I am going to post some of my film reviews in this thread.

[Metalhead]

If the Nosferatu is the 1922 film, I vote for it.

It is the 2024 version.

 

[Kalinychta]

It is the 2024 version.

Boooo

 

[Kalinychta]

It is the 2024 version.

Will you take requests? Such as the 1922 actual real Nosferatu, which is exquisite as it is,—any and all “remakes” (??!!!!!!) are superfluous and almost apocalyptic in terms of Film-with-a-capital-F.

I’ve really enjoyed your film reviews, as a matter of fact. You reviewed The Asphalt Jungle upon my request once, and it was rather excellent. Film used to be an art form. Can’t we make requests? I have a few.

Edit:
Actually your review of The Asphalt Jungle was excellent but ought to have been longer and more thorough. You have great writing skills as a reviewer. I took a writing class once where the professor made we the students write what were more or less film and music reviews, and I was horrendous at it, and miserable. You actually understand it and are good at it. Have you taken courses in film studies? Is there a community college in your town? I think you’d get a lot out of a film studies class.

 

[Kalinychta]

Yo, I haven’t forgotten about this. Nosferatu 1922…

 

[Metalhead]

Yo, I haven’t forgotten about this. Nosferatu 1922…

I loved Nosferatu 2024, actually. Robert Eggers has a genuine talent for crafting atmospheric films. I also loved Werner Herzog's 1980 version, as well.

I will tackle this soon. I have been fighting a lack of motivation to write much of anything, probably related to clinical depression.

 

[Kalinychta]

A friend of mine watched the new movie and also the Werner Herzog one, and she liked both of them. What did you like about the new one? How did it compare to the 1980 version?

I just love 1920s horror films. The Germans totally had the market cornered on movies in general during that period. Metroplis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Pandora’s Box… So many great silent films.

I hope you’re feeling better. The worst thing you can do when you’re depressed is to not do stuff that makes you happy. Can you write a review of the 2024 Nosferatu?

 

[Kalinychta]

As once Lord Byron annoyed Mary Shelley into writing Frankenstein, so too will I keep on you about the Nosferatu review. Or any review, about any film. But preferably one that I assign you,—because. But any movie you’d like really.

 

[Metalhead]

As once Lord Byron annoyed Mary Shelley into writing Frankenstein, so too will I keep on you about the Nosferatu review. Or any review, about any film. But preferably one that I assign you,—because. But any movie you’d like really.

I know I need to get over my current depression and I know I need to start writing again.

 

[Metalhead]

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024)

Grade – 4.5 / 5

Rating – Unrated (equivalent to a PG-13)

Running Time – 150 Minutes​

The assassination of Patrice Lumumba is one relatively recent historical atrocity that somehow does not get discussed in public American high school history classes. Belgium wanted to maintain control over the mines in the country, while POTUS Eisenhower wanted to keep access to the uranium that came out of those mines. Lumumba was seen as a threat to that, and because of that, he was murdered in a not-so-subtle CIA coup.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a rightfully outraged documentary of this atrocity, told with a backdrop of wonderful jazz tunes from the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Thelonious Monk. These jazz legends were sent as ambassadors by the powers that be as a distraction and an unwitting smokescreen from the coup in the Congo that the CIA was pulling off in Congo during the December of 1960. To say they were not too pleased about it is an understatement.

This is not a straightforward documentary, but it is a jazz melody of home movies, audio clips, news clips, text quotes, a cast of many characters, and the ever present musical soundtrack. The subject matter is dense enough to justify the running time of 150 minutes, and I would have willingly sat through another 150 minutes of this provided it were able to keep up its momentum for that long. The editing here is truly top-notch, despite a couple of tonal missteps. There is a kinetic energy on display here that is sorely missing from most historical documentaries of this type. This feels more freewheeling and experimental, more organic and more genuinely alive than the norm for this cinematic genre.

Director Johan Grimonprez has proven himself to be a documentary maker to watch with this project that followed through on its immense ambition. It is angry without devolving into pure vitriol, it is tragic without descending into misery pornography, and it is informative and enlightening in ways that most documentaries do not dare to attempt. Remember, this is the kind of history half of my country wants to keep out of the public’s knowledge, therefore this remains one of the most vital and essential watches released in American cinemas in the last year.

 

[Metalhead]

The Shrouds (2024)

Grade – 5 / 5

Rating – R

Running Time – 119 Minutes​

David Cronenberg has made yet another body horror masterpiece with The Shrouds, in his way of dealing with the very real body horror that terminal cancer causes on its victims. This is a very personal meditation on grief and the search for reasonings when a disease takes away a loved one. The central character, Karsh (Vincent Cassel), dives into a world of conspiracy theories instead of accepting his wife’s death, but he’s only prolonging his spiritual pain in a variety of different ways.

Karsh has a business model where he operates a graveyard with video screens that allow mourners to watch the bodies of their loved ones decay in real time. Of course, his wife is buried there, and he does not impress his date when he takes her to visit his wife’s grave and look at her corpse. His sister-in-law, Terry (Diane Kruger, who also plays his dead wife, and also does the voice of his AI assistant), has a variety of different theories surrounding why her sister had to die. Terry’s ex-husband, Maury (Guy Pearce), is certifiably insane, but he may be of some use to Karsh after the graveyard is extensively vandalized.

Add in a blind woman who also is craving intimacy when a partner becomes so ill that sex becomes impossible – Sandrine Holt gives a standout performance as the character of Soo-Min. The Shrouds eventually becomes a cautionary tale about the transgressions people are capable of when they turn towards any kind of escapism instead of simply accepting that grief is a normal part of the human condition. Nothing here is done for mere shock value, unlike many of Cronenberg’s past films.

Most of the plot is driven by dialogue, and what entertaining dialogue it is. The endless detours into escapist theories give the film a darkly humorous edge, but none of it brings anybody here any closer to inner peace. The point of this film is not the path to closure, but it is the avoidance of closure that is the central theme here. This is one of the most insightful films of the last decade to explore sides of the human condition that most filmmakers would dare not to touch.

 

[Lemon Zing]

There hasn't been any horror movies that have really grabbed my attention for a while. Half the time they are relatively boring. I end up just giving up.

I do generally enjoy purchasing them, but the one big issue is that rarer ones obviously cost more. Then there's the risk of the cases being damaged. Keep in mind too, that some suppliers are sending them to your address from a factory that is overseas.

Another problem is that some couriers are idiots. Like I was meant to receive a FedEx delivery not too long ago. Some fool made out I signed for it, but they weren't being honest. It's just a total joke.

If you can, I think you'll be better off just streaming films. Prime usually has enough popular stuff, as well as decent indie stuff you may find is a good watch. Some movies can be quite mundane, unfortunately, so be sure to look up the score system on the likes of Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb.

 

[Metalhead]

Sinners (2025)

Grade – 5 / 5

Rating – R

Running Time – 137 Minutes​

Ryan Coogler’s ambitious genre bender, Sinners, sounds like a B movie on paper. It is a Southern Gothic gangster movie, it is a blues musical, it is loaded with lurid sex, and it has geysers of arterial spray when the heroes team up to fight the band of vampires right outside of their juke joint nightclub. This is a movie where the blues returns to its infamous roots as the “devil’s music”.

However, Coogler handles all of this with a straight face and with solid A-list talent behind him. There are moments of pure brilliance where this film transcends its B movie ambitions and reaches the sort of pure wisdom one rarely finds outside of the realm of pulp fiction. It spends its first seventy minutes in pure slow burn mode, where we get to know the central players very well. Then the gloves come off and the gleeful bloodshed begins.

Michael B. Jordan plays a pair of twin brothers who return to Mississippi in the 1930’s after making some money in Chicago with Al Capone. They want to open a juke joint in a sawmill that they buy from a racist white man. And they recruit the local preacher’s son (Miles Caton in a tour de force debut performance) to play the blues on their opening night. What starts off as a night of drunken debauchery at the juke joint, where they are losing money due to their clientele not having much money to spend there, becomes a nightmare pretty rapidly when three white vampires show up at their doorstep.

Racism in the South plays heavy role in the story here, but this is not intended to be a heavy handed sermon movie. This is a horror musical with slamming blues numbers, intelligent characters, horny romances, vicious social commentary and gallons of gore. It is a lot for a viewer to take in, and I imagine I will find more to appreciate here when I inevitably come back to it a second time in the near future. Cooger’s ambitions here are wild and excessive, and he hits a home run with his wild swinging here. The alchemy between him and his cast worked out perfectly this time. This is the best B movie I have seen in many years, and it certainly will develop a cult following as the years go on.

 

[Metalhead]

OK, I am going to start taking requests for film and TV reviews again.

I currently have Netflix, Prime Video, AMC+, HBO Max and The Criterion Channel. Anything on any of these services is fair game currently.

 

[Metalhead]

Hamilton (2020)

Grade – 5 / 5

Rating – PG-13

Running Time – 160 Minutes​

Very few Broadway productions of recent years have managed to obtain the popularity and cultural impact that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton conjured up. It does oversimplify history, it does gloss over many of the uglier facts of the story, and it does all of that for the sake of putting on a well-paced slice of musical entertainment that goes down irresistibly. This is not a perfectly accurate story, but it is a story perfectly told.

The cinematography here captures the energy of the stage show in the best way that a film can. There are no shots of the audience, although you can hear them cheer between the musical numbers. Even though the camera never leaves the stage and the set is simple, the choreography is brilliantly complex, and it made me amazed in the fact that this cast pulls this off perfectly every single night. There is not a single wasted movement on the stage. The way the dancers and the central cast come together in perfect collaboration is worth the price of admission in itself.

Hamilton is one of the greatest movie musicals I have ever seen, and it is simply a filmed recording of the Broadway production. The cast does not hit any false notes, even as liberties are taken with historical fact. Miranda, who wrote the musical and stars as the title figure of Alexander Hamilton, presents his hero’s story through the lens of a poor immigrant who found opportunity in a newly forming nation and successfully grabbed it with his own hands. Daveed Diggs is brilliant in the dual performance as both Marquis de Lafeyette and Thomas Jefferson. Johnathan Groff steals the show every time he is on stage as a ridiculously narcissistic version of King George. All in all, this show has been perfectly cast.

We cannot have a review of this without mentioning the nonstop energy of the musical numbers, which make up the entirety of the show. All of the dialogue is either sung, rapped or harmonized. The play starts off running with an electrifying intro number and the pace never lets up after that. Even the romantic numbers and the tragic numbers never manage to slow down the narrative, which Miranda was wise enough to never allow to stagnate at any point in its two and a half hour run time. It may not allow for much emotional depth, but that was never the point of this production. Miranda wanted to put on a slam-bang musical show, and that is exactly what he managed to pull off.

Hamilton is one of the best slices of pure entertainment that has ever come out of Broadway. While nothing can compare to a live show, this filmed version is the best possible version one can get their hands on without spending big bucks for a live show ticket. The mild censorship of some of the lyrics to ensure a PG-13 rating is not even that big of an issue here.