Fireflys' ignoble sense of morality

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005)

  Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I wish I could say that "The Devil's Rejects" works as a pure horror movie, but it does not. As horror, it does little besides titillate us with blood-soaked images. As a slasher flick, it does practically the same thing. So what gives? What has Rob Zombie wrought with a sequel as bloody as the original? Well, that is a good question. "The Devil's Rejects" is such a wildly sordid state of affairs that it did not appeal to my basic ignoble sense of morality (that is a joke by the way). Quite frankly, Zombie is not interested in the morality of these characters nor does he (nor do we) like any of them very much. So what gives? What is there to gain from a movie like this? I have no idea except some good old-fashioned brutality for the sake of those who like that sort of thing. The reason I persist with these notions when I could easily dismiss them, since one could dismiss "The Devil's Rejects" as an average slasher film, is that this movie does aim slightly higher, a higher body count that is. This is an unrepentant assault on the senses, but it is not as cartoonish or laughable in its savagery as its original incarnation, "House of 1000 Corpses." This time, Rob Zombie means business.

So we have the returning psychotic family from the original on hand. Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie) and her truly psychotic brother, Otis (Bill Moseley), and their mother, Mother Firefly (scenery-chewing, tongue-wagging Leslie Easterbrook replacing Karen Black), are back for more carnage galore. The police have discovered this murderous family's hideout in the opening sequence, where we have a standard shootout right out of the Old West. Sheriff Wydell (Snarling William Forsythe) wants some good old-fashioned, hellbent revenge on this family since they killed his brother, a cop, last time out. The Fireflys warn a creepy clown, Captain Spaulding (the King of Scenery-Chewers, Sid Haig) to meet up with them at the local motel and, get this, Spaulding is the patriarch of the family! Of course, at the motel, these Fireflys have to exact their inner demonic violent tendencies upon another family, which includes Geoffrey Lewis as a guy who once shook hands with Johnny Cash, his wife (Priscilla Barnes), and a young couple. Oh, there is also the marijuana-stoked guy who wants to be a clown, which is good for a few laughs.

Watching "The Devil's Rejects" is an unnerving, unbridled, curiously shallow experience. Shallow only because Zombie spends no time in getting know the Firefly family or any of the victims. It is a pre-sold, prepackaged, grainy 70's homage to slasher films where everyone gets their comeuppance - they are all action figures with deplorable personalities and nothing but murder on their minds (that includes the Sheriff). The acting is about as good as it can get with Sheri Moon more delirious than ever, and Bill Moseley acting less anarchic. Only Sid Haig reaches the same heights of devilish intensity that we come to expect from Captain Spaulding (his feverish sex dream is a classic). Add to the mix a human roadkill scene that is as violent as one can expect, a movie critic called in to decipher the legend of Groucho Marx, a nod or two to "The Empire Strikes Back," more bloody executions, Ken Foree and Michael Berryman, discussion about screwing chickens, and you got one hell of a demonic ride that will make you sick to your stomach. If I can say one last positive aspect, Zombie is mean as hell as a director and is not about to tolerate any "Scream" jokes or post-modernist winks anymore.

Free Press Serves the Governed

THE POST (2017)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When President Trump lambastes the so-called liberal media for getting all their facts wrong or sometimes refers to them as "fake news," which is far more disingenuous, then it becomes quite refreshing to see a movie that recalls the pre-Trump days when newspapers had a voice and assumed responsibility for getting their political stories out there, no matter how incendiary. In the case of the publishing of the incendiary Pentagon Papers that the Washington Post published back in 1971, everything was riding on this paper's legitimacy and reputation. This was before the attack on Nixon's involvement in Watergate. Steven Spielberg's "The Post" is a finely crafted, intricately layered and suspenseful drama, showcasing the details of journalistic duty and ethics, you know things that don't seem to matter much to the governors anymore in 2018, except to those who are governed.

Early on in "The Post," military analyst and Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) is seen whisking away the Pentagon Papers, three or four folders at a a time, making Xerox copies. Right from the start, Ellsberg is miffed at Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's outright lying to the press about the ongoing Vietnam War. An unseen Neil Sheehan, top reporter for the New York Times, decides to publish excerpts of the classified Pentagon Papers, covering more than thirty years of the Vietnam War. Naturally, the White House gets wind of this and tells the Times not to publish. Enter Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks, absolutely terrific), editor-in-chief for the Washington Post, who is hoping to cover more than just the wedding of President Nixon's daughter. Bradlee consults assistant editor and reporter Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) who gets access to these papers but it comes at a cost. The Post is losing popularity with women readers, its stock value is at stake, and its publisher/owner Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep, also outstanding) is trying to make amends. At first, Ben Bradlee and the male-centric advisers and lawyers do not pay her much mind since she got control of the paper after her husband died. She is an executive, so what can she know or do when the reporters are smoking a chimney while typing furiously in the press offices? One scene, out of many, highlights how Katharine is treated - she has breakfast with Ben and she tells him that it might be good to focus and write on women's issues. Ben tells her, "Katharine, keep your finger out of my eye!" It is a hell of a scene, dramatic in its own finite way of showing how women were pushed around and criticized for being critical, which is of course her job.

Though the historians have come out and attacked with their sharpened knives, decrying the film for focusing on the Washington Post as opposed to The New York Times who first broke the story and had their own sources, "The Post" doesn't exactly shy away from those facts and, naturally, the dramatic focus is on the parallels of power in the newspaper business between Bradlee and Graham. In an age of the #MeToo movement and how far women have progressed, it is of note to mention that Katharine was the first female publisher of a major newspaper. Her ability to contend with the males around her and then make her final decision to publish despite opposition from the board members is astonishing to witness. It is a penultimate moment that ranks among the finest moments of Meryl Streep's career, an actress I have less than admired and have criticized for being robotic in manufactured emotions. Aside from "Silkwood" and her few comedic forays, Streep had always struck me as cold and detached. Watching her work now since 2004's "The Manchurian Candidate," she has emerged more full-blooded than ever before.

Tom Hanks brings a tacit amount of joviality and a sneering sense of self as Ben Bradlee, realizing late in the game that it isn't so much his neck on the line, it is Katharine's who has much to lose. Bob Odenkirk dazzles as Ben Bagdikian, realizing his own mistake at not revealing the Times' source to the lawyers prior to the publication of the story. Bruce Greenwood astutely shows the different sides to McNamara, seeing how his close friend Katharine has a hell of a dilemma at her feet despite knowing his reputation may suffer.

"The Post" is prescient filmmaking at its best, diving into another era when the newspapers had to cling to the truth at any price. It is a fitting companion piece to "All the President's Men" (which this film alludes to beautifully at the end and of course features Bradlee), a thrilling and tightly wound narrative with the incendiary tone of journalism at its brink...and when it threatens to explode. 

Unwrapping bandages to reveal a dusty bow

THE MUMMY (2017)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The newest incarnation of "The Mummy" can best be described as adequate and persistently mediocre. There is nothing here that nobody has seen before, be it the huge sandstorms or mummified mummies coming to life to wreack havoc. Yet when a top movie star like Tom Cruise appears and an Egyptian princess is the mummy this time, not to mention the casting of Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, you expect much more than merely adequate.

Cruise is Nick, an Army Sergeant who craves adventure along with his pal, Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) who would rather be anywhere else. Okay, so Nick is a soldier of fortune, you know if Cruise had played Indiana Jones without a fedora or a bullwhip. In scenes set in modern-day Iraq during what appears to be an insurgent stronghold, Nick is after hidden treasures and finds one after an explosion that unearths a hidden tomb which is actually a prison. Deep in the bowels of this prison is the sarcophagus of Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) who vows to bring back the God of Death known as Set through Nick, the Chosen One or chosen human vessel. Why Nick? Not explained. Heck, we knew why Eddie Murphy was the Chosen One in "The Golden Child." So for action, we get an out-of-control Army helicopter ride that is actually quite thrilling and nerve-frying to witness. For CGI special-effects, we get a sandstorm sweeping through the city of London, a flock of birds, reanimated mummies and a chance to see Crowe turn into Mr. Hyde. This transformation happens rather briefly with Mr. Crowe, though thankfully nothing like the over-the-top cartoonish theatrics of giant Mr. Hydes that you may recall from "Van Helsing" or "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

Cruise is as Cruise does, neither labored nor too energetic in his performance. Boutella has eyes (double pupils to match) that could pierce Boris Karloff's skull or at least give him nightmares for a day (the nifty prologue explaining her past is far more animated and exciting than anything that follows). Annabelle Wallis as an archaeologist is about as interesting on screen as wallpaper covering hieroglyphics in a cave. Jake Johnson appears to be doing a comical variation on Griffin Dunne's decaying corpse from "An American Werewolf in London" though the humor quotient is low. This movie, written by a committee (aren't most blockbusters?) that includes David Koepp, had been under the contractual ownership of Tom Cruise who made probably one suggestion too many in the script and editing departments. Vanity, much?

This 2017 "Mummy" is far superior to Stephen Sommers' "Mummy" trilogy yet it is neither as diverting or as scrappily entertaining as any other "Mummy" movie from the 1930's and beyond. It needed a lower budget and a less powerful movie star at its center. You watch the movie like some sort of packaged present that has no surprises once it is unwrapped. All you get is a dusty bow.

Jenkins builds intimacy in McCarthy masterpiece

THE VISITOR (2007)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Richard Jenkins is one of those character actors who appears and spices things up, and does it with a sly wink, an eyebrow lift  or a chuckle to get his point across, usually followed by a nonplussed, deadpan look. He has appeared in "Wolf," "Flirting With Disaster," "Burn After Reading," amongst many other films. "The Visitor" is undeniable proof that this actor deserves more leading roles, especially in a film that is at once as profound and moving as anything you are likely to see. I make that latter statement often but this film really strikes a chord.

Jenkins plays Walter, an unhappy global economics professor living in Connecticut. He is so unhappy that he can't play the piano despite

getting piano lessons (his late wife was a piano player). He tries to

connect to something but he can't. He hasn't written a book in ages

and is hesitant to attend a New York conference on a book he barely co-

authored. Walter hesitantly goes to New York City and finds his

apartment there is occupied by strangers, namely Tarek (Haaz Sleiman)

and Zainab (Danai Gurira). Tarek is an enthusiastic Syrian drum player

and Zainab is an African woman who sells handmade and handcrafted

jewelry. Both Tarek and Zainab are illegal immigrants and, in a lesser

film, Walter might have called the INS and had them deported just

before learning the errors of his ways and becoming a changed man.

Walter does change but in ways that are shown with subtlety and

nuance, not outright naked emotions like crying crocodile tears or

screaming at the top of his lungs. Walter lets Tareq and Zainab stay

in his two-bedroom apartment, allows Tarek to practice the drums in

his underwear, and in short allows these people to occupy his

apartment so that he can feel attached to someone again.

Through the course of "The Visitor," Walter learns to play the drums

(a way of replacing his passionless piano playing and his obscure

past) and begins the first few steps to express whatever he feels that

he has been hiding from. He also meets, through an unusual set of

circumstances, Tarek's mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), whom he takes to

the opera to see The Phantom of the Opera, and somehow relates and

connects to her. Even Zainab warms up to Walter over time. Some

reviewers have given away the second half of the film but it would be

a disservice to reveal it here simply because it is not half as

important as seeing the small nuances of change occuring in Walter.

"The Visitor" is briskly and economically directed by Thomas McCarthy,

who had a wonderful debut with the equally effective "The Station

Agent." In many ways, "The Visitor" resembles "The Station Agent" in

its overall structure of how a person comes out of nowhere and makes a

difference in people's lives by listening to and appreciating them. In

"Station Agent," it was Peter Dinklage as a retail worker at a toy

train shop who inherited a small train station and met two different

characters, a coffee wagon owner and a divorced woman. The tone is

also the same in "The Visitor" and the movie's sense of quiet invokes

not despair but a sense of hope since it strongly builds its intimacy

with the characters.

If "The Visitor" might seem like another tale of a middle-class white

man who gets his groove back, it is only on the surface. Jenkins

brings something more full-bodied and all-encompassing to Walter - he

shows that the man has a heart but it takes a while to warm it up.

Jenkins plays Walter as a detached man but not a cold or unfeeling

detached man, rather someone who is doing what he can to help others

in need. The implication seems to be that Walter is trying not to be

sulky and is willing to move past his wife's death. His body language

and gestures say much more than any emoting. One of the best scenes in

the film is a small one to savor. It involves a dinner between Mouna

and Walter and Mouna asks him about the process of writing. He

responds rather harshly in tone by telling her that the writing

process can't be explained to someone who isn't a writer. After making

the comment, he apologizes. Small, effective, simple. That sums up

"The Visitor."

Raw, unnerving, unbridled Wuornos

MONSTER (2003)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Viewed on February 21st, 2004

 "Monster" is something of a rarity in American films - an up close and personal portrait of a haunted and haunting serial killer. That the killer is a woman is a novelty in this genre, but "Monster" is not a one-dimensional portrait of a

killer hooker with a heart of coal. This is actually a portrait of human pain that manifests itself into human rage.

Based on a true story, Charlize Theron plays Aileen "Lee" Wuornos, an emotional wreck of a woman with deep emotional scars. She is a prostitute, as has been since 13. The first shot shows us a rain-drenched Lee sitting under a bridge, contemplating her next john or possibly suicide. She enters a bar where she meets the teenage Selby (Christina Ricci), and as they talk, they begin to

realize there is genuine love and understanding between them. Lee has had a sexually abusive past, and anyone that meets her treats her like trash (as indicated in the opening credits montage where Wuornos is shown in various stages of her life as someone who performs a sexual service for men driving by on the lonely road). The innocence of Selby indicates otherwise - she wants to

be close to Lee. They fall in love at a skating rink. Selby sneaks Lee in her house where she is staying with relatives - the last thing she needs is for her relatives to throw them out. Eventually, in true road movie fashion, they flee and stay in various dingy motels. Lee promises Selby that she will find a job

and take care of her. But Selby has no skills, and naively believes she could be a lawyer or a lawyer's secretary (at least she is ambitious). Meanwhile, Selby is starving when she should have gone back to home. So what can Lee do besides hooking? Nothing, which is why she sticks to hooking (though she has tried to go straight).

In that moment of realization, a moment unlike anything I have seen in a while

(a movie critic cliche, to be sure), Lee Wuornos becomes aware that her past has

come to haunt her - it has now fueled a rage she has long kept suppressed.

After getting viciously raped by one customer whom she kills, Lee starts

becoming trigger happy. Some men she kills, others she does not (impotence will

save your life, in one case). Lee takes their car, sometimes she will ditch the

stolen vehicle before washing it clean. Selby is at first stunned by Lee's

murderous habit but gradually she gets used to it, as if this is one way of

making a future for them.

In one of the most remarkable achievements in film acting, Charlize Theron

(usually a blond or brunette bombshell) gives a towering performance of amazing

intensity and sheer velocity. Theron portrays Lee as an unbridled dynamo that

can make you quiver with the shakes - she is chilling to watch and dominates

each and every scene of this film. What is more amazing is that Theron is

allowed to show the humanity of Lee Wournos, and that is what makes "Monster"

tower above any other film about one-dimensional serial killers. She is

emotional, but not frigidly emotional or cold-blooded (though some may see her

actions as the latter). Theron brings the heart and soul of Lee to the screen,

even if she has batty eyes that scream out terror (the real Wuornos had even

more piercing eyes). You may not want to run into Lee in an abandoned alley,

but she still conveys some warmth and some sense of love. But how can a raging

killer keep her love and rage separate?

Christina Ricci has the more difficult task, playing second fiddle to Theron's

cry of pain. Ricci's Selby has the naivete intact, unable to see the futility

of their relationship, especially when learning about Lee's serial murders.

What is Selby supposed to do? There is one great scene where Selby complains

that she needs a life and needs to have friends. She does, and at the local

lesbian bar, she mimics Lee's own mannerisms and stories of being turned down

for so many jobs. Selby clearly needs a role model, and Lee may not be the best

one.    

"Monster" has been criticized for painting a portrait of a serial killer,

making us identify with the murderous appetite of a soulless person rather than

examining the victims. Perhaps such a film could be made someday. I still

wonder if anyone would ever make a film about the victims who suffered under

the murderous hands of Charles Manson and his Family. The truth is that

audiences are more intrinsically fascinated by murderers than by their victims.

Face the facts, murderers and their motives fascinate and compel us vividly -

the victims are always on the sidelines. Take a look at Court TV, slasher

films, horror films, etc. I agree with the above assertion by critics in

general, but not when it comes to this film. "Monster" does something rather

rare - it looks at a human monster and shows the humanity and the monster equally.

Every moment we see Lee on screen, she is either in pain or is coming close to

it. This is a tortured creature of society (though I wouldn't claim society

made her this way) - a deviant who never had a chance to be accepted as a human

being. Then she engages in a disreputable position, and then lets her violent

streak get the best of her. That such a film can examine her fear and pain, and

make us see her murderous rage explode, and then further still make us feel

something for her, is a worthy film in my book. First-time director Patty

Jenkins has made a stunning debut, using close-ups to her advantage. "Monster"

is difficult, complexly emotional and fraught with a raw, unnerving energy that

is truly compelling.

Can your heart stand the shocking truths about Ed Wood?

UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS: THE PLAN 9 CONSPIRACY (2016)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A few years ago, the endlessly fascinating and extremely silly "Room 237" was released and showed how fans of the Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" responded to the film as if it was inundated with conspiracies and multiple meanings. Some I agreed with, others were beyond any rational reasoning. "Unspeakable Horrors: The Plan 9 Conspiracy" is a parody of "Room 237" and often flat-out funny though there are a few lulls in its 75-minute running time.

Ed Wood's infamously so-bad-it's-good movie "Plan Nine From Outer Space" is considered the granddaddy of bad movies, a cult movie that can be dull and far too leisurely-paced yet its charm exists in its not knowing how completely awful it is. A group of talking heads in "Unspeakable Horrors" discuss the subtleties and nuances inherent in this low-budget alien invasion epic. An outline of an Eskimo's head can be seen in the forest when Bela Lugosi stands around moping at a funeral! A "Plan Nine" superfan (Arielle Brachfield) cries uncontrollably when discussing how the female characters, such as an airline stewardess, are so helpless when they are around men! An expert on seeing male genitalia in all art forms (Maria Olsen) sees fleshy appendages everywhere in a film she considers feminist trash! And the horror of all horrors, Tor Johnson was in fact a fine actor, a regular Brando no less who emerges in a zombie state from his grave in one of the greatest Method actor moments in human history!

All of this is meant to be tongue-in-cheek and pure hogwash of course, a way of poking fun at those who obsess over a film and see things that are not actually there or even implied. Film buffs will rejoice at seeing real-life film directors like Tom Holland ("Child's Play"), Joe Dante ("The Howling") and Mick Garris ("The Shining" TV remake) discuss the film analytically. Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (who both co-wrote Tim Burton's elegiac and bizarre "Ed Wood") are also on hand providing commentary, in addition to actor Daniel Roebuck ("The Late Shift") who has a teary-eyed moment that had me rolling with laughter. Some of the actors who play obsessive film nuts don't fare as well (especially constant black-and-white footage of an Ed Wood lookalike that feels unnecessary and overacted). We also get a Morgan Freeman-like voiceover that is not as half as engaging as I would have hoped. Why didn't they cast someone that looked and spoke like the famous fortune teller with 100% inaccurate predictions, Criswell, who infamously uttered ridiculous assertions about the future in the opening scenes of "Plan Nine From Outer Space"?

For a good deal of laughs and moments that will leave you with a silly grin on your face, "Unspeakable Horrors: The Plan Nine Conspiracy" is not intended to make you believe that "Plan Nine" is actually suffused with Illuminati imagery and contains subliminal references to the Eskimo way of life yet it is outrageously funny to watch it try. It is a one-joke movie but it is still a good joke. 

Go West, Young Woman

THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN (1985)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

One of my favorite books from childhood was Jack London's "White Fang," all told from the point-of-view of a wolf dog. The various film adaptations did a fine job of rendering the magnificent and dangerous environment of  an animal trying to survive. I am a sucker for such stories because there is something almost mystical about snow-capped mountains, a thick brush of the forest that goes on for miles and trying to survive with a hungry wolf as your guide and friend. "The Journey of Natty Gann" is a stirring, emotional journey not unlike "White Fang," only it has the added flavor of being set in the bleak, grimy times of the Depression rather than the Klondike Gold Rush era. Its setting, stellar cast and intelligent script give the film more depth and dimension than some average, rudimentary Disney survival tale set in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

The courageous heroine in the midst of survival in Chicago in 1935 is Natty Gann (Meredith Salenger), the daughter of Sol Gann (Ray Wise), a pro-union individual fighting for the working class who needs a steady job. Mom is not in the picture and the Ganns are poor and live in a hotel. Eventually Sol finally finds a lumberjacking job in Washington State. He tries to locate Natty quickly before boarding a bus northwest but he can't locate her - Sol has to take that step and travel because a job is a necessity in such trying times. After dealing with the hotel's rather mean owner who has been assigned by Sol as her guardian, Natty decides to escape and find her father via one freight train after another encountering several obstacles along the way. She is always scouring for scraps of food, makes friends with a loyal wolf who had been participating in those ugly dog fights (something White Fang had also endured), fends off against older men with a predilection for young girls, is betrayed by young hooligans stealing cows, deals with the trepidatious reality of living in an orphanage (though she is no orphan), and much more. After twice encountering a decent vagabond named Harry (John Cusack) who clearly has a thing for Natty and is not out to hurt her, she continues on her journey to find her father because, you know, romance is something she's got no time for.

The level of desperation amidst the outstanding Pacific Northwest scenery is what makes "The Journey of Natty Gann" tick. That and Meredith Salenger (in an amazing acting debut) who lends the film's heart and soul, along with lending sympathy for her character and her arduous journey. Ray Wise contributes a strong portrayal of a worried father who can't miss out on the hazardous job he has to find Natty. Both father and daughter are desperate and, spoiler alert, once they find each other, all is well. The wolf is also desperate to return to the wild and be among his kind. With a vivid sense of reality crossed with warm, sharply layered performances (though a little more of John Cusack's Harry would've been ideal), "Journey of Natty Gann" is a perfect family film with a happy resolution that is earned.