Look Now," a truly absorbing mystery dealing with the occult and the loss of a loved one. 

"Don't Look Now" could have been a depressing and bleak tale. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are the parents of two young children who play in the outside garden of their English country home. Christine is the young daughter playing with a doll who accidentally drowns. The moment is so powerful, so emotionally draining that it will leave you devastated. It begins with Sutherland, playing an architect named John Baxter, looking at an unusual picture slide of the inside of the church he will renovate, and seated is some red-cloaked figure with their back facing the lens. Suddenly, John is alerted to something awful that is about to happen, hence the drowning of his daughter. And the church slide frame slowly becomes submerged in red liquid dye in ways both suspenseful and achingly unnerving. Stunning, haunting and beautiful, which describes the rest of the film to a tee.

Julie Christie is Laura, John's wife, and she is grief-stricken but not in ways we normally see in the movies. When John and Laura are at a restaurant, older siblings sit at a nearby table taking notice of John (the siblings are played with a sliver of eerie foreboding by Hilary Mason and Clelia Matania). John doesn't know them yet Laura assists them to the bathroom since one of the siblings has something caught in her eye. The other sibling is blind and clairvoyant (Mason) and can not only sense Laura's sadness but she can see Christine as well. 

"Don't Look Now" is disorientatingly beautiful as only Roeg can manage. It is strongly affecting and increasingly dramatic (though the suspense is not exactly cut from the same brand as Hitchcock), from Sutherland's John getting drunk to getting angry with Laura, to the red-cloaked figure running around Venice like a mouse, to the police who have John followed, to sightings of Laura in Venice when she's supposed to be in England, and much more. The church itself seems ominous with danger lurking somewhere, anywhere, within its confines. Nothing ever seems safe or secure, especially the hotel that is closed for the winter - its setting seems claustrophobic. "Don't Look Now" not only contains some of Sutherland's and Christie's most potent work of their careers as a married couple who try to remain balanced in their emotions, it also operates as a puzzling dream and one of not regret, but remorse for the loss of a child. Can the parents ever move forward after such a devastating loss? The answers may surprise you.  

Is this the future of America?

 CIVIL WAR (2024)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Civil War" is a hypothetical, disturbing and incomplete fantasy that will hopefully never come to fruition. It is disarmingly apolitical yet I would have liked some politics thrown into the mix, some measure of discourse about where the U.S. is now and where it may be going. I came into this film after the 2024 election so maybe its warnings are not anything we should take heed of, or should we?

America is in the midst of chaos in some uncertain future date. Journalists roam the cities recording riots and suicide bombers - it is bloody mess. Kirsten Dunst is Lee Smith, a hard-bitten combat photographer who has seen it all and is unaffected by any violence she witnesses. She is accompanied by Reuters press reporter, Joel (Wagner Moura), who lives for combat and for general chaos. Stephen McKinley Henderson is an older writer for the New York Times, Sammy, who knows that the President of the U.S. is unlikely to do a sit-down interview with Joel. Finally, there is the young Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), an ambitious photographer, who worships Lee's altar and slowly overcomes her fears of piercing bullets and people dying in front of her. They are on their way to Washington, D.C. and you know this will be no easy journey.  

Bloodshed follows them every step of the way, including an unflinchingly powerful scene with Jesse Plemons as a racist soldier who encounters the press group and asks them if they are American. This character is exactly what we might expect now more than ever, yet the movie shuffles between bloodbath incidents and more impending bloodbath. You just know that during a freewheeling carefree car chase between one set of reporters and another, something bloody this way comes. The movie also decisively ends on a sour note that has no real buildup. If the divisive and fascistic President, who gets a third term (!), is targeted for execution and if there is a secession movement going on, why on earth are not we given the essential political ingredients to understand how this fictional America got to this point? Without the political stance (and I do not mean political party affiliation), "Civil War" is no different than a George Romero zombie apocalypse except that there are no zombies. 

"Civil War" is a strong, thoroughly watchable film of mysterious purpose - it is no more political than the grossly overdone "The Hunt" from many years back. I think director Alex Garland wanted to make a picture devoid of politics yet somehow speaking to our times within some subtext. Well, he managed the apolitical yet the subtext is lost on me. He chickened out.   

Trippy Delusions

 THE TRICK 

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It has been a long time since I've seen a film that truly tackles what we see as reality versus what is only our perception. That is surface level and at a concrete level in Neal Wynne's "The Trick" though it is not as prototypically dreamlike as David Lynch's work. From Neal Wynne, this is an attempt to probe further into fragile minds that need their pituitary glands opened.

Writer-director Wynne has a simple enough set-up to explore these ideas. A wanna-be rapper and an older man covered in white makeup playing a vampire are set against a green screen stage for a music video. This video is meant to draw up visuals of the sci-fi, dystopian nature. Something seems off from the start when, after the filming, the older guy asks for more money for his contribution. Jake Squire is Steve, the bearded young director who is uncertain of his work and so is his collaborator Jessica (Jacqueline Kramer), who is hard to please. The older guy (Gregory Cohen), who turns out to be the Master, a hotel owner, takes the drugged-out, almost permanently stoned rapper to his hotel. After a terse exchange between the two with the Master telling the rapper, Aidan (Rafael Moreira), that he's untalented and his work means nothing, I thought for sure we were entering some horror movie scenario. What does the Master intend to do with the rapper at the Winnedumah hotel? Why is there a green fluorescent cross that keeps getting dismantled? Why does the Master's daughter always eavesdrop on her father? And what are we to gather from Jessica's Catholic school dress and making faces at her reflection in the mirror?

"The Trick" will not answer any questions nor does it raise any. It is a film meant to draw us from our own reality and question it - usually a desert setting helps to invoke such cerebral thoughts of the meaning of our existence. There are philosophical questions and ruminations regarding righteousness and I would have loved a deeper insight into such complex thoughts. For a 77-minute film, though, there is plenty of story and there are supporting characters who are not insipid but rather intelligent, and some humorous moments between Jessica and Aidan (Aidan's supposed music is truly terrible). Though the relationship between Steve and his girlfriend leaves a lot to be desired, "The Trick" keeps us on our cerebral toes with some deft handling of green screen imagery and an enveloping sound design that truly hooks you in and startles you. This is a film you can revisit and still be unsure on how it all coalesces. The very definition of trippy delusions.    

Love test subjects and depressions

 BAD TIMING: A SENSUAL OBSESSION (1980)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Bad Timing" gives us micro impressions of a scorching and emotionally troubling affair, and that is probably how it should be. It is a sensual obsession in its strictest terms, dealing with a troubled man who is unwilling to empathize with his partner. His partner has troubles of her own, many of which he cannot bring himself to comprehend. Maybe Freudian analysts all have the same problem.

Of course, not all Freudian analysts look like curly-haired Art Garfunkel in the late 1970's but what do I know.  Garfunkel plays a rather emotionless Dr. Alex Linden, the psychoanalyst who meets free-spirited Milena (Theresa Russell) at a party. He notices her and she replies by blocking his path with her leg, refusing to let him pass. Milena is funny, shrewd, an alcoholic and extremely promiscuous - she flaunts it in front of Alex's eyes and he doesn't mind it at first. He is so taken with her, with her ability to disassociate herself from everything except love. It turns out that Milena is already married to Stefan (Denholm Elliott, in a far too abbreviated role) though she denies it at first. Alex researches her past history with the help of a government agency (long before the Internet adopted search databases) and is aware of her marriage. And...so what? Alex doesn't care if she has affairs yet soon he is seeking commitment from Milena who, in turn, desires to live "in the moment." 

Director Nicolas Roeg can be flamboyant in his flashback editing structure which is often abrupt (as in "Don't Look Now"), from one connected moment of realization to another using a traumatic incident - Milena's attempted suicide and her hospital tracheotomy - as its basis. When Alex sees a red fire extinguisher, it immediately reminds him of Milena's lipstick and her refreshing smile. A gallery showing Gustav Klimt's painting of "Judith and the Head of Holofernes" often mirrors Milena's colorful dresses and, in one particularly garish scene, where she wears Kabuki makeup pronouncing herself as a new version of Milena. Sometimes Roeg opts for crude transitions such as a vaginal exam connected to a moment of ecstasy from an earlier moment in this couple's passionate relationship. Yet Roeg is aiming for something far creepier and more complex - the realization that Dr. Alex Linden is not the most compassionate or lovey-dovey type of guy we think he is. As the film progresses, Linden becomes more analytical in his obsessions and it becomes clear that he is using her as a psychological experiment. He loves her and it is an obsession that leads directly back to his work - a Freudian obsession, perhaps. 

Theresa Russell has a profoundly difficult role here as Milena, a woman with severe clinical depression who is able to find solace and meaning with Alex - she still wants to be that free spirit and we almost sense she may come around for a committed relationship. Art Garfunkel is a man who is nearsighted when it comes to Milena - he wants the love to be reciprocated though we sense that it has to be on his terms only. Curiously both actors don't have much chemistry together but I do believe Russell's Milena is the more optimistic partner. A heartbreaking scene shows her wanting to talk, to have a conversation with Alex, and all he wants is to keep their sex life going and not much more. She becomes distressed and he leaves while she confronts him in the apartment stairway and they fiercely go at it. Milena hates herself, and he got his heavenly moment of ecstasy. If no other proof is needed, this shows how brave and dynamic an actress Theresa Russell really is. 

"Bad Timing" is all about heartbreak, shock, nausea, sexual proclivities and the need to belong to someone, the belief that romance still matters regardless of the mental issues both partners have. Milena seemingly wants to work it out with Alex, whom she painfully loves. Alex has other ideas. This is not a happy film but it is a necessary and mesmerizing one to consider. 

Are you okay, Mr. Shyamalan?

 TRAP (2024)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Ever feel like there are too many police barricades at a live concert show? Ever feel like the police are watching your every step at a live concert show, knowing you have committed a crime? Ever feel like pretending to be a food worker at a live concert show after turning up the heat on those fryers and throwing in some glass bottles while watch a poor worker get third degree burns? Ever wonder what it is like to push a young girl down a small flight of stairs just to see what the police might do? Ever wonder why your daughter, an avid fan of a superstar singer at that same live show, keeps asking you, "Are you okay, Dad?" I could ask that same question, and a host of others, to the director of this movie "Trap," M. Night Shyamalan. 

"Trap" is not a movie - it is an idea in search of a movie. Shyamalan has a neat little concept about a serial killer known as the Butcher attending a live concert with his daughter (Ariel Donoghue), unaware at first that the whole concert is actually a trap to find him! As ridiculous as it sounds, that could work as a thriller exercise about how many different methods the Butcher employs in seeking to escape from the concert. As for the revelation that the concert gig is a trap, it would work if it wasn't revealed until halfway through the movie. Unfortunately a worker who sells concert shirts decides it is okay to tell the Butcher (Josh Hartnett) about the plan. The Butcher knows something is up prior to being told the movie's singular twist (mistakenly revealed in the trailers) because hundreds of police officers are everywhere, including hundreds of FBI agents surrounding the whole area. There is one nifty moment where the Butcher steals a police scanner with an earpiece and keeps tabs on what the police and FBI are communicating to each other. Wouldn't it have been grandly thrilling and suspenseful if halfway through the movie, the Butcher steals the police scanner and discovers that they are searching for him?  

Josh Hartnett is flatly over-the-top in this movie - he is not believable for one second as a brutal serial killer. He plays the part well of a doting father, but that is it. Every calculated move he makes in one incredulous scene after another is overplayed and obvious - this guy sticks out like a sore thumb. Anyone spending 5 minutes with this smirking guy would know he's the killer and the fact that nobody does simply makes them stupid, including a moment where he pretends to be an employee and enters a room full of SWAT officers! A mildly spine-tingling scenario involving the superstar singer, Lady Raven (played with conviction by Shyamalan's daughter, Saleka Night Shyamalan, an actual singer) and the Butcher left me wanting to know how it was going to resolve itself. It takes two more endings to get there and so many damn contrivances and sheerly unbelievable scenes of the Butcher somehow managing to make himself disappear and reappear at will when confronted by the FBI (watch the movie and tell me that is not the case), that all I could do was laugh at this mildly entertainingly bad movie. Are you okay, M. Night Shyamalan?   

Quintessential Nightmare Movie

 SKINAMARINK (2022)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It has been a long time since a film truly terrified me to such a degree that I had to cover my eyes and step away from the screen at arm's length. There is one moment where the scratchiness on the soundtrack gets louder and louder, so much so that I had to put the volume down. Yes, I know people aren't so easily scared nowadays unless something is a gorefest but I will say that of this millennium since the year 2000, "Skinamarink" is doubtlessly the scariest film I have seen. It left me completely uneasy and my nerves were shot to such an extent that I had trouble calming down. Well, it took me ten minutes to calm down.

The best approach to viewing "Skinamarink" is to understand it is an exercise in terror. It is about exploiting the childhood fears of being in the dark, of not seeing or seeing something that you can't understand or fathom. Set in 1995, there are young siblings, a brother and sister, and they walk around in their pajamas. The brother, Kevin, has an unnamed injury due to sleepwalking. The father takes him to the hospital and brings him back home. Kaylee is the sister and both siblings start hearing thumping noises. Toilets and other objects and furniture pieces disappear and reappear. They watch cartoons in the living room yet the hallways lights do not turn on. Mom is sitting on the bed with her back to Kevin. Dad informs Kevin to look under the bed but nothing is there. Is this house haunted or is Kevin having a fever dream? Kaylee also disappears, and Mom might be missing her...oh, I shan't say. 

"Skinamarink" is not just an unrelenting horror film - it is shot either at low angles or high angles or somewhere in between to the point that Mom or Dad or the kids are never seen in profile. They are almost always shot below the waist or we just see their feet. We see much of the TV showing cartoons (sometimes the toons freeze and repeat their previous actions), and we see various shots of dozens of Lego pieces and that most terrifying toy (well, it was for me when I was a tot in the 1970's) and that would be the Chatter Telephone. Some moments recall "The Shining" with the use of one particular subtitle ("572 days") that scared me almost as much as anything else. Never mind the long hallway of isolated Legos (I have no interest getting near those toys again). 

"Skinamarink" looks like a recently uncovered lost film shot in grainy, colorless footage (as if it was shot with a Fisher Price camera) with various dust prints and a scratchiness in the soundtrack that may grate your nerves at first until you get used to. This is not a normal horror film and sometimes you don't know what is hidden in the darkness, or which room in this house feels safe. This is a visual representation of the most basic childhood nightmares and fears - the nagging feeling that something is in the dark that could hurt you, and that awfully agonizing feeling that Mom and Dad are not what they seem and might not protect you. "Skinamarink" is the quintessential nightmare movie.  

An Interview with Kevin Shirka - Fellow Indiana Jones superfan

The Indiana Jones fanbase may not be as huge as Star Wars fandom but they are legion. Summer of 2023 saw the last "Indiana Jones" movie to be released, at least with Harrison Ford. It may have divided fans but the fans steadfastly remain fans. Call it loyalty, call it pure love for a 40-year-old franchise. It was a real pleasure to talk about Indy lore with a fellow Indiana Jones superfan who is quite loyal to this franchise and started a Youtube channel discussing all matters related to Indy. I bring you, Kevin Shirka.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 

By Jerry Saravia

All pictures used with permission by Kevin Shirka

1.) So Mr. Shirka, when did you first become an Indiana Jones fan? I can always assume Raiders of the Lost Ark is where every fan starts but some have begun with Crystal Skull.

"Like so many of us it began with a seminal bonding moment. My parents rented the VHS tapes when my sister and I were very young and we watched them together. We had a great time watching them and my dad's constant rewinding to rewatch Belloq's drunk laugh became a legendary memory. That was in the early to mid 90s.

Then somewhere around 1999 I was home from school on a sick day and caught Last Crusade on TV. I had forgotten what a terrific movie it was! In the years leading up to that I had become a massive James Bond and Star Wars fan, and Indy had the best of both! I started renting the films over and over, and bought up all the comic books I could find on Ebay. I would scour the various Indiana Jones fan websites and joined communities like The Raven forum on TheRaider.net."

2.) What do you find appealing about Indiana Jones overall?

"First and foremost, they are just terrific movies in every way! Spielberg is a truly magical filmmaker and he put a lot of care into the crafting of these films. The music by John Williams is spectacular and you can't help but get excited whenever you hear it. Harrison Ford's portrayal is perfect! The swagger and the grumpiness were perfectly suited for the character. And supporting characters like Sean Connery contributed some phenomenal work as well. Plus you have the creativity of George Lucas. Like I said, it was the best of Star Wars and the best of James Bond

A little more specifically, it's that spirit of adventure, danger, discovery, justice, plus a touch of the mysterious and supernatural without ever going too far. It had villains who were easy to hate but, thanks to the humor of the films, they never became too frightening. There's a theme of world-traveling and open-mindedness toward other cultures. There's a touch of religious unity because various beliefs are represented and all of them are represented as true. It's about preserving history and it makes that feel really important."

3.) Who is your favorite leading lady from the films?

"All of them were terrific in their own way, but I'd be remiss to not say Karen Allen. Marion is the perfect balance of feminine and tough resiliency. She has a fun energy about her but has also been damaged. And her relationship journey with Indy is impactful and resonant. When I first saw the film and you think she died in the explosion in Cairo...it hit me hard, but Indy finds her alive and it's a huge relief as all that energy pours back into the film. And Karen Allen's portrayal of her is just wonderful! You can't help but love her! I was glad to see her return in subsequent works but neither of them really reached the potential of reprising that role.

I feel like I should also mention Alison Doody as Elsa Schneider. She's a complex, gray area character that was perfectly suited for an Indiana Jones movie." 

4.) Lend me your thoughts on the Young Indiana Jones TV series - do you think the educational approach worked overall since they are not on the same level as escapism and thrills and chills as the movies?

"I love the series! It's such a fascinating concept that each episode makes up a step of his journey from child to the man we know in the films as we jump from one month to the next. And interacting with historical figures and events is very interesting, allowing viewers to relate to a time period that doesn't often come up in popular culture. Every episode is unique. You have Curse of the Jackal and Treasure of the Peacock's Eye which are like Indiana Jones movies, you have comedic episodes like Barcelona 1917, horror episodes like where Indy fights Dracula - there's the great episode where Indy and his dad bond in Greece, and I could go on and on.

But the educational aspects taking precedent over the thrilling style of the movies is in hindsight an obvious error. The lack of John Williams' Raiders March and of Harrison Ford in all but one episode hurt the show's chances as well. I think there was a lot of excitement for the show but it wasn't quite what people wanted out of an Indiana Jones work and the series was cancelled before it was able to get to the good stuff. There were unmade episodes where Indy was going to meet Abner Ravenwood and Rene Belloq for the first time, and who knows what else if it had gotten to 4 or 5 seasons. Such a shame because it was a pretty great show and was building toward connecting with the Harrison Ford movies. But, as it is, you reach the end of Hollywood Follies and Young Indy's journey abruptly ends, leaving a huge gap where we don't get to see him become an archeologist."

5.) When did you start the Indiana Jones Nerd youtube page? Have you developed a fanbase based on your youtube channel?

"I launched it in 2021, just as the first casting announcements were made for Indiana Jones 5, which included Mads Mikkelsen and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I had seen Star Wars Youtube channels rise to prominence around 2015 and felt like I really missed the boat because I would have loved doing something like that. When I looked around, there really wasn't anyone doing a big Indiana Jones YouTube channel and I felt like I would be the perfect person to be that guy. It was such an exciting time following the production of the new film, it was like a dream come true seeing it come together and it felt like anything was possible. I had really high expectations for the film and I did enjoy many aspects of it like the WW2 sequences, but there was definitely something I wish had been different like the killing off of Mutt and making Indy a lonely depressed person, I thought those filmmaking choices were in poor taste. The film would have been much better if it was directed by Steven Spielberg, but it is what it is.

I posted updates on the production of the film practically every day in 2021 and also gained a ton of subscribers from my fan edits of the Young Indiana Jones movies. I have done a ton of different types of videos like a documentary on the making of Indiana Jones 5, video game gameplays, interviews, motion comics, all kinds of things. It's been a lot of fun! I tend to drift in and out in terms of consistency but recently I have been posting short informative videos almost every day and people love it! Currently I am at 40-thousand subscribers and climbing. Sometimes I meet people at events and they thank me for keeping them up to speed with all the Indy news. I invests thousands and thousands of hours into the channel and usually don't really make any money from it - sometimes just a dollar or 2 per day. I can't stop myself because I love talking about Indiana Jones, providing whatever content I can for my fellow fans, and hopefully do whatever I can to promote the brand and hope for Disney to realize that there is a market for new content."

6.) The Abner Ravenwood series was cancelled before it even became developed. Do you think the era of Indiana Jones is over or is there a chance that a spin-off could come to fruition?

"This is a great question. We certainly are at a crossroads with the franchise right now. Harrison Ford is adamant that he won't play Indy again, but it's a great brand and I'm sure Disney would be happy to continue it in some way. I'm certain we have not seen the end of this franchise, but the how and when are hard to say. The extremely obvious thing to do is to make an animated show, it's shocking that they have not done this already. It would do so much for the brand to generate interest among kids, I mean, can you imagine if they had made such a show 5-10 years ago? A whole generation of kids would have rushed to the theater to see DIal of Destiny. If they decide to one day do a cartoon, it should be in a hand-drawn art style. There's a great fan cartoon by Patrick Schoenmaker from 2016 that looks perfect. Paul Dini of Batman the animated series also mentioned many years ago that he would love to do an Indy cartoon. Can you imagine in that art style? It would be so good!

And beyond that, there are still a lot of stories that could be told in live action. Why not do a Short Round spinoff while Ke Huy Quan is at the height of his popularity? The opportunities are there to do something great. It would be great to see other characters get their own spin-offs but I doubt it will happen because Indiana Jones is the character people want to see. I personally would love to see Indy be recast at some point. I know that's sacrilege for some people because Harrison Ford is unreplaceable, but the character of Indy is just too good to lock away forever.

Obviously we are about to get the new video game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, plus a new amusement park ride in Florida. These are a great start, and I don't believe it could be the end. It seems to me like Dial of Destiny was the beginning of brand revival, at least I hope so because I love this franchise. I think Great Circle is going to be an amazing game (it's from Machine Games who made the highly celebrated Wolfenstein games) and I hope it will be popular enough to lead to more Indiana Jones video games."

7.) I know that you attended the L.A. premiere of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and met John Rhys Davies. Tell me about that exchange, and any other Indy cast members you either met briefly or other Indy fans?

"What an amazing day that was! I've never been to a red carpet event and am eternally grateful to have been part of that. First of all, it was such a pleasure to meet the Indiana Jones fans from around the world that I had been interacting with online since 2021; like Marco Vendramini of Italy, Alex Arnold of Florida, and the guys from Indy Cast. It just felt right having all of these Indiana Jones fans together and felt more like a beginning than an end. This is part of why I launched Indiana Jones International this year, which is a supergroup uniting the various regional fan grounds and content creators. We hope to organize international events such as an Indiana Jones Celebration which will bring everyone together again. But also we want use this fandom to show Disney and Lucasfilm that there is a market for more Indiana Jones content. Why have we not had an Indiana Jones comic book in 15 years? I don't think it's so much to ask that we get an new Indy adventure in some format every year. Thankfully we also have California Jones and the Fortune and Glory Tour in San Francisco organized by Eugene Shin. I have made some great friendships with people at those events and always have a fun time hanging out with them.

Back to the Red Carpet now. I was invited in part because of my YouTube channel but also because I could cosplay as Sallah. I always associated with him because he's Middle-Eastern like me and is full of heart! John Rhys-Davies was the first person on the Red Carpet and my friend Bryan Rohrenbacher pointed me out to him to make sure he knew about the Sallah cosplayer. John came right over and shook my hand while we had a memorable exchange. He's such a charming and delightful man! He was one of the only people to leave the red carpet to greet fans across the street including my dad. I have seen him meet with so many fans at conventions and he is always energetic and charming. 

I also got a selfie with Harrison Ford, and every moment from that red carpet felt like a dream but especially this one. I called out to him to pose for a selfie and he looked right at me and warmly smiled while I took the photo. I can't express how grateful I am that he did that. The photo is a treasure to me. He famously likes his privacy but he is happy to see his genuine fans. It means so much to me that I got to share my excitement with him in that moment. Another great photo I was in had Academy-Award winner Ke Huy Quan standing right in front of me, another very charming and lovable fellow. That photo was taken by a professional photographer and Ke posted it to his Instagram! I grabbed a quick picture with Karen Allen, but wanted to give more time to the young ladies next to me to interact with her because they were very excited. I also got to meet and take pictures with the entire cast of Dial; Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Thomas Kretschmann, Oliver Richters. Amazing interacting with Alaa Safi and Ethann Isidore, who recognized me from my youtube channel. I met James Mangold, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and many others. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas also passed by but it was tough to get their attention, they didn't interact with the fans too much, but it was amazing that I got to see from from just a few feet away. And when John Williams appeared on stage for a surprise concert it was such a treat! Another person I had the pleasure of meeting a month earlier was sound designer Ben Burtt. A bunch of us were dressed as Indy at a cafe in San Anselmo and people kept stopping by the talk to us. This nice man started a conversation with me and my friend and after a moment I recognized him from the various documentaries I had seen over the years. That was a really great moment realizing I was talking to the legend behind some of cinema's greatest sound effects." 

8.) What is your favorite Indy flick and your least favorite?

"Raiders is my favorite film. It's perfect. The intro is just perfect, every scene is perfect. The truck chase, the ending, every step along that way is just captivating as you have the best people and ideas from Star Wars, James Bond, and Spielberg and his people joining forces to make a timeless movie that never gets old. Last Crusade was originally my favorite but has slipped to third for me lately, though it's a brilliant movie and every time I watch it, I can feel that it's the best. All 3 of the originals are 10 out of 10 films for me. Temple of Doom also has that classic adventure feel that Last Crusade is lacking in some ways. I love the opening in Shanghai and looming mystery and the entire last 40 minutes or so is just sheer Indiana Jones goodness!

As for least favorite, it's really hard to say. I go back and forth. On the one hand you have Crystal Skull which has a great first half and overall a better Indiana Jones tone, but there are a lot of little things that feel silly, like the CGI chase with all the monkeys and the whole 'triple agent' thing with Mac that didn't work at all. Then you have Dial of Destiny where we get to see Indy during WW2 and some fun moments like the Tuk Tuk Chase and traveling to ancient Syracuse, but the tone of the film doesn't do it for me. Not all heroes need to be given a depressing later life to make then interesting in a sequel, and honestly it comes off as lazy writing. And like I said earlier, killing Mutt off was in poor taste. People want to go to these movies to have a great time, not to be miserable. So I suppose I like Crystal Skull a little bit more than Dial of Destiny, but I go back and forth on this issue."

9.) Finally, what other cinematic interests do you have? Any other franchises, or certain films that hold your attention that have nothing to do with genre?

"My other favorite movie besides Raiders of the Lost Ark is Vertigo. Coincidentally my hotel for last week's media event for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was right next door to a few filming locations from Vertigo. I love Hitchcock films and have watched many of them with my dad. I also love James Bond, Star Wars, Alien, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park. So many, I love movies so much. Another particular genre of adventure I enjoy is Jules Verne movies, particularly the 1950s-1960s cycle of films based off his work."